Blog Posts from "World of Ming" - Gameriot.com

MLG Anaheim Live Blog Friday: Reckful vs Inflame On Opening Night

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:21:07 -0500

Will Fnatic be able to pull off a huge upset against the heavy tournament favorite? Will Checksix go with priest or paladin against a destruction warlock? Will the S7 to S5 gear's damage reduction give Fnatic a chance?

Game 1 looked ugly for Fnatic as Checksix charged in, split damage on Yog/Woundman for a couple of seconds followed by full DPS on Yog to drop him almost instantly. Yog did 5000 damage in that game, never got anything done compared to 50000 damage each from hunter/shaman, no chance for Fnatic.

Beautiful job from Fnatic in game 2. Heavy peels + chain disarms on enhancement shaman to keep him peeled and Yog was able to outlast the beast rush and enhancement shaman survivability became an issue once Yog got off his casts and the wolves were gone. Twix trinketed a fear and was caught in a blind which allowed Fnatic to get their burst off. The 10 second beast nerf allowed Woundman to blind Twix just a couple of seconds earlier, and gave his warlock the breathing room. 1-1.

Unfortunately in game 3, all it took was an instant hex from Checksix on Fnatic shaman Douja followed by a hammer of justice to drop Yog. The amount of damage pressure from Beast Cleave is just so ridiculous even with the lowest damage gear in the game. Blizzard dev, are you watching?

Ring of valor in game 4 and 5 and Yog was toasted in both games within seconds. All it takes is just a hammer of justice to interrupt one heal followed by arcane torrent, and Yog goes down. The strength of beast cleave is not just damage but how you are completely stuck in the frost trap and take it up the rear. Vs most other cleaves you can actually get away but vs this comp, even with the enhancement shaman completely locked down under most ideal scenarios, BM hunter + 3 pets are enough to drop you with ease.

Checksix wins 4-1 with ease and if they peace out SK-EU like I predicted (and I don't see how a druid can keep up against TWO offensive dispels), they will sweep through this tournament. Perhaps SK-EU will switch to lock/mage/druid vs Checksix? We will find out tomorrow!

See you guys tomorrow! It may be a depressing tournament but with the developers watching, I am sure the game will move in the right direction!

MLG Anaheim Live Blogs, Why I didn't like PVP and the moment you all have waited for!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Verdak) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:41:32 -0500

Just a heads up, as if you guys did not know already, but some of the bloggers from this site will be live blogging this weekend at MLG in Anaheim. I only know of Zilea, Ming and Bodi live blogging, not sure about anyone else. Bodi will be updating via twitter at twitter.com/swerveofshore. Make sure to check that out it should be fun. This will be the second year that I will be watching it on a live stream. I was very intrigued to see a female pvper, Hafu last year kicking some ass, even though she won’t be there this year. All I can really recall from last year is Hafu and some team kicking the **** out of three Chinese guys that were supposedly supposed to be really good. I think it is really awesome that ESPN and a whole lot of other companies sponsor events like this. I was doing some research about MLG because I honestly didn’t know anything about it, or should I say the history of it. I didn’t think competitive gaming was that big. I thought maybe just a few million, but over 40 million in North America alone caught me by surprise. Good luck to everyone competing at this years event. I am really excited to watch the Korean team Button Bashers. I have always been a very big Starcraft fan, and followed one player in particular. I loved Kim Taek-Young, otherwise known as Bisu-Shield. I played protoss, so it was amazing to see his pro strats. In particular, he had a very kick ass Dark Templar strat. Question, does X6 have a good Warcraft team? I saw them on the schedule and was a little shocked. I thought they mostly were into FPS’s.

I have gotten lot of questions as to why I think pvp sucks. I don’t ever think I said it sucks. I just got really frustrated playing my mage. I played my protection warrior, and found it was almost too easy, and I felt lame with prot warrior pally. When arena’s first came out, I actually pvp’d quite a bit. It was when having PVE gear really counted. I remember I had like full spellfire set and when you could use arcane power and POM pyroblast someone. They didn’t know what hit them! It was pretty fun. I then got to about 1850 in Season 3 with a very good rogue. I wanted the dagger to use for PVE purposes, to go with an offhand from Hyjal. I also played with a rogue and priest from DNT when I was on Korgath. We had some fun, but our rogue unfortunately was PVE ***** and didn’t know what PVP was. It was quite entertaining though. I got a little interested in PVP again when I saw an Undead mage named Pigvomit play. I thought he was pretty good and talented, but that’s just me. I don’t’ keep up with Elitist Jerks or anything, so I wouldn’t know.

I just like the PVE aspect of the game more. To all the people who are saying why I don’t have any significant PVE achievements, well here is my answer. I had hopped around to three different guilds. The first one, I was in for countless wipes on Yogg attempts. I was a trial I this guild, so unfortunately that means I have to sit for senior members. I then transferred to Forlorn Legacy. My first night in raid, we were at the door of Algalon, to get server first observed. I was so excited. Then, out of left field the other senior member mage logs on. Guess who had to sit? I was a little disappointed about that one, but life goes on. I could have gotten the server first Anub Heroic title, but I left the guild. I then joined Forgotten Heroes. They had a special setup already, and they downed him the day I transferred. When I was in Momentum, our guild unfortunately didn’t get any server firsts. I was in though for a lot of pre BC and BC server first kills, and to me that means a lot more than a lot of these boring instances out right now. So why do you pvp’ers hate PVE so much? Aren’t there a lot of good PVE items that are useful for you in arena? And I just found old world content much more enjoyable than the stuff they have in now. A few of the Icecrown fights have been fun though, and I take back what I said. Sindragosa reminds me a lot of Saphirron, and to me that was a fun fight. I especially loved being a mage so I could fake ice block and make people die sometimes.

Now the moment you all have been waiting for. I am not going to be blogging here for awhile, if not ever again if Ming doesn’t want me to. My step dad finally got his bid accepted for a huge solar project in the Virgin Islands. We are moving there in a few weeks, and the project could take 3-6 months to complete or longer depending on the criteria that has to be met. I do not have a laptop, and I am not going to lug a huge ass computer on a plane. I think not using the computer for a few months will do me a lot of good. And we had just recently went on vacation there, and there was so much to do. Plus, I will be walking everywhere so I am going to get in good shape again. Was fun while it lasted. I am queen of the trolls, and I think it is pathetic the hundreds of comments you all left me, when Zilea even told you not to. Good luck to everyone, and I hope your guys time in WoW was as fun as mine was!

P.S. Proofreading sucks, Yiska du bist sehr net, und

DU BIST ALLES BLÖD

Blizzard Devs Head to Anaheim, MLG Weekend, Tune In

no.spam@gameriot.com (Pookz) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:56:58 -0500

Casual Conversion Continues, MLG Picks, MLG Anaheim: The Insidiousness of Check6, Zilea Part 6

no.spam@gameriot.com (Zilea) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:22:30 -0500

Enjoy.

MLG Anaheim Super Weekend Predictions, CWOW Down: 10% Of Activision's Net Earnings Gone? Will Blizzard Switch Business Model? Appreciate What You Have

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:56:31 -0500

Don't miss the MLG Anaheim super weekend!

Coverage on: http://www.gotfrag.com/

Friday: 7PM PST
Saturday: 10AM PST
Sunday: 10AM PST

Current time of Anaheim: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=783

WOM's own Azael/Pookz/Bodi will be at the event! Good luck to all competitors!

