Tonight I pick up Final Fantasy XIII and get to see what all the hype is all about. I have not played a Final fantasy game since XI so I am interested to see what the game is all about. In other news I am still slamming my head against the Lich King and we had a some hiccups on Sindragosa last night. But nothing we can’t fix tonight and hopefully take down the Lich King.
Also I really like this advertisement. Courtesy of Really Cute Asians.
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Tank Threat
Some replies by Ghostcrawler on Tank Threat.
I am not sure what to think as of yet on some of the comment on the one hand I do agree that tanks could use stronger single target threat and that the reliance on Tricks of the Trade and Misdirect while interesting from a group dynamic strong point make the tank classes as a whole feel incomplete. Again we reach the issue of threat scaling, and I agree it was absolutely perfect in Naxx and solid in Ulduar but after that it seemed to not really keep up. Can we still hold threat, of course we can and I doubt I can lose it once I get going. But the amount by which threat has scald with damage is not consistent with the increase for DPS classes.
Given this is the second time this has happened though not as bad as Burning Crusade, I am not truly confident they will find an adequate solution. But I do have hope they will do their best to enhance the tank classes in the places they need it most. I am not too terribly thrilled about losing more AE threat but I understand why.
Glorious Asian Taddies
How you doing?
Courtesy of Really Cute Asians.
I got nothing else, probably see The Crazies tonight. Should be fun.
Between Mass Effect 2, school, and a general unreliability to keep my site updated I had lapsed on my updates. But thanks to some encouragement from a fellow guild mate I am back to try and remedy that. I don’t have anything particularly moving to say today but I do have much to talk about. I picked up Mass Effect 2 in January, hard to believe it is already March and Final Fantasy XIII is right around the corner.
Speaking of Mass Effect 2, what an awesome second act for the series. I know some people don’t like some of the elements but I found it amazing. Being able to transfer my character into the second game and continue his story was awesome and hooking up with Tali’Zorah vas Normandy was the icing on the cake. from start to finish it is an awesome ride and the combat system is so much tighter and better than the first game I absolutely love it. My main grips is that I wish there was more armor customization, more conversations between and with quad mates, and deeper friendship paths for all the characters. My enthusiasm is high for Mass Effect 3.
I also started up on Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, which I got over Christmas and I am enjoying it. The story is so-so but the actual game mechanics and the tactical combat is very fun. I should beat it here soon. I am getting Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 as well, don;t really know much about the game story wise so it will be interesting to go into it blind. I also started playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with some friends from school. It’s really nice to run a game again after so long and it keeps the creative juices flowing.
As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, I was burnt out for awhile but I am getting back into it and working on the Lich King. Interesting fight, I like it, keeps you moving and thinking and is quite the challenge for my guild. I am interested to see new Cataclysm stuff and I am still debating if I want to race change to a Tauren or not just for the fun of it. I also plan to do some writing over Spring Break and try and put some progress on this crappy novel idea I have.
Also despite what my guild mates think I am not an atheist or a scientologist. But I do love me some Asian women. One final note the soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is awesome.
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Coming in 3.2 is the Crusaders’ Coliseum which promises to bring another tier of raid difficulty and content to the game. Along with that is the inclusion of a new Heroic raid dungeon system which according to Zarhym which include the Hard Modes of the bosses and the tribute system. It seems that according to the official website raiders will have to unlock the Trial of the Grand Crusader by completing the normal version of the raid dungeon on 10 or 25 versions. Once done they can attempt the Trial but only get a certain number of attempts per week to try and clearing the dungeon with the least amount of attempts used will net higher rewards.
Which means we will 10-man and 25-man normal raid dungeons and 10-man and 25-man Heroic dungeons, giving us 4 completely different lockouts for a given week for a single dungeon. This will be interesting and I am not sure how it will play out but hopefully it works. I am intrigued to see how the achievements will work for these encounters and I can almost assume that any mounts will be given for the Heroic mode of the dungeons only but we shall see.
Hopefully more information will be forthcoming once the PTR goes into full swing.
I love achievements on the Xbox 360 and in World of Warcraft; I am not sure why but they drive me to do things that I normally would not care about. Perhaps it’s just another carrot on a stick but it drives me and it resonates with my gamer instincts to continually achieve especially if I enjoy the game. Last night I finally hit level 60 in Mass Effect, over fifty hours of play time and a third partial play through. But I scored 50 extra nerd points.
I have to wonder if I am just addicted or perhaps wired to continually achieve especially in World of Warcraft, although no where near the top I have a respectable amount at 6500… I don’t play often now, just login to raid but with new content coming I will probably get my dailies going again for extra money and tokens.
I love me some nerd points.
I should be studying for a Java programming exam but I have some time to kill to talk about my experiences in Ulduar. I will break the overview up into three parts, each section pertaining to a subzone of the raid instance. This only covers the content I have cleared or experienced and should not be taken as gospel but just a collection of my experiences. Breakdown of Part 1 after the break.
Ulduar progression continues unabated for Taurential Reign, just cleared Auriya and Assembly of Iron in Heroic Mode last night. I maintanked both encounters last night, well on the Assembly I was on Steelbreaker and the interrupt duty on Stormcaller Brundir. Fairly easy encounter tanking wise for a paladin just remember to dispell the Fusion Punch if you are not GCD locked. I tended to save a cooldown just for that reducing my threat but hopefully saving myself with a Cleanse. The other thing to watch out for is to move the boss out of the blue rune/void zone, Rune of Power, so he does not get extra damage output.
The Auriya encounter is all about the pull, the tanking part is relatively simple. The most dificult part is to make sure she is turned in a direction that is advantageous to the raid after the fear. If you are fear warded, resist the fear, or break it quickly then this is not an issue and you hould probably just stand there and have the raid run back. If not just use your judgement and base where you face her on where the majority of the raid is feared to. Move her as needed away from the void zones and push out as much damage as possible.
As far as Noblegarden is concerned I really hate this holiday, it encourages camping and doing unfun things. I do like that alot of the items are able to be bought but the camping part and the static nature of the spawns lends the holiday a no-fun feel. Worse then the Love Fool achievement in my opinion and I hope they rehaul this holiday next year and do soemthing better with it or just make it like it was a one day event with no attachment to the meta-achievement
for the mount.
Easily my least favorite holiday.
Up to four bosses tonight in Ulduar, we didn’t get Ignis this run but we will soon.
New upgrades as well: Dragonslayer’s Brace & Signet of the Earthshaker
Ulduar is awesome 
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This is simply awesome.
