Perfect for your desktop at work when you can't play!
Coming Soon: Getting tired of looking at snow? Eastern Kingdoms, Kalmidor, and Outlands wallpaper!
Monday, January 19, 2009
WoW While Working (Sort of)
Enjoy the beauty of Northrend on your desktop with the following screenshot wallpapers. The first two are from Grizzly Hills, the second two from the Howling Fjord:
Perfect for your desktop at work when you can't play!
Coming Soon: Getting tired of looking at snow? Eastern Kingdoms, Kalmidor, and Outlands wallpaper!
Perfect for your desktop at work when you can't play!
Coming Soon: Getting tired of looking at snow? Eastern Kingdoms, Kalmidor, and Outlands wallpaper!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Fascinating RP-related Posts Not to Miss!
The folks at Blogatelle are my new heroes. They have created the most indispensable guide to RPing the different races. It's the perfect place to start if you're thinking of rolling something new. It goes in great detail as to what the average member of each race thinks of the other races and classes. Of course each character would have her or his own unique view, but check out how the guide describes how Gnomes view Night Elves:
This also shows how fantastic the writing is! Sprynklez, of course, thinks the Night Elves are pretty and have soft-looking mounts.
Waging war against the "lorelol" is one of the most oddly-titled pieces in WoW-Insider lately. While it begins as a rant, it has answers to many questions we've all had about Bliz and lore. I learned a few things, including that Orcs came to Azeroth through a Stargate (which makes Draenei more believable as a race). Fascinating. Read the damn thing!
Each Friday Too Many Annas asks their readers five questions about their characters (aptly named the "Friday Five"). This week's were particularly fun to answer (yes, even though it's Saturday). Here are my responses for Frijona:
1. Does your character collect anything? Is that collection of any value to anyone other than them?
Frijona collects potentially magical objects and books. Intending on studying the properties of the object or reading the book, she will put forth quite a bit of gold or effort to get her hands on something that seems interesting. Then it collects dust in her apartment. It might be of value to someone else, but who knows?
2. What just irritates the hell out of your character? What makes them happy (in a silly way, like bubbles or balloons or goldfish), if anything?
Fri gets very irritated when people eat in front of her or talk about eating. She also hates it when people pick on beings weaker than them. Cute, helpless animals make her very happy, as well as obtaining souls from really evil creatures.
3. What is your character’s favorite thing to eat?
Underspore pods.
4. If your character knew he or she would die tomorrow, how would they spend today?
Consistently making sure her soulstone was in place. If that wasn’t an option, she would probably seek out her family.
5. What is in your character’s pockets?
Maybe an underspore pod, a soul shard, and some crushed herbs.
Coming Soon: Pretty Northrend screenshots turned wallpaper, why we should be able to hide our shoulder armor, and future plans for this blog!
Mind you, if the gnomes think the humans are a little backwards, they think the night elves are insane, surely. Declaring magic evil? No advanced technology whatsoever? How do they live? The gnomes and the night elves really are at complete and utter odds with each other. So naturally, of course, the gnomes are freaking fascinated by them.
This also shows how fantastic the writing is! Sprynklez, of course, thinks the Night Elves are pretty and have soft-looking mounts.
Waging war against the "lorelol" is one of the most oddly-titled pieces in WoW-Insider lately. While it begins as a rant, it has answers to many questions we've all had about Bliz and lore. I learned a few things, including that Orcs came to Azeroth through a Stargate (which makes Draenei more believable as a race). Fascinating. Read the damn thing!
Each Friday Too Many Annas asks their readers five questions about their characters (aptly named the "Friday Five"). This week's were particularly fun to answer (yes, even though it's Saturday). Here are my responses for Frijona:
1. Does your character collect anything? Is that collection of any value to anyone other than them?
Frijona collects potentially magical objects and books. Intending on studying the properties of the object or reading the book, she will put forth quite a bit of gold or effort to get her hands on something that seems interesting. Then it collects dust in her apartment. It might be of value to someone else, but who knows?
2. What just irritates the hell out of your character? What makes them happy (in a silly way, like bubbles or balloons or goldfish), if anything?
Fri gets very irritated when people eat in front of her or talk about eating. She also hates it when people pick on beings weaker than them. Cute, helpless animals make her very happy, as well as obtaining souls from really evil creatures.
3. What is your character’s favorite thing to eat?
Underspore pods.
4. If your character knew he or she would die tomorrow, how would they spend today?
Consistently making sure her soulstone was in place. If that wasn’t an option, she would probably seek out her family.
5. What is in your character’s pockets?
Maybe an underspore pod, a soul shard, and some crushed herbs.
Coming Soon: Pretty Northrend screenshots turned wallpaper, why we should be able to hide our shoulder armor, and future plans for this blog!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Cordelaine Runs an Instance
I brought my Night Elf Death Knight, Cordelaine, into her first instance on Tuesday. The instance Was Hellfire Ramparts, and she ran with another 65 Death Knight (a human and the tank), a 65 holy paladin, and an 80 mage. Cordelaine is currently blood specced and at level 58 so she did DPS, or at least tried to. I was only hitting about half the time and I couldn't really remember what I was doing since I hadn't played her in weeks.We cleared the instance easily despite my melee incompetence, but no one needed any of the drops. It was all hunter mail.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What Does "Good" Mean in Azeroth?
