Paladin Complex

WoW's Subsciber Deductions...

2011-06-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

As you've no doubt heard, the World of Warcraft subscriber base has shrunken. It's shrunk slightly, but shrunk nonetheless and shareholders do not like that kind of news.

With six hundred thousand fewer subscribers (myself being one of them), Blizzard has loses roughly nine million dollars a month. That's a lot of money.

Why have people left? Well, there's no single reason, obviously.

If you listen to Totalbiscuit, PvE players are leaving because the raiding content is boring and heroic raids are not cutting it. Can't argue with that, since before I left, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the initial raids in Cata and the upcoming Firelands isn't exactly inspiring confidence.

Some pvpers no doubt left due to balance concerns. And some return after a while. Will they come back for the next arena season? Who knows.

Some players leave because of general burnout. While WoW has not been around as long as the original Everquest, which is still going, last time I checked, WoW is definitely showing its age. You can only use the game engine from Warcraft 3 for so long, it seems.

And as wishful thinking as it is, I would like to think that some of the six hundred thousand are disgruntled and disenfranchised Alliance players.

While people would scream at the idea that it is extremely stupid to alienate one half of its playerbase, Blizzard was able to get away with it. During the first few Blizzcons, yeah, I rolled with the punches. I took the jabs and the jokes at the expense at the Alliance player base in stride - but then it got old. And when they kept doing it, it became tiresome. Not to mention the lack of Alliance pride, which they have also admitted and propagated, was the breaking straw for some.

If you're not going to hype up the Alliance (and when have you, Blizzard?), what's the point of having two factions if you're only going to endorse one?

Well, Blizz. The ball's in your court. It's your move. Go ahead on.

What would I do in 4.2...

2011-05-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Aggra: Oh noes! Thrall's a goner. Will you help me?

Dallanna: Up yours, you s***-skinned hag! I'll just join a group of 25 people and whack the elemental lords. We've already whacked Al'Akir.

Aggra: BAWWW*Smack!*

Dallanna: Shut your hole, woman!

The Double Standard of Balancing Ret In-game

2011-05-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

As evidenced by Grimbold:

Ret has been more or less balanced in organized PvP several times throughout WotLK and even in Cata before the WoG nerf, but for some reason the devs insist on balancing ret around unrated BGs and sub-1500 arenas, where opponents are less likely to take advantage of our weaknesses against kiting and dispels, and where our lack of offensive utility is less of a problem- not having a snare isnt as much of a big deal when your opponents are too stupid to kite anyway, and even before Cata we could "interrupt" bad casters by just running through them.

It just pisses me off that the way the devs "balance" ret completely contradicts the way they balance other specs.
Ret is OP in low rated arenas but average in organized PvP? TO THE GROUND!
Mages OP in low rated arenas but average in organized PvP? Its fine l2p.
Ret is using its resources to heal instead of DPS? Herp derp we can't be having that, never mind the fact that healing has pretty much always been ret's only strong point compared to other dps specs.
DKs are using their resources to heal instead of DPS? Cool story, bro.

Seriously, what the hell.

Pretty much. And later on, I'll add in the links from blue responses to add to the sheer silliness of it all.

Zarhym says one thing, Blizzard does another...

2011-05-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

The Zarhym says:

But we don't. Really. So it's a little annoying that you repeatedly spout this stuff as fact because, from your specific perspective and gameplay vantage point, you actually start to believe we would design one faction with more favor than another. The idea is moderately stupid from a lore standpoint, but incredibly dumb from a business standpoint.

Stop saying it. I don't care what anecdotal examples you come across while playing. The bigger picture lacks the conspiracy you wish could justify your complaint.

The Blizzard developers say:

FOR DUR HORDE!!!1111

Seriously, Zar, can I call you Zar? I'm gonna call you Zar, if you were to compare the overall written lore between both Horde and Alliance, I would say that your statements are not only contradictory to what the other Blizzard developers have done, both in game and at Blizzcon, but it seems that this statement is only capable of being called "damage control".

You tell us that you care about both factions.

You show that you only care about one by the fact you actually moved their story forward.

The time I checked, turning Redridge into a pastiche of the Rambo movies does *not* move the story forward.

Why are all the Alliance leaders standing around, dumb as posts (And no, Malfurion does not count! He's a damn, dirty, neutral!) while several of the Horde leaders are out actually doing stuff?

How come the Horde still got their intro to Twilight Highlands, while the Alliance's was scrapped and replaced with a lame reference to a long and discountinued webcomic?

But you know what, Zar? I'll give you the chance to prove yourself.

At Blizzcon, *don't* let the CDdevs scream "For the Horde!", *don't* make the Alliance the butt of your Jr High School jokes, *do* start putting the Alliance in the grand scheme of things instead of letting wretched little prima donnas like Thrall steal all the limelight.

*Then*, and only then, will I believe you. Until then, it's all a bunch of hot air.

And for those of you who want to try and say that it's all in the hands of the fans? Drink a gallon of bleach.

The Developers encouraged this kind of behavior by their own behavior, statements, and attention to various aspects of the game. It's Blizzards game, and in their interactions with the community, they never fail to say how cool the Horde is. It's all on them.

Aelamdor was able to voice our concerns far more eloquently than I can at the moment.

Stupid Hordie of the day....

2011-05-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

In the story forum, where it's been made quite clear that there is no Role Playing, only discussion of lore; we have Fayn, Role-Playing her own little story and response to Drek'Thar's refusal to aid the Forsaken, while later on in the same thread, she whines,

"Don't want to turn this into yet another Forsaken post.
Just my impressions from a random npc and wondering what everyone else's impressions of random npc's."

So, let me get this straight, you saunter into the Story forums, full well knowing the kind of heated and ban-worthy exchanges going on and instead of forbearing and going against the purpose of the Story forum when you could have gone to the World's End Tavern instead, you very stupidly post said subject, then demand people show the forbearance you, yourself failed to show?

If I had but one superpower, it'd be able to reach through the internet and smack stupid people.

Not much of a choice, really...

2011-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

...concerning the new predicament the writers and Blizzard have thought up for us, we are now forced to have to save the Green Jesus' soul after its been shattered in four pieces.

Do we *really* have to save Thrall?

Can't there be an option just to let him die?

Because I really hate having to rescue characters that I loathe.

Case in point; for those of you who played Final Fantasy 8, Squall; the biggest wanker of a protagonist next to Cloud from 7, is forced to save a nearly suffocating Rinoa Heartily in space, the most hateful, wretched, unrealistic, brain-dead, arm candy *thing* in the history of video games. For some reason beyond logic, he saves her and then goes to the scene which makes me wants to claw my eyes out, stick an icepick in my ears, then fly to Japan and hunt down Tetsuya Nomura, since it's HIS fault we got this turd of a game.

So, really. Come on, Blizzard, give the Alliance a chance to stick it to the Horde by letting that spineless hypocrite die. It'll actually let the Alliance do something in the actual Warcraft story line, since it seems you're not doing that much with it nowadays.

Petty Anti-Mage post here...

2011-05-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

From the tentative 4.2 Patch notes:

Ring of Frost now has a 1.5-second cast time.

I've always hated that spell. And now that it's gotten even weaker, I laugh like Nelson Muntz at you! Ha ha!

Updating Elwynn Forest...

2011-05-03T16:59:00.001-07:00

Today's post comes from Elenie, who pointed out that the human starting areas are neither engaging, nor progressing.

Elwynn Forest: (This is an easy one as I've had this thought through several times)

In Northshire Abbey, you are met by a Paladin and his squire (a quiet kind of man), whom assists you in fighting back the Blackrock Orcs and killing Goblin Spies and such. At the end of Northshire, said squire's mentor is slain by the Blackrock leader and you and he avenge his death, during the process of which we have a mini Turalyon moment where the squire picks up his master's sword and leads the demoralized forces of the Abbey to victory.

Upon entering Goldshire you immediately pick up several quests dealing with the mayor, things such as taking back goods and such that Bandits stole (be a good reason to visit the area north of Goldshire, between SW and the Abbey where those camps are). Before handing them in, your squire friend from Northshire (Let's just call him Joshua for the sake of having a name), detains you briefly.

Investigating the crates you find objects and such that aren't quite right for a public official to possess; Ladies undergarments, illegal substances, etc... as well as order forms all in the mayor's name. The Paladin explains the man is well known as a Hedonist and a weird one at that, but you didn't find what he was looking for.

Continuing along, you head south to the mines which are -held- and being used by Stormwind. The deepest parts of the mine are infested by imps. The Foreman mentions that before they'd cleared it out, the Kobolds had begun practicing demonic magic somehow. When you get to the deepest part of the mines (through a hidden door), you find a stone chamber piled with corpses and mutilated remains of numerous people, and Joshua kneeling down amidst them, reciting a knight's song to speed the souls of the innocent slain by evil to the next life.

He tells you that at Northshire he found a burned bit of parchment on the Blackrock leader's person with a seal that looks like it might belong to the Mayor of Goldshire, and that he felt a deep sense of foreboding about the man, and had been investigating him since. Although the Mayor had enough vice under his belt to throw off most investigators from believing him guilty of anything serious, Joshua's persistence led him to this underground chamber. He believes the Foreman of the mine is either being bribed or coerced into keeping quiet about it.

