The Art of Solo-ing WoW, life and other games

No Blizzcon this year - boo-frickin-hoo

2012-01-25T19:44:00.003-06:00

So Blizzard has decided to forego Blizzcon this year, "to focus on the games that are in development". In my opinion that's a wise move. I don't know how many resources a conference steals from development but this year is very busy for them. They are planning to release no fewer than 3 games: the next StarCraft chapter, WoW's next expansion Pandaria and the most anticipated game of the decade, Diablo 3.

I would much rather they focus all their resources on releasing these games (especially Diablo 3) than to be distracted by Blizzcon.

If you think about it, there's nothing much they can show off this year. There are no surprises left, apart from the unannounced project Titan. We all know what games are coming out this year and all of them (except perhaps for Pandaria) are close to being done.

Project Titan is most likely a long way from completion and that's why Blizzard won't announce anything related to it this year.

Taking all the above into consideration, why would they host Blizzcon in 2012? Just to get some geeks together? They claim that they are losing money on the show anyway (despite the high price of the ticket), so why bother?

Nah, don't be too disappointed if you were planning to attend this year. Apart from meeting like-minded folks (which is always cool) there wouldn't be any new announcements to spice things up. I just wonder what they'll show at Blizzcon next year.

Today only: $79 Nook Simple Touch from BN

2011-11-25T11:04:00.001-06:00

Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of days, let me be the last one to let you know that Barnes & Noble is selling a limited edition of the Nook Simple Touch e-reader, today only (November 25th 2001), for only $79, down from the regular $100.

First, I have no affiliation with Barnes & Noble whatsoever. Second, I thought I would post this here because I'm sure many of you are avid readers, just like I am. Fantasy and SF buffs usually are.

Why would you buy this e-reader? If you have an older reader that is not locked into, say, Amazon, this is a good buy. If you don't have an e-reader yet and are thinking about switching to e-books, this is also a good buy. Myself, I had an older reader, a Sony PRS-300 that served me well over the past 2 years. As of late, however, I felt the need for a better reader: a larger screen (the Sony has a 5" screen), faster page turns, screen with better contrast and also a touch interface.

The Nook Simple Touch has all the above: 6" screen that uses the new e-ink Pearl technology (which the latest Kindle also shares), much faster page turns and book loading than my old Sony, a dictionary, a longer lasting battery, WiFi, a responsive touch screen and a microSD slot. Compared to the Sony it does have 2 disadvantages: it is sightly taller and wider (but feels thinner because of the beveled back) and it doesn't have an aluminum face plate like the Sony. The bigger dimensions give it an extra wide bezel which allows you to told it better.

B&N are only offering this special edition for $79 today so if you like the deal, go now and buy it! The one thing that makes it "special" is the fact that it has a white bezel around the edge while the regular version has a black bezel. Otherwise it's identical to the regular Touch reader.

Here's B&N's page for this promo.

Personally I think this was a very good deal. E-reader prices will continue to go down but there are finally several choices under $100 and now's a good a time as any to buy a new reader. Here are some shots I took of my new reader, as well as a comparison to the Sony PRS-300 Pocket Edition.

Skyrim - or the trouble with console ports

2011-11-14T09:58:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend I had the good fortune to lay my hands on Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) for a few hours. A friend's friend had just picked up the game and he let me play on his machine. I was rather excited to get the chance to test it because the hype surrounding this game is huge. It has almost universally garnered excellent reviews.

This isn't a proper review because I only played the game for those few short hours. It is mostly a commentary on the sad state of console-to-PC ports.

First, a little background. I adored Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind but disliked Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For these reasons, I wasn't sure I was going to like Skyrim.

In the little time I spent with Skyrim, I discovered an amazingly complex universe where my character was free to roam at will. The world of Skyrim is hauntingly beautiful and just makes you want to keep exploring. Well, until you stumble across some vicious monster or other.

I enjoyed the experience a great deal but all this was marred by the game's biggest flaw: the interface. Unfortunately, the developers were lazy enough to slap the same shoddy console interface on the PC version. The fact is that Skyrim wasn't made with a mouse and keyboard in mind. And it really sucks. The menus, the inventory system and character stats are a mess. It's true that after a couple of hours playing it I kinda-sorta got used to it but given enough time one can get used to anything, for example like riding a lame donkey versus a Ferarri.

To further compound the issue, the skill "tree" is so badly conceived that I dreaded having to visit it when I leveled up. The various "perks" are arranged in the form of constellations, a different one for each skill. While nice and shiny, navigating between the different skills and perks with a mouse and keyboard is a nightmare.

Melee combat seemed floaty and imprecise but casting spells was satisfying enough.

Overall I enjoyed Skyrim, which was more than I expected from it. The incredibly open world is rich with places to explore and quests to conquer. Even half an hour into the game you can find youself with at least half a dozen quests in your log and it's more often than not that embarking on one quest will get you sidetracked into yet another side-quest. In my short time in Skyrim quests didn't feel repetitive either and apparently the devs have stated that the game can generate an infinite number of quests, which is always a good thing for replayability.

All things considered, Skyrim still comes out as a great game but it's unfortunate that Bethesda has forgotten their PC origins and have chosen to saddle this otherwise brilliant game with a terrible and shoddy console interface. My dislike for consoles is only hardened by this experience, and I continue to believe that a proper RPG should not be played on a console, or at least not without mouse-and-keyboard. While many reviews have given Skyrim scores of 9/10 or 90%, I can't give it more than 8/10. I was seriously considering buying it but now I'll just wait until it reaches the discount bin.

DC Universe Online is now free-to-play

2011-11-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just a heads-up for those interested. Starting on November 1st 2011, which was yesterday, DC Universe Online went free-to-play. I'm not that much into superheroes but I'll give it a whirl.

At this point I have very little knowledge about this game but I'll try to learn it as I go along. If I can get past the first couple of hours without getting bored, then I'll probably keep playing.

The free version of the game does seem a little restricted compared to, say, World of Tanks, but let us not forget that DC Universe Online started out with a subscription-based model. You can still subscribe, fear not, but now there's the option to try-before-you buy.

I've currently downloaded about 10GB of the 14GB game client. Yikes! I'll probably fire up the game over the next couple of days.

World of Tanks - more addictive than you'd think

2011-11-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

What's the best game of the year? Depends who you ask but for me it was definitely World of Tanks. The novelty of the concept, the great gameplay, the vast number of tanks and maps, the endless ways in which a battle can take happen, the infinite replayability, the pseudo-realistic mechanics and physics and, why not, the free nature of the game conspired to make it one of the best games I've played in years.

Of course, not everyone is sold on it. Some people don't like the shooter genre. Some don't like tanks or the WWII setting. Some don't like playing online against others. And on and on. But from what I gather, World of Tanks has a huge worldwide gathering, especially in Russia ~~where it is being developed~~. A reader informs me that it is actually developed in Belarus. My apologies.

One of the reasons why World of Tanks is so popular is the freemium business model. While other MMOs have started with a subscription model and then switched to freemium when they realized not a lot of people were playing them, World of Tanks was built around the concept of "free" from the get-go. In this aspect, my humble opinion is that it is really well designed. As a free player you have access to all the tank tiers (from 1 to 10) and all the maps. Other freemium games impose certain restrictions on how high you can go. Not this game. While paying customers can reach maximum level much faster, a free player can also get there, through patience and perseverance.

But here's the thing. There's a big chance that if you start out as a free player, even if you intend never to spend a cent on this game, you might find yourself voluntarily shelling out some cash at some point. The very thing happened to me. Though I spent a puny amount compared to hardcore players, I did show my appreciation to the developers by spending some money in the game. This is a good thing. A good game deserves compensation. The more people pay for it, the better the game becomes.

Let me tell you a story that enforces the above.

I'm an European living for many years in the US. I don't have any friends here who are gamers but back in Europe I know a bunch of hardcore nerds, just like me, who love PC games. One of them is a really good friend and we share a lot of interests but these aren't all the time identical. For example, we both love WoW and Diablo but he also likes games such as Dragon Age, The Witcher, Mass Effect. I don't like those but I like Borderlands and Glitch to give a couple of examples.

When I went to my home country on vacation last summer I demoed World of Tanks to my friend. It was easy: download the ~2GB client (very quick at European broadband speeds), install it, login with my username and password. I played a couple of battles for him and he showed some mild interest. I wasn't expecting him to really get into the game.

A few days later he told me that he had created an account and was now playing the game. I was like, woot! He had some initial frustrations with some of the gameplay but ended up being hooked by it. After I got back to the US he told me he was obsessed with the game. He'd even bought a subscription to it and had advanced along the American tank destroyer line farther than I had. Of course, I have a lot more tanks spread across many different lines but still...

So you see, World of Tanks can really grab you hard when you least expect it and it won't let go easily. There are, of course, players who have quit the game in frustration over one aspect or another. One of the main factors of contention is the matchmaker system which sometimes can pit you against tanks 3-4 tiers above you, where you don't stand much of a chance. I admit that the game is not perfect. But you know what? The version number says it is still in beta (currently version 0.6.7) and the devs are continually working on it, fixing bugs, improving mechanics and adding new tanks and maps.

I am not as obsessed with World of Tanks as I was at the beginning. These days I fire it up once every few days, or maybe a couple of times a week. Then again, I'm mostly playing Glitch. But when I do play it, it's almost therapeutic. I just love this game in so many ways. Even if I get raped two minutes into a battle, who cares? I will just load up another tank and perhaps win the next battle with 5 kills.

If you are undecided, if the genre mildly appeals to you, I urge you to try this game. You won't regret it and you might even end up addicted.

In closing, here's a screenshot of a recent glorious battle I fought in. Our team steamrolled the adversaries, with 13 kills on our side, 2 suicides on their side and 1 loss for us. My "Easy 8" Sherman was hanging by a thread at the end.

Diablo 3 deal, worth it?

2011-10-26T21:30:00.001-05:00

At Blizzcon this year Blizzard has announced "the bomb": players who commit to 12 months of WoW subscriptions will get a free digital copy of Diablo 3! Is this wow or meh? It depends. I have made a quick analysis and if you're undecided, this might be for you.>

My analysis is purely financial and doesn't take the emotional aspect into consideration but since a large chunk of money is involved, I think it makes sense to figure out some numbers.

Notice that "committing" to a 12 month subscription does not require you to pay for the entire 12 months in advance. Nor does it require you to buy a 6 month package which is the highest one you can buy. This means that you can go month-by-month if you wish, but you'll have to engage in some sort of digital contract with Blizzard where they can be certain you will uphold your end of the bargain.

Currently you can pay month-by-month at $15 a month, for 3 months at $14 per month or for 6 months at $15 per month. My calculations are based on the two extremes but if you want to take this deal, the best thing is to go with two 6-month subscriptions, if you can afford it.

1. Month-to-month
Cost per month: $15
Cost for 12 months: $180
Real cost for 12 months (-$60 the value of Diablo 3): $120
@ $15 / month you will have to play $120 / $15 = 8 months of WoW to break even

2. 6 month subscription x 2
Cost per month: $13
Cost for 12 months: $156
Real cost for 12 months (-$60 the value of Diablo 3): $96

@ $13 / month you will have to play $96 / $13 = 7.4 months of WoW to break even

It sure seems like a long time to play WoW before you can call this a good deal. But wait, there's more. The "package" also includes an exclusive mount and access to WoW's next expansion (still not sure if this means Mists of Pandaria or the one after that, whatever that may be). While we can put a tentative value on the mount (mounts are $25 in Blizzard's store), beta access is a more subtle thing, something that can be either useless or priceless, depending who you ask.

So let's adjust our amounts by subtracting $25 for the mount.

1. Month-to-month
Cost per month: $15
Cost for 12 months: $180
Real cost for 12 months (-$60 the value of Diablo 3): $120
- $25 the cost of the mount: $95

@ $15 / month you will have to play $95 / $15 = 6.3 months of WoW to break even

2. 6 month subscription x 2

Cost per month: $13
Cost for 12 months: $156
Real cost for 12 months (-$60 the value of Diablo 3): $96
- $25 the cost of the mount: $71
@ $13 / month you will have to play $96 / $13 = 5.5 months of WoW to break even

As you can see, at the very least you will have to play 5 and a half months of WoW in order to break even on this deal.

There are more factors to consider at this point.

If you're not into Diablo 3 and you don't care about the other rewards, skip this deal.

If you're not into Diablo 3 but would like the mount and/or beta access, the deal is still good. Plus, you can donate your free copy of Diablo 3 to someone else.

If you are a die-hard WoW player and would also like to try Diablo 3, meaning that you are guaranteed to play WoW for at least 6 months, if not more, then this deal is killer. This is especially sweet if you know you'll be playing for another year.

If you're the type who gets bored with WoW 3 months into a new expansion, skip this deal. Just go month-to-month and buy Diablo 3 separately.

If you are still playing WoW between now and when Mists of Pandaria is released, now would be a great time to buy the deal. Just think about it. Assuming MoP is released around mid-2013, that gives you 6-8 months of solid play. When MoP hits, you have already broken even. From then on it's pure profit! Not to mention that you would have (presumably) also played a few months of free Diablo 3.

The bottom line is that you must think really hard if WoW will be fun for you for at least 6 months, or else you'll be throwing money out the window. There's also the matter of the guaranteed access to a future beta. If that is priceless to you, then by all means, get the deal.

At any rate, all this applies mostly if you are both a WoW and Diablo fan but you need to be aware that at some point in 2012 both games will be out and both will compete for your attention at the same time. Also, Mists of Pandaria will cost an additional $40, so take that also into consideration.

For me this deal is out of the question. Had Diablo 3 come out when Cataclysm was released, I might have been tempted. As it happens, I quit WoW for good about 2-3 months after the last expansion. I won't be returning to it any time soon.

Pandaria and me(h)

2011-10-21T21:11:00.003-05:00

I'll have to admit that this year's Blizzcon took me by surprise. Seriously, Mists of Pandaria? Everyone and their grandma was hoping for a Pandaren expansion with a monk and/or brewmaster class. Instead, they got an expansion in the continent of Pandaria, with a monk class and a brewmaster spec. Duh.

I was a bit shocked because I never thought Blizzard would go in this direction. It seems to me they've been coyly denying any future dealings with Pandarens but what do I know? I'm not a big Warcraft buff.

So here we are, at Blizzcon 2011 and a lot of folks seem excited about the new expansion. Others, aren't so much. Oh, believe me, there are plenty of people who are just like me, namely meh. Still don't believe me? Here's a bunch of comments on Arstechnica.

Please understand that I'm not trolling or bitching or anything like that. I'm just trying to analyze this news from the perspective of someone who has quit WoW for many months and was just curious if there's the slightest reason to return to WoW with the next expansion. The way things look, there's no chance in hell I will return, not even if Diablo 3 weren't around the corner.

Another cute race doesn't do it for me. I'm thinking at this point that Blizzard is trying to appeal to the even younger demographic, perhaps in the 6-10 range. OK, I get it, older people also like fluffy things. Hell, I love fluffy things. I love cats, for example, but I would never own a pet. I love to look at them and play with them, as long as they're not mine. But I digress...

Another class seems a bit redundant at this point. There are already plenty of classes in WoW. The fact that this one doesn't seem to use weapons a lot is odd. I like my characters to use powerful weapons. You can always upgrade weapons but you can't upgrade your fists.

The total revamp of the talent tree has gotten old at this point. If I were playing WoW again I'd simply be tired of all these changes. I mean, it looks to me that Blizzard's philosophy these days is to revamp the talents and skills with every expansion. Just to keep things fresh, y'know.

Changing resource systems - yet again - is another thing that will potentially turn things upside-down for certain players. I'm talking about the warlock's resources (I haven't looked at other classes). C'mon, a different resource for every spec? Sheesh.

Combat between pets? Methinks Blizzard has run out of inspiration. I'm sure lots of people have swooned when they heard the news. I'm sure I would enjoy playing with my pets for a while - a short while. But how long until this, too, will grow stale? To me, this smells like a gimmick to keep players interested a little while longer. The person who thought of this must have felt like a genius: "Hey, I know how to keep players glued! We can give them combat pets! Just think about it: most players must have dozens of pets by now. If we add skills to them we can increase the time spent in WoW at least tenfold!"

A level cap of 90 seems to indicate a lack of content similar to Cataclysm. We all know how that went. Personally, I was bored with Cataclysm less than 2 months in. Will the same thing happen now? I bet not. Now there's kombat petz!!

In what has become a sort of tradition, Blizzard is pulling the no-flying-until-level-cap bullshit again. Another reason not to be drawn back to the game.

As far as grouping and quests and raids and dungeons, there's some nice stuff on the PvE side but nothing outstanding.

On the art side, I'll give it to Blizzard: they do know how to design some beautiful zones. Yet, something doesn't feel right to me. While it's all beautiful, Pandaria is a blatant copy of China. I believe they could have worked a bit harder to give it a general Asian flavor without making it specifically Chinese (not that there's anything wrong with China). There are other cultures and countries in Asia apart from China, such as India, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and so on.

I've said what I had to say. It's not a collection of rants but merely my observations based on what I've seen so far. I'm sure there are many ex-WoW players who are looking for a good reason to return. While those who are still playing the game are thrilled with the new expansion I'm sure, I'm pretty positive that most of the ex-players aren't.

My feeling is that World of Warcraft is now past its prime and sliding on the inexorable slope of decline. Mists of Pandaria seems like a desperate attempt to keep the player base interested. I doubt they'll gain a lot of new players over this and I'll bet you a dollar that by summer 2012 we'll see even more bad news about the diminishing subscriber base. But hey, it wasn't meant to last forever.

To top it all off, they're offering players who subscribe to WoW for a year, a free copy of Diablo 3. That's laughable. It proves how confident Blizzard is in their Pandarian expansion. In other words, "we'll bribe you with a copy of D3 if you pay us for a year of WoW because you'll get bored with it in 2-3 months anyway". It would have been nice of them to offer this deal to anyone who, in the past, has subscribed to at least 12 months of WoW. But whatever, I'm still going to buy Diablo 3.

I'm actually glad that this next one won't be a solid, massive expansion. Otherwise I might have been tempted to try it. As it is, I'm (hopefully) going to enjoy myself to the max with Diablo 3 and I won't have to pay a monthly subscription to do so.

Finally, lease, if you leave a comment here, don't be throwing insults and such. If you are stoked about Pandaria, that's great, I'd be happy to hear why it excites you so much. If not, likewise.

Glitch review

2011-10-17T18:20:00.000-05:00

Glitch is one of those games that I would never have seen myself playing, the way I can't see myself ever playing Farmville. I heard about it by chance and seeing that it's a freemium MMO, I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, I liked it a lot. It may not be as complex or involving as World of Warcraft but it has surprising depth.

At first impression, Glitch may look like a children's game, all done in Flash and with those cute and colorful graphics. Don't make that mistake because it is not. Even their FAQ specifies that you need to be minimum 14 to play and children between 14 and 17 need a parent's permission.

So what the heck is Glitch? First, Glitch is a browser based game made in Flash. Second, it's a weird sort of hybrid between an adventure game, a platform game and an MMO, or a cross between Farmville, Mario and World of Warcraft if you will, except that there's absolutely no violence in it (or at least none that I have discovered so far). Glitch is essentially billed as a "social" game, in that it actively encourages players to interact with each other and help one another. I'll get more into that later.

Glitch takes place in the strange realm of Ur, which is a world that exists only in the collective dream of 11 giants. If the premise seems fantastical, that's because it is. Throughout the game you'll come across numerous picturesque and so-very-strange landscapes, a world that only a fictional giant could dream. In the game, you play the role of a "glitch" which is essentially a denizen of this uncanny place.

You navigate the game by moving left or right, jumping up or down, just like in a platform game. The world is made up of various zones which usually share a common theme. You can view each zone as being the product of one giant's imagination. Apparently even the artists who designed them are different, so the graphic styles also differ from zone to zone.

Zones are further divided into streets with wacky names. All the action takes place on these streets. You explore the world by moving from street to street and zone to zone. Streets in the same zone share the same basic art style but zones vary from a desert setting to forests, highlands, bogs, a wintery place or two and other places which are very hard to define.

The goal in Glitch is to... Actually there is no goal and there is no end game. At least not like in games such as WoW. It's a sandbox game in that you are free to do whatever you want. As you first start the game, a short tutorial guides your steps until you start getting the hang of a few basic actions but from there on you are free to explore and advance at your own pace and in your own style.

Stats

A Glitch character does not have classic attributes like Strength, Intelligence and so on, but (s)he has a thing called "metabolics" which is a collection of several vital stats. These are Mood, Energy, Experience (and level) and Currants.

Before starting a new character you are given the option of customizing his/her appearance but this can be changed later at any point.

Mood is gained by performing various actions and it measures your general happiness. If you are happier you gain more XP and lose less energy. If you are not, the opposite happens. In my time playing Glitch I never had to worry about Mood. Since I perform a lot more actions which increase Mood than decrease it, I'm always extremely happy.

Energy is the most bothersome thing so far and that's because every action that you perform requires energy. In other games this is called "health" and when it drops to zero, you die. It's much harder to regain energy than it is to spend it, especially considering that energy slowly drains away even when you aren't doing anything. You can replenish it by eating, meditating and you get some of it back by completing quests. At the end of a game day (4 real-time hours) your energy will also be topped off.

Experience is generally gained by performing actions and completing quests. "Performing actions" includes a wide variety of things but I'll get into some of them later on. As you gain new levels your maximum energy and mood levels increase. That's good because you can perform more actions with one "fill up" as you level up. From what I can tell so far, there are no limits on how many levels you can have. I heard of a player reaching level 101 in the beta but I imagine that is very hard to accomplish with casual play.

Currants represents the game's currency. Think of it as "credits" or "gold" or "dollars". You gain credits in many ways: by completing quests, by selling items to vendors, by finding coins (just like in a platform game) or by selling stuff on the auction house. I will refer to them as "credits" henceforth, to prevent confusion.

Pet Rock

Your constant companion during your stay in Ur is a magic rock that you can access from the top of your gaming window. This rock gives you quests but more importantly learns skills for you.

Activities & Socializing

So what is there to do in Glitch? Lots of things. For starters, there's the exploration aspect. Initially you'll probably be overwhelmed by the plethora of streets and zones but all this is made easy with the help of a map and a "GPS mode" in which you can click on a destination and the game gives you turn-by-turn directions.

There are many strange and weird activities that you can engage in. You can, for example, pet and water trees for a boost to morale and XP but at the cost of energy. You can pet piggies which subsequently allow you to "nibble" them, giving you meat. You can hug chicken which gives you grain. You can massage butterflies with lotion, after which they allow you to milk them for, you guessed it, butterfly milk. Then you shake that milk transforming it into butter. Compressing it renders cheese. You can turn these various ingredients into food by using the correct tools (such as a Cutting Board or a Frying Pan). To use tools you also typically require the appropriate skill. But more on that later.

The same weird universe which makes chicken give you grain, also provides Egg Plant which are a type of tree which, when harvested, gives eggs. You can use your skills and the appropriate tool to transmute cherries into all kinds of fruit. You can also mine 4 different types of ore (which has further uses). Here's where a very nice social aspect of the game comes in. Mining is similar to WoW. A mineral node has several "charges" which you deplete by mining the node with your pick. Each charge takes about 10 seconds and yields a number of ores plus, occasionally, a precious gem. One or more players can also mine the same node, which depletes it quickly but gives each player a bonus based on how many people are mining the node at the same time. This is really cool because once a node is depleted, another one spawns nearby within a short period of time. So not only is "ninja-ing" permitted but it is actively encouraged and highly recommended.

I don't really socialize a lot in MMOs, as you all know, unless I need help with something. The Glitch community seems very helpful indeed. Just ask in general chat and someone is bound to help you. One instance where I needed help was when a quest required me to borrow a tool from another player. I needed another repair tool to repair my own repair tool. I know, recursive, right? At low levels those tools aren't exactly cheap so it takes a measure of trust to just hand that item to another player. Yet, that's exactly what happened: a guy offered to help me and we both got our stuff repaired.

That's about as far as I got with socializing but it feels like a very helpful and nice community. But then again, there aren't many ways in which to grief players. The only things which seem to deplete are mineral nodes (where you are rewarded for sharing with others) and coins which you grab by touching them, but coins respawn quickly anyway. (BTW, coins can give you energy, mood, credits and favor with the giants). Stuff that can be harvested, such as the various trees and animals, yields mats for each player separately so there's no fighting over resources. Typically resources from trees and animals can be harvested once a (game) day. Speaking of which...

How time flows in Glitch

In Glitch, one game day is the equivalent of 4 real-time hours. Moving to a new day does several things: it fills up your energy levels, it resets resources on trees and animals (though resources seem to replenish more often than that but it bears testing) and it resets your quota for various actions. For example, you are only allowed to collect a certain number of coins in a game day.

Days are grouped into months but what strage months they are! The shortest (Recurse) has only 1 day, while the longest (Fever) has 73 days. And their names are, well, judge for yourself. I lol @ them all the time.

Inventory

You start up with 16 item slots. Each slot can hold a bag, while bags can have 10 to 16 slots. This gives you a maximum of 256 item slots which is quite a lot.

Skills

Skills are what gives even more depth to Glitch. They are a collection of passives and actives and essentially open up the world to you. While at the beginning you might be limited in what you can do in the world, learning a skill or three starts to open your horizons. You can cook a myriad different recipes, plant and harvest your own crops, grow your own farm animals, buy your own house (more on that later), mine, teleport, dabble in alchemy and engineering and loads of other stuff. The devs also add new skills in time.

Remember the pet rock? The skills in Glitch are learned one at a time but the rock does all the learning for you, in real time. Level 1 of a skill might take, say, 10 minutes. The next level might take 35, the next 2 hours, the next 8 hours while the last one can take a few days. The cool thing is that you can play the game or logout during the time a skill is being learned because the rock does the learning for you! You can even check on your progress from the browser window, without entering the game world. While it is perfectly possible to learn all the skills in the game, it's all a matter of time. The more skills you learn, the longer it takes for subsequent skills to be learned. For example, if skill A can be learned in 1 hour with 0 total skills learned, the same skill might take 1 day with 30 skills learned. But then there's a skill called Better Learning (which has 5 levels) which increases the number of total skills you can learn before receiving a time penalty. So far, the longest skill I've had to learn took me over 4 days. But that's ok because at this point I have learned over 35 skills which allow me to do almost everything in game, albeit not efficiently all the time.

Housing

Glitch is one of those few MMOs which provide housing for players. This is done via instanced housing districts. There are districts scattered throughout the different zones and each district has a certain type of house. Some are cute cottages, others are tree houses, others are apartments in highrises, some are underground hovels while yet others are sprawling mansions. Homes range in price from 1500 credits to 50,000 credits. For my first home, bought around level 11 or so, I paid 4000. It's located in a mountainous area, with living quarters underground and a garden topside.

Houses offer several things. First, there's a storage area with additional slots which varies depending on the price of the home. Then there's a trophy case, which apparently displays your "trophies" on a shelf but I still have to find a use for that.

Then, each house has at least a small garden plot, as well as patches where you can plant trees. This means that you can plant, tend and harvest crops in the privacy of your own home. You can also keep animals and there's a whole system for collecting meat and milk from them automatically, which I have yet to explore.

Achievements

Glitch has a zillion achievements associated with all the actions you might perform in the game. The fun thing is that thresholds are seemingly random. For example you might get an achievement for petting 111 trees, or for milking 87 butterflies. So there's no round number like 100, 1000 and so on. Achievements are not meaningless either: they all give you experience and favor so it's both fun and practical to reach a new milestone.

Favor and the gods

The "gods" in glitch are represented by the 11 giants. They each have shrines spread out randomly on streets, one shrine per street. You can build favor (or reputation) with the giants by donating items to their shrines, by completing quests and through various other means. I won't go into many details why it's important to cultivate favor with this guys, suffice to say that it's worth it. One good reason is that each skill is associated with a primary giant and two secondary giants. You can't progress past a certain skill level if you don't build up favor sufficiently with the patron giant.

Trading and auction house

Like in most MMOs, trading can be done directly by handing an item to another player, through an in-game mail system and via an auction house. I haven't done a lot of person-to-person trading but I have used the auction house to buy, but mostly to sell stuff. It works well and it has a "live search" function where it narrows down results as you type something. Furthermore, it groups results based on the items which match your query and then you can drill into the specific item where you can see the price per unit as well as the price per stack.

Death

Death in Glitch occurs when you run out of energy. That's why you need to keep an eye on your energy level. Still, death is very forgiving. You end up in Purgatory where you have to squash grapes a few times until "they" let out. If you use the keyboard to do this, instead of the mouse, it's just a matter of hitting Enter over and over again (thanks to the context-sensitive menus) while moving over the grapes. When you get revived you get about 15 energy so you won't last long if you don't eat immediately.

Other stuff

From what I understand, the world is not static. New zones and streets are continued to be built, by the players themselves. There are communal events where players can contribute mats to build a new street. This is akin to the opening of the gates of AQ in WoW.

One particular street is winter-themed. The temperature is so low that your energy (essentially your life force) drops continually while there. I had to go there for a quest and it provided a frantic change of pace.

There are random events which award you with random items, as well as keys that you can find which unlock special areas filled with goodies. I have found a few keys but have yet to visit one of those areas.

My goals

I have a few simple goals that I wish to achieve. I continue to learn new skills even though it's becoming increasingly difficult. I aim to learn every skill that is useful to me. Then, I want to make enough credits to buy the most expensive home (50,000). I currently have over 20,000 credits at level 17. After that? I don't know but I'm sure I'll find stuff to do.

