Revenge is a wonderful thing

The other day, I was standing by the Flight Master is Dalaran complicating where to quest with my level 78 Death Knight. I just finished Storm Peaks, leaving the Hodir dailies. I thought about Icecrown but chose to start questing at that place when I hit 80. I even thought about going to lower Borean Tundra but I decided not too. So I was left with Shalazar Basin because it’s a new location, which my death knight has not seen.

I took the quest from the NPC in Dalaran that sends me to Shalazar Basin and walked away from my computer to tend to my youngest daughter…. My daughter wanted to watch “Little Mermaid” for the 10 millionth time. So I got the DVD and started the movie. Now I have “under the sea” song stuck in my head…

I came back to my computer ready to begin my grind and hopefully get my death knight to level 79 before I logged for the night. As I sat down in front of my computer I was being attacked. I thought to myself, it must be a snake or a crocodile. When I looked closer two alliance players (a level 80 Warlock and a level 76 death knight) were attacking me. I was a bit alarmed because I was still flagged. So I just let them kill him. I’ll wait for the PVP flag to wear off, resurrect and begin my grind.”

While I was waiting for the PVP flag to wear off I noticed in the chat log an emote from the level 76 Death Knight.

Death Knight laughs at you
Death Knight spits on you

There is one emote I hate…/spit is it. I feel that emote is derogatory and has no purpose to be in the game.

I got upset and decided to log on my paladin and get my revenge.

I logged on my paladin took a flight from Dalaran to Shalazar Basin. I was complicating on how to get the alliance players to fight since their PVP flag will wear off when I get to Shalazar Basin. I decided to bait them. I would turn on my PVP flag and get them to attack me. When I landed in Shalazar Basin, I mounted up and flew around looking for the alliance players. After a 5-minute search I ended it. I flew back to town and parked my paladin at the inn…just in case.

I logged on my death knight and noticed I was still flagged. Since I did not find the warlock and death knight with my paladin I figured they were gone. I didn’t bother waiting for the PVP flag to wear off so I just mounted and flew to the ogre’s camp to start my questing.

As soon as I landed I noticed in a distance there was the Death knight and Warlock killing ogres too.

There is my chance.

I ran up next to them and began killing an ogre. I made sure they saw me. At first they were hesitant but with a flick of the wrist on my fishing pole I got the fish frenzy.

I said to myself “Take the bait, take the bait.”

Well they took the bait. The death knight death gripped me and began to attack. The warlock didn’t not want to be left out so he began his dots. I quickly died but my death knight’s job was done. I quickly logged on my paladin to get my revenge.

Once I logged in, I quickly mounted up and flew to the location. Unfortunately I was too late. The death knight and warlock were gone. I search the Ogre camp high and low but there was no trace of them. My excitement dropped to frustration then to a disappointment. With my head down I flew back the camp moping.

Low and behold, the death knight and the warlock were at the camp…still flagged! I quickly took an assessment of my surroundings. There were 5 players at the camp. The death knight was sitting outside of town eating, the warlock was doing something in camp and the other players a mix of horde and alliance were just standing around (AFK’r)

I quickly swooped down and unloaded on the death knight. With a few seconds the DK died. I had a big grin on my face and began to laugh hysterically.

I turned toward the warlock and /pointed then I began to run toward him but he did not want any part of the fight. He mounted and flew away.

My wife from the other room asked, “What is wrong with you?”

I told her “The death knight pissed me off, so I killed him.”

She said, “You’re such a dork!”

Still grinning, “Yes I am a dork that got his revenge. “

-Rudy

Patch 3.2 PTR Notes Update

It would not be a patch update with out some Paladin “changes“.

Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack and the effects from these seals can only be triggered by auto-attacks and Hammer of the Righteous.

With the change currently, it will take me 17.5 second to ramp up 5 stacks. To me that is a long time to get the full benefit of the spell. With all the trash, some phases with bosses and some bosses entirely SoV is pointless to use. I guess I have to seal swap SoR over SoV with some fight but that does not make it any better.

I hope there are more changes to compensate for this nerf.

-Rudy

Smells like Rick Astley

Into the Void

Two or three months ago, Blizzard ran a Global Writing Contest. It turned out one of my guild mate (Discordian) was chosen as a runner’s up for his short story “Into the Void”. Congratulations!

A month ago Blizzard gave Disco permission to publish story (at no cost). With his permission I am linking his work. I found it to be an excellent read. For those who likes a dark story with horror this is one you should read.

About the story
It’s a horror story about the first Explorer’s League team sent into Whispering Gulch (the origin of the Deranged Explorers that are there now) and their corruption by Yogg-Saron.

Summary From Blizzard: Dwarves from the Explorers’ League set out to investigate the saronite mines in Whisper Gulch, with devastating consequences.

Janner nodded dumbly and walked away, wiping at his brow. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Not wanting to take the switchbacks back down through the gulch, he made his way over the winch-lift. Two young squires quickly appeared, and for a couple of coins, they manned the winch. Janner felt the usual stomach-turning sensation as the lift eased out over empty space. He looked at the shadowed cleft of the gulch, but for no reason he could understand, the sight of it sent shivers running up and down his spine.

