Need More Rage

This blog is hilarious!!!  Go meet Ratshag over at Need More Rage.

He’s Horde…. so I’ll have to forgive him for that… but the humor is great.  For example:

As I has already mentioned, me dad beat the importance of havings Goals and Prioities into me at an early age. Usually with a big club or a quillboar femur. Havings accomplished all of me earlier Goals and Priorites, it seriously be time to write down me some new ones. So here they is.

Number the One. Get all friendly with the Aldorks so’s I can get some nifty chest armor. At the moments I got a little over 500 Dreadfang venom sacs, which ain’t even halfway to what I needs just to get back to being on speaking terms with’em. Lots of work to go there.

Go check it out.

Leeroy Kitty

Since this one’s WoW related…. I had to share, even though it’s obviously Photo Shop’ed.

Picture from I Can Has Cheezburger?

Spell Review: Psychic Scream

Psychic Scream aka Fear, if I use PS I’ll feel like I’m writing a million Post Scripts!

Tooltip – Rank 4 (as of 10/25/2007)

• Cast Time: Instant
• Cooldown: 30 sec
• Duration: 8 secs
• Mana: 189 mana

” The caster lets out a psychic scream, causing 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee for 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect.”

Mechanics – What does the tooltip mean?

• One thing to remeber about Priest Fear is that it will wear off before the cooldown is up. Chain Fearing is not an option so you should have a plan for what to do after 8 secs.
• I’m not sure about this, but I do belive that they will build aggro while feared.
• In most cases damage will break the fear early but it seems to be burst damage that will do it. In my experimentation SW:P and MF won’t break the Fear but MB will.

Between the Lines – What the tooltip doesn’t say

• You can Fear enemy players as well as mobs!
• When you Fear a mob you can’t control where they run (I know some ‘Locks that can fear in a general direction, before you scoff I’ve actually seen it, but Priest fear isn’t that controllable). If your feared mob happens to run into another mob, it can aggro onto you. Because of this it’s usually a good idea to have a good amount of open space to fear into so you don’t risk adds.
• Another neat thing is that a Feared player will not stop when they come to a cliff, if the Fear takes them in that direction they will fall off of the edge. A Feared mob will turn before falling off.

Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

• Fearing into other mobs and getting adds is the big one here. This is the main reason I recommend extreme caution when Fearing in an instance. It’s just too easy to bring another group of mobs down on top of you.
• Sidone has herbalism and I use Fear to farm for herbs and not have to kill anything. As long as the mobs are on level or close you can run towards your herb node, Shield to keep the incoming damage to a minimum and stand directly over your herb. Fear the mobs you have aggroed and the duration of the Fear is just long enough to pick the herb and if your quick, usually time for another try if you fail. Then Shield again and run until the mobs turn around. This works better as you get higher ranks, the lowest will only Fear 2 targets, but the highest will Fear 5 targets in range.
• Warlocks are known for what’s called Fear juggling. For them, the idea is to aggro a few mobs and put DOT’s on all of them and fear all of them. If done correctly, they will be dead before the Feared mobs come back. Priests can do something similar but I’ve never seen anyone able to fear juggle more than 3 mobs and 2 is much more common (a Lock can usually handle 5 or 6). It’s pretty much mandatory to have Mind Flay in order to make fear juggling work for a Priest since we really only have 1 DOT, it’s just not enough damage to kill anything before the fear wears off. The way I do it with my Shadow priest (she’s just a wee-baby right now so it may work different at higher levels) is like this

1. Pull mob A with Mind Blast
2. SW:P mob A
3. Shield
4. Pull mob B with SW:P
5. When it reaches the 8 yard range Fear both
6. Mind Flay mob A until death
7. Mind Flay Mob B until death

The Fear will probably have worn off by the time you get to #7, so kill mob B however you like, but it should be half dead by the time it gets back to you.

[Edit: See comment below by Thames, he gives a spell rotation for Fear juggling up to 5 mobs, do-able with spell damage upwards of 900 and I’d assume you would need the points in Imp SW:P, thanks for the comment Thames!]

Related Macros

I don’t use any, but if anyone out there has a macro, please leave a comment!

SuperCoolPoints

“The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.”