Conclusion

There are many aspects of Glitch that I have omitted or haven't discovered yet. Sometimes I get bored with the game and take a few days off. It doesn't matter because I can keep learning my skills while I'm away.

I haven't even discussed the paid portion of the game. As far as I'm concerned I don't find any use for any of the stuff offered by paying. You get more character customization options, including cosmetic stuff that you can buy, as well as teleportation tokens which allow you to teleport anywhere in the world but I'm happy the way things are without paying.

One thing that annoys me a little is the energy issue. Almost everything you do eats your energy. To replenish it you need to eat. To eat, you need to cook (which uses energy) stuff that you have gathered (which uses energy) or buy food (with credits obtained from other activities which require energy). Even this problem is beginning to fade as I gain levels and learn new skills. That's because upgraded skills allow me to perform various actions at a lower energy cost, while gaining levels gives me a bigger energy pool (which gets replenished daily or when I level up again).

While Glitch might not be everyone's cup of tea, it's a refreshing (and non-violent) change from games such as WoW or World of Tanks. I started skeptical but soon grew to love it. I highly recommend it.

Patch 4.3 - does anybody care?

2011-09-25T13:30:00.000-05:00

I've stopped playing WoW for months. You know how they say that if you are still counting the days since you quit smoking/drinking/women/whatever, you haven't really quit. Well, I'm not counting so I genuinely have no idea how long ago I quit.

Anyhoo... I'm still skimming some WoW news because I'm interested in how the game evolves. So the next big thing is patch 4.3 that will hit the live servers... I dunno, Novemberish?

What I'm wondering, and this is a honest question, no bullshit, is whether anybody still cares about this patch. Not ex-players, but actual players. If you are still playing WoW, are you excited about patch 4.3? To me it seems very lackluster. Another raid or such and transmogrification.

Seriously, transmogrification?? It's like... the barber shop or the fabled dance studio! It might bring another mini-game into the game but it sounds like a useless fluff-inducing feature. I'm not saying it shouldn't be added, it's just that it doesn't seem to do anything to advance the game world/story/mechanics/etc.

So once again, if you are still playing WoW, are you hyped about patch 4.3, or are you meh? BTW, I'm not complaining or bitching or anything because it's not my place to do so. I'm just curious.

Announcing Diablohead, my new blog!

2011-08-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I wasn't sure if I should start a new blog focusing on Diablo 3, instead of sticking to this one but I made up my mind quickly. I don't see myself returning to WoW any time soon and since I'm changing focus completely to Diablo 3, it's only fitting to start a new blog.

I give you Diablohead (diablohead.blogspot.com)!

I'm keeping my Darth Solo screen name so y'all can tell who yer dealin' with!

I've also installed Disqus for comments on Diablohead, something that I never got around to doing here. I don't know if most people are fans of Disqus but I've found on another of my blogs that it encourages comments because it makes it easy to log in with different systems or even comment anonymously.

There's nothing much left to say except that I'm excited to start this new blog and I welcome all Diablo fans (and non-fans) to Diablohead! If you like my new blog, please bookmark it, subscribe via RSS and spread the word.

A change of focus

2011-08-24T19:59:00.001-05:00

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't posted a WoW-related post in a very long time. At the risk of disappointing my remaining readers (however few of them are still left), I will come clean: I have quit WoW for several months. But I imagine most of you have already figured this out.

So what's the point of having a World of Warcraft blog and not playing WoW? Well, over time this blog has slowly slipped into discussing other games and activities. I would have gone mad if I'd talked exclusively about WoW. It so happens that there came a time when I simply felt burnt out. I thought Cataclysm would rejuvenate WoW, and it did... for a month or two. After that, boredom instilled. And then I realized that although Cataclysm had changed Azeroth, the core game had remained the same: same grinding, same questing, same dungeons, same gear race, same same.

I quit WoW after playing it for many years, after leveling half a dozen characters to level 80 and beyond, after trying all the classes, after amassing over 500,000 gold. After all that, I left everything behind and never looked back.

How do I feel after quitting cold turkey? Thanks for asking. I feel just fine. I don't miss WoW at all and I haven't gone through any withdrawal symptoms. In fact, when I imagine going back to WoW, it literally makes me nauseous. Yet, I won't deny completely that one day I might go back to it. I'll have to write a separate post on that though.

Ever since I have once again become enamored with the desire to play Diablo 3, I can't even conceive playing another game, much less WoW, when D3 is released.

As a result, this blog is dead, as far as WoW is concerned. After more than 2 years running it (and over 400 posts), I am faced with the simple fact of having to stop posting about WoW. Wowalone won't disappear off the face of the Internet. It will continue to exist because (strangely enough) a lot of people still visit it, yet it will remain frozen in time.

I have recently changed the blog's tagline. From "The Art of Solo-ing WoW", it became "The Art of Solo-ing WoW, life and other games". I think it's a funny play on words and it describes accurately what this blog has become.

Since I'll be probably playing Diablo 3 for the next 10 years (until Diablo 4 comes out heh heh) and since it's guaranteed that I'll get the urge to blog about it, I've been considering the following dilemma for the past couple of weeks: should I continue on this blog or should I start a new blog?

Continuing here has the advantage of a large readership. Many WoW players will also play Diablo 3. Some of my WoW readers will transfer seamlessly to the new Diablo format. Still, I will alienate a lot of WoW readers.

Starting a new blog has the advantage of focusing everything on Diablo and making a clear cut from WoW. There won't be any confusion as to what the new blog is about. I can have a new design (the current one has grown old) and I can attract new readership.

Overall I think the second option (of starting a new blog) is the most appealing. I'll need to think if I want to keep the Darth Solo persona or not.

So what do you guys think? Who's for a new blog?

BankAlt.com updated with patch 4.2 crafted items

2011-08-19T19:25:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note for those using my crafting-and-profession database, BankAlt.com: I have updated it (finally) with the crafted items introduced in patch 4.2.

Diablo 3 change of heart

2011-08-18T18:24:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks I've had time to simmer down and think. Some of you might have read my radical opinion about the controversial Diablo 3 features announced by Blizzard so it might come as a surprise to hear that I've had a change of heart since then. Well, don't be too surprised. I told y'all that I'm hot-blooded and sometimes I tend to overreact to certain stuff that I feel strongly about. At the risk of turning Diablo purists against me, I will try to explain how and why I reached this new conclusion.

The decision that I made at the end of my rant was that I wasn't going to buy Diablo 3. The main reason was that the game did not have an offline single player mode. Thus, I wanted to boycott it in protest against the lack of an offline mode. I mentioned that I may yet change my mind but changing it barely two weeks later doesn't give me lot of credit, does it? Here's my reasoning behind this.

The three main "features" that pissed me off were (in reverse order):

3) No mods
Unfortunately for those who strongly support mods, I'm ambivalent about them. On the one hand, I never used them in Diablo 2 and wouldn't anticipate using them in Diablo 3. On the other hand, I support people's right to mod their game. Not to sound selfish but... the net result here is that the lack of modding does not affect me. There is another reason why I have come to prefer the lack of modding, and it's related to 2). You see, both the gold and real money auction houses will play a huge role in Diablo 3. Because the stakes are much higher than in, say, WoW because it's real money vs fictional money this time, I certainly wouldn't want gold farmers and such to have a huge advantage in controlling the market. Because (hopefully) there won't be mods that help people buy and sell stuff automatically in huge batches (like in WoW), everyone will play on a level field.

2) Real money auction house
Initially I was horrified by the thought of real life creeping into my game. I thought that being able to buy items for real money will "cheapen" the game. But then I read other people's opinions on this and I also realized on my own that it really doesn't matter what other people do. Diablo 3 is not WoW. It's a lobby game, meaning that people aren't playing in a persistent world but rather in a myriad instances, either by themselves or grouped with 3 others but forever isolated from all the zillion other instances. There's also no PvP to speak of. As a result, I shouldn't give a crap what gear others are wearing. And if I happen to randomly group up with someone who has bought their gear for real money, guess what: I will benefit from that by being in a stronger group which can kill more monsters at a quicker pace, meaning that I will have a higher chance of getting better items myself.

Now, I have come to embrace this new real money AH concept wholeheartedly. In fact, I think that Blizzard is making quite a genius move here. Not only are they mitigating (if not eliminating) illegal trading, but they are also providing an additional source of revenue for themselves. After all, someone needs to pay for those servers, right? I know, that wouldn't be an issue if offline play was allowed. The cool thing is that those fees will come not from a monthly subscription (like in WoW) but from those people who are willing to buy items from the AH for real money. Well, also from those whose auctions fail to sell and they forfeit their posting fee. Meaning that the rest of us who won't buy items for cash can "benefit" from free online play.

There's been a lot of excitement building up around the idea of being able to make real money playing your favorite game. I'm a bit skeptical as to the exact sums a player can make but I've realized that I do want to participate in this. I am fully aware that most likely very few (if any) people will be able to make a living from this, yet, what other game lets you make money while having fun? If there's one case of having your cake and eating it too, this is it. And this ties nicely into my final point.

1) Online-only play
To summarize, here are some of the main reasons why I, personally, was completely against online-only play: game dependent on the internet connection and/or Blizzard's servers; unable to play it on the go; high cost for a game which is "crippled" to online-only play; localization and the fact that moving to another continent would require me to buy the game again.

Don't get me wrong: I'm still opposed to a lot of these. It would have been nice if Blizzard had offered offline single player. Not to sound selfish (again) but personally I don't really suffer from internet connectivity issues. Yeah, occasionally my cable will go down for a short while but that's not an end-of-the-world scenario after all.

The thing that made me reconsider my boycott is the real money auction house. You see, the RMAH gives online play some validity. Those who don't wish to engage in real money activities have the option not to. But for those of us who made big gold on WoW's auction house, Diablo 3's RMAH offers a strong enticement. Sure, it's almost guaranteed I won't make thousands of dollars each month by playing Diablo 3 in my spare time, but, say, an extra $100 a month is a very big deal for me. Heck, even an extra $100 a year would be welcome, especially in these tough economic times.

As for having to buy another copy if I move to Europe, I figured that's no biggie. I should be able to easily make that money back on the RMAH, essentially playing the game for free. In fact, if I did have to move, I would be able to run both the NA and European versions of the game at the same time. I could even sell stuff on both markets if I wanted to.

Finally, here's the most important reason for why all this, taken together, can make sense to some of us. If your spouse or significant other keeps bitching about your time spent playing that damn game, you will now be able to retort with: "But honey, this is my second job, I'm actually making money playing this game!"

After a long internal struggle, I am once again excited about Diablo 3. The latest annoucement, about the 4th difficulty level called Inferno makes me even happier. It makes a lot of sense in the way they decided to implement it.

I'm hoping that I can get in on the beta but I'm not counting on that as I know that beta invites will be really scarce.

So what do you guys think? Am I a dirty bastard for doing an 180 in such a short time, or does a guy have the right to change his mind?

More reasons against Diablo 3's online-only DRM

2011-08-12T21:42:00.001-05:00

If the reasons I gave in my World of Diablo post against Diablo 3's online-only mode weren't enough, here are some more, that I've discovered over the past few days:

1) Weekly/server maintenance. We all dislike World of Warcraft's weekly maintenance though we know it is necessary. It's almost a given that Diablo 3 will also have some form of regular maintenance. Why? Because you can't run gaming servers continuously without a minimum of downtime.

So what, many of you will say. Well, here's a scenario. It so happens that you get time off from work/school/etc right on the day when the game is being maintained. You've been itching to play D3 and now you can't, because the servers are offline. Bugger! This has happened to me on more than one occasion with WoW.

2) Some people are in the military and/or deployed overseas where they don't have access to the internet or the connection is spotty and they can't play games which require an internet connection. Sucks to be them, right? Too bad that some of them are HUGE Diablo fans. They'll just have to suck it up and wait until they get back home, in a few months/years. And if they have to redeploy, fuck'em, right?

3) Some people who are working long hours and/or have kids and thus not a lot of time on their hands, might get a little bit of time for themselves every now and then, only to find out that the game is under maintenance or their internet connection is out.

4) Here's a big one that's been bothering me lately: character names. What do I mean by this? Well, we all know that in WoW, character names are unique. I haven't seen anyone so far talk about how character names will be handled, considering that Diablo 3 can only be played online. I highly doubt Blizzard will allow duplicate names. This means that players won't be able to pick their favorite names. Damn it! It would have so worked if the game had an offline single-player mode!

I'm not saying that Diablo 3 should be offline only. No, I'm cool with the online multiplayer aspect of it. But I do realize that many people will miss LAN play and I think it's really sad that Blizzard decided not to include it. However, the inclusion of single player offline mode can be done easily and completely separate from the online mode. It's simple: keep offline characters on your computer, totally segregated from Bnet characters. Wouldn't it be nice to have more satisfied customers?

World of Diablo

2011-08-04T20:01:00.001-05:00

I've had a couple of days to think, after my bitching, moaning, thrashing, screaming and ranting about Diablo 3 and I've realized that I was wrong. Yep, I was looking at this whole affair from the wrong angle.

You see, Diablo 3 is not actually the successor to Diablo 2. No, it is, in fact, World of Diablo. Now it all makes sense: the online-only DRM, the geographic restrictions, even the cash auction house. It's not an RPG, but an MMORPG. You don't pay a subscription but Blizzard does expect to turn a little profit on the side by capitalizing on this auction house. I'm sure they have other ideas on how to make even more money. Hey, I'm ok with that, as long as it doesn't impact the game.

Seeing that the game will be locked, it would have been nice if it were free-to-play. But again, I wasn't expecting that and I don't mind paying for a quality product. In fact, I was desperate for the chance to give Blizzard my money. Alas, it wasn't meant to happen.

Let me explain once again why this "stunt" that Blizzard is pulling is such a bad thing for certain people. As a case study, I will use myself. I'm European, living in the US. I might stay here for the rest of my life but there's also a strong possibility that I will go back to Europe in a couple of years.

Let's leave aside the fact that an always-online game that you want to play in single player mode is a bad idea. I will return to this point later.

Diablo 3's restrictive DRM means that:
1) I won't be able to play the game in Europe, since it is restricted to US servers.
2) If I can choose to play on US servers, by some miracle, I'm sure the lag will be pretty bad. At the very least, it won't be similar to playing in the same geographical region.
3) Even if 2) is true, meaning that I will be able to play on US servers, my friends in Europe will all have the EU version of the game. Which means... you guessed it, I won't be able to play D3 with them at our annual week-long LAN fest. Yes, we used to have these every year (they still do) and the 5 of us would play mostly... Diablo 2 for the entire week, leveling our characters from 1 to 80, subsisting on steak, wine and beer, no wives or girlfriends to distract us.

I can hear some of you saying "Wait, you're complaining about having to pay an extra $60 in the event that you move to Europe?" Well, yeah, for some more reasons:
4) I expect to buy a (SINGLE PLAYER) game once and be able to play it anywhere in the world.
5) Blizzard is planning at least 2 expansions to this game, meaning that it won't be "just" $60. Each expansion will cost the usual $40 or so, meaning that I have the potential of paying up to $150 all over again, thanks to their DRM scheme.
6) If you think that $60 is no big deal, I'll be happy to accept your $60 and I'll stop bitching instantly.

If all these reasons are still not enough, here's another one:
7) Let's say I can get over all of the above and I'm even willing to buy the game twice, just so I can play it in another country (in SINGLE PLAYER mode). BUT, all my characters will be stuck on the US server and lost forever (unless I return to the US). Has anyone even considered the implications of that? All my blood and tears and hard work leveling those characters and equipping them will be for naught and I would have to start from scratch when I go back to Europe. Just imagine if you were forced to leave all your WoW characters behind, the ones you spent a few years on. You wouldn't like that a lot, would you? But Diablo should not have been an MMO in the first place!

I should have seen this coming, what with StarCraft 2 pulling the same bullshit. But I never imagined that D3 would follow the same damn path. The devs were careful not to spill the beans on this for 3 years but all the while they gave the impression that Diablo 3 would definitely have a single player mode. While some of us suckers took this to mean that it will be playable offline, without having to go through Bnet, I guess the joke was on us.

Now here's some more food for thought: I'm sure that if Blizzard had announced, in addition to the triple bombshell, that not only Diablo 3 would be exclusively online but you'd have to pay a monthly subscription to play it, a lot more people would have bitched about it but in the end most of them would have still bought it. In fact, now that I think about it, I believe that Blizzard has really lost an opportunity to further monetize on this, seeing that D3 is now an MMO.

So once again, why is online-only SINGLE PLAYER a very bad (dare I say retarded) idea, even for those of us who have access to high-speed broadband? Here's a bunch of reasons:
- I'll start with the usual: if you're on a plane, on a beach, in a cabin in the mountains or anywhere else where there's no internet access, guess what: you can't play
- your internet goes down: you can't play
- your router or modem drops the connection or resets: you get disconnected
- a storm in the area knocks down your cable: you can't play
- Blizzard goes out of business (seems unlikely but it can happen): you can't play
- 10-20 years from now, you can still play Diablo 2 but chances are you won't be playing Diablo 3
- an important one: remember when Ubisoft/Sony/others were DDOSed? That can happen just as easily to Blizzard. Guess what: you can't play your SINGLE PLAYER game if something like that occurs.

But it's no big deal if you can't play your game a day or two right? I say it is, because it didn't have to be like that. All we ever wanted from Diablo 3 was a modern graphics engine and some tweaked skills and classes. The fan community would have been happy. I'm not against change and progress but I do oppose change which doesn't make sense and/or hurts the paying customer.

The way things are looking right now, I will hang on to my money and see how things evolve. I want to play this game badly. For those who've waited 10 years for it, you all know how it can be. But I don't want to pay twice for it, just because Blizzard decided to tighten their grip on how people can enjoy this game.

In my previous post I mentioned piracy. Let me make one thing clear. I don't advocate piracy. Blizzard's games would be the last things in the world that I would pirate, even if I supported it. Yet, I do hope Diablo 3 will be cracked by some enterprising individuals, just to stick it to Blizzard. I hope they enable the game to be played in single player mode, offline, and perhaps even patch in some form of LAN. Personally I won't touch this cracked version because I don't want to but I hope it will send a message to Blizzard that players are deserving of some respect when their money is on the line and if that respect is not forthcoming, the company doesn't deserve any in return.

One thing is certain: the genie is out of the bottle. Blizzard has chosen the dark path and it will stick to it forevermore. There's no turning back at this point and we won't be seeing any more offline games from them.

I might be overreacting. I am hot blooded, after all. Who knows, it might turn out that I can play my US version in Europe, with my friends, after all. But I'm not counting on that. Until then, I'm watching from the sidelines.

Diablo 3 triple bombshell

2011-08-01T20:56:00.000-05:00

So if you're a Blizzard fan, more specifically a Diablo fan, and not living under a rock, you've probably heard the 3 major news pieces from Blizzard regarding Diablo 3 today:

1) Online-only play (no offline play)
1a) Regionalization
2) No mods
3) Real money auction house

I am so disappointed and disgusted with these announcements that I had to post something, even though I haven't posted anything for a long time. Let me address each of these points to explain why I am absolutely mortified and incredulous at how Blizzard has managed to butcher a game that looked so promising, until today.

1) Online-only play

Seriously Blizzard? What were you thinking? When StarCraft II pulled this stupid stunt I though that there's no way in hell Diablo is going to follow the same path. Guess I underestimated Actiblizzard's greed (or the stupidity of whoever concocted this bullshit).

Yeah, there are always those ready to blast me for daring to wish for an offline game in this day and age. Well, you are wrong. There are countless reasons for offline play (including personal ones) and scenarios where it is desired, nay, the only option.

The first and easiest argument for offline play is that not every Diablo fan on this planet has access to the internet, or to reliable internet. I should be indifferent because I have a fast broadband connection but even that occasionally goes down. When there's a particularly nasty storm outside my cable can go silent for 24 hours or more, while the power is still up. Try playing Diablo 3 under those conditions.

The second argument is that maybe I'd like to play this game while traveling, on a plane or a beach or wherever the fuck I please, where there's no internet access. Good luck with that.

The third argument is that play will be dependent on Blizzard keeping those servers up. Sure, we can all imagine that Blizzard will still be here in 20 years but in reality nothing is guaranteed. Companies can rise and fall unexpectedly and no single company is immune to that. Hell, Blizzard might decide at some point that they've had enough supporting Diablo 3 (though I admit that this is far-fetched), and just pull the plug on their servers.

The fourth argument is that I just want a goddamn single-player game that I can enjoy without having to go online. I don't want to socialize, I don't want to mix with others and I don't want to log in to Battlefuckingnet. Blizzard says that you don't have to play with others while online, you can just create your own game. In that case, why the fuck can't I do this offline??

I'm sure others can find even more arguments. These are just off the top of my head.

Blizzard's justification for this clusterfuck is that it will provide a "secure environment" bla bla bullshit. Fuck that. I don't need a secure environment in the privacy of my own computer. In my circle of one I'm more secure than Fort Knox. The underlying reason is, of course, piracy. They are hoping that this will cut down on piracy because, after all, if you can't play it offline, you can't pirate it. I'll get back to this point...

The obvious solution, which Diablo 2 had, is to separate offline and online characters. Simple. Offline characters will never be able to play online. Blizzard claims that people who level their characters to 30-40 and then want to get online won't be able to. Boo-fucking-hoo. Everyone knows what they sign up for from the beginning. No one will cry over this because, I repeat, this is how Diablo 2 worked and no one expected otherwise. This argument is, therefore, fail.

I thought that I could get over the fact that LAN play was missing, and I actually did. I figured that, what the hell, I don't LAN that much anyway so as long as I can enjoy the game offline, I'm cool. Heh, I wasn't counting on Blizzard's diabolic solution.

1a) Regionalization

Another thing that pisses me off, and comes with the territory, is that Battlefuckingnet now divides the world into regions. For most people this won't make a big difference because most of their friends are local anyway, but there are a few of us who have friends on other continents.

Take me, for example. I'm European but I live in the US. My best friends are still in Europe and a few of them were hardcore Diablo 1&2 players (just like myself) and are still big Blizzard (and WoW) fans. Will I be able to play with them on Battlefuckingnet? Of course not. My version would be localized to the US, while theirs would be European.

Well, screw those guys, I can just play on my own here in the US. But what if I move back to Europe in a couple of years? I'd have to pay another $60 (or whatever this game will cost) because my copy would be locked to the US and either I won't be able to access US servers from Europe or the lag will be too bad to play. Oh and of course I won't have LAN so I can play with my old friends at LAN parties.

2) No mods

I can't say I'm a big fan of mods. In fact, I've never used them in Diablo 1 or 2. Nonetheless, I support a gaming community's right to mod the games they own, provided it never gets on official Blizzard servers. But wait, there is no offline mode, nor LAN play. The community gets screwed over again.

I completely understand Blizzard's interdiction of mods but that should only apply to playing on their official servers. Offline, anything goes. Or it would, if offline play was an option.

3) Real money auction house

Initially I was cautiously optimistic about this new feature. I seems quite revolutionary at first glance. However, the more I think about it, the dumber it seems. Well, it's obviously a smart move from Blizzard's perspective. After all, they'll be taking a cut of the action. Though they claim they're not in it for the money (because poor them, they'll just be breaking even, whatever the hell that means), make no mistake: they're only in it for the money.

It's not altruism which compels Blizzard to introduce the cash auction house. A gold AH would have been sufficient. But nooo, Blizzard has discovered yet another golden-egg-laying goose and they have to milk it for what it's worth.

If you fantasize about making a living purely by playing Diablo 3 and selling items on the auction house, you are deluding yourself. Valuable items will probably be rare enough that you will only get a valuable drop once in a blue moon. And when you do get that uber-rare legendary item and want to sell it, there will be a dozen just like it on the auction house (from a million other players) and the lowest selling price will be a lousy $4.99. After Blizzard (and Paypal or whoever else) gets their cut, assuming you sell your item without posting it multiple times, you'll be left with less than half the selling price. And this is without even considering all the ~~gold~~ cash farmers that are likely to pop up.

Remember, each time you post an item there's a listing fee. If the item doesn't sell, you still pay the listing fee. If the item sells, you pay a selling fee. I don't know if in the latter case your listing fee is refunded. Think of it in terms of the WoW auction house. Same principle, only you'll be paying real cash to list those items.

I also have a problem with the perceived value of items. If I got a very rare item, in the new system I am faced with 2 very painful choices: should I use that item myself or should I sell it. By selling it, I could make some real money. But by keeping it I could get some real use out of it. Hard choices, right there. Well, at least items are not soul bound.

There are a couple of things about the cash AH that piqued my interest.

First, they mentioned that gold will also be trade-able for real cash. This will create an interesting balance between the cash and gold auction houses (yes, there will also be a gold AH in game, thank Zeus). So it might be possible to make some real cash by selling gold instead of rare items. After all, it's a million times easier to farm gold than it is to farm rare items.

Second, they said that those selling items for cash will be protected by anonymity. Neither their real name or their character names will be shown. I was like, WTF? The problem that I see here is that there's nothing stopping Blizzard from injecting items into the auction house, thus effectively selling their own pixels (which costs them nothing to create) for real money.

Blizzard swears on their mothers' graves that they will never sell items directly and that the only items on the auction house will be found by players in game. Which is the way it should be. But when no one except Blizzard knows who's behind a certain auction, how can we, the players, be certain that it isn't actually Blizzard selling that item covertly, FOR REAL CASH?

I admit that this theory could be entirely bullshit, but it is a possibility. I imagine that if such a conspiracy were to take place, there would inevitably be a leak that exposed Blizzard's nefarious affairs.

What they did is obvious: they decided to remove item selling from eBay and third party sites to their own yard. Good for them. But pretending to have done this for the benefit of the players is disingenuous.

Furthermore, they claim that online play is mandatory for the cash auction house (or even the gold AH) to work. That's perfectly fair. We all now how easily items were duped in Diablo 2 on offline characters. For that reason, completely segregate online and offline characters! Bam, easy solution! Offline characters will never have the possibility to trade with online ones. Offline characters would be saved to your local computer, while online ones will be saved (yup, you've guessed it!) to the server. There would be no way to tamper with the latter. Moreover, you shouldn't even be required to create a Battlenet account in order to play offline games. OK, fine, just register the game in your Bnet once, and that's it. I'll give Blizzard that. But don't require me to be online after that, EVER!

Conclusion

1) Online-only play. Fuck you Blizzard. You've screwed a lot of people royally over this one.
1a) Regionalization. Meh, I'm on the fence over this one because I realize there are certain technical limitations to implementing worldwide play on a single server. Still, it would have been nice not to be segregated. It would have been nice if my copy of the game bought in the US still worked in Europe.
2) No mods. It's none of your goddamn business Blizzard what I do offline with my game. I bought that game with my own money, I can do with it whatever I damn well please. Offline.
3) Real money auction house. Fuck you again Blizzard. Here's a solution no one asked the question for. Though some people have already started seeing dollar signs, it will only serve to make Diablo 3 a cheaper experience.

My take on this is that I'm extremely disappointed, to say the least. As you might have noticed, I've taken the kid gloves off of my usually restrained language. Well, no more Mr Nice Guy. I've waited for Diablo 3 for 10 years (along with millions of other fans) and when it's finally around the corner, they hit us with this royally screwing bullshit. Thanks a bunch Blizzard for respecting your fans.

In return, all I can hope for is that the pirated, unlocked and offline-enabled version will be made available as soon as possible after the game is finally released. I never advocate piracy and Blizzard's games would be the last things in the world that I would pirate but this is too much. They showed how much they "respect" us. We can only repay them in kind.

I also hope that those who are of a similar opinion will refrain for buying this game, but the truth is that many fans, no matter how horrified, will end up buying it, thus empowering Blizzard into thinking that their stupid tricks were effective. I won't kid myself, nor will I kid you: I might end up buying it in the end. After all, I'm human. But I will do everything in my power to resist the temptation. There's a whole new world out there which doesn't include Blizzard, or even computer games. If Blizzard tries their best to alienate their fans, I can only feel obliged to leave them in the rear-view mirror.

Maybe I'm overreacting. Yet, I can't help feeling a deep sense of loss over this. Perhaps it's time to grow out of this eternal anticipation over the mythical Diablo 2 successor. It looks like that game will never happen. Yes, in a few months there will be a game called Diablo, with brand-spanking new graphics and good gameplay, but somehow it will never be the same. Underneath all that bling, the spirit of the original Diablo games is not to be found.

I caved in, bought gold

2011-06-25T12:12:00.001-05:00

Whoa there, before you all blast me, I'm not talking about WoW! Just to make myself clear (for the 1000th time), I am against buying WoW gold and I believe it trivializes the game anyway. Having gotten this out of the way...

The game I bought gold for is... you've probably guessed it... World of Tanks!

The way gold works in WoT is not that obvious from the beginning. In fact, considering that the game is free to play and it offers pretty much the entire tech tree and all the maps regardless of whether you pay or not, you can theoretically play through all the 10 tiers of tanks without spending a (real) dollar.

The catch is that it becomes harder and harder to gain XP and credits (the game's currency) as the tiers go by. By tier 6 it takes a very long time to gain all the necessary XP to upgrade a tank with the best equipment and even more so to move on to the next tier.

World of Tanks has an interesting XP system. Each tank gains XP individually but at the same time, 5% of that experience is saved separately in a "Free Experience" pool which means it can be used by any other tank. Experience is used to research upgrades. Credits are used to buy those upgrades after they are researched.

