Visitor Stats

Published at April 10, 2008 in General Gaming. 0 Comments

pichart I meant to do this as a regular feature but I forgot about it for a while.

Every month I’ll be looking over the visitors stats and keywords that led to this site and I’ll attempt to answer any questions/queries as well as I can

  • It seems I’m getting a lot of hits from “AV Preform Enabler” since I put up the AV post a week or so back.. I assume more from people looking to download the addon than for info. Anyway, patch 2.4 made it so you don’t need that addon anymore, just start a raid group/party and queue as a group the same as the other BG’s.
  • Someone was looking for “youtube 2 man Attumen” videos. I cant find anyone two manning it and to be honest, private server aside, I cant see it happening really.
  • A few hits for “Tankadin Levelling” this month. I levelled my pally as a tankadin up till level 67 before changing to my current spec, Shockadin.  I used a mix of AoE grinding and questing to level and found it very easy. Questing as prot is great.. you might not do great single target DPS but you rarely die and there is very little downtime. As for AoE grinding, you want to find a spot with a lot of melee mobs around, pull as many as you feel comfortable with, throw BoSanc up, Retri Aura, Judge Light or Wisdom on your targeted mob to keep health/mana levels up, then spam Holy Shield and Consecration till everything dies from the reflective damage. For extra ease, try to find a weapon/shield that procs something on hit to get extra damage going. After you get used to the technique you can throw in a few casters if needed. The Blood Elf racial really helps for this as you can silence them making positioning/pulling much easier.
  • Another Tank related one - “Never tanked an instance”
    Despite levelling as prot I never tanked anything till I reached the mid-40’s and got some decent plate gear. After that I ran ZF a ton of times to get the hang of it. It was tough the first few times but it gets easier once you get a feel for it. The biggest problem with tanking as a pally is your mana bar. If the group is overzealous you may need to blow the majority of your mana just to hold aggro at lower levels. This leads to more downtime between pulls and an impatient group which is the last thing you need. Word of advice, if your tanking the instance, you set the pace not the DPS classes. You drink till your ready or you will have problems when you go /oom. On a similar note, even if your mana bar is ready, or your rage bar is running out, if the healer behind you isn’t up to full mana then you wait for them. As a tank, your healer is the most important person in the group so try not to rush them and you’ll do fine. DPS is almost always easier to replace than a tank or healer, bear that in mind.
  • “Retadin Gear List” - Well, I haven’t tried Ret yet so the only gear lists I know of come from PvP sets. Firstly, the 2.4 patch added a bunch of PvP sets for all classes that can be bought at Honoured reputation for gold. A full PvP set will cost around 100G or so. The pally sets are ret and holy and can be found at various factions quartermasters.. Thrallmar and Cenarion Expedition for example. A full list of gear sets can be found HERE. I currently have a few pieces of the Holy set and plan on picking my Ret set up by this weekend. The other option you have is to get in the BG’s and Arena and buy the Epic PvP sets via Honour + Marks or Arena points. You can get a full set of Arena Season 1 gear from BG’s alone which doesn’t take long to build up alongside the standard level 70 epic PvP Vindicator gear.
  • “Reign of Rathalos” - I initially assumed this was about a Monster Hunter Rathalos quest but a quick Google of that term leads me to the website, http://reign-of-the-rathalos.com/blog/ which I assume is what the keywords refer to. I had never seen this site till today but it looks like there is plenty of MH related content including video footage of hunts, downloadable guides and what appears to be a great Java app for looking up gear sets with certain bonuses on and more. Bookmarked the site for later viewing, thanks to whoever made that keyword pop up on my results as I might not have come across that site otherwise.

Well, that’s it for another entry of ‘Visitor Stats’, I may do another this month but its likely that I will leave it till next month to build up some keywords again :)

 

I’m speechless..

Published at March 25, 2008 in Rant. 0 Comments

waz Oh this ones priceless….

Not so long ago in the hazy past, a little game called Manhunt 2 caused just a tiny bit of controversy - Manhunt Banned

The BBFC banned the game for its depiction of “sustained, casual sadism” deeming it too much for UK gamers. David Cooke, director of the BBFC, said the body had twice rejected the game “for its focus on varied and cumulative killings”.

He said the judgement had to include the “full range of possible harm risks to vulnerable individuals and to any children who may be wrongly exposed to such games.”

How is it then that the (government backed) UK Film Council deems it worthy to award nearly 1 million pounds from National Lottery money to a torture movie in the same vein as Saw and Hostel? A film described as “a nasty, pretentious and sordid little movie”

Now, I have ZERO problems with this movie existing. I don’t care, I’ve seen the Saw movies and enjoyed them to a degree, I watched Hostel and shook my head at the poorly written story.. but not at the violence.

