I thought I would make this a post all on its own. I tend to forget that most people aren't as open minded or outspoken as I am. I often offend people with my shock and awe chat. I frequent 4chan and other message boards like 4chan so things just don't shock me anymore. A few guildmates were talking about the recent Blizzcon and the costume contest. One of the comments was " I would feel so nerdy just watching that. It would make me sad knowing that somewhere there might be a fat nerd beating off to this" of course I piped in and said "It's really no different than some Non fat nerd beating off to schoolgirls, furry porn, henti and whatever other kink there is" Things took a downward spiral after this. We some how ended up talking about other fetishes and strange human sexual taboos. Someone finally stepped in and asked "Why are we even talking about this in guild chat?!" This isn't the first time I've offended someone and it probably won't be the last. I'm just surprised that people still get offended by stuff like this. I know we should have respect of other peoples feelings when being in a social group or when chatting in guild chat, but should you really be offended by words? I just wish there were more people like me out there. I don't judge people by what they are into or what they look like. I don't care if you are nerdy, geeky, fat, skinny, gay, black, white, asian or whatever label society wishes to place upon you. I see you for who you are. Personality matters to me 100% and if you aren't fun to be around then I don't want to know you. Anyway, I guess it was wrong of us to chat about such "xrated/dirty" things in guild chat. So, I bring you my list of what to not to say in guild chat.
WARNING: THIS MIGHT OFFEND YOU! IF SO TURN BACK IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY WORDS! IF YOU KEEP READING THEN YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! STRONG LANGUAGE AND "NAUGHTY" WORDS!
STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T SAY BECAUSE ITS "BAD"
Cunt, Pussy, Twat, Roast Beef
Dick, Penis, Cock, Balls
Fisting, Anal Stretching, Salad Tossing
Rim Job, Hot Lunch, Cosby Sweater
Leakage, Alabama Hot Pocket, Tampons
Anything Political as this will cause a debate and apparently that's bad.
Racial Slurs (I'm very much against this one.)
Furry, Yiff, Faggot, "Thats gay"
Fatass, Ugly Bitch, Nerd, Geek, Freak
Your Retarded, "Can you link you're profession"
Alot, U, UR, @, Srsly, Y, Plz, Every other common shorthand.
Bloodelves (They are bad for some reason)
Speaking in another language other than English (Or whatever is common for all you EU players out there
And of course your standard curse word should be added to the list. Well, I think I've posted enough for now.
It's been a while since I posted some beta stuff. I've been goofing off doing heroics and testing priest beta play. Holy priests couldn't be anymore perfect. I love the way holy plays now. I still feel that Disc lacks the POW of holy. However, Disc will still be a key player in a 25 man raid setting. Leap of Faith is super fun in PVE and PVP. Clueless melee standing in whirlwind? Mage pissing you off? Warlock likes to Lifetap for no reason? LEAP OF FAITH!
LEAP OF FAITH
Before anyone hates on my lack of keybinds just know this. They reset for some dumb reason every time I log off beta. Anyways, on to more fun things. Cataclysm is really shaping up to be the best expansion Blizzard has done. I know a lot of people are still in "shock" due to all the changes that hit live recently but trust me when I say this: Cataclysm will restore your faith in Blizzard! I've never had this much fun questing. I hate questing in Vanilla, TBC and Wrath. Wrath did bring some new questing styles to WoW that other games have been doing for a long time. The much needed ingame cut scene, and Blizzard has really put this to good use in Cata. Uldum is full of cut scenes and there are a bunch in the revamped old world as well. The one thing I've always loved about Blizzard is that they always find a way to hide pop culture references throughout the game. Cataclysm is no exception to this.
"Hide Your Wives, Hide Your Children! Zhey're Killing everyone up in he'ah"
Then there is this one that I'll share too. This one is a nod to the popular "You awaken in Razor Hill" series. If you've never heard of this you should read it!
Tednug and Scratchfever
I've also been leveling a worgen mage and tonight I did a random instance. When I saw the loading screen was wailing caverns I was tempted to say fuck it and just leave but I stuck it out. We got to the escort part and I tempted to leave again until I saw the most beautiful thing I've seen so far in all my time in beta. The escort NPC started running. That's right folks he started RUNNING. I couldn't believe my eyes that after five years of slowly walking to rescue Narlax he finally started to run. I'm still shocked about it as I write this post. On another note of awesomeness. The Worgen starting area has one of the best staff graphics I've even seen in game. It's a shame that this graphic is on a green and that it's replaced in 3 levels. The staff is actually animated with rose pedals falling off of it. Its beautiful and a Role Players must have.
