The Cub Report – Stranglethorn Edition

Another step in the saga that is the continuing tales of Alex, 8 year old WoW adventurer and novice Worgen Feral Druid.

The saga has taken a turn, and I don’t know what to think of it.

There are bonfires, cooking fires and campfires all over the place in lower level zones. Quest givers stand around campfires, Innkeepers stand near burning braziers, there are little flames at building entrances here, there and everywhere.

When you stand in these fires, you get rewarded with a gentle ‘poof’ of smoke from your butt.

There is no other way to say it… my son loves to stand in the fire.

‘poof!’

You ever wonder where those people come from? The ones that just stand in the fire? Now you know. They like to see the gentle poof of smoke coming from their butts.

Alex loves Druid Cat form, running at high speed through the jungle, using Dash for a burst of speed immediately followed by Darkflight to keep that rush of movement going for as long as possible. When he gets the Stampeding Roar talent, he’s going to be buzzing like a ferret on Red Bull. I can see it coming, oh yes I can.

One thing I have learned in playing with Alex and going at his speed is that no matter how excited you are about the next quest, there is always time to stop and notice the small critters and insects that populate a zone… and kill them. Snakes, rabbits, small deer, cows, sheep, roaches, you name it, he kills it. And proudly announces it as a running commentary.

“There’s a snake! I pounced on it, I got it! Oooh, there’s a roach! Got ‘em!”

…. okay. I know mommy doesn’t like you to kill critters, but you can kill all the roaches. I grew up in South Florida, I approve. Kill all the roaches. In fact, Blizzard, show me some good old South Florida house lizards, we can kill all those little bastards, too. I’ll make a Mage just to perpetrate a house lizard holocaust.

His favorite critters in the game at the moment are the rats. Or, as the logic train he pointed out to me goes, “cats eat rats, and I’m a cat, so I’m pouncing on my lunch!”

And that brings me to his true, most special love.

Feral Charge.

He started out getting addicted to Skull Bash, which you get at level 22. We’d be hunting Worgen in Darkshire, and he would have me wait while he lined up carefully on the target, inching forward slowly to get within the 13 yard range of Skull Bash so he could fly through the air, pouncing on his prey.

Skull Bash obviously isn’t supposed to be a charge, it’s supposed to be a spell interrupt with a short range leap, it just brings you to your target, that’s all. Alex doesn’t know what mana cost increases and stuff really are, or spell interrupts, or PvP functionality. What he does know is he had a pounce that let him slam into his enemies from a distance. Gotcha!

The 13 yard range ended up causing a little frustration. He didn’t know how to tell if he was in range of the bad guys to use the spell or not.

I didn’t understand the problem at first. On my UI, when I target an opponent, each button indicates if I’m in range for that spell or not by lighting up. I tried to explain this to Alex, only to have him tell me his doesn’t do that.

As I tried wading through the Interface options looking for where his was turned off, Cassie asked me what I was talking about like I was crazy. She uses a mostly default UI, and hers doesn’t put any form of range indicator on her buttons either.

WTF?

It turns out that the XPerl UI Addon I’ve used for, what, five years now or more has it built in, and since I never, ever play the game without XPerl, I took the range indicator on individual buttons for granted. Hell, I thought it was standard for the game, how else do you know not to waste time activating an ability that has a varying range? It’s one thing on flat terrain, but some of the new sloping terrain designs are deceptive, and make accurately estimating distances difficult.

So, I got Alex set up with XPerl. I would have preferred just installing an addon that would put range modifiers on the ability buttons rather than completely revamping his whole UI, but I didn’t know of one. Honestly, this subject never came up for me before. I don’t know how Cassie and other players manage without a constant visual indicator of target range. I guess you’re just that good?

I got XPerl installed on his system, and now Alex knows how to stalk up to his prey in stealth, get just within extreme range and then unleash the leaping kitty Skull Bash thunder! Pow!

He had to use stealth for Skull Bash, because the second cause of frustation was that Skull Bash’s short range meant he could sometimes face pull before using his spell.

Ah, but I had the answer for that. And it came at level 29, when Alex was finally able to spec into Feral Charge.

Feral Charge. Sing me a song of Feral Charge, for Alex is in love with you.

With Feral Charge, Alex has a leaping kitty roaring pounce that puts him behind the target and is useable from stealth, plus he doesn’t have to be as careful with range. It’s got a much longer range than he’s used to, 25 yards, so he can be less focused on range.

Alex now Feral Charges all the things. ALL the things. Mobs, critters, pirates, you name it, he tries to feral charge it.

Last night, I caught him trying to line up on me from extreme range at the rear.

“Alex, you can’t feral charge me. I’m on your side.”

“Awww. You should be able to feral charge people on your own team too!”