How the HELL can the UK government have the brass balls to claim that video games might be too violent and spend god knows how much of our tax money on a study on violence in games, then help fund a f*cking torture movie is beyond me!

I’m literally boiling with rage at this.. if a game was to come out with the same content as this movie.. torturing people until they either break and kill a loved one, or die.. all the anti-game nuts would be screaming from the rooftops!

Seriously, this sh*t needs to stop. If a game is rated for adults it deserves the same treatment films like this get.

Preform AV enabler or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Alterac Valley

Published at March 17, 2008 in Combat Medic, PvP and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

strangelove Sooooo, I spent a lot of time in AV on Saturday.. to the tune of about 10k honour so as you can imagine, my "I hate AV" tee-shirt was thrown away for the time being!

Id like to say I enjoyed it cos’ I kicked some ass, or that my feelings towards the map size and being zerged by 40 people at once have changed for the better.. but they haven’t so I wont, however the main thing I’ll sing praises for is the "AV Preform Enabler" addon.

Going into AV with a local 40 man team, with tic-tacs laid out in chat before even entering the BG, and every group sticking to the orders given to them is a sight to be seen.. (well it is if you haven’t seen it anyway ;) )
I went in multiple’s of these preform groups on Saturday, skipping Bal, taking every tower, not a scratch on Galv due to solid defence, rolling in 500/600 honour every game. One game was taking about 20 min’s or so iirc.. maybe even less at times.

So yeah, grab http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/5418/ and keep an eye out for any premade AV requests and have a go.

I’ll preempt any complaints here and say its a ballache getting an addon just to join a BG (2.4 will let you premade AV without addon though so its not for long), its a ballache waiting for 40 people to actually open the damn thing so the RL can queue everyone up.. but once it gets going and your racking up 500/600 honour a game it seems less of a hassle ;)

EDIT: It seems Tobold has also been experimenting with this addon with success - Alterac Valley premade - Tobold’s MMORPG Blog

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Nostalgia tinted joypads…

Published at February 22, 2008 in General Gaming. 0 Comments

Treasure Island Dizzy

There was once a time in the history of gaming when save files did not exist, your character had only one life, and continues need not apply for the position. A time when gaming brought as much, if not more, amounts of frustration as it did entertainment.

Take Treasure Island Dizzy. One life, no continue, no saves. Not a short game, not an easy game by any stretch of imagination. Spend 2 hours playing that and lose your one life.. your ready to kick the aging computer out of the window in frustration. Repeat the process a few times, your ready to kick the window out of the wall. Complete that game though and the frustration is replaced with a glorious feeling of achievement. Risk vs Reward. The more times something knocks you down and says “you cannot do this” the more you want to get back up and do it. Of course there’s a fine line between too much risk and getting it just right.

Modern games generally allow you to pause the game and save your progress anywhere. Some feature checkpoints across levels that automatically save progress for you, removing the need to even remember to save it after that especially tricky part of the level that took 4 times to get past. In a sense we are collectively being stripped of the challenge of games and slowly dumbing down the whole experience.

I don’t care if the new game out this week has the best looking graphics on any system to date, if I can clock it without furrowing my brow in frustration a few times along the way then generally I wont rate it too highly.

That’s not to say that every game needs an element of confusion to it, wether it be which direction to go or the most complex of puzzles, but if your not at least challenged in some way.. why even play the game at all? Is it becoming the equivalent of no-brainer TV reality shows?

As a result, a lot of games now don’t capture the same feeling I had as a kid clocking games on the C64 and early consoles. These were days when you sat down and played a game over several hours, but you played from start to end in one go or you wouldn’t see the end. No saves, no re-visiting it in a few days unless you leave it turned on, paused and run the risk of the power supply getting so hot it burns through your floor… these were the glory days of risk vs reward. Less flashy graphics to wow gamers, instead the feeling of a challenge met and bested was the payoff.

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GDC08: Gamer genders, in graph form

Published at February 21, 2008 in General Gaming. 0 Comments

gendergraphJust saw this over on Joystiq.

According to Sony’s internal data, 92% of registered PSN (PlayStation Network) gamers are male! If that figure is indeed correct that is one hell of a large gender bias. I already assumed gaming was primarily favoured by males.. but 92%?

I have to wonder what the figures are like for Xbox Live and Nintendo’s Wii. Are these figures an accurate representation of all platforms/formats?

Read: GDC08: Gamer genders, in graph form

Busy Month…and an Assassin Creed review

Published at February 21, 2008 in General Gaming and XBox360. 1 Comment

ac2 Hmm, I just realised its been almost a month since my last post here.. so what have I been up to?

