Monday, January 31, 2011

How To Win At The Auction House

As anyone who knows me I love to make gold any way I can with the auction house. I have controled markets publicly and made a killing. I have done it privately and received threatening in game mails on my auction alt. I have participated in the fun of the bullets and arrows fun that was posting in stacks of 100 rather than 1000s. I have found markets that work and ways to keep them working. So when WoWCrendor came out with his new video about How to win at the auction house I interested what path he would take. I always have enjoyed his how to videos with "Billy". Why you ask? Because they poke fun and are always about things that everyone can relate to. This is what makes a great WoW video. If you have never watched any WoWCrendor videos you are really missing out, and if you have I think many you would understand when people say I am the "Go Guy". So instead of me going on and on here is the video.



Hope you enjoyed it. If you have watched a WoW video you think everyone would be entertained by feel free to send it my way. Everyone needs a laugh or a little information. Enjoy your last day before reset.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Ask Gauss

Sunday is upon us which besides being the last day of the weekend it is time for Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I get to be put on the spot. Well not really because I choose which questions I am going to answer on here. Regardless it is like putting me on the spot without actually putting me on the spot. For those of you who still haven't figured it out, to get your question answered there is a link on the top right of this page or you can just send the emails to gaussafication@gmail.com. So i am babbling so let's just get on with it.

Your post about most influential lore character was a great one, and thought it was extremely well done. On that point what characters do you believe Blizzard has developed more than any others?

Well this is a very interesting and great question. To just doing this with WoW is a counter productive because much of the back story to the game itself has come from the novels and previous games. Thrall's story is one that is ever developing and an interesting one. Slave to gladiator to Warchief to Protector of Azeroth. Also have Arthas Prince to Paladin to Murderer to Deathknight to The Lich King. Varian's story is also a great one. From a Prince knowing a trusted friend murdered him to King at such a young age to watching his wife die in a riot to being taken prisoner and losing everything becoming a gladiator, taking back his kingdom and not really knowing who he really is. His is a story I look forward to hearing more from. Sylvannas is probably one of the greatest of stories. Ranger General of Silvermoon gave everything she had in defending her home from Arthas only to betrayed, resurrected as a Banshee and a servant of the Lich King, she regains her will and assembles a force worthy of its own nation, the Forsaken, driven by revenge she goes to Northrend and partakes the defeat of the Lich King , she returns not knowing her place in the world since all that she has worked for is really done. Finally not to be cheesy, but Deathwing. A dragon gifted by the titan's as a protector of the land and all that it contained is corrupted by the Old Gods also wipes out entire races of night elves, demons, and dragons. He is patient and yet is persistent in his actions to remake the world in his image. He will stop at nothing to trick, manipulate, and devour anything and everything that stops him from accomplishing the goal at hand. So yes maybe years of reading Deathwing being the villain of villains has changed my view on this but I certainly think he has one of the most intriguing stories there is.

You happy with how heroics seem to be getting easier when people get more geared?

I am not sure it is the gear so much as people getting more knowledgeable about the encounters. I would have preferred they would still be "hard" until the gear level of this tier was maxed out, but I guess lucked out in that regard. Now I understand that it would be hard to make the DPS and Healing requirements be hard at the end tier levels and still be able to complete at entry levels. You can though make mechanics in such a way that they are "hard" even with better gear. Case and point would be Yogg Saron.

If you could play an overweight and unproportioned toon what would it be?

A chubby troll mage like really how awesome would that be watching them cast pyroblast.

That is it for this week as always question cannot be answered if you don't ask it. Next week's Reader Post is going to be about the quest that not many people know about that you would want to share with everyone.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

You Can Stop Complaining Now

Two new Tol Barad changes with the patch
  • Attacking forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control 2 keeps.
  • Defending forces will receive a 200% capture speed bonus when they control all 3 keeps.
Now is this a perfect fix? Maybe not, but unless the attacking side is completely awful the hardest thing about capturing Tol Barad was that when you have 2 bases it required too much of your standing force to take the third base while maintaining your defence on the other 2. This basically changes that making it easier to gain control of the 3rd base. I would still like to see the towers do something other than just increase the time of the battle, but that may just be wishful thinking.

For everyone who thinks this isn't a fix to help the attacking side they obviously know nothing of how the battle is supposed to work. This isn't supposed to make it an auto win for the attacking side. As was stated earlier by Blizzard Tol Barad is supposed to favour the defender and make the attackers work for it. All be it in the original form of the battle this has been quite a difficult task. These changes will help in making the odds a little better for the attacking side, but still not the instant win as many are begging for.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Trash Can Be Fun

Friday is upon us so that means it is time for the Reader Post. This week I asked everyone to send in their stories dealing with Cataclysm trash. Trash has always been something that just has had to be there. That was until ToC and we all know how that worked out. So how about we just get to the Nation's Trash stories.

So my raid leader is always on us to run back if we die on trash. So while doing the second pack of the Magmaw trash you know the one that targets the person furthest away and charges them. Well I died and ran back without really thinking. I enter the instance and instantly was greeted with this Dragon thing charging right at me. So I guess running back when dying on trash isn't always the best choice...

The elevator is the most exciting part of the trash in BWD. I swear watching people try any way to not go down it in the normal way is so entertaining. I have seen people end up levitate into the lava, fail at heroic leaping down, rocket boot across the entire room only to die, and who can forget the random people that think "they can get there just in time". I swear Blizzard should put an elevator in every instance just for the hilarity factor them.

