orcish army knife

Minipost: Leisl, the Luckiest

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Since we're near the end of the expansion, I haven't been doing a lot of Valor Point capping on Leisl (my Alliance hunter) anymore. What I have been doing, however, is trying to run LFR each week. Maybe not even the full 8 bosses, since there's rarely people on to run it with, but at least Hagara and Madness for the easy 500 VP.

Ideally, I'll queue for LFR and get into a group that's already 3/4 so I can get in and get out rather quickly. Nice dream, right? Well, strangely enough, it keeps working out exactly like this. I don't know if it's an Alliance thing or what, but every time I queue hoping just for Madness, that's what I get.

What I also find fascinating is just how darn lucky Leisl is. Here's my LFR history:

From those kills, I've won the utterly amazing Wrath of Unchaining from Spine of Deathwing, and from Madness, both a Kiril, Fury of Beasts and a Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth. She's also picked up LFR tier legs.

It's not the best string of luck I've heard of - it's no "full 4pc in a single week" or anything - but it's by far the best luck any of my characters have had in LFR. It took me quite a while to grab all three of those items on Rades, and Morgion got an LFR Souldrinker so late in the tier it was replaced literally the next week with an axe from Heroic Morchok.

Now that gear is mostly out of the picture for her, my eye falls to...pets. King Krush and Loque/Skoll/Arcturis, I'm looking at you! I need to replace my Wolf and Cat with some exotic friends, post-haste.

Four Cataclysmic lore disappointments

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:39:00 +0000

With the release of Diablo III all but closing the book on Cataclysm, I thought I'd jot down a few things that have bothered me about this expansion. Not really complaints, per se, but rather a few things/storylines that I had hoped we would see, but unfortunately, did not.

(Oh, and these are lore issues, not mechanical or gameplay-related ones. I don't think Dragon Soul was the best raid, but that's outside the scope of this post.)

No Abyssal Maw raid

Let's start with the most obvious. Blizzard's cancellation of the Abyssal Maw raid was met with resounding disapproval and disappointment (something that actually quite surprises me, since it seemed like everyone and their mother loathed Vashj'ir).

Now granted, some of the complaints were more to do with how Blizzard phrased the news, and for good reason - their announcement that the Throne of the Tides dungeon did "a pretty good job of finishing the Neptulon story" was absurd and laughable at best. I mean, that's basically like watching a movie that ends with "To be continued!" and then there is no sequel. Definitely not one of their smoother moments.

That aside, there's so much great story that could await us in the Maw! The Neptulon/Naga conflict is gripping and interesting, and when you consider the potential hooks of Neptulon's true allegiance (which I have speculated on before; see posts: What's really going on with Neptulon? and The Power of Pure Water), the possible return of the Hydraxian Waterlords, the unexplored question of the now-absent Elemental Thrones, and of course, FREAKING AZSHARA...yeah, there's some hooks there.

Sidenote: Personally, I was quite disappointed in the news, because the music in Vashj'ir is far and away my favorite music in all of WoW. There's a few other notable contenders - Karazhan and Magister's Terrace come to mind - but Vashj'ir is the only zone in the game where I actively make a point of turning on the music when I quest there. It's haunting, beautiful, lonely, and it just feels like you're deep undersea. I was really looking forward to more of that in the raid, but I guess it was not to be.

...at least, not YET, anyway. Let's be serious. We're going to see the Abyssal Maw sometime. Blizzard might be a lot of things, but they're not stupid. The Azshara story is their biggest trump card that they're keeping in reserve, other than Sargeras / the Titans (but those storylines would pretty much have to be WoW's finale). For them NOT to use this amazing winning lottery ticket would be beyond stupid.

What do I mean by this? It's not just that Azshara is a hugely important and (in)famous character, or that she's incredibly powerful and would totally have world-affecting aspirations. She is totally these things, but no, what I mean is that Azshara is one of their few remaining "old" storylines (from Warcraft III, or the novels) that have yet to be resolved. Pretty much everything else has been taken care of - Deathwing, Illidan, Arthas, Medivh, one by one these "whatever happened to X?" hanging plot threads and loose ends have been implemented and wrapped up.

One of WoW's biggest advantages was being able to build its empire on the shoulders of its preceding game lore, but I am beginning to wonder what they'll do when they run out of old storylines to revisit. This is one of the main reasons I'm excited about Mists - unlike every previous expansion, which revolved around a famous face from the past, Mists is new content. This isn't unfinished business, or finally putting an end to a looming threat that's been lingering for years. It's a brand-new world and we have no idea what to expect. Kinda scary, but definitely exciting.

Conclusion: Disappointed, but not too much, since I fully expect we'll see this content eventually.

Deathwing's human form

Okay, hands up. How many of us are very, very familiar with this ugly mug?

Chances are, you've seen him around. Almost all of us have. It's Deathwing's humanoid form, in the same vein as Alexstrasza's half-naked elf form, Nozdormu's nipple-baring shirtless form, etc. We saw it in all sorts of promotional material, the datamined model was floating around for ages, hell, he's even on an official WoW wallpaper, seen here fighting Alexstrasza.

And yet, human-Deathwing doesn't make a single canonical (see below) appearance in Cataclysm. Not in Tier 11, not in Tier 12, and not a single time in Dragon Soul do we actually see Deathwing shift into his human form. In fact, we don't even know he HAS a human form anymore.

Oh, we do see the model used once. ONCE. Where? In a level 30-40 questline in the Badlands, "The Day Deathwing Came." Now, to be fair, this questline is hilarious and amazing. It's one of the funniest moments in the entire expansion. I'm not disputing this. However, while the quest is extremely fun, it's definitely not deserving of being the only time we see human-Deathwing in the entire game.

Also, it's not like the events of that questline are very factual, being "tall tales" told by a bunch of drunkards (which is the entire point of the quests), so really, human-Deathwing essentially doesn't exist. Or rather, I guess he does...as long as the flying motorcycle and 100-foot-tall gnome do.

Why is this a big deal? It's not like we were promised an awesome scene of human-DW fighting Garrosh and Varian and didn't get it. And I suppose it would have been kinda hard for human-DW to be flying around fighting other dragons during Dragon Soul, or for us to ride on human-DW's back ripping off armor plates. (Though this latter scene would be HILARIOUS.)

But it's such a waste not to use that model! I mean, it's there, it's done, it's unique and quite a cool interpretation of his dragon form...why not use it?? Think of how often we see the other Aspects in their humanoid forms - it's basically their normal form around us. They only really go back to their dragon forms when there's some serious fighting to be done. Otherwise, they're chilling down on the ground walking around on two feet like the rest of us mortals.

How awesome would it have been for Deathwing to crash some meeting of the Aspects (such as, oh, just before the whole Thrall/Aggra event?), just casually strolling up in his human form, unafraid, bold, and swaggering? Or if we saw human-DW meeting with Cho'gall, clearly intimidating and dominating the ogre, despite Cho'gall physically towering over his smaller form?

One of the biggest problems with Deathwing as an antagonist is that we never really got any sort of character development about him. And it's a shame, because Blizzard had such an easy method of fleshing out his character right in front of them the whole time. Don't get me wrong - dragons are pretty scary! And Deathwing's dragon model was very distinctive. But it lacked the human touch - little things like hand gestures, human mannerisms, even the simple act of seeing how he walked around and moved.

For the other Aspects, their humanoid forms are an integral part of their characters. Alexstrasza is regal, Kalecgos is humble, Ysera closely identifies with the Night Elves and Nozdormu is nippletastic, I MEAN, eccentric. Deathwing's never-used human form would have been perfect to show that hey, he's not just a big huge dragon, he's also a Dragon Aspect. But since we never see it, he kinda loses that identity, and we lose that association. It's quite a disconnect, in my opinion.

And really, what do we know about him personality-wise after seeing him in action as a dragon? He moves and flies like...well, every single other dragon in the game. There's nothing there, nothing to build on. He's got no pupils, no brows to furrow in consternation, no real mouth to smirk, snarl or otherwise express emotions, no hands to point or wave in a fist...nothing.

Now look at his peer, Alexstrasza. She doesn't even have a unique animation palette, using the female blood elf motions, but we still know so much more about her personality from her various scenes. We see her angry and gesturing, we see her channeling magic into the Demon Soul atop Wyrmrest Temple, and we have seen her vulnerable, lying on the ground, exhausted.

Alexstrasza can look tragic, she can look confident, she can look badass by simply standing and pointing imperiously. What can Deathwing do? Stand there and be a dragon, that's what. Oh, and open his mouth wide, I suppose. He can do that quite well. Maybe flap his wings a little.

But human-Deathwing? He could've added so much to a character who desperately needed some assistance.

I said when the Cataclysm trailer came out that I didn't really get a "Deathwing, Aspect of Death, formerly Neltharion the Earth-Warder" vibe, and all of the rich backstory and history that entailed. I just got the impression of a big monster dragon out to wreck stuff.

Seeing him walking around running the show in his humanoid form would have changed this opinion. Instead, we just got a big mean dragon for three tiers, roaring and blustering.

Deathwing was just a stupid brute

Speaking of Deathwing, how about that smooth-talking, clever, sneaky, manipulative villain we all knew and loved from the old games and the novels, huh? I sure did enjoy the way Deathwing used his infamous guile and silver tongue in Cataclysm to twist alliances, turn friend against friend, and trick his enemies into doing his dirty work. And it was a great touch seeing his old fake identity, Lord Daval Prestor, make an appearance.

Oh, wait, that's right. None of that happened, at all. He just burned things.

This is a CRIME, Blizzard! Deathwing's personality in the novels was so good! A trickster, a spy, a master orator, and a puppet master, novel-Deathwing was always in control, had his claws in every pot and was playing ALL the sides. Call me crazy, but I LIKE an intelligent villain who's got plots and schemes! And he had style, too. He might end up betraying you and roasting you with dragonfire, but dammit he's going to deliver a witty line and dryly have a chuckle at your expense first.

But the Deathwing we saw in Cataclysm was a sad, sad shadow of his former self. We didn't get ANY of his charm or flair, instead we just got...well, an angry dragon. I was (and am) incredibly disappointed that his character was so drastically gutted.

At first, I was optimistic, hoping that maybe it was an act, that he just wanted us to THINK he was simply a bestial oaf, so we wouldn't realize what he was really up to (see post: We're all being played by Deathwing!). Maybe we'd see him walking around in human form, having shed his BIG ANGRY DRAGON facade, monologuing and/or congratulating himself on having fooled everyone. Maybe we wouldn't find out until later, when it was too late, when we finally overcome some monumental task (such as dispatching the Elemental Lord of Air) only to have Deathwing swoop in, chortling, and thanking us for doing his dirty work for him.

I am a suspicious person by nature, and after watching the Cataclysm trailer, I said "He's got some tricks up his metal-plated, magmatic sleeves, mark my words."

Sadly, I was wrong. He didn't have any tricks. No grand schemes, no intricate, brilliant stratagems. He just wanted to destroy everything.

And maybe it's just me, but "DEATHWING SMASH" just doesn't capture my interest that much.

No Calia Menethil

Yeah, it always comes back to Calia. If you've read this blog during Cataclysm, you've probably caught my obsession with Calia, where she's been, who her loyalties belong to now, and what her reappearance would mean. (See post: Where is Princess Calia Menethil?) I kept waiting all expansion for Deathwing to shock us all by suddenly revealing the lone surviving heiress of Lordaeron, but...it was not to be.

No Calia. I am very sad.

Unlike Azshara, who we could definitely revisit later on, I feel the window of opportunity for Calia's story has now slammed shut. Calia has a number of plot hooks, but her two most emotional ones were being Arthas' sister, and being betrothed to Daval Prestor, aka Deathwing.

Calia would have been a great story in Wrath, either making one last attempt to rescue/redeem her brother, or perhaps sadly making the painful decision that he was beyond saving, and had to be put down. (Of course, this would have overlapped quite a bit with Jaina's role that expansion.)

Calia would also have worked very well in Cataclysm, giving us a very significant connection to Deathwing himself, and most importantly, a connection to old Deathwing, when he was still Daval Prestor, master manipulator and schemer.

If Calia survived her brother's murderous rampage because she was off with "Lord Prestor", only to re-emerge safe and sound now, years later, it would lead to so many intriguing storylines. Where was she? What was Deathwing doing/like all those years? What happened to turn him from Mr. Smooth into Godzilla? Did she meet Prestor and hang out with him? Did she, in her years of captivity by the Aspect of Death, learn a little more about him than the rest of the world knows?

Maybe she'll have seen a softer, less rage-y side of the big DW that we didn't know existed. Maybe Deathwing "in private" is a much different being than the angry behemoth rampaging around Azeroth. Did he have actual goals and ambitions, that Calia might have heard him talk about? Or maybe even in his lair, he was utterly insane and broken of mind, a frightening testimony to just how much the whispers of the Old Gods can change and shatter someone.

Deathwing aside, what about Calia herself? Whose side would she be on after all this time? Would she be under an enchantment, something Deathwing was fond of doing? Or maybe she's feeling some Stockholm Syndrome or had a change of heart, much like Moira Bronzebeard, and is actually fully aligned with her captor. So many possibilities!

(It's too bad Moira's story already exists, because omg Deathwing baby?? Anyway.)

But she could have been so much more, too! You want to talk connections? Calia has them in spades. Remember all that tension about Gilneas being accepted into the Alliance? Calia knew both Genn and Varian prior to Lordaeron's fall, and could have been crucial in those negotiations. Hell, her "adoptive older sister" relationship with Varian could be great in itself! Probably one of the few people who would be utterly unimpressed and not intimidated by Varian's gruff act, since she remembers Varian when he was a snot-nosed kid playing with wooden swords with her brother. Calia was also close friends with Jaina, and if Calia were to resurface safely, we might actually get to see Jaina being happy for a change.

Calia could have also been something Jaina might have desperately needed, following Wrath's epic conclusion - a friend, peer and confidante who knew and understood what she was going through. After all, not many people would have mourned Arthas' death - Jaina's been rather alone in this. In fact, Calia might be one of the only other people in the WORLD who would also grieve for him. (Muradin does, a little, but he's busy. Besides, I don't see him sharing tea with Jaina and drowning their sorrows together.)

...also, people are always screaming for Jaina and Varian to hook up so the human nations can be united, and because, omg boy and girl talking? THEY'RE GOING TO FALL IN LOVE. Jaina's talking to a single guy? WEDDING BELLS INC. But that garbage aside...Calia would actually make a lot more sense. She's nobility, like Varian, and unlike Jaina, who was rather tomboy-ish and untamed, Calia was very refined and formal during her childhood, well-versed in politics and procedure. I don't know if she and Varian would get along, of course, but she'd definitely know the proper etiquette, decorum and behavior expected out of a queen.

