Month: October 2010

The Back Seat Guild Leader

Posted on by Gazimoff

Ever get the feeling that you’re standing at a crossroads, looking down at the various prongs of a Morton’s Fork? It’s a position that an increasing number of players are finding themselves in during the run up to Cataclysm, and I don’t think I’m an exception to that. And like many people, my thoughts at the moment run to guilds, friends and forward planning.

Like all decisions of this ilk, it’s long and complicated and involved. So rather than doing my usual stint of dispensing advice, I’ve decided to post this to solicit some instead. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this conundrum – maybe you can help me work out how to tackle it or have experiences of your own that can help.

Anyhow, pull up a chair. This may take some time…

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Ratings and Mage 4.0

Posted on by Gazimoff

Back in Wrath, mages were driven by a small number of key stats. Spellpower and Haste Rating were key, with Crit Rating coming a distant third for all specs except Fire. Bringing up the rear were Spirit and Intellect, with the former being useful for Molten Armor and the latter supporting a larger mana pool.

Flip over to 4.0 and the landscape of useful stats has changed. Spellpower and Spirit are largely eliminated, while Mastery has crept in as an elusive new stat. Intellect and Stamina are still present, but they work in new ways and provide new benefits. All this presents a new challenge to players looking to maximise the potential of their gear.

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Where Did The Obscurecast Go?

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s been a quiet week on the pages of Mana Obscura. There’s normally an update here at least twice a week, but the last post was nearly ten days ago. Ten days. That’s over a week, in case you’re counting.

So what’s been happening to keep me away from blogging for the last ten days? Well, a number of projects have been in the works which have been eating up my time. The first (and possibly the biggest) one is that The Obscurecast has moved to a new home. Feel free to check it out at it’s new location, subscribe to the feed and share your thoughts. All the original episodes will still be on both sites to preserve links, but all new episodes will only be on the new site. If you haven’t checked it out, there’s two more waiting for you to download!

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The Mage 4.0 Compendium

Posted on by Gazimoff

The game of Warcraft is changing. In the next few weeks the first of a series of patches will be pushed to the live severs. The first of these patches (4.0.1) will bring with it the core changes to all classes, as well as various UI and interface changes.

This guide to the key mage changes is intended to smooth your way into 4.0 and beyond, including making your first steps into Cataclysm. It should also help you with being able to raid during the two months before the expansion is released.

There are however a couple of key things that aren’t covered as part of this guide.

  • This isn’t designed for minmaxers. There’s not been a huge amount of numerical analysis so far on optimal builds and glyphs. As these optimisations come out I’ll ensure the guide is updated.
  • I haven’t included looking at the new racial abilities. I’m not convinced that they’ve been finalised, but I’m not expecting people to swap racials until 85 raiding kicks off.
  • I’m also not covering rotation changes. For the most part things are still the same, although Frost has gone through more significant alterations. Arcane and Fire mages used to Missile Barrage/Hot Streak procs should find things largely unchanged
  • Although there may be some usefulness for PvP mages here, I’m going to focus on PvE for most of this guide.

We’re all learning a lot as we work through the class changes, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try out radical ideas. Share any interesting findings you get with other mages by posting about it on the Mage forums.

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A Socially Aware Warcraft?

Posted on by Gazimoff

When I think of MMOs, I generally think of games that are rick in social interaction. Alongside the gigantic world and the rich environments are dedicated tools specifically designed to help players interact with each other.

But although Warcraft has developed socially with the inclusion of Real ID and Facebook integration, it’s mainly designed to connect networks together. And while the new Guild Management interfaces provide even greater control, they only enhance the existing social experiences. The in-game Calendar has helped, but only as far as co-ordinating events.

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Authenticators: Busting the Myths

Posted on by Gazimoff

There’s been a lot of talk about the Blizzard Authenticator recently. Some people are firm advocates who feel they are a magic bullet for account security. Others believe they’re a waste of money or a pointless inconvenience. Still more think that an Authenticator is only for those people who don’t practice safe computer hygiene.

All of these opinions are wrong and I’m going to explain why.

A Small Exercise

I want to start off by asking you to think about your Warcraft account. Go in-game on your main and type /played, then make a note of how many hours you’ve clocked up. Do the same for any of your major alts. Multiply this by the hourly rate that you’d normally be paid, or expect to be paid if you were working.  You could have spent that time earning money, or learning a new skill. Instead, you and I choose to spend our precious spare time in-game. That time is worth something.

Next, have a look at your subscription. Work our how many months of subscription you’ve paid and how much you forked out for the game and its expansions. Again, this is probably a fairly big number.

So we have a figure for how much you’ve spent on the game, and a rough idea of the value of the time you’ve spent playing. Now you could add them together and come up with a number for the total value of your Warcraft account, based on the time and money you’ve poured into it. I’m not going to ask you to do that. Just keep the figures in mind.

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