The Gaming Lizard

Blizzard brings PANDAMONIUM!

2011-10-22T10:05:00.000+08:00

Mists of Pandaria has been revealed to be World of Warcraft's 4th expansion pack, bringing us not only new player race but surprisingly, a new base class. This expansion basically destroys everything we've known about WoW and attempts to build it from the ground up. And frankly? I can't wait for it.

Pandarian Race

The panda race was probably anticipated although the fact that they are cross-faction probably make many people pee in their pants. They look really cool and bouncey although I don't get the "THIS IS MY RACE" feel I get from Worgens. Maybe because they can't be Deathknights?

Speaking of which, Pandarians not being DKs is a logical step (although it removes to notion that DK is open to all class). They can't be Warlocks nor Paladins; Druidism is out of their league as well. I'm slightly more skeptical of Panda Shamans as they don't seem to be the elemental-worshipping type.

Monk Class

While not a Hero Class, the Monk Class still proves surprising as Blizzard has stated that balancing 10 classes is difficult enough. Not that we're complaining thou: Monk is a versatile class in the same vein as Paladins. They do not use auto attacks (shocking) and seems to have 2 kinds of resources.

The Brewmaster is a tank-type, how it works without auto attacks remains a mystery.
The Mistweaver is a healer: This brings us up to 5 healing classes, which should reduce the healer crunch.
The Windwalker is melee DPS: Not surprising although we don't really need more Melee now as it is. We'll see what is MOP's encounter mantra as range still remains superior to melee dps.

Strangely, Worgen and Goblins can't be Monk! Outrageous. Forsaken makes less sense as a Monk than Worgen. However, the only race I'm taking for Monk is good ole' Pandarian.

New Talent System

It's not just a revamp, it's tearing down the system then building a new one! Cataclysm streamlined a lot of the talent trees but ultimately, they are still cookie cutters *coughDeathknightcough*

The new system uses the 3-choose-1 system, with "tier" of a common utility (AOE, Control ect.) and every tier at every 15 level. It works but I'm worried for the new expansion.

I love the new system as this gives players even more choices than before. However, some talents are clearly for PVP usage. All these is still subject to changes thou, we might see better talents next Blizzcon.

That's all for the more shocking part of Today's Blizzcon. There are certainly more features to blog about but for now, we'll leave it as that!

Thanks to MMO-Champion for the images.

So many choices!

2011-08-21T14:58:00.003+08:00

Of all the exciting future patch toys to come, none has certainly garnered so much excitement and buzz as the Transmorgrification feature of 4.3 which allows toons look like they're wearing a different set while retaining the lastest gears' stats.

I for one, have began hunting for potential armor sets to wear in 4.3. Should I go with the Dragonbones PVP set of the WOTLK era? Or back to the Lich-King inspired design of T9?

One thing's for sure thou: DKs clamoring for Greatsword of the Ebon Blade to be used as a skin will finally get their wishes granted.

It's time to go

2011-08-10T10:44:00.000+08:00

Since last December, I've made clear on my decision to leave the Ancients and join a Singaporean raiding guild so as to properly balance a WoW-Life....life. While I have moved my Deathknight main, my hunter and other alts remain as an Ancient.

I did once promise that my alts are going nowhere but WoW, like life, do have its own special circumstances. Now I've to eat my own words and move my hunter to a new home.

Does it mean I'm fully quitting the guild? Not quite. For one, I'll no longer be actively playing a toon in The Ancients (my DK, hunter and druid are seriously eating my time up together with RL) but I'll leave my paladin Beanieone, priest Tofuman, and warlock Zahno in storage at the Ancients. Should one day I decide to pick them up again (most probably at the Deathwing raid patch when everything's slowing down for new expansion), I'll still be an Ancients member.

Many old members I've known for the past 3 years have either move to a new guild or move on with their lives. This is no longer the era of the Burning Crusaders but the ear of Cataclysm.....ers?

To Ianthee, take good care of the guild. From the past few months, I've seen you actively participating in the turning of the guild's gears; You'll be a magnificent GM for the new ear of Ancients. The Ancients was born September 2006, one of Dath'remar's oldest active guild. Carrying on the torch passed down by Johala, Borgthor, Liself, Felock, Satori.....The list goes on and on.

WoW may be a game but it's where communities form, where RL friendships bloom. The Ancients has always been a casual social raiding guild where people from around the world come and play. Let that fire continue burning bright

With that, Zevon, my first toon will be leaving the guild he has called home for 3 years.

Game-on~

Firelands oh my!

2011-07-19T22:24:00.003+08:00

It's been a while (*cough*) since my last post before laziness and procrastination took over once more. Coupled that with various camps cropping up prior to my entry to university and we got one very lazyass blogger indeed.

4.2 have been out for almost a month now and many good guilds have downed up to heroic 4/5. H Rag kills seemed to be on the quiet side thou and that's fantastic.

The Molten Front dailies hub is wonderful, with a sense of a real war going on in the background. Spawns come freely in here and as long as you don't touch anything, they'll not touch you. One real issue thou is the FPS. Is it due to the improved polygons or simply the Dalaran-effect once more?

Firelands raid is a blast to be in although the trash are too much for my own taste. Clearing enough trash to spawn Shannox is tiresome and I hope Blizzard can cut down on the number of trash packs in the place. None the less, they still provide challenges for the raid.

Having downed only Shannox and Beth'tilac, I can say that they are comfortably difficult, like the 4.0 raid bosses. Shannox is definitely easier to attempt on 10m than 25m simply due to the number of people vs. the number of traps. More people means you get a higher chance of a inattentive raider stepping on a trap. Beth'tilac has a bit too much aoe damage flying about, from her lava piss to the spiders-on-a-web.

All in all, patch 4.2 is fantastic even if we're still stuck with doing between 2 heroics and the annoying fact that people are still stupid enough to fail on them.

Till next time, hobey ho.

First Look: Mark of the World Tree loot for DKs, Hunters and Boomkins?!

2011-06-25T10:21:00.004+08:00

After a terribly long absence from blogging (I blame the lack of news), 4.2 is set to hit us any time from this week to Soon(tm). The Rage of Firelands will bring us many more non-raid loots set at ilvl 365 which is an upgrade from normal raid gears.

With so many choices to choose from, let's take a First Look at the quest vendors offer by handing in Mark of the World Tree.

Deathknights

Neck: Fireheart Necklace
A decent neck upgrade featuring EXP and MASTERY which is useful to both Frost and Unholy DKs.

Ring: Meteorite Ring
Crit isn't that good of a stat compared to Haste and Mastery.

Ring: Moon Blessed Band
If you are hit capped from other slots, this ring is practically useless.

Belt: Rickety Belt
A most wonderful upgrade, it is a must-have.

Relic: Relic of Lo'gosh
With hit and crit, it's an ok upgrade from our valor reward.

Trinket: Dwyer's Caber
The crit proc makes it not so hot for Frost DKs (pun unintended) since they already have a 100% crit chance proc. The trinket's effect makes you toss out a tree for miserly damage so it's more of a vanity effect.

Hunters

Feet: Lancer's Greaves
Haste is a decent state for most hunters although BM hunters have it lowest of the 3 secondary stats.

Ring: Band of Glittering Light
A combination of crit and haste makes it a pretty good upgrade.

Ring: Matoclaw's Band
Hit and Crit makes it a better ring than the previous one.

Trinket: Ricket's Magnetic Fireball
Since all hunters favors Crit, this trinket is a must-have. Again, the effect deals small amount of damage, making it a vanity effect although the passive portion is a nice convenience.

Boomkin

Ring: Spirit Fragment Band
Oddly enough, there is only 1 ring for spellcasters and non featuring SPI. Crit and Mastery makes it an OK ring.