The trash after the second boss in Vortex Pinnacle I swear is cursed. Every time I go in that instance in a random and we get to those trash packs it is like the WoW gods start laughing at me. I have had a priest not know what MC was, a mage trying to sheep in the storm shield, a tank tanking the mobs in the shield, people unable to interrupt, and people not knowing what the concept LoS actually is. I swear this must be the anti wrath baby pulls, because everything you needed to not know how to do in Wrath has to happen in these pulls. Maybe it is just me though, but those trash pulls are always an adventure in PuGs

Atramedes trash has always been a ton of fun. The whole concept of killing then healing and sharing abilities is really the anti-AoE trash pull. Not to mention someone randomly dying is always amusing. This one time we had the same person die 3 times to that ability in one clear before he decided he was retired from the trash forever because it hated him. What he didn't know is that DPS decided to slow on the 3rd time just so he would die again.

Doing Omnitron's trash once I got aggro because the tank ended up getting hit that windblast thing that makes him lose control. The mob ran for me and went on to make me kiss the floor. So no big deal right? Well a druid was nice enough to Battle Rez me, but then he didn't tell me the red beam of doom appeared from where the rez went off. I died again. This time I decided to run back and guess what happened? Chain lightning to the face killing me instantly. No wonder I hate Omnitron with a passion.

That is it for this week. As always if you want to be a part of next week's Reader Post look for the topic during Ask Gauss and send in your submissions throughout the week. Enjoy your weekend.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Who Is The Most Influential?

So with yesterday's post I got to thinking. What exactly you ask? Well, who really is the most influential or most important lore character in the game at this moment. Now let's throw Deathwing out because really the expansion is about him yes and he is connected to everything which is going on, but he is not part of anything directly at the current time. So I started to think and logically I started with the leaders of either factions.

On the Alliance side Velen played a major part in Burning Crusade, but not so much now. Tyrande has yet to throw herself into the main story besides being the leader of the Night Elves. Malfurion is a major player in Hjyal and I sure we will be seeing a lot more of him coming with 4.1 and the Firelands. Varian was a major player in the events leading up to Cataclysm, but at the moment he is not at the forefront. Jaina is currently not a major player in current events, as I guess she is still recovering from Icecrown. The dwarves are looking to reestablish themselves and there really isn't one I could pick to be that one. Greymane and his worgen counter parts are still looking for their place in the world and really haven't established what that will be.

On the Horde side Garrosh is Garrosh he is there doing his temp warchief thing, but I don't think anyone could say that he is the guy. Bane is new and trying to find a place and his purpose and still really living in his father's shadow. Hammul, as Malfurion, is a major player in Hjyal, but until the Firelands we really don't know the part he will play. Sylvannas as always you never know what is truly going on. She is and I believe will continue to be one of the most intriguing characters, but is still not "the one". Vol'jin just got his islands back and is fighting with Garrosh other than that the trolls are quiet as always. The goblins are just the goblins and Gallywix is just another one of them. Lor'themar Theron I don't think 90% of the wow population even know he is the current leader of the Blood Elves.

So looking at the leaders you see really there isn't one person who could be "the one". Looking at the dragon Aspects I think it is in the same light as Deathwing they will be right there eventually but at the current moment it is not them. Boss wise yes we have Nefarian planing the world's demise in the name of his father, but really he is just that the last boss in Blackwing Descent. Al'Akir is in the same light and less so in my opinion. Cho'gall is different he is the main player of Deathwing plan at the moment and the cause of plenty of Azeroth's problems. If you asked this question at the end of Wrath I believe without a doubt Cho'gall would be the one, but now I think he has slipped from this point.

So who then? Well I think Deepholm holds the answer. Thrall. Thrall is the one that is controlling the Maelstorm stopping the world from imploding on itself. He is a major player within the Earthen Ring and I think the key point is what he stands for and is trying to do. Everything that Deathwing is Thrall is the opposite. They both can control the same things to an extent, but they do so in a different manner. Where as Deathwing is trying to destroy the world with all his power, Thrall seeks to save it. Therefore everything we are doing everywhere is to serve Thrall's vision of what we all are capable of. Horde or Alliance the world is trying to be saved, and we are helping him do it.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sexism In WoW

This is something that has been around for awhile and has seemed to blow up recently. For those that are unfamiliar with the issue I will lay it out here. The feminist groups have been all over Blizzard that there is not enough influential female characters in the game compared to that of men. The other issue is the clothing worn by female characters that it always seems to be for lack of a better word slutty. So time to argue this with the typical Gauss approach and really show that these people know absolutely nothing and fail to look at the whole picture.

On the issue of influential female characters I call complete and utter bullshit on this one. Yes there may not be a a split 50% ratio but to say there is a lack of influential female characters is a complete joke. If you look at faction leaders we have Sylvannas and Tyrande. Sylvannas probably being one of the most influential characters in the game. Sylvannas is the former Ranger General of Silvermoon, brought the Blood Elves to the horde, took part in the retaking of Undercity, was directly involved in the assault of Icecrown Citadel, leader in the assault of Gilneas etc etc. Tyrande is the leader of the night elves and former leader of the Sentinels an all female night elf army. That is correct males are not aloud to be part of the Sentinels. Speaking of the commander of the Sentinels it is Shandris Feathermoon who is listed as the commander of the Sentinels and the protector as the Night Elves. Moving on we have Jaina Proudmore the leader of Kul'Tiras, member of the Council of Tirisfal, and a member of the "Six". Responsible for a Human alliance with the Orcs and Night Elves during the third war, which defeated the Burning Legion. Now I could go on to explain in depth more influential female characters but I will just give a brief description as to not make this a wall of test.

