So what they are doing, is essentially cutting agility’s contribution to dodge. Bears on the PTR in t8 are reporting up to a 2-3% loss of dodge from the transfer only. The only real big setback with this is we don’t have anything to make up for it when we actually do loose our dodge. Unlike other tanking classes our only avoidance skill is dodge, Of course we can make up for that with Savage defenses right?

Yeah I didn’t think so either, Point is that Bears are slowly being pushed backwards because while no one seems to trust us, we’re also the only tanks that can handle Hard Mode with the Death Knights because of our massive [in comparison with Warriors and Paladins] Health Pools.  There is also the fact that even post nerf to our armor, we still sit comfortably at close to 80% physical mitigation thanks to armor/talents/etc. The only thing we don’t have going for is avoidance, and as stated above Blizzard really would rather the tank Lessen the Blows, not avoid them all together.

Point is that the “Severely Unrelated Category” is all about my thoughts behind the screen rather than anything having to do with WoW

Really, what interest me is that 4chan is down again, now if you have any knowledge of the site, than you know that its goes up and down as the years go by. Fractions within its userbase for whatever reason feel the need to bring the site down via a DDoS attack. After several years this is really just part of the ebb and flow of things and really isn’t all that out of the ordinary. But something that does occur to me, is that after 5 years+ of running 4chan.org, what would happen to its userbase if it were to shut down or be permanently taken offline. Though I doubt very much that this point is coming any time soon, M00t has stated over and over again that he can’t really deal with the soaring cost associated with keeping the site up in comparison with the rather weak add revenue due in part to the sites reputation on the web and because most of its users are web savvy to some degree.

So I pose the question, where would its userbase migrate if 4chan were to shut down and disappear off the face of the web.  With any other site this is really a non issue as it doesn’t have either a large enough presence to be felt, or it simply doesn’t have that close a community. And while 4chan by nature has no real bonds between its members, they do act in a very swarm mentality when they take actions. This consistent feature of group think is the interesting part of this. For instance, where do they go to gather when the site they use for primary communication is taken down. While there are other chans that serve as bases of operation for this swarm logic, not one truly represents a centralized point.

So what you have is essentially 3 million + drones [more if Alexa is anywhere close to correct] without a hive. Given that 4chan was created out of the depths of somethingawful one would assume they would just move to a new site. But that central communication point is rather key, and if its operator [in this case moot] were to suddenly give up on the venture project, than how would the swarm communicate with each other. The first thing of course is members of the swarm who act as an online grape vine, [those other smaller "Outpost" if you will serving to let members know of what the plans are]. But this generally fails to address the Swarm as a whole. The only real key point that they have between them is Google, and thus they will search for either information on when 4chan itself is coming back up or use it to find a replacement. This makes google an interesting choice for the initial establishment of a new site. Unlike 4chan itself which has grown through word of mouth, with the Anonymous disbanded and lacking in central communication they will generally [a good 80% of the population] go looking for a replacement to fill the gap in their web browsing habit. I also wonder if the DD0S attack N. Korea launched against key government sites over the week has ANYTHING at all to do with this, and what possible fall out that could cause [if any at all]

Like I said, its rather off topic, and has little if nothing at all to do with WoW. Its just my main site [phaser.mewvision.com] has been taken offline for security concerns, and so I am left to ponder things of trivial value on this blog here.

On an even more unrelated note, its my 21st Birthday Yesterday! Go me [oh god my head ;_;]

Lynxhcan found her way to a new fur coat

Along with all the new cosmetic changes [and about 50 of the gold I had when Lynxchan was ported from Gilneas to the PRT being used entirely on haircuts] The PTR really does have some very new things going on. First of all the Argent Tournament has a new Instance [as most of you already know about], and even a whole full set of dailies. But what I found most interesting is that those with the Crusader title can turn in their “Champions Seals” not only for a Bridle that you apply to your squire [someone explain to me how that isn't wrong] but you can also use them to buy the new [and some of the old] PvE oriented Heirloom items. These include a full new set of chest pieces that like the shoulders give a 10% bonus to experience gain. All the weapons and trinkets are there as well.

On top of that I found a nifty little jewel being sold by the Emblems of Triumph: Here

It actually has a name on the PRT but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is, I’m sure it rhymes with its counterpart [The blood of the old gods] or some nonsense.  Point is, that you can finally stop farming Grim Toll, and get back to work on progression. Granted this takes 50 of those little tokens, and if you aren’t one of the lucky few who will be doing that new instance and farming those badges, for the rest of us it looks like we are stuck doing dailies to get a chance at it. So you know, just blow like 25 days straight!. On the upside, this does change my factoring regarding the gearing up of a player from green to 213. With the new system, it looks like you’ll be much closer to having a full set [minus a weapon... well you should have a weapon from the Argent Dailies].