Furthermore, a Varian/Calia marriage would also have potentially-huge political ramifications, since their union would technically unite the kingdoms of Stormwind and Lordaeron...if they can get Lordaeron out of Sylvanas' cold, dead hands, that is.

And speaking of the Forsaken, Calia's claim to Lordaeron would be sure to cause a fuss among the Forsaken, considering that a) her claim is indisputable and legit, and b) she IS their rightful queen, considering many Forsaken were formerly Lordaeron citizens. At a time when the Forsaken is running rampant through the northern Eastern Kingdoms, plaguin' up Gilneas, destroying Southshore, etc., you can bet that this sort of chaos and conflict in their ranks would be very, very appreciated by the Alliance.

There were so many options for Calia, and she would have fit perfectly into this expansion, given Cataclysm's general sense of anarchy and surprise. After all, what would be more dramatic and dichotomy-shaking than her sudden reappearance, going from "presumed dead" to "major political player" in the blink of an eye?

But now? Without Deathwing? I can't help but feel that seeing Calia in the future is just going to feel...empty. Sure, some of her plot hooks still work...sort of. I mean, it's too late to be the peacemaker between Varian and Genn, and Jaina's sadness over Arthas will be a thing of the past ("Let's be sad about Arthas together!" "What? Honey, I got over that years ago. I'm busy being sad about Theramore now."). But the whole Lordaeron/birthright plot hook will still be solid on its own, or at least it will be until Sylvanas snaps and that whole empire comes crumbling down, because who knows what will happen then.

But the Deathwing association will be the elephant in the room, and it'll just feel so weird to see Calia and not be exploring one of her most unique hooks, a hook that no one else in the entire WoW universe has. In Cata, it would make perfect sense to ask her "So, uh, wasn't that guy you were engaged to...Deathwing?" But afterward? In Mists, or later? Meh. Who the hell cares, it's in the the past and Deathwing is dead and ~~buried~~ exploded now, so it's totally irrelevant.

It would be like if Alleria came back, and didn't have anything at all to do with her sister's increasingly psychotic behavior, but just stood around in town offering random quests. Why waste a beloved character with a rich connections and backstory like that? And it's not just a waste, it's completely nonsensical. You can bet if Alleria came back and found out her sister had become this horrible, murderous undead Banshee Queen, she'd be like "um, WTF" and try to contact her or take action.

Actually, here's a question. Assuming Calia does show up down the line...just how did she survive for all this time with no one knowing, if not in the sequestered, hidden-away company of Deathwing? I dread a terrible hand-waved "I had amnesia, LOL" storyline, when being Deathwing's prisoner would have made so much sense.

(Disclaimer: I suppose she could have been on Kul Tiras when Lordaeron fell, and could thus be reintroduced with the island nation. Maybe now happily married to Tandred Proudmoore. And perhaps no one realized she was there because the only people who knew she was visiting the island were Scourged. But Jaina would probably have known...anyway, I don't know how keen I am about this idea, as it seems fairly unbelievable, but I guess it's a possibility.)

I'd almost prefer just never to see her at all, rather than her potential be wasted and her mysterious survival be some eye-rolling explanation. And yet, people keep asking about her, and Blizzard continues to dance around the question. They know they have a valuable resource in Calia, and they'd be silly to waste it. So we're going to see her eventually.

It just won't be as interesting without Deathwing around.

Minipost: You bought WHAT in Diablo III?

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:27:00 +0000

The Diablo III Auction House is a fascinating game element. With a little shopping savvy and patience, you can fully outfit your characters in amazing leveling gear, often for really low costs. I'm quite interested to see how the AH will behave after the initial game buzz cools down a bit.

However, sometimes when you're browsing around, you find some...interesting items.

Minipost: Leisl, my first level 85 Alliance character

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:47:00 +0000

Lately I've been working on a weekend side project, leveling an Alliance character so I can join in on Real ID fun times with Twitter/blog friends!

I've tried this before, trying to think what character might be most useful, or what class might have the best leveling/queue possibilities. I've had a dwarf death knight, a dwarf shaman, a draenei warrior, a gnome mage, etc.

These attempts have always met in failure.

So this time, I decided, SCREW IT. I'm going to stick with a class I know, that I know come endgame I'll be pretty good at.

And so Leisl, the human hunter was born. I rolled her on Medivh to hang out with Waypointers.

Choosing the race was an interesting process. Male night elf or human male were immediately out because god no. Female night elf, was a possibility. I was tired of draenei. I was tired of dwarves.

But I was pleasantly surprised with the female human bow animation! Strong stance, powerful looking draw (on the bow)...I was sold.

Leveling was actually quite interesting, as I hadn't leveled a hunter since Rades, waaaaaaay back in The Burning Crusade. I was somewhat surprised at how easy it went, considering I was on a server with limited funds and no heirlooms or anything. Not THAT surprised, since I mean, I'm pretty damn familiar with hunters. But things like Disengage at level 14 blew my mind.

Oh, and BEAST MASTERY, OF COURSE.

The first weekend, I got to level 40. The second, 60. The third, 70! Then things got derailed slightly when on weekend four I went to Calgary to visit Vidyala and attend the Calgary Comic Expo. But the weekend after I got right back into it, hitting 80, and on Saturday I finished up Cataclysm quest content and dinged 85 while setting up some dwarves to get married, or something.

I had quested with maximum efficiency in mind, having completed Deepholm to get my Therazane rep up (as well as done the dailies 2-3 times) and done all of the Ramkahen quests in Uldum (Ramkahen sells the Agility head enchants.) So my first order of business upon dinging 85 was to get their tabards and...

...do a 25-man Baradin's Hold??

Haha, yes, without shame I joined that 25-man pug, having been 85 for oh, 15 minutes now? And yeah, I did outdps 5-6 people.

After that though, I bypassed regulars completely by buying some 378 BoE bracers and a 346 Therazane rep ring, and with the help of some lovely 397 Mail boots, a gift from Lizzy! 4-5 heroics and I had enough JP to get into the Dragon Soul heroics...with the help of a 390 Honor trinket and some 377 cloth shoulders that sat in my bags. ;)

By Sunday afternoon, I'd hit Exalted with Therazane, got my Revered with Ramkahen, had some gems cut by Snack, which meant it was time for LFR!

I didn't top the charts or anything (that would be SUPER BAD), but you know what? I did come in between #5-10 on DPS. And I'm quite content with that. I even got some LFR tier legs.

My goals for the week having been met (doing LFR before reset, and hitting the VP cap before reset - MANY TIMES OVER), I started thinking about Transmog. Without many resources on this server, my options were limited to basically "what I could easily get". The tmog set I'm currently using uses a lot of actual piece appearances, but with the Talhide chest (always a favorite) I think it looks pretty good.

Minipost: The amazing technicolor Faceplate

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Before Transmogrification hit the live servers, I spent a good deal of time collecting gear and getting a few transmog sets prepared, so I'd be ready to go once it arrived. One of these sets was a red set based around some Icecrown Citadel paladin recolor pieces, the Leggings of Dying Candles (plate dress!) and Faceplate of the Forgotten.

I'd seen paladins wearing this set all through ICC, but now that transmog was coming, I'd finally be able to wear them! And some of that set looks really cool on a death knight, especially the skull helm. So I was pretty excited. I even ground Consortium rep (from Neutral) to Exalted for the tabard, which I felt fit very well.

But then, transmogrification came, and...well, something happened.

Yes, for some reason, the patch turned my helm purple! So my lovingly-collected snazzy red transmog set now had a weird purple helm, and I had no idea why. :(

In retrospect, I'm actually quite glad this happened, as I love the color purple, and I've since used the purple helm in a different, favorite transmog set. But at the time, it was quite annoying!

What makes this REALLY weird is when you throw elves into the mix. Look what happens when I use my Orb of the Sin'dorei and turn myself into a blood elf.

The helm turns red again!

I have NO idea why this happens. But, it's not just blood elves. I also found out when I went into Well of Eternity that the helm turns back red when I become a night elf, too!

Too strange.

Transmog spotlight - Memory of Lordaeron

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:52:00 +0000

(click on images outlined in red to see full-size versions)

This set is probably my favorite Transmog outfit I've used, because of the HUGE variety of pieces, no two of which come from the same set. There's some lowbie quest reward shoulders, a cloak from C'Thun, a Kalu'ak reputation chest, a belt from Shadowmoon Valley...this set is a mix of EVERYTHING.

It started (like usual) with the weapons. Falric's Wrist-Chopper is an intriguing mix of colors - black, steel, gold, white and icy blue. It took me a while to build the rest of the outfit, but every piece was chosen to complement and accentuate those axe colors. Even the yellow of Morgion's bones, and her icy blue glowing eyes (which I couldn't get to show in WoW Model Viewer, sadly) match the color scheme.

The regal colors, Falric's weapon, and Morgion's status as a Forsaken death knight all blended to give me a strange impression of a corrupted version of Lordaeron's royal blues and majestic golden lions...so much like Lordaeron and yet, so very clearly not.

The color focus was primarily on icy blue, with white as the secondary color - basically the tabard and cloak combined. The gold was important, but it had to be in small amounts - some gold trim here, a band of yellow there, yellowed fingers/toes, etc. Nothing overpowering, but I think it adds up to a strong color presence in the end.

Rarity - luckily for me, only a few pieces were hard to obtain, the headpiece and hands. I already had the helm, but I had to monitor the auction house for around two weeks before the hands showed. The rest were quest items or easily farmed. There are also no class-specific pieces, so any plate-wearer could build this set, if they wanted.

Head: Protectorate Headplate
Shoulders: Pauldrons of Zul'Farrak
Back: Shattershore Cloak or Cloak of the Devoured
Chest: Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard
Hands: Talonguard Gloves
Waist: Borak's Belt of Bravery
Legs: Replica Legplates of Heroism
Feet: Eternal Pathfinders
Tabard: Frostwolf Battle Tabard
Shirt: Blue Linen Shirt
Weapons: Falric's Wrist-Chopper

Minipost: A Present for Waypoint!

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:26:00 +0000

This weekend I visited Vidyala and Vosskah in Calgary, met up with a TON of great Twitter/WoW people, and attended the Calgary Expo! The Expo was a bit of a disaster, but I did get to meet Wil Wheaton (my main goal) and find the booth for the webcomic Questionable Content. While at the QC booth, I remembered how much the members of Waypoint love that strip/its sayings, and thought it would be nice to get them a little surprise.

So here's to you, Waypoint!

(Jeph did a great job on my unusual request!)

Why do people blame Garrosh for Cairne's death?

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:24:00 +0000

When it was announced that Garrosh would be the final raid boss of Mists of Pandaria, the Garrosh-hatred started up anew, and I couldn't help but notice how many people still blamed Garrosh for the death of Cairne Bloodhoof.

These people are wrong.

Let's take a look at this incident, shall we? Let's try to narrow down why Garrosh might be at fault or to blame for the death of the beloved Old Bull.

Because Garrosh poisoned his axe and cheated!

Wrong. This is perhaps the most egregious, incorrect assumption about Cairne's death you can possibly have. Garrosh did NOT poison his axe. Magatha Grimtotem did, because she wanted Cairne dead, and she saw Garrosh as a convenient tool for accomplishing this. Garrosh did not know she was going to do this, and was OUTRAGED when he found out, because her interference had deprived him of an honorable victory. And this is important to point out - Garrosh would RATHER have lost and died in an honorable bout than win/survive through treacherous means.

This isn't just a Garrosh fan's opinion, either. It's canon. It's in the freaking book.

Garrosh was starting to grow angry. "Out with it!" he growled. "What are you trying to say? Are you saying I did not win this fight fairly? Would I have let him give me these wounds had I been attempting to cheat?"

"No. I do not think you fought dishonorably. But I believe someone did." Eitrigg extended a gnarled finger and pointed at Gorehowl. "You received a shamanic blessing with sacred oil on your blade."

"So did Cairne. So does everyone who chooses to fight in the mak'gora," Garrosh said. "It’s part of it. That is not dishonorable!" He was starting to raise his voice, and a strange emotion was churning inside him. Was it—fear?

"Look at the color of the oil," Eitrigg said. "It is black and sticky. No—in the ancestors’ names, do not touch it!"

Most of the blade that had taken Cairne Bloodhoof’s life was coated with dried blood. But in one small spot along the edge, Garrosh could now see a tacky-looking, black substance that did not in any way resemble the golden, glistening oil with which blades were usually anointed.

"Who blessed Gorehowl, Garrosh Hellscream? Who blessed the axe that slew Cairne Bloodhoof?" Eitrigg’s voice held anger, but it was not directed at Garrosh.

A sick feeling twisted Garrosh’s gut. "Magatha Grimtotem," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"It was not your skill in battle that killed your opponent. It was the poison of an evil schemer who sought to destroy an adversary and used you, like a pawn, to do so. Do you know what has happened in Thunder Bluff? While you were out celebrating?"

Garrosh did not want to hear. He stared at the blade, but Eitrigg pressed on.

"Grimtotem assassins have taken over Thunder Bluff, Bloodhoof Village, and other tauren strongholds. The teachers, the powerful shaman, and druids and warriors—all dead. Innocent tauren slaughtered in their sleep. Baine Bloodhoof is missing and is probably dead, too. Blood pours from a peaceful city, because you were too full of pride to notice what was happening literally right in front of your eyes!"

Garrosh had been listening in increasing horror, and now he bellowed, "Enough! Silence, old one!" They stood there staring at one another.

And then something broke in Garrosh. "She robbed me of my honor," he said quietly. "She took my kill from me. I will never know now if I would have been strong enough to defeat Cairne Bloodhoof in a fair fight. Eitrigg, you must believe me!"

For the first time that night, the old orc’s eyes held a glimmer of sympathy. "I do, Garrosh. No one has ever questioned your honor in battle. If Cairne knew what was happening to him as he died, I believe he knew you were not to blame. But know that doubt has been sown here tonight. Doubt that you fought fairly—and they are speaking of it, in hushed whispers. Not everyone is as understanding as I and Cairne Bloodhoof."

Garrosh stared again at the blood- and poison-coated weapon he bore. Magatha had stolen his honor. Had stolen his respect in the eyes of the Horde he so loved. She had used him, used Gorehowl, too, a weapon his father had once wielded. It had been coated with poison, the coward’s weapon. It, too, had been dishonored. And Magatha, in performing such a base, deceitful act, had spat in the face of her shamanic traditions. And Eitrigg was telling him that there were some who believed he would willingly be involved in this?

-The Shattering

Because Garrosh challenged Cairne to a duel!