Janner turned to watch the cliff face to ease his mind. In the dying light, tiny chips of saronite buried in the stone winked at him like a thousand staring eyes, beetle-green and shimmering.

***After you read the story, please take some time to provide some feedback here. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.

-enjoy

Rudy

New Races = New Classes?

A few days ago maybe a week ago, numerous sites (wow.com, MMO-Champion) have posted two new Halloween masks images; a Goblin and a Worgen. This began a frenzy of discussions about the mask and most believe the mask are a sure sign that the goblin and worgen are the next race in the upcoming expansion.

I like the idea but why? Why these races? A goblin is neutral and will only side with the party that can better their profits while the worgens are from another dimension that kills just to kill.

There is no reason other than Blizzard is developing a new class to go along with the race. Think about it. Do you really think you will play a priest worgen, a mage worgen or possibly a paladin worgen. I don’t think so. Heck I would go so far as any class. If Blizzard wants to introduce the worgen as a possible race then I see the worgen be it’s own race/class and be playable with both factions.

Either way, all the race talk has peaked my curiosity, I just hope Blizzard does not disappoint because all the worgen talk has set the bar high.

-Rudy

Tier9 Model Update

Much better. Still an ugly model but the colors are better

MMO Champion All

Class QQ&A Series: Paladin

I finally sat down and read the Paladin Q&A post in WoW’s Official Paladin Forum. I know I know, I am a little late to the party.

I am a bit disappointed with the post, most of the stuff we knew were changing; MP5 changes, Blessing of Sanctuary, Flash of Light, Exorcism, etc. But there was “mis-speak” about gap-closer that set the Paladin community on fire.
_____________________________________________

Q. With the slew of options to either “jump into” or “jump out of” PvP encounters for either offensive or defensive purposes many classes receive, do we have any plans to incorporate special abilities for paladins to either help them escape tough situations or quickly get into pvp battle (i.e. Deathgrip, Typhoon, Summoning Circle, Disengage, etc.)? It seems paladins are the only class without a short cool-down ability on the same scale.

A. Players are pretty good at detecting problems, but for solutions they tend to just look around at what other classes have that is working for them. Homogenization is something we fight as much as we can, which is the reason not every class has Death Grip and not every class has Charge. Judgment of Justice is intended to be the gap-closer for paladins. If it becomes a huge liability, we’ll evaluate, but at the moment paladins are doing extremely well in PvP without it.

Judgment of Justice preserves the gap, which will keep the enemy at bay not a gap-closer. Gap closer are meant to help you reach the target from a distance. When JoJ has a 10 yard range, how can that be done? It doesn’t because you have a 10-yard range.

Plus JoJ is pointless to use because the player has to use some sort of speed increase (i.e. sprint, travel form, mount) to feel the affect. If not there is no real affect on the player because everyone runs at “normal” speed with or without it. O.o

Also stated “Homogenization is something we fight as much as we can, which is the reason not every class has Death Grip and not every class has Charge.” True, not every class has a charge but 3 of the 4 tanking class has some type of intercept; Warrior’s charge, Death Knight’s Death Grip and Druid’s charge (I can’t remember the name). But Blizzard feels it is too homogenizing to give it to a Paladin….Am I missing something?

_________________________________________________

Q. Do we have plans to introduce a stand-alone interrupt ability for paladins?

A: We would like to add this kind of utility to paladins. First we have to get the burst damage under control so that Ret paladins are not winning PvP encounters by blowing players up. When we accomplish that, we’ll look at finally giving them more tools.

With PVP Ret constantly being re-tooled (cough*nerfed*cough), I don’t see any time a stand alone interrupt will be implemented in this expansion. That is truly unfortunate because I believe Paladins need one desperately.

_________________________________________________

Q. Do we have plans to incorporate a larger variety of Librams?

A. We try and make sure the three main paladin roles have their Librams covered. As these are special items that no other class can use, we have to make sure we don’t drop them too often in PvE encounters, but we have no problem putting more on badge vendors. Usually it’s just a matter of time because a new tier of content, like the Call of the Crusade patch, already involves making literally over a thousand new items.

Why not? Why not allow bosses to drop more librams or any other class specific items? Would it be difficult to allow an item to drop when that class is present on the kill? Heck I see items drop that no class can use, there is not much of a difference there.

Overall the post was somewhat informative but I wish they delved more into the ret nerfs.
________________________________________________

A clever use of game mechanics :P

/Salute to my fellow engineers

Are you serious?!?!?

The Horde Paladin Tier 9 armor set is AWFUL!!!!!

MMO-Champion

Patch 3.2 PTR – Build 10072

I was looking over the new 3.2 patch notes at mmo-champion. One particular change caught my eye

Glyph of Righteous Defense: Now also increases the chance for Hand of Reckoning to hit.

This is actually a very nice change. Any help to reduce the misses with my taunts (damn you Razorscale) is always welcome, imho. Now I need to find out how much of an increase.