You part again, promising to keep this quiet, and move on to the farm of Tommy-Joe and Maybel, where you're asked to go looking for their missing children. After investating the two (still feuding) families, you're convinced neither took their grandchildren to spite their children or in-laws. Joshua meets you again and convinces you to head up to the Thunder Falls with him.

You find the children in a cave behind the waterfall, with several Forsaken warlocks. Dispatching them and freeing the children, Joshua offers to take them home so as to keep them safe, while you search for evidence. Finding blatant Twilight's Hammer stuff everywhere, you're about to assume it was them, when you notice on your way out a ring on the ground with the insignia of Goldshire on it.

When you return to the farm and meet Joshua, he muses that the Twilight's Hammer doesn't quite add up, and asks you to take the ring to a retired Marshal in the Eastvale Logging Camp. The man identifies it as being the seal of the mayor of Goldshire, except for a strange etching on the back that he hadn't seen since he was in the Second War and destroyed an Altar of Storms.

The head of the logging camp states that some of her peasant workers were abducted by the murlocs. You head to the large island in the middle of the nearby lake and find the murlocs slaughtering them. You attempt to destroy them before they slaughter everyone, and die in the process. Joshua arrives, battles through them to your corpse, bubbles, and performs a Mass Ressurection. Together with the Peasants who arm themselves from several of the murlocs you killed, you drive the beasts off.

On the lead murloc's corpse, you find a missive signed in the name of the Mayor of Goldshire, speaking about how important it is to slaughter the peasants on the island because of a leyline, and that the murlocs needed to follow some ritual. Joshua determines it is demonic and that the Mayor has been behind Elwynn's problems from the start. You and he fly over to the Westbrook Garrison.

Intending to speak to the commander there, you find out the man is dead thanks to Hogger, and the men are in disarray. Joshua rallies them and takes command, marching a large regiment south with you to destroy the Gnolls and Capture Hogger (he belives Hogger might be in on the Mayor's scheme and wants to ask questions). After Capturing Hogger, two mages teleport the beast off to the Stockade on Joshua's orders. With the Garrison under his control, he orders the men to move out to Goldshire and place the town under martial law, and bring forth the Mayor.

Arriving in a phased Goldshire, Joshua stands in the town square in the center of a ring of guards with the civilians outside it. The mayor laughs at the young Paladin's accusations and dismisses the proof you've collected as, 'Enemy Propoganda.' Joshua lifts a relic he found in the mines and breaks it with his shield. The mayor lets out an inhuman scream as various energies flow out of him, reducing him to looking akin to a Forsaken or Wretched. Joshua, you, and several guards escort the man to Stormwind in chains, to the throne room for a trial.

Varian, at first shocked and horrified at what he see's, listens to the accounts of you and Joshua, looks at the presented evidence, and agrees the man is guilty of consorting with dark forces for his own personal gain, betraying his duty and station as the mayor of Goldshire and leader of that region. The sentence of death is carried out. Varian congratulates you both and assures you a new Mayor will be appointed to Goldshire. Joshua mentions heading to Westfall due to some rumors disparaging the King's good name. He bids you farewell.

From there on out you'd see him periodically in the other human zones, watching this Paladin grow into something more of a decent character representing Stormwind. When he aggro's you'd hear him say, "For the King," in a deep, calm voice.

[Edit]: Grammatical errors, and to quote the person who requested my thoughts. Sorry for the length. Also...

TL;DR - I'd make Elwynn have an over-all storyline.

For Prosperity...

2011-05-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've also decided to start copying and pasting posts from the official forums and posting them here so they can get more exposure, since more of them deal with how to enhance the Alliance experience.

Today's post comes from long time Draenei enthusiast, Alanii on how the starting area for her chosen race can be improved.

I 've been toying around with the idea of creating a thread that voices what I would like to do with the Draenei low-leveling experience. Inspired by Lochnar's similar thread on the subject, I've decided to make my own, with my own hopes and dreams poured into it. And since it's not secret I love Draenei, I will be writing this about their 1-20 leveling experience.

1. As you start in Ammen Vale, you notice that the area has been cleaned up of debris. The pod in the center has been fully repaired, and you see Draenei training fiercely as an inspiring figure looms above their exercises. A Draenei woman we will come to know as Kasharu. Kasharu will guide your character through Ammen Vale, issues a few quests suitable of cutting your teeth in her new militaristic vision for the Draenei people. Some of the quests designed that they almost kill you in some instances. Through these 1-5 quests you are introduced to a Draenei warrior named Torthur, a Draenei Magi named Voli and a Draenei Anchorite named Jarhul. These characters will level with you through the 1-5 experience by accompanying you on certain quests.

2. You set out to Azure Watch with your small band of Draenei companions who share a bit of flavor text as you travel. Now instead of travelling on foot to Azure Watch, a 60% Elekk carries the 4 of you to your destination. As you come to Azure Watch you find it has also been repaired and fortified with Naaru-style architecture, everything salvaged from the various crash sites throughout the city.

3. From here you do a few quests that send you to various areas killing hostile furbolgs and driving away Naga (much like you did in BC) with a few twists here and there. You also do a few quests explaining Draenei mages and their techniques, and getting to see them in action. You find Silvermyst Isle has added a small Draenei fishing village in Draenei architecture, this area gives you a few quests on the small island. Odyesyus' landing has been reinforced with Northrend style human architecture and gives you a few quests and insight on Draenei relations with the rest of the Alliance.

4. When you return to the mainland, you find disturbing reports of Orcs in the area, though no confirmed cases. As you are sent to investigate the reports coming from the road leading to the Stillpine Hold, you are ambushed by a group of 7 orcs. You and your leveling allies fight them off, and you decide to check on Stillpine hold to see if this means it has been attacked. Your suspicions are confirmed and the Stillpine have been decimated by Horde encroachers. You aid the holdouts in fending off the Horde attack, and slay a Horde commander that took control of the den, there you learn of a coming Horde attack.

5. With this information, you report to the Exarch of Azure Watch, who is troubled by these recent events. He tells you to report this to Velen. As you ride to the Exodar, your companions continue to share flavor text, this time relating to their feelings on the attack, and reflecting on what they lost the last time the Orcs attacked them. As you come to Exodar, you see it has been repaired for the most part, though it still remains firmly rooted in the ground. As you ride into the Exodar's court, you see Draenei mages summoning a portal to Shattrath, where you see Draenei and Broken refugees from Shattrath filing in to the area.

6. As you come to the Vault of Lights, you find that Ishanah has made her return to the Exodar, and she speaks with Velen. As you relay the information of impending attacks with Velen, he solemnly nods and says he has foreseen it, but he does not know the outcome. Though he urges you to refrain from attacking current Horde forces, he sends you to Akama, who has also made his return from Outland to settle in Azuremyst with his Ashtongue Deathsworn clan. Velen tells you to trust his skills in subterfuge, and tells you to accompany him in watching the Horde troops.

7. Your leveling buddies (who literally gain levels as you do) are told to continue on to Silvergale Watch on the formerly Bloodmyst Isle without you by Akama. Akama takes you and a few Ashtongue to check on the Horde forces. As you come to Emberglade, you find out the entire area has been clearcut, and Horde have already set up a landing. Akama decides the time to act is now, and denies Velen's orders. You and the group of Ashtongue assault the camp, destroying it, and taking hold of Demolishers in the camp to destroy incoming Horde ships. With the job completed, he tells you to go directly to Silvergale Watch instead of reporting back to Velen, he suspects they will attack there soon as well.

8. When you come to Silvergale, you find it has a similar silvery glow to the land like Silvermyst, and it has been completely cleared of the pollution. On your way to Silvergale Watch, you are given a few unrelated errand quests by Kessel and his friends. After that, upon coming to Silvergale, you reunite with your leveling buddies as well as Kasharu. When you report to Kasharu the coming Horde attacks, she becomes inconsolable with rage. Just then, Horde attack the Watch, and you successfully repel the raid through a few quests alongside Kasharu and your leveling buddies. It is during these quests you get to see Kasharu kick ridiculous amounts of ass, and learn she is quite powerful.

9. From here, Kasharu sends you on quests to attack outlying Horde posts that have been set up in areas to try to pin the Draenei in one position. During these quests, you are joined by your buddy Torthur. While on these quests, you are also sent to Morae's Refuge which has been built upon the Cryocore.

10. At Morae's refuge, you find that Morae has become an Anchorite, and leads this area in healing the sick and helping the less fortunate in the area. From here, you are given quests to slay a few demon camps that stubbornly resisted the Draenei's efforts in exterminating them after cleansing the island of the radiation. You are joined on these quests by Jarhul, he helps you smite the evil demons with the power of the Light, and uses it to heal and rescue Draenei in some areas. During this time you also have the option of going to Bloodcurse Isle.

11. You are also given quests to go to Bloodcurse Isle. Where, to add injury to further injury, you find Naga are summoning a magic storm to destroy both the Draenei and the Horde. Voli accompanies you here. This area is constanly raining, raining so hard it forms a thick, grey curtain and you are constantly slowed by 40% while travelling here. Upon climbing to the peak where the shrine is, you find a very powerful elite Naga sorceress. You fend her off while Voli absorbs the power of the storm for one minute. This involves dodging waterspouts and tornados on the small platform while damaging the sorceress. After one minute, Voli fully absorbs the storm, and blasts the Sorceress with its full power, insantly killing her.

