Blog Posts from "Exitec Style" - Gameriot.com

TOLD YA SO

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:47:47 -0400

"All Duels Will Take Place On Open Ground Similar To Ironforge / Durotar"

-World of ming

Decided to hop on while I was bored this morning and see how WoW was operating without me, and nothing seems to have changed in the many months i've been away from the game. Druids kill **** with thorns, Pookz is known as one of the best mages (/facepalm) and Sonydigital is the world renound best warrior. Must be pretty cool to hear "ya i'm pretty good" over vent with his mom in the background letting him know he has to get all his homework done if he wants to attend the duel tournament this weekend.

Oh, and for all you haters - the way you guys all seem to be playing WoW now, is the way I said it should be played months ago. No pillar bull****. Grats on everyone here being ******* stupid. Now go back to grinding the same **** you've been grinding for the past 4+ years.

P.S - Picked up my old sega genesis the other day. Had more fun counting the pixels on the screen than I did ever chasing a ******* druid.

End of the Road

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:44:35 -0400

Blogged here for a long time, took some time off, came back, started drama, pretended like I cared a lot, tried to be funny, made some friends, gained a lot of haters, lost a lot of arena matches, beat a lot of those same kids in bg's where they don't have pillars to hide behind, got my gear, had some fun - and now it's time to call it quits.

Xpac on the way, and right now i'm averaging about an hour of playtime a week, if that.Â I have pre-ordered xpac, and will be leveling up and playing in times when there is literally nothing else to do; thus, WoW will not be as much of a priority as I ever made it out to be.

I haven't checked gameriot since the last time I posted which was months ago, and coming back I realize how stupid this game has gotten.Â Nobody is respectful to each other in the least bit, the only teams playing for any real money at tournaments are WLD teams, RMP makes you wanna smash your eyeballs in with any object in a 5 inch radius, and the only real "trolling" that I see going on is a bunch of kids running around screaming "YA WELL WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED ROFL UR MOM."Â Guess what, you're not funny, you aren't "hardcore" and you aren't tough.Â It's the internet, my 7 year old brother can be as "big" as you here.

When my account is officially closed, I can say it will be the ending I always wanted.Â I played this game for years, beat the dead horse, stuck with my mage through the worst of times (cs on global cooldown anyone?) and always had this illusion that the game would once again retreat to the simplicity it had pre-BC.Â Some people call it boring, I say that was the time when there was the most potential.Â That was when timing was everything, quickness overcame gear, and HoT's didn't exist.Â

Xpac is a cluster**** of abilities nobody even knows when to use, everyone but me seems to know how paladins work, deathknights are going to be weird in themselves, and i've run out of hotkeys for ANY new abilities.Â This game needs not only to be reduced of % based things (just make everything an ability, and make it work 100% of the time, with a cooldown, and watch as people suddenly develop very unique playstyles using that ability) but needs things that will make each and every person stand out.

But oh well, what does it matter, I doubt I will be the one playing this game 15 hours a day anymore, so at this point all I want to do is log on, enjoy some of the new quests, roleplay in the mountains with my picnic basket and my swift noble steed, and continue to miss the days when WoW was an intense, competative game, instead of this slumber party full of 13 yr old girls pumped their going to high school for the first time next week, and are practicing talking **** to all the other girls walking around.

Nobody cares.

My last post on gameriot

~peace

(those of you who have my aim and want to say hey, feel free.Â or if you just get hella bored with your server and wanna play casually come xpac with me, cachexic, and saqe, just hit me up.)

...

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:18:11 -0400

Back, But What For?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:56:03 -0400

Well after being MIA for about 3 weeks, because I felt I should maybe prioritize spending time with my gf (and the fact that I was on vaca) over writing about pathetic WoW drama, I am finally back.

But....what did I miss?

I mean, I remember when I would go on vaca for a week, come back, and feel like I had been away from the game for a year. So much stuff would happen in terms of relationships, teams, guilds, items, and the legendary "so who got #1 for honor grinding for the week?" But now? The most interesting thing i've read in the past 3 weeks was that Ming was a girl to be his new writer for WoM (sex sells, who knew) and that everyone is freaking out over the Xpac already, when it isn't even close to being done in terms of evening the classes out balance wise.

I am officially less than 24 hours away from moving into my dorm at the University of Missouri, and I honestly don't know what will become of my WoW career. Part of me thinks it will be a good idea to keep playing, and keep trying to find things in the game that I still enjoy, and the other part feels like after 4 years, it might be time to slowly let it fall out of my life, and become a thing of the past. Who knows, and who cares right? I'm terrible anyway. Losing Hoodrych will hurt the "legendary WoW community" MUCH more than myself.

--

On a side note, just so this blog isn't a complete waste, I decided the other day to sit down and watch Dilir 24. Now, before I start, I have to say that I have never been a fan of his videos. Releasing that many is what we call "the Neilyo syndrome" where you aren't necessarily famous for being amazing (different for Neilyo of course) but rather because you release so many videos that you bash your name into people's heads. Otherguy did the same thing, and the fact that people still call him "one of the best mages" makes me laugh. But that is a completely different topic.

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=85699

Now, with that said, I have to say I actually enjoyed a lot of things about this video. He chose a non-popular spec that makes the video much more fun to watch (elementalist) and coupled with his quick moves and engineering, the video was Overall, I really liked this video. Was a good length (not the typical, heres me pwning hard for 45 minutes, doing the same thing over and over again) and the music was fine. The thing people still don't seem to understand, is that micromanaging multiple opponents in bg's, is JUST AS HARD, IF NOT HARDER than keeping track of the one other guy in the arena, that your mod pretty much monitors for you. Dilir does a great job of managing multiple opponents at a time, as do other baller mages like Radikal, Saqe, Cachexic, Vurtne, etc. Spamming sheep, landing a cs, and getting off 1 shatter combo is about all it takes to be a mage at this point in the arena. Sadly, for me, that just doesn't get me hard, and I prefer to stick with ballin' it up like Dilir does in this video.

People used to say, "PvE for gear, PvP for Reputation." Well the same stays true today, except now, we "Arena for gear, and PvP for fun." With all the win trading, tournaments, sponsors, and team hopping problems, arena is a flawed system in a game that still has potential. So grats to all who get their shoulders the ez way, pre-grats to all tourny winners, and lets just send out one more grats to every kid who ever made it in the arena world. I commend you for making a name for yourself after the game literally got "easy" in that aspect. But for all the oldschoolers who are still ballin' it up, and have had a name for themselves since pre-BC....my hat is off to you guys. Club meeting next friday.

<3 Ballers

Mages In Xpac - This Is What We Need

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:06:36 -0400

I realized this while I was reading Ming's blog this morning, and to be honest it is something that I guess I have been thinking about subconsciously. I think everyone has this false impression that a lot of mages (or even, 100% of them) want more survivability in the sense that they can mitigate more damage. Sadly, that really isn't the case. Ming threw out a pretty casual comment that kinda confused me, and it was that "mages can just throw up ice armor and tank rogues to death." But, I'm not sure if anyone else is aware of this, but playing a mage while fighting a rogue right now is probably one of the most un-fun things i've ever had to do, ever in WoW. You are a fish flopping around on a ship's deck, fighting an uphill battle. Play it from the rogues perspective, and you are playing to your fullest potential, out maneuvering the mage in every way, and controlling the match from start to finish. At least, that is how it goes 98% of the time.

Blizzard in the xpac wanted rogues to have more mobility. But the problem is, they gave mages 1 more nova, and they gave rogues various other root breakers Novas got put on the same DR, and before you knew it rogues were impossible to snare. Just hearing all these poison talents from various BETA sources is making me re-consider playing my mage in xpac, simply because I don't know if I have the tolerance to literally be crippled, mindnumbed, and have 5 stacks of wound on me at all times. It just doesn't sound like very much fun to continue to be the #1 class targetted in every arena, let alone be the joke of most 1v1's.

Ret pallies sound stupid as hell right now, and I have a feeling enhancement shaman are only going to get worse. As a clothie right now I feel like a black man trying to get a job at the White House, and let me tell you it isn't going so well. Mages don't want more armor blizzard, and we don't need that talent that is going to be OP as fk and 1 shot people left and right. All we want is the potential to kite again, which honestly is something I can say is very hard to do in this game right now, let alone doing it in a group pvp situation when multiple people are on you.

Every class has so many root breakers now (except maybe warriors but spell reflect spam and second wind makes up for that significantly) and Blizzard isn't seeing the flaws. If you are a mage and you are fighting a team that has no dispel, you SHOULD have the upper-hand, right? I mean, that is kind of the mages strength. Just like how when a rogue team fights a team that has no abolish, the rogue is heavily in favor. Or when a spriest/warlock team plays a team that has no dispel they are in favor. But the thing is, it really doesn't matter what team the mage plays against right now, the rogue will always and forever be tearing his **** in. Even when the rogue is completely out of cd's, sticking on a mage really is not that hard. Add the druid in there to spam entangle on the mage after blink is down and cyclone his partner to death, and you have a top 2s team! Yay!

Shaman got a travel form and a shield that literally heals for them, cuz 95% of shaman are god awful. (Sadly it hurts cuz I know how a top shaman can play, and if even 10% more people played as well as people like GC, I would prolly quit arena, because of how insanely retarded the GT cooldown is right now, along with 5 sec earthshocks and pillars - allowing for some insane mitigation to caster dps) Ret pallies are still not completely workable but they literally are the anti-druid with judge and their insane dps. (I still don't even understand how they do so much dmg, I just know to not sit in their stuns) Druids are still OP as ****, so no need to elaborate. Warriors are still mace stunning kids to the top and can put out amazing pressure. Rogues can stick on targets like never before, and their DPS (especially now) is borderline retarded (like almost as bad as the double AR/BF days, cept at least then you could kite the rogue, now its impossible). Warlocks, who everyone says are "so easy to train now" are still no joke as a caster, their CC is still one of the better ones in arenas, and they can keep pressure up on the entire other team with DoTs, where as a mage can only do mediocre pressure to one person consistently. Spriest dps is nuts, but well designed because if you are aware you can mitigate a lot of it, and Disc priests are still very strong. But as a frost mage, I have to say I haven't seen a lot of changes that are really gamebreaking, and allow our class to be what it was the best at pre-BC.

Kiting, and superb burst.

You say, "DUDE I GET SHATTER COMBO'D FOR LIKE A MILLION HOW IS THAT NOT ENOUGH BURST." Well, to get off that shatter combo, that would require me to be casting, and with a rogue on me, that is literally 100% impossible, so the most I can get off is a ranged nova/icelance/fireblast for maybe 3k dmg, opposed to the 9k I can unload if i'm casting. Don't have a rogue? That is fine, just sidestep away into the pillar! Or, if that is too hard, just use a root break on the nova, and I won't crit, and a tick of 2 HoTs will make up for the ****ty dmg I just did. We have no mortal strike (don't need one but it sure makes fights even more impossible against teams with rogues) and this about sums up our buffs.

"You gain Icy Veins"
"Icy Veins has been dispelled by arcane shot/felhunter"

Yeah, there goes casting.

I could go on, and i'm sure most other people could about their classes as well. I'm sorry to say but i've been playing some other classes in arenas lately too, and even fighting against mages is very easy. They are one of the easiest classes to avoid damage from because they HAVE TO CAST. It is kind of like how Pallies are so bad in arenas right now because they HAVE TO CAST their heals, as opposed to them being hots, or very fast and strong heals from a shaman. That is why mages are broken right now, and that is why casters like locks still come out ahead - because they can do **** without casting.

I really hope Xpac fixes a lot of this stuff, because otherwise I might have to find another class to play, and seeing as i've re-rolled various times and every time found every class less fun than mage, regardless of how OP it is, it might mean the end of playing this game for me.

..

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:45:08 -0400

How to Succeed at GameRiot

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:36:18 -0400

As shown by my previous blog regarding the Party Scene at WoW Tournaments, I think it is safe to say I have GameRiot all figured out. Everyone always talks about how "professional" some of the journalism here can be (which I find to be hilarious when the blog bringing in the most hits per day, focuses on Naratu, Chinese Weddings, and the same rogue bull**** we have heard since TBC release) yet all I see is a huge playground for every wanna-be bully to come and practice talking ****.

Let's be honest, you can't disagree with the fact that drama sells. 2 blogs ago I tried to take a positive approach to the gaming community, give some people the benefit of the doubt, and maybe touch a heart here or there. My last blog (which, for all you dumb ***** was written in that way for a reason) I focused heavily on the negative aspects, and tried to stir up as much drama as possible. Well guess what guys...

I was right.

Nobody wants positive. Nobody wants to hear about how happy I am cuz I just got a new puppy, and I just beat this "pretty good" mage 1v1 outside Orgrimmar, and how I just got boars speed on my boots (lol jk no I didn't, **** is a crutch) and how I can't wait to travel to Europe to see the glorious mountain ranges and paint the sunsets. Why do you think the news has nothing but "and another black man was shot today, we are all praising jesus for this kind gift from God." Drama, hate, and **** talking sells - and seeing as my last blog focusing on just that, got almost triple the comments (and probably hits) I think I can rest my case.