There is also the new forms, honestly I’m kinda hoping that Blizzard isn’t done, there are still a lot of details on the models that just don’t fit right. For instance in the picture above you can’t see it, but our tail curls up when we fall asleep, and has all kinds of strange kinks in it, reminding me more of a strange hose than some poor animals tail. The models just feel very rough even in comparison with current cat form, a lot of strange edges and the like. Luckily the color isn’t so glaring on the PTR, and the pink is far more subtle than it was in that first picture series blizzard put out. As people have pointed out, now that we are actually using the same bear model as every other bear in the game, we look a bit retarded.

But why complain about that!? there is also a new Orphans week quest they ware testing on the PTR that apparently didn’t make it to last years Orphans week. I don’t know if they will ever let it go live before next year’s orphans week… but here’s for hoping. I hadn’t done any of the quest series yet, I was to busy playing around with the new kitty form and some other things like looking at new gear and how things are priced etc.

I’ll probably start actually testing the quest tomorrow [though I feel silly, I sent in something about the PTR talent tree thing not working, forgetting that you have to enable it in the options menu somewhere. So to whatever Blizzard employee got that little note and face palmed, its ok you don't have to reply.  I spent the first 10 minutes on the PTR with my alt key stuck in place, so you can imagine what kind of terror that had while I was trying to do anything.

The New raid is still actually down on the PTR, and silly things [like Cardinal Ruby's being Yellow and not red] are still in need of fixing, but if you’re not used to the PTR being a combination of lag and bugs than you just have never seen beta testing before. There was one new feature that I really liked, instead of  “Select Specific Instance, blah blah blah” for looking for group, you can now go through and select “Looking for any heroic” which could help a lot for people just wanting to group up to get badges.

Said New Feature

I’ll try and get back on when I have some time Sunday Night to see if I can’t do the whole children’s chain quest and find out what kind of vanity pet this series is forking out. Until later folks, keep your eyes open!

But now they’ve stepped into an area that Blizzard said over and over again that they just weren’t interested in doing:

And Ya' Done

The interesting point [by the way the thread on the WoW forums was updated yesterday], is not so much how will this affect gameplay, as at this point with the removal of Shaman’s and Paladins as unique to either horde or Paladin, there is very little other than racials [which are also thin in terms of difference] that separate the factions from one another. What’s more confusing to me is how they plan on dealing with issues like Loremaster etc. because as an Alliance player etc you have no access to any of the early Horde quest or vice versa, so how are they going to deal with what quest you have completed and which ones you are on? Will you get to re do the wrathgate from the other factions perspective? I suppose this is a small question, but the other ones I have seem from a programming stand point seem easy enough to deal with.

The race’s themselves will just be based on what your class currently is and what it can become on the opposing faction, The reputation for each faction has a very clear counterpoint on the opposing faction, so there is no real worry there either [I imagine if you are an ambassador to the alliance, this will make you an ambassador to the horde, etc. ]. The clear issue is that Blizzard is stoking the fire while it can. It understands that a lot of its players are burned out, and some have even threatened to quit over the lack of LAN in starcraft II. So Blizzard may be willing to make compromises to try and bring back old players and try to keep the game as fresh as possible because the problem right now is that unless you are in a reasonably well of raiding guild [we'll assume that each server has 10-20 of these guilds with close to 30 players / guild] on an average server that population is somewhere close to 9-12% of the overall population, than you really haven’t seen any new content since you hit 80. And that is really starting to take its toll on a great many players, because unlike BC, Blizzard is taking their sweet time to release new dungeons so that the guilds out there downing Yogg Soron right now don’t just run right to Icecrown to farm the Lich King next.