Once a tank researches all the possible upgrades, it continues to earn XP but that XP is now worthless for this particular tank. You can choose to turn off XP in return for accelerated crew training. But isn't the remaining XP now lost forever? Not quite. That's where the gold comes in.

World of Tanks has such an innovative F2P model that it got me (I'm a notorious tight-fist) to spend money to enjoy the game even more, after only 2 weeks of playing it. For $30 (2 months of WoW) I bought 6500 gold.

Here's what I used the gold for:

1) I converted the remaining XP for tanks which I had either sold (yes, you can still recover the XP from those tanks), or for tanks which had become elite (all upgrades researched) to Free XP. I used that Free XP to research some upgrades badly needed for one of my tier 5 tanks.

2) I trained the crew to 100% for one of my favorite tanks (a Marder II Tank Destroyer if you are curious) and also for my tier 5 tank (a Panzer IV Medium Tank).

3) I might buy an extra garage slot later.

4) I might purchase a 1-month premium account, which allows me to gain XP and credits at a 50% increased rate.

5) Finally, I might buy a premium tank which allows me to farm credits because it is cheap to repair and automatically makes 50% more credits from battles due to its premium status. Unfortunately this tank costs about $40 in real money so I'm a bit on the fence on that.

Was it worth it? Here's a short analysis of each of the above points.

1) Converting XP is relatively cheap. Since having a lot of XP sitting around on other elite tanks doing nothing is not going to help, I consider it a very good thing to be able to transfer that XP to tanks which need it desperately. As a result, I was able to more quickly research the upgrades my Panzer IV needed in order to not suck so badly in combat. Now, the tank is competitive and a blast to play.

2) Initially I was skeptical about training the crew. A new tank starts with a crew at 50% training, unless you are willing to pay a lot of credits to train them to 100%. Problem is, it becomes progressively harder to reach that 100% as you get closer to it.

The quick solution is to spend 200 gold to train each crew member. That's about $1. A tank with a crew of 5 will cost $5 to train to 100%.

First, I trained the crew of 3 for my Marder II Tank Destroyer. The vehicle already had all the upgrades and it was performing well. Let me just say this: the first battle after buying 100% training, I killed 7 enemies (out of a total of 15). My previous record had been 4.

On top of that, I also won a very wacky medal (it's just like a WoW achievement), for killing the last enemy with my last shell. Hah! Now that's something you don't see every day!

The other tank I trained crew to 100% is my Panzer IV, a Medium with high firepower (when upgraded to the max). Was it worth it in this case? Hell yeah! My tank performs to the top of it's abilities now and is an armored machine of death (at least until it gets spotted).

Why is 100% crew skill so important? Because at 100% crew training every stat on the tank is worth 100%. Crew also aims faster, more accurately, drives better, repairs damage in combat quicker, puts out fires quicker, spots enemies from a farther distance and so on. After 100% you have the option to further specialize each crew member in a number of skills such as camouflage, repair and firefighting. But you can only start specializing once you reach 100%. And if you don't pay for that 100%, it will take ages until you get there.

3) More garage slots are good if you like playing with several different tanks. I already have tier 2 and 4 tanks which I enjoy playing, in addition to the tier 5 and the Tank Destroyer. I would also like to try my hand at SPGs (Self Propelled Guns, or mobile artillery) at some point. Problem is, garage space is limited. The only way you can increase it is either by buying more slots or by selling some of your tanks. It's almost a given that I will fork some gold (300 per) for an extra slot or two.

4) A premium account allows you to earn 50% extra XP and credits from battles. This will simply allow me to progress 50% quicker. Otherwise it doesn't give me a tactical advantage. I'm not sure I'll try it for more than a month though.

5) A premium tank is good for farming credits because these tanks are already fully upgraded (no need to research/buy new equipment), repairs on them are very cheap and these tanks earn 50% more credits than a normal tank of that tier. The only problem is that the nicest such tank, a German Heavy named Löwe costs about $40 in real money. I'm not so sure I want to spend so much money on one tank at this point but it is certainly a possibility for later. First, I'll see how the premium account works, but only after I get back from a short vacation.

There are other ways in which to spend your gold. For example you can buy some premium consumables (such as first aid or repair kits) or premium ammo (only useful in tournaments, unless you're swimming in cash and don't mind shooting real dollars each time your gun fires) but these are of no interest to me.

In conclusion, is it worth buying at least a little bit of gold in World of Tanks? From my point of view, the answer is a resounding YES! Not only does it help make the game more enjoyable by cutting down on some of the grind, but it also helps support the developers who made such an enjoyable and involving game.

Clarification about World of Tanks

2011-06-15T22:10:00.000-05:00

There are two things that I forgot to mention about World of Tanks. These are only for the benefit of those who haven't tried the game yet and are tempted.

First, just to make it clear, each player controls one tank. This is not an RTS so you're not in command of a tank squadron. Your "avatar" is your tank but you can own several tanks in your garage. You can only take one tank out at any one time.

Second, I like the way they implemented dying. After your tank is destroyed, you are out of the game. Here, you have two options. You can either stay in battle until the end and switch your view between the remaining allied tanks by clicking the mouse buttons. Or, you can choose to leave the battle. Leaving the battle is cool when you're not playing with friends because you don't have to waste time until the end. Don't worry though, you won't lose any experience or credits by doing so! The awesome thing is that you can go to your garage, pick another tank and join a new battle while the previous one is still in progress. When each battle is over you will get a summary of the outcome, plus your credit and XP earnings and any metals that you might have earned.

That's all I wanted to say.

World of Tanks blitz review

2011-06-14T19:09:00.002-05:00

I never thought I would see myself getting into an online PvP game but here I am, talking about World of Tanks. If you've been reading my blog for a while you are probably aware that I hate PvP in World of Warcraft. It's just not my thing. Games like Counterstrike? Bring it on!

I'd heard about World of Tanks vaguely but what attracted me was the fact that the game is Free To Play (F2P) and it has tanks. I kind of enjoy the World War II setting so I thought that since it's free, I might as well give it a try.

World of Tanks is a simple game taken at face value. Essentially there's only one game mode: capture the enemy base. You can also win the game by destroying all enemy tanks or by attrition after the 15 minute timer expires. Under the skin, however, lies a very complex combat simulator which revolves heavily around physics, line of sight, camouflage, terrain configuration and so on.

The best way to play World of Tanks is with friends, because you can get everyone to implement a common strategy. For lack of friends (as in my case), the game creates battles between evenly matched groups of 15 players. This mode pits together tanks which are roughly in the same class, so you won't ever get tier 1 light tanks with tier 8 heavy tanks.

I have only played World of Tanks for three days but I'm already hooked. I've only gotten so far as a level 2 light tank but I want to persevere until I can upgrade to something nicer.

There are two resources in the game: credits and XP. Both are gained in battle but you can lose a game and still win plenty of them. XP is gained in lots of cool ways, for example based on the damage you do to enemies but also on the number of enemies spotted and many other ways that I haven't yet discovered.

Strategy plays a large part in World of Tanks and I have a lot of learning to do. I have already had some glorious battles, including one where I helped capture the enemy base with only 2 "health points" left (out of 90). Scouting plays an important part in the game, as well as protecting slower tanks, spotting enemy tanks for the heavy artillery and also sniping.

Playing the game is fun but if you want to advance, you either need to play a crapload of games (because XP and credits come slow), or buy gold. Gold is a resource that can only be bought with real cash and it can be used in various ways. You can use it to buy XP or credits, or in exchange for various other benefits such as an extra slot in the garage.

Here's where I'm starting to really appreciate that this is a F2P game. I can enjoy it without paying, or, if I want to progress quicker, I can go ahead and spend some cash. I'm very tempted to do that in fact, except that I find it harder to explain to my wife that I need to buy "gold" for some game than to pay a monthly subscription (as with WoW). To be fair, World of Tanks does have a monthly subscription but I'm not yet clear as to what benefits that brings.

The graphics are very good and the game runs well on my machine which is about 2-3 years old. The sounds are also good but I'm starting to wonder whether all the guns sound the same. The game client itself is lightweight for this day and age, at only 1.8GB.

I'm afraid I haven't been entirely coherent with this review but give me a break, ok? :) I'm a little bit stoked after discovering such a cool new game. And you know what? The game hasn't even reached version 1.0. Talk about innovative.

Blizzard's next MMO

2011-06-09T19:06:00.000-05:00

It's funny how these things happen. I was just pondering this morning, as I left for work and locked my front door, what Blizzard's next MMO is likely to be. And then, I read this article later in the day and I found it interesting that others might have the same ideas.

You see, my gut feeling says that Blizzard's next MMO, the one they are working in secret on, the one code-named "Titan", will be in the world of Starcraft. The article specifically mentions that the SC MMO won't be Titan but with Blizzard you never know.

If I were a gambling man I would place all my bets on Starcraft as their next MMO. Of course, there is a high possibility that I am wrong but that's exactly why I don't gamble in real life :)

Blizzard stated that their next MMO will be a new IP (Intellectual Property). Everyone has taken that to mean that it won't take place in the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo universes. But this may be sly-speak for "Titan will be a new genre in an existing universe". This would fit perfectly with a Starcraft MMO. An MMO would be a new genre in the Starcraft universe. Who knows, maybe Titan is actually the scrapped Starcraft Ghost.

Meh, too much speculation. As I said before, I would really like to see a kick-ass MMO in a technologically advanced universe such as Starcraft. Either way, I'm 99% certain that this next MMO will not take place in another fantasy setting. Amirite or amirite?

SW:TOR starting to look good

2011-06-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sure many World of Warcraft players are excited at the idea of the new Star Wars: The Old Republic game but I didn't think I would be one of them. After quitting WoW I figured that I won't be getting back into another MMO soon, if ever.

I have also been very skeptical of SW:TOR because, let's face it, it's highly unlikely that another game will manage to dethrone WoW. Besides, how many "WoW-killers" have already flopped? Too many to count.

Well, I'm not saying that I've suddenly become a big SW:TOR fan but I do happen to be a big Star Wars fan. And just for the record, I hate episodes 1,2,3. I'm old school like that. Anyhoo, looking at some of the more recent previews of SW:TOR, I've started getting a longing for a different kind of universe than WoW.

There are two major universes that I absolutely love in games and in fiction: the fantasy setting (like JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) and the science fiction setting (like Star Wars and Star Trek). So far I've gotten my fill of orcs-and-elves fantasy. WoW was great but I really miss some high-tech action with lasers and spaceships.

I was indifferent to The Old Republic MMO because it seemed a bit shallow to tell the truth. I still don't think it will have the depth of WoW and I don't think it will be updated with new content (to keep it fresh) as often as WoW. Bioware simply does not have Blizzard's resources, though they are themselves pretty resourceful.

What suddenly piqued my interest in SW:TOR was the mention of space battles and the short clip I saw which shows some promising space combat. If a Star Wars game features ground-based combat only, in my eyes it fails. Throw in personal spaceships and space battles and you might have a winner.

One of the minor things that bug me in SW:TOR is Tatooine. I admit that I'm not a book of knowledge in regards to the Star Wars Universe but why the hell does Tatooine have to feature in every damn SW game? What's so special about that backwater dump of a planet? Yeah, I know what they are doing: they're just trying to keep things familiar by re-hashing all the usual locales: Tatooine, Alderaan, Corellia and so on, but sometimes I wonder if there are only a handful of habitable planets in the whole universe. Oh well, just a minor nitpick.

You know what else I adore in Star Wars? The unforgettable sound of lasers. Pew pew pew! That sound is unmistakable and makes me lust for a blaster.

At this point I don't have any way of knowing how good SW:TOR will actually be. Will it satisfy my urge of firing lasers and flying fast ships? Will it feel like I'm immersed in the Star Wars Universe? We can only wait and find out. If both SW:TOR and Diablo 3 are released this year though, I fear that one of them will have a strong competitor, as far as I'm concerned, and we all know which one it is.

BankAlt.com adds Cooking and vendor prices

2011-06-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

I have just updated my WoW project, BankAlt.com, with two new features.

First, I've added Cooking, which was the only major crafting profession that was missing. Several people have requested it and I agreed that it needed to be included. The reason it wasn't there from the beginning is that my original idea for BankAlt was in a different direction which didn't make use of Cooking at all.

Secondly, others have suggested that I should fill in prices for components which can be bought from vendor NPCs. I have added this feature in the form of a link named "vendor" which appears next to items which vendors sell. Clicking that link will fill in the vendor price for that component and re-calculate the recipe total automatically.

These vendor prices are the full, non-discounted price since I obviously can't account for everyone's reputation and so on. Also, I'm not populating the fields by default when the page loads for two main reasons: it would mess up the calculations whenever there are child and parent vendor components and certain mats are sold by vendors in very limited supply, such that it would make more sense for the user to input his/her own cost instead.

A final minor feature is a "clear all costs" link which zeros everything out.

There are still some minor odds and ends that I need to tie up regarding saving/restoring costs and retrieving vendor prices but all the major functionality is there.

Enjoy and drop me a line if you have any comments!

Dungeon advice for 61yr old WoW player

2011-05-20T20:29:00.002-05:00

Occasionally I get direct emails from readers asking me various things about World of Warcraft. If the question is simple, I answer it directly. For more delicate queries, I prefer to write a post because the answer is longer and the issue might be something that affects more people. Besides, extra help is usually offered from other readers commenting on the article.

A few days ago I received an interesting (but touching) email from a new reader of Wowalone, someone belonging to the older demographic. Here's his situation in a nutshell: he is 61 years old, plays WoW casually, is not in a guild but would like to run some dungeons with his level 70 Paladin. The problem is that he doesn't have a lot of time to do this because his wife is very ill and I assume he needs to take frequent breaks from WoW in order to attend to her. He says that WoW provides an outlet for his distress. I shall refer to my reader as My Friend, as I don't want to disclose his name.

His situation is something that I can identify with to an extent and I believe that, as a veteran solo WoW player, I can give him some useful advice.

My Friend, I perfectly understand how WoW can provide the much needed relief and escape from reality that we sometimes need when going through hard times. I am fortunate enough to not have an ailing wife or relative but during my long history of playing WoW I have lived during a time when real life really sucked due to several things conspiring at once to make it miserable. WoW was indeed my escape from all that. Whenever I played, I forgot about my worries. Unfortunately, I ended up escaping from reality a bit too often and for too long, which caused some additional problems in real life. Eventually I recovered from my addiction and that, in fact, is how Wowalone was born: I decided that I wouldn't be playing WoW again with other people. It would be just me, playing it whenever I felt like it, with no obligations and pressure.

You, My Friend, seem to be a lot like me: a solo player. That's not a bad thing and, in fact, you can accomplish a lot of things in this game even without playing with others. You don't need to be in an actual guild. I am my own 1-man guild and I like it that way.

I assume that you would really like to run a few dungeons, in a group. Luckily, this has been made really easy thanks to the Dungeon Finder Tool. Before you jump into that, there are a few things that you should do.

Do you really want to run dungeons?
As a solo player, this is one of the questions you should be asking yourself. It is entirely possible to complete the game (by reaching maximum level) with maximum enjoyment without setting foot inside a single dungeon. But dungeons are a very important part of the game and it is a shame to never experience one. Each has its own flavor and personality.

Do you want to run dungeons with a group?
If you have decided that you do want to run dungeons, there are two options from here. You could either solo lower level dungeons or run level-appropriate ones with a group.

Solo-ing a dungeon is entirely viable, provided you stick to those which are several levels below you. Depending on your skill and equipment, you should be able to solo dungeons starting 5 levels below you. At 10 levels below you shouldn't normally have any problems. For example, at level 70 your Paladin could easily vanquish any dungeon from Azeroth and could also take a shot at some of the beginning dungeons in Outland. Again, this is very dependent on skill and to a lesser extent on gear.

The advantage of this approach is that you can visit each dungeon at your leisure, whenever you have time. If you need to be away from your desk often, just retire your character to a safe area and come back later when you have time. If you can't finish a dungeon for some reason, no one will care. You can always attempt it another day. I highly recommend solo-ing lower level dungeons. There's a certain kind of pleasure to be had from clearing a lower level dungeon all on your own.

Running with a group is slightly more complicated. Thankfully, the Dungeon Finder Tool makes it a lot easier than before. A big advantage of using the tool is that you don't need to be in a guild, you don't need to have any friends and you don't even need to interact a lot with your group members, if you don't want to.

While anyone can jump into a group with the Dungeon Tool, it won't be easy the first couple of times. I remember that the first time the tool came out I was afraid to use it. You can read about my anxiety in this 2009 article. Once I began running a few random dungeons, I loved the experience! I encourage you to read these two articles because they offer some insights into how a solo player can easily and safely join dungeon groups for lots of fun.

I can understand if you are anxious about joining a group with strangers. The best thing you can do is to click that "Join" button. The worst that can happen is for the group to kick you because you don't know what you're doing. But I doubt you are bad considering you've made it all the way to 70 and I have some more advice that should help you.

Being in a group doesn't automatically force you to become super social and make friends with everyone. In fact many people don't even say a word during these random runs. If you feel like talking that's also fine. My personal etiquette dictates that I will always say "Hi all" when joining a group and "Thanks for the group" at the end, even if no one else responds to my greeting. Sometimes people do feel like chatting and that's fine by me. I chat back. If not, I'm just as happy to run in silence.

Random dungeons runs usually last around 30 minutes. Before joining a group you should make sure that you have at least that time. Bear in mind that queuing up for a dungeon can take up to half an hour (but usually about 10-15) minutes for DPS specs. A trick I use while queuing is that I turn the speakers up and then busy myself around the home. When the join window pops up, I can hear the loud chime and run back to my computer to join the group.

If you join a group and something comes up which forces you to leave before the end, just apologize to the others and leave the group. People usually understand when someone needs to leave unexpectedly. If you are DPS, they won't mind a lot because a replacement is only seconds away. If you want to be particularly nice you could even tell them from the beginning that you might have to leave unexpectedly on account of your wife being ill. I don't think anyone will begrudge you that.

Now that (hopefully) I've convinced you to use the Dungeon Finder Tool to get into random groups, I will give you a few tips on how to prepare before joining your first group.

Choice of spec and role?
If you don't have dungeon experience, I urge you to spec as DPS, which in the case of your Paladin means Retribution. Do not make the mistake of joining as a healer or tank, before becoming an expert at running as DPS. Healers and tanks hold a huge responsibility and there's little room for error. For beginners, it is much more forgiving to run as DPS.

If you haven't specced your Paladin as Retribution yet, here's a quick spec I whipped up. It's just a suggestion but it could be helpful if you are undecided.

Rotation and damage
When questing on your own, damage and skill rotation are not particularly important. Usually it's enough to mash your main skills and the monsters will go down. In a dungeon, however, it is highly indicated that you are familiar with a proper form of skill "rotation". If you are not familiar with the concept, in a nutshell it means a sequence of skills used to maximum effect. This article is not meant to be a tutorial on how to play a Retribution Paladin so I would recommend that you head on to Elitist Jerks in the Paladin section and read everything you can about Retribution.

I am not familiar with your level of skill. Nonetheless, I still recommend this "elitist" site. Why? Because these people have exhaustively studied all classes and specs and they have nice primers on things like rotation, gear and so on. As a solo player who had never stepped in a group in a very long time, this site helped me a lot to learn how to deal damage, and later how to heal and tank.

Damage is also fairly important in a group setting. It is important in the sense that if you are really terrible, people might kick you from the group. If that happens, don't feel too bad. Even I, a veteran WoW player, get kicked from time to time, mostly because those who do the kicking are neurotic but I can always get into another group later. If people are complaining about your damage, explain that you are new at dungeons and are doing your best. Most will understand. Groups are usually good enough that a single under-performing player won't hold the group back.

If you know how to install and configure an addon I would also recommend a DPS addon such as Skada. This will give you an idea of how much damage you are dealing compared to the rest of the group.

Practice your rotation
Before going into a dungeon it is important that you practice your skill rotation to perfection. Find a training dummy inside a capital city and attack it using your skills. Or, you can practice directly on monsters. Try to use skills the moment they are off cooldown.

Dungeon tips
Now that you've decided to join your first dungeons, here are some general tips to get you going.

Don't announce you're a beginner, unless people start complaining. Sometimes (but rarely) you might get kicked if you so.
Always attack monsters from the rear, never from the front. Attacking from the front as melee DPS is poor form.
Watch your threat level. I recommend an addon such as Omen. To make sure you don't generate too much threat, wait a second or two before attacking your target.
Always attack the tank's target, unless otherwise told. You can use the F key to "assist" the tank, which means you will be attacking the same monster the tank is.
Stick close to the group but never run ahead of the tank. The tank should always lead and pull, unless he says otherwise.
If you are the only one who dies, it's probably your fault. The healer's priorities are, in this order: himself, the tank, and the rest of the group.
Don't stress yourself too much over dying. It happens to the best of players.
Don't be afraid to Need gear which drops, if it is an upgrade from what you have. Here are some dungeon loot rules and ethics that I use.
Don't be upset if you get kicked from the group for whatever reason. Sometimes it happens, through no fault of your own.
If you have to leave the group to attend to your wife, don't be ashamed to do so. If you can spare a few seconds it would be nice though to let them know why you are leaving.
Remember that even if you don't complete the dungeon you can still get experience, loot, perhaps even some good gear which drops from the first bosses and also skill in playing your character.
WoW players span a very wide demographic. There's a high chance that you will group with 12-year olds or people your age. Age is not always a factor but sometimes people will act like jerks. If that happens, try to diffuse the situation if possible and move on.
You asked me about repairing items inside dungeons. Well, that's a tricky one. My advice is that you should always have your gear at 100% before entering a dungeon. Unless you die over and over and over, your gear shouldn't get destroyed from a single run. Even then, it is not gone forever, it simply becomes unusable until you repair it. There are certain Engineering gadgets which you can use to repair gear inside dungeons but that's too expensive to recommend. A trick that you could do is to make sure you join the dungeon from a city or area which has a repair NPC nearby. If your gear gets damaged, click the green "eye" icon next to your minimap and choose "Leave dungeon". This will port you outside the dungeon. Repair your gear and then choose "Teleport to dungeon" from the same icon. You will be teleported back inside the dungeon. Beware though: you will be placed at the entrance so you will have to run back to the group.
It's just a game! No matter what difficulties you might encounter, remember to have fun.

Other tips

I can't imagine what your real situation is but here are a couple of extra suggestions. If possible, try setting aside 30-40 minutes when your wife is asleep. Or, try playing close to her if that is not distressing to her. You can always turn the volume way down or use headphones.

Wrap-up
I hope I have covered as many bases as possible. It is not easy to get for the first time into a dungeon with a group, especially when your play time is not set in stone. Thankfully, WoW has evolved to the point where dungeon running is now possible for almost everyone, even under the most stringent real-life constraints. You just need to adjust your mindset a bit and try to wrap dungeon runs around the spare time in your life.

Dungeon running gets easier the more you do it. Eventually it will become second nature. The beauty of the Dungeon Tool is that all this becomes possible without having to step into a guild.

If anyone would like to add some advice or correct my own, they are welcome to do so in the comments.

My guest post on Just My Two Copper

2011-05-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give y'all a heads-up about my guest post "Free tool for WoW bankers" on Just My Two Copper. Yes, as you might have guessed, it's about BankAlt.com, my special WoW project. I have decided that now's a good time to announce the site to a larger audience and JM2C is probably the best place to do it.

If you like to craft in World of Warcraft or to make gold with professions, there's a high chance that BankAlt will help you become not only more efficient but also more profitable. So head on to read the article or jump right to BankAlt.

The music of WoW

2011-05-16T22:28:00.000-05:00

Do you play your games with the music turned on? In particular, do you listen to WoW's score while playing? I have to admit that I do not. I prefer to play games (doesn't really matter what genre) with the in-game music turned off.

Even when the music is beautiful, I find it distracting and after listening to it over and over, it becomes annoying. WoW has some great music and a lot of work has gone into it but I have only listened to it once when Wrath of the Lich King was released. I wanted to experience the flavor of the different zones but after I got a taste of that, I turned it back off.

Strangely, the one game whose music I really loved was Warcraft 2. The Human campaign had a very engaging tune and I would listen to it ad nauseum without getting tired.

So I'm the type of person who likes to concentrate on the ambient sounds and effects. I find that the experience is more immersive this way. If you think about it, real life doesn't actually have music coming from the background.

Despite what I said above, this is not the subject of today's post. I wanted to talk a little bit about the music which reminds you (or me) of WoW. What do you mean, Darth Solo? Well, for me there are two episodes which have imprinted in my brain certain music that will be hard to erase. Every time I head this music it reminds me not only of playing WoW, but of playing it during specific times in my life.

Even though I don't listen to WoW's score, I do rarely listen to my own music if I'm in the right mood. The first such period was during classic WoW, around 2006 or so. I vividly remember riding with my dwarf hunter around Stranglethorn, listening to The All-American Rejects. Those were the "good old" days when I was part of a proper guild and I even managed to get into some raiding action regularly. Whenever I hear songs by The All-American Rejects, it reminds me of those times, especially since I was going through a more difficult period in real life.

The second scene that is burned in my memory is at a later date, during Burning Crusade if I'm not mistaken. I recall playing very late at night with my rogue, leveling him up in Un'goro Crater, listening to Shinedown and getting buzzed on a sixpack.

So yeah, whenever I head these two bands, I'm instantly transported to WoW. It's a weird feeling but on the other hand there are certain songs which strongly remind me of other events in my life, some of them going way back into my early childhood.

What about you? Do you have any songs or bands which remind you of WoW or any other game?

Buh-bye WoW, hello Diablo 3!

2011-05-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

If you've seen the gaming news today, you might have read something like this article which mentions Blizzard's earnings call. Two things were of major interest to me.

First, there's this little matter regarding World of Warcraft's subscriptions which dropped by 600K after Cataclysm. While this isn't very surprising to me, it still feels strange that after such a major and successful expansion a lot of people still reached the burnout point so quickly.

I will come clean: I am one of those 600K. I've been slowly slipping away from WoW to the point where I'm not playing it anymore, I don't care about it anymore and I find unlikely that I will ever return. These feelings are really weird because Cataclysm was everything I dreamed of in WoW: a revamped Azeroth and flying throughout the old continents! Unfortunately, all these enhancements don't change the fact that every WoW expansion is the same 'ol, same 'ol as the previous one.

It might be that we're starting to see the first signs of WoW's inevitable decline. It won't happen abruptly. But I can see how Blizzard will find it harder and harder to keep old players in and at the same time attract new ones. Don't worry though, I'm sure this decline will be so gradual that we won't even realize it. In fact, I won't be surprised if WoW will still be online 10 years from now. It's just that good. But sometimes the same formula repeated just won't cut it.

Myself, I still follow WoW news loosely and watch patch information, I still post articles on this blog (on more general topics rather than particulars) and I also run BankAlt.com which is my pet WoW project (check it out if you haven't). So I'm still connected to the Warcraft universe and I will likely remain connected for a long time even if I'm not actively playing.

The second thing from Blizzard's conference that I found significant is the fact that they are "working hard to release Diablo 3 in 2011". I know that this isn't a guarantee that we'll be able to play Diablo 3 in its final version this year but after 10 years of waiting I can finally be confident that in a worst case scenario I'll be able to play it within a year. If I'm lucky, I might even get a beta invite sooner, and from what Blizzard is saying, a public beta is slated to be opened some time between July and September.

Diablo 3 might as well be one of the reasons that drew me away from WoW. I mean, the closer we get to a public beta (and subsequently to a launch), the less desire I feel towards WoW. And it's only fitting, because part of the attraction of World of Warcraft, back when I started playing, was that it offered a pseudo-substitute to the Diablo universe.

WoW obviously has several things in common with Diablo, both games being about improving your character by gaining levels, learning new skills and finding new and more powerful gear. The similarities end here because WoW is a much more involved game, starting with the MMO aspect, not to mention that very often powerful gear is not so random since it can be obtained with emblems and so on.

I am willing to be patient in regard to Diablo 3. I've been waiting for it for so long that another year (or less) feels like nothing at this point, especially with the beta in sight. I'm just a bit wary of the many ways in which Blizzard could still screw the pooch on this one. I'm scared about the DRM they might implement and I'm scared about the game being based around online play. And then I'm scared about a dozen other small things. I won't lie to you: it's unlikely that I will jump to buy Diablo 3 from the first day. I'll keep my impatience in check for a few days or a couple of weeks until I can see some good reviews. If they mess this one up, I will regretfully have to pass on it. Still, despite my fears, I'm generally optimistic. It's Blizzard we're talking about, after all.

If Diablo 3 is released this year, or even very early in 2012, this might give extra validity to this Blizzard release schedule that was "leaked" some time ago. And if that chart turns out to be true, there's a lot to look forward to from Blizzard, in just a few years: 2 more Diablo expansions, 2 more World of Warcraft expansions, some more StarCraft stuff (in which I'm not interested), as well as their secret new MMO.

BankAlt.com adds saving of recipe component costs

2011-05-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

In my previous update on BankAlt, when I was announcing that BankAlt.com was officially out of beta, I was expressing my regret that I couldn't see any logical way in which to implement saving (but mostly restoring) of component costs for recipes.

Today I am happy to make another announcement: I have found a way to save and restore costs and it works the way I intended. After some internal testing I've decided to launch this new feature into the wild.

To quickly recap what BankAlt does, the site is a personal project consisting of a database of World of Warcraft professions, containing all the recipes in the game. There are various ways in which to search for a recipe but one of the most important features of BankAlt is the ability to dig deep into the full hierarchy of materials (or components) required to craft a recipe.

This should prove useful to crafters and people who like to make gold with their professions or who simply want to know what are the total materials (and sub-materials) needed to craft a particular recipe.

