Goodbye!

Sorry folks.

We're done.

Likely, you've noticed that our blogging has been non-existant for several months now and that's largely due to my waning interest in WoW. I've been playing here and there, but 8 months ago, I embarked on a journey to fix up my life and since then, I've lost about 40#, gotten better sleep, and have achieved a much better outlook on life.

It's a win.

Don't feel sorry for my languishing Arena ratings. I don't.

All that means that I don't have much time to really get fully invested in WoW...which I've realized is the missing ingredient to become and stay competitive in this e-Sport. More on this later.

So what have I been doing?

Well, I have replaced alot of my interest in WoW with fitness and diet health. I've been getting my workouts from the great folks at Crossfit and have cut alot of junk from my diet. I've pretty much cut out all wheat, corn, potato, rice, sugar and pasta products and gone from a near size 38 waist to a 30-31. I even signed up to run a Marathon in January, 2010 with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Before this life turning point, I had never run more than 5 miles, and that was in highschool.

Here's the shameless self promotion link for those that might care to read about the training progression and possibly donate to help the LLS out:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/pfchangs10/chucifer

So why did I quit?

Well, the big issue was time and energy as aforementioned. With so many new things to think about, I naturally had less time on my hands. Coming home to cook/eat healthy takes time. Exercise takes time. But most importantly, an active lifestyle begets an active lifestyle. You want to go do stuff. You want to try new things. You want to spread the word about how awesome your new experiences are.

The smaller issue behind quitting was the immense amount of time staying competitive in WoW required. This season started off with a whimper and the honor grind pretty much killed any desire of mine to keep playing. Endless BG's sucked. Poor comps sucked. Poor class design (reliance on Mortal Strike debuffs) sucked. It all combined to literally suck the life out of my WoW experience.

I won't hide it: I like to play with smart players. Sitting in a BG where 90% of the players are both undergeared and underintelligent is frustrating at best. If you've ever been on Ventrilo with me, you'd likely be familiar with the torrent of cursing that usually comes with my Honor grinds and that usually preceeds my sudden logging out of WoW in utter frustration and disgust.

For me, the Battleground or Arena experience should be the reward for your effort. Not the gear. And this is where I believe that Blizzard has ultimately finally & successfully created something that is unsustainable. The reason why an e-Sport is sustainable (Starcraft, CS, etc) is because the reward is the feeling of accomplishment, not something that is only relevant for the current Arena season. I can take my feeling of hitting 2200 in 3's with me forever, but will I remember my Furious Shoