Cataclysm: General Impressions

My look at Cataclsym is going to be spread out across several entries talking about the main features I'm interested in, but I wanted to start off with some general impressions about the expansion overall.

One of the first things that anyone playing will notice is the change wrought upon the world by The Shattering. Zones are rendered at a better graphics quality, and the terrain was changed, and in most cases made more interesting. Before, every zone was a little monotone. Not as badly as the crayon-colors of Outland, but there was still only one general texture. Now, regions have a more natural feel. Whether it's new oases in a desert, or a pit of roiling twilight badness, the world feels more complete.

The ability to fly in Azeroth has opened up all kinds of new experiences. Traveling through the old world is no longer a burden, and you can better see the destruction and new layout of the world.

Cooking, fishing, and most of the Jewelcrafting dailies are centered in Stormwind, making getting those knocked out a little less obnoxious than previous expansions (yes, cooking dailies in Wrath were in Dalaran, but for the rest, and through Burning Crusade, it required a lot of running all over the world).

It's also convenient having portals to each of the five new zones available (after completing some initial quests to get to the zone). This makes the prospect of heading back to SW for whatever reason (dailies, hitting the auction house, whatever) less of a pain in the ass.

So far, my only real issue with the expansion is that Chaos Orbs (this expansions equivalent of Primal Nethers and Frost Orbs) are soulbound. I find it a pity that Blizzard caved to the idiots that couldn't figure out to hit "Need" if they want it.

Over the next week-ish, I'll be going deeper on Hunters, Worgen, Goblins, Achievements, Dungeons, the underwater zone of Vashj'ir, and finally the new WoW website. But my overall impression is that this is the best version of WoW since it's creation in 2004.

Bravo, Blizzard. Bravo.

New Year's

And so begins a new year. As I was watching the televised festivities last night, I began to wonder about the curious importance we humans place on time, and its unerring march. Personally, I have never put much into the holiday. As a child, it was mostly an excuse to stay up late, and time with family. This feeling hasn't changed. I enjoy watching the ball drop, and as the ball falls, I kiss my husband. I make resolutions, some of which I may actually keep. But beyond that, the holiday has never held any real significance for me.

School may be a part of that attitude. In my mind, the year starts in August. The upcoming return to school is part of the same school year, even if it is a new semester. My next semester also doesn't start for a few weeks yet, so its hard to feel like this is a significant beginning.

To be honest, I don't see the significance in celebrating a new year. Time is time. It marches along at the same pace regardless of how we try to parse it into manageable pieces. People talk about trying to make this year better than their last. But isn't that just a little unreasonable? There is always pressures, always strife in our lives. And should our goals to better ourselves really be so stringently based on a relatively arbitrary measure of time?

Sure, years are physically measurable as our sun whips this small little marble we call home around itself. But, the purpose of this is simply to change the seasons. And for most of us, we no longer hold the change of seasons in the same necessity. Most of us don't plant our food in the spring, or harvest in the fall, or work the fields in between. Winter is not something that must be as stringently prepared for as it was ages ago. Throw on snow tires, unpack the sweaters, and throw an emergency kit into the car.

And yet, this day so arbitrarily chosen still holds a special significance. Rather than focusing on continuously improving ourselves, we do it in these little spurts, energized through January, and maybe even February, but often our goals are long forgotten by the time spring rolls around.

Even I, perhaps out of habit, chart my goals for this upcoming year, with milestone checkpoints at the start of each month to keep me on track. Carefully thought out, I managed to separate things into chunks I think will are realistic. This tends to be the greatest stumbling block for resolutions, too many of us bite off more than we can chew. But it is curious to me why we wait for the new year to begin on these things. Why put it off? If you come up with an idea to better yourself and/or your circumstances, why not seize the moment and start on it right away? Would setting goals to be started on November 1 and culminating them by October 31 not hold the same significance?

Maybe I'm a little biased. My religion follows closely to the Celtic calender, and our New Year's Eve is Samhein (Halloween). So I'm accustomed to looking at things a little differently.

