Goings On

So for the benefit of my two loyal readers, I feel it necessary to drop a quick update. Yes, post counts have dropped DRAMATICALLY. Yeah, I've been busy, both in and out of game. In personal WoW news, I have a 7th level 80 character now, a hunter by the name of Jenah. This is both my first ranged DPS character (not counting the brief time my Shaman spent as Elemental while leveling and my Priest as Shadow while leveling; neither of them retained those specs at 80), but this is also my first pure dps class. I have to say it's impressive what kind of numbers a pure DPS class can put up with just a few decent gear pieces. I am thoroughly enjoying playing a hunter.

That's not to say that I have given up on my other toons, however. Quite the contrary. They have been progressing through ICC both 10 and 25. I am very proud to say that two ICC groups of ours have cleared up to 12/14. This should really jump start our raid force a bit.

In non-WoW news, but still game related, I have begun development on a mobile game targeted at Android handsets (primarily the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 because, well, that's what I have). I was contacted by a programmer through a mutual contact and asked to assist in development of an Android game, so I am putting forth my experience as an artist and a game designer. I can't give too many details publicly, but as we get closer to a public release candidate, I will post more news. I may even chronicle the development a bit on the site, so check back to possibly see some updates (maybe).

Until then, my loyal reader (I am assuming the other reader has since left the site or fallen asleep), fight on For the Horde!

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Disappointing ICC Weapon Models

I was looking through The Lich King's loot table yesterday, and I was not only amazed at the huge stat budget (the 10 man normal items are iLvl 258), but they are, for the most part, what I like to call comma-weapons; weapons with a comma in the name (see Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood, for example). Comma weapons, at least to me, always seemed to represent a truly awesome weapon, whether it be through the sheer difficulty of obtaining the item (Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian), or a unique model that makes people drop what they're doing to inspect a player (Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer). And I always thought it would be really cool if the player wielding the weapon could use a derivation of the comma title as a player title (imagine a DK walking around with the title the Bone Arbiter).

Naturally, then, when I saw that the LK's loot was so epic that it deserved equally epic nomenclature, I couldn't wait to see the models. These would have to be equally epic, right? Illidan was an equally-epic boss, and pretty much all of his drops had unique, awe inspiring models. So LK's heroic loot would naturally have to be cool.

Much to my disappointment, however, I learned that this was indeed not the case. No, in fact best weapons in the instance, in the game even, shared models with the worst weapons in the instance (worst being very, VERY relative, as they aren't bad by any stretch). "Surely you jest, Khanus", you might say, "no, this can't be true! I need proof!" Proof you shall have, good reader.

I direct your attention to the model of the Bonebreaker Scepter, which drops off of normal mode, 10-man Lord Marrowagr. That's the first boss of the easiest difficulty of the smallest size raid of Icecrown Citadel for the uninitiated. Compare that model (click View in 3D in the wowhead link) to Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy. This is one of Muradin Bronzebeard's own personal weapons, and without a doubt THE best tanking weapon in the game bar none. It has the DPS of a two-handed weapon from normal 10-man, and yet it is just a simple recolor of the Scepter.

I doubt I am the only one disgusted by this. How big of a let down is this? The hardest damn boss in the game and you don't even get a unique model to showoff with. Why must Blizzard reuse models all over the place? Go back to unique models, please. We had them all the way through BG (Dark Edge of Insanity, for instance), and a lot in BC (Mounting Vengeance was a frakkin' trash drop). Let's be honest, part of the reason we raid end-game content is to look cool while standing in a city. Just ask anyone who farmed Illidan for months on end to complete the Twin Blades. Ask them if it was all worth it if for no other reason that for how damn cool those things look.

Blizzard has been making some real strides in the game's improvement. The ICC encounters are genuinely entertaining, and provide a nice challenge (especially the wing-end bosses). The current weapon models are fantastic, and the armor sets are beautiful. But come on, Blizz, bring back some unique models. Put something unique back into the hands of the raiders to visually set us apart from the non-raiders. We put in the time, give us our proper rewards.