Looking at the final roster, as far as RMP mirrors go, Reckful-kun's Complexity has mental edge over Korean Button Bashers and SK-US as they beat both at the last MLG, including a humiliation 5-0 sweep of Realz's SK-US. Woundman/Yog/Douja has the better overall record in BG9 over Azael/Terderloin/Smatin. And I expect those two teams to finish in the top 4, representing the pride of rogue community to the best of their abilities.

However, they won't be the favorites of this tournament. Even with beast cleave nerfs, Microsoft's Checksix is still running the strongest overall comp today, with the highest margin for error as they took multiple high winning percentage teams to the top of the BG9 ladder with ease. Azael/Pookz's wizard cleave does stand a chance but for this tournament they are on separate teams.

Thankfully, the damage nerf from S7 to S5 is not the only thing that can hold hunter hero Twix back, Another/Inflame's DK/Lock/Druid with an amazing 89% win rate in Europe's finest BG will be a formidable opponent, taking full advantage of the slower pace in S5 gear. BG9 does have a quality DK/Lock/Druid team that will be at this tournament, although no one would consider them at Another/Inflame's level.

Of course, SK-EU haven't experienced anything like the original beast cleave either, so this will be the most exciting match-up at the tournament! With Toez being able to switch to priest for anti-DOT/HOT, shaman disease totem + priest dispel = low damage output for DK/Lock, double offensive dispel makes it VERY hard for the druid to stay alive. My money is on Checksix to win their second championship in a row, playing the best overall comp in the game today.

I was talking to Estel today on my cell phone outside of my day job in Midtown Manhattan, and this thing made a right turn on a very narrow street and a good portion of it got onto the curb.

I was standing still, about 2-3 feet away from the corner of the curb with my back turned. A co-worker (and a very close friend) of mine pulled me a step forward and I was out of its melee range. I also heard someone shouting out a warning. Would it be direct contact if I stood still? Hard to say, would have been a close call according to him. Needless to say, even a "gentle kiss" from this thing can have very serious consequences.

Throughout our lives, I am sure everyone got into similar situations, where the difference between life and death is just a few feet/seconds away. Of course nothing really bad happened, but you realize how lucky you were after the fact. My father was hit by a car once when he did delivery jobs for a Chinese restaurant when he was new to the U.S. Somehow the car hit his bike and never made direct contact with him. His bike was broken beyond repair, his body only had a few minor scratches. Had it been the other way around our family would have never got this far. Even then, my father never rode a bike ever again.

That is why sometimes I feel I should be satisfied about life in general. I have a beautiful wife and a lovely baby, a modest apartment with no mortgage, relatively stable job of decent income with growth potential (to a certain degree, it certainly won't get me to where I would like to be, but stability is very important right now), and our parents have no major health concerns. Throughout my life I never had any serious injury or illness that required more than a week's worth of rest. I should consider myself VERY lucky, as good health is something money can't buy, and it is something you appreciate a lot more when you just experienced a close call.

Yet with Estel's father coming to New York on a business trip this coming weekend, I know I have a lot to prove. While he will appreciate what I provided for his daughter (and I think he is going to like my genetics as well when he sees the baby, although he will give most of the credits to his daughter), I still have to defeat him in a duel to meet his expectations, as I am still very far from what he had in mind as a strong and capable husband. And the gap between our chakra levels hasn't shrunk. If anything with Chinese yuan poised to gain vs dollars, it may even increase as his investments are all hitting the right cylinders.

Still, at end of the day, I used to intern in World Trade Center a couple of years before 911, and I was working on Wall Street the day it collapsed. A safe and healthy life, no amount of money can buy that yet it is so easy to forget how good you have it! Life is so incredibly fragile as Orochimaru puts it, appreciate what you have and make good use of it!

Some Arena Tips, WotF Nerf Enough To Re-balance Factions?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Serennia) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:26:48 -0500

The 3.3 patch nerfing WotF (45 sec shared cooldown with pvp trinkets) has been discussed ad nauseum lately but the question that I haven't really seen answered is will this significant nerf be enough to re-balance the factions and send some of the horde zerg back to alliance? I think it really all depends on the reason why everyone went horde to begin with: was it WotF or was it just "the cool thing to do?"

I think it was fairly obvious how broken WotF is in arena currently, leaving it as far and away the best racial (since WG trinkets replicate human racial). Pretty much every player that faction-changed to horde went Undead if their class allowed for it, so how will they all react now that their precious racial is not-so-game-changing? I actually feel that Undead is one of the weaker horde races now with their other racials not stacking up to the benefits of stun reduction for orcs (as well as racial AP/SP trinket), nor even the snare reduction that trolls get (which is ridiculous when stacked with snare talents and snare meta).

As dumb as it may sound, if I were a DK going horde, I would honestly pick troll at this point and stack it with Toughness and an Enigmatic Skyflare Diamond. Warriors sure are going to love having to hamstring you every 2 gcd's and berserking isn't all too bad either. In any case, there probably won't be any massive return to alliance from all of the horde players (especially the ones on Blackrock) so I don't expect to see too many people going back, but instead possibly race-changing to a different horde race now that Undead are getting the nerf bat.

A Simple Guide To World of Warcraft Arena for New Players, pt 2

no.spam@gameriot.com (Bodi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:31:58 -0500
This entry is a continuation of my last entry found here in a short series which attempts to give new players to WoW PvP an introduction to concepts they should consider when attempting to begin playing. Today's subjects are broken down into: Maximizing Your Play, What Comps to Play and finally, an often asked about subject, How To Find People To Play With. As with anything PvP related, many of these concepts overlap and I'll try my best to keep them as categorized as possible to avoid confusion.

Maximizing your play
The first step to becoming good is realizing that you aren't good. From there, you tweak your play and practice like a madman until you are good. The first part is a difficult thing for many people, including myself. Here's what Glick had to say to me after fighting against me a few times and thoroughly kicking my ass this season:

Even if you play a healer, bind an AoE spell. Their snake traps give you deadly poison which stacks up to 5 times, crippling poison which slows you significantly, mind numbing poison which makes your casting slower and AIDS, which can't be cured by the things that clears poisons.

How To Find People to Play With
So now that we have the major comps down and you know what you'd like to play, the question becomes who do you play with? This is an easy question if you're on a high population PvP server, where the population consists of a significant percentage of bored male teenagers and college students willing to take out their pent up young male angst on a bunch of pixels. The challenge is if you're on an RP-PvE or PvE server, or if your server is low population so the pool of players is significantly lower. There are a number of solutions to this:
Transfer to another server
Make connections with like minded people by raiding
Duel a bunch of people to make a name for yourself
Write a Game Riot Blog to make yourself e-famous
Sleep your way to the top
Use Trade Chat to find people (be sure to subtract 200 from their claimed experience)
The first option may not be the most ideal for many people. After all, we have friends and significant emotional investment placed in not only our avatars but the avatars of others. It's difficult to leave that behind. Unfortunately, if the only high rated people on your server are your typical small-penis-having-big-fish-in-a-small-pond-douchebages then you may be SOL. Unless of course, you can somehow import a good player from another server then you're golden.

Other limitations of this option are if you DO transfer and you're not already known, you're starting from the bottom socially and you'll have to use the Trade Chat Random and Dueling strategy. Unless of course, you use Verdak's strategy of using your assets to get in-game swag.

All in all, as with any social setting it's about raising your profile. Your ability to do it depends directly on your ability to meet and interact with people who have similar ideals to you. The entirety of being introduced to arena comes from learning that the community is your biggest resource. With practice in your play, knowledge gained from research in this community, you'll raise your profile and arena ratings to eventually attain Gladiator.