Wrong. Garrosh didn't start the duel - CAIRNE did. If you blame anyone for the duel happening, it's Cairne, not Garrosh. Now, it's true that Garrosh did up the ante of the duel, making it to the death. And it's also true that Cairne had good intentions behind the challenge. But these do not change the simple fact that Garrosh did NOT initiate things - it was all Cairne.

Besides, when Garrosh changed the stakes and made the duel to the death, Cairne was perfectly fine with this. He even laughed about it! No, the duel was not some malicious, devious act by Garrosh. Both parties were entirely willing.

Because Garrosh was going to kill Cairne in the duel anyway, with or without poison!

Uh, yeah? That's kind of the point of a duel to the death. And Cairne was willing to kill Garrosh, as well. If you view "willing to kill his opponent in a death duel" as a negative trait, then that's fine, but just be aware that you have to apply it to BOTH participants, not just Garrosh.

This is a non-factor. Both Garrosh and Cairne were on the same page here.

Let's put it another way. Let's take the poison out of the equation completely, and now what happens? If Garrosh wins and kills Cairne, is he still a "murderer" for the act? Do you still think he's committed some criminal act? Well what if Cairne had won? Would he be a murderer, or a hero in your eyes?

You can't have it both ways. They both agreed upon the duel, and whoever survived was not going to be a hero or a murderer. They would have simply been the victor. People are letting their personal like/dislike for the combatants color their opinion about what the incident really was - a mutual, agreed-upon duel to the death, tainted by Magatha's interference.

Because Garrosh's stubbornness caused the duel!

Nope. When Cairne storms into Grommash Hold and starts yelling at Garrosh over the Ashenvale druid deaths, Garrosh is bewildered and immediately proclaims his innocence. And he IS innocent, remember! We know this, but Cairne does not.

Does Cairne listen to what Garrosh says, though? Does he stop to listen to Garrosh's entirely-reasonable (and true) protests?

No. He slaps Garrosh in the face.

"It was you who attacked the Sentinels in Ashenvale, wasn’t it?" Cairne cried, moving forward to where the orc stood clenching his brown fists. "And it was you who authorized the mass slaughter of nearly a dozen druids of the Cenarion Circle, gathering together to achieve a peaceful solution to the needs of the Horde."

Disbelief and then fury crossed Garrosh’s face. "What in the names of the ancestors are you talking about? How dare you accuse me of such despicable acts?"

Cairne snorted. "Garrosh, you have been open in your contempt of a treaty agreed to with honor and in good faith, and of Thrall’s so-called appeasement of the Alliance."

"Yes! I do despise this appeasement. But I would not sneak around the treaty! I would be proud of any attack on the Alliance I authorized! I would shout it from the rooftops to prove to the Horde that all is not lost! The honor of the Horde—"

"How can you even utter that word?" growled Cairne. "Honor? Even now, you lie, Garrosh. You have not the honor of a centaur. At least admit what you have done. Own your foolish, selfish choices!"

Garrosh suddenly grew cold. "You are an idiot to think me a schemer. Age has addled your wits. Because of the esteem in which Thrall inexplicably holds you, I shall ignore your prattlings as that of a madman. Thrall put me in charge of the Horde, and I will always do what I believe is best for it. Go now, and spare yourself the indignity of being bodily tossed out on your tail."

For answer, Cairne backhanded Garrosh right across the face, striking the fresh tattoo. So powerful was the blow that Garrosh staggered and nearly fell, crying out sharply in pain and flailing his arms in an attempt to keep his balance.

"It is I who shall toss you out on your tail, impudent pup," Cairne said. "That blow has been long in coming."

-The Shattering

Garrosh did NOTHING wrong here. He told Cairne he was innocent, not once, but twice. Cairne didn't believe him, but whose fault is that? What else was Garrosh supposed to do? Cairne blew in there spouting completely out-of-nowhere accusations, had no proof, and when Garrosh denied them, Cairne started smacking him around instead of conversing or listening.

In fact, read that passage again. Not only does Garrosh keep his calm and insist that he is innocent, he actually tries to defuse the situation by telling Cairne to leave. He doesn't resort to violence, he doesn't have Cairne thrown out and humiliated. We all know how hot-headed Garrosh is, and how quickly he will defend his honor. And yet, he actually displays remarkable restraint and maturity here, by reacting NOT as the volatile, angry savage so many people regard him as, but instead as someone aware of his responsibilities and position, and as someone willing to bite his tongue and bear these completely unfounded insults to his honor.

Garrosh turned the other cheek, and Cairne responded by backhanding it.

Because Garrosh didn't have to accept the duel!

Wrong. He couldn't decline, especially not after Cairne started manhandling around like some schoolyard bully. At that point, Garrosh's hands were tied. He HAD to accept the duel.

Why? Because Cairne had just blatantly, brutally impugned Garrosh's honor, and as a member of the Horde, as an orc, as WARCHIEF, that was something that simply could not stand.

Remember, Garrosh is the Horde's bold, brave leader. The orcs (at least) look up to him as inspiration, as a hero. If Cairne was allowed to walk into Garrosh's throne room, beat him up, and Garrosh DIDN'T challenge him to a duel? The orcs would never take him seriously or respect him again. While turning a blind eye might be the civil thing to do (and remember, Garrosh, upon realizing why Cairne is so upset, ALREADY DID THIS), there is no way Garrosh could have let Cairne's grave insult to his honor go unanswered. To do so would make Garrosh look weak, cowardly, and timid. Maybe even scared of Cairne, or scared of the possible duel. And the Warchief cannot be any of these things.

It's not a perfect system, but that's how the Horde works - it's an alpha dog hierarchy, and the top dog has to be ready to show its dominance. That's just the way things are. There's certainly flaws, but those flaws aren't Garrosh's fault. Hell, this incident is pretty similar to when Garrosh challenged Thrall's honor, back before Wrath came out. Thrall is as diplomatic as can be, but he had to answer the challenge and show that he wasn't afraid, that he believed in his convictions enough to fight for them. And it's no different here, with Garrosh. Everyone is blaming him for this duel, when in reality it was Cairne and the Horde's traditions that caused it, not any rash actions by Garrosh himself.

And putting aside the non-possibility of declining the duel, remember that Garrosh had every right to desire justice for how Cairne had just abused him, since Garrosh had done nothing wrong! Cairne comes in, accuses him of awful things he didn't do, then slaps him in the face? OBVIOUSLY Garrosh is going to be chomping at the bit to step into the arena with Cairne and avenge his insulted honor.

Forget about the poison, forget about the results of the duel. Look at this moment and the events preceding it.

Garrosh isn't the villain here.

He's the victim.

Once again, reverse it. Imagine Garrosh storming into Thunder Bluff, screaming false accusations at Cairne, and then slapping the old tauren to the floor. Who would be in the wrong here? Who would we be directing our sympathy at?

And returning to Cairne/Garrosh...as soon as a physical blow was struck, that was it. Garrosh might be able to ignore verbal barbs and insults, but actual violence crosses the line when it comes to one's personal honor. It has always been this way in the Horde. After that first strike, the only possible resolution would be one of them on the floor, defeated by the other. And remember - it wasn't Garrosh who resorted to violence. It was Cairne.

In that situation, what was Garrosh supposed to do? He denied the accusations and said he was innocent. Cairne didn't listen. He tried neutralizing the situation by telling Cairne to just leave, before things escalated. Cairne responded by slapping him in the face. And Garrosh then had to decide between challenging the disrespectful Cairne to a duel, or appearing as weak and cowardly to his people. And to a proud orc like Garrosh - who remember, had committed no wrong - there was no question.

Because...because...BECAUSE I HATE GARROSH!

Look at the facts. You may not like Garrosh. You may think he's a hothead, a barbarian, a warmonger. You may fault him for other things he has done or been in charge of, whether it be Ashenvale, Stonetalon, Southshore, whatever. These can be debated, sure.

But Cairne's death? The weird and convoluted events preceding the duel? You absolutely cannot blame Garrosh. In this incident, Garrosh was a victim in every possible way. He was framed, then unjustly accused, having had nothing to do with the druids' slaughter. He tried to let Cairne walk away, and did not strike the first blow. He didn't want Magatha's "help", nor would he have accepted it, had he known what she planned.

He really didn't do ANYTHING but react to other people's actions, and get manipulated by players playing a bigger game, one he was completely unaware of.

No, you can blame lots of people for Cairne's death. The Twilight Cultists who murdered the druids, Magatha, or even Cairne himself. These parties are all very significantly responsible for Cairne's death.

But not Garrosh. He was but a pawn in this tragic chapter.

Hate him, dislike him, whatever. But don't blame him for this. It just makes you look silly.

Minipost: Aggra's stupid emotionless face

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:17:00 +0000

You know, I don't mind Aggra. She's an okay character, she has good personality traits and she's had some nice moments, even if her voice acting in WoW can be a little tiresome (Go'el!) and her presence in certain scenes rather...shoehorned.

(My fave is probably after you down Deathwing - the preceding moments have been sheer chaos, the world is in danger of being destroyed, the Aspects themselves have been thrown to the ground, so powerful were the forces at work...and then Aggra strolls up like nothing's the matter.)

But anyway, I don't mind her character, but OH MY GOD do I hate her in cutscenes. Specifically, her EMOTIONLESS, SOULLESS FACE.

Aggra has the facial expressions of a brick. The two cutscenes she is present in are some of the most exciting/dramatic moments all expansion - the Rage of the Firelands trailer, where Thrall learns of Ragnaros' return, and the Fall of Deathwing cinematic, where WE JUST KILLED DEATHWING AND SAVED THE WORLD - and yet, she looks completely bored and uninterested. Or about to fall asleep.

What's that, Thrall? Ragnaros is back to consume the world in fire? Yawn.

Oh, we just killed Deathwing and saved the world from utter destruction? Booooring.

She is the Jughead of the Warcraft world.

What really bugs me about her robot face is that she's always right next to Thrall, whose model was reworked to have an INCREDIBLE range of expressions. Thrall's emotions are amazing, and it just makes Aggra's emotions (or lack of) even more pitiful.

Only once does she display the SLIGHTEST degree of interest or emotion, and that's after Alexstrasza touches her stomach and hints at her and Thrall's future children. At this point, we see the tiniest little upturn of her lips.

World has just been saved, the Cataclysm is over, and the freaking Life-Binder just essentially blessed my kids and/or confirmed my pregnancy? Time for mild enthusiasm.

I sure can't wait until the final Mists cinematic where we see Thrall deliver a sad speech about Garrosh's downfall and what it means to the Horde and etc., while Aggra is standing at his side, gazing out at the crowd with her dead, soulless gaze.

Minipost: Baby Beast Mastery in the Basin

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:57:00 +0000

Sitting at Blacksmith, watching my wolf and a teammate kill an enemy player.

My little Alliance hunter is growing up! She is now level 72 (Beast Mastery, obviously) and thoroughly sick of Utgarde Keep. Seriously Dungeon Finder, a dozen UKs and only one Nexus? Hate you.

Anyway, I've been breaking up the questing/dungeoning with occasional spurts of PVP. It's pretty weird starting on the other side of familiar battlegrounds, but I've gotten used to it. It still feels wrong to be killing Horde, though. :'(

And make no mistake, I've been killing a lot of Horde. One of the nice things about low-level PVP is that...well, people often just aren't that good yet! I'm in there with a random mishmash of questing/dungeon gear, no enchants or anything, no heirlooms, and I've been amazed at how effective basic class skill/PVP tactics have been working for me. I highly recommend it to anyone playing alts.

My favorite, though, has been Arathi Basin, for one major reason.

REMOTE CONTROL PET KILLS.

Let me explain. Let's say you're standing at Blacksmith and you see a hostile player running along the road above Mine. You mosey over to the back of the Blacksmith island and throw a Hunter's Mark on your victim, I mean, opponent, and sic your pet on them.

If they run away before your pet reaches them, your pet might despawn due to range, and you have to resummon. Shrug.

However, what happens with surprising frequency is that the player will freeze, and frantically look about for the hunter who just marked them. They'll look up the road, they'll look down the road, but they won't look across the river. And they never see your little bestial torpedo of death jaws-ing across the water toward them until it rushes over the hill and starts eating their face.

They'll be too far away for you to shoot them, true. But the important thing is that they won't be able to hit you either.

At this point, they're screwed. Most players I've done this to will continue to just flail and whirl around, trying to find me, but it doesn't work because I'm not actually anywhere near. (This is seriously one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen in-game, btw.) And even if they DO locate me, I'm far, far out of range. I'm /popcorning, basically. All the while my pet is shredding them. Usually they die without a single responsive action.

Marking an enemy hunter riding beneath Lumber Mill.
They froze, and my spider caught and killed them.

Which brings me to another point few players seem to realize - you can't ignore a Beast Mastery pet at low levels. I know it's instinct - kill the player, not the pet! - but you really can't. This can be true at endgame PVP, but it's especially important in the lower brackets before crazy gems and enchants and resilience. I mean, a Kill Command can take a clothy player's health to 50% or so in a single hit. And Kill Command has no range restrictions! Your pet can be across a river, inside a building, up a tower, you name it - if it's alive, you can tell it to Kill Command. Hit it on cooldown and watch that distant opponent disintegrate.

Some players try to flee, upon realizing they're fighting a pet whose master is apparently invisible. But pets are FAST, if they have points in Dash/Dive and Boar's Speed. A player on foot basically cannot outrun a pet unless they crowd control it.

If they're mounted, that's a little different. Players CAN outride a pet...at least, until you hit Intimidation to stun them, followed by another Kill Command. Then if they're still alive, you throw in a Web (Spider) or Sting (Wasp), maybe a Charge, all the while throwing in more Kill Commands. 99% of the time that will be more than enough to crush them.

Oh, and if they're swimming? Enjoy your free kill. >:D

Basically, their only hope is to survive long enough to get so far away your pet despawns. Which is much easier said than done, if you intercept them fairly close to you.

Their only other recourse is to kill your pet. If you're out of shooting range, you'll be out of Mend Pet range. But that doesn't mean you're out of options. If they start fighting back and it's looking like they'll overpower your pet, just dismiss it. Resummon it and it'll be back at your side, waiting for you to heal it up, while your bewildered opponent will be standing there alone on the road, half-dead, wondering what just happened.

And then you send your pet in again to finish them off, this time with Mend Pet ticking. ;)

Really, even if you mess up the dismissal and your pet dies, is that really a loss? Your pet should have taken them to 50% or lower, and you're far enough away that you can probably rez your pet before they reach you. And if they rush in without healing, not giving you time to rez your pet? Just blow them up - they're already half dead, after all.

Blacksmith is my favorite place to do this, since you can send your pet across the river towards Mine and Lumber Mill roads, keeping you safe from enemy response. I usually kill 1-2 people per match "remotely", without ever getting within spell/shot range.

