Self vs. Whole - What WoW Means to Me

Edit: Now that the poll is complete, I'm editing in the results and posting the next one.

Question: Who are you for?
FOR THE HORDE! (4 votes, 33%)
FOR THE ALLIANCE! (3 votes, 25%)
Can't I stay on the fence like Thrall & Jaina? (5 votes, 41%)
Neither! DEATH TO ALL! FOR THE SCOURGE! (0 votes, 0%)

Good to know there's no active traitors in the midst. D= But really, what's with all you peace mongers? Don't you know this is World of WARcraft? ;)

I was originally going to post the next segment of my story here - and in novella form, as that seems to be the general consensus. However, I couldn't find the time to convert my script to story form, and another topic's been clawing at my mind lately, so I thought I'd share.

I'm always surprised with what people do and don't know about me. I generally try to keep my personal life separate from my forum life, and only the guildmates that I talk to on a regular basis know the kinds of things that really go on with me. But to put this topic in full perspective, I have to share a few things about who the person really is behind Eseten.

Eseten is played by a, at the time of this writing, 22 year old female who lives in Hollywood. I graduated college about a year ago, and decided to pursue my then-dream of being a voice actor by moving out here from the midwest. I made some progress, but ultimately decided that my passions did not lie in being an actor of any sort. The only things that thrill me these days are writing and, well, raiding. I play WoW as much as I do because there is little else I do with my life at the moment. I more or less lost my job a few weeks ago, my hours scaled down to such a miniscule amount that I cannot afford to live off of it. I have been spending nearly every day of the last two weeks searching for interviews, revising my resumes, doing everything I can to find something to put food on the table.

I live in a hell hole. My apartment is disgusting - I rent a room from a somewhat dubious middle aged man who works as a paparazzi. The rent is cheap and I really only have to share the shower, but when you feel arguably dirtier from using it than when you stepped in... well, there's something wrong. I would never dream of cooking in that kitchen, as whatever grossness is lurking in there would probably kill me. So I stay holed up in a 13x13 foot room in the dim glow of my computer, just trying to lose myself in the virtual world I know and love.

I have lived here for one year, almost to the day now, and in all that time, I have remained mostly alone. While I have some distant relatives in the area, I'm somewhat of the black sheep. I don't really get along with anyone, and I'm not terribly sociable. I've made few friends - in fact, of the ones I've made, the only ones I've really kept in touch with I actually know because of WoW. I rather fit the "socially awkward" stereotype of most WoW players. All I'm missing is the stack of Hot Pockets boxes, uncontrollable acne, and about 200 lbs worth of weight.

The summary of my sob story is that I'm essentially a single, lonely female with little to no social life, no job, and a lot of things that should really only depress me. But instead, I tend to make silly forum posts, write creatively, and, above all, play WoW in as helpful a way as possible. That is, I'm the schmuck who goes and fishes for the Fish Feasts we plop down every boss pull. I'm the sickeningly sweet weirdo who says, "Guys, that may have been a wipe, but we're progressing! Keep it up!" I'm the nerd who finishes the Noblegarden event early, then starts setting out spare eggs for others for no reason than to know I made someone's day.

Lately, I've had some issues with my guild. We have had poor attendence, and this week was particularly bad (due to one unforeseen sickness and a previously planned vacation that just happened to be ill-timed). However, due to a lack of communication, this has projected poorly on the organizers of our raids, and our morale has been low. There's a lot of upset people, and I worry that our attendence is only going to drop further. It's difficult to recruit new, good, geared people when you have no evidence to show them that being part of your guild is worth it.

It doesn't matter if certain, logical decisions were made - unless those kinds of things are explained to the rest of the guild, they won't know any better and will only be led to believe the situation is getting worse. When people make assumptions, that's when things go downhill. And there's been a whole lot of assuming going around.

It makes me sad, for more than one reason. One, because I love this game, and this guild. There's a lot of really awesome people in it that I have fun raiding with. There are people who make me smile and laugh, people I've had the honor of hanging out in person with, people that I consider not just my guildmates, but my friends. Two, it's because... well, this is kind of all I have. It may be sad in one way, but in another, it gives me hope.

WoW means a lot to me. I can't afford to go out and meet new people. I can't afford to pay the gas to go to the local game store every weekend and hang out and spend money. So I spend fifteen bucks a month to have access to 13 million other players who often share my enthusiasm and my interests. I personally think that's a pretty good investment, or at least a good bang for my buck. So when things go sour, and I watch 10-14 people sit around and be left in the dust due to unfortunate circumstances and misunderstandings... My heart actually hurts. It aches because it's not fair. Maybe I'm just still naive, but I feel like something can be done, and if no one else is going to do it, I'll do it myself.

I want everyone to have fun. I want us to be together as a guild. I want us to grow as a guild. I want us to progress as a guild. I want the best for the people who I consider friends. I often shoot myself in the foot, putting others before what I want or need. I know it's not the best quality to have because, more often than not, I suffer more than anything else. But I've always been that way, and really, at this point, even if I wanted to change, I don't think I could. Not fully, anyhow.

Just the same... if people don't share my sentiments, I can't stand by and let myself waste away. To use a cliche, there is no "I" in team - and there's really two meanings to that. While a single person can't outshine the rest to stand on their own, it also means you can't wait for a single person to pull everyone along. I can give, and give, and give some more... but if others aren't willing to use what I give to its full potential, then it's really all a waste of everyone's time.

I don't think of myself as the end-all-be-all anything. I'm good at DPS, I used to be a very good tank... And I'm more than willing to admit I'm terribly rusty (or perhaps just re-learning everything after the entire mechanics of my class have changed and I now have easily twice as many, if not more, buttons to push). The only things I am confident in saying about myself is that I care about the guild and that I work hard to improve myself whenever I can. Tonight, I unbound my A and D keys, because I know I'll be a better player in the end by doing so. I tried to PuG some 25 man heroics to get better tank gear, because I know there's a need for it. I want to make myself available to others, and I want to be good at my hobby. I want to be known as one of the best guilds on the server, and I want to show people that I rock at this - that I love it and work hard at it.

It might be silly to everyone else. But to me, well, I guess it's a way to keep me going. I might not have a job, and I might not have a boyfriend or even a group to go out drinking with. But I have a guild full of pretty cool people that I care about very much. I have fun when I'm with them... and I want to make sure they have fun too.

P.S. Rabble Rabble Rabble. This is now an official rant. /salute Dim

The Writing Contest

First things first, last poll!

How Many Level 80's Do You Have?

Just one, baby (14 - 45%)
Only a couple (2-3) (13 - 41%)
I'm an alt-aholic! (4-8) (2 - 6%)
You don't want to know... (8+) (2 - 6%)

Total Votes: 31

So I guess the demographic for my blog gets focused a bit more. Not very many alt-aholics that read this I take it. I left this one up for quite some time, but I have a good reason!

I've been writing. And today, my dear readers, I am going to share with you what I have been writing.

Some of you may know about a little Writing Contest that Blizzard put up about a month ago. Some of you that know me a bit better than just an anonymous blogger know I have a big, uber WoW script hovering in limbo. This writing contest allowed me to expand on one of the characters I created for my script and delve a bit deeper into her character. Now that the submissions are closed off, I thought it would be fun for me to post what I wrote and let you all take a look at what I've been working on.

It's not too terribly long (in fact, I only barely scraped over the minimum word count), but I think it rounds off nicely. Please, post constructive criticism! As someone who would like to develop her writing skills into a livlihood, I'll take everything I can get. And if people like it, perhaps I'll write another background story for another of the characters, or maybe even begin sharing bits of the script itself. If you're interested in this, let me know via comments!

**EDIT** Unfortunately, I had to pull this off of my blog since I found out TODAY (when they announced the winners) that it's against the terms I agreed to when I submitted the story. Whoops. That's what I get for not reading closely enough. I do wish a CM would have commented/deleted my post on the WoW forums informing me of this when I first did it, since I probably got disqualified for it.

I shot myself in the foot on this one. I'll be able to continue posting my other, original story (since while it's related to this one, as long as I don't use any of the text from this particular short story, I should be fine - especially since this is all non-profit and in good fun).

The WoW Community - Black & White

I think I set the timer on the current poll too long. >> Oops. I'll wait for it to run out before posting the results.

So, through the course of the day today, as I was doing my usual forum trolling, I noticed that things have been a little more... hostile as of late. Maybe it's just me, but does it seem like people are constantly up in arms a little more frequently than usual? Note, I did make this observation before the unofficial class changes popped up and got people all stir-crazy, but it seems like little things have been irritating people a lot more than they would normally.

Now, before you point it out to me, I know the WoW community isn't the happiest sunshine-y place in the world. A lot of people have compared it to the /b/ forum on 4Chan, with /b/ being only slightly lower. As someone who steers completely clear of 4Chan in a desperate attempt to preserve what little sanity I have left, I can't make the comparison myself. But, the longer I stay active on the forums, the more I see it changing.

