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14 alternatives to "clunky" for describing rotations
The inimitable Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, lead systems designer, recently hit the forums to talk about warrior balance. Along the way, he dropped some of that classic wisdom that spawned my eternal love for Ghostcrawler. He pointed out that you don't need hard numbers to describe how a rotation feels (though you do when talking about DPS competition), but he did say he thought the community would benefit from some adjectives other than "clunky." We completely agree. Describing the feel and sense of a rotation can be a tricky business, and clunky is the go-to adjective for most folks. There are other words we can use, though, that help provide a more refined sense of what you intend. We're here to help, so here's our list of alternatives to "clunky." Inelegant The rotation is serviceable but lacks poetry. It's like you can feel the rotation trying to be rhythmic, but it's constantly interrupted without meaning. A big proc counts as meaning, for the record. Twisted Because the flow of the rotation is interrupted to go backwards, it feels like your fingers get twisted up trying to achieve optimum. Think two steps forward, one step back ... now three steps forward, two steps back. Cumbersome So many button pushes are required in a short period of time (what's up, cat druids?) that it feels like you're so focused on your rotation that you can't see the game.
Michael Gray05.10.20124 best Blizzard customer support videos
Blizzard is a fairly tech-savvy company. You can tell on account of this huge, massive game it runs. More importantly, though, Blizzard maintains a fairly robust online presence even outside of the game. It even keeps a fully stocked, awesome YouTube channel dedicated to Customer Support. The thing you might not realize about the videos is that they're awesome. I don't just mean that in the sense that Blizzard is putting good information out there; the videos themselves are well crafted, lots of fun, and brilliantly narrated. I'd like to make sure you're not missing out on any of the cool stuff. So let's review the best Blizzard support videos available on YouTube. Item Restoration The Item Restoration video above is probably my favorite video. It introduces the new Item Restoration service, which is a huge benefit all its own. The narrator really grabs this subject by the horns and runs with it. Of course, the shocked worgen is equally awesome, and I spent the day making my own shocked worgen face at myself in the mirror.
Michael Gray05.03.2012Phat Loot Phriday: Gilnean Raven
When we last left our heroes, they were packing to go to Pandaria. While Throgg and Lolegolas shove their belongings into mysterious blue boxes and bags of questionable size, let's take a jump across the pond and check in on the missing member of the precarious party. She gets cross if I ignore her for too long. Miranda pushed herself up on her elbows, peering around her spacious cage. She noticed immediately that the bamboo enclosure smelled fairly nice. If she was trapped in captivity, at least it was a relatively tidy captivity. "Hello?" she asked. Her voice was dry and cracked; the words came out as a croak. "Is anyone there?" "Good morning, Miranda," someone replied. "If it helps you relax, this isn't about you at all. You'll see I even have a gift for you. I wish you to be comfortable while you serve as bait." The shrouded figure came nearer, kneeling to slide a small bird through the cage. Miranda tried to get a look at the man, but mist and smoke kept her from making out much beside his robe. "That's a Gilnean Raven. It might turn out to be quite the fighter. I'm certain your druid will appreciate it. This raven is quite like a writing desk." "What is this about, then?" Miranda asked. She reached out to the bird and was pleased when it jumped to her wrist immediately. "What's going?" The shadowed man turned back to his reading. "It's an assignment, nothing personal. I will get Throgg very angry, and while he's in the middle of his Throgg-smash routine ... I will kill him." Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing mikeg@wowinsider.com.
Michael Gray04.27.2012How to transfer to a roleplay realm
A roleplay realm recently suffered a little bit of drama when a very large guild suddenly took up residence. While we could talk about the details of that little explosion, those details aren't actually the point. I see this happen all the time. For one reason or another, a huge group of folks spot some greener grass on an RP server and go there. The RP server sees this huge influx of people and freak out, worried about RP griefing, pun names, and other misery. I see this happen with such regularity that you can nearly set your watch by it. I'm convinced no one is in the wrong, per se. It's just a matter of communication, expectations, and general fear. So with that in mind, if you happen to be in a large guild getting ready to transfer to a roleplay server, here are some tips to make the transition smooth, easy, and friendly.
Michael Gray04.19.2012The returning-to-WoW checklist
Maybe you're just coming back from vacation, or maybe you were having a baby. Maybe you were just super busy at work. Certainly, you weren't dallying with those other games. Whatever it was that kept you away from Azeroth, now that time has passed and you can get back to some good old-fashioned, well-balanced WoW. Firing up your character for the first time in a while can be a little disorienting. It's worse than forgetting where you left your keys. What does this button do? Where's my hat?! Why is a murloc chewing on me?! Let's alleviate some of that initial logging-in-the-first-time confusion with a handy checklist. Just go down the list and make sure all your gear is where you left it.