What makes a WoW player “good”? This is the current shared topic over at Blog Azeroth, sugguested by Jaramon of Deathcoil.org.
I highly value the opinions of my guild, and so I decided to ask them what they thought makes a “good” player. Their answers all made sense to me, and so I present the four attributes of a good player: respect, skill, character, and knowledge. (Oh, and number five—gold.)
Respect
At the forefront of the discussion on the guild forums was respect for other players. A good player is not someone who has an attitude of “it’s my $15 a month, I can play however I want!” which may be true, but good players know that everyone else is paying their $15 a month, and that it will be more fun for everyone if respect is given to other players.
One way to show respect to other players is by grouping up to take out a named mob instead of waiting for respawns, or worse, ganking it when another player has done all the work to clear the trash out of the way. To be a good player, you realize that the toons with names over their heads have real people behind them, and you care about their enjoyment of WoW, not just your own.
As Veritas member Gundersson explains, there are rewards for behaving in such a manner: “This being a social game, your personality is as important as your skill at playing. What good are your leet skillz if you’re a jerk and no one wants to group with you?”
Skill
Secondary to respect, skill is an important aspect of being a good player, particularly knowing how to play your class and taking on the appropriate roll in a group, be it tank, dps, or healer. As Ma’as says, “a good player is someone who knows their role in the group and can remain flexible within that role.”
A good player constantly seeks to learn more about their class and better their playing style instead of the stereotypical “facerolling on the keyboard.”
Character
RP realms add an additional aspect to what makes a good player. While knowing how to play your class, it’s also important to know how to play your character, and RPing as someone who is interesting but doesn’t completely go against lore and common sense.
Knowledge
Specifically, a good player knows when to quit. As Myrthe said, a good player is “a person who is willing to admit that they aren't up to a challenge, and can point out the same for other people in a constructive manner.” If you can figure out that the instance or raid you’re in is failing because you’re not properly geared, and then agree to leave the space for someone else, that takes maturity.
Co-GM Shinorah often deals with conflicts between guild members. (Not a lot, but they do come up as they would with any group of people spending time together.) For her, a sign of a good player is someone who can walk away from a conflict to keep it from escalating to a point where people might get hurt. Her wise words: “Keeping your grace and class under those situations is often far more important in the long run than winning the argument or proving you're right in the short run.”
A good player also knows when it’s time to quit WoW: to get some sleep, do something social in the real world, or take a vacation from the game.
Gold
Finally, Myrthe has found the true secret to being a good player: “People who pay large sums of gold to any of my characters.”
I highly value the opinions of my guild, and so I decided to ask them what they thought makes a “good” player. Their answers all made sense to me, and so I present the four attributes of a good player: respect, skill, character, and knowledge. (Oh, and number five—gold.)
Respect
At the forefront of the discussion on the guild forums was respect for other players. A good player is not someone who has an attitude of “it’s my $15 a month, I can play however I want!” which may be true, but good players know that everyone else is paying their $15 a month, and that it will be more fun for everyone if respect is given to other players.
One way to show respect to other players is by grouping up to take out a named mob instead of waiting for respawns, or worse, ganking it when another player has done all the work to clear the trash out of the way. To be a good player, you realize that the toons with names over their heads have real people behind them, and you care about their enjoyment of WoW, not just your own.
As Veritas member Gundersson explains, there are rewards for behaving in such a manner: “This being a social game, your personality is as important as your skill at playing. What good are your leet skillz if you’re a jerk and no one wants to group with you?”
Skill
Secondary to respect, skill is an important aspect of being a good player, particularly knowing how to play your class and taking on the appropriate roll in a group, be it tank, dps, or healer. As Ma’as says, “a good player is someone who knows their role in the group and can remain flexible within that role.”
A good player constantly seeks to learn more about their class and better their playing style instead of the stereotypical “facerolling on the keyboard.”
Character
RP realms add an additional aspect to what makes a good player. While knowing how to play your class, it’s also important to know how to play your character, and RPing as someone who is interesting but doesn’t completely go against lore and common sense.
Knowledge
Specifically, a good player knows when to quit. As Myrthe said, a good player is “a person who is willing to admit that they aren't up to a challenge, and can point out the same for other people in a constructive manner.” If you can figure out that the instance or raid you’re in is failing because you’re not properly geared, and then agree to leave the space for someone else, that takes maturity.
Co-GM Shinorah often deals with conflicts between guild members. (Not a lot, but they do come up as they would with any group of people spending time together.) For her, a sign of a good player is someone who can walk away from a conflict to keep it from escalating to a point where people might get hurt. Her wise words: “Keeping your grace and class under those situations is often far more important in the long run than winning the argument or proving you're right in the short run.”
