ICC10 Raid, Saturday 12pm.

I've got a good feeling about this one.


I'll see you there :D


-Ahz

April Fools! Wait... What?

This is the kind of thing I expect from blizzard when we hit April every year. Most people seem to be having the same "surely not" reaction, but it's true.


Come Cataclysm, Hillsbrad will be home to a new questline/minigame: Plants Vs Zom- er, I mean Peacebloom Vs Ghouls... seriously.


Despite the quasi-disbelief and misgivings, the game seems to be impressing people so far - take a look at the video to see what I mean. Take note people - on this day Blizzard hath taken the first pioneering (damning?) step towards a game that houses many other games, similar to that which Sony wanted to do with Home, only not... crap.




Mount news:

The horde guild mount is going to be a scorpion, apparently. We'll be able to buy them from our guild vendor once we hit Glevel 25.

Alchemists are getting a mount of their own... sorta. 
Meet the Sandstone Drake, result of the Vial of the Sands alchemy BoP. Rather than riding one, using this mount actually turns you into the dragon. Once you're a dragon, you get to let someone mount you, like any good dragon wo- Oh, get your minds out the gutter people... *sigh*


Needless to say (being a shifter myself) that I am immediately switching to alchemy; it's not even up for discussion.

Finally, the Alliance crybabies have been wailing about the fact that worgen will not be getting a mount of their own (the nightelves are tired of fiddling with cats and horses). 


However, the soon-to-be worgen population (colloquially known as Blood-elves) are ecstatic; they get to run around on all fours and make pretend like they're in Twilight instead.


Good news for the Horde all-round I'd say.


Until next time,
Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Gnome

Spitting at Greenskins

This is a screenshot of a flash game I've been playing recently. Don't try to click on continue - it's a picture, it won't work... 
You already tried, didn't you? Kids these days... *sigh*


Anywho, the text above was filled in by the game automatically (I named the characters at the beginning) and this... er... "cutscene" made my day. It also provides me with an opportunity to post here, too.


Some of you may have noticed that I've been missing for the last few days. Again. *dodges a bottle*


This time it's mostly due to a wonderful website: Kongregate.
I'm not going to try to sell the whole idea to you (I could rant about it for hours... kinda like I did when I first discovered the new Steam), but rest assured that achievement-whores the world over are flocking there for good reason. You'll find me there if you decide to join us.


As always if you need to get into contact with me for any reason, shoot an email at tobiasmasters@gmail.com and, assuming I'm conscious, I'll respond within 5-10 minutes.


-Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Abandonment Issues

Top 5 UI mods.

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a while now - I haven't gotten around to it because I've been distracted by FFXIV. It is... you must forgive my crude and, frankly vulgar, description here but I can think of nothing more eloquent and accurate than these six words:

It is a roleplayers wet dream.

All vulgarity aside for a moment; I was desperately looking for something to distract myself from the blissful and bountiful world of Eorzea when I stumbled across this article from WoW.com.

A fine read it was, but something had bothered me all the way throughout. In the first paragraph was a sentence that read "Instead, you get a grab bag of... downright crucial addons". None of the three addons the writer listed struck me as particularly crucial, but I shrugged it off. Moments later I felt that joyous spark of a new idea surfacing: "Why don't I write up a list of insanely useful addons?"

My answer to myself instantly was: "But then I would have to write it, and that sounds significantly like work." but it was too late. Now if I don't do it I'll feel guilty... are you happy about that? You oughta be, because if you're not then I'm wasting my time by listing:

The Top 5 UI MODS!

I don't have any streamers or cake... sorry.

Anywho, this list is PURELY from my own personal opinion. It is not the mother of all guides, you will not be punished if you do not use these (not by me, anyway). They are not required in any way. Enjoy!

#5. Recount

Recount is an incredibly useful tool, but only in certain circumstances. I've referred to it a few times, usually by telling people NOT to slobber all over it. Recount is mostly useful to Raid Leaders, teachers or mentors and anyone who wants to improve their own performance.

Similarly to Gearscore (*wretch*), most people use it as a measure of their "L33tn3ssz" or e-peen - those people should be banned from using any such mods as they drag the name of such a useful tool so far through the mud that most people can't bear to look at it.

In a nutshell, recount will gather data from you, your group or your whole raid and display it for easy analysis in realtime (nerds like me go apesh*t for words like "realtime"). It can show you how much damage a player has done, how many debuffs they cleared, how many times they stood in the fire, etc.

There are two problems with Recount though: 

First, the only people who should be using recount are the ones who either have a problem with their group, or they're looking for one - but I can guarantee you almost every last dps in the game has it running and watches it like a hawk... and they'll spam it in your guild chat when they end up in the top 3.

Second, using recount in groups and raids can suck a whole lot of resources from your cpu. If you use it on a low end system, you may find yourself disconnect just as an encounter begins - don't use it if this happens.

If you do use it, use it only for yourself. Watch your progress and try to improve... don't use it to show how awesome you are.

#4. Omen

Omen is a little over-hyped. It's not as essential as everyone says but it's certainly useful from time to time. The only exception should be for tanks, who'll get more use out of it than anyone. Healers should never have to worry about getting Omen, either.

Omen monitors threat and displays it in realtime (Awwww yeah!). This is incredibly useful for tanks as they can see when they're about to lose aggro, and occasionally for dps to know when to ease off (to avoid aggro).

The biggest drawback is not being able to monitor threat on multiple targets at once (though no mod I know of can do this comfortably right now). That means group coordination is still a must - it won't (read: can't) be done for you.

