Month: October 2008

Filed under: Priest, Analysis / Opinion

I would like to take this opportunity to disagree with my own post the other day declaring Divine Providence worthless. I was so moved by all your comments that I specced 14/47/0 and took Circle of Healing for a spin through half of Tempest Keep and all of Zul’Aman, and have changed my mind entirely. Circle of Healing is amazing, and I never want to let it go. If Blizzard wants to give me a talent to buff it and other heals by 10%, and lower the cooldown on Prayer of Mending, they can go right ahead.

As you all had predicted out, my estimate of Greater Heal and Flash Heal covering 70% of my healing between them was woefully inaccurate. In fact, in both instances, CoH alone accounted for 70% or more of my healing. The new Divine Providence is +10% to all multi-target heals, and 3 seconds off Prayer of Mending’s cooldown (with 5 points in the talent). Even if I ignore the other effects and just look at the boost to CoH, I get (70% * 2%) = 1.4% increase to my healing per talent point, well above the 1%-per-point benchmark.

Continue reading Divine Providence not worthless after all

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Filed under: Patches, Bugs, Blizzard, News items

So much for power-leveling to 60 in under 20 minutes. Tipster Chopstix pointed out that the much awaited and celebrated Echoes of Doom patch borked the bonus levels obtained through the Refer-a-Friend program stashed away by some players. Players hoping to zip towards the end game were surprised to find that the free levels gained before the patch could no longer be conferred to characters after the patch.

Even more surprising was a dismissive response by Game Master Issuntril that basically said, “they’re gone, sorry for the inconvenience.” Naturally, there was an uproar over at the forums over this as the free levels are one of the most appealing benefits of the program (no, it’s not the Zebra, really). Subsequent responses from other GMs were more sympathetic and advised a wait-and-see attitude stating that Blizzard was aware of the problem and were looking into solutions on how to fix it. Hopefully this problem gets resolved. While it’s understandable that intangibles such as free levels might be harder to restore, these are arguably as important as gear. Considering how swiftly Blizzard hotfixed the issue with pets and mounts (not the selling part yet, unfortunately), there’s hope for a resolution yet.

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Filed under: Fan stuff, News items

Mila Kunis, who got her breakthrough role playing air-headed Jackie on That 70’s Show, was always one of the more famous people playing our favorite game. Ukraine-born Kunis was interviewed by Complex magazine a while back and she revealed a surprisingly pleasant grasp of the game, which she plays with her long-time boyfriend Macaulay Culkin (yeah, that kid from Home Alone. He’s all grown up now, sorry, guys.). This won the approval of nerds everywhere — that includes me — because a hot babe playing a video game always gets a thumbs up.

In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kunis promotes her new movie, the video-game inspired Max Payne, and talks about having had to quit the game “for good, going on a year now.” Confusingly, however, the actress continues to talk about “the game” in the present tense, talking about being in two guilds, getting recognized through in-game voice chat, and how she plays a kickass Alliance Mage. It’s an interesting and funny interview where she also hints at keeping tabs on the expansion’s new 10-man raids as well as confesses to sucking at shoot-em ups. For someone who hasn’t played the game for about a year, she sure does give it a lot of love, saying that “it’s such a good game” and that she “loves it so much.” Maybe when Wrath comes out she’ll rethink that hiatus from the game, eh?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Alts

Like many servers since Patch 3.0.2, mine went down for the count last night. I had planned to explore the Hallow’s End content that just went live with my guildies, but spent the time instead commiserating with them via Instant Messenger while waiting for Blizzard to combat rez my realm. One suggestion brought up in the conversation was to play on another server for the evening. A guildmate of mine had a brother with a high level toon on another server, but because we could only roll new characters, that didn’t help either.

That’s when my guild brother (heya Taiglin!) made what I thought was a brilliant suggestion: since level 70 players will be able to roll a brand new level 55 Death Knight when Wrath launches, why not roll any class at level 55? I was going to explain to him why that wasn’t a good idea, but honestly, I thought he had a point. I already know how to play a Druid (well, I’m relearning with the new talents from Patch 3.0.2 and my new found love of Balance specs), why can’t I roll a level 55 Druid on a new server to have an alternative place to play? Or even just to join friends who rolled toons on other servers.

