Ask Gauss

So the first Sunday edition of Ask Gauss. First off today is a pretty intense day, got a crazy hockey game in a little over an hour that some of you might know something about. Nothing really to do with WoW besides the trash talking I have had with all my temporary American enemies. Anyways, let's get to what you all came here to read.

What is your thoughts on 10 man ICC for a 25 man raiding guild?

Well this is pretty easy. My guild Three Score is a 25 man raiding guild. I set aside one day of raiding to do 10 mans. I don't do this for gear or badges. I do this so people can see the encounters and learn from them. This way when we do them on 25 man mode people have seen them and know what to expect, rather than just reading a strat or listening to me going on and on about what to do. To achieve this goal I form three 10 mans a week. It is very important not to stack one group for success and then put leftovers in another. I make these groups so that every group has the required raid buffs and everything else for a successful raid. If I can't make three good groups one week I will settle for two. No point stretching to extremes to leave no chance for success. Think again of the purpose to see the content for the most number of people possible so your 25 man raid is better prepared. If you keep that as your focus then all will be good.

Since you use a loot council how do your choices work between tanks, healers, and DPS?

I can't always say that we always favour any one particular type of raider. I will say I am aware what is coming up and prepare for that accordingly. I don't like giving gear to people who have hit a plateau and it won't seem to help the raid as it would to someone else. I am always looking for the best possible result to improve the raid and make us successful. One of my raiders has a saying "it's not personal, it's raiding" I would say this is a great way to loot at loot distribution. You will never make everyone happy, but if you make the raid happy by making them more successful by killing more bosses they will thank you.

Your choice for the Gold Medal game?

GO CANADA GO!!! As the song says I BELIEVE OUR TIME IS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

That is it for Ask Gauss this week. Not Friday's Reader's Post will be about the interesting spots you have found in WoW. Feel free to include screenshots to go with your stories and I will gladly include those as well.

So What You Up To

So many people have been asking me what I am currently working on. The obvious answer to that is ICC with the guild. I should get a look at the Lich King on 10 man this week, which should be a lot of fun. With 25 we are progressing maybe not as fast as I would like but should be at least 8/12 by the end of the week maybe even 9/12 with the success we had on Thursday with not the best setup. Achievement wise of course the turtle is always the problem and I assume the GMs who are laughing at me will continue to do so. I also plan on finishing out some of the old Ulduar achieves and maybe I will get that shocking achievement if I can ever get someone to go to Naxx. Getting the 9000 point achievement has kinda allowed me to slack a bit. Not that I am not going for achievements, but less relaxing seeing the 9000+ rather than seeing 89XX and looking for what I can get to break that barrier.

For the Nation, who have been asking. Yes I have been busy watching the Olympics so I have been a little distracted and not really had time for For The Horde. After they are over I will get back to running them Fri, Sat, Sun. For the people requesting more songs I am working on a few, they aren't just something that I throw together so be patient. Also I have an update on the Free Loot Tuesday video, I am told it is about half done, and when it's done I will be sure to link it to you all. I think that's all I have to update on. But know that I got some funny things coming or at least I find them funny.

Just one last thing.

GO CANADA GO!!!!

Must Get 10 More Points

So anyone who knows me, knows I am about getting all the achievements I can get. You may also know that there probably is Blizzard GMs laughing at me every time I go out and try to fish for the turtle. I have been trying since it was possible and you don't even want to know how many times I have fished out of pools. I just got the White Polar Bear the other day so who knows maybe my luck is about to change. But this is supposed to be about others crazy stories so let's get to it.

When achievements first came out I was running through all the old instances basically in order when I got to BRD. I had the key and was trying to kill as little as possible so I could get in and out. The sad thing was I forgot that when you pull the emperor all the adds in his room and the previous one come running. I did manage to kill him, but just before my computer lagged out from all the adds running straight for me.

I was getting all the easy achievements out of the way when I was in Stormwind catching my fish for the diplomat thing. When I decided to head to the Stockades. I was actually being chased by about 5-10 people and a bunch of guards, but was in the clear to the instance. When I tried to enter and it said "additional instances cannot be launched". I died and spent the next 45 minutes trying to get into that instance and running back from repeated deaths.

I spent about 3 hours searching for quests in the Eastern Kingdoms before someone told me instance quests count towards the total. I felt like a complete idiot.

I set alarms on my phone, clock, and watch for when the server would come back up so I could search Northrend for the rare mobs. Ya it is pretty sad, but I got the achievement. There really should be a title for it.

I spent 2 hours killing Centuars in Desolace before I realized I wasn't getting anymore rep and couldn't get passed honored. I then had to find other reputations to raise to get to my "the Exalted" title.

I leveled a horde DK to 58 so I could swap the towers in Hellfire so my Main could change them back. I couldn't find any other quest in order to get the last one I needed for Hellfire. It was the last one I needed for Outland Loremaster.

I spent 4 hours looking for a one of the stupid pests for the Pest Control achieve. I searched Wowhead, Thottbot and the cords they gave me all seem to be wrong. When all of the sudden I was leaving this place about to give up and some idiot besides me kills the damn thing and gets the achieve. I hated my life. I logged off so pissed off and didn't log back on for 2 days.

I had a guildie /gquit because during Children's Week you had to do this achievement where you had to capture the flag in EoTS. He was in with another guildie trying to do the achieve and he ended up dying just before he was about to cap. The other guildie picked it up and got the achievement. He blamed him for not healing him and letting him get it. Was going berserk in guild chat and then emo quit. Oh achievements how they bring out the best in people.

When the 100 mount achievement was quite rare because there just wasn't that many mounts really available a guild of mine did something I won't forget. He needed 1 more mount and was going crazy because none of the rarer mounts were dropping so what did he do? He actually went on ebay and bought the spectral tiger mount for $500. He got his achievement, but he became such a joke to us all.

I was helping a friend who was doing the STV fishing contest. Meaning we had dropped a stone in BB and would summon him back when he was done. He got his 40 fish very quickly and we summoned him back. Well the thing was he was hated with booty bay and when we summoned him like 40 guards swarmed him and killed him. He ran back and it happened again, and again, and again. Four times he died when he ran back the next time someone else was getting ready to turn it in and when he rezed and died again I could only laugh when the other person got it.

So let's hope you are not as crazy as some of these people. Hope you all enjoy your weekend and its Semi Final Friday to see who will play for gold in Hockey.

I Want More Uselss Crap To Buy

So I haven't ranted about something completely worthless in awhile so I thought today was the perfect day. We all have seen Blizzard has released plushies that we can buy, if you haven't you have been outside too much lately. Yay for using the money we pay for the game to be spent on something for them to make more money rather than adding to the game with it(did that even make sense?). I am not opposed to them making money off the game, but you can't expect me not to complain about it. So what better way to get right into my way of explaining to Blizzard the other useless crap they should allow us to buy.

