Friday, April 29, 2011

Things You All Like About 4.1

So it is Friday and with every Friday comes a Reader Post. The post of the week which is made up of contributions from all of you. This week I asked you all to send in your submissions for what you think the best feature or thing added with 4.1. So without going on and on this is what you all thought.

All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Shield Bash, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities. My husband the tank/raid leader has been looking forward to this one for weeks now. In 10 man it negates the need to lose a dps from where you need them, or put them in a difficult spot just because you need to interrupt. The first phase of the Council fight in BoT is a prime example. Unless you have an elemental shaman you lose a melee from a boss where you need to focus all your dps at one point, and that melee has to run in and out or die instantly to Glaciate.

Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. This is the greatest change because it should have been in so long ago. I remember how bad the Lich King fight was when you couldn't see defile over frost traps. This just makes sense and has already made so many things easier. Thank you Blizzard so much.

Guild Challenges has added a very easy way for my guild to gain XP. The problems we have had lately is that people have been done questing for awhile and grinding instances so this has given us a way to get some XP and guild gold quickly and easily. When we are level capped I can just imagine how easy this will make it for the guild to fund things.

Call to Arms has shortened the DPS queues so much. I never thought they would get this low and I am glad they have. I can log on do a heroic and be off in about an hour if I want. I don't have to queue and be alt tabbed and be afraid I will miss the queue popping. And who cares about the damn bag.

The questline in STV was a lot of fun. Getting to know what you are going to be up against in ZG makes it feel like you are more involved with the Lore of the zone. I love when Blizzard gives you this opportunity with phasing and such. I hope this is exactly how it feels when we go into the Firelands.

There you have it. Thank you to everyone who submitted something it is always appreciated. I am sorry I cannot include everything it would just it too long and drawn out. If you are interested in participating check out Sunday's Ask Gauss post to see next week's topic. Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Firelands Just Wow

So I said when the screenshots came out for the Firelands that I was beyond impressed with what they did with the zone. It was done in such a way that it was intimidating but not completely overdone, which to me is the perfect balance. Now yesterday Blizzard released "Through the Fire and the Flames" with this description.

Feast your eyes on the adventures that await when World of Warcraft patch 4.2 takes you through the fire and flames and into the Firelands.

Now why did they say that? Because they released these two videos


This is the daily quest preview which is showcasing the zone. What I find extremely interesting is that at one point you see the quest givers. It seems Maiev is there. Now it could just be someone dressed in the same getup, but why would Blizzard do that with such a trademark lore character?


This is, of course, the raid preview. Looks as if the bosses have encounters that don't seem too simple at least by the looks of things. Fandral looks pretty awesome, was that scorpion form? The two Magmaws before Ragnaros is a pretty interesting touch and his new model looks extremely intimidating. I remember the first time Ragnaros was sent back to the plane for us. I can only imagine how epic it will feel this time to actually really kill him on his home turf at full power.

So you see the zone and the raid. I don't know how you can say it doesn't look awesome. Through the Fire and the Flames I cannot wait.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Rise Of The Zandalari

So patch 4.1 was yesterday, and I went through and did the questline in Stranglethorn. I thought it was pretty well done besides the lack of zombies in the zombie part of the line. I thought introducing you to each boss in Zul'Gurub was a great way of making it apparent of the war you are facing. The battle in Grom was my favourite of the quests and makes me wonder if the Alliance get the screwed in this regard. One of you Alliance types would have to tell me.

It is kind of disappointing that there isn't the same for Zul'Aman and I am only assuming this is because it is located in Ghostlands and a Burning Crusade zone isn't one that Blizzard wants to showcase and the current time.

The instances themselves weren't too difficult, but for people who have been raiding this tier I would hope they aren't too difficult for you since you obviously outgear them by a good margin. For the people they are geared towards I would think they are a bit of a challenge. For these people who outgear it, they can use the increased points, call to arms system, and of course achievements and rewards in these instances.

Overall I am happy with the lore and story of this patch thus far, and if you haven't seen the trailer for it well here it is



Enjoy the patch and its features. Of course make sure you take the time to experience it and not just rush through it as it is a one time thing and you won't get the opportunity again.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

You Fail At Patch 4.1 If...

So it is Tuesday which means another Fail Day is upon us. This Fail Day is more special than others ones for the obvious fact that is Patch Day. So obviously on such a special day I would have to point out the ways to fail. It is just my service to all of you.