Alexstraza: Queen of the Dragons and Aspect of Life. Basically the dragons of dragons
Ysera: Aspect of the Dream. It should be noted that "good" aspects outnumber the bad at least 2-1 as female.
Vereesa Windrunner: Bodyguard to Rhonin, Protector of Dalaran, and leader of the Silver Covenant.
Alleria Windrunner: Brought the High Elves into the Alliance in the Second War. When she is "found" and we have a Windrunner reunion this will be one of the biggest events in WoW history.
Garona Halforcen: First Diplomat between Orcs and Humans, First mixed breed, Assassin of King Llane, and so on.
Greatmother Geyah: Last remaining "oldschool" shaman. She is known to be the wisest and most respected shaman alive.
Moira Bronzebeard: I didn't include her in the faction leaders, but she is the leader of the Dark Irons and part of the Dwarf Council. She is part of the reason that the 3 dwarf races have been brought together.
Aegwynn: Last appointed Guardian of Tirisfal mother to Medvih, slayer of the avatar of Sargeras, and creator of the New Council of Tirisfal.
Anveena Teague: Essence of the Sunwell. Reason Kil'Jaden couldn't manifest on Azeroth.
Valeera Sanguinar: Enforcer of the Council of Tirisfal. In other words she is the muscle behind the casters.
Magatha Grimtotem: Former Leader of the Grimtotems, responsible for Carine's death, now a high ranking member of the Twilight's Hammer.

Now I could keep going but I think you get the point. Yes I realize that the balance isn't 1-1 but keep this in mind. Some countries have laws that force companies to have at least 50% females in certain committees. It mostly leads to females getting jobs just because they are female and the quota needs to be fulfilled. It's gender inequality turned upsidedown. I would rather see strong lore characters be well developed and put in positions rather than just making them arbitrary male or female to fill a quota.

Now on to the subject of dress. Maybe the feminists refuse to see that the males all have bulging muscles and are perfectly defined. The point is, of course, they haven't. Does that bother me? No really it doesn't. If the game offered the option to make our characters overweight unproportioned would we do it? I would say no. The fact that it isn't an option I guess is the issue. Why offer something and spend the time to do so when a minimal amount of people would actually use it? It would be like the previous version of Lightwell. It was there, but no one used it.

So there is my rant, and honestly would like to hear what you all think.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

You Fail At Archaeology If...

Tuesday is upon us, which means it is everyone's favourite day of the week, Fail Day! Now many of you might just think I say that, but thousands of people read this blog every week on Tuesday from over 70 countries. I know it is insane. The amount of people on Tuesday is 2 to 3 times as much as any other day of the week. This is either madness or people really enjoy hearing about how much other people fail. This week I decided to let Archaeology do the talking. So without waiting any longer here it is.

You Fail At Archaeology If...
  • You open your profession tab every time you survey
  • You have no idea what the flashing lights mean
  • You forget to pickup an artifact you dug up
  • You started to solve artifacts before hitting 75
  • You don't know how to use the scrolls, stones, tablets etc
  • You think you are amazing for finding a rare
  • You are trying to get the bug mount without having completed the seven scepters achieve
  • You are complaining how there are only Orc and Draenei artifacts in Outland
  • You die while surveying
  • You have sold a "Word of Empress Zoe" before the patch
  • You have ever yelled at someone for stealing your dig site
  • You didn't save artifacts from the race whose epic you were going for
  • You solved artifacts and got no skillups because you forgot to train
  • You don't use the mod "Archy"

and finally

  • You have Zin'Rokh Destroyer of Worlds because I just hate you for it.

That is it for this week. As always thanks for reading and giving me a reason to keep this going. The support I get for all the posts I write is great, but Fail Day deserves special mention. Enjoy your not so Free Loot Tuesday.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Mad World

So I enjoy parodies, but one thing that I have always found is that when someone makes a parody of a a song I enjoy I always seem to find a way to not like it. So when I heard about this parody "Mad World of Warcraft" I was kind of put off. I enjoy the original song quite a bit and is actually on my mp3 player as one of my most listened to songs. As always though I watched it and listened. The lyrics themselves were well put together and the video by not amazing by any means did the trick for the video. So I will say I enjoyed the song and the video, and I encourage you all to watch and listen as well.



Last day before reset make sure to get some wipes in before it happens and you get to do it all again next week.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ask Gauss

Happy Sunday everyone! As is the custom every Sunday it is Ask Gauss where I go through all the questions which have been sent to me throughout the week and choose a few to answer on here. If you still some how don't know how to send me your questions it is simple. There is a link in the top right corner of this page which you can click on or you can just send the email to gaussafication@gmail.com.

What is the non combat pet that you choose to have out?

Well when I am not trying to make other people feel bad by having a certain pet out I have grown to accept and love my Moonkin Hatchling. This is really because it was a gift and also it reminds me of a a youtube movie done by Beebles. In fact here is the video. I would rank it as one of the best roleplaying music videos out there.



What is currently your favourite encounter in Cataclysm?

Atramedes. The whole blind dragon idea and relating to Greek myths takes the thought process to a whole new level. Sure it has the normal don't stand in this or get hit by that, but I enjoy fights that have something else within the encounter to watch out for. In this case "sound". It keeps you on your toes that much more and really separates the good and the bad just like how Yogg Saron's Sanity worked. I have a feeling that pugs will have issues with this encounter as they tend to do with any fights that have gimmicks.

Is Baggelord the new Tombrady?

It would take quite a bit to even come close to Bagellord's level of fail.

So that is it for this week. As always your question cannot be answered if you don't ask it. Next week's Reader Post is going to be about trash adventures in Cataclysm. Anything and everything to do with trash.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Singing Sunflower

So yesterday I finally decided to go out and do the Plants vs Zombies or as it is called in WoW Peacebloom vs Ghouls. It wasn't overly difficult and was fun. I actually enjoy the regular plants vs zombies so that may have something to do with it. I would say I used a strat but really it just comes down to having enough sun power which is achieved at the later levels with 2 rows of sunflowers. Then just go to town with the spitters and block off any areas that seem to be breaching.
.
Last wave on the second to last level
Up against the last boss
My new singing pet

So go have your fun and get this pet as your reward. Hope Blizzard does more games within the game in the future as I find things like this extremely fun.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Raiding Is Fun Again

So it is Friday and is the custom on Friday's is to have the Reader Post. The post where you all write in your submissions to the topic of the week. This week I asked you to send in stories about you and the new raiding content. So without making you wait longer here it goes.

