Enter the Blog Master's Dungeon - A little break

mind as well advise to myself

Whew...all this blogging, is fun, but I don't think for a minute I've talked about myself at all, but then again, what's the real purpose of a blog if I hold out blogging on whatever comes to mind...oh wait...wiki beats me to it:

-Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.-

Well now...mind as well hit the personal side for a couple minutes, since my brain wants to write some more about World of Warcraft...which can be a very time consuming game, AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS!

So, about me (guess I'll fill out that -about me- section in my dashboard), I am 23...with a killer appetite for gaming and my girlfriend, which seem to be the most two important aspects of life anyway, I love to play RPGs, along with MMOs (actually just WoW for me thanks) and like to spend time harassing my girlfriend for many things (some naughty) including getting her to stop playing WoW long enough to see me do a dance when I win new gear (though she might get jealous since we share tier -- me<-holy pally, her<-disc priest).

I like to party too, like go to parties, drink booze and BS with everyone there. Every week me and some guys gather for some Dungeons and Dragons or Shadowrun depending on the weeks (alternate between em). I actually got my girlfriend to GM DnD, which she has twice before, to my dismay of losing a swordmage the second time around. Shadowrun is run by a guy named Juels, nice guy too. I used to run a Legend of Five Rings campaign, but decided to take a break recently, as a player one-shotted my campaign villain at rank 1...woot.

I do work (shocking as it may be) for the government, answering calls on a third shift where people often call, forgetting their password for applications or losing the slip of paper everything was written down on (yes these people protect us). I love my job, a little boring, but hell, what doesn't get boring after a couple years? It's stable, and for this economy, I will stick to my guns and ride it out.

...I could say I like music, but going to concerts and having two Ipods (a 8gb touch and 80g gen[whatever's the most recent]) and usually stream music 24/7...but that might be an understatement...

No, I can't draw, even if it was to save my life, but if it comes to a conversation about debate, I can chime in with usually something relevant to the situation (most of the time, it's about the subject and how porn might fit in) but who cares right? Some dude who's randomly blogging on the Internet posts what he is thinking about, can't say people avoid it though, seems to be the hot thing to do these days.

I have a myspace that's outdated, a facebook which I logged into once, and a Twitter, cause it's not blocked at work (woot, thank you websense). I went to school for networking and programming, but never got a degree because I'm lazy and like to kill time doing nothing important, instead of attempting to better myself (other then I stopped drinking soda, maybe lose a couple pounds)

I like my life as it is, for some reason, contentment hit my with a wooden bat that makes me okay with how everything is, though some of it I might not agree with, I can't change human actions other then my own, and hope maybe other people catch on.

No, I do not have a religion, though I was talking with a friend at work about the whole thing, and we came to the conclusion that you don't need to have a religion to believe in something or have faith in another, which is fine by me.

I have gaming consoles, but usually avoid them, as I can't download the games I want, so my brother plays more then me (and he is only partial toward the gaming world). That doesn't mean I'm not a gamer, I am by all means, and play ever new PC game i can get my hands on, which ends in disappointment more often then not (though some recent ones are pretty fun with wicked graphics). I like tabletop games, have dabbled in MTG over the years, going to States twice (but usually only play a few tournies a year).

I am a Scifi guy, who likes watching the Scifi channel (or SyFy or whatever its called) and likes competing shows like Hell's Kitchen and Chopped...I like cooking and watching cooking shows (though it might interrupt my raid a bit, as i tend to AFK more then others, but make up for it with mad skillz), and naturally I like anime, and manga, though my girlfriend seems to like it more then me (I'm glad too, means I'm not the dork of the relationship...oh yeah, she plays WoW more then me, but only because I work more then her).

Anything else? Yeah, nothing I can't write about later...maybe I'll do a column of this once per week, just to help out a bit, so I can learn a little about myself too

-pwrtoppl <---- me :)

out

Fresh out of the Box - Gearing at 80

We all had to level to 80 at some point, and though it might have been easy, or hard (depending on characters leveled, time spent learning the game), when someone hits 80, they have to gear up their character, based on how far someone plans to go in endgame content, or what their mainly interested in (PvP or PvE). But, the course remains the same, gearing up from a fresh 80, to a competent raider, pvp'er, or even the casual who likes heroics and just killing time in game.