Neck: Nightweaver's Amulet
This is the must-have upgrade for fellow Boomkins, who favors both Haste and Mastery.

Belt: Fireplume Girdle
Another piece of nicely itemised gear. No complains.

Off-Hand: Globe of Moonlight
Off-hand suffers from the same fate as ring, with no SPI version available for Trees and Priests. An Ok item at most.

Trinket: Moonwell Chalice
Summons a Moonwell as visual effect. The 2 min CD and Mastery on-use effect makes it a good trinket for boomy. Again, no healer trinket is in sight. Disappointing.

So there we go, stay tuned for Valor gears First Look tomorrow!

Unliving: Battle of the Freezes

2011-05-30T20:20:00.003+08:00

While 4.2 is still a good few months away, once again Deathknights are lamenting about the up-coming nerfs to hit them very hard in their asses (including my Worgen). Of all the nerfs that Frost DKs are about to received, one change has generated more uproar than the rest. The nerf?

"Hungering Cold now has a 1.5-second cast time."

Such a strange move indeed, when Frost DKs have them on instant casts for like over 2 years. When the talent was originally implemented, it was optional and few chose to skip over this for other utility talents since its usage in the raiding scene is limited.

When Cataclysm strikes, it was changed to become a pre-requisite for Howling Blast, the 31st talent. Still, it was a skill few uses, save for epic BGs and Arena where a 10sec mass freeze comes into play.

What made the nerf hurt even more is a particular change for mage:

"Ring of Frost is now instant, down from 1.5 sec cast time."

Ring of Frost serves the same purpose as Hungering Cold so it is easy for (immature) people to simply glance at the change before foaming at the mouth and declaring that Blizz is Rapturing Deathknights.

BUT, similar as the 2 spells might be, their applications and usage differs greatly. And so, this blog post will attempt to compare and contrast the 2 spells to see if we are comparing lemons to oranges (citrus fruits) or apples to oranges and to see if the sky really is falling for Deathknights.

It's easy to see that Deathknights have a slight advantage over mage....on paper but in reality, ranged attacks will always have the upper hands.

In BGs, a mage can simply cast it on a horde of players and gleefully watch them freeze while DKs have to run into the horde and cast it. Now, they have to stand still for 1.5 secs and hope no one interrupts it. In Arena, the same thing happens. A DK WILL get interrupted while a Mage can cast it although moving out is relatively easy for an alert team.

3 seconds is a long time to move out as compared to a 1.5 sec cast. And DKs will have an element of surprise as compared to the visual of RoF taking effect.

That is not forgetting Diminishing returns. In a one-on-one (TOTALLY NOT BALANCED AROUND 1V1 GAMES), a DK offers more control against melees since Chains of Ice is a snare while HC is counted as a Disorient. Compare this to a Mage whose CC and big-crits-basing-Deep Freeze shares the same DR as RoF now and the Mage's controlling powers is diminished (but still effective none the less!)

Against ranged, RoF offers no protection if the Mage cast is around him. Only melee players will be affected (once more!) while range can continue to shoot death at the poor guy. The same goes for HC although DK has the advantage of already being in range for his targets.

Thus, in conclusion, what Blizzard has done is to make HC the same as RoF, instead of buffing the latter (which might have caused even more uproar!) So fellow Deathknights, the sky is NOT falling! (as least with regard to this change)

Of dark birds and winds

2011-05-10T21:55:00.002+08:00

With only a few months to go until Firelands, Zeevon's new guild Secluded Harmony of Dath'Remar finally finished the normal raid tier, netting everyone a cool dark phoenix.

As mentioned in my previous blog posting, Al'akir is a tough bitch to fight with all his RNG goodness flying all around. Knockback into an acid rain path with the wind wall coming towards you is just bad bad design. While there were attempts at warning, the amount of things that could go wrong are too much to handle sometimes.

Nonetheless, when he finally falls, it felt pretty goooood.

The dark phoenix mount is really cool although not that shiny as its original counter part. Now, Zeevon only has to fight the Wind Council and Nefarian to get his title. Hopefully it'll be soon(tm)

First Look: Fairyknights

2011-05-02T09:16:00.003+08:00

The most exciting thing for a new tier of raid is not always the progression in story but rather the Tier Sets. For years, it has been the pinnacle of awesomeness, a status symbol that you have defeated the most terrifying monsters of that tier.

As such, set designs have always come under extreme scrutiny. I have always been a fan of Blizzard's design, even the dead baby skin that T8 rogues wear and fisherman garb of T11 hunters. But recently, Blizzard releases new fire-themed art for Firelands and looking at the Deathknight set, I'm disappointed.

For one, I can't see any boss or fiery theme to it, except it's crimson. Mages at least get feathers from the firehawk and pallies just look badass. Even rogues get bird face on their shoulders. The helmet is the offender in this situation.

I believe it's meant to represent some winged helmet (what is a warrior of death doing with wings anyway?) like the picture above. Instead, I'm seeing the picture below:

We get to be freaking fairy, sprinkling pixie dust all over Ragnaros. Right.

The greatest thing out of 4.1

2011-04-30T18:40:00.002+08:00

There are many things I like about 4.1: Frost DK buffs, removal of pet happiness, increased gem prices, troll heroics; But the best thing is none of the above.

Instead, it's the picture above. Yes that's right, I finally got my pretty undead face back. For the longest time, even during beta, Worgen DK's human form looks out of whack simply because the face skin does not match the body. Instead, we get a generic pale face. For 5 months. 4.1 finally fix this bug, which has been bugging me since day 1.

Now can we finally have DK-style hair color for worgen please?

T11 End Game Bosses

2011-04-05T21:52:00.002+08:00

So far, I've been enjoying myself in Cataclysm raids. No doubt the difficulty level is higher (there are still no pugs on Dath'remar), but many fights now require every player to be at least have 3/4 of their brains.

See fire run, blowing defensive CDs if you can't escape ect. I can't recall how many times a timely Deterrence has saved my hunter's ass from the purple flames of Valiona in BOT or simply making the lives of my healers easier via frequent usage of Anti-Magic Shell. That said, sometimes there's only so much you can do before the raid wipes.

Having seen all 3 of the Cataclysm end game bosses, I can say that they range from requiring skills to pure RNG madness.

Cho'gall is BoT's final boss. The use of Corrupting Blood mechanic is refreshing and punishes those flame lovers. There is a general dose of AOE required as well as interrupts (aoe interupts is king in this place). Add control is vital to prevent the raid from getting overwhelmed.

Yet, when I did my first Cho'gall, it wasn't what I expected. As the sole melee dps, I was given the license to sla---stay on Cho'gall 100% of the time. It's a dream come true since I can go south on that guy but it does feel boring after a while. Running is only required when a flame patch spawns. It wasn't till phase 2 that I was actively engaged due to switching to and fro bosses.

Was it because my guild has Cho'gall on farm? I was lucky to have been slotted in during farm status so I missed out many of their wipes. Perhaps they have already honed their skills from all the wiping that it's now easy to them, and me.

Maybe when I run on my hunter will I see something different...or when we're running 5 melees :S

Ah Nefarian. Current status being On Farm.....for us that is. Nefarian takes the cake for being the most AOE damage done by a single boss (or bosses? Onyxia seems more like a minion). Onyxia does Tail Swipe and Lightning Blasts from her sides and for tanks, Shadowflame Breath. For Nefarian, every 10% off his life will cause him to do a massive raid wide lightning blasts. To survive, everyone have to be close to full health or risk dying. Throw in a group of skeletons to kite and you've got the most complex boss fight as of Cataclysm.

Phase 2 is essentially the make-or-break part of the fight. The platform lowers, filling the room with lava which you need to swim up to get to the pillar AND interrupt the add before it casts its deadly AOE. If your interrupt happens to be caught by an invisible pixel, he/she/it will drown in the lava and the add will freely cast the AOE, wiping the group.

