Monday, May 26, 2014

The add-on/cheating line

Yes, its been nearly two months since I last published.  And to be honest the thought of even looking at this thing hasn't even crossed my mind.  This is partly due to issues in real life.  Although I often fantasize about being the "emo artist", writing while I am depressed or unhappy is more work then I want it to be, so I don't, cuz I am sure no one wants to read that kind of thing anyway!

So, what shall I talk about? 

Here is one subject that always seems to raise a voice or two:  When do add-ons become cheating?

Now I am SO not being all mother superior here, and there have been times and places when and edge was made available to me and I took advantage of it, and afterwards never felt very good about it.  These times were when I was horribly stuck on something like Tomb Raider or Spyro the Dragon, or Medievil, or Kingdom Hearts.  I remember trying over and over and over to kill Ursula in KH and after weeks consulted a cheat guide, beat her, and then didn't go back to the game for a while because I felt guilty.

The one add-on that I did stop using (remember, this is my own opinion, and everyone else is free to think or use what ever they want), was spell-flash.  There was something about it telling me what I should do next that gave me that same feeling that I got when I started eating my Thanksgiving dinner before someone started saying grace. Now, to be my own Devils advocate here, one could argue that Deadly Boss Mods tells me when to move or when to taunt, so......

I dunno!  Is this a huge issue that is going to break the game...of course not.  I find I have something of an issue with mods like: Healers have to die m(more because I play lots of healers) or any add-on that reads and broadcasts MY cool downs to another player...those piss me off.

Just a wondering here!

Best and love to you all!! 

Kurly

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Have I become I surly WOW player?

Rage quitting!

It has become a daily occurrence in my WOW experience, and its pissing me off!  LOL...okay....I couldn't resist that....but its sadly kind of the truth.

I cant think of the last time I didn't log on only to experience some kind of MMO disgust that had me leaving whatever group or BG I was in after saying something utterly sinful in chat.  Especially when the Demonology Warlock, who, has been afk for half of a dungeon started plowing ahead me (I was tanking) and pulling agro from all the mobs.  Frankly I don't care what they say on World of Warcast, blowing off group protocol is rude, and not fun for me.  So I called the player a dick and left the group. (I still live Mike and Eric, but that episode of Warcast had me red in the cheeks for hours!)

Sigh.  This is just not me....well maybe a little me.  I do have a reputation for being slightly dramatic and very off color, but does that excuse me yelling in vent last week when 13 people were telling me the best way do the crawler mines while tanking that boss to "SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR FIVE MINUTES!!"  Yes, I said (or rather yelled this) to 11 other people in vent. 

I am wondering if I am feeling the first effects of burnout, and this upsets me.  When I realized that the existing five mans where going to be the only five mans available to me, I knew I was in trouble.  Although I love the Scarlett Monastery instances any of the Pandaria dungeons have been over played SO much that I don't even bother queuing for them, and have toons I want to level. 

I don't want to be this angry WOW player.  I love WOW, there are so so many reasons I love WOW, but if I am being honest I have to say that I feel like Blizzard set me adrift about five months ago, and adrift I shall be for another five.

Anywho.,..thanks for listening.

Love your guts!

Kurl

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Surviving Boost-gate!

Since the option to boost a toon up to 90 has been available for a while now, its no surprise that I've been hearing comments about it in just about every available medium.  Podcasts, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter have been alight with tales of woe ranging from Boost remorse to folks who are more than happy to humiliate an obviously under-geared, less experienced player by calling them "boobs" (boosted + noob).

Oh brother!

After warlocks went through their class change a while back, I was having THE hardest time making the new skills and talents make any sense.  Out of sheer frustration and spite, I removed all of my spell and ability icons from their boxes on my UI, logged off and sat in the dark pouting for a while.  After my tantrum I shamefacedly logged back in and realized I had a great opportunity at totally changing how I played that toon.

What I am going to offer here is my suggestion to someone who has boosted a toon to level 90.  Mind you I am no genius and my suggestion may sound crazy silly, but here 'tis any way.

Each class has abilities that:
Buff themselves
Debuff the enemy to make them weaker or more sensitive to your damage.
Are direct damage or damage over time abilities.
Are crowd control
Perform an action that temporarily increases damage done by normal abilities.
Defensive abilities.