The reason why websites like World of Ming are so successful now is he has both bases covered. For the people who want to read about the happenings of the WoW/E-sport scene, Jasi provides it. Ming, the autistic man that he is, focuses on his personal life, his e-lationships, and everyone else's relationship problems. (Which I find very funny cuz I'm pretty sure he was the one who named his character after the girlfriend that left him) Combine raw facts of the WoW scene, with the drama of everything else, and you get 2 things.

MTV and World of Ming.

So then you have people like Vir, who, I will give credit to, has done a very good job blogging. Some of the stuff he puts out I read and actually enjoy (I don't read a lot of other people's stuff though) and he has stayed consistent, which is what people want. Zilea kinda dropped the ball on his blog, but has proven himself to be a valuable source in terms of Paladin information, and then you have the random blog posted by the random guy with a camera at a WoW tournament, providing pictures of Serennia throwing up, Serennia giving the camera the "I HAS DOWNS" face, and Serennia facepalming after losing match after match cuz he just can't put out - which automatically gets 487 comments.

But that is just the bloggers themselves. You then have to step back and say "woah, hey, Cole (yeah I use my name when I talk to myself) what a community you have here at GameRiot! But then I realize i'm just lying to myself, because I just had to read through 5 pages of "Exitec wishes he was as good as me" in which case I go check out their armory, and they play a female troll rogue with all S1 gear and green gems, with healing enchants.

GameRiot kind of reminds me of the playground in 2nd grade. You have the popular kids, the not so popular kids, the ugly kids, the fat kids, the one kid who for some reason started growing facial hair early and all the girls want to talk to him, the 2 girls who are in training bras before they can even ride a bike, and the one kid who is in a wheelchair for God knows what reason, but your mom said you had to be nice to him because he's heavily medicated and needs friends to get him through the day. And at the end of the day, after everyone is tired of doing multiplication flash cards and passing notes back and forth saying **** like "do you LIKE HER LIKE HER, or just LIKE HER" everyone goes out to the playground and just bashes everyone else, in any attempt to feel better about themselves before they have to go home to the abusive, alcohol parents they have.

That is GameRiot in a nutshell everyone.

Behind The Scenes - LET'S PARTY

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:54:32 -0400

Acceptance. Pretty sure all of us have looked for it at one point or another. I remember in the first grade I really wanted to be cool, so I stole some Star Wars Lego's from our classroom and brought them home to add to my Knights of the Old Republic battlefield that was currently undergoing construction. Only problem was I wasn't so cool when my mom realized my jedi's suddenly had 28 extra light sabers, and I was forced to take them back to class the next day and apologize to my teacher and her hot ass student teacher for stealing from the classroom.

But that is besides the point.

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Tigglebiggles-Rants/SERENNIA-NICE-PUKE-DUDELOL/

Now, I know the drama has been beaten to death here. Serennia had a beer (yeah, I'm assuming it was his first time drinking based upon his classy Indian style sitting position, and the lack of control he has for his bodily functions) and threw up, his e-buds were there to tell him "it will be ok pal!" and were there to comfort him. But him throwing up isn't what kept me laughing at these pictures for a good 17 minutes, but rather the atmosphere of this here "kickin' partay."

I'm not really sure about many of you, but to me these pictures look like the same pictures I saw from the first party I went to at the end of 8th grade. 1/2 the people holding a beer can, the other 1/2 looking bewildered at those that are holding beers, trying to figure out if this new substance is really that much fun. You have the 1 guy there who thinks he knows what he's doing playing beer pong, but really he's just chuckin ping pong balls around the room hoping one of them lands in the cup, in which case he yells things like "THATS HOW WE DO IT MUTHA ****AS" or "YOU JUST GOT CURBSTOMPED BP STYLE" when really he has no idea what he's doing in the first place. That person here would be Noktyn, and you can consider that whole situation nothing but some run of the mill RNG irl.

You then have your bystanders. The guys who don't want to drink, don't know how to socialize, but want to be a part of the action. You could assume that this would be your Neilyo, your Glickz, and other "i'd rather just be playin' WoW right now" kinda guys. The game is fun bros, but let's face it - SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA PARTY.

To be honest, i'm not really sure where these guys even got alcohol from. The only person who looks somewhat over 21 is Noktyn, but I have a feeling he isn't the generous mofo that would buy alcohol for the whole floor. My guess is some douchnozzle like The Godfather thought to himself, "man, i'll be the cool sponsor and buy all my guys drinks!" and before he knew it, the word had traveled and he was suddenly cleaning up Serennia's doo doo on the floor. That, or they all just drank one of those little bottles in the mini-bar and got hammered, cuz apparently that's all it takes for these guys to start groovin'. But none of it matters, once Serennia's mom see's his slanty eyed ass drunk as fk on GameRiot, his ass is gonna get whipped with a rice spoon.

Every day some new kid comes on GameRiot proclaiming he's super cool irl, has tons O' friends, and would "so kick everyone's ass at a tournament." My question is, where are all you "cool" people? So far i've yet to see pics from a tournament that makes it seem like a super fun atmosphere to go hang out at, because I can't find a single person in any picture that looks like they have any social skills whatsoever. Hopefully at the next tournament these guys can figure out how to upgrade to at least the Sophomore level of partying, cuz i've never been down with the whole "here's a sip of wine OH MY GAWD I"M SO TIPSY OH MY GOD TEE HEE" kinda vibe. But it's cool that these pics got hosted - now I know what i'm not missing.

Serennia hunched over like a god damn kinder gardener who just ate too much Elmers Glue and just threw it all back up on the floor in front of all his peers.

The Player Behind The Character

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:39:06 -0400

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/Putting-Life-in-Perspective/

For anyone that hasn't read this post, they should. It is bar none the best post posted on this pathetic gaming website since its release, and every kind of player should read it; whether you are a hater, a flamer, a troll, or just a nice guy who likes to read up on the happenings of WoW. Gameriot is filled with more drama than any Teen Vogue magazine i've ever been forced to read, and this post by Dahis pretty much makes the past year of reading all this arena bull**** and blogging about how much I hate this game sometimes, well worth it.

I have never been one to talk about my personal problems. My best friend however, is the complete opposite, and I never understood how he did what he did. He was able to walk into any store in the mall, talk to the most attractive girl in there, and within a few minutes have her number, her address, and knew how many guys she had slept with; along with a date planned for later that night. It always amazed me that people could do stuff like that, because it required drawing so much attention to yourself. To make conversation you either hope you have a lot of the same interests, and you can talk for a while, or you talk about yourself while they listen, and hope they are interested in you. For me, I was always the listener, and never could understand how people could walk around running their mouth all the time - and people would actually listen!

However, a lot of times you have to do just that. You have to tell people what is going on, and it isn't bad to talk about your life for a little bit. Over a thing like an MMO, you have no idea who people really are. You can take guesses (as i'm sure a lot of people thought Serennia was some fking psycho, built, been to jail 3 times for attempted murder....guy) but then you see their pictures, talk to them in person, and suddenly realize they are just another guy trying to make a name for themselves in whatever way they can.

The problem is, a lot of people don't bother to get to know people. It is just how it goes with MMO's I guess, because i've noticed that a lot of people at this point in the game aren't looking for "new friends." Everyone (or at least a lot of people) carry around this elitist persona that enables them to approach people with phrases like "sup terribad" and "haha whatsup phaggot" when the other person hasn't even said a word to them yet.

Now i'm not saying I've never done that, I mean, let's face it....some days you just wanna be an *******. But the thing is, a lot of people don't really know what is going on behind the screen. Regardless of how many people post on my blog saying i'm a terrible player, saying I can't write for ****, or even saying I look like **** irl when really, let's just face it, i'm a qtpi and 1/2; I still have people who enjoy what I do. I have people to like playing with me, I have people who enjoy reading my blog, and I have people who have fun playing against me in arenas - and that really is all that matters.

A lot of people say "WoW is just a game" but sadly, to many people, it is an association. It is a place for kids who do have rough lives, to release. It is a place where people who always have to try so hard to fit in irl, can be whoever they want to be. It is a place where you aren't stressed by what you look like, what clothes you wear, what your SAT score was, or what girl your dating -- or at least it wasn't before GameRiot came around and everything revolves around RL pics, how built you are, and your pathetic arena ratings, which could basically equate to "how many friends you have irl" if you wanted to make that kind of connection.

A lot of people don't realize why I keep blogging. I never did this so I could practice for my major next year in college, cuz if I was doing it for practice I would care a lot more about my grammatical errors and punctuation. I also didn't start doing it so everyone would know who I am. I did it because I felt like a lot of other people were thinking the same things I was regarding this game and life, and if it was even only a few people, I wanted to connect with them.

Every few months I get that random PM from someone who has a problem, either in-game or IRL, and they decide to talk to me about it. I sit there, as I read their message with talks of suicide, followed by asking me for some advice, and I try to figure out why they would pick me of all people to talk to. But I realized that, if someone comes to you like that, you obviously have had an impact on their life.

Roughly a year 1/2 ago, one of the people I used to play with, stopped answering his phone, didn't log on, was never on AIM - basically all contact with him was lost. Eventually he logged back on, and I immediately messaged him asking him where he had been for a month, and he told me that he had been in the hospital for attempted suicide. I sat there, not really knowing what to say, and eventually I asked him what happened. He said he got pretty close, cut a major nerve in his hand impairing movement for the rest of his life, but he stopped cutting after a few minutes because he couldn't take the thought of hurting other people through his actions. He lost a lot of blood, and was in the hospital to make sure he was ok mentally, but when he said "I didn't care about a lot of people, but I knew that you would be upset and I didn't want that to happen just because I was unhappy at the time."

When someone says something like that to you, basically saying you were one of the few reasons they wanted to keep living, you are really forced to sit back and think about what an impact you have had on their life. This friend of mine had no parents, lived with his grandparents who beat him, lived in the middle of nowhere, was forced to move from his school with all his friends, and WoW was literally the only thing keeping him sane. I played with him every day for almost 2 years, and I still talk to him occasionally. WoW is a game, and shouldn't be taken to any extreme. But remembering how many times this game has kept you from bashing your head through a window pane cuz your GF just blew you off to "hang out" with your best friend, alone, and his house....all night....is also a good thing to do. It is fine to take breaks from the game, maybe even quit; but don't disregard how many times you saw this game as the most fun thing in the world to do, whether it be for an hour, a day, or the past 4 years.

Dahis gave me a nice reality check, and hopefully it did the same for others. So Faction, when you want to "bring people back down to earth," I understand how much that means to you....but let's not forget that a reality check of how good or bad you are at this game, is pretty pathetic compared to life. But I guess that is the mindset some people are forced to take on when WoW is no longer a game....

But a lifestyle.

LF Superb Players - S4 Competition

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:48:10 -0400

Gonna keep this simple because it doesn't have to be complicated. I went the entire S3 (despite popular belief) without competing at all in arenas. S2 was a long time ago, but those were my glory days, which sadly seem to mean nothing anymore, regardless of how many people I shat on - in 2 different battlegroups.

So here is the scoop, I want to actually play in S4. To be honest, the ranking of the team isn't as important to me as just playing is. Many of you will now think "woah woah woah Exibad, so you just wanna sit at 1700 all day?" And I will kindly respond "no, you must be retarded." I want a TEAM. I don't want some cool guy who will play 2 weeks for points, and I don't want some emo ass ****** like Serennia bustin up in here thinkin' he knows everything. Arena isn't hard, get over yourself.

Classes obviously have a lot to do with arena success, and the people I seem to play the best with, are never the right classes for me to be playing with in arena. So, a bunch of us just re-rolled, and are currently finishing the grind to 70/gearing out, so that we will have multiple toons to work with. For instance...

Cachexic - Lock/Mage
Exitec - Mage/Priest/Rogue
Miayr - Rogue/Paladin/Druid
Bad - Priest/Warlock/Warrior

and a few others who are always good fillers.

The problem is, so many available comps, so many classes, getting people geared, different teams, PR problems, etc - it isn't as easy as we thought. Besides, I hate not being on for when people do arenas, and then they decide to just "use" someone else, regardless of whether or not it will work, just for points.

Anyways...

I'm looking for a few more phenomenal players for S4 to come play with us on BDF. I'm looking for a rogue for 2s on my mage, and probably my priest, and possibly even for double rogue when my rogue becomes geared. Could use a very good warrior for 5s, and a VERY VERY good shaman - we have none of those!

I will never deny playing with a very good player, and most likely with all the classes we have we can probably fit you in somewhere if you prove to do things like not auto-spell lock, and know how to use a fking pillar, cuz they are like, seriously gamebreaking. Oh and no, we don't want any hunters, they suck.

Contact info -

PM me on gameriot, or message one of my characters on Black Dragonflight

Exitec - mage
Exitek - priest
Exitech - Rogue

(see a pattern?)