It's a funny place. On any given day, it's either full of hilarious or helpful posters, or completely rude and inconsiderate posters. Sure, there's a little overlap here and there, but it seems like there's an hour in the early morning that decides what kind of day it's going to be: angry or funny or helpful or whatever.

Why are the forums so black and white when it comes to topics?

As I have said before in many threads, the reason I post is to try to be a part of the community, and the way I try to be a part is by being that weird person who tries to bring something funny to the table. Yeah, it doesn't always work - I have my off days too, ya know - but for the days it does, for the times I get people quoting me, or sigging me, or general acknowledgement that tells me I've effectively done what I'm there to do - well, it's worth it. I like the idea that I made someone smile behind their computer screen. I like the idea that they come to the forums, filter through the drek, and find something to laugh about.

Maybe I'm unique in that stance, I don't really know. You can rest assured I won't be changing anytime soon. I guess I just wish I didn't feel so alone - there's definitely a group of people I goof off with, many of which were mentioned in my Forum Trolling 101 post. And I thank those for playing along with my shenanigans - and even more so, I thank the Blues for not banning me yet. =P

I'm hoping today was just an off day and the forums will get back to their regular way soon - whatever that is. I guess I just got spoiled with the streak of good feelings that went on last week...

But is it so wrong of me to want a good thing to stay?

Forum Trolling 101

So, some things have been changed around a bit.

• New poll, please be sure to participate (since it seems not a lot of people have voted yet, I'll leave it up another week).
  
• You'll notice, if you don't have some sort of ad-blocker, that there are ads now. As a starving writer, I figured it couldn't hurt. If they're too much of a nuisance, let me know and they'll be removed. (To be honest, since I have ad-blockers, I can't even see them myself.) Since I can't actually see my own ads, let me know if there are any offensive or questionable ads popping up, and I'll get them blacklisted off. I don't really want to be advertising for gold-selling or anything like that. =X
• New name! Since I had to change my name when I moved to Gurubashi, Eseten has become my new online moniker. I will miss my old nickname of Pretty, but life in and out of the World of Warcraft goes on... I am now Eseten.

That should about cover it. Onto today's topic: A quick lesson in Forum Trolling.

Anyone who frequents the Official World of Warcraft General Forum probably knows me to some extent by now. I've gained somewhat of a reputation as a regular, though more often late at night than during the day. I'm probably not as recognizeable as the better-knowns, like Zmue, Rizz, or Stabby, but I like to think I'm somewhat infamous.

There's a lot of different kinds of trolls out there. There's friendly ones, outright rude ones, and then the ones who have multiple accounts due to frequent vacations. This is all a bit of a generalization, but that's more or less the gist of it.

Friendly trolls, like myself, tend not so much to be flamers and tend more towards the humorous or sarcastic posts. My toon, Eseten, has sort of developed his own personality as an insatiable flirt with a particular taste for female night elf druids. It was just sort of a random direction I took it in, and now it's become kind of part of my posting requirement: if there's a female night elf druid in the thread, I must let her know how sexy she is. Female blood elves of any kind are also acceptable.

Most friendly trolls have some kind of quirk like this. Waffletime likes her tauren, Sunila likes her male blood elves (we get along, if you couldn't tell), and Korozen likes... uhh... high heels. We specialize in derailing badly formed threads late at night, and running rampant with non-sensical roleplay. This infuriates some posters, and we revel in it. Since we usually post later in the evenings, we often don't get policed for our trollings. Slap on the hand at worst, or the deletion of a thread we didn't really care much about in the first place.

Rude trolls are the flamers. These are the people who enter threads for the sole purpose of telling you how much of a noob you are or how horrible your gear/arena rating/achievement points are. My theory is that most of them are either 20-somethings with no life or your typical 12 year old who's obsessed with his e-peen.

Friendly trolls often enjoy disguising themselves as rude trolls, but usually in the way of parody. In particular, I tend to become more of an insulting person whenever Zarhym, one of the Community Managers, posts. Ever since he altered my signature one evening, I have declared war on him. He's winning right now, but I'm still trying to master the art of being a bastard without getting myself banned. I never mean most of the things I say, it's more akin to picking on friends of yours. Granted, anonymous friends of yours, but friends nonetheless.

Vacationers are the worst of the bunch. They're the ones that do it for no other reason than shock value, and often get banned frequently for that purpose. This behavior confuses me. If you're doing it for attention and you get yourself banned in the process, then haven't you just defeated the purpose?

Some of the worst examples I've seen are the ones that simply don't give up after the first few bannings - there was a thread about a week ago where some kid challenged Eyonix to a fight at Blizzcon. What's funny was that he was trolled harder by the Community Managers than they were by him. 26 pages of hilarity later, the dumbass had three banned accounts. I actually suspect that the person who started another thread to try to continue it wasn't actually the OP, but someone who wanted to ride on the tail end of his glory. Needless to say, it failed miserably.

Admittedly, most forum trolls have to be full of themselves or desire attention to one level or another. Otherwise, why would we do it? I'm definitely one to admit when I'm being an attention whore (read: always), but at least I'm honest about it. I have my own quirks I've developed at this point that people on the forums know me for - if I were to abandon any of them, it wouldn't really be the same. If I didn't enter an Eyonix thread to hit on him, people ask why? If I don't sling a little mud Zarhym's way, people wonder if something's wrong with me. If I don't fetch Nethaera her coffee, she gets grumpy. And we can't have that, now can we?

The long and short of it is that the term "Forum Troll" means multiple things, especially in particular on the official WoW forums. At this point, it really just means a forum regular rather than an abrasive individual looking to cause trouble.

Though, I assure you, no matter how nice we may seem, trouble often follows behind. What can I say? You know I'm a stinker. ;)

4 Types of Beta Testers

Last Poll Results:
What role do you want to play in Wrath?
DPS - 50%
Tank - 20%
Healer - 10%
Haven't Decided - 20%

More people seem to want to be DPSers in Wrath. This doesn't particularly surprise me, since the ratio of DPS to other types of playstyles is roughly 4-1. >> I should write about that sometime...

This was posted over at the IGN boards. Ironically, I'm trying to win a beta key with it. >>

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I think I'll take the opportunity to talk about beta hostility. There seems to generally be four kinds of people involved with the beta: Those who are part of it and do good work reporting bugs, those who are part of it if only for bragging rights, those who are not part of it and instead just glue themselves to MMO-Champion (or another similar site), and those who are not part of it and whine about the fact they are not part of it. There's probably people who don't care as well, but that means they're not really involved with the Beta in any way.

First off, let me start with the positive note: I love you people who are part of the beta and enjoy it, as well as do good work in making the game better. It means I will have fewer frustrations when I finally get to experience the final content. It means that maybe Paladins won't be a horrible class and even more horrible DPS option for the third round in a row. For that, I thank and salute you. You guys are awesome.

To the people who are part of the beta for bragging rights only - while I wish someone else had your beta key, you are still playing the beta and still doing things with it and contributing, whether you like it or not. So I laugh at you - HAH, YOU'RE HELPING! YOU CAN'T NOT HELP UNLESS YOU STOP BETA-ING! Even if you personally are not reporting bugs, by playing the beta, you're still providing information for Blizzard to parse, examples for others in beta to follow or not follow based on your actions, and spreading the word about how good or bad something is because in your need to show off, you have to have content to talk about. So, in a very backhanded kind of way, I thank you too.

To the people who are part of beta and browse forums and theorycraft and otherwise pretend we were in the beta without actually being a part of it (yes, I'm part of this group) - you guys are great too. We are the bridge between the privileged beta players and the regular live players. We can compare and contrast what works and doesn't work on live to what seems to work and not work in beta. We are the ones who keep playing what's out now so that there's still something to compare the new with. While not directly involved with the beta, we are still helping in a sort of ambiguous kind of way. So thanks to you too - keep up all the interesting topics and writing. It's how I keep myself from being bored at work. ;)

Finally, to those of you who did not receive a beta invite and desire to have the world know you didn't - seriously, there's lots of other productive stuff you could be doing. You could be enjoying things in live you may have not yet - level an alt, try a different spec, try to progress where you haven't, or deck yourself out in Season 4. Done all that? Then follow suit of the 3rd type of person I mentioned earlier. Keep your reading up on the stuff that's coming out and form constructive discussions on what's going on in Beta, and use your extensive knowledge of the things you already know to help those discussions remain useful to devs and other players alike. The point is, take that energy you have from quintessentially whining and apply it positively. You'll make the game you want to play so badly so much better by doing that - even if you don't directly get to play the beta yourself.

I understand the frustration in not getting a beta key - I'm in the same boat, after all. =) But I still do what I can to help the community, and I still raid on live (even transferring servers to a more active one in my time zone to do so) because I have a love of the game. I've always believed that in anything, be it a hobby or a job, the people who make the most progress in making that hobby or job better are the ones who are most passionate about it. It's about channeling your passion into something positive and constructive. If it means a better game, I'm more than happy to keep it up.

Wrath of the Lich King - The New Holy

Hi guys! Missed me? Before I get into this with my usual grovelling about how I'm always late *coughs* I just want to say thank you to the people who do stick around, and even more so to those who comment. You guys are what make me come back to write more, and I really need the inspiration!