“…. yes son, yes you should. Sometimes, I pray for the ability to attack members of our team, Feral Charge them and gank them and gank them and gank them….”

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing. That Crocolisk looks pretty cool. You wanna kill ‘em?”

“Yes!” *manuevers in stealth to feral charge the crocolisk*

At level 31, he was able to put a point in Stampede. This to me wasn’t that big a deal. To Alex, this was a VERY BIG DEAL.

I explained to him about the haste buff and the Ravage without positioning/stealth modifier, but it didn’t register until the first time he did a Feral Kitty Charge, and the Ravage button lit up.

“When I leap on them, the Ravage button lights up, and I’m not even in stealth!” Ah, the light in his eyes, the delighted glee at free mayhem. Having one of his stealth-only abilities, which must mean it’s special, available after a charge is like icing on an already delicious cake.

Then I paid closer attention to what he was saying.

He wasn’t saying “leap”.

He wasn’t saying “Feral Charge”.

No, when he was using Feral Charge to attack the enemies, ALL the enemies, what he was doing was singing a little song he made up on the spot, and sang over and over as only an 8 year old can;

“Headbutt madness, headbutt madness, they don’t call it head buttin’ for nothin’. Headbutt madness, headbutt madness, my head to his butt, POUNCE!”

At that point, I just grabbed a notebook and put it next to my keyboard. Gotta be ready to write this shit down.

Good thing I did. Not two minutes later, as we raced through the Stranglethorn Tigers (that we vastly outlevel) to grab our last two, Alex calls out, “I’ll get the one behind you so he doesn’t attack your tushie!”

Ah yes. Even on a Dwarf Shaman, my butt makes for a tasty target.

Butt protection, isn’t that what everyone wants from their adventuring companions?

Heroic Morchok Down: Where Next?

Managed to score Heroic Morchok on Tuesday. Ended up using 6 healers. Another classic 22% wipe, then a 16% wipe, then a 13% followed by an 8% then a kill. Actually, the numbers aren’t precise. But that’s what it seemed like anyway.

How to Land 3 Healing Spells in Under 2 Seconds

It seems impossible, doesn’t it?

Note that I didn’t quite say I would cast 3 spells only that I would land them. You have to be precise when it comes to timing and you need to be ready to pounce on the next spell the moment the other one is finished.

We were working on heroic Morchok for a total of 6 – 8 hours (over 4 weeks, with raid hours lost due to a healer shortage). Our longest attempt was just under 6 minutes. Most of the wipes occurred between 2 – 3 minutes. The trickiest part for me was maintaining tank health right after a stomp. A common occurrence I noticed is that after Kohcrom stomped, he would attack the tank around 2 seconds later. If I timed it right, I could land a Flash Heal and a quick Holy Word: Serenity. But sometimes that wasn’t enough. I needed another way because those two spells just weren’t consistent enough. Sometimes the tank lived, sometimes he died. I wanted a better (and consistent) way in keeping that tank alive.

It all revolved around the Stomp.

After a few wipes, I realized the consistency of his melee swing following the stomp. I didn’t want to focus exclusively on the tank to the detriment of the group. But at the same time, if the tank dropped it was game over.

Timers from DBM gave me a 5 second count down on approximately when the stomp would land.

I ended up watching the animation of the stomp. The moment the foot start rising up, I’d target the tank and hit Prayer of Healing ensuring it would land just after Stomp connected with the group. This gave me time for a quick Flash Heal (Or Binding Heal) followed up with Serenity (or a Circle of Healing if the tank was sufficiently high enough.

Credits to

Lodur for gemming all strength reforging to Mastery giving him the ability to really stabilize players and allowing me to spike them back  up.

The DPS warriors on my side who picked up on the fact that when I frantically called their name, it meant I wanted a Rallying Cry (and giving us that buffer after a fumbled heal).

Logan of the LeetSauced podcast (and soon-to-be host of the Matticast) for remaining calm, collected and patient after enduring hours of frustrating incidents beyond his control.

Tanks with 4 piece bonuses. Seriously. More bonuses like this in the future.

Old Spice. I smelled awesome that raid.

Now what?

What’s the next hard mode boss that you went to after Morchok (25 man as I understand 10 man has different priorities)?

Hagara?

Ping pong guy?

Ooze boss?

Seems like we’re going to take a hard look at Hagara. Pointers?

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
- Wayne Gretzky

Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus! Check out the Matticast, the official companion podcast!

SOPA and PIPA

I have been asked to share my thoughts on the SOPA and PIPA issues, and so I shall. But only because I was asked to.

