Sugarmommas
...he knows things.
Posts
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
1 week ago
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Breaking up is so hard to do...
Last night was our guild's first kill of Thorim, and over our course of attempts to finish him off, I had the opportunity to experience both the arena and the tunnel. I had a blast. That fight, for some reason, really clicks with me on the fun factor. I couldn't quite place my finger on why until I started to sit back and examine it after the fact.
I have a particular love of fights that break a raid apart and hand players or groups of players their own set of responsibilities.
Call me crazy, but these fights give me a sense of motivation above and beyond the usual and they allow me to bring a lot of focus to bear on a task that is vital, not only to my own survival, but to the success of the other part of the raid that won't be able to pick up the slack if something goes south.
Thorim is probably the most concrete example of this kind of fight to date, but we've seen less restrictive versions in the past. I think this is why, to date, the Kael'thas fight in the Eye is still one of my favorite boss encounters in the game.
Perhaps it's a subconscious love of situations where I am forced to focus on my own little sphere of the fight and negates my usual green-bar-just-dipped-press-button attention span that sometimes leaves me incredibly stressed in an attempt to throw my weight around in too many places at once. On normal fights, I have trouble sticking to assignments, even if on raid healing I tend to focus just as much on the closest tank as I do the raid.
I'd love to see more fights like Thorim. There is the added frustration of being unable to have ANY impact when another part of the raid doesn't bring home the bacon, but I think the added challenge just adds to the fun.
What do you think about segmented encounters? I'd love to know.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Everything but genius...
I'm shamelessly stealing a meme from /Faulsey, which is a surprise in and of itself. I tend to loathe memes, but really liked the results of this one so I thought I'd spread it around.
Your Very Own Album Cover
1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More”
or click Here
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click Here
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click Here
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.
My results are thus:
It was especially cool that I already knew the quotation I ended up with, which is one of my old favorites from Oscar Wilde:
"The public is wonderfully tolerant; they forgive everythign except genius."
Quite a poignant critique on today's music scene if you ask me.
If anyone's actually stumbled across this place my from comments by now, I'll tag Rilgon and Brajana.
===============================================
As far as the world of Azeroth goes, I've been having a blast getting to see the lion's share of Ulduar 10 with the guild.
We've slain our way through Iron Council and each fight is just so dynamic and such a breath of fresh air compared to the 10-man Heroic they call Naxxramas.
I've snagged my trinket off of Razorscale while our Holy Priest snagged the Spark of Hope off of Kologarn, so I'll have to wait my turn on the final piece of my Trinket Wish list.
Sadly, yesterday the power supply in my desktop decided to give up the ghost. Thus, I find myself limited to my laptop; thereby limited to only the parts of the game that do not involve logging into Dalaran or anything more than a normal five man.
So for a week or two I'll be playing, and hopefully posting more, about my alts and some profession work.
Your Very Own Album Cover
1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More”
or click Here
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click Here
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click Here
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.
My results are thus:
It was especially cool that I already knew the quotation I ended up with, which is one of my old favorites from Oscar Wilde:
"The public is wonderfully tolerant; they forgive everythign except genius."
Quite a poignant critique on today's music scene if you ask me.
If anyone's actually stumbled across this place my from comments by now, I'll tag Rilgon and Brajana.
===============================================
As far as the world of Azeroth goes, I've been having a blast getting to see the lion's share of Ulduar 10 with the guild.
We've slain our way through Iron Council and each fight is just so dynamic and such a breath of fresh air compared to the 10-man Heroic they call Naxxramas.
I've snagged my trinket off of Razorscale while our Holy Priest snagged the Spark of Hope off of Kologarn, so I'll have to wait my turn on the final piece of my Trinket Wish list.
Sadly, yesterday the power supply in my desktop decided to give up the ghost. Thus, I find myself limited to my laptop; thereby limited to only the parts of the game that do not involve logging into Dalaran or anything more than a normal five man.
So for a week or two I'll be playing, and hopefully posting more, about my alts and some profession work.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Child's Play Charity Auction @ The Hunting Lodge
I know I haven't managed to be very active here since I created the place, but I wanted to make sure to post about the Child's Play Charity Auction that Brigwyn has going on over at http://www.brigwyn.com/2009/05/childrens-week-childs-play-auction-starts-today/ .
This is a charity by gamers to help provide entertainment and the small joy of play to hospitalized and terminally ill children around the country. Founded by Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade, the money donated has increased exponentially every year and they're able to touch thousands of kids around the country.
So go show your support!
This is a charity by gamers to help provide entertainment and the small joy of play to hospitalized and terminally ill children around the country. Founded by Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade, the money donated has increased exponentially every year and they're able to touch thousands of kids around the country.
So go show your support!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Global Cooldown Management
If there's one factor that I've come to realize separates most veteran healers I know from those who can't heal or are just learning to heal it is this crucial skill.
Perhaps this skill has enscorceled itself in my mind due to the very proactive nature of Druid healing, but I believe it was reinforced greatly by my time spent raiding as a Hunter.