Twill Set: Yes Blizzard has clothes you can buy, but is there anything more epic than a twill set? Of course not. Now I don't want part of this it has to be full 9/9 or I am not even going to bother. There is nothing worse than an uncompleted twill set. Have you seen what it looks like if you don't have the pants. It is like a wannabe Wonder Woman outfit. Do we really want all the crazy gamers showing up to buy the next expansion looking like that. I thought you would agree. 9/9 please not single pieces.

Action Figures: Now I know they have some, but I want these ones to talk. Like my old school Ninja Turtles, with the string that you pull that would always break. They can make more money this way. Plus I can feel awesome when I can be the talk of the neighbourhood when my Cairne whoops Varian's ass.

Stoppable Force: Now I know you can buy Frostmourne and that is cool and all, but who wouldn't buy a Stoppable Force? It is the greatest grey weapon every created with some competition from the Bulky Maul, Stout War Staff, and of course the Feeble Sword. Better yet make a entire "Grey Weapon" Line. Now that would be something to show off to people visiting your house. "And you see here my prized possession my the Stoppable Force".

Voice Emitter: Remember when you were a kid and you had that toy that you would just push a button and it would say something. Well maybe I am older than you, but they were cool. So just add random voice clips which scare the crap out of people. Nothing like walking up behind someone then playing "BURN YOU MISERABLE WRETCHES" now if that didn't give grandma a heart attack she would certainly have to change her depends.

Peon Mallet: What better way to immortalize every ones favourite starter quest than to let them buy the very thing they forced peons back to work with. Of course you would have to put a disclaimer on it as to not promote violence...

Flying Mount Replicas: You know my favourite part of Toy Story? I know your thinking what the hell does that have to do with anything, but whatever it makes sense. It is when Buzz is watching the commercial of himself and it says "not a flying toy". I love when they put crap on toys that is so obvious, because there is obviously always some idiot who would try then complain when it can't do what they want it to. So this is my chance. So instead of like the tooltips says "this is a very fast ___" we can write "this ___ doesn't move get over it"

Talking Stuff Animals: You know those stuff toys when you throw them into something they talk. Well let's make some of those. Why? Because how awesome would it be to have a Kael when you throw him into the wall he says "Merely a Setback!"

Soft Drink: Well every other company when they want to gouge their consumers they do this so Blizzard should just join the party. Hell why not make a cereal too, you could call it Orgrimmar O's.

Ok rant is over you can all rest easy now that you read all of that and have remained sane. Just a reminder today is the last day to get your stories about people going crazy for achievements.

Applications

Ok so I have a good friend of mine looking for a new guild. Not going to say who because no point in stirring up trouble. Anyways, helping her find one to meet her times is hard enough, but then have you seen what questions some of these guilds ask in their applications? Three Score's application is pretty basic we ask the following things

1. Toon Name
2. Armory Link
3. Profs and such
4. Previous Raid experience
5. Previous Guild

Basically from the way they answer this or just by their armory I can tell if I want to go further with the app. I am not into wasting peoples time by having them write a book for their application. If I am interested in the applicant then sure I will ask them why they are spec'd the way they are, why they went with specific gems, and even ask them about their life in general.

Some of the applications I have seen over the past few days have taken close to an hour to fill out. Is this really needed? Yes I understand you want to know the person you are inviting, I want the same exact thing, but is the written application the way to do it? Do you really want to read through the entire 3 page thing if you could see their experience and then be done with it. Yes people you invite into your guild environment is important, you don't want him or her to cause drama or any of that. Think of it this way when you have time to fill out an app you can also use it to work your way around the truth. When asked straight out there is a time frame of the response and you will get more honesty. Think about it, its hard to lie in a face to face interview so on vent or even whispers makes it much more revealing to what you are getting into. Of course this may take more time, but better results in my opinion.

So maybe I am tired of looking at these apps that is the equivalent of writing a short story, but I think there is merit to what I am talking about. Anyone have any views on this. be sure to let me know.

You Fail At Insulting Gauss If...

So it's Tuesday, meaning fail day. I know I am late and many of you have probably already been checking and wondering where the hell the post is. Well its up now so you can stop sending me crap wondering where it is. So here goes.

You Fail At Insulting Gauss If..

• You think telling me you ignore me makes me cry
• You are arguing I know nothing about gemming and yet you are a rogue who gems strength
• You call me an idiot for posting bullets in stacks of 100s, but yet you bought them
• You tell me I know nothing about raiding as a mage because 71 points in frost is a solid spec
• You say I am 300lbs because I run a guild and have gear
• After you have been telling anal jokes for 20minutes you tell me I know not funny
• You say I know nothing about the math I post
• You say I am I just a trade spamming idiot who will never get into a good guild
• You insult my DPS when your gear score is higher than yours
• You call me a noob for the daggers I know equipped
• You tell me my gear is awful when I am wearing 9/9 twill
• You spam your link for all your max profession and tell me I have no life
• You say only morons will try to tank an instance as fury
• You spell my name wrong while trying

and finally

• You say my class is stupid easy to play and you're a ret pally.

That is it for fail Day. Free Loot Tuesday awaits!

Stormrage

As most of you know I am a great fan of lore of this game. I will admit I have read every book and know more than my fair share of what goes on in this game. The book that comes out tomorrow "Stormrage" by Richard A. Knaak is one that I have been looking forward to for a long time. It also is going to be one of the major stories of Cataclysm and will get that train moving forward. I know Malfurion's brother Illidan got a lot of press during The Burning Crusade and so deservingly, but his twin brother's story is a very interesting one. What has happened to the Emerald Dream? Is Deathwing behind it? And of course why do people think Malfurion killed Brox? Now if you don't know the story behind Malfurion and Illidan for that matter I recommend reading "The Well of Eternity" trilogy. This is also written by Knaak and it gives you a lot of background not only on the brothers, but Night elves, Brox, Cenarius, Deathwing, and much much more. You will probably be amazed about how much more you now understand.

You can read the prologue at Worldofwarcraft.com or click here. I'll include below the general story of the book.

When the world of Azeroth was young, the god-like titans brought order to it by reshaping its lands and seas. Throughout their great work, they followed a magnificent design for what they envisioned Azeroth would become. Although the titans departed Azeroth long ago, that design endures to this day. It is known as the Emerald Dream, a lush and savagely primal version of the World of Warcraft.

Many are the mysteries surrounding the Emerald Dream and its reclusive guardians, the green dragonflight. In times past, druids have entered the Dream to monitor the ebb and flow of life on Azeroth in their never-ending quest to maintain the delicate balance of nature.

However, not all dreams are pleasant ones. Recently the Emerald Nightmare, an area of corruption within the Emerald Dream, began growing in size, transforming the Dream into a realm of unimaginable horror. Green dragons have been unexpectedly caught up in the Nightmare, emerging from it with shattered minds and twisted bodies. Druids who have entered the darkening Dream lately have found it difficult -- sometimes even impossible -- to escape.