The second important feature of BankAlt is the ability to enter gold/silver/copper costs for each component and have the site calculate the total cost for the recipe on the fly.

Finally, the third important feature and the one which is the subject of today's post, is the ability to save those costs for later use.

It is important to note that this feature requires you to have cookies enabled in your browser in order for it to work. The component costs are saved as cookies on your local machine. Clearing the cookies from your browser will also wipe out all saved prices. It is unfortunate that this happens but it's the quickest solution I could implement. If the site will get more use in the feature I am considering a more permanent solution, in the form of a personal account where you can save your costs to the server such that they will never be lost.

I have implemented the save/restore feature partly with an idea from my reader Echo so if you are reading this, Echo, shout-out to you and thanks for your input man!

Because the way I initially thought about doing this turned out to be logically unfeasible, I had to arrive at a compromise. So here's how the new feature works.

To save the cost of a component, when you start typing a value in one of the gold/silver/copper boxes next to the component, a link will appear on the right, appropriately named "save". Click this and the cost for that component will be saved to a cookie. Once the cost is saved (which is practically instant), two new links will pop up next to the first one: "restore" and "×".

To restore a saved cost, just click the "restore" link whenever it shows up next to a component. This will restore the saved cost and automatically populate all the parent components for that component.

This solution is the best I could imagine (in my humble opinion) because it allows you to both save and restore mats regardless whether they are child or parent components. Restoring a child component will populate all parents. Restoring a parent component (one which also has children) will populate its parents but also wipe out all child components (the saved costs of those children remain saved).

You can also delete a saved cost if you wish, by clicking the "×" link. This does not clear the values in the gold/silver/copper boxes for that component. It simply removes the cost associated with that component from the cookie. Note that saving a cost when there is already a saved cost will overwrite the first cost.

So it's that simple, though I apologize if I've made it sound more complicated than it really is. That's what happens when you get an engineer to write documentation :)

I hope people will find the save/restore feature useful and, again, if the BankAlt.com gains some momentum, I'm planning to make it more permanent. Until then, I appreciate your feedback (any feedback) and please spread the word if you find BankAlt useful.

Dungeon loot rules and ethics

2011-04-25T17:14:00.001-05:00

If you've been running dungeons using the random dungeon tool then the question of how loot should be distributed must have crossed your mind. When running with friends of guild members, this usually isn't a problem because the rules are set beforehand. Running with complete strangers is a different beast altogether. As we all know, internet anonimity tends to bring the worst out of certain people. In WoW, these people are usually called "ninjas" or "griefers".

Here's an anecdote to start this discussion off. A while ago I was tanking a random Dire Maul run with my druid. At one point, an epic BOE caster shield drops from a boss. One of the dps, another druid (druids can't use shields FYI :), says, "Can I need this for my shaman?". I say "No, it's a BOE epic, we all Greed for it". While the others rolled greed, I could sense that the other druid was struggling with himself. I might be mistaken but I got the vibe that he was thinking about Needing the shield. Eventually he rolled greed. Another dps (a mage I think), won the shield. Gratz to him. The druid made a nasty remark. I defused the situation by making a light-hearted comment. We moved on.

What follows is a break-up of the dungeon loot rules that I follow in random instances. These are by no means the be-all, end-all of loot rules but they seem pretty solid to me. Feel free to add your own rules or correct mine if you feel they are bad.

Green items (BoE)
I always GREED green items or choose the DISENCHANT option (if available). I don't bother needing greens because I'm usually better equipped than that. The only exception is at low levels when I'm sporting crappy gear. Then, I will NEED if the item is an upgrade. I won't need greens for off-spec, regardless.
I won't raise a fuss if someone needs greens, unless they need every green that drops, which has happened on several occasions.

Blue items (BoP)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise or DISENCHANT.
NEED for off-spec only if no one else needs it for their main spec and not before asking the rest of the group if it is ok to do so.

Blue items (BoE)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise. I don't usually pick disenchant because 1) I can make more gold selling it on the AH and 2) if the need arises I can always DE it myself.
NEEDing for off-spec is a tricky situation here. I won't do it but I won't mind too much if others do.

Epic items (BoP)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise. DISENCHANT only at high levels (i.e. heroics or such) where the crystals are actually worth more than the vendor price of the item.
NEEDing for off-spec only if no one else needs it for their main spec and not before asking the rest of the group if it is ok to do so.

Epic items (BoE)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise.
NEEDing for off-spec is kind of a no-no for me and NEEDing for alts is a big NO. The reason why I frown on needing for off-spec is because BoE epics can be sold for some nice cash and anyone can benefit from that, regardless of class or spec.

As you can see, the main point of contention is the epic (purple) BoE item. If an epic BoE drops and there's no one who can use it for their main spec, there will always be someone who will try to claim it for their off-spec or another character. It is possible that they are 100% honest, that they really DO need it for their off-spec but how would the rest of us know and why should we care? The rest of us could use the cash from selling that epic just as well. Furthermore, why aren't they running with that off-spec if they like it so much? When something like this does happen, usually the group asks the person to equip the item and that will ensure that they didn't need it just for selling.

A good BoE epic example is the Battered Hilt, back in Wrath when it was easily worth a few thousand gold. Let me tell you something. Anyone is entitled to roll need on the hilt in a random group, regardless if they have completed the quest chain or not. For several thousand gold, all niceties are put aside and I certainly won't mind if someone else wins the roll, as long as we all have equal chances of winning.

A way to make sure no one ninjas a valuable BoE purple is to have everyone roll need on it. Usually this doesn't work, unless agreed upon from the beginning, because some people are quick to roll greed so the rules of ethics dictate that I too will roll greed. Thankfully, it seems that Blizzard is feeling our pain because they will implement a feature in one of the next patches in which whenever someone needs a BoE epic, it will bind to them. Greeding will leave it unbound.

And then there are the super polite people who will ask if they can need an item for their main spec, even when it's BoP. I appreciate that but there's no need (pun not intended) to ask for something that is an upgrade and you can really use.

The bottom line is that there are different kinds of people in WoW, as in real life. There are a few jerks who are either inconsiderate or like to inflict pain on others and then there's the rest of us. Myself, I believe that the cover of anonymity is no excuse for acting like a prick and for that reason I will try to conduct myself in game same as in real life: with honor, dignity and consideration for others.

BankAlt.com out of beta

2011-04-18T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just a heads-up for those interested. BankAlt.com, my pet WoW project, is now officially out of beta. In fact it has been out of beta for a couple of weeks but I simply neglected to mention it here.

I've inaugurated the graduation from beta by adding a final feature, namely direct linking to a recipe. Essentially you can now access a recipe directly through a link, as opposed to being able to see the sub-components only on the page which lists all the recipes.

On this page you can, of course, see the whole component tree, as well as perform cost calculations.

As an example, here's an Engineering recipe: Gnomish X-Ray Scope.

I'm pretty much done with development for BankAlt.com. You will notice that I've incorporated ads, served by Google. Hopefully this will offset some of the costs of running the site.

I was thinking that a nice feature would be the ability to save component costs such that you don't have to type them all over again each time you visit your favorite recipes. Unfortunately, after a lot of deliberation and testing, I've come to the conclusion that this feature is close to impossible, at least in the way I imagine it and that's due to the tree structure of the component list.

Now I'm off to other personal projects. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Minecraft, the craft of mining

2011-04-11T19:47:00.002-05:00

"Dig dig dig build build build" is the mantra in Minecraft, the indie game that has taken the internet by storm for almost 2 years now. Initially I was going to write a post called "WTF is Minecraft" because up until a few days ago I really had no idea why the hell this game was so popular.

I've been hearing on and off about it for a long time but after seeing glimpses of its 8-bit-like graphics my interest never flared, up until last week when I read this article about how Minecraft's dev, originally a single guy, later 2 guys and currently a small team of about 5 people, made an estimated $32 million in sales. And the damn game is still in beta!

So I thought to myself, if so many geeks are playing this game, there must be something to it. (Note: this line of reasoning doesn't apply to Facebook, Angry Birds, Farmville and other similar rubbish)

I fired up Youtube, watched a few gameplay videos, including this totally awesome fan-made music trailer and, after trying the game out for myself, I was hooked.

A couple of days later, I'm addicted. WoW? What's WoW? This is the new WoW.

It's nothing like WoW, of course. What it is, is a sandbox game which generates a random world composed from tiles (cubes rather) arranged in a grid. An enormous grid. It allows you to "dig" through the ground, through trees, essentially almost any type of material which makes up the world, collect those mats and then use them to build anything your imagination can conceive.

I am over-simplifying because there are 2 versions of the game: Classic which is free and Beta (lol) which is paid. At $20 I've already got my money's worth for the countless hours I've played. Classic gives you unlimited materials and you can just focus on building stuff, while in Beta you need to collect those mats yourself by digging and, if you so choose, you can make the game harder by enabling monsters which come out at night in dark places. By monsters I mean, of course, zombies and skeletons.

While Classic might sound like the better way to play, Beta is a lot more fun because it gets you to dig. And digging, for me at least, is tons of fun. You can dig a long way down, but not forever. There's a set distance between sea level and bedrock, which is several layers of impenetrable tiles.

To dig, you need some tools which you can create by combining various mats in patterns in a 3x3 crafting cube. The patterns are a genius idea. If you want an axe, you can arrange some sticks and stone/iron/etc in a shape resembling an axe and you get your axe. Again, I'm over-simplifying but I just wanted to give an idea of how crafting works.

While digging, you'll come across various minerals, some more precious than others. You can find coal (useful for making torches which light up the dark), iron ore (useful for making tools among other things), and diamonds which are the subject of the video I linked above. It seems that everybody is looking for diamonds because they're very rare and they make the best tools/weapons/armor.

Once you start digging, it's hard to stop. You will end up creating vast hallways, immense chambers and deep shafts. You will discover random caves, underground water streams and lakes, and dangerous lava. Digging in Minecraft is a perpetual journey of discovery. In my short time in the game I've dug a huge shaft all the way to bedrock, with a winding spiral staircase along the inside walls and a center pillar which goes all the way from top to bottom and has a ladder for quick access. Now I'm concentrating on strip-mining at the bottom of the shaft, in search of diamonds.

On the surface, I've built a huge tower, with a winding staircase, all the way to the clouds. From there, I've created skyways to various sections of my island.

Building stuff in Minecraft is cool thanks to the game's physics and the way various blocks interact. Most blocks just "stick" to each other when placed together. They don't need any support from below once you've placed them. This allows you to build the craziest stuff you can imagine. I saw a video on Youtube of a full-scale model of the starship Enterprise created by a guy with a lot of talent but also too much free time on his hands.

There's a lot more to Minecraft than what I managed to summarize here. A huge online community produces mods, hosts multiplayer servers, creates texture packs and other stuff. The randomly generated world looks strangely beautiful in all its Legoland-like glory. The blockiness and low-res textures are features, not negatives. I would suspect the graphics allow Minecraft to run on even the lowest-spec machines.

After a few days I'm hopelessly addicted to Minecraft. WoW is the farthest thing on my mind right now, sorry about that WoW fans. I'm curious how long my new obsession will last. I just want to build crazy stuff and burrow deep into the earth like a demented dwarf, so sue me.

Minecraft shows that an independent designer can really strike it rich with simple, yet /deep/ gameplay. It also emphasizes - and this is especially poignant in this day and age - that graphics aren't everything in a game. If the gameplay is kick-ass, it will more than make up for the lack of modern graphics. People-complaining-about-WoW's-graphics I'm looking at you! How long this Minecraft thing will last, no one knows. All I know is, it's a lot of fun, and now I'm off to dig dig dig and build build build some more!

Rift blitz review

2011-04-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I've been playing a little Rift. You know, the WoW "clone". I received a 3-day invite from Paul Gillett, so once again, thank you very much Paul! If it hadn't been for your invitation, I wouldn't have tried this game.

Rift marks the 3rd MMORPG I've tried, first being, of course, World of Warcraft. The second one, which I never mentioned here before, was LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online), a few months before it went F2P (Free to Play). My conclusion back then was that LOTRO wasn't worth playing even for free.

Rift, on the other hand, seems to be on the right track. Let me get one thing out of the way: my limited time with this game left me with the powerful feeling that it is WoW with a different skin. I will try to elaborate on this farther on.

There is little doubt that Rift is a modern MMO. From what I've heard, it launched without major hitches, except perhaps a few balancing issues here and there. In my limited time with the game, I did not experience any bugs or other problems. The game feels solid but it has already had a few patches to fix glitches.

The feeling that this is an almost-carbon-copy clone of WoW was strong throughout my experience. Some things are different, of course. The way you create a character, for example. It's cool that you can play around with your new character's facial features and I especially appreciate that you can vary you avatar's height. Too bad you can't change their body type: fat-thin.

In WoW I don't like playing female characters but I thought I would give them a whirl in Rift. And I think I fell in love. These have got to be the sexiest looking females in any game I've ever seen. The models have a high polygon count and it shows! Call me a perv but for the first few levels I took off these ladies' clothes just so I can stare at their perfectly sculpted bodies. If a dwarf chick can look like this... then I want to be a dwarf!!

Seems like I got sidetracked there for a bit. Anyhoo, Rift's graphics in general don't seem that much better than WoW's but character and NPC models are more detailed. WoW has had incremental graphics updates over the years and it has aged very well, however, its visuals are more cartoonish, while Rift's are more... realistic. One thing that I can say for certain WoW does better is the water.

There are 2 opposing factions in Rift: Alliance and Hor... I mean Guardians and Defiants. I didn't pay attention to any of the story so I don't know what the deal is with these factions but they each have 3 races. The Guardians (good guys I believe) have humans (only they're called something else), elves and dwarves. The other guys have some other type of humans, some sort of dark elves and some sort of barbarian humanoids.

Each race has 2 racial abilities, one active, one passive. The passive ones are usually a resistance of some sort. The barbarian-type bad guys have an interesting active ability on a short cooldown which allows them to jump a fair distance so that makes it easier to move around until you get a mount.

There are only 4 main classes (only they're called "callings"): warrior, cleric, rogue and mage. Each of these classes can access up to 3 "souls" which are essentially skill trees. While the skill system is different than WoW's, I can see what they did here.

In WoW, say, you have a hunter which has 3 trees: beast mastery, marksmanship and survival. In Rift, you pick 1 tree to start off with, after a few quests you can pick another tree to add to your existing one and later you get a 3rd tree. In Rift, instead of WoW's 3 trees per class you get 8 + 1 (PvP). However, these 8 trees are what you would get in WoW if you pooled together several classes. For example, Rift's rogue class has similar trees that a hunter and a rogue would have in WoW. So you just mix and match them. You can be a marksman (using ranged weapons) and a saboteur (using explosive devices) and an assassin (using stealth), all at the same time.

While this may seem revolutionary and/or really cool, in practice I found it rather annoying because you end up spreading yourself too thin. This is compounded by the fact that the game doesn't allow you to allocate too many "talents" into a tree until you've leveled some more. So if you have leftover points, you will have to put them in a secondary tree.

In the end, the system is similar to WoW's, except that it's done backwards. I found that I wasn't using the active skills that came with a secondary tree. As a side note, as you allocate more "talents" into a particular tree, skills are automatically unlocked for that tree. So at 2 talents you get a new skill, at 6 another, at 8 another and so on.

There are so many similarities between Rift and WoW that it's hard to know where to begin. I think the best indication is when all the controls are so identical that it feels I'm playing WoW. Rift even has an authenticator and a launcher. The shortcuts are the same, the window elements are the same, even the emotes are the same!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? The makers of Rift have certainly got this because they have unashamedly mimicked many of WoW's best features, and even its control scheme, perhaps to attract some of the veteran MMO's clientele but also as a way to avoid re-inventing the wheel.

This can be both a blessing and a curse. WoW fans will get into Rift in no time at all. My learning curve was almost zero. On the other hand there's this persistent sense of deja-vu, which might cause some players to ask themselves whether they are still in WoW.

While the visuals are good, I can't say I was overly impressed. The Guardian starting zone looked like any other generic RPG zone, with green grass, hills and trees. The buildings do seem more polished than in WoW and so do the friendly NPCs. The enemies, however, weren't very impressive: just your garden variety goblins, dark elves, ghosts, skeletons, wolves, bears and so on. I must mention that I didn't tweak the graphics settings at all; I just let the game decide.

The quests are rather boring and most of them are of the usual "kill 10 rats" variety. In general, they require you to kill stuff, gather stuff, speak to an NPC, activate stuff in a certain area, loot stuff from bodies and so on. As a result, I didn't spend one second reading the quest text. Luckily, Rift has very nice quest tracking features, complete with way-points which guide you to the quest location.

Unfortunately the demo only allows you to reach level 15, which I attained in 8 hours. I played a marksman with ranger and saboteur sub-specs, which means I was a ranged damage dealer with a pet and also some explosives (which got neglected). Pets seem rather lackluster, in that you can't tame wild animals. Instead, your skills dictate what pet you get. This might change later but I didn't get the chance to test it.

One thing that Rift does better than WoW is that it allows you to learn 3 professions. On the other hand it doesn't have secondary professions but the advantage here is that you can learn all 3 gathering professions: essentially mining, herbalism and skinning. Herbalism is actually called "scavenging" (it also lets you gather wood) and skinning is called "butchering" (you can also collect various animal body parts).

I found it funny that things which are the same thing as WoW are called something else in Rift. For example vitality is called "endurance", agility is called "dexterity", instead of gold/silver/copper there's platinum/gold/silver, reputation is called "notoriety", battlegrounds are called "warfronts" and on and on. I'm surprised guilds aren't called something different.

Mounts are done in a slightly different way. It seems that there's really no minimum level for getting a basic mount (60% increased speed), and the only requirement is to have enough money. The cheapest one was around 2 platinum 50 gold, which took me all of 8 hours to acquire, thanks in no small part to the fact that trial accounts cannot sell stuff on the auction house. I had to make my money by vendoring everything I found and/or gathered or got from quests and monsters.

Rift's innovation is, of course, rifts. Rifts are tears in the fabric between dimensions which allow various elemental types to invade. They occur randomly throughout the world and players have the option of closing them when encountered, by defeating the monsters which pour out of them. There's a cool system in place which allows you to join a public group on the fly, once you get close enough to a rift. You just click a button called "Join public group" and bam, you're in a group.

Rifts spew increasingly difficult waves of monsters and after defeating each wave you can click a small icon in your rift window to get your reward. Rewards are for the most part in the form of tokens (think emblems) which can be exchanged for various items from special vendors.

Apart from rifts, there also seem to be random invasions of the various quest hubs and cities by large groups of monsters. I found it a lot of fun to join these groups of defenders on the fly and kick monster ass. There's also a type of public quest which becomes active when these invasions occur, though I haven't had time enough to figure out how they work.

I barely got a taste of Rift but I generally liked what I saw. This game felt leagues ahead of LOTRO and certainly more polished. Too bad there isn't an interesting story behind it. Or maybe there is and I didn't have time to look for it in the limited time I played. Rift made me curious to find out more about the other zones I haven't discovered yet, to get to max level and to explore what else it has to offer. I don't even know what the max level is (I assume it's 60), nor how dungeons work or how PvP is done. I don't have any interest in PvP anyway.

Finally, the question which begs asking is this: is Rift worth playing? If you're sick of WoW to the gills but want a game which is both familiar and new, and you don't mind paying the full retail price ($50) for the game client in addition to the $15 monthly subscription, then Rift is certainly a worthy proposition. In fact it is probably the best non-WoW MMORPG at the moment, at least until the Star Wars MMO comes out.

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to play this great new MMO. However, I still feel that WoW is the more mature game, with greater content and infinitely better lore and story. And I won't even mention everything that I have invested in WoW: all the high level characters, all the played time, all the gold. Starting a whole new complex MMO from scratch is a daunting task but not outside the realm of imagination. At some later date, when I am completely bored with WoW, when I have sufficient spare time and when the Rift client will be sold at a hefty discount, I may yet give it another try. And when that happens, I can already tell you that I will like it.

P.S. Here's some more sexy (hide the kids first)!

Blizzard should buy gold

2011-03-18T18:10:00.001-05:00

Here's a controversial one for you: I think that Blizzard should buy gold from players.

Some players are of the opinion that Blizzard should sell gold, partly to compete against gold sellers and botters, partly to offer a service which some of them might appreciate. Personally I don't agree with this. I believe that World of Warcraft would be damaged to a great extent if people could buy gold legally. There are many reasons why I think so but this article is not about these reasons.

When I say that they should buy gold from players, I don't mean that they should pay actual cash for it. Instead, it would be rather neat to exchange gold for some sort of credits, which could then be used for a variety of Blizzard products.

Imagine if you could finance your WoW subscription with the gold you made in game. EVE Online does this, so there is precedent.

Imagine if you could use your gold to buy special pets or plushies or any other merchandise that Blizzard sells. That would make in-game pets purchasable both inside the game (directly with gold) and out of it (with real money). You wouldn't have to convert your gold to credits in order to buy those pets. Instead, you could just head on to the in-game vendor and buy whichever pet you wanted.

How much gold would a monthly subscription cost? How about 10K? Too much? Perhaps 5K. I would be ok with 10K gold a month, partly because I could easily generate that much (and more) each month, partly because I could keep playing for free for at least 50 months without even trying to generate more gold, with the gold I already have.

I'm sure many other players are in the same position. On the other hand, there are those for whom 5K gold is an enormous amount. Which is fine. This wouldn't change anything for poor players. In fact, it might even help them in the long run. Here's how.

Being able to buy game subscriptions, vanity items and merchandise with in-game gold would essentially create a huge gold sink which would destroy large chunks of game money. All that inflation from recent years, as players hoarded more and more gold, would deflate like a pricked balloon. This, in turn, would make gold more scarce, which would make it more valuable. Poor players would find that their gold can now buy more stuff than before.

The way I see it, most players could benefit from this. Hey, it might even drive lazy players to work harder so they can finance some of that cool stuff.

The obvious question is, would Blizzard ever do it? Assuming they have thought about this (I'm not sure they have), I highly doubt it. How would Blizzard benefit from this? They wouldn't, unless market stabilization and the reduction of inflation is their goal. But I don't think it is because they have stated repeatedly that the in-game economy is free and they won't stick their noses in it to control it in any way, unless there's some major craziness going on.

Since this move wouldn't benefit Blizzard in the least, it is highly likely that we won't ever see this feature. There are probably major drawbacks that I can't foresee. As a player with excess gold, however, this sounds like a good deal to me.

What about you? Do you think I'm crazy or does this idea have any merit?

Patch overload

2011-03-12T21:51:00.000-06:00

There comes a time in a MMORPG player's life when he or she has simply had their fill of patches and game changes. World of Warcraft has been around for so long and it has gone through so many significant class changes that it has afflicted some of us with patch overload. I'm one of those and I'm not even a hardcore raider or PvP-er.

Patches are a good thing when they fix bugs. Change is good when it adds new features, or improves existing ones, or addresses deficiencies. It seems to me that WoW has been getting more patches more quickly as time goes by. Again, that's not a bad thing. What "bugs" me, if you will forgive the pun, are the never ending balancing changes.

Yes, I've just about had it with this so-called "class balancing". Just look at hunters, for example. Multishot was fine, in my opinion, in Wrath of the Lich King. They nerfed it to the ground in Cataclysm. Now, in patch 4.1, they are preparing to buff it again. Even hunter's resource system, focus, was initially adopted in WoW Alpha, to be dropped in favor of mana, and then to be reverted years later to focus. Nice. Couldn't they have kept focus from the beginning?

It seems that lately I've been in a foul mood regarding WoW. I just feel like I can't keep up with these myriad of tiny class balancing changes which every patch brings. This is especially amplified when you are playing most of the 10 classes. Keeping track of all that information? Fuggedaboutit.

Can't Blizzard just make up their minds and say, ok we're done with major changes to class mechanics? Small tweaks here and there I can understand and have nothing against. But dammit, every time I re-learn how to play my class, there's some big overhaul which requires me to start over. My brain is beginning to overheat, and I'm not kidding you.

Since I'm already on the subject, do you know what I think messes everything up in WoW? PvP. I've disliked PvP in WoW from the beginning but with every patch I'm reminded that this is one of the biggest causes for these major skill and mechanics changes. It's not the concept of PvP itself, but rather the fact that classes have to use the same set of talents in PvP as in PvE. Hence, it is impossible to ever balance this game properly. Hear this: the classes in World of Warcraft will be eternally unbalanced as long as PvP and PvE share the same talent set.

To be fair, I think that Blizzard has also been sliding down the slippery slope of class equality for some time now. In trying to make all the classes do the same damage, heal the same amount and tank with the same efficiency, they've made it such that even a 1% advantage in, say, damage that one class might have over another, is met with endless QQ from the less fortunate class.

Look, I don't give a crap if that warrior is doing 5% more damage than my hunter, with comparable equipment. I'm having fun playing the hunter, he's having fun playing the warrior. Fun should be all that matters here because, after all, it's just a damn game. It's not like someone's paying me to be at the top of the meters.

I vaguely remember that once, long ago, classes were specialized. Some tanks were very good for single targets while others were good at AoE tanking. Some healers were good at tank healing while others excelled at group healing. Some DPS were good at hitting single targets really hard while others were experts at mowing down entire hordes of enemies but in turn were relatively inefficient with single targets. Personally I don't see anything wrong in having specialized classes. These days, we're all "balanced". In fact, looking at any past, present and future patch, not really.

Going back to PvP for a second, I'm of the opinion that there should at least be a separate talent tree for PvP or something that shouldn't interfere with PvE in the slightest. There is no way all in the nine hells that WoW's classes will ever be completely balanced as long as PvP and PvE share the same talents. 20 years from now, if WoW will still be alive, patch 15.3 will contain yet another overhaul of how class X behaves or how certain skills are used.

So yeah, woohoo, I can't wait for patch 4.1... and patch 4.2... and... Wait, no, I CAN wait.

BankAlt.com adds cost calculations

2011-03-06T21:13:00.000-06:00

Dear friends and readers, I am happy to announce that my special WoW project, BankAlt.com, has now gained a new feature, something that you've all been secretly wanting but were too shy to say. I'm talking about cost calculations.

In addition to the component hierarchy for recipes, there is now the ability to enter costs for each material in gold/silver/copper, and the total cost for the main item is automatically calculated.

This feature is, in fact, the whole raison d'être for BankAlt and the original idea that drove its development. The reason why it took me so long to release it (besides the fact that I don't have much time to work on this project) is that it required several iterations before it was fit to be released. I am now reasonably certain that the cost calculation feature is ready for prime time.

I already know what many of you will be requesting next and please be assured that I'm already working on it. I won't say what it is but this next feature is also part of my original plan.

I will explain briefly how the new feature works. Next to each recipe there are two new options: Quick Tree and Full Tree w/ Cost. Quick Tree is the old "Expand" feature and it simply shows the component hierarchy. Full Tree w/ Cost is the new cost calculation feature. It opens a window with the component tree but now there are boxes which allow you to enter component costs. As you type, totals are tallied and the final cost of the main item is automatically calculated.

You don't need to fill in every single sub-component. You can choose what level you wish to fill, depending on the mats that you have available for crafting. For example, you can calculate starting at the lowermost component level (if you have access to raw materials and can craft components from them), or you can start at a higher level (if you can obtain those from, say, the Auction House). You can also do combinations of these two extremes, depending on what raw materials and components you have access to.

I have written a cost calculations tutorial under the help section. Below, I've included the screenshots from that tutorial but the help section itself has more explanations, if they are needed.

Searching for a recipe and the two new Tree options

The Quick Tree option

The Full Tree w/ Cost option

Starting to type the cost for a sub-component

All sub-component costs have been filled in

This time only the main component costs were filled in

I hope this new feature will prove useful and, as usual, suggestions are welcome.

Farming as therapy

2011-02-27T16:10:00.001-06:00

Farming for ore and herbs may not be everyone's cup of tea, nor is it the absolute best gold per hour method of making money in WoW but it has one advantage: it doesn't require a lot of neurons. By this I mean that you can do it on auto pilot, while engaging in other activities.

When I get in the farming mood, it becomes therapeutic. Some people consider fishing to be therapeutic but for me it is too static an activity and besides you have to constantly keep an eye on the bobber. Not so with ore and herb farming. The only thing you need to do is check the minimap occasionally.

I'm the type of person who likes to multitask while doing certain activities. For example I usually have to do something while eating: watch a movie, read a blog or an article or read a book. Eating is one of those activities that can be done on auto pilot while engaging in a more meaningful activity. Since time is limited and precious, this makes a lot of sense to me.

I like to apply the same philosophy to World of Warcraft, or other similar games. Here are a few of the things that you, or I, could do while farming:

You could listen to music and sing along, provided you are either home alone or American Idol material or are not ashamed to make a fool of yourself.

Or you could, if you are lucky enough to have dual monitors, watch a movie/show/Youtube/etc on your second monitor.

Or you could engage in discussion with a spouse/friend/family member because you don't need to give too much attention to the farming activity itself.

Or you could eat/drink. I've done this many times and I assure you it's not hard at all.

Or you could listen to a podcast. This, in fact, is my favorite activity while farming. I have a number of podcasts I subscribe to and some of them are 1 hour in length. That's long enough to gather sufficient mats and short enough to not reach total boredom.

Or, if gambling is your drug, you can try a little poker or real money blackjack on your second monitor.

There are probably other activities that you can easily do while farming but I haven't thought of them yet. Suggestions are welcome.