You may argue against players rolling a class they don’t know how to play then bungling through pick up groups, but isn’t that exactly what’s going to happen with the flood of DKs about to hit every server? Blizzard is poised to open the door to this option with their new Hero class, why not every class?

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Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

Okay, do you guys know the strategy for this boss? No? Okay. Well, what’s the ugliest thing you can think of? No, not a male draenei in a dress. Very funny, Kirby. It’s this dude — a huge, smelly pit lord. Strutting around with some huge blades attached to his arms, like we all don’t know what he’s compensating for. And those armored codpieces? I mean, please. Those only belong at the Met. Hey … why are you all looking behind me and readying your fireballs? (Thanks to Natasi of <Pantheon> on Steamwheedle Cartel for the pic!)

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing [email protected] with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion

My very first pet was a bat. As soon as my white-haired Troll turned Level 11, I hied off to Tirisfal Glades and sought out Ressan the Needler, one of only two tameable all-white bats in the game. Of course, some people mistook him for those semi-albino bats found in the Eastern Plaguelands, but true pet connoisseurs knew better. Even when Hunters started turning to those 1.0 speed bats from Zul’Gurub, I stuck to my white bat. All pets were eventually normalized but now in the Echoes of Doom, each pet has its own ability, making our choices of pets even more special and important.

In Patch 3.0.2, all bats now have Sonic Blast as their unique, bat-exclusive ability. It’s a 2 second stun with negligible damage on a one-minute cooldown. As far as Hunter pet abilities go, Sonic Blast is pretty run-of-the-mill and isn’t significantly great to merit taming a bat for. It pales in comparison to the Ravage skill of Ravagers, for example, which is on a 40-second cooldown. Ravage is melee range ability while Sonic Blast has 20 yards — an irrelevant bonus considering our pets are almost always at melee range. It’s only a little better for chasing and stunning, but otherwise, I would much rather have it available every 40 seconds than have some extra range.

Continue reading Beast Mastery: Bats

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast topics, Humor, Achievements

I’ve just about had it with all you Achievement whores! Yep, I mean you, that guy who just has to open up his map in places he’s never bothered to go before. And I mean you, too, that dude who keeps on learning pets and mounts just to get that stinky pet and an overgrown pigmentally-challenged lizard. You put too much pressure on me. No, really. My guild has gone on a Dora rampage and guild chat keeps lighting up with silly messages about this guy exploring Azshara or this girl exploring Ghostlands.

I don’t care! I tried not to take Mike’s poll on Achievements because I didn’t want my epeen to shrink any further. I cry uncle on all you explorers and pet collectors and mount enthusiasts. Okay, the truth is, all those Achievements just make me want to stop my Battleground grind — ok, I confess I’m pursuing Achievements myself, but it just isn’t as fast as all that exploration.

My guildies are racking up Achievement points paying visits to VC or Balny and the Baron while I toil away not getting any ‘shwing’ sounds for hours on end. The time I got Wrecking Ball, nobody else was online! Bummer. So hey, what about you? Are you suffering from Achievement insecurity or are you an Achievement whore like everyone else? How’re those points coming along?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Talents, Buffs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

While Blood is not quite as as powerful as it once was, it remains, at the least, a solid DPS tree and one quite a few Death Knights will probably choose to level with. The wide array of self healing abilities means that a Blood Death Knight has a very hard time dying, and nothing interrupts a good grinding session quite like a death.

In Skill Mastery today, we’ll look at one of the Blood Death Knight’s signature talent abilities, the 21-point talent Mark of Blood. Mark of Blood is placed on an enemy, and every time that enemy deals damage, their target is healed for 4% of their max health. It costs 1 Blood Rune. It lasts for 30 seconds, and has a cool down of 3 minutes.

It’s a straightforward skill to use. Throw it on your target and keep fighting. Using it effectively, however, may take a little bit of thought. Here’s some tips to figuring out the best way and time to make your mark:

Continue reading Skill Mastery: Mark of Blood

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