Best Staff Graphic Ever.
Well, That's really all the beta stuff I have to share you guys for now. I know its not much but most of the things I know are already out there.
Lately I've been finding myself just disgusted by the WoW community. Scilla and its battlegroup is wrought with drama, trolls, assholes and just over all shitty player attitudes. You can't do a random daily without someone being an ass. "You're gear is so bad just quit the game and life." Just an overall unpleasant experience. Then a week ago while leveling an alt on an RP server I was doing a bit of auctioning and I was stunned by the trade chat. They were discussing lore, trading and there was a PUG forming. I decided to ask the raid leader of the PUG what their min gearscore requirement was and I was shocked to see him say "We don't use gearscore on this server. Link your achieve or come let me inspect you" We all know how gearscore has spread around Azeroth faster than the plague so you can see why I was shocked by this statement. I decided I would sit around an just watch tradechat on this server to see how things work. There were a few trolls here and there, but not once was there a link spamming Thunderfury or any mindless nonsense. It dawned on me that maybe I wasn't just sick of the overall WoW community but the server group I was playing on. It was then and there I decided screw it I'm getting the hell off of Scilla. I've always wanted to play on an RP server, but was too worried about how to get started. Anyway, I am now on Wrymrest Accord and I couldn't be any happier with me move. I can't wait for Cataclysm now.
4.0.1 hit yesterday. The tears on forums and in-game have been flowing like the southfury river. I have to agree with some of the people complaining though. I played around with shadow in beta and while I was pulling some impressive numbers I knew it was too good to be true. The ability to spam shadow word death is far too much fun to resist. I also played around with tanking on my paladin. It was a huge change. Pally tanking is nothing like it used to be. We've gone through two expansion with it being the same basic rotation and its a hard habit to break. I haven't touched my warlock since the patch hit and frankly I just have no desire too. The same goes for my shaman. I do miss playing her but it sorta broke my heart when I leveled her to 80 and took off all her T6. Oh how I miss my lighting ninja shaman! LONG LIVE BRAIN HEAL! Ahm, Sorry I got a little carried away there back to the actual point. Something that people are failing to realize is that numbers aren't actually balanced around level 80 game play right now. Blizzard has already stated that numbers won't be "right" until we've leveled to 85. I mean people are going so far as saying "I'm unsubscribing this sucks so bad its horrible I don't do any damage" and so on. While I agree that Melee dps is a bit under tuned right now but you can't just give up. I'd see it as more of a challenge personally. I mean get out there and hit that target dummy and run World of Logs to record your dps. Don't just sit there and bitch about change hit it head on!
With the release of 4.0.1 we got the early start of the Cataclysm event. Earthquakes can be felt all over Azeroth. There are faint whispers among the citizens in Azeroth that there is a cult causing all the earthquakes. If you pay a visit to Grommash Hold in Orgimmar you'll see the leaders of the horde having a meeting about all the stuff that's going on. Now, if you know anything about the events that are about to take place then you already know what I'm about to post. If not then you are in for some serious SPOILERS. LEAVE IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KEEP READING!
Alright, if you're still here then lets get down to the good stuff. Here's a chat log of the entire meeting.
As you can see above this is the early onset of the conflict between Vol'jin and Garrosh. I personally dislike the fact as horde we have Garrosh in Thrall's place. Through questing in the newly revamped old world he does tend to grow on you however. There is a huge debate about this very thing over on MMO-Champion and its being beaten into the ground. It may turn out that he's exactly what the Horde needs in the troubles ahead. I just don't agree with it. Cataclysm is bringing some HUGE changes lore wise and I'm excited to see them beyond what is in beta at the moment. The whole questing line in Mount Hyjal was a huge loregasm. I won't spoil that for you, but if you really wish to know you can head over to MMOC to scope it out. I think that's it for now. Sorry if this update has been bit random. I'm just in a random mood I guess. Remember CHANGE IS GOOD! Embrace it!
Picture it: You log into to do your daily random heroic and prepare for raids. You're random queue pops up and you enter the instance.
Things seem to be going to just fine until the group manages to wipe. You release and start the run back to the instance and one of the DPS decides to say something.
[Random Gearscore Natzi: ] Wow, did we really just wipe in (insert random faceroll WOTLK heroic here). You guys are terrible! HOW DO YOU WIPE IN A HEROIC WITH A 56554633887464 GS!!!??!
[Tank:] I didnt get any healz so I died.