We have a Warlock who has connection issues. Her roommate is not very considerate and starts huge torrents while we’re raiding. She frequently lags out and then we hear over vent “I’m going to kill that b!@$%” The other day in BWD every time she would get on an elevator the lag was so bad she couldn't get off. By the time she got moving the elevator was already going back down. She kept dying over and over again to our delight at the cost of her sanity. We eventually had to have to have the other Warlock summon her up to the group so she wouldn't get on the elevator.

We were about to start clearing the trash to Magmaw and as we enter the room, one of our mages appeared to be quite fidgety. So he starts strafing left and right because the raid leaders is going over trash or something. Before you know it, the mage goes from the raid group to the middle of a dragonkin trash group and promptly dies, but not before he pulled everything and wiped the raid. Turns out his blink key was bound to his “f” key. I can say with absolute confidence that he no longer has blink bound to a key.

So my guild has been pretty successful thus far and have been killing Magmaw without issues the past couple weeks. We go in this week and didn't have enough damage for parasites, the tank is dying and it is overall a mess. Everyone starts bitching at everyone else telling them they are not doing there job. Then I notice when I zoned back in from running back that it says "Welcome to Blackwing Descent 25 player, this instance is due to reset in etc etc"

Our main tank hails from Tazmania so he has connection issues every now and then just from the distance. They’re not that bad since he’s still our MT. This story actually has nothing to do with that, but he did disconnect in the middle of a boss fight. He had apparently been running some kind of utility in the background and it popped a window up in the middle of a fight. He didn’t really look at it, just clicked to get rid of it. After a few seconds it dawns on him that the utility wanted to restart his computer and he had just OK’ed it to do so. His toon is standing still and all we hear is “Oh, no!” The funny thing was his tone of voice, it was very quiet and he really sounded like a little kid. He had actually said “Oh, no! My computer’s going to restart.” but he got cut off when it actually shut down. It’s become a running joke in the guild any time something goes wrong we all say “Oh, no!”

I was in the Throne of Four winds on the Wind platform when I got hit by the wind blast it promptly hit me into the transfer point which leads back to the staging area and then I some how flew right out of the instance. Still cannot explain how it happened. Seems those wind paths are unpredictable.

That is it for this week hope you all enjoyed it. Look for next week's topic during Ask Gauss if you would like to be apart of all the fun. Enjoy your weekend and hopefully it is not as cold for you as it is for me.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Cataclysm Millionaire

So this is obviously a subtitled Machinima, but it is nothing but epic. It is a game show where the leaders of the Horde and Alliance are competing for a chance to win 50 million gold. It is like 10 minutes in length but it is completely worth it to watch it all. It is done by AFK Players who are behind the House UD series so yes again it is really worth your time if you enjoy Machinima and a good laugh.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Background Lore

Something which most if not all of you know is that I am very interested in the lore behind this game we play. This expansion also has done a great job at expanding on the lore in quests and zones. I have talked about how they have adopted the "zone lore" idea and have kept to it. I have also talked about how they developed the lore much better within the instances and with the development of cutscenes to make us feel like we are more apart of the whole experience.

Now all that has to do with in game. Something they cannot do in game effectively in game is tell you background story or get you in specific lore character's head. Blizzard not too long ago started this process of getting us to know the specific leaders of the Horde and Alliance better. Over the next little while Blizzard will be giving us a short story about each of the leaders. They have done Garrosh Hellscream with Heart of War and Genn Greaymane with Lord of His Pack. They are good reads and really let you know more about each of the specific leaders.

So for all the lore lovers who said I haven't thrown you a bone lately there you have it. To the people that really don't have the patience to read the novels these are only 7 page stories so you really can't say they are too time consuming. So take the time to read them and learn something.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

You Fail At Saying WoW Is Too Easy If...

FAIL DAY!!! Yes it is that time of the week again where we get to enjoy in the fails of everyone else. Oh what a wonderful time of the week. I just want to point out that if you have an idea for Fail Day by all means let me know. Keep in mind I am not going to redo things that I have done in the past so please check if that topic has been done before you request one. Now that I got that over with about this week. I chose a topic, which always seems to be on everyone's mind whenever WoW has been mentioned in gaming circles. So sit back and enjoy the fail.

You Fail At Saying WoW is Too Easy If...
  • Your definition of hard is Mindcraft
  • You play a mage, because you don't get a vote
  • You play arena with a feral druid on your team
  • You have not killed Lady Sinestra
  • Over half of your recorded deaths are in fire or lava
  • You cause wipes in heroics
  • You corpse run during dailies
  • You get lost on the way to the zeppelin or boat
  • You have asked "what's a rotation?"
  • You think void zones are pretty
  • Your most prestigious title is Champion of the Frozen Wastes
  • You still think fire gives haste
  • You cannot MC pull as a priest
  • You think the Super Mario Brothers portion of Deadmines should be removed because it does nothing but give you a rez timer

an finally

  • Your name is Tombrady

That is it for this week. As always hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Free Loot Tuesday good luck on your drops and on the easy gold making on the Auction House.

Monday, January 17, 2011

My Druid Friend Tombrady

So on Saturday I was doing my heroic and got Deadmines. Although, they have made Deadmines much more as some would say playable it still seems people have issues with it. Our original group made it to the Foe Reaper where of course we had a healer who was completely fail and even after I explained the fight had no clue what to do and went on to wipe us. He ended up leaving, most likely because he knew what I was going to say to him. So after that in comes my new druid friend Tombrady. To really explain how epic this player was let me divide this into boss fights.