You Fail At Patch 4.1 If...
  • You expect that you will be able to log on with no issues and play like any other day.
  • You are still complaining that the 140 valor points thing for ZG and ZA is getting put in
  • You are saying the buffs to frost mages are proof that they are not overpowered in PvP
  • You now are so much better at arms because you don't have to watch rend. It just proves you were just horrible
  • You were one of the people that needed the heroic nerfs
  • You think guild challenges will actually be hard
  • You are complaining the guild profession achievement numbers are still way too high
  • You were stockpiling maelstrom crystals to sell today
  • You are still overstacking resilience
  • You are queuing as tank or healer in a DPS spec just so you can get the Bag
  • You don't take part in the Stanglethorn questline
  • You are going on an on about how they just changed the colours of old mounts to make yours worthless
  • You ever say again how it is hard to find a guild that is recruiting
  • You are still complaining there is nothing no to find with archaeology
and finally
  • You haven't updated any of your addons
There you have it all your guide to not fail at 4.1. Happy Patch Day and good look trying to make this a free loot Tuesday.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Darrowshire

It is Monday normally very depressing, but it is a holiday here so it isn't quite as bad as a normal Monday. Monday's are also time for me to showoff some of the great machinima out there. Speaking of that, for those who don't know I am a big fan of Cranius he has done some great work creating his own original songs dealing directly with WoW. This one Darrowshire has to do with the questline in its entiriy. I don't know in fact \in the question chain remains the same after Cataclysm but that takes nothing away from the machinima and the story it tells. So for your viewing pleasure here is Cranius and Darrowshire.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Ask Gauss

Happy Easter Everyone! If you don't celebrate Easter I really don't care if that offended you, maybe it offends me that you don't celebrate Easter, did you ever think about that? Anyways, since that will take care of my hate mail for the week I can go on with the post. With it being Sunday you all should know by now that it is Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I just sit back and answer questions, probably because on a Sunday morning there really isn't that much to do. Questions as always were sent in to me, and if you still don't know how to go about doing that I fear for you, and hopefully you don't have any children. Ok, I am done time for the questions.

So with 4.1 soon upon us what are your thoughts on the political situation?

I assume you are referring to the Vol'jin and Garrosh situation. For those who don't know Vol'jin with the revelation of this troll threat has send representatives to Stormwind to try and get the Alliance to help with the situation. He also never asks Garrosh for help and instead deals with it through his own methods through the Horde. Now one could say he is not bothering his Warchief with something that he can take care of himself, but this obviously isn't the case. Anyone who has seen the little conversation on the Echo Isles knows that Vol'jin seeks to see Garrosh fail. He thinks Garrosh is a hot head that will doom the Horde. Frankly, though it is my opinion that when Garrosh took over this may indeed have been the case, but seeing how he reacts in certain situations especially in Stonetalon I tend to think Garrosh is becoming the Warchief Thrall knew he could be.

All that of course has no bearing on the current situation. The Horde situation is hostile at best between the leaders, and when the time comes to head to Firelands and there may need some time for the Horde and the Alliance to coexist to meet the goal of defeating the Firelord, I think situations such as this will make that much more difficult.

Any gold tips for 4.1?

How about a couple?

First off there is a couple things enchanters may like to know.

Enchants that previously required only an item level of 35 or higher, will now require a character level of 25 also and The level 60 enchants from Wrath of the Lich King will now require character level 50 to use. Well this means that people who enjoy twinking are going to replace some enchants. So if you are an enchanter that like to sell old enchants this is something you need to take advantage of because this is a one time chance to get the gold from the twinks who are switching enchants.

For JCs

Crafted epic armor is having gem sockets added. Now we know that crafted epics are i359's. We know that depending on which, we will see unsocketed gear from the very moment that we can log in on Tuesday. Meaning people will need gems for there gear which suddenly has empty sockets. You want to be the ones they buy gems from.

Lastly sell your maelstroms while you can the market value is going to crash with the release of ZG and ZA.

The feature you are looking forward to most in 4.1?

The guild recruitment feature without a doubt.

So that is it for this week hope you all got what you were looking for. The next Reader Post topic is going to be the new feature you are enjoying most about 4.1. As always you have until Thursday night to get the submissions in. Enjoy what is left of your weekend and Happy Easter.

Friday, April 22, 2011

So Yes That Happened

So it is Good Friday for all you religious people out there that this is part of your religion, and for all you other people it is a Good Friday because you get it off. So before I go on this rant and get more than my fair share of hate mail Friday means it is time for the Reader Post. The Post of the week where I leave it to all of you to contribute to the topic at hand. This week I had yo usend in stories or screens of some weird or strange things that have happened to you lately. So let's see what you all came across.