A good player also knows when it’s time to quit WoW: to get some sleep, do something social in the real world, or take a vacation from the game.
Gold
Finally, Myrthe has found the true secret to being a good player: “People who pay large sums of gold to any of my characters.”
Thursday, January 8, 2009
WoW Funnies
Most people have already heard of Ding! and Looking For Group. There's others out there, and I'm just too lazy to mention them all, except to highlight this one:
This is a snippet of a comic called The Scout Report, which chronicles the misadventures of a Night Elf hunter named Scout, who has about the moral compass of your average warlock. It's done using screen shots which work incredibly well, and best of all it's nothing short of hilarious.
This is a snippet of a comic called The Scout Report, which chronicles the misadventures of a Night Elf hunter named Scout, who has about the moral compass of your average warlock. It's done using screen shots which work incredibly well, and best of all it's nothing short of hilarious.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Who's On First?
There's a meme going around WoW-blogville where you tag the person who posted the first comment on your blog. My blog is fairly new as I only have, what, thirteen posts? But I was tagged by Absitively and Posolutely of Gnometastic.
The first person to comment on my little blog was K of More Dots! More Dots!
In other news...
I've given up on the Merrymaker achievement and so has my friend Mortice (although he's level 80 and has even run a 25-man so I'm sure he could easily accomplish it). I lost a roll on the hat after I finally found a PUG and that basically destroyed it for me. Winter's Veil will be over soon, anyway. I still want Frijona to have a title, so I think I'm going to go with Diplomat instead. I already have the Sporregar rep, and it just suits her better.
I'll be away from WoW and blogging for the next five days as I will be in the land of freezing temperatures, snow, and dial-up internet. Practically the entire Veritas guild is taking time off as well.
Happy Holidays!
The first person to comment on my little blog was K of More Dots! More Dots!
In other news...
I've given up on the Merrymaker achievement and so has my friend Mortice (although he's level 80 and has even run a 25-man so I'm sure he could easily accomplish it). I lost a roll on the hat after I finally found a PUG and that basically destroyed it for me. Winter's Veil will be over soon, anyway. I still want Frijona to have a title, so I think I'm going to go with Diplomat instead. I already have the Sporregar rep, and it just suits her better.
I'll be away from WoW and blogging for the next five days as I will be in the land of freezing temperatures, snow, and dial-up internet. Practically the entire Veritas guild is taking time off as well.
Happy Holidays!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thoughts on Patch 3.08 - No Love for Locks
I thought I'd cover the changes coming to Warlocks in the upcoming patch 3.08. Oh, look, there's only three! While Bliz has promised to "fix" my beloved class soon, this obviously doesn't cut it. Come on, Bliz, now's good, but before would have been better!
Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
Drain mana is pretty worthless for actually obtaining mana. Whenever I try to drain mana from something I hardly get a drop before the mob bites the dust. I'm not sure if this change will help any.
Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
Emberstorm is a tier 6 Destruction spell and therefor it wont matter to me. Perhaps this will answer the debate of what does more DPS on Destruction locks: shadow bolts or immolate + conflagrate.
Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.
This is awesome. Saturday night I was with a group of 40 trying to kill the Horde leaders (we got Silvermoon and Thunder Bluff and then the raid leader had to go). I was the only warlock, and people kept asking for summons. I eventually had to tell people to suck it up and fly over. With a reusable stone I would have been able to keep many of my shards.
Since that's all we got this time, here are some other patch changes of note:
Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.
This is great for warlocks! I can't count how many times I've had mobs stolen out from under my nose.
The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at 75% speed.
This will make dying suck slightly less.
Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You’re not seeing things.
So this will make it easier for people to obtain 50 mounts. One of the guild leaders has a human they really want to put on a mechanostrider. The question is, will cloth prices go up as people attempt to gain reputation in other faction cities?
Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
Drain mana is pretty worthless for actually obtaining mana. Whenever I try to drain mana from something I hardly get a drop before the mob bites the dust. I'm not sure if this change will help any.
Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
Emberstorm is a tier 6 Destruction spell and therefor it wont matter to me. Perhaps this will answer the debate of what does more DPS on Destruction locks: shadow bolts or immolate + conflagrate.
Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.
This is awesome. Saturday night I was with a group of 40 trying to kill the Horde leaders (we got Silvermoon and Thunder Bluff and then the raid leader had to go). I was the only warlock, and people kept asking for summons. I eventually had to tell people to suck it up and fly over. With a reusable stone I would have been able to keep many of my shards.
Since that's all we got this time, here are some other patch changes of note:
Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.
This is great for warlocks! I can't count how many times I've had mobs stolen out from under my nose.
The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at 75% speed.
This will make dying suck slightly less.
Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You’re not seeing things.
So this will make it easier for people to obtain 50 mounts. One of the guild leaders has a human they really want to put on a mechanostrider. The question is, will cloth prices go up as people attempt to gain reputation in other faction cities?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