So here I am, following the same curious customs that I'm here wondering the purpose of. I have my goals for the year laid out. And I have strong, realistic goals that can be measured. None of this "I'm going to be more generous" or "I'm going to be a better person" bullshit. I find such goals to be beyond silly. They are so immeasurable, and so subjective as to be impossible to fulfill, or not fulfill, depending on how honest you are with yourself.

And so, let's embark on this silly segment of time we call a new year. May your goals, whatever they may be, and however silly they may be, be achieved, and may obstacles crumble before your path.

Happy New Year.

Motivation

Motivation is a tricky thing. So many of our goals that we set for ourselves are far-reaching, the kinds of things where success is a long ways off. Maybe it's weight loss, maybe it's getting published. Maybe it's smaller goals that we wonder if they are really worth the trouble.

So it's vitally important that, when approaching any kind of task, we examine the motivation behind our goals. Reminding ourselves that even the smaller goals have an important place. Keeping our eyes on that wonderful feeling of  satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something.

As I look at my plan for the next 10 days, I see a number of things that need to be done. Back to school clothes shopping and haircuts for the kids, the big pre-semester cleaning I do every semester, various ways of prepping for school and getting on top of that. All good things.

More good things is working on my writing and game designing. These are important to my professional development. The better my portfolio, the better internships, and later jobs, I can get for myself. More good things.

Then I also have quite a bit of WoW and other gaming goals. While I doubt I'll beat both Uncharted and ACII like I originally wanted, I'm trying to take a little time every day to slaughter Templars. While my WoW goals are more contingent on finishing prior to the release of Cataclysm (comeon Blizz, give me a date already!!!!!!!one!1eleven) I know that once school starts to get into full swing, my WoW time will dwindle to virtual nothingness. I'd rather try to meet as many of those goals prior to school starting, where I could spend the final countdown to the Cataclysm gearing and poking through some final things.

Obviously, as much as I prefer the reverse, the focus is on my other, "more important" goals. Trying to accomplish these around the everyday tasks of taking care of the kids, losing weight, and all the other day-to-day stuff that weighs us down and eat up our time.

That's why it's so important to know why you're doing these things. Keep it right in front of you. Write it down and tape it to your desk where you'll see it every minute. Knowing that you're dragging through rehashing last semester's stupid Assembly assignments so that way you don't have to do them during the semester when you're more pressed for time. Knowing that tediously porting the 2D RPG from crappy C++ to the super-shiny C# will give you better options to create your own game.

Keep your eyes on the prize. The prize will keep you motivated when the tedious intermediate steps drag you down. If nothing else, think of the satisfaction of completing a goal and being able to smugly tell everyone how awesome you are because of how much you can accomplish.

Well, I guess I better hop to it. After all, I have less time today with Dungeons to complete and Dragons to slay tonight.

The Importance of Planning

Here I am, a week and a half before school starts. I'm looking at what I wanted and needed to get done over my summer vacation, and exactly one word comes to mind.

FUCK.

I'm beyond behind on all this stuff. Why? Because I didn't plan. Sure, I had a nice little list where I could check off everything I accomplished, but that list kept growing, usually faster than I could knock things off. Now I'm finding myself stressed as the countdown timer to when I'm back in school (and all my free time goes out the window) quickly reaches Zero Hour.

A million and three things to do, and not nearly enough time to do them. But it's not too late. A re-evaluation of my goals, and a tight work schedule and I could get at least a good amount of stuff done. Carefully keeping on track, and not letting myself get distracted with arguments with idiots spouting the merits of pirating, or reading up on the vast amounts of amusing material on the internet is an important step.

But planning is a fickle thing. Don't plan enough, and you risk end up not accomplishing what you need to do. But, if you plan your time too tightly, you can cause a great deal of stress when things don't go according to plan. Something takes longer than planned, an unexpected errand comes up. Even fun can become stressful as you worry if the impromptu movie with the family is going to royally screw you.

It's a matter of finding balance. What can you reasonably accomplish in a day? What can you allot a little extra time to to create a buffer if something goes awry?

It's a fine line, and I know very few who have been able to master this skill. But, if you can, things will fall into place a lot more quickly and easily, reducing stress and giving you the life you want to live.