So I was heading to outland to farm some ores for a friend of mine when lo and behold the moment i step through a horde of BL demonds were headiing up the steps through the dark portal. Last I checked or when I was last actively in outland the forces of both Horde and Alliance was able to keep the legion troops in check easily. The only way there were any break through was if someone kited the pit lord to the top of the stairs and even then eventually the pitlord would be zerged and killed. So imagine my surprise when not only did they broke through the Alliance and Horde ranks but was appeared to be winning the stairs of destiny with any reinforcement they alliance call in getting cut down piecemeal by piecemeal.

Only weird thing I've seen that I can think of off the top of my head, was in Vanilla WoW, in Scholomance there was some weird like graphic error, where a doodad became so stretched that it went through most of the instance...like the worlds longest piece of taffy.....and for some reason you could walk on it...
On my realm at the org AH, there were around 5 container things with like pumps on them, and they would periodically make giant blue clouds of light on the ground around them that swirled around...  I didnt get a screeny because my comp fails and I was lagging from the lights, but they disappeared after 30 seconds or so. No, Im not high

It seems that with Cataclysm we got much more definition in the game in terms of shadows. I don't think that I remember seeing shadows as clearly in Wrath (though my memory is horrible, so who knows). A neat looking shadow of a dragon in Deepholm: Anyways, to get back to the point... the shadows are so vivid to the extent that I get freaked out when I'm herbing or mining. I see a shadow and freak out because I think its someone else trying to ninja my herb or node. My heart races a bit faster as I curse the damn ninja, and I swoop down even faster... only to realize it's just my own shadow. And the saddest part is that it is bound to happen again. /sigh

I kinda walked in on these people...


I found Bambi and her skunk and bunny buddy. Too bad I wasn't a hunter...


So that is it for this week. Thank you to everyone who made a submission. If you are interested in contributing to next week's post look for the on Sunday during Ask Gauss. Enjoy your weekend and your Easter if you are into that sort of thing.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Fandral

So if you have not seen it yet Fandral Staghelm's Cat form has been revealed as it will look in patch 4.2.


All I can say is if my druid cat form looked like this it would make me want to actually play a druid. Well probably not, but it looks pretty awesome. What I would like to know is the story and lore behind how he of all people is going to be a boss in the Firelands raid. When you think about it h really doesn't fit at all the people you would think would be in the Firelands. You think of elemantals, maybe some demons, large constructs, but a Druid? In a land of fire and destruction of a land the anti druid, we will have one of the most recognizable druids in the game. Regardless of the fact that he went mad with the Nightmare and all that he is still a druid, so I would like to know the "why".

Seeing this Cat Form makes me really interested to see the Bear, Mookin, Flight, etc. Of course, his regular human form is probably going to be something to behold as well. So Fandral the druid always in Malfurion's shadow all these years seems he finally has something to be remembered for.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cataclysm Boss Quotes

So as you know I am a fan of keeping the sound on in this game so I figured I would see how well you all know specific boss quotes throughout the game in Cataclysm. So let's see how much you all pay attention and to the heroics and the raid you have been in.

1)Al'Akir, your servant calls for aid!

2)I have no need for eyes to see my enemies. Your clumsy footsteps and foul stench give you away!

3)The burden of the damned falls upon you!

4)Chaos, Madness it's like a hug for your brain
5)This little one will vex me no longer.

6)Omega Stance activated. Annihilation of foreign unit is now imminent.

7)Bodies to test my armaments upon!

8)I have tried to be an accommodating host, but you simply will not die. Time to throw all pretense aside and just KILL YOU ALL!

9)What they lack in intelligence they make up for in ferocity!

10)Break yourselves upon my body. Feel the strength of the earth!

11)Witness the power of pure water!
12)Nothing more than dust in the wind.

13)An impressive display...

14)Rerouting excess energy to "name" unit. Engage flamethrower device.

15)How dare you call me worthless?! You will see why I am mother's favoured child!

That is it good luck leave your answers below or send them in email and see how you do.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

You Fail At Arena If...

Fail Day! Oh how excited I get on Tuesday knowing I can preach the ways of failure to the masses. I still find it quite amusing it is the most popular day of mine, but hey people enjoy seeing others fail miserably. This week I decided to go head strong into the ways of failing at arena. I know how PvPers get so I have a feeling this will be a rather fun topic.