12. After these quests, Akama finds you in the Bloodmyst town square. He tells you he has discovered Horde are sending a large fleet of troops to the Vector Coil, which they rested from Draenei hands. They intend to overload it, and cause it to eminate its aura of corruption again, in order to slow the efforts of the Draenei. He accompanies you to the Vector Coil and gives you a few quests. One involes you and a team of Ashtongue infiltrating the docked Horde ships on the west side of the Vector Coil. After the crew of these ships are dismantled, the Ashtongue sail them out to sea. Akama explains that they will pretend to be Horde ships, before kamikazing them into the incoming Horde ships. After a few minutes, you see this play out, and the Ashtongue on the ships swim back to shore.

13. With the reinforcements intercepted, you climb to the peak of the Vector Coil to find a powerful elite Orc Warlock dressed in the Corrupter warlock set. You and Akama contront him. While the Orc warlock is too strong for you to kill or hurt in a significant way, Akama tanks him and easily cuts him down to size - in the meantime you fight off his underlings and demons. After he is killed, you report back to Kasharu.

14. Kasharu tells you that trackers have returned with intelligence that suggests the Horde were able to land a force on Wyrmscar Island. Upon approaching the island, you find they have a fortress set up in classic Orc design, with wooden walls and fortifications. Kasharu and your Draenei leveling bodies join you. You find that while they are the same level as you, they are also now elite, and wear special garb. Torthur wears a white&gold version of Warrior T5, the flames are purple instead of orange. Voli wears a purple&white version of Mage T5, and Jarhul wears a blue&gold version of priest T4. Kasharu wears her standard Vindicator set, with a Hammer of the Naaru.

15. While on the Isle; Kasharu gives you a quest to kill a large amount of Horde soldiers on the island (all of which are elite, but easily handled by you and your companions), Voli gives you a quest to kill the Blood elf magisters that are using the leylines on the island to summon a portal for more reinforcements, Torthur gives you a quest to kill 3 powerful Horde officers on the island, and Jarhul gives you a quest to purge powerful Forsaken units, all of which die nearly instantly from a special sigil he gives you that strikes them with a powerful Holy Fire spell.

16. After all these quests are completed, Kasharu gives you a quest to go to the very top of the Isle, where Horde have built a large fortress, to kill the commander of the troops there. After fighting your way up, you find that the fortress is devoid of the commanders presence. Just then, a stream of Horde soldiers pour in to the fortress, which you and your elite allies fend off, until gradually your leveling buddies die, one by one, except for Voli, who Ice Blocks at 1 health and remains so. Eventually, it becomes too much for even you and Kasharu. Kasharu places you in a Divine Intervention spell you cannot cancel, while she selflessly fights on. As soon as she hits 1 health, she gains the buff "Undying Will" and refuses to die. She continues to fight on, going into a holy frenzy.

After killing a large amount of Horde troops, the Commander personally shows up. He is an old Orc warrior dressed in red Death Knight uncommon armor (The blue set, though he is not a Death Knight). Upon showing up, he recognizes Kasharu, and the following interaction takes place:

Blood Guard Harzhur: Enough of this! I will slay these Draenei myself.

Harzhur enters the room, where Kasharu stands admist the carnage of Horde bodies, and the bodies of Torthur and Jarhul. Harzhur stares hard at the Draenei woman standing before him.

Blood Guard Harzhur: You... I remember you. Arklon...

Kasharu: Yes, Arklon, where you and your wicked allies slayed my people. You took everything away from me, you black-blooded fool. My husband, my children... I will never have them again because of you.

Blood Guard Harzhur is taken aback, he slowly draws his axes, but is hesitant.

Blood Guard Harzhur: You do not understand... We -

Kasharu: No, I understand completely! You Orcs are nothing but bloodthirsty monsters! You betrayed us on Draenor, and now after all we have done to help this world, you betray us here too!

Kasharu: You took everything away from me, and my people on Draenor. And on this day, you seek to take away everything our people have given their blood, sweat and tears for! Am I to wait for you to see reason here, while you actively come to take away everything I care about!?

Kasharu grips her hammer tightly, and enters a battle stance. Her eyes begin to glow a fierce gold.

Kasharu: No.

Blood Guard Harzhur charges.

Blood Guard Harzhur mutters: I take no joy in this...

17. Kasharu then casts a Lay on Hands spell on you, healing you and her to full. You are then able to join her in fighting the Blood Guard. Voli unfreezes herself as well, standing back and casting spells at 1 health. Upon reducing the Orc to 30%, Kasharu rears her hammer back while golden holy energy flows around its head and her hands gripped around the base - she casts one last devastating strike, instantly reducing his health to 1.

Blood Guard Harzhur: Finish.... Finish me. If it will repair the pain my people have caused you...

Kasharu clenches her teeth, and takes a step to him. She brings her gauntlet clad fist across his head.

Kasharu: After everything you Orcs have done, you deserve a slow, painful death. I will take no pleasure in putting you out of your misery.

Just then, a portal opens and Velen appears through it.

Velen: My daughter, calm yourself. This is not our way.

Kasharu glares at Velen defiantly.

Kasharu: No, Velen! I am tired of listening to you! I am tired of sitting by as a pacifist while watching our people die! My family, Velen! My beloved was tortured to death! My children...

Kasharu fights back tears under a guise of fierce anger, her voice shivering in pain.

Velen: I understand your loss, Kasharu. We have endured much, but we will never heal this pain if we seek vengeance for past wrongs. Let go, my child. Let go, and be healed.

Kasharu pauses for a moment, staring at Velen. She suddenly turns to Harzhur, bringing her hammer onto his skull and killing him swiftly. She turns back to Velen, who looks on unphased.

Kasharu: I am done listening to your ramblings, you blind fool. I will make sure these Orcs are kept away from our people, and that they are stopped before they become what they were on Draenor. I swear it to you and the millions of our slain people. The Orcs will feel reckoning.

Kasharu turns and storms from the fortress.

Voli kneels beside the bodies of Torthur and Jarhul, and weeps quietly.

Velen turns to you, with a sigh.

Velen: I see it in your future, young one. I see what you will do. You will commit many atrocities in the future for what you feel you must do. I cannot dissaude you, but I must tell you: Remember the past, but do not act on it.

Velen disappears through the portal behind him.

Off-Topic: Virtual Choir 2.0.

2011-05-01T21:51:00.001-07:00

Here is what happens when you use Youtube to assemble more than 1500 people to sing a single song...

Proof that Blizzard's writers are not as good as you think...

2011-04-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Taken from the Official Blog.

Yet this auspicious event ended in tragedy. The details are still unclear, but word has spread that an incredibly powerful Twilight's Hammer agent, shrouded to hide his identity, interrupted the ceremony and struck down Thrall with dark magics... casting his spirit into the four domains of the Elemental Plane. If these terrible rumors hold true, the Earthen Ring -- indeed, all of Azeroth -- has potentially lost one of its greatest champions.

…Is this the end of the Son of Durotan?

Excuse me, the writer inside me is going to go outside and puke his guts out.

There's a line between subtlety and blatant. This takes a running leap over that line, screaming, "LEEEROOOYYYY JEEEEENKIIIIIIIINS!!!!!"

Do we really need more Thrall?

2011-04-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

MMO Champion discusses about a rumored epic quest line centered around Thrall in Patch 4.2.

Seriously, I'm starting to get sick of this spineless hypocrite.

Was three books, the whole of WoW-Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath, and WCIII not enough?

Come on, Blizzard. Alliance lore is stagnating and you're putting in MORE lore for this putz?

Gotta love the Horde....

2011-04-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

...when people say amazing things such as;

Lady Sylvanas is way hot.

'Nuf said

Just go to show, that even if you make a corpse with all the personality of a turnip dress like some Jersey Shore tramp, the little wankers will act just like Ivan Pavlov's dogs.

Why no Blizzcon for me, never.

2011-04-20T13:32:00.001-07:00

Ah, Blizzcon. Sweet, endearing, Blizzcon.

The primary reason why I am not going, and frankly have no inclination to go, is the ticket prices. Granted, that can be overcome by someone who has a steady job and some money saved up. That, in it of itself, is not a problem. The problem is that some of us are still looking for jobs and our best bet is to apply for as many as humanly possible and hope that one sticks.

Some would say that the amount for tickets aren't that big a deal. Sure, by themselves, no. But for those who don't have the luxury of living near Anaheim, you have to include travel fare, consumables, and hotel stay. As someone who is notoriously bad with his money, I can safely say that it adds up a *lot* faster than you think.

If it weren't bad enough that your asking price for tickets is only going upwards in an economy going down, but the entire experience for those that would like to go just to see what the hubub is about only seems to be available for Horde players.

I have been told, by multiple individuals, that if you have the unmitigated gall to admit that you prefer the Alliance over the Horde, you will be treated with hostility. I'm just waiting for the occasion when some unsuspecting person gets bumrushed and beaten up by a group of teenage boys, and beaten savagely, all the while, said teenagers scream, "FUR DAH HORDE!!!111".

It's an ironic thing that Blizzard has brought upon themselves. Since Warcraft 3, they have always paraded how awesome the Horde was, at the expense of the Alliance, and now it's starting to go into areas they would have rather not, on a professional basis.