However, it also works when you're standing on the hill above Mine, picking off defenders down below. Remember, your pet won't detour and go find a road to get down there. No, your pet will run RIGHT DOWN THE FREAKING CLIFF to get to its target. You either kill some defenders, soften them up for an actual attack, or lure them away as they leave the node to come chase you. It's win-win-win! (And even if they DO chase you, you've got plenty of time to mount up and get away.)

Arathi Basin is my battleground of choice for remote pet slaughter, but it works in other locations, too. Warsong Gulch, enemy on your roof while you're by the flag? /target them by name and send your pet after them. If they start fighting back, recall your pet before it dies (no LOS to dismiss it) and keep baiting them/whittling them down. This also works when fighting over nodes in Eye of the Storm, since you can have your pet chomping away while you're safely tucked out of LOS.

This player died without even hurting my pet. He was too confused.

So get your baby hunters into battlegrounds and start killing remotely! There really are few things more enjoyable than watching your pet devastate a panicking player who is frantically spinning in circles trying to find you, while you sit casually across the river enjoying the show.

Minipost: The stalwart senior citizens of Honor Hold

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:54:00 +0000

Recently I've been leveling an Alliance character so I can join in on Real ID Twitter fun times, a female human hunter! Surprisingly, I haven't leveled a hunter since Rades, so it's been quite interesting seeing how they fare in the leveling process, and when they get certain abilities (Disengage at level 14?!).

Why a human? Well, I can't stand night elves or worgen, and I've made far too many dwarves and draenei - I seriously NEVER want to do their starter zones ever again. So that left only humans. I wasn't a fan of the male human animations, but the female attack animations really impressed me - they look very powerful and balanced when shooting. They look ridiculous when jumping, but oh well, you can't win 'em all.

Anyway, I'm now in Outlands, just arrived at Honor Hold. I've done the quests here once before, on my dwarf death knight, but that was ages ago and all I remember about this place is my undying hatred of Fei Fei, that stupid dog, and following it all around Honor Hold waiting for it to dig up some silly quest item.

I was about to take off and do some questing that DIDN'T INVOLVE DOGS when I noticed some Honor Hold Defender NPCs strolling by, on their way out the front gate. This wouldn't be noteworthy except for the fact that I noticed they were both OLD. And not like, middle-aged old, we're talking retired grandparent-looking-old.

I did a bit of a double-take, and followed these two guards as they marched out, presumably on patrol. I found it pretty funny that the Alliance chose geriatric seniors for not only their guards, but their guards on patrol! Yet another thing to make fun of the Alliance about!

Old guards! How funny, right? I certainly thought so. But then, I stopped to think about it. Amusing bit of NPC appearance randomness, sure...but was it actually random coincidence? Or was it actually intentional?

I went around and checked out the other guards stationed around the Hold, and sure enough, they ALL had old-looking faces! In addition to the "old male human" and "old female dwarf" pictured above, Honor Hold also has "old female human" and "old male dwarf" guards.

It wasn't just the Defenders, either. The Honor Hold Archers stationed on the keep's walls were also old and wrinkly-faced!

(Okay, that male archer looks like he wants to cry.)

While the idea of Honor Hold being guarded entirely by senior citizens is kind of amusing, I realized that it might actually be a really nice lore touch by Blizzard designers. After all, one of the main themes/storylines about Honor Hold is how they have been stranded here on Draenor for years, cut off and isolated from Azeroth, alone on a hostile alien world. Some of the NPCs even talk about how they were born here and have never seen Azeroth's soil (yeah, I don't know how this fits into the "Burning Crusade lasted one year" timeline, but let's put that aside).

Why are the guards and soldiers all old? Well, if you consider the lore and the idea that they've been here fighting for years, it makes perfect sense that they're old! These weren't some retirees that Danath Trollbane recruited to bolster his ranks - these were the young, brave soldiers of the Alliance that went through the Dark Portal all those years ago to fight the Horde, and they've been stuck here fighting ever since.

And they're still fighting, despite their age, because of one simple fact - they have no one here to relieve them. They can't lay down their weapons, they can't retire to a life of comfort and luxury. There are no reinforcements coming. They're all alone.

But they still fight. They haven't quit yet. After all, they are the Sons of Lothar.

It's pretty moving stuff.

Honor Hold is already a sad, poignant place, with some heart-wrenching storylines about war, loss and weariness...but I have to admit, I never expected something as subtle as this. The aged guards are a quiet detail, easy to overlook, but I really think they add a lot to the keep's atmosphere once you are aware of them. They provide an understated element of authenticity to the place, making you really think "Wow, yeah, these guys really HAVE been here for ages. Damn."

Bravo, Blizzard. A very nice touch.

Minipost: Fabulor Meets a Fan

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:47:00 +0000

A few weeks back, Fabulor was cruising through LFR second-wing, being Fabulous, when he saw the surprised exclamations in /raid from one of his many fans. Fabulor was delighted to meet an admirer in the flesh, though in retrospect doing so while battling a crazed monstrosity attempting to destroy the world and kill all life on Azeroth made the moment slightly distracting. Afterward, he told his aide to pen a memo reminder: in the future, schedule less grueling public appearances.

So, Fabulor sends his warmest regards, Frabjous/Nivella! You probably haven't bathed yet, so as to retain the irreplaceable, incredible glow that comes from simply being in Fabulor's presence, but Fabulor would like to assure you that no matter what you do, that moment will stick with you for the rest of your life.

And now, here's a picture of Fabulor being "hugged" by some bears.

The Great Blog Noblegarden Egg Hunt 3.0!

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:32:00 +0000

It's almost April, which means it's almost time for the Great Blog Noblegarden Egg Hunt (3.0)! Started by Angelya, and now hosted by Kamalia (both awesome people), it's a fun blog event where bloggers hide eggs - in any shape, size or format - on their blogs, and then people try to find them! Anyone can participate, be it reader or blogger.

Go check out Kamalia's post for full details!

It's also a race - the fastest person or persons to find all the eggs wins a prize! (There are also prizes for the runner-ups.) This year, the prize is one I am rather connected with - a guest appearance in a From Draenor With Love strip! We have no idea what the strip will be or in what context the winning character will appear yet, of course. SO BE AFRAID.

Now, since I'm involved in the prize this year, I've decided not to participate as a seeker. Which is a good thing for anyone thinking of competing! I mean, I'm not saying I win this event every year, but I win it every year.

I will, however, be HIDING an egg on my blog somewhere! Honestly, I think this is just as much fun as the actual searching. You can get pretty creative when coming up with devious hiding places. This was my Noblegarden post from last year.

However, that wasn't enough. I wanted to add another level (WE NEED TO GO DEEPER) and add something for the tricksters to find. And by tricksters, I mean the searchers who get a little sneaky and decide to view a webpage's source code and look for telling filenames.

If, last year, you viewed my page's source code and searched for the following filenames, this is what you got instead of a delightful egg. (Click for full-size.)

egg.jpg

noblegarden.jpg

gbngeh.jpg

I think these "easter eggs" (so to speak) are actually still hidden in the code, come to think of it!

Anyway, yeah. I'm not sure how I'll hide the egg this year, but be prepared! >:D

REMINDER: If you want to participate or if you have any questions, YOU HAVE TO TELL KAMALIA, not me! Leave such comments on her post so she can address them!

Minipost: Thanks for all the fish

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:32:00 +0000

One of the sad running jokes in TTGF is that in all of our boss kill screenshots (which one of my addons takes automatically upon boss death), the only constant is the slowly-rising "That's A Lot of Bait" counter in the upper-right corner.

Yeah, 3/8 Heroic DS, been raiding all expansion and we still don't have the fish feasts. We're not really big into fishing, it seems.

In a way, it's actually kind of funny, since the fish tracker serves as a bit of a timeline. How many did we have when we downed Deathwing? How many when we killed Heroic Morchok? Etc.

Well, about a week or so ago, I decided to once again try my hand at fishing up Mr. Pinchy. I'd really wanted the Salty title on Rades for ages, and I won the very first fishing contest I ever tried, back in Burning Crusade or early Wrath, so I'd been putting this off for too long. (Plus I really wanted those damn feasts.)

By the time I got the Magical Crawdad Box (got Mr. Pinchy on the second try), we were only short a few thousand fish. It was within reach! So Rades spent a week up in Howling Fjord, fishing up hundreds of stupid Fangtooth Herrings and Pygmy Suckerfish, racking up that fish counter and trying for a Dark Herring.

By the weekend, we were finally below 1000 fish, and after sharing something really cool on Twitter, I casually mentioned how close we were to feasts. I was blown away when a bunch of people jumped up and said they'd come help fish up the last batch! It was very unexpected and not at all what I had intended, but man, was it appreciated. It didn't take long before the magic 10,000 number had been reached!

So than you Poneria, Apple Cider, Lizzia, Rezznul and Jed! You made that last ~900 fish go by super fast, and now, tonight, FINALLY, we will FEAST ON THE FRUITS OF YOUR EFFORTS. (Screwlewse, Buglamp, Liala and Aldous were also online/fishing, but they don't count because TTGF is already their primary guild. Also because Buglamp is a butt.)

Oh, and the "something cool" I mentioned on Twitter, before this all took place?

The point of no return

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:22:00 +0000

Partially motivated for Big Bear Butt's writing challenge, but also because I wanted to ruminate on a possible explanation behind Garrosh's eventual downfall, particularly, what could he do that would horrify everyone, even his own loyal followers?

Timeline-wise, I picture this after the initial "on Pandaria" content, where some of these characters are major players. In my mind, this/the attack on Theramore would be the patch prior to 5.3 (The Siege of Orgrimmar).

I make no claim that this story has the best writing, but hopefully it's still enjoyable.

Garrosh Hellscream was in a foul mood.

"Get out! All of you, leave me!" he shouted at the guards, dignitaries and advisors who typically surrounded him in Grommash Hold. One grunt made to protest, then noticed the fury in his Warchief's eyes and thought better of it. Within seconds, Garrosh was alone in the throne room.

The attack on Theramore had not gone as planned.

It should have been perfect, thought Garrosh as he paced back and forth, replaying the damning events in his head. With one decisive blow, the Horde would finally be rid of the humans' irritating presence in central Kalimdor, and be able to seize the valuable port city for their own use.

And it would have been a tremendous moral victory, as well. Theramore's cowardly attack on Camp Taurajo, and their slaughter of civilians and children, had been weighing heavily on Garrosh's mind for months. This was a crime that would not go unpunished, he had sworn. Theramore would pay for their audacity.

It had always surprised Garrosh that the Horde hadn't done this sooner, actually. Theramore was isolated and alone, far away from any Alliance reinforcements, and surrounded by Horde territory. What a plump, juicy target, ripe for harvest. Crushing Theramore would have given the Horde an unshakable chokehold on the entire continent, one Varian would never be able to overcome.

Garrosh had always assumed Theramore's continued existence was due to Thrall's weakness, or his bizarre friendship with the city's leader, Jaina Proudmoore. Jaina. That slender, scrawny excuse for a female. He had never understood why Thrall bowed and catered to her every whim. What had she ever done to deserve his respect? Who was SHE to tell the WARCHIEF of the HORDE what to do? And she'd had the nerve to teleport into Orgrimmar unannounced, simply to meet with Thrall? Into HIS city? Unthinkable.

Of course, now Garrosh knew better. Theramore continued to stand not because of Thrall's leniency, but because Jaina was a damned monster.

Garrosh roared, and brought Gorehowl down on the massive table the elves had been using for their meetings, splintering it and sending meticulously-written papers fluttering. His cry echoed and bounced about the empty hall. Muttering, he kicked angrily at the wreckage, sending bits of wood and iron clattering across the floor.

The assault had started so well, too. Garrosh had learned from Eitrigg that the only other time the Horde had attacked Theramore, the then-ruler of the city, Daelin Proudmoore, had gone to great lengths to encircle the city with a powerful naval battalion, to protect its docks from Horde attackers. Upon learning this, Garrosh immediately knew that this would be their avenue of attack.

And it had worked magnificently. The city was completely unprepared for the Horde warships that had swooped in and surrounded the docks, gutting their fleet and spitting out dozens of the Horde's finest warriors. Off-guard and surprised, Theramore's defenses fell with laughable ease. After all, they weren't even a real army, just a ragtag militia. They might have been able to take out a crocolisk, or a handful of unarmed Tauren civilians, but they were no match for real warriors.

Garrosh had, of course, led the charge, cutting a swath through the humans' desperate defenses. His target: the central keep, where he knew he would find Jaina. If they could penetrate the keep and eliminate her, the battle would be won.

To his surprise, simply gaining access proved tremendously difficult. The humans stationed here were fine warriors, and did not falter or crumble when Garrosh's legions smashed against them. And though Garrosh had not seen Jaina, her presence was unquestionably felt. Horde soldiers fell in droves around him, crushed by immense chunks of ice that appeared from thin air, or burned to cinders as the air around them ignited and burst into flame.

High above, Garrosh had seen the telltale flash of sorcery and redoubled his efforts, knowing that his troops would continue to be cut down every moment his foe was allowed to work her magic unopposed. Spotting a hole in the human line, he had driven through it, sweeping Gorehowl in a massive arc, driving back the nearest Theramore soldiers.

Before they could pursue, a pair of Kor'kron had stepped in and blocked their path, as he knew they would. Behind the line, they would no doubt be cut down, but Garrosh would be successfully out of the enemy's reach by then. He had allowed himself a proud grin as he pounded up the stairs. Their sacrifice would not be in vain, he had vowed. Blood and glory!

Garrosh had ignoring the frightened clerks and servants as he raced up the stairs, searching for his target. After all, there was no honor in slaying an unarmed foe, especially one who wielded a quill instead of an axe. This was a war strike, not butchery.

Jaina had evidently heard him coming or had been warned by one of her guards, for as Garrosh reached the top of the stairs, a massive gout of flame had nearly taken off his head. He snarled and rushed the sorceress before she could unleash another spell, but every time he drew near, she would wink away or vanish before his eyes, unscathed.

Having little experience battling mages in the past, Garrosh had soon realized that if their fight had taken place in an open field, he would have been killed within minutes. Luckily for him, the crowded, enclosed tower worked in his favor, as he was able to take cover from her spells behind the endless desks and bookshelves, while hurling these distractions at her and drawing dangerously near with his swings, forcing her to retreat over and over again.

Eventually, she had blinked across the room and staggered against the sill, exhausted. Seared and covered in frost, Garrosh had roared and leapt upon her, hurtling Gorehowl down upon her gasping form. To his annoyance, his swings rang off a shimmering azure barrier of force, jarring his hands and nearly sending Gorehowl to the floor.