Also, if anyone is going to Blizzcon in October (for those lucky people who got tickets), I will be there if you'd like to discuss anything or just hang out and be merry. Look for a short haired, glasses wearing, petite girl with the name Prettyboi on her badge. I'll probably be accompanied by a guildmate of mine, possibly another if he manages to get a ticket from the opt-in. *crossing my fingers for you, Darn!*

Also, the last poll I posted was the preference of people on Servers. The final response was 25% liked PvP servers, 50% like PvE, and 25% liked both. There were small numbers this time around on the actual people who voted, so all I can conclude is that there are more people who play on PvE servers than PvP servers who read my blog. Interesting, considering I only play on a PvP server.

With that out of the way, let me jump into the WotLK stuff (finally!).

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I don't pretend to know anything about Holy, really. It is, admittedly, my weakest spec, and people who outgear Kara DIE when I'm a healer (partially because my gear sucks so bad, but mostly because I'm just that terrible). About the only time I've done well as a healer is as a 2v2 Arena healer with an MS Warrior partner. But being good at Holy is not something that has ever really interested me, since *most* of the time, a Holy Pally gets to hit one to three buttons repeatedly and very few people ever thank the healers. Why would I subjugate myself to a thankless, boring role? (Note: Take my opinion with a grain of salt, please! I mean no offense to any healers, I personally admire you guys for sticking with it - it's clearly something I could never do.)

Anyway, I am reasonably intrigued with some of the direction they are taking with the Holy spec in particular with the upcoming expansion. However, certain aspects of what they tweaked just don't sound right to me. First off, we'll start with the knowledge of the spec I DO have.

When I frequent the WoW forums, there's a list of things that I hear Holy Paladins complain about. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these:

-Holy Shock is more or less a joke, and the cooldown prevents us from being able to heal on the run like every other healer can
-Lack of HoTs is debilitating
-No AOE heal, on top of lack of HoTs and a weak instant cast make us the least versatile healer
-We rely on downranking for mana conservation, rather than having spells that actually support mana conservation or an active way to regenerate mana (Seal/Judgement of Wisdom requires melee, something a healer should never be doing)

Now, these are some of the fixes seen so far to alleviate these issues:
-Holy Shock's damage ratio has been adjusted multiple times, its cooldown has been lowered. In addition, it's usefulness has increased from being an unreliable clutch heal to a supplemental heal that assists Holy Light.
-We have an AOE HoT as our 51 point talent.
-If specc'd into Retribution, our critical heals also provide a HoT
-We have an Evocation-like ability now.
-We have a shield somewhat similar to Power Word: Shield, only not as strong

Now there's a few problems with these fixes. First off, while we gained one new spell to alleviate some of the problems we have (Beacon of Light), it's very situational and very expensive to cast. Since it turns a specific target into the source of the healing, you have to make sure it's someone who isn't going anywhere and someone who will be affecting the most amount of people to make the spell cast worth its while (casting on the tank to heal all the melee is probably the best bet I can think of, but I'm hardly an expert). Right now, it's more advisable to spec deep enough into Retribution to get Sheath of Light for the HoT on Critical effect, which is much needed by Holy and not really needed at all by Retribution.

I appreciate what they were trying to do with that (make Retribution a somewhat viable back-up healer), but Retribution never asked for that while Holy did. In addition, many of the gimmicks that they want to give Holy, such as Judging to get benefits to their healing, is something that should have been intrinsic to the class design from day one. While I personally like the concept, I don't know how it will mechanically work out. I also doubt other people will go for it simply based on precedence - meaning that they're so used to being Priests in Plate and not being anywhere near the fight that many won't take the initiative to change their play style. After all, with an option much simpler by, ironically, speccing into Retribution, why would they have to?

I don't think the Evocation-like ability is all that helpful either, especially since the main reason you'd need it is if you were spamming AOE heals. You can only spam the AOE heal 3 times in a row before you're out of mana, and all that means is now you can do it 6 times before you're out of mana.

These are really just some basic observations from someone who knows very little of the matter at hand. I do not have a beta account, so I haven't experienced any of these changes, and my understanding of Holy as a spec is quite limited. But for what it's worth, I don't think the Holy Paladin has been "ruined." I just think it's different now. Sufficient? Well, that I can't say without experience. I do think that they're likely lacking in certain areas, perhaps even to the point where they won't be one of the best single-target tank healers anymore. That doesn't leave much for them to be, or give them much use. I also dislike the idea that you have to have so many points in Retribution for the current optimal build. That's ridiculous.

Something needs to be changed. I don't really know what, and I don't know the fix, but I will concede that Holy Paladins had the worst "upgrade" in the Paladin class, and likely the worst upgrade as a healer, overall. I respectfully request that Blizzard take a look at what they did, and find out what works and what doesn't, and quickly. I understand it's a beta and there's time to fix things... but with their focus being spread all over the board, some things *will* be missed. And I wouldn't be surprised if Holy Paladins are one of the ones getting the shaft this time around.

90% of All Statistics are Made Up - "Welfare Epics"

Sorry for the tardiness on this one - this week's been rough. Rest assured there will still be another post tomorrow. Expect a continuation; this article is a bit old and written before Patch 2.4, so I don't take into account Sunwell or S4 gear. I will focus on that in particular tomorrow. Think of this as a primer. =)

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Every time I find myself browsing the WoW forums, the biggest "problem" I see peoiple complaining about is the amount of people who never get to see end game content. It's a different percentage every time I see a new thread (though the average seems to be about 6% actually seeing end-game). I can sympathize to an extent. After all, I want to see end game as much as anyone else does. But I feel there's a point that most people are overlooking.

I feel because of the ease of obtaining PvP gear, everyone seems to feel that the game is obligated to hand everything to them. The only class functions who do not benefit from this "welfare epics" system are the tanks - after all, PvP gear has no useful PvE stats for defense and avoidance. Back to my point, people don't have to progress entirely through early PvE content to see later PvE content anymore. This is only true because of the removal of all attunement requirements, from SSC/TK to Hyjal and Black Temple.

What happened when the Hyjal attunement requirement got removed? We saw an influx of PvPers wasting their way through Archimonde after having spent months at the top of Arenas. We saw all the BG farmers use their easily gained PvP items to plow through PvE content.

Allow me to take a step back again. Neither PvE or PvP is easy. At least, not at the furthest tiers. Black Temple isn't a cake walk, and neither is 2k rated Arena. At the very least, Blizzard did a good job of scaling gear requirements for both sides of the game. Running battlegrounds over and over again is much akin to running 5-mans or Heroics repeatedly. Low rated Arenas are kind of like T4 content, mid rated is like T5, and high ratings are like T6. The gear represents these comparisons.

What I have an issue with is the effectiveness of low season PvP in PvE content when the low tier gear for PvE content is practically useless in PvP. Yes, resilience doesn't matter in PvE. But often times, the other stats more than compensate for these wasted points.

Let's make a direct comparison, from the T4 gear to the Season 1. I'm going to use the Paladin Holy gear as it's the easiest to compare between and the best for my own personal knowledge to make educated statements about.

Tier 4 |||| Season 1
------- |||| -----------
Armor..............6136 |||| Armor..............6284
Stamina...........163 (169) |||| Stamina...........209
Intelligence.....164 (167) |||| Intelligence.....141
Spell Crit.........67 |||| Spell Crit.........130 (134)
+ Healing........396 |||| + Healing........257
+ Mp5.............22 (24) |||| + Mp5.............0
Resilience.......0 |||| Resilience.......124 (131)
1x Red Socket |||| 4x Red Socket
2x Yellow Socket |||| 2x Yellow Socket
3x Blue socket |||| 0x Yellow Socket
1x Meta Socket |||| 1x Meta Socket

So, basically, as expected, the S1 gear is made for survivability while the T4 gear supports longevity. While you could easily socket for MP5 and get only slightly lower amount in the S1 than the T4, the same cannot be said for the lack of resilience on the T4 (not that anyone really sockets for resilience as it is). While Blizzard has supposedly supported the interchangeability between PvP and PvE, it seems the PvP items are generally itemized better for this swap than the PvE gear is. This only becomes slightly less true at higher tiers.

Tier 6 |||| Season 2
------- |||| -----------
Armor..............7415 |||| Armor..............7415
Stamina...........193 |||| Stamina...........268
Intelligence.....173 |||| Intelligence.....166
Spell Crit.........116 (118) |||| Spell Crit.........158 (162)
+ Healing........522 (542) |||| + Healing........341
+ Mp5.............42 (44) |||| + Mp5.............0
Resilience.......0 |||| Resilience.......136 (143)
0x Red Socket |||| 4x Red Socket
4x Yellow Socket |||| 2x Yellow Socket
4x Blue socket |||| 0x Yellow Socket
1x Meta Socket |||| 1x Meta Socket

While you have more gem slots in the T6 gear, you still can't make up the deficiency in resilience. And though meeting Mp5 standards in S3 is difficult and won't be on the same par, it's still do-able. On top of this, there is much more availability in other slots (trinkets, rings, misc armor) for Mp5 than there is for resilience.