You Fail At Arena If...
  • You feel frost mages are underpowered and need a buff
  • You are a pally who gets Crowd Controlled
  • You choose to use Hand of Freedom on yourself and not your teammates, instead of dispelling yourself.
  • You play without projected textures
  • You are a Boomkin
  • You are a warrior who fails at changing stances
  • You stand there and complain a pally has bubbled instead of breaking it.
  • You send your pet in and get it killed while you do nothing
  • You have no Trinket
  • The concept of LoS evades you
  • You are a shaman who thinks purge is a waste of time
  • You believe disarm is for scrubs
  • You are a warlock who trys to fear spam a warrior
  • Your resilience is lower than your age
and finally
  • You think because you Arena you are the greatest gift to anyone and everyone
And there we have it, this week's edition of fail. Hope you all enjoyed it, and makes you feel that much better about yourself and feel that much sorry for OMGIPWNYOUNOOB.

Monday, April 18, 2011

How To Win At Achievements

So Monday is here, once again, and that means it is time to showcase a machinima. Today I decided to go with one that will make you laugh, because everyone needs a laugh on a Monday don't they? WoWCendor a Machinimator who loves to tell you "how to win" is back with a topic which you would have thought he would have done by now, achievements. This even if you have just been exposed to a little bit of WoW is absolutely hilarious. To all the people that asked for a story machinima I have a good one for next week. I just wanted to share some laughs this week.



There you go with this weeks machinima hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Good luck on your last day before reset.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Ask Gauss

Sunday is here once again, surprisingly at the same time it came last week. I know crazy isn't it? As with every Sunday some people go to church, some people clean, some people make it a point to do absolutely nothing, and I answer questions. Yes, for you new people or older ones that suffer from memory loss Sunday is Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I answer questions thrown at me during the week. Well not thrown at me, although that makes me wonder how one would throw a question? Anyways, getting back on topic yes I answer questions. Some might ask how do you ask a question, and without making them feel to stupid I would say there is a link on the top right of the page or you can send your questions directly to gaussafication@gmail.com. So with all of that rambling out of the way shall I just answer some?

What character in the game do you think needs some love?

Well this is actually a very interesting question. A few days ago Rades over at Orcish Army knife made a post detailing how specific classes have real role models and how the Priest class does not. Of course, I was quick to state that Rohan was probably one of the best priest role models in the game. This is true, but then Rades was quick to inform me that in game he really doesn't get as much love as someone of his stature should. I know his background, and I at times forget that others may not. There is also the fact I also do not play Alliance so his role is even less visible to myself. So my answer is the simple one. Time to get Rohan some love. Give him some time in the spotlight to show everyone playing in Azeroth that he has a role to play.

So 4.1 is coming soon is this a good thing?

I don't think 4.1 coming soon is necessarily a good thing. What I think is the good thing with 4.1 coming is that 4.2 won't be too far away. There are a lot of great new things coming with 4.1 and I am looking forward to their implementations, but the main thing that is needed now is new content so people don't get bored with the game and start wanting to do other things. Firelands is something that the WoW population has been looking forward to for a long time. The raid where we will go back and say high to our favourite Firelord. So the sooner 4.1 comes which will probably be by the end of the month or the first week of the next means we will probably see 4.2 by the end of May or the start of June. The sooner the better.

What is the weirdest thing you have seen or heard happen lately game wise?

I saw a Mage ask a Pally for a portal, and the Pally gave it to them...

That is it for this week. Hope you all enjoyed it and got some answers you may or may not have needed. Next week's Reader Post I want you to send in your weird occurrences that have happened lately. As always you have until Thursday night to get them into me. Enjoy what is left of your weekend

Friday, April 15, 2011

Go Go Screenshot

Friday is here if you didn't know, and if you didn't well damn I want some of whatever you had. For the rest of us that are in tune with our senses it is Friday and with Friday comes the Reader Post. This week I did something a little different. Instead of sending in a story or whatever I asked you all to send in screenshots from Cataclysm that you have taken or seen that have been nothing short of amazing. So yes just sit back and enjoy these epic screens.

Beautiful Shot of Thousand Needles
 
 Al'Akir closeup very timely shot
 I believe this is Brill
 Uldum at night looks even better
 Deathwing on a rampage
 Looking up at Greymane Manor I believe
 Nefarian Reborn
 Gilneas City
 Some Seahorse fun in the Reef
 Flying Worgen going to Argus I believe...
The Goblin tower out in Twilight Highlands. This shot is amazing

There you have it. Thank you to everyone who submitted screenshots. Know if I didn't post yours that I looked at it and I thank you for participating. I can only post so many. As always if you want to take part in the Reader Post look for next week's topic during Ask Gauss post every Sunday. Enjoy your weekend everyone

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Favourite Boss This Expansion