Nor are these the Nightmare's only victims: more and more people are being affected. Even Malfurion Stormrage, first and foremost of the druids on Azeroth, may have fallen victim to this growing threat. As uncontrollable nightmares spread across the world, a desperate quest begins to find and free the archdruid.

Soon nature's enemies will learn the true meaning of the name... STORMRAGE

I will be picking it up tomorrow will you? Enjoy your last day before reset.

Who Needs A Tank?

So after that epic Old Kingdom run on Friday where I ended up tanking the instance as fury. I came up with this idea. Well it was Vinletsu's and my idea. The goal to tank every heroic as fury. With the following rules.

• Must be in full DPS gear
• Must not taunt and be in zerker stance
• No pots to add defence, hp etc

So those are the rules. Someone asked me today why I was doing this. The answer is simple why not? It makes it more difficult and like its own achievement. So when we started yesterday the first one we get was ToC. So much for starting out easy. Surprisingly it went pretty smooth no wipes or anything and set DPS records for almost all the fights. Which should be because, well there was no tank. Also doing this you get to poke fun at people for doing less damage then the "tank". I ended up doing Gundrak with Vin as well, which was funny because I pulled the first trash pack when he had just respec'd and had no mana. The first wipe. Other than that there was no problems and Vin actually said I took more damage on trash than on actually bosses.

Before you say it, I did end up pugging a couple and did the same thing. UP and Occ went without problems with pug healers. Later in the Day a guildie needed the daily and I got UK out of the way. So it has gone extremely well so far and I know there will be some crazy instances in the future which will make this insanely hard(HoR..). But I will keep this updated so here is the current list.

ToC, Gundrak, UP, Occ, UK.

Add: DTK, CoS, VH, Nexus, HoS, FoS, HoL, PoS, HoR(4/28)

Next Friday's post is going to be about people taking achievements too seriously. Send in your stories and tell me all about. As always you have until Thursday night to get them in. Canada vs USA tonight in hockey. Let's show them whose game they are playing Canada.

The Greatest Old Kingdom Run Ever

So with the random dungeon tool I have had my fair share of fun and games. Of course the whole Wally thing is just one of the funny things that has happened. Which is funny because that was in Old Kingdom as well. So I queue up yesterday and I get Old Kingdom. I don't like this really because of course there is the whole issue that I want to only do the bosses which are required and get out. I also don't like to argue with people who want badges and think that you get more for the time invested if you kill all the bosses. I am not even going to talk about this here because this was even beyond that.

Anyways, as I am heading down the steps this rogue asks if we can kill all the bosses and I tell him flat out no. Which was funny because he just said "ok" followed by "next time I am going to queue as the guide so I get to make the decisions". Who the hell listens to whoever is the guide anyway. We clear the first pack after the steps and I say lets go left. The pally tank goes right. I assumed he didn't hear me. So I said again "We are going left", to which he replies "No, we killing everything". Now we got into this argument and I said I only kill two bosses in this instance so you are welcome to kill the others without me. Him and this druid get on me about just sucking it up and killing them. The question really is whats the point. Of course they say badges. I of course get on them about being idiots. His comeback was "Your DPS probably sucks anyway we can do this without you". The rogue was then all happy apparently he needed the OK achieve to kill all the bosses. I of course couldn't resist this one. I was waiting at the top of the steps when the other druid and I start talking. "Don't worry I am not killing them all either". This was golden because now they can't kick either of us and he was the healer. The other druid gets all snappy that I have a new buddy at the top of the steps and says "screw this I can heal and we can 3 man it". They attempt the first boss and wipe horribly. It was rather amusing seeing the cursing and complaining. "Help us please", "We are going to wipe". When my new buddy says "You should have listened to Gauss". So they wipe and the tank and the druid quit saying I was a douchebag. The rogue sticks around and doesn't click the button to requeue. He wanted to act tough apparently. That was when Vinletsu logged on. Now Vin and I love doing heroics with one another because we enjoy poking fun at idiots.

Vin enters and asks who the rogue is. Druid respawns "one of the cry babies who wants to do all the bosses". My new druid friend, who I wish I could remember his name, switches to DPS and then the rogue says "You can kiss my ass" and leaves. Now you would think this would be the end of the fun. But you would be wrong! I requeue and we get a tank no idea what class and a shaman. So I tell them the coles notes version of what happened and said "we are going left". They agreed and we start clearing trash when Vin purposely uses the Levitate bug that crashes everyones WoW. We come back and I had no idea he used it. When everyone comes back and says "I crashed sorry". Vin explains what happened and says "see watch". When he does it again and crashes everyone. We come back again and the tank says "You all can screw off and leaves the group". So now we are at 4 people who left. I requeue and there is no tank so then I just start tanking the instance as DPS. We kill the trash on the way to the prince. When someone joins the group sees its OK and leaves. That would be 5. We get infront of the prince mind you I am tanking this in full DPS gear and spec. Pull him and go to town when another tank joins and ends up being the one bitten by the prince at the front of the instance. "WTF IS GOING ON" he screams and ends up dying, and nerd rage quits the group. That was the 6th person to leave.

We end up killing the prince and make our way to the end when this pally tank joins. The best part was he had 20k HP. Yes, 20k. We are clearing the trash and was taking him forever to get here so we pulled. We get to the first insanity kill the images then we all standing there looking at one another. Sadly him being so far away must have bugged everything. So he was closer and we pulled again thinking he might get close enough in time. Sadly no it bugged again. When we check the map and the guy is completely lost. So not only did this tank have 20k hp he didn't know where the hell to go. We had to direct him and when he got to web bridge, I pulled. He died and the noob pally ended up getting the speed kill achieve for basically doing nothing. And so ended the most epic Old Kingdom run ever. 6 people quit, someone got lost, bugged 2 bosses, 1 of them twice, and of course the most epic nerd rage around.

Enjoy your weekend.

So Long

So its Friday and its time for you all to take the reins and make the post what it is. This week I asked for reasons or stories from yourself or others for leaving a guild. So let's here them

"The "Your Mom Is An Epic Mount" vent phonetic offended me."

More of a /gsuicide: "If you knew what Middle Eastern country I was from, you wouldn't talk to me this way."

"My grandmother is going to die soon, and I want to see the endgame before she does."

One time the guild master in an old guild was joking around and called a guy a clown. Somehow, the guy who got called a clown got offended and started complaining. He soon left with some blues from the g-bank. His reply to the guild was that "He wasn't going to play with people making fun of clowns"

Person who's not logged in for over a week suddenly logs in 15 or more minutes after a raid starts, doesn't get invited because it's long full, then gquits complaing that they never get in on raids.

In my horde guild- a healer left because we wouldn't help him get Lower City rep for his mace. He seemed to PvP a lot so we suggested that he should earn his Gladiator mace. He said he didn't want to because PvP items shouldn't be used for PvE. We told him that it didn't matter (we were working on Kara at the time) but he started to argue, and everyone started laughing at his argument because it was a huge upgrade and because he was DEMANDING people to run Slabs with him. He quit.

