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Archive for April 20th, 2008

Playing to win, and other reasons to play

Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 20th, 2008 No Comments »

“Lane over on WoW LJ pointed us to this article about “”Playing to Win”" — the article itself is actually about Street Fighter II, but as Lane points out, the concept could very easily be connected to World of Warcraft. I remember Turpster talking about this on our podcast as well a few weeks ago: playing for fun and playing to win are two completely different things, and the difference between them can put a lot of players at odds. Players who “”play to win”" wonder why some folks in game try to play by “”fictitious rules”" — why not do some arena matching, or why not jump on an opponent on a PvP server when they’re almost dead from fighting a mob. If there’s a mod that will let you “”cheat”" on a boss, or a macro that will let you target opponents in the arena, why not use it. But just as the person writing this article about scrubs sees those as “”fake rules”" (because the game doesn’t actually keep you from doing those things seen as “”cheap”"), many players do see things like honor and discipline in the game. In the end, it’s each to his own — we all play this game for different reasons, and not everyone does play to win: some play for fun, some play to relax, some play just because they want to follow those “”fake rules”" (and any others they come up with — pacifist players, Arena masters, or naked trolls). Players play by their own rules all the time, but that’s no reason at all to call them “”scrubs.”" Being a one-time huge SFII fan, I remember reading that some odd years ago - great game theory there, and he’s absolutely right. First reading that back then, as well as some other things he has written about gaming and winning really taught me a lot about being successful in games.

The best point is that too often we have our own misconceptions about what is “”honorable”" and we apply them to our style of battle in the games we play. These misconceptions usually end up actually hurting us in the end and costing us a victory. The point is that if something is allowable by the rules of the game, then it doesn’t matter if we deem it “”fair”" or not in our own minds. If it is a valid move or use of an ability and you can win by using it to its utmost against your opponent, then NOT using it because of some self-righteous sense of “”honor”" is preventing you from reaching full potential. Once I realized that and applied it to my game style, it helped me immensely. And it does apply to WoW as well, although a “”code of honor”" does have more weight to it since your persona is ongoing. I think there is room for adopting a winning playstyle in WoW as outlined in Sirlin’s various game theory articles.” “What’s the number one thing Blizzard could do better. I think Blizzard does a lot of things great. And for the size of the game, they’re doing a crazy good job. I get kind of tired of some of the anti-Blizzard statements. wow goud They’re the first company to host a virtual game world that has so many different levels of play, culture, and goals. This makes it more like the real world then most of us care to admit. However that said, I think Blizzard needs to challenge itself to do better. They’re already miles ahead of their competition in terms of community involvement and game support. wow oro SOE doesn’t even come close, and LindenLabs just isn’t in the same ballpark. But, that really doesn’t meant they couldn’t communicate and work with the players more.

I look at Blizzard as the best baseball team in the world (the Minnesota Twins, of course!) (okay, kidding…Carl Polad gutted the team this year, they have a lot of work to do. or wow But let’s sat the 2005 or 1991 Twins). Even the best baseball team needs to improve their play, and can win that one extra game. Blizzard is like that. world of warcraft powerleveling Sometimes I wonder if all of them realize this. The best way to make money ingame is… Selling things on the AH. I have way to make 5000g in a week on the AH if I work at it. Know how to do this and become rich in game. eve isk Maybe some day I’ll share how I do it… but I have a few thousand other topics to write on first. Favorite piece of loot. Bulwark of Azzinoth. I will have it soon. Yes, my preciousssss. When I’m not playing WoW, I’m… Seriously, I get paid to play a computer game. This is a dream job for me, so I try to take advantage of it as much as I can.