So I have been asked about my favourite boss in this Expansion and of course with this expansion just starting I can only answer that question being at this point in time. Compared to the first tier of Wrath this expansion has had mechanics from bosses which I dare to say have been enjoyable to challenging. Some of my favourites are Al'Akir, because I am just a fan of encounters where you need to be on the move and aware. It really shows of you as a player. Although, encounters such as these can be extremely frustrating to do, because not everyone shares my same view. I also enjoyed the Twilight Drakes because I think they really took the Felmyst encounter and improved it in a way to make it original and not overly punishing. Blizzard is great at doing this, taking an encounter mechanic that was good and making it better. Now the drakes aren't exactly like Felmyst I was mostly referring to the breath mechanic, but you get my point. I also got quite the laugh out the the Ascendant Council or otherwise known as Captain Planet. With all he encounters in this expansion so far though there is one that stands out as just much better than every other

Atramedes

The entire design of the encounter was done extremely well from the sound waves, to the breath, to the gongs, all of it was done perfectly in my opinion. You can't make mistakes here, and it requires very good execution in order to be successful.

So there it is my pick, thoughts?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

It Has Been A Year

So for those that don't know it has been a year since the sparkle pony was released to the WoW community. I remember this a year ago all the talk that was going on that this event would bring about the destruction of WoW on so many levels. People were saying that by this time we would be able to buy tier sets for real money, Blizzard would have their own gold selling endeavours, could pay special fees to have your character start at specific levels, and so much more things that could be bought with real money.

So it has been a year, and guess what? None of this has happened. It was a mount that was sold for real money as a micro transaction, and that is still what it is. Blizzard is not going to be selling gear, points, gold, levels, or anything like that. They built this game to have ease of access to everyone. They want everyone to be comfortable playing this game, and I believe they have achieved that goal more than any other game that has been created. Yes, we do have this new mount that you can buy and again we will have all this "Death of WoW as we know it". The fact of the matter is simple Blizzard will continue to sell items that mean little to the game as a whole in the store. This includes, pets, mounts, and maybe even some collective RP gear eventually. So on this day one year later let us realize the company we are dealing with and the game they created.

On another note I have been told my screenshot up top is too old now, and I need a new one. I am taking suggestions for it, so just let me know.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

You Fail At Professions If...

And once again it is everyone's favourite day, Fail Day. Yes every Tuesday we get to celebrate anyone and everyone who fails at WoW. This week we go to something so elementary I would believe I would have done it before. Of course, Tehman pointed out that I have not yet done it as a topic. So now sit back because it is time to feel better about yourself.

You Fail At Professions If...
  • None of your professions are maxed
  • You complain you have no gold and yet all of your profession cooldowns are never used
  • Your rings are not enchanted and you are an enchanter
  • You don't use the extra sockets Blacksmithing gives
  • You have 0 JC gems as a JC
  • You are missing the glove boost as an Engineer
  • Your cloak is not embroidered as a Tailor
  • You dont use the Leatherworking Enchant
  • You have no shoulder enchant as a Inscriptionist
  • You have not learned all the seondary Professions
  • You think queuing as a tank should give you some sort of socket bonus since this is how you make your gold
  • You think Archaelogy is fun and enjoyable
  • You think you shouldn't have to pay someone for clicking a button if it was your mats
  • You believe begging is a profession
and finally
  • You have a turtle mount, because I hate you for it
And there you have it, this week's edition of fail. Hope you all got a good laugh. Good luck on this Free Loot Tuesday, may all the drops you seek be sharded or given to the ret pally for some unknown purpose. Just kidding...

Monday, April 11, 2011

The Hunt

Monday is here once again, which means it is time for me to showcase another machinima. This week I decided to showcase one that never got finished and may never get finished. I remember when the first teaser came out, then the first trailer I was beyond impressed and was pumped for it to get finished. Sadly I don't think it ever wil,l but these two machinima still stand out as some of the best ever created. I know after showing you these you will probably be mad at me, because you will now want to see this movie in its entirety. So without making you wait to see these any long here is Fubarius'  "The Hunt"





So like I said I am sorry for showing you something that will probably never get finished, but this in itself is something epic in itself.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Ask Gauss

Oh Sunday how we missed you. Thank you for returning at the most unexpected time of the week. Ok that was my poor attempt and humor for the day. So as most if not all of you know Sunday means it is time for Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I answer questions sent to me throughout the week, I know exciting isn't it? Also in an attempt to make sure I no longer get asked how to send in questions, it is simple. There is a link at the top of the page that you can click on or you can send an email directly to gaussafication@gmail.com. Yes I know it is very simple, but some how someway it seems the ret pally comes out in people and they fail. So shall we get to the questions?