With that nice sweet into, let's jump in!

Hitting 80

Long after you've pushed through 80 levels of content, gotten that final leveling achievement, and looked back at your current equipped gear, the time now has come to make a critical choice:

-To be a PvP'er, or Raider? Or both?

When you usually choose a path, it makes the difference of where you'll spend most of your time while your 80. Going the route of the PvP'er means you'll be shooting for Resilience and high stamina gear, while going the route of a Raider, means you'll go for class specific gear, with no Resilience but better overall rounded stats made to endure the PvE aspect of the game.

Raiding means...

Time spent in Heroics are the fastest way to go to get gear to see higher endgame content. Heroics will start most players off in the right direction of what type of gear to look for that is best for their class. While this might not be the chosen route for players with multiple 80's and have the BOE's (bind on equip gear) ready, Heroics can open the doors into instances available for raiding. Naxxramas, Vault of Archavon, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum all couple perfectly with gear levels around and slightly better then Heroic gear. All offer some gear for most other classes and can aid in quickly gearing someone for higher endgame content. By running these raids on the 10 man versions, you can quickly learn some great raid awareness skills and walk out with multiple pieces of decent raiding gear. 25 man versions of the above listed raids have bosses with more health and damage output, have better reward gear, and require...yes you guessed it, 25 people (give or take a few). By running the 25 mans versions, you can get some better gear, and learn about working with 24 other people besides yourself. The real goal of gearing up is to unlock current contents such as Ulduar and Trails of the Crusader, which both offer massive gear upgrades and can allow you to be ready for any new content that comes out afterward. Raiders going this path have a long way to start out, but can quickly become an effective raid member. And do not forget to spend badges collected from running PvE content, you can trade them in for gear upgrades that fit most classes pretty well.

PvP, the other white meat...

PvP is a different set of endgame content rewarding a different set of gear. Instead of spending time in Heroics, you go to battlegrounds, where you compete alongside and against other players to the death over different objectives (depending on the battleground) for honor. Honor, is a currency used to trade in for gear that gives good resilience, stamina, and can be coupled together with other PvP gear for bonuses. By running weekly Wintergrasp, and doing Daily battleground quests, in addition to participating in battleground weekends (weekends that change every week that reward more honor in the selected battleground) you can gain a large amount of honor in a short time, giving you good battleground gear. But what about weapons? Or even better armor, like that of raiding gear equivalent, but only for PvP gear? Fear not PvP'er, Arenas help out here. Arenas a smaller battlegrounds with one purpose, killing the other team in a selected match up by current arena ranking that rises and falls by victories and loses. Arenas come in 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5, where each one hands out Arena points per week depending on the number of wins. These points, along with Honor, can reward top end PvP gear, including weapons, made just for Player versus Player combat.

Ending on a good note

Doing one or the other does not mean you can't mix it up and do both though, it just means you might have your dual talent specs setup so one you can raid with and one you can PvP with, and there is nothing wrong with that. Also, it couldn't hurt to carry two different sets of gear for when you go back and forth, so you don't use a bad stat such as Resilience in a raid, people often look down on you for that. In conclusion, pick what you want to go for, and give it a try, worst case, you can do the other and come back to your main pick when you think you are ready for it.

-pwrtoppl

-out

Player vs. Player - Battlegrounds - How not to be a nub

Who doesn't dread entering a battleground (aka BG) and being called a nub (newbie, n00b...take your poison). Nothing beats the fresh scent of scattered player corpses littered on the battlefield with spells crackling off in the distance and 20-80 players running around like their head was removed with a meat cleaver. But going in blind into a BG can be daunting, unless you are ready (or have been there before). So, let me open up on some BG tactic know-hows, what to dress in, and what to bring to the party.