Gaming as always. Somewhat more full on this last few months even by my standards. I picked up a couple of Xbox games cheap in a ‘two for one’ deal finally adding Assassins Creed and Halo 3 to my ever expanding library.

Halo 3 was one of those games I could have lived without.. I left it too long and then Call of Duty 4 released and any incentive to pick up Halo 3 vanished in the face of the sheer greatness of CoD4, but I had to get something and it was the best of the bunch by a long shot so there you go.

Assassins Creed was another title I’d almost decided to let go based on criticism I had heard regarding its repetitive missions before each assassination.

Continue reading ‘Busy Month…and an Assassin Creed review’

EA’s had enough…

Published at January 24, 2008 in General Gaming, Rant and XBox360. 0 Comments

masseffect  ..and quite rightly so. Everyone’s having a pop at Mass Effect lately which wouldn’t be so bad but for the fact that the majority of things the mainstream media are ‘reporting’ on is complete and utter BS.

Latest to take a swing at the game is FOX News, spewing more false claims and citing ‘experts’ that have never even played the game.

Circulating blogs today is a copy of a letter sent from EA to FOX asking for corrections to be made.. The part I find most interesting is EA’s implication that as games take more viewers away from the TV and ratings take a hit, mainstream media is more likely to attempt to paint gaming in a negative light in some vain attempt to pull ratings back..

As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness.

Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows? Do you honestly believe that young people have more exposure to Mass Effect than to those prime time shows?

This is very interesting to me as its a theory I have entertained for some time now.. The OC inclusion is genius. That show has more sexual content that Mass Effect and is widely available to people under 17. Pot/Kettle/Black

Really hope EA get somewhere with this…

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Online Diary: Through the Dark Portal

Published at January 11, 2008 in Tankadin and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

My tankadin turned 58 last night and took his first steps through the Dark Portal.

I had originally intended to fully clear Azeroth before moving on but as usual the lure of Outlands, new gear, rep, and big XP got the better of me.

I threw my mage out there as soon as she turned 58 but was planning on that. I’d all but given up questing on that toon as I was having more fun AoE grinding and instance running at the time. My shammy got to 58 in Winterspring (same as the Tankadin) and I took him through the Dark Portal right away to gear him up and ready for the switch to resto to instance run his way to 70.

It was tough to give up Azeroth as I had set a few goals for myself. I wanted to hit Exalted across the board with all major factions and to clear every zone (or at least quest in every zone) before moving on. I had ventured into Plaguelands on my main but never to quest, and my time in Silithus was limited to grinding essences to craft an Epic robe I wanted (and got). I’m assured I’m not missing much but that’s not really the point. I’ve paid for the content, seems a waste to bypass it.

I’m not too worried however as I have a druid sitting in the sidelines at level 36 I plan on maxing out to PvP with. My main aim with the Tankadin was to level him as fast, efficient, and as profitable as I could, which I have done I think… plus it makes sense to move into BC content ASAP as I can level faster out there than I can in the old 50 to 60 content and get some great gear to go with it. I’ve already replaced my epic shield, dungeon set gloves, Sapphiron’s boots, and random blue chestpiece with some sweet BC gear in just 3 quests and 2 AH purchases.

The druid will be levelled nice and casual I think. I’m in no rush to plough through all that content again. Much as I enjoyed it, I’ve been up and down Azeroth three times now.. I’ve been ganked more times in STV than I care to mention. Enough is enough I think.

The problem I have now is my mining never hit 300 in old world areas. Now I’m faced with the dilemma of going back to grind out the last 60 nodes I need to hit, or dropping the profession altogether for a crafting profession like Smithing. I make a nice wedge on the AH (see future post on Auction Flipping), certainly enough to power-level any profession I see fit to do so that’s not an issue. I’m more thinking of things to do at 70..

I originally had a plan all worked out for level cap… I planned to still play the AH heavily, to do the daily quests as much as possible, fly around farming mining nodes, and I have my fishing and cooking skills ready to be maxxed out soon which gives me more daily quest options to do the cooking stuff. I hear high level fishing can be fairly profitable in the right areas and cooking just makes sense for the great food buffs available. I have JC as a second profession that I hope to make some good money with by cutting gems. All this combined should make me some big coin but the mining is going to hold me back I think.

Everything else I can do as I’m levelling, gaining XP and loot at the same time. Mining is going to see me back in Azeroth doing laps around Burning Steppes or somewhere like that which takes me away from my goals for set amounts of time. I guess the alternative isn’t much better though as another crafting profession is going to eat into my pile of gold whereas mining costs me nothing but my time. Decisions decisions… For the time being I’ll stick to my original plan I think.

Anyway, that’s all for now.. check back soon for more Tales of a Tankadin.

Its Aliiiiive!