First Impressions, Zilea is a douche bag(surprise!) LoL and Icecrown sucks

no.spam@gameriot.com (Verdak) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:58:18 -0400

Why are first impressions so important? For one, it defines you as a person to the people you are meeting. The first time someone sees or meets you will be a memory that they have of you. Say you knew a really preppy girl in high school, and she was known as the *****y popular girl. If you see her years later, the first thought you will have of her is that exact thing. It is the same in World of Warcraft. Whether it is in real life or through a video game, it really does matter. For instance, you applied to a top raiding guild that is recruiting your class. It is, at least for me, very exciting to have your application be accepted and to be on trial. You do everything you can to not be “that guy” in the raid that messes up.

I remember I was on trial for one of the top US guilds in the Black Temple Sunwell era, Momentum. This was also the guild that gave me a chance, even though they knew my extensive history. The fight that made me most nervous was The Eredar Twins and standing on that damn ledge with everyone else. I did not want to conflag the raid or fall off that ledge. I had never messed up yet on that fight, but had seen others do it and I remember getting so pissed at them. Well, I guess the night of my screw up was there. I had ice blocked to get the dark touch (I think that is what it is called) stacks off me, then at the same time I got the conflagration debuff. My camera messed up and I ended up jumping off the ledge. I ended up somehow Conflagrating the whole raid, ranged and melee. I remember everyone screaming “Touchdown”, because they had never seen someone get the whole raid. Almost everyone was laughing because of it, but I felt horrible. Luckily my dps was great at that time, so I passed recruitment.

Unfortunately I cannot take back the ***** things I have done in my past, so a lot of the time when people think or hear about me they are like “omg it’s that one e-*****”. Some people online have given me a fresh start though and I am appreciative of it. I have learned a lot from my mistakes, so I always try to have my first impressions in real life be successful ones. Honestly, I have stopped really trying to care about first impressions online, because nobody really cares anyways. I have been playing a new game though, so I try to do well on it with my team mates. What do you guys think about first impressions on video games? I know for some officers or hardcore pvp’ers , you do not want some morons screwing your raids up, or even worse your hard rating you have been working on.

Darling Zilea

Now I would like to address Zilea. It is pretty obvious that my blogs have gotten a lot of views the last few weeks, due to my past history and such, or maybe the trolls were just bored, who knows! If you really don’t like me Zilea, why even bother sending me messages to my inbox. I was here to help you get traffic to this site, so Ming can continue paying all the great people on here. I know you may not like what I am writing about, but I am only trying to help the site, even if it makes me look bad. You can at least be a little respectful. And by the way, you are no Brad Pitt or Antonio Banderas either there babe. You look like Prince on crack. I know maybe I could lose a few pounds or whatever, but you could go to gain some on your scrawny chicken bone ass. I thought you were actually being nice to me at first and helping me out, but I guess you are just using me to get traffic to your own blog. Thanks for using me to get views bro! This is a quote from someone else and what they think about Zilea, “Zilea is what you get when you take Prince's skeleton and add bad hair, acne with a dash of social awkwardness to round it all out.” I think you could be a great guy Zilea, but don’t be a faker or a douche bag even if it is online.

LoL > HoN

I forget who it was that wrote about Heroes of Newerth a few weeks ago. I was searching through the pages of blogs and it didn’t catch my eye, but I was searching pretty fast, so I probably just missed it. I am sure there are a lot of DoTa fans out there. If you do not know what DoTa is just go Google it! I remember playing DoTa during sit out nights, or with guild mates when we were done raiding for the week. I had always talked with people saying it be cool if DoTa had its own game outside of a Warcraft 3 Mod. Now there are two games that have this genre. Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends. These games are best described as a little bit of MMOrpg mixed with some RTS in there, otherwise known as a MOBA. I absolutely love RTS games, so this is right up my alley. I have tried both games, but LoL has won me over by far. Heroes of Newerth is going for a more realistic look, while LoL has the more cartoonish look like WoW does. I think having a realistic looking RTS style game is a bad decision. I was playing in a few HoN games and had a very hard time distinguishing who was my actual team mate, and who was my opponent. Everything just blended in so well, and on top of that, the terrain was very dark, making the mobs seem almost camouflage.

Also, it is a price thing for me. Being a college student, I do not have a lot of extra money lying around a majority of the time. HoN costs $30 just to buy the game and play it. LoL is free to play, and you earn points by playing and unlock more heroes. You can also buy extra skins, heroes and items in the online store they have available. Hey, LoL is free, so give it a try in my opinion.

PVE Raiding is boring Failcrown Glacier!

So, with Icecrown right around the corner, I have gotten to test the first few bosses that have been out on the PTR so far. Lord Marrowgar, Festergut, the Gunship encounter, Sindragosa, and Valithra Dreamwalker. I can say that I am falling asleep with these new bosses so far. It is like casualville. Look, there is fire move. It is so damn boring. I wish WoW could be like the good old raiding days of Molten Core, BWL, AQ and Naxx40. I guess they are making a lot of money, so they don’t really care what the hardcore gamers want anymore. The achievements are supposed to be more hardcore, but it is a pain in the ass to try and get people to do some of them. It’s almost like they just want to get in and raid and get out. Which I honestly don’t blame them. This game is so boring right now, content wise. And battlegrounds get repetitive as well. I can see why people arena, seems like it would be fun. They are the same arenas, but the situations are always changing. With raiding, you are in there and already know what to expect. I just hope WoW will get more enjoyable soon, and I pray to the WoW God that Arthas won’t be a Nancy!

One more thing I forgot to say. Thanks to Yiska for being nice and stuff so far. I expected you to be a douche bag, but you are a very nice person!

Small Fixes Make a BIG Difference, Interview With Complexity's Sodah

no.spam@gameriot.com (FHazael) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:26:47 -0400

That's it for this week!

WOTF Nerf Leaves Rogue Without Top 3v3 Comp, Furi: Rogue vs Wizard Cleave, Rogue/Ret/Priest Simplified

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:07:05 -0400
Even with my $30 faction change to horde, I still whole-heartly support the nerf to Will Of The Forsaken. Considering the 45 second shared cooldown with PVP trinkets, it is still up there as one of the better racials in the game, as matches between most comps do last longer than 45 seconds.

Neilyo-kun posted his thoughts about the racial change:

Everything being equal, you lose. Out of the four healers, druid is the hardest kill target thanks to glyphed improved barkskin + nature's swiftness heal + high armor, and he will be in full HOTs by the time his primary defensive CDs are down.

If he gets strong peels, big defensive CDs like BOP/pain suppression, you are forced into a late game and outside of lucky blind/repentance/fear chains (vastly inferior to what the other team can do when it comes to CCs), you really don't have a chance if he is not stupid and pre-hots himself.

Fortunately druid is not the most popular healer in arena today. Against teams with solo holy paladins, restoration shamans and discipline priests, you always have a chance if both ret/rogue can get on the healer for a few seconds. It is NOT easy to create that window against a top team, but doable with aggressive CD spam and proper positioning on the opener.

I suggest playing rogue/ret in 2v2 to practice the opening position, if both of you get to hit the kill target during the first cheap shot, your chance of winning goes up exponentially. Creating a clean opener is the key to any rushdown comps.

Stress Points, ESL Needs Teams, Tweet Twit Tw**, Just Get Rid of 'Em

no.spam@gameriot.com (Pookz) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:50:09 -0400

Stress Points in Arena

A “Stress Point” is a situation in arena where a player's decision has a more than usual type of pressure associated with it. It seems as if the player's decision is near desperate and if you can read these “Stress Points” it really can improve your game.

Here are a few situation's that explain what I'm talking about.