Foe Reaper

When he joined he said "I hate this boss". Maybe he hated it because he just stood there when he was the harvest target, or maybe because he thought overdrive meant hug the boss. We wiped 3 times on this boss and after every attempt I tried to kick him only to find out he couldn't be kicked for almost 50 minutes. Really Blizzard? Someone who sucks this bad needs to be kicked and now the system punishes the players who don't want to play with people who are horrible. We eventually killed the boss, but only because I was able to kill the last 5% as the reaper. Go me!

Admiral

This was an experience because if I thought he was a bad healer before he only made things worse. We wiped once at a point where tank damage was nothing and we lost our lock. We had a new lock join and asked what the problem was and why we wiped. I simply said "Our healer sucks, but he is still here so we still have that problem." He didn't like that comment, but what was he going to say. I was beginning to think Bagellord switched servers and was now a healer. We pulled again and wiped and was the healers fault once again. Still couldn't kick him because of the brilliant system, and no matter how hard I tried to piss him off to make him leave he was still there. We were able to kill him on the next pull but that was only when we had the ret pally in the group starting to help and heal.

Cookie

We one shotted Cookie, but with no thanks to the healer. He died at about 55% and we self healed through the rest of it. When the fight was over he said "wow that was hard". Hard for him because apparently not standing in green crap is difficult for this idiot.

Vanessa

He died in the fire, he ported to the ship, we then spent 10 minutes explaining to him how to get to us, he got to us and died in the fire. He was rezzed, and died in the fire. All the while the 4 of us are able to dodge the fire and the falling ice. We just decided to pull the mini boss and killed him without a healer. We did the spiders without a healer because he some how died to them. Then came Super Mario and guess what, he some how lived it was as if the WoW gods had pity on him. When we actually pulled the boss well let's just say he found it impossible to use the rope swing and died. He came back and died again. We ended up wiping because we didn't have enough heals. So you would think logically that the next pull he would be able to do the rope swing right? Of course not, he died again, but we some how were able to kill her and the nightmare was over.

So congrats to the new druid friend to the Gauss Nation Tombrady you will never be forgotten

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Ask Gauss

So it is Sunday, which means it is time for Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I answer the questions you the readers have been sending me throughout the week. If you are unsure of how to send your questions, it is really simple. There is a link on the top right of the page you can click on or you can just email your questions to gaussafication@gmail.com. So without waiting any longer let's get to this week's questions.

So 10 or 25 man?

My guild is currently doing 25 man raids. Yes, they seem more difficult mostly because it seems to put more strain on the healers in the lower end gear more so than the DPS and tanks. I think though when gear starts to even itself out the balance between the 10 and 25 man raids will be much closer. Since my guild is currently raiding 3 days a week I have made the decision to make one of the off nights a learning night for encounters. On these nights I use the 10 man setup along with a bunch of people that would like to wipe. I use this raid to develop strats for the guild to better improve our 25 man performance. This not only gets people to see the encounters in a different light, but gives me free range to try things without it being a waste of time for the progression raids.

Thoughts on the new guild reputation and experience system.

Well to me it makes sense. There should be a benefit to having more people in a heroic that are in your guild. At the current moment there is no point in having more than 4 people in a heroic that are part of your guild. One thing to note is that they changed the minimum amount to 3 people rather than 4, which makes sense even more sense. Having 3 people means more than half of your group is part of your guild meaning it truly is a guild group. So congrats to Blizzard for making that fix. Now the more people in the group 3, 4, or 5 means more reputation and more experience, which is the way it always should have been. So good job to Blizzard on fixing their own mistake.

How about those Crawfish?

How about you go to hell.

That is it for this week. As always your question cannot be answered if you don't ask it. So send them in and put me on the spot. This coming week's Reader Post is going to be about some of your fun times in the new raiding content. As always you have until Thursday night to get them in. Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Stupid Crawfish

Is it just me or 5 out of the 7 days at least int he week this is the cooking daily. Like honestly, what is the problem with Blizzard's randomness. Not only does this daily seem to be the most frequently occurring, but it is also the most pain in the ass of cooking dailies to do. There is random and then there is something that is too much of a coincidence. This is one of those things that just doesn't seem right. Who knows this also may be just a crazy rant of mine because some jackass keeps picking up my stupid crawfish, but even if this is true so is the former. If I didn't need do the stupid cooking daily I wouldn't do this stupid quest.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Replying To Beggars

So I was asked last week on Ask Gauss "what is the question I hate answering?" Well I answered that I hate been asked about giving people gold, because I am running out of interesting ways to reply to these beggars. This is when I thought I would make it the Reader Post and see if not only could I get more ideas, but then I could get some good laughs in the process. So here goes.

If some random person asks me for gold I say "Sure". The only thing is I tell them they must complete a series of tasks beforehand. I treat it like a quest only that I make them buy or get things that are worth more than the amount they asked for. Oh how funny I find it when they return with said materials and I inform them they are worth more than the amount they actually wanted.

I always say "of course but only if you help me summon my friend". Then I invite a random guildie to the group and proceed to open a portal to Silvermoon as I am a mage and not a warlock. Then say "Ok please click to help summon". A couple times they have been that stupid to click on the portal and send themselves to Silvermoon. Idiots always good for a laugh.

I simply reply "yes, I'd be happy to give you some free gold, you can have as much as you want, the only problem is, I don't trust banks, so I've hidden all my gold by giving it to all the monsters outside, all you have to do is to kill them for it"

I have a mod called "Automatic Goblin Therapist" it works wonders and makes me laugh while reading the replies.

I say all you have to do is bring me the rarest of rares the "Breath of Life". When they ask how to get said item I tell them this.All you need to do, is go outside Orgrimmar, and go to the coast, and go underwater. A blue cast bar will come up that says 'Breath', it's short for Breath of Life. All you have to do is stay there until the bar runs out, which will take about 3 minutes, then bring the item back to me, and I'll give you 500g.

