Monday, February 27, 2012

TyL: It's Not Me, It's You...

Sportnet Hockey Central Crew: Waaaahhhhhh!!!!! There've been no trades yet!!!! We have nothing to talk about!!!! Trade Deadline Day sucks if the GM's don't do anything!!!!!
NHL GM's: Maybe you whiney bitches should wait for the deadline before doing your show then so you actually have something to talk about, eh?

For reference, the banality of the 12 hour Hockey Trade Deadline show here in Canada has been discussed here before.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Rant: The Raid Finder

A lot of people seem to misconstrue the purpose of this addition for some reason; mostly because they have their own agenda of victimization to perpetuate. For the record, it's not about "catering to the casuals" i.e.: Bads". It's about trying to recreate the far more active raiding scene from Wrath that's largely died out with the launch of Cataclysm for various reasons - primarily the loss of gear prestige from 25 man raiding.

It was that gear differential the encouraged a lot of alt raiding amongst guilds who often couldn't field a second full 25 man roster to attack the raid that week. That lack of personnel "in house" created a whole lot of opportunities for the people with limited play time to simply log in and go hit a raid because Trade would be actively spammed during the evenings. Now, with 25 man raiding diminished and 10 man raiding on the rise there's a lot less action on Trade looking for groups - 'specially once you're off the high pop servers. In addition, a lot of those Trade groups are looking to fill 10 slots, with DPS often filling quick and Tanks/Healers being the only things in demand.

So, the people with no interest in guilding up or unable to meet raid times frequently find themselves locked out; left with little to do once they've Heroic Cap'd and few reasons to log on until the next patch. Raid Finder exists address that need and it's a benefit for everyone. People in your guild who can't make raids for some reason (say, a work schedule shift),now have an avenue to keep up somewhat on their spare time so they're not as far behind when they can come back to the roster. New players get to sample raiding and, perhaps, get an itch to try the full blown thing which brings in fresh blood. Time limited players get their Wrath raiding levels back so they don't walk away and lower your server pop/drive up the economy by stopping to gather things needed for raids.

Someone else can likely come up with more but those alone are reasons that make the RF worth having regardless of your personal stance on who's "wrecking the game".

Friday, February 24, 2012

LS: For Future Reference.

When I get a new computer later this year, I shall have to try this.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

TotD: Douchebagicus Gameramus

Easily identified by their frequent use of the word "Casual" as an insult without any sense of irony or the impression of self-absorbed asshole they're giving out. This animal is often found screaming to high heaven about "how easy the game is!!!!!!" whilst hiding behind a level one alt softly nuzzling their links to Elitist Jerks in the belief that knowing where it is and having read it somehow makes them similarly 'l33t, despite never stepping foot inside a raid.

Mostly harmless- unless you invite them to a run. Then they will likely die to their own stupidity and inability to follow instruction or accommodate the current situation whilst cursing you all as "fails" for not keeping their awesome rotation tunnelling skills alive. As such, best avoided and left in the corner where you found them, quietly mumbling about events that either never happened or are now filtered through nostalgia glasses 30' thick.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

GP: The Burger's Priest.

The Burger's Priest caught a little buzz last week here in TO thanks to picking up a Zagats ranking of third on places to eat in Toronto. With locations out in Scarborough on Queen East and between Lawrence and York Mills on Yonge, here's what you need to know:

1) If you're the kind of person who expects to walk in, get your burger in 1 minute, and go sit down: you're missing the point. This is not McDonalds: everything is cooked to order so you best be prepared to wait a bit.

2) Whether or not it's the "best burger you've ever had" is subjective and perhaps a bit hyperbolic. You'd have to have pretty specific taste buds to not at least say that it's good comfort food though 'cause it is. Just a basic simple ground beef burger topped to your specs and cooked until it's done. In the "what was in here that was going to kill you is now dead" sense, not the "charred to a crisp" sense. So, it stays nice and juicy with a good amount of flavour. (note that this is the default, if you want well done, ask for it)

Its not a place I'd eat at all the time, but it's definitely one of those worth poking your head into now and then to treat yourself to a nice snack.

WoW: Enhancement MoP Talents + Skills (V2.0).

Zee MoP Talent Calculator has been updated today. The big change is that the Mobility tier has been taken out and some tiers have been shifted around. The "control" tier of roots and knock backs has been moved to Tier 2 and has seen Repulsion Totem replaced with Windwalk Totem from the lost mobility tier. Tier 1 is now the defensive cool down tier which remains largely the same, some numbers have been shifted around, but most notably Stone Bulwark Totem only regenerates to about one third it's initial drop value every 5 seconds now.

Tier 6 can now be found at Tier 3, but Elemental Harmony has been given the chop which makes me sad. In its place is now Call Of The Elements: a 5 minute cool down that resets your totem cool downs. Which could make for some interesting Elemental usage in PvE, but is nowhere near as useful as being able to drop Stone Bulwark Totem and Earthgrab, and Tremor all at the same time would've been; perhaps why they shot it. Following that, Totemic Restoration now no longer restores totems but, instead, simply reduces the cool down on them by half the runtime time that would've been remaining when they were killed - up to 50%. Totemic Projection remains unchanged.

Tier 5 is now Tier 4 and sees the same abilities in place but cleaned up to make more sense. Elemental Mastery is now straight 30% haste for 20 seconds and no instant cast; turning it into a mini-Heroism/Bloodlust on a 2 minute cool down that actually does something for us now. Ancestral Swiftness, if I'm reading it right, now provides a constant 5% melee and spell haste passively while also acting as an instant cast cool down on a 1 minute timer. Booming Echos remains the same and I suspect the question in the damage tier comes down to this: do you need to burst down targets at specific time windows (think Spine)? EM. Then wait for the math folks to sort out which of BE and AS works best in fights that favour more consistent output over burst.

Closing things out for the moment, as Tier 6 is currently empty, Tier 4 now becomes Tier 5 with no significant changes that I can see.

Two other things are worth mentioning as the spell tree also got a bit more fleshed. Firstly, there appears to be no plan to replace the Haste Totems at the moment. Instead, it looks like all Shaman will be bringing 5 straight up Mastery points - not rating: know the difference - to the raid via a new ability: Grace of Air. All Shaman also will currently bring the Wrath spell power buff via Burning Wrath. Secondly, our level 87 spell has been added and is apparently a transformative ability called Ascendance on a 3 minute cool down lasting 15 seconds with different effects/forms for each spec. We only care about one of those here: "While in the form of an Air Ascendant, auto-attacks and Stormstrike deal pure Nature damage and have a 30-yard range."

Now that will make bosses with zone clear mechanics a bit more interesting, won't it....