So, let's recap:

The Blizzcon experience is expensive, Alliance unfriendly, and there's no guarantee that you'll even have the chance to do what you'd like there.

Don't get me wrong, I would like to go to Blizzcon and see the sights, it's just not written in the cards for me and frankly, I'm not too broken up about it.

A temporary hiatus from the game, but not the blog.

2011-04-20T13:09:00.001-07:00

Next monday, my timecard for WoW expires.

The primary reason is that WoW has become too much of a liability in terms of time required and money, especially when I still need to look long and hard for a job. It's in part my fault for not being better with my time, I will admit, but part of the design of WoW should not be left blameless on this account.

However, just because I am leaving the game for a while as I look for work, does not mean I can't say what I feel here. And best of all, you can't get banned by Horde loving Douchebags that hate the idea of ANYONE calling out the horde for the bad things they do. If you want to bring it on, I've got ten friends here, (insert ten names of Bad-ass individuals here), that'd be more than willing to let you have it.

In another post, I'm gonna list another reason why I left the game and it has more to do with the above paragraph than the money, but it's not the exact reason. Beware the dwarf, people!

Alliance Punditry: A Response to Tenthunders

2010-12-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

In response to a blog post concerning the views of the War by Tenthunders.

I hate to be a damper on your attempts at parity here, but you're omitting a few vital points that only seem to paint the Horde as a noble bearing, rag-tag group of misfits, when in reality, they're no different than the Horde that ravaged Stormwind back in the First War, nearly destroyed all of Outland, and almost turned Azeroth into the same barren and dead world that Draenor had become.

The Forsaken, despite all claims to the contrary, have become that which they've hated the most. The Scourge. Now that there's no Lich King to hate, they turn their sword on the living and using the same Valk'yr the Lich King used, they force the curse of undeath upon more people (many of whom are innocent and non-combatants), painting that undead streetwalker, Sylvannas, as an even bigger hypocrite than Garrosh. Why the Argent Crusade hasn't called that whore to task is beyond me.

And the orcs. Oh yes. While it was certainly unfortunate that they were suffering from a drought and famine, to assume that gives them carte blanche to waltz into Ashenvale, cut down trees to incite the Night Elves, enslave Furbolgs, desecrate the land for their war machine, murder neutral parties, is foolish and naive at best. As for the conflict, perhaps, if Thrall did have any balls instead of sitting on his hands for all those times, could have pulled the Warsong, the notoriously bellicose and bloodthirsty tribe (even before the demon blood lust). But he didn't. While certainly, there is blame on both sides, the greater blame lies upon the Orcs for stealing what was never theirs and killing the natives.

No, this isn't about survival at all.

This is all about Garrosh' balls. He can spout all the kodo turds he likes about honor and all that, but when he's waging a war to conquer all of Azeroth, even in the face of the elements raging and Deathwing running amok, he is, in fact, worse than his erring father, Grommash.

The Horde has foolishly believed they can take what they wish without paying, now, it's time for the Alliance to collect. And nothing short of either complete dissolution of the Horde or the extermination of the orcs and Forsaken will suffice.

The Paladin Theme Song

2010-11-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

As many power ballads some would consider to be the perfect approximation of what the paladin class should be, I propose something a bit different.

Also Rohan created a blog post to describe the class anthems and figured I may as well add in my two cents on this matter.

"The Ballad of Paladin" from Have Gun Will Travel sung by Johnny Western.

Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?

Paladin Tier 11 Armor Set.

2010-10-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Like a Rock?

Works for me.

4.0 hits.

2010-10-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

The patch comes. Changes everything.

To date; this will be the sixth, yes, your heard me right, sixth time they have redone the paladin class since the game began. Currently, it's not looking good for ret pvp, but you know what? I'm going to do it anyway.

As per Teron Gorefield's words when you beat him...

The wheel... spins... again...

And thus, so must we.

The Current Retribution Tree (Cataclysm Build 12694)

2010-08-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

Don't expect to see anything regarding the Holy tree, I don't give a toot about it and I blame the Holy tree for holding us back all these years. So, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Zealotry - Located at the bottom of the Ret tree, it seems like a good talent, considering our incessant need for a constant source of Zeal* for our damage. But using it on the Beta, it seems a tad short for something that could be so necessary for increased damage.

Also, it reveals a flaw in the armor of the new resource system, since it's through Crusader Strike that we get our Zeal charges from. And if we want to be competitive, regardless of whether it's pvp or pve, we're going to need a steady source of it and fast.

Inquiry of Faith - Righteous Vengeance renamed. Nothing to see here, folks.

Acts of Sacrifice - Ret's version of Guardian's Favor. It seems weaker, however, than GF, since even mana cost and reduction just don't seem to even out... though, it's a miracle if Freedom actually gets to run out it's entire duration without getting spell stolen or dispelled. Needs work.

Selfless Healer - Bad. Bad. Bad! Greg Street, did you not say that a defensive DPS archetype does not work? This has all the earmarks of it. Put it in holy or get rid of it. Why not put our badly needed charge or snare there instead?

Repentance - Same as before. Needs buffing. Too weak for a talent point that deep.

Sancitifed Wrath - Improved by the fact you can use Hammer of Wrath whenever it's up. Good, but it kinda chokes our newly complicated DPS rotations and won't last long enough in pvp to matter. Needs work.

Rebuke - FINALLY! A silence that we've needed forever. Granted, it's kinda clunky to use since we need to be in melee range, but that's understandable. However, depending on how long we're going to be able to be on our targets in PvP will determine if we need it ranged instead. Good. Very good.

Seals of Command - Puts the Seal of Command cleave upon Seal of Righteousness in addition to an additional 15% damage. Kinda good, kinda meh. Still breaks CC. Needs work.

Divine Purpose - With full points, it puts 40% change to generate holy power with the other mentioned abilities. Good, but it needs more than forty percent. I'd make it a full guarantee from all those abilities so we'd have more holy power than we can use. Good, but needs work.

Communion - Old Judgments of the Wise raid effect. Nothing to see here, folks.

Art of War - More damage and crit chance. No more instant FoLs. Not as good. Needs buffs, since now our only instant heal is Word of Glory, and requires Zeal, and our survivability takes a hit. Needs work and currently inoperative on the beta.

Divine Storm - Nerfed. Now requires three charges of Zeal to hit infinite targets for 90% damage. Clunky. Needs work.

Improved Crusader Strike - Full points bring the cooldown down a whole seconds, giving us a whole 9 seconds before we can unleash a full powered Templar's Verdict. PvP's gonna be a nightmare. Needs work.

Improved Judgment - More damage. BORING! The crab has noted that we're going to like the new one when the internal builds, but what he and the paladin community considers fun are up for debate.

Conviction - Renamed Vengeance. Nothing to see here, folks.

Pursuit of Justice - Still lame. Doesn't get us to our target faster and official forum trolls, in their infinite stupidity, call this a gap closer. Lost the disarm reduction. Needs lots of work.

Eye for an Eye - Lame. Reactive damage takes too many hits to appease the whiny piss-ant Rogues. Thorns and Retribution aura were hurt because of their crying. Needs lots of work.

Rule of Law - Crossover talent for Holy paladins. Whatever.

Crusade - Crossover talent for Holy and Prot Paladins, as well as Damage increase for Ret. Mediocre. Needs work.

So, there you have it. At the present time, there's still much to be done. Here's hoping another beta build will improve things.

* = I refuse to call it Holy Power, Zeal is far better.

An epiphany.

2010-08-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Retribution paladins hate Armor Penetration items. Why? Because it doesn't scale well for them and it's seemingly a stat that only Feral, DKs, warriors, rogues, and hunters like.

It's why I despise items like Deathbringer's Will and more recently Zarithrian's Offering.

And here's what I realized. It is for us, as spell power plate, is to them.

Wankers.

No Starcraft II for me... yet.

2010-07-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have to be quite careful for the time being whilst scouring the internets, as I am currently unemployed and I need to make sure to keep all expenditures to a minimum, which means that all Starcraft II spoilers will be funning rampant.

And you know the worst part about it is? I really, really, really, want to get that Special Edition, with Jim's Dog tags, the DVDs, the comic book, the WoW pet, and the game of course.

I can recall few, if any, bad things about the original Starcraft and I keep hearing good things about the sequel, which took twelve years to make.

Another more important reason for my forbearance is because of the recent trend in game pricing.

I've never paid sixty dollars for a full retail game and never will. The only exceptions are when there are special editions with additional junk that comes with it. And even then, they are not always worth the extra price of admission.

Well, being in part of the beta will eventually get me to write more on this blog and maybe give all two of you who come here something to read!

One can only hope.

Skipping bosses; unintentional and obnoxious.

2010-06-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

Having used up all ten spots on my server, seven of the ten are at level cap by the way, it comes to no surprise to finding myself using the LFG tool for hopefully quick and easy runs to gear up my alts, since I don't like leaving characters at 80 with poor gear.

However, I've been noticing a disturbing trend in dungeons like Utgard Pinnacle.

For bosses such as Svala Sorrrowgrave and the stasis room, they can be easily bypassed and though I often hear the excuse that the time saved by skipping them would garner more badges that way, I remain doubtful. That goes double for you if you're a DPS class with no healing/tanking alternative.