I do not claim this is an absolute truth for all specs and class combinations, but I do believe I'm onto something. Perhaps there is a truth in the Welfare Epics theory after all.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about Season 4 and the fairness of giving PvPer's the option to higher end gear than is available to PvE'ers - or whether that theory is debunkable.

Alliance Vs. Horde - An Interesting Dichotomy

Before I get started with today's topic, I'd like to point out the nifty little polls I've started using over there on the right. Last week I asked if people played the same gender as they actually are - here are the results:
4 said Yes (80%)
1 said No (20%)

While this is a very small number for ratios, I didn't expect a huge response as I have no way of knowing how many readers I have to begin with. But! I hope that these become another draw for people to be active and participate in discussions in my blog - what I write is just a beginning, it's up to the readers to really flesh it out. I hope my humble little blog becomes an interest as far as a place to have discussions, just as much as its a place to read interesting articles.

As for an update from me personally, I'm much more settled into my new life, though my WoW life is still suffering. A three hour time difference has me unable to raid with my guild anymore, so I've taken a more active interest in PvP. Sitting in 2/5 Brutal already, I'm hoping that in the coming weeks I'll improve my arena rating with my Frost Mage buddy and get somewhere good... Provided I'm not forced to switch servers in the mean time. =(

Now, for the actual topic you guys came to read:
-----------------------------------------

Something I've always thought about is whether or not the violence the two factions perpetuate is right or not. Naturally, that behavior is allowed, no, encouraged on PvP servers, and I'm sure the animosity between the two is just as thick on the RP servers. Even people walking on the street in real life will see my Horde button on my bag and send me a glare, or even shout "For the Alliance!" in my direction. And trust me, I respond in kind (I'm sure some of you will find the image of a 5'3" petite girl shouting "For the Horde!" in public Los Angeles highly entertaining).

Yet, the base story for all conflict currently within the World of Warcraft does not explicitly pit Horde versus Alliance. Neither is more good or evil than the other, when it comes to current events of lore (except maybe the Blood Elves. Those guys are pretty *$#$ed up). The bad guys are always a third party, as early as the Scarlet Crusade and as late as Illidan or Kil'Jaeden themselves.

I understand that the current situation is special. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that jazz, right? And yet, for all the "working together" we have in the current storyline, we still kill each other on sight, regularly wage war on each other in battlegrounds, and generally harbor a sense of hatred that is, essentially, racially oriented.

Now, I'm hardly accusing Blizzard of promoting racism. Inciting such against a non-existent race isn't grounds for much of anything. This is merely an observation that I find particularly interesting. Above all, I recognize this is a game and nothing more. I just enjoy social commentary (though if you've been keeping up with my blog for a while, I'm sure you've figured this out by now).

I would like to see more instances of forcing the Alliance and Horde to begrudgingly work together, and not just indirectly as we have been (via the Shattered Sun Offensive, for instance). Scryers versus Aldor content would be entertaining - but it would be counter-productive lore-wise. A'Dal certainly wouldn't stand for it. We do have Wrath of the Lich King around the corner, of course, and it leaves lots of room for creativity. We have to fight off the Scourge once more. Jaina Proudmore has more than a beef with former Prince Arthas. Lady Sylvanas Windrunner is leading the Forsaken against the threat, likely to settle her own personal score. Will one get to the Lich King before the other?

Or will they take him down together? I'm curious to find out. And I eagerly await the answer.

To Gank or Not To Gank - PvP Servers

Sorry for the lack of a Saturday update - I was away at Anime Expo this past weekend and unable to post. This Saturday will be a normal update day though.
----------
Since I went over RP servers, I figured I should do a similar topic for the PvP side of things. As PvP is hardly dead (and indeed, more encouraged than any other part of the game in my opinion), I thought I'd touch on the habits and ethics of this nature of gaming instead.

Every action on a PvP server is always automatically justified by the fact that you rolled on a PvP server. End of story. Anything that happens to your character is intrinsically *your fault*. To an extent, I agree. But it brings up the question of what is typical behavior and when does it cross the line into malicious?

I don't gank others much myself. Granted, a good part of that is because the nature of my character is usually defensive and not offensive. Most of the time, though, it's because I consider how irritating it is for me to get ganked, so I don't bother. And even when I do get provoked or killed, I just go about my business. It's difficult to seek Retribution if you're not specc'd it, after all.

I also play on the theory I grew up with: if you stop being fun to pick on, the bullies will leave you alone. As most gankers are just looking for a fight, usually if you either prove too much a thorn in their side or if you don't put up a fight at all, they'll lose interest with you and leave you alone. If it's not worth their time, they'll not waste it.

Conversely, you have the 70's who hound STV ganking people because it makes them feel superior. There's not a lot you *can* do about them, unless you have your own 70 or there are others on your faction who are roaming around combating the ganking themselves. You can either run or die, and those are usually your only choices.

However, if you can find a creative way to hold them off, I wholeheartedly endorse it. Once, my female Orc Warrior was being chased down by three 70 Allies. I knew there were a group of Horde 70's fighting off gankers in the area and they had been looking for this particular group, so I managed to alert them in the LocalDefense channel. They invited me to group and tracked me down. Luckily enough for me, they weren't too far away, but I still needed to keep the Allies busy. They'd surrounded me at this point, so I dismounted my slow mount. Without really thinking about it, I targeted the gnome warlock and... started dancing.

Obviously, they thought this was hilarious and all dismounted to dance with me. Some emoted laughs, clapped for me, one flirted... and right in the middle of this, a group of five Horde 70's mow them over out of nowhere.

While the PvP environment can incite some pretty ugly behavior, it's for the moments like the one I just described which makes it often worth the risks. It's fun and exciting, and sometimes downright hilarious. The jerks aside, it's a fun place to play. So, despite it all, I'll grin and bear the anguish inherent with the hostile environment and never regret the nature of the server I rolled on.

RP Servers - Are They Dead?

What a wonderful topic for me to come back on. I'm not dead yet, I swear! =) I've just been settling into a new life in glamourous Hollywood *cough* and been enjoying the limited amount of freedom being an adult endows. It's not really all that much. In fact, it may be more restricting than being a student. But I'm here to blog about games, not life. So I'd like to talk a little about one of my long-lost loves: Roleplaying.

I like roleplaying. Anyone who knows me outside of my guild will know this about me. In Dungeons & Dragons and in chat rooms, I greatly enjoy taking on an alternate persona. After all, by training and trade, I'm an actor. Mostly for fun now, but it's still a passion of mine. So naturally, I have on at least one occasion attempted the RP experience offered by World of Warcraft.

My first experience with an RP server was when I created my human rogue on the ever-infamous Feathermoon server (if you don't know why it's infamous, well, do a search and I'm sure you'll find an interesting tale concerning the Deeprun Tram). This was before I really understood the mechanics of WoW, and had my own aspirations for what I wanted my rogue to become (regardless of whether or not that was possible for said rogue). This was, I believe, my first Alliance character (at the very least, my first human), so I was rather enjoying my exploration of a "new" area. Around level 15 or so, I found a rogue-only guild called the Cutthroat Crew, named for a particular alleyway in Stormwind City, and was quickly accepted as something akin to the guild princess. This was mostly due to the fact I was, at the time, the only female among us. I had fun bantering with some of the more flirtatious vagabonds (nearly all of whom were also human), but this rogue borrowed from my D&D incarnation of her: she only appreciated the company of those with an elven heritage.

Yet there was one time she was almost swayed from her typical predjudice of other races (including her own). However, I'd like to do that little excerpt justice, and I'd be digressing a bit too far from my point.

My point is, I had a rich history of fun interactions on my RP server. After I effectively left the server to level on Mug'thol with the majority of my friends, anytime I returned, I could never quite experience the same magic. Gone were the days of seeing "Rogue LF RP, pst" in trade, and in came the same trite Barrens-esque chat about Chuck Norris and your mama. I would never run into another kind hearted player who would practically sacrifice themselves for my benefit, all in the name of character-driven chivalry. I would never find another kind gentleman to address me as "M'lady" while I tried to hide my true, shadowy nature.

So my question is this: Is the RP element of the game dead everywhere, or just on Feathermoon? Are there better servers out there where I could take or re-roll my rogue for this purpose?

I rather enjoy RP servers, or at least their intent. I'm sure I'm not the only one. If anyone could direct me accordingly, I'd be most appreciative.

Impending Return

Hello again, faithful readers. (All, what, three of you? hehe)

I just wanted to let those who are actually interested and concerned with this blog know that it is, in fact, *not dead.* I have successfully graduated from college, made my move to Los Angeles, and am in the midst of a job search. So right now, my schedule is very tentative and ever-changing.

I have many articles written in a notebook, and plan on posting these as soon as I can. Part of the problem is they're still packed away. =P But once I find them and settle in a bit more, which will hopefully be in the next week or so, I'll be able to start a regular posting schedule again. I have much to talk about, and rest assured I've not given up on writing exciting and insightful articles about my favorite game.

Sit tight! I'll be back soon.