First off, #1 most important factor, is your survivability...can you take a player, or two, or three all chopping as you attempt to defend yourself? If not, consider a stat on your defense tab on your character sheet titled resilence. It shows the chance removed that you have to be critically hit by another player, and how much damage less you take from damage and critical hits. This is important, because in a game where damage trumps defense, having even a little means you can go all out without worry about your current health status (unless your a healer, then run to a DPSer). By stacking resilence, you take less damage overall, and have a chance less to be crit (which is more damage done to your head by a single hit). Healers need this stat stacked a bit more, only because people like to target healers and go after them first (most of the time). Your Resilence can be stacked from gear you get by trading in honor or marks from certain battlegrounds.

Secondly...watch your surroundings (yes, it isn't just a raid thing) because there are people who come at you from behind or stealth to you. By keeping an eye on the rogue stealthing 80 yards out, you can bet chances are, he's headed to you with intentions to stab you until you die. By watching that rogue stealth, you can drop some aoe (area of effect) effect that will break his stealth, ruining his opening attacks and leveling the field (at that point, go all out). By knowing that a group of players is forming off in the distance to take over your spot (either because you are guarding a flag or holding a base), you can call out for inc (incoming) to your spot, and though you might not live, you will have helped out your BG by preventing a base from being taken over without anyone knowing (other then the warning on the screen when it is too late). Sometimes hiding nearby before the other faction shows up and by attacking when more players come to assist you can mean the difference between a failed defense or successful pushback.

Third, communication. /bg is the best way to let people know where you are headed, where is under attack, or what the plan is for the next strike at a flag or base. Being quiet in BG chat does not mean people can focus, not unlike raids at all, but can instead let others know the situation of areas they currently are not around. Let people know what's going on, and the scrub title...will disappear.

Fourth, Grouping is key here. Don't go Clint Eastwood on people and run into a group of enemies, guns blazing...it does not work that way. Instead, go with two or more people so your survival efforts aren't lost on a 1 v 10 scene where your guns don't fire because your stunlocked from multiple people. When you get 1200 resilence, and have a top end PvP (player versus player) weapon...then you can attempt the Clint Eastwood scene, but chances are, you'll still get rolled, it'll just take them longer to kill you. Group, and you and your fellow BGers will live long happy 60 second lives.

Fifth, though important, is speccing (using those talents for purpose). PvP specs look much much different then raiding specs, and have increased player survivability and talents that reduce time spent snared, stunned, feared, and so forth. Speccing your classes pvp specs don't take long and pay off in the end.

And Sixth (only because it seems relavent to end with), learn to play your class against other players. Knowing which buttons and cooldown's to pop when will keep you alive and help out the friendly nations when the guns go blazing...learn to play before you go in, and people won't tell you that in the BG (which will come out in a much more angered tone).

So, Resilence, Watching your back, Communicating, Grouping, Speccing, and Learning to play will keep your new shiney PvP toon alive long enough to get smeared against the other pros without them letting you know how new you really are to the whole thing. I'm not saying you can be a master overnight, there will be many a death before you get the swing of things, but I thought giving some basics wouldn't hurt anyone.

And for the second time tonight

-pwrtoppl

-out

Ready, Set, Raid - Limiting Factor, Playing Favorties

New content is just around the corner, and most of the time, it means guilds that raid have one of two options, gear up the masses or play favorites, both have their ups and downs. For starters, gearing up the masses means going in on 10/25 man groups and rotate new people in every week to see the fights, get some gear, and overall enjoy the new experience. Playing a set group on the other hand, means leaving out a majority of a guild so a select few can progress content as quickly as possible without losing time to teaching others the fight, or gearing them for the newer content.

When you take a guild of a couple hundred members, and decide to rotate them into the new content, you give everyone the chance to learn new fights, win new gear, and overall work as a guild to progress into new content. Some people may come around for a second or third trip, or just make a regular appearence (such as tanks and healers or really solid DPSers), but that core plus new people means more people are working together and even those who would be left out in the cold get a chance to try the newer content.

The downside to running more people, or rotating people for newer ones (or returning) is you face a difficult sense of unity between current raiders as fewer will know their set roles (MT, OT, MT healer, Raid healer etc). That issue can mean people will have a harder time worker together or play favorities by bringing back people they feel comfortable with raiding. While it can be a plus to gear up multiple people, the times that they aren't raiding means that their new gear, and increased stats won't contribute to progressing the raid any further then they had already cleared the time before.