Frankly, I find it rather frustrating, just hitting 80 and hoping to get some use out of the LFG tool, only to find bosses with loot you could potentially use because other members of the group are already decked out t9/10 and don't have the patience or understanding to remember that were once like me at one point.

As easy as it is to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the players, it's far easier to put the responsibility of this on Blizzard's part, on account that they made the instance in the first place.

Did they made it so that they could be skipped intentionally? I doubt it. But then again, they intentionally left certain classes with only the choice they had for raiding was heal or don't raid. So, as easy as it is for me to resort to my biases to make the developers sound as incompetent as possible, I am going to have to left them go on this one. Since you don't exactly make content that players should miss, even if you've done it countless times for an item that doesn't want to drop for you.

From Slacker to Work Horse.

2010-05-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Remember this guy?

Before we get to meat of this post, let's join Peabody and Sherman and ride the WABAC machine back to Vanilla wow.

Back then, during the less than Ret favorable days, it would auto crit for double damage when the target was stunned. If a ret paladin was fortunate enough to get the Field Marshall's Aegis, he could do some serious damage as either Ret or Protection... provided it was the famous tri-spec build you used previous to 1.9.

It also had a serious drawback. Considering the wording of the original seal state that it had "a chance" to deal additional damage, it was given the moniker "Seal of Casino". If one was fortunate, one could hit targets for massive damage. If not, you'll get a white swing and nothing more until it was judged and the seal reapplied for another attempt.

Fast forward to Lich King Times, where, after the removal of Seal of the Martyr and changing Seal of Vengeance to work on auto-attack swings only, the developers hoped that by making Seal of Command actually hit with every swing, we would choose that and still have a chance at pvp.

Nice idea, but the damage had been utterly gutted and hit like a wet noodle by this point in time, by several nerfs between Vanilla and now, and any ret paladin worth their salt would have to use Seal of Righteousness if they wanted to make any headway, considering they still had no snare, interrupt, or means to deal with casters (but that's for another time).

In a stroke of genius, or madness (take your pick), the developers decided to turn the seal into a cleave.

The damage by itself was nothing special, but the fact that it automatically hit three targets at once, when used in conjunction for both Hammer of the Righteous and Divine Storm*, resulted in much more AoE damage for Rets and Threat for Prots.

*Though Divine Storm will proc the seal on the attack itself, it won't proc the cleave, so, you're not hitting as many targets as we would have hoped.

As an example; for ret, let's take my current weapon Shadow's Edge without the two Bold Dragon's Eyes and enchant it with Berserking I have on it.

Here's the math:

Without all that stuff added on, it will do somewhere within the range of 313.92 - 471.24 damage per second. And it will hit four targets when used with Divine Storm. Add in the 2 piece t10 proc and you got lots of AoE damage going around... when it procs, of course.

Now, take all that and multiply it by three (four if you use the glyph) for Hammer of the Righteous, add in the amount of threat you get from Righteous Fury and you got pretty much the best AoE tanking seal in the game at present.

As a side note, it would have been nice to acquire Seals of the Pure for extra damage and threat when tanking, but it doesn't affect command, so, it's left to its lonesome.

So, there you go. Seal of Command. From Slacker to Booster, thanks ! (Fast forward to 10:08).

Got your ticket? The QQ Train's a-coming.

2009-08-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

And who's the target this time?

Why, it's our good old friend Seal of Righteousness.

The old standby that we use from levels 1-19, until we get this underachiever.

Turns out that it, along with some undocumented double procs, has been performing a lot better than SoC, our supposed PvP seal, but of course, the wankers on the forums can't have Ret performing good on any level. Oh no.

So, the cynic in me is taking bets as to how long it will take because Ghostcrawler kowtows to the cryers in the Damage Dealing Forums and gets it nerfed.

The idealist in me, who is finding himself more embarrassed with each wrong guess, still hopes that allowing us to use Righteousness in PvP was intended, as we no longer have Martyr.

We'll wait and see... in the meantime, I need to get a 3s team started. I want to try and see what all the hubbub is about.

3.2 initial reports... and Icehowl down. Well done, Malice!

2009-08-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

...well, tuesday was too laggy for us on Sargeras to try and to the new raid, so we went to Ulduar and got pwned by a bugged out XT... which would not surprise me at all and to wake up the scrub raids trying to farm him.

Wednesday, however, it was more stable and we were able to complete the first challenge in Trial of the Crusader.

As for pvp... I think I'm gonna wait until my other paladin is 80, so I can move Dallanna to full time Ret pvp and the other to PvE, before I try stepping into the arena again, but I'm going to try 3s and hope to get some of that sweet new Robocop pally gear they got there.

R.I.P. Seal of the Martyr.

2009-08-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Fare well, dear friend... you made us able to DPS in raids and shove the haters' vitriol down their throats with your Justice.

...looks like you and I are in it for the long haul.

And you? Stay in the corner and keep that dunce cap on!

Side-note: I don't acknowledge the existence of the Horde 'paladin' versions. Why? They're not real paladins.

To the surprise of none....

2009-07-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

...the updated 3.2 patch notes:

Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack and the effects from these seals can only be triggered by auto-attacks and Hammer of the Righteous.

Ain't this just a damp squib for Rets?

For our Fathers...

2009-06-21T20:24:00.001-07:00

This is a post I did in the RP forum, detailing my main's relationship with her father.

Da, ye were an odd one.

Why?

Not once did I hear ye raise yer hand or voice in anger against me, mum, or me brothers. Well... mum woulda kicked yer ass if ye did, but that's beside the point....

Ye were patient as the mountains when it came to bein' a parent, considerin' how much trouble we all got in when we were kids.

Ye were supportive of me covertin' to the Lightsworn and my choice to become a paladin all those years ago.

We didn' speak much, but then again, we didn' need to. Every time ye smiled at me when I did something great spoke volumes.... and whenever I got in trouble, that stern and disappointed look ye gave me made me want to hide meself under Blackrock Mountain.... which, ironically, that was one of the secrets to being a parent, which ye told me when I had me first boy.

I'll always be grateful.

Here's to ye, Da...

...ye sneaky bastard.

*Chug, chug, chug, thud.*

And because I'm a sucker for small animals...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

A more interesting subject to talk about.

2009-05-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wanna read a good post on the WoW forums? This explains the reason why you see so many QQ threads concerning paladins, in a thread written by a paladin asking the forums populace how they would fix Retribition. (Bad idea, in my opinion.)

Nomihoudai (Which, oddly enough, means "All you can drink" in Japanese.) from Spinebreaker said:

The premise of the OP just won't fly on these forums. No one here is interested in making ret balanced.

For 4 years all classes have had the benefit of ret being the village idiot--the one everyone could look down on and feel better about themselves. "Hey, at least I'm not a ret paladin!" was a comforting thought. At least in BC some raids would bring one ret paladin in order to keep up a holy paladin's judgment through CS.

Look at posts on paladin forums before 3.0. At the same time that rets were told they should never be able to do anything resembling half-decent damage, they would also be told that they were OP because of the devil's trifecta of plate, bubble, and heals. Unlike most paladin lore (including outside WoW), paladins were considered to be a healer worse than priests that sometimes did other stuff, due in large part to their status in vanilla WoW.

Now that paladins can put out good damage (although as one who used to play one, I wish the combat system wasn't so whack-a-mole simple), those classes feel threatened. Suddenly they have to develop strategies around rets in pvp. Comps with rets aren't horrible. Rets aren't a waste of a raid slot. They actually need to compete with what used to be the kid they got their lunch money from.

No one here wants a balanced ret paladin. They want their punching bag back. They need someone they can look down on. They don't want to have to look up arena ratings or check gem slots in order to put someone down. Even if you do everything right, in the end you still are a ret paladin, and that alone must mean "you are a face-rolling no-skill baddie."

Welcome to the forums. Enjoy your stay. Nerf your class, buff mine.

/discuss

A link:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17367763444&sid=1&pageNo=2
Post #21

The Ferraro Deboggle.

2009-05-31T12:00:00.001-07:00

Is just making a mountain out of a molehill.

That is all.

Watch this video and recommend the song for those that are making a bigger deal out of this than it really is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nll8-kSlq6c

I'd embed it, but it was disabled upon request of the holder, so, yeah. It's not a Rickroll.

Story Time

2009-05-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

As angered as I am about the whole nerf to both Eye for an Eye and Hand of Freedom, this little experience last night made me feel a tad better.

On my warrior, who had just dinged 41 and was happily going about her business leveing in the Badlands, needed to break some Earth Elementals for a quest. What should she find by an 80 BElf mage farming them, most likely for Elemental Earths and vendor trash, as well as the mineral veins there.

Hoping not to cause any trouble, I go about, and away from him, killing the other elementals, hoping to get my quest items before he notices.

No such luck. He ganks me and figuring that I was not my main, and thought I'd just go away.

Wrong on his part.

I get my paladin, bring her to Badlands, and counter-gank him. I wait for him to spawn, only to find him going back to farming. I tell him /shoo. Letting him know that I want this place only for a bit, so I can finish my quest.

This poor individual must not have understood very well, for I had to kill him nine more times before he got the message that I wanted him out of there so my warrior could finish her quest.

Now, the mage has the place all to hiself to farm his twisted heart's content.

Moral of the Story? Be careful whom you gank. It might be someone's epic'd out alt.