-Prettyboi

Unnannounced Hiatus

Hello everyone.

Sorry to have been MIA for so long, but my blog has had to sit on the bottom of the pile lately. I have only three weeks until I graduate, a convention this weekend, and an impending move in April that I still need to plan for. While I have a few articles written out in my notebooks, it has been difficult to find the time to transcribe them.

In addition, these posts will no longer be cross-posted from Gathering Gamers. As I've had to take this hiatus, it didn't make much sense for me to keep taking up their time working for them. However, I do still encourage everyone to check out their site. It's a nifty little gaming community, and it would be really cool to see it grow into something much grander.

In the news of what I've been doing in WoW, I have respecced and started raiding as well as PvPing as Retribution. This is mostly due to the demands of raiding and having little place for multiple tanks, so I volunteered to step down and play another role for a while. However, I haven't given up on tanking and it's still my knowledge forte (if I do say so myself), as well as what makes me really love the game. I hope to respec back relatively soon. =)

Just as a taste, here's a few of the topic titles I have coming up:

Alliance vs. Horde - The upcoming struggle
RP Servers - Are they dead?
PvP Servers - To gank or not to gank?
90% of all statistics are made up - "Welfare Epics"

I hope that gives everyone something to look forward to!

The Death Knight - Speculation

Cross-posted from: Gathering Gamers

I'm a pretty frequent troll on the WoW forums. While I'm not online all that much outside of work and raids, I've picked up on a lot of rumors and tidbits on the upcoming WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. By no means, however, should anyone consider my words the full truth. What lies herein is mostly pure speculation, sprinkled with Blizzard-based specks of information. Short version? Don't quote me on this.

When Blizzard first announced Hero classes, I got really excited. My initial understanding of the concept was similar to prestige classes in 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I liked the idea of specializing my character. I was even looking forward to it.

When Blizzard clarified that Hero classes were going to be an unlockable class which allowed you to roll a pre-leveled, separate character... Well, needless to say, it was an understatement to say I was disappointed.

Why call it a Hero Class and make it stand above all the rest when the only difference is that you get a 50+ level head start? Why give up a character you've played, leveled, and progressed with so you can play this new one? And while it supposedly fits the theme of the new Northrend area, why give the subjective "good guys" an inherently evil class?

Now, I know you all are just bursting with rebuttals, but give me a moment and I'm sure I'll get to your point.

Why, for instance, do they call it a Hero Class? The only thing that makes it different is that you put less work into it. Let me clarify- you put less work into the actual class. The reason I could never buy an account (other than terms of use violation, of course), or roll a non-paladin pre-made onto the PTR is because I *like* learning the ins and outs of my class from one to seventy. And to be honest, I prefer people making that slog of a journey because it weeds out a lot of bad players. Sure, not all of them. But a good amount.

Both Alliance and Horde experienced the influx of dumb players rolling a new race/class. I'm willing to bet both sides aren't eager to see that again.

Onto my next question, why give up a previous character for this? While in reality you keep your previous character, this kind of doesn't make any sense. The RPers are ticked because it ruins lore and confuses their storylines (Why, Sir Hunter, however did you seek the light and forsake it so quickly to attain this new form?) and the casual players like me are aggrivated that all the dumb players are going to go repopulate a class that could potentially be amazing, unique and cool, bitch and whine when it doesn't "work as intended" and redirect Blizzard's attention to a new class rather than fix the old ones! While I can't speak for the company, I highly doubt all the quirks of the current classes will be worked out at the rate and style of balancing things that's going on (*coughARENAScough*).

Finally, why give the good guys a "bad guy" class? I've heard all the arguments for this one. "We already have Warlocks, so it's okay." "The Forsaken turned away from the Scourge, so why can't Death Knights?" "They're cool, STFU!" I've got one answer for you.

It's repetitive.

If there is one thing I hate as a gamer, a writer, and an actor, it's repetition. When a story or theme repeats itself, it screams unoriginality. And all that does is disappoint me. When one abuses the "it worked before, it'll work again" formula, it doesn't come off as credible.

While I will remain excited and continue to anticipate the coming of WotLK, I'll remain tentative of Death Knights. Blizzard's going to have to pull some pretty amazing strings to change this paladin's mind.

Feelan Thehealin - To Those We've Lost

Cross-Posted from Gathering Gamers.

There are some things in the world that when I see them happening, I find myself crying out of the joy from knowing there are good, amazing people in the world.

On Sunday evening, as I was browsing the WoW Suggestion forums, I stumbled upon a very interesting thread. A very old guild called lost an incredibly powerful, kind, and good-hearted individual named Feelan back in December. I didn't know Feelan. I don't even know the guild, or play on their server. But the passionate and loving way the guild spoke out about their fallen comrade was so genuine I couldn't help but be touched.

Feelan died of a very rare cancer of the heart, so rare it gets little funding and there's not a lot of knowledge about it out there. He had been fighting it for years, and even so, did nothing more but bring smiles and laughter to his guild mates. That's an amazing individual, and the world is a slightly bleaker place without his presences. In the same right, the world is a better place for having had Feelan among us, whether or not we knew he was there.

I'd like everyone who sees this that has a World of Warcraft account to go to this thread and support his memory. You don't have to say anything more than /sign. Do this not just for Feelan or his guild mates, but for that loved one that *you* have lost, or for that guild mate who disappeared and you'll never know what happened to them.

What this is about is supporting in-game memorials. My personal suggestion is to have an instanced graveyard or memoriam. And hey, why not have Feelan standing there to greet those who come and thank them for taking the time to visit. Allow guilds to purchase lots for their lost companions. And make it just enough of a pain in the ass that it will keep the jerks from abusing it for stupid inappropriate commentary, but just easy enough for a guild to work together to complete it.

I know it's a lot to ask. But it would be a beautiful gesture on Blizzard's part, and with 9 million players, there are bound to be a lot of them who would appreciate this. I, for one, hope they hear us out.

Winter Veil

Cross Posted from: Gathering Gamers

Before I say anything at all, let me say this. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope that each and every person out there has had a wonderful holiday, be it with friends, family, or even on your own. Know that no matter how many people surround you, with the spirit of the season in your heart and the thoughts of your loved ones, you are never alone.

Today, I have promised a post regarding Winter Veil. I thought long and hard how I wanted to talk about it. Did I want to compare and contrast Winter Veil with Christmas? Did I want to talk about how it is supposed to represent all winter holidays, though it clearly spoofs Christmas more than others? No, not really. It's been done, and no one's going to learn anything new.

Really, what I wanted to do was to start a discussion. Even if it's not about WoW, post your gamer Christmas (or other Holidays, of course) here. Let me know how you spent your day, or what you got for the Holidays. I'd like to know. And on Saturday, I'll reply with my own experiences.

I think I might squeak onto WoW tonight (Christmas Eve, I wrote this early), and squeak on sometime tomorrow... And send each and every one of the special people in my Guild something special for Winter Veil. I'd like to do more than just send gold, though... (I mean, no one really gives just money for Christmas, and giving a gift card is very impersonal too). If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd also appreciate those kinds of posts. =) After all, Winter Veil lasts through January 2nd. So even if you're too busy spending time with your family this Christmas and New Years, there's a little extra time to get something special in.

Happy Holidays, everyone. I look forward to hearing your stories. =)

Guilds and Families

Cross posted from : Gathering Gamers

Well, with Christmas quite literally around the corner (and my next blog in fact falling on Christmas itself), I wanted to write some relatively Christmas-y things for the next couple. Helps me out a bit, especially since I'm now out of state with my family, and want to spend limited time on the internet (for instance, haven't played any WoW, and not really intending to log on unless I have absolutely nothing else to do while I'm here). So, next time I'll actually cover Winter Veil. For today, I want to talk about Guilds and the community that exists within WoW.

I have to say that the main reason I play an MMO is to get away from real life. I think that's the reason most people do. The best part, in my opinion, of any MMO is the community it breeds. Yes, occasionally that community sucks, but when you find a nice, warm, friendly one to make a home of, there's simply nothing in the world like it.

The guild I am in right now, Merciless, is currently my biggest online home. There are people who annoy me, sure, but there are people who are border-line my best friends. I've only been a member since early August, and only been an active raider for perhaps the last month or two, but everyone means something to me. Whether I consider them the mean old uncle I don't talk to very often, or that one awesome cousin who I would happily spend most of my time with, there's one of each. There are mother like figures, who give and take, and father like figures who spoil and punish. And I love each and every one of them, if for no other reason than that they make life interesting. XD

When I think about being with my family, too, I think about my guild a lot too. My guild is part of my life now. I have just as fond of memories with them as I do with any of my other friend, or even with my family! I find it an awesome thing that a game can bring people together that way.

I'd like to do something for my Guild just like I do for my family. There are some members I'd like to repay for all their kindness, those who really helped me get to where I am today.

I do things for my guildies whenever I can; I try to, anyway. Sure, there are nights where I feel selfish and just want to be left alone too. Sometimes I'm only on to do my dailies and then I log off to go live life. I can't dedicate myself 24/7.