Guild Chat:
Player A: quit
Player A: quit
Player B: haha
Player A: MT
Player A: quit
Player A: Omg. MT
Player A: gquit
Player A Has left the guild
Player B: ROFL
Jenjenny: !

When I was a GM, I politely asked my guildies to not swear in guild chat. I didn't mind the occasional outburst, indeed it was appropriate at times, but excessive swearing just makes the person doing it look stupid. There was almost zero swearing in the guild chat. Then one day, this person /gquits. I /w her and asked why. She said, "Your guild is full of pottymouths." I asked her what the offensive word(s) was, and she replied, "C---, and D--g." (Crap and Dang) She said she had no desire to be in a guild with such foulmouthed people.
I /roflwaffled to that one.
Later on, my guild merged with her new guild. She quit a short time after. citing "Those people."

GM handed over title to Officer that was doing the most visible work. GM then stepped into Officer role instead. Two weeks later, old GM /gquits citing "lack of structure".

This guy is complaining a bunch all day about not getting into our raids(hes WAY too undergeared for what we wear doing and we already had more ppl than we needed) we would take him into the lower stuff on occasion but not on our high end runs. On this particualr day he was really upset about it and /gquits without telling anyone he is gonna do it. Later that day after he had been spamming IF looking for a guild obviously without luck he whispers the GL and says
"SORRY CAN I GET BACK IN I ACCIDENTLY HIT MY /GQUIT MACRO"

Warrior 1- How come you gave that piece to Warrior 3?
Warrior 2 (MT)- Because the rest of the warriors, including you have equivalent or better...
Warrior 1- this is his first raid...
Warrior 2- no kidding... grats man... welcome to the dkp cesspool...
Warrior 3- /g quit
Guild- WTH??
Warrior 1 /g quit
Guild- WTF LMAO
Warlock 1- lol, he forgot to grab his loot before he left...
or perhaps this one
Warrior 1- What, why don't i get that piece
Warrior 2- Because he has more dkp...
Warrior 1- But thats an upgrade
Warrior 3- Wonder why i wanted it too....
Warrior 1- /g quit
Guild- will we ever have new warriors last longer than their first couple raids?
Warrior 4- Ding time to start raiding...

This one you just have to read it here

And those are the reasons hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you have other stories tell them here or keep sending I would love to read them.

Hallelujah Brother!

So since I did the list of my Favourite Machinima of real type movies the question of what were or is my favourite comedy? I have put it off because really there is only one that can make me laugh every single time. Olibith's Never Stay tuned videos especially the last one are beyond awesome. Below you will find the link to youtube, and here you can get the link which has some English subtitles.

So why do I think Never Stay Tuned 4 is that awesome? Well its simple. First off it is one of those channel surfing skits so it keeps your attention because it is always changing. I won't give anything away but Xenu, the guitar sale, House UD, gnome terrorists, and the lich king rick roll are some of my favourites. If you don't laugh at least a bunch of times I would have to ask what is wrong with you. I have to warn you it is around 19 minutes long so make sure you have the time to watch it. Also be sure to tell me what you think or of course argue that another video is better.



So remember today is the last day to get your excuses for leaving a guild into me. So Hallelujah Brother!

Ask Gauss

First off I would like to say this is the last "Ask Gauss" you will see on Wednesday. It will be moving to Sunday. I think it works better not having too many predetermined type posts on consecutive days. Gives me more space for random rants and the not have things have gone by too long before I post them. Therefore meaning it doesn't really apply anymore. So with that in mind let's get to this weeks questions.

Do you ever wish you could go back when no one knew who you were?

Honestly, I think ever since I started playing this game I tried to be as vocal and out there as much as I could. Now obviously at the start it is nothing like it is now. Really though it's fun when people recognize you. Of course the opposite is when people bug you. This is why I have some hideout spots where I am a little difficult to find. I enjoy talking to people, sharing my experiences, and of course poking fun at people like me who play this game. Of course since wow.com did the piece the amount of people I deal with has grown tremendously, but its all fun. The guild gets many more apps than it used to. Not all good of course, but sometimes very humorous. So to give the straight out answer no. Even with all the craziness. the haters, and the average person just looking for help. It's one hell of a ride and I wouldn't want the car to slow down or stop.

We have heard all of these crazy stories that have happened to other people during raids anything funny ever happen during yours?

Well of course I will give you a couple.

First is the story of Novicane. Back in BWL the second boss know as Vaelastrasz the Corrupt was a boss that sat in the middle of the room. We started talking over strat and all the dos and donts of the encounter. Where to be and so on and so forth. It probably took close to 15 minutes to go through everything. When we were all by the door and no one had moved. When our buddy Novicane out of no where shoots the boss by accident the boss runs towards us and kills everyone within seconds. This sparked the phrase "I blame Novicane" and from that point on we blamed Novi for everything. What is even better is someone got it on tape. You can fast forward to the 2min mark of the Three Score 1 Year video here to see it.



Sadly for the second story I don't have a video and it is even better. We were in AQ40 in front of Huhu all getting ready to go in and pull. Did our ready check everyone, and everyone had what they needed when the go for pull was called. Krustie a hunter in the guild, who is still an active member, was going to pet pull the boss. He sent in his pet and it went running. The thing was it kept running, and running, and running. It took this opportunity to flee. Krustie hadn't been feeding him and as a result it took off on him during the pull. It was funny as hell. Now they have things in place so your pet runs away, but no one will ever forget when this happened.

If you controlled Silvermoon what would you do?

Burn it to the ground while watching it like a mad man from the outside.

That is it for this week. Remember to get your excuses or ones you have heard for leaving a guild. You have until tomorrow night to get them in.

You Fail At Vent If...

Tuesday! I actually got this idea while talking to people on vent and just had to make it this weeks topic before I ended up forgot about it. I don't know how I couldn't have done thought to do this before. We all know vent is almost an essential source to WoW, so I am pretty sure you will know or relate to at least one of the things on this list. So sit back enjoy and laugh at everyone with me.

You Fail At Vent If...

• You don't have vent or have to ask what it is
• Your push to talk key is Alt and you are a Tab targeter
• You leave your mic open while you are watching porn
• You feel the need to eat chicken wings or slurp while on vent
• You answer your binds not in binds
• You your mic sounds like nails on a chalkboard
• You require a translator because of your accent
• Your mic is on top of your head
• You run Vista and not running vent as Admin and wonder why your mic doesn't work
• You break out into the song you are listening to without realizing everyone can hear you
• You open your mic when people are talking to you as to make people believe you have friends
• You play music for people by holding down your push to talk button
• Your phonetic mispronounces your name
• You still have the guy computer voice and not the woman
• Everyone in vent knows your heart rate because we can hear you breathe
• The first words you say when getting on vent is "Can I bring my DK"

and finally

• No one can hear you because everyone has you muted

There we have it. The problem is I know way to many people that many of those apply to. Hopefully all of you can relate to my pain. Free Loot Tuesday hopefully the servers cooperate today.

