daily Archives - Alternate Image Gaming

Mist of Pandaria

The Valor Dance: Dailies, Reputation, Upgrades, Trouble

March 22, 2013

Mists of Pandaria has brought us a bit of a roller coaster when it comes to our valor points and how we acquire and speed them. In Cataclysm, there were very few changes (just the move from 1 dungeon per day awarding valor to 7 per week) and we essentially just did a few heroic dungeons, killed a few raid bosses, and spent our points when we had enough. In MoP, however, the valor gear was gated behind reputation which was gated behind dailies. Valor being unspendable before doing enough dailies has been much lamented by the player base. Of course, since launch, each patch has brought a new curve ball in terms of valor. Continue to see the different valor changes so far, the problems with those changes, and what’s coming up in patch 5.3!

(more…)

Daily

Daily Thoughts: Freezing Frost Mages Batman!

May 26, 2011

I have to be honest: I hate frost mages. Not quite as much as I hate the fear mechanic, but pretty fiercely nonetheless. That said, mine is level 74 and I’m having a blast being a royal pain in the butt to countless alliance that dare cross me!

Frost is Broken

My 74 mage is dual spec frost and fire. In full heirloom gear (head, chest, shoulders, weapon, trinks, back) and a mix of quest/dungeon gear otherwise I’m finding myself pulling about 2300 dps in fire. This isn’t a difficult rotation but does involve a handful of buttons and paying a little attention to DoT timers. On the other hand, frost can do 2100 single target DPS while pushing only frostbolt and ice lance during a fingers of frost proc or while moving. I hear the problem isn’t so bad at max level.

On the other hand, in PVP the issue is magnified. I can ice lance crit other players for 70% of my HP repeatedly if they’re frozen. Frost nova + ice lance is brutal. Not to mention adding deep freeze (a 5 second stun) plus a counterspell that is also a 4 second silence. I can often easily kill a healer of equal level and greater health without giving him the chance to even cast a spell. If there’s already a HoT or bubble on the target, spellsteal makes it mine. I got to witness an exaggerated version of this in arena at max level. Two weeks ago my druid/warrior 2’s team had 6 wins 3 losses with 2 of the losses against teams with frost mages. The week after that, we went 7 wins 10 losses, 9 of the losses being teams with frost mages (including a team that was dual frost mages). We did beat 2 teams with frost mages though. There is of course a possibility that our comp or skill just doesn’t have the tools to beat a frost mage, but I don’t feel like the problem should be that substantial. Finally, players tend to gravitate to what is most EZmode or over powered. So, 11 teams with frost mages out of 17 matches total? Seems a bit excessive. Wonder why the players are gravitating that way?

Frost is also freakin’ fun

There is another pretty strong reason players have decided to rock out with their frost out in PVP. It’s really fun! I’ve been spending most of my leveling time between 40-70 leveling and up until almost 70 I was playing with the fire spec. The talent points on my frost off spec slowly grew and grew, unspent, unloved. Until finally, one evening, I had my face repeatedly beat in by frost mages while pvping on a different toon. I decided that there must be something to this frost mage thing – and I’ve been slowing, freezing and murdering alliance as they try to feel in terror ever since. Leveling frost is definitely a solid choice for anyone bring their mage up. Although all specs can bring something interesting to the table, frost has a great skill set for preventing getting beat on by mobs or other players and makes it ideal for a class not running around in plate.

Daily Druid

Daily Thoughts: Resto Druid PVP

May 18, 2011

In Wrath, Resto Druids were arguably the most over powered healing class in PVP. While that title is now often thrown at Resto Shamans or Holy Paladins, we former trees of HoT-ty goodness can still definitely hold our own. Aside from that, playing a resto druid in PVP is fun as all hell. There’s almost nothing like jumping into a large mass of players fighting, rolling HoTs on your team and turning the tide as, suddenly, the enemy can’t kill your teammates. Combine that with having a host of instant-cast spells and being able to break snares when changing form (something only resto druids can do now) and they can be really, really hard to bring down. (more…)

Daily

Daily Thoughts: Apparently Wolves Don’t Like Creed

February 7, 2011

So, this has nothing to do with WoW…at all (but I promise there will be a loose tie in). CNN reports that a Norwegian boy fends off a pack of wolves using only his boyish charms and a Creed song.

Luckily for Walter Eikrem, it does not appear Norwegian wolves care for Creed.

The 13-year-old was walking home from the school bus stop in the town of Rakkestdad this week when he noticed something on the hillside near his family’s farmhouse, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.

At first he thought they were dogs, but he soon realized they were wolves– four of them – the magazine said, citing Norway’s TV2.

The boy, remembering that his mother had told him never to run from wolves, pulled the headphones out of his mobile phone and cranked up the volume on the tiny speakers.

He was listening to “Overcome” by Creed, an arguably Christian rock band, and apparently, the wolves were not fans.

(Initial reports indicated Walter shooed the wolves away with a Megadeth song, but the blog at Gibson guitars cleared up the confusion.)

“They just turned around and simply trotted away,” he told the TV station, according to Der Spiegel. “The worst thing you can do is run away because doing so just invites the wolves to chase you down … but I was so afraid that I couldn’t even run away if I’d wanted to.”

To be fair, Walter was yelling at the top of his lungs and wildly flailing his arms, so it’s tough to say exactly what made the wolves decide the boy might not be delicious.

His mother told the local paper that she was going to pick her son up from school because she knew there were wolves in the area, but she got carried away shopping, Der Spiegel reported.

“I have a completely guilty conscience,” she said. “The previous evening, we saw three wolves on the edge of the forest when we were putting our horses in their stall. The horses were panicky.”

Um, thanks, mum? … Well, OK, scratch that. Perhaps sarcasm is a little harsh for the woman who taught young Walter never to run from wolves. (Original Article HERE)

Seems like wolves are inclined to make headlines these days. And for the Warcraft tie in? Remember when Blizzard joked that we’d be seeing a new Hero class – the Bard (info here) – looks like we know at least one of that classes important cooldowns would have been Power Word: Creed, possibly having a fear effect.

Cataclysm Daily News/Updates

Daily Thoughts: Good News About Dailies

December 29, 2010

A post over at WoW Insider regarding Blizzard’s Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi’s interview on G4 has informed me that “A future content patch will see Hyjal fully healed, and new daily quests”. Check out the other details and find a link to the full interview HERE. Two weeks ago I’d be pretty excited about this, but my main already has exalted here through the dungeon grind. At least alts will be able to pick up the leveling blues and entry-level epics easier.

Other good news in regards to reputation grinds is the addition of a repeatable reputation gaining quest for the Ramkahen in Uldum. We now have quest Fire From the Sky that grants 250 rep and some gold upon completion. This joins Thieving Little Pluckers which I believe only grants 150 reputation.

For information about all the cataclysm factions, their reputation dailies, and loot, check out my Cataclysm Faction Reputation Guide.

See you tomorrow! Probably.

Guide News/Updates

Cataclysm Faction Reputation Guide

December 19, 2010

I’ve prepared a pretty inclusive list of all the cataclysm factions, links to their loot lists on wowhead, and if they have tabards, dailies, etc. Also past the cut is a list of each factions epic loot available. Continue below to see the list including Baradin’s Wardens, Dragonmaw Clan, Guardians of Hyjal, Hellscream’s Reach, Ramkahen, The Earthen Ring, Therazane and Wildhammer Clan.

(more…)

1 2 Next »