I will share with you what I have told my district representative and both senators who represent the state of Minnesota within which I reside, and what I partially posted as a comment on the petition I signed to stop the ESA from standing as spokespeople for the gaming industry while supporting the SOPA and PIPA, by banning one of their largest sources of revenue, E3.

As a former US Marine who has served this country and the freedom she represents, I view the SOPA and PIPA legislation as nothing less than a direct threat to that freedom of speech and personal expression upon which this country was founded. I expect my elected representatives to hold the interests of the citizens of this country above that of business interests, no matter how well funded or represented by lobbyists, and I will vehemently oppose any politician or organization that seeks to strip from me those freedoms which I do NOT take for granted, but instead consider part of the legacy that I have inherited as a citizen of this country, a legacy to which I have had the honor to help preserve.

I encourage each of you to contact your own state representatives and senators, and make your own feelings on this issue clear. Your individual words to them may not matter, but you can rest assured that your email will be counted on a spreadsheet list as one of X number of registered voters who have contacted that representative upon that date to state your opposition.

Politicians may ignore what you say you want as an individual, but when it is made clear that the sheer quantity of people willing to throw off their lethargy and send an email threatens their majority for the next re-election campaign, they take notice. At that point, it is in their own self-interest to pay attention.

We can only hope that their desire for re-election outweighs the ‘contributions’ large corporations and special interests are making to pay them off.

Oh wait, did I say that out loud?

Death Knight Frost DPS leveling build and how to

Having taken the Frost 2H leveling spec for the trip from 80 to 85, it occurs to me that nowhere could I find a guide about how to play such a spec. Sure the places I read about it vaguely mention what you’re meant to do, but having played it a bit I thought it would be useful to write down what to do.

Presence
You play this in Unholy Presence, to decrease the GCD so you can mash spells faster, and increase rune regeneration so those abilities come off cooldown faster. Now if you face an AOE situation, you can use Frost Presence for more actual damage while spamming Blood Boil and Howling Blast.

Priority
For single target:
First off is Howling Blast which uses a Frost rune. With the Glyph of HB the target gets Frost Fever, so you’ve damaged them and diseased them in one hit. I tend to only use Howling Blast (when it consumes a Frost rune) once a fight for a single mob.

Next use Obliterate. This uses one Unholy and one Frost rune. With the Glyph of Obliterate, it does 20% more damage.

Next if nothing else is up, use those Blood runes on 2 Blood Strikes. The talent Blood of the North which you get for speccing Frost, makes Blood runes come back as Death runes, which you can use for Obliterate when they refresh.

Finally you can burn the extra Unholy rune on Plague strike, or if you have it, use Blood Tap to get a Death rune, then Obliterate using the Death and Unholy rune.

All these abilities are generating Runic Power thanks to Chill of the Grave, Might of the Frozen Wastes and Improved Frost Presence. Which you use on Frost Strike generally when there is nothing else to press.

Once the runes regenerate, you continue to hit Obliterate to use the Frost and Unholy or Death runes, filling with Blood Strikes to use the Blood runes.

However, this spec seems to be all about watching for procs from Killing Machine and Rime.

Killing Machine makes your next Obliterate or Frost Strike a crit, and will highlight the spells on the toolbar and put two curved frost graphics around your toon (if you have spell alerts on). This should be used asap on Obliterate, or Frost Strike if Obliterate is not up.

Rime causes Obliterate to give a 45% chance that you get the Freezing Fog buff, which makes Howling Blast free. When Rime procs, HB will be highlighted and a curved frost graphic will appear above your toon. Mash Howling Blast when this happens! Of course, Rime can trigger from a Killing Machined Obliterate.

Sometimes Killing Machine and Rime come up at the same time, in which case I tend to use the Rime effect on a Howling Blast if I cannot Obliterate, then either Obliterate or Frost Strike if Obliterate is still not up. If I can Obliterate straight away, I use Obliterate then HB.

In practice I seem to attack with Howling Blast, Obliterate, Frost Strike and then either Rime or Killing Machine are highlighting a spell which needs pressing, then by the time I’ve done that, Obliterate is ready again or I have too much Runic power and need to use Frost Strike. Sometimes I can use a Blood rune or two with Blood Strike.

AOE:
For AOE, not that I have done this much, but I suspect its Howling Blast to damage a lot of targets, and put Frost Fever on them, then Blood Boil for the AOE then Death and Decay. Use the other unholy rune on Plague strike. Watch for Rime to do a free HB.

These priorities work fine for soloing, for actual instances, check out EJ for more details of what to do when for optimal DPS.

Healing
If low on health, you can use Lichborne to turn yourself undead, then self-target and spam Death Coil for some self-heals.

You can also use Death Strike in place of Obliterate to self-heal.

Given the massive amount of Runic Power this spec generates, you can summon a Ghoul then sacrifice it with Death Pact for a 25% health heal.