AIM - Leftwinger212

A Guide on "How to Not Suck In Arenas"

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:24:24 -0400

Contrary to popular belief, after playing arena for 3 and some change seasons now, I think I would have to be pretty retarded to not pick up a few tricks of the trade. (But, I have been known to purposely only fireblast once in an arena and then sit there and jerk off, so you might as well just read this for entertainment and go back to watching phenomenal Mages like Pookz who think it is a good idea to CoC melee while they are mashing his face in and he is snared, instead of blinking away and properly kiting, thus forcing his priest to carry his sorry ass. But hey, they were a top 5 RMP team, and when the numbers on your PvP sheet are that high, no matter what you did, you must be good at PvP amirite?)

It absolutely blows my mind how many people seem to literally learn nothing through hundreds of arena matches. If you do the same boss fight over and over again, you are eventually going to get it down to a science. Arena is seriously the same thing at this point. You play the same popular comps, that all use the same BG9 strats that everyone else does, and you do it over and over again - the only things that change are the RNG and if they decide to attack your priest instead of your rogue, in which case, since most people are used to doing only one thing, they will probably get served a new *******, or still win because dropping a disc priest behind a pillar is no joke.

As many of you know, i'm a huge fan of pillars. But what blows my mind is when comps like priest/rogue say certain comps are unbeatable (thanks faction!) but yet they don't acknowledge the use of the most skillful part of arenas! WTF MATE!

Pillars are there for you to dodge CC's and control position, or at least that was their main intention. However we all know the real reason everyone uses pillars is so teams with druids and warlocks can let their HoTs and DoTs win the games for them, and so rogues like Neilyo can play the "let's see how many combo points I can get on you before we actually engage in PvP combat." And then you of course have the ******y druid/rogue teams who play the "lol gonna make you afk cuz were not coming out of stealthhhhhhhh."

So Tip #1 for all you arena rats - Stop saying pillars are essential when you lose to comps you shouldn't simply because you don't know how to even use the giant fking pillars. I'm sorry but priest/rogue shouldn't lose to mage/rogue. My s2 2s team floated top 10 many times as mage/rogue (it was the team I got gladiator with) and a priest that knows how to position and pressure the mage offensively is going to always win, that is the kind of class priest is. It isn't a comp issue, I just think a lot of people need to figure out how to SHRFT around the corner.

Tip #2 - When your spells don't hit because you felt it was a good idea to get as much damage as possible, without getting any hit gems/talents/gear, that isn't RNG - that is you not knowing anything about the math behind this game.

Tip #3 - If you just won a game because you backpedaled across the arena letting your earth shield out heal the rogues dps, no, you did not just outplay him; stop talking ****.

Tip #4 - If you are a tunnel visioner,

Tip #5 - Ok this is a real tip. If you play a support class, when the arena starts, your number one priority should be getting in a position where you can easily LoS CC (this might be the tip you missed in class Faction, as long as were commenting on each other in our blogs) and see everything that is going on. The ideal spot will allow you to do pretty much everything you need to, all in the range of a side step or two. The more you tunnel vision and run around in the middle of chaos, the faster and easier it is to randomly switch to you, and before your mods can tell you "oh hey btw your taking a lot of dmg right now" your dead.

Tip #6 - Losses against druid/warlock as mage/rogue don't count on your record. Wins mean double.

Tip #7 - If your team mates are getting emo, the general vibe in vent is getting quiet, and suddenly sticking your head through the giant window pane behind your computer sounds more fun than entering Blades Edge Arena again, you are going to want to do one of two things.

-Stop queuing
-Start singing Disney songs in vent

Tip #8 - When you transfer servers, go to a new battlegroup, or even join a new arena team/guild, it would be in your best interest to tell everyone how good you think you are. That way, when you play that one terrible game, and someone decided to fraps it, it can be all over the internet and you can be labeled terrible. Trust me, its a good idea.

Tip #9 - Play on BG9. Rankings/wins/scores/etc mean nothing unless you are playing against e-stars.

Tip #10 - If the same team is farming you over and over again, DON"T STOP QUEUING! Eventually RNG will side with you, all their spells will resist, one of their UI's will bug out, the druids mom will call down to him that his Spaghetti O's are ready, thus forcing him to go afk for the family lunch, and you will win. It is at this point that you point out everything from gear, to rating, to make your win seem that much better. Also, always end with calling them terrible - it hurts a lot when you get called terrible over the internet.

As many of you can see, arena is pretty serious business, and I take it very seriously. Hopefully however, with these 10 little tips in each of your pockets (or bags, wherever you wanna carry them) you too can become an arena rat who hasn't left a major city in 8 months.

RNG + New Arenas = Epic Fail / 2 Kewns Will Always Win

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:20:32 -0400

Well i'm sure everyone here has checked out worldofming.com this morning, and seen the new information Jasi has posted regarded the 2 new arena layouts for WotLK (if not it can be found here - http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/The-Future-of-Arenas-and-WotLK-TR-Round-2-Update/)
and personally i've never been more disappointed. I feel like I'm watching WoW turn into Unreal Tournament, and the devs have no idea what to do with their own game.

How many times a day do you hear the RNG excuse? Well, I shouldn't call it an excuse when it is a serious problem, but the amount of times it is referenced (a hell of a lot more than it was pre-BC I'll tell you that) is borderline insane. The thing nobody is understanding is, these new "oh my god a huge pillar just came out of nowhere and blasted me into the sky!" ideas for the new arenas, are new forms of RNG! Am I the only one who has seen this? Dear god, we have people complaining about resists, mace stuns, stun resists, line of sight, lag, crit, not critting, and everything in between - but nobody complains about the fact that randomly throughout the match mother nature might stick a giant water hazard up your butthole? Mmmhmmmm, this game is getting more and more fun by the minute!

Honestly, I can't even see those 2 arenas being fun in the least bit. The only reason I somewhat like the Nagrand arena is because when the other team isn't one big jewbagel, and decide to fight in the middle and use pillars sparingly (not "oh my god I know how to run around a pillar so you will never hit me and let my dots eventually kill you" skill) it resembles a real pvp fight. You know, like those that require skill?

I know i've said this before, but it only proves my point. Go outside and duel, go do a bg, hell go TALK ABOUT PVP with any old kid who enjoys the PvP aspect of WoW right now, and chances are they are either going to tell you to use a pillar, or explain to you how they are a very skillful part of this game. It is honestly borderline pathetic how many people have literally no idea how to play their class to its FULLEST EXTENT anymore, because everyone off-hands a pillar.

Let me give you an example...

--

Here is a little event from last night. I'm leveling my rogue in Nagrand, and Cachexic comes out to help me knock out some of the harder quests. A bunch of 65-68's ended up killing me, and right after I died Cache flew on in and killed them all. No big deal, right? Eventually however they kept rezzing and Cache kept killing them, thus leading to each of them eventually logging on their mains.

Within 5 minutes we had an SSC/TK geared fire mage, BT/Sunwell geared warlock, full s3/BT geared ret pally, and a 64 shaman running around chasing Cachexic with me on my rogue. We ended up getting separated and when I realized what had happened, I logged on my mage (who was sitting in Nagrand for anyone who decided to gank my rogue during the leveling process) and engaged in some PvP combat. Cache, during this 30 second logout/login process, continued to kite these 4 players across Africa, with a stampede of animals on him.

Log on the mage, literally right as they all catch up to him and begin owning his ****, I swoop in like fking Obi Wan from Star Wars, and within 20 seconds everyone was dead, with both of us still over 80% hp.

They rez, get on their flying mounts cuz you know, that was another great idea you had for this game blizzard (/facepalm) and hovered above us waiting for us to start leveling again so they could gank us. (Apparently a 4v2 + african wildlife isn't enough to kill 2 mages) So we just wait, talk, and eventually we see them all hovered above us.

Set-up fight, rogue lands the sap on me, and you see them all charge in like an army on a mission. The fight now looks like this.

T6 warlock
S3/BT ret pally
t5/possible t6 fire mage
Warglaive/t6 rogue

vs

2 full s3 frost mages

Ok now, personally, i'd like everyone here to sit back and just imagine this fight in an arena. We have a ret pally who can literally take off 30-40% of our hp in one huge jihad of a swing, a warglaive rogue who can pretty much take any of us down in a matter of a few hemo's, a warlock whose shadowbolts hit for what our frostbolts crit for, and a fire mage who can do nothing but spam fireblast/blastwave/DB on top of us and watch us get destroyed by damage. Theres really no heals on either team here, so this is just a matter of who can control the dps better.

No pillars, open environment, GY literally 5 steps from where we are fighting, with a 2v4.

Sap on me

Everyone opens on Cache, he invuln belts

Mages aoe breaks sap

Sheep on rogue

I cs lock, cache cs's mage

Both turn on the casters, I shatter combo the lock he shatter combo's the mage

He's kiting the pally, re-sheep the rogue

Lock isn't SL (raid spec shadowbolt spam, but still can do a TON of dmg) so he gets literally 1 shot, mage gets to around 40% hp, use instants and kill him.

Rank1 fb on the rogue, continue kiting pally

Cache starts casting on pally, I ally-oop him with a nova, and he does the same to me, pally bubbles, and we sit back and do it all over again.

Rogue attemps to run, and we blizzard him out of 2 vanishes and eventually at 10% he lagged out. (Or router pulled to avoid embarrassment)

So here is where I literally sit here and brain fk myself, asking how you lose a 2v4? I mean, the fact that we won, ok that is great, but we didn't even drop below 90% hp. And the GY was right there, so while we were finishing off people from the first round, we had them rezzing and we killed them again. I mean, it doesn't even really matter if you say they are flat out terrible or not - arena isn't hard either. In arena rogue with glaives needs to sit on a target and spam hemo. With 3 other people helping him he couldn't even touch us out here. Lock just needed to dot us up and spam drains and that is his role in arenas - he got served a new butthole out here in the wilderness. The fire mage ended up doing the most damage simply because he got 2 crit fireblasts that took away our ice barriers, but when you kite to perfection like that they just can't touch you.

But you know what I think helped the most with this entire situation...? I never saw this...

Who knew that without pillars you could still play this game to its fullest potential. Learn2fking play phaggots. 2 Kewns > 4 Players

EDIT: p.s - If you come here and your argument is "well duh that warlock died cuz he didn't have a pillar to mitigate the damage with, how else would he stay alive!" or something regarding their lack of ability to play their class, I will be sure to comment and tell you exactly what he could have done to destroy us. It is just that literally nobody remembers how to play without pillars anymore, so nobody knows how to play their class.

lh

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:41:04 -0400

lug

Will Anyone Who Is Good, Please Stand Up

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:35:41 -0400

Alright so, the other day at work, as I was roaming around mindlessly realizing i'm making d1ck for money this summer; I had a bit of a realization as I was watching one of my new co-workers mosey about the store. Whenever you work with someone new, it isn't uncommon to spend a lot of time just watching them, trying to figure out whether you like them or not, what about them pisses you off, things of the sort. But as I was just amusing myself watching him move about the store in a very organized fashion, I made a WoW to RL connection.

Yup, I did - and I did it without an NBA analogy.

I'm not really sure when this trend hit, but it seems like ever since BC came out, and every nig nog out there could hit top 10 in the battlegroup and suddenly be known as a "phenominal pvp'er" just by playing something ridiculously stupid like druid/warlock or druid/rogue, or druid/warrior.....basically anything with a druid healer; that suddenly everyone found every reason in the book to call that person bad. It seems like no matter what you have accomplished, people will always find a reason to bash you in any attempt to shed the oh so bright light unto them, instead of you.

I can honestly sit here and say I can't think of one player in all of WoW that every single person i've talked to has at least respected. Yes, sure, everyone can say they prefer playing with one person over another, can say this player is faster than the other; but I can't think of one player that every single person has at least credited in terms of skill. It is almost as if no matter how good they are, what they have accomplished, or what tournaments they have won - as soon as you see that fraps clip of them losing one match out of 900 because of a missed kick, or a bad cyclone, they are suddenly terrible.

A great example of this would be right after one of the previous tournaments when Ohnoes fell off the bridge, causing the game to be over much earlier than it should have been. A very popular mage, one that had a great deal of respect in the BG9 community, was now all of a sudden looked down upon. Mages like papashlapapapapa release video clips of their games, and every single person I know of will find a reason to call him bad because of something he did. Whether it be a bad counterspell or breaking a blind, as soon as something as small as one of those things happens, it doesn't matter what you have accomplished before - you are now terrible. Grats.

Another great example would be Ming's pride and joy - Xecks, The Golden Child - is now washed up because he didn't perform in one tournament. Yup, that's right. One bad tournament (or a few, I wouldn't know, I don't follow him as closely as Ming does) and he's suddenly a god awful rogue where every green geared "chestplate of the green owlbearing wallabee-toad" player can outperform him.

I'm not really sure what sparked all this hatred, because pre-BC there was a difference. It was pretty laid out, and people were a lot more forgiving. It was either "he's pretty bad" or "he's pretty good" and then those in-between. And then occasionally you would find a player or 2 who people would argue who was better, but both were acknowledged for their supreme skill. But now? It seems like no matter how many teams you have over 2300, if you miss a kick or a counterspell, suddenly your terrible and arena is just "easy." But, as I repeat - if arena is so easy, why aren't all your teams just as high?

