Odds and Ends: December 30th 2014

WoW Stuff: We have been running Highmaul via LFR and it is, needless to say, even easier than LFG heroics. TLDR Strat for all bosses: Don’t stand in things. People however, actually died during some of the fights in the second wing so maybe the instance will get harder? Gearing for raids feels oddly trivial given that I can churn out iLevel 645+ epics without leaving my garrison via the high level garrison missions and blacksmithing epics.

In regards to the Steam Sale/whatever digital distribution network sale, the one and only game that I have purchased for myself so far is Prison Architect. I am pretty tempted to reward myself with either Shadows of Mordor or Dragon Age: Inquisition, especially since both are on sale at the moment at a similar price. But you know what? The older I get the less I care about playing anything at release unless it is a title that I am really looking forward to playing or have some sort of social agenda. So that said, I guess I’ll wait. Plus, we have Mario Kart 8 and Smash Brothers to occupy our time.

We finished two shows recently: The Legend of Korra and Sword Art Online II. We will probably discuss these whenever holiday social activities die down and we get around to doing the next podcast episode.

  • LoK: As stated multiple times before, was an absolute pleasure to watch. Great animation, pleased with overall character development, and satisfied with the plot resolution. Also, without spoiling the ending, we totally called the relationship thing last season.
  • SAO II: We still enjoyed watching this show even though our interest in it severely waned most of the way through the first story arc. I still feel that it lacks cohesion, among well, other things but I like the characters and it was fun to watch, particularly for an MMO gamer. I liked the last story arc and the fact that it ended on a good, non rapey note for once. I could have done without the Akihiko thing at the end but I guess that means we are likely going to get a season 3?
  • Interstellar: Fantastic movie, enjoyed it greatly. Probably one of the most original sci-fi movies that I have seen in recent memory. If it is still in the theater, I highly recommend seeing it.

I kind of want to do a Best Of 2014 gaming post, but I don’t think that I played enough new titles this year to warrant said post. 2014 does however, mark the year in which I have almost exclusively relied on YouTube, Twitch Streaming, Podcast and Social Media personalities for game opinions (in addition to friend recommendation and normal Reddit reading) versus reading Kotaku or any major publication .

Merry Christmas 2014

Whoever you are and whatever you celebrate, I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and an excellent holiday season. May your days be filled with good, family, and friends.

The Untamed Blade [WoW]

I was going to make this a Throwback Thursday WoW post, as a part of my campaign to update this site more, but I forgot. I finally got around to cleaning up my paladin’s bank and adding the remaining legacy gear into void storage. Items that I regret disenchanting/selling: My tier-2 armor set and The Untamed Blade. I would love to have that sword in my transmog list, but it was either sold or disenechanted along with all of my tier-2 at the beginning of The Burning Crusade for the sake of making bank space (not too keen on wasting time farming it).

So when my guild first started doing Blackwing Lair, we had a fairly long string of bad loot drops off of Razorgore. He would drop warlock loot nearly every single kill and then for literally 2 or 3 weeks straight, he dropped nothing but the Nemesis Bracers. Great for all 3 or 4 warlocks in the raid, but that sucked for everyone else. The excess warlock gear drops started happening when we were doing Vaelastrasz as well as Chromaggus if I recall correctly. All of the warlocks got their shoulder pieces at least 2 times over whereas very few other classes did by virtue of our crap-ass RNG luck. That string of bad drops gave birth to about a year or so of odd loot conspiracies and instance loot seeding rituals.

It was confirmed by Drysc about 6 years ago that loot was generated as soon as the mobs spawn. We had a theory that it was seeded by whoever created the raid ID. So every raid, we would rotate who would “seed” the loot table. Apparently if I recall correctly, a time stamp is or at least was used to seed the loot generator and not the raid leader, the first person who sets foot into the instance, or anything like that. So we were pretty off in that respect.

Anyway, I really really wanted The Untamed Blade so when that actually dropped, I bid a fairly significant portion of my DKP to grab it. I don’t even remember why I wanted it so badly given that I didn’t PvP all that often and Retribution wasn’t a viable raid spec back in vanilla. The funny thing though is that after finally getting the sword and blowing most of my DKP, it continued to drop off of Razorgore every single week for at least a month straight. You know, I distinctly remember thinking that I would most likely regret my actions at some point in the future but alas, I had literally no space left in my bank at the time.

Keiya’s Logitech G13 WoW Setup

I have been using the Logitech G13 for roughly 4 years or so and considering it an invaluable WoW tool for my paladin. I have about a thousand keys to bind and the problem is that since I don’t have gigantic hands, I can only comfortable reach numbers 1 through 5 without having to move my left hand to the other side of the keyboard. The Logitech G13 allows me to literally access every single spell, ability, and interface option in the game while being able to move at the same time. This is the way that I have it setup:

Movement
Forward, back, strafe left, and strafe right around bound to the thumbstick on the G13. I hold down the right mouse button to look and have jump/autorun bound to the side buttons on my gaming mouse.

Action Bars
All spells and abilities in game (for the most part) are bound to buttons 1 through =. Different action bar sets can be accessed through the CTRL and SHIFT button modifiers. Generally, I have spells broken up into two rows. The bottom row 1 through 6 and the top row 7 through =.