Do I Know You?

I really try not to say this phrase to people. First off I don't really go out of my way to directly insult people, well most of the time. Mainly though because if I ask this, sometimes if not most of the time, I get into some one's life story of "this one time I did such and such with you and you said such and such and then you call someone this and then they said that". Ah yes how I love these conversations. So as to avoid this I have developed the following strategies when I encounter a random person and I have absolutely no clue who they are. Feel free to use any of the following.

Oh its you, but sorry I don't have time to catch up right now.

This makes the person feel good, and gives the impression that I would speak with them. This also gives me time to actually think if I know who the hell this person is. If I remember and its good, which in most cases its not then all is well. If I remember and they were some idiot then I of course have the option of never speaking with them again or if it was so idiotic-- I have the perfect opportunity to relive this persons special kind of stupid.

Of course I know you.

You say this when you need to take an afk or you are doing something, which is obviously occupying your attention. They will either a)go on and on and you won't be there to hear it or be able to pay attention, or b)Get so pissed off from you not responding that they will stop talking to you all together. So in either case this is win win for you.

Just play along with whatever they are saying.

This is very fun an effective if you are bored. You will also make their day by actually talking to them. They will go home happy and you will get your own laughs. Also you maybe even remember them by the end. Then could apply all the things from the first one.

Offend them so they will stop talking.

If just flat out ignoring them doesn't work then this is the route you may have to take. Yes this is a real asshole thing to do, but then you if you cared you would have known who they were in the first place. The sky is the limit to how you can insult them. Just make sure its to the point and they actually understand you are making fun of them and not joking around. Since if they think you are joking they will just keep going on.

Make up a story about them being awful.

You really don't need to even say something untrue. It could be something about someone else that you are using to make them look like a tool. This can be amusing on your end and get whoever they are to stop talking. It's a game we play this for fun right? And making some random person spaz out about them not doing something is extremely fun.

Log out.

Perfect way to get someone to stop talking to you. Log out then back in and they probably won't even notice, since they will probably be trying to talk to other people they "knew".

That is it for today. Congrats Canada on its first Gold Medal on home soil! Enjoy your last day before reset.

Happy Valentines Day

So today is Valentines Day. The day we empty our pockets to make that special someone feel extra special. Or in WoW context waste all your gold for a completely unknown purpose. I could go on an write about how I hate this holiday and how it is completely commercial and basically serves no purpose besides to line peoples pockets. This would be the natural Gauss thing to do along with some how relating it to how ret pallys failing, Bagellord being horrible and of course how Wally is a tool. I would do that people would laugh, complain I went to far, and of course some would say not far enough. I would do this and everyone would be happy for the most part. I am not going to this though. Even with all of its faults this holiday is what it is. That person whoever they are really deserves that day so I am going to let them have it, even if it costs me. So I will give you something you can all sing to that special someone along with a pretty epic screenshot.

.

You're the one I love to be with
The one who feels so right
You're the one I think of when I wake
And dream of every night
You're the one who leaves me breathless
The one who makes me proud
You're the one who can both drive me mad
Or make me laugh out loud
You're the one who makes my heart beat fast
And when its said and done
There is no ifs or buts or maybes
Because baby you're the one.

Happy Valentines Day to my special someone and to everyone else, may it be everything you expect and more.

Next Friday's reader post will have to do with excuses you have heard for leaving a guild. I know there are some great ones so you have until Thursday night to get them in. I look forward to hearing them.

WoW Olympic Sports

So the Vancouver Winter Olympics started yesterday and being Canadian as most of you know I am this is a pretty big deal for them to be at home. Everyone is talking about it even back here in Toronto. Now this really has nothing to do with WoW or at least not yet. I expect Blizzard to put something in like they did for the last Summer Olympics, but we will see. Getting in the Olympic mood I decided that I would think of some sports for a WoW Olympics.

This isn't going to be some ordinary list I am going to directly compare things in wow to the sport they would replace.

Ski Jumping: Everyone knows this sport is almost suicidal. So in WoW people will run out of the path in the Dalaran sewers and jump. Whoever goes the furthest wins, and living is a bonus.

Bobsled: The most important thing is having a track and we have the prefect one in Grizzly Hills at the lumber yard. I know you all have wanted to go on this ride for awhile.

Speed Skating: So what makes someone run faster? How about being chased from an angry mob. So for Horde the object will be to run one lap around Ironforge and see who can do it the quickest without dying. For Alliance they will have to do their lap in Undercity. Yes this is not on Ice, but give me a break.

Biathlon: Hunters only. Simple we place naked level ones of the opposite factions along a track and you must shoot them before moving on. To make it more exciting can even do it in towns or cities!

Figure Skating: So I was thinking how I could compare someone in WoW I could compare to figure skating when it hit me. Bubble Hearthing! Ah yes we will judge by presentation and technique. Of could if they are ret there will be plenty of crying while they are being judged.

That's all I have for now any others I will be sure to add. I hope you all enjoy the Olympics as for those non-Canadians I hope you enjoy the showcase of this country I live in. Bring on the hockey! Go CANADA GO!

I Would Do Anything to Raid

So its Friday which means I have great fun going over all my in game mails, emails, tells, and every other which way people submit their weekly contributions. This week I asked people to tell me what they have done to make a raid. Meaning what were the biggest lengths you or someone you knew went to. Some of these are pure gold so enjoy.

So I was top DKP in my guild and I had been for weeks, but of course nothing I wanted ever dropped so I just kept on collecting. So this one Friday I was supposed to go to this night time shopping thing with my girlfriend, which was going to involve a lot of walking. I wasn't in the mood to go to it anyway plus I had a raid I was going to miss. That morning I purposely dropped a piece of a cinder block on my foot in an attempt to break my toe. You may call me an idiot but I got out of the whole shopping thing after spending most of the day in the hospital. I ended up breaking not only two of my toes but the growth plate on my foot. I had perfect raid attendance for 4 weeks and I ended up getting my t5 shoulders that night.

Back when I was playing my hunter in MC, I flaked out on a trip to New York for my wedding anniversary because I knew we were going to kill Rag that week. I don't feel guilty.

I let the air out of my wife's tires so she had to take my car out one night thinking she had a couple of flats. This got me out of helping my father in law install something and was able to attend my raid.

My girlfriend at the time was really into nature and one day she saw this ad for this butterfly conservatory or breeding place. I don't know what the hell it was. Anyways, they were doing this big event there one Saturday. I faked a fear of butterflies which I had to keep in check for the next year and a half while we were still together.

I was stuck in traffic and was going to be late for raid so I ended off pulling into this mall parking lot. Took out my laptop and ended up getting a wireless connection from the electronics store. I was in the parking lot for 3 hours playing in my car. I ended up being like 6+ hours late getting home, but hey I was on time for raid!