It should be interesting to note weather or not this service actually gets used, as it could really shake things up on PvP servers, where faction imbalance could make your life a miserable hell. Have to keep an eye on this one

New Set with all the fixings

And while I do disagree with the helm looking as if it has come out of no real thought, it is quite interesting that the shoulders finally get a little life to them. What is kind of crazy is that the weapons that are being offered for the new season [especially in area's like spellpower on the items, with one of the daggers having 700+ spellpower] blow out of the water even the best of the Ulduar Weapons by spellpower alone [not to mention the other stats even with itemization devoted towards resiliance]. I’m all for going out of our way to make PvP seem power hungry and crazy, and that stats should be jumping left and right, but even I’m a bit weary of the notion that you should be able to purchase an ilevel 258 piece of gear through doing Arena. I suppose the notice is that you have to be a top team to get access to the items

But just look at the healing mace There is a fine line between simply awesome, and turning the game towards PvP. Already Druids are complaining that the single best tanking weapon in game has to be gotten through PvP because Ulduar simply doesn’t offer a reliable equivalent. I assume this also means that the Crusader’s Coliseum will be dropping ilevel 258 pieces as well to make up for the fact that that there is now such a massive gap between a level 80 heroic epic and a t9 epic [almost 300 spellpower difference, which is a LOT of scaling upwards in only 3 tiers of gear, this points more towards Blizzards intention to do a total gear reset]. This doesn’t even factor in the issue that Blizzard might just be thinking of releasing Tier 10.

I just found this all rather interesting.

Anyway here is the video, please sit back and enjoy [along with the nifty theme music]

Point is that there are actual strategies to getting through pretty much everything involved in getting those nifty little champions seals [with 150 you get a free portable mailbox / bank ]. The first thing to address are some of the dailies that are given by the faction NPC’s [this includes the folks who are working for Stormwind / Darnassus / etc.] They have a standard set of quest. Kill 10 Scourge, Get 3 Valiants Seals, and Going to the Citadel and Killing Bats, Soldiers, and Lieutenants.  The final quest series involves going off to find some sword somewhere in the world. Its 3 rather simple quest, “Blade Fit for a Champion”, “Edge of Winter”, or “A Worthy Weapon”. Edge of Winter is very straight forward, go murder a fire elemental next to the Silverwing Outpost in Crystalsong [have to use flying to get up there], and than take the item he drops and use it on the dryad frozen in the middle of the lake in Howling Fjord. A worthy weapon involves you finding a bunch of flowers in that wall between Icecrown and Crystalsong Forest, and than using 4 of them to summon a Troll in the middle of the lake right next to the steps between Zul Drak and Dragonblight. The third quest is much like the tale of the swan princess, only this time the swan is a frog, and the princess has a sword you need. Anyway, you fly to yet another lake in Grizzly Hills surrounded by frogs. You can use this helpful macro once you target a frog so that you don’t get warts [I'm still not sure if it actually changes anything].

• /use Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm
• /kiss %t

Of course there are other quest as well. There are those quest to beat up champions and valiants. The first couple of times you do this, it’s not really all that easy a task, mostly because they weren’t programmed to sit and let you learn. The real key here, is first start the fight out with all 3 shields up and ready to go. The second the fight starts spam the 3 button [ie charge] to get the first shot in. Once that is done, it simply becomes a game of keeping that shield up while looping around either the champions or the valiants in a figure 8 pattern around them [try to stay behind them, if you get enough distance on them they will throw shield breakers or even worse they will charge]. The figure 8 that you’ll be doing around them should keep them confused and their back to you. Now while doing this figure 8, just smash the 1 and 2 buttons [attack and shield breaker]. Granted, this could be the cause of my massive lag spikes, but… I figure its a safe bet, and I’ve never lost more than 10% health while using this little strategy. Your biggest opponent here is going to be lag spikes.

Another two quest you’ll get once you are at the Champion level is a group quest to kill Chillmaw and to go run to the Citadel again and beat up the locals, this time including a commander. The commander himself is a pain in the rear to solo, that’s why most groups will take Chillmaw and than run down to get the Citadel quest together, its usually the fastest way to do things. But if you are so determined to solo him, you need to remember that your charge does close to 45k damage to him when he has no shields, so start off with a charge [as it auto drops 1 shield] run out, throw 2 shield breakers, charge him, and than get out to shield break as needed and let the charge cool down. If he is surrounded, use the shield breaker to pull him.

Chillmaw has been soloed by various classes as this point, he’s not to tough, but I wouldn’t try taking him in cat form. If you’re really bored, you can heal through him as resto and let thorns and the occasional moonfire take him down [I would advice setting back an hour for this activity]. There is also the bear option, to use Feral Faerie Fire to pull him down, build some threat on him, and than kite him around the cliff, healing as needed. When the Bombers start to drop off be ready to avoid the bombs they’ll be throwing on the ground [IE more kiting]. I figure if an elemental Shaman can do it in decent gear, than just about anyone with spare time and patience has got a pretty good chance at it themselves.