Maybe i'm off base here, maybe i'm not. But all I know is it has never been harder trying to find good teammates because you can't talk about their skill with anyone else anymore. People who are jealous say they are terrible when their really good. People who are bad say their phenomenal when they really aren't, and only say that cuz they don't know a good player when they see one. And everyone else just kinda roams around getting 4/5 arena gear, missing the shoulders of course cuz finding teammates who are actually "good" now a days is a struggle apparently.

So I guess this is where I ask....

Who is actually GOOD?

"Exitec is Awful" - Blackrock 3v3 Team Takes It To Next Level

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:02:19 -0400

http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Blackrock&ts=3&t=Exitec+is+Awful&select=Exitec+is+Awful&fl=1

As I logged on WoW today, eager to do begin my 4-5 hour shift of 3s in any attempt to push for a last minute Gladiator title with people I have never played with before, on a comp i've never played on before; I was alerted of what I have linked to you above.

Yup, that is right. The Silver Child Exi-chan, shunned from BG9 society, has finally had a team named after him. Currently sitting at #2 on the Legendary BG9, i'd say these players have made me proud to wear my "Exitec is Awful" tag that can be found on every street corner billboard. It comes as no surprise to me that they would chose such a flattering name to represent my e-stardom (I figured if anyone would name a team after me it would be called something like EXITEC YOUR NOT FUNNY IN YOUR BLOG JUST GIVE UP ALREADY or something along those lines) seeing as I believe I know every player on that roster...

Yes, that is what makes all of this even better...

If those names serve me correctly (and i'm assuming the different names are still people that I knew) every player on that roster i've played with/against at one point or another. The funny part is, off and on I am respected, and then called awful, and then asked to play with them, and then talked about behind my back, and then before I know it they have all banded together and made a team after me! Gotta say, the oh so notorious "we all stick together!" World of Warcraft community sure can be a ***** sometimes - and by ***** I mean reminds me of a sh1tty magazine like Teen Vogue.

So, other than that, I won't lie I haven't really had any time to blog, and there has been nothing to talk about regarding WoW because the season is finally coming to a close, and the drama won't really begin until monday night and tuesday morning, when some team who win traded for 8 hours realizes that blizzard was watching them the whole time, thus getting their accounts banned. Just wanted to comment on how special I feel cuz a team was named after me.

<---Finally a true e-star like Hafu.

WoW Steroids - Fair/Unfair?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:56:42 -0400

Over my gaming career (which has only been about 4-5 years since I didn't really start gaming till right before WoW came out) I constantly heard people bragging about playing while they were drink/high/on a coke trip; some of them even considered their downsyndrome brain state to be a "high." Personally, I never really thought about the effects it would have on ones gameplay, but the more and more I started to rely on other players for my success, the more I cared about whether they even knew who they were or what they were doing while they were high as a kite at a Sunday picnic.

It is the talk of sports every day. Steroid use is prohibited in every major league sport because it enhances your body to a point that you would normally not be able to obtain. (Or, could obtain just don't want to work that hard) Every sport you hear of guys pounding human growth hormones and other substances to enhance their bodies performance in every way. My question is, why don't people do the same for other activities? I'd consider altering your brain state to be just as much of an enhancement on your body as say, steroids - wouldn't you? Although it isn't common, you don't really hear of Chess players being prohibited to playing while they are high/trippin' cuz a lot of people just don't care enough. It isn't that it shouldn't be allowed, it is that the industry that the sport is in doesn't 1) Attract as many viewers, and 2) Make as much money.

All this talk about MLG and e-sports and players being "washed up" (which I think is pathetic tbh, everyone has off days, doesn't mean they are washed up - players get washed up irl because of physical ailments for the most part, so it isn't like Xecks lost brain cells over time and can no longer play his rogue) I started thinking about what made certain players good. All everyone seems to talk about is Hafu getting hammered
(don't let papi-chan find out!) and Glickz being an anti-social phaggot (wow another one, who knew!) when a lot of people don't even really realize that there was actually a tournament going on.

Personally, I am very undecided on this issue. I mean, does this mean now they are going to start drug testing players? Are they going to make sure that their team isn't coked out before the tournament ensues? Every drug alters your state of mind in some way, and for a game that is basically based on the players mind and reaction time (which ultimately is connected to the synapses in your brain) and doesn't require much of any physical activity - would drugs like alcohol, weed, coke, shrooms, and acid be a required test for all competitors?

The only reason I really thought of this (because many of you i'm sure have teammates/friends who smoke/drink and then go do arenas) is because I remember my rogue in S2 coming out and telling me he did more than smoke weed. Weed I was cool with, we would drink during a kara run, but when he came out and said he did **** like coke and heroine, I was kinda shocked.

But this is real life, we have all seen a Denzel Washington movie before, and we obviously know what kind of drugs are out there. What shocked me the most was the night before S2 ended and we got screwed out of our Merc Glad 3s team we held at #1 for 4 months, and we needed to get gladiator from 2s together, so we re-made the team with a little added bonus. He said, we were going to go straight from 1500 to 2400 to get gladiator, and every 150ish points, he would do a line of coke. My first impression of course was "yeah man whatever it takes" and as the night went on, I realized how crazy everything was.

Many of you probably don't know, but coke enhances your senses like none other. Anyone who has ever smoked weed knows that when you are outside you hear the birds a lot louder, you can feel every little thing, and nothing can really bother you. On coke though, imagine that same bird literally in your face having a full on conversation with you while you listen to a bird 20 miles away chirp. Brain altering? I'd say so.

The funny thing is though, as the night went on, i've never seen the rogue classes played more to perfection. His awareness was unlike any other (something most rogues don't have) and it got to the point of ridiculous. Teams that would otherwise farm us, we would smash time and time again because he played literally above perfection every match. Clos'ing full shatter combo's from a mage sitting behind a pillar 40 yards away, vanishing point blank deathcoils, pulling off LoS tricks to constantly get re-stealths; everything was perfect. All I had to do was land a simple cs on a heal and a few thousand damage on a target and it was over.

So, while it might not be a big deal to some, how would you feel if an average player came into the next WoW tournament coked out and played like a true e-star? I have seen it happen first hand, and I honestly don't know how to go about the situation. All I know is, with all the references people make between WoW professional gaming and the sports world today, I see this as just one more connection that might want to be addressed.

Top Guilds Bored After KJ / More MLG (sigh...)

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:29:02 -0400

One thing I used to love doing, was I would always enjoy tracking top guilds PvE performance because it was something I never really got into. I was always the guy who had seen all the content in the game, but never really...you know...raided it. I would step in for a raid, maybe get my mage brought on a full clear simply because I knew someone in high places, but I wouldn't get gear cuz the clicker PvE mage in the guild obviously would put it to better use, and I could never make any of the raid times because of RL conflicts/bed time. (Yeah you think i'm kidding, but I need my beauty sleep)

After BC though a lot of guilds just went MIA all of a sudden. Many quit when SSC/TK were the first challenges in BC because of bugged fights and massive repair bills (as any PvE guild has to deal with) and only a few stuck it out to Sunwell - only to then see fights like M'uru and then disband cuz of how emo everyone got. Yup, PvE sure does bring people together!

One of my favorite guilds though has always been Vis Maior. A few guys i've been playing with for almost 3 years now were part of that guild before I met them on Wildhammer, and they said it was one of the best guilds they had ever been a part of. It is really amazing to see the few guilds that are still around that carry that same pre-BC type of feel. I can't tell you how many times I have joined a guild, logged on, and felt like I was just in a massive Trade Chat channel with a bunch of fking retards who all decided to wear the same guild tag. But guilds like Vis Maior, A Team, Forgotten Heros, Elitist Jerks, and Nurfed (to name a few) all carry that very tight-knit feel, and that is what attracts so many people. I personally, prefer to join a guild that feels more like a family than an awkward Sunday dinner party with a bunch of people you don't know. Yeah, it sounds gay, "LOL EXIBAD WANTS A FAMILY CUZ HE HAS NO FRIENDS LEWL" but really, we all spend so much time on this game, wouldn't you want to be around people who were cool to you back, and didn't make the already painful raiding experience....fun?

For a while I had stopped checking up on guilds, basically because I just stopped caring. But this morning I decided to just hop over to see what Vis Maior was up to, and it was awesome reading some of the things on their website. Guilds that have sub 50 people (or even 40~ people) always seem to have the best websites, because they know they are the sh1t and it is easy for them to act very cocky. Where as when you go check out an "up and coming" guilds website it consists of the following bullet points on the front page.

-Must know your class well
-Must have vent
-We supply the tabard, don't worry
-Must have the correct spec
-Must be good at this game
-Can raid a lot (we don't have specific times, just be ready to raid all the time)

http://www.vismaior.org/

Right below their KJ kill pic, they talk about their BC experience and some of the things they went through, which I thought was pretty cool. Few funny thoughts, some serious things, and overall just a really well led guild. Props to you guys Vis Maior, always been one of my fav guilds out there.

Here are some of my favorite things on the website though, just browsing around...

"Vis Maior started TBC with a roster of 43. 13 of those are still raiding today. We currently have a roster of 32 including recruits. We currently have 4 recruits, 14 members, and 14 veterans (raiders of 1 year or more). We have the same two hunters now as we did on 23 June 2005, but we've been through 14 warlocks in that same timeframe."

It might just be me, but am I the only one who finds this hilarious? The class most often referred to as "emo" and the class all the "angry at the world" 13 year olds play, is the class they have gone through the most over quitting the game/jumping ship. Dunno, I found that to be very funny.

"After we killed Illidan, a few of us pooled money together to buy a new computer for our main tank and guild master Kold, and then we drove to his house to deliver it. The desktop background image was set to this drawing. We couldn't have done nearly as well in Sunwell without him and his new computer! <3!!"

I thought this was really cool of them. Shows of close a guild can get.

"We still have no warglaives in 36 Illidan kills, and no one in guild with warglaives. Maybe we'll get some for to use for Sunwell WWS parses and leveling up to 80? :/"

That just....blows. I remember back when WoW first came out I actually did raid Molten Core (went to like 7 raids total....yeah I was hardcore) and my Staff of Dominance never dropped, and the last raid I went to, it did, and we all rolled on it, and I rolled a 1 out of 1000. I never PvE'd again.

Recruitment -

"Your computer must be able to handle raid environments and whatever UI mods you require to perform. If you share a connection with nine other people and run a machine that locks up in Shattrath, please don't waste our time. Ventrilo (voice communication) is required. This includes having a working microphone that doesn't sound like it's mounted somewhere in your nasal cavity or the middle of a hurricane."

I found this to be hilarious. Maybe it is just because when Cachexic talks on vent it sounds like he's underwater, and when he leaves his mic key down vent "bubbles."

Just some funny things I found on their website, or things I enjoyed reading. Not many guilds know how to make a good website, and i've always enjoyed reading Vis Maior's stuff. Grats again on the KJ kill guys!

--

Real quick, i'm sorry but I have been having a blast reading some of the things posted on world of ming the past few days. I'm not sure what it is, but some of the things have just struck me really funny. Let me share...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25395430@N07/2585673265/

This is a picture that cyberpsycho said he "loved" from MLG, because it was of him and Noktyn. Now, look, i'm sorry but, if you are going to 1)get all excited cuz your picture is being taken with an E-star like Noktyn, at least smile.....and 2)Don't say you got a "great picture" with someone, when neither of you are smiling and it looks like you just got caught holding his D on candid camera. I have been playing hockey since I was 4 years old, taken a lot of "hockey face" pictures....but never have I taken a picture this bad; attempted seriousness or not.

Second, what the fk is this e-lationship thing with Glickz and Hafu. I mean, honestly bro? Can you not find one skanky white girl at home that will get the job done? You really gotta go do it with a Druid irl? No, seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if you took her pants off and lifeblooms and treants sprung from that forest she calls a Vag!na. But it's cool man, whatever floats your boat. Maybe after a few years of tolerating those psycho house-wife asian mannerisms (ask Ming about it, pretty sure he's already whipped irl) you can write a book like this guy...

And lastly, Ming has had a blast covering this whole tournament, but need we forget about his first tournament? I found this picture hidden in an archive, and I couldn't copy the caption but it was something like "Serennia and Ming - Bros from the China Coast" or something along those lines. Here is the pic of these lifelong friends together at one of the earlier WoW tournaments.

I can't tell who the guy in the middle is...either their team manager or a speech coach. Either/or, i'm sure he's doing the same thing in the long run regardless.

That's all I got from MLG - I think the drama horse has been beaten into the ground enough. Many said this tournament was a success; i'd say it was a fking breakthrough. We all can sit back now and laugh when Neilyo rages in vent or Inactive talks sh1t, cuz we can all put a face to the text now....and that in itself is a trophy for everyone. I'd say Spoh and his team did a great job at MLG, but after all the laughs everyone has had (myself included) after this tournament, i'd say we're all winners here.