And the Wankers win again...

2009-05-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Rogues cry about synergy between Ret aura and Thorns.

And look what happens.

From MMO Champion:

The bonus damage from spell power on the Druid ability Thorns has been reduced by half.
The bonus damage from spell power on the Paladin ability Retribution Aura has been reduced by half. The threat generated by that damage has been doubled per point of damage to keep the threat generation about equal to before.

Worse yet, is the crab's response:

Both Thorns and Ret Aura scale with spellpower, which is not in abundance on tanks. On the other hand, on level 80 classes with spell power they could hit an attacker for 1000 or more damage per hit of just passive damage that doesn't even requrie a button press. That's pretty generous.

Greg. If ret aura were to hit anything back for 1k, the RET paladin would need to have around 3500-4000 spell power to hit that hard!

Do you even think these things through?!

Can someone give me a facepalm of epic proportions?

Movie Time!

2009-05-03T21:58:00.001-07:00

In spite of recent headaches coming on in real life, there are those that still persist in smiling even in the face of adversity and trial. FOOLISH GNOME! Now you've cursed me with your enthusiasm and have made me want to post a Paladin Movie I found via WoWInsider that every paladin player should watch.

PAL.MPG

It was a movie made on the Chinese Servers and despite the fact we oft see Chinese players maligned as nothing more than gold farmers, hackers, and what have you, there are legitimate and honest players over there who also share the same sentiments as those of us over here.

It also should be pointed out that they are still able to play the game, somehow, while under the strict and oppresive hand of the Communist Government and much of Lich King had to be changed in order to meet their standards.

Either way, here's hoping the honest Chinese players get their fair share of the good stuff, as Lich King is still not available in China at the moment.

The Light Bless you and Keep you, Megan

2009-04-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

/salute
/pray

This would be the song as we reluctantly see you off...

Paladins: Perpetual Victims of the Mobocracy.

2009-04-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not frequent the cesspool that is the official forums should know that ever since 3.1 hit, there has been an increase in the amount of crying from the undergeared and underskilled idiots that are calling for nerfs to Paladins.

Sounds familiar?

I thought so.

The main cause of this stink was made when Exorcism was made available to be used on all targets, players and non-undead NPCs. This was meant to off-set the nerfed Judgment of Blood/Martyr and buffed Seal of Blood/Martyr and make up the difference from the damage lost.

However, when pvp came into the picture, the same cycle of nerf calling by the rabid animals that wish us ill reached a fever pitch. And when 3.1.1 hits, the developers cave in to forum QQ, again, and make it unable to be used on players.

I'm of two minds on this, well, three actually.

One;
There was absolutely no documentation of this. So, either it can identified as a stealth nerf or an 'undocumented patch note'. Infuriating. As I was hoping to start an arena team this season and hopefully get some real pvp gear instead of the blue honor gear or WG gear, while nice, just doesn't do it for me.

Two:
It does not affect PvE. A very good thing for raiders.

Three:
Ghostcrawler's responses... first the sticky he's posted in the Damage Dealing forums: And in a self-fulfilling prophecy, I'm gonna dissect each and every statement in the magenta below.

We made a change in the 3.1.1 patch to prevent Exorcism from being used on players. We didn’t announce this change ahead of time because we were trying to get the tooltip changed at the same time to reduce confusion. We still plan on getting the tooltip updated ASAP. Exorcism’s use in PvE has not changed at this time.

Well, Greg, if you didn't want us to use it in PvP, perhaps you should have made that clear in the first place? Maybe? Instead, you've given Pvp rets a juicy steak to compensate for the damage nerf they got, only to take it away after they got a bite. Real smooth there, buddy.

Going with a “not on players” solution is not ideal and we will be re-designing how the ability works in a future patch (the plan is sooner rather than later). We don’t like for PvE and PvP mechanics to work differently when we can avoid it. We also don’t like for a major damaging ability to be excluded from the PvP game. However, we thought this had become a balance issue serious enough to address at this time.

Warlocks and Curse of Doom say 'Hi', but I kid the heretics. If it's not ideal, then why did you run it through anyway? Wasn't the PTR the point of trying to prevent these kinds of Knee jerk reactions that paladins have been known to endure before? As for when it works, I'll take that as the classic 'Soon' that Blizzard is known for. Pardon my cynicism Greg, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

We shifted around paladin damage for 3.1 trying to increase sustained damage while reducing burst damage. Unfortunately, the Exorcism change did the opposite. Instead of stealing a GCD from a paladin, it actually gave them an extra one. A Retribution paladin could use Exorcism to cause damage while closing to melee and then be ready to go with their melee damage attacks. (Exorcism of course is not limited to Ret paladins either.) We changed the way paladins do damage for Lich King, so while it is unfortunate (and we accept full blame), it also isn’t too surprising that it is taking some effort to get their damage in the right place.

I will admit, I did like the idea of a higher sustain damage in the form of a harder hitting Seal of the Martyr. However, when you, in the same motion, nerf Rightous Vengeance, the only DoT that we have, it's kinda hard to take what you're saying at face value anymore.

Also, the reason why Exorcism gave them an extra GCD was because it was meant to compensate for the nerf to the Judgement of the Martyr damage, also because no one in their right mind would use Command for PvP anymore.

And while it is nice that you're actually owning up to your mistakes, like when you said you kept Ret gimped on purpose (jerk), the paladin player base is not in any position to do anything to the developers. You can keep doing what you're doing, apologize, then continue to hurt the class under the auspicies of balance and we can do nothing about it.

In the same patch where we remove the “not on players” limitation for Exorcism, we are going to change the way paladins do damage so that their normal combat moves have more depth to them instead of just using abilities every time they finish their cooldown. This should make causing damage as a paladin more interesting and also less bursty. While we have some ideas on how to accomplish that, if you have suggestions or your own ideas about how this could work, this would be a good time to share them. (As examples of abilities you don’t just use whenever their cooldown has finished, you might look at Conflagrate, Brain Freeze, Rip, Overpower or Arcane Blast.) We do request that you don’t fill the forums with posts of limited content or insight about how you don’t like to be nerfed. Nobody does.

So, will this supposed change happen when we're going to try and save Malfurion Stormrage from the Emerald Dream in the next expansion and let us languish for the rest of the expansion while Warriors, with Juggernaught, run around unchecked like they did for most of BC?

I'm all for giving ret paladins more depth in their combat system, but what you say and what you do are two different things, Greg. You've refused to give paladins a method to close the distance, interrupt casters (And no, HoJ does not count), put pressure on healers, and now you've nerfed our burst. Your actions speak as though you listen to the mobocracy, who'd rather they put us back to Vanilla, where all was could do was Judge, re-seal for 30 seconds, and pray for SoC procs.

And 'Since you have some ideas'? That doesn't sound encouraging at all for those of us who want to pvp competitively this season.

And just so you know, the FCFS rotation was something you could have easily fixed, but have not. I hate FCFS. I loathe it with a passion. Yet, it's the only way I can barely scrape by a measley 3600 dps at best, when Arms warriors are pulling over 5k. You want advice? Give us a smoother rotation.

Finally, what? Nobody likes being nerfed or nobody likes seeing the forums full of anecdotes about being nerfed? Hate to break this to, ya, Greg, but you should have thought of that BEFORE you turned the 'off' switch on Exorcism working on other players.

It is always a judgment call about when a fix (a buff or a nerf) can’t wait. Some things we can’t change easily in hotfixes or small patches, and some things we consider too risky for technical reasons or for their potential effects on the game.

Oho, I see what you did there. And yet, whenever it comes to hotfix nerfs, Paladins have by and far come along as the most abused when it comes to this. It's happened in the betas, when our unwieldly Strike system got changed to an even worse Seal-Judge-Seal system. It happened in 2.0 when the kids cried about actually being killed by paladins after getting Crusader Strike back and you nerfed it in a hotfix. And you've done so in 3.0 and now here.

GC repsonds in a different thread:

When players get nerfed and they feel it is an unfair nerf (which honestly is a good deal of the time), they tend to blame QQ from the community. It's a practice as old as multiplayer gaming itself. The players are not always wrong when they sense a balance problem, and they aren't always right either (from our point-of-view anyway -- all of this is subjective to some extent). When we see an issue that gets raised, we talk about it and test it ourselves. This wasn't a problem that was hard to see in our minds. Yes we should have fixed it before 3.1 went out. I could say that about every change we have made since 3.1 went out, up to and including all of the Ulduar balance tweaks.

So, with this, you're basically admitting that forum QQ is what governs who gets nerfed? Excellent! Now I can get Mass Dispell nerfed, since it's clearly overpowered! Seriously, Greg, if you know that it was going to be a problem, then why even putting it forward in the first place? Or better yet, make a point to say that Exorcims could only be used in PvE so as to stave off the crying, unwashed masses?!

PvP is monumentally difficult to balance. WoW's PvP game has not been perfectly balanced before, and is not balanced now. But that does not mean we throw up our hands and give up on it. We have solved some nasty problems over the years and created some new ones. Such is the nature of MMO game design. We try and learn from our mistakes and move on.

And yet, whenever there are people crying about overpowered class or abilities, perceived or otherwise, it's usually paladins that get hurt the most. Especially Ret paladins. Remember when Holy paladins got nerfed in season 2? That hurt Ret paladins as well. It seems that a lot of our problems stems from Holy paladins. If you want to learn from your mistakes, then don't listen to recently dinged 80s in greens and blues going into PvP for the first time instead of the players that actually have a clue!