For example, you're a mage playing rmp your rogue just blinded the priest to force his trinket and you're a little bit late on your follow up sheep. You know the priest is capable of deathing your sheep since you were a bit late on your sheep into the blind. And you also know that the first thing on the priest's mind as soon as he trinkets is avoiding sheeps, so he's going to be extremely aware of your next sheep. This is a “Stress Point” that the mage can take advantage of and easily fake that death and get a full sheep because the priest is desperate to avoid it.

You're a Paladin at 4-5k HP against an RMP you know the mage has blink up but you're out of his LOS, and the rogue is CCd. You cast that Flash of Light at 4k hp with Holy Shock on cooldown

Paladin Lineups, Fomenting Hate, Death of Aion, Zilea Part 5

no.spam@gameriot.com (Zilea) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:17:40 -0400

I heard the feedback on part 4 about how boring double healer is, so I decided that this will most likely be the last time you see double healer matches in my videos. Unless, of course, they are good matches. I decided that I wanted to start fresh for part 6 so part 5 is essentially going to be my way to unload the last remaining decent matches of the paladin/priest/warrior combo. You can probably expect a lot of paladin/warrior/warlock in the upcoming weeks.

Oh, and Hoodrych picked the first song in this video.

Filefront link here.

On a final note I also plan on doing a preview for MLG Anaheim next week along with my picks to win it all.

Switch To Horde And Win 25% More Arena Matches, Tough Time For Rogue Heroes At MLG Anaheim Ahead, Rogue/Lock/Druid Strategy Guide Part 2

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:49:17 -0400
First a quote of the day from hunter hero Hamchook:

This will usually be warrior/priest/druid or warrior/priest/paladin. Switch between warrior/priest when your CCs are all on DRs. Once warrior is out of cyclone DRs, start fearing/shadowfury the priest to deny mana burns and switch to the warrior. Once the warrior can be cycloned again, go for priest.

Your lock doesn't have to DPS much. Full DOT the priest, curse of tongue on the other healer if they don't have curse removal, mana drain the priest. If you lose felhunter go void walker as this is a long fight and you really don't need to spell lock a lot. With quality cyclone into disarm on the warrior your druid should be able to get drinks off. Your rogue doesn't have to stop priest heals, just full DPS and early blind the warrior. Kick the mana burns selectively.

You won't be able to drop the priest until he is out of mana, so the entire game is about wearing down the priest mana bar. This is why Korea got the 900 MP5 priest with 90% win rate, but against most double healer teams you should be able to wear them down.

(To be continued)

Shadowmourne Is Warglaive Deja Vu, Level 50 After A Month? Believe It! Too Late For A S7 Comeback?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Serennia) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:41:46 -0400

You can easily tell from armory that I haven't logged on since Aion launch which was right when s7 started, as well. Although gear isn't everything and honor gear is particularly easy to get, is it too late to make a comeback for this season and push for Relentless Gladiator? I'd be lying if I said that I knew what DK comps even worked right now nor if our damage is even acceptable anymore (my guess is that it is not), so is it even worth the time or is coming back for the start of s8 (final season of WotLK) more practical?

Just glancing at the SK-100, aside from seeing my boy Ryan (Hydra) dominating it, I see a grand total of one (1) death knight in the entire list and his ratings arn't even that impressive. I suppose the SK-100 might be a little flawed because not everyone does 2v2 anymore, but it does say something about the class representation now. Are DK's even a threat anymore in arena? Can DK's realistically push for rank 1 in a battlegroup and hold it? Is this season even worth playing or is waiting until 3.3 the best bet?

I'm honestly looking for input on this since I don't want to have to grind honor gear and such for s7 and then basically right away again for s8. So what does everyone think?

A Simple Guide To World of Warcraft Arena For New Players

no.spam@gameriot.com (Bodi) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:50:51 -0400
: You'll notice there's a bit of overlap here. Positioning is a BIG part of situational awareness but not the only part. Debuffs, debuffs, debuffs. Pay attention to them. If a rogue cheapshots you, keep an eye on exactly when the cheap shot ends so you can (hopefully) do something in between that and the kidney shot. I personally like to drop a stoneclaw totem and thunderstorm ~1.5 seconds into the kidney shot. Try to wait until debuffs like mortal strike and wound poison before doing your biggest heal (if applicable) on yourself.

You need to know what's being cast on you, what you're going to cast, what your partners are casting and what your enemies are casting on your team mates without them telling you. Play with the came sound on so you can hear when an enemy spell is being cast, when the pillers in Ring of Valor are about to rise and fall. Sometimes, your eyes can't see everything you need to keep track on so playing deaf isn't really a viable option if you want to play to your full potential.

There are mods that can help with this (which I'll get to later) but generally, you want to stay away from using too many of them as a dependence on them makes you a worse player, not better. Play a lot without using them for a bit and slowly add the mods to enhance your gameplay and you'll love yourself later for it.

Communication with your team members is another great way to increase your situational awareness. TALK as much as possible while the game is going on. Whether you're silenced, crowd controlled, out of line of sight or range, this will help everyone involved in collecting your points.

Well, this is pretty long and I've only covered the first two parts. Ming told me to break it up into two entries so you'll have that to look forward to. In the meantime, for those who missed it, Azael wrote a great article on Game Knowledge vs Player Skill that's quite insightful for new players. Also, Klynx wrote a nice glossery of PvP terms here.

EWhorism part 2 & my fat ass?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Verdak) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:09:41 -0400
So, I knew coming from my first blog that I would stir up a lot of drama, or people saying "omg its that one ***** yatta yatta". I don't really care. I wanted to share my personal journey through WoW with some of you because it is important to me to finally just let it all go I guess. So, where did we leave off. Oh, my college time. I was very young when I graduated high school since I was home schooled 10th-12th grade. I usually spent all day flying through my schoolwork just so I could get done. Plus, I lived on the side of a mountain and there was this super cool waterfall up a trail, so I would go do my homework there on a nice day(taking my can of Bear Spray with me of course!).

Anyways, I broke up with my boyfriend about 3 months before I moved to college in Florida. This gave me some time to get a little extra money together, as well as just take a break from the relationship business. I mostly spent my days on the computer and working out(when i was still super skinny, a lot more skinny than those pics I posted). I played a game called Knight Online under the name Kirshka. I am sure people have heard of that character name before. Well, I met some good online friends on Knight Online, and we started live chatting with each other on MSN. They told me I should get a webcam too. So, I eventually did. I was still 16 at this time. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but people told me I "looked hot" at the time and so I started to be "bad" on the webcam.

I eventually then took a naked photo of myself. I sent it to a lot of people. Then the Malaysian version of Knight Online was closing. I had to find a new game, so I started playing Warcraft 3, since I was bored of Diablo2. I met some pretty cool people on the game, and eventually got introduced to some of the top War3 players such as Grubby, Sonkie, Qazzi, Pato, holy human etc. I also lived in Florida at the time, and a lot of famous Warcraft 3 people were from there. I got to goto Bush Gardens with some of them. I never got to meet Cecil or Nueby.GGL, but we have a rain check. For now they would just leave me gay messages on my cell phone.

So the announcement of World of Warcraft was all the ruckus on warcraft 3 with the advertisements and stuff. It was what all the kids were gunna play from war 3. I was actually doing really well in college (4.0) and I had pre ordered the game, but decided to not pick it up since it would get in the way with my studies. A friend kept persuading me to try the game out, so he let me use his acct. I originally played an Undead mage on the server Spinebreaker. Her name was Kirshka, and I originally just had fun leveling up and doing small 5 mans. I then started inspecting people and saw they had purple level items. They said they had gotten them from Onyxia or Molten Core. I then tried to find a "raiding" guild. I eventually found one, and on my first Molten Core raid got a few Arcanist pieces.