If you decide to take the smaller path, with less memebers but a set group, you can clear content faster as you won't have to teach new people the fights or attempt to gear as many people. Those select few will learn the fights in less time, because the fewer explanations per attempt will lead to that group worrying less about who plays what role that night, which leads into that group gearing those players quicker, and in return, hoping to clear the content. By those few working together and getting to know one another's tactics, your group can move more fluidly through different areas.

The downside to choosing a select few and keeping them in the same group every week is, it becomes clear favorities are picked because of their ability to work together, raid awareness level, current gear, attitude of raiding, or some other factor that makes them worthwhile to be in the group. This means many other guild members must sit out week after week until the content is cleared and becomes open to group swapping, where they can switch one or two people per week so they can finally get gear/see fights.

In order to offset these drawbacks for both groups, is to run, multiple 10 man groups, and a 25 man group, so alot of people can see the content/get geared etc. By having multiple 10 man groups, people can still play favorites with the raiders they choose to work with, but can also gear up many more people in the guild, which can also account toward 25 mans, where multiple people from both groups can still have the chance to raid together without swapping out members. But say there are still people waiting for those 10 man groups, either because they cannot consistanly raid or just don't seem to work well with others, the best way to go is, gather them in a group, and let them have at the content. Just make sure they understand, no matter who raids in what groups, that some favortisim might be applied as the "group 1" might be clearing futher then others in the content in question.

Other then that, make it'll always be hard to make sure everyone is happy, so just shoot for gold and work with anyone who understands the bonuses and consequences of both sides.

With that note

-pwrtoppl is out

Ready, Set, Raid - Weeding out the meek from the meat

So what happens when you take a group of individuals into a raid, and one really stands out, but not in a good way, a very negative way? Do you confront said person or assume they know what they did or are doing is wrong? How do you calm 23 other people besides yourself and the offender?

Sometimes it happens just by mistake, force of habit, or it is influenced, but sometimes it's just fate. Someone will mess up the raid. Pulls that could cause wipes, being afk (away from keyboard) for an extended period of time, interrupting communication from tanks and healers during a boss encounter, and some other annoying or unforgivable acts (insults included). How do you deal with these situations? Let's break them down to understand two types of these offenses.

First off, does the offender do it on accident? Standing in front of a tank aggro'ing a group of mobs, or DPSing the wrong group of mobs by accident. These can be corrected, by letting the person know what their doing wrong, you can prevent repeating mistakes...but hey, we are all human, repeats are bound to happen, so forgive and forget a new raiders mistakes, they are there to raid and learn, so teach them.

Second though, what if the offender does it on purpose? Pulling a group of mobs to stress the tanks or healers is more then enough to talk to after the first time. Going invisible to run by a boss to show off that you can "push" a pull to it's edge, where your spell seperates the raid from a boss pull and possible wipe is unacceptable in raiding terms, and if it's a repeat process, the member should no longer be raiding or be removed from the guild. But let's back it up a bit more with possible considerations.

So someone goes afk to run to the bathroom, a minute or two, here or there, can be excluded, because who doesn't answer nature's call? understandable...unless it's an afk that takes five minutes, everytime, multiple times per raid, then it can become a problem, because they are holding up 24 other people who want to finish the run and go to sleep/work/etc. Telling people to be ready to raid with set intervals can decrease downtime to a minimum if you have a set time everyone can use the bathroom between bosses.

Some people like to DPS a mob when the tank pulls...and for the most part, its okay if the tank has decent threat...unless it's the wrong group of mobs. Sometimes, players use a wrong attack on the wrong target, and that can cause issues if two groups of mobs hit the tank for more damage the healers can heal through. Usually having the DPS target the tank's target is the best way to fix this issue.

SOMETIMES, and it does happen, players don't learn from their mistakes or choose to keep repeating them...if you've spoken with them about their issue, and they knowingly continue, it's time to remove them from the raiding group or kick them altogether. Remember, though they are just another player, and it is a game, when someone is ruining the fun for 24 others, it's time to step in and fix it so those people won't all have to suffer through one man's poor actions.