We do internal tests and we do invite players to participate (voluntarily mind you) on betas or the PTR. That in no way can substitute for what happens when 12 million players get their hands on the game and begin playing. Good companies try not to make mistakes. Great companies admit when they make mistakes and take steps to fix them. Even greater companies I suppose never make mistakes, but I don't know any of those.

Oh, come on. You seriously can't expect me to believe that when you had people on the PTR testing Exorcism that people wouldn't cry about this on live. Considering past experience with the paladin class as a whole, you have to realize that the unwashed masses LOVE singling out this class, since the beginning of WoW.

We were supposed to be the two-handed hammer wielding orc smashing champions of justice for the Alliance and instead was relegated to a priest in plate because Tigole and Furor had their Wheaties pissed on while they were in EQ. And finally, after Tigole leaves and Kalgan gone elsewhere, we had hopes that maybe the class could finally be on the way to being completely fixed out this crap happening again. It seems that my faith in your, GC, has been misplaced.

Part of why I posted that was because we knew a lot of players were discussing it. We were discussing it. I figured if I said outright "Hey, this may be a problem," maybe paladins wouldn't feel like it came out of nowhere when and if we made a change. That post was emphatically not an attempt to say "Don't worry, you can relax, we won't nerf it." Furthermore, we did find a way to nerf it in PvP without affecting PvE. It's not a particularly pretty way from our POV, but it solved the problem.

They weren't discussing it at all. They were crying and calling for nerfs. And no, it didn't solve the problem at all. All you did was give PvP ret paladins a nerf. You've nerfed Judgment of Martyr, effectively taking down 40% of the burst damage, which is all we got really. So, no, until you can bring the amount of damage back up to pre3.1.1 levels, this is not solved at all.

As I said, it is always going to be subjective to some degree. In our shoes, some of you may have made a different decision. I can appreciate that many paladins believe in their heart that it (and they) were not overpowered and that other classes were just out to get them. We have to do what we think is right for WoW, and you are probably not going to agree with every change, or perhaps even many of them.

Considering how much ridicule that paladins had to endure, the old ZG doll?, the lower Hearthstone Cooldown on Lawbringer?, how can you blame us? The game that you established gave people ideas that paladins shouldn't be doing damage and when you finally did something different, people cried that something they thought that shouldn't be killing them, established by you, Greg, they gripe and moan as though the world was being turned upside down.

That’s fair. To some extent you’re saying “Even more communication would be even better,” which I don’t deny. Making that work is challenging, but we can consider new options. Maybe we treat the PTR forum more like the Beta forums, in which we restricted posting, but because the pool was smaller, it was a lot easier for us to discuss every single issue that came up. I have no idea if that is technically feasible – I’m just brainstorming ways so that players feel like their issues are heard without me or other blues having to supply posts (and often more than one) to every single thread. We could hire a thousand more people and still not be able to discuss every issue with the detail and depth that the community would probably opt for, given the choice.

An ounce of preventing is worth a pound of cure. The prevention? Just let Exorcism be PvE only in the first place. Would it have been ideal? Of course not, since PvP rets would have wanted that extra damage. However, it would have been a much better alternative than seeing another patch with ANOTHER Stealth Nerf when people are crying that a class they've ridiculed with impunity.

What arbitrary silliness.

Bet you regret that stupid 'To the ground' statement now. If you don't, you should. It's about as funny as the stupid jokes your 7 year old niece or nephew say and you laugh out of consideration for their delicate feelings. We're adults here, Greg. So knock it off.

Waiting for the new patch....

2009-04-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

is unbearable!!

Note;
Hit right click on the image and select "View Image" to see the whole thing.

What to do?

2009-04-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

Seriously, I'm at a loss as to what to do with this blog.

I'd like to contribute something to the blogoshpere about the paladin class and everything, but I can't help but feel that whatever I have in mind has already been taken care of by someone... for example...

Josh, Ferraro, Tim and Peregrine have got Ret taken care of present it in much more satisfactoy manner with proper information.

Saha and Megan, when she does post about Holy pallies, are more than adequate and it's a double whammy against me because the last time I willingly specced Holy was back in May of 2006. And when/if I did spec it afterwards, it was for the now deceased shoackadin spec.

Honor's Code does a great job in taking care of Prot spec, and the fact that I'm not prot at the moment, but may be when 3.1 hits, is not as up on the list as I would like it to be. Also, there's another blog out there that has to do with Prot.

...the only problem?

HE'S GOT MY BLOG NAME TOO! D:

As a side note, Rohan gets a special mention for being the first Paladin Blog, aside from the now defunct Paladin Sucks, that I've read. Not to mention that BoK pretty much covers all facets of the paladin class, even the parts with which I don't agree with, but hey, can't please 'em all.

And with that, I leave you with the smattering of Lewis Carrol's insanity.

Working with WoW and a Nostromo N52

2009-02-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

About a year or two ago, I was fortunate enough to get my hands upon a Nostromo N52 gamepad, when the Tournament edition was still being introduced and slowly phasing out on the former. Well, it's still in one piece, so, if you're lucky enough to have one, or are planning on getting one, here's a little guide with a bit of help from other sources to make the best out of using it with the most buttons possible.

http://www.n52te.com/community/index.php?showtopic=597

Here, in this thread, Grendalsh gives the new user a detailed guide via youtube on how to get the most number of buttons.

For the sake of clarity, I figured I'd help things along and create a diagram of what he basically has done.

Additional Note: The red button is used for Esc.

Notice how 1-9 are done in a square formation and that the last three buttons are put in the outside column? This leaves the three buttons on the right for the different states which would make four sets of twelve buttons. If you need that many, at any rate.

It should be noted that until I got this formation, I was always using my left hand's thumb for the jump button (0 on the diagram), and had assigned 1-5 on the red button and the rocker switch. However, I was still using keys 2,3,4, and 8 like I would the usual manner, but it would take up needed buttons. With this set up, it's easier to keep the keys you need to much closer reach. Though, relearning the muscle memory's gonna be a pain.

Next post, I'll show what I use for my UI, in hopes that maybe someone can get an idea inadvertently and improve on what they have.

One of my favorite links...

2009-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

I love these guys. :D

Avatar picture, updated!

2009-02-15T00:04:00.000-08:00

The picture leading to my armory is "Guarded By the Light" from the Fires of Outland from the WoW:TGC. Art done by Chippy.

Pretty cool, eh? Shows just how awesome female dwarven paladins are.

3.0.9? Wasn't aware there was such a thing.

2009-02-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

• The duration on all Seals has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer dispelled.

All I can say is; It's about freakin' time! Granted, it is a slight nerf to Ret PvP, but that's nothing new.

•Divine Plea: The amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50% (up from 20%) but the effect can no longer be dispelled.

Boo. But on the flip side, you can't dispel it or spell steal it. Screw you, mages!

• Sanctified Seals: This talent no longer affects dispel resistance, but continues to affect crit chance.

Can we get an additional affect to this talent instead of a mere crit increase? We got enough of those already in the tree.

• Glyph of Holy Light - Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 8 yards of the initial target. (Down from 20 yards, Tooltip text fix, was already hotfixed to 8 yards in game)

I haven't been Holy since May of 2006. Every other time since then has been for the sake of the old Shockadin spec. But I digress. Why does it take so long for typos to get fixed?!

• Glyph of Seal of Righteousness - Increases the damage done by Seal of Righteousness by 10%. (Old - Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.)

Grats, Holy Pallies. Grinding is not so boring anymore! :D

Well shut my mouth...

2009-02-06T14:19:00.001-08:00

Those tasty tanking talents are looking a lot better and better.

If 3.1 is meant to be the harbinger of good news...

2009-02-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

...then I'd rather not hear anything, if your saying that mana regen needs to be nerfed is of any indication.

And the Wank continues...

2009-02-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

...wank, or in this case, whine, is being perpetrated by warlocks. Obviously not content with nerfing the Turn Evil Glyph, are still on pissing spree, demanding to be immune to CC in all forms, especially Meta warlocks.

Evidently, warlocks can dish it out, but they can't take it.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14697555778&sid=1&pageNo=1

Fur seine viewing erfreun.

2009-02-03T09:54:00.001-08:00

As a bit of a lore nut, I stumble across fan made movies of lore that make me happy, in spite of some flaws they carry. Case in point, Warden of Eternity; a lore machinima that talks about Maiev Shadowsong. Be warned, it's in German, and it's production quality is not the greatest, HOWEVER, in spite of these flaws, watch it anyway. You'll see the work of someone that shows that they love what they do.

And besides, the fact that it's in german adds to the cool factor in my book, as I often sing in german. :p

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=100121

/Nerd

2009-01-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

Admit it, you have a bit of backstory for your characters as you play.

So, to show my nerdiness, I tell you that Dallanna is 126 years old, which is roughly middle aged for dwarves. Which is appropriate considering she just achieved the Elder title!

Ah yeah.

/Weird Al's 'White and Nerdy'.

How to lose your sanity in one easy step...

2009-01-23T10:08:00.001-08:00

...leveling your fishing from 34 to 225 in one sitting....