[GO GO GO DPS:] CAN WE JUST GO ALREDY PLZ?!?!?!
[Afk Healer:] Sorry lulz dog on fire lulz.
[Gearscore Natzi:] wow rly healer? You should just go kill yourself because you dont deserve to live or play wow. Fin blizzard and they're walfare lewtz.
[Calm DPS Guy:] Do you really need to be rude? We wiped get over it. Stuff happens. Lets just regroup and finish the heroic.
[Natzi:] You know what you guys are so f'in fail. Have fun with your shitty gear and shitty heroic I dont have time for this shit.
Natzi has left the group.
This is a common scenario when dealing with people via the random dungeon finder. What should you do when you encounter people through the RDF?
The WoW community as a whole has long since gone downhill. People are rude, crude and plain old mean. I know,I know its the internet blah blah blah. I always try to be the friendly open nice person when doing randoms. I mean you wouldn't walk up to a stranger on the street and look down your nose upon them because they don't have the same clothes as you do etc. Here is an easy way to deal with people through the RDF.
DO: Be nice. Remember the old saying? "If you don't have anything nice to say. Don't say anything.
Don't: Don't be that guy. You know that guy. They guy who tries to ninja pull an entire instance and then ditch the group. This is just childish and 90% of the time it doesn't work.
Don't: Don't get upset when you wipe once or twice. Pay attention to whats going on and find the reason why you are wiping. Is the healer afk? Did the hunters pet aggro 3 extra trash pulls? Pin point the issue and work to fix it.
DO: Buff. If your class can buff do it. If your a mage drop a table. If your a Warlock Soulstone the healer and drop a Soulwell. These things can save a wipe. If you are a Paladin buff!
DO: If you are a pet class turn your pet off of agressive. Growl off if you are a hunter. Pets can sometimes the cause of wipes.
Don't: Don't judge a book by its cover. Who cares if the tank is in blues? You were once undergeared and had to do heroics to gear up.
Don't: Don't rush the tank. One of my pet peeves as a tank or healer is a DPS class spamming "GO GO JUST GO ALREADY GO GO GO" in chat. Relax. If you want to carry the pace of the instance roll a tank.
DO: Watch your aggro. If you notice the tank is undergeared or the healer pay attention.
Don't: Don't take long afks. Things come up at the worse time its understandable but try to take your afks before you join the group/raid.
DO: Chat with people and be openminded. You'd be surprised at the amount of nice people you can meet in the RDF.
Don't: Don't roll need on everything you can use just to vendor it. Yes its probably worthless to most people but you never know if someone in the group actually needs it.
Don't: If you are a tank don't just charge into every pull without paying attention to the healers mana. Some undergeared healers still have mana issues in heroics.
DO: If you are a rogue/hunter misdirect the tank or tricks him.
Don't: Healers Please don't afk without saying a word. Type out "Afk" or "Just a sec"
Don't: Don't always click accept on the Vote to Kick. Ask why we are kicking the person if it isn't clear. Ask questions. 90% of the time the person doesn't deserve to be kicked.
DO: Vote to kick people who are afk for longer than 5 mins.More than 5mins is an unreasonable time to afk in an instance/raid.
DO: Be helpful. Is the tank not holding aggro? Did he forget frost presence? Righteous Fury? Is the hunters pet on agressive? speak up but be nice about it.
Don't: Don't be rude to people who don't know what they are doing. Remember there are people who are new to WoW.
DO: Have fun. Remember its a game and its meant for enjoyment.
I'm sure I've forgotten some things but these are just basics. Cataclysm will soon be out and things will change. Raids and Dungeons won't be as easy as they are in WOTLK. Don't give up when you wipe. Always remember this song when you judge people for being a "noob".
You know the old saying: "You can't have real friends online." I disagree with this a lot. I have a handful of online friends that I've had for years and I believe they are just as close as out of game friends if not closer. I just don't understand how people can say that your online friends aren't "real". Why aren't they real? They are real people. They have everyday lives just like I do. Sure interacting with people online is easier than face to face, but isn't it true that the more you know about a person the easier it is to talk to them? In our generation its becoming more and more common that people have more online friends than "Real Life" friends. Lets look at Facebook for example. Facebook is THE online socializing website. It's a great way to find old friends who you've lost contact with or old co-workers. People also use it to keep in contact with family who might live across the country. Facebook has become acceptable for people to have just online friends so why can't you have online gaming friends? I know people who use WoW as a $15 a month chatroom. They log on chat with friends for a while and log off. There are guilds out there in WoW that have been around for 5 years with the same members. I'm sure they feel that they are all close friends.