Much like I can't do the same for my own family. It's a little harder for me to do so for them anyway, though; I live very far away from pretty much all my blood relatives - at least, the ones I know well.

The hardest part about having a Guild and a Family is learning to balance the two. You can only give so much time to one or the other. It is honestly unhealthy to spend all your time doing one thing, no matter how "good" that one thing may be to you. Some would argue that spending all your time with your family is a good thing... But then, if you were to do that, what would you accomplish? You're still not going to get much further than you would if you were spending all your time with your guild.

I'm not saying spending time with one or the other is a bad thing. They are both good things; it's just about balancing the good so that you're not getting too much of it. There's that proverb in there somewhere. And with the holidays here, I think it's important to spend more time with one if you have been neglecting them as of late. I've been spending my time with my family this week, and will continue to, since I only get to see them once a year. And I love it. It's refreshing.

Once I get back, I'll try to balance my real friends and my online ones a little better. That's my new year's resolution. After all, once I graduate, there are some of these friends that I may never see again.

But don't think I'm going to forget about anyone! Not a single one! Everyone I know has a place in my heart, even if it may not be large dedicated part of it. Everyone will get their gift some way or another, even if it's just a Merry Christmas or an AH item they've been watching for or a run through some instance with their alt. Something for everyone.

Because it's the spirit of the season of giving, and of love. And far be it from me to break tradition.

Women in WoW

Cross posted from : Gathering Gamers

Well, I had a lack of questions headed my way again this time (though I did get one, so we'll answer that first before I chew into my topic for today).

acurrier of Gathering Gamers asks:

While I haven't noticed it on my server, do you find that the morons tend to congregate around one or two classes, or are they more or less evenly spread?

Thanks for the question! What I've noticed is that depending on what class I'm playing, I notice the "morons" more acutely from different perspectives.

For instance; as a Tank, I'm more likely to notice a bad DPSer or Healer. Mostly because I'm watching threat on others as well as myself. If someone is pulling aggro, it's what I'll notice first.

As a DPSer, I'm more likely to notice a bad tank or fellow DPSer, since I won't be watching the healer all that much myself and focusing on my own DPS and threat.

As a Healer, I'm more likely to notice a bad tank or a bad DPSer rather than a fellow healer, because I'm more concerned about doing my job and doing it well.

...Now that I look at my answer, it's the same each time. You'll find a moron DPS more often than any other role; but that's largely in fact due to the sheer amount of DPS classes/specs vastly outnumbers the healers/tanks. So I guess my answer would be that DPS is most likely to have morons, simply because there's a large population of them.

For the sarcastic answer: lockz r OP b/c thay take no skillz 2 play n thay shuld feel bad, lollerz.
(I do honestly find a lot of dumb warlocks than anything else, but that may just be my server.)

I hate typing like that.

Moving on, I haven't gotten to work on any of my more thought out guides (and will likely get that done over my real Christmas Vacation where I don't have work to worry about), so today is another slew of generalizations and gender studies. Again, here's my disclaimer; I'm no expert, I'm not a women's studies major. This is all from my own experience, and thus the following are my observations.

So here we go.

Over the years I have been a gamer, I have always broken down the other few women gamers I've found into four categories (that more often than not criss-cross and overlap) mentally, some of which irritate me, and some of which I don't mind at all. I find that these carry over exceptionally well in World of Warcraft, so here's my experience with it.

The Stereotypes:

- "The Mom." This is your maternal instinct-loaded female gamer. Whether she is actually a mother or not, she will still act as one, desiring to nurture the others in the group, or obtain a position of power in order to have the ability to nurture. More often than not, they will be focusing on being a healer of some sort, and likely to either be a Guild Officer, Guild Leader, or Raid Leader. Generally, they'll also be the middle-man in any fight, acting as the neutralizer. After all, no one wants to make "Mom" mad.

-"The Girlfriend/Wife." This is your "I'm playing because my significant other told me to" type. They may or may not actually enjoy the game, and the primary reason they are there is because either their loving male companion wanted to include her in his hobby, or they got so curious about what was keeping him up during the long hours of the night they decided to try it out themselves. There is nothing wrong with this; it doesn't matter how you start a game so long as you continue to enjoy it. The problem is when they cross over into another realm (see below).

-The "Real" Female Gamer. These are the ones you meet at conventions that are hard-core into the games, love the games because they're games, and got into it because they thought it looked like fun. They have no motivation other than it's their hobby. So they're doing whatever makes THEM happy, and it really has no impact on anyone else. A bit selfish perhaps, but at least they're having fun.

-The "Fake" Female Gamer. Here's where I get irritated. These are the ones whom I've met more often than not that play games because they like men, and men like games. They have little to no concern for the hobby itself; it's just an easy way to make yourself look like a "holy grail" to the male gamer community. These are the ones who make me sad; yes, it's nice and all to meet a guy who shares your interests. The important part is that he's actually sharing YOUR interest, and you're not "sharing" HIS interest just because you're interested in HIM. There's no point in doing something that's supposed to be fun if you don't actually enjoy it.

Now, as I said, these are all nice generalizations. I have met some of each that only fall into one category, and I've met some of each that fall into 2-3 of the categories. I count myself as a "Real Mom" gamer, even though I'm not a mother in reality. I enjoy nurturing others and being in a position of relative leadership, although I often do it in unconventional ways because it's how I get the most enjoyment out of the game. I have met more "Fake GF" gamers than I'd like to admit (especially when I spent a few years working in a hobby shop), and it makes me sad that people take advantage of my hobby for something as petty as socialization (which, if you think about it, is kind of ass-backwards to begin with when you realize it's gaming and most of us are socially retarded anyway =P ).

What's the reality? Well, when it comes down to it, it's ultimately unfair for anyone to generalize female gamers as much as it is to generalize male gamers. We're people; that's what it is. No matter our motivation to play, we have a reason to pay the $15 a month like everyone else, and one way or another, whether it's related to the actual game itself, we are enjoying ourselves doing it. Maybe it's even better that some who aren't in it for the game do so; after all it's making someone else happy. And if my ethics class supposedly taught me anything (*gigglesnickersnort*) it's that sometimes the overall good in a measured instance can outweigh the overall bad. Sometimes you have to "suffer" for someone else to be happy.

I'm not saying that you always should, or that those who "use" the game for their own needs are right. I'm just saying that they do and I'm not going to try to give them crap for it. Partially because it's futile, but also partially because I'd be hurting my own case. I'm here to play the game and enjoy it.

Why have others ruin that for me?

Player vs Class Competency

(Cross-Posted from: Gathering Gamers )

While I didn't receive any questions ;-; this week for what I wanted to be a Q&A session, of the one comment I received, it was a compliment.

Basically, the person said I was the only competent tankadin they had ever met, at least by the measures of my post. Apparently, what I had written was thorough enough to show that I knew my stuff.

That got me thinking about what I decided to make today's topic instead of a Q&A session (Which I still want to do, so please, keep thinking of questions to ask me!). I decided I'd talk about Players vs Class competency.

Whenever I'm trolling the WoW forums, I usually stick to three forums total: the Paladin forums (of course), the Rogue forums (my closest WoW buddy is a Rogue, so I try to keep up on their changes too), and the General forums (mostly 'cause I get a laugh out of it on occasion).

I spend, naturally, most of my time on the Paladin forums, and I notice a very equal amount of a) seasoned, knowledgable paladins (of all specs), b) newbie paladins asking for advice in a generally polite way, and c) noob paladins which cause most other classes to tell all paladins to DIAF.

Of the other classes that come to our boards to visit, I tend to notice Shamans being the most courteous. I see more topics started by full level 70 Shamans complimenting us on our skill or our perseverance in dealing with the slowness Blizzard has taken to make our class fully functional (and not just made to heal-bot). After that, surprisingly, I tend to see more Rogues than anything else.

The largest complainers on our board seems to be Warlocks and Priests (especially Shadow Priests), the two of which we have more trouble against in PVP in anything else.

I find this interesting, because this says to me the whiners are only there to supplement NOT buffing us (even if there is a valid problem), because they're afraid to actually have a class that can, zomg, beat them one-on-one. Priests don't have any problems against other casters (from my limited experience), and Warlocks... well, I won't get into my feelings about Warlocks. *coughOPcough*

I've derailed a little bit; so what does this have to do with player versus class competency? Well, it's the generalization that you run into one, maybe two, of a class who is a total jerk or a moron, and instantly the automatic response is the assumption that ALL of said class is a jerk and/or a moron. I rarely talk to any of the warlocks in my guild; is this a subconscious level of thinking in that they're all jerks or that they all play an easy class? I'm not sure. I made friends with one warlock in my guild (as we were running a weekly Karazhan together). He changed my opinion. I still thought Warlocks were a tad overpowered, and while he did have a mean streak against the Alliance (I'm on a PvP server, so to be honest, most of us gank when possible because it's very much a gank-or-be-ganked kind of game at that point), he was the first person in the guild to give me a real chance to be a tank. He was the one who helped me pave my way to where I am now. He has since left the guild (and the server), and while he will be missed, I will forever be grateful to him for what he did.