The pure difficulty comes from so many AOE abilities and everyone needs to be fully healed to even survive. Cataclysm is about smart healing, but Nef just completely destroys that idea. In this fight, your healers and kiter are more important than ever. Mess up one aspect and you'll wipe.

I only spent 1 night in Thronw of 4 Winds to really hate Al'akir. Phase 1 consist of a knockback plus a moving wall of tornadoes. A lot of random factors come into play here, be it the timing of the wall coming towards you when Al's casting knockback. Plus, there's also puddles of painful liquid to deal with. If your gap in the wall happens to be on the path of the liquid, GG. If the wall spawns on you as he cast Knockback, GG.

The sheer amount of Murphy's Law that come into play here is what make Al'akir fustrating. You can move but risk causing chain lightning to hit your raid members and wiping everyone.

That said, Al'akir is a fun fight but the amount of RNG could be reduced more.

Why I'm (going to) lovin' 4.1 Heroic System and the potential downfall of it.

2011-03-29T20:29:00.003+08:00

The footsteps of 4.1 inches closer than ever before even as each PTR update seems to contain truckload of changes that seems to say that "4.1's not ready yet!". While 4.1 will not bring us T12 content, it does give us the next step in Heroic progression - 2 Troll dungeons and the ability to spam your 7 heroics in one single day if you have the mental stamina to do so.

Since I've begin working, I discovered that I barely have time to play WoW without sacrificing sleep. A typical workday would look like this:

Wake up - Work (9 hours) - Gym (1 hour) - Dinner + WoW (4-6 hours if I'm raiding) - Sleep.

As an avid DPs player, I'm stuck with 30mins queue. Each Heroic has the potential to be either a 45mins or a 2hour head-desking affair. This plus trying to hit the daily cap for guild rep (I'll be thankful once I hit Exalted with my new guild) THEN multiply by 2 toons. I do fear once I star Uni, my schedule will be roughly the same. Which means WoW will suffer and eventually fade away.

BUT, Blizzard has kindly change the daily dungeon grind to a weekly once. Now I can actually relax on weekday nights instead of griefing myself.

The downfall of it

However, this could also be the downfall of Cataclysm. Imagine trying to run 2 heroics over and over and over and over again. Now multiply that by 7 times. Now multiply it by the difficulty of a Cataclysm Heroic and you got a potential storm of tears and rising blood pressure.

Warcraft is fun but eventually like a tire of a F1 race car, the faster you go, the faster you burn out. Eventually you'll be so pissed at idiot pugs that you give up on T9.75 heroic. While you can run the older heroics (which will of course be easier!), you only get 70VPs capping at 490. For people looking to maximise their weekly VP gain, it is simply not an option.

In the end, I feel that running a heroic a day is still the best way to pace yourself to prevent the dreaded burnout. But for the weekend warriors, Blizzard has helped a lot in letting us enjoy the heroics.

First Look: Troll Heroics for Hunters

2011-03-20T20:51:00.002+08:00

And finally, a long overdue look at PTR goodies for Hunters. The 3 specs of Hunters share similar stat priorities with Marksmen favoring Haste up till certain cast times where Mastery becomes more useful.

As such, stat priorities are as follows: Hit > Crit > Mastery > Haste

Bows

Mandokir's Tribute: An excellent bow, and the only one, if you are hit capped (which you should be). Be prepared for dumb warriors rolling for it.

Voodoo Hunting Bow: Use this if you want the label "Huntard" ironed onto your ass...or if you're using a green bow (how did you get into ZA/ZG then!??!?!). Ideally roll for it if your tank's a jackass.

Weapon

Jin'do's Verdict: Another piece of excellently itemised gear, expect competition for it with ferals.

Back

Hex Lord's Bloody Cloak: More suited for MM than other specs due to Haste.

Neck

Amulet of the Watcher: An excellent neck for all specs.

Ring

Arlokk's Signet: Nothing much to say here, Blizz is nailing it.

Head

Headdress of Sharpened Vision: Hit and Mastery is a great combo although you'll want to reforge Mastery to Crit.

Shoulders

Pauldrons of Nalorakk: Nothing much to say here, Blizz is nailing it.

Chest

Breastplate of Primal Fury: More for MM.

Belt

Hawkscale Waistguard: Mastery and Haste is a less than ideal combo, even for MM. Reforge Haste to crit.

Legs

Zombie Walker Legguard: MM will love this.

Hands

Handguards of the Tormented: Ideal for everyone.

Feet is missing since we already have one from reputation. Unlike DKs, Troll Heroic loots will prove to provide gear for virtually every slot, except trinkets.

First Look: Troll Heroics for DPS Deathknights

2011-03-12T16:49:00.005+08:00

Data Miners from MMO Champion and WoWhead have released their loot list for the upcoming Heroics for 4.1. Featuring all epics at ilvl 353 (which is 4 ilvl lower than current raid content), Blizzard seems determined to deck us all out in epics from helmet to boots to ranged weapon slot.

First Look will first feature loots for DPS Deathknights followed by a second post detailing Mail loots for Hunters. More loots will certainly be found and the list will be updated accordingly and the post marked by and *UPDATE*

Weapons

Reforged Trollbane: While the blue socket is meh, a healthy dose of Hit and Mastery is always welcomed for Deathknight 2H specs of all kind.

Jeklik's Smasher: An "ok" 2H sword if you don't need the hit from the Trollbane since Crit is pretty lackluster compared to Mastery and Haste. Unless you're a Blood Deathknight.

Bloodlord's Protector: Don't even think about it.

Renataki's Soul Slicer: A wonderful weapon for DW Frost. Expertise and Mastery are our strongest stats.

Zulian Slasher: If you're lucky enough, go with double RSS. Hit and Crit makes this sword pretty lacking compared to the former.

Helmet

Roaring Mask of Bethekk: The presence of haste makes this helmet useful for only Frost 2H and Unholy. Why Blizz?!

Neck - Nothing currently

Shoulder - Nothing currently.

Chest

Chestplate of Hubris: Again, Haste on this effectively locks DW Frost out of 2 loots. Go with the craftable epic instead.

Back

Hex Lord's Bloody Cloak: With Haste showing up yet again, I'm starting to think who ever put the stats on these are ignorant of Blizz's goal to feature loot for everyone.

Wrist

Deathcharged Wristguard: Pretty decent loot for all specs after the Haste favoring of the previous three.

Hands

Plunderer's Gaunlets: Another Haste Hands. Seriously.

Belt: Nothing currently

Pants: Nothing currently

Feet

Skullcrusher Warboots: Hit and Mastery makes this a decent piece of gear for everyone.

Ring

Ring of the numberless brood: Haste again.

While everyone will no doubt choose to wear 4.1 epics due to higher STR ratings, the proliferation of Haste makes it pretty crappy for Frost DW and from what I gathered, Retdins as well. Since it's still in the PTR, I hope Blizz can switch some of the Haste to other stats to make the gears more attractive to other plate wearers as well.

As of now, only shoulder is missing an epic slot, either from Heroic or Reputations. Only a healing shoulder is datamined so perhaps we'll see more loot surfacing in the coming weeks.

Are we becoming too greedy? (and a history of patches)

2011-03-05T09:21:00.006+08:00

By now, everyone would have heard of the news about 4.1 - Firelands and T12 will not be coming with it. The changes have everyone up in arms with the forums raging (as always) about:

1. Lack of content
2. How Blizzard is sucking your money
3. Lazy ass developers

There are also those who are glad that T12 will not becoming "too soon" since they are still clearing the present raid content. I am one of those who are happy that we've been given more time to finish up T11 before Blizz slaps T12 and welfare epics in our faces.