Snarling, Garrosh had wound up for another blow as Jaina straightened and outstretched her palms, pouring a blinding cascade of energy into her shield. Gorehowl once again bounced away harmlessly, but this time a terrible jolt had shot through Garrosh's veins. However, Jaina had winced as well, and the barrier had, for a moment, shimmered faintly and faltered, its hues flickering and losing their vibrancy. Undeterred, laughing away the pain, Garrosh had rained blow after blow upon his foe, forcing her to focus on maintaining the ward, unable to counterattack.

The pain had been torturous, but this was the fight Garrosh wanted - no dodging about playing raptor-and-hare, but a brutal test of strength and willpower. What would give out first, his body or her magic? His muscles had been aflame, his vision clouded from pain, but Jaina was tiring as well. It was only a matter of time.

With a melodious tinkling like a dropped string of bells, her wards had shattered under Gorehowl's blade, much to Garrosh's relief. The pain had been unbearable, and he hadn't known how much longer he could endure it.

Wordlessly, down on one knee, Jaina had glared up at him, raising her staff defensively. A futile gesture, they had both known, but Garrosh had grinned, admiring her perseverance. Truly, this was a warrior worthy of respect.

"Well fought," he had rumbled, bringing Gorehowl down with aching limbs.

"Jaina, no!" a voice had shouted. To Garrosh's shock and dismay, Gorehowl did not meet staff or flesh, but instead bounced painfully off a dazzling, golden sphere of force. Its light had seared into Garrosh's surprised eyes, leaving his sight blurry and unfocused.

Angry and confused, he kept swinging, determined to crush this latest shield just as he had the others. He had just barely been able to make out her form behind the barrier, and had aimed Gorehowl directly at her, hoping to take them both out in a single swing.

Moments later, Garrosh had let loose a triumphant roar as the shield winked out, and Gorehowl plunged through unopposed, landing with the satisfying, sickening crunch of metal parting bone. Eyes watering, Garrosh had stepped back and leaned heavily on his knees, wincing at the lingering effects of her retributive magic, and shaking his head, trying to clear his vision.

"What...what have you done?" Jaina said, interrupting his recuperation, dread and horror in her voice.

Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Garrosh had looked down to see Jaina, alive and whole, kneeling next to a crumpled form on the ground. Fair-haired, cut nearly in half, whose blood was still dripping from the axe Garrosh was holding in his hands.

A small, tiny body...that of Prince Anduin Wrynn.

Garrosh had choked and staggered back against an overturned table, horrified. A child! Not a trained soldier or a military leader, but a CHILD had fallen to his blade. He had tried to form words of denial, but his mouth would not obey him.

"Murderer..." whispered Jaina, rising to her feet. Anduin's blood stained her robes, and the air around them was cracking and sparking with power. Garrosh had grunted, and forced himself to put his horror aside so that he might step forward to renew the fight.

However, one look at Jaina's face had stopped him cold. Her eyes had been ablaze with fury, tears running unchecked down her face, her features twisted into a pained, tormented snarl. Her anger had slammed into Garrosh, driving him back against the desk. When she lifted her eyes to stare into his, Garrosh saw not the fragile human mage he had been battling moments earlier.

He saw only death before him.

"I did not... I would never-" Garrosh had began protesting, but was forced to dive aside as Jaina sent a torrent of flame at him, wholly incinerating the desk and the heavy shelves behind it. Garrosh had gasped at the destruction despite himself, coughing on the acrid smoke and ash filling the air.

"I tried, Light help me!" Jaina had screamed, hurling a shower of searing bolts at the ducking and stumbling Warchief. "Thrall asked me to give you a chance...to put up with your idiocy, and to not lose hope that one day, we might have peace. And this! This is what we get for our patience!"

She had punctuated her vitriol with an enormous chunk of flaming magma, which had slammed into Garrosh's chest, burning him terribly and blanketing him in scalding cinders. Desperately, he had staggered to a window and thrown himself through as another fireball erupted behind him. Rolling and scraping down the sloped roof, he had dropped heavily to the ground, gazing in dread up at the tower, which was exploding with raw, gathering arcane energy.

Around him, forces on both sides had stopped fighting, staring in shock at the spectacle overhead. Garrosh had limped toward the docks, signalling and gasping through seared lungs for a total retreat. Thankfully, the Theramore soldiers had not seemed inclined to pursue.

Aboard his warship, Garrosh was wincing, getting his burns tended to by a shaman, when the warship alongside his own had exploded in a shower of burning timbers and debris. Horrified, he had looked back to see Jaina standing on the beach, hair distended wildly about her, her body wreathed in fire. She had gestured, and another warship blew apart, shattered by a kodo-sized ball of flame that plummeted unerringly from the clouds.

Jaina's outraged voice had echoed across the waves, chasing him back to Orgrimmar, damning him.

"Yes, 'Warchief!' Run! Run and hide! I will remain and mourn our dead, including poor Anduin, the child you MURDERED! Savor your time, for when we are done here, the entire Alliance comes for you, cowardly Hellscream, and no walls of iron and steel will protect you from our fury! Varian and I will burn down all of Kalimdor to find you. This I swear!"

The voyage back to Orgrimmar had been uncomfortable and painful. Not only had the Horde lost, they had been routed, and their Warchief humiliatingly so. But worse than the defeat was the effect Jaina's words had had on Garrosh's troops. His soldiers, so loyal and faithful, now looked at him askance, sometimes with outright disgust. A child. Their Warchief had killed a boy...an innocent. Instead of reverence and respect, suspicion and anger now adorned their faces when they looked upon him. Even the Kor'kron, his honor guard, could not look him in the face.

Garrosh could not stand it. It was like he was back in Garadar again, an outcast from those he adored and worshiped. To lose everything he had worked so hard for, in a moment's mistake! He hadn't MEANT to kill the boy! Why did he have to interfere? What we he even doing there? He deeply regretted what he had done, and was sickened just looking at the blood still dried on Gorehowl's blade, but this was Jaina's fault, not his...

Garrosh stopped pacing and sighed. He had to face facts. He had lost the respect of the Horde, accident or not, and there was no going back. Furthermore, the Alliance would be storming Orgrimmar's gates soon, of that he had no doubt.

And Varian...Garrosh hated him, but his feelings toward the human king would be nothing compared to what Varian would feel upon learning of his son's demise. He would not stop until Garrosh was dead and Orgrimmar - and the Horde - lay shattered and broken at his feet.

Garrosh could not let that happen. He was Warchief, and it was his job to ensure the Horde's survival. No matter the cost to his own personal honor.

He walked to the front of Grommash Hold, checking to see that his guard had indeed closed the massive wooden door, something that had never been done before. The gate was down, and secured. He was alone.

In the hold's antechamber, just inside the entrance, was an odd wooden bulwark blocking access to the throne room. Visitors had to walk around the curious barrier, which had a few murder holes facing outward. Garrosh's advisors had scratched their heads, but shrugged. They realized that in a full-blown siege, even a few archers or mages placed behind the wall would have a deadly impact on invaders as they funneled into the narrow entrance, directly in their line of fire.

But the strange wall had another purpose, one known only to Garrosh and those who had whispered to him during the hold's construction, telling him to add it to the goblin blueprints.

He stepped up to the bulwark, and reached a hand, still blistered and raw, inside one of the murder holes, locating a small, concealed lever. He took a deep breath, and pulled.

The wall and the section of the floor Garrosh stood upon began to descend slowly into the earth. As Grommash Hold grew distant overhead, only the quiet grinding of goblin-designed gears indicating his movement down the shaft. At his feet, a few small candles flickered, their flames growing weaker and weaker as they descended.

After a few minutes, the platform groaned to a halt, lurching precariously as it did so. Garrosh knelt down and picked up one of the candles, and took a step out. Before him was nothing but inky darkness, and the candle's feeble light was not enough to reveal anything past his own wrist.

He crouched and searched the dirt for the object he had been told would be waiting for him. His fingers closed around a wooden handle, and he rose, touching the candle to oily, waxy filaments. Lifting the torch, he strode out into the darkness, a single star burning in a sky of endless night.

A sense of chilling unease ran through his spine, and he stopped, knowing he had arrived. He could not see them...but he knew they were there, lurking just outside the torch's light, watching, waiting.

"Haaaave you reconsidered our offerrrr?" came the sibilant, grating voice Garrosh remembered. The words echoed faintly, lingering in the darkness that seemed to wrap and plaster itself around his tiny bubble of light.

He grimaced, but nodded. "Things in the Horde are...we did not..." He stopped, then started over again. "I made a mistake...and the Horde's survival is in jeopardy. The Alliance are coming, and my people do not trust me any more," he spat.

"So you agree to our terms, then?" came a different hiss, more distended and warbled than the first. "Say the words, Garrosh Hellscream, and you shall have everything you desire..."

Garrosh hesitated. He knew there was no going back from this...that committing to this pact would be crossing a line he could never return from. But if it meant the Horde would survive...if it meant they might push back the Alliance assault...did he really have a choice?

"Everything I do, I do for the Horde..." he whispered to himself, steeling his heart and preparing himself.

"Weeee do not hear a confirmation, Warchief," rattled the first speaker. "Issss that a yesss or a no?"

Garrosh tossed the torch down to the ground, glaring defiantly up at the shadows surrounding him. "Fine then! I agree to your terms. Be warned, if you do not honor your side of the bargain, I will hunt you down and end you!"

"Soooo be it, son of Grom. The pact is sealed. Ready yourself. What comes next will be...indescribable."

Garrosh took a deep breath, and stamped out the torch.

Minipost: Mists of Pandaria press release musings

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:03:00 +0000

I'm going to assume you've already read the press release info - if not, what the hell are you waiting for?

So here we go.

Scholomance and Lilian Voss

First things first, to everyone who said Blizzard would be too lazy to use Lilian Voss, to all the people who said Blizzard doesn't care what players wants and so no, we won't see her again...

IN YOUR FACE, HATERS.

This was the reaction Buglamp and I shared upon immediately watching the Monastery video preview.

Our fevered excitement aside, Scholomance? And not Scarlet Monastery? That's...uh, that's unusual, but okay. Not really sure of the connection there, but it's early, we'll see.

One idea suggested by Buglamp is that, hey, Scholo is a school of necromancy, so maybe Lilian is going there to investigate her undead state, or dig up more information about it / possible cures? Who knows!

Of course, the inclusion of Lilian excites me, but also makes me terrified that the story won't live up to my expectations. Please, please, Blizzard, don't let me down!

Killing Garrosh

Whoa, this is unexpected. I have to be honest, I'm kinda floored by this, especially considering the current Garrosh. I mean, people don't like him, and people don't really want him to be Warchief...but he DEFINITELY hasn't done anything to warrant actual death, especially not at the hands of the Horde. Something HUGE is going to have to go down sometime in Mists to make the Horde - especially his diehard orc fans - want to see him dead.

What might it be? Well, there's the whole Theramore destruction thing. Without question, that's going to be motivation enough for the Alliance to want his head. But I really don't see that pissing off the Horde - at WORST, he does something cowardly or disgraceful in the orcs' eyes. Enough to dislike him, but definitely not enough to deserve death.

The standard guess is that it involves demon blood, the Sha, or the Burning Legion. I've already written a theory about Garrosh and why he might drink demon blood, so I'll just leave you with the link if you want to read it.

But to piss off the orcs...man, it has to be something horrible. Drinking demon blood would definitely fit the bill, as the orcs might be like, hold on now, we remember what happens here, and we don't like it, not even from you Big G. Playing off their racial history would be one way to lose their support. Another similar idea could involve the Fel Orcs, either by absolving them for all the bad stuff they've done, or actively recruiting them to be his honor guard or something. That probably wouldn't sit well, especially with older orcs who probably don't like their fel brethren too much anymore.

Something else that would work would be killing someone universally revered. But who would fit the bill? Who would be beloved by the orcs enough to make them actually want to depose and kill their hero?

Thrall is the only person I can think of whose death might upset the orcs - after all, even if they didn't necessarily think he was the best Warchief, the orcs have a HUGE amount of respect and love for the son of Durotan, for all he did for them. Garrosh taking out Thrall - no idea why this would happen, mind you - MIGHT be enough to turn the orcs against him. It would also have the added benefit of giving Jaina even MORE motivation to take him down - vengeance is an ugly trait, but avenging her city and avenging her dear friend is admirable (and we'd get to see her be a badass!)

But other than Thrall? Who would the orcs even care about? They wouldn't really care if he took out a neutral leader like Darion Mograine or Tirion, or Malfurion, or even an Aspect, depowered or not. Killing a Horde leader in a dishonorable, cowardly fashion MIGHT make the orcs angry, if it weren't for the fact that every other Horde leader is already on bad terms with Garrosh to begin with (well, Baine, Vol'jin and Sylvanas are).

There's a lot of time between now and Mists' final content patch, but I have to say, I'm really scratching my head right now wondering what Garrosh's unforgivable actions will be. I honestly don't think many "war crimes" would actually make his orc groupies withdraw their support, unless it was something unthinkably bad like eating babies or something. And let's be serious - Garrosh is a lot of things, but he is NOT a monster. Not yet, anyway...

Also, Orgrimmar as a raid is a weird concept. But hey, maybe we'll go into the Orgrimmar arena to take him out, and we'll have him on the ropes, and then he'll smash the floor and we'll fall deep down into the earth into the hidden secret and long-anticipated Azjol-Nerub raid instance where he rides Anub'arak around and continues the fight.

HOW AWESOME WOULD THIS BE.

Scarlet Monastery

Ahh, here's what I cared most about. And we learned...basically nothing.

Well, that's not true. We did get a brief walkthrough video showing off the new Monastery. Looks like the Scarlets have gone through some huge gear upgrades, sporting crazy Ulduar swords and stuff.

And bosses! We saw...well, some familiar faces, some new ones.

Here's...Doan? He looks frightening. Definitely looks more frightful than the old guy buried in his books.

Herod is gone, replaced by Armsmaster Harlan. That's interesting. Wonder what happened to Herod...oh well. Judging from some Mists achievements, Harlan is going to have similar moves, such as Blades of Light. As for who he is? No clue. I'm guessing it's not the only other currently-existing Harlan in WoW, Harlan Bagley, a level 12 cloth supplier in Stormwind.

Also of note? You fight Harlan in the Scarlet Sanctuary, not the Hall of Champions as it was formerly known. Intriguing.

Hmm, who is this now? He's standing where Scarlet Commander (Renault) Mograine was...but he doesn't really *look* like Renault. Then again, I suppose it could be an...older, grey-haired Renault? In entirely different armor. Hm.

SIDENOTE: I want Harlan and maybe-Renault's boots for transmog, so bad.