Raiding gave me a whole new perspective on the game. I was with 39 other people trying to accomplish something. I remember the first time we downed Ragnaros. It was a great sense of joy so to speak. I then started to have a little " thing" with my guild leader. This was a total mistake. I had sent him those "bad photos" and everything. We had talked very hot and heavy with each other. But at the same time I liked someone else on the server who actually lived close by. Me and that person met up and I actually had sex with him. What a ***** thing to do. My father was probably rolling in his grave. To make things more awkward, my guild leader told me he wanted to fly out and meet me. I had also told him I gained a little weight, but he said he didn't care.

So, he flew out to see me, and I told him what I had done. He was really mad, but shrugged it off I guess. So, we get to my parents house, and my parents aren't home because they are on some business ordeal. Within five minutes of getting to my house he keeps pressuring me to have sex with him. Im like, NO, I don't want to do that. I know a lot of it was my fault because we had talked about sexual stuff etc. He was dissapointed that I wouldn't sleep with him, but he wanted me to go see where he lived. He even paid for my college transfer to finish out my schooling where he lived. What I didn't know was how big of a douche bag he was really going to be. By the way, my paren'ts absolutely loved him. He made himself sound like the perfect guy.

So, a few weeks go by and I get my plane ticket to go fly out and see the school out in Colorado. He picks me up at the airport and acts all happy to see me, saying stuff like "Oh, babe I am so glad you are here I missed you already". We get to his apartment, which was a pretty long drive and decide to call it a night. The next day he is at work all day, so I cleaned his **** hole of an apartment because I was bored. Man, the filth he was living in was disgusting. Beard hairs all over the bathroom. Soap scum and black **** all over the tub. Crumbs and God knows what else was in the floor and counters of the kitchen. But thanks to the Roacherz Touch, it sparkled and shined. I even scrubbed the damn carpets because it was that gross.

So anyways, a few days go by, and he keeps putting off taking me to the college to go see it. I still won't sleep with him, but he forces me to sleep in his bed with him, when I just wanted to sleep on the couch. All he would do when he came home from work is play WoW and lead his raids. I did have a back up plan when I visited him. My mom's friends sister lived out there. During one of his raids I just left his house. She came and picked me up. God bless her. She took me around to see the school and showed me a good time. My guild leader then had his friend, who his friend came to visit me and was a total dick head to me while he was at work, he had his friend call me frantically all paniced seeing if i was"safe" and blah blah. Whatever I just hung up the phone.

Finally, the day arrived for me to go back home to Michigan. The lady's husband had to goto the airport the same day as me, so she took me extra early. I got to the airport around 2pm, my flight was to leave at 7. So I had a few hours to sit in the airport, how fun. Then the flight got delayed 2 hours. Then they boarded the passengers, we sat on the plane for over an hour, then the flight was cancelled. They said our luggage would be on one of the conveyers below. I wait, wait some more. Everyone gets their bags but me. My bags never came. All of my stuff were in my bags. I wasn't 21 at the time either, so I couldn't rent a hotel, and all of them were" booked" apparently. So, it was like 1am at this time. Nobody was answering the phone. They couldn't get me on another flight for a few days either. I was like , sweet. So, I hitch hiked to the nearest hotel, which I had my grandma use her credit card to rent me a room.

I arrive at the hotel which was like 35 mins away, and the lady said she thought my grandma was with me, and she refused to let me have a room. So, I finally got a hold of one person and they came to get me. I went to the airport the next day thank God and went home. What a nightmare. My bags got lost, but someoen from lost and found brought them to my house eventually. Anyways, I went underground in WoW for awhile. I met some guys from Death and Taxes, and eventually helped level one of their characters in Burning Crusade. I helped level many of their characters actually. I don't know why they really trusted me, but they did. Then the cat came out of the bag that I was a "*****" and this and that, and My picture got posted on some huge thread on their website. It had to be taken down due to the underage photo of me. That was really embarassing let me tell you.

If i could take anything I did back I would. Anyways, I started a brand new WoW account, snagged some gear, but of course some people found out it was me eventually. I cannot stress enough how much I love end game raiding. I transferred to one guild, and they gkicked me in a few days because of my "past history" and they didn't want an E ***** in their guild. I have to say I was pretty hurt. All I did was want to raid and be left alone to be honest. Finally I found a guild who gave me a chance. It is funny because the same guild that kicked me out , had many of these same people in it. They actually apologized to me, or one of them, the main culprit of the bunch did, and I respect him for that. Things were great in this guild. I was in it a whole year, until it broke up. I then joined Forgotten Heros down the road, but they went horde so now it is time for a break.

But to any of you that have any "Teriala" stories, you can tell them, I don't really care. Half of them are probably dramatized to all hell, or not even true at all. I would really like to thank the people that have apologized to me, or looked past the drama. Thank you very much. And I am sorry if I ever did something to hurt anyones feelings, that was not my intentions. My experience in WoW has been one roller coaster that is for sure. As one saying goes, Once a cheater always a cheater, I do not think that is true. Same goes for once a ***** always a *****. Some people can change, but this is the internet so nobody really cares.

Just remember, to you same people that are calling me *****, how I helped some of your guild mates out by paying for their WoW accts some months, by logging on their chars to raid, by farming Twilight Texts til they were coming out of my ears just so you could get your Black Battle Beetle bug mount. Or the countless days I stayed up just to help your main tank of your guild level, and various other characters.

I really am not that bad of a person, but I guess I am just a fat ***** who should go kill herself. And **** proof reading who needs it.

All I can say is , if you are a woman and you play online games, be careful. Don't give pictures out, hell dont even talk at all. Or if you do, make sure you have a boyfriend or a husband!

Blizzard 3.3 Patch Changes (New & Reverted), GOM TV "The Named : Season 3" Underway, #1 in 3s with Wiz-Cleave / ESL North American Tournament Starting Soon! Yiska Interviews Me!

no.spam@gameriot.com (FHazael) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:50:47 -0400
A new round of 3.3 Patch Notes have been released... on MMO-Champion, with some of the most notable changes already having (as many people predicted) been reverted, and some other very questionable things being added.

so if you're interested head on over and check it out in its two parts - HERE and HERE. It was a lot of fun doing it, so thanks again Yiska for taking the time!

Anyway, that's it for this week. Until next time....

World of Hordecraft, Rogue/Lock/Druid Strategy Guide Part 1

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:40:05 -0400
When Forgotten Heroes, one of the best American PVE guilds faction changed to horde side, it triggered a mass exodus of alliance players going horde. On a medium sized server with not a lot of talents to begin with, the hokage had to faction change himself. It is quite refreshing to play the game on the other side, and Estel actually thought the male Undead model, as cookie cutter as it may be for a rogue hero, is the best looking model in the game.

And I have to agree. After playing my Undead character for a hour, I can see why the biggest PVP movie stars, Laintime, Vurtne, and of course, 90% of the rogue heroes from Stuck of classic to Neilyo of TBC to Reckful of WOTLK, have been Undead. Will of the Forsaken is the best racial in the game by a long shot. I am still new to it and sometimes don't pop it fast enough or worse, use the PVP trinket when I get feared. But even more importantly, if the male Night Elf model screams "scrub", the male Undead model is loaded with style. From stealth movement to vanish animation to mutilate attacks, you simply look better on camera when you play Undead.