Gameriot - A look Back

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:02:22 -0400

So I woke up this morning, and as I sat down at the computer in the same fashion I always do in the summer - short shorts, no shirt, sex hair, huge glass of OJ, and my speakers startin' the day off right with something like Earth Wind and Fire to get the juices flowin - I checked my 4 morning websites. These consist of CNN.com, Gameriot, ***book, and Hotmail. As I approached Gameriot however, i'm not really sure what it was, but it hit me that somewhere around this time exactly last year, Gameriot was launched and that was when I began blogging.

A lot of us when asked how long we have been playing WoW, we say "eh a while now" but we don't really realize how long we have been at the grind. Yesterday at the tournament, Vhell, when he was asked how long he had been playing the priest class, hesitated and realized he had been playing the same class, in the same game, for 4~ years now - and his emotion regarding that realization wasn't unsuspected. (Was a pretty big....."good god that's a long time" response)

So when I thought about it, and realized I had been spewing my thoughts regarding this game (and other life topics) on this website for basically a year now, I kind of had to sit back and look at how far everything has changed in a year for Gameriot. Don't really get what I'm talking about? I'l break it down...

Launch

For those of you who don't remember, when Gameriot BETA first came out, Ming raved about this website more than any patch ever in WoW. He was pretty proud that he was going to be a big part of this websites success (which, can you blame him?) and felt everyone in the WoW community should be a part of it. Here is the problem though. When you launch a site like this that caters to all the hardcore players of a game....you get....all the hardcore players. You don't get the nice 12 year old who plays his paladin one day a week because his mom won't let him play on the computer on any day but Saturday because of religious reasons, but he still tries to play because he loves playing WoW and is nice to everyone he meets, which overall makes your pug instance group that much more enjoyable. You don't have the 45 year old Warrior who wants to be in vent for everything because his connection to the outside world has been dampened by the throwing out of his back, and uses phrases like "Wail that guy sure is a stinkin' old fart" which makes absolutely no sense but gives you and your friends a good laugh in guild chat. And lastly, you don't have that very skilled player who is really quiet, and just likes to own it up with people, regardless of their skill level - one of the few players who isn't constantly riding on a high horse. Nope, I hate to say it....

Gameriot officially attracted every douche possible from WoW.

So this is where everyone comes along and says "LOL SO YOUR CALLING YOURSELF A DOUCHE EXIBAD" and I sit back and say Quorrect, Sir. If calling myself a douche means I get to call everyone else who names their Gameriot tags something pathetically stupid like "terribadidularPwnerlolurbad" or "faction" a douche, i'm going to do it.

The thing is though, when this site launched, it hadn't attracted that level of douche yet. I remember my first few blogs, a lot of the comments were things like "Interesting read, I look forward to seeing where this blog goes!" because people were still unsure of how popular this site would become. A lot of people started blogs, and stopped, and then new players came in, and they became e-famous (which is pretty much the only reason anyone writes anything here....blog or comment) and it just became another cycle. I was just one of the few who decided to stick around for the entire duration.

Launch reminded me a lot of when WoW first came out. Everyone was excited, nobody had anything to complain about, and everyone wanted to see everyone else succeed. WoW back in the day was filled with vivacious players who would cheer on other guilds, send out huge congrats via /y in Org for newly downed bosses, and rank 14's would be praised everywhere for their grinding accomplishments. Then one day, honor grinding meant you had no life, raiding was stupid cuz "PvE was easy" and the only conversation that went on between players was "yeah, no, your bad, lets 1v1 for account deletion LOL UR SUCH A PHAGGOT, PHAGGOT." The same basically happened with Gameriot, just in a shorter amount of time. One day, all of a sudden everyone who was "nice" stopped leaving comments, and everyone else felt it necessary to post nothing but hate. The disappointing thing was that, most of the trash talk that goes on at this site, isn't even clever. It is a lot of really stupid sh1t that doesn't have anything to do with what the original topic at hang was. If you write a blog here you are called a "loser with no RL and this is the best hobby you can find" which I find funny, because many of the people who say that kind of stuff, spend more time reading all the material on this website and posting, than I do writing my one blog a day, and checking the comments for 5 min every few hours. Yup, Gameriot was on its way to stardom - cept not the "OMG I JUST WON A GRAMMY I"M AWESOME" stardom....more like....."oh fk i'm Jamie Lynn Spears and i'm pregnant before I got my drivers license...." stardom.

Middle of the Year / Now

Popular blogs have changed, Ming still thinks his blog is bigger than Dateline NBC, and people have found ways to abuse Gameriot's system for traffic. (Which I find funny because it isn't like it really brings you any type of instant reward when you do that here) I can't really say I have ever read anyone else's blog on the daily here at Gameriot, but there are plenty of people who, regardless of how many times they blog, do put out some worthwhile material. The one thing I do like about this website is that when you are looking for quick information (like on MLG the past few days) there are plenty of people who want to be known as the guy that brought it to you, so it isn't hard to find it in the 187 articles talking about it. The website gets the job done, but the community has changed a lot.

Everyone always talks about the "WoW community" and what a great community it is. What I would like to know is, what community is that and when can I trade mine for the good one? The only community I know of these days is an arena rating obsessed based group of people who basically see Gameriot as one big jerk-circle. Don't get me wrong, I give players at things like MLG and top 10 in battlegroups a lot of credit, but a lot of people out there really are doing a lot more than just tunnel visioning in arenas - they have no idea what is going on around them outside of them either. The interaction between players has changed as shown below....

Rank 10 player talks to rank 13 -

"Hey man wanna go PvP together or something for fun?"
"Meh, not really, kinda burnt out, thanks though!"

to

1700 player talks to 2200 player -

"Hey want, wanna do some arenas or bg's or something? I'm kinda bored =)"
"Uhhhh, are you talking to me? Get out of here phaggot"
".....?"
"Yeah, get some higher ratings then come talk to me."

The level of douche has progressed far beyond hope of recovery, sadly, and when the gaming community acts the way that it does, I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days one team stabbed another at a future WoW tournament. (Compliments of GTA - blame everything on that game) Long as I still enjoy writing though, Im sure I'll stick around.

--

And for those of you guys who posted in the last blog about me commenting on everyone else's RL looks, but not posting my own pic.....here you go.

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/exitec/images/detail/#501/colepiclb1.jpg

Only decent picture I have, and it is from Prom. Sorry I don't have any closeups of me with my hair down, looking at the camera in a devilish manner like all the other cool gamers. I'm not one to sit in a mirror and take pictures of myself with my phone and/or webcam and post them all over the internet.

MLG Player Pics...../facepalm - Mod Reliant Players..../facepalm

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:00:17 -0400

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/MLG-Live-Blogging-Sunday-Winner-Takes-All/

For those of you that haven't read much about MLG so far, let me sum it up for you. Basically, every top name player you ever had talk sh1t to you, finally decided to show their faces at MLG, and I can honestly say for 90% of them this was a huge mistake. Ming talks all the time about marketability and how he would love to see WoW E-Stars in commercials and things of the sort, but my question is this....

Who the FK wants to see Serennia holding a Gatorade yelling "FUEL FOR CHAMPIONS" while 98% of America sits back and wonders why they chose an autistic looking child to be the model for Gatorade?

I hate to say it, because I really hate judging people on something as insignificant as RL looks, but I can't really say the entire gaming community didn't bring it upon themselves. I can't tell you how many times a day I see people say things like "Get a life phaggot" or "lol GL getting laid" over something like a loss in a video game. The ironic thing, the people who are caught saying those kinds of things, as shown by the pictures I have checked out thus far, are really the non-sexually active, slanty eyed, shaggy haired phaggots whose mom had to drive them to the tournament because they still haven't got their license. With Ming having an obsession with "good looking players" (which i've yet to see in a tournament setting thus far, really) it is amazing how even people like Ming can look like models when put next to a kid like Serennia, who should probably consider practicing social interaction before showing up to a major tournament.

Obviously gamers have always had a stereotype against them, but I can't say the community didn't bring it upon themselves. Check out Neilyo's picture...he is standing there with his hands in his pocket, in probably the most awkward way possible. It isn't that he is butt-ugly (like Serennia, good god I still can't get over that) but it is whatever confidence he has behind his monitor back home in his dark little room with Muse blaring through his windows, is gone when put in a social situation. Sure there are people who are shy, and i'm not bashing anyone who is more withdrawn. What does blow my mind is when kids like Neilyo and Serennia talk more sh1t to people over WoW than anyone else, but when you look them in the eye IRL, they cower like Simba from Lion King - which, if anyone else loves Disney Movies as much as I do, you would know when he cowers....he cowers fo real.

Looks aren't always what make people marketable, and in WoW that is obviously the case, but confidence can go a long way. You can tell right away by a lot of the pictures i've seen from MLG who is comfortable there, and who just wants to go back to their dark, cold basement. Sadly, that was 95% of the people I saw in pictures. (I think Spoh was one of the only guys I saw who looked remotely comfortable. Kudo's to you sir for knowing how to have a good time)

--

Just a small little section here, but it is amazing how much Ming thinks he knows about this game, and then can write something this blatantly point proving. A lot of people complained about mods being game-breaking, saying people like Affix are nothing without their mods, etc - and what Ming wrote in his last article proves my point better than anything else. Check it out...

"Not only Glorin kited away from his healer and warrior, he probably had very little experience playing without mods and failed to shock/grounding any of Sodah's CC's."

I really don't even know what to say. Glorin (a shaman i've known literally for years) being a very reputable player, often contended with GC for skill, constantly being recognized for his skill, can't chock any CC's and can't play without mods? I'm not just picking on Glorin here, because I have a feeling this applies to a significant amount of players, but my god I don't think Ming realized how contradictory this statement is. For some reason after hearing something like this, I can't help but want to watch Affix try to counterspell someone without mods. Arena literally is becoming very very routine, and strats hardly ever change - but with all the mods that spam your screen with "YOU ARE TAKING DAMAGE, HIDE BEHIND A PILLAR" I can't say i'm not surprised to hear that a top player is heavily mod reliant.

/shrug, people lost their ballerness in BC.

P.S - I play with 0 mods, so for those of you who wanted to hit me up with a comment like LOL I BET YOU HAVE SO MANY MODS EXIBAD, feel free to still do so, just known it won't make a lot of sense.

Let's Talk Change

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:03:28 -0400

It doesn't take long to come up with your own opinion of PvP in WoW these days. Obviously PRE-bc every phaggot who played games like Chess or Stratego failed at PvP because they weren't given the necessary 2 minutes between each move to ponder what to do (which is kind of what has happened to the game now...) yet those of us who spent our days mashing our A and B buttons owning it up Mario Party Style, knew how to tear up BRM harder than anyone.

To me, it is sad to see such a fast paced game, turn into literally a stare-off. As mentioned in my previous post, it is quite sad to see team after team take the first 7 minutes of every fight hiding behind a pillar, to contemplate their opener. (As if they have never fought that comp before...) People claim this game would fail without pillars, yet every day I see people owning it up in durotar, winning without the use of pillars. For some reason or another, the moment you enter the arena though, your entire life depends on them.

So what exactly is the problem then? Is it really just the pillars? Or are there just hundreds of broken class mechanics that are preventing the success of many comps in arenas. Here are a few problems I see, and things we can do to change them.

Druids -

No but seriously, with the notes from Alpha giving them yet another HoT, I can't really see how anyone can die with 47 different leaves, tree branches, and seeds ticking all over the place; without the druid literally being CC'd to perfection, before he even gets one HoT off. Drinking is a serious problem right now in arenas, and honestly it would be somewhat viable to run the druid OOM and then pressure his DPS partner, knowing that he isn't shadowmelded somewhere on the map getting back to full mana in a matter of seconds. And drink bugging is just a completely different story.

Suggestion - HoT's stop working when druid runs out of range of his partner (aka across the fking map to go drink away while his warrior/warlock/rogue sits there getting wailed on, but no hp loss is shown because his HoTs tick for a fkton) I personally think water should be removed for all classes in arena, that way double dps teams aren't put on as much of a timer as they already are. (Mage/rogue for example, the moment you engage PvP combat with a warlock you are on a timer of death, where as the warlock can just call for a little lifeblewm spam and be right back to 100% hp)

Rogues -

As a mage, i'd love to see shadowstep removed from the game, but we all know that would cause a huge uproar. Probably as much uproar as when mages got hypothermia.....cept nobody cares about our class and the change still went through regardless of how stupid I still think it is.

With S4 stats coming out, and Ming banging away on his calculator, trying to figure out how he can somehow achieve enough crit to bust a nut in someone's face, yet still keep enough hit to be able to aim for the mouth, it is very obvious that rogues are going to continue to destroy unless they are toned down.

As it stands, it is getting easier and easier to get Warglaives/BT gear, and the t6 bonus in conjunction with the partial PvP gear setup is just simply unfair, and for some reason only viable for the rogue class. (Try rocking 4 piece t6 and rest s3 gear as a mage and watch how much faster you get shat on) I literally watched in awe during Neilyo 47 or whatever one was just released, when he cheapshot -> kidneyshotted an SL lock, and took him from 100% to 50% in just that; where other rogues would be lucky to hit 75-80%. (Then I sat and re-watched as he killed the lock in a matter of seconds later...)