As a raiding DPS class, your responsibility is to pump as much sustainable damage into a target as possible without passing the tank or ignoring your surroundings. In order to accomplish this goal, most classes have a set rotation (or a priority, calm down Rilgon) of skills that have been mathematically shown to maximize damage output when chained together in the most efficient manner possible. You train yourself to fill every GCD with the most efficient action available to you (much lik the queue systems in games like BioWare's first two KOTOR game, without the queue :P). If you're the type that likes to compete the top spots on a damage meter, then the phrase "balls to the wall" becomes a part of your vernacular and, when circumstances fall into place, becomes your default setting until the boss lies before you unmoving or you're poking of pile of Obi-Wan-esque disembodied clothing.
In contrast, the majority of healers that I meet view healing as a purely reactive exercise: when someone needs a heal, then I'll press a button.
This type of mindest can serve you well in a large portion of the game, from leveling to even most Heroics. Some raid fights can even be approached this way if the rest of your group is executing with perfection.
The point where this approach to healing falls apart is when the fecal matter strikes the proverbial fan.
Healers who want to bring their A game and be remembered as that "crazy good priest that saved our bacon even after the tank's mouse broke" should train themselves to approach healing more in the same manner as DPS. The healers that stick out in people's minds like that are likely a druid that keeps Wild Growth up even if the melee is at full health just in case he needs to drop a quick Nourish on a Rogue who mistakenly walks through a poison cloud, a paladin that has the Death Knight who can't dodge Dark Smash beaconed without complaining and without the group realizing it, or a priest who tosses up a Lightwell for his own personal use so that his GCDs are free for the rest of his healing assignments.
I know what you're thinking. "But Ani, if I push through every single GCD, I'll run myself out of mana!!".
I'll admit it.
I'm biased in this regard, likely because I've always had the "crutch" of Innervate to fall back on when I get overzealous. Knowing the line between maximizing throughput and running yourself dry is an acquired skill that differs with the mechanics of the fight you're facing. On progression content this can be particularly challenging, but that's mainly because the amount of unnecessary healing that learning fights results in.
But! Unnecessary healing is where the truly good healers shine through. They're on their toes, being preemptive and pulling their groups back from the snatching jaws of the raid leader calling "Wipe it up." I'm not asking you to encourage apathy on the part of your raid when it comes to avoiding the avoidable; nor am I asking you to reward that (healing through the mistake) without communicating your displeasure afterwords. I'm encouraging you to view every single Global Cooldown you have as just as valuable as the ones I can assure you your DPS aren't wasting.
Every space between your cast times has an opportunity cost: evaluate it, assess whether you need to keep healing in order to best serve your raid or back up to conserve mana, but always be mindful of what ability could have been used and the difference it could have made.
Your resources may be more finite than their resources (always be aware of the limitations of your mana pool), but your contribution is just as vital and FAR MORE dependent upon your ability to adapt quickly to what happens.
Waiting for a reason to heal is just going to result in you getting behind and someone's going to end up falling through the cracks.
Perhaps this skill has enscorceled itself in my mind due to the very proactive nature of Druid healing, but I believe it was reinforced greatly by my time spent raiding as a Hunter.
As a raiding DPS class, your responsibility is to pump as much sustainable damage into a target as possible without passing the tank or ignoring your surroundings. In order to accomplish this goal, most classes have a set rotation (or a priority, calm down Rilgon) of skills that have been mathematically shown to maximize damage output when chained together in the most efficient manner possible. You train yourself to fill every GCD with the most efficient action available to you (much lik the queue systems in games like BioWare's first two KOTOR game, without the queue :P). If you're the type that likes to compete the top spots on a damage meter, then the phrase "balls to the wall" becomes a part of your vernacular and, when circumstances fall into place, becomes your default setting until the boss lies before you unmoving or you're poking of pile of Obi-Wan-esque disembodied clothing.
In contrast, the majority of healers that I meet view healing as a purely reactive exercise: when someone needs a heal, then I'll press a button.
This type of mindest can serve you well in a large portion of the game, from leveling to even most Heroics. Some raid fights can even be approached this way if the rest of your group is executing with perfection.
The point where this approach to healing falls apart is when the fecal matter strikes the proverbial fan.
Healers who want to bring their A game and be remembered as that "crazy good priest that saved our bacon even after the tank's mouse broke" should train themselves to approach healing more in the same manner as DPS. The healers that stick out in people's minds like that are likely a druid that keeps Wild Growth up even if the melee is at full health just in case he needs to drop a quick Nourish on a Rogue who mistakenly walks through a poison cloud, a paladin that has the Death Knight who can't dodge Dark Smash beaconed without complaining and without the group realizing it, or a priest who tosses up a Lightwell for his own personal use so that his GCDs are free for the rest of his healing assignments.
I know what you're thinking. "But Ani, if I push through every single GCD, I'll run myself out of mana!!".
I'll admit it.