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Getting Started with MMOs: A Beginners Guide to Massive Multiplayer Gaming

I wrote this piece for a freelance site. My article was not chosen to be published, so I'm taking the liberty of publishing it myself. I can't doing work without doing SOMETHING with it, even if it's just a sketch in my notebook. Thinking back, the article was probably too long. They wanted 800 words, this one lands north of 1000.

In the age of social networking and internet communication, there has been a growing interest in the Massive Multiplayer Online gaming genre. MMO's typically place a player controlled avatar into a persistent world consisting of both PCs (player characters) and NPCs(non-player characters). MMO games connect thousands of players together, usually with social networking-like components to enhance peer-to-peer interactions in-game. MMOs can take place in a variety of settings, giving consumers the opportunity to adventure in a land that most appeals to them. This article will (hopefully) serve as a general guide for players new to the genre who are looking to get started in this gaming sub-culture.

Entering an MMO world can seem daunting at first. A lone player, fresh from the character customization screen, set loose in a new world with (usually) little direction and virtually no equipment or resources. Don't worry. There are a few important things to keep in mind when you set foot in your new game world that will help ease you into your environment and jump-start you on your journey though the game.

The first thing to remember is that while the settings may change, MMO games all stem from the same background: the MUD (multi-user dungeon). MUDs are text-based multiplayer fantasy games. Think of them as a paperless Dungeons and Dragons game. MUDs set many of the paradigms that exist in current MMO games, such as player-player and player-environment interaction. It is also where the persistent world comes from. This is what separates MMO games from Single-player and other Multi-player games (like Halo). When you stop playing an MMO, the world continues to exist and change. Players continue to play in the world environment, and your character state is saved. In some games, you may sign back in the next day to see the world around you has been invaded by an enemy faction.

The second concept to keep in mind while playing an MMO is the "Holy-Trinity of MMORPG (role-playing game) gaming": Tanking, Healing, and Damage Dealing. This relates directly to the combat system within the game. Most MMOs allow you to choose a character class or path while playing, which gives you the ability to tailor your character's abilities to you preferred play-style, but character classes can be simplified to one of three roles loosely based on character archetypes pulled again from Dungeons and Dragons (credit where it's due, this pen and paper RPG set many of today's gaming standards). Damage Dealing classes are fairly straightforward; they choose a target and, through the use of spells and abilities, bring a creature or player to its death They are often referred to as DPS (Damage Per Second) classes. Some common classes include: Warrior, Rogue, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock.

Tanking classes are designed to take the abuse from an enemy. Their goal is to select armor and use abilities to mitigate or avoid as much damage as possible while keeping the target's attention (aggro) on them and away from the comparatively more fragile Damage Dealers and Healers. Tanks vary in name from game to game, but ultimately have the same goal.

They are not typically immune to damage, however, and that is where the job of the Healer comes in. In most MMOs, players will be exposed to death if their life bar (commonly called Hit Points) runs out. It is a Healer's job to restore hit points to a player after they have taken damage. Healer achieve this through a variety of means, but most commonly by casting a direct-healing spell at an injured player. Healers vary in name like the other two roles, but will commonly be found as Cleric, Priest, or Paladin.

The last and possibly most important idea to remember while playing an MMO is that they are by nature social games. MMOs provide tools to players for social interaction, whether that be through temporary groups/parties or larger guilds and alliances. This can be used to a new player's advantage, as most players playing an MMO do so for this reason, therefore you are likely to find helpful players within the game or in online communities that will offer assistance to new players. There are many fan-created resources that new players can visit online to read game-specific guides or ask questions of veteran players. Being social in nature also means there is likely much enjoyment to be had grouping with other players. In fact, in some games, it is required to group with other players to tackle difficult content. For gamers who like to play with a team to overcome obstacles, MMOs offer a high level of enjoyment and challenge. Just be mindful of your behavior: there is another player on the other side of the game world who is looking to have fun playing just as much as you are.