This wasn't a raid, but I think it applies. When Wrath came out I wanted to level quickly so I arranged with my girlfriend to celebrate our anniversary early so I didn't have an interruption in our leveling time. She agreed and I was able to level up without a problem.

I always book my classes for school and my work schedule around my raid times. I actually gave my boss my raid schedule and told him to work me in around it.

I missed the first date with who is now my wife because I canceled it because we were making grounds while pulling Kael. I knew the kill was going to happen that night and I didn't want to not be able to get my vial for Mount Hyjal. The best part was when I phoned her I tried to lie but she heard someone on vent and asked which boss we were doing. I said Kael and she told me we could do it another time.

I called my sister a taxi to pick her up from the airport so I wouldn't have to miss my Ulduar raid. She thought there was something seriously wrong and rushed over to find me on the computer.

I didn't know my game time ran out and all the stores were closed and I couldn't get another game card. So my buddy offered me his credit card if I did one thing. It was 10 below and he made me run outside completely naked besides my shoes and socks to the stop sign and back. The sad thing is I wish I was kidding, but I did it. Oh how addicted I am.

So that is it. I told you some of them were good. If yours didn't get posted I still read it and probably laughed at you so all is good. Enjoy your weekend and the Olympics start today GO CANADA GO!!!

Lag You Say?

I know I am two days late talking about this, but I was lagging! Anyways, I don't know how the "lag" was on other servers, but it was bad enough on Llane that we had to cancel our ICC run after just two bosses. I really wasn't looking forward to the lag and how it would play out on the gunship. With everything that goes on during that encounter it just wasn't going to be pretty in my opinion. This sucks because this puts us behind progress wise for later in the week, but it was pretty unplayable. Here is just a few things which happened.

• Taking 5 minutes to break up stacks of flasks and pots
• 2 minutes for the fish feast to appear on the ground
• an unheard of amount of time to master loot an item to someone
• at least 5 minutes to accept the weekly quest
• Not knowing you were standing in DnD until you were dead
• When you got rezed you DC'd
• Trade lag that made it appear people were porting accross the screen
• Almost wiping on Deathwhisper(now that would have been embarrassing doing the weekly or not)

Those were just a few of them. This gets me wondering what actually happened and why it was going on. I am assuming during the maintenance something happened that we will never hear about. Maybe the hamsters died and there were no new ones at the pet store? For all I know they took away the limited attempts system on the end bosses of the wings in Icecrown Citadel. They removed the ability to collect the lovely charms in raids(so much for easy farming in Ulduar), and I assume they were also messing around with the Lich King encounter. I think we all know why on that one. Lately though Blizzard has been good about not letting people on the servers if there is something wrong that will really effect gameplay. This was obviously not the case. I really think they caved and just let people on. Now why? So we can play something that is unplayable and therefore complain about it? I guess the other argument is that people will complain about not being able to play. Did they let people on so they didn't have to give everyone a free day of play. I would say no because enough people will complain that we would get the free day anyway. I guess I would have to work there to understand their reasons, because for a company that has always been about their customer service something like this doesn't make sense to me.

Ok my rant is over, but be sure to tell me your opinion on the matter. Today is the last day to get what you have done to make a raid on time or actually attend. May you all get a love rocket.

Ask Gauss

Happy Wednesday everyone. It is time for Ask Gauss. This week I got a lot of interesting questions, including 3 marriage proposals, an ok to name a Dog after me, if someone showed up on my porch could they stay the night, along with others which are probably best not to be mentioned. Now as I find these quite amusing and I will always respond, the questions I will always include in this section have to be something to which I can talk about in some regard.

Do you find when people find out you play WoW or when they find out about how you are in WoW they treat you differently?

Well this is basically two questions. Most of my friends and family know I play WoW. Some of them think it is a waste of my time and I could be doing better things. Course I could, but I could also be watching TV or playing my Playstation. I find most people who complain about you playing WoW are the ones wasting there time doing the same thing they are complaining I am doing. Now this is if you are of the perception WoW is a waste of time. It is my leisure time. I have fun playing the game with people who also play the game. I am interacting with people and I am not mindlessly staring at a screen. I think many people who don't play think of it totally differently then those who do. Also I think everyone would agree if you try to explain it to someone who has an opinion already it would be like asking a ret pally to heal. You just aren't going to get through to them.

Now the second part of the question. Anyone who knows me knows I am always that guy trying to stir things up and take the lead on something. It is no surprise to them what I do this in a game I play as well. I have always been used to being a focal point so it isn't something I really adapt to when I am online, it is just the way I am. What I will say though is people who I have talked in game always say after being in a raid with me, grouped with, or just asking me something always say I was much different than what they expected. It is all about having fun and I will be me while doing it.

If you don't play alts how is it that you feel you can have the know how to help people of other classes?

This is correct I don't play alts. Well I have a 61 rogue and a 13 mage, but other than that nothing. So yes I haven't played another class in game, but that doesn't mean I don't understand how the class works. I have done a lot of research on all classes, specs, rotations, and all that fun stuff. Do I know more than everyone? Of course not. I talk with others around the WoW community to get the understanding of how things work. As always I may work something out on paper, but to find out if it's good in practice of course I have to talk to people that actually play. So I do have an opinion on how people should go about doing things and it is not me pulling things out of the air. If I suggest something to you it is not because I am being an ass and want to poke fun at you. I am doing it because I feel it would improve your character. Do you have to listen to me? Again of course not. Should you insult me and say I know nothing because I don't play the class? No, because you would be very mistaken. It is my goal to be able to understand everything I can. I am also sure you could ask all the people I have helped or tried to and they would have an opinion. What is that saying "Don't judge a book by its cover".

How goes the White Polar Bear?

Don't ask.

So that is it for this week. Keep sending what you have done to make raid. You have until Thursday to do so. Let there be no crazy lag today so we can actually manage a raid.

You Fail At Pulling If...

Tuesday! Besides free loot it's Fail day and who doesn't love fail day? There should be a fail holiday when all the failures can get together and celebrate. Hell we can just combine that and national Ret Pally day. And now off to the races.

You Fail At Pulling If...

• You don't have an amusing pull macro.
• You attempt to pet pull and your pet ends up booking it because you haven't fed it.
• You take an armor pot besides saying pull
• You MD/ToT a healer
• You pull during a ready check
• Pulling causes you to DC
• You realize after you pull you are in the wrong spec
• You didn't eat the fish!
• You pull two packs at once.
• You pull during the explanation
• You didn't wait for healers to be with you
• The concept of LoS evades you
• You want to attempt the boss with the hard mode "healers have no mana" option
• You have no bullets
• You feign death before the mobs aggro on anyone else
• "So who is tanking" is the first words said after the pull

and I couldn't resist

• You use Saronite Bombs...

That is it for project fail today. As always feel free to add your own. As always enjoy your Free Loot.

