October 2008

Photolog: Arizona

Submitted by Keiya on October 28, 2008

Personal Interest

Unfortunately, I missed most of the zombie invasion event (in WoW that is :P) because I was on vacation for a couple of days in Arizona. I'm really not much of a cam whore, but I did manage to actually take pictures that weren't of food orrandom shit this time. The clear ones are off of my digital camera, the not real clear ones are off of my cellphone, though I'm not sure it makes much of a difference when the pics are shrunk down.

There was a bird in the tree so I snapped a picture of it.

WoW Update: Echoes of Doom

Submitted by Keiya on October 21, 2008

Updates
WoW

Ret gear unbuffedThe image is for future reference and because I forgot to upload a screenshot relevant to this post: Ret gear unbuffed.

I really want to love the exotic pets, but they are all super annoying. Holy frijole and I thought that the crocodile hiss was bad. Please Blizzard, please hotfix the stomping, the roaring, and the constant flaming sound that the MC Core Hounds make when you stand next to them. My hunter Doombeard will most likely just stick with his cat Cheesecake.

The server went to shit over the weekend, the instancing server specifically. The realm as a whole suffered from occasional lag spikes, but I wasn't getting constantly booted off so it wasn't all that bad. It took us around twenty minutes to zone into any raid instance on Friday. Once the raid ID was created, it was fine for the most part.

Saturday on the other hand: We had a full raid for the Black Temple but had to cancel, after humping the raid swirly with several other groups for two hours (Bejewled FTW). There were approximately 30 people total across all of the BC raid instances that event, but a crapton of people in the 5-man dungeons, Scarlet Monastery in particular for the Headless Horseman. Did the seasonal events and achievements break something? Next time: Reserve an instance ahead of time.

So raiding: If you have ever wanted to run any of the higher end 25-man raiding instances, now is the time. Super nerf. On Sunday I joined as a guest on a Mount Hyjal run. One shotted Rage Winterchill and Kaz'Rogal, wiped twice on Antheron; Not sure what happened after, I had to leave raid to sleep (work FTL). I picked up the pink toilet brush, which of course drops after I spec retribution and after it becomes fairly useless...

I did a lot of Halloween questing over the weekend. I finally finished off The Power of Pine quest, which was the last thing that I needed for the title. Recall that the collect 20 flimsy mask achievement is being removed as a title requirement, being nearly impossible to achieve and all. To my understanding, this will happen in patch 3.0.3, which should go live during the event.

Oh hey the honor points aren't going to be reset. Well then, in that case I am saving them for level 80.

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Keiya's UI: Post 3.0 Apocalypse Edition

Submitted by Keiya on October 20, 2008

While idlingDesigned for 1650x1080 widescreen windowed. Ugh it took hours to reconfigure everything to my anal UI needs. I am using WowMatrix to update my mods since WoW Ace Updater has been discontinued (the Curse client is crap). My old interfaceÂ had two button bars, each with 3 rows of 12 buttons (72 total). I downsized it a bit so that there is one button bar with 3 rows of 20 buttons (60 total).

Instead of having FuBar run the entire bottom length of my screen, I shrunk it down to match the width of my buttons. There are actually two FuBars: the other one spans the top and is only visible on mouse over. Any non-essential plugin has been moved up top.

In combat (raid). I clearly do not have enough buffs.The chat log will automatically fade after 30 seconds of no activity. The combat log is tabbed; I used to have it on the right side of my buttons, but since I have SCT setup to display everything that I would need to stare at in combat, there's no use having it permanently visible. Instead, Omen and Recount are located on the far right. Recount is hot-keyed and Omen automatically pops-up in combat.

My raid UI is still messy, but what can you do? I'm not willing to sacrifice visibility for minimalism. I need to move the MT target list somewhere else. I am still missing BigBrother, which hasn't been updated in 3 weeks and Cartographer, which wasn't functioning well the last time I had checked. Here is a full list:

Bar mods

AutoBar: The upper right set of circular buttons are from AutoBar. This mod automatically sorts and displays things like consumables, oils, etc. For example, I have an AutoBar button for food consumables. When I mouse over it, all food items will be displayed. That way, I don't have to place them all on my bars.
Bartender4: Allows you to completely customize your action bars in almost every sense. Location, size, spacing, number of buttons, keybindings, whatever.
ButtonFacade: Using this to replace CyCircled. Allows you to customize the appearance of your action bars. Compatible with Bartender4, AutoBar, and a bunch of other things.
- ButtonFacade_Serenity: The skin I am using for all of the square buttons
- ButtonFacade_simpleSquare: The skin I am using for all of the circular buttons.
eePanels2: Allows you to create background panels to place UI elements on. The transparent gray rectangle under the center button chunk is an eePanel.

Visible functionality mods

FuBar: The black bar on the bottom with my gold, the time, etc.
Quartz: A modular casting bar addon. Allows you to customize the appearance, size, and location of the cast bars.
TipTac: Using this to replace TinyTip. Allows you to customize the tooltips.
X-Perl Unit Frames: My unitframe mod of choice. This is being used for the player, target, party, and raid frames.
ClassTimer: The timers above the player and target nameplates on the raid screenshot are from this mod. ClassTimer tracks all of the buffs that I cast on myself as well as debuffs on my target. It makes it easier to keep track of when I need to recast a seal or rejudge an enemy.
Prat 3.0: Chat log customization.
ScrollingCombatText: I don't like the Blizzard scrolling text so I use SCT.
Recount: Damage, healing and performance meter. I've tried most of them and Recount, in my opinion is the most comprehensive and easy to use. It does though require more resources than most other mods...
Omen: Threat meter.