Blizzard seriously needs to provide some strong incentives for people to play alliance and stay alliance. I personally don't really care for racial advantages all that much, as I feel we can do well without it. However, no one want to be on a dead server and that is exactly what alliance side felt like on my server. As horde you get much higher quality PUGs, whether it is TOC25 or Warsong, and you feel like you are on the winning side at all times.

After they milk the hell out of the $30 faction changes, can we please nerf Will of the Forsaken, buff Alliance racials so we can get some degree of faction balance? Faction imbalance is a serious problem if Blizzard wants to push the alliance vs horde concept in Cataclysm. I really hope they can make the necessary adjustments even if it means I just wasted $30.

Will of the Forsaken: -15% fear/sleep duration, the counterpart to Orc hardiness. That will do the trick. Although given Blizzard's decision to make all racials powerful in Cataclysm, this probably won't happen. Balanced factions is key to WOW's long term health, Blizzard needs to buff alliance right now before long term damage is dealt.

As RLD against any heavy armor cleave, your rogue should swap to a 1.4 dagger for deadly/envenom's. TSG's strength vs RLD is their ability to dish out a ton of DPS pressure, force the druid into pure healing mode, and lose.

If your rogue can get a sap on their DK, go for a paladin train and blind/cyclone warrior. Blow all of your cooldowns to force bubble and you have a big advantage rest of the game. However against a good team, the DK won't get sapped easily.

Watch for their paladin's position. Some tend to be aggressive and is out in the front, in that case open on paladin and blind warrior right away to force trinket. Once warrior trinkets you can either go for a swap on the warrior or continue on the paladin to force a bubble.

Save both disarms for the warrior and use it when mortal strike is about to fall off which really helps your team to get topped off. TSG will try to go for lock kills or druid kills in this fight, watch out for fel hunter switches after lock teleports. If you lose one fel hunter bring out the void for the second pet.

Against top teams you pretty much have to go for warrior kills after blinding him early to force trinket. Fear/cyclone on the DK to keep him at bay. Going for cyclones on the paladin is VERY dangerous against intercept/death grip, but if you managed to entangle one of the two cleaves you can go for it.

Pre-hotting is KEY. Warrior/DK with two 258 weapons can drop a druid in a single death grip. If the DK already used death grip it is your chance to play offensively, because without it they can not swap to you as effectively. If you read their swap attempt correctly, your chance of winning goes up dramatically.

It is a battle of cooldowns. Once TSG coughs up shield wall/bubble/anti-magic zone, deadly/envenom with full DOTs should do the trick.

To be continued . . .

Sup Fresh, It's Jenna's Turn

no.spam@gameriot.com (Bodi) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:38:20 -0400
In a previous entry I wrote about how there were very few women who PvP on the high end of world of Warcraft. After extensive research, I've found that this particular opinion of mine his remains true. With the exception of a couple of guys who PvP with their girlfriends, of course. So Ming had this idea that I interview (hopefully attractive) women who are involved in the PvP scene directly or indirectly to show a different perspective than what we're used to. I've gotten quite a few candidates from my inquiry asking for interviews and such and I believe it'll be an interesting series.

Meet Jenna.

21 years old. Reckful's girlfriend. The Queen of Sup Fresh. She's living proof of the maxim of being a great woman behind a great man.

I had the opportunity to speak with her this past week about her views on PvP, life and getting free stuff from Complexity. She gives some interesting insight into the mind of the rogue hero as well.

Download the file here. (Right-Click -> Save Target/Link As)

Stay tuned! Ming's wife, Estel agreed to an interview so that will be coming soon!

RMP Mirrors: A Mage's Role

no.spam@gameriot.com (Pookz) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:37:07 -0400

RMP Mirrors: A Mage's Role

An RMP mirror can be one of the hardest match ups for a Mage because of the intricate plays we must pull off to secure a win. The Mage in an RMP mirror sets the pace for the game with the control that we can have onto the other team. This is why people find the mage vs mage in an RMP mirror so interesting because of the high level of skill involved. With so many choices it's easy to not be 100% sure of what you should do in the mirror match. What should I counterspell?, Who do I sheep?, Who's my focus? Deepfreeze offensively or defensively? ¿

Let's first start off with the basics: gear and spec.

Speccing The Part

Your spec for fighting an RMP mirror is a little bit easier to come up with now that Permafrost has a little mortal strike effect to it. Because of this MS effect both cone of cold and crippling poison can potentially be on the same target with full snare talents (permafrost and chilled to the bone making cone a 70% snare). Before, if one had full snare talents cone of cold would override crippling poison which is extremely unwanted since the enemy priest can simply dispel cone and the target is no longer snared.

So now that you don't have to drop a talent in permafrost to worry about overriding crip, your spec should look a bit like this:

http://us.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Major+League+Gaming&n=Zkoopookz&group=1

Frost warding is nice in case the RMP swaps to you and you want to negate some frost or fire damage, or it's good if mirror images are casting on you and you want to get some mana from it. But the main reason I pick up frost warding is because of those dreaded priest mage 2v2s that RMP can come down to.

I do not get Cold as Ice simply because most RMP teams do not train mages long enough for the Ice Barrier cooldown to be a huge factor in the game.

Points in improved cone of cold may be swapped out into piercing ice depending on a your play style, I personally have always loved improved cone of cold.

Glyph To Win

My choice of glyphs when fighting RMP are both Glyph of Evocation, and Glyph of Polymorph 100% of the time. I then either choose Glyph of Iceblock, Glyph of Icebarrier, or Glyph of Mana Gem. For live servers I recommend picking up Glyph of Icebarrier since you don't just fight RMP.

At Blizzcon and MLG Dallas I used glyph of Iceblock (got the idea from Orangemarma) and it really allowed for some crazy plays. With this glyph every time you Iceblock it resets your Frost Nova cooldown so you can do dirty things like Frost Nova > Tap Ice Block > Frost Nova > Coldsnap > Frost Nova for three instant novas.

Gear is Key

Against RMP you want to have 120 spell penetration to negate Magic Absorbtion and Mage Armor, 8% hit and stacked haste. The 8% hit is to cover for

The Conspiracy Behind MLG Anaheim 8th Pick? Remaking Myself, Zilea Part 4

no.spam@gameriot.com (Zilea) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:40:53 -0400

Part 4 is a little different this week for a few reasons. This is kind of an experimental week in regards to the fact that I was playing double healer and I am not sure what the response will be by the readers. The only reason I even put clips of that composition in here is because I've been playing it on live and it has been going very well so far.

Filefront link located here.

So, with that being said, do you guys want to see more pally/priest/warrior in part 5 next week?

Unmercey 8: BG9 Edition? How You Can Make Fairy Tales Come True

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:20:46 -0400
As most people know, Unmercey produced and dedicated "Unmercey 7: Hana" to the love of his life before his departure to China. Shortly after, he joined a group of high profile Chinese players include Gforce himself to produce Curse 3: WOTLK Rogue Dueling Guide on the Taiwanese server.

What fewer people know is that Curse 3's success in America (Nearly 300,000 downloads on WCM) ignited Unmercey's fire to re-establish himself as the premier Chinese rogue hero in business. He is now BACK on American WoW, and playing on Blackrock under the name "Hanasama". He is now recording footages for "Unmercey 8" as we speak!

According to BG9 scouts, he's got a handful of duels against rogues like Akrioss. His video may be featuring some RMP, and that he'll be playing RMP with a 6 season glad priest and a mysterious mage named "Perplexqt" (Brutal Gladiator Perplexityy?). Needless to say rogue vs rogue duels are extremely overdone and RMP footages are hardly ground breaking either. It will take a miracle for his video to generate the interest of Curse 3. Sounds like Magic Johnson's 1995-1996 comeback season with the Lakers?

