Its about time for another little World of Warcraft update. And though I have been trying to keep WoW topics from overwhelming the site, I do still spend quite a lot of time playing it still and could go on and on. Thus I am consolidating all my latest news into one post.
Almost forgot to add that the Midsummer World Event began today which is the last world even that my warlock needs to complete the purple drake flying mount achievement.
Although I have tried a wide range of characters in World of Warcraft, I have not played a healer since beta. Strangely enough the two characters that I have leveled past fifty are both ranged DPS with pets (Hunter and Warlock). Clearly it was time to branch out!
The not playing a healer thing had a few different reasons, the most prominent being: (1) the changes to priests in beta broke my heart and I refused to play one ever again! and (2) my husband plays a holy priest as his main (making reason one very easy to uphold!). Since I enjoy playing WoW with my husband, playing another healer has seemed rather superfluous.
But recently the mood has changed around here. Husband of mine seems to want a bit of a healing break. Maybe he was jealous of my leet deeps, or he was feeling the urge to stray, whatever the case, he is happy to alt it up with me. So he is tanking while I am healing in our awesome druid duo. (Getting pick up groups has been a breeze!!)
The folks over at Blizzard have come up with an ingenious solution for assuring NDA (none disclosure agreement) compliance for their latest StarCraft 2 beta (at least for me anyway.)
Step 1 – Make the beta online onl
y.
Step 2 – Only enable head to head game play.
Step 3 – Invite all the best StarCraft players in the world (yeah that’s right, Koreans also, you know a whole nation of people who are born instinctively knowing how to play StarCraft.)
Step 4 – Sit back and rest assured that most people will never actually make past the first five minutes of any game as they have no chance of beating anyone with crazy SC skills.
Makes it hard to break that NDA if you have no way of really seeing much of the game.
That is certainly how its been for me. The longest any of my games have lasted thus far have been around ten minutes and they usually consist of me oohing and ahhing over how my poor team is getting their asses handed to them by units I didn’t even know existed.
Shocking that I haven’t been playing more of the beta, I know.
<3 TFG
After having finished all the holiday event Achievements with my hunter I swore never to do them again. But the super fast flying mount reward is just so incredibly spectacular that I had get one for my warlock. (I should just ban the word ‘never’ from my vocabulary!)
Which of course means suffering through all the holiday achievements. Thankfully the current one, Noble Garden, is not so bad. It took me only one evening of play. Plus I got to run around as a bunny for most of the evening. Whatever changes they made to this event (I know lots of the holiday achievements got an overhaul at one point or another) worked wonders, because I didn’t finish it seething with anger. Nice change of pace. =)
(Its such an awesome title how could I not run with it?!!? Probably should have been Monthly WoW Woes, but that certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.)
DPS (Damage Per Second). The never ending quest for the all time highest damage output EVER. What is the DPS ceiling and how can I get there???
Since both of my World of Warcraft characters are DPS-centric, this question comes up for me often. My love-hate relationship with recount doesn’t help, as I can’t seem to get by without it, but playing with it is almost as impossible. Would I do better without it? Keeping track is eminently distracting. Though having such a clear display of ones performance (compared to everyone else) is highly motivating.
Final thoughts
Here we are, at the end of this (much larger then I expected) endeavor. I hope that it has conveyed enough information to help ease the transition into raiding (at least a little bit!)
External Additions
This is a huge topic. The meta-game for WoW is already incredibly complicated, but the meta-game for the WoW-software dwarfs it by leaps and bounds. From new interfaces to smaller addons; a vast array of options are available. Then of course we can’t forget Ventrilo and all the hardware that that spawns.
Oh you could play without all these fancy gadgets and gizmos but they really help in so many situations by increasing response time, easier access to all raid members, alerts, maps, shortcuts, and so many more wonderful ease inspiring additions that playing without almost seems archaic. Granted on a bit patch day you will be playing without them, until they are patched anyway.
Strategy
This really comes in two parts, strategy on how to play your character and strategy on how to be successful in an encounter. Both of these can be theorized ad nauseum, but nothing can make up for experience. So brush up online and then jump in.
The Character
The single most successful way to increase character effectiveness is to focus on enhancing the character itself. This means choosing a purpose and then getting the various character aspects – talents, skills, equipment, buffs – synched so they properly support said choice. Essentially you figure out what you want your character to be able to do and then you set them up with the best options available.
Taking the step from being a casual player, who runs a few heroic dungeons every now and then, into a player that is raiding effectively and with purpose (my definition of hardcore) is a massive undertaking. It requires far more focused knowledge and experience then just playing casually. Suddenly many aspects of your character, aspects that were easily ignorable before, become incredibly pertinent.