What worked for me was grouping abilities with the same or similar function together in groups on my action bars starting with the abilities that debuff the enemy (personal buffs go on my inside right column bar) followed by the abilities that do the temporary increasing of the damage, followed by damaging abilities.  CC's and defensive abilities I put in the original UI boxes.

Certainly not rocket science and I may be totally embarrassing my self as this could be how people have been doing it all along.  I had to laugh out of the other side of my face the other day when I was going through my Enhancement shimmy's abilities and found something I wasn't using and didn't even know was there!

Also, its a good idea to read through your passive skills.  They may help you figure out a better rotation!

So that's is for now. 

Thank for playing.....please, come back again soon....it gets lonely up here sometimes.

Peace....M




Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Boost-Shmoost!!

You know you are an altaholic when:  The process by which you decide which toon you are going to boost to level 90 leaves you anxious and sweaty, and is eventually left up to something other than your decision!

This was me the other night folks!!  I was going to wait, ride it out....decide on my own time...blah blah....but then my OCD kicked in the mere knowledge that that new amazing ICON was floating on my selection screen was making me nuts!!

I knew I would NOT be boosting any Alliance toons as I have 10 Alli 90's that I spend most of my time on.....so nish nish on that!

I also knew I would not be leveling any of my Horde toon on Ysondre, where be my level two, female toons only guild I call Living Dead Gurls.   That is my little guild that I plan to try and focus more on leveling at some point and all of the guild rep you get from questing will work out better on lower level toons.

So that left Proudmoore and Earthen Ring! 

So of course...it was CAW....My NEW level 90 Panda Prot Warrior who can tank for the guild!!!

WOO HOO!!

XOXO
Kurly

Sunday, March 9, 2014

BORING!!

Hey folks....having a bit of a blog lull!  Ive been sitting here looking at the blank page trying to come up with SOMETHING to blog about for the last three days.

I know there is a lot of news on the horizon!  I am very excited to hear about what is going on with CC, and anti CC for PVP.

I am dieing to see what they do with curbing "Spell/Ability bloat" and what is getting removed or combined.

I wonder how many five mans we are going to have and what the item squish is going to look like.

I am wondering if I should roll a draenei or is the experience going to be the same no matter what race you run through it?

Is Sylvanis on her way out? 

Are we ever going to see a new class or race, co-operation between the factions, or a third faction?

Is there a way to make it so I can eat whatever I want and then.......wha, who, oh, crap...sorry.

So this is it for now, sorry for the lame filler blog!

Love you all!

K

Thursday, February 20, 2014

What me favorite Tank?

So the other day I decided to try and to the Mogu, Troll, and Seige raids....all at once, one after the other in order.  I have two tanks (Tsutai: The Monk, and Tessitura: The Warrior) that are sorely lacking gear.  My raid mate, Suzie, had asked if she could tag along and as we were waiting for the Queue to pop she asked me what my favorite class is to tank on.

I found this question amusing cuz prior to my Worgen Druid, Mezzaneen I was about as good at tanking as I am fixing rocket ships.  I tried several times on all the different classes available prior to Cata, and although I firmly belive that my ability to play WOW finally peaked during Wrath, tanking at that point was just fucking scarey.

Having discovered healing during Wrath (Thanks to Jeff and Jessica...not that they tricked me or anything) I was no stranger to being blamed for the group wiping.  Never mind the jerk off tank that pulled everything (back when you had to CC), or the damn Mage that never targeted the Tanks target or the Kuntard auto shooting at the boss....(wait...how did I spell that....hmm....works for me!) and then blaming the tank for not being able to hold aggro.  Being on the listening side of all the berating tanks could be the target of, and then watching a good tank do their thang and not understanding just what the hell they were doing was enough to put me off of it.  Until, of course, the altaholic part of my brain would NOT allow one moment of peace until I gave it another shot.

Call it kizmit, call it serendipity, call it something happening at just the right time it needed to happen but I rolled Mezzaneen and for the first time was able to "bond" with a tank toon, which meant I was learning to play the class, because Mezzaneen deserved it weather I wanted to or not (a phenomenon to date that would seem to be mine and mine alone as far as I know).  I believe, at this time, there had been a change to tanking, making it easier in general, and then there was the addition of vengeance boosting attack power each time you get bopped on the noggin, making it easier to keep threat as it was often a DPS issue.