Michael Gray04.12.2012How to handle abusive and negative players
One of the nice things about the WoW community is that it tends to be full of friendly, kind people. There are plenty of folks in the game -- and on the forums, even! -- who are happy to lend a helping hand. It can be fun to chat with strangers, joke, and share in a bit of camaraderie. But people are people, and sometimes you will encounter a troll or just mean-spirited n'er-do-well. It can be a heck of a souring experience to cruise through a few random groups and then run face-first into a big ball of negativity. It's almost inevitable you'll cross paths with someone who wields racist, sexist, or just plain foul language. While I wish we could tap a magic wand and make all that negativity just go away, that's just not possible. That's the bad news. The good news is that there are a few things you can do about it.
Michael Gray04.05.2012How to replace a keyfob authenticator with a smartphone Battle.net authenticator
I've had my authenticator for years. Taking the sound advice of persons wiser than me, I picked up an authenticator way before it was cool. No hackers or n'er-do-wells were getting into my account and sharding my purples! Those purples vindicate my life choices, and criticizing my life choices is my wife's job, not some random stranger who scammed my password from Facebook! But like many things in life, this authenticator too must pass. In this specific case, this authenticator must pass between the jaws of my dog. It didn't work so well after Sylvanas got done unleashing some Dark Puppy-level fury on it. If you too find yourself needing to replace your trusty old authenticator, here's how you get it done. In this case, we're replacing the old sexy keyfob with a new, nearly-as-sexy iPhone authenticator app.
Michael Gray03.31.20123 reasons for casual players to be excited about Mists of Pandaria
While this column is nominally titled WoW Rookie, if you'll pardon the redundancy, it actually tends to serve as a cross-section of content for new, casual, and (as I like to call them) play-a-little players. It's for folks who don't really have hours on hours each week to devote to the hobby. After all, when baby's gotta eat, baby's gotta eat; can't nurse three hours later just so you can do the hard mode first. With that in mind, Mists of Pandaria brings a lot to recommend it to our crowd. While it's tempting to give in to scuttlebutt and think this expansion is mostly for the hardcore crowd, I promise that Blizzard hasn't forgotten about its loyal, beloved casual playerbase -- because boy, oh boy, is there a lot for us to love! This topic comes up this week from reader Angela, who wrote: I've been reading in forums about how MoP is mostly for the raider and hardcore crowd, that Blizzard isn't catering to 'casubads' anymore. Is there any reason for a full-time worker and mom to care about MoP? I promise, Angela, there are reasons to care. Let's talk about them.
Michael Gray03.22.2012What every brand new WoW player should know
Last week, we started talking to the brand new players in the game. These are the folks who just installed WoW for the first time. They're so fresh to the game they have to sit through all the cinematics, figure out a username and password, and spend time reading every tooltip as it appears. While the in-game instructions in WoW are pretty good, there's still some basic context to the whole MMORPG genre that can help out. Let's review some more of the basic assumptions that a new player should know. Setting these expectations can help the starting experience make a lot more sense.
Michael Gray03.15.2012Getting started with World of Warcraft
We've been talking about a lot of high-falutin' concepts lately, like PvP and protecting the healer and killing the healer and so on. But having started a few new games in the last month, I've been able to ride the noob train and get a new look on my old, comfortable car, the World of Warcraft. While getting smacked in the face with the cold, wet noodle of noobdom, I came to realize how many of WoW's most basic concepts we take for granted. At the most basic level, consider the NPC bad guys we call mobs. Do you kill them? Fight them? Run away? Consider if WoW were the first video game you'd ever really played. We all know Mario killed turtles for points, but bypassing those same turtles was perfectly fine. Is the same true in WoW? Some mobs surrender to your unassailable assault -- do they all? Should that be a regular tactic? This basic dynamic is something we take for absolutely granted, and it's the very first "What the hell am I doing here?" moment in WoW. So let's jump all the way back and consider some of the truly most basic assumptions about the game.
Michael Gray03.08.2012What are multiboxers and how do you fight one in PvP?