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About the Bloggers: Adam Holisky

Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 20th, 2008 No Comments »

“Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers. What do you do for WoW Insider. I’m a standard issues blogger, reporting on just about everything I can get my hands on. I like to concentrate on raid and high-end PvE issues, since that’s where I spend most of my time in game. I’ve also go a few projects in the work for our sister site, Massively. I think my first article should pop up over there next week (knock on wood)… What’s your main right now. My main is a Protection Spec Human Warrior on Eldre’Thalas. He’s been my main since March of 2005. However, I have flirted at times with the possibility of switching to a Priest full time, but that was back in November of 2006. However that said, I also have many other alts that I give a lot of care and love. One of my favorite things to do is to run the level 70 five mans with friends, all of us running on our fourth or fifth alt. It’s kinda fun! More after the break! For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance. Alliance! Grab that sword and fight the Horde! Seriously, I don’t play my horde characters much. I’ve got a 65 Blood Elf Paladin rotting away that I’ll probably never pick up again. wow powerleveling I’m not sure why the horde doesn’t click with me, it just doesn’t. Interestingly enough, I play exclusively on the evil side of EQ2… Favorite thing to do in Azeroth. I love tanking. wow powerleveling There’s something about going head to head, toe to toe, eye to eye with a huge monster and walking away from the fight alive.

I’m a big fantasy an sci-fi fan, and have spent more hours then I care to admit reading about Drizzit Do’Urden standing up against some monster and fighting until his last breath. When tanking some of the bosses, I can let myself go and loose myself in the fantasy of it for a bit – bringing back that epic feeling. wow po What’s the best instance in the game. This is a toss up between Black Morass and Mount Hyjal. Black Morass is great in that it’s short, challenging at times, and offers great rewards. guild wars gold I’ve often agreed to do a quick Black Morass run when I’m tired and otherwise would have not agreed to run another instance. Mount Hyjal is great because of the story and episodic nature of the whole instance. While I had mixed reaction to Blizzard removing attunement, one thing I was happy about was that many more people would be able to experiencing the story line and unique nature of the instance.” “Drysc responded strongly to some QQ over at the forums when a poster from Kil’jaeden — a PvP realm — ranted about being griefed by high level characters while leveling up. Drysc’s uncompromising response. gold für wow kaufen Get some friends and fight back. He reasons that if players roll on a PvP server, they should expect to be griefed as part of the leveling process. It’s the same philosophy that has prevented Blizzard from allowing character transfers from PvE to PvP realms.

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Blood Pact: Destro the only way to go?

Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 20th, 2008 No Comments »

“My experience has been completely opposite. I leveled as Demo till around 40, then switched to Dest. I liked Dest a lot but then I found myself often farming in the mid-50’s to lvl 60 and I *hated* it. Damage was great, but downtime sucked, I often overkilled stuff/wasted mana, and all the drinking was eating into my wallet as well. So I tried the Afflic spec to make my DoTs more powerful and mana gaining abilities available/more viable. All of a sudden farming was great fun! Completely different play style, for sure. I had planned on switching back sometime, for raiding and such, but just never did. To my surprise I found myself still usually out-damaging everyone in dungeons. Plus it’s really valuable to be able to heal myself so well. So I kept the spec. At the point I’m at now, my DoTs are overkill for even-con mobs so I still waste mana unless fighting elites, but DoTs are cheap, and I can get mana back easily. I may do slightly less damage than a Destlock, but it’s not significant. What is significant is how flexible I am now. Fear-kiting is powerful too, and much easier with good DoTs. My guild had a tough time in Magister’s Terrace, but I joined and fear-cc’d plus fear-kite and we waltzed through the place (fear only gets adds with inexperienced players). wow powerleveling The only complaint I have with the spec is that my DPS starts slowly, then builds to a frenzy. It would be nice if I had a spell that applied all my DoTs at once, because even though most are instant, there’s still the global cooldown between each cast. I know that its pretty much considered a taboo due to SB having higher spell damage coefficients and ISB > all and all that jazz, but with the addition of haste in a lot of gear and the new emberstorm buff makes a firey 0/21/40 spec viable these days.