I'm biased in this regard, likely because I've always had the "crutch" of Innervate to fall back on when I get overzealous. Knowing the line between maximizing throughput and running yourself dry is an acquired skill that differs with the mechanics of the fight you're facing. On progression content this can be particularly challenging, but that's mainly because the amount of unnecessary healing that learning fights results in.
But! Unnecessary healing is where the truly good healers shine through. They're on their toes, being preemptive and pulling their groups back from the snatching jaws of the raid leader calling "Wipe it up." I'm not asking you to encourage apathy on the part of your raid when it comes to avoiding the avoidable; nor am I asking you to reward that (healing through the mistake) without communicating your displeasure afterwords. I'm encouraging you to view every single Global Cooldown you have as just as valuable as the ones I can assure you your DPS aren't wasting.
Every space between your cast times has an opportunity cost: evaluate it, assess whether you need to keep healing in order to best serve your raid or back up to conserve mana, but always be mindful of what ability could have been used and the difference it could have made.
Your resources may be more finite than their resources (always be aware of the limitations of your mana pool), but your contribution is just as vital and FAR MORE dependent upon your ability to adapt quickly to what happens.
Waiting for a reason to heal is just going to result in you getting behind and someone's going to end up falling through the cracks.
Welcome to Tree Stand!
I'd like to humbly welcome you all to my first forray into the world of blogging and the unique experience that is the World of Warcraft blogosphere.
In my subtle attempt at creating a clever name for this space, I've combined the two classes that are my passion in the game, the Druid and the Hunter.
I'll be spending my time here providing my musings and experiences, focusing on several different aspects:
1) Restoration Druid healing.
2) Hunter DPS and other chicanery.
3) The act of balancing the demands of WoW and this thing we call life. In short, priorities.
4) Raiding in general.
5) Insights from WoW or other sources whose wisdom I find universal.
I hope this turns out to be a fruitful experiment and welcome your feedback as I begin this new endeavor.
A little background for those interested:
I'm a 24 year old male headed into Nursing school this fall. I've been married for five years and we currently reside in northern Alabama. I've been playing WoW since mid-2006.
I play primarly on Shadow Council-US, where my druid and hunter are both members of a small guild that originally was created to focus on 10 man content but has slowly morphed since its inception and will likely be running a full 25-man roster when Ulduar releases. Yes, an RP server. To you "lolrpserver" types, I shall simply grin and move along.
My persona here on blogger shares the name of my Druid, Animagis, a purposefully mis-spelled referenence that any J.K. Rowling fan should be familiar with. I'm not that big of a fan of her series of novels, but the name suited my purposes perfeclty when I was attempting to fit my own idea of a druid.
The other side of my WoW personality is known as Vape, a (currently) Survival hunter. Only the truest of Star Wars fanbois may catch the reference, but let's just simplify it to the fact that I created him out of the frustation of a healer wanting to "blow things up". I first dipped into the WoW blogosphere reading Hunter blogs: gems including Pike over at http://www.aspectofthehare.com/ , Rilgon of http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/, and the late great BRK who now resides at http://www.dphowell.com/ .
I have commented under the name Vape on a few such hunter blogs, but felt that with the druid being the more dominant of my two classes in WoW, I'd create my own blog under the name I'm more accustomed to hearing over Vent for the past three years:
~"Ani".
In my subtle attempt at creating a clever name for this space, I've combined the two classes that are my passion in the game, the Druid and the Hunter.
I'll be spending my time here providing my musings and experiences, focusing on several different aspects:
1) Restoration Druid healing.
2) Hunter DPS and other chicanery.
3) The act of balancing the demands of WoW and this thing we call life. In short, priorities.
4) Raiding in general.
5) Insights from WoW or other sources whose wisdom I find universal.
I hope this turns out to be a fruitful experiment and welcome your feedback as I begin this new endeavor.
A little background for those interested:
I'm a 24 year old male headed into Nursing school this fall. I've been married for five years and we currently reside in northern Alabama. I've been playing WoW since mid-2006.
I play primarly on Shadow Council-US, where my druid and hunter are both members of a small guild that originally was created to focus on 10 man content but has slowly morphed since its inception and will likely be running a full 25-man roster when Ulduar releases. Yes, an RP server. To you "lolrpserver" types, I shall simply grin and move along.
My persona here on blogger shares the name of my Druid, Animagis, a purposefully mis-spelled referenence that any J.K. Rowling fan should be familiar with. I'm not that big of a fan of her series of novels, but the name suited my purposes perfeclty when I was attempting to fit my own idea of a druid.
The other side of my WoW personality is known as Vape, a (currently) Survival hunter. Only the truest of Star Wars fanbois may catch the reference, but let's just simplify it to the fact that I created him out of the frustation of a healer wanting to "blow things up". I first dipped into the WoW blogosphere reading Hunter blogs: gems including Pike over at http://www.aspectofthehare.com/ , Rilgon of http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/, and the late great BRK who now resides at http://www.dphowell.com/ .
I have commented under the name Vape on a few such hunter blogs, but felt that with the druid being the more dominant of my two classes in WoW, I'd create my own blog under the name I'm more accustomed to hearing over Vent for the past three years:
~"Ani".
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