Personally, it isn't so much the damage rogues do that I have a problem with, it is their ability to stick on a target for as long as they can. I can't think of any other class that even when 2 people are focusing them, they can continue to put out that kind of upfront damage at the beginning of the fight, for as long as they do. And if you do finally get away? Have no fear, because shadowstep is here!

I don't know a whole ton about the rogue class, so suggesting some stupid change to benefit my class would seem ignorant. But from my perspective, I don't think rogues should either be able to do that kind of damage, with how many outs they have, or they shouldn't have so many outs, for having shadowstep.

Warlocks are still annoying as fk with their draining capabilities and pillar kiting mechanics, and mace stuns are obviously skillful, but in general I can't say much else. Rogues and Druids need a huge revamp in terms of damage/survivability, and in general healing needs to be toned down. Disc priests are kind of out of control in my personal opinion (not in their own survivability as much as their ability to literally not really cast and yet keep everyone up - which is why the paladin class fails so hard in arenas, cuz they require casting - WHO KNEW!) and overall healing just needs to be looked at. Either give everyone HoT heals that are less powerful (which might require more skill to time and get goin' tbh) or make it like lv60 again where everyone is casting, making it at least possible to lock a healer out for more than 3 seconds *cough* shaman *cough*

Hopefully Blizzard is addressing things like these, but for some reason my inner-kewn tells me things like questing and PvE are for some reason or another higher up on the priority list...

/facepalm

"Hang On I'm Pillar Kiting" / Ming's Tournament Predictions

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:23 -0400

So yesterday I decided to finally sack up a bit, and start looking around for a team to get Gladiator with on my mage. Granted i've been out of the loop for a while, but after finally spending 1200g on eng powerleveling to get the invuln belt, I felt it was time to get back into things - regardless of how rusty I thought I was. However as mage, options are slim (especially when you play horde on Black Dragonflight) so mage/rogue was really my only option.

After teaming up with Miayr and going something like 30-0 up to the 2k range, it was amazing how quickly things changed. Suddenly every rogue had at least one warglaive, every warrior would just begin the fight with his shield already out at the sight of a mage, and every druid "magically" gained immunity to stuns, as we lost quite a few games with the same druid resisting 2-3 kidney shots a game.

The interesting thing was, regardless of the losing streak we suddenly had (half of which resulted to a belt backfire when iceblock was down) it is amazing how stupid arenas have gotten. You literally start the game, and run to a pillar. If you didn't see who you were facing, you run around, get a target, and run back to your pillar. After that, you sit there, and kinda taunt them, waiting for them to come to you, at your pillar. As a double dps 2s team, you are basically left to either bring reading material/snacks and wait for them to come into the open, or lose, because trying to do dmg to a hunter/druid team running around a pillar with a frost trap down is basically near impossible.

I can't tell you how many games we sat there, watching the other team sit by their pillar and do nothing. We had human warriors, with perception AND the eye buff on at the same time, not even move from their pillar, when he could have easily gotten the jump on our rogue. We had priest/rogue teams sit behind their pillars for 20 minutes, waiting for me to run into the open, so the rogue could get the sap, priest dispel me, and they both open on me bringing me to 60% off the bat unless I iceblock. And then there were the REALLY COOL pal/war teams who started the fight in defensive stance, with a shield, spamming spell reflect and running in and out of line of sight. The sad part? The moment the paladin was out of breaks, and we caught him in 1 6 second sheep, the warrior died. Was just annoying we had to play like fking retards for 20 minutes to get it to that.

I'm not really sure what happened, or when it happened, but I don't remember it being this bad in prior seasons. I mean, literally, I spent probably a total of 40 minutes out of the 2 hours we played, waiting for the other team to come out from behind their pillar. I don't see how arenas are balanced, let alone considered anything close to a competition setting, when you have to charge into an area that HEAVILY favors a healer and protection from taking any sort of damage. You have shaman that lay all 87 totems down around the pillar making it a ***** to really do anything (and btw when did grounding totem suddenly become spammable..... that thing seriously needs a cooldown check) and you have hunters who sit on a flare and a frost trap, basically meaning my rogue is gonna have a ***** of a time getting the opener.

Arenas right now, are literally pathetic. I decided with Cachexic that part of the next movie we release, is going to be 2v2 against some of the better 2s teams on BDF, in an open setting - one without pillars. It will be amazing to see some of the "best 2s players" (there are plenty in FoH) make mistake after mistake because they don't have a pillar to hide behind. But let me guess what the rest of you will say....

"WELL SURE WHEN YOU TAKE ALL STRATEGY OUT OF THE GAME OBVIOUSLY ITS EZ TO JUST ONE SHOT PEOPLE."

Learn2play you fking phaggots.

--

Here's my summary of Ming's latest S4/TR prediction post.

-He jerks off to HR's pic at night.
-Neilyo/Serennia had to pickup Glorin instead of GC (wonder why....CALLED)
-Pandemic is like a bad soap opera that nobody cares about anymore
-Ming is way pumped for S4, but has not realized that it is going to be the same grind over and over again.
-This game sucks unless you are a rogue or druid, and maybe a warlock.

Yeah, i'm fking emo....

Brb re-rolling again.

"This Game Isn't Even Hard Anymore....grats"

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:07:48 -0400

Over the course of time, it is very obvious how the mentality towards WoW has changed. I think we all remember the days when the first guild on the server killed Lucifron, and Orgrimmar rang with "CONGRATS! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME" as opposed to the current "PvE isn't even hard, grats on having no life." We all remember the days those on our server were awarded the "purple tabard" and they were notorious everywhere - which is far different than the current "grats on getting gladiator......doesn't mean anything." It is very obvious that what you achieve in this game anymore, really holds close to no public value anymore, and the overall mentality of the players out there, is nothing but sheer cockiness, mixed with some good o'l negativity.

Ok, I can accept that. Everyone is your run of the mill Neilyo in terms of personality, and everything thinks they are awesome cuz their arena tab says 2200 with 46,000 games played. Everyone is a hardass (probably because all the 11 year olds finally realized as long as they don't talk in vent, nobody has to know their still pre-pubescent ****) But why is it that people have hit the all time low of using the most laughed at phrase in any other game? Do you know what i'm talking about?

"This game isn't even hard anymore....grats."

How many times have you sacked up and challenged that "oh so popular e-star" to a duel, only to realize their not quite as good as everyone said they were, you beat them, and the only thing they have to say is "this game isn't even hard anymore, you shoulda fought me pre-BC LEWL."

How many times have you done something really cool like iceblock a pyro, or vanish a deathcoil (which you have to remember, for a large % of the pvp population, that kind of thing is still out of the ordinary to them) and the kid you decide to tell responds only with "that isn't even hard to do, grats."

How many times have you made a PvP Video (or just frapsed a few fights for that matter) of mostly world pvp/bg stuff, and no matter how insane the 1v6 was that you pulled off, people still respond with "PvP in this game is broken, it isn't even hard to do that....grats."

Where I get confused is here. If the game isn't hard, why isn't everyone doing it? If you lose a 1v1, how i the game "being easy" a reason for your loss? If PvE is really as easy as the lords of BG9 make it out to be, why isn't everyone doing it? (I'm just throwin' that out there, I actually do realize how many complete tards try to PvE, and "PvE is Hard" did a great job showing how solid players > raiding wannabee's)

It really does seem like not only has this game changed in terms of PvP expectations, but everyone is allowed to throw around excuses to salvage whatever e-fame they had. A while ago Brobocop sent me some fraps of him beating Neilyo over and over again 1v1, and around 70% through each clip, Neilyo would just resort to spamming "lol" and "good game" and "wow this is stupid" to try to make his loss seem that much better.

If anyone played WoW during the first year or 2 of its release, you would remember how embarrassing a loss was. PvP was taken very seriously, and when you lost, you learned to just be a man about it and accept the loss. But now, it seems like we got a million little Affix's runnin' around, running their mouths like a God damn black woman in a supermarket, only to lose, and sit there and spout off more excuses than any politician ever has.

And this isn't just with people's attitudes. Next time you are in vent with some friends bg'ing, pay attention to the stuff they say in vent, or guild chat after a night of arenas, etc. I guarantee it might look something like this...

-God I hate rogues and their Cloak of Skill.
-WOW GO SKILLBOLT ME SOME MORE, FKING WARLOCKS TAKE NO SKILL.
-GG blocked his skillcoil.
-Screw mages and their water skillamentals.
-God Engineering takes so much skill! GRATS ON LANDING THAT NADE FROM 100 FEET AWAY....I bet that wasn't....uhh....even hard.....(oh wait it prolly was but ima just keep complaining anyway)
-WOW MY SHEEP GOT HIT BY THAT STUPID ROGUES SKILL THROW
-He's cheating death, that takes a lot of skill.
-Wow this mage thinks he's cool for 2v1'ing these kids....doesn't even take skill.
-"Druids take skill has joined the channel"
-/2 MAKING GUILD "insert bad druid/warlock joke here" PST
-Well timed skillstuns are fun
-WOW RESIST - THIS TAKE TAKES SO MUCH SKILL
-Uhhh bro, your class doesn't even take skill bro.
-YEAH YOU GONNA GO SPAM SKILLBLOOM SOME MORE?!
-Your arena comp doesn't even take skill....ours does.

The list goes on and on. It is amazing how clever people can get with the word "skill" and its meshing abilities with many of the spells/attacks in WoW. People just get more and more clever I tell ya!

Gonna go make to playing my skillful mage, doing some skillful bg's, skillin' up some eggs on my skillet, while I iceblock all these skillcoils.

But it's cool....cuz this game isn't even hard anymore.

TR Success Not Making Sense / Where Did all the Competition Go?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:14:51 -0400

As many of you know, the first round of TR has come to a close, and I think many of us were surprised by the results. It isn't every day that you hear of a lineup like GC and the F@gboi's not making the finals, and then see a team with a shadowpriest take their spot. I'm not really sure what to think about TR as of this point, all I know is I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

As many of you also have found out, several new sponsors have picked some new teams up for upcoming events, and let go of some of their previous players. (Duelists Going For Glad being one of my personal fav's, i'm very glad to see they got a sponsorship) However, it seems to me like the whole sponsorship game is kind of like trading pokemon cards back in the 4th grade. There really aren't very many rules when it comes to trades (or picking up/dropping players from the roster) and yet there seem to be a lot of unwritten rules. I could be very wrong, but with sponsors like Dynamo Gaming picking up and then dropping GC (& Co.?) in a matter of a few months (if that...?) it seems like devotion to one sponsor is pretty invalid at this point.

As far as Journalism on Gameriot goes, I think everyone here has had their fair share of Basketball analogies. Ming, being my personal fav when it comes to WoW:RL analogies (I love when REALLY un-athletic people follow sports. It is kind of like American's following a spelling bee, or some downs kids following a chess tournament) has referenced the "WoW E-Sport" to basketball more times than I can recall, but personally I couldn't disagree more.

In sports, there is a level of devotion. When a player performs badly one season, it is very rare he is let go the following one. That is what coaches, personal trainers, and sports therapists are there for. They are there so players who hit a slump (or don't play as well as they did in college, hence why they were recruited) can get out of it and hit their peak. But with WoW (the REAL sport for all those who can't seem to drop below 350 lbs and walk up the stairs to even acknowledge the parents who are providing shelter for your lazy ass) it is obvious that a CS on a treant, or a sky dive off the bridge in Blades Edge, can cost you your sponsorship.

Personally, having never been offered a sponsorship (many others who work harder and deserve it more anyway) I can't say from experience how the logistics work, but from an outside perspective, it doesn't look like a very concrete field.

--

Anyway, back to my original point. So why is it that teams like GC, Neilyo, and Serennia, couldn't do well? Why are we seeing some odd comps rule the playing field? What is it about arenas that is stopping everyone from doing well with any comp?

It is very hard to accept how far this game has gotten off track, because having almost never duo'd with that "perfect partner" like a druid/warrior, or a druid/lock, or a druid/rogue...... ok basically having never played an OP class with a druid for a healer, I don't really know the feeling of stepping into a game and knowing you have already won. Even before BC when 2v2 matches for e-peen points were abundant, I would always go double mage, because pre-BC it didn't matter who you duo'd with, you could outplay any other duo if you knew how. Frostmane, being notorious for its Alliance Warriors in Vicious Cycle, I can't tell you how many warrior/healer or rogue/healer, or rogue/warrior duo's Cachexic and I found while roaming in WPL, and regardless of the fact that back then mages could literally get 1 shot, it was also very clear that the faster player would always come out on top. That is where this game has taken a turn for the worst.

I am going to come right out and say it, even though I know every single healer, and every Neilyo-kiting-wannabee-rogue is gonna QQ about it, but if Blizzard removed pillars from WoW, this game would do a full 180 in terms of PvP. And don't tell me you need pillars to win, because for the past 2 weeks i've been playing my 150 res 8500 hp priest in bg's, tanking 2-3 melee at a time, 2v7'ing full s3 kids in wsg with Cachexic, and you would be amazed how blatantly obvious it is that hardly anyone in arenas today knows how to help defend their partner. If you die in arenas, I guarantee the only thing you hear out of the people you are playing with is "you shoulda used a pillar bro." Try playing with someone who actually knows how to PvP (which, by the looks of things, is about 1% of the competative PvPer population) in an open PvP setting, and you will be amazed how much more intense PvP is.