As my previous post put oh so well,

-pwrtoppl

-out

Ready, Set, Raid - Raid Awareness 101

Knowing how to play your class is important. Knowing how to gear and enchant also makes a difference. Knowing rotations and stacking for raids, also is important. But KNOWING what goes on around you, can make the difference between life and death...and for a raid, that could mean a wipe or not.

Example incoming >>>>

You are a really well geared resto druid. You have top end raiding gear, and are considered *THE* resto druid of the guild. You're the go-to guy for druid healing, and better yet, your peers want you to heal in Ulduar, awareness city.

It's not your first time in there, you have spent countless hours spilling gold, guts and glory into watching bosses fall to their death, so being in here is another trip to kill some badies.

You get to a boss that requires alot of movement...like old mimrom and buff up for the big fight. You know this fight. Been there, done that kind of deal right? So it starts up...Phase 2 comes along after a smooth Phase 1, and out comes the anti-personnal cannon. You think: laser barrage, random laser attacks, heat wave aoe, and a rocket or two...easy right? Why not, you've seen all his attacks, and know the damage from them playing a healer. You break into Raid healer mode and drop your heals where you see fit, catch an unavoidable heat wave, and drop some additional heals...incoming rocket right where you are, you get ready to move, and blamo! 1 cool million damage later, you die a fiery death in an early battle.

>>>>

What went wrong? you had heals going, you even had a near full bar of mana...but how did you falter on the rocket? Lag? maybe, or it could have been your skill in Raid Awareness.

Raid Awareness isn't a tab you can lookup, or grind to a high skill...it's something you learn about the hard way.

Jumping out of a void zone from an Obsidian Sanctum drake, to switching polarities on Thaddius, to moving out of Iron Councils Rune of Death...all require an innate skill called Raid Awareness.

How does one obtain such a skill? Here's the breakdown for you raider-wannabes:

• Know your surroundings - seems simple enough, but sometimes standing in the lava just won't extend someone's patience for you.
• Move when you need to - If its a Polarity Switch, then move IF your debuff changes from one charge to the other, but don't get twitchy and jump the gun. Sometimes not moving is your best bet. Remember your working with others, so, either lead by example or follow and learn, cause what you don't know, someone else will.
• Maximizing DPS does not mean you live the longest - sometimes boss fights require you to stop DPSing and move, stay still, turn away from the boss, or run on top of a snow pile, and although you might lose some DPS, you'll get to do use that shiney new Rune Edge much much longer.
• Keep your eyes on the fight - yes, they do wonder, either on-screen or elsewhere, you might glance at a healing or DPS chart, look at the TV, tab to change songs on a mediaplayer, talk to someone...the list goes on. Those momentary flicks of your eyes could mean you die from fire on Razorscale, or have Kologram's eyes hit you over and over until you die. Keeping alert and focused can make the difference between life and death.
• Healz...plz? - You can't expect to get a heal right away or all the time if the healers are healing 10/25 people while everyone is taking aoe damage, from something like, Kologram's Obilivion, and during that time, if you pull and add from his dead arm, chances are you might die. Hey it happens...but try to do it in style. Drink a potion, pop a Fel Healthstone, turn on a defense button...do what you need to in order to stay alive long enough for that refreshing heal to keep fighting on, relying on yourself as well as the raid pays off.
• Opening Rotation = aggro - I've seen Shamans rip aggro from a tank with multiple critical strikes in a row on an opening fight with a boss. They rush in, do a few major swings and suddenly they die...but it's not just shamans, alot of classes can pull threat if they get a strong opening rotation, so wait a few seconds for the tanks to really establish threat before going all in.
• Know your range - be wary of the range of mobs, let the tanks lead in raids, after all, that's why they are there. But also keep an eye out for wondering mobs attacking healers and caster in the back, and by chance you do catch a mob wondering, tell a tank, it can save someones life, or even the raids.
• Watch for the aggro wipes - some bosses wipe threat tables every special occasion, and during those times, chill the DPS on ice for a few seconds and wait for the tank to get a good amount of threat, otherwise, you'll count toward the corpses on the floor of others who didn't wait...

I COULD go through every boss fight since WOTLK's launch, but that would take too much space and just repeat what you could find on YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, and TANKSPOT.COM and for some reason, I think they go into fights more then I would.

