Category: Warcraft

Magic Mondays

Posted on by Gazimoff

Dalaran City concept art

This is a bit of an idea. You see, I’m notoriously poor at doing two things: keeping lists updated and sharing some of the great stuff I’ve found that’s been created by others. I’m told that routine helps – put together a plan of what you want to do, then do it on a regular basis. Et voilà, the routine becomes clockwork and you solve the problem. Répétez, as my French teacher used to say.

So what’s the plan? The idea is that I’ll make a post on Mondays with a list of all the new mage resources I’ve managed to find and all the cool stuff I’d like to share. No promises that it’ll be every Monday, but if I have something to share then it’ll be here.

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Encounters That Rock!

Posted on by Gazimoff

Earthen Pantheon after their first Lich King 10-man kill

There’s a great shared topic over at BlogAzeroth right now: Naithin asks what causes an encounter to ‘click’ in our minds. When do we reach that point when a boss fight switches from being a difficult challenge to possible, then to trivial? It’s a good question, but I don’t think it’s just down to preparation, planning and persistence. There’s something else besides.

For me it’s the music.

I’m not talking about the melodies playing in the background, serenading us from the moment we’re greeted with the login page to the point we click the Exit button.  I’m talking about the soundtrack that plays in my head.

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Reader Q: From Arcane to Fire

Posted on by Gazimoff

I recently got a reader email asking for some advice with improving their fire spec. I love getting messages like this as it gives me a chance to help someone out and get geeky about my favourite spec at the same time. This particular email was eerily familiar…

We started raiding last evening and had great difficulty controlling the adds. Since then I have been asked to go as fire for the supposedly superior AoE. I’ve spent a little time on the dummies and my DPS is at best unpredictable. I’m guessing this is because I’m not criting enough to proc Hot Streak often enough and therefore having to recast scorch to get the de-buff. Just how much crit do I need and what would be worth reforging?

The first thing is that you’re not alone. I was also struggling with my fire DPS, particularly when compared with Arcane mages. Arcane is great for when you’re learning fights as the simple rotation allows you to focus on positioning and targeting. The great thing is that I found some really simple techniques that allow me to maximise my fire DPS.

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5 Ways to Help The Warcraft Community

Posted on by Gazimoff

Official Warcraft Forums screenshot

I was flicking through the list of recent blue posts when I came across this little gem on the EU forums. Turns out that there’s a lot of thread deletion going on, particularly when a topic gets derailed or descends into anarchy. I can’t say for certain if much useful content is being lost as I don’t tend to get involved on the official forums, but if people are putting in time and effort trying to be helpful then it’s a bad thing to see that effort get wasted.

The great thing is that the official forums aren’t the only place where someone can contribute to the Warcraft community. There are a whole stack of other places where you can help out other players, either by highlighting a new discovery you’ve made or by sharing your thoughts and experience.

If you’re interested in getting involved and helping out other players or just sharing your thoughts and opinions, don’t feel that you’re limited to what the official forums provide. Have a look at this list and see if any of these grab your interest.

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Mages and Patch 4.0.6

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s about a month and a half since Cataclysm was released. In that time we’ve seen a flurry of tweaks, changes and hotfixes to some of the biggest bugs in the game. Not everything can be fixed with a hotfix though, which is why patch 4.0.6 is bringing some pretty serious changes.

Why 4.0.6 though? Blizzard will never admit it, but patch 4.0.4 could not be found anywhere. Patch 4.0.5 was desperately trying to be an expansion in it’s own right, but this method was not allowed. It was last seen on the hills outside Irvine, howling to the other feral patches that never made it and living off stale internets discarded by open wi-fi outlets.

This leaves us with Experiment 4.0.6, a patch designed to bring union and harmony to the classes, restoring balance throughout the playerbase. Or something.
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Warcraft Versus the Traditional MMO

Posted on by Gazimoff

Box art for the original World of Warcraft

I promise I’ll get back to talking about mages soon. I’ve been doing some research on the latest PTR patch which I think will make interesting reading, but that can wait a few more days. Today I’d like to ask you a question.

Do you play World of Warcraft because it’s an MMO, or because it’s Warcraft?