So, what is the answer to the question?  What is my favorite class to tank on?  Well there is my favorite and the one I think is the easiest.  Being that I am not the kind of person that thrives on mastering the difficult (although, why I always want to roll the lowest ranking DPS specs is a mystery), and try to think, overall which of the classes is the easiest to heal, and considering which Tank I know best how to play, I would have to say that my answer is in order of favorite to least favorite:  Druid, DK, Monk, Palladin (Although shes only level 40), Warrior.

As far as what I think is the easiest: DK, Monk, Druid, Pally, Warrior.

The hurtle with me and Warriors is getting around the fact that they are the only Tanking class without a heal that you can use at any time.  I know they have a lot of mitigation, but having a heal that I can use at just about anytime on any of the other classes makes them my first choice.

Anywho...so there is a little more about me.

Thanks for listening!

XOXO
Kurly

Oh...and I never did all the raids...I think just parts one and two of the Mogu stuff...I got bored...SORRY!!!

Monday, February 10, 2014

My Suggestions to Blizzard

No new class, no new race?  I CALL BULLSHIT!!

Here are my suggestions to Blizzard (no payment needed) for some new races and classes!

Race:
Half Elf - Why the heck not?  They exist in the lore, they exist in game, a dragon actually CHOSE to look like one.  They could be an either factional race, and just about any class I imagine and have a racial shaowmeld that frees your from all effects that incapacitate a character

Half Orc/Draeni - Again, why the heck not.  Who doesn't love Garona?  AND on a planet that is crawling Orc and Dranei you know that there are some green skinned gift of the Naruu using little stinkers out there and I think it would be neat to play one!!

Class:
Arcane Slasher - Melee Mage!!  Plain and simple!!  Imagine a mage/enhancement shammy hybrid swinging magically summoned weapons and conjured temporary armor.  All of the basic abilities and animations are there, and with some creative tweeking could be a neat addition!

Witch or Bishop:  These will never happen, but, I thought them up a while ago, so here the be!!  They are my idea's for support classes.  Classes that require some thought and are nothing close to a face roll.  "Witches" are a de-buff class casting spells that increase damage taken and decreases armor, attack power and healing by their attackers, and would only be available to any race of female.

"Bishop's" are also support classes that are a buff class increasing armor, damage, and healing received by/to party members, and would only be available to any race of male.

I have also seen in other MMO's a warrior class that also uses a pet, I think this could also be a cool class in WOW, but I am not totally sure how that could work.

So there are my amazing idea's.  Anyone have Ghostcrawlers number....hes gutta no a name or two over there, dudnt he?

Thanks for listening.......Kurly


Sunday, February 2, 2014

How do you let someone know that they suck?

I'm betting that title got your attention! He he he.....but the question drifted into my mind the other night during an LFR where the other tank was clearly struggling with mechanics and having a very hard time following instructions.

Now, everyone else in the raid had no problem telling this poor person what they about about his or her taking ability, but being the sporting, sesative and nurturing kind of person I am, I /w (for the sake of ease I am just going to call him "him") him and said not to listen, we all have to learn, just listen to me and taunt when I say taunt.  I even went so far as to ask the other folks in the raid to give the guy a break and cut him some slack.

By the fourth wipe on Immersius I was suddenly wishing I'd kept my fat trap shut.

I am by no means a GREAT tank when it comes to raids.  The fights are too long and my ADD will often force me to channel surf, and usually at the exact moment I should be ass facing He to avoid that Gouge (Although....who doesn't occasionally enjoy a good gouge from behind....cough, cough.), but I generally get the gist and basics and can get the job done when the job needs getting done.  I may need more test runs than most tanks, I freely admit that I don't watch taking videos (I get bored...SORRY), and often forget to gem, enchant and take flasks and food, so I am no stranger to abusive comments, and the occasional kicked by vote.