I think, from anyone's perspective, the jerks on your server are immediately the class that you know you can't beat. For Paladins, its warlocks and (shadow) priests (I don't think I've ever had a Holy Priest try to gank me, though I bet it would be great fun from my perspective XD), and the occasional Hunter. (Or maybe that's just for me). For Rogues, its... well, just about everyone except the really squishy casters. For Warriors, its Hunters and Warlocks (from what I remember from playing a warrior). I think this sentiment is particularly emphasized on a PvP server, at that. You level up being ganked constantly by certain classes, because they know they can beat you. I never felt too much anger against Rogues, because even if they were a few levels higher than me, I could usually kick their asses. Same with Warriors.

Now let's talk about PUGs. For those of you who don't know what a PUG is, it's a Pick Up Group, or one that you throw together with complete strangers to accomplish a common goal (be it a hard quest/5-man instance, which is more common, or a raid, which is much less common). PUGs, I believe, are the single biggest source of misinformation. Most of the idiots and jerks run with PUGs out there, because they can screw over their party members with no sense of obligation or fear of getting /gkicked. This is where the ninja looters, dumbasses who don't know their own class, or insufferable know-it-alls tend to hang out. I really hate PUGing, particularly at 70. Before then, I had fewer problems (beyond LOL Paladin tank, /kick), mostly because I was willing and able to heal the lower content (Survivadin spec FTW).

I have met countless person after person who /tells me "Wanna heal this?" and I immediately respond with "Sorry, I'm not a healer." Usually, they stop talking to me. This is only because I stopped replying "Sorry, I'm a tank," which usually gets an "LOL" or a "Paladins can't tank," and then I argue with a complete stranger for about fifteen minutes because I either have nothing better to do, or I'm just in that kind of mood. I was pleasantly surprised last night when I got a whisper of "Excuse me, are you a tank?" After I blinked several times, I replied that I was, and was asked to link my gear. Given that I'm in almost full Tier 4 at this point in time, and I think I have a total of three blues left, I was immediately asked to tank Heroic Shadow Labs. If it wasn't so late and I didn't hate the instance so much (dear god, how I hate it), I might have gone along, but I was happy that they were actually actively seeking a paladin tank, and told them good job, keep it up.

I wonder if they ever found another one to take; SLabs honestly only is worth doing with a Paladin tank, and Heroic, only with exceptionally geared individuals. But I digress.

This whole post has been kinda garbled and tangential, but what I'm basically trying to say is that the reputation of a class is always, ALWAYS based on the individuals that play it. Because Warlock seems to be an easy-mode kind of class (at least to basically function), more people play it, and therefore, it's likely more unknowledgeable/jerk-off players populate it. Paladins and Hunters are honestly the same way, and I hear there are a lot of jerk-off Rogues out there too (I've just never had a huge problem with them). What anyone, everyone, need to remember, though, is that each class has its good players and bad players. Each game, for that matter, has its good players and bad players. And some players are better at some things than others (for instance, I blow monkey chunks at PvP, but I get daily compliments on my ability to tank).

Long story short, never judge a book by its cover. Avoid mishaps by Armory-ing people before you invite them to group.

Next Tuesday, if I have enough questions, I'll proceed with my Q&A. If not, well, I guess I'll just have to surprise you all again. =)

The Rundown – A comparison of Warrior, Druid, and Paladin tanks

(Cross-posted from: http://myworld.creativegamingevents.com/blogs_view.php?id=583 )

Since this seems to be the biggest issue with most uninformed people out there, I decided to put off the guide I had been planning on releasing today (Tanking 5-mans) and release this first. In addition, I’m moving up a couple of shorter topics so I have more time to dedicate to fuller, more comprehensive guides (One that takes you through all of K arazhan, for instance).

So what this is all about is that I’ve noticed that most people seem to think a tank is a tank, they hold the big boys, get the crap kicked out of them, and let the rest of the raid do all the work.

WRONG.

There is a time and place for all three tank types to be used equally, and there are situations where one type is flat out better than another. So here, I’m going to break down the three classes that can currently tank (Warriors, Druids, and Paladins), and list both their strengths and their weaknesses. This is as researched and objective as I can make it without having fully played either other type of tank myself, but from the opinions of others who have. It’s mostly a compilation, I claim only the amalgamation of the information.

So enough big words. Here we go.

Warriors

Strengths
-Most versatile. Warriors have the largest selection of abilities at their disposal. Not only that, but they often have more than one ability that functions similarly (stuns, disarms, silences, etc). So if one fails, they have another to try. This makes them easily usable for just about any situation.
-Spell Mitigation. Warriors are the only ones who have an outright ability to mitigate spell damage. (Paladins have a flat percentage they don’t take, but it’s very small, and Druids just have the hit points to deal with it) Between Spell Reflect and having a higher overall percentage of damage resisted, Warriors are the only real choice for spell-heavy fights.
-Best Single-target agro generation. Warriors, overall, will generate the most agro against a single target. Generally, they are the preferred tank for most raid bosses.
-Take the least damage overall. Warriors have the highest flat percentage of damage just not taken. Druids have next to none besides armor, and Paladins trail behind by about 4%
-Easiest to gear. Warriors probably have the best itemization, as they’ve been the most viable tank for the longest amount of time. It’s a matter of waiting for something to drop or grinding the right rep like any other class, where as both Druids and Paladins have to jump through a couple more hoops.
-Best OS (Oh SH!T) buttons. Warriors have the best abilities to bounce back from potentially dangerous situations.

Weaknesses
-Cannot handle many adds. Warriors are not built to handle tanking more than two, maybe three things at the same time without an incredible amount of skill and some luck. Even then, I doubt too many people could tab between 5-6 adds to keep agro on them all.
-Easily Crushable against fast-melee bosses. A Warrior’s shield block has fewer charges than a Paladin’s Holy Shield, causing them to be more vulnerable to crushing blows against quick-melee bosses (such as Prince’s phase 2).
-Slow Initial Aggro. This means your DPS starts later, which can be important in timed fights.
-No direct raid utility. All warrior direct buffs only affect people in their party. While useful, they don’t last very long, and odds are they won’t be as frequent to keep it up if they have ten other abilities they need to be juggling in a fight. (Their indirect buffs, like sunder for instance, are very useful, but not part of this category).
-Vulnerable to disarming. A disarmed warrior is severely gimped in comparison to a disarmed Paladin (who can still fully function), or a druid who can’t be disarmed.
-Generate the least DPS. Warriors generate the least amount of DPS in comparison to their Paladin or Druid companions. Much of their agro comes from flat abilities, not from actual damage.
-Difficult to play. Warriors have many more abilities to sift through than a Paladin or Druid, requiring a greater knowledge and extent of training to master.

Druids

Strengths
-Mass HP. Druids just plain have more stamina than Warriors or Paladins. They also have less stats to gear for or worry about, so they can itemize for stamina easier than the other two.
-Mass Armor. Same reasons for Mass HP.
-Best Dodge Formula. Druids receive the most benefit from Agility to Dodge, and their Dodge is almost always infinitely higher than any given Warrior or Paladin. Therefore, when something is mitigated against a Druid, he always takes zero damage.
-Deal the most damage. While tanking, a Druid will pump out more total DPS than either a Warrior or a Paladin, as most of their threat is derived from flat damage.
-Best Off-Tanks. Period. Druids have a slightly lesser reliance on Rage to generate threat, and can easily off-tank any encounter. In addition, they can easily off-tank from a DPS perspective (kitty form) while in their tanking gear, and easily swap to a tanking position should something happen to the primary tank.
-Best secondary role. A druid tank who is not in a tanking position offers the most in a different role, given their spec. Since their DPS and Tank tree are one in the same, they can make a gear swap for DPS and perform leaps and bounds above a Warrior or Paladin in a secondary role.
-Good raid utility. Druids offer all their normal Druid spells to the rest of the raid, including Mark of the Wild, Thorns, and in extreme emergencies, innervate and battle-resurrection.

Weaknesses
-Always Crushable. Druids cannot parry or block, and thus lack the capability of becoming immune to Crushing Blows.
-No overall avoidance/mitigation. Druids have armor and HP to make up for this lack of mitigation, but a string of crushing blows or heavy hitting spell damage will still take one out.
-Oh SH!T button is weak. I don’t even know what the Druid OS button is. Someone please enlighten me.
Paladins

Strengths
-“Frontloading” capability. Paladins start with a full “blue rage bar,” and can open up any fight with a heavy spike of threat, allowing DPS to start quicker.
-Least likely to be crushed. The Paladin shield ability (Holy Shield) has more charges and lasts longer. Specifically, against quick-melee bosses, Paladins have the highest probability for survival.
-AOE tanks. They are unique in the sense that they are the only tank that can effectively tank several mobs at once. In theory, they could hold agro on an infinite number of mobs, due to their reactive high-threat damage.
-Wipe Recovery. Beyond a druid’s once every half-hour resurrection, a Paladin can always resurrect others after a wipe. In addition, if too many healers or DPS has died, the tank can opt to Divine Intervention a remaining individual with a resurrect ability.
-Ranged Taunt. Paladins are the only tank with a ranged taunt ability, as clunky as it may be.
-Excellent Raid Utility. A Paladin’s Auras and Blessings are always welcome, if not ultimately desired, in any raid.