When some random person asks me for gold I turn the question around and ask them for gold. They generally get so confused they just give up.

I just yell "ENTERTAIN ME YOU SWINE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I have this macro "Why yes young one but first I require you to fulfill a quest of utmost importance. Far in the reaches of Dustwallow Marsh the dread lady Onyxia has made her lair. Slay her and bring her head to me. You will be rewarded generously."

I open trade and put all my gold in the window then go /afk without finishing the trade.

That is it for this week hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Look for next Reader Post topic during Ask Gauss so you can be apart of it. Enjoy your weekend.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

End Of The World As We Know It

So there has been a ton of parodies of REM's "End of the world as we know it" relating to Cataclysm. Regardless I have probably seen all most of them if not all of them. I just came across this one for some reason I had not seen. This one by far is the best I have seen.



I think not only are the lyrics much better than any other version and seem much less rushed and put together, but the clips make it run much more smoothly. Tell me what you think as always and thanks to everyone who has seen good machinima and shares it with me.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Heroic Fixes

So if you haven't seen they updated the patch notes. There is a lot of other fixes, but mostly there are heroic changes. Many people are complaining because they seem to be nerfing them. Others are rejoicing because they seem to be nerfing them. I am going to tell you they aren't really nerfing them. They are making it capable to be done in a random more effectively. The Baron Ashbury fix, for example, I believe this has to do with the problem of interrupts. When a random forms the odds of getting 2 interrupts, which are going to be able to interrupt everything that was needed is actually quite rare. So it isn't a fluke that many pugs upon getting Shadowfang Keep would be unable to actually kill the first boss without it being insanely difficult.

So just like SFK a lot of the other instances have been tuned to be more random friendly. Also many of the ways of exploiting bosses to make them easier has been patched in to make it not possible. When you actually read the fixes they actually make sense. Now if you go in there with a built group they will, of course, be easier, but then if you go in with a built group they should be easier anyway.

So really I am for these changes because they really will tune encounters to make them less about luck for randoms, which means I will get less people complaining that randoms are insanely hard. And to me less complain mail is a good thing.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

You Fail At Running Back To Your Corpse If...

It is Tuesday once again, which frequently happens after Monday. Everyone knows Tuesday is the best day of the week because it is Fail Day. Like honestly, who doesn't love Fail Day? So today I thought I would poke fun at those of us who suck at running back to our corpse. So here goes.

You Fail At Running Back To Your Corpse If...
  • You have trouble navigating the the tombstone on you map
  • You have to use the return to Graveyard button
  • You rez in mid air and died again when you hit the ground
  • You run into a raid instance and begin to hell at the screen when it doesn't let you in. This is until you realize you didn't die in said raid.
  • You don't run back and complain for 10 minutes about not getting a rez
  • Your UI is bugged and you have no release button
  • You have no idea how to get back to the instance you died in.
  • You forget to use the teleporter to get back to the group
  • You died in such a place that it is impossible to run back to
  • You have a rez timer
  • You run past your corpse and have to turn around and head back to it
  • You died in Twilight Highlands but when heading back to your corpse you entered Loch Modan losing your flying mount and now unable to get to your corpse.
  • You were soulstoned
  • You rez in the same fire you died in

and finally

  • You haven't realize you have already rezzed and are still looking for your corpse.

That is it for this week. Please make sure to poke fun at all those who apply to any of the above. Happy Reset

Monday, January 10, 2011

A Friend Says Goodbye

I have been playing WoW since back in the original beta. So yes, I have been playing a long time. There are many others like me who have been playing this game for quite some time as well. Some of you may even remember when I started up a guild called "The Army of Gauss". I started this guild when I reached level 40 and got myself one of those cool kodo mounts. All this was back way before Three Score was even thought of, but lets get to that.

Three Score was the formation of 2 guilds "The Army of Gauss" and one called "Soviet Honda". There are still quite a few players still playing the game who were part of what is now refered to as AoG, but there for a long time was only one left from "Soviet Honda" that was until he approached me yesterday and told me that he had finally decided that it was the end of the line for him. He has been making many strides out in the real world and thought this was the best time to do so before he once again got heavily into the raiding scene. I wish him well, but I just wanted to relive some of the many memories throughout the years.

During my High Warlord run you were there playing endless WSG games. You were there to enjoy the dancing games when Boogaa won the games on his own, were part of the simple black dress games, and of the course the epicness that was the walking backwards game.

You were one of the original rogue crew that put up with the insanity I put you through in the supression room in BWL. You were also there for the rogue strike, something I will never forget.

You caught up to me in achievement points and forced me to spend 20k+ gold just to stay ahead of you. I guess the important point is you never caught up again.

You would do anything to help the guild including playing a toon, which was not your rogue. You always wanted to see the guild succeed, and that is something I always appreciated.

Lastly, I was there for the heartbreak that was when the other binding drop for your Thunderfury. I remember the silence that followed for a good 5 minutes when everyone realized what had just happened. You were there every night but that one and deserved a much better fate then that.

Those certainly aren't the only stories, but some that will always stick out in my mind. You will be missed Syphyn and by more than just me. Good luck in everything that you do. Don't be a stranger.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Ask Gauss

Sunday would be the day of the week, which means it is time for Ask Gauss. The post of the week where I am put on the spot and answer some of the questions, which have been proposed to me throughout the week. If you still don't know how to send in your questions it is simple. On the top right corner of this page there is a link or you can just send your questions directly to gaussafication@gmail.com. So that is enough of that, time for the questions.

What do you think is the most visual spot in Azeroth at the moment?

I am assuming most people would say some place in Hyjal. There is nothing wrong with that as it was a brilliantly designed zone, but it just doesn't make the top of my list. If we are including instances The Throne of Four Winds and Vortex Pinnacle are just epic with their visuals. All of these though fall short of being the best for me. Neferset when viewed from the mountains to the west in my opinion is the best view currently in Azeroth. For those of you who don't know Neferset is a city that you retake in Uldum during part of the questing experience. I really can't do this justice by describing it you just have to go and see for yourself.