So I got a lot of emails today and yesterday where the two new Screenshots on the blog are taken from. So since today was a pretty crazy day I figured I would use today to showcase my afternoon to find new screens to showcase on the site. I thank Tawnos for being my Photographer.

Taken in front of Grim batol. Was actually Tawnos' idea to go here first as he want to see the Old Azeroth places which won't be the same in the not too distant future.

I just like this shot because it seems as though I am thinking about charging someone and owning them. Taken near the entrance to Grim Batol. Again like the previous come Cataclysm this shot probably won't exist.

You may think this was actually hard to pull off, but it was actually quite simple. I think though if it was taken from below would have been better. Oh well I can show people this to say "hey I stood up there!"

Perfect screen here that I like a lot. Damn in the background. What you can't see if Tawnos almost falling off the waterfall to his death to get this shot. We both ended up dying eventually, but it was all worth it for the shot!

This mug is actually interesting there is a whole wowiki article on it and what the initials on it mean. Along with what actually may have happened at Newman's Landing. If you're interested I would suggest taking a look.

Lastly the outside shot of myself and Tawnos(on the right) with an outside shot of Newman's Landing.

The header picture is taken looking out on the Great Sea basically the opposite angel to this shot and of course the "help" picture is taken with Tawnos' Eagle eyes at the base of Grim Batol. Always love my screenshots and will be sure to always change it up. Enjoy the last day before reset.

Superbowl Fail

So this week looks like the week I will offend the most people. How fun! Well most of you know I am Canadian if you didn't well you do now. Before you ask yes I have a pet polar bear, I eat whale blubber 3 times daily, I have a summer igloo, and of course hockey is the greatest thing there is. Well maybe one of those is right. Now I am a sports fan. I'll watch football, but I am not a die hard follower. I save that for my Maple Leafs. GO LEAFS GO! To me though this game is like a development of a cult. I hear all about these parties that people go nuts for and their team isn't even playing. In the hockey world we would call you people traitors, or bandwagon jumpers. Anyways I have to relate this to WoW.

This is actually pretty simple because plenty of my guildmates are part of this cult and because of this there will not be a normally functioning raid this evening. It is like the silly American Thanksgiving except thank god this only lasts one day. So ya I am bitching because people wont be able to come to a raid because they are doing something, which only happens once a year. Why not let them you ask? I am but that doesn't stop me from bitching about it. So let's go on with my rant. It's even like the halftime show is like the greatest thing going on. Who cares it's just another reason for the companies trying to sell you crap. If you are one of these people count the damn ads. Why doesn't this piss you off? The whole thing is a giant commercial. Speaking of commercials they talk for months about the commercials why? Its so more people will watch them and they can charge the companies more money for the spots. Its like an Oprah show on drugs.

Back to WoW. Every damn year someone logs on to tell me or the guild everything that is going on like I give a crap. You can log on to tell me whats going on? If I cared I would be watching it. Then of course after the game is over there is the endless talk about why so and so won. Again, why must you continue with it. It would be easier to hand me a gun or just shoot me to get it over with. Then of course is the play by play breakdown. Everyone feels the need to tell you what happened since they think because you didn't see it you want to know. Then the talk that it was the best game ever played. I think my brain is bleeding thinking about it.

At least it only happens one day a year because that was too much already. Thanks for killing my Day on WoW. I really do appreciate it!

Next Friday's Reader post will be about what you have done to make a raid on time or stay for the raid. I missed "the game" tonight or will be.

Yet Another Special Person

So I had this slated for a couple days ago, but then the whole Ensidia thing happened and then Friday came, and well I had to push it to today. Which doesn't really matter to anyone besides the guy I told I would make his email the focus of a blog post. Have I mentioned I love hate mail?

Who do you think you are thinking people care wht you have to say? Is your ego that big that you feel you must give it room to grow everyday? Do you think anyone gives a shit what you think about pvp. The only test of skill in this game is in arena. We all know it takes no skill and all to push buttons standing in the same spot for 10 minutes. Ya I am uber awesome because I pve. Get a life. If you knew anything bout arena you wouldn't be saying this crap. Have you even stepped foot in an arena? Did someone kill you and you have to go and cry about it? Most of the people play this game to pvp it is what this game revolves around with it there wouldn't be wow. So before you go insulting everyone who plays this game think for a second. Or is that part of your head been taken over by your ego? Everyone knows you are just some idiot who spams trade and can't even play. Maybe if you did something besides that people would actually care what you have to say. Anyone who listens to anything you say is just as big of a moron as you are. If you ever want to be respected in this game do some arena and prove you are good otherwise you are just some idiot who talks like he thinks people give a crap what he has to say.

So I got this email after this weeks Ask Gauss blog. I expected to get a lot of these, this was by far the best one. I love how people insult you and prove that they know nothing. Yes the famous arena is awesome because in PvE you stand there and push buttons. There is one encounter in Wrath that anyone does that. Also this game was built on PvE and will always be the focus of the game. PvP is just a secondary thing its the Lore that keeps this game the way it is. I don't know the specifics, but I really doubt the number of people that do arena competitively is over 30%. In the post I said simply WoW has no balanced PvP option and this will always be the case, therefore it will never be a complete test of skill. Anyone who argues against that obviously doesn't know anything about PvP in WoW. Did I say arena players were awful? No. Did I say people who play arena sucked? No. I said PvP, which includes arena, in WoW isn't a true test of skill. I said PvE is because all conditions are the same for everyone. So bring on the hate I expected it, but be informed and try to argue against the points I made. Don't react to something that obviously went directly over your head. Enjoy your weekend all.

Raiding is Fun

So it would be Friday which means I take a back seat while you all laugh or poke fun at what others have done. Today are the stories submitted about Raiding. Maybe it was an accidental pull, a wipe, or just something to be remembered. So let's get to it.

I used to play on a PvP server and we were competing with this guild for server firsts. So anyone not involved in the raid for the night was tasked with not allowing this alliance guild to make it to the instance. We would be camping the summoning stone and ready by the instance to kill any of them that came by. This was of course before you could summon inside and instance. Blizzard ruined all the fun. The best was our air crew which would be riding our flying mounts just outside of TK ready to knock people out of the air. They would fall to their death and be unable to rez without sickness. There was so much trash talk it was awesome.

Every time we used to do MC with new people who had never been or were too stupid to realize what we were telling them, we told them about the magic window. They would jump through the "window" behind Golemagg trying to port to Rag only to end up dying. Always made me laugh.

We had these two guys who absolutely hated each other in our guild. They would always be arguing and trying to one up each other. One of them was French and it used to make me piss my pants when he was mad. I always pictured the pink panther. So this one day in SSC he gets MC'd and the other guy kills him. He is so pissed he is screaming it all in French and no one understood what the hell he was saying, but it had to be the most epic QQ i have ever heard. That was until the next pull the other guy got MC'd and the French guy owned him. It was sweet justice the guy ended up quiting the guild and didn't log on for over a week. I guess the French can achieve victory at something...