I always believe it is better to try and fail, than not trying at all. Broken heart teaches you to appreciate what you have later in life, it is something everyone must experience. Give it your best shot so you won't have to ask yourself what would have happened if you did try. You never know.

Backstreet Boys - All I Have To Give
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Scourge Strike Nerf Not So Bad, How Aion Stacks Up To WoW Currently

no.spam@gameriot.com (Serennia) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:03:23 -0400

It's really no secret that I've taken a hiatus from WoW to level up in Aion. It's been pretty fun and addicting thus far, if not for any reason other than being a new game, but like any other MMORPG to ever hit the market in the future, it is and always will be compared to WoW because of the benchmark that Blizzard has established for all new games. So how does it stack up? Let's compare.

Leveling - This is the deal-breaker for a lot of gamers. Leveling in Aion can either be seen as extremely brutal or very rewarding. Level 1-40 is pretty time-intensive and will even make most hardcore WoW players a little tired from the grind, but when you hit the 40-50 range, it gets pretty ridiculous. The exponentially increasing XP requirement to level gets absurd and I kid you not when I say that each individual level at 40+ in Aion takes around the same time as it takes to get 70-80 in WoW in total. To make matters worse, quest experience is very minimal proportionally to how much XP is needed to level, thus forcing players into mandatory grinding, which many players simply cannot stomach. I just hit 47 tonight myself and although it seems that I'm close to the finish line, I still know that there's so much more left to be done.

PvP - PvP in Aion is a double-edged blade right now. Roaming/world PvP is definitely a blast, especially when "rifting" into the enemy realm, but also has very unattractive aspects such as ridiculously powerful guards and the rarity of rift spawns. Fortress sieges are the same way: incredible events to attend typically where you have over 200 members of each faction battling it out for the fortress, not even considering the 3rd NPC Balaur faction that exists to kill both factions indiscriminently. However, the biggest drawback I can see right now to siege warfare is how absolutely mindless it is to siege a balaur-controlled fort. In Aion, there are these things called "Kisks" which allow a player to rez there. Well, you can also buy mobile Kisks and place them very near the fort so that when a person dies, they rez very nearby and you effectively just rez zerg the deity general (fortress boss) for hours literally until it dies. It's quite stupid and I really hope to be adressed.

UI/Graphics - NCSoft is committed to keeping Aion mod-free and I actually like this approach. I think that mods make WoW even easier than it already is for many players to play and in some cases provide unnecessary advantages to other players running certain mods. With everyone basically forced into running the default UI in Aion, everyone is on relatively the same playing field. That's not to say that the UI is bad at all, because it isn't. It's actually remarkable intuitive, customizable, and good-looking all at the same time. The graphics are also as good as you can expect from a new-age product. They simply make WoW's graphics look like something from the SNES and although you can say that it's because WoW was released so long ago, Blizzard has had several expansions to update the engine so they're not entirely free of blame for this.

Without going into too much more detail since this is a WoW portal/blog, after all, my point basically is that Aion is incredibly fun so far, if you're the right player with the stomach to do an enormous amount of necessary grinding. If not, stick to your dailies and keep enjoying WoW... at least until NCsoft buffs quest experience gains.

EWhorism at its best(TITS OR GTFO included)

no.spam@gameriot.com (Verdak) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:16:12 -0400

Apology in advance, my blog will not really be about PVPing. I suck at pvping. It is mostly a personal WoW journey that I have taken( lots of drama included, and some tits too, along with a short dick as well). I look forward to reading your negative and positive comments. I encourage and expect many tits or gtfo comments too!

The first really great game I remember playing, is Final Fantasy II on the SNES. That is the one with Cecil and Rosa in it. I was only about five years old, when my parents drove about 45 minutes away just to pick up the game, since other stores were not in stock or didn’t have it yet. I really was attached to the character Rydia, since she was also a young girl, yet very independent. I had played many console games until we got our first computer, which was a Gateway 2000, a beast of its time. I had just beaten Final Fantasy VII before we got the computer, and it was a very emotional game for me.

I quickly got addicted to the internet. I mean, I had never been one of the real popular kids in school, so chatting online with people was really fun. I started to become really attached to some people on the internet, and I remember running up a $5000 phone bill one month. Let’s just say my father was royally pissed, but got the phone company to greatly reduced that number.

It was December of 1998…the 8^th of the month I believe, when my life took a dramatic change. I was pulled out of class and my best friends mom took me and her to my house. I saw a lot of cars at my house, and I didn’t know what was going on. My mom opened the door and she was in tears, and so was the rest of my family. All I remember saying was “ did dad die or something”. And that is what it was. I was 14 at the time. I remember talking to some friends online and they told me to get a game called Ultima Online. I had asked my mom and dad way before Christmas if I could have this game.

It was a very sad Christmas day. Presents that had been wrapped for my father were still under the tree. I remember opening of the boxes, and behold, it was Ultima Online. I quickly rushed upstairs and started playing the game. Jaded, the Tamer mage, is who I would become for the next year or so. I remember meeting a couple in game , Krystopher (Chris) and Red (Angelica). I kind of looked up to them as my internet parents, someone to talk to. They had drama of their own. Apparently they liked each other online, but Krys was married and it was causing marital issues. Pretty soon they both stopped logging on and I lost touch. I still do think about Angel sometimes. She offered so much good advice and kind words during my time of grief.

I then met someone named Raff in game (Josh). We became little internet lovers (haha). I was like 15 at the time, so it was only a little e-crush type thing. Then one day he just disappeared. I was like sweet, another one bites the dust. But I eventually stalked him down on facebook, and we email from time to time as friends! Anyways, soon after my dad died, my mother had met another man. I was not really fond of him at first. He was a very strict Baptist Christian man, and didn’t like any of the stuff I was into or all about. I liked listening to heavy metal and rock music, which he thought was the Devil’s music. I am sure a lot of you can relate to you thinking video games are all evil. He also thought every game I was playing was demonic and evil, and told my mom I needed to get off the computer.

I agree, I needed to get off the computer. I was sitting there 20 hours of the day, sometimes not even sleeping for days at a time. I would camp houses that were about to fall to get the items, and I was always just doing something. I felt like when they took away my computer, my whole world was caving in. I would run away, skip school, and I experimented with drugs, not a lot though. I only smoked weed a few times, and I tried acid once. That was enough for me since I had a “bad trip”. My parents had had enough of me.

They had apparently been doing a lot of research and found a Christian Youth Home in Montana to send me to. I had no choice; I was cornered and had to get on that plane. And hell, I wouldn’t want to be alone in the woods of Montana, there are bears, mountain lions and various other creatures of nature not to be meddled with! I mean if you want to go in the woods of Montana ALONE, with no can of "Bear Spray" or anything, be my guest

My parents signed me up to a one year program at this place. It wasn’t like a facility, it was actually a lovely log cabin home on the side of a mountain, very close to Glacier National Park. I hated it at first, and I played the “good kid” card for awhile. But then I learned so much about myself, and the world around me, that I really did change. I got to experience so many wonderful things there, white water rafting, taming some wild mustang horses, fixing motorcycles and dirt bike racing. So I really am thankful to my mom and step dad for sending me there.

This place also thought that video games were evil. But, gaming is something that I am passionate about, and I didn’t care what they thought. I would buy EGM and Playstation magazines while I lived at this place, just to keep up with the current times. My year was up and it was time to go home. I remember one of the first things I did when I got home was to see if all my games were still there, and of course they weren’t. My step dad probably threw them away, or someone stole them while I was gone. I was pretty sad, but I started reforming my collection.