Although this would be trumped again if some how Silvermoon would be burning for everyone to see. One can dream can't he?

What sidebar achievements are you currently working on?

Simple the Oceanographer and Limnologist. I am down to all the rare fish for these achievements besides Summer Bass, which it appears I will have to wait till March in order to catch it. I actually started this because it gave me another excuse to fish in pools for the turtle. Now I no longer have a reason to fish in pools besides guild bank fish so back to where I was before. So other than those fishing achieves I am doing the heroic instance ones, but then everyone is working on those aren't they?

What question do you hate answering?

Can I have some gold? Well don't really hate answering it I am just running out of ideas on how to answer it.

So that is it for this week. Hope you all got some important information or found a way to kill 5 minutes while you read this. Either way it would have served its purpose. The next Reader Post is going to be about your ways of replying to someone who asks for gold. Send them all in I am sure this will be very entertaining.

Enjoy what is left of your weekend!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Had A Bad Raid

So this is a song and an idea I have always wanted to make a parody of. I just have never got around to it. So listen and enjoy because I am pretty sure anyone who has ever raid has had a raid like this.



If you would like to hear more of our friends here parodies go to his blog here http://darkpippi.wordpress.com. If you recognize the name you would have seen him in the sort film /afk where he played the mage by the same name.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Daily Fun

So it is Friday and besides it being the end of the work week it is time for the weekly Reader Post. The post where I give you the topic, but you all give me your stories about said topic. This week I asked you to send in your stories about your adventures while doing your daily quests. So let us see how much fun people had while doing dailies.

I was doing my Deepholm dailies in the cave when I picked up the goblin daily where you have to drop the bombs in order to get the rock pieces. There was a lot of us in there trying to do all of our quests, but it was not impossible. The funny part was this guy kept placing his bombs down and trying to collect his shards when everyone else around would always collect the shards that he was getting. I must have seen him drop the bomb like 4-5 times with everyone else getting theirs off his bombs. After that point he started nerd raging at everyone that came within 2-3 steps of him.

I don't know about you but I honestly don't care when I whack my 30 pygmies with the mallet. I just keep going and owning them for a good 15 minutes. This is seriously the best quest that Blizzard has ever created.

I was doing the prisoner escort quest in Tol Barad. Now I don't know what I did differently this day but he must have been on more drugs than normal. When we got outside the keep he ran back in and started attacking random mobs all over the top level of the keep. He even started attacking some Horde players. He honestly got a full tour of the keep and this was after he had already made it outside. Was the weirdest and most frustrating thing I have ever had happen while doing a daily.

I enjoy listing to music while I do my dailies makes them much more bearable. Like any normal person I sometimes sing along with the song. The problem was I forgot I was on vent and some how my push to key was down. Someone decided he had to start recording and not actually tell me that my push to talk was on. So that night he decided to post my epic singing skillz on the website for everyone to hear.

I was doing the Son of Glop daily in Deepholm when I came in contact with this guy I assume was a psychopath. Maybe it is not common knowledge that as long as you are on the aggro table then you get credit for him dying. So this guy started the quest and I went down to glop or whatever his name is. The guy proceeds to start bitching me out that if I tag the mob when he started it that their would be hell to pay. I didn't even bother to respond because I figured he was just a moron. So he became active and I tagged the mob. The guy proceed to spam smack talk in /s to me the whole way around killing him. He called me every name in the book and just wouldn't shut the hell up. When I finally killed him he says "Take that asshole it bugged out and I got credit anyway". I really /facepalm in real life after that one.

So that is it for this week. If you want to know next week's topic be sure to look for it during the Ask Gauss post. Enjoy your weekend and if you are like me that involves staying out of the cold

Thursday, January 6, 2011

4.0.6 Patch Notes

So for those who didn't know the patch notes for patch 4.0.6 are now out. If you haven't seen them you can view them by clicking here. I am just going to highlight a few things here which i believe are worth pointing out.
  1. It seems they finally realized Strand of the Ancients has had some unfair issues. Since now with rated battlegrounds can take advantage of these things so they decided now is a good time to fixed them.
  2. The Alliance has always complained about how their racials have been insuperior to that of the Horde races. It seems they have finally been fixed to reflect that. So now all of you Alliance people can stop complaining.
  3. Warstomp and Shadowmeld have finally got the druid fix they have been asking for, for many years. Grats to all the druids.
  4. Howling Blast will no longer be Overpowered
  5. Druid tanking looks to have gotten nerfed
  6. Survival hunters have been brought down from being ridiculous. They appear to be trying to bring MM and BM to be competitive. Will have to wait and see if this is true.
  7. Ret Paladins got some love, but don't worry they won't get any from me.
  8. Healing Priest mana issues appear to have been looked at.
  9. Smoke bomb has been nerfed. Sorry Rogues
  10. Say goodbye to drain mana warlocks. I know you how you all loved it.
  11. Blizzard doesn't want Warriors using Heroic strike as much as they are. So they made it now much less appealing.
  12. Best patch notes line ever "Many bugs...handled them!"
  13. Interface fixings that should have always been there in the guild interface

Things that should have been there that for some reason aren't

  1. A Tol Barad fix to help the attacking side
  2. The DPS meta gem conditions appear to have not changed.

So there you have it some quick thoughts of mine about the patch notes. Of course, this is like the like the Gauss' notes version and if you want some more information you can read them yourself. I know this might be difficult, but I know you can do it.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Skill In WoW

So with the release of Cataclysm many people have stated that skill has been put back in Warcraft. To me I am going to say that it was never taken out in Wrath. The issue in Wrath was heroics, bosses, and such were more forgiving for mistakes people made. This never took out the skill in the game just made some players appear better then they actually were. Let me explain what skill in WoW actually is.