If you are concerned with making full use of your limited time, dual-tasking is probably for you. The time spent in WoW is same as the time spent in real life so why not make use of the same amount of time for both WoW and real life?

Farming is so easy that anyone can do it. If you really want to go crazy, you can even level all the way to 85 doing nothing but farming. There are no high level or complicated strategies involved. There is no brainpower involved. Just get on your mount and make a circuit of your favorite farming area. And the best part about doing something else while farming? No stress. Someone else snatched your node from under your nose? No problem, you can just move on while listening to that great podcast in the background.

So just chillax while farming. It's therapeutic man!

Badass

2011-02-19T11:45:00.001-06:00

Let me start by stating that I am not a mount collector. I've never been and it's likely that I will never become one. It's simply too much work to collect all those mounts and frankly I couldn't care less what I'm riding, as long as it's quick.

Thanks to the nice changes made by Blizzard, you can now just buy the maximum riding speed you can afford and it will apply equally to all your mounts, even the ones that were traditionally slow (like the 60% ground mount or 150% flying mount). That is a very nice touch because it allows everyone to use the mount they like best, without any penalty to speed. In my case, all my level 80+ toons have 310% speed mounts.

Since my mount collection is pitiful and can't even be called a "collection", the mount that I like best is the Headless Horseman's Mount that I have on my priest only. It has never dropped for my other characters but it seems fitting that my priest owns it.

You see, a shadow-specced priest makes this mount look even more badass than it is. There are cooler mounts out there and, after all, individual preferences are very subjective but for me, this is the ultimate mount. That, in no small measure, is also because I actually own it, as opposed to gawking at other people's 1337 mounts.

I find this mount baddass for several reasons. First, there's the fact that it is both a ground and a flying mount. Nowadays this isn't such a big deal anymore but in the olden days such a mount was very cool to own because you could use the same mount in both flying and non-flying areas without resorting to macros or multiple hotkeys. Then, there's the concept of riding a fricking flying horse. It looks like Death's horse, like one of the steeds of the Four Horsemen or perhaps like one of the mounts ridden by the Nazgûl in Lord of the Rings.

Combining this mount with a shadow priest really brings out the badassery, no question about it. I also love the way it seems to effortlessly glide through the air without flapping wings or whipping tails to distract me. As a bonus, when it turns, it seems to bank a little in the direction of the turn. Oh and if you look at the screenshot, the mount and the (shadow priest) rider are almost invisible against dark backgrounds.

Forgive me if I seem smitten with the Headless Horseman's Mount but it is the best possible mount I could have on any of my characters but especially on my shadow priest who, with his dark aura, gives the mount an even more foreboding presence.

I will end this by saying that there isn't another mount in World of Warcraft quite like the Headless Horseman's Mount. Which is your badass mount or what do you consider to be the ultimate pony?

BankAlt.com adds search functionality

2011-02-12T17:35:00.000-06:00

Hey all, it's been a while since I posted and the reasons are twofold. First, I'm going through a phase where I'm bored with WoW. Second, I've been engaging in other pleasant activities and one of them has been to add some improvements to BankAlt.com.

(For those who don't know what BankAlt is, it's a World of Warcraft database for professions and recipes which helps you determine the materials needed to craft a certain recipe. However, it can drill deep into all the sub-mats and sub-sub-mats and... you get the idea. As a result, it calculates the total number of base components - or raw materials - that you will need in order to craft your recipe.)

Now, I have added a general Search function to the site. Many users have requested this function and I admit that I should have probably included it from the beginning. However, I still consider the site to be in beta and I wanted to launch it with basic functionality rather than dragging the launch for months on end until everything was perfect.

The search functionality helps you bypass the profession pages so it makes it quicker to find a recipe if you know a few letters contained in its name.

Search results can belong to more than one profession so they are organized into tabs pertaining to each profession. You can filter the results further under each tab by typing in the filter box and you can also sort by skill and recipe name.

The full mats tree can be accessed as before by clicking the "Expand" button. I am aware that "Expand" is not a very intuitive term for what this feature does but I have yet to come up with something better.

So if you feel that you can use BankAlt.com's features, give it a try. Suggestions, comments and bug reports are welcome and appreciated.

This expansion is dead

2011-01-30T22:40:00.000-06:00

I can't pinpoint the problem but for the past couple of weeks I've lost all interest in playing WoW but it has actually started about a month ago. Not even 2 months into Cataclysm I'm already bored.

I don't feel like leveling any of my characters anymore. My hunter is the only one I've leveled to 85, while my priest remains 82, my paladin 81, my death knight and warlock remain 80, my mage is 79, my druid is 74 and my shaman is 51. I can't even get myself to make that tiny push to 80 with my mage.

Professions are in an even worse state. The only ones I've leveled to max are mining on my hunter and herbalism on my priest. All the other professions are still at WotLK levels and I don't see any incentive for leveling them farther at this point, not with >500K gold in my possession.

I haven't even done a fraction of the quests in the new Cataclysm zones and even though there's ton of new lore and great stories, I can't get myself to level another character through them.

Even flying through Azeroth has lost its charm. I mean, I do appreciate it and IMO it's the single best thing to come out of Cataclysm but I've already got over it.

For me, this expansion is dead and I don't see what Blizzard could possibly do to make it better. In a way I guess it's just burnout after playing WoW (on and off) for so many years. I don't even feel like playing other games and I'm a die-hard gamer dammit! On the flip side, I have much more time to engage in other fun activities and hobbies.

Anyone else feel this way?

Best goblin class for solo-ing BC and WotLK content?

2011-01-24T22:36:00.000-06:00

I was pleased to receive an email today from a reader who wanted an answer to the following dilemma:

I love your Wow Alone blog, and as I've been mulling this question over, I couldn't think of anyone better to contact. I've played a human mage for a good number of years now, but am looking to dip my toes into the Horde waters, and so want to make an alt (Goblin, preferably). On this alt I'm going to focus on seeing as much of the Horde side as possible and doing as much Horde stuff as possible - achievements, exploration, dungeons, questions. The majority of this will be solo.

My question then is this: at this point in Cataclysm from what you know, what classes would be able to solo BC raids/heroics and (if possible) WotLK normals, heroics, even maybe some 10 man raids? Because I want to see as much of the game as possible as I go, Death Knights are out, and would like it to be a goblin, so non-druid and paladin if possible. How would an enhancement shaman be for this? Protection warrior? Warlock? Hunter? All/none? (Would love something with the option to heal or tank in an occasional group as a change of pace from my mage, but the main goal is to be able to solo hard stuff for fun and rep.)

I appreciate your time, and keep up the GREAT work on the blog!

(I'm leaving his name out in case he wishes to remain anonymous)

Well my friend, the answer isn't that simple but I will try nonetheless. First, I can't say I like goblins a lot. Second, I haven't played a lot on the Horde side, though I have taken an orc shaman to level 66 or hereabouts.

In what follows, I'll try to analyze each available class for goblins and try to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are for solo-ing Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content. I will assume that my friend would like to try solo-ing these dungeons at level 85, for best results. Personally I wouldn't try any lower and not until I've gotten some nice Cataclysm gear. Burning Crusade dungeons are easy for most classes at level 80 or even lower but since he wishes to solo Wrath content as well, it's safer to be level 85, in my opinion. It's true that people have solo-ed level Wrath dungeons at level 80 but these fellows are experts and have probably agonized endlessly about tactics and what-not.

Mage

My experience with mages ends at level 79 because that's how far I managed to take my human mage. Having said that, I don't think mages are particularly well suited for solo-ing content. They hit hard but can't take more than a couple of hard blows and they also can't heal themselves.

Priest

To me, priests are in the same category as mages. Healing priests obviously won't be able to kill anything, while shadow priests might have more of a chance but I still doubt they will get very far with some of the more powerful bosses of Wrath.

Rogue

Rogues have been known to solo content due not in small part to their stealth. A rogue can sneak through the whole dungeon right to the bosses. Rogues hit hard and they have very good avoidance. I've heard that there are "rogue tank" builds and people have actually used rogues to tank instances so I'm sure it can be done. Overall I'd say that rogues have more potential than both mages and priests. Personally I dislike rogues and I've delegated my level 76 rogue to bank alt duty.

Warlock

Here's where things are starting to look up. I'm sure that a good demonology build could be used to solo a lot of the older dungeons. I have very little experience at playing a demonology warlock though so I can't comment beyond this but I do have a personal example of how a demonology warlock can solo an elite. One of the main strengths of a warlock is that they can heal their pet while keeping dots on the target.

Warrior

I've never played a warrior beyond level 20 so I have no idea how they operate at higher levels. Therefore, warriors are definitely not my first choice for solo-ing content.

Shaman

Shamans, and enhancement shamans in particular, are interesting. I'm sure that with the right equipment they can solo a pretty large chunk of content. That's because the enhancement shaman has access to Ghost Wolves which are both a huge burst of damage and a source of constant healing while they're active, meaning that bosses can be brought down quickly with minimal damage to the shaman. Enhancement also has the awesome Maelstrom Weapon and he can use the procs to heal himself if needed. Despite this, I'm not positive that they'll be able to solo all Wrath bosses. Once the Spirit Wolves expire, the shaman is on his own.

Hunter

Hunters are probably THE class for solo-ing all kinds of content. The reason is simple: they are the best pet class in the game. A max level hunter with powerful gear will devastate any Burning Crusade dungeon (in fact this was valid even at level 80) and I'm sure he'd be able to solo most, if not all of Wrath content. I would imagine that most hardcore solo hunters spec into Beast Mastery but gear and choice of pet also counts. From what I've heard, it is important to have gear with lots of stamina and to spec the pet into lots of avoidance and mitigation (dodge, armor, etc).

Death Knight

I'm not very good at death knights but I've heard people using them to solo powerful dungeons so I know that it can be done. Death Knights seem better equipped to handle this kind of work than warriors because they can heal themselves to a certain extent. Before Blizzard destroyed the Blood spec and morphed it into a tanking spec, I would have sworn that Blood was the way to go, but now I'm not so sure anymore. This still seems to be the case but I don't know anything about this spec anymore.

This has been a brief article and unfortunately I wasn't able to get into more detail but my final advice (and personal preference) for my reader would be to pick a hunter. Yes, I am biased towards hunters but few can deny that they are a damn good solo-ing class, perhaps the best in the game. While it is possible to solo powerful dungeons with other classes, no other class seems as straightforward as hunters, at least to my mind. So I would say this: pick a hunter and enjoy the convenience of having your very own tank that you can also heal in between dealing damage. Hunter pets are powerful and they can get you out of many sticky situations. Hunters are fun and... hell, everyone should level at least one!

Archaeology, the great time waster

2011-01-16T11:15:00.001-06:00

Here I am to talk to you a little bit about archaeology, WoW's newest (secondary) profession introduced in Cataclysm.

I'm gonna say it from the start: Blizzard has discovered the goose with the golden eggs a long time ago but they keep figuring out new ways to coax it to lay yet more golden (and shinier) eggs.

One way in which a MMORPG such as World of Warcraft keeps players hooked is to give them stuff to do. Repetitive and grindy but fun stuff seems like a good way to accomplish this.

I was excited by archaeology at the beginning, and still am to a certain extent. I guess this is where the addictive component kicks in. However, I see several problems with this red-headed stepchild of a profession.

1. Archaeology seems to have been designed with a flying mount (and a fast one at that) in mind. If it hasn't, then bummer. I can't imagine trying to level it without one. My newest character, a worgen druid, has learned archaeology, in the off-chance that he'll encounter a site in the zones he is questing in. By level 34 he got exactly 2 sites.

2. Even with a fast (310% or more) flying mount, it still takes an eternity to level archaeology from scratch. Simply flying around from one zone to another takes many minutes. Granted, sometimes you get lucky and sites sprout in adjacent areas but that doesn't happen often enough.

3. The majority of crafted relics are crap. Not only that, but they are worthless. It would be nice if they would at least have *some* vendor value. I hear that in a future patch Blizzard is raising the vendor prices for most of these items.

4. Some of the high-end epics are nice, as well as the mount and the pet. Perhaps some of the other doodads as well. But in order to craft those you *really* need to get your ass into gear and grind those fragments baby!

5. Since the relics you get to craft are random, it might be a long time before you get what you wish for.

6. I can't imagine myself leveling this profession all the way to max on a second character beside my main. That's simply too much work and for what? I did learn it on my other characters but that's just in the off chance that I'll be in the same area where a site is. And that's just for the XP since I'm aware that I won't be able to level it on these alts. I'm willing to bet that I could level any other profession from scratch with mats gathered by myself in the time needed to level archaeology.

There are just a couple of redeeming features that take off some of the sting.

1. The XP from discovering fragments is very good and it scales nicely with your level. Thus, it might be worth the waste of time just for the sake of the XP.

2. The fragments don't take up inventory space. If they did, I'd just say "screw this". Tablets and other green items are ok to take inventory because they can be sold on the AH and that's just what I do.

Conclusion: Blizzard may have had good intentions with this new profession but they screwed the pooch, in my book. Yeah, they did manage to create yet another great time sink so if that was their original intention, kudos to them. Personally, I'll just try to level it whenever I feel like it or when it's convenient such as when sites spawn in close proximity. Otherwise, I just can't be bothered to go out of my way to be an expert at it. Some of those epic items are nice but I guess I'll just miss out on them, unless I get really lucky. I can do more interesting things with my time than to waste it on archaeology.

BankAlt.com and Cataclysm recipes

2011-01-07T19:36:00.000-06:00

Dear friends and readers, I would like to make a quick statement about the state of BankAlt.com.

I have recently received a bunch of questions regarding Cataclysm recipes and when they will become available. Truth be told, and I'm not proud of this at all, I've been neglecting BankAlt.com for a while now. The reasons are many but among them I will mention the launch of Cataclysm and my involvement with the new expansion and posting on the blog. And then there are my other hobbies that I won't even talk about...

Believe me that I have been thinking about those Cataclysm recipes and how I should get my lazy ass into gear and load them up to the database.

To this end, I will attempt to load all the recipes during the next few days. I won't make any promises (in true Blizzard style) but I do realize this has become an issue and it's the first thing on my list of priorities for BankAlt. And yes, there are still a lot of features that I would like to implement at some point. If only I can stop playing this stupid WoW game :)

Please stay tuned for future announcements and thanks for your suggestions and support!

Post-Cataclysm gold tips

2010-12-31T16:16:00.001-06:00

This post is a follow-up to My Cataclysm gold strategy and is also written in response to Marcko's (of Justmytwocopper) blogging carnival challenge.

My gold-making tips this time are also restricted to certain professions, namely gathering (mining and herbalism, inscription and jewelcrafting).

For Miners/Herbalists

During the first week or so of Cataclysm I concentrated mostly on mining/herbing in the new areas and simply selling the mats on the auction house, plus some inscription on the side. These alone netted over 100K gold in a little more over a week.

Gathering allowed me to discover and explore the new areas, while at the same time making a lot of gold in the process. The XP from mining/herbing nodes is also nothing to sneeze at.

While prices for the new herbs and bars have stabilized to an extent and are even decreasing, I feel that it is still worth it to farm mats because there's still a long way to go before prices will hit Wrath levels. If you don't find farming boring, then I advise you to keep at it, at least for another couple of weeks. Sell, sell, sell everthing you find and resist the urge to use those mats to level your own professions. Remember, opportunity cost.

For Scribes/Inscriptionists/Inscribers/Inscriptors/...

Personally I have shifted away from farming to an equally (or even more so) profitable endeavor. Namely inscription. I guess I was running out of interesting podcasts to listen to while farming but I think the biggest factor was time. Even if I don't make as much gold in a day from inscription compared to farming, I believe that the gold per hour from crafting glyphs is a lot more than from farming.

Glyphs are still hot-selling items despite the fact that they are now learn-once-use-many. The most expensive seem to be the ones crafted from Ethereal Ink (Outland herbs) and Ink of the Sea (Northrend herbs).

While Ethereal Ink is very expensive (and so are Outland herbs), that's not the case with Wrath herbs and Ink of the Sea. I can still find cheap inks and herbs which I mill and convert to inks.

As for the lower level inks, I like to buy cheap herbs (there's plenty of them now that most new scribes have finished leveling) and just convert them to inks. It is folly to exchange Blackfallow Ink for lower quality inks at the moment due to the fact that this new ink is extremely expensive.

So I won't bother with anything crafted from Blackfallow Ink or Ethereal Ink for now. In a couple of days my worgen druid will reach Outland and he's a herbalist so I will use him to gather some herbs (for both XP and mats) but until then I'm sticking with the other inks.

My strategy is to use Auction Profit Master to scan the AH for glyphs, once a day. I will create a list with just 1 glyph of anything that sells for at least 60G. Then I will craft and post, just once per day with a 12 hour duration. On weekends I'll post/cancel/re-post 2 or 3 times but I won't bother on weekdays. Usually the next day I'll find that about half of my glyphs have sold. The cool thing is that on weekdays I don't have to cancel the glyphs. By posting them at "rush-hour", i.e. in the evening with a 12 hour duration, they will expire on their own some time the next day while I'm at work.

I also keep a list of glyphs that have sold along with the price they sold at. You don't have to do that but it allows me to tell at a glance which glyphs are holding their price and which can be crafted more than once. Speaking of which, I prefer to craft 1 of each because prices are somewhat volatile for certain glyphs and I want to minimize risk as much as possible because mats are now more expensive than they were. Also, posting 1 glyph allows me to work under the radar of the big sellers.

Currently, I make 1000-2000 gold from inscription daily, without trying too hard and just posting once per day. If I get more into it (more frequent scans/posts/re-posts), I can make more. The other night I made almost 4K simply by resetting my crafting queue and creating a new one. Total work: about 30 minutes.

My "secret", if you can call it that, is that most of the inscription work I do is AFK. Look for a future post on the subject but there are too many details to get into and now's not the time. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to do it though.

For Jewelcrafters

If you are a jewelcrafter, these teeny-tiny tips might benefit you. After Cataclysm I've noticed that 2 items are continuing to sell very well and in fact the demand for them seems higher than in Wrath BUT the supply is much lower. I'm talking about Nightmare Tear and Enchanted Pearl.

Nightmare Tear is crafted from 1x Dragon's Eye + 5x Infinite Dust. As a jewelcrafter you should do your daily Dalaran JC quest, unless it's a pain in the ass to get to Dalaran. My JC is posted in Dalaran and I do that quest every day. The green Wrath gems can be bought cheaply from the AH. Infinite Dust on my server is about 2G a piece or less. Dragon's Eyes vary in price but they can be anywhere between 40G-100G.

Simply by buying my mats off the AH, I can create a Nightmare Tear for a cost of around 100G and I can sell it for 200G. They seem to be selling as soon as I post them.

Enchanted Pearls are another under-the-radar item. They too are prismatic gems but they cost much less to craft and are thus less risky than Nightmare Tears. They only require 1x Northsea Pearl ( < 1G on my server) and 1x Infinite Dust. I like to sell them for 15G-30G.

One other tip is this: if you can find someone dumping cheap Enchanted Pearls on the AH, snatch them and re-post at the "correct" price. The other night someone had posted a dozen of them at under 2G a piece. I grabbed them all, then re-posted at 30G apiece. In a couple of hours 4 of them had sold.

For everyone else

For the rest of us, you can try selling Vanishing Powder and Dust of Disappearance which can both be bought from the inscription supplies vendor. There are lots of foolish/lazy/ignorant people out there who buy these for a premium from the AH instead of getting them from the vendor.

As an example, I buy Vanishing Powder for 35 silver for 5 pieces and sell them for 75 silver apiece. Dust of Disappearance is even better, though it is a higher risk item. I buy mine for 10G apiece and sell them for 15-30G apiece. Hefty profits right there.

The End

As you can see, my post-Cataclysm gold-making strategies are mostly based around certain professions but let's face it: having access to a high-level profession opens up your horizons and gold-making opportunities by a lot. Even if it's hard for someone to fully level a crafting profession, there's no excuse not to have at least one gathering skill, if not two. And even then, you can still do some "auction house PvP" and flip a few items around. Bottom line is: with or without professions, to make gold in WoW, some work is involved!

XP from questing vs dungeons

2010-12-29T19:12:00.002-06:00

This question is more suited to tanks who get instant queues but lately I've been wondering how can one get more XP: by questing in a level-appropriate zone or by running random dungeons?

Let's say you are a tank (like my worgen druid) and would like to level as quickly and efficiently as possible. Would you choose to chain-run dungeons and skip questing or quest instead, with the occasional dungeon.

Because my main (and favorite) spec on the druid is tanking, I had the notion that I would chain-run dungeons and thus gain levels quickly. Well, it turns out that's not really the case. During the short time between The Shattering and Cataclysm there was lots XP to be had from dungeons, especially from the in-dungeon quests. That, alas, was nerfed. Dungeon quests that would give, say, 6000XP now give 3000XP or less.

From my experience I find that just by running dungeons over and over again doesn't seem to award lots of XP. The dungeon XP improves considerably when there are quests to complete but this is a one-time proposition and afterwards it doesn't seem as lucrative to run the same dungeon again.

On the other hand, simply completing a bunch of "yellow" quests (i.e. of your level) on your own in a questing area can be very efficient. As an example, the other night my worgen druid (level 51) quested for about 30 minutes in Burning Steppes and gained a whole level. If I'd played for another 15 minutes he would have gained yet another one.

Chain-running dungeons, especially as a tank, can prove very boring and repetitive. I love tanking on the druid but leveling via the dungeon finder doesn't seem especially quick.

For this reason I've chosen a combination between running dungeons and questing. This way I can have the best of both worlds. But this reasoning applies mostly to tanks. As dps I have to quest while queuing for dungeons anyway.

What about you? Do you prefer questing over running dungeons?

Altitis

2010-12-26T13:43:00.000-06:00

I don't know why but it seems that I'm suffering from a rare form of WoW-disease called "altitis". Almost a month into Cataclysm I don't feel the urge to level my level 80 characters anymore. I don't feel the urge to run Cata dungeons or heroics on my hunter (level 85) or my priest (level 82). I don't have the urge to level my professions or even make gold like I used to during the first few days.

What I do feel like doing is leveling these 2 new alts of mine: my dwarf shaman (currently level 50) and the worgen druid (level 43). I'm guessing that old leveling itch is back.

Woe is me! Is this terrible disease going to kill me? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime I'm off to level my alts some more.

Don't piss off the tank

2010-12-23T19:14:00.001-06:00

Just. Don't. Piss. Off. The. Tank.

I will be the first to admit that tanks in random groups can be jerks sometimes, especially since their queue times are zero and some of them take this as a license to be assholes. Most tanks I've run with (as well as most dps/healers) are nice, regular folks. Generally, people in randoms are well-behaved, in my experience, because they just want to finish the dungeon without too much drama.

I like to think that I'm a nice and accommodating group member. I always try to keep things civil and I don't want to upset anyone if I can help it. Now of course, when I'm running as a dps I prefer to keep my trap shut or else I might find myself booted but when I run as a healer I'm a lot more vocal and when I'm tanking, you better not fsck with me BIATCH!

When I tank, I have something akin to a "zero tolerance" policy or perhaps a "two strikes" policy. If you do something stupid, I'll warn you but if you do the same dumb thing again, you're on your own.

The other night I was running a random Scarlet Monastery Cathedral dungeon. As soon as I got in I noticed that the mobs were gleefully coming at me without being aggroed by me at all. After a couple of minutes I realized that someone was pulling them. It was the damn healer, of all people.

Fine, I decided to go with it, grabbing aggro and dispatching the mobs. The healer did a good job keeping me up but then he went and pulled more and yet more mobs. When we got to the actual cathedral he rushed in and pulled about half of the mobs. We survived and I said "Thanks for pulling for me". This remark got ignored of course.

Then he told me to pull the boss even though the room wasn't cleared. I decided to clear the room instead. What did the healer do? You guessed it! He pulled the boss. So what happens in Cathedral when you pull the boss and the place hasn't been cleared? All the remaining mobs, regardless if they are out of range or LOS, or in rooms, swarm you.

Since the healer felt that way, I decided to spare myself the trouble and declined to tank that nasty pull. I'm sure that if I had cooperated we might have been able to pull it off. The reason I didn't is because it creates a precedent and sends a signal to that healer and perhaps to other members of the group that it's ok to pull mobs whenever you feel like it, disregarding what the tank may feel about the situation.

So I did the only sensible thing, which is to shift to kitty and haul my ass out of the dungeon, while the group was being raped. Since I didn't have any aggro from the dozen mobs + boss, I didn't have any trouble running to the exit. On my way I typed "Have fun tanking". Maybe leaving like that wasn't fair to the rest of the group and I really feel for them but it was the healer's fault through and through.

It turns out that I'm a very good tank (so far) on my druid. I've received compliments on numerous occasions in regards to my tanking prowess. I don't make a habit of leaving groups at the drop of a hat despite the fact that my queues are instant. I respect others but in return I demand a modicum of respect, especially when I'm tanking. That healer had it coming and the group was doomed anyway under his... healership.

I've had another guy a couple of nights ago, dps this time, who was in a hurry or something because he kept urging me to pull lots of mobs. I ignored him and did my own thing. I'm not usually comfortable with pulling tons of mobs in random dungeons because healers are sometimes very good, sometimes bad but most often average and I go by the mantra "better it takes a couple of minutes longer than to wipe". Besides, successfully fighting large numbers of mobs also depends a lot on how efficient the dps is at AOE-ing them down.

So please, dear folks, whatever your role, give the tank some respect and in return you will receive it (unless the tank is a total dick in which case he's not worth a dry turd anyway). Unless the tank specifically requests it, DO NOT PULL under any circumstance. The tank sets the pace, not the dps and not the healer. If you don't like it, that's too bad, put up or shut up. If you really got the itch to go at your own pace I suggest trying a tanking class or spec. Let's see how you like it when others are trying to run the show for you.

The death of the ground mount

2010-12-21T20:53:00.001-06:00

I stand before you, dear friends, to proclaim that Cataclysm has ushered the death of the ground mount.

The premise is simple: by enabling free flight in Azeroth, ground mounts are no longer needed from level 60 onwards.

Am I complaining? Not at all. Flying in Azeroth has become so liberating, so exhilarating, that I'm wondering how I could have lived without it just a few weeks ago.

Still, I can't help regretting that there is no way to use certain cool ground mounts, unless one is willing to intentionally cripple themselves.

Case in point: the new fossil mount. The first time I saw this mount I thought that it has to be one of the coolest mounts ever. Too bad I will never have the incentive to ride it, even if I can be bothered to undertake the long archaeology grind required to obtain it.

Some people are masochists, I will grant you that. Just the other day I saw a level 80+ riding his fossil mount (fine specimen otherwise) in Stormwind. He was riding with a purpose, determinedly following the sidewalks and bridges on some errand or other. From my 310% flying mount I could only sneer at his foolishness.

Now don't imagine that I am so high and mighty as to start judging others, especially for such minor proclivities, but I simply can't imagine why one would prefer to regress to a much slower and decidedly non-linear form of transportation. There is a reason we have the expression "as the crow flies". In WoW this would be "as the flying mount goes". Oh wait, maybe that guy was just showing off his mount. Nice e-peen bro!

See, I'm starting to be guilty of elitism myself, what with my 310% speed mount and all. Maybe I'm just envious that some people still find pleasure in riding a much slower and cumbersome mount.

Personally, I'd have to be flogged before I'll give up flying. But here's an idea. Perhaps Blizzard could make ground mounts more attractive by increasing their ground speed to whatever your maximum skill is.

310% ground mounts anyone?

Do you read the quest text?

2010-12-18T12:17:00.002-06:00

As the title says: do you ~~waste~~ spend time reading the quest text for each and every quest you receive from an NPC?

My rule (which I loosely follow, depending on mood) is that I try to read the text for new quests once, the first time I attempt that quest on any character. This has been especially true for the last 2 expansions where I was curious about the story and how it unfolds. It is doubly true for the phased starting areas such as Gilneas and Acherus.

I'm not a huge lore buff and I'm not one who likes to immerse himself deep into the story. I prefer to get right to the action (and that's one of the reasons why I prefer "mindless" action RPGs such as Diablo).

Sometimes the quest text is fun and worth reading. There's a particular chain of 2 quests in Mount Hyjal given by a dryad who asks you to save some "frightened rabbits and terrified squirrels" which is absolutely hilarious.

Most often, for me at least, the quest text is standard fare: "Kill 10 cockroaches" or "Bring me 10 rat tails".

Personally I can't wait to get the reading over with so I can go kill those damn rats.

What about you?

10,000 gold a day in Cataclysm

2010-12-11T16:08:00.001-06:00

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post about my strategy for making gold in Cataclysm. My strategies weren't 100% successful but I still managed to make over 10K gold each day since Cataclysm launched.

In fact, I made 10K the first day, 18K the second, and 14K the third. 99% of that (or even more) was from 2 sources: farming Cata ore/herbs and inscription.

Regarding inscription, some glyphs have held their prices over 100G while others have tanked. Though I tried to craft the most popular glyphs according to wowpopular.com, it turns out that some of those glyphs are crap in terms of gold making.

Because I don't have an unlimited supply of herbs and/or inks, I have to be selective with the glyphs that I wish to replenish. For this, I scan the AH occasionally with Auction Profit Master (the former QA3) and only craft 1 of each glyph that goes for 80G or above. And there are plenty of those.

I'm posting several times a day using APM and canceling once or twice. There's no point in canceling more often because I get undercut almost immediately anyway so that would be a waste of time. Despite having only 1 of each glyph at a time on the AH and despite not canceling often, I'm still selling a lot. My goal for now is to simply clear my stock. At any rate, even if I sell the remainder at a loss, I believe I have more than recovered my costs in crafting the initial stock.