But what is left for players in 4.1? 2 new-old heroics and some class changes. Sounds lackluster? Certainly so, especially if the patch is numbered X.Y. Big content patches have traditionally 1 decimal place naming while small tweaks and fixes are numbered X.Y.Z. So naturally, players expected moar from 4.1 than 2 heroics. But is it true that Blizzard has become nothing more than a soul-less company, recycling old contents just to suck more of our money? Or are we as players getting more and more greedy?

Too soon or too late?

Blizzard has stated that they want to move away from blockbuster patches and instead, give us episodic ones and much quickly. WoW Dev J. Allen Brack estimates that 4.1 is still roughly 2 months away, which I think is a slight overestimation. While there are still bugs in the PTR, they can be easily resolved with 1 PTR update. Perhaps we'll see 4.1 much earlier...which makes the gap between 4.0 and 4.1 4 months.

Looking back at previous content patches over the years, 4 months for only 2 "recycled" content and class changes is a bit too long for players. However, we cannot fault Blizzard ultimately as the original plan was to include T12 content so pushing 4.1 out later seems to be a good idea back then. What the devs did not anticipate (which frankly I think they should!) was that many guilds have not cleared T11. This consequentially leads to their decision to pull T12 content out.

From Datamining, they have been working hard on T12 with all the weapon models and on Firelands itself. So yes, we have to forgive Blizzard for giving us lesser content in 4.1. Odds of this happening again (content being pulled out from original plan) is low since Blizzard is likely to have learned their lesson. Had they notice the problems earlier, we'll probably see 4.1 hitting us faster.

Hungry for moar

Still, the cries of inadequate content in 4.1 only serves to highlight just how greedy we have become over the years. Looking back at content patches from 1.X, there are no increases in raid tier and one of it even give us weather! If 4.1 today reads "Weather graphics have been improved dramatically and outdoor raids now experience changes in weather" I am confident that there will be cries for blood on the forums.

We now expect many more contents and within a shorter time (not 3.3 long thou, a year for a patch is murder). Players wants more dailies (despite the limit being easily achieved now), more heroics (even if they are determined to run it to death then proceed to complain about lack of things to do) and more raids.

Blizzard is ultimately to blame for this increase in greed. With the blockbuster patches of old, where contents are aplenty, we now expect the same amount of stuff to come out with every major patch and at a faster rate despite Blizzard stating that they want more bite size patches.

We must remember that creating new content takes a hell lot of time, from concept to coding to balancing. They may be working on the game 24/7 but they are humans after all. Cut them some slack.

Cataclysm a time for change

Over the years, Blizzard has become more open with their communications, explaining their thinking behind nerfs and buffs. Does it always work? Not really, judging by the backlash of poor Ghostcrawler's blog posts (he seems to disappear totally afterwards!) But we must remember the days of old when Blizzard just smack us with class changes and ask us to deal with it for the next few months.

Cataclysm is still young and 4.1 shows us how it is going to be for the rest of the expansion - a return to the small patches of 1.X although I sincerely hope it wouldn't take too long.

Still, it all boils down to our expectations as players. ZA and ZG may use the same map but the boss fights are different, mechanics used are different as well. We have to learn to be less greedy so that we can actually enjoy the game. Heck, Vanilla went on for 2 years and 12 major content patches. By WOTLK standards, we would have reached T12 5 years ago!

So let's sit back instead and see how Blizzard's new philosophy plays out. 4.2 is expected to hit PTR weeks into 4.1, bringing us T12, Hyjal dailies, Abyssal Maw and possibly a whole lot more. What we can do is to use the time between 4.0 AND 4.2 to determine the pacing of raid content patches since they kinda screw up on the timing of 4.1. If you still think that Blizzard is doing a bad job when you see 4.3 and beyond, vote with your wallet.

A History of Patches

It's always fascinating to see what the old content patches bring us. Weather is something we take for granted but it's not always there! Similarly, 2.2 brings us Voice Chat only, no major content added.

I will only include the major contents of each X.Y patch here. Class changes and bug fixes are expected to be in all patches.

Vanilla WoW - Released 23 November 2004

Patch 1.2 - 18 Dec 04
*Maraudon 5man
*Hide your cloak and helm options

Patch 1.3 - 07 Mar 05
*3 Dire Maul 5man
*2 Outdoor Raid Bosses
*Meeting Stones

Patch 1.4 - 5 May 05
*Honor System
*Gurubashi Arena Event
*Elemental Invasion

Patch 1.5 - 07 Jun 05
*WSG and AV Battlegrounds

Patch 1.6 - 12 Jul 05
*Blackwing Lair 40man
*Darkmoon Faerie
*Battlemasters

Patch 1.7 - 13 Sep 05
*Zul'gurub 20man
*AB Battleground

Patch 1.8 - 10 Oct 05
*4 Green Dragons world bosses
*Revamped Silithus

Patch 1.9 - 03 Jan 06
*Ahn'Qiraj 20 and 40man (T2 content)
*Linked Auction Houses

Patch 1.10 - 28 Mar 06
*Epic Dungeon Sets
*Weather Effects!

Patch 1.11 - 20 Jun 06
*Naxxaramas 40man

Patch 1.12 - 22 Aug 06
*Cross Realm Battlegrounds
* World PVP

Burning Crusade - 16 Jan 07

Patch 2.1 - 22 May 07
*Black Temple 25man (T5)
*Druid Epic Flight Form
*Ruins of Lodaeron Arena

Patch 2.2 - 25 Sep 07
*Voice Chat

Patch 2.3 - 13 Nov 07
*Zul'Aman 10man
*Guild Bank
*Levelling Experience Change
*Arena Season 3

Patch 2.4 - 25 Mar 08
*Sunwell 25man (T6)
*Isle of Quel'Danas

Wrath of the Lich King - 13 Nov 08

Patch 3.1 - 14 Apr 09
*Uldaur Raid (T8)
*Argent Tournament Dailies

Patch 3.2 - 4 August 09
*Trial of Crusader raid(T9)
*Crusader 5man
*Argent Tournament Dailies
*Updated Druid Models
*Isle of Conquest Battleground

Patch 3.3 - 8 Dec 09
*Icecrown Citadel (T10)
*3 Icecrown 5man
*Dungeon Finder tool
*Quest Tracking

Cataclysm - 7 Dec 10

Patch 4.1 - Slated May
*2 revamped Heroics

Patch 4.2 - TBA
*Firelands and War of Ancients (Speculated) (T12)
* Abyssal Maw (Speculated)
*Hyjal Dailies

Unliving: Good news from the PTR

2011-03-01T20:52:00.003+08:00

Testing for the PTR has been going on for about a week and the latest update see Blizzard handing out more goodies for Deathknights while swinging the nerf bat at others (Poor ole trees).

It's easy to see that Blizz has been watching Frost DPS closely as they said they are via the multiple fixes to Frost. While Blood and Unholy has nothing in store for them, save a small nerf to Scarlet Fever, it's still early into the PTR although the lack of posts by Blues, especially by Ghostcrawler is extremely disturbing.

Perhaps the backlash has sent GC into hiding?

Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.

Rejoice....to errr dungeoneers. Dark Simulacrum is our iconic level 85 spellsteal that is lacking PVE wise. While stealing spells like Chain Lightning from the Tempest Witches in TOT is a dps increase, most powerful spells are locked out of the stealable range. Maybe this is a minute steps towards the spell being useful in raiding enviroment.

Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.

The best news to have come out from the PTR, Raise Ally is now a Brez! No longer your bear tank has to shift out to rezz that stupid DPS who enjoys a hot, flaming bath at the risk of his personal health. While Raise Ally in its current form is a fun spell, the ghoul is gimmicky and provides little DPS.

Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.

