WoW: Why We Play

The breakfast topic over at wow.com the other day, was about late night wow sessions.
It got me reminiscing about all nighters, fun times, and the ingredients that keep me logging into the game over and over again...


My most memorable nights started after I made my DK at 55. I had started playing WoW with my friend Ant, but by the time we hit 55, he had found other means to occupy his time. From the DK forward, I flew solo; spending each night questing through a different zone, learning the game, and seeing new, beautiful landscapes for the first time.


But once the questing was over, the game started to change.


I found myself actually looking at the green text chat, and engaging in conversations.


I downloaded vent.


And thats when I fell in love with the game.

I've always had an inherent need to storm the last castle and save the princess--but WoW's story is always changing. Each and every penultimate challenge merely one more chapter in the tale. So, unlike other games that get played, and beat, and then rest upon the shelf until a feeling of nostalgia persuades me to rediscover the story-- this game, and its characters, interweave themselves in a very complex way. Characters are not defined by the events that happen in-game, but are intrinsically developed by the people behind them: their wants, desires, emotions, frustrations--all interwoven between earth and azeroth, dynamically change the way people and gameplay intersect.

People enter and exit from the story; some quietly, others dramatically. And as relationships among characters develop and evolve, we find ourselves (I find myself) logging on, not to rescue a princess, but rather to see how the other story unfolds...

For me, friendship is the backbone of the game's success. While I enjoy raiding, and PvP, the pixels on the screen aren't what keeps me attached to the game. It's the people.

It's Darth-- who is a wealth of both useful and useless information. That remembers fight mechanics photographically, and has knowledge of every spec and every class.

It's Whoa--who I still remember running around as a little boom-chicken when I levelled my fishing, whispering me about EZ- E and Snoop Dogg, and partyin' in the barrio.

It's Haz--just cause he's old and I miss my Great Great Great Grandpa--just kidding.

It's Di--who's single handedly reintroduced me to PvP, and who has stood by me since Sated's conception. Whose become a really close friend, and is one of my absolute, favorite people...


If it weren't for these people, the game wouldn't mean nearly as much as it has. It's been these people (along with others--not forgetting you, Bu and Stink) that create the opportunities for memorable moments; a late night vezax kill, dueling in dresses in front of Org, soloing the pit at 70, levelling to the wee hours of the morning--chatting over vent and really getting to know someone....

Surprise! I'm dualboxing!!! And I'm in a world ranked guild...

I'm lying.
I would never dual box.
I think its dumb.
But more importantly, I think its disrespectful.


Here's the scoop:


So Stinky and I jump into a random the other day to partake in a little free frost give-away.
Nexus.


Stinky- Bear Tank
Me- 1337 dps
Hunter- 4800 gearscored
Lock- 4400 gearscored
Pally- 5000 gearscored Holy


So we're runnin through this place, Stinky's pullin 5-6 iceblocks at a time, pulls the boss--and I'm mashin close to 7k on the chart. Hunters at 2200 and some change. Lock is hittin around....I dunno....650.

No lie.

And the Holy Pally is playin tank the etire time, pullin groups, runnin ahead, pullin more groups, starting boss fights...

Stinky: "So it looks like we have another tank."
Me: "WTF is this guy doing?
Stinky: "I should go cat and let him holy tank."
Me: "Fuckin do it! This guys doesn't need to be pullin this shit..."

Anomolus pulled. Everyone dead. Stinky healing himself. I rush in--the two of us take him down to about 15% before we wipe.

Hunter Exits.

I first call out the lock for the absolutely shitty dps. He's just walking around basically.
Me: "Dude--WTF are you doing...besides walking around with a thumb up your ass?"
Holy Pally: "Trying to heal."

This assmonkey has been keeping us in combat so we couldn't kick his fail ass. He's been intentionally pulling shit so we'd have to keep fighting--fucker knows the system; If you're in combat, you cant kick (I didn't even know this till then).

Enter Rakshas. Shaman from Sated. Vote Kick the Pally--I thought the lock would bounce too. This was not the case.

Fail-Lock: "blah blah blah...something, something, something, you shiteater...I'm in a world ranked guild....blah, blah blah."

Me: Buh Bye.

Shit. Can't kick a second time.
Enter Aldoraine, a Sated Hunter. Misdirect Keristraza to Lock. Dead. We burn in hopes it goes down before lock runs back in.

Miss it by a sec.

If you're gonna have the balls to be shitty and dual box. Do it with your own guild. I will endure a completely retarded repair bill to piss you off.

You are warned.

The Elitist: 80's Fresh off the Boat! (in greens and blues)

Dark/Soth contributed a post to Clearcasting last week that drummed up some major attention...

The post depicts a struggle that many of us seem to face when queueing for random heroics; being paired with undergeared (and/or underskilled) players for dungeons reaching the upper echelon of the level 80 spectrum. During Naxxramas days, I remember the avg dps needed for heroics was somewhere between 1300-1500 dps, and 1500+ to clear Naxx-10. After reading Dark's post, I wanted to see how that held up under todays specs.