Now mining and herbing are where it's at!

For mining, I'm selling mostly Elementium Bars, in stacks of 20 or singles. Initially they didn't sell very well but I guess demand wasn't very high for them. Now, they sell like hotcakes. I can't farm them quickly enough. Unfortunately, Blizzard has nerfed the spawn rate on nodes in Twilight Highlands where I like to farm for this ore. So now it takes longer to mine the same amount. On the other hand prices seem to have jumped up a little so that makes up for the nerfing.

I've sold Elementium Bars for between 300 to 570 a stack. I don't really care what the price is and I'm not waiting for prices to go up or to stay at a certain level. As long as I'm not undercutting by tens of hundreds of gold per stack, I will post my bars under the lowest seller. Oh and I always post 1 stack or 2 bars/volatiles at a time. It's a good thing not to flood the market.

Volatiles of all types are also selling like crazy. The funny thing is that even though they are the equivalent of Crystallized/Motes and not Eternals/Primals, each one of these volatiles sells for anywhere between 10 to 50 gold each. At one point I even sold one Volatile Air for 225 gold!

Regarding Volatile Air, my miner is also an engineer and the first thing I did in Cataclysm was to craft an Electrostatic Condenser for him. That is a very smart thing to do if you have a miner/herbalist/skinner + engineer. Those Volatile Airs are scarce and they sell for a lot.

Herbalism is a slightly different beast. Initially, herbs were selling much better than bars so I farmed a lot of them. At first, I farmed plenty of Twilight Jasmine in Twilight Highlands. The zone was teeming with that herb. But later I found out that Blizzard nerfed that too. It was good while it lasted.

Then, I realized that Whiptail, which is found mostly in Uldum, sold much better than the higher level herb. So I farmed lots of that. I sold stacks of Whiptail for between 280 to 475 gold.

Now, herbs seem to have slowed down so I've switched my farming more towards ore rather than herbs.

One thing that I've noticed is that these new mats seem to have very low vendor prices. In fact they are lower than Wrath mats which I find very odd. Could it be because Blizzard didn't want people to be able to vendor them and make lots of gold that way? That doesn't make sense because you can make a LOT more by putting them up on the AH.

A consequence of this low vendor price is that the AH deposit cost is also low, meaning that if you are undercut, it doesn't cost you jack to cancel and repost.

My strategy flopped where old mats are concerned. Saronite Bars are still cheap-ish and I can only sell a few bars a day, but at least I'm still making a profit. My only concern is that my banks and bags are overflowing with Saronite Ore.

Adamantium Ore similarly flopped but I don't think it's a bad investment because in the future these mats are bound to become scarcer and I'm not going to panic and sell-sell-sell at any price. I'm just bidding my time, slowly trickling them to the market.

So that's about it. As you can see, my strategy revolved mainly around farming and selling the new Cataclysm mats now, during the first week or two, when demand is high and prices likewise. I haven't made a lot of gold compared to others who might have speculated certain mats or items but on the other hand I don't ever recall making so much gold several days in a row.

Bear tanking FTW

2010-12-10T19:35:00.000-06:00

If there's been a lack of posting in the last week, that's because of Cataclysm. I hope you'll forgive me :)

I've been busy these past few days. First of all, I've been selling Cata mats like crazy, but that's another story. I've also been leveling a couple of my characters but not very seriously. Third, I've started a new worgen druid and he's only 17 but I enjoy playing him.

As soon as I hit 15 I queued up as a tank and tanked my first instance which was Deadmines. At this level there aren't many skills in a character's repertoire so tanking is fairly straightforward. The only thing lacking is some sort of AoE threat generation but that will come later.

What's funny is that my first group was composed entirely of worgen. There's a veritable worgen invasion going on! More depressing is that there are already plenty of level 85 worgen running around. Humph!

I've yet to hit level 20 but I don't think I like the worgen racial running ability. The way they look when crouched on all fours is ridiculous.

My druid looks pretty cool right now and tanking isn't too hard (doh!) but we'll see later. Hopefully I won't abandon tanking on this druid like I abandoned it on my paladin.

Cataclysm the smoothest launch ever!

2010-12-07T20:14:00.000-06:00

Color me impressed folks. Blizzard has done it again. I dare you to argue that Cataclysm wasn't the smoothest WoW expansion launch in history!

The proof? 17 minutes after launch I managed to log into the game. It took about 3 tries, true, because for the first couple I got stuck at "Connecting". But then I was stunned to find myself at the character selection screen and then right in the middle of the Cataclysm!

What was a bit worrying is that within 30 minutes of logging in, that's roughly 45 minutes into Cataclysm, I saw the following world-first achievements in the chat window, in quick succession:

- miner
- herbalist
- skinner
- angler

On the other hand it took me between 45 minutes and 1 hour to get my mining to max and I screwed around a lot too.

Something that I wasn't exactly expecting - and it took me by surprise - is that flying has been enabled in Dalaran. Woohoo! This change was long overdue and, come to think of it, not completely out of the bounds of possibility.

I got a rude awakening when I realized how many HP the mobs in the new zones have. 30+K at level 81 is nothing to sneeze at. I managed to get killed on my priest because I was trying to gather a herb in a zone (in Hyjal) which had some quick-spawning mobs and as soon as I killed one, another appeared. On the other hand, I'm also proud to have killed a level 84 mob with my hunter, while almost completely naked, in Twilight Highlands. I was naked because I didn't want to risk the huge costs of dying with my expensive purplez. It's true that it took me about 3 minutes to do it but I proved that it can be done.

What can I say, being able to fly all over the place is a novel and very welcome experience. Stormwind looks amazing from the air and I literally went "wow!" when I first rose above the city.

A strange thing is that XP seems to come fairly briskly, at least at this level. All I did (I played for about 4 hours during the night), was to fly around a couple of zones, mine and do a little bit of archeology. Oh and I also did a quest in Hyjal just for kicks. All this brought me close to halfway to 81. It's crazy. There's some pretty healthy XP from mining and herbing alone.

Now archeology is even crazier. I was gaining about 5500 XP each time I discovered an artifact. Archeology is a mixed bag. It seems cool so far but I'm getting a vibe that it is a VERY grindy profession. Just the thing to get us hooked. Just as well, I doubt I'll be maxing it out on other characters than my main (the hunter).

OK now I'm going back to my grind: farming and farming and more farming. Gotta make that gold while mats are still expensive!

17 minutes in, I'm in baby!

2010-12-07T02:19:00.002-06:00

I'm happy to report that 17 minutes after the launch of Cataclysm I've been able to get into the game without any drama at all and I'm now about to head to my nearest flight trainer.

Gosh-darn-it I'm so excited!

Cataclysm zone progression with mining nodes

2010-12-03T20:59:00.003-06:00

This should be common knowledge by now but just in case someone might have missed it (and also as a self-reminder), here's a list of Cataclysm new zones, with their level ranges.

Also, I've compiled a list of mining nodes for each zone. I got inspiration for this from Kaliope's Crafting Blog.

80-82
Mount Hyjal or Vashj'ir
425 Obsidium Deposit

82-83
Deepholm
425 Obsidium Deposit
475 Elementium Vein
500 Rich Elementium Vein

83-84
Uldum
475 Elementium Vein
500 Rich Elementium Vein
525 Pyrite Deposit

84-85
Twilight Highlands
475 Elementium Vein
500 Rich Elementium Vein
525 Pyrite Deposit

Personally I think I'm gonna skip Vashj'ir because I will concentrate on farming during the first week. I really don't want to deal with the hassle of 3D combat and I don't want to waste time doing the pre-requisite quests for getting the swimming mount.

I'm also a bit uneasy after hearing that some of these zones are heavily phased and this includes mining/herbing nodes. It would suck if one has to do quests in order to unlock certain nodes.

In addition, it looks like Deepholm is locked down until one hits 82, which is another stupid restriction that I dislike. I really hate it when Blizzard is trying to artificially block certain zones just so people can't get there very quickly.

Cataclysm the smoothest launch ever?

2010-11-29T13:56:00.001-06:00

This question will become moot in a week but I can't help and wonder if Cataclysm will be the smoothest expansion launch in the history of WoW.

The signs are all pointing towards this theory.

Patches 4.0.1 and 4.0.3a have brought back a lot of players already.

The Shattering has occurred and Azeroth is now changed forever.

Cataclysm has been available for preorder for a while and many people (myself included) have downloaded most of the content already.

Blizzard has learned from past experiences and should now be more prepared than ever.

I don't know, but I'm pretty optimistic about the Cataclysm launch. There will surely be small issues here and there, server restarts and so on but I feel that most of these will be resolved quickly and people will be able to play properly sooner than ever.

What about you? What do you think?

I dig the new Azeroth

2010-11-27T19:26:00.001-06:00

There are many things to like about the new, revamped Azeroth. While it will never be the same as before, this is but a good thing. I really, really enjoy the way they've changed the old continents. Here are some of the things that I particularly like.

Revamped areas
There's no question in my mind that some of the old areas are now much more exciting due to being ravaged by Deathwing. Loch Modan and Stranglethorn come to mind. I love how all the water in the Loch has drained and the dam has broken. I love the maelstrom in the middle of Stranglethorn and they new crevasses in the earth.

Streamlined quests
Quests are more to the point now and a lot of those annoying chains that would have you travel to several continents for some stupid reward are now gone.

More quests
There seem to be a lot of new quests and they are quite intelligently designed in that very often they lead you seamlessly to the next area.

Better quest rewards
Generally I've noticed that quests, especially the brand new ones, give better rewards. That's always a good thing.

More flight points and extra quest hubs
Much more flight points. This is literally a magnificent boon that Blizzard is conferring upon its players. I am so grateful that zones now have new quest hubs and mini-hubs with their own flight masters. Truth be told, this should have been done from the beginning but better late than never.

Flight masters shown on map
I also like the fact that the flight masters are now shown on the big map with their own icon. Easier to spot them.

Dungeon maps!
This is something that I've been dreaming about since vanilla WoW. Finally we won't be lost in those low level dungeons anymore.

Quests inside dungeons
I love how all the dungeon-related quests are now located inside the dungeon itself. Not only that but they give solid XP and some of them also give nice blue rewards.

New Deadmines and other dungeons
The new Deadmines was a blast and so are other revamped low level dungeons. Unfortunately I leveled so fast that I skipped right past Shadowfang Keep.

"Pick-up" quests
The way new quests are triggered just by entering a new zone or a dungeon is just neat. Some chain quests like the Nesingwary kill quests are triggered just by completing a step of the chain.

Nice XP for mining/herbing
It seems to me that previous to The Shattering there wasn't such great XP from mining and herbing. Now I'm getting more XP than killing a mob in the same area. Very cool. What's more, gray nodes still give XP, although to a lesser extent.

Multi-tracking on mini-map
The multi-tracking feature is awesome. My new miner/herbalist dwarf shaman is going nuts in Stranglethorn. I couldn't complete a lot of quests for hours on end because new nodes kept popping up on the mini-map and I was pulled in all directions to get this node and that.

Quests mobs marked on mob portrait and mini-map
This is one of those small-but-nice touches that Blizzard has added in this expansion. Quest mobs have the exclamation mark next to their portrait and they are also marked on the mini-map with a skull once you're close to them.

Dual-spec at level 30??
I was shocked to find out that at level 32 dual-spec was available from the trainer. I seem to recall that they said they would lower the level requirement from 40 to... something but I've been oblivious to this. So is it 30 or actually 20? In any case, it's a good thing.

These are all great new additions but granted, some of them should have probably been in the game from the beginning. One thing that kinda bugs me is that I seem to be leveling too quickly but I hope this will be my only problem.

Oh and two things still suck: Outland and Northrend. I cringe at the thought of leveling through them yet again.

Dwarf invasion!

2010-11-26T13:55:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to comment on the fact that there's been a veritable dwarf invasion after patch 4.0.3a hit! The dwarf starting areas and adjacent lower level areas are awash in dwarfs!

The new race-class combinations are obviously the cause of this. I've seen dwarf mages, even a dwarf warlock but by far and wide the most new dwarf characters are shamans. And I am one of them.

I've started a new dwarf shaman yesterday and he's already in his late twenties. I've been wanting an Alliance shaman for so long now but unfortunately I don't really dig draenei males and I don't want to play a female character.

I'm assuming a lot of other people feel the same, considering the deluge of new dwarf shamans. I swear, whenever I see a low level dwarf, in 90% of cases he's a shaman.

I'm sure that there's an equally large influx of night elf mages, gnome priests, troll druids and tauren pallys.

I have to admit, these dwarfs are handsome devils. Just look at this sexy beast of a shaman!

My Cataclysm gold strategy

2010-11-25T12:36:00.003-06:00

I'm not one of the big gold-making sharks, nonetheless I have made a few preparations for Cataclysm and hopefully my gold reserves will increase by a decent amount during the first few weeks of the expansion. To be honest I'm not dedicated 100% to making gold because I've got plenty for now and I would also like to actually play the game the way it is meant to be played.

For Cataclysm I would like to try something new. It remains to be seen if my experience and observations will give good results (or not). My strategy is not overly complicated and is made up of several pieces. Here they are.

Glyphs

As always, glyphs remain my main source of income. When patch 4.0.1 was released I made several mistakes mostly due to my not reading the patch notes very carefully. The biggest mistake was that I didn't realize that glyphs would require 3 inks instead of 1. I had a few hundred inks stocked up but it wasn't nearly enough to make lots of gold. In retrospect, I should have crafted the most popular glyphs in advance and stocked them before the patch. Instead, I did all my crafting post-patch which was another big mistake.

This time, I've hopefully wised up and I've been buying cheap herbs off the auction house for a while, milling and converting them into inks whenever I got the chance. By "cheap" I mean anything that goes for 15 gold or less per stack. A stack of herbs produces about 2 glyphs so my costs are around 8G per glyph. For such a major patch I'm expecting glyphs to sell for tens of gold each so my profits should be proportional.

Another strategy that I'm applying here is this. Due to not having enough ink to craft 10 or even 20 of all the glyphs in the game, I've had to narrow things down to just the most popular glyphs. To find out which ones are the most popular I've headed to wowpopular.com and made a list in Excel with the top glyphs for every class.

Even narrowing down the glyphs to the most popular I still don't have enough ink so I've decided to craft only 5 of each. This also serves to spread out the risk because if a glyph drops down a lot in price I should still have a variety of other glyphs to fall back on. Having 5 of each should also help me to clear my stocks quickly. At the moment of writing this I have already crafted 400 glyps (that's 80 different glyphs, 5 of each) and have ink for another 200 or so.

I'm planning to list my glyphs on the auction house the night before Cataclysm is released, with a 24 hour timer. I haven't used this method before so I don't know what will happen but hey, even if I sell all my glyphs at a loss I won't end up on the streets (of Stormwind). Profit comes with risk.

As I write this paragraph, it is now post-patch 4.0.3a. This means The Shattering has happened and new race-class combinations have been enabled. I applied the strategy outlined above and listed all my glyphs with a 24-hour period but unfortunately I haven't sold a lot. What I did sell made me a nice profit. From about a dozen glyphs sold (perhaps even less), I made 1000 gold by selling each glyph for about 80-90 gold each. Not too shabby. On the other hand I'm still left with a lot of stock. The sad truth is that people are still willing to undercut glyphs to the ground, despite glyphs now requiring 3 inks and not being able to buy lower level inks with Ink of the Sea. I will maintain my position though and hope that Cataclysm will bring a lot more customers. At any rate, I don't believe I'll be losing money on this, on the contrary. It's just that this is probably the last time I will be selling glyphs en masse because it is simply not worth the time investment anymore.

Saronite

My next strategy is something that I've been preparing for a very long time. I've been buying cheap Saronite Ore from the AH whenever the price was right. This one is a 100% safe investment because I've purchased the ore below vendor price for the bars. This, for me, is 60 silver a piece, or 12 gold a stack of ore. Converting the ore into bars results in a cost of 1.2 gold per bar and Saronite Bars will vendor for 1.25 gold.

I now have several hundred stacks of ore. I haven't bought this ore to vendor it. Instead, I've stockpiled it in the hopes that people will need lots of Saronite Bars to level Engineering, Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting. You literally need hundreds of bars for these professions.

As I write this, once again, it is post-patch 4.0.3a. Demand for Saronite Bars has suddenly skyrocketed and I'm selling bars for between 2+ gold each up to 7+ gold each. Just a while ago I sold a whole stack of individual bars for over 7 gold a piece. Wait, scratch that. My 7+ bars are selling like crazy so now I've upped the price to 10+ a bar. Compared to how much I paid for the ore, I've made between 500% and 800% profit on these bars.

With Cataclysm, I'm expecting the demand for Saronite Bars to grow because fewer people will be farming it and there will be all these new characters who will want to level their professions. As such, this seems like a very good investment.

Adamantite Ore

I have also been buying some cheap Adamantite Ore so that I can prospect it for Adamantite Powder which can be used to create Mercurial Adamantite which is used by Jewelcrafters to level their profession. Now this has been a bit of a gamble because so far I haven't had much success selling the Mercurial Adamantite. It remains to be seen if Cataclysm will change this.

Farming

My favorite strategy will be farming. It may not be the most efficient in terms of gold per hour but for me farming is fun. I'm talking especially about mining and herbalism. In Cataclysm (if previous expansions are an indicator) there will be huge initial demand for the new types of ore and herbs. I plan to spend most of my time during the first couple of weeks simply flying around the new areas and farming stuff.

Farming is not for everyone. Some people despise it because they claim there are better ways in which to make gold. That may be true but for me farming is exciting. I love flying around and the new areas especially will make this sweeter. I love it when a node pops on my radar and I swoop down to claim it. There's always the thrill of discovery when a node yields a bonus such as a rare gem or herb.

So for me farming is therapeutic. It is also fortunate that my Hunter is a miner and my Priest is a herbalist. These are the 2 characters that I would like to level to 85 first. While farming I will be queuing up for the new dungeons. This way I can both make gold and level at the same time.

I won't be using any of the farmed mats myself to level my own professions unless I need them for some cool new crafted item. Looking back to previous expansions, this seems like the smart thing to do. Initial demand for these mats is incredibly high and supply is scarce because most people are concentrating on leveling and not farming. Later, when things have settled down and everyone has leveled their main, mats will drop down in price a lot. That will be the time to buy cheap mats from the auction house and level my own professions.

Conclusion

As you can see, these aren't extremely complicated strategies and I don't plan to agonize day and night about ways in which to make even more gold. What all these methods do have in common is that they require professions in order to work. There's Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Alchemy, Mining and Herbalism.

The truth is that although one can make gold without any profession, having one or two of them maxed out helps a great deal. Personally I have all professions maxed and this has helped me a lot because they are all inter-dependent and synergistic. Besides, you can easily swallow the cost of crafting one thing or another, especially if you can do it afk.

My advice is not to lose a lot of sleep over how much gold you will actually make at the start of Cataclysm. The true gurus will undoubtedly make hundreds of thousands of gold each. Personally I'll be content if I can make more than I would on a normal day, while having fun at the same time.

Note: This article was featured on JustMyTwoCopper's blog carnival for November.

Healed heroic Halls of Reflection, done it all

2010-11-21T09:21:00.001-06:00

Well folks, I finally did it. I healed Halls of Reflection with my discipline priest. I've always been afraid of this, the pinnacle of Wrath 5-man dungeons. As a dps I've died many times in there but we all know by now that in order to be successful in this dungeon you need to have some very serious dps, among other things.

Thanks to the elemental invasion, I managed to get my hands on some nice ilvl 251 items. I also got some practice healing these new mini-bosses which are actually tougher than many heroic bosses. And then, after acquiring some more Justice Points by running several heroics as shadow dps, I bought a few ilvl 264/245 items from the Emblem of Frost and Triumph vendors.

Afterward I chain-healed almost a dozen heroics and found out that I can really do it.

My problem, of course, was the lack of gear. A healer in <= ilvl 200 gear isn't gonna do a great deal in a heroic unless he's very talented (and I can't claim that I am). Now that my gear is up to speed (average level is 233), I feel very confident in healing any heroic thrown at me.

In all fairness though, Halls of Reflection didn't seem as tough as I'd imagined it to be. Trial of the Crusader and Azjol'Nerub (both of which I healed subsequently) felt more difficult. It's true that in HoR we had really good dps and a good tank so everything went smoothly. I even gained the achievement to finish the gauntlet quickly. On the other hand, for the two other dungeons mentioned (ToC and A'N) some of the people were standing in poison and other crap (so I had to heal like crazy) and they also pulled too many mobs a few times (so I had to heal like crazy).

My main tool as a discipline priest remains Power Word: Shield which currently absorbs a little over 5000 damage self-buffed. What's nice is that at this point mana has ceased to become an issue, meaning that after 90% of fights (including boss fights) I'm left with 90% mana. Occasionally when someone screws up or they're not geared enough, I'll go down to 50% or so but even then I manage to pull through.

My biggest issue as a healer - and this probably comes as a consequence of not being very experienced - is that I often forget about more powerful spells that I have at my disposal. For example I always forget to use Power Word: Barrier which is an awesome spell especially for those moments when there's heavy damage incoming.

I've also been trying to use Smite in combination with Evangelism/Archangel, not that I need the mana but in preparation for Cataclysm. My feelings about this are mixed. On the one hand, it's a nice thing to be able to do some damage (no matter how puny) during downtime, and also heal a group member for 100% of the damage done thanks to Atonement. Now on the other hand, when the fight is frantic and I'm struggling to keep the group alive, there's no time to Smite and the whole concept becomes worthless. And then there's the third issue which is more of a personal one, and that is laziness. As a discipline priest I'm cool with popping PW:S and then taking a break.

At any rate, we'll see how all this comes together in Cataclysm, in a couple of short weeks. Until then I will likely continue to heal some heroics, especially since one piece of my gear is still a lousy ilvl 187 (my bracers).

Bought my Cataclysm

2010-11-20T11:56:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to say that I've pre-ordered my digital copy of Cataclysm. Been meaning to do it for a while but I was too lazy.

I was expecting some kind of background download of Cataclysm data but either I've already downloaded everything that's required or they haven't enabled it yet or I'm not seeing it.

Oh well.

Sharded all my tanking purplz

2010-11-18T20:19:00.000-06:00

Last night I decided to shard all my protection paladin's epic tanking pieces. Why you may ask? Because I don't think I'll be tanking again in Cataclysm. Thanks Blizzard for making tanking frustratingly hard (at least for noobs like me)! Now at least I won't have to worry about juggling two specs.

I've been thinking about disenchanting my tanking set for a while but I was hesitating due to the fact that I had invested almost 20K gold in that set. However, I failed at tanking normal dungeons, much less heroics. And so, I figured that I wasn't any good at paladin tanking. At any rate, I enjoy retribution more so I'll be going as retribution from now on.

I also hesitated to shard my set because I thought that there might be a small chance to tank some Cataclysm dungeons but after I heard that they will be much tougher, I decided against it.

What convinced me to shard everything was the elemental invasion which caused a jump in Abyss Crystal prices. I decided that it's now or never because I won't be able to get as much for that armor or for those shards in the future. The prices for Abyss Crystals were a bit over 20G so I disenchanted everything that would vendor for less than 20G. Of course, I kept my ilvl 232 weapons because they vendor for over 20G.

So I've cut my losses by selling those crystals now and good riddance paladin tanking!

The pre-Cataclysm elemental invasion!

2010-11-17T21:59:00.001-06:00

I have to say I'm enjoying the new pre-Cataclysm events. As you all potentially know, Monday started the last stage of these events and culminated with the introduction of 4 new bosses that you can defeat for ilvl 251 items. Pretty sweet.

I jumped right into the madness with my priest because I'm still insisting on gearing him up to heal dungeons in Cataclysm. That is, assuming that I won't get my butt kicked because from what I've been hearing, healing in Cataclysm dungeons will be orders of magnitude harder than currently, even in normal dungeons. However, some high level Wrath gear should still help at least for a couple of levels.

Believing that I could easily heal one of these new bosses, I joined as a healer and had to heal Gahz'rilla. I will readily admit that I was humbled by the experience as it was the hardest healing experience I've ever had. At one point I thought I'd lost it and it would be a wipe. How embarrassing! Lucky for me, the druid in the group decided to help me and we made it.

The cool thing is that I was extremely lucky that first night and won the Need roll for 3 items! I got the Earth Bride's Gown, Sandfury Sandals and Amulet of Evil Winds. On one occasion I even prevailed over 2 other Need rolls.

Since Monday I've been running these bosses with every chance I get. Unfortunately I've been losing rolls ever since so I haven't gotten anything new yet. I'm still looking for the remaining 3 spell dps/healing pieces.

On two occasions I managed to heal the rest of the encounter in shadow spec after the healer died. I feel pretty good with myself when something like this happens. Great morale booster.

Anyway, it feels like Cataclysm is almost here. Next week in fact we should see The Shattering in the form of patch 4.0.3a. Until then, here are a few screenshots of all the chaos that ensued in the capital cities thanks to the elemental invasion.

Patch 4.01 bugs

2010-11-15T20:03:00.000-06:00

Here's a list of patch 4.01 bugs that I have been experiencing and compiling. Some of them are driving me crazy while others are merely small annoyances. Either way, I don't understand why they were introduced with the last patch and I just wish they'd get fixed already. I really hope they're not here to stay.

Missing Transmute: Ametrine. For some reason, this spell has gone missing. I didn't learn it before the patch and the trainer doesn't have it after the patch. I don't know why this happened but by the time it will be fixed, we'll all be in Cataclysm and it will be too late anyway.

Missing glyphs. Glyphs such as Glyph of Mage Armor have also disappeared. Why? No one knows. I don't personally use that glyph or others like it but this is pretty serious for those who use them.

Consolidate buffs option is screwed up. Under Options > Interface > Buffs and Debuffs there's an option called Consolidate Buffs. I keep this one unchecked because I like to see all my buffs at all time. From time to time, my buffs become consolidated on their own, quite randomly. This seems to be triggered more often when joining a new group. Going and checking/unchecking the option will fix it. It's annoying to have to do this every time. Fix it Blizzard, dammit.

The new raid frames which replace character portraits are nice but occasionally and randomly their size gets reset to a default (small).

My tracking options get reset every time I log in.

The minimap zoom gets reset on some characters, but not others.

Sometimes when I die in an instance and I click the release button I find myself in the graveyard, alive but with very little health left, something like 1%. While it seems nice at first glance, it's extremely annoying because I can't rejoin the group due to having to run back to the dungeon through a lot of hostile territory.

The inspect option doesn't work in dungeons. I like inspecting people's equipment and talents but thanks to this stupid bug (or is it a feature???) now I can't.

Sometimes when I dismount my character is stuck in a perpetual running-in-place animation. It's annoying because it's distracting. I can't fix it until I log off.

The drake mounts glide continually instead of flapping their wings occasionally. This one is a very documented bug and I've heard many people complain about it. It's the least annoying bug to me but still... At least I've seen confirmation that they'll fix it soon.

So have you found any annoying bugs that I haven't covered here? How are you coping with them? Don't you just love patches which break perfectly functioning features?

360 gold an hour mining Fel Iron

2010-11-14T10:20:00.002-06:00

Here's another method of making a reasonable amount of gold that I have discovered recently. The only catch is that you need to have Mining and epic flight. If you don't have epic flight you can still use this method to make some gold but you won't be making 360 an hour or even 300 an hour.

I stumbled upon this method after needing a bunch of Fel Iron bars for my mage who's also an engineer. I didn't have enough bars in my personal stock so I checked the price on the auction house. A bar is created from 2 ore. The cheapest ore was 1.5G a piece and there weren't many at that price. The bars were more than 3G a piece. I figured that since my hunter (also my miner) has 310 flight, he might as well farm the ore himself.

One of the best - if not the best - places for Fel Iron is Hellfire Peninsula. In 10 minutes I had 2 full stacks of ore and I called it quits because that's all I needed.

Extrapolating, this would amount to about 360 gold an hour, farming Fel Iron. It might not be the best way to make gold in WoW but it's one more method under your belt and worth considering if you are a miner (with epic flight) and need the cash.

310 flight for all

2010-11-13T11:29:00.000-06:00

Fresh on the heels of my wasting time post, I've decided to get 310 flight for all my level 80s. That's 5 characters (hunter, paladin, warlock, priest, death knight) at 5000 gold each = 25,000 gold. It might seem a lot but I had over 300K gold anyway and it was just gathering dust.

310 speed vs 280 doesn't seem like such a big deal but I can actually feel the difference when flying. Was the 5000 worth it? Yes. When you only have 10K gold, 5000 is obviously a huge amount and it seems like a very bad deal but 325K is almost the same as 300K so I hardly feel the dent in my finances.

On the other hand this increased speed will come in handy in Cataclysm when I will be questing at top speed. When you combine 310 flight speed with things such as the paladin's Crusader Aura, it becomes uber-potent.

The biggest d'oh moment, though, was that I had no idea that 310 speed had been enabled in the last patch. I had the feeling all along that it would be unlocked in Cataclysm. I noticed the trainer had it when I bought 280 flight for my warlock. The moral: keep your eyes open kids and read the patch notes carefully!

Leveling as a fire mage, or how to be awesome

2010-11-09T00:35:00.027-06:00

One of my readers, Lugnut Daffodil, has posted some very interesting questions under my previous post regarding the awesome dps that my mage does at level 60. To quote him,

1. As fire, how has survivability and mana efficiency been while leveling? I also have the full set of heirlooms and a good rotation of blues from dungeon finder rewards.