Interesting change that's certainly aimed at PVPing Blood DKs. The Glyph of Dark Succor saga sees many up in arms about the apparent immortality of Blood DKs in arenas and battlegrounds. Blood Shield working only in the appropriate presence will ensure that Blood DKs choose either 17% healing and sacrificing defenses or having more mitigation by trading off some heal heals.

Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.

While Frost DKs are facing threat issues, it hardly comes from the healing. Pretty weird change although any threat mitigation, however small, is welcomed.

Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.

The biggest change to Frost playstyle sees the total removal of Blood Strike from our rotation. This change is a god send for situations where you have a free Blood Rune and either Frost/Unholy, ending up Blood Striking for a measly amount of damage. Giving us permanent Death Runes will get rid of the above situation.

However, it also runs the risk of "boring"-fying our buttons. Removing Blood Strike, we now only need to push Oblit, Howling Blast, Frost Strike and the occasional Outbreak and Horn of Winter once diseases start rolling. I hope to see more dynamic playstyle changes to Frost although that seems highly unlikely.

Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.

On live, the damage difference between using KM on FS and on Oblit can range from 10k-20k, resulting in huge dps losses should you be unlucky enough to have KM up when your runes are on CD. Increasing FS damage will close that gap a little and 2H Frost will likely see the most benefits from this.

Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers.

Another amazing change to Frost's damage. And yes, the last line is accurate. Frost 2H will get the most out of this change once more due to the higher usage of Oblit.

Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.

I would rather the glyph retains its name and reduce the Runic Power needed to rezz. Casting Death Gate 60% faster is lame, especially when the Ebon Hold holds few interests. Great for escaping on PVP servers I guess.

Testing is still underway so we may see more DK changes coming up. Unholy is in a good place regarding core mechanics although it might need a little buff from all the nerfing in 4.0.6. Frost DW still need a lot of work compared to 2H. Hopefully next PTR patch will bring us even more good news!

Bane of the Obselete Content

2011-02-25T15:58:00.004+08:00

One of the fun factor in being top level is the ability to revisit raids of old and just rickroll your way through bosses. The Lich King fight on 10man is definitely way easier than when you're a wee 80. Many of his spells merely tickles but core mechanics continues to be a big part of the fight.

Ignoring Defile and Shadow Traps only spell instant failures so the raid has to pay attention as well, which is difficult given the "God Mentality" when tackling old raids.

Perhaps when 4.4 comes, we'll be able to solo Sunwell as we did for ZG...

I think I broke it

2011-02-18T14:34:00.001+08:00

Well, I managed to kill my laptop in a hissy fit so I'll be WoW-less until Monday. Even then, the technician might not be able to help resurrect it.

Ah well.

Huntering 301: Pets and their Abilites

2011-02-14T21:30:00.003+08:00

Sit around and listen for a while. Hunters of Warcraft have always been the definitive pet class. No mages, locks or even deathknights depend more on their pets than hunters. They're not just part of the Hunter's repertoire but also part of their trophy collection.

Rare pets are symbols of the Hunter's dedication to catch 'em all!(tm) since camping one usually takes hours and hours of mindless flying. Yet for many years in Warcraft history, pet family choices didn't matter. Despite adding many tamable family in both expansions, Blizzard has always somehow missed the mark with Hunter's pets, relegating them to being mere DPS increasers.

BUT Cataclysm has changed how Hunter pets work. No longer will you find every hunter and their gun trotting mom using a wolf cause no other pet matches up. Now, pet families are useful and every hunters that know his stuff will bring a wide variety of pets to a raid.

Huntering 301 is a new class for all hunters, and your first lesson will be knowing the different benefits each pet family brings.

There are mainly 2 categories of pet abilities: Those affecting allies, usually providing raid wide buffs & Those affecting enemies, usually providing debuffs.

Ferocity, Cunning and Tenacity pets are color coded for easy reference.

Affect Ally

5% Stats Increase: Shale Spider

5% Crit Increase: Devilsaur, Wolf

AOE Attack: Chimera, Worm

Agi & Str Increase: Spirit Beast, Cat

Bloodlust: Core Hound

Heal: Spirit Beast

Stamina Increase: Silithid

Affect Enemy

Blind: Monkey

Bleed Increase: Hyena, Rhino, Boar

Disarm: Bird of Prey, Scorpid

Interrupt: Nether Ray, Moth, Gorilla

Increase Magic Damage: Dragonhawk, Wind Serpent

I. Physical Damage: Ravager, Worm

Knockback: Rhino

Root: Silithid, Spider, Dog, Crab

Reduce Cast time: Sporebat, Corehound

R. Armor: Serpent, Raptor

R. Melee/Range Attack Speed: Fox, Tallstrider

R. Healing: Devilsaur

R. Movespeed: Chimera, Warp Stalker, Crocolisk

R. Physical Damage Dealt: Carrion Bird, Bear

Stun: Wasp, Bat, Shale Spider

A symbolic end

2011-02-10T12:36:00.003+08:00

Today marks the end of my journey in national service and thus, it also marks the symbolic end to my journey with The Ancients. It has been a rollercoaster ride for the past 3 years with The Ancients and I am grateful to my fellow gamers who gave me a wonderful time.

So long and thanks for the fish (feasts)!

Know Your: MI-er

2011-02-06T11:54:00.005+08:00

Ever wonder what the different classes are capable of? When you need some dispelling, who can you count on to save your rear? When the tank "accidentally" pulled a Heroic thrash mob, who can help to keep them under control?

Know Your series will answer all your questions and more! Every week we'll take a look at a different aspect of gameplay be it crowd control or dispels. Hopefully this will help you be one step closer to mastering Cataclysm Heroics!

Movement Impair-ers, aka MI-ers, are a strange category of classes spanning over slowing, knockbacks and simply stopping mobs in their tracks. Almost every class have that abilities and using them smartly will help groups conquer heroics and raids.

There are many fights in Cataclysm that requires the use of MI ranging from Heroic Grim Batol's Faceless Ones to Blackwing Descent's Magmaw's worms.

Abilities will be classified as the following for easily reference: Slow (S), Stun (ST), Knockback (KB) and Root (R)

Deathknight

Chain of Ice - S - 8sec

Frost

Chilblains - S - 10sec

Unholy

Desecration - S - 20sec - AOE

Ghoul (Pet) - ST - 3sec

Druid

Entangling Roots - R - 30sec

Cyclone - R - 6sec

Balance

Typhoon - KB, S - 6sec

Fungal Growth - S - 10sec - AOE

Feral

Maim - ST - Varies

Pounce - ST - 3sec

Infected Wounds - S - 12sec

Feral Charge - S/ST - Varies

Hunter

Concussive Shot - S - 4sec

Wing Clip - S - 10sec

Snake Trap - S - 12sec

Ice Trap - S - 30sec - AOE

Warp Stalker (Pet) - S - 6sec

Crab (Pet) - R - 4sec

Crocolisk (Pet) - S - 6sec

Marksmen

Concussive Barrange - S - 4sec - AOE

Mage

Frostbolt - S - 9sec

Frost Nova - R - 8sec

Cone of Cold - S - 8sec - AOE

Ring of Frost - R - 12sec - AOE

Frost

Ice Shards - S - Varies - AOE

Deep Freeze - ST - 5sec

Arcane

Slow - S - 15sec

Fire

Blast Wave - S - 3sec

Priest

Mind Flay - S - Varies

Paladin

Hammer of Justice - ST - 6sec

Rogue

Crippling Poison - S - 12sec

Kidney Shot - ST - Varies

Cheap Shot - ST - 4sec

Deadly Throw - S - 6sec

Combat

Blade Twisting - S - 8sec

Subtlety

Waylay - S - 8sec

Shaman

Earthbind Totem - S - 10sec - AOE

Frost Shock - S - 8sec

Elemental

Thunderstorm - KB

Earth's Grasp - R - 5sec - AOE

Warlock

Affliction

Curse of Exhaustion - S - 30sec

Destruction

Aftermath - ST/S - 3/5 sec

Shadowfury - ST - 3sec - AOE

Warrior

Hamstring - S - 15sec

Fury

Piercing Howl - S - 6sec

Prot

Shockwave - ST - 4sec

Arms

Throwdown - ST - 5sec

And this concludes our 4 part mini guide to class abilities. Hopefully the series has been helpful to you in your heroic runs! Till next time, good luck in heroics!