Dungeons and Dragons: The Importance of a Flexible DM

This past Friday, my husband and I ended up with much the same group we played with last week. Same DM, and 2 of the 4 other players were the same as well. Our group dynamic is one where we fight when we should negotiate, and negotiate when we should fight.

This week's particular module: DRAG 2-2 This Gathering Storm.

Our DM, fortunately, is one that is able to think on the fly, and adjust to our group's unique way of handling things. Something the folks at The Escapist agree with is that the DM should not be hard and fast to the module, and should not discourage the players from creating their own story.

When our group managed to start a brawl in a brothel (something not covered in the module at all) he was able to quickly match us punch for punch, and maintained balance by removing a different skirmish along the way. What ensued was a barrel of laughs, and a great deal of enjoyment as we were able to react to a situation in ways that our characters naturally would. Other DMs I've played with would have stuck to the script, and guided us back on track.

Ours, glory be, let us build our own story. He even let us burn down the ugly building.

Later, we were supposed to confront the pirates we suspected of heinous acts outright, causing them to be mistrustful of us, and against us in the upcoming battle.

We joined them instead. Rather than being outright distrustful, we skill-checked our way into the crew where we could gather more evidence in the fight to come.

Again, our DM was able to adjust and roll with the punches, allowing us to maintain control over our own story.

The result was the same as last week: we managed to build a story that was utterly unique to our group. This is the core of why I love tabletop gaming. Our little group (hopefully we'll get the same people next week) has become an inside joke. Our modules will never be handled the same way by anyone else. Every module I play with these people makes it harder and harder to imagine playing the same modules with a different group (and character). The stories we come up with are just too unique and too much fun to get the same result elsewhere.

Especially when too many DMs can't roll with the punches.

Cataclysm: A Look at Hunters (BM)

With Cataclysm coming, I wanted to take a brief look at the changes coming to each class. As my main is a Hunter, this seemed to be the most logical place to start. Sadly, I'm not in Beta, so I can't do my own empirical tests of things like DPS changes and increases.

This look will be far more in-depth than any of the other classes. I've been playing a hunter for 4 years, and have nearly 6 months of /played on her. I've raided on her, dabbled in PvP, and have theorycrafted the class pretty extensively through BC, and a lesser extent in Wrath.

First, a look at the talent trees.

For Beast Mastery (my preferred spec, and the spec I'll be switching to when Cata drops) I would (if the spec wasn't currently nerfed to the ground) spec this way. When Cataclysm comes out, I'd be looking to go with something like this.

So let's look at what I gain, what I lose, etc etc.

Improved Aspect of the Hawk has been removed. Currently, you have a chance to increase your ranged attack speed. But, as Haste is being changed to affect utility regen, this was something I was expecting.

Endurance Training has also been removed (in fact, it's cousin in the Survival tree has been removed as well). I don't have a major beef with this as with the change over to focus, Stamina will most likely be our 2nd heaviest stat, making up for the increases provided by these.

Focus Fire has been removed. Without being able to check empirically, I am not concerned as this ability (2% increase to damage when your pet is active, and your pet gets and increase chance to crit when under effects of Kill Command) is one that is very easy to simply build into the class. Even if we lose the 2% increase, it's not a huge nerf. A 10,000 dps hunter would lose 200 dps. That's not a huge nerf.

Aspect Mastery has been revamped to a 3-pt talent that will provide the same bonus to Aspect of the Hawk, though we lose the bonus to Aspect of the Monkey. It buffs the regen of Aspect of the Fox, which is different from the buff it currently provides Viper, but since Fox won't have the damage reduction debuff, it really doesn't matter.

Also removed are both Ferocity and Unleashed Fury. While these were important pet buffs, it seems these will be covered in the Beast Mastery's Class Mastery abilities, so I'm not concerned.

Improved Mend Pet is pretty much unchanged. The difference being that they removed the cost mechanism. Considering the ability now costs 0 focus, I guess I can take the loss of the 20% cost reduction.