Multiboxing is kind of an odd phenomena that doesn't repeat anywhere in WoW. It's definitely weird. My point isn't that people who multibox are some kind of weird mutant freaks or anything. Rather, the point is that as often as you hear about it and for all the vitriol often directed at people who multibox, you'd think a small army of multiboxers camp each realm, stamping out flowers and spewing vile curses at the authorities. That clearly isn't the case. While multiboxers are very rare, especially the folks running an entire party in a single Battleground, they're still fairly notable. That's because one person controlling multiple accounts coordinates sending an awful lot of damage down your pie-hole all at one time. A good multiboxer will just plain ruin your day. You won't see multiboxers often, but you'll definitely remember the encounter. Multiboxing is the practice in which a single player controls multiple characters at once. The fine technology of how that player pulls that trick off is a little different for each player, of course. In general, they string together several accounts to one keyboard. That means all the characters act with amazing precision -- five damaging spells, five heals, five actions all at the same time.
Michael Gray03.01.2012How to heal in Battlegrounds
We've been talking about Battlegrounds a lot lately. That makes a lot of sense, since those Battlegrounds can be a refuge for the casual or limited-time crowd -- not to mention, since we're stuck in the purgatory between expansions, now's the time to get your PvP on. An indispensably important part of the Battlegrounds is having capable, willing healers. Just a small handful of powerful, practiced healers can make your Battleground team invincible. When you are the healer, you get to decide who lives and who dies on your team. You extend your warm, golden glow around the mere DPS who clamor to bathe in your power, and by means of that glow, provide victory to your team. I might be engaging in a little hyperbole, but you get the point. A good healer can be incredibly powerful in Battlegrounds. You'll find the role engaging and complex; your greatest enemy will be tunnel vision, self-reliance, and the ability to communicate on the fly. Let's talk about how you can maximize the power of your time as a healer.
Michael Gray02.23.2012How to protect your healer
Last week, we talked about what it takes to kill a healer. While we obviously had a few "be a death knight" jokes, the discussion was pretty good. It's a clear and obvious point: If you don't kill the enemy's healer, you're in for a long, hard Battleground. If it's so important to kill the enemy healer, then the inverse must also be true: Protect your healer. If you'd ever like to experience the life of a rope caught in a tug-of-war between 15 wild dogs, roll a healer in Warsong Gulch. It's kind of like that. Without your protection, your healer will soon be enjoying life as a greasy spot of ex-character. This is bad. First, that healer's your team member. Second, that healer is your own best avenue of survival, since you need healing. If you want healing, protect your healer. Simple stuff. As a general rule, I'd place protecting your healer among any Battleground's highest priorities. You can't let the protection get in the way of things like capturing the flag, but by the same token, you probably won't capture said flag without your healer. Here's how you get that protection done.
Michael Gray02.16.2012How to kill a healer
One of the themes that keeps coming up when we talk about PvP is this: Killing a healer is tough. It's a fundamental part of balancing an MMO. If any single DPSer could simply kill a healer with ease, then there wouldn't be much point in being a healer. If all factors were truly equal, then a healer's output should match a damage dealer's output. It's just a matter of one equals one. Only superior skill or gear should allow for the death of a healer in any reasonable amount of time. More importantly, a healer must be able to keep up with the damage from more than one DPSer for a short period of time. Consider 5-person Arena matches. Commonly, teams are built of four DPSers and one healer. (We're not looking for comp arguments here, just the basics.) For at least a few seconds, a healer should be able to keep a focus target alive. The same goes for three-person Arena teams. See where this is going? Healers, by nature, need to be able to withstand a huge amount of DPS for a short time. These balance issues come into sharp focus when you're one lone PvP damage dealer trying to whoop up on a healer. What was once a fundamental basic of balance philosophy becomes a huge pain in the neck. Here's how to handle the situation.
Michael Gray02.10.2012How to kill a flag carrier
We've spent the last few weeks talking about Warsong Gulch and how to be a successful flag carrier. This week, let's talk about the most important skill for everyone else: how to turn that flag carrier into a greasy spot on the ground. These skills apply relatively equally to Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks, and even Eye of the Storm. If the enemy has a flag, you want to kill them.* Let's remember that the entire other team will (should) be protecting their flag carrier. That really leads to the basic strategy here -- how do you kill that one dude when 10 other folks are trying to keep him alive? It's not as hard as you might think, but it does take a little forethought. *Unless you're in Eye of the Storm, in which case: Get the damn towers.
