Heya guys!!
So I popped on to MMO Champion and saw the new talent trees. Of course I played with them some, so I figured why not share my tinkering?
Cataclysm Specs
Unholy
6 points free to spend as you like. Bladed Armor, BCB, IIT, IUP are the likely point dumps for maximized dps. But with such limited info still it’s hard to say which of those would eat your final points up.
Frost
3 points free to spend as you like. You could argue to take the 3 points out of Virulence, but with the emphasis in blue posts regarding hit requirements in Cata it seems the most sound choice atm.
Blood
No points free. Hopefully there will be further iteration on this spec. It’s shy on points unlike Frost and Unholy and doesn’t currently meet the “design goal” like Frost and Unholy.
Comments
Part of Blood’s issue stems from the fact that there are 3 mandatory points in Frost and Unholy both that every spec will have to take.
Runic Empowerment 3/3 and Virulence 3/3 will be mandatory for every spec as they stand. This is advantageous for Frost and Unholy, but detrimental to Blood.
As always, things will change, this stuff won’t hold, but it’s again an idea of how things are shaping up.
SJ Update
For those who read my last post and got a laugh, awesome!!
I re-read it today and laughed my ass off, heh. Though I was quite unhappy at the time. I keep thinking of Shadow trying to clean herself and I just laugh. 
So what have I been up to? Delving into PC gaming!! Interested? I’m sharing even if you’re not!! o.O That’s me eying you up son!!
Steam
If you’ve never heard of it, and you have any interest in PC games at all, check it out. Steam fucking rocks!
It’s basically a one stop shop for pc gaming needs. You purchase games on Steam and download them to your PC. While they do not carry all games, they carry a lot of them, sometimes even console only games.
The major advantage is that you can download the game after purchase and never have to deal with cd/dvd’s or registration codes. It does it all for you.
Down side? There’s some restriction on the total amount of PC’s you can use the games on. Not sure what the count is, but I don’t go through a million computers or give these games to my friends. So I’m golden. Restrictions sit around the number of 5 PC’s typically from what I understand.
The had a sale over the 4th of July weekend with games discounted between 25% to 75%. I picked up Mass Effect 2 for $23, Portal for $3, Borderlands + all 3 DLC for $20, etc…
That’s the other huge upside. Unlike retailers they hold sales periodically which blow away retail prices. So if you wanted a game, but didn’t wanna shell out the $50-$60 for it, Steam is a great place to watch and wait for the sales to hit.
G4TV and BBC America
I fucking LOVE G4TV!! OMFG!
Well it’s got some seriously crappy shows on it like Cops and Cheaters, but it is the home of some of the greats like X-Play, The MMO Report, Ninja Warrior, and Attack of the Show.
And then there is BBC America, the home of Doctor Who and Being Human! There’s some other solid shows there as well, but I *MUST* have BBCAM for those 2 shows!!
I recently moved, if some of you remember, and my stupid roomie Mythra had basic cable with only 22 channels. You believe that crap?! /wrists
So we finally got the cable flipped over with the 2 channel packages which have these two channels. It was like $3/month for each package, which added like 20-40 channels? There’s actually a few I’ll watch…maybe…
But seriously, being able to watch X-Play again every day it airs, plus catch AotS when I want to, and getting Doctor Who and Being Human back has made me seriously happy!
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 is eating my soul…nom nom nom…
Played it through once and followed the plot too quickly without fully understanding how your crew is affected…so they all died except the doctor because I waited too long…
But my landing crew survived 100% except for Jacob. Whom I killed on purpose because he’s a lil whiny bitch that spews blood covered tapons and douche whenever he speaks. Reminds me of Kaiden, or whatever his name was in ME1. I killed his stupid ass too. /approving nod
Anyways, I played through the first time as a Soldier and then the second now as an Infiltrator. Well that’s not 100% true. I found this mod/editor which allows you to change stuff. You can use it to cheat, but I have avoided that.
What I have used however is the class change!! INORITE!?! So I’ve been swapping my classes back and forth trying them all without having to make brand new toons each time. It’s pure win!!
It’s kind of fucked though… Soldier and Infiltrator are really powerful, but the other classes are weak in comparison. Especially once I tried the game on “Hardcore” setting.
I can attempt fights on Hardcore as a biotic (I’ve avoided Sentinel as I don’t like it) and just get monkey stomped over and over again. If I do the same fight on Hardcore with Soldier or Infiltrator I knock it out in one attempt. Not balanced…
Infiltrator is *amazing* btw! I *heart* my Widow sniper rifle! But once I get the specialized shotgun later I’ll be breaking out the Adept class again to try that out.
Portal
Bought it for $3. Finished it (normal) in less than 2 hours… Was it worth it? Yes. Really fun.
Will probably try the “advanced” maps later on, but I’m not as excited about that. Portal is amazingly fun, but far too short.
