PvP pages are currently in the “jotting down random information” phase, from where I will take said random mess and sort it into a less random mess that one might find useful!

This is going to be a bit of a slower process, as I am currently balancing playing Aion, and writing this guide. And I think we can all relate to the same feeling- the one where you just want to play the game because it’s starting to get good. Well, that’s a bad way to put it. It’s exceeding beyond my expectations, by becoming better yet.

Recently I read up on the Abyss, as this will likely be a place where I shall roam to exile the opposite faction filth- in my case, the Asmodae people. I learned that not only do abyss titles give you +cool points, they also GRANT ABILITIES once you get to a high ranking (One Star Generals and UP).

Ranks:

Examples of Gained Abilties for high ranking players:

So for those lucky, or screw it- skilled players, they earn themselves a GOD MODE. And in order to keep said god mode, they must continue to prove themselves worthy, otherwise others will rise in their place.

With this said, I’m going to work a bit more on my PvP page, and go play a bit of Aion.

Azryu 2.0

Oh yes, we have some patch notes that are quite… well, noteworthy!

Mage

Arcane

• Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.
• Arcane Missiles: Casting this spell while both Missile Barrage and Clearcasting are active will cause only Missile Barrage to be consumed.

• Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. This talent no longer has a chance to be triggered when spells miss.

Fire

• Combustion: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of Fire spells by 50% while it is active. In addition, Living Bomb periodic ticks will no longer interact with the count or the charges on the talent.

- Source: MMO-CHAMPION.COM

Oh yes, buffs all around. Arcane, in it’s current PTR form, will be further able to throttle dps from a slow dribble to an all-out mana dump. In addition to this, arcane also gets a huge buff to mana efficiency! While the haste buff has been taken away from the Missile Barrage, it has a greater chance to be triggered through Arcane Blast (the only other spell you should use, excluding moments of movement). This is great for PvE, but I foresee much QQ to incur upon our mage forums about the nerf this will be to Arcane PvP, since your missile are no longer going to be funneling out of your hand quite as fast.

And for those who have an affinity for flame, combustion is useful again! As to how useful, it’s hard to say exactly, but judging it from merely the text so eloquently laid out in front of me, it definitely looks to be a major improvement, making it a talent that (yet again) will be a hallmark of the Fireballin’ M.A.G.E. Unlike arcane, this is a buff that will be helpful for both PvE and PvP- and for those of you that actually brave the arenas and battlegrounds as fire, I salute you.

#QQ ALERT: YOU HAVE BEEN FORWARNED#

Before beginning, I would like to present the evidence.

Screenshot A

Screenshot B

Now, let me first state that I’m not one to typically say “Hey, I deserve this, because I do more dps then you”.

However.

Let’s say your in my place. For now, we will refer to you as Azryu. Oh yes, let’s RP a little. So, you go into a 25 man VoA and smash down the new boss on the first try, and you did amazing dps, and you are super proud of yourself- you just pulled off 6133 dps with little more then the raiding gear you acquired mostly from Naxxramas! You completely stomped the better geared people there- see Screenshot A.

So here you are, obviously furiously reading raid chat to see if anyone posted the dps. Surely someone else would post it- you don’t want to post it and seem like your bragging, just let someone else and throw a comment in there or two like “Mages are cool, sup.” Whoa! The raid leader just announced you can now roll for the Relentless mage gear! Oh joy!

You roll an 8. The mage doing little more damage then the tank rolls higher and wins. I won’t specifically name which mage won, but if you really think about it, I need not point it out. Or if your really savvy, you’ll notice only one other mage (aside from me) is present in both screenshots.

You now think to yourself- calm. Serenity. My happy place.

You move on.

“Who wants to do 10 man?!” screams the raid leader over RW.

Cheerfully, you say you’ll go, confident that you might get a spot since you preformed so well, and who in there right might would oppose having the best in their group possible?

So you get into said group, along with that very same mage, who won your other peice of gear. Whatever, it’s over with. Maybe he only pvp’s, and really just isn’t good at all this scripted stuff.

You down the fire watcher again, first try, ezmode.

See Screenshot B.

Again, you preform admirably. Not what you’d like to be doing, but hey, you still preformed well relatively speaking.

Oh wow! Tier 8 dropped, and here is my big chance to get that awesome 2peice set bonus!

You roll a 28. The other mage rolls a 56.

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Needless to say, I looked sorta like this.

Now, call me crude, an ass, or whatever. But when it comes down to it, where do you draw the line for things like this? Do you really reward the person doing 200 dps more then the tank with said gear? In one way of looking at it, it makes sense to give gear to those who need it most, in hopes of improving their performance. In another way, you reward those who have shown they put the time into their character and improving their skill.

This sort of reminds me of that oh-so famous No Child Left Behind shenanigans. Take funding away from schools who do poorly, and reroute said money to schools who excel. Is this wrong? Or perhaps… it’s not money that is going to solve the problem. Well, more of it anyway. Having even less money could defiantely decrease performance, due to having substanderd equiptment, but if you are doign well already I don’t see how more money would directly cause any increase in scores.

This reminds me of a post by Euripedes of Critical QQ. Being the good natured person I claim to be, I did read his Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License and found that I could quote him as long as I credit him, which I did just a few moments ago, so here it is:

“Look at it this way. Say you’re a professional driver. You can purchase more responsive brakes, higher quality tires, invest in better fuel and superior engineering, but none of that makes you a better driver. All it does is make driving easier and smoother.

Give an excellent driver a crappy car, and he will produce incredible performance from it. Give a piss poor driver the pinnacle of German automotive engineering, and you will have a finely crafted fireball careening into a ditch.”