4

2011-02-01T11:42:00.002+08:00

After much debate with myself, I've decided to make Feb 1st the "WoW Birthday" which is the day I started playing WoW.

It has already been 4 years since picking up WoW and there's still no sign of stopping. Some people may find WoW unbearable with all the constant grinding but not me. Ok, maybe for the last few months of WotLK. Cataclysm has been entertaining but I have lapsed into a routine once more: Daily Heroics on Zev and Zeev, TB dailies and occasional archaeology. But for now, I'm not bored.

I have always wondered how long will I keep playing WoW, most MMOs I've played lasted for 3 years so Warcraft has clearly passed the "Interest Span". Perhaps if there's anything that'll make me lose interest in WoW, it'll be the lack of raiding.

Time to find a raiding guild I guess!

Know Your: Silencer

2011-01-23T22:13:00.002+08:00

Ever wonder what the different classes are capable of? When you need some dispelling, who can you count on to save your rear? When the tank "accidentally" pulled a Heroic thrash mob, who can help to keep them under control?

Know Your series will answer all your questions and more! Every week we'll take a look at a different aspect of gameplay be it crowd control or dispels. Hopefully this will help you be one step closer to mastering Cataclysm Heroics!

The 3rd installment shifts the focus on the Silencers - people who helped mitigate damage to the tanks and raid by stopping the enemy from unleashing devastating spells.

The role of Silencers is to either silence or interrupt spellcasting.

Many heroics in Cataclysm requires the usage of interrupts and silences to succeed, prominent examples being the Stonecore Earthshapers and Lady Naz'jar in Throne of Tides. Letting them cast just one spell will potentially prolong the fight or result in tank death.

Fortunately, Cataclysm also provides some classes or specs with reliable interrupts so that the chances of a run being screwed over by not having Silencers in your pug are lowered.

What are reliable interrupts? Mainly interrupts with 10seconds, give or take, cooldown. Such abilities allow the constant interruption of spells without being unable to do so when the time calls for it.

Abilities will be classified into 2 categories: Silence which prevents spellcasting for a length of time and Interrupts which has short CDs but usable only on one spell and usually comes with spell-lockout.

Cooldowns are color coded to show the reliability. Green - Reliable, Orange - Sometime, Red - Unreliable

Deathknights

Strangulate - Silence - 2min CD

Mind Freeze - Interrupt - 10s CD

Druids

Skull Bash (Feral) - Interrupt - 10s CD (talented)

Solar Beam (Balance) - AOE Silence - 1min CD

Hunters

Silencing Shot (MM) - Silence - 20s CD

Moths (Pet) - Interrupt - 1min CD

Gorillas (Pet) - Interrupt - 30s CD

Nether Rays (Pet) - Interrupt - 40 CD

Mage

Counterspell - Interrupt - 24s CD

Paladins

Rebuke (All in 4.0.6) - Interrupt - 10s CD

Hammer of Justice (Prot Talented) - Interrupt - 1min CD

Priests

Silence (Shadow) - Silence - 45s CD

Rogues

Kick - Interrupt - 10s CD

Garrote - Silence - Usable only Out Of Combat

Shamans

Wind Shear - Interrupt - 6s CD

Warlocks

Fel Hunter (Pet) - Silence - 24s CD

Warrior

Pummel (DPS) - Interrupt - 10s CD

Shield Bash (Tank) - Interrupt - 12s CD

Two in One

2011-01-16T20:45:00.002+08:00

An interesting week for Zevon the Hunter. While on random tour in Abyssal Depths, he managed to spot the elusive Ghostcrawler. After dying once to its Nerfbat, he came back better prepared and finally tamed the ghost crab.

Not contended with just one spirit beast, he took a trip to icy Northrend in hopes of finding rare beasts that have been left alone since the Cataclysm. While Loque proves elusive, Skoll was happily wandering Storm Peaks, looking for a new owner. And my, did he found one!

Know Your: Controller (120111)

2011-01-06T21:32:00.003+08:00

My "new" workplace

2011-01-05T14:21:00.002+08:00

Since my house is getting a new makeover for a new year, looks like i'll have to make do with this!

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T11:01:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year to Everyone! 2011 is shaping up to be an exciting year, especially with Cataclysm in full swing as compared to 2010 which is monotonous and dominated by Icecrown raids all year round.

A new year is also the time for new goal settings, which according to experts usually are unfulfilled. But, I would give myself a 74% grade for 2010's resolution. For WoW, while my resolution is to build on both Beanieone and Zeevon, I sidetracked and gained a Warlock instead. For Zeev however, he gained new mounts and exalted factions so there's a definite plus points there. Part of my RL resolution is completed too which is fantastic.

Which brings us to 2011 resolution. Being the year that I'll finally be free from slavery, I plan to have 5 raiding characters (Zeevon, Beanieone, Zahno, Tofuman and Zevon) and a possible worgen druid if the mood strikes. The sad news is Zeevon's eventual departure from The Ancients but I plan to keep 3 characters in the guild.

Of course, since I'll be starting on my Uni course soon, WoW time definitely have to be sacrificed so we'll see if my resolution still holds up by then!

HAPPY 2011!

Know Your: Remover 291210

2010-12-26T19:01:00.007+08:00

Merry X'mas!

2010-12-25T04:28:00.005+08:00

Merry Chirstmas to all! Whether you're spending the day with your families or in front of your computer, have a wonderful holiday.

And now, I present to you the Project 25 of this year:

My First Epic(tm)

2010-12-20T18:05:00.002+08:00

Zeevon finally obtain his first epic of the expansion, [Belt of the Ferocious Wolf], a fitting belt for a worgen. To make the deal sweeter, it goes together with the Deathknight T11 set so Zev is totally looking forward to start raiding.

85 and beyond

2010-12-14T21:02:00.002+08:00

So Zeevon has dinged the big 85 on Sunday, making it the fastest ever leveling grind. It is because of the engaging storyline? Possible since level84 to 85 takes a whooping 9 million exp. In any case, Zeev dinged on a miserly diseased vulture with 64 exp.

Now that 85 is reached, it's back to rep grinds and leveling professions once more, not to mention gearing up for heroics and raids!

Speaking of dungeons, many still do not grasp the concept of Crowd Control and Marking. Save the occasional tank who is able to aoe everything despite being new to a dungeon, most tanks do die due to a bad case of clobbering.

Still, it's been only a week into Cataclysm. As time goes by more will hit 85 and gear up so perhaps dungeon runs will be less painful. But for now, heroics should be approached with utmost caution.

The First Weekend

2010-12-12T14:33:00.002+08:00

The first weekend of Cataclysm, which level are you at now? Zeev is currently having a blast in Uldum with the Tol'vir.

The game definitely feels much more polished than the beta (duh) with Hyjal getting some serious makeovers and dungeons getting nerfed. Levelling seems much more faster, with many hitting 85 already. Heck, Paragon are already 11/12. Talk about being bored for the next few months with farming new-old content.

Speaking of dungeons, CC is still a foreign concept to many as are kill orders. Clearly, many are being spoiled by the AOE-fest that is WOTLK heroics. Wait till they hit heroics...

Questing seems relatively pleasant, with only a few quests that make people fight over tagging a mob. Sure brings out the ugly in everyone.

