Uncategorised – Page 44

Winning at PUGs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnMpOU1LNQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]

Firstly I’m not surprised, this is the sort of thing which comes damm close to automating boss encounters. There have been some comparisions of this and DBM flying around but there are some major differences.

AVR allows the environment itself to be altered, putting circles down on the ground for where the bad is about to happen, dropping symbols to confirm where people have to run etc etc. DBM will mark up players, but it doesn’t tell them where to run, it’ll shout when the bad is going to happen but it’s still up to the player to remember and work out where it is they’re meant to be heading for. AVR is designed to provide unmissable visual instructions on where to run, where to run from, how the strategy is meant to work. As a pre-pull briefing tool it would rock and be no different to the various slides and screen shots out there which have been marked up. During the raid it’s akin to asking the boss “can you hold on a moment we need to put some paint on the ground to tell everyone where you’re dropping the bad”.

It also changes how we learn encounters, in my mind it’s learning a dance.

Take your partner (a big shambling undead thing) over to the side, step to the left, smack him over the head and twirl… (or when healing, know the flow of the fight, when could I come off healing to let the 5-second rule kick in and rebuild some mana, be aware of when the oozes are dropping keeping an eye on rottie to step out of the bile etc etc).

and so on.

So being explicitly told where to go each time actually reduces the need to properly learn how to react and puts a dependance on the addon to a level that it becomes impossible to have a decent attempt without it.

Nice technology, wonderful concept, but I’m personally not sorry to see Blizz break it.

Arthas, wipe-weekends, weekly raids and stuff

The decision was taken again by the officers that we would extend the lockout (last week’s attempt was aborted due to excessive server lag, we’re in the EU so Wednesday is the first day of the raiding week and tends to be busy). This week however the gods of lag were kind and we managed an entire evening of having our faces kicked in by Lichy Boy (gee thanks, call yourselve a Paladin?).

P1 is pretty solid now, the first edge phase is sorted and defiles in P2 proper are settling down. We managed to hit the second edge phase. So hopefully the pain of an entire week of wipes will pay off by Sunday and we can get himself down and move onto the heroic mode kills.

Estimated repair bill for this week… 500g or so.

The dren hunter is coming along nicely, he’s hit 72 and is merrily skinning his way through the Tundra, I think a namechange might be in order on him though.

Scale…

Presented without comment

Herbs

The teracotta strawberry planter has been brought back into service as a herb planter (coriander, lemon balm, mint and chives). Which makes a little more space in the greenhouse thingy for the others and the replanting of some things into larger containers.

Garden update and plans

Patio:

We need to lift and re-bed a good number of the flags, the muppets who put the patio down did it on little pillars of cement, so over time the bond has broken and they all shift but with nothing underneath to support them. A job through the summer I think. The plastic greenhouse continues to be a fixture which means I’m finally getting my arse back into gear on the veg front.

Veg:

The seeds and seedlings have been planted, the cut and come again is taking off nicely, the toms are firming up and I’m planning on planting them out at the weekend into growbags. The herbs are mostly going to end up in the raised bed, there’s space in there now, but not the mint.. oh no…

Lawn:

The clearing is continuing, I need another good weekend and then a spray with the “kill everything” weed killer to properly get it into the shape we need for the Summer house & decking project.

Finally… we introduce our favourite little unwelcome guest, Galium aparine, now to work out how to get rid of the damm stuff without having to kill everything within a five mile radius.

Of rough raids

Team Pirate is definitely not hardcore, it’s a relaxed atmosphere and with the aim of getting down what we can do and not spend too long wiping.

EoE proved to be a stumbling block, partly due to people learning the fight mechanics, ensuring clean pickups, handling the sparks etc etc (all of which were near perfect by the time we finished) but what really beat us was the UI bugs on entering P3.

Dear Blizz, please fix the UI shifts between normal and vehicle mode, it’s a raid killer.