I am also 99% sure if pillars were taken out of arenas, and mages could 1)spec something other than frost, and 2)play with someone other than a rogue, you would see wondrous things happen with a double mage team. Hunters be too OP? Give them their deadzone back....god knows it has been simply ridiculous since they had it taken away. Druids wouldn't be nearly as OP, warriors wouldn't be able to run mages oom with a sword and board with a pillar for a MH, locks wouldn't be able to 2v1 people just because they have 2 pets (felhunter and a pillar....lewl) and rogues like Neilyo might actually have to like, oh, idk, fight the mage, not run around till they get so angry they afk out.

Regardless of what anyone says, pillars were the worst idea to ever happen to this game, and anyone who thinks they have any idea what real pvp is at this point, yet hasn't done anything but sit in an arena for the past year, is so wrong. Blizzard needs to step back, revert back to some of the previous things they had in this game, take out pillars, and watch as the arena system suddenly changes. And no, it won't turn into a 1 shot fest. Go watch <Ret> 5v5 roaming pvp, where you have kids in so much dmg gear they can literally 2 shot you, and yet even with 3 people on 1 person they still stay alive. Why? Because people back then knew how to defend their partners, and actually play the game. Now anyone 12 year old with a 15 fps computer and a DSL connection can hit 2500 because almost every class out there (but mages....oddly enough) can sit there and literally do nothing but hit a few keys, and run around a pillar and win.

WTB Xpac that doesn't suck. PST

AoC, Lv80, and New Talents

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:51:55 -0400

With all this new talk about lv80, it seems everyone is already planning out what they are going to do. Some people like Jasi have already moved over to AoC, others are waiting for "tryingtobeatoutWoW-hammer" and the rest of us are just too comfortable to go anywhere else but another very large continent in this no-end-in-sight game we all continue to play.

First off, i'd like to give some props to Jasi for his blog about gamers comfort zones. Honestly, I had been trying to figure out why I kept playing WoW for a long time too, and he hit the nail on the head. (If you haven't checked it out, here - http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/Why-WoW-Has-Continued-Success/)

Basically, the biggest problem I think with starting up a new game like Warhammer or AoC, is the fact that I know how crazy the first 6-12 months of a brand new MMO can get. For the first time in 4 years of playing WoW, I haven't had the "omfg I can't go out tonight, I have to grind this rep" feeling, because the game simply has slowed down. Gear that would otherwise require not only hours of grounding, but timed grinding (honor grind, for example) is now achievable in a few hours of fun bg's with friends a week, and 1 day of arenas on a casual Sunday afternoon. While I will say I miss the days where WoW wasn't just a game, but a lifestyle, Ming was right when he said "the game is much more enjoyable when you are only playing 10ish hours a week." (Gameriot first /facepalm) I feel like now I can enjoy the game, still play competitively, go out as often as I want (without being held back by raid times or bg-premades), make some money working, and finally start focusing on some things that were pushed to the back of my priority list the past few years, like physical health.

So far, the few people I have talked to directly about AoC, have said they hate it. To me, I know a lot of games can be very appealing to some players, and horrendous to others (just like how I can't stand the EQ look AoC/Warhammer seems to be giving off to me, but I love the WoW graphics) but at this point I think i'm willing to trade looks for a very skill/reaction based PvP game. The problem is, because my playtimes are often very random because of RL conflicts, I don't have the time to be that guild member who sits around waiting for everyone to log on and off, so theres always someone to PvP with. I have always been a solo player, and that I think is why I have never really hit my peak in arenas. The times when I was playing the best in arenas was during S2 with Zoltarc and Breathless on Blackrock (yes, in BG9, for all you phaggots who think what bg you play in = skill) because when we played, we were playing at 3 or 4 am, the times when i'm usually on, very chilled out, and can focus without any distractions like my little brother running around the house firing nerf guns at my door letting me know i'm "under attack." I'm not really sure why, but after I left Blackrock I just couldn't find a team I played as comfortably with as Zoltarc and Breathless. Having just hit 70, and still playing in 1/2 blues and s1 gear, while everyone else was in full S2/PvE gear, I knew I was on top of my game when we were consistently farming teams that have since then been named "top teams in the world." For example... (only ones I can remember that really mattered)

Worldwarone/Worldwartwo/Worldwarthree (?) mdl
Azurewrath's team mdl
Affix/Secretive's #1 team mdr
Pigvomit/Depz's team mdr
Kyx/Trance rmp
Neilyo's team (rdl?)

The fact is, when you are a solo player, the arena game just isn't very fun. I remember Cache and I talked about how we couldn't wait for the 1v1 arena to come out (when they first tossed around the idea of arenas back pre-BC) because that is all we did. We prided ourselves on our duo abilities, and our ability to 1v1 pretty much anyone on any server without much trouble. Sadly, the arena game, and every other MMO it seems like, is more concerned with group PvP content, which is something that just didn't really appeal to me. Sure, roaming 5v5 and premade bg's are awesome, but their only fun because it is a nice break from the 1v1 game you play all day every day. Balance a game around group pvp, and it will stay group pvp oriented, and the 1v1 aspect will be very unbalanced. (Aka what WoW is right now) Balance a game around the 1v1 aspect, and all of a sudden not only is the 1v1 interesting, but so is every group pvp situation, because nothing is pre-balanced.

And don't tell me this is a false statement, because that is exactly what they did pre-BC, and PvP has never been the same since they switched things around. Back then 5v5 was even more successful, and less of a countercomp match because nothing could really be countercomped, you could just be outplayed, because every class was so unique. Every 1v1 was about who was faster - I don't care if you say it was a 1 shot fest. If you were good, you didn't get 1 shot, plain and simple. I played 21/30 fire (not arcane power, judgemental phaggots) and that was the best spec to get 1 shotted as, and yet somehow I still stayed alive, all the time. That is where BC fell apart - don't balance a game around group pvp.

After reading Jasi's post about AoC, and how it is very group pvp oriented, Cache and I both pretty much decided AoC wasn't the game for us. We are solo pvp'ers, and a numbers game just doesn't sound like much fun. Xpac it is I guess.

--

As for all the new talents and such being released, I have to say i'm very split. The deep frost talent is going to make duo'ing with Cache a lot more fun, because you can alternate not only nova's, but now nova nades as well. The deep fire talent is absolutely pathetic, because blizzard thinks that every fire mage plays it like an AOE spec with no intention but to do as much dmg as possible before dying, which couldn't be more wrong. It is an "on-the-go-burst" spec, that when coupled with extreme finesse, can be absolutely deadly. The problem is, the good mages don't want to blow themselves up, making the deep fire talent pretty much worthless, and the fire tree once again a very non-viable spec for serious PvP.

As for the mage class in general, i'm not really sure what Blizzard is thinking. I already use all my normal keys, a third of my keyboard keys, all shift keys, F keys, and I scroll between 2 bars using my mousewheel, and now they want me to bind even MORE stuff? Pretty soon if I want to counterspell something, the only key i'm going to have left is Shift + Cntrl + Hold Down F8 + Tab R.

After reading all the lv80 things, PvP is going to be absolutely horrible, or it is going to slowly get fixed again. All I know is there is a ton of new stuff, and with Deathknights being casually thrown in there (which I pretty much refuse to play, sounds like the stupidest class in the world) this game is going to see a lot of changes, very fast, and we can only hope that they all turn out for the best.

TBC Officially Lv60 All Over Again / Mal'Ganis Glad Team Owned 4v5

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:00:42 -0400

For a year now, Cachexic and I have been talking about how badly we wished the lv60 days were back in business (and I know we weren't the only ones...) and how pathetic TBC pvp was. But sometimes, you need to be careful what you wish for, because it just might come true.

With the influx of rogues running around with 2300-2400 attack power, shaman's whose earth shields heal for a full frostbolt worth of damage, and druids who regen mana faster than GC can switch personalities - PvE gear has finally made TBC pvp equivalent to that of level 60 pvp. And if you say "now Exitec, how can you make such claims, when there are matches that last 30+ minutes!" well I have news for you, the same thing happened at lv60 when the same classes 1v1'd each other, with the same specs. (Duels between myself and Cachexic ranged anywhere from 8 seconds to 15 minutes a fight) But trust me when I say, the lv60 days are back.

With Ming's reference to Stryfe-kun or w/e the hell his name is (the warglaive rogue with more burst than a black dlck on a teenagers face) reaching a combined score of 8000 on sk-gamings top 100 list, it is obvious that when you can 100-0 a clothie in a kidney shot, you are no longer "outplaying" people. But this can be controversial, because at lv60 everyone said that it wasn't hard to play pom/fire either, when your fireball/fireblast combo's took out 70% of people's hp - but that doesn't mean I wasn't outplaying people as well.

The problem is, and the more you do battlegrounds these days the more apparent all this is, is that while stacking damage seems to be way superior to the S1 stamina/res whoring we all did, the difference between TBC pvp and lv60 pvp is that we lost a lot of the balance. Take Mage vs Rogue for example. I can't tell you how many times I have been left to 1v1 a rogue in an arena, both of us completely out of cd's, and if he gets an opener on me, I lose. With no trinket/iceblock, all he has to do is cheapshot me, finger himself while he sits there knowing I HAVE to blink, and then hit his cute little shadowstep key, kidney shot me, and watch as I sit there and eat a ton of damage with nothing I can do but cry on vent. Rogue doesn't even have to do the whole sap/bandage and dance in front of my face anymore, cuz he knows he has cheatdeath if the 500 hp he has isn't enough to take down a mage from 80% in a few seconds. The damage rogues can do isn't the problem, I don't mind outplaying people to avoid taking mass amounts of damage (I do it every day against enhance shaman) it is their utility. Rogues cried for months about how they had no utility in arenas, and now they are one of the 2 classes that can do exceptionally well in every bracket, on a consistent basis.

Blizzard thought that by giving mages more nova's, they could give rogues more root breaks. The problem is, what good are more nova's, when 1/2 of them resist, and are on timers that are quadruple what rogue root breaks are? (Ranged nova once a pet, and shs every 25 seconds? GG) The other issue is, what happens when both classes are out of cooldowns? Rogue wins, end of story. A mage with no cooldowns has 0 chance against a rogue with no cooldowns, and even with every cooldown possible the match is one big spacebar spamming fest that requires whole lot of stupidity, and an abundance of spamming.

That is where lv60 was better than lv70. At 60 the same thing could happen, if the mage played poorly. If the mage made 1 false step, the rogue would take one swing and you risk getting 40% of your hp taken away instantly. Now? If the rogue makes a false step and the mage gets an advantage, DON"T WORRY! The rogue can recover by shadowstepping over to him, and the mage can once again go back to spamming frost nova, watching the huge RESIST letters pop up on his screen, and go back to spamming mana shield/frost barrier till the next nova is up, in which case the rogue will just cloak it, and finish the job.

Do 1v1's with rogues make me go emo? Is this a cry post? Do I hate my life? While all these a solid conclusions based on the above paragraphs, I have to say I have gotten used to it. Mages to rogues have officially become the lv60 warriors vs mages, where every fight is just an embarrassment to the mage class. Can mages win? Sure! Is it ever clean, and do you feel good after it? Nah. BC pvp is sloppy, and mages have gone from the class that can literally make every class look stupid when you outplay the fk out of them pre-BC, to the class that hops around waiting for things like Hypothermia to wear off so they can hopefully iceblock a 2nd time before the warlocks dots finish him off in a pillar contest.

Who knows where Blizzard is going with this, but at this point I don't really care. My interest sadly is gone from hardcore arena mage, to baller in wsg. The time I spent in bg's pre-BC was mind blowing (like any other real pvp'er out there) and the fun has finally come back. Playing a mage in this game has always been insanely fun, and mages absolutly destroy in open PvP situations (especially with the new Kewn spec Cachexic came up with.... slow/icy veins) and that is why I can never quit mine, cuz an AB on a sunny afternoon reminds me how much fun the class is. But put that class in an arena, and it is the most un-fun thing in WoW. I don't care how many top RMP teams are out there, or how awesome Venruki is cuz he hit #1 in all 3 brackets. Mage in arena just isn't fun, and when you go from lv60 days where mage was not only the most competitive pvp class (in my eyes) as well as the most fun, to a sheep bot with a cool ranged nova, you lose a lot of motivation to want to bash your head against the wall over and over again just to play your 10 games for the week.

--

On a side note, my priest is now 70 and rocking all the "Of the kewn capin wallabee humpin jimboree slidin bear huggin caterpillar trottin eagle" clothes, desperately trying to get some honor/arena gear before S4. With the nerf to the arena point system, I am forced to play 5s legit to get points, so with the help of some fellow kewnawans (Buddhist, Dcowboy, Saqe) and a fellow Kewn Master (Cachexic) we made a 5s team 4v5'ing up the rating for me. (We stopped at like 1670 cuz all those phaggots have ADD and after 3 games they wanna go back to sitting in org talking on vent) The funny thing was, seeing the few full Gladiator teams rank up while we were, and end up getting 4v5'd by a double mage, hunter, rogue 4 dps team, with a 455 healing disc priest run around pretending to do something.