#3. Grid

The only reason Grid doesn't place higher in this list is that it serves almost no purpose for pure dps. Here's a list of the roles that it's suited for:

• Tanks
• Healers
• Debuffers
• Utility DPS
• Raid/Group Leaders
• Pet Classes
• Your Mum
• My Mum
• Her Mum
• Any of the above in PvP (including your Mum)

Gettin' my drift? Good.

Grid will display the HP, status and range of any given player or pet in your group straight off the bat. That alone would make it a godsend but it's also highly configurable. With a little (or a lot) of tweaking you can make Grid show any kind of information you like and look however you want it to.

The Cons: It can be quite confusing to configure - I've been using it for years and still struggle with some of the configurations. Take my word for it: It's worth every last second.

#2. Power Auras

This beautiful little mod is so great that Blizzard are in fact adding their own version as standard with Cataclysm. My guess is we'll still be using Power Auras though, and here's why:

Power Auras (or POWA) can be configured to show anything. It will detect any buffs, debuffs, health state, skill readiness, ANYTHING you want and put an icon on the screen for you. You choose the icon, it's colour, it's animation and it's position and it will save you searching for that information. For example I currently have it set to show (all centre screen):

• A flashing blue circle to show when Clearcast has procced.
• A pulsing purple bear paw showing when Gift of the Wild has worn off.
• Big orange teeth showing me how long I have left on my Savage Roar buff.
• (On my warrior) A big red arrow showing me when Overpower or Victory Rush are ready to use.

This comes in ahead of Grid because it's useful to everyone. The only downside is that it must be configured from scratch. You must tell it what to show and why - there are no presets (not yet, anyway).

#1. Deadly Boss Mods

Go and get it! NAO! I'm not even going to tell you what this does.

Alright, I'm lying. I will tell you, but only because I like the sound of my own voice. Deadly Boss Mods (or DBM) does everything your raid or group leader wishes they could do, when they needed to do it.

It warns the user of upcoming attacks and threat. For instance, it will create a timer to show you how long until the next Gun-freezing is due on the Gunship battle in ICC. It'll play warning sounds when something happens that you should know about too - it basically explains bosses for you while you're fighting them.

The only things close to a drawback for this (and I'm reaching) are these:

• You have to download a separate version of the addon if you want warnings for boss encounters in TBC and Vanilla.
• Your pc might get a bit choppy while it loads up a set of mods (entering an instance for example).
• You may become overly dependent on it. That's... That's the best I got.

Why are you still reading?! GOGEDDIT!

That's it for now. I know there are a ton of other useful mods out there - these are just the basics. If you want to see or discuss some other mods (or need us to recommend one for you) say so in the comments below! In fact, say whatever you like... I get lonely down there.

Until next time kiddies,

-Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling GnOmen (c wut I did thar?)

An Open Letter to Blizzard

Dear Blizzard,

Do what you have to do, but don't leave us swinging in the wind until November.

Regards,

Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Expansionitis.


(Big thanks to The Gregory Brothers (Schmoyoho) for one of the best new tracks I've heard in a while - go buy a T-shirt or something!)

Cataclysm Currency

The good folks (or folk, <3 Boubouille) at MMOchampion.com have been kind enough to design a currency calculator to show you what your useless tokens will be worth:

There's also a pvp currency converter. The conversion will include things like Honor points and forgotten tokens, like Venture Coins and Spirit Shards (Auchindoun).

Go check it out here!

EDIT: It looks like the conversion will happen before Cataclysm launches, start stocking up now if you want to take advantage.

-Ahz

"What sick man sends babies to fight me?"

I'm cutting my last post a bit short here, so make sure you flick back a bit if you missed it.

I'm back! Well, kinda back. Still completely burnt out on WoW, sadly, but I'm back because many of you are laying on the guilt thick and fast insisting that I'm abandoning you.

Alright, only one of you has insisted that, but their tears have moved me.

I know for a fact that I'm not the only one burning out either - it's happening to all of you this very second. Yes, you.

WoW can currently be boiled down to a list of things that are keeping us hanging on; my list consists only of the people I've come to care about within (and outside of) the guild. Some want to see all of the end-game content before it becomes obsolete. Others still hang on for achievements or are perhaps preparing financially for the Cataclysm. Whatever is keeping you coming back, try listing them off in your head and see how far you get...

The point of this decidedly negative-feeling lecture is that it's ok to be burnt out. Anyone who needs a break should take one, knowing fully that the guild will still be here when (if?) they return. Let's face it, we're basically wasting time while we wait for the expansion - I don't want anyone to be showing up purely out of a sense of obligation to the guild. We exist to have fun, don't forget.

I bring this up now because I can see the enthusiasm slowly fading from the guild overall and I'd hate to see someone leave because they thought we were going under. I know for a fact that many, if not most, other guilds are experiencing the same struggle. We're not going under. In fact, when the Cataclysm hits every part of Harms Way will be in full swing once again:

• New dungeons and raids to tackle.
• Guild achievements.
• Guild battlegrounds.
• Sadistic Sundays *cackle*

As always, HW will do the research on all encounters and teach our members how to handle them - and we'll have fun doing it, too.

Until then, things will seem to slow to a crawl. Take your own holiday from WoW if you need one; Try out some new games, move from your computer to your couch (I did that once), get a tan... anything you like. Then you can return for the Cataclysm and pick up with a completely refreshed guild and a new world to explore!

In the meantime, I hear Lord of the Rings Online just went free-to-play... perhaps I'll see you there.

NOTE: If enough people start taking holidays but want to stay around for raids, I'll start posting raid details here - saving people from having to log on every other day to check :)

Let me know what you think!

-Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Gnome.