And finally, there's Whitemane. Now this is curious. She looks exactly the same? Every boss we saw in the video had a brand new appearance, except Whitemane. This strikes me as suspicious. I mean, we don't actually know that the other bosses are their old selves, but this is definitely Whitemane, unchanged. I wonder if she's actually dead, or a ghost?

DAMMIT WHY WAS THERE NOT MORE SCARLET INFO. I am so curious, aughhh! Are we going to see Joseph? What about Dominic? Is that actually Renault and Doan? Why is Whitemane still the same? So many questions!

And those are my major thoughts on the press release info, at least pertaining to the things I care about.

What character would you bring back from the dead?

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:04:00 +0000

A while back, Chris Metzen asked people on Twitter the above question. It was a fun little brain exercise - there were quite a few responses of Bolvar, Kael'thas, Illidan (the usuals) as well as the occasional favorite like Zul'jin, Broxigar, Lothar, etc. All good choices!

Personally, my initial responses were people whose returns would make for interesting stories. For instance, how would Garrosh (and Thrall, for that matter) react if Grom were brought back? What would Tirion do if Taelan were returned to life? These reappearances would have great emotional impact and would really stir things up a little.

However, I started to ponder these possible resurrections a bit more. How exactly WOULD they come back? Would it just be a mysterious act of god? Would it be magic, either the natural powers of life via Alexstrasza, or the darker, more sinister forces of necromancy and/or the Scourge? Or Sylvanas and the Val'kyr, of course - can't leave them out.

Metzen never specified the details of these hypothetical returns - maybe they wouldn't be as pleasant a homecoming as we imagine. Maybe that's the point!

I was tossing these ideas around mentally when I remembered someone whose return would not only be dramatic and significant, but also timely, and mysterious.

That someone is the former Archbishop of the Church of Light, Alonsus Faol.

Faol was an important leadership figure during the Second War, representing the clergy and serving as a calming, unifying presence among the bickering heads of state. But even more important than Faol's diplomatic influence was his role in creating one of the most powerful military forces Azeroth had ever seen, a new branch of the church composed of martial warriors who were also trained in the spiritual power of the Light - the paladins.

As we all know, Faol's champions - Uther, Dathrohan, Tirion and Turalyon - went on to accomplish amazing things, starting with Turalyon's triumph over Orgrim Doomhammer, a victory that ended the Second War. And look at what their order has gone on to do in the years since. Faol was kind and highly respected, but he was also wise. He predicted that the world would need a new type of soldier, one armed with a sword but armored by faith, and he was absolutely correct. Eerily prescient, when you consider the events that have taken place since then.

Alonsus Chapel, Stratholme. (Picture from Wowpedia)

Faol also has strong ties to both the Lordaeron AND Stormwind areas, something that few other humans can truly claim. His roots were in Lordaeron and its surrounding regions, and he has had numerous areas named after him, such as a graveyard in Tirisfal, and the Alonsus Chapel in Stratholme, where he named Uther as the church's first paladin. But after the Second War, Faol traveled south to Stormwind and helped coordinate and raise funds for the reconstruction of the city and the neighboring Northshire Abbey, which had both been destroyed by the orcs. Until Cataclysm, a statue in front of Stormwind's Cathedral of Light bore a plaque celebrating Faol's "noble spirit and generosity." (The plaque now bears a dedication to Uther the Lightbringer.)

The rebuilt Northshire Abbey, which Faol was largely responsible for.

Little else is known about Faol's life, other than the fact that he died quietly sometime after the war's end, prior to the outbreak of the Scourge. His body is presumably buried in Faol's Rest, a small graveyard in Tirisfal Glades, near the Scarlet Monastery. Of course, we also know of the man named as his successor, Archbishop Benedictus.

So what would happen if Faol were to suddenly turn up again, mysteriously and inexplicably alive again?

It would make for some AMAZING stories, that's what!

From the human side of things, the timing could not be better. Stormwind and the Church of the Light are reeling from Benedictus' shocking betrayal, and in severe need of strong guidance and leadership. They desperately need someone who can step up and alleviate their fears, someone they can believe in. And suddenly one of, if not THE most highly respected and revered members of their faith shows up in their hour of need? Someone who is, essentially, a saint? It would solve all of the Church's problems in one miraculous swoop.

And it wouldn't just be the church who would benefit from Faol's return. Remember, this man has connections. It might seem like ancient history, but it's easy to forget that the Second War really wasn't that long ago. Faol knew Varian when Varian was but a young boy grieving over the loss of his kingdom and father, and the genuine sympathy and condolences coming from such a famous man is not something young Varian would likely forget. Faol's "concerned grandfather" role wouldn't be limited to just Varian, though - he also knew Daelin Proudmoore, Thoras Trollbane, and Terenas Menethil. It's quite likely that he met the children of these great leaders during his travels, so it would be very interesting to witness his interactions with Jaina or Tandred Proudmoore, or his reaction upon hearing of the shocking fates of Arthas Menethil or Galen Trollbane.

Faol was also on good terms with Genn Greymane and Khadgar, two war veterans who are still in positions of leadership. There are not many humans (or Gilneans) left who Greymane could honestly look to as an equal in terms of age and experience, so Faol's placid nature could serve as an excellent character foil for the still-sort-of-hotheaded Gilnean leader. And even Khadgar would probably find his presence comforting, as another member of the "old guard" that stood together against the original Horde. (That is, if he ever finds his way back from Shattrath.)

Of course, we can't leave out Faol's ties to the Church. He clearly knew and trusted Tirion, as well as the other original paladins. I'm sure Faol would be horrified to learn what happened to Dathrohan (if Balnazzar's corruption is even public knowledge...it might not be, I suppose), and Uther. And hey, maybe Faol's concern over the missing Turalyon might FINALLY be the catalyst that brings Turalyon (and Alleria) back into continuity!

It's also very likely that Faol had close ties to the dwarves and high elves, since both races were widely represented in the Church of the Light back in his day. I'm sure Faol met with dignitaries of both races, such as High Priest Rohan for the dwarves or Arellas Fireleaf for the elves. It might be interesting to see Faol serving as intermediary between the Blood/High Elves, since - in his eyes - they are the same people, and the reasons for their enmity would probably seem bizarre and nonsensical to him, since he did not witness their divide.

Finally, there's the touchy matter of the Scarlet Crusade. Faol likely inducted many of their number into the Order of the Silver Hand before they branched off, so he would be horrified at discovering how twisted and malicious their ideals had become. In addition to Tirion and Dathrohan, Faol would have definitely known Scarlets such as Barean Westwind, Grand Inquisitor Isillien, and the Mograine and Abbendis families. You thought the quasi-father-son dynamic between Tirion and Darion was interesting? Try introducing a grandfather figure who (since he's such a kindhearted person) would probably feel guilty and personally responsible for their various tragedies.

The Crusade is really the definitive example of one of the biggest potential stories involved in Faol's return - just how much the world has changed since he died. I mean, think of it - when Faol passed, the Horde was defeated, and the world was at peace. There was no Lich King, no Deathwing. Dalaran was still in the ground, and there were no "Plaguelands" yet. There was no crazy ongoing war between the Horde and Alliance. And there was no fanatical, murderous offshoot of his beloved Church of the Light, killing people "for the Light." The poor guy would have some serious culture shock, no matter where he went.

Speaking of drastic changes...let's talk about Lordaeron.

Remember, Faol doesn't know about the Forsaken. Unlike basically every other living human today, Faol did not witness or hear about those horrific days where the mindless Scourge ravaged Lordaeron, nothing more than the Lich King's pawns. Most people simply see the Scourge when they look at the Forsaken, due to these traumatic memories. But Faol has no such memories, so how would he react? Not only were the Forsaken originally victims - something the kindhearted Faol would immediately notice - but they are his people, probably even former friends and colleagues! These citizens of Lordaeron have been dead for years, but to Faol it would seem like he just saw them yesterday (except they were still breathing, then).

Faol would be in the unique position of being one of the only people in history who could potentially convince the humans and Forsaken to settle their differences, or at the very least, come to some sort of truce or ceasefire. We already know how highly regarded Faol is among the humans, but could he actually get the Forsaken to lay down their arms? Well, maybe! The Forsaken are an angry, vengeful people, but they place incredible value on their past. Long-forgotten memories of happier times would come rushing back if Faol were to reappear in their lives. And any Lordaeron-born Forsaken would undoubtedly remember Faol and his saintly personality from their past lives.

Another advantage Faol would have over other would-be peacemakers is that the Forsaken have nothing to hate him about, as weird as that sounds. The Forsaken have no shortage of reasons to hate the living - they hate the living for persecuting them, they hate the living for fearing them, and they hate the living simply because they lived.

This last reason isn't entirely fair, but then again, neither was the fate that befell those who fell to the Scourge. "Why did YOU get to live, while I had to die?" It's like a person who gets a speeding ticket and complains that everyone ELSE is speeding, so why pick on him? Except, you know, being killed, raised as a ghoul, and cursed to a "life" as an undead monster is significantly more distressing than a speeding fine.

Anyway, since Faol died before the undead plague, these reasons/excuses fly out the window. The Forsaken can't be angry at Faol for not helping them after their fall, because he was DEAD. Nor can they suspect him of being one of those who feared and condemned them because of their new nature. (Not that he would have, but this entirely eliminates any possible paranoia or suspicion.) And they can't even be bitter about him surviving the plague while they died, because, well, he didn't - he was already dead!

Then again, perhaps the most important factor is that Faol would represent a common bond, a unifying link between the surviving humans and the Forsaken. Similar to how Faol would be confused about the so-called differences between Blood and High Elf, both humans and Forsaken would look at the Archbishop in exactly the same emotional light - as an honored, kindhearted, peaceful soul who loved them and protected them. Neither side would harbor any ill will or negativity towards the man, since he died before any of the plague nastiness, and in life, never did anything but try to help them. In this one aspect, even the most vile Forsaken and the most bumbling human would pause in their differences and go "Yeah, that Alonsus Faol, he's a pretty rad dude."

That's one approach and possible outcome. However, what if we flip this whole theory on its head, and instead of Faol being a plot mechanism for peace, he became one for further escalation of hostilities?

Who are we talking about here? The Forsaken. Now, Sylvanas has been getting pretty crazy with the whole Val'kyr reanimation thing. What if SHE was the one responsible for bringing Faol back? Maybe he's not Faol returned back to life, but Faol...risen as a Forsaken? After all, she (as well as other Forsaken from Lordaeron) would definitely know of Faol and remember him. More importantly, they would know where he was buried, as in, literally in their own backyard.

If this were the case, there would be a fascinating claim of citizenship. Who does Faol "belong" to? The Forsaken? The humans? Lordaeron? (Which could be either side, depending who you think has rightful claim to Lordaeron) And who would Faol himself feel loyal to? The Forsaken, not because they brought him back, but because they are the members of his flock most in need of guidance and spiritual comfort? Or the humans, since he wouldn't really share many of the traits and emotions prevalent in Forsaken culture, and might find it hard - if not impossible - to relate/identify with them?

No matter which side he ended up on, the rejected people would be pretty upset. If he stuck with the Forsaken, the humans would undoubtedly believe that Faol had been "corrupted" by Sylvanas, that his choice to remain in the Undercity was not really a choice at all, but a result of evil magic and corruption. (To be fair, given what we know of Sylvanas' secret basement "correction" chambers, they might not be wrong.) The Church of the Light would be in a pretty horrible position, having lost one Archbishop to evil, and the other to Sylvanas. People might start growing disheartened and disillusioned about the Church and their faith, and really, could you blame them?

That being said, if Faol went back to the humans, it would be the Forsaken who would be devastated by his departure. The one person who might would not be prejudiced against them, who is wise and kind enough to look upon them with an open mind, and instead he chose to leave them behind? The Forsaken would see it as yet another personal betrayal by someone they trusted, accompanied by an air of resigned finality - after all, if ALONSUS FREAKING FAOL wouldn't give them a chance...

Finally, as interesting as these different stories might be, there is another that would be intriguing, a little chilling, but also awesome. Where is Faol buried? In Tirisfal Glades, near the Scarlet Monastery. Now sure, Tirisfal is home to Sylvanas and the Forsaken. But who ELSE is it home to? Someone who's got certain ties to both the Forsaken and the Scarlet Crusade/the Church. Someone capable of strangely powerful magic. Someone who is in desperate need of a mentor, and is quite literally wandering around Tirisfal at the moment, directionless.

Lilian Voss.

"But Lilian Voss can't raise the DEAD!" you might be saying. Well, do we actually know that? There's no rhyme or reason to her unusual, powerful abilities, and we've seen her do some pretty insane stuff, such as phase through solid metal, incinerate people to ash in a heartbeat, cloak herself in invisibility, and scale walls while lifting people with sickly purple energy. Let's be honest here - we have absolutely no idea what she can do.

What we DO know is that Lilian has grown up in Tirisfal, at the Monastery. She'd be well aware of Faol's accomplishments, personality and legacy, as he is exactly the type of person the Scarlet Crusaders teach their children about. And with his resting place so close to the Monastery, how many times has Voss passed by his grave on a patrol mission (in life), or during her current wanderings? Faol's Rest isn't currently very well maintained or in the best shape, but there are Scarlet Crusade banners planted around it, indicating how important the site was to them. I wouldn't be surprised if Crusaders used to come out to visit the graveyard and pay their respects, given their heavy focus on history and past heroes.

Faol's Rest, Tirisfal Glades.

As for raising Faol from the dead...would Lilian actually DO it? God only knows what she's feeling. Remember, her close friend and her OWN FATHER condemned her to death, despite her unflinching loyalty to the Scarlet cause, and despite the fact that she selflessly devoted her entire life to fulfilling her father's wishes. To say she's an emotional wreck would be putting it lightly. Alone, angry, scared, Lilian is a soul in desperate need of guidance and love, not to mention a father figure she can believe in.

And oh hey look, there's wonderful, compassionate Alonsus Faol's resting place, just over that hill. Where it's been her entire life. You know, the guy who's legendary for being a tireless provider of everything Lilian is in dire need of.

Faol's Rest is literally a stone's throw away from a Scarlet camp Lilian decimated and left smoldering in her trademark purple flames. She's definitely nearby, and I doubt she's forgotten about that special, isolated graveyard, and who lies within. With her Scarlet upbringing, where the heroes and champions of the past are so celebrated and revered, Lilian might reflect on how good a man Faol was reputed to be, especially when contrasted with her own wretch of a father, himself a High Priest just like Faol was.

In her shoes, could there be anymore more trustworthy or more reliable to turn to for guidance? For that matter, who ELSE is she going to ask for advice? The Scarlets? The Forsaken? Tirion's township of paladins? No, Lilian's options are rather limited. Faol might be a desperate, lonely choice for the poor undead ex-Scarlet, but it might also be her only choice.