Michael Gray02.02.2012How to carry the flag in Warsong Gulch
Last week, we talked about some basic strategy for Warsong Gulch. We ran through the basics, the general flow of the fight, and how you (tend) to win it. One subject came up a bunch in the comments and landed in my email box a few times. That question: How do you run the flag successfully? It's no surprise that's a contentious issue. Without debating the fine points of who should be running a flag, I think we all agree that being the flag carrier is an incredibly vital role. Touch the flag and you just became the focus of 19 people in the Battleground. There's a little more to the job than just mashing a particular cooldown, so let's take some time this week to talk about strategy and tips.
Michael Gray01.26.2012How to win at Warsong Gulch
In our continuing efforts to help players new to PvP get out there and blow up other players, we're focusing this week on Warsong Gulch. We'll talk briefly about the rules of the game and then look at common strategies. Warsong Gulch is one of the simpler Battlegrounds in terms of raw strategy. It's essentially Capture the Flag. Each team has a base, and a flag that sits in that base. Your team's goal is to grab the enemy's flag and return it to your base without losing your own flag. Do that, and you score. Score three times and you win. When you pick up the flag, you can't mount or use certain effects without dropping the flag. Notably, druids and shaman can engage their travel forms while carrying the flag, making them speedy options for what's known as the flag carrier. (Speedy does not imply superior; we'll get into that later.) The longer the FC holds the flag, the more damage the FC will take from player attacks. When you kill an FC, the flag will temporarily sit on the ground, waiting for someone to pick it up. If the friendly team does so, the flag returns to base. If the enemy team does so, they now have a new FC. There you go. Those are the basics.
Michael Gray01.19.2012How to transition from PvE into PvP
Well, the end-of-expansion blues are here, there's this other MMO out there, and guilds are seeing members drop like flies. Now's the time when many players who don't want to give up WoW find themselves turning to PvP as a way to kill time and keep playing while they wait for old friends (and new content) to come back around. The thing is that PvP is a fundamentally different game from PvE. I'm not saying one's better or worse; the two aspects of WoW just have significant variations in gear, thought processes, and playstyles that can make the transition a little bumpy. As such, let's renew a guide to getting away from killing bosses every week and get down to how to kill your fellow players. (In game. Let's not get weird here.)
Michael Gray01.13.2012The etiquette of rolling on gear in groups
Dungeons drop gear. For many players, that's the whole point of going into an instance, whether it's a 5-man dungeon or a huge raid instance. We're locked in the ever-expanding search for better gear, and you have to kill bosses to get your sweet, sweet loot. Most guilds use one or more various systems to make sure loot distribution is fair. Some employ a basic rule of civility; once you get gear in an a raid, it's polite to defer further drops to other guildmates. Others use complicated but effective point systems, assigning dropped gear a point value that members can bid against. No matter what the general system for rolling on gear, the foundation of the system is based on all group members' being part of a common team. Pickup groups and Raid Finder groups possess no such commonality. The teams comprise random folks thrown together by Blizzard's behind-the-scenes group-building algorithms. Basic roles are filled, a few rules followed -- but basically anyone can get thrown together into a group. Random groups rarely agree on loot etiquette before getting started. We all say we should agree on loot rules beforehand, but that rarely actually happens. Instead, most folks charge ahead into the dungeon operating under only a few basic assumptions about how loot will be divided. With that in mind, let's review the basic etiquette of rolling on gear in groups.
Michael Gray01.12.2012Rotations vs. Priority Systems: The buttons you press
WoW Insider reader and generally well-rounded dude Tim sent me this question: I love playing damage characters like a rogue and a retribution paladin. When I read through the forums about how to play these classes well they talk about how priorities have replaced rotations. I don't really understand the difference or the history of what they're talking about. Could you explain? Oh, yes, Tim. I can explain. It's a fun little meta-discussion, because the change in damage rotations is actually a microcosm of the way WoW has evolved over the last seven years. Don't believe me? Hold onto your seat, and let's get started. First, let's establish that rotations exist for all classes and roles. While you usually get a little more play from figuring out the best rotation among damage classes, I assure you that healers and tanks worry nearly as much about pressing the right buttons. That's really what the whole mess boils down to: Which buttons should you push? You see, Tim, back in the days of original WoW, most players kind of mindlessly mashed their buttons without a specific order. Sure, we had a general notion that a high-level Fireball would do more damage than a low-level Fireball. And we knew that some spells had higher cast times but delivered more damage. But it lacked science. Rotations existed in a murky, primordial game ooze. All the raw material was there for damage buttons to spring into animate life of its own. But they were missing some essential spark to transform into the elegance of damage rotations. Enter the theorycrafters.
Michael Gray01.05.2012