For now, it's back to more leveling and questing. Zeev should hit 85 by Monday, then it's back to dungeon/rep grinding all over again. Oh boy.

Happy Cataclysm Day

2010-12-07T13:55:00.003+08:00

Happy Cataclysm day to everyone! Enjoy the feeling have having an experience bar again and please be polite to everyone. Dungeons are now very dangerous so be nice to your local spirit healer.

Oh, and the blog has a new look to celebrate the expansion!

It's the Final Countdown...again!

2010-12-06T10:04:00.001+08:00

We're once again at the final countdown to the start of a new expansion. The last time it happened, I was taking my A levels exams. This year, I'm counting down to the end of my service.

What will you be doing during the last few hours of WOTLK?

Where to 82?

2010-11-28T15:39:00.002+08:00

With Cataclysm approaching launch dates, it is high time to decide where to go on your very first day. Following the success of WotLK's introduction of dual leveling zones that separates the massive horde of anxious 80s, Cataclysm too has two leveling zones: Hyjal and Vash'jir.

Read on to see the pros and cons of each zones to make your informed choice.

Mountain Hyjal

Pros

Hyjal is a beautiful place to start your journey if you enjoyed Night Elf structures and lore.
Speaking of Lore, Malfurion finally makes his return and the storyline of Hyjal will introduce you to all the Ancients of Night Elven lore including Cenarius.
Ragnarose returns as well as the main antagonist of the zone.
If you like animals, Hyjal quests has plenty of save-the-animals quests for your inner tree hugger.
Worgens make a small cameo here.
Guardians of Hyjal faction resides here. They offer rewards for almost every role, which is awesome. Head enchant is catered to spell casters.

Cons

If you dislike Night Elves and gets the urge to set one on fire whenever you see one, Hyjal is not for you. There are enough fires in the zones already.
Lack of dungeons. Surprisingly, the other entry dungeon is located in Blackrock mountain, which has nothing there for 80s.

Sunken City of Vash'jir

Pros

One and only zone in WoW to take place completely underwater.
Stunningly colorful zones.
Massive, featuring 3 parts to the entire zone.
Neptulon the Tidehunter makes an appearance.
Storyline centered around the Naga trying to wrestle control of the Sea away from Neptulon.
Seahorse mount. What more do you want?
Base of the Earthen Ring faction. Rewards mainly for casters while the head enchant's for tanks.
Throne of the Tides, an entry level dungeon is open after completing the main Vash'jir storyline.

Cons

Beta forums have threads about people freaking out while questing in the zone. If you have "Bathophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of depths. Sufferers from bathophobia experience anxiety even though they realize they are safe from falling into or being consumed by depths. The feared object may be a long, dark hallway, a well or a deep pool or lake.", stay the hell away from Vash'jir. Blizzard is not responsible for occurrences of pants wetting.
Whale Sharks. The Fel Reavers of Vash'jir, they're massive and they roam the entire zone.
If you hate Nagas so much that you want to cook them for your fish feasts, stay away.
No rewards for Melee. Bleh.
Ground-based AEs such as Death And Decay, Rain of Fire or Blizzard do not work in mid air/sea.
You hate swimming. Thou you get an awesome buff for some speedy seafloor walking.
Throne of Tides is located at the far end of Vash'jir so you'll not be able to enter it while questing.

Conclusion

So have you decided on where to go once Cataclysm launched? Regardless of choice, you'll be treated to the new questing technologies that Blizzard has implemented and beautiful terrains. Just remember, enjoy yourself and don't be grieved by quest-kill-stealers.

20

2010-11-21T08:10:00.002+08:00

This friday, I finally turned the big 2-0. It's a strange feeling, being 20. It's a period of time where you're neither a kid where you can watch Spongebob unmocked nor an adult enough for the feisty R21 films.

Unsurprisingly, the army has ruined the day (surprise! NOT) by having a two day exercise that started on Thursday. Suffice to say, I woke up with Mother Nature's birthday present of numerous mosquitoes bites and slightly swelled hands courtesy of sandflies.

However, one extremely good news made the day better: Amazon.com has stock up on Cataclysm Collector's Edition again! Better get it now or it'll be out of stock again.

And yes, I bought myself a Frostmourne Replica. The moment they announced that they'll no longer be manufacturing the sword a few months back, I decided that this is the biggest gift I can give to myself for reaching a milestone.

It is with extremely good luck that the local distributor has only 2 left (and they'll not be taking any more orders for it!), not to mention someone else has asked about it the same day I bought it (tough luck, random stranger who is obviously a fan)

My parents were clearly surprised.....ok, shocked when I finally opened the container (I wrapped up the entire box with newspaper since i bought it a few months early) Wait till I tell them the hefty price tag (SGD900, that was with a 30% discount too since the shop has lost a device that lets you authenticate the replica as the real deal)

The replica is extremely well made, with fine details marking the craftsmanship of Epic Weapons. Stainless steel ensures that no rust ever taint the blade and makes for easy maintainability.

Frostmourne is extremely heavy at 7.6 kg and 1.2 meters long. Hopefully it will stay intact once I nailed in the plaque.

I shall call you...Cindy!

2010-11-07T19:39:00.002+08:00

At long last, Zeevon is finally a bona fide Deathknight that rides a Frostwyrm into battle. Coincidentally, this also marks the 1 month countdown to the end of the world.

The raid started with some heroic rescue attempts of Dreamwalker, finally saving her by the 120th min mark.
All you can eat sounds like a simple enough fight but in reality, requires lots of controls from everyone in the raid. Should anyone failed to control their debuff, it's a wipe. Frankly I can't imagine what it is like doing this on 25man.

Sindragosa is angry that the orbs once again evaded her jaws

Sindragosa provided a hell lot of a challenge be it on normal, heroic or achievement mode. So it's fitting that Zeevon's last hurdle towards Glory of the Icecrown Raider is Sindragosa.

After a mind torturing 50mins of going at Sindy, we finally downed her, netting Zeev his long awaited mount.

This maybe the very last raid achievement I may be doing with The Anicents so a big thank you to all the raiders who have attended all the ICC raids.

While I wished that we'll be burning down Cataclysm raids together, the tides of change wait for no one. I will always cherish the times we spent raiding Kara, Naxx, Maly, Yogg-Saron, Anub-arak and finally, the Lich King.

Until then, you'll catch me flying around in my uber awesome frostwyrm!

I can almost smell it!

2010-10-31T19:23:00.002+08:00

It's been a very fruitful week of WoW, with Zeevon getting closer than ever to his Frostwyrm. Big shoutout and congratulations to The Ancients 10m Raiding Co. on their wyrms. Zeev will join their ranks come next Sunday.

The only bummer? My friend's druid got it faster than me. Guess I'll spend the week in camp nursing my bruised ego.

Of all the H mode, Sindy has been the toughest (can't wait to try LK on Heroic) so far. Requiring high levels of co-ordination and control of debuffs and ice blocks, it is definitely one of the hardest tests for raids.

All in all, it's a blast to be able to down Sindy after weeks of hard raiding!

WDYPTCYP?

2010-10-17T15:34:00.004+08:00

Why do you play the class you play? That is the title for this think-tank blog post this week. What factors do you consider when choosing a new class to play - flavor of the month? Highest DPS? Or simply you like the "feel" of the class?

Well, here's my selection of toons that I personally loved.

Hunter

Hunter is the very first class that I chose to play in 2007. After some research on World of Warcraft and it's class/race system, I decided to pick the race first - A Night Elf. Am I a classical nerd who likes long ears and slender body? Maybe but I fell in love with the race ever since picking up Warcraft3.