- Euripedes – http://criticalqq.wordpress.com

That’s quite possibly the worst citation in recorded history, but this is a blog, not something anyone should actually read, obviously. So it’s going to be bad.

But back on track, which is the better way of thinking? Punish those who don’t excel, or throw lavish gifts in their direction in hopes of seeing improvement?

I am really tired, and emotionally unstable (not really). I’m going to sleep it off.

Soon I’ll have posts that pertain WoW. All in good time, my friends.

## OLD POST: I had this written up a while ago, never posted it for whatever reason. Well, here it is! ##

Oh, it was just another grand day today, I woke up and sipped on the most delicious cup of orange juice this world has yet to produce, and I sit down and que up for Wintergrasp.

Oh! Oh yes! You know what’s coming next, don’t ya?

Le FAIL.

Reikihealing is my priest, and I was in the middle of a semi-serious battle whilst typing that, hence the typos.

Now, I’m not usually one to respond to such… lack of thinking on other people’s part, but somewhere between loosing an offensive Wintergrasp battle and it being extremely early, I was especially perturbed. But what I did gain from trolling this kid in general chat was a good idea for a post! All things dark, as in loosing a battle that should be easily won, exist only because there is also light, yes?

Well, I first off want to say that between the Alliance and the Horde, the playerbase is NOT DIFFERENT. Sure, sure. You see embodiments of those lovely stereotypical individuals, but the thing is- if you look at the other faction, they have those same types of people too!

For Instance:

• Alliance Stereotypes
  • Immature Kids
  • Less Intelligent? Not sure if this is a widely accepted stereotype, perhaps it’s just one I see the ALLIANCE labeling themselves.
  • Cutesy (Play to look Pretty)
• Horde Sterotypes
  • Meat Heads
  • Internet Tough-Guys
  • Less Intelligent

Obviously, it’s easy to debunk every one of these. But what gets to me is when the Alliance begin to disresept their own faction! It seems like every time I’m in a loosing battleground there are numerous people in the general/BG chat saying how bad the Alliance is, and how they totally are re-rolling Horde. To me, there is nothing more infuriating. No, not because they are re-rolling, or more likely bluffing about doing so- I’d much rather see them with their name red. And you all know what the golden rule is!

IF ITS RED, IT’S DEAD.

The thing that makes me angry is how this state of mind could even exist. How could one expect to reroll and expect anything but playing with the same types of people? You still have your trolls, you still have your ninjas, you still have the people who seek E-Fame, and those who simply fall into the category of ” BADDIES “.

————————————————–

Here is where the post ended (unfinished). I’m not longer angry, so the same zeal is not there, however people who think players are any different on the other side are still:

Ah hem!

• Less Intelligent
• Meat Heads
• Internet Tough Guys (Or Cutesy in rare cases)
• Ignorant

Just today I was speaking with a long-standing friend of mine that I met through WoW, and through discussion he stated that he could never have a “personal feeling” conversation over vent. And perhaps this is a splinter from this subject, or a completely random topic- but I began to wonder:

Is there a difference between a friendship that we establish in our daily lives, and friendships that we develop online, with those who we may never meet?

When I think about how I value my friendships, I always come back to the same conclusion. Every one of my friends is in the same playing field, all of them just as significant or insignificant as any other. Is there such a thing as a insignificant friendship? A person who I might meet in my daily life outside of a game might develop a meaningful relationship faster in my mind, but to me an online friend can still reach that very same pinnacle.

To me, a friend is just that: a friend. Those we meet online, and those we meet otherwise: they are one and the same. I hate the phrase “real-life”, as in a “real life friend”.It insinuates that what one experiencs otherwise is fake and marginal.

Perhaps this idea of all my friends being equivalent to me exists largely due to the fact that voice commutation exists. To me, the voice is a very personal thing. It conveys emotions and meanings that words alone may not be able to. But then again, perhaps in body languages lies things that cannot be expressed through voice alone? Who’s to say, it’s too hard to tell.

But for now, let’s ignore the factor of sexual attraction, because this is something that does not apply to both friends in most cases. Do you feel that all the people you meet are in the same ball park? Do you consider them all friends, one in the same? Or are they in separate arenas?

Does one hurt worse when they say they hate you? Or does one produce more joy when they say they consider you one of their best friends? If both were to say they were going to move away- to another town or to another game- do you experience the same feeling of loss?

I’m unsure as to what kind of responses I will get. There of course will likely be some agreeing, and some disagreeing, and those who don’t care at all. But I think that there will be those who, at this time, will disagree- but when something truly profound happens, may it be for the better or worse, will come to agree with me.

That said, I hand the the microphone to you.

Tell me what you think.

To make this post short and sweet, I feel a renewed sense of wanting to play WoW as my mage again. Hopefully this is not just a temporary, or if you will “ghetto” buff and rather a greater blessing, or maybe just a damned aura with no time limit.

I also watched the two seasons of the guild, which put me in a really good mood. Maybe that too.

While waiting, listening to those VERY annoying Direct TV announcers chatter on, I was thinking- what would something really EPIC that Blizzard could do with Ozzy?

To put it shortly, I was hoping Arthas would make a stage appearance, Ozzy kill him and he gets the world’s first kill, and that he’d scream something like:
“FUCK ALL OF YOU! THESE ARE MY FUCKING 10 DAMNED ACHIEVEMENT POINTS” or something like that. And then the whole WoW commmunity from there would accept no one is getting the first world kill, and MMO-CHAMPION and everyone else would announce Ensidia/SK Gaming or whatever huge guild that happens to beat him in game first as the World SECOND.

From there, you see across the top of the screens the achievement flash before your eyes, saying it was completed my Ozzy on 8/22/09.

Oh well.