The Argument: DPS should be pulling 2k in heroics as an overall average.

The TEST: Set up a group in greens and blues, send them into heroics, and record the data.
Test Group: Bear Tank, 2 DK's, Lock**

**I wanted to get a hunter in, but none were online at the time of my trial**

All DPS wore crafted blue items (savange saronite for the DK's), and visited the AH for miscellaneous items like neck, rings, etc. All purples were unequipped for this team, and we purposely, randomly selected the AH green items. I wore level 70 agility stat weighted items, left one trinket slot empty, and equipped sphere of red dragons blood in the other. After fully equipping the greens and blues, I had a base strength of 700, a crit chance of 31% and a hit chance of 3% (interesting enough, my base crit chance was higher in this gear than my ilvl 232-251 gear).

Enter Queue for Random Heroic: UK

The Observation:

Let me preface by saying that I was utterly surprised at the results. With 1/3 of my normal strength and hit chance, I expected to do much worse than I actually pulled.

As you can see from recount (ok- I "misplaced" the overall recount pic), all dps members hovered right around the 2k mark. Slan (Lock) was sitting about 1.9k, Buick (DK) 2k, and myself about 2.2k. Even neglecting hit chance, these numbers were easily obtained, and were constant throughout the instance. These numbers also reflect the total average dps for the run.

(screenshot after one of the mobs)

Things to Consider:

We all know what we're doing. Don't laugh. It's true. Buick and I consistenly top the dps charts in current tier raids(Slan has multiple toons)--so I can say without a doubt, that the 2.2k I was able to pull was the product of a near perfect raid dps spec, rotation, and glyph set. I can't get any better than what I was doing (unless I can and just don't know about it).

Now, subtract out 100-200 dps for a less-than-stellar spec, and another 200 or so for not utilizing a correct rotation (priority) and/or glyph set, and the base dps for a true n00b 80 hovers right around the 1500-1700 mark.

That being said....

I'm calling it.

(insert voiceover here) *Big, Booming, Official Sounding Voiceover, possibly Mr. Samuel L Jackson*

OFFICIAL DPS FOR A N00B 80 to RUN HEROICS: 1500-1700 (and I hope they burn in hell!)

Most DPS should have a clue by the time they ding 80. Others though, may need some help; a good point in the right direction, if you will. I personally think that 1500-1700 dps is easily achieveable in quest/AH purchased gear--and should definitely be considered the floor-median for DPS players looking to run Heroic Dungeons.

Meme? WTF is a Meme???

Ok Arioch, I'll bite (byte?).
I guess this thing's like a chain-letter, and since I fucked up the video-capture in ICC last night, I don't have much else to do today. I did manage to record Saurfang though =p
That vid should be up soon...


1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?
My first post went live on Aprill 22, 2009--I originally got into it as a way to showcase raid information, talk strats, basically keep my guildmates informed. Up until that time, there were only 2 blogs that I checked daily: WoW Insider, and skeletonjack. I wanted to do something fun, display some info, and maybe spark some conversation with peeps that love to play the game, outside of azeroth.

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?
Maybe a couple. I actually spend more time looking for ways to enhance the look and feel of it; the architecture. As far as the posts are concerned, I'm really an "off-the-cusp" kinda guy. Sometimes I have something to talk about, sometimes I don't. I go in, write the post, publish, and proof it after its already up. =p

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?
Other than countless philosophy papers--absolutely none. Does it show?

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?
Most of my topics come up during the course of play the night before. Some are spurred by conversations with guildies and friends, and very rarely some ideas do originate from other bloggers. I like to discuss issues that are at the forefront of my mind--funny things that happen in game, ways to better yourself as a player, frustrations I'm having, things I want to know more about; and on the flip side, things I want other people to know about. There's really not a whole lot of brainstorming. I just let the shit flow naturally.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?
A gentleman never kisses and tells...I on the other hand would broadcast that shit American Pie style if I had the chance. I guess it's just been a while.

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?
I like to try to publish 3-4 times a week. Actually, I'd really like to publish something daily, but often I'm either preoccupied with actual work, or just don't have a topic for discussion. Don't tell anyone, but I usually do my writing from work, shhh..... I'm writing this post from work. Right now. Really.

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

Here's a  fun one to answer: None. Nada. Zilch. Nil. I have absolutely no items in draft. I'm not that clever. And, I think I've only ever deleted 1 post that I was working on. And that was because I was just being lazy. lol

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?
Eh. Who would really want this anyway? Chances are, before I kicked the bucket, I'd redirect the domains to someplace of my choosing. *Ahem...*
That just happened!

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?
The number of people that find the blog and engage in it. It's a cool feeling to have people other than guildies send me an email, or seek me out in-game, to reference it. Oh, and the number of bloggers out there that are genuinely entertaining. I've come across a lot. I'm actually reading more now than when I was in school.

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?
I'd like to incorporate it more into the guild site that has yet to be...well...finished. I'd like to get more people involved in it also--maybe find a way to contribute topic ideas, etc.
I wanna go fast!