Can we say hooks for Heroic Scarlet Monastery, anyone?

Anyway. Alonsus Faol, back from the dead? Yes please!

Minipost: Wind Rider twitching out

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:53:00 +0000

During Love is in the Air, I went on a bit of a Lovely Charm-collecting frenzy, and was doing those Faction Leader dailies every day on 5-6 characters. As a result, I began to truly loathe Thunder Bluff, since it was far away and rather annoying to travel to. After one disastrous incident in which I began flying, got bored and alt-tabbed, and returned to find myself dead from fatigue far out at sea, I decided to just catch a Wind Rider flight from Orgrimmar each day instead.

I opened Mogit to mess around with transmog sets during the flight, and was disconcerted to see, behind the Mogit window, the entire game world spazz out and go crazy. For some reasons, whenever Morgion takes a Wind Rider flight, the Wind Rider FLIPS OUT and does these random 360-degree flips. Not only is it weird, it's actually quite disorienting and nauseating. It only happens for her, though - none of my other characters get this weirdness.

Check it out for yourself. It SEEMS like it's me spinning the camera, but it's not! You can see my cursor unmoving to Morgion's right. (Possible motion-sickness warning, I guess?)

So yeah. This is what I have to endure every time I catch a flight somewhere. Thankfully, this is not very often.

Benefits of making a trial account (and sneaky tricks)

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:55:00 +0000

About a month ago, I made a trial account and created a baby Troll. I wasn't interested in exploring the limitations of a trial account, or testing out how trial accounts fare in PVP, or any of the fun things Cynwise has already talked about. (Seriously, if you want fascinating insight into the world of trial accounts, go read his posts.)

No, I made a trial account for a different, very simple reason.

A servant.

I've been doing a lot of old raids lately for transmogrification purposes, and it's always such a bother wrangling up a guildie and getting them to switch to an alt so you can make a raid and go do Ahn'Qiraj or Tempest Keep or whatever. It's annoying and I dislike bothering them constantly for the assistance.

So instead, I simply leveled my trial Troll up to level 10 (the minimum level to join a raid group), and now whenever I want to go old-raid-diving, I simply open up a second WoW client, log in on my trial account, make a raid group and off I go! (You can be logged in on both your real account and your trial account at the same time.) Once the raid group has been created, I can safely close the trial client - as long as I don't drop group, it remains a raid group, even if the trial character has gone offline.

It's very easy to make a trial account - you just log into your normal WoW account on battle.net, and then you can add a new "starter" WoW account. It's tied to your normal email address and login information.

Then when you want to log into your trial account, you simply select the name of your trial account on the WoW login screen (from a dropdown menu) and that's it!

This is pretty handy for transmog fanatics such as myself. But why stop there? You can do so much more with your little trial characters!

Namely? As SPIES.

Story time: in my old MMO, Ragnarok Online, endgame was entirely PVP-based. It focused on guild vs guild PVP to control castles, which rewarded the controlling guild with special items and perks. There were only so many castles, which meant that competition was high, since the items were quite valuable, and in some cases, could only be obtained by owning territory.

Despite not having NEARLY enough players to properly take on other guilds, my guild took part in these battles through strategy and surveillance. Most guilds would sit and defend the castles they controlled, and maybe send out some attackers to assault others. It's very similar to Arathi Basin, really.

A conventional Ragnarok Online castle defense.

However, what we did was "defend" castles with only one or two people, whose only objectives were to harry and delay attackers long enough for the rest of our team to drop whatever they were doing and rush to their aid.

Something that helped us in this regard were dummy accounts with level 1 "spies." See, the castles were instanced, so anyone inside defending the castle's core couldn't tell when enemies entered, or if they were gathering outside, etc. But we just parked our little level 1 characters outside the entrance, unflagged, and kept those second clients open on another monitor or in the background. That way, we could see whenever an enemy team was entering the castle, how many they numbered, etc, and send an appropriate response force.

They also had an unanticipated bonus - intimidation! Quite often, a handful of attackers would run up, see the bizarre and mysterious level 1 toon parked outside, and stop, confused. They'd talk to them, ask them questions, emote at them, all sorts of things. At worst, they wasted valuable time trying to figure out what he was there for. At best, they got nervous and left without even entering!

So how can you spy in WoW? Well, quite easily. Trial characters won't help you in PVP, but they can provide you valuable intel on remote locations and on rival faction players.

I recently traded Keredria something like 7-8 Festival Lanterns for the Alliance equivalents (Lunar Lanterns) for the pet collectors in both our guilds. I was TERRIFIED of botching the neutral AH transfer, and of someone swooping in and nabbing them on the cheap. This was a lot of financial value we were flipping!

So to alleviate my fears, I grouped up with my trial character and summoned her to Gadgetzan. That way, I could watch Gadgetzan on her, Everlook on my actual character, and Keredria could watch Booty Bay to make sure there was nobody else at the Auctioneers when we swapped the lanterns.

My Troll is actually still there in Gadgetzan, so I can hop over and check the neutral AH whenever I want. She can't buy anything (no money, and I don't think they can actually buy stuff anyway), but she can view the items. If she spots something nice, I'll pop over on my actual account and buy it.

Speaking of spying, I also have a Human trial character, who I used during Love is in the Air to hang out in Stormwind and try to find players Fabulor needed for Fistful of Love. In addition to actually looking for them manually, I could /who Stormwind, Dalaran, Darkmoon Island, etc, and try to track down the specific race/class combinations I still needed. I actually completed the achievement by /who-ing Stormwind to learn the names of any Paladins in the city, individual /whos to find a Draenei one, walking around /targeting him to find out where he was, and then switching back to Fabulor to swoop down and rose petal him.

I've also created a few throwaway trial characters to pose for blog screenshots, when I wanted to capture a conversation. This way, I could take my time and take all the screenshots I wanted, repeating the conversation, without forcing some poor friend or guildie to sit there and endure my fussiness.

It can be quite convenient, having separate "cameras" available to take screenshots of your characters from different angles or positions!

In conclusion: raid slaves, cross-faction spies, and actors for screenshots. So handy - I love my trial account! And I bet there's more uses for them that I haven't even thought of yet. :D

Minipost: Morgion's Transmog Bank Audit

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Ever since Transmogrification came out, I've been joking how my bank and bags are filling up with all sorts of mogging pieces. Like most people, I started farming and gathering gear in advance so I could have an armor "wardrobe" ready and on-hand.

And now? I love it! I can basically switch up and invent a new Transmog outfit/color scheme on the spot, without having to go farm up or gather more pieces. I could make a white set, a purple set, a green set, a red set, you name it!

However, this versatility comes with a price. My bank and bags are STUFFED with gear. My bags have gotten to the point where I keep having to mail away my buff food, potions and bandages simply to have a few spaces open to make guild cauldrons for raids. Or I'll get pulled into an old raid for possible transmog gear, and have to give a bunch of random crap to a guildie for them to hold. It's getting a little ridiculous.

Why not just put some stuff in Void Storage? Because my Void Storage is ALREADY FULL of other gear that I don't think I'll use very often, BUT I want to still have available just in case.

How bad is my bank? How full are my bags? Well, let me show you. On the following page, you can see everything that's was in my bank and bags about a week ago, as well as mouseover all the bank items to see what they are. (No mouseovers for my bag items...you can look and guess if you want, instead!)

Morgion's Bank Audit: Feb. 24, 2012

In my own defense, I am quite happy with the bank organization. But, I'm starting to realize that I need to buck up and buy some Illusionary Bags already.

Oh, and since I took that screenshot? I've gotten at LEAST one new belt, a new 2-hand axe, a new pair of boots, and a Shadow's Edge. I HAVE NO ROOM AUGHHH

Then and Now meme: Morgion

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Part 2 of the Then and Now meme! This time for my current main, my Death Knight Morgion.

Appearance-wise? Exactly the same as when she was first created. Black, sticking-up/petrified hair, glowing DK eyes burning through the Forsaken face straps, scarred face. It was a combination of facial features that really struck me, and she absolutely would not be the same if anything was different.

Game-wise, Morgion has an interesting past. For over a year, she was simply a Professions mule, providing me with a high-level Alchemist, or Jewelcrafter, or Miner, or Skinner, etc. She's abandoned at least 4-5 maxed-out professions as the needs of my mains changed - she's dropped Alchemy, Herbalism, Jewelcrafting, Mining, Skinning, Herbalism again, and is now a Jewelcrafter (again) and Alchemist (again).

I leveled as Blood, and never really put too much effort into learning the complexities of the class, or even leveling her up very much. The majority of her game time during Wrath of the Lich King was spent hanging out in Zul'drak, slaughtering mammoths and skinning them to send to Rades (for Spiced Mammoth Treats) and my Leatherworker Druid, respectively.

How little did I play her? Well, here's a scary bit of trivia. At level 80 she was still using a Tidebreaker Trident, which you purchase from Borean Tundra Murlocs for 50 Winterfin Clams. A LEVEL 70 POLEARM, WITH AGILITY.

Anyway, when Patch 4.0 went live, Hunters lost Focus (and consquently, I lost interest in playing my Hunter), but Death Knights also underwent a radical change. Frost went from the tanking spec, to a DPS spec, and dual-wield at that! I had always wanted to try dual-wielding as Morgion, but I hated tanking, so the idea was always out of the question. But now? As DPS? And with my Hunter shelved? I figured I'd give it a shot. The playstyle immediately grabbed me, and I loved doing crazy ninja flips constantly in combat. I was sold.

Enough history - onto the screenshots!

First things first...chilling with Darion.

Next up, dinging 60 in Hellfire, like every other DK in history. Look at that huge Desecration circle with the grasping skeletal hands! I miss that. I also used two other Hellfire mainstays - Jade Warrior Pauldrons and Hellreaver - for quite a while.

I also spent a lot of time on Morgion just taking cool-looking screenshots, of how sinister she looks.

The first dropped profession: 375/375 Herbalism. I believe (judging from where Morgion is) it was replaced by Jewelcrafting.

Level 68, still slumming in Terokkar, for some reason.

Northrend-bound, a few more "cool" shots.

At level 71, I had begun experimenting with Power Auras. They're a MESS. I had auras just for the sake of having auras, apparently.

Oddly enough, even though I had leveled two characters to endgame at this point, Morgion was the first character to experience the Wrath Gate / Battle for Undercity. I had no idea this amazing storyline even existed, and on both characters that preceded her, I had skipped or not fully finished questing in Dragonblight.

The Battle for Undercity didn't go perfectly...

Level 80, working for the Argents. Still shamefully using the Agi trident.

Once 4.0 and Frost dual-wield DPS arrived, I finally decided to start playing Morgion some more, starting with...dual-speccing!

I grabbed some tankards off the AH, apparently threw on the Str Plate heirloom shoulders (which means the ones I had must have been pretty bad), and started diving into Heroics.

A few days later, she was starting to look a little more suitable.

She got Less-Rabi in a random pug group...a good omen if ever there was one. O_o

When Cata arrived, Morgion was the first one I took out to the new zones. Vashj'ir was crazy crowded and insanely inconvenient at times, but that gleeful rush is one of my favorite things about a new expansion.

After finishing Vashj'ir, I actually stopped questing and flew out manually to Twilight Highlands, at level 82. Why? Because I had seen what herbs were going for on the AH, and it was so early that there weren't many players questing out here yet. Which meant a tremendous opportunity for PROFIT.

I got two levels' worth of herbing and mining experience, then started doing the Highlands quests, eventually dinging 85 after completing the Crucible of Carnage. An appropriate endgame ding, I think.

After that, it's been mostly Cata raids. I'll end with a few UI shots, one from the start of each tier. UI and bars are basically the same, but there's a few minor differences.

Tier 11, Magmaw:

Tier 12, Shannox:

Tier 13, Zon'ozz:

And, one final shot of her hanging out in a Hallow's End-decorated Undercity, one of my favorite shots.

Azeroth's Next Top Plate Model

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:48:00 +0000

Mataoka over at Sugar & Blood is having a fun contest for Plate-wearers - Azeroth's Next Top Plate Model! There's multiple categories, some RP elements to consider...how could I resist? Besides, it's a great chance to whip up some fun outfits.

Oh, but not for Morgion. No, no, she wouldn't be caught dead in something like this.

I'm talking about Fabulor.

Here are Fabulor's entries. Click for full-size versions!

(And yes, the one constant in all of these outfits is not messing up the hair.)

Horde Best-in-Show

Head: Deadly Gladiator's Plate Helm
Shoulder: Bloodsoaked Pauldrons
Cape: Shroud of Endless Grief
Shirt: Red Workman's Shirt
Chest: Heartshatter Breastplate
Tabard: Orgrimmar Tabard
Gloves: Ragesteel Gloves
Belt: Belt of the Seven Seals
Legs: Greaves of Splendor
Boots: Molten Tantrum Boots
Main Hand: Blade of Infamy
Off Hand: Shield of Maraudon

If I Could Wear Cloth (Evening Gown)

Head: Forever-Lovely Rose
Shoulder: Embersilk Mantle
Cape: Icy Cloak
Chest: Robe of Power
Tabard: Silvermoon Tabard
Gloves: Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves
Belt: Grom'tor's Bloodied Bandage
Boots: Initiate's Boots
Main Hand: Arcane Forged Mace
Off Hand: Elegant Scepter

Talent Competition (Professional Wear)

Fabulor's profession? Courtesan or socialite, of course.

Head: Overlord's Crown
Shoulder: Wyrmskull Epaulets
Cape: Shaleskin Cape
Chest: Imperial Plate Chest
Gloves: Gauntlets of the Shining Light
Belt: Handcrafted Mastersmith Girdle
Legs: Enchanted Thorium Leggings
Boots: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Warboots of Alacrity

Then and Now meme: Rades

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Vid over at Manalicious had a fun idea, to compare your characters, Then and Now! Before I dug into my screenshots folder to find out what old Rades looked like compared to new Rades, I figured that things probably hadn't changed that much. Most people's early shots show the default UI, which they eventually switch away from, but I still use the default one.

And of course, Rades has never been anything but Beast Mastery.

(I'll do a second post later for Morgion, my current main.)

I'm actually going to reverse things and show the current Rades first, so it's easier to compare with the previous iterations:

And now, here's Rades in 2008, at a mighty level 15!

It's really not that different.

There's not much on those action bars yet, but I immediately noticed a few things - certain abilities are still in the same location, such as the pet taming/management abilities and professions on the sidebar.