So with your new profound knowledge, go forth and live in a raid, kill a couple of bosses, and overall, enjoy staying alive.

-pwrtoppl

-out (just in time for sleep)

Ready, Set, Raid - Raid Recovery - where it went wrong

Well, nothing goes as planned...and the few things that do, can not go without a complication afterwards or two. But for raiding in world of warcraft, there are so many factors that could lead to a bad raid player-wise:

• Undergeared players - those who can't survive the current content because their equipped gear does not give the survivability to withstand harder encounters.
  
• New raiders - they might know how to raid, but their new to your guild and they don't know your style of doing a boss fight or something different they might do, but you don't.
  
• AFKers - ones who say, "BRB" in raid chat and actually go AFK (away from keyboard) and are semi-important (healer or tank important...dps can be brought back later or replaced)
  
• Ramblers - ones who won't keep quiet and clog vent (online voice system for gaming) with their mindless chatter, ruining prospective communication between the raid
  
• Low-ballers - these guys don't think anyone can do better then them, and the rest of the raid should listen to their words of wisdom, because they might not be the raid leader, but they sure know the most.
  
• Offline Gamblers - never online for boss fights...or disconnects at a critical point...not because they want to, but because their internet is unstable and causing the raid to wait for their return or push on without them.
  
• Emos - can't win gear, can't get credit for kills, can't top charts, can't make raids in time (except for a short few), feel left out in conversations...and doesn't want to do anything to change their Emo status.
  
• Shifters - they cause wipes...doing something they shouldn't...and to learn from their mistake...isn't possible because it's never their fault (if they fall against kologram's body to their death, it's the game's fault, not theirs), these people, shift the blame to make themselves seem more knowledge about blizzard coding, or just more overall amazing.

I could go on with several more, but the point is seen, put in one of each of the listed types and suddenly your 25 man raid feels more like a 15 man raid, with a handful tagging along for the ride. But, it's not like the raid cannot push on without these folks, no, they have that option and can still do pretty well.

So here's the shakedown...Raid wiping is talking about what went wrong while rebuffing and getting ready for the next attempt. Talking about an issue between people usually means people can understand the issue and attempt to resolve it. The same applies to Raids and wipes. When healers aren't doing their job, it's up to them and the tanks to figure out how not to repeat that mistake. Or when DPSers keep dying in the blue flame on Razorscale...with some simple words, and open ears, people can learn from these mistakes and work to aviod repeating the past.

The most useful tool to finding out how people die is the simple, yet elegant combat log. It's there to show what you take damage from, what happens to others, and when someone dies, it lists not only the damage and overkill amount, but the type and the name of the ability AND who did it (mob or boss).

-So, quick overview beforce I lose my main point (think it's already happened), talking about what happens in a raid wipe helps everyone learn from their mistakes and can make a raid, and guild, both more efficient and help future raiding smooth out.

-pwrtoppl
-out

Recount - Adding flavor, me vs you

Meter maids...they happen. They are the jelly of the pbj sandwhich...they are the sweet stuff that brings together the tanks (bread) and healers (peanut butter). DPS in world of warcraft is what kills a boss, and, with a good amount of DPS, you can clear an instance within a feasible amount of time...because, without it, bosses hit enrage timers, and things just take much much longer.
With DPS comes the competition though. Ever see UFC? Where two guys go at it for fame, glory and blood? Sure, to the victor go the spoils. DPS is a competitive thing, not only because it seperates those who know their class from those who REALLY know their class, but it shows who is really doing what. And what a better way to track that then an addon just for situations like that?

Recount is an addon that can track a multitude of things, from the number of interrupts performed in an encounter, to healing done overall, to even the damage taken per person (tanks usually get the top here). But the sweet stuff, the most viewed and talked about option in Recount...is the DPS.



Recount records DPS in several useful ways. First off, it records who is performing what attacks, combinations, number of times an ability is used in a fight, and several other interesting features including how often an ability crits. The Second part, and sometimes the most annoying, but also useful, is the damage per second (or damage overall depending on the category) raiting. So, if person X is doing really good damage to a boss, he might indeed be at the top of the charts. Below him, will be person Y, A, and B will be at the bottom.