Online relationships are a touchy subject. People generally tend to look down upon people who have found love via an online video game. Lets get a few things out in the open. Some gamers are socially awkward myself included. While I am out spoken I'm always misunderstood. I'm a very blunt and to the point kinda person and its generally misunderstood as being bitchy or rude. I'm also not your average female. I don't like shopping, most girly things, and whatever it is that females are into. ( I don't even know lol) I like video games, cartoons, movies, comics and music. In social situations with non- gaming females I never ever know what to talk about. It usually ends up with me being quiet and awkward. It's the same for me when it comes to talking to males who aren't into games and such. I met the love of my life through WoW. Yes that's right folks I met my boyfriend online. We've been together since May 5th 2007. We met in November of 06'. It was the end of Vanilla and I was looking for a pvp guild. We clicked immediately. We talked over the months and got to know each other. He drove 2,000 miles to get me and we never looked back. We rarely fight and if we do we can't stay mad at each other longer than 10 mins. I love him more than words can describe. I always tell people our story who are in these types of relationships to give them hope. Online relationships can be hard. The distance is painful but if you get enough courage to meet outside of the game you'll be surprised.
Friendships and Relationships can be found anywhere. Don't let people tell you that you can't have friends online. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't find love on a video game. You can find that person who shares the same interests as you. Also to all you WoW trolls who said We would never last. Ha in your face.
I got to thinking earlier today while consistently crashing in beta about Wrath and what it meant for me. A lot of people tend to agree that Wrath of the Lich King was "Too Easy", "Had terrible raids", and "Gave away too many Welfare Epics". While I agree with this all on some level it has given a lot of great things along with all the boring content. Wrath had some wonderful quests. Wrathgate was one of the best quest lines in the game. It brought the in game epic cut scene to WoW. Blizzard heard our plea for more questlines like this and put a ton of them in Cataclysm. Phasing is also a wonderful tool. It allows the player to change the world through questing and events. It makes you feel like you've changed the story instead of seeing the guy you killed 20 mins later. Blizzard did a great job with the questing aspect of Wrath. Sure some zones were boring as hell, but others more than made up for it.
My hunter going for a ride. Surfs up brah!
Raiding however was very bland. Naxxramas was far too easy in my book. Yeah it was the entry level raid but far too easy. Lets take a look at previous entry level raids. We'll start with Burning Crusade. Karazhan was an awesome raid instance. It was challenging and the learning curve of boss encounters was somewhat difficult compared to Vanilla. Karazhan had everyones favorite boss THE ANIMAL BOSS!!! Kidding, We all know I'm talking about Moroes! Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's lair are ok. The learning curve on Mag's lair was too high at the start of the expansion if you ask me. Naxxramas offered very few challenges. The main challenge of Naxx was how long could your raidleader could remain calm after wiping to Thaddius for the sixth time. Naxx did however introduce us to raiding meta achievements. I love achievements. They are one of my favorite things to work on when I'm not raiding and they can offer a more challenging way to defeat an encounter. I never got a chance to finish my Naxx achieves before they took the drake away but I loved working on them.
One more for dinner tonight.
Ulduar was a fantasic raid. Blizzard really hit the nail on the head with this one. My only complaint with Ulduar was I never finished my Val'anyr!! (this was mostly due to people getting 15+ shards and transferring off the server but that's a whole other story in itself!). Ulduar was challenging on normal modes for your average WoW player. Yogg-Saron was fairly difficult. The amount of coordination you needed was definitely a step up from Naxx. Ulduar hardmodes brought a whole new challenge to the table. Iron Council hardmode seemed impossible forever. I still have nightmares of doing firefighter and One Light in the Darkness took me forever. So long in fact I didn't finish off Ulduar achives until December of last year. Overall Ulduar was perfect in my book.
Even Chuck Norris likes Ulduar.
HALING FROM THE DEEPEST DARKEST CAVERNS OF ICECROWN: THE WORSE RAID INSTANCE IN WOW HISTORY! Trial of the Crusader was the worse raid instance Blizzard has ever dreamed up. While the idea was good the instance itself was very very bland. However 25 man hardmode Anub'arak was impossible for my guild. Healing that fight was by far the most challenging thing I've done since Sunwell. We never managed to do it. ToC was just bad overall. A one room raiding instance with very few bosses and probably the worse looking tier gear in the game. Honestly what were they thinking by making everyone look identical? Blah. That's really all I can say about ToC. I'd like to forget it ever happened and I'm sure Blizzard feels the same way. (Maybe??)