So this poor bastards issues were, um, many.   He did not seem to grasp the idea of not taunting the boss while he had corrosive blast on him, he was not able to figure out where to stand when corrosive puddles formed underneath him (just move slightly to the right, the right....THE RIGHT!!), made no attempt to DPS down the blobs, and would drift onto another panel causing much injury to the DPS and lastly never taunted when I whispered "TAUNT.....FUCKER!!!"  Whoops....did I use an expletive? 

So back to the fourth wipe.  By this point my patience had run out, there hasd been two attempts to kick the guy (I passed) , and the magma of foulness from the others in the raid had reached the point of trolling poetry.  I excused myself from the party, making up some rediculous lie about the house being on fire or something when the other tank asked me if I thought he should give up tanking.

I said no.

Thanks for listening.

Peace....K

Saturday, February 1, 2014

"Race" Lift?

It would seem that the accepted release date for Warlords or Draenor is sometime late Summer, or early Autumn this year, so I have anywhere from 8-10 months to catch up all my toons with the Black Prince, The Timeless Isle, Thunder Isle, professions and honor.  However the thought of all the time I have to get caught up with the the Black Prince, The Timeless Isle, Thunder Isle, professions and honor is a little daunting.

This is nothing new,and frankly is not even a surprise to me. 

People talk about Cataclysm being the worst of the WOW expansions, and I don't see that at all.  Cata afforded my the time to get in touch with my altaholic self (or was the the 8 months of unemployment?), and as well as the chance to get to learn a lot more about the basics of the game and how it was played.

I am a little bummed  that there is no apparent new race or class with WAD (and yes, I'M calling it WAD), although I understand the dilemma with introducing one of these to the game.  True with the "can be either faction" option now in effect, couldn't they have at least given us, oh, I dont know a half Draenei/half Orc race....called a Draenorc....I mean come on...they have GOT to be out there that could be either faction and any of the available classes?

I am looking forward to the new character models, and I foresee some of my existing toons getting a race lift, but that is small potatoes, I think, for a nine month wait.

So....here I will be...leveling some of my 70 (thats in number not level 70) toons, doing my best to keep my eye on the prize that is the next expansion.

What are you all doing?

Best.....Kurly 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Is purism in WOW pure BLEEP?

Okay, so the title might sound a wee bit hostile (Ive discovered recently that my stuff is the stuff I do from the get go and if I think about it too much.....) but this is one of those questions I have often asked.

Years ago I was made aware of a guild that was all Druids and that the participants of this guild were Druid "purists".  Now, what is purism in WOW?  The variance here depending on the person, I imagine, would be gigantic, but from what I remember the guild was very into RP and stuck to what ever Druid lore is, and never used mounts, only using travel and flight form.

Kind of cool, actually.

My contribution to purism in WOW takes shape with my healers.  I no longer dual spec my heals.  There are a few toons that have a DPS spec that I will change in to from time to time, but that is more an aspect of that toons personality as I have come to know them, not a mechanic to make use of in the game.

Make sense?

Managing a second spec on a toon used to be a lot harder as there was no gear set option, it could never be done on the fly and talents weren't saved (or were they? Lord I am getting old!!!).  Modern spec switching woes these days more or less amount to being able to play said second spec effectively.   This, my dear friends, is one my foundation reasons for being an altaholic!

There are six healing spec's available in WOW.  All of them have abilites that are offensive, but are not very powerful.  Anyone of them can kill a mob, but it takes like 8 years, and one must be very aware of mana, as you can blow out all of your mana trying to kill something and then have nothing left to heal yourself! That kind of thing happend on my Monk.  Monk abilities seem to have a GIGANTIC mana cost.

Druids have an ability that converts Spirit into Agility while in Bear/Cat form.  You'd think that would make life easier playing Resto all the time, but no so much.  Throwing down and Efflorescense to stand in while you kill a mob is helpful, but you can start attacking something and go fold laundry and come back before you will actually kill it.

To date the best "travelling" healing spec is Disc.  I has to have the highest DPS output and you heal while you do damage.

All of this being said I am not sure how this could change.  The balancing that would need to happen if heals were to be able to dps, like, well, a dps class would likely throw things all out of wack, but after all, these are just my rants, raves, and yelps.

Thanks for comming!
All the best!
Kurly

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Soon comming!!

All the holiday business is over!!

Back to blogging!!

There will be something coming soon!!

XOXO

Kurly