2. When did you stop using pyroblast as an opener and only use it during hot streaks procs? Or not? Do you still throw out a pyroblast with its cast time here and there?

3. When in a instance, are you AOEing a lot, or for now is it still safer/more efficient to just stay single target killer?

These are very good questions and they come at the right time because I was just going to write a post about my play style as a leveling fire mage. His questions just made this post that more relevant. I will answer them all and hopefully something extra.

I will start with the usual disclaimer: I am by no means an expert in WoW, mages or fire mages in particular. I just happen to enjoy my latest class and he happens to be a (you've guessed it) fire mage.

The funny thing about fire is that traditionally I have always been scared to play with a fire spec. In fact, I was generally confused about mages. What was the best leveling spec? Arcane? Fire? Frost? They all looked equally baffling to me. This indecision caused me to delay starting a mage up until just before patch 4.01. I did attempt one on the Horde side a long time ago but he remained at level 28 with an uncertain spec.

Patch 4.01 simplified a lot of things and allowed me to dive into this fascinating class head on. I started with a fire spec going from level 10. At 40 I dual-specced into arcane. I tried arcane for a while because I liked the way you never seem to run out of mana. Eventually, in my 50's, I decided to switch back to fire and see if some extra talents made a difference. Wow, what a difference! While arcane was never top dps, often lagging behind the 2nd or 3rd person on the damage charts, fire boosted me to the top. At 60 I'm rocking 1000 DPS and at 63 I'm pumping 1300 DPS. I do have a dirty little secret why this is possible though. But that's a story for another time.

I love fire so much at this point that I doubt I'll ever go back to arcane. I might replace my arcane spec with frost just to see how that works but truthfully frost seems a bit lackluster just by looking at the talents.

Here's my spec at around level 60: 0/26/0. I'm shooting for something like this at level 70: 0/31/0 and something like this at level 80: 2/31/3. Sue me if that's not optimal but that's how I like to roll. What follows is a breakdown of the talents that I have picked until level 60. This spec is equally useful to me when solo questing or running a 5-man dungeon.

Tier 1
Master of Elements 2/2 - Seeing how the fire spec is a very thirsty one, this talent is important in mitigating a part of that thirst by refunding a third of the cost of any spell that crits. This will be even more valuable in Cataclysm when mana will be at a premium.
Burning Soul 2/3 - This is mostly a filler talent for me because my aim as a ranged dps class is not to get hit. It does come in handy occasionally when I pull aggro or some mob is hitting on me.
Improved Fire Blast 2/2 - Some people don't like this one much but I use my Fire Blast whenever it's off cooldown because I like instant spells. 8% extra crit is pretty huge and I think 2 points in this talent are definitely worth it.

Tier 2
Ignite 3/3 - This is one of the defining talents of a fire mage. Simply put, it causes a DOT to be applied whenever you crit with a spell. It's a fast acting DOT which is even better. It makes any critting spell 40% more powerful.
Fire Power 3/3 - Flat 3% increase in fire damage. Mandatory. Also makes your Fire Orb explode. Whatever. I can't even imagine how awesome Fire Orb will be.
Impact 2/2 - This is a tricky one. It's pretty much mandatory for several reasons. First, it can proc from any spell that deals damage (including arcane, frost or AOE spells) and it instantly resets your Fire Blast. You can, for example, cast a Fire Blast, Impact procs and then you can immediately cast another Fire Blast. That's nice. But wait, there's more. The procced Fire Blast also spreads any DOTS on the target to all additional targets in a small radius. As a bonus, it also stuns the target for a very short time, enough to give you time to escape or hit it with another spell.

Tier 3
Blast Wave 1/1 - Do yourself a favor and take this one. Blast Wave starts of as a moderate instant AOE spell with a longish cooldown but further down the tree becomes a monster. If you want to be an AOE god, get this.
Hot Streak 1/1 - Another defining talent for a fire mage. Those lame Arcane Missiles are transformed instead into an instant and free Pyroblast!!!1!oneone The catch? The proc rate is much lower. And it has a chance to happen on crits instead of just spell casting. It's ok though, once your crit chance gets high enough you'll be chucking fiery chunks of death left and right.

Tier 4
Combustion 1/1 - Get this one. I don't pretend to understand the theorycrafting behind it but suffice to say that it is a pretty good long-cooldown spell, provided that your target is already burning from a bunch of your DOTS.
Improved Hot Streak 2/2 - Mandatory. This improves on a classic by dealing with those times when your crit rate is too high to proc Hot Streak reliably. Again, I won't go into details why this is so but I read it somewhere so it must be true :)
Firestarter 1/1 - Optional but I would suggest you take it. As a fire mage, Molten Armor is up at all times so you can cast Scorch on the move whenever you feel like it. There are some tactical advantages to this and I will discuss them below.

Tier 5
Improved Flamestrike 2/2 - 2 points in this talent makes Blast Wave really shine. From a so-so ability it morphs into an awesome twofer of a spell. Whenever you hit with Blast Wave, a Flamestrike also hits the same spot. Two instant spells for the cost of one. In addition, if you're feeling freaky, you can cast another instant Flamestrike on top of the ongoing carnage.
Dragon's Breath 1/1 - Mandatory because you can't progress down the tree without this one. Some people dismiss it, claiming that it's useful mostly for PvP but I disagree. I find it very useful for AOE and it has the added bonus of stunning the mobs for 5 seconds.
Molten Fury 2/3 - I'm only putting 2 points in this talent but you can choose to fill it up if you wish, later on after you've finished filling the fire tree.

Tier 6
Critical Mass 1/3 - You'll want to fill this up eventually but this is where I stop at level 60 (or rather 59). This talent improves on some of your big nukes but it also allows Scorch and Pyroblast to weaken the target and make it more susceptible to fire damage. Its tactical uses are interesting because in a group setting I usually start off with a quick Scorch to apply this debuff, before I unload with the big guns.

You will have noticed that I left out a bunch of utility talents. It's strictly up to you if you want to pick some of those. For my style of play I consider it unnecessary. They can come in handy in certain situations and will certainly make you less squishy and more survivable but I like to go for pure dps talents 'cos that's the way I roll. The theory behind these neglected talents is fairly complicated and doesn't constitute the subject of this article.

Glyphs
At level 60 you have access to 2 out of 3 of each glyph type. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), mage glyphs are screwed up at the moment so glyphs which should have been prime are major, for example, while others are missing. Luckily for us fire mages the missing glyph doesn't concern us.

Prime
Glyph of Pyroblast - This one is, simply put, essential for a fire mage. Increases the crit chance of an already awesome spell by 5%. Holy crap!
Glyph of Cone of Cold - This is the odd one out but I've picked it for several reasons. First, as I said, glyphs are currently screwed up. This spot should have been filled with Glyph of Fireball. But hey, lacking something viable (at least until Living Bomb becomes available), I've chosen to fill this slot with something that will significantly boost one of my AOE spells. Yes, I still use Cone of Cold even as a fire mage. You'll see why below when I discuss strategy.

Major
Glyph of Fireball - This should have been a prime glyph. Since it's not, it will do just as well as a major. It gives my Fireball an extra 5% crit chance. Sweet.
Glyph of Molten Armor - This glyph is the reason why fire mages like to wear their Molten Armor day in and day out. It's because it gives you an extra 3% crit chance.

Minor
Glyph of Slow Fall - I love minor glyphs that negate the need for a reagent. I use Slow Fall all the time so this is a must for me.
Glyph of Conjuring - This works well for me because I like to conjure lots of water and Mana Gems.

Solo strategy
These days I mostly run dungeons through the dungeon finder tool. I find it efficient to quest in between queues. For solo-ing, my rotation is simple and often mobs drop very quickly. First, I start off with a Pyroblast from range, because I have all the time in the world to cast it. As soon as the Pyroblast is released, and while it's still in the air, I cast 1-2 Scorches and if the target is still alive a Fire Blast will surely finish it off. If need be, I can kite the mob while Scorching it, thanks to Firestarter.

Group strategy
I'm doing most of my destructin' in 5-man dungeons because it's fun and it allows a character to get great gear. A mage's place is at the top of the damage meters so here's how I manage to accomplish this.

Single target
Because groups are go-go-go and they seem to tear through trash like it were butter, I don't have time to cast Pyroblast. Ideally, I should be casting Fireball because it has a higher chance to proc Hot Streak for the instant Pyroblast. However, I prefer to start with Scorch for 2 reasons. First, it puts Critical Mass on the target, making it vulnerable to fire. Second, it is quick casting so I can follow up quickly with a Fire Blast, or, if the target is taking longer to die, with a Fireball. As you can see, I never start off with Pyroblast in groups because by the time it finishes casting the mob is dead. Even some bosses are more than half dead in those 3.5 seconds. I'm all about the instant spells or quick-casts. So it's Scorch > Fire Blast > Fireball.

Multiple targets
Here's where the fun begins. I simply love to AOE everything to crap as a fire mage. I haven't truly AOEed stuff before this guy. There are several spells and talents that make this great fun.

I like to start off with a Blast Wave because it's instant cast (it can be used on the move) and it also procs Flamestrike on top. I then get close and use my Dragon's Breath and Cone of Cold in quick succession. Instant spells FTW. I also have the option to cast another instant Flamestrike on top, and even a Frost Nova. All of these add up big time. By the time I'm finished with all these instant spells, even elite trash mobs should be dead or almost dead. If there's a particularly nasty group of mobs, I can also toss an engineering bomb but that's only valid if you're an engineer so it doesn't apply to everyone. I am, so it does.

The beauty of all the instant AOE spells is that they also proc Impact which means I can follow with a devastating Fire Blast on whichever mob I have targeted, but more importantly Hot Streak which means instant Pyroblast.

Bosses
I use the single target strategy, except that I start off with Mirror Image.

A word on mana efficiency
I was a bit worried at first that as a fire mage I would run out of mana after every fight. I find that this is not the case. Very seldom do I find myself low on mana. I suspect that at higher levels this will be more of a problem. There are several things that help with my mana issues.

Evocation - every mage has this. If your mana is dangerously low, use it. In fact use it if it's off cooldown and your mana is less than 70% or so.
Mana Gem - you can conjure 3 of these at a time. They are like a mana potion only on a separate cooldown. They're cheap to produce so you should use them whenever you need to top off on your mana.
Master of Elements - that's why I suggested to get this talent. Since mages crit a lot, the mana returns aren't insignificant.
Mana potion - use this in addition to the mana gem since it's on a separate cooldown. I have a ton of mana potions collected over the levels. I even use the lower level ones because why not?
Drink conjured water - if everything else fails, try to drink a little after every fight. Conjured water is pretty much free, especially if you make sure to create a few stacks as soon as you log in.
(Glyph of Conjuring helps with both Mana Gem and conjured water)
Heirloom trinkets - I have the advantage of wearing dual heirloom trinkets which give me a total of 4% mana back on each successful kill. The beauty of this is that I can cast a whole complement of AOE spells on a large group of trash mobs and have all that mana refunded because usually I'm the one dealing the killing blows.
Endless Mana Potion - as an alchemist you also have access to this awesome little doodad. Use it every chance you've got. My mage is not an alchemist but my priest is and I really appreciate this item.

In conclusion, mana is not a problem at this point. Surprisingly so, I would say.

A word on aggro
There will be times in your mage career when you will pull aggro whether you like it or not. I like to manage this in several ways.

I always try to target-assist, by selecting the tank and pressing the F key. This will select their current target and the one which should have the most aggro from the tank.

I will give the tank a few seconds to grab aggro on multiple mobs before I unleash my AOE spells. Even then, sometimes I will pull aggro, especially if the tank isn't very good. I will keep an eye out for Death & Decay or Thunderclap or Consecrate, etc. Usually that indicates that it's safe to start AOE.

When pulling aggro I will either attempt to finish the mob (which I usually do thanks to my awesome dps) or I will stop casting and move towards the tank. Also, Mana Shield and Mage Ward can do wonders and will keep you alive in many a sticky situation.

When pulling aggro on multiple mobs I can often save my butt by casting an Ice Nova to freeze them in place. I can then jump away and do one of the above.

If all else fails, use Ice Block. It has saved my skinny little ass on numerous occasions.

Phew
This has been a marathon of a post. I'll be stopping here because it's late and I need to get some shut-eye. Hopefully all the important questions have been answered about leveling as a fire mage. If not, shoot me your queries in the comments and I will answer them the best I can. Until then, stay awesome y'all apprentice fire mages!

Holy crap 1000DPS at level 60!

2010-11-07T13:30:00.000-06:00

Truly I say to you that a character is capable of 1000 DPS at level 60! Yes, my fire-specced mage has just hit 60 and is doing 1000 DPS in Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace and he's mostly decked in old-world equipment, but of course with a full set of heirlooms.

Why I find this amazing is because I've seen dps classes in level 80 heroics who are barely pushing 1000 DPS.

This, of course, is all thanks to the fire spec. I find that it does tremendous DPS and most often I'm at the very top of the damage meters.

Here's my spec at level 60, along with glyphs: 0/26/0.

Edit: By the time I finished writing this short post my mage had hit 62.

Make hundreds of gold with Shadowgem

2010-11-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

I will now reveal one of my biggest gold making secrets. Well, it's not that big. In fact, if taken by itself it is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

However, I do believe strongly in diversification. What this means, in a nutshell, is that one should try to cover as many niches of the gold-making market as possible. Yes, you can certainly concentrate on the big money makers such as glyphs or gems but there's strong competition in those quarters and the stronger the competition, the lower your profits.

Thus, it's a good idea to spread your business to all reaches of the gold-making trade.

Playing the auction house is one of the big ways in which players make gold in World of Warcraft. Well, this technique is taken for granted by many, yet some still have trouble understanding how it works. One of the most obvious ways to play the auction house is to buy low and sell high. How does this apply to Shadowgem?

Many months ago I noticed that very often there were very cheap Shadowgem posted on the AH. On other occasions, the prices would be much higher by orders of magnitude. This disparity is what prompted me to keep a watchful eye on the Shadowgem market. From then on, I added this technique to my gold-making portfolio.

My technique is simple: I will buy any amount of Shadowgem under 1 gold and sell it for much more. I usually sell for 1.5 gold and up. Often I sell for over 2 gold and sometimes for upward of 4 gold. Each. Sometimes people are selling these for a few silver a piece and I cackle madly when I buy them. It's insane!

Over time I made hundreds of gold by selling Shadowgem. Sometimes there's a lot of supply and not much demand so the prices stay low for many days. Eventually they always jump up again. I've found that often I can safely create 48 hour auctions at a price of around 1.5 gold a piece because the deposit is extremely low and usually they sell in that period.

So why the hell do people need so much Shadowgem? It's a very low level item that should be very cheap, yet it isn't. I've puzzled over this for some time but I didn't bother to figure it out because I was too lazy and I didn't care a lot. One day I decided to check and it is as I suspected. The biggest use for Shadowgem is for leveling Jewelcrafting. People need about 40 of them to craft Gloom Band and another 20 to craft Ring of Twilight Shadows. That's at least 3 stacks of Shadowgem for every leveling jewelcrafter.

I'm selling these as singles but after realizing what they are used for, I am going to try to sell them in stacks of 10 and 20. Here's the trick though. Someone might buy a cheaper stack of 20 because they know they need 20 for leveling. After they use them, they might find out that they still need a few singles so they will generally pay any amount for those singles since they don't want to spend all the cash for another stack of 20. So generally you can get away with selling singles at a higher price than stacks of 10 or 20.

I'm predicting that in Cataclysm there will be high demand for Shadowgem, at least in the first few weeks, as people try to level their Jewelcrafting. You might want to stock up on a few stacks yourself. I've got plenty.

Wasting time in game is wasting time IRL

2010-11-05T20:03:00.005-05:00

Just a quick thought here and a piece of advice. First, the piece of advice: don't be stingy, especially when you are sitting on a shitload of gold.

I've just realized that because I'm a scrooge in real life, I'm also one in WoW, and I've been sabotaging my real life as a result. How, you ask? Well, after my warlock hit 80 a long time ago, I just parked him in Dalaran and logged on him daily but only to do the jewelcrafting dailies.

Nothing wrong with that, right? Of course not. The problem arises from the fact that I never bought epic flight for this character because I figured that I wouldn't play him much after he turned 80. That's fine and dandy when you character is rooted to a spot and engages solely in crafting professions but the thing with jewelcrafting dailies is that you have to fly some place, every single time.

Having a slow mount will waste a few minutes every day. Multiply that by a few months and you'll find that you've probably wasted several hours of your life.

I've been very bad at this. Here I was, with over 300K gold, lacking epic flying on my warlock who needed to fly daily to some location or other. And then it hit me like a brick: I was being stupid. I should have bought epic flight on the warlock as soon as he was eligible. My philosophy had been why waste 5000 gold on something that won't be used anyway? My philosophy was wrong, because my warlock was flying on a more frequent basis than even my main.

So I went ahead and bought epic flight for this guy without a second thought. At that point I had about 316K gold and the purchase brought me to 311K. A week later, I'm at 317K and business hasn't even been that good, meaning that I wasn't even trying very hard to make gold.

Conclusion: don't be stupid like I was. When you have more gold than you can use, furthermore it's just sitting there gathering dust, use some of it to invest in your characters. Anything to make their questing easier and quicker is not only a better use of your in-game time but also saves on your real life time.

Leveling is my game

2010-10-31T19:08:00.000-05:00

There are two major stages in character progression in a game like WoW: the leveling game and the end game. For most raiders (I dare say all of them), the end game is the place to be, the sole purpose of the game. Getting there is simply an annoyance and the sooner it is over with, the better. It's perfectly understandable. For me, though, the leveling experience is the game.

Ever since patch 4.01, I've been giving leveling some thought. What was the first thing I did when the patch hit? I leveled my new mage so that I could experience the thrill and excitement of discovering the new skills and talents. Since then, I haven't been able to stop leveling him. I'm almost completely neglecting my level 80 characters in favor of this new guy and he's past 50 now. Imagine, 2 weeks ago he was level 8, now he's over 40 levels "older".

I've always enjoyed leveling a new character, but paradoxically I want the levels to go by faster, so I can gain access to more powerful spells and talents. And then, one day my character hits max level and I feel a bit sad. As a solo player, the end game is pretty much THE END game for me. Yes, I have been running a lot of heroics thanks to the dungeon finder tool but if one thinks about it, that's just grinding. Grinding heroics so I can get better gear so I can grind more heroics so I can get better gear that will become obsolete anyway as soon as I step in the first zone of the next expansion.

Leveling on the other hand is exciting because there's always something new to be discovered. It's a journey of self-discovery, if by "self" I mean my avatar. I like gaining those talents, learning new spells and becoming more powerful. As my character grows, I become better at playing that particular class and every new level makes me feel more "leet" than previously.

Not all leveling is the same. I think that a lot of it has to do with the class and what I, personally, prefer as a class mechanic. For example, I really enjoy leveling my mage right now. I like the sense of power that comes from such a pure DPS class. I know for certain that I would enjoy leveling yet another paladin, as retribution. Who knows, in Cataclysm I might attempt it. On the other hand, leveling my rogue was a PITA.

Once my characters reach 80, things slow down almost to a standstill. I park them in a major town like Dalaran and I use them mostly for their professions and, depending on how fun that class is, for heroics. Well, dailies too. But from here on it's only grinding and more grinding. A very good example is my warlock whom I really enjoyed leveling as affliction. Once he hit 80, I only logged on him to do the jewelcrafting dailies. He's the most under-used level 80 I have.

These days, of course, I do most of my leveling through the dungeon finder. In a way it's a shame because I miss out on regular quest leveling and running through the different zones but I've seen these zones so many times while leveling other characters that I'm sick of them to the gills. Though I'm a solo player, I still enjoy the no-hassle approach to running a dungeon thanks to the dungeon finder. Now, running a dungeon is a very important part of my leveling experience, the one that gives me the most joy. The truth is that some dungeons do tend to get stale after running them a dozen times or so but so do regular quests. And questing doesn't reward you with the awesome blue items that drop in dungeons.

Now that Cataclysm is practically here, I find that I'm not as excited to level my level 80s to level 85 as I am to level some new characters from scratch. Perversely, I like it when levels fly by quickly because I can see my character grow before my eyes. Leveling from 80 to 85 won't be the same thing. Classes already possess most of their signature abilities and the only advantage of being max level at this point is the fact that you can run heroics and raids.

I'm very tempted to re-roll some of my existing classes in Cataclysm, just for the thrill of leveling them with the new talent trees. I'm particularly interested in a paladin (probably holy/retribution). Since Tauren will be able to be paladins, I'll probably start one of those. Unfortunately (as far as I know) we still can't transfer heirlooms across realms, which sucks. These days it's a pain to level a character for the umpteenth time without heirlooms. Don't get me wrong, I love leveling but only insofar as I can see progress, i.e. new levels coming in quickly. I don't much enjoy languishing at the same level for hours on end.

One thing that I've been thinking about is whether WoW will still be fun for me after I've finished leveling all the possible classes. Maybe not. As it is, I can feel that the day I quit WoW for good is on the horizon.

BankAlt.com adds filtering, paging, sorting and more

2010-10-24T10:28:00.002-05:00

Hi folks. I'm pleased to announce that I've been working on BankAlt.com for the past few weeks (in between other activities) and now I am happy to reveal some new features that everyone has been asking for. But first, here are some things to keep in mind:

The site is still in beta
There are still bugs and some missing features
The biggest feature is still missing and it's being worked on

Having cleared this up, here's what is new on BankAlt.

Skill levels

I'm now displaying skill levels for each recipe. This refers to the profession level at which that recipe can be learned. It is a very important piece of data when dealing with recipes and I agree that it should have been there from the beginning.

Paging

I'm no longer dumping all the recipes under a profession on the screen at once. Instead, I'm paging the results in real time, with a default of 25 recipes per page. You can change the number of results that you wish to see by picking from 10, 25, 50 or 100.

Sorting

You can now sort the results by 2 parameters: skill level and recipe name. Sorting is ascending or descending.

Filtering/searching

Search is another highly requested feature and I have implemented it (for now) in the form of a filter. By typing in the skill level or part of the recipe name, you'll be able to filter the results to those that are relevant to your keyword. Bear in mind that currently you can't filter by both fields at the same time. I'll see if I can improve the algorithm to allow this.

Other stuff

Minor stuff includes a darkening of the shade used to display green items and also an enhancement of the Expand button so that it's more obvious. A few users have missed the Expand button and didn't even know it was there.

Also, bear in mind that paging, sorting and filtering are done on the server side, in real time. There might be a short delay when taking these actions but testing so far has shown that it is a very short delay.

Things to come

There are a few things that I want to improve on.

The Expand button is not a great idea from what I've tested so far. It doesn't give any hints about the actual features that BankAlt.com offers. I am considering getting rid of it and simply displaying the full, expanded component tree directly on the screen. There are some performance issues with that though so I will have to think about it carefully.

I also want another search option, one that can be accessed from any section of the site.

Last, but certainly not least, is the other big piece of functionality that I am still working on and I'm sure will be of great use to many people.

Until then, stay tuned and please send me your feedback.

Blizzcon 2010 meh

2010-10-23T13:43:00.000-05:00

Blizzcon's finally here and I have to say I'm not very impressed with it this time around. If anyone was expecting earth-shattering announcements, I'm afraid they are now a bit disappointed. Nonetheless, the sheer geek-ness of the convention is still something that I'd like to experience at some point. Disclaimer: this analysis is done from my armchair.

World of Warcraft

Nothing interesting to see here. Some Cataclysm raids and dungeons. Whoopty doo. We're gonna see them shortly anyway. Move along. Frankly the only cool thing from my perspective is the fact that every dungeon in the game will have maps and boss locations (as well as boss abilities). And some of the really annoying ones will be shortened and simplified. Finally. This is the best piece of news so far but we knew that was coming anyway so it's more of a confirmation than something new. Unfortunately it seems the new dungeon maps won't be in Cataclysm from the beginning but in patch 4.1. Better late than never I guess.

Starcraft 2

This game is totally a non-issue for me. I've stopped caring for the franchise long ago.

Diablo 3

My biggest expectations from Blizzcon were for Diablo 3. Everyone had anticipated they would announce the fifth and final class. So when they announced the demon hunter, I was like yay and meh at the same time. I mean, we all knew that the fifth class would have to be a ranged character (archer or hunter type) so it wasn't such a big surprise. I'm sure this will be the first class I'll play in Diablo 3 but the truth is I've had enough of D3 for a while. They are taking so long to finish this game that I don't want to hear about it until they actually release it. And by the way, if anyone was expecting an announcement for the release date of Diablo 3, they'll have to hold their breath a while longer. My prognosis is sometime in 2012. Definitely not 2011.

Synopsis for Blizzcon 2010: meh.

Power Auras DOES work with Holy Power

2010-10-21T21:44:00.000-05:00

In my previous post about 4.01 retribution paladins I was bemoaning a lack of support for our new Holy Power resource in the amazing addon Power Auras. Now mind you, I haven't used Power Auras before patch 4.01. After the patch I found the need to use it on my discipline priest and, of course, I would have loved it for my paladin. If only it could tell me when my 3 stacks of Holy Power were up.

Well, it looks like I was mistaken. The first time I looked through Power Auras' configuration option I could have sworn I didn't see anything that would help me set it up for Holy Power. Last night I decided to look at it again and this time it jumped right at me. It was so obvious. So here's a step-by-step guide to help you configure your Power Auras (if you haven't already) to display a notification in the form of an icon above your character's head when you have accumulated 3 stacks of Holy Power. It also shows a counter under the icon for how much HP you have at any given time.

Open Power Auras by typing /powa at the console.

The main window will pop up. Pick New to start a new aura. A bigger window (called Effect Editor) will open, with a lot of options. On the lower half there are a bunch of tabs. You will need to change some options in some of these tabs. Here's what I did for my own configuration.

Activation

Pick a "texture" for your icon, in other words pick how you want your icon to look. There's a large variety to choose from.
Change the opacity if you wish. I set mine to 80%.
Pick a color. I chose a shade of yellow/gold.
Size and positioning are important. I set mine just a bit over the character's head, with some space below it for the stack counter. I also made is smaller than the default.
The most important part comes next: pick Rage/Energy/Power from the Activation by dropdown.
Next, make sure to check the Threshold checkbox and set the slider to 3. You want to be notified when you have 3 stacks of Holy Power.
Finally, from the Power Type dropdown pick Holy Power. That's the part which apparently I missed the first time I checked out this addon.

Animation

Next you'll probably want to change the default animation. You have several options there, for the various stages of existence of the icon. I changed the following:

I set Main Animation to Pulse. This causes the icon to pulse during the time it is active. Helps to draw my attention to it more.
I increased the Animation speed slightly to 120% so it pulses faster.

Sound

Adding sound to your aura is entirely optional. I chose to add a sound to mine so that it hits me over the head when it activates (figuratively speaking).

From the Starting Sound dropdown I picked RaidWarning because that's one of the few sounds I am partial to.

Stacks

A final enhancement that you can add to your Holy Power aura (and I think it's a nice enhancement if I say so myself) is a real-time count of your Holy Power stacks. This will show up in the space between your character's head and the main icon. The beauty of it is that it shows up whenever you have at least 1 stack of HP and updates in real time.

First make sure to check the Show checkbox. This activates the stack counter.
Change position/size/opacity to suit your needs.
You can change the font to a more readable one from the Stack texture dropdown.

Aaaaand... that's it folks. You've configured your Power Auras addon to work with Holy Power in patch 4.01!

Here's how it looks in action,

1 stack of Holy Power.

3 stacks of Holy Power.

One more thing. You don't even have to go through all these steps to set up your aura. Instead, you can import the settings I used directly into your own Power Auras and you can either start using it right away or use these settings as a stepping stone to customize your own crazy aura. From the main window click the button called Import and paste the following:

Version:3.0.0W; b:0.1725; anim1:4; g:0.8; thresholdinvert:true; icon:Spell_fire_meteorstorm; bufftype:10; texture:19; alpha:0.8; speed:1.2; sound:11; threshold:3; PowerType:9; size:0.3; y:87; stacks.enabled:true; stacks.Relative:BOTTOM; stacks.h:1.7; stacks.Texture:AccidentalPresidency

The moment I started using Power Auras I realized that this is a very powerful addon, limited only by your imagination. My initial disappointment was instantly replaced by joy when I realized that the developer(s) had actually included support for Holy Power and that the addon is indeed compatible with patch 4.01.

Enjoy!

4.01 retribution paladin impressions

2010-10-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

Patch 4.01 has been up for a while and I'm sure most retribution paladin lovers have taken their character for a spin or two. Nonetheless, here are some impressions from a layman's perspective. For those not familiar, I only play in 5-man heroics and never do raids.

I specced my post-4.01 paladin as follows: 3/2/31. It's not the most efficient build by far, just something I came up with. I'm not even 100% sure about the glyphs but they seem ok to me.

So far I've only had the chance to try out the new rotation on a training dummy and I ran a single heroic which happened to be Pit of Saron. Let me get one thing out of the way. I've heard many people say that ret has been nerfed to the ground. Well, unfortunately I didn't have my dps meter during that heroic, but I've never seen bigger hits from my paladin before.

I'm wearing the same equipment I was wearing before the patch. Yes, the stats have changed some, but overall they're in similar amounts. I was critting regularly for over 10K and once I critted for over 20K. That never happened before 4.01. Never. The most I crit was around 6K-ish. So my perception is that my damage had got a huge boost.

However - and that's a big however - when I asked if anyone had a damage meter, someone told me I was 3rd. Barf. Before 4.01 I was frequently top dps or in the top 2. So I guess my post-4.01 dps did suck.