My step dad was also a lot more lenient, and allowed me to play whatever I wanted to. I also met my first boyfriend IN REAL LIFE when I got home. He was a gamer too, so we got along great. Sadly not great enough, and we broke up when I moved to Florida for college…..and that is where I will leave off for now, and explain some other games I tried before WoW, and some famous gamers that I had the privilege of meeting while going to college! I am sorry that my first blog wasn’t about WoW, but I promise you I have some JUICY DRAMA for you guys!

Some other things that will be in future blogs is a continuation with this story, interviews with other hot female gamers that i know(pics included with huge boobies). And I honestly don't really care if some old pics of me re-surface or whatever , they are most likely of when i was like 15 years old and acting retarded, heres a recent pic of me , and theres some full body ones w/e and some of me and my horse in my profile i think~ im going back to bed now haha.

Serennia Has A Girlfriend? Sex, Politics and World of Warcraft, Snoop Pearson Buys A Nailgun

no.spam@gameriot.com (Bodi) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:05:52 -0400

This woman reminds me of a really ghetto ass gangsta girl I had a crush on in 6th grade named Judy Moore. Braids, dressed like a dude, would **** you up in a minute for looking at her wrong. Funny to see how my taste in women have changed with my own self-actualization over the years.

Verdak makes her debut next! it's pretty interesting.

Spotlight: Uckington, Introducing The Next FOTM, The Aion Crumble, Zilea Part 3

no.spam@gameriot.com (Zilea) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:37:51 -0400

To download from filefront, click here.

Part 4 on Tuesday. See you then.

We Are Not Done Yet, Gear Does Matter, Will WOTLK Ever Be Out In China?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:08:04 -0400
First of all a big thank you to all who applied for the writer position! I had a large number of applications and I couldn't respond to every one of them, so a big apology here. In the end I did feel Pookz was the blue chip stock I always wanted to add to the portfolio, and coverage for the popular mage class is very desirable.

I do plan to recruit Yiska in the future if he gives up on his village, but I honestly believe he has what it takes to run his own show and be a worthy competitor to WOM someday. He just needs to get a couple of other active writers for Euro Perspective. I didn't do it solo either, and it took me a very long time to make any real money off WOM. When I look at most recruits I see a solo performer, but Yiska has the potential to run a village. That is why I am passing him up for now, giving him a few more months to grow, if it doesn't work out, he will be my euro blogger at some point. I didn't recruit Zilea when he was very active either, I try to give everyone a chance to grow.

If you look at the current WOM roster, it is now very well diversified. Respect, admiration, appreciation, hatred, jealousy, pity, I think we have every emotion covered, save for one. Anna didn't enjoy writing on a weekly basis, and the hostility of WOM was too much for her. That doesn't mean my quest for a permanent weekly female blogger will die. There has to be a reasonably good looking girl who enjoys writing as a hobby and making a little extra dollars on the side. You will definitely see something interesting over the next week or so, we are not done yet.

It is rare for mainstream financial media like Forbes (I read this on my blackberry everyday) to report World of Warcraft stories, but it seems like Netease, the Chinese hosting company for WOW is under a ton of selling pressure on NASDAQ with the game stuck in a battle between two Chinese political powers.

China's online gaming market is the fastest growing in the world (and expected to top the U.S. very soon), and it is virtually the only country where owners of online gaming companies can be ranked top 20 in wealth. There are 55 million online gamers in China, more than the population of many European countries. And without unlimited subscriptions, Chinese players end up pay a lot more to play WOW than American/European players. Imagine if you are charged by the hour when your game time is measured in days.

Yes it is a very lucrative market, and it is half of Blizzard's 11 million player base. The future of WOW, arena tournaments and WOM itself relies on the existence of CWOW. While the impact won't be felt right away if China shuts down WOW for good, the ripple effect will be devastating.

My speculation is Netease's biggest competitors, Tencent/Shunda have guanxi (connections) in the government to protect their interests. That will be a very difficult puzzle to solve. I am a big fan of Netease's CEO, he was the richest man in China at one point and lived a very low profile life compared to his peers. I really hope he can lead his company to victory.

Pookz Day, In Our Shoes, MLG Wildcard Team OUT?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Pookz) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:28:52 -0400

Yeah, I spoke too soon in that last little paragraph since it seems as if the results of the entire wildcard tournament have been foiled. At the moment it seems that “For the Alliance” has forfeited their spot at MLG Anaheim due to "Avalon" the paladin on their team not being able to fly out to the event. This is obviously a huge disappointment to Complexity who was very generous to offer fully paid hotel and airfare in hopes of getting a solid second team, but also terrible news for the teammates of the player who can not attend.

The RMP team Ensidia consisting of Kalimist, Flyn and Hydra is rumored to grab the spot and compete in their second MLG of the year. Should MLG have chosen Snutz, Massive, and Brogo? (the 2^nd place wildcard team) or is Ensidia the right choice? I personally would rather see the new Ensidia lineup than a PHD team since Flyn seems to be at the top of his game right now. But as far as Massive's team goes I feel they worked very hard for the spot. If this goes through we'll be seeing the top two European teams competing at MLG Anaheim.

Thanks for reading, check out Reckful.com for livestreams and recorded videos.

Bye team

MLG Anaheim Lineups, Crazy PTR Changes

no.spam@gameriot.com (FHazael) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:21:36 -0400

- Your Summon Water Elemental now lasts indefinitely, but your Water Elemental can no longer cast Freeze.
Both of these changes could have serious impact on PvP and both seem pretty interesting, but to be honest the Frozen Core change seems a bit over the top, and if it's going to stay in the game it's likely going to be change to a percentage talent. With the current state of it, a lusted Mage with the right gear setup can quite literally get instant Frostbolts. It's pretty over the top when you consider that they could literally just rotate lances and frostbolts all of which would be instant cast for a significant amount of time. If it's changed to a percentage then at least there will still be some cast time and no matter how small it is, it will be better than it being completely instant.

Until next week!

PS.

You will have a new blogger tomorrow night! Pretty exciting stuff eh?

PHD Wins MLG Wildcard Tournament, Flyn vs Another On ESL TV, WOM Looking For A Weekly Writer

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:16:21 -0400
On Sunday, Lower Ping Dot Com's DK/Lock/Druid was sitting at a very favorable position with a 3-0 record. I made the foregone conclusion that they would win it all and got this note from MLG's tournament director right here in the comments section.

Due to Serennia-sama's busy RL schedule, we have decided to reduce him to the Sunday slot for now, which hopefully will give him more time to increase the quality/promptness of his work. This frees up the Wednesday slot.

I have a few folks in mind but I have yet to get any real confirmations. There will be a 1-2 entry trial period, from there you will be paid a fixed amount for each entry plus performance incentives at the end of every month. It is a great way to promote yourself, your team, and make a little extra money while doing something you (hopefully) already enjoy doing.

I am looking for one of the two

1) A female WOW player who is not afraid of abusive behaviors from readers (but there are a lot of kindness out there too!). Yes we have been down that path before, no it is unlikely we will ever find someone who can sustain this spot, but it never hurts to ask.

2) A serious player consistently rated top 20 or better in his BG, playing a class not already covered by WOM (We are looking for mage/priest/hunter/warrior/druid). You should already enjoy forum trolling. You should be willing to promote yourself. Having tournament experience a big plus. Having rank 1 titles a big plus. But ultimately it is still about writing interesting blogs week after week so being an interesting personality helps. WOM is not about professional reporters that read like the New York Times, we are the Fox News.

Please send me a PM if you are interested. You can start in 24-48 hours depend on our rotation this week. I will be making a very quick decision.