Our favorite team was one from Mal'Gayness! I believe 3 or 4 of the guys on the team were S2 Gladiators (they had their tags on, so we wouldn't know how gud they were namean) and whoever didn't have their tag on at least had their S3 shoulders so you know their like, pretty gud, cuz like, those are hard to get ya know?

So Congrats to Vodkragrokka & Co! Your legit Gladiator team successfully got 4v5'd by a team literally with no healer. Yes, we lost the first game, but who knew Saqe rocket booting in, nova'ing you all in 1 place, and you getting AE spammed by 2 mages and a holy nova priest, in addition to hunter traps, could keep your warrior at sub 5% for a good 10 seconds, and almost win us the first game. Nice healin' there buddy! 2nd game with a legit "ok just burst this guy down" (it's a BG9 strat, don't ask how I got it) you guys successfully got 4v5'd.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=6440900185&sid=1

8 Page Forum post. Try not to make up excuses when you get owned next time.

P.S - To Buffjob, the rly gud pally on the Gayness Team, your whole "why would our warrior afk out when we still had a pally with bubble and 3 dps left" excuse doesn't work, cuz literally 3 seconds after we blew up Vodka, Cache just tabbed to someone else, and 3 shot them. Arcane blast spec played by a kewn > your team.

Oh, and idk if you guys learned this in the gladiator ranks or not, but putting your super gud dps on the healer with 20 res and 6k hp, might be a good idea.

Gladiator is serious business.

Buddhist/Lewt 2s Video // Pacemaker Program

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:53:55 -0400

I'm sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Apparently when you request to work "part-time" hours, they assume you wish to work a little shorter shifts, just every day. So between work, attempting to see my GF, and consistently call Dell every day until I finally get a hold of the regional manager to refund this POS computer they sent me, blogging just hasn't really been at the top of the priority list.

I have been meaning to write a little something about Buddhist/Lewt's video for a few days now, because in my opinion the video is well worth the mention. I get PM'd quite a bit by people who want me to watch and review their video, and quite frankly (putting this nicely) a lot of them just are very very run-of-the-mill videos. If you blackened out the name at the top of their screen I wouldn't be able to tell you whose character that was; whereas you could show me any Vurtne, Radikal, Cachexic, or Otherguy video and i'd be able to tell you which one was which just based off a fight or two. Pre-BC quite a few players made staple names for themselves because they looked unique in their videos. Everyone still could get the same gear, everyone could still spec the same thing (how many 21/30 fire mage videos were out pre-BC with mages in rank 10-13 pvp gear...) but each video was independent.

Personally, I find Lewt to be one entertaining player to watch. After playing with him first hand, it is very clear that he never skips a beat when it comes to playing a druid, and very rarely makes a mistake that costs him a match. Buddhist, a long time Rogue (HWL pre-BC) and member of the Ernor Community, I can also vouch for his skill. A lot of people like to bash what they don't know, or who they haven't exactly played with/against, and judging by his rep here on Gameriot alone, i'd say he is a perfect example of that.

The video itself was pretty much as good as a 2v2 "informational arena video" is going to get. They added in some nifty editing to showcase not only parts of their video, but their love for roleplaying, as well as some superb music. (<3 RJ) Playing a unique version of a popular comp, and in conjunction with some very popular and stand-out kind of music, I couldn't really find anything wrong with this video.

One thing a lot of people tend to do when making arena videos, is they tell people "Oh you weren't entertained? Well it was just to show how to play the comp, duhhh" giving them a pretty big excuse when it comes time for people to critique their video. The problem is (Neilyo comes to mind here) when you watch those kinds of videos, where nothing is explained, you really don't learn a whole lot about the comp. You see them pressure people, but sometimes you don't know for what reasons. Most of the time the players UI is so cluttered that you can't even tell what cd's they have left (unless you're sitting there with a pad of paper and a pen jotting down when they used them throughout the match) let alone the opposing players HP. If it is an informational arena video, strats should be explained, things should be slowed down, and there should be explained reasoning behind why you decided to spend 38 seconds chasing a druid around a pillar while you ate 5k damage worth of DoTs. Buddhist and Lewt did a very good job doing this.

Videos should always be organized, whether it be by fight, or music, or highest crits - it doesn't matter. They did a fantastic job naming each team before the fight started, and laying out a general strat so we knew what to look for. Then throughout the fight, personal commentary via text was added to explain certain things, which I found to be very helpful. There is nothing more frustrating than watching a video, and prior to something happening your brain tells itself what is going to happen next, and the player does something different that doesn't quite make a whole lot of sense based on the situation, and your sitting there going "oooooooooook." That happened a few times for me during the video, and sure enough 5 seconds later some text popped up telling me why they did what they did/what mistake was made that they should have done differently to make the game end faster.

Great music, fun to watch fights (who says a Bewmkin can't burst?) and a very well done video. This is a product that obviously wasn't thrown together during study hall on a school computer using Windows Movie Maker, which is sometimes the case with a lot of the videos I get asked to review.

Great job guys, 10/10. /bye Lewt

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=74055

--

On a side note, I just found this program called Pacemaker for Mac, which is a music mixing program that is free. It doesn't quite give me the freedom I want when it comes to overlapping tracks to combine songs (or it might, but from what i've figured out to do in the 3 hours i've gotten to use it, I haven't found a clean way to do it yet) but it does organize them pretty well, so if you want to just put together a basic mix of anywhere from 5 to 20 songs, this is a pretty easy program to use.

www.pacemaker.net

If anyone else uses this program, or knows of a better (and free) program that lets you overlap songs (kind of like putting together a Mashup) send me a PM. I'm really getting hooked into this kind of stuff, and would like to find a program that lets me do what I want, quickly and easily.

Review of new "Duelists Going For Glad" video later in the week...

Can Everyone Whose Bored, Please Stand Up?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:14:32 -0400

Honestly, past few days while i've been pretty stretched for free time as it is, I can't really think of a whole lot to write about. Sure I got some funny stories (like how I found out Faction bought his gladiator title....) but as far as WoW goes, the game is pretty much at a standstill.

I'm sure everyone remembers the days where it felt like if you weren't on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you would be left in the dust immediately. There was that constant pressure to log on, that constant nagging at your back telling you "you're missing out on honor grinding!" when you went to go out to dinner with your parents. WoW was truly an addiction at its finest, and while I was so happy to finally feel like I could not log on for a few days (or weeks at this point) and still be ahead of the game, I can't help but miss the rush of always being immersed in a new goal.

As far as the game itself goes, I think everyone is kind of at the same point. Everyone is just leveling alts/finishing stocking up everything possible so the day S4 hits they are geared enough to not log on for 4 months and still have the best gear possible for PvP, and nobody really can find a reason to compete. As far as I know the hype of the 3v3 tournament is long gone, and it is kind of like occasionally hearing about the Nascar races - sure some people love it, and everyone kinda knows what's going on, but nobody is going to go out of their way to find out the standings unless they have a real reason too. (I.E write a blog about it)

For me, i'm not really sure where I wanna go with WoW at the moment. The past 2-3 weeks have been nothing but work and time wasted away on the phone with Dell trying to fix my desktop, while I occasionally level my priest on a 40 fps macbook pro. (When your desktop was running around 160 fps, 40 fps seems like dog****) I've become rather frustrated, and with no real incentive to log on, it is hard to tell what is making me spend all this time/money to get my computer fixed for gaming. (Seeing as it runs fine otherwise) Obviously my Kewns (Cache/Saqe/Miayr/Mahiko/Lewt/Buddhist) play a big part in this, as it really is just a game at this point - and the only reason I like to log on, is to release some steam owning kids in bg's in an organized fashion.

WotLK on the horizon, AoC and Warhammer both on their way, and my departure for college all are kind of colliding and i'm not really sure which road I want to take. While i'd like to continue gaming, at this point finding a game that can bring me the same satisfaction WoW pre 2.0 brought me is going to be pretty hard. The competition then was nuts, the trash talking rivaled any major league sport out there today, and the incentive to log on to progress in the game was at its peak. Now? We work to increase our PvP sheet a few standings each week, and make sure we can win trade enough to get that cool mount/title at the end of the season. Pretttttttty skillful imo.

--

As far as other stuff goes, i've spent the last week (while re-installing the world on my computer time and time again) doing nothing but listening, downloading, and researching music mixing. I've fascinated by the layering a lot of these guys do, and i'm hoping to start messing around with Acid and FL studio soon to try to do something on my own. Being engulfed in the music world since I hopped out of the womb, it was only a matter of time before I took my music knowledge to the level that I wanted it to be at, and hopefully with some technology upgrades and a summer ahead of me I can start messing around with that kind of stuff.

If you have any suggestions of your favorite songs/mixes, or even genres, feel free to post them. The variety of music i've downloaded in the past few days is immense, and i'm very open minded to anything and everything out there. (Except country, you post country and i'l ship you off to the mormon sex slave house) Drop me a PM or just post a comment here and i'l definitely check it out.

ag

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:49:22 -0400

Â g

Iso6 and Mixing/Ming's Wedding

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:39:53 -0400

Well I gotta say, with the slump WoW has been in (everyone remembers the time between S2 finishing and S3 starting as being just as boring) it has been somewhat challenging finding topics to write about. But alas, leave it to other bloggers on Gameriot to keep the content flowing.

Isolee (Iso = Dj Alias?) just recently released a new mix, and while i've never really checked out any of his past mixes, I decided to give this one a listen. Lately i've been getting into this whole mixing thing a lot (i've been having a lot of problems getting a working computer for WoW lately with clashing video card driver problems) and with my love for music (and experience in the field) I have to say the whole world of digital mixing is pretty cool. It is awesome because it allows almost anyone to do it, without needing to shell out thousands of dollars on mixing equipment, even though the "legit mixers" seem to still get a lot of the credit out there.

While mixing has evolved greatly in even just the past few years, I still think seeing someone mix live is the coolest, but i've noticed most people don't care how it is done; they just want an amazing final product. (Or, song if you will)

The problem with digital mixing however (and the biggest problem I had with Isolee's latest mix) is that it can be very repetitive, to the point where the only time I could see myself listening to it would be while I was doing something pretty mind numbing - like writing a paper or grinding something in WoW for long periods of time. While I thought a lot of the stuff sounded cool on the mix, hearing the same rhythm and beats over and over again, really just being layered on top of one another, is hardly something that would be considered "great" in the music world.

One guy i've really gotten into is the guy who Dj's under the name Girl Talk. He takes thousands of songs, breaks them down into tiny increments (shredding the songs down to the millisecond) and then overlaps, layers, and mashes them all together. While some of the songs can get a bit overboard, and sound almost broken; the originality of the stuff he does is insane, and each track includes small parts of tons of different popular songs, ranging from recent to oldschool.

The biggest problem I find with mixes in general, is that they pick one part of a song, and literally put it on repeat for minutes. Very rarely do you hear multiple songs strung together in a short amount of time, because not only is it challenging with key changes and underlying beats, but because it requires you to break the song down past the rhythm, to the point where it is almost mathematical.

Overall, the mix was nice Iso, and it is something i'l definitely keep on my iTunes for the next time I need to farm honor for 8+ hours, and need something mind numbing to listen to, but it isn't quite something i'd suggest to a friend to go listen to, cuz it was so good. And if this is your style, then that is cool, just isn't mine. Can't wait to hear the next one.

--

Just to touch on something else for today, i'm really sorry but am I the only one who can't picture Ming getting married? I remember someone posting his highschool/college yearbook picture or something, and I just couldn't take my eyes off it. Not only was it repulsive, but I felt like I was looking at a raccoon that hadn't showered in days. And, let's not lie to ourselves here - I can't really see Ming's "let's work a day job at a computer, come home, play on the computer, and then plan out how i'm going to write a blog about Naratu, WoW, and make WoW analogies to my work-life...on my computer" workout schedule doing him much good. At least with Americans there are ways to at least make the uglies of Caucasians somewhat decent with a nice workout plan and some showers here and there - but i'ma just go ahead and say it.....(regardless of how gay it sounds)

Most Asian guys are just ugly as fk.

I know every guy out there sees guys around them, and goes "oh well he's pretty jacked, oh he's skinny as fk, oh he's got a nice haircut" etc...so i'ma just say that I have never seen a decent looking asian guy irl before. Sure the occasional azn in a movie who is the exception to the rule might be out there in a land far far away, but irl things are different.

I'm really not one to judge someone personally based off of an internet game - especially one I play as well - but I would really like to know how this whole marriage thing is going to work out. I mean, sure, you can lie about a few things; like how when you told her parents you were going out to eat, but really you were sneaking off to the mountains behind Orgrimmar together. But just tell me, between all, what, 3 times of hanging out together irl, what are you going to do when your future kids (oh god....) ask you...

Daddy, how did you and Mommy meet?

asf

no.spam@gameriot.com (Exitec) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:12:07 -0400