INFERRRRNNOOO!
Icecrown Citidel the mother of all raiding instances or is it? We brought the fight to Arthas. We tore down the walls of Icecrown. (sort of) We waited for months for the chance to kill Arthas. I like the idea of releaseing the bosses one wing at a time. It gave you a chance to gear up and really get the hang of the boss encounters to prepare you for the hardmodes. When you first walk into ICC you are taken back by the over all visual. The instance itself looks amazing. The bosses meet you with the same amazing visual. I think ICC is just right in terms of challenge. However, the ICC buff is just far too much for normal modes and some hardmodes. ICC brought a new type of raiding encounter. A fight where your healers are your dpsers. Dreamwalker is a great encounter from a healers perspective. There is one thing about ICC I dislike besides the buff. The fact that you get the same title for killing Lich King in 10 man and 25 man. I believe there should be two different titles much like the hardmode versions. I give props to any guild who can kill Lich King 25 hardmode by the way. That fight is not "easymode" by any means. My whole raiding experience in Wrath of the Lich King has been fairly bland. Ulduar, ICC and Malygos (I love his voice over and he looks awesome) were great instances overall.
My Terrible UI
Gearing in Wrath of the Lich King has been really easy. Every new raid instance they change the currency to coincide the new raid. While this makes gearing alts easier it also causes players to ignore the other raids. While this really isn't a draw back for WoW verteran players its bad idea for new comers to raiding. While some of those raiding instance should be forgotten until the end of time they still offer a chance for new players to grasp the idea of raiding. Heroics just don't do that. If you are brand new to raiding and you step foot in ICC chances are you wont make it past the first four bosses. The looking for group system has been a wonderful feature though. I love it. I'm weird I actually like doing randoms with people I don't know. It gives you a chance to meet new people and see others play style. I just wish more people talked in random heroics. Overall Wrath of the Lich King hasn't been a bad expansion. It's had its moments of greatness and its moments of failure. I do not like the ending of Wrath however. The whole Bolvar being the new "Lich King" seems forced, but that a whole other post all in itself. Is Blizzard headed in the right direction with Cataclysm? Only time will tell.
I've been away for a while. I took a much needed afk from WoW, but not entirely. I've been playing Cataclysm Beta. Yes that's right I'M IN THE BETA! First off let me just say this. All those videos, screenshots and articles do not do justice to how awesome Cataclysm actually is. The game feels like a brand new one. From the first steps on the ship to Vashj'ir to the epic dive into deep holm almost every plot quest is voiced. You end up getting fully immersed in the game and that's a good thing. Sure there are bugs, crashes and unfinished content, but the stuff that is done is amazing.
My worgen practicing his ventriloquist act.
Currently beta allows you to faction, race, sex and name change your toons at random. I assume blizzard is just testing features. I took full advantage of this. I've been having issues getting my actual priest copied over to the beta servers so I grabbed a premade priest and dove headfirst into healing and questing. Lets start off with Vashj'ir. I was worried about a fully underwater zone. Everyone hates underwater quests, and if you say you don't YOU ARE IN DENIAL! The boat ride over to Vashj'ir was awesome. All the NPC's were fully voiced, and the voice acting was actually good. I was mind-blown.
If its red its dead.
RELEASE THE KRAKEN!! Ahem, Sorry it had to be done. Anyways, That can't be good.
Even in death female goblins are adorable.
The Kraken sinks your ship and as you drown the Naga try to gank you like a lvl 80 rogue keyboard turning his way to victory. A friendly earthen ring member comes to your rescue and your first questing hub is a sunken ship. The very first quest you receive is called "Sea Legs".The reward is a buff that increases your swim speed by 60% and allows you to breath underwater. While on the bottom of the ocean you run at what seems to be 70-80% run speed. There is no need to be worried about an underwater zone. This zone so far is nothing short of amazing.
Mr. Crabs and I.
Now, On to priest stuff. Disc is really fun for leveling so far. The mobs in Vashj'ir starting area are level 80-81 so things died fairly quickly. It's hard to judge from this small amount of experience but things are smooth. In case you were wondering I'm in full questing greens and 2 blue items. I have 89k HP, 65k Mana, and 3700ish sp. I'm really liking disc a lot. The archangel talent is a lot of fun and you know priests needed more wings graphics. That is all for now folks. I'll be posting more as I progress through Vashj'ir and other areas, but before I go. I just wanted to make sure you know how awesome the goblin mount is. Also I've added all these screenshots and more over in the screenshot section in higher res. Take a look!