We used to do Kara on Friday nights for badges and we all used to get absolutely plastered. Basically whenever someone died everyone had to take a shot unless it was yourself. So people would be trying to kill themselves to get others drunk. I remember this one prince kill where our tank was so drunk we ended up hearing him puke over vent. I will never forget that sound. It still gives me nightmares and makes me laugh every time.

I was in a For The Horde run with you and I swear I have never had anyone make me laugh as hard as you did that day. You were insulting and making fun anyone and everyone. It seemed like every 5 minutes was a new Ret Pally joke on queue. The whole don't run up the stairs unless you are retarded part was great. Especially when like 10 people ran up. I guess whatever gets you through it. That run is what got me reading this blog and anyone who hasn't had a chance to run with you, be ready to laugh your ass off.

There were these two friends in my guild one of our tanks and a healer. They were friends outside of the game as well and we all knew this. We were doing Voidreaver in Tempest Keep when our tank one of the friends kept dying. When we decided to look over the healing meters and notice that someone wasn't healing the tank at all. When the raid leader asked him why over vent he said something I won't soon forget. "I refuse to heal the fucker that slept with my wife". Vent went completely silent until the tank said "Not my fault you can't get it up and she has to go some where else". It was intense and so funny at the same time. I never expected to be part of a raid when something like this happened, but I will say it is a great story to tell.

So everyone knows there are some girls in this game that try to get what they want because well they are girls. So we had this one in our who would always get crap from anyone in the guild and out. I heard some crazy stories about whispers, emails, pictures, and anything else you could imagine. Must give her congrats she worked it well. That was until we found out that "she" was a "he". Bunch of the guildies had gotten facebook and used the email addresses from the site to locate people on there. When searching "her" email they found this 30 year old guy. Let's just say a lot of them felt really dirty.

So that's all the room I have for today. TGIF and enjoy your weekend.

Ensidia Banned

Now I had another topic ready to go today, but I think we should go with and talk about what is big news in the WoW world at the moment. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about you can check out here. That is Muqq's rant on what happened and his feelings. For the short version I will show here the email he got from Blizzard, well basically just the banning info.

Date of Violation: 03/02/2010

Character Name Involved: Muqq
Type of violation: Exploitation – Abuse of in-game mechanics or glitches with intent to exploit or cheat in World of Warcraft.
Details: Use of Saronite Bombs to bypass The Lich King fight mechanics Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 72 hours, all items and achievements gained removed.

Basically Ensidia's explanation for it was they were unsure what was causing the bug, but they knew there was one. They argued that if they would have stopped and reported what was going on then someone could have got the kill before them. For a guild focused on world first this is a big deal to them. They thought like this a)risk waiting and not being first or b)someone else using the bug and getting the kill first. So they say the argument without knowing what was causing it they couldn't try to not use the bug without trying to pinpoint what it was therefore wasting their attempts. Did that make sense? So they went on doing what they were doing and got their kill. Now they go on to say even with doing this the kill was still messy. Just imagine if it had been done the right way? If I was in there position not knowing what was causing it and still trying to get that kill I can honestly say I wouldn't have stop trying. I would like to think I would have reported it while still trying. Therefore covering myself from any of this happening. Think about it GMs find out the encounter gets shutdown for a hotfix and no one can do it. They messed up and should be punished its that simple. Ya it probably sucks for them as they may be a week behind on heroic modes but they made the mistake and they have to live with it. I really doubt Hard Mode Arthas will be killed the first week so they still have a chance to get the World First on that. Also at the time of writing this no one else has killed him on normal so who knows.

So really I would say live with what you did. No use complaining about it when you could have done something about it, and prevented it from happening. You are not mad at Blizzard for not finding or knowing it existed, you are mad you got caught using it. If it were about the bug you would have reported it when you realized something was up.

Reminder today is your last day to get your raid stories in. Kinda interesting that this topic came up while dealing with that.

Ask Gauss

It's Wednesday meaning it is time for the first "Ask Gauss" of February. Truth be told the questions I decided to publish today are actually ones that I think many of you will find interesting. So much so that you may complete disagree and even go off on me for saying such things, but that makes it more fun doesn't it?

I know you're a big fan of Warcraft Lore. Have you been happy with Wrath with what it has had to offer Lore wise?

I would have to say yes for a lot of reasons. I feel the story lines of all the new quests were very well put together. Of course the Lich King stuff you expect to be done well because well he is the main focus of the expansion. Even if sometimes I wanted him to just own me. Ulduar and all the lead up to it was done brilliantly. You find as Brann says "roaming the halls of the titans" it really felt epic. The ToC patch although minimal and the filler patch of this expansion offered the story of more tension between the Horde and Alliance, something I will never look down upon. Even if I am not a fan of Garrosh his character has really come into its own during the expansion. Something I feel will lead to many good things in the future. The Wrath gate and battle for Undercity added to this. I think that whole quest to me has been one of the big highlights of the expansion.

The Icecrown patch has been everything I have wanted to be if not more. Arthas is one of the greatest characters in the history of Warcraft Lore and they have been playing it right. The scenes in Halls of Reflection were great and really play out how you would want them to. "Silence Paladin" one of the best lines of the expansion in my opinion. The Saurfang event played out well and had great intros and outros for both Alliance and Horde something which I think was extremely important. I know there is much too look forward to when the Lich King finally falls. The video is out and I haven't watched it and I wont until I have watched it in game. So no point in asking me to comment about that as of yet. They have put stock in it and I hope I am not disappointed.

This all being said Deathwing is my favourite Villain in Warcraft Lore so I am pumped for Cataclysm for this reason. If you haven't had the chance get to know him before hand and you will completely understand what I am talking about.

So we hear this all the time PvE or PvP which is harder?

Harder isn't the word I would use. They require many different traits and/or talents. They also require a lot of the same. To me though both should be a test of skill and if I am being completely honest PvE does this much better than PvP in WoW. Now before all you PvPers go crazy let me explain.

PvP does take effort to be good I am not going to deny that. The problem is the best test of skill for PvP would be equal balance. This doesn't even get into class cookie cutter combos in arena because that is a completely different issue. To me when you PvP against another team which is not evenly matched that completely discounts the skill aspect and you get into handicaps. This is why First Person shooters are great PvP games, because everyone is created equal. You are all even and it is about the person who adapts the best to the environment, the other people in the environment, and of course learning from expierence. You develop the skill to do this effectively. WoW doesn't have the setup for this. They could put it in, but I don't ever see it happening. Why? Because WoW is about improving yourself. If everyone gets modeled and molded every time they enter a BG or an Arena that there would never be the place for this.

So yes in WoW I think PvE is the best test of skill because the measures are in place to do this the right way. Again this doesn't mean any idiot can PvP or that idiots don't PvE it just means what the game allows and the way the game is.

Do you ever smile?

Anytime a ret pally dies.

So I can only imagine the feedback today, but bring it on I am looking forward to it.