Published at January 10, 2008 in General Gaming and XBox360. 0 Comments

xbox The Xbox returned from repair yesterday! All working again, new DVD drive inside it.. tested it out with COD4 and it all works fine again!!

Actually very pleased with the service.. its been 3 weeks almost exactly since UPS picked it up which is exactly the turnaround time MS quoted over the phone. Anyway, I look forward to getting back to COD4 and TF2 ASAP! :)

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Online Diary: Tankadin

Published at January 3, 2008 in PC, Tankadin and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

My lvl 49 Protadin Whilst I created the Tankadin with the aim of providing more tanking options to the guild at end game, I levelled it to the mid 40’s, rarely stepping foot in instances and with a guild boost when I did. Speedy levelling was the order of the day so I set my goals and got to it.

It then occurred to me, this alt is level 46, specced tank, geared tank, aiming to be tank at level 70… and yet I have never tanked an instance with similar levelled players. How the hell could I expect to tank any high level instance with no understanding of my abilities within an instance with people attempting to pull aggro off me?

At that I did some reading, made a macro for Righteous Defence to make it work like a ranged taunt (via target of target), set my bars out and adjusted my play style to a more mana conserving, JoC/SoR/Holy Shield/Consecrate standard with the idea of tanking ZF perhaps. After few days of trying to find the time to commit, checking LFG to find no-one available, or being asked to join groups as healer.. I was questing in STV, all thoughts of ZF at the back of my mind when I received a tell from someone asking to heal ZF.

I replied with the standard “would love to but specced prot/geared prot so doubt I’d be much use, thanks anyway” response and got on with my quest. Same person whispers back saying they also needed a tank.. a quick boat ride and a gryphon and I’m at the ZF summoning stone readying up to enter the first instance I have done in months without trusted guildies at my side.

Group is comprised of a Retadin/Rogue/Priest/Warlock and myself as Tank. Starts out well and I manage to get initial aggro on the first few 3/4 mob pulls and hold them down. As soon as I sit to regain some mana the rogue stealth’s and passes me to sap a target in the next group. Mostly this worked ok and I got some experience manoeuvring mobs around to a suitable position to consecrate without breaking CC. At this point it starts going wrong..

Every time I sit to drink this rogue gets faster and faster at the sap despite me asking for a mana break to get at least a manageable amount back to tank with. Eventually the rogue moves from just hindering mana users to regain any, to pulling aggro from bad sap targets. At this point I am painfully aware how much harder this would be had I not made my ‘taunt’ macro. It was already hard enough to tank with zero mana without having to chase mobs around and reign them in.

Despite this, the group works fairly well, the lock see’s the problem and busts out some solid AoE and the Retadin picks up any adds I cant.. we progress in this manner from start to finish with only one or two deaths from the Retadin (which I don’t mind as he ninja’d a one handed mace from me on the first boss and some tanking plate shoulders from the last)

When over I thank the group and HS back to STV and drop out of the group glad to be done with it to a degree. 30 min’s later I get a tell from a level 43 mage asking me if I’m prot specced. I reply yes and he asks me back over to tank ZF. Judging that this guy was 3 levels lower than me I thought I’d give it a go, hoping my higher level would help my tanking somewhat.

This group had another Retadin, two mage’s, shaman healer, all 2/3 levels lower than myself. Right from the go this run looks better. The Frost Mage has a 70 Protadin and knows to wait a second or two for consecrate to go down and the Shaman healer was well on top of his game with a nice amount of +healing. As predicted this run goes infinitely smoother than the last attempt, even the stairs event provided little problems to us……. till I accidentally threw a very idiotic consecrate down before the little goblin bloke opens the gates and we killed him leaving them locked. Everyone has a laugh about it thankfully and we agree to rerun the instance.

One mage and the Shaman has to drop however so we find a feral druid who was prepared to heal for us and a hunter who had never been in ZF before. Again, the run goes well, I got my mace from the first boss thanks to some kind words from the mage to the Retadin convincing him that I should get it (and earning the mage a solid place on my Friends List).. however when we reach the stairs event, the frost mage echoes something I said almost a year ago running ZF for the first time on my mage.. “I bet we can AoE the lot at the bottom”

I smile to myself and agree, as does the Retadin.. all 3 of us charge down the stairs and plow into the mobs, AoE spells blazing.. at that moment the druid exclaims in chat.. “DAMMIT! I wasn’t ready!” and down we go :)

On our return we take the mobs down via AoE in manageable pulls and kill the sub-bosses, but the NPC guys must have died on the stairs as the gate remained locked and no-one to open it so we agree to call it for the night.

All in all I had a great laugh, made some friends, and gained some loot and valuable experience tanking 5-mans. If only all PuG’s could be like that….

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