I’ve used this spec since before 2.4 and imo I don’t think it makes much difference between the 20% extra shadow damage proc (which could well just disappear before you can strike again since anyone and their dear aunt sally can use up the charges), and the 10% flat rate of Emberstorm. eve isk Just my 2 cents mind…” “Destruction banks on high shadow bolt burst damage and is often coined the “”shadow mage”" spec. Affliction is the king of sustained damage, with a full range of DoTs at an affliction lock’s disposal. The interesting thing about these two trees is that their playstyles are probably as different as night and day. wow gold The destro lock is essentially a “”one-trick pony”", spending most of their time pushing a single button for shadow bolts. Since most of them will sacrifice their pet for buffs, pet management is also taken out of the equation. Affliction locks, on the other hand, generally have at least four, or even five spells in their rotation. Less spells in the rotation means less micro-management. wow powerleveling This gives destro locks more situational awareness in an encounter, which is essential for survival in raids where there is a lot of environmental damage. On the other hand, affliction locks have more to juggle, more decisions to make and are generally “”busier”" in a fight. Many warlocks have leveled as affliction locks due to the excellent sustainability of the build. lotro gold We are used to making snap decisions about DoTs on the fly and we enjoy the versatility warlocks have with respect to killing stuff: fear-kiting, drain-tanking and so on. Hence it is understandable if some affliction players complain that the destro playstyle is “”boring”" or a “”no-brainer”" - since the active interaction with what’s happening on screen is cut down significantly. Blizzard also seems to want most of us to become shadow bolt spammers in the end, as Warlock tier 6 gear favors shadow bolting locks.

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Blood Pact: Destro the only way to go?

Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 20th, 2008 No Comments »

“Raiding warlocks have a very specific role - dealing damage. As we progress further in the high end-raiding game, one thing becomes more and more apparent. Our much-envied range of playstyles diminishes and we seem to be shoehorned, like other classes, into pretty much a single cookie-cutter spec. The spec in question is destruction or 0/21/40 specifically. This spec capitalizes on the wonderful scalability of shadow bolt and consistently outperforms affliction when good spell hit and crit gear becomes available. For a detailed look at the 0/21/40 build, check out my “”A Warlock’s descent into Destruction”" article. I’ve recently respecced back to an affliction spec (40/0/21) just to revisit the good ol’ days of mobility (instant DoTs) and an “”unending”" mana pool (Dark Pact). I know we tend to look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, and true enough, my experience with affliction again was … less than satisfying. Why the difference. One possible reason is the greater availability of spell hit for other DPS caster classes. This has gradually negated the DPS advantage gained by affliction locks through Suppression. In other words, the spell hit granted by Suppression to affliction locks in early raid instances like Karazhan is really “”ahead of its time”", contributing to the build’s stellar performance in those instances. All three warlock talent trees get along well with our DPS role really, with different strengths in each spec. We are one of the lucky classes to get three different playstyles to do essentially the same job. The Demonology tree is well known for its survivability element - ever gone up against an SL/SL lock. Some demonologists can deliver serious hurt as well, as seen from some interesting statistics below. ” “Episode 9 of The Guild is up, and it’s confrontation time. runescape money The guildies meet each other in RL again to take down the bank ninja Bladezz, but yet another boss battle looms deep on the horizon.

Y’know, not that we don’t love this series (we do), but has there ever been any actual gameplay footage here. Am I the only one that would kind of like to see them in their characters, maybe raiding into Karazhan or wherever else they’re raiding. ever quest platinum Maybe there’s legal issues or something involved (but surely Blizzard wouldn’t mind, right. ). At any rate, another fun episode for The Guild (Tink needs to get some new DS games, I beat Mario like years ago), and it seems like things are coming to a boil on this storyline. wow powerleveling Episode 10 should be a big one. I have to say this is by far my favorite series. Even without game play footage, that is what makes it great, its not about the game play, its about the guild. Excellent work yet again. wow And a great thanks to one of my favorite actresses around! This series isnt about gameplay. Its a character piece. As far as relatability; Its not about being to relate, if anyone can relate to these characters, then something is wrong. lotro gold The beginning of the series gave you something sort of ordinary so you could recognize the situation, then it takes it beyond average and into the area of FUNNY. Its outlandish for a reason. FANTASTIC series and awesome acting all ’round. Phenomenal series. lineage 2 adena It’s evolved from a WoW thing, into a truly well developed story. Can’t wait to see episode 10! I think I can already see the ending though.

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