Weaknesses
-Mana/magic dependent. This is a problem against enemies or bosses that are immune to magic, can silence, or can mana-drain.
-Poor Off-tanks. Paladins do not generate nearly enough threat to be good off-tanks without being over-geared on spell-damage, as most of their usual threat is reactive damage from being directly hit.
-No single-target taunt. This sucks. It really, REALLY does. A Paladin needs to be able to front-load damage on an enemy to “taunt” off a fellow tank. Their only two “taunts” will not work at all in this situation (as one will pull off multiple targets, and the other causes all enemies to go to the next person on the agro chart, which isn’t always the paladin).
-Tanking Buff can be dispelled. While a Warrior’s Defensive stance is static, Righteous Fury can be dispelled, and it’s a very expensive spell to cast. This can cause a severe mana-drain for a Paladin tank.
-Take slightly more damage. Where as Druids have straight armor and the hit points to take blows, and warriors have a higher damage reduction, Paladins have nothing to compensate for having only 6% damage reduction.
-All abilities on GCD. All of a Paladin’s abilities, with the exception of Judgement, are on the Global Cool Down. Paladins require a higher amount of ability micro-management than either Druids or Warriors.

TL:DR?

Here’s the short version:
Warriors – General preferred MTs, most versatile.
Druids – Best OTs, most HP/Armor
Paladins – The best multiple-mob tanks.

This is not to say that any of the other tank types can’t function in those other roles; they can, and quite effectively so. But what a good Raid Leader or Guild Leader for that matter should know is that there are times and places where individual tank types can rise to the challenge above others and be given the chance to shine. And hopefully, if they possess the basic knowledge of how all three function, they’ll know when and where those situations arise.

Next post! (Which WILL be done on Saturday, come hell or high water) I want to answer your questions! Send me your questions via Private Message or even just replying to this post, and they will be answered! Anything posted on Saturday before I start writing (likely in the morning, around 10AM Central) will NOT be accepted. So please send me your questions! They don't even have to be about Tankadins; Anything WoW related will do, though do remember I know next to nothing about Druids/Hunters/Warlocks/Shaman, and my knowledge of the other classes beyond that is limited (though I know a bit about Rogues, Warriors, Mages, and less about Priests). I'll also answer any questions you have about myself, but I will try to keep it on-topic about WoW as much as possible. =D

See you Saturday!

Female Tanks - The Rarity

(Crossposted from http://myworld.creativegamingevents.com/blogs_view.php?id=583 )

I felt it was time to address another gender studies topic, so today is about how finding a female, and actual female, behind the role of a tank is a rarity, and analyzing why this may be. May I forewarn you that everything further is entirely personal opinions and observations; this is not a research paper, it's a log of my thoughts. So don't expect any fancy pants citations. =P (I do enough of that in college already.)

I did want to do some research, but I simply haven't had the time or the ability to. What I can say is that in my guild, I am not only the only tankadin, but I'm the only female tank. I have never run across another female tank in game, though I am sure that they are out there. I'll likely revisit this topic and do a little polling on the WoW forums, MainTankadin.com, and perhaps in game on my server (and maybe a couple others just to average statistics out). Either way, I think it can be assumed in most people's experiences that the population of female tanks, is very low.

Naturally, this means what do I actually see women playing? Healers and DPS, since that's all that's left. If I think about the people in my guild, I can think of two female shaman healers, one mage, one warlock, there used to be one hunter and a second warlock who have left... and if there's any more, then I'm either unaware of who is in reality female, or they are alts. If I want to use those as (skewed) statistics, then out of a population of seven total (including myself), 14% are tanks, 29% are healers, and 57% are DPS.

Again, I know this has to be skewed, as many of the other women I see posting on the forums (who say proudly or at least generally admit they are in fact female), are healers in some way (or at least a class that can be a healer). I would wager a guess that statistics wise, it should look a little more like:

50% of women are healers
40% of women are DPS
10% of women are tanks

Again, I don't really have stats to back this up, it's just a wide generalization.

Why would more women choose to be a healer over any other class? Is there something more appealing to it to women, or is it something that the male counterparts they may be playing alongside request them to do? How many of these women play healers because they were asked to, not because they chose to? How many of these women play healers because they enjoy healing, and if that's the case, why do they enjoy it?

My theory is that the majority of female healers in the game are healers because they were asked to become healers, not because they wanted to be. I could very well have ended up as this exact example; the first role I was asked to fill was that of a tank, simply because we had few tanks. When that was remedied, I was immediately asked to become a healer instead. When the Paladin class was made available to the Horde, I was asked to become a Paladin, but it was not clear what role they wanted me to fill other than "Paladin." It is likely, though, I would have ended up specc'd Holy and never have even thought about tanking if I hadn't been so damn adamant about it on my own. (Incidentally, I'm glad I made that choice. =) )

In addition, most of the male healers I know play healers because they wanted to, not because they were asked to. Some people in general do enjoy the thrill of keeping someone safe and alive; I feel the same thing, just from a different perspective (I protect by being the person taking all the damage; I keep others alive by being the protector - all seemed very paladin-like to me). DPS seems to be a much more aggressive instinct, with the desire to pump numbers as high as possible, doling out the big damage and reaching prestige from that perspective.

That being said, is healing a maternal role, and therefore generally delegated to female players? And is tanking a masculine role, and therefore generally delegated to the male players? Females, traditionally, are the nurturer. I can understand why they would become the healers of the world; they care for others around them, and are therefore responsible for others' well-being and health. Males, traditionally, are the protectors and providers. I can understand them donning plate and stepping out in front to prevent any harm from coming to his woman, or his children, or his fellow comrades. All very stereotypical, but also understandable simply from a generalized historical point of view.

The role of DPS seems to be the only one that doesn't have a particular gender to it; it's simply destructive. Really, it's the antithesis of both other roles, though the game doesn't function without it. DPS is one of those things that confuses me; I'm never really sure if I enjoy it or dislike it. My two other favorite classes besides Paladin are Rogue and Mage (both undeniably DPS). I enjoy the stealth aspect of being a Rogue, and there is admittedly a little enjoyment in the whole backstabbing part of their functions (call it my sadistic side). Mage I really only like because I've mimicked one of my favorite and highest level D&D characters every time I've made one; beautiful but deadly, and on the inside, rotten to the core. Again, a very stereotypical character design, but it's one I've come to love. There's always an odd sense of entertainment that comes from lighting someone up. But again, that kind of hits the sadistic side of my personality; so is DPS only that? An extension of our desire to harm others?

Since I've already mentioned my take on DPS, let me re-outline the other two roles from my perspective:

Tanking

I love tanking. I love the challenge in keeping the monster in my face and away from my friends. I love the idea that I am protecting others, a role I've always felt I'm never going to get to experience anywhere else - after all, to anyone who simply visually perceives me, I look like a little girl who needs to be protected (I'm 5'3" and weight less than 110 lbs; just the other day when I was getting carded at a grocery store, the clerk told me I looked 14). But I'm stronger than that, and being allowed that opportunity through a game is a treat for me. A taste of what I can hopefully one day do on my own. I guess I have more paternal instincts than I previously assumed. I can understand that; I grew up around two elder brothers and I'm daddy's little girl. I'm very tomboyish.

In antithesis, what is it about healing that I hate? I don't really know; I just find it boring. I would sit back and relegate myself to healer any time before level 70, simply so I could progress myself. Every time, I found it rather boring. I prefer being in on the head-to-head action. Somehow, even though I know I'm in one of the most important roles as a healer, I just don't get a sense of satisfaction out of it; I feel disjointed from the encounter. I hate it even more when I'm healing while still specc'd Prot simply because someone else is the "better tank" for the situation; because now I'm neither optimal, nor really contributing. They could be doing this just fine without me, and if I stood and did absolutely nothing, the odds are no one would notice until the healing charts were posted. That leaves me with a sense of dis-accomplishment (if that's a term, but hey, I'll use it anyway); I prefer leaving with a sense of "Hey, I did this and I did it right" rather than "Hey, I did this and I don't know if I did it right because they probably didn't notice or care."

Or maybe I just prefer being in the spotlight, being needed and wanted. Maybe it's a sense of belonging for me, of knowing everyone is happy for me to be there because I'm part of the team, and I'm important, loved, liked, whatever. Maybe it's for a sense of social security, even if it's in something silly like a virtual realm.

Beyond that, it might even be that I just like being unique and different. That sounds about right; after all, I'm an actor, right? And we're all full of ourselves. =P

I guess what it really comes down to is playing what you want; and everyone's tastes are different. It just happens to be interesting to note a pattern in relation to gender; that's really all this analysis is about. So even if I'm a little strange and go against the grain, it's not going to stop me. I love what I do, and I probably always will. Same goes for everyone else.

And really, I wouldn't have it any other way.