I am sure everyone has asked you this, but what is your opinion of Call to Arms?

Easy, I think this is a wonderful idea for a variety of reasons. First off, what is the problem? Long queue times for DPS. How do we solve it? Get more non DPS in the queue. How do you get people to do things they don't want to do? Offer them something for doing it. So Blizzard has tried to make healing and tanking more interesting this didn't work in the way it was intended. So by offering rewards of any kind no matter how rare this will do many things. For one DPS with tank or healer offspec capabilities will be attempting to do so. Players that are insane about collecting and don't have the offspec option will roll an alt to sure this purpose, because of the bind on account nature. The last one and I think the most important one. The tank or healer that is geared and doesn't need to do a heroic now has a reason for doing so other than just being bored. They have something to aim for no matter how rare it is. Remember these are the people that raid week after week hoping for a drop, they will do anything if there is a chance. So regardless this will increase the tank and healer pool there isn't any doubt of that.

Now for the people  complaining that they play a DPS class and this is unfair. You all just need to just shutup and know you have no right to complain. Blizzard doesn't even have to find a reason to lower your queue times. They could be like a bank and say yep 30 minutes is a good enough time for someone to wait. They found a way that will reduce your queue times probably by at least half and you find a way to complain and about getting nothing out of it. You are getting half your wait out of it. So please just shutup about it.

How do you give a player who needs help, help without offending them?

This is situation that many people don't want to be in. If someone is struggling or you know they can do better. I am one of those people that want to help. If it is pointing out just some gemming issues, asking them about rotations, keyboard turning and clicking, or UI setup. There is always a way to approach it without talking down to people. Now there have situations where I have been in where I have offered advice and been snapped back at as a know it all. Those kinds of people are the ones that will always believe it is their way or no other, and will just go on with under preforming. You can even offer resources or videos to help people out because frankly that is the best way some people learn. You can type for years and years explaining a fight, but someone could watch one video and understand. Some people will be offended regardless and you cant help it, but it is the ones that you do help and that will thank you for it that will make you happy to help someone else in the future.

What is your best Screenshot or the best one you have seen from Cataclysm?

Simple

That is it for this week, hope you all got what you needed out of my ramblings. For those waiting for it next week's Reader Post I want you all to send in your screenshots or ones you have seen that are nothing shy of awesome. Enjoy what is left of your weekend everyone.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Epic Stories Of Death

Friday is here once again, which means it is time for the weekly Reader Post. The post which is composed of your stories, just to show everyone out there who much really goes on. This week I asked you all to send in stories of some epic death moments. Now I got some retarded DKs saying they would have sent something in, but they have yet to die haha aren't you so funny. Let's get to the real stories that we actually care about.

My epic moment of death was when I was playing the goblin version of football at lvl 4 then watching Deathwing show up and set everything on fire, all the goblins went into "O meh godz itz a dragoon" mode...was pretty sweet. Although my attempts to hit him with the football were not effective.

By far the most epic moment of death in this game comes in Stonetalon Mountains. I have rolled alts just to see that cutscene again and agan. "Am I a murderer, Krom'gar?" is one of my favourite Garrosh quotes and then when he says "YOU ARE DISMISSED." and throws him off the cliff is just pure epicness.

So I was in this Sarth 10 3D group and it was taking forever for this raid leader to explain what the hell to do. Like really it is a 3D zerg what is there to really do? Anyways, while he was talking and talking I decided to play around in those Whirlwinds that shoot you back and in the air and everything. You know to occupy myself. When the most fluke thing happened One whirlwind shot me into another then into another then into Sarth took the group completely off guard and I died along with the entire group. It was pretty epic and well worth the cost of repairs.

How about Sylvannas getting shot in the back of the head out of no where. Let me tell you that was the last thing I expected to happen. I was like "HOLY CRAP SYLVANNAS JUST GOT OWNED". I always wondered though when a Alliance character goes and does Shadowfang Keep Godfrey is just there, aren't they like wtf?

We were doing Illidan when it was current content and if you remember there are those shadowfiend type things that spawn off of people. Well let's just say some how some way we had like 50 of those things running around when it was just me and the tank left when he died, but these fiends because there was so many were lagging everyone. I don't even remember if I died just before or just after he died, but I have never in my life seen that many spawn it was pretty hilarious.

There you have it. That is it for this week. As always you cannot be a part of the post if you don't send anything in. So make sure you look for next week's topic during Ask Gauss post on Sunday. Enjoy your weekend! It is supposed to be nice weather here so I will hope for the same for all of you.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

New Area?