On the board, the top row (7 through =) is bound to G2 through G7 and the bottom row (1 through 6) is bound to G9 through G14. Since I don’t have giant-ass hands, my most used spells are located in the dead middle of the board where my fingers rest by default: G10, G11, G12. Button modifiers (CTRL and SHIFT) are located on the bottom left, roughly where they would be on a normal keyboard so that my pinky can easily access them.
actionbar

M-States
One of the main advantages of the G13 is the sheer amount of stuff that you can bind to it. There are 3 buttons just below the LCD screen: M1, M2, and M3. Pressing these keys will shift the G13 into a different state allowing you to bind different items to the keys. So for example, to access a key on the M2 state from M1, you would need to press M2, press the key in question, then press M1 to shift back to the state you were in. That takes way too long.

I have a custom script setup on the G13 that you will me to momentary shift into the M2 and M3 states while the buttons next to the thumbstick are held down. So instead of having to repeatedly press M1, M2, and M3, they function similar to SHIFT and CTRL which is a lot more useful for WoW. M2 is activated by the button to the left of the thumbstick and turns the LCD red. M3 is activated by the button below the thumbstick and turns the LCD blue.

M1 (Default): Button modifiers, action bar, vent push-to-talk, screenshot, etc.
m1

M2 (Red state): The escape key, F1 through F5, and non-combat UI menus such as the guild social screen, spellbook, map, bags, rep, etcetera
m2

M3 (Blue State): Mostly the party target icons for marking things and whatever else couldn’t be fit in to M2. The ‘Aura’ buttons are a holdover from several expansion packs ago.
m3

Script for the M2 and M3 States
function OnEvent(event, arg, family)
if ( family == "lhc" ) then
if ( event == "G_PRESSED" ) then
if ( arg == 23 ) then
SetMKeyState(2, family);
end
if ( arg == 24 ) then
SetMKeyState(3, family);
end
elseif ( event == "G_RELEASED" ) then
if ( arg == 23 ) then
SetMKeyState(1, family);
end
if ( arg == 24 ) then
SetMKeyState(1, family);
end
end
end
end

An XML file containing my WoW G13 file can be downloaded below (while viewing the full post). To import it, open the Logitech Gaming Software and hit the import/export button below the profile search bar. Word of warning. This only really works with my WoW keybindings, which aren’t necessarily default.

Download

The WoW Garrison Mission Reward Rule of Probability

rnghatesme

The Garrison Mission Reward Rule of Probability: The actual probability of obtaining a reward that you really want sharply decreases as the limit of displayed success percentage approaches 100. So if say, the game says that you have a 92% change of obtaining an epic trinket. The actual chance of success is probably closer to LOLNOPE at best. This rule is particularly true for epic rewards of iLevel 645 or higher.

*Sigh* I was really looking forward to that trinket. Oh, out of 14 missions completed, zero salvage crates were received.

Keiya’s Level 3 Garrison Build

This would be how my garrison is currently built. If it matters, I am currently level 100 and fairly casual. Still working on obtaining the garrison resources and achievements to upgrade everything to level 3.

Barracks (Large): I dropped the Dwarven Bunker in favor of picking up the Barracks once again. The plethora of easy missions in combination with the Level 3 Salvage yard yields a LOT of salvage and follower upgrades; Way more than the Dwarven Bunker ever did. Plus, Level 2 Barracks = can assign a bodyguard to follow you around, and Level 3 barracks = 5 more followers.

Stables (Large): Not having to dismount while poking at treasures and what not while in zones that aren’t Nagrand is pretty spiffy.  Also: Mounts and easy quests that yield garrison resources.

Lunarfall Inn (Medium): Once a week I can recruit a follower with an ability or trait of my choosing. Super awesome for grabbing followers with rare traits such as Epic Mount and Scavenger. Also, a source of dungeon daily quests; Some of which have pretty nifty rewards: Aviana’s Feather, Everbloom Peachick, Sentinel’s Companion, Ever-Blooming Frond, Oralius’ Whispering Crystal.

Lumber Mill (Medium): At some point I would like to replace the Lumber Mill with something else, probably after obtaining enough resources to upgrade all garrison buildings to level 3. The Barn would be my first replacement choice since at Level 3 it has a chance at allowing you to harvest Savage Blood, which is needed for gear upgrades.

Salvage Yard (Small): The Level 3 Salvage Yard crates pop pretty often and usually yield quite a bit of stuff. Mostly crap greens, but occasionally follower upgrade tokens. If you do not do so already, always check the 3D models on the BoE greens. If they look unique or nice, odds are that they will auction pretty well for people seeking transmog gear. I’ve made several thousand gold just by doing that and selling off extra garrison mats on my phone…

2x Profession buildings (Small): The Blacksmithing building is nice to have around for the sake of having a forge + the follower buff + extra mats. Aside from that, I don’t really feel the need to upgrade either of these to level 3 until the other buildings are done.

The Molten Core Redux

Suffice it to say, now that both my husband and I have our 10th anniversary achievements and core hound mounts, we have no current future plans on ever setting another foot into the Molten Core for the duration of our WoW career. But then again, that’s what we said about 9 to 10 years ago. Pretty smooth second attempt at the achievement (considering that we actually completed the instance instead of having the raid break out dramatically after Lucifron). Also, I didn’t know that the crown was an actual useful item; I figured it was purely for transmog. Nifty.