From one of my favorite movies… the price on the coffee should give you a hint on when this movie was made 🙂

Trust Your Leaders

This one is slightly rant-y, but I think I’ve got a good message burried in here 

I’m not going to go into a lot of details… it’s just not necessary, but we had some guild drama last night.  The drama stemmed from what I think is a very small group of people who whine and moan at eachother and it escalated to the point where the GM was confronted in a very ugly way.  This person demanded things that would have gotten him a /gkick in other guilds.  In ours… they lost a lot of credibility with the leadership and we’ll have to see where the future takes it.  My point here today is not to embarass this person (if they’re reading, I don’t know one way or the other) or to gripe about what happened.  I wanted to tell all of you out there to trust your leaders.  Give them the benefit of the doubt until they give you a GOOD reason not to trust them any more.  Be objective with this.  I put the “until” statement in there because there are people out there who have no business being leaders, but I’d bet that a lot of the GM’s and Officers out there are good leaders and could be a lot better with a little trust.  I know that in our guild… we don’t make rash decisions, we don’t make spitefull decisions, we aren’t trying to exclude anyone or screw anyone over.  We are trying to maximize the guild’s ability to acheive our goals… progression through raid content.  Almost every decision we make has that goal in mind.  Also, I do mean WE.  This is not a dictatorship.  In order for us as a group of leaders to make good decisions we have a system of checks and balances.  We don’t like for anyone to make decisions by them selves.  That way there’s always an objective opinion. 

If you have a question or concern about what is going on in your guild go talk to someone, and not joe-schmoe who can’t do anything about it except whine and moan along with you.  As long as you’re not whining any good leader will appreciate and consider what you have to say.  Also keep in mind that in any group it is impossible to make everyone happy.  Consider that before you go complaining.  Is the decision that was made good for the group even if it’s not good for me as an indvidual?  That is a really hard thing to get your brain wrapped around.  But I think if you can talk to your leaders with an open mind and listen to what they have to say, they’ve probably got a reason for what they’re doing. 

To all you guild leaders out there… don’t be dictators.  Establish goals for your guild and try to do things to advance those goals.  When your members have concerns, listen to them.  Let them say what they need to say.  If there’s something that needs to change, assure them that you’ll take care of it, then actually take care of it.  If not, then do your best to explain why things can’t change.  Let them know you understand their concerns, but it’s better for the guild to keep things the way they are. 

Lastly, for all parties involved, try to stay calm.  It doesn’t matter if you’re upset or not, you will be held accountable for the words that come out of your mouth.  If you say something stupid, you can’t take it back.  You can apologize later… but sometimes that’s not good enough.  Words have a way of sticking with you.  Try to say what you mean and mean what you say (if you figure out how to do this all the time… tell me how!)

I think that’s all I’ve got.  Have a great weekend everyone!

New Addition

Disciple of the Light has been added to the blogroll and the Links page!  Go check it out!

Priest Power!!!

Let me just say that I had to add a “Rant” category just for this post.

/rant

For all of you out there on the World Wide Web who are QQ’ing about how crappy your Priest is and how you want to start collecting Shadow gear, I’d like to point you to a post on Disciple of the Light that I stumbled across recently, Priests are the Hybrids of WIN.  I HIGHLY recommend everyone go read that article, it’s very well written and makes some really good points.  To quote what I liked the most:

“Priests are still, in my opinion, the kings of healing; because they can compete well on all levels of healing in every situation.That does not make them hybrids. It makes them the yardstick that other healing classes are measured by.”

There has to be opportunity for everyone out there people!!  A game like this will not succeed if there is one UBER – (Insert Role Here).  Everyone, every class, every spec has a niche.  It is up to a good raid leader to know what those niches are make use of each toon’s abilities.

This brings me to another topic.  It absoutley infuriates me when people think that a players class or spec or gear is more important than the player himself.  It is the brain behind the keyboard that makes for a good (Insert Role Here).  I will take anyone on a raid reguardless of race/class/spec and to a certian degree gear, if there is a hard working, intelligent person behind the monitor.  If the person is willing to put some effort forth any class or spec can have a viable role in a raid and I do mean ANY.  Some will take more work than others but anyone can bring something to a raid.  I think you and your raid leader are being down right silly to exclude ANY class from a raid.  If you say Priests can’t hold their own in a raid, then I say you haven’t found a good Priest!