Bestial Discpline has taken a huge hit. Instead of doubling your pet's Focus regeneration, it will only increase it by 30%. However, this again depends on how other mechanics interfere. With Haste now increasing regen, it's possible that the rest of the pet's regen will come from the player's haste.

Intimidation appears to have been outright removed. While not a crippling nerf, one that I'm not thrilled with. It was nice having a stun on hand for PvP that didn't rely on the specific pet I was using. While it wasn't a move I necessarily used all the time, or even that often, it was a good "Oh Shit" move. However, it's possible (I wasn't able to find out) that it's simply becoming a trainable option.

Spirit Bond sadly has been left unchanged.This is a pity because it's current incarnation is very lackluster. Regaining only 2% of one's health may be nice while leveling (I'll probably pick it up for leveling to reduce downtime) but for use in groups or PvP, it's just too little to really help. While it is clearly an ability that can become grossly overpowered very quickly, I really think it's in need of a slight buff to make it truly useful.

Frenzy has been nerfed as well. Currently, you can (in my current build) get 8 secs of a 30% increased attack speed after landing a critical strike. This is an ability that with very little effort maintains near constant uptime. Now, you'll be looking at a 15% increase, but with the same uptime. Again, without seeing how attack speeds look in Cataclysm, it's hard to say how big of a nerf this really is.

Beast Mastery's signature talents: Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within have been left unchanged. My only surprise is that with the condensing and consolidation of the talents, they didn't merge these into one talent.

Serpent's Switftness (another ability tied to how Haste currently works) has been removed. Considering weapon speeds haven't been reduced, it will be interesting to see if we can really overcome this. However, with a steep increase to damage, it may balance out.

Ferocious Inspiration is remaining the same, just nicely being reduced to a 1 point talent.

Animal Handler has been removed, which again plays to how well the Mastery ability will compensate.

Cobra Strikes has been only slightly modified. The only difference is only Basic Attacks can be buffed by it, not Special Attacks. Ok, fair enough. A minor nerf.

Longevity and Beast Mastery have been left unchanged.

Kindred Spirits has been massively changed. Rather than granting your pet a damage increase, it increases yours and your pet's focus to 110 max, rather than 100.


There are changes to the "sub" specs of MM and Survival as well, but I'd rather cover these with their respective main specs.

Stay tuned for looks at more classes, other Hunter specs, Hunter pets, and Hunters in general.

Dungeons and Dragons: The Fun of Defining Your Own Adventure

This past Friday, playing through the Silver Linings quest for Dungeons and Dragons really illustrated why I'm coming to love tabletop gaming, and why in many ways it still surpasses many computer games for me. In Dungeons and Dragons, the choices you make with your friends have consequences that can change the entire game.

During this quest, you're clearing out a Goblin town/cave/thing of Orcs. Now, many groups, when they finally reach the rampaging and murderous Orcs who are mining out the Goblin caves for relics for an unseen master would instantly attack.

Not us. We happened to have a guy (our Fighter, so he's pretty intimidating in the first place) who could speak Orcish. Add in two wizards (myself and another) who used our Prestidigitation to give him things like demon wings, glowing fiery armor, and thunderbolts arcing across said armor, we managed to convince the Orcs to parley with us.

Not only did we successfully bargain with them (turning what should have been a 3-fight quest into a 1-fight quest) but, we managed to save 2 slaves who weren't supposed to be saveable (more just there as window dressing).

We may not have gotten all the rewards, but we managed to solve the quest in a way that was truly unique. To find another group who both reacted as we did, and had the proper make up to be able to accomplish what we managed to accomplish, would be nearly impossible.

When one is used to computer games (consoles are considered computers for this), you're usually given scripted encounters. Even in a game like Dragon Age: Origins, where you can make choices that drastically affect the story of the game, you are still limited by the programming of the game as to what kind of choices you can make.

But in a tabletop game, if you can imagine it (and hit the proper dice rolls for it) you can make it happen. You can discover things that, possibly, no one else who's ever done that particular encounter ever thought of. It makes it far more immersive, and far easier to fall into a roleplaying groove.

I think this is what keeps tabletop gaming so alive, even in this digital age.