There will be more quest for this area with the release of the 3.2 patch, and there will be quest specifically for those who have gotten the title “Crusader”. The area will be offering all kinds of new little quest now that the arena has actually been completed. Also We’re looking into claims that Flight Form now has a 1.5 second cast time on the PTR.

Till Later! Keep it Dr00.

For Druids by Druids

Feel free to let me know what you think or what I can fix

• Feral
• Druid T9 Feral 2P Bonus – Decreases the cooldown on your Growl ability by -2.0 sec and increases the duration of your Rake ability by 3.0 sec.
• Druid T9 Feral 4P Bonus – Increases the damage reduction granted by Barkskin by 10% and increases the critical strike chance of Rip and Ferocious Bite by 5%.
• Balance
• Druid T9 Balance 2P Bonus (Moonfire) – Your Moonfire ability now has a chance for its periodic damage to be critical strikes.
• Druid T9 Balance 4P Bonus (Starfire) – Increases the critical strike chance of your Starfire spell by 5%.
• Restoration:
• Druid T9 Restoration 2P Bonus (Nourish) – Increases the critical strike chance of your Nourish spell by 5%.
• Druid T9 Restoration 4P Bonus (Rejuvenation) – Your Rejuvenation ability now has a chance for its healing to be critical strikes.

A few things to note here about all this, the first being that the Feral seems to finally be aimed at both tanking and DPS rather than 1 or the other. this seems to put it back in line with the tier 7 set bonuses though I think it odd that it only increases the rip duration by 3 seconds, where the tier 7′s 2 piece bonus gave a 4 second increase. It should be noted that The Daily Druid claims that these were data mined from the server, but they don’t seem to give the source of the data mining, so we are left to wonder about just how accurate the information really is.

That said, it looks like they would like to bring Bear Tanks to the party for more than just the Hard Mode fights where they serve as essentially a meatshield, more for their Health Pool and less for their actual ability to tank [ie our avoidance with only Barkskin and Survival Instincts being aimed at non threat generating tanking abilities]. It could also be that so many druid’s went from being Bears to Cats that Blizzard thought it might be high time to first nerf Cat DPS as mentioned in the patch notes, and than push Bears more to the front through set bonuses as well as the idol [which gives a chance to proc +200 dodge rating while Mangle and Shred will proc +200 agility]. It makes me wonder how difficult the idol will be to get a hold of where only druids seeing the very end of Ulduar will even have a shot at it or even get a chance to see it. Many bear tanks were complaining that the only access they had to tanking idols was an old one from The Burning Crusade or the Idol that was a level 74 blue.

The Balance bonsues seem to be much in line with Blizzards move towards trying to get DoT’s to crit. The 4p bonus seems a bit weak to be honest as the 4pc that came with t7 was geared at not only starfire but Wrath as well. It doesn’t provide quite as much insight as the Feral Bonuses do as to where Blizzard would like to take Balance druids.

This of course leaves the Resto Bonus. Again the 2 piece bonus seems a bit weak, even with the 5% crit chance seems a bit pointless in the string of things With t8 making swiftmend heal for more regardless of weather or not it crits and t7 making lifebloom cheaper. The 4pc bonus however is the one of interest. Much like the t8 4pc bonus it provides pretty clear direction as to what Blizzard would like us to take, and it generally seems to reflect the 2 spells they would like us casting [ie t8 rejuv with swiftmend to save the day etc.] Of course I am going to assume that Blizzard would like us to cast a larger variety of spells than those, but the weird way they’ve been working, we’re slowly being pushed in one very clear direction. I assume Blizzard just thought Lifebloom was way to powerful, Regrowth was for reasons I’m not sure dropped down [it crit to much in patch 3.0.x etc.] and Healing Touch has almost always been out of the question except to be used after Nature’s Swiftness.

Now Blizzard has said before that they wanted HoT’s to be able to crit for a very long time. In fact this plan has been in place since the early alpha testing. Just due to complications with the nature of the HoT mechanic they couldn’t get it to work. When you start to look at that 4 piece bonus the 2 piece makes a tiny shred more sense, and I imagine now that we are all haste capped from Ulduar gear they would like to start pushing us more towards Crit Rating [an odd path for druids, because we've never really needed crit rating, just tons of spellpower and regen]. Again I worry this puts us ever closer to other healers in terms of general bland healing strategy, but there is very little that can be done about that is it is in fact Blizzard’s overall goal.

I’ll try and keep a lookout for any signs of the actual itemization or the way the gear looks.

Oh DETA is going to have you for this one Dwarf