/twitch, twitch
/autocannibalism

Eww... doesn't taste like chicken at all!

Interesting question:

2009-01-17T13:38:00.001-08:00

Ganker's Remorse;

Wherein you, the higher character (in this case, I was on my 38 female dwarf rogue, to be showcased in a later post) ganks a grayed out player, but soon afterwards, feels bad for doing such a thing to them.

Do you experience this?

In less Stupid news;

2009-01-15T18:14:00.000-08:00

My Authenticator came in.

Many thanks to mah brother who alerted me to it's availability.

See? Families are good for something! :D

Edit:
For those who know, you notice my list of links to other blogs? Anyone got any idea why one of them refuses to update on the list, when it has been updated on the actual site? The last thing I want to do is say that the person isn't updating when they are.

Lastest News from MMO-Champion

2009-01-15T02:10:00.000-08:00

Paladin (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Glyph

* Glyph of Turn Evil now also increases the cooldown of the spell by 8 sec.

Well done, Warlocks. Instead of trying to focus on fixing the weaknesses of your class, your incessant whining and bitching have only lead to the nerfing of other classes that never called for it.

And no, I don't care how terribly you're doing in PvP right now. Being continually chain feared has earned you no sympathy at all from me ever since I started playing this game. Only now, when you know what it's like to be chain feared, things are balanced. But we can't have that now, can we?

Remember the Life Tap nerf? You guys bitched about it until it was reverted. Seriously, when will you babies be happy? Until you have absolutely no weaknesses at all?

A suggestion on the Alliance Battle Cry

2009-01-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

As I wait for the next hour to get onto my server, I figure I may as well get to this instead of playing Space Invaders Extreme on my DS or Guitar Hero 3 on my PS2.

A battle cry is meant for a group, hero, army, etc, to improve morale. To bring a sense of unity when battle comes.

In the game, as we all know, whether we like it or not, the battle cry of the Horde is, predictably, 'For the Horde.'

Naturally, the junior hordelings will often scream this at the top of their lungs to show their exuberance for the bad guys (See the Spoiler Filled Wrath Gate Scenes and subsequent fight). I find it annoying, though, I can hardly blame them. When you want to rally your side to courage in actual warfare, you need something simple and effective to achieve the desired affect.

To expand a bit, 'For the Horde' is not as powerful as it once was. After all, after Wrath Gate, it should be noted that there are many Horde that would consider their kinsmen with much more suspicion. Furthermore, the only people that would say 'For the Horde' are orcs. The typical non-orc Horde member doesn't have the same history with it, since it dates back to, and is more related to, the Old Horde. (which, if recent events are to be believe, don't really differentiates itself from the so-called New Horde. The new Plague? Repeated attacks on Dalaran Mages? Poisoning Alliance Citizens? The list goes on.)

This goes double for the Forsaken and Blood Elves, who merely see the Horde as a means to an end, survival, not a means of friendship, since there's still bad blood between the BElves and Orcs since the latter was responsible for much razing of the forests of Silvermoon and considering how long these elves live, they don't forget things like that easily. Also, Forsaken are just a step above being a slave of the Lich King, by virtue of the fact the only thing that differentiated a Scourge from Forsaken was that the former wants to kill everything living, while the latter want to kill the undead AND everything living.

The only exception to this is the 'good' Forsaken that steals a precious gem from Sylvannas for the sake of preventing unleashing an ancient evil, but are hunted down and killed by Varimathras' decree. If there were more examples of these 'noble' Forsaken, who don't let the little fact that they're dead interfere with what they've always believed to be right and wrong, I would be a lot more sympathetic to their cause. In fact, I wish there were more of them, then I'd probably roll one instead of the usual “GRR! I R ANGRY! I H8 TEH LIVIN'!” archetypes you usually see.

But I digress...

The Alliance needs a battle cry. So, instead of going through the many possible ones that won't work, let's go through the one that will. (In my opinion.)

For Lothar.

Yes, Anduin Lothar. The Lion of Stormwind. The Hero of the First and Second Wars. The man whom the child-prince of Stormwind is named after.

But wait, you say, wasn't Lothar human? A man who has never seen the forests of Ashenvale, the fields of Argus, or the halls of Gnomeregan?

Certainly! Because he had no home to call his own. True, he was part of the Brotherhood of the Horse, based in Stormwind before it was burned to the ground; however, the fact that he had no home to call his own was the very reason why he was chosen as the grand commander of the Alliance of the Second War.

Before the Grand Alliance came to be, the leaders of the Human nations were suspicious of each other for various reasons and felt to put a single person from any of these nations would put some political pressure on the others. King Terenas Menethil, however, seeing these petty squabbles, knew that unless they had a man that could lead them, while ensuring that there wouldn't be a civil war afterwards, wisely chose Lothar.

It makes sense for all the races of the Alliance to use his name as a war cry. He fought for the homes, the lands, and the lives of his people, since he gave all of himself for that and, sadly, never got the chance to see the fruit of his labors after being killed in a trap by the cowardly Doomhammer.

The Draenei and the Gnomes, without a home to call their own, can relate to Lothar, as he was one like them.

The humans can relate to him easily, by the fact their prince is named after him and his statue still stands in defiance in the Blasted Lands, pointing his sword to Blackrock Mountain.

The Dwarves also have an understanding of Lothar's character, since many of them fought beside them in the Second War, especially the Wildhammer clan, so they can vouch of him to Bronzebeard.

The Night Elves, though not losing as much as the Draenei and Gnomes have, can still relate to him, as their lands have been lost and are being stolen by, not only aggressive and savage orcs, but worgen, satyr, cultists, and naga as well.

So, there you have it, folks.

For Lothar.

....

...

Or, if you're feeling sassy; F*** the Whorde.

Bah Humbug!

2008-12-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

Not WoW related, but holiday related...

Revel in voice actors singing in character... which is not always a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV5m1QJ4F4w&feature=related

Off Topic Topic

2008-12-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

In real life, I am a Senior, studying to be an Opera singer... and theory is a vicious thing that has defeated me on more than one occasion.

Today, I've learned that I've defeated the last of the theory courses, 20th Century Techniques.

YAY!

**** YOU, SCHOENBERG!

As if the Official Forums weren't bad enough...

2008-12-18T19:56:00.001-08:00

...now they got adds polluting them right above the posts in an manner that you cannot avoid them.

I know the blues have said that the whole Activision merger hasn't changed anything, but this move has the aforementioned's dirty, groping, greedy fingers written all over it.

My reasoning?

The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, is quoted to say:

"With respect to the franchises that don't have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming $100 million plus franchises, that's a strategy that has worked very well for us.""

Granted, he was speaking about the easily milked franchises of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, but the fact that he explicitly said 'EXPLOITED' made me a very unhappy camper. And what rubs salt into the wounds is how stupid the person in charge of these ads on the officials forums thinks Blizzard fans are.

They're already making more money than most of us will in our entire lifetime, but to simply assume that we want to become so addicted to conspicuous consumption (one of the many reasons why our economy's in the pooper) that we'll bite is simply insulting.

It was fine as it was. The ads were out of the way and unintrusive. If a blizzard fan wanted Blizzard swag, they knew where to get it. This is not the way to go about doing it.

WoW can bring out the worst in some of us...

2008-12-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I was in the Zul'Drak area, doing mah sneaky, sneaky undercover quests for those very unhappy Ebon Blade gents, pretending to be a grunt for another grunt that works as part of the Lich King's recruitment offices from Icecrown.

The particular quest in mind had you controlling Bender from Futurama, after a week of consistent eating and lack of moderation, also known as an Abomination, to gather up Drakkari trolls for slaughter, farting, and proving it's never a good idea to drink pepsi after ingesting Pop Rocks. (Take THAT, Mythbusters!)

Along the way, I happened upon a level 80 priest and mage, both horde. So, the mage, thinking himself a veritable source of jocularity, dragged my mindless slave away and pretty much ruined the quest for me, until I got another.

"Oh, ho ho!" says I, "you wish to play that game, eh?"

So, against my better judgment, I start attacking said mage. However, to my good fortune, his priest friend was holy spec and I laughed off his damage, but couldn't laugh off his healing of my target (Buff Pally DPS). However, the damage had been done. In order for the mage to kill me, which he did, he had to leave his disguise and I, happily skipping on my way, lead them away from their goal.

Regardless of the subsequent deaths on my part, I think my message was pretty much clear.

"I don't have to kill you to make your gameplay experience as miserable as you can make mine. Got that, ya little snot?"

So, to drive my point further into the ground needlessly, I stalked them for about the next half hour and repeated said attacks against the mage or the priest as they tried to complete the quest.

Granted, they got the quest done and I got bored pretending a pair of nerds raging about being griefed by a singler players three levels their junior was getting their panties in a twist. Yes, yes, a level 77 trying to attack two level 80s is a textbook example of idiocy, but hey, that's why we do stupid things, because we're vindictive. Which leads me to the point of this post;

People, regardless of how civil they can be in real life, and even how much they can try on the internet, can turn into M r. Hyde faster than they'll admit.

I use myself as an example.

First Post

2008-12-16T12:38:00.001-08:00

I can has Blog now?

I can has Pally buffs?

I can has crabs for lunch?

I can has Tanks?

I can has Ret DPS?

Yes, plx. Kthx.

Etc and so on.