Skill in WoW is as simple as knowing. Know what you are supposed to kill, know what you are supposed to heal, know what you are supposed to tank, know where to stand, know where you can't stand, know when to move, know when to interrupt, and so on and so forth. In WoW knowledge is your key to being successful. The second component to being skillful at WoW is how to adapt. Yes you may know that you can't stand in fire, but if you don't move out of it then the knowledge is nothing. You have to be able to react to situations around you. So skill in WoW comes down to your knowledge and ability to be in able use that knowledge to react.

So this didn't change the people who always do this better will be the ones who will be those players that everyone sees as skillful. Just like anything you can become a better if you practice these things and you will become a better all around player.

So really to be a skilled player it comes down to don't stand in crap that hurts you and kill the thing that is killing you. You understand that phrase and what it means and you will be fine.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

You Fail At Crowd Control If...

So it is Tuesday, which means it is everyone's favourite day of the week because it is Fail Day. Fail Day the day of the week where we make ourselves feel better because of someone else's short comings, or the day of the week where your short comings are made fun of. Either way you cannot help but laugh. So let's have a real Cataclysm Fail Day.

You Fail At Crowd Control If...
  • You didn't know CC stood for Crowd Control
  • Your ability to hit your Howling Blast is proportional to how many mobs are currently Crowd Controlled
  • Your polymorph is actually a sheep
  • You believe Bladestorm is a form of CC
  • You fear mobs into more trash
  • You are so busy complaining that you can only Hex someone into a frog that you forget to renew it
  • You frost trap a mob only to multishot it and free it
  • You have ever said "I don't have a CC I am ret nub"
  • The amount of times you distract corresponds to your number of deaths
  • Your ability to identify the difference between a moon and a box is non existent
  • You believe seducing mobs is the devils work and you refuse to do it
  • You yell at the rogue for not sapping the ghoul that wiped the group
  • You had no clue that banish could be broken
  • You say you will root a caster add

and finally

  • You thought you were supposed to keep attacking that mob that was kept getting resheeped every time you hit it.

That is it for this edition of Fail Day. Hope you all enjoyed it and maybe learned something. Raid resets are upon us. Kick so ass and collect some pretty purples.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Tol Barad Mess

So at first I talked about how something had to be done to change Tol Barad so that it wasn't going to be boycotted by the faction that was constantly attacking. This was because of the obstacle and difficulty of taking Tol Barad. Blizzard did make a change and not the change that I would have expected. For those who don't know you now get 1800 honor for winning while attacking Tol Barad and get 180 honor for defending. So at first you may have heard this and say yes it will motivate players to win while attacking therefore becoming more organized and force them to work as a team better. This in theory does make sense, but this is not the result and maybe not even the one I think Blizzard had in mind.

Win trading has become a common occurrence on all servers. It is openly talked about and organized every single battle. Mathematically I know this is the best course of action for both sides for honor, but honestly in this case I could really careless. Maybe I have a problem with this because I play a game called WARcraft not Diplomacycraft. I could careless if I will get less honor to me it isn't even about the honor points at all. I would partake in the battle because it was fun and enjoyed stopping the Alliance achieve their goals. This was one of the most fun PvP areas Blizzard had created and has been ruined because of the greed of the players involved and Blizzards lack of caring to find a real solution to the problem.

So to all the people participating in this crap enjoy your honor points you didn't earn and eventual gear you will get from it.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Ask Gauss

So today actually is Sunday, and I am doing Ask Gauss as is per the normal way of things around here. For those of you who still haven't picked up on it Ask Gauss is the post of the week where I look at all the questions I have received throughout the week and choose a few to answer here. If you don't know to send in your question it is on the top right of this page for the link or just send the emails to gaussafication@gmail.com. So let's see what is on everyone's mind this week.

So since the Year is over what do you think was the best moment for you in WoW from the past year?

Hands down was when my guild killed the Lich King on 25 man. When you buy an expansion there is something you set out to do. Killing the Lich King was that. There is also some pride involved in it when you are the raid leader. You brought these people together and got them to achieve the goal at hand. When they shouted out when we all died at 10% it was a WoW moment I will never forget. Anyone and everyone thanking you for the chance to be part of the group that took him down. Also being a big fan of the Lore of this game taking down one of the most significant Lore characters in the the history of Warcraft just doesn't happen without realizing what you have done. So I can take the time here to thank all my guildies who had the faith and patience in me to get the job done that we set out to do, couldn't have done it without you all.

What was the low point of your year in Warcraft?

This is actually pretty easy to answer, Sindragosa. Mostly because I take blame for amount of time my guild put into this. I tried a couple strategies that just weren't working for us and I was stubborn to change it. Sometimes you just need to admit you are wrong and I didn't do this right away. Of course, her wonderful voice didn't make it any better. So I have to thank my guild for having the patience in me when at times during this I really didn't have much patience at all. Regardless we got through it and got the job done like we always do.

Your WoW New Years resolution is?

To live by these words: lok'tar ogar. Victory... or death.


That is it for this week keep on sending in the questions and I will keep answering them. This week's Reader Post is going to be about your fun times completely your dailies in Cataclysm. As always you have till Thursday night to get these in. Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Raise A Glass

I am going to show you a video which is a tribute to all the Lore Characters throughout the World of Warcraft that we have lost through the past year. It is done to the song "New Lang Syne" by Jim's Big Ego and I must say the organization behind it and placement of the photos was perfect. These could have been lost the Cataclysm or other circumstances regardless they are no longer with us. So we will do do what is deserved "Raise A Glass"



You all will be dearly missed. Best was saved for last in my opinion. Miss you Cairne /salute Ish-ne-halo-por-ah.

Happy New Year Everyone!!! May your recovery from last night be less painful than expected