Here's the usefulness of DPS (or overall damage done) part of Recount:

• shows whos undergeared by stating low damage done per attack
• shows whos missing attacks in a rotation (might lead to the person needing to learn how to play their class)
• it shows (per person under their abilties) crits and hits per number of attacks per boss, including misses, glances (partial damage), dodges, blocks, and parries

Overall...its a useful thing. Recount can track everyone in the raid with a 1% difference per meter from person to person (some might show a tiny bit more then someone else's meter)

Here's where the usefulness drops off --- spamming the meter in raid chat everytime someone does top 3 or so on a boss. The worst part, is sometimes, people don't see that person do their usual post if their not in the top...almost as if they feel shamed for not contributing to the raid. But that's the thing, they are helping, and even though they might not take the top, they still killed the boss, moving the raid along. And people have forgotten those roots.

In terms, it is indeed a damage race to kill a boss before he enrages, gaining something like a 500% bonus to damage and 150% bonus to attack speed. But people now take it too far, and race against themselves, to the point where they might fight over who plays what role during some boss encounters, where not everyone can just stand in place and DPS a boss to death. And it's during those times that posting a raid meter doesn't show who is helping the raid overall but dpsing a contruct during Ignis, or who is interrupting the bosses during Iron Council. Overall though, it can be fun to post when people get to stand and DPS a boss like Patchwerk, where only the healers and tanks dont participate on the DPS meters.

Recount also doesn't show DPS loss when a player is temporary unavailable to DPS the boss, though his DoTs, or Damage over Time effects still tick, thus reducing his overall damage. This is shown on some fights like Ignis, inside the slag pot, or even Kologram, where he grabs random people, leaving DoTs to tick with no other damage being applied.

Overall though, Recount is an exceptional addon that can show so much that isn't seen, but can also become annoying when used improperly. It can be both a helpful addon that can be used to reviews players in fights, or a spam method to show who "dedicates" themselves to the boss. So for all the DPS out there, no one really cares about your overall DPS, or how much you do, the boss still dies, and we all move on together, if you must post the meter, whisper it to someone else, don't bother the rest of the raid with your great lifetime accomplishment.

-pwrtoppl

-out

connected - wired into the matrix

It's officially no longer the Internet.

We left the station of the Internet some time ago. What once was a start where communications could be sent in a secure fashion from one base to another within the government has developed to scrambling to play with the latest trend while browsing a library of outdated, connected, contacted information...though not a bad evolution, it has it's moments.

I can't say we didn't see it coming though...and without actually feeling it, we can never understand what it is, but alas we are here, with a nagging feeling like we need more.

This Internet could never be enough, for data searches or blogs about feelings, to posting what someone is currently doing to the very second no matter the location...the title of the Internet is long gone.

Matrix...has taken it's place. And no, not like the movie, where AIs fight against humans for the very control of their mind (though, the possibility is still present). The Matrix from wiki states:

• matrix (plural: matrices) is the material between animal or plant cells, the material (or tissue) in which more specialized structures are embedded.

Seems only logical that the Internet could be established as such right?
Is the Matrix we deal with every day of our lives embedded as such? The answer is more clear then one could think.

Take a person's normal daily routine where they work at an office, and live in a circular pattern as they continue their life. They wake up, probably check their phone (connected to a network, able to access other forms of communication [ex: internet]) go to work, check work emails (another internal connection), check personal emails (saying they are permitted to), go about their day, communicating with others either via voice, or words typed (including blogs, emails, forums). Then they might proceed home, do as they normally do to live their life, including watch TV, check more email, touch up on an mmo or visit with other people in the life (neighbors, friends, social locations that also count for myspace, twitter, facebook, or even a bar, club etc.). And then proceed to rinse and repeat.

The point? It can no longer be just an internet, someone must see that it has grown past it's old title, and now must adopt something that we've embedded in our everyday lives (ie: Matrix).

I could go on, and fight with any thought and self indulged crazy ideas, but, I don't think a million worded blog will change many peoples lives...maybe (could be crazy enough to work)


-pwrtoppl
-out