Health
It’s better, but I need to get back to working out again. My arm is no longer fucked up from moving (hurt it bad, strain or a pull or something) and I’ve not been sick in a while, excepting that debacle on the 5th.
So I’ve got no more excuses… o.O
So you’re doing what exactly…
Basically I’ve been sitting down and relaxing some while trying to take care of me.
I don’t think I’ll be coming back to WoW as a full time raider so long as raiding requires me to not get a full uninterrupted 7 hours of sleep. So that means no full time raiding for me with Heretic, probably now and ever.
Even if I want to raid full time with them down the road, eventually (whether it took a few weeks or months) I’d get to the point again of wanting to kill someone for sleep.
So with my current work schedule, raiding on an Oceanic server is out. And raiding on a US server is out already… /sigh
Beta
I’m still not in it…shocker. If I get in, I will get some testing in and post thoughts, ideas, etc…
Cataclysm Release
I’m tempted to say no, I won’t be there for it. But then I know me. Most likely I will be sitting outside Game Stop yet again for the midnight release like the last 2 times. *smirk*
Will I be the hardcore raider posting dps love like before? Not sure. As things stand, that just won’t be possible.
I am seriously considering coming back to WoW after 4.0 and doing the hardcore PvP thing for Cata, which would have far less time constraints. But that is all up in the air for now.
Other Games/MMO’s?
Yes. I will likely go check out Champions Online again at some point, though I doubt I will play longer than a month tops.
It’s got failings that I think it can’t ever overcome. While I want to see the improvements they’ve made, I do not expect them to be enough to bring me back full time.
And next year there is the new Star Wars MMO. That is looking really really good btw!
Here is the CGI trailer (not indicative of in game play). You need to watch this!!
Rage
Don’t know if you guys heard about this game or know what E3 is. E3 is a big deal in the gaming world fyi…
Rage, created by those guys who made such trivial and unknown games like Doom and Quake, is their newest project with a brand new game engine which may redefine the future of first person stylized games (not mmo’s).
If you are familiar with how many games use the Unreal engine as their basis, the new ID Tech 5 appears to be the beast defining a new age in game software.
SJ’s Games of 2011
What? Yes!
These are the games I will end up playing next year:
- Diablo III
- Rage
- WoW: Cataclysm
- Star Wars MMO
- DC Universe
Skeleton Jack Posting
When I came back to posting after my sabbatical I said the posts would be intermittent at best. That turned into 5-9 posts a week and hardcore raiding again. While I gave more than I promised, I will not be maintaining that pace any longer.
It comes down to the most basic and simple of precepts. I want to do more things that I have the hours in the day to achieve.
- Rewrite the Realms of Wonder table top RPG I created.
- Write a novel.
- Play a ton of PC games I really like.
- Play WoW.
- Write a blog.
- Watch movies I’m behind on.
- Create a new story and plot for a D20 campaign to run.
- Read books I’m way behind on.
- Work out again.
- Go find a social life and start dating again. I’ve had enough time now since I had to break up with my fiance.
- You get the point…
It’s not a question of balance or order. It’s just too much shit to do!
So what happens to the website and my writing?
I’d seriously consider working for another site, if it had a respectable and solid reputation, on an intermittent basis. Writing posts once a week or so, or simply focusing multiple posts during heavy content releases and backing off during slow periods.
But that would require me to find someone who wanted that, or for them to find me.
I also considered the video blog thing, doing a release once a week like other sites do. I am a fan of the format and style of BFF and Tank Spot, for example.
And then there is the other side option of just doing intermittent posting on my site. That would likely see spurts of crazy posting when content releases happen and I “get into” WoW. And then fall off during lulls…
I think if I was just doing it for me at that point a large factor would be my happiness, or unhappiness, at having weird raid restrictions due to my work hours.
If it was for someone else, it’s easier to stick to a “job” and just crank out articles at a slower pace on set deadlines. At least for me anyways…
I’ve also considered just posting every 1-2 weeks with “Mega Posts” of awesomeness. Sometimes you’ll see me have 5+ posts in a month covering one topic. Instead I could crank out one mega posts every week to two weeks with wicked cool info about DK’s or WoW.
What else did I think about doing? Oh, making this blog a “Skeleton Jack Blog” and not a “DK Blog”. What does that mean?
Posting about gaming in general from my perspective, whether MMO or not.
No, becoming “yet another stupid gaming site” wouldn’t be the goal or design. I’d be focusing on humor, interesting things about games, my experiences in games, etc…
The Answer
There isn’t one, which you could surmise had you just read all of that. It’s up in the air still.
The only fact that is relevant is that I still *love* to write. So that is a major influence in the final result.
What if you had a guild where you could get a full 7 hours+ sleep before or after raids, and still tackle top end heroic content?
I’d probably be posting about it and loving every second!!
-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…
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