Hidden

ArkInventory: This is the mod that I use for inventory management, it will automatically sort all of your crap into categories based off of user set preferences. For example, I have a section for healing gear, a section for consumables, and a section for quest items, etc. It also allows for inventory searches. Some people hate it, some like it.
Bejeweled: lol
Clique: Click casting. Example: I have Cleanse bound to my right mouse button and X-Perl set to highlight all dispellable debuffs. That way, all I have to do is right click on the raid and party portraits to cleanse, versus actually targeting them.
Outfitter: Gear profiler.

Raid tools

BigWigs: Boss mod.
Deadly Boss Mods: Boss mod.Â
PallyPower: Paladin buff manager. This mod also allows you to assign buffs to other paladins in the raid who have PallyPower.
oRA2: I'm not happy with the way the main tank targets are being displayed, but since I can't get the oRA2 configuration menu to display, I can't change anything.

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Retribution Gear: 3.0.2 Update

Submitted by Keiya on October 16, 2008

Haircut!This sucks, all of my mods broke. ALL of them (Outfitter and bartender retained their settings luckily). Anyway, since we were all given a free respec on Tuesday, I went 0/5/56 Retribution. That is to my understanding, the standard retribution spec for 3.0.2 give or take 1 or 2 points. I need to enjoy being retribution while it's still imba (all of the talents are balanced to 80, not 70) and before/if it gets nerfed into the ground.

I was doing my dailies on belf island and made a point of ganking every single flagged horde (not in guard range) that caught my eye. Do you know how long it has been since I have been able to flat out gank someone? A shadow priest and a rogue died; they each died in like, 5 seconds flat. I can pretty much kill almost anybody within the time frame of one stun, as well as heal myself for a 4k average non-crit Holy Light. I almost never go OOM to boot. I wonder if that is OP....lol

This is my updated retribution have and need list. None of my shit is gemmed or chanted. I have a shitton of Dawnstones, but zero others. I'm going to be cheap and socket greens for the red and blue slots; Little point in spending hundreds of gold on gems for crap retribution gear at this point in the game. If the socket bonus strength, I went ahead and gemmed for the bonus. Otherwise, I just straight up red gemmed most everything else.

Red Socket: Bold Blood Garnet
Yellow Socket: Rigid Dawnstone
Blue Socket: Sovereign Shadow Draenite

Items That I Have
The green items are pieces that I have equipped in the armory now. The yellow items are pieces that are in the bank. Last night I was being lazy and used the Outfitter gear optimizer for strength to build my gearset (my bank is such a trash hole now, I can't find anything).

Head: Justicar Crown Socket Bonus: +4 Hit Rating
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Meta: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond
Enchant: Glyph of Ferocity (I currently have the spell damage one >_<)
Hands: Justicar Gauntlets
Enchant: Major Strength: Arcane DustÂ (12), Greater Planar Essence
Chest: Netherforce Chestplate Socket Bonus: +4 Strength
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Yellow: Rigid Dawnstone
Gem Slot Blue: Sovereign Shadow Draenite
Enchant: Exceptional Stats: Large Prismatic ShardÂ (4), Arcane DustÂ (4), Greater Planar EssenceÂ (4)
Legs: Vanquisher's Legplates Socket Bonus: +4 Hit Rating
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Blue:Bold Blood Garnet
Enchant: Cobrahide Leg Armor
Feet: Skullshatter Warboots Socket Bonus: +2 Crit
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Blue: Bold Blood Garnet
Enchant: Dexterity: Greater Planar EssenceÂ (8), Arcane DustÂ (8)
Trinket 2: Empty Mug Of Direbrew
Trinket 1: Hourglass of the Unraveller
Wrists: Bracers of Eradication Socket Bonus: +2 Strength
Gem Slot Blue: Sovereign Shadow Draenite
Enchant: Brawn: Arcane DustÂ (6)

Need to Pickup
The orange items I effectively have and just need to swap tokens for (T4 tokens, rep, etc). The red items are pieces that I need to buy with badges. I have 209 badges to spend: 60*3 + 20 = 200. 9 badges leftover.

Shoulders: Justicar Shoulderplates Socket Bonus: +3 Hit Rating
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Yellow: Rigid Dawnstone
Enchant: Greater Inscription of Vengeance
Neck: Shattered Sun Pendant of Might
Ring 2: Violet Signet of the Master Assassin
Enchant: Stats: Void CrystalÂ (2), Large Prismatic ShardÂ (2)
Ring 1:Â Angelista's Revenge (60 badges)
Enchant: Stats: Void CrystalÂ (2), Large Prismatic ShardÂ (2)
Back:Â Dory's Embrace (60 badges)
Enchant: Greater Agility: Greater Planar Essence, Arcane DustÂ (4), Primal Air
Waist: Chain of Unleashed Rage (60 badges) Socket Bonus: +3 Hit Rating
Gem Slot Red: Bold Blood Garnet
Gem Slot Blue: Bold Blood Garnet
Libram: Libram of Divine Judgement (20 badges)

I have my shopping list ready for tonight, lol...

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A is for Apathy

Submitted by Keiya on October 13, 2008

Updates
WoW

It has been a slow couple of weeks in general, gaming wise. There's not really a whole lot to write about until the patch/expansion comes out and the non-WoW games that I am waiting for are released. Speaking of patches, popular rumor is that it's coming out tomorrow (has it been confirmed? I've been too busy to track that).

We Finally got the bear mount out of the fourth chest in Zul'Aman. It's too bad that we don't have any time to farm them for everybody. In fact, tonight is most likely our last chance. Since we are all getting a free respec, I'm thinking that it might be lolret time, hells yeah! Meh, at least until I am needed to respec back into protection again. I am itching to play with my ret set, which still needs to be chanted and gemmed. Details details...

Did I mention exactly how much I am looking forward to having bag space again?