Hopefully you have a better idea of what to expect from the MMO gaming scene. To close, here are some of the more popular MMO games available today.

World of Warcraft - The current juggernaut and standard against which other MMORPG games are measured. Based on the popular Warcraft Real-Time Strategy game series, WoW is very beginner friendly with a multitude of resources available to assist newer players. Subscription fees start at $14.99/month, with discounts for multi-month purchases.

Lord of the Rings Online - LotRO is another very popular MMORPG. LotRO puts players in the J.R.R. Tolkien world of Middle Earth. Subscriptions is also $14.99/month with discounts for multi-month purchases.

Aion: Tower of Eternity - Aion is a relatively new MMORPG. Aion borrows many elements from World of Warcraft, specifically those which make WoW so beginner friendly. Aion separates itself with a unique take on Player versus Player content. Subscriptions start at $14.99/month.

Warhammer Online - Set in Gamers Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy universe, WO seeks to bring new definition to Player versus Player content. WO's goal is to make the entire game world feel like a conflicted battlefield, in which territory changing hands is entirely up to player controlled battles. Monthly fees start at $14.99/month.

Eve:Online - Eve breaks away from the typical swords and sorcery setting and drops players into deep space. Instead of choosing a character and class, players instead design and built their own vessels. Eve has a steeper learning curve than other MMOs because of the unique nature of the game, but for the dedicated player offers a world open to creation and exploration. The game world has more player intervention, however, allowing players to create their own corporations within the game world. Eve fees start at $14.95/month.

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Armor is the new Black (T-10 Set Change Inc).

This just in from the official forums, there are changes incoming to the plate armor tier-10 tank sets. From Zarhym:

"We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they're provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces."

Why are they doing this? Chill of the Throne is why. With the reduction in dodge, tanks have turned back to focusing on mitigation; that is, stacking on more armor to reduce the hits that they are not more likely to take. With the higher iLvl gear available in ICC, tanks don't have to sacrifice all of their avoidance to do this. Some, yes, but not all.

To help illustrate this point, here are two tank items: the Warrior Tier-10 Gloves and the Frost Emblem Gloves. The tier set grants more total avoidance (and the added benefit of hit), but the Emblem gloves have 658 more armor. To put this into perspective, let's check out my warrior. Unbuffed, at rest, I have 26,829 armor. This puts me (and I forgive me if my math is off) at 61.7% damage reduction from armor. I don't have the Tier-10 gloves, but hopefully this will illustrate the effect of adding more armor to gear. My damage reduction at 27,487 armor works out to 62.3%. That's roughly 0.6% more damage reduction. Doesn't seem like a lot (if you were getting hit for 20,000, you'd now be getting hit for 19,880). Looking through the available ICC "armor" items, though, you'll find that you can add 3,746 armor, and another 465 with armor enchants. Add in a ring and neck piece, and the most amazing trinket a tank has ever seen, and the grand total comes to 7,683 more armor than without armor stacking.

Let's take a look at the impact this will have. Starting with my Warrior's 26,829 armor, let's add the bonus armor (7,683) on top: 34,512. Running this back through the damage reduction calculations, we get 67.5% reduction from armor, a gain of 5.8% damage reduction. That 20,000 damage hit is now down to 18,840, a reduction of 1,160 damage. That's almost as much as blocking the attack outright. Add on to this the extra socket that most "bonus armor" pieces have and you'll see that they become very powerful items

The ultimate goal with armor is to reduce the damage of attacks that are not avoided. In ICC, landed hits are more common because of the dodge debuff. We don't know yet exactly what will change with the tier pieces, but I would expect to see them become more well-rounded, so don't plan on them having as much armor as the "bonus armor" pieces. Hopefully, though, it will make tanks desire their tier pieces as much as they have been the non-set pieces.