I didn't have many addons at this point - Carbonite is there, huge and ugly, taking up most of the screen. I never did use it for anything but its movable, shrinkable minimap, but man did that thing come in handy. I also had Kharthus' Hunter Timers, which I still use, and Omen! Teaching myself about aggro and (pet) threat early. No Recount yet, though.

Appearance-wise, there's been very little change. Rades did start out with purple hair, but at some point I got tired of it and changed it to black.

Dinging 60 in Hellfire Peninsula. Not much has changed interface-wise, though I see I had begun the habit of putting Omen in the lower-left corner of my screen, tucked away.

Something kinda funny - my Hunter's Mark macro is "x2" in this picture, while it was simply "x" in the level 15 shot. I remember I wanted to create a new macro, but didn't want to erase the old one, so I added a 2 to test it out. For whatever reason, I never did rename it, even though I got rid of the original. It's been x2 ever since. You can see it in the 2012 shot.

Character selection screen! Oddly, this was the earliest one I have. There's been a lot of attrition here. Drokka (Dwarf Hunter) and Aquas (Draenei Paladin) are gone, as are my bank alt Moonpaw, my Shaman Leisl, and my friend's Warrior Maxatore.

Crafting my very first epic-quality item, Surestrike Goggles! My guild at the time was just me and a few real-life friends, and I didn't do dungeons or anything, so this was a really big deal. Those mats were NOT easy to get, haha.

Dinging 70.

Yep...I got nothing.

Anyway, I was terrified of grouping, as I didn't want to be THAT Hunter who screwed everything up and wiped us. Despite this, I practiced my trapping like crazy (thanks BRK) and really worked on pet micromanagement. Ironically, by the time I started doing dungeons the trapping practice went mostly to waste. The pet management was, and is, of course helpful.

One of the things I DID do before Wrath was join a pug group to kill Onyxia! I was happy that I did not die to fire, though I have no idea what my DPS was.

Showing off my fancy Undead Slaying gear from the Scourge Invasion event. This gear will always have a special place in my heart because after the Surestrike Goggles, they were the first Epic pieces I had earned. I went all over Azeroth checking those Scourge spawn points relentlessly, so I'll never get rid of them.

Rades spent some time at 79 farming battlegrounds, enjoying the power of being at the top of a bracket that (I think) not many people stopped at. I racked up a lot of honor and battleground marks...marks that I would keep for a long time.

Also, since I didn't know what Recount was yet, this was the only numerical indicator of damage I had ever seen in the game!

AUGH 44 MINUTE WARSONG GULCH LOSS

That's better...

What did I do when I wasn't PVPing, since I wasn't questing?

Camping Loque, of course!

Ironically, considering how weird my level 70 ding was, my level 80 ding was nowhere near as exciting.

I actually dinged 80 in Wintergrasp, of all places. From the experience I got...from killing an Alliance guard. Way to ruin my special moment, NPC.

After that, I joined Celtic Siege, started running dungeons, and eventually moved on to Heroics and other endgame content.

Here's a special shot for Vid:

After a while, I began pugging into raids. Couple months in ToC...

...and then into ICC. Looks like I had picked up Vuhdo around this time.

After pugging ICC with TTGF fairly regularly, I joined up with them and really haven't looked back since.

We took down the LK before 4.0, and that was essentially the end for Rades as my raiding main, since with 4.0 came focus. I hated it immediately, and though I've gotten used to it now, I'm still not a huge fan.

In Cata, I still got Rades in on alt runs or to help fill out friends' groups, but most of my effort was put into my Death Knight, Morgion, who I'll do a Then and Now for next.

However, LFR has been awesome, because I've finally been able to take Rades to current raid content and keep him geared up. (I didn't get Cataclysmically Epic until I won a Kiril, Fury of Beasts from LFR) I also have to admit, I missed Huntering in endgame content. Maybe someday Blizzard will do something horrible to Death Knights and make me hate them, and I'll end up raiding as him regularly once again.

Minipost: Celebrity Cynwise

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:36:00 +0000

Buglamp and I were doing an LFR on the weekend (he was tanking), and his co-tank on Ultraxion was very bad. We wiped, and the bad tank left, and we got a new Death Knight tanked named Gesara, from Moon Guard. A quick inspect showed nice gearing and Mastery stacking, so off we went.

Surprisingly, after dumping the dead weight on that first wipe, the group was amazing! Everyone did what they were supposed to do, and the sense of merriment and enjoyment was palpable, as evident by this Hour of Twilight reaction:

We got to Madness and waited for a few replacement players to fill out the group. At this point, the DK tank commented that she recognized our guild name!

That's right! Cynwise the blogger. The FORSAKEN WARLOCK. >:D

It was pretty awesome.

BONUS PICTURES:

Bug also picked up a Kiril on his Druid, and immediately began smacking a target dummy in Moonkin form to become a Giant Boomkin. This is truly a sight to behold.

Oh, and if you're gazing in horror at that awfully-dressed Hunter...well, expect an explanation on Go Mog Yourself sometime in the future.

Why being a Pure DPS is harder than being a hybrid

noreply@blogger.com (Rades) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:18:00 +0000

We've all heard it before. Pure DPS classes have it so easy! They only have to worry about one set of gear (excluding PVP gear) while the poor hybrid classes have to carry two or three sets! They also only have to collect gear with their primary stat and DPS secondary stats, while hybrids have to worry about multiple primary stats, tanking/non-tanking secondary stats, etc. AND they even only have to collect ONE set of always-hard-to-obtain tier gear! What a life of luxury the Pure DPS player lives!

Well, I hate to [Shattering Throw] your bubble, but it's not quite so simple.

Oh, it's true that a Mage (for example) only has to worry about gear with Intellect on it. Her desired drops are very clear-cut: no Strength, no Spirit, no Dodge, no Expertise, nada. And yeah, there's only one set of tier Mage gear.

However, what many people do not understand is that this Mage still needs a second set of gear to play her offspec, just like a hybrid class.

Why? Because Frost =/= Fire =/= Arcane.

With the implementation of reforging, suddenly we were given endless new options when it comes to optimizing our equipment. Got a chestpiece packed with Mastery, but Mastery is your worst stat? No problem! We'll just reforge a chunk of that Mastery to juicy Crit instead.

But what if your offspec values its secondary stats differently? What if your offspec hates Crit but loves Mastery?

Do you see where the problem is?

It's not something people really think about, when dual-specced DPS classes switch specs. Most players simply assume that, in terms of gear, Rogue spec = Rogue spec. But in reality, most DPS specs value secondary stats quite differently. Even worse, some specs not only have different values, but completely different cap requirements (Hit, Expertise, Crit, etc). Some lucky class/spec combos might have the same stat weights, yes, but others are vastly different, some to the point of having a secondary stat that is essential in one spec and near-worthless in the other.

For example? Let's look at my Death Knight, who is dual-specced Frost / Unholy.

DW Frost requires reaching the melee Hit (8%) and Expertise (26) caps, which is 601 Hit and 781 Expertise. (601 Hit is only 5% hit, but the spec gets a free 3% from talents.) Frost prioritizes secondary stats as Haste > Mastery > Crit.

Unholy, on the other hand, requires reaching the 8% Hit cap without that bonus 3%, which means they need 961 Hit. Their stat priorities are Haste > Crit > Mastery.

Right away, there's a disparity with the amount of Hit I need in my two specs. And notice the lack of Expertise? That is because Expertise is actually the worst stat for Unholy (not counting obvious wrong stats like Spirit or Parry). The perfect Unholy setup would see a big fat zero in the Expertise column.

So even though these are both DPS specs, the only way I could use the same gear for both specs is if I was willing to be quite subpar at one of them. If I gear for Frost, then when I switch to Unholy I don't have enough Hit and have boatloads of pointless Expertise. But if I gear for Unholy, then my Frost spec has too much hit and not enough Expertise!

How big of a deal is this? Well, it's a total of 1141 wasted or missing stat points (360 Hit + 781 Expertise). This would basically be like playing completely ungemmed and unenchanted! To anyone serious about their DPS and performing at a high level, this is completely unacceptable.

Keep in mind these are just the stats related to my basic melee caps - I haven't even gotten into how Frost hates Crit, but Unholy quite likes it. That's yet another factor that will result in one of your specs underperforming.

Want another example? Frost Mages have a special Crit Cap requirement of 33.33% due to one of their talents, something neither Arcane nor Fire have to worry about. Or if you want to look at a really dizzying example, check out the Rogue stat priorities:
Assassination: 8% Melee Hit > 17% Spell Hit > Mastery > Haste > Expertise > Crit
Combat: 8% Melee Hit > 26 Expertise > Haste > 17% Spell Hit > Mastery > Crit
Subtlety: 8% Melee Hit > Haste > 26 Expertise > Crit > 17% Spell Hit > Mastery

Those stats are all over the place! There's no way a dual-specced Rogue could have a single set of gear that properly follows each spec's priorities.

You might be asking, um hello, isn't this what reforging is for? Tidying up your stats and min/maxing for optimal results? And the answer is yes!...sort of. Sure, I can reforge and adjust my stats and end up using the same gear for both specs - at the cost of hundreds of gold every time I wanted to switch. Literally! I checked, and it costs me about 250 gold to reforge from Frost to Unholy stats.

But even putting the steep financial cost aside, the most significant drawback to this reforging requirement is that I can't do it mid-raid. Let's say I wanted to be Frost on Warmaster Blackhorn so we could have Chilblains for the Twilight Sappers, but then wanted to be Unholy for Madness of Deathwing so we could have Anti-Magic Zone.

What am I supposed to do - delay the rest of the raid while I hearth and reforge?

Imagine how frustrating and annoying that would be, to both myself and my teammates, when all I want to do is utilize both my specs so I can best benefit the group. You know - the whole POINT of dual speccing!

Another problem with this dilemma is that utilizing both specs is one of the only ways a pure DPS class (or someone who is dual-specced DPS, such as my DK) can bring additional benefit to a raid group. A hybrid character can fill in as a tank or healer, but my DK, or a Rogue, or a Mage? All we can do is DPS. As a result, we want to be able to help out in other ways, such as providing the various buffs/debuffs/etc. available in our different specs, such as Chilblains/Anti-Magic Zone, as mentioned above.

But how are we supposed to do that when it requires holding up 9 (or 24) other players?

The only real solution is doing exactly what any hybrid character has to do to play their offspec - collect and prepare a second set of gear. However, this is harder than it sounds, because quite honestly, it looks really, really bad.

Let's say my Death Knight is in LFR as Frost, and I roll on the DPS plate belt from Hagara, when I already have that exact belt equipped. Do I have a legitimate use for it? Absolutely, I need it so I can have one belt for Frost and one for Unholy. But try explaining that to the furious players in the group who only see a greedy jerk stealing "their" gear, by needing on a piece that he already has equipped. Go ahead, try to tell them about the dual spec demands and stat priorities and all that.

I'll save you the trouble. You will never be able to explain. No one listens or cares that you need that belt for your offspec so you can be your best at both specs. They just rage, froth at the mouth, accuse you of being an asshole and slam their Vote to Kick buttons as fast as they can.

It's not just an LFR situation, either. If I already have the 397 Hagara belt as Frost, and it drops again during my guild run, and my Warrior tank would like to need on it for his DPS offspec? Do you have any idea how selfish it feels (and looks) if I also rolled need on it for MY offspec, considering I already have it? I mean, it's actually equal priority for both of us - we both legitimately need it for our offspec. But it comes across as extremely greedy and selfish. And in one sense, I COULD use the one I already have for Unholy. It would cost me gold and it would be a pain in the ass to do during raid time, but I COULD use it, while he simply could not since he doesn't actually own the belt.

Now obviously, it's a little different in a guild situation. I have no doubt that, after explaining just why I needed the belt, my tank guildie would be fine with me rolling on it. But you try doing this and winning the belt, and not feeling like an absolute boor for being so greedy. It's silly, since you really do need it, but the feeling of shame is unavoidable.

And that's why I've been finding it so difficult to consider my Frost/Unholy DK truly dual-specced during Dragon Soul. If I can't switch specs on the fly, and if switching costs me hundreds of gold and requires a bunch of tinkering back in town, then why even bother being dual-specced to begin with?

Now at this point, you might be saying, oh my god shut up already, just DPS at 100% capacity in Frost and at 75% capacity in Unholy and quit whining!

Well, if that's what you think, we clearly have different definitions of what it means to be a serious DPS player.

If you don't raid competitively and don't really care about your DPS, then that's fine. I REPEAT - THAT IS FINE. This post isn't really addressed at you. Don't be mad or insulted by this, it's just aimed at a different player demographic! You play your part of the game and I'll play mine.

But serious DPS players? They do not strive to be "good enough." They don't aim to be "adequate."

There is always room for improvement.

Unlike healers or tanks, for whom success CAN be measured in such terms, the pursuit of excellence is a never-ending quest for a DPS player. I'm not saying healers or tanks aren't as committed or don't spend as much time fine-tuning their performance. That's absurd. But their criteria (Did everyone live? How was my overhealing? My cooldown usage? How much damage did I take?) are a) harder to numerically measure, and b) often at least partially out of their hands. It's simply a different situation.

But for a DPS, your performance is right there as a number, staring you in the face, challenging you to surpass it the next time.

Now, I'm not talking about ignoring crucial mechanics to pad your numbers, or blowing up the boss 0.5 seconds into the fight, pulling aggro and dying, or other characteristics of terrible players. I mean, come on. We're talking about serious players, not baddies. Doing all the right things and taking care of your specific responsibilities - interrupting, using defensive cooldowns, clicking the Lightwell - these are all things that go without saying. Without question, they are absolutely just as important as the number flashing on Recount at the end of the fight.

I liken it to writing a test. Things like killing adds and avoiding unnecessary damage? These are the no-brainers that any decent player will do. They're like writing your name on the test or meeting a word requirement - things that are just expected.

But your actual DPS results? That's your grade, the number you take home afterward as a summary of how well you performed. It's why you're there, so why would you settle for anything other than your best? If you're not doing everything in your power to push out your optimal numbers, you're slacking and letting down the rest of your raid team. We've all had those 1% or 0% wipes - playing with suboptimal stats could absolutely be the difference in such cases between a heartbreaking wipe and a triumphant kill.

Don't get me wrong - I'll screw around in solo play as an ungemmed Ret Paladin or horrible Boomkin, because well, whatever. But when I'm in a raid? When 9 other people are counting on me? No way. It's my best or nothing.

Of course, collecting and gemming/enchanting two full sets of near-identical gear is time-consuming, expensive, and is a lot of extra work. It's not for everyone, and that's okay. But for a player who wants to be able to bring two different specs to their raid, and who is unwilling to accept suboptimal performance? Getting that offspec gear is your only real solution.

It's just frustrating that gearing your offspec makes you look like such a jerk.