So, after choosing my very first Night Elf, I'm stuck with a dilemma. I wanted a Ranged Damage Dealer since I thought it'll be easier to pick up for a newbie but the class I wanted (A Mage) isn't available back then. (Why can't Cataclysm come sooner!?) I considered picking priest but spriest wasn't that widely recognized by the forumites back then. There's no warlock either so I went with Hunter and the rest is history.

By the time WotLK hit us, I was pretty bored with the playstyle of Hunter (steady shot spam ftl) and thus, shelved Zevon who was never played for close to 2 years.

But that maybe changing. With Army out of the way, I may finally have time to pick him up from alt hell again as the 5th toon. Will that change? Only time will tell.

Paladin

Beanieone was destined to be a Retribution Paladin ever since his birth. While he's not the second toon I have created, he has the honor of being my second and last toon to reach the max level of 70 in TBC. He was created as a symbol of my defiance against stereotypes of DPS classes.

In TBC, retdins were widely ridiculed for being laughably weak and useless. Being bored with Zevon the Hunter, I created Beanieone and set to prove them wrong. He proved to be a blast to play and a breath of fresh air from the ranged playstyle. I stuck with him until the end of my playtime for TBC and similarly, banished him to alt hell once I returned to WotLK.

Still, he is my 3rd toon to hit level 80 and suffice to say Retribution is still fun to play despite the "facerolling" stereotype once again plaguing the spec. No doubt Cataclysm will bring Rets to a whole new level with the introduction of Holy Power.

Priest

Tofuman the Priest was birthed by the need of "mana batteries" in TBC raids, especially in Kara where The Ancients were raiding in back then. Needless to say, priest of TBC past wasn't a powerhouse and more of a utility toon. Plus, we had Kalus powering the raid and thus, Tofu was put in alt hell without reaching 70.

After levelling Zeltan/Zeevon the Deathknight (see below), I was in search of a new alt to level. Needing a breather from melee combat, I picked Tofu as my second level 80. He had a good run but soon I was bored of the spriest playstyle and shelved him again.

After I had 2 more level 80s (Beanie and Zahno), I bought Tofu out to play once more. Soon than you say "Chickenpotpie" I was bored of him yet again and shelved him for the 3rd time. By now, it seems that I have a love-hate relationship with Spriests. How this dynamic will apply in Cataclysm remains to be seen.

Deathknight

Deathknight. A class that I jumped straight at the moment it is announced. Till this day, I have not figured out what exactly lured me to it. Is it the story behind the class? Or the style of Deathknights - Harbinger of Doom with ghouls what-nots. Either way, Zeltan/Zeevon has been my main throughout WotLK and will be come Cataclysm.

Being a Night Elf originally, I changed both his name and race to reflect a change in attitude for the rest of the expansion. Who would have thought that Night Elf DKs would be that popular? (And most of them crap)

The Deathknight has received alot of changes for Cataclysm but that only served to increase my enjoyment of the class even more. While it's hard to forsee what more changes will happen, for now, Zeevon is the (main) One.

Warlock

The warlock class has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, after all, I chose it as my very 2nd toon. Alas, the first lock only lasted till level 30 before been frozen in alt hell, never to be touched again. After getting 3 toons to level 80, I decided to level one more and thus picked up Warlock again.

Demology in particular held my attention for the longest, in part due to the singular, coolest spell ever- Metamorphosis.

Strangely, the Warlock represents my 3rd pet class out of 4 toons I have active. Maybe I'm just a pet person? Cataclysm has delightful plans for Zahno the lock, being 3rd in line to be leveled. Perhaps I'll get the itch again and put him in front of Beanie? Who knows.

That's the end of my history lesson. What's yours?

Hitchhiker's Guide to 4.0.1: Don't Panic

2010-10-11T17:34:00.006+08:00

Rumor mills are going overdrive, especially after Blizzard's latest announcement that come Tuesday, all servers are down for a 12 hour maintained. Changes of cataclysmic proportions are coming and for those who have not been paying much attention to MMOchamps or WoWhead, they may find themselves akin to a headless chicken once 4.0.1 hits.

Fortunately, this blogger has managed to grab hold of the Hitchhiker's Guide to 4.0.1 from a poor time-warping mage. If you don't mind the bloodstains, let's take a look at what is in store for us in the future.

31-talent System

The talent system has been overhauled, making it more truncated and cleaner. At level 80, we are restricted to only 36 talent points out of 41 for Level 85. Nonetheless, most if not all class are in a good position to pick up all the core talents for their respective roles.

Talent Calculator can be found here.

Specialization and Mastery

Upon reaching level 10, you have to choose between 3 of the talent trees and stick with it until you have 31 points in that tree before being able to take talents in other trees. For choosing your path, you are given unique abilities that suits your role. Enhance Shammy gets a Mana-regen skill that Ele lacks.

Your Mastery is also pre-determined and unlocked at level 80 by training for it at your class trainers. Mastery is the new secondary stats, together with Haste/Expertise/Spirit ect, that has varying degrees of usefulness depending on class and specs.

Revamped Class System

Many classes/specialization are getting revamp class systems that makes them truly unique even among their classes.

Most notably, Fatkin gets a Balance bar; Warlocks get Soul Shard counter, Paladins get Holy Power and Hunters uses Focus instead of Mana.

Baked-In Power Aura

Power Aura is a vastly popular addon that display graphics and sound whenever a certain proc happens. This makes it tremendously and sometimes mandatory for classes who depend on procs.

Blizzard added its own version of Power Aura and decorated it with eye candy graphics. Above, A Frost Deathknight with Rime and Killing Machine up.

Not only are the graphics more beautiful that Power Aura's collection, Blizzard sealed the deal by highlighting your affected abilities! This effectively killed Power Aura although Blizzard's version lacks the customization ability of Power aura and is limited to only a few procs for each spec. Sound is also missing from it as well.

Improved Character Panel

A nicer and larger character panel allows you to view all category of stats that you wished, instead of changing it like we do currently. There is also Gearscore implemented in it as well.

Stats Shakeup

Say your prayers for MP5 and Armor Penetration as they are removed from game. Covering MP5's role is Spirit, which also gives Hit when specced for it. ArPen lives on but no longer as a gear stats. Spellpower on gear is dead as well, with Intelligence filling up its shoe.

What about our gear you ask? Well, Blizzard has kindly revamped ALL gears that ever existed to the new Cataclysm model. For example, Deathbringer's Will becomes this.

Reforging

Reforging brings us another revolutionary way of playing with our stats. Hit Rating too much on the trinket but can't find an appropriate replacement? You can now reforge 40% of the stats into a new one that is not on the gear. Just find the Reforger, usually hiding by Enchanting Trainers' homes and hit him up.

Unfortunately, it is limited to secondary stats and for good reasons too.

Improved Glyph System

Glyphs are now organised into 3 categories: Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs are mandatory glyphs that gives a straight dps increase. Major glyphs offers utility and will be hard to max-min. Minor glyphs give you convenience like reduced reagent costs or cosmetic changes.

Improved Panels

Profession tab is now cleaner and sleeker, showing you the relevant trade abilities like Disenchanting or Prospecting.

And no, Archeology is not in 4.0.1

Mount and Companion Tabs have been shifted to Skills and offers you a preview of the mount and its name. Yes, you get a fricking seahorse mount in Cataclysm.

Shared Raid Lockout

Both 25man and 10man ICC and RS now uses the same lockout so you can only visit the raid 1 time weekly.

Currency Conversion

All your precious Badges are now going to turn into either money or Justice Points, a low tier points for Cataclysm, depending on badge type.

Opps, it appears we have come to the end of the Guide. Hope it's an enjoyable read and feedbacks or comments are greatly welcomed - Just chuck a mail down the nearest black hole. Before we part, I will offer you three words of wisdom when dealing with 4.0.1

DO.NOT.PANIC