matticus
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WoW Insider Show live tomorrow afternoon
The weekly podcast goes live tomorrow afternoon yet again, and if you've only been listening to the recorded show, this might just be the week you want to join us at 3:30pm Eastern, both on the live feed and in the IRC chat: Matt "Matticus" Low will be joining us for his WoW Insider Show debut. Not only has he taken over the wildly popular priest column Spiritual Guidance, but he's an accomplished WoW player and blogger at his own personal site, World of Matticus. Additionally, Amanda Dean will be on with us, and Turpster and myself will both be around as usual, chatting about everything from what the Death Knight class is really for to why Amanda thinks Arena is broken, Should be a terrific show.You can join us live tomorrow at 3:30pm Eastern over on WoW Radio, and you can chat with us live either from that site or in IRC at irc.mmo-irc.com in the #wowradio channel. Or email us -- the show's address is theshow@wow.com, and we'll be answering your questions and queries from there as well. We'll see you tomorrow afternoon.
Twitterers on what makes an epic encounter
As you may have heard the other day, our Twitter account is up and running, and one of the most vocal participants so far has been our new Priest blogger, Matticus from World of Matticus. The other day, he posted a question on the Twitter account that he'd also asked people on his own blog: what makes an encounter epic?The answers are all pretty good (I've put them all behind the break -- thanks, Twitterers!). From what most people said, lore and story play a huge part in making a fight feel epic, and not just the story of the game, but the story of the guild playing as well -- when your guild almost wipes, and pulls off a great kill, that's an epic battle whether it's in Karazhan or in Sunwell Plateau. Challenge also helps -- people raid to be pushed to the edge of their endgame abilities, and when a well-tuned fight does that, it's one of the best experiences in the game.Great answers all -- hopefully we'll get to see more epic encounters than not in the Wrath of the Lich King (as Matticus points out, we don't need 40 or even 25 players to have a truly epic encounter with Arthas). And if you haven't started following our Twitter account (@WoWInsider) yet, please do, and stay tuned for more interesting and informal Twitter polls like this.
Say hello to the latest additions to the WoW Insider team
We've heard your calls for more coverage and we're happy to announce new writers are incoming. You have already seen the work of our two newest columnists, Shelbi Roach and Jennie Lees. Shelbi comes to us as half of the husband-and-wife team at The Bronze Kettle. Her crafting prowess is already on display in the weekly World of WarCrafts feature with step-by-step how-tos on a simple scroll and super potions.Some of you long time readers may remember Jennie Lees. She was the lead writer on WoW Insider back in the day. She's back to with a vengeance to helm our weekly raid column, Ready Check. And she's hit the ground running with a complete walkthrough for getting your bear mount and strategies for downing the first raid boss in Sunwell Plateau, Kalecgos. Starting soon are two new columnists. Breathing new life into our weekly Priest column, Spiritual Guidance, is one of the most popular Priest bloggers on the Internet, Matticus. Also joining us is Jon Eldridge. He will be tackling a weekly column focusing on one of the hottest topics outside the game: computer security. From keyloggers to trojans to Blizzard's Warden program, Jon will be providing advice on keeping your account from ending up in the wrong hands.Finally, many of you have noticed the lack of new pages for our on-going World of Warcraft webcomic, Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn. Chris Jahosky suffered a bad hard drive crash costing him a number of pages that were in various stages of completion. But never fear, Chris is rebuilding them all and Tales will be returning in just a few weeks.
Cooldowns are meant to be hot!
Super-power gamers probably know this one already, but for my part I know this is something I always struggle with. If I have an ability or item with a cooldown of more than one minute, I find myself always hesitating to actually use it; I keep wanting to save it for that emergency moment when I'm really going to need it. The problem is that those situations don't come once every minute, or even every 5 or 10 minutes. They come unexpectedly, and often that one cooldown you've been saving for that situation isn't really enough to save you.So, as Matticus says, "Use them. Please." It makes a lot more sense to use the cooldowns on a regular basis (like, roughly every time the cooldown is up) than it does to hardly use them at all, or only in situations where it's too late. Now, if you're like me and you think about this for a while, and reluctantly agree that yes it does make sense, then you come up with another problem that you want to use these cooldowns only at moments when it'll be most effective. On my hunter, for example, I hate to use "Bestial Wrath" (and "Beast Within") unless I believe there's at least 18 seconds left in the fight, because I hate seeing myself and my pet all Big and Red with nothing to kill!But the plain and simple fact is, people like me need to be less stingy with cooldowns. I don't mean we should blow them at moments that don't matter, of course, rather we would do better if we used them much more often, especially when they're not absolutely necessary to succeed. They can help the various sorts of grinding, farming, and trash-mob fighting go by a bit faster, and sometimes in long boss fights you can use them more than once!Can you think of any cooldowns that you think should be saved for that somewhat rare panic-button moment (such as a rogue's "Vanish," perhaps)? Can you think of cooldowns that you see people often forgetting or hesitating to use?
The ultimate loot distribution system?
I've been toying with the idea of putting together my own Kara raid, so when I saw the World of Matticus suggestions for loot distribution I read through them with eager interest. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of DKP, or Dragon Kill Points (a phrase harkening back to the days of Everquest), essentially every person attending the raid gets points based upon what bosses they participate in downing. Each DKP system is very different, from the basic to the complicated, and some are so complex that they require mods to organize. In the raid I was most recently in, they used zero-sum DKP, supposedly designed to keep people from hording the points, but it ended up being much like what they seemed to be trying to avoid, at least from what I saw. Matticus suggests that we modify the DKP systems, blend them together, and add a very important element: attendance. I also like his ideas on incentives for the spending of DKP, with discounts given for item pieces that are below the guild's current raid progression. It's an idea that allows the newer members of the raid to build their sets without having to wait the long period it normally requires to build up sufficient points. I'm still not sure how I would feel about Matticus' idea of a guild hierarchy, where certain classes get items first, but I suppose that is mostly because I play a mage. I do, however, see the value in building up the gear of those that are most central to the raid's success, so I guess I see his point after all. Personally, I think his ideas on DKP are sound enough to try. Whether or not they can be implemented by a brand new raid leader remains to be seen.