The reason I ask is because your expectations of the game were probably different depending on what angle you were coming from. If you’re a veteran MMO player you’d probably expected many of the genre conventions to be applied to this game. The game world would then have been moulded and shaped around those genre conventions, effectively making a Warcraft MMO. It would still be fun to play but it would probably have had a much more traditional feel to it.

If on the other hand you’re a veteran of the Warcraft games then you’d probably expected the game world, environment and storyline to come first. You wouldn’t have felt too worried about genre conventions being cast out and disregarded as long as the game had that Warcraft look and feel. It would still have been fun to play with that unmistakable Blizzard polish, but it probably wouldn’t have felt like a traditional MMO.

Why do I make this point? Because sometimes we need reminding that games aren’t designed with our individual tastes in mind.

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A Fashionable MMO?

Posted on by Gazimoff

Let me start off with an admission: I like beer. I know, it’s surprising. I bet you’re all incredibly shocked. That’s not all though: I’ve not always liked the same beer. My tastes have drifted from Budweiser (the American version) back when I didn’t know any better through to the real ales I prefer now.

That’s not to say I always drink the same beer now. I have a staple favourite that changes every so often (currently it’s Leffe Brune), but there’s all manner of other beers and ciders that I like to try occasionally. Sometimes I find something I like, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I grow bored of the taste of one beer and move to something else.

You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Warcraft and MMOs. What I’m trying to say is that Raid Warning is right: MMOs are like beer.

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Justice Points Are Useless

Posted on by Gazimoff

Gearing up for PvE content has always been a struggle, and with the difficulty dial set firmly on Cataclysmic you want to make sure that you have the best gear you have access to before you start raiding. But what does having the best gear actually mean?

  • Running heroics until you’re bored of them just to try to get a stupid item to drop. For mages there’s a big lack of iLevel 346 bracers (there’s two without Spirit, one dropping from an optional boss) and wands (again there’s two without Spirit).
  • Running heroics to grind reputation with factions until you’re guaranteed some nice gear once you hit exalted. (Flamebloom Gloves and Desert Walker Sandals are examples)
  • Running heroics to gather up the cloth and Chaos Orbs in order to tailor some epic items. Don’t expect any nice raiding gear from your profession as it’s pretty much only good for PvP starter sets.

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A Plethora of Podcasts

Posted on by Gazimoff

Whew, it’s shaping up to be a busy week down here at Obscure Towers. Even though our own weekly show is taking a between-season break, I’m back behind the microphone in a couple of different guises.

Last weekend I joined a bunch of excellent people on Episode 10 of Group Quest, the round table podcast hosted by Medros from All Things Azeroth. We had a huge amount of fun taking about Cataclysm, preparing for raiding and the occasional grumble about some of the class changes. Medros also recently launched his own production company named Dawnforge Productions, so join me in wishing him all the best in his new venture!

It doesn’t end there – I’m really excited to be joining Fimlys and Hydra this weekend as their guest on the Twisted Nether Blogcast! You’re welcome to join us all live on Saturday 8th at 8PM PT/ 11PM ET, which works out at 4AM GMT/5AM CET on Sunday 9th. If you can’t make it then don’t worry – you can email questions in beforehand and download the show to listen later.

Before you panic we haven’t forgotten about The Obscurecast. We’re hoping to bring a new season of shows, starting (fingers crossed) at the end of January. Till then please keep feeding us your ideas and wishes for the new season. Everything from the length of the show to segment ideas is up for debate.

Phew! Couple this with being the first week back at work and it’s all a little manic. Still, manic is good!

Mage Stat Priority in 4.0

Posted on by Gazimoff

For many of us, January marks the beginning of Cataclysm raiding. It’s time to start getting those gear upgrades from heroic dungeons, digging out those gems and finishing everything off with a nice coat of enchants. This can be fairly expensive, so it’s worth doing properly rather than wasting money on mistakes.

I’m hearing that the minimum DPS you want to be doing is around 10k sustained while raidbuffed. This isn’t just the burn phase either – you need to be able to provide decent damage output during your recover phase as well. But how do you make sure that the gear you pick is good for you? As an example, there are four cloth headpieces available at iLevel 346, all with the same base stats. Which would be the best for your spec?

I’ve put together a handy list for all three mage specs to give you an idea of what gear to look for and what gems and enchants to pick out. This mage stat priority list should help you focus on what’s important while letting you comfortably shard what’s not essential.

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