So some exploring on the PTR  from some have found this area, it is found between Feralas and Silithus in the mountains in the area. It seems to be some sort of resort area where people are sitting around enjoying themselves in one way or another. They are marked as Gatgetzan faction, so neutral, meaning Alliance and Horde will be able to explore this area whatever the purpose of it may be. Who knows it may be associated with a holiday or something like that, but who really knows. What you can see is one of Silverpine and Hillsbrad's favourite NPCs is back. Yes, Johnny Awesome seems to have returned in this area and for what reason who really knows. Let's just hope we done have to save him and his sparkle pony and he is just their on his vacation.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Character Customization

So the Ask the Devs questions for armor and weapons became available and one question, which I have talked about quite a few times came up.

Q: Is it possible to let the players create/edit their own looks? - Zed Loft (Taiwan), Vysha (NA/ANZ), Ráchel (EU
German)


A: As we said in an earlier Q&A, we definitely hear loud and clear from players that they want more customization for their character. This is something we want to provide, but we want to do it in the right way. Consider the Barber Shop feature. It lets you change your character's hair, but there's not a lot of gameplay to it. We're not sure that feature really added a lot to the game in retrospect. Is WoW more fun for you now that you have a Barber Shop? Are you more likely to keep playing because of it? Maybe, but it wasn't a cheap feature to add in terms of development time. Dumping a bunch of dyes on the game might have a similar effect, where some players might have fun playing around with the system for a bit, but a lot of players might change their colors once or twice and then forget about the feature after that. Now, not every aspect of the game needs a ton of depth and a lot of interesting decisions, but we tend to attract more players to a feature the more robust the feature is.

We also think it's fair to argue that the game just needs more armor and weapon art. As we said above, we deliver a lot of art these days, but we also produce an enormous number of new items every expansion or patch and it's understandably disappointing whenever items use the same art. It would be really cool if not every mage or priest converged on the same look after a given expansion or patch.

So...

What I don't agree with in this statement is they are comparing armor set customization to the barber shop. Why do you ask? Well for the simple reason is you don't get a new head every tier level. Many people use the barber shop once or twice and are done with it. Others use it multiple times and I agree that is a few and far between. So that comparison I think is the wrong one to use.
 
The only reason I would be against dyes is a simple one. Even if you have so many colour choices it comes down to the fact that they don't want everyone picking the same colour for everything. As you have seen in LOTRO there are so many people in black it is stupid. This is why I think my idea of reusing old sets would be the best course of action. It keeps the art design useful that has been made in the past and we won't have screenshots where we have a sea of single coloured toons.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

You Fail At Bastion Of Twilight

Happy Fail Day everyone! So to go on with my Cataclysm raid failures I will be moving on to the Bastion of Twilight. So remember when reading this that when you do these things it really does sound as stupid as you think it does. It just shows you how much anyone person can fail at some things, which are pretty damn simple. So here goes

You Fail At Bastion Of Twilight If...
  • You choose to not release any of the drakes
  • You have issues avoiding giant fireballs falling down from the sky
  • The concept of "you must interrupt that" is a difficult one
  • You have problems understanding what standing parallel to the incoming fire elemental means
  • You consistently add to your totals of "dying in fire and lava"
  • Stacking up like a deck of cards is difficult for you
  • Not standing in pink swirlies is hard
  • The words breathing coming to left/middle/right is foreign to you
  • Having your name screamed on vent to get the hell out of the group some how doesn't trigger a reaction
  • Stop dps till the other boss catches up is just something you won't do
  • You run around hugging everyone if you are the target for lightning rod
  • You confuse "get grounded" with something your parents were yelling at you
  • You enjoy standing in pretty black pools because they make you feel special
  • You prefer to have 100% corruption all the time and do everything you can do to ensure this happens as quickly as possible.
and finally
  • You had no idea that there are portals which will port you up to further points in the instance.
That is it for this week. Hopefully this not only helps you explain to others how dumb some of the things they are doing, but also may even help yourself in your own raiding. Good luck on this Free Loot Tuesday, may your drops be plenty.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Divided Soul

It is Monday and some if not most of you are dreading that fact. So maybe I can at least make some of the pain and suffering go away. As is tradition on Monday's is to showcase a machinima that I think you all will enjoy. This week I am showing you all a machinima I have shown off before, but it is my favourite machinima of all time. The story is complex and thought provoking and the presentation is extremely well done. Not to mention the great twist at the end. So now for your viewing pleasure I give you Divided Soul by Falch Productions, the same person that brought us the Tales of the Past series.