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Crimson Halls Hotfixes

The Blues popped by the official forums today to announce some hot-fixes to the encounters in the Crimson Halls (Blood Prince Council and Blood Queen Lana'thel).

Blood Prince Council

• Prince Keleseth will no longer melee players. So if you get knocked into Keleseth or happen to move by him, he won't swipe in between his casts and kill a non-tank.
  
• The first Shadow Resonance should appear earlier in the fight, which will allow the Keleseth tank to have more orbs on him or her if Keleseth is empowered second instead of third. We didn't want which Blood Prince was empowered second to be a major element of the difficulty in the fight.
  
• We reduced the melee damage for the Princes by 10% for the 10 player difficulty. They were doing less damage than the 25 player before the hotfix, but this change lowers the damage further.
  
• Empowered Flames will now run out of power after shooting fewer firebolts in the 10 player difficulty. We did not change the initial impact damage.

The first change, the change to Keleseth, makes it easier if you decide to use a ranged tank on the fight. There has until now been a danger of being knocked into melee range of Keleseth from a Shock Vortex. Normally, if Keleseth's primary target is out of melee range, he only casts spells. But if you were unlucky enough to get bounced near him, he would take a swing at you. A quality of life change, but a welcome one nonetheless.

The second BPC change is a much needed change. The Dark Nuclei are the only way to successfully tank Keleseth during his time with the Orb. It wasn't a huge deal if he was the third Empower target, but if he was chosen second, there was little time to gather the necessary Nuclei to survive his attacks, almost guaranteeing death.

The final two changes affect only the 10-man version of the encounter. It seems they were made to further tune the encounter for 10 players. Speaking from experience, this encounter is difficult with 10, especially when trying to reduce the damage of the Empowered Conjure Flame ability. Melee damage suffered greatly because of this. The melee damage reduction should alleviate some healing stress. I imagine tank damage was not supposed to be the healing challenge in this fight, but rather the Keleseth tank's damage and the random AoE.

Blood Queen Lana'thel

• Blood Queen Lana'thel will only be available after the Blood Prince Council is defeated.
• Blood Queen Lana'thel's Essence has a longer duration.
• Kinetic Bombs no longer aggro Blood Queen Lana'thel during the Blood Princes encounter.
• Blood Queen Lanathel should no longer cast Vampiric Bite on pets.

The first and third change listed are fixes to what are essentially bugs. See, within the BPC fight, there are orbs that need to be kept in the air. Lana'thel's platform is above where you fight the Princes. Before the fix, the orbs could float up close enough to Lana'thel to activate her. BPC is a tough fight as is; having to fight them AND Lana'thel is asking a bit much.

I can't comment much about how the change to Lana'thel's Essence will alter the fight as I haven't yet seen the encounter in person, but from what I've gathered players were letting the first target die to avoid having to deal with the mechanic of spreading the debuff to other players. Check out a fight strategy for more info on what I'm talking about here.

Overall, these changes should make the fights behave more like what is expected of them. The encounters have been defeated since release, so they weren't impossible, but they required a lot of dumb-luck (even with perfect execution). I'm looking forward to getting back in and trying these changes out first-hand.

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Maximizing Healing Synergy with Other Healers (Part 1)

**note: This article was originally written as an application sample for WoW.com's priest column. I'm posting it here because I took the time to write it and I think it's quite helpful.

Among the healing classes, the Priest has the unique ability, when dual specced, to be the most flexible healer in WoW. Possessing strong single target and AoE healing spells, a Priest can link up with any other healer to properly cover any healing need in a raid. In this article, I would like to examine the core spells and play styles of our fellow healing brethren and provide some insight on how to best synergize with these classes as Discipline, Holy, and dual-specced Holy/Disc. This article will be released in several parts reviewing each class. Today will focus around the Holy Paladin. Please keep in mind, however, that the information covered in this article is a general guide based on my own experience playing with and playing as all of the healing classes. It is possible that the healers you encounter will not play to the paradigms laid out in this guide, and since these are not the end-all methods to play each class, please be respectful when dealing with other players who may not subscribe to them. Now, without further delay...