As I said, unfortunately I only got the chance to run a single heroic ever since. I'm having too much fun leveling my mage to make time for the paladin.

In regards to the new rotation and mechanics, I kind of dig them. Holy Power (HP) is an interesting concept but it does make the paladin feel somewhat like a rogue with 3 combo points. What pisses me the most is the fact that I constantly have to stare at the top left of the screen in order to catch all 3 stacks of HP. There's very little visual cue to signify that 3 stacks are up.

I like the new Templar's Verdict and also Word of Glory. I've heard people complaining that Word of Glory is severely underpowered but again, I feel the opposite. At 3 stacks of HP it heals me for over 6K, which I feel is a decent amount considering ret is not a healing spec. But what do I know?

The 31st point, Zealotry, seemed lackluster but now since it doesn't consume the stacks of HP anymore it is slightly better.

Unfortunately Divine Storm seems to have been rendered useless. I didn't notice any noteworthy numbers coming from this ability and I've been trying to use it whenever there were more than 2 mobs. I shouldn't have picked it up in retrospect.

I definitely need to run a few more heroics before I can make up my mind on the new retribution paladin but tentatively I would say that I like it. There are a few things that need to be fixed but I think Blizzard is moving in the right direction with paladins. But don't take my word for it. I'm just an amateur.

Excellent feedback for BankAlt.com

2010-10-17T10:54:00.002-05:00

Thanks guys for the great feedback received for my new site, BankAlt.com! It is highly appreciated.

Now some of you are under the impression that I just threw out a list of recipes for each profession and called it a day. Let me assure you this is not the case.

For one thing, I've launched BankAlt in beta. You can think of it as a friends-and-family beta since I haven't announced it to any "outlets" yet. I won't do it before I feel that the site is in the state I envisioned.

Second, I was aware from the very beginning of most of the issues that you brought to my attention. I would like to think that I carefully considered and weighed most of the potential problems that might occur, in advance.

So why did I go ahead an release an unfinished site? Several reasons. I think the most important one is that I tend to procrastinate. If the site is not live, it's not real so I will keep delaying it until it is almost perfect but by that time it may be too late. Once it's live and people start visiting it, some will like the idea, others will hate it, but in both cases there's some feedback involved. The site becomes real and whether people love or hate it, it gives me an incentive to work on it.

Moving on to the actual feedback, here's a list of issues and features that I am working on. As I've said, most of these had been planned in advance but I didn't want to keep delaying the site in order to have all of them up.

Search function. I agree that a major deficiency is the lack of a search function. I would like to add not just one but two types of search.

Sorting and filtering. There will be something similar to what Wowhead has.

Recipe levels. The level at which the recipes are learned will also be shown.

Paging. Dumping all the recipes under a profession on the screen is stupid. Not only does the page load more slowly but the server and database are put under too much stress and for what? People usually know exactly what they want to see and don't need 500 recipes on the screen at once. So paging of results is in the works.

Display "expanded" recipes on the screen. A few have suggested that I should display the expanded recipe on the screen. This means that they would like to see the entire component tree without having to click the "Expand" button. While this is certainly doable, I think that the server would have to work extra for that to happen. Remember, each time you click to "expand" there's a request to the server. But I do have another idea in mind that should take care of this issue.

Color scheme. A couple of people have asked that I should change the colors of the recipes somehow because the green especially is hard to see on a white background. Initially I wanted to make the site black because color-coded WoW items are easier to display on a black background. But a few readers were complaining about this blog's white on dark scheme so I decided to go with a white background for BankAlt. I will add some darker shading to the table background for recipes and that should make the green stand out more.

These are the main things that I plan to improve upon, before I can even consider taking the site out of beta. I don't want to make any apologies but it's hard to balance 3 WoW-related activities at the same time: playing the game, blogging about it and working on BankAlt.com. I really enjoy playing the game, especially after this patch, so the other two activities are kinda taking the back burner. I am in fact working on BankAlt but right now I've hit a snag and I need to figure a way to get past that.

Holy fiery balls Batman!

2010-10-15T19:13:00.001-05:00

We are living some crazy times right now folks. Since patch 4.01 hit, everyone and their grandma has been scrambling around to make sense of the changes or to simply make as much gold from glyphs and gems as possible. Me, I'm ashamed to say that I've put aside development on my new site for a while so I can get my fill of the new goodies.

I didn't make a lot of gold compared to others but I am richer by 20K since Tuesday. Most of that is from glyphs but I was unprepared and didn't have any glyphs in stock, merely a bunch of herbs which are now mostly gone. What I regret most is that I didn't stockpile uncut epic gems, due to the failed assumption that cooldowns would be removed from epic gem transmutes. Oh well...

Moving on, I actually spent the most time leveling my new mage. I had started a new mage the previous weekend and took him to level 8, then parked him in an inn to wait for 4.01. I wanted him to be my first character to experience the new level 10 leveling... experience.

Well, color me impressed. I played him Tuesday and Wednesday, for 6-8 hours combined and he gained 14 levels, with 1 more level yesterday. That makes him level 23. Wow! This is the fastest leveling character ever!

He is obviously wearing a full set of heirlooms, including a +30 spell power enchant on his staff and dual trinkets. Nonetheless, while questing, my mage feels overpowered.

At level 10 I specced into Fire and got Pyroblast. At level 10 I was critting easily for over 300. At level 23 I'm critting often for over 500. Those heirlooms sure do help with the damage. One weird thing was that at level 10 my character screen was showing over 25% crit chance. Which is out of this world for such a low level. It might have been a glitch though because after 10 it dropped sharply and now at 23 it's around 10% which is the norm.

I could barely wait until I turned 15 so as soon as I hit that mark I jumped into my first dungeon. From there on I queued for dungeons constantly, while questing.

The first problem with my fire mage in dungeons was that people seemed to be twinked up in heirloom gear and they killed any mob before I got the chance to launch my lazy-ass Pyroblast. I attempted to compensate for this by starting to cast before the tank pulled the mob. It kinda worked but sometimes I grabbed aggro from the tank due to the huge burst damage. While Pyroblast starts at level 10 with a short casting time of about 2 seconds or so, at level 23 it now has it's usual time of 3.5 seconds.

The second problem is that although I was sure I did top damage, looking at the damage meters showed I was lackluster. WTF. I had to work really hard to stay ahead of enhancement shamans, hunters and even the tank. Word is that fire mages are overpowered in this patch. Well, unless everybody else is also overpowered, I don't see how that's possible. Sure, my mage IS overpowered for questing but that's normal when you're wearing all that twinked gear.

So by level 23 I'd been in most low level dungeons: Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Caverns, Razorfen Kraul, Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep. I got a few blue items and things are looking good so far.

As far as my rotation, well at this point I'm trying to pre-cast Pyroblast, then follow immediately with a Fireblast, then depending if Impact or Arcane Missiles proc, I'll use those. Frost Nova is very handy when I grab aggro and I've started using Arcane Blast on multiple mobs, which is cheap to cast (and instant), to proc Arcane Missiles and Impact.

In regards to mana, up to level 20 or so my mana never dropped below 90%. I know that Blizzard gave a huge boost to mana/health regen up until level 15 or so. Still, in dungeons I haven't been mana-drained so far. I've only used Evocation twice. I was a bit bummed that they removed mage water and food but now I see that there isn't much need for them at such low levels.

I'm gonna stick to a combination of questing and dungeoning, in other words queuing up while questing. That's the fastest way to level for a DPS class IMHO. At 40 I think I'll dual-spec into Arcane. It's looking might attractive.

Patch 4.01 impressions

2010-10-13T23:02:00.000-05:00

It's been crazy the past, oh, 24 hours. But you already know that. Patch 4.01 is here, yo. Cataclysm has one foot through the door as of yesterday.

As always on such a big patch day, people are having problems. Mine started with the launcher, after I got back home from work. Though I had downloaded the full 5GB patch in advance, the game wasn't done yet with patching, oh no.

First, it started installing the patch. Huge WoW patches aren't exactly Speedy Gonzales. After more than 30 minutes of "unpacking", "copying", "installing", etc, I got a nice message that my partition is full and the installation process must abort. Great. I cleared some stuff from the partition and started the whole process again. Fast forward 30-40 minutes later. Same message. Apparently 4.01 needs like 100GB to maneuver. Delete more stuff. Start the installer again. After an hour or so, it was finally done. Now to start the game.

As soon as I loaded it, the fancy new launcher started downloading some more stuff but now it allows you to play once you're past the "red" zone. In fact there's an option that you can set in preferences that apparently allows you to play IN the red zone, once it gets past a certain point. Well, I only had to wait about 30 minutes this time for it to get to the playable zone.

Finally I got inside the game. The first thing that went wrong was that everything slowed to a crawl once I loaded my first character. It was, of course, due to my addons which I had forcibly enabled before logging in. So I disabled them all and then enabled some key ones selectively.

It was obvious that people were confused. Countless questions on trade chat about the new mechanics. A lot of people were clueless as to what had happened to their skills and talents. I was almost as confused as the rest of them. I didn't even bother to respec my level 80s. Instead I jumped on the auction house and started selling stuff. 24 hours later, I made almost 10000 gold, which although is a nice amount, is not even close to what the big AH sharks made. Most of that was from selling glyphs, of course.

Well, aside from the gold, I've been generally pleased with the new changes. I like the new spellbook and the glyph interface. I like the character pane. Finally I can see all the relevant stats without having to choose from a dropdown. What I still don't like is the crafting interface. It's as dumb as ever. Yes, they've added some more filtering options but now you need an extra click to show, for example, "have mats" because you have to pick it from a flyout menu. And the crafting window is still pitifully small and cramped.

The new water effects look great. I can finally enjoy looking at the water and even swimming in it. I've also noticed that there are new, higher res textures for characters.

One other thing that I don't like, and this is something new, is that many spells don't seem to show the damage in the tooltips. Example:
Frostbolt says "Causes Frost damage..."
Pyroblast says "Causes high Fire damage..."
Fireball says "Causes Fire damage..."
Fireblast says "Causes low Fire damage..."

Um... what the hell? Is there a new option that I missed? I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything.

The quakes are a nice touch.

I'm thoroughly confused right now. I only managed to respec my retribution paladin and craft him some glyphs. I'm totally in the dark regarding my other characters. I'm not sure how to spec my hunter and my warlock.

I didn't do much with my level 80s since the patch hit. I actually started leveling my new mage and quickly ate some levels. But more on that in the next post.

BankAlt.com launches!

2010-10-10T23:11:00.000-05:00

Dear friends I am pleased (and relieved) to announce that today I am launching the World of Warcraft website that I have been working on in secret for a while. I have blogged briefly about it before but here it is, finally: BankAlt.com.

Originally I had some different ideas for what this site will do but those ideas were scrapped although they were also about WoW professions. In a nutshell, BankAlt is meant as a tool for crafters in WoW so that it makes it easier to figure out how many sub-components a certain recipe requires. If you have a profession, particularly a tradeskill, you might find BankAlt useful.

All crafting professions are included but the only gathering skill present is Mining. That's because Mining has Smelting which produces some goods which are essentially the same as a crafted good. Here's a list of professions:

Each section contains all the recipes (or patterns, or schematics, etc) for that professions. There are few exceptions. I have chosen not to include certain transmutes which have a 1:1 relationship, for example "transmute earth to fire" and "transmute fire to earth". This would have caused big problems with my algorithm and I'm not sure anyone really needs to know details about these types of recipes. I have also removed those "recipes" which transform 10 pieces of crystallized stuff into an eternal, or 10 motes into a primal. The particular spell which does that transformation isn't part of any profession so it wouldn't have been relevant.

I have launched BankAlt.com in beta because there are things to test. At least one big feature is missing but I didn't want to keep postponing the launching date indefinitely until the site was perfect. And that's especially true with patch 4.01 just a few days away.

Once again, the site doesn't have all the features I envisioned but they are coming soon™ so stay tuned. I would certainly appreciate constructive criticism and suggestions. There's a Contact form on the site so please submit your thoughts there. I've included a "Hate mail" option but please try not to use that too much :)

I do hope that BankAlt will be useful to at least some of you. Personally, I've been wanting a tool to tell me how many mats I need to craft various kinds of items so the site will have at the very least one faithful user.

I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Darth Solo, signing off.

Need moar character slots!

2010-10-10T10:40:00.001-05:00

Blizzard give us more character slots dammit!

Currently there's a limit of 50 characters maximum, with 10 characters per realm. For players who've been playing WoW for several years, this is not enough. I'm referring mostly to the 10 characters per server limit because I doubt many people really have 50 high-level toons across multiple servers, regardless how altoholic they may be.

Considering there are 10 classes and there are those who like to try out each class, perhaps even take each class to the max level, 10 character slots isn't nearly enough. Any serious player will have a bank alt and that means that at least an additional slot is needed. Now of course, one option would be to use a high level character as a bank alt, provided you've parked him in a major city and he has enough free space in his bags. In many cases it would mean that you're not playing that character anymore.

Let's take my situation as a case study. Here are my character slots on my main server (all of them Alliance):

1. 80 Paladin

2. 80 Hunter

3. 80 Warlock

4. 80 Death Knight

5. 76 Rogue

6. 80 Priest

7. low level bank alt

8. low level inscription alt (seller)

9. reserved name for Cataclysm

10. low level Mage

My problem is that in Cataclysm I want to roll all the 4 remaining classes, namely Druid, Mage (I've rolled him already but he's only in the starting area), Shaman, Warrior. This would mean that I'd have to get rid of my two bank alts which isn't something I really want to do. But then I'd be left without a dedicated bank alt, which is pretty bad for someone who makes most of their gold on the auction house.

After agonizing over this conundrum, I struck upon a solution. Initially I had the notion of deleting my 76 rogue since I don't play him anymore. Then, the obvious hit me over the head like a brick. Why would I do something stupid like deleting a character that I've struggled so hard to level? Instead, I would simply delete my current bank alts and use the 76 rogue as my new alt. Brilliant! The only issue is that I will have to purchase bags and bag slots that my existing alt already has. Oh and I'd have to clear the level 76 rogue's bags of all the crap he's accumulated.

It seems that for me, at least, the problem has been tentatively solved. But what will happen when they add a new class, most probably in the expansion following Cataclysm? And what if I want to re-roll a class that I already have on the same realm? Maybe I want to roll a second Paladin, for example, or another Mage.

If you're suggesting that I should simply roll on another server, well, I don't want to. On my main server I can benefit from all the resources I've amassed over the years: lots of gold, heirlooms and a 6-tab guild bank, plus all the professions at maximum level. Now you can see why someone like me would be very reluctant to spread out on different realms.

In conclusion, please Blizzard increase the realm limit to 12 or 15 characters and you can keep the 50 toons total limit. If not, at least allow us to mail anything (including gold, BoE items and heirlooms) cross-server and cross-faction to our own characters. But that will never happen and the reason is simple: cross server economies. What I'm afraid of is that Blizzard is holding back on increasing the character limit so they can monetize it. Soon, they'll reveal a new feature: paid character slots. I can tell you that's gonna piss some people off. Including me.

Operation fail-warrior

2010-10-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

Fresh on the heels of my mage adventure, I also remembered that I had a level 18 Tauren warrior on the same server as my Horde mage. Since I also plan to try a protection-specced warrior in Cataclysm, I decided to spec this guy into prot and try to tank a dungeon.

I bought a cheap 1H axe from the AH and also a cheap shield, I allocated my talents (which had been reset by some patch or other), learned some missing spells and spent a long time arranging them on my bar. Then I went out on the plains around the Crossroads and killed some mobs just to get the feel of a warrior tank.

Since tanks get instant queues, I quickly found myself in a dungeon. Alas, it was the worst one possible at this level: Wailing Caverns. Oh how I hate thee cruel dungeon!

Needless to say, our group languished in there for almost an hour before we gave up. My tanking wasn't bad and we only wiped once due to too much mobs being present in a certain room. Unfortunately we were all sick of this stupid dungeon and our resolve failed after getting lost in those convoluted corridors.

Now with regards to warrior tanking, I have mixed feelings. Overall I think I prefer paladin tanking, in spite of the mana issues at this low level. My beef with the warrior is that he depends on rage which is generated in fight only, with the exception of Bloodrage.

I'm not saying I did a bad job. I tried to use my abilities as intelligently as possible and considering that it was my first time ever tanking with a warrior, I think I did very well. I held threat with no problems, even when tanking multiple mobs, provided that the dps didn't hit the wrong monster. Still, the play style seems a bit restrictive when compared to a paladin tank. Oh, one signature ability that I really liked is Shield Block. This ability alone could give a paladin a run for his money.

I'm hoping that patch 4.01 and Cataclysm will make protection warriors more interesting. I will certainly attempt to level a warrior tank in the future, as soon as Worgen become available. Yes, I have decided: my future warrior will be a Worgen. A Worgen in plate. That's badass.

Operation quick-mage

2010-10-07T20:05:00.000-05:00

Remember a couple of days ago when I was enthusing about my future fire mage in Cataclysm? Well, last night I "remembered" that I already had a mage on another server, on the Horde side. He's a level 27 Undead. I decided to hop on him, spec him fire and join a random dungeon to see how it goes.

Since I hadn't played this guy in like 2 years, all my talents were reset. I won't even detail the fire spec I picked because the talents are going to change in a few days anyway, with patch 4.01. But I got the standard stuff.

While queuing for the random dungeon, I tried to set my skill bar in order. It was cluttered with all the crap from way back when I played this guy. Back then I used all the spells in my inventory, and I was specced something weird like an arcane-fire-frost hybrid. The queue wasn't long, and I barely had time to re-arrange my spells before I entered the dungeon.

It was Razorfen Kraul. The run was longish and the funniest thing that happened was when the tank died in the bat cave from some mobs who silenced both him and the healer. I was left with 3-4 elites beating on me so I did the only thing I could: used all the abilities at my disposal to try to put as much hurt on those mobs as possible. I had no illusions of surviving that fight. I had a hairline of life left and thought I was a goner but the healer kept healing me and the other dps were banging on the mobs. Finally, incredibly, we managed to kill them all and survived!

For all practical purposes it can be considered that this is the first time I'm playing this mage. I was surprised to find out that my dps wasn't bad at all. I was in the top 3. The tank and druid did about 52 dps while I did 48-49. This in spite of my really crappy gear. The shadow priest was terrible, barely above the healer.

The only thing that I didn't dig about the mage was that I spent all of the time between battles either drinking water or Evocating.

So there goes my short mage adventure. I wanted to try him before 4.01 and then I'll probably try him again after 4.01 to see how it compares. I don't think I'll play him after that, but instead I will concentrate on my new mage. I can't wait to equip him with all those heirlooms. If my poorly geared mage managed to be among the top dps, I'm sure a fully heirloom-equipped character will be king of dps.

Download digitally or buy the box?

2010-10-05T06:56:00.002-05:00

Now that Cataclysm has a release date, I'm starting to wonder if people prefer the boxed game or the digital download. In recent years, downloadable games have started to gather steam (forgive the pun) and it's within the realm of possibility that in a few more years most games will only be available through a download.

As a 100% PC gamer, I've always loved the shiny new boxes in which games come. In the digital age though, I don't care about them anymore. I just want to play the game, not stare at the box. The only thing that a box brings to the table is the nice artwork and... that's about it. Game manuals these days are puny and probably obsolete by the time they leave the factory. No one needs a manual anymore, what with all the info on the internet.

The biggest disadvantage of boxes is the space they take. A game collection takes up much more space than a music or movie collection. Not to mention that most people probably don't even play older games anymore. Case in point: I have a Diablo Battlechest (or whatever it's called) that I've never opened. I just keep it for nostalgia sake.

As you can tell, these days I'm a digital download man. Why bother going to a store or ordering the box online when I can just download the game and be ready to play it right the moment it is launched? I do understand the other side though. People like going to the midnight launch, to socialize with like-minded geeks and what-not. I'm just glad that technology makes it easy to skip all that. It's not like I'm a social person anyway.

I'm certainly glad that Blizzard are making the digital download of Cataclysm available from day 1. If I'm not mistaken, Burning Crusade didn't become available for download until a few weeks had passed. In the meantime, Blizzard have come to their senses. After all, what would be the point of delaying the digital version since it costs the same as the boxed version anyway. The only reason I can think of is that digital downloads from day 1 tend to piss off retailers for the boxed version. Oh well, that's progress I guess.

I do have a couple of WoW boxes though. One is vanilla WoW. Back then I don't know if they had digital downloads but in any case I was running on dial-up and would never have dreamed of downloading it. When Burning Crusade came out I tried buying the game from a BestBuy but all the boxes they had seemed to have been tampered with. Knowing that all you actually need to play WoW is the code, I made the smart decision and decided to just buy the downloadable version instead. I don't know why I bought the WotLK box but since I have it, I must have bought it for some reason or other.

For Cataclysm though, it's the digital download all the way for me. While certain geeks will be freezing their butts outside Gamestop, I'll be loading up the game, warm and comfortable with a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. But hey, more power to you geek bros! I still respect you!

A fire mage it is!

2010-10-03T18:24:00.001-05:00

That's it boys and girls, I've made my decision as to what spec my future mage will be. You've guessed it: fire!

Whenever I thought of playing a mage, fire was the last spec that appealed to me. Not anymore. Playing with the new talent calculators for Cataclysm, here's what I came up with: 5/33/3. I've also picked a bunch of glyphs which look good to me.

Now you tell me if that spec isn't close to being perfect? I can just imagine my mage chucking fireballs of destruction at his enemies.

My only problem is that I will have to wait until Cataclysm is launched even though the new talents will be available with patch 4.01. That's because I really want to play a worgen mage.

Oh, and I'm really excited that Pyroblast will be available from level 10. The only remaining task is to pick an equally awesome name. Suggestions are welcome.

Nerfs incoming

2010-10-02T13:10:00.001-05:00

All the information coming out of the Cataclysm beta has got me excited but also a bit worried. The thing that gets me worried is healer mana. From what I understand, it will be a lot harder for healers in Cataclysm to manage their mana.

Mana conservation will become the new healing game, starting with patch 4.01 in fact, when all the new mechanics come into effect. This comes at a bad time for me personally because I have just gotten used to healing and started enjoying it, after spending most of my WoW career dps-ing. I'm at a point where I am comfortable healing normal dungeons on my discipline priest, even though heroics still give me trouble.

Healing is not easy when you're not sufficiently geared. For example I'm not geared enough for heroics, though I can heal normal dungeons very well. In fact I seldom drop below 75% mana. Right now I'm enjoying healing normals and I try to queue every day for a normal dungeon, just so I can exercise my skills.

Patch 4.01 will apparently change things such that those who weren't uber-healers before (like yours truly) will probably struggle to heal, maybe even to the point of giving up on healing. I might be one of those. Of course, now I'm being over-dramatic but it is certainly a possibility.

I don't quite get this mana regen nerfing. If Blizzard think there are too many healers, well, nerfing their regen will sure weed out the more casual ones. I might be a casualty in this new war. My idea of having fun in a group is not exactly to be stressed out by the game mechanics. I sometimes enjoy a challenge but if the odds are too much against me and if my fun turns into stress, I will quickly abandon that activity and concentrate on something more pleasant. That's the main reason why I almost gave up on healing after holy healing started sucking.

I'm sure there are others like me and unfortunately healers are almost as scarce as tanks. Is there a point in making their life even harder?

And then there's the new thing that healing priests are getting, which is damage dealing. Wait, a dps healer? It seems that if priests want to get some of that drained mana back, they better dps the hell out of those mobs, or else they won't be able to do their job.

I have mixed feelings about this new mechanic. On the one hand, it's something new and it feels interesting. Hell, it's a novel concept, at least as far as WoW is concerned. Just imagine: in order to heal properly you need to deal damage! I can see it being useful in those dead intervals when I'm waiting for the tank to take damage. This happens in normal dungeons for me, since I'm starting to over-gear them.

Heroics, on the other hand, are a whole 'nother story. I've healed a heroic once and it was very tough. Very often, even on trash, I had to constantly spam my healing abilities. Yeah, the tank wasn't great either but still... There was no way in hell I would have had time to cast a single Smite during those times when I was healing like crazy.

Maybe I'm being just a whiny kid right now but we shall see, soon. I'm hoping that patch 4.01 will hit next Tuesday (October 5th) or the following one (October 12th). If healing as a priest becomes too complicated, fine, I'll be happy to switch to shadow 100% of the time and enjoy my lack of responsibility as damage dealer.

Moving on to the other classes and roles, my feelings about the potential nerfs and buffs to them are rather simple.

For dps classes and specs, if I won't enjoy the new mechanics it won't be such a big deal. I just won't play that class. As it is, I have too many characters that I have to juggle. I'll just focus on the ones that are fun to play. As an example, my hunter has been my main but after I re-discovered the joys of retribution, I abandoned him in favor of my paladin. If the new focus mechanic sucks, I'll have the best reason to abandon him for good. I don't know, but at this juncture focus seems to be turning hunters into ranged rogues and that's not what I want to play.

As for tanking, well, I won't be tanking on my level 80 paladin again, that's for sure. My biggest mistake was to spend a lot of gold trying to gear him up for tanking heroics, only to discover that I suck at the job. The changes that are coming with 4.01 will probably make paladin tanking an even more foreign concept to me. On the other hand, I do want to level a new druid in Cataclysm as a bear tank. That's because I'll be starting with a clean slate and no pre-conceived notions of how the class should work. I haven't played a druid before so I won't be jaded.

So these are my (probably flawed) arguments regarding the "incoming nerfs" to healing. Maybe I'm just crying "wolf" or maybe things will become that more complicated for healers (especially priests). We'll find out soon enough. My opinions are those of a casual so they don't weigh a lot but I still think that Blizzard should lay off the nerf bat and make healing more attractive, not less.

Very nice changes to retribution paladins in patch 4.01

2010-09-29T19:05:00.000-05:00

Well, if you love retribution paladins and haven't yet seen this article from WoW Insider, now's your chance. I've been keeping up with Cataclysm changes, of course, but this is a very nice write-up of how the new paladin resource, Holy Power, is supposed to work.

I have to say I'm excited. There are some new spells in there which will make rotations more interesting and also give us more options depending on the fight. Patch 4.01 should hit in a couple of weeks or so and this will give everyone the opportunity to try out the new talents and mechanics before Cataclysm. Hopefully there's enough time to get used to them.

Speaking of Cataclysm, I think I'm gonna start yet another paladin on a Horde server just to level up with the new system. It's gonna be a Tauren paladin and I'm gonna spec him retribution/holy. I've long been curious as to how holy paladin healing works.

Retribution changes are looking good so far but I can't say the same about other classes that I play. Healing in particular has me worried. But that's a subject for another post.

Interlude

2010-09-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well folks as some of you might have noticed, I've been posting less often lately. I would like to say that my posting will be even less frequent in the following weeks due to a number of things. In no particular order:

I've resumed work on my WoW-themed site after I abandoned it despite procrastinating a long time ago. Don't bother to visit it just yet because there's nothing there, just an "under construction" page. About a month ago I got a new idea for the site and I believe this one is much more useful than my initial idea. And it's easier to implement. The site will be done "when it's done" to steal someone's quote.
I have started a new blog related to a new hobby I have acquired. I know, boo! I'm abandoning WoW Alone and all that. Not quite. The other blog is not time sensitive. If I don't post for weeks that's ok but I just wanted to share my thoughts about the new hobby, somewhere. In time I might reveal what it is exactly.
My WoW subscription is expired so I can't play right now. Nonetheless, I plan to renew it before patch 4.01 goes live because I want to sell some stuff and perhaps get acquainted with the new talents and the revised discipline priest healing mechanics. I could renew it at any time but I'm still busy with the other stuff so I won't even have time to sell stuff on the AH, much less to play my priest.
I've also started my second P90X cycle, after successfully completing the first one a while back. As a result, I'm training daily, cause that's the program.
I'm also kinda going through a lull what with Cataclysm around the corner and all. Now's the perfect time for me to engage in other activities, before the madness starts again.

As you can see, I'm pretty busy but I don't have that much more posting material so I will use this opportunity to take a little break from posting.

Stick around though cause I'll be back!

Mining, herbalism and skinning dailies

2010-09-18T13:57:00.004-05:00

Here's an idea I just got after learning that mining and herbalism would give XP in Cataclysm: why not implement mining, herbalism and skinning daily quests? Some tradeskills have dailies so why wouldn't gathering skills?

A big advantage of gathering dailies would be that they could take effect from level 1. I'm guessing the main reason why professions don't generally have dailies from low levels is that they are much harder (and more inconsistent) to level. Not so with gathering professions. If you pick up one or two of them from the beginning you can easily level them while you are leveling your character.

As an example of how this might work, consider the following. The quest giver asks the player for, say, 10 copper bars. In exchange, the player gets 1-2 gold, some nice XP and perhaps a bag with some random stuff in it, with the possibility of containing green or blue items. Something like the random dungeon bag of goodies.

I believe that mining/herbalism/skinning dailies would be advantageous for any player:

players would be encouraged to pick gathering skills from the get-go.
people would also be encouraged to level their gathering skills more and keep them up to date. I still see level 80s with Mining 100 or some such.
related to the above it might encourage people to explore more in order to find nodes.
it would give people extra XP and gold and even some nice items to help them level up.

I would make these dailies scale with skill level, meaning that at the beginning you'd be required to supply copper bars, later tin bars, later iron bars and so on. I would also add quest givers in each major city and perhaps even in the bigger quest hubs.

Here's to hoping that Blizzard will implement something like this, although I'm not holding my breath.