Escape
Hungering Cold will trap enemies in 10 yards in ice, allowing you to make your escape.

Conclusion
Frost leveling is a lot of fun. Sure I miss the days of Blood tank spec being both big damage and lots of self-heals, but the sheer speed that things die in Frost means its very good. I plan on keeping the spec for grinding dailies as well!

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Review for TGS.net-Complaints? Scams? I found out!

I’ve been a customer of TGS.net for 7 years now.  One of the first most likely as I bought an account from them 6 months or so after WoW came out.  Never had a problem with them since.  Played in the guild they sponsor, bought and sold accounts there and now just purchased an account for Star wars the old republic as well.

Great site, great people, full immersed in the gaming community.   Have a doubt?  Drop into chat and talk with them just for a moment and you’ll see the difference.

SWTOR Wish List

These are some things I wish for in SWTOR.  Most are minor things of convenience.  This isn’t a post complaining about the game, mind you.  I really enjoy the game.  I seem to be more in a WoW mode the last week, but that was mainly an issue of hitting a planet that I had issues getting around on, which I finally finished [and now know] .  And frankly, a lot of these things will probably be in the game eventually.  SWTOR is in fantastic shape for a game that’s merely a month old.

1. Ability to retrieve mail on my ship.  Heck, I have a comm system for incoming daily spacebattles for a reason!  :P  It would seem to be logical that I could retrieve my mail from there!

2. Ship Hearth.  Even if it’s a one day CD like the Fleet Hearth is…  It seems logical that I’d have a way to get back to my ship fast in an emergency!

3. The ability to designate other items as vendor fodder when I send my companion out to sell the grays.

4. A Guild Log!  I’d like to know who invited that new random person and whether to leave them at recruit rank or promote them to full member [as we do with those we know].  Course, I’d still have to ask them about it to know… but at least I’d know WHO to ask .

5. A guild bank of some fashion.  Several guildies are particularly lucky with snagging blue and purple boe pieces they can’t use.  A place to store those for others use would be nice!

6.  Dual spec.  I understand and accept we must choose one Advanced Class, but the ability to spec for both roles would be handy.

7. Same realm LFD of some sort – which is supposedly in the works.  I honestly would rather see how the same server LFD works.  You would still be held accountable for your actions because you ARE likely to run into the people again, which I would hope would control the a-hole factor some.

8. Holiday events!  Yeah, I know… I’m a sucker.  But I love that stuff in WoW and I think SWTOR has the great potential to make some really cute and unique things happen with it.

I’m quite sure there are other things I’d like to see  But these are a few off the top of my head.

Who Will Be The Next Great Blogger?

Who will be the next great blogger?

I have no idea, and I ain’t running a competition. I think I just watch too many cooking competition shows.

What I would like is some link love.

But not YOUR link, or mine.

Lemme’ splain.

Do you know a really good writer, someone who is blogging but hasn’t had much exposure yet? They are your little secret, and you wish more people knew about them because they’re so awesome, but it can be hard to be noticed by WoW Insider or MMO Melting Pot?

Well, I’m not big time, but I’d like to know about them too!

So, what I’m asking you to do is to please leave a comment here recommending someone else’s awesome blog for me to read.

I’ll read them all, I assure you, and I will add those with feeds to my private feedreader.

Those that I really, personally like and are WoW related may even make the move from my private feedreader to my permanent WoW Blogroll on the site. Those that ain’t WoW related will stay hidden, while I lurk unseen, reading and enjoying. Muahahaha!

**For those who are not aware, I have a widget on my website that allows me to link a folder on my Google Reader feedlist to the blog, only showing those blogs I place in the special folder. So, the blogroll does not represent EVERY feed I follow, just the ones I think other readers may find as awesome and relevant to WoW as I do. If you do not see your blog on the blogroll, it doesn’t actually mean I don’t read your blog. :)

In other news, I almost won a Piggie Award! Thank you very much to Hugh and the MMO Melting Pot for the kind words, and for thinking my writing is even worth considering. It’s much appreciated, it really is. Great congratulations have to go to Melmoth of Killed in a Smiling Accident for the win. If you’re going to lose to someone, it’s nice that it be to such a wonderful writer.

SWTOR Mechanics 102: Game Mechanics

Heya guys!!  My new article SWTOR Mechanics 102: Game Mechanics is up over at Force Junkies!!  You should go check it out, share it, comment on it, twitter it, you know the drill (over on FJ site, not here)!!

I’ve also got an unofficial column starting up tomorrow at FJ as well.  I got vetoed on the name for it though…sigh.  I’ll be working on some serious theory crafting after we’re done raiding this week and I’ve gotten my “upgrades” that I will get. More on that later.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…