Paladin

The Holy Paladin has gone through many revisions to improve the breadth of their healing arsenal, but they remain first and foremost a main tank healer. Their ability to sustain continuous big heals through Holy Light, as well as mirroring their healing to a second target with Beacon of Light, makes them very strong and very powerful healers. Their strong healing is, however, balance with the comparatively mediocre group and raid heals.

As Holy...

As a Holy Priest, you will fill in the raid healing gap left by the Paladin. You should focus most of your attention covering incidental and environmental damage. Should you find yourself with a free moment, tossing some flash heals on the tank will allow you to maintain serendipity stacks while also, and more importantly, providing the tank with the valuable damage reduction from the Inspiration buff. Power Word: Shield and renew on the tank will also help smooth out damage intake on the tank, but don't forget that it is as much the Paladin's responsibility to maintain healing on the tank as it is yours to help when you can, so make sure not to neglect your primary focus as a raid healer.

As Disc...

A Discipline Priest/Holy Paladin combo will provide your group or raid with the most powerful tanking healing team in the game. The Holy Paladin's naturally high HPS is augmented well by the Discipline Priest's impressive prevention and mitigation abilities. For two tank encounters (Such as Gormok the Impale in To(G)C) you will find it best to each choose one tank as your primary healing target while providing each other with secondary healing. Spells such as Renew, Prayer of Mending, and Power Word: Shield will help ease the healing on your secondary target. Try to avoid using Flash Heal or Penance on your secondary healing target, however, as these spells will apply Grace to the other tank, clearing them from your primary target, temporarily reducing your healing throughput on your main target (do note that a living tank is always preferable to a dead one, so don't get locked into the mentality that it is bad to lose Grace stacks on your target).

Dual-Specced...

Much of your spec choice will come down to the makeup of the rest of your healing team and the size of your raid while healing, but this is especially true when healing alongside a Paladin. If you are in a 25 player raid, ideally you will have a proper balance of healing classes. Assuming this is the case, you will most likely provide your raid the largest benefit by utilizing your Discipline spec. While Shaman and Druids can easily provide raid healers, no other class boasts the strong mitigation tools and shields provided by the discipline priest. Your role in a 10 player raid will vary greatly based on whether or not you are running three healers. In a normal mode instance, a single Paladin will likely be able to provide most if not all of the necessary healing to a tank (and depending on fight mechanics, tanks). Although strong Power Word: Shields will be missed, your largest contribution to your raid will likely come with you using a Holy spec. Powerful group heals will be an asset on most encounters, and your strong Renew HoT will help augment the Paladin's tank healing without requiring a heavy investment in cast time on your part.

Check back in the coming weeks for the continuation of this series.

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Updates and Twitter

It's been almost 3 months, but I'm back. A lot has happened since my last post, so let's get caught up, shall we?

Wrath is in full swing. Icecrown Citadel has been out for some time (and it's a blast). Patch 3.3 has been good to my alts (Triumph badge farming, huzzah!). Progress on my characters has been great.

My writing efforts have been focused elsewhere. I have twice applied to be a write for WoW.com, once as a Priest columnist and once as a Shaman columnist. The Priest thing didn't happen, but there is still hope for the Shaman columnist position (cross fingers).

By far the biggest change since then, however, is that I have taken over leadership of my guild. It has been a challenge, to say the least. Thankfully I have a knowledgeable support staff to help me. They have been instrumental in helping me transition to this position. Thanks guys!

Two last quick things. First, I am going to make some video guides when I have appropriate ideas for them . The first is a guide to Power Auras, which you should see (hopefully) within one week. The second thing is that I have signed up for Twitter. Follow me @KhanusSmash to get up to the (approximate) minute info on WoW happenings.

That's all for this one. Thank you loyal reader(s).

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