Hope you all enjoyed it. Good luck on your last day before reset.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Ask Gauss

Sunday is upon us once again. A day of relaxing and the realization that tomorrow is Monday and we have plenty of things to not look forward to. Or plenty of things to look forward to depending on your outlook on those kinda things. Sunday in Gauss Land is pretty simple. I answer questions.I know very difficult. Although, the difficult part seems to be people understanding how to send them to me. Once again top right of the page or just email me at gaussafication@gmail.com. So with that out of the way once again let's get to this week's questions.

Before Cata, I had a great time, every time I joined your weekend For The Horde raids. I was wondering when you planned to resume it.

I have been asked this quite a few times so I will put it up here so we will have something concrete. For The Horde raids when I started them in Wrath were in the ToC days. Meaning we already outgeared the world leaders by a significant margin. Also there was the matter that the leaders were in unpopulated regions so if we had the element of surprise then you could be in and out without much issue with a massive amount of defence. Now, of course, with killing all 4 Alliance would catch on, but still you would be ready for that. So this means that I need to get a set group of organized group, which I have now, who are geared to a level where they can control the boss and that "the mob of Alliance" can be contained by the trade chat crowd. I am not saying it is going to be easy at all, because I don't think it will be, but I think we have it down. So look for the raids to be up and running as early as next weekend.

Do you think it is important for raiders to know how other classes work?

I believe it is. Now if you are a raid leader then you really need to understand what every class is capable of. What classes are best suited to tank such and such, what raid buffs each class/spec brings, which healers heal the raid, which healer tanks heals, what classes have very good AoE DPS, and so on and so forth. Now if you are just an everyday raider you don't need to know the ins and outs of every class, but you should know how particular classes complement you. Meaning the buffs they bring vs the ones you do, CC they have, movement capability, is there overlap? Understanding this will help you be the best possible raider you can be. Think of it this way, if you can help the other members of your raid be better then you are helping your raid as a whole, and that means success is coming your way, which is the point isn't it?

What do you consider an epic death moment?

One that years later everyone remembers and never lets you live down.

That is it for this week. Hope you all got the answers you were looking for. Next week's Reader Post I want to know about all your Epic Death Moments. I know you have them and I know everyone wants to hear about them. As always you have until Thursday Night to get them in so take your time, but don't waste time.

Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

What Would Be Your Guild Challenge?

So today is Saturday and I don't normally post on Saturday, but for those who didn't notice I didn't post the Reader Post yesterday. Now anyone who email me and asked if anything was wrong got quite the surprise when they got my Apirl Fools Day reply. No I am not quiting the game and no longer writing on this blog. I had a good time with it, I hope all those who got fooled did as well. So back to what the Reader Post was about this week. I asked you all to send in what you think would be a good guild challenge. So here is what some of you came up with.

I think a great idea for a guild challenge would be a server wide challenge. Like say the most raid bosses a guild can kill on a Tuesday compared to the other guilds Or the most bossed killed in a week. Or say the most arena matches won, or the most rated battlegrounds. I think making the server more competitive would be a great way to make guilds have a reason to strive to be the best at any certain aspect they are focusing on.

Timed run challenges are a great idea, but they would have to save times each week to force a guild to improve. So say you completed a run in 6 hours to get the challenge bonus the next week or whatever you would have to beat that record. The same could go for boss kills. This would then be forcing guilds to improve and rewarding them for doing so.

World Honorable kills. Blizzard is looking for a way to make world PvP come back isn't this the perfect opportunity to make it happen? Make one of the guild challenges to be to get such and such a number of World honorable kills. This really is an amazing way to make people participate.

Gold made per week is an interesting idea. Also wouldn't be that hard to implement, and also would stop people from using auction house alts to hide their sales, because they would want the guild to get rewarded for their escapades. So it is win-win. Would clean up the auction house and would reward guilds at the same time.

For leveling guilds could put in something about number of character levels gained on a weekly basis. Yes this would be unfair to smaller guilds and guilds who have no characters leveling, but like I said would reward leveling guilds for the most part. Remember if people want to be rewarded a challenge then they should have to work for it. Not just make challenges that everyone can do without any though whatsoever.

And there you have it. Some of them if not all of them are good ideas, and I agree completely with the last one. A challenge shouldn't be something that can be completed by everyone, which is the very reason the raid challenge is only one boss, which is completely retarded. If you are interested in contributing to the Reader Post look for next week's topic tomorrow during Ask Gauss.