/breathe

/remove hands from keyboard before Carpal Tunnel sets in

/derant

Flurry of Activity

Can you tell I’ve been working on those for a while… couldn’t wait to get them finished and up here!   On another note, I’ve added another page over there on the sidebar.  It has links to all of the articles in both of the series that I’m currently working on.  Give you a quick way to see and read all of them.

Have a great week everyone out there on the intarweb!

Spell Review: Mind Control, Soothe, and Vision

Since the reviews on these spells are going to be fairly short and they all are slightly related, I’m going to post them all together: Mind Control, Mind Soothe, and Mind Vision.

I’ll start with the whimpiest one.

Mind Soothe

Tooltip – Rank 4 (as of 10/22/2007)

• Cast Time: Instant
  
• Range: 40 yds
  
• Duration: 15 secs
• Mana Cost: 108

“Soothes the target, reduciing the range at which it will attack you by 10 yards. Only affects Humanoid targets level 85 or lower. Lasts 15 secs.”

Mechanics – What does the tooltip mean?

This is basically an aggro radius reducer. It’ll let you get closer to the mob with out it noticing you. It’s very similar to a Rogue’s Distract but it only works on one target.

Between The Lines – What the tooltip doesn’t say.

The only comment I have here is that the spell itself causes no threat. When it wears off the mob still won’t have noticed you. (Note: this is my expirence… I have no hard facts to back that up, please take it with a large amount of salt)

Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

The big one here is that you can’t Vanish like a Rogue if you get too close and break the Mind Soothe, so you have to be carefull with this one. The main use I have for this spell is to allow me to get close to a mob I want to Mind Control. Mind Control has a short range and can sometimes be smaller than your target’s aggro radius. I usually use it as a precaution when I’m getting ready to Mind Control, just in case I get too close. I know some use it to sneak around a group of mobs they want to avoid. To be honest I never think about it when I’m in those situations.

Related Macros

If you use this one with Mind Control often you could make a /castsequence for chaining the spells.

Mind Vision

Tooltip – Rank 2 (as of 10/22/2007)

• Cast Time: Channeled
• Range: 50,000 yds
• Duration: 1 min
• Mana Cost: 150

“Allows the caster to see through the target’s eyes for 1 min. Will not work if the target is in another instance or on another continent.”

Mechanics – What does the tooltip mean?

This can be cast onto any target, friendly or enemy within range (that will depend on what rank you have) and see through their eyes. It doesn’t make them a pet, you can’t control them, just see what they see. It’s a channeled spell so you can’t move or do anything else while channeling it.

Between The Lines – What the tooltip doesn’t say.

Again, this causes no threat to mobs. 

Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

This spell is cooler than it looks. The highest rank basically allows you to Mind Vision anyone anywhere as long as you don’t have to go through a loading screen to get to them (OK, maybe not anywhere, but it’s got a huge range). Your buddy is lost trying to get over to where you are? Mind Vision him and see what he sees to give better directions. Want to annoy Horde (or your friends for that matter)? Find a good perch and Mind Vision random people just to see them freak out over the debuff. Kirk also has an article about the uses of this spell. Basically you can chain the Mind Vision in order to see around a corner. While you have one mob MV’ed, select another and cancel, then MV the new target and so on until you can see what you would like to see.

Related Macros

Can’t think of any, comment if you’ve got something!

Mind Control

Tooltip – Rank 3 (as of 10/22/2007)

• Cast Time: 3 secs
• Range: 20 yds
• Duration: Up to 1 min
• Mana Cos: 750
  

“Controls a Humanoi mind up to level 74, but increases the time between attacks by 25%. Lasts up to 1 min.”

Mechanics – What does the tooltip mean?

OK, this one is cool. You can MC any humanoid target (players as well as mobs) for up to 1 min. It’s a channeled spell and can be interrupted. While MC’ing your target you will see through their eyes, you can move them around, and you’ll get a pet bar to control them (if you’ve done the Chess Event in Kara it’s very similar).

Between the Lines – What the tooltip doesn’t say.

The big one here is that it can end early and be resisted. The current theory is that it does a resist check every 5 secs and part of that check is range. The closer you can move the mob to you, the lower the chance to resist. A MC’ed mob/player becomes friendly to your party members so you can’t have your group attack it while it’s MC’ed, but it can attack other mobs or enemy players. Also, limited to 10 secs on players (thank-you Nobs!)

Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

My favorite tactic (and one that I haven’t quite mastered) is to MC one mob in a group and have the other mobs kill it. The trick there is to release the MC before it dies and give it the final blow if you want to be able to get loot/rep/quest credit for killing it. I know some people use MC as a form of CC and treat it like an enslaved demon but I don’t really see the point. You’re either going to loose your healer or a DPS in order to do that. The last thing I’ll mention here is the fun one of running your MC’ed mob/player off of a cliff… very cool.

Related Macros

Other than the one I mentioned earlier about using /castsequence with Mind Soothe, I’ve got nothing… leave a comment if you have any ideas!

I think that about wraps it up… Oh yea, movie quote… didn’t think I was gonna forget did’ya?

SuperCoolPoints

“Give my regards to King Tut, asshole.” Name that movie! All you Sci-Fi geeks out there should have no problem with this one.

Leveling Your Priest: Sidone at 20

Sidone dinged 20 last night, Yay! This series is going to record my progress leveling her to 70. She is a Dranei Priest. I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t pick races for their racials… I pick them on looks. I have a NE Priest, my Warrior is Human (and I don’t really like the human voice, dance, jokes… part of the reason I don’t really play her any more, besides the fact that I hate tanking) and my Druid is obviously a NE… no Dwarves or Gnomes… sorry, not my cup of tea. I find the Dranei to be very actrative, tails and all, so I took the plunge. I think I’m going to write a post every 5 levels so as she gets higher they will necessarily be farther apart. Here goes!

Talents – 0/0/11

To start with I took 5/5 in Spirit Tap. I think Blackout is not a terribly usefull talent (maybe PvP… not sure) and I LOVE Spirit Tap (see my post here on Spirit Tap). The mana regen is great. Next tier I took 5/5 Shadow Focus. I kill things before SW:P times out so I don’t need to lengthen it, there will be no advantage to it and since I’m soloing I don’t need threat reduction yet. When I get to the point where it’s timing out before mobs die I’ll go back and get it. Lastly, 1/1 Mind Flay. The bread and butter of any Shadow Priest. I’m still trying to decide if I should go get some Disc talents here or keep on in the Shadow tree… I’ll let you know next post!

Spell Rotation

I’m still working on the spell rotation now that I’ve got MF and Holy Fire. Haven’t worked out the kinks yet. Before hitting 20 it was something like this: pull with MB, SW:P, Shield, Smite, (depending on the mob maybe another Smite) wand until death.

Where I Played

I leveled to 20 in the Dranei starting areas and I highly recomend that for any race actually. The areas are smaller and the quests are very easy to do in loops. Also there are a LOT of green items that drop off of the mobs, seems to be much more than the other areas so you’ll go out into the world with better gear. I’m now doing a few quests in Darkshore before moving on to Ashenvale.

Professions

I’ve chosen Herbalism (currently 84) and Tailoring (currently 57) for Sidone. I really wanted a Jewelcrafter, but the entire point of this character is to help with farming… so Herbalism is a must. I chose Tailoring because I don’t plan on doing many instances. I don’t like PUG’ing and the guild doesn’t have anyone my level for me to play with. Besides which Azeroth instances seem so much longer and complex than the Outland ones. With Tailoring I’ll be able to get decent gear with out having to run Instances, and if I need to Galadria can feed cloth to Sidone to keep her Tailoring above her level. I’m still deciding if I want to bother with Fishing/First Aid/Cooking while leveling or try to power level them when I hit 70. I would like to have a cooking alt so I think I’ll try and level that as I go along. Besides the well-fed food is nice at any level. Fishing goes hand in hand with the Cooking so I think I’ll have to do that one too. First Aid… I’ll decide on that one later. I didn’t use it while leveling Galadria and it’s still sitting at about 150 on her… I’ll probably pass on the First Aid and decide if I want it when she gets higher. I’m going to want the cloth for Tailoring.

Gear

I’m not wearing anything specatcular, but the cool thing is that almost everyting I’m wearing is green. I don’t remeber that being the case with my other toons, at least not at this level. The +Shadow dmg on the Dagger is very nice. I considered linking all my gear here but I don’t think I’m going to do that at this level. I may when I get a little higher.

I think that’s about it for now. Look for the next installment of Sidone’s progress soon!

Prince Down!!

Friday night Prince bit the dust!! In one shot!!  Woot!!  Tank got the T4 Helm, the Mage got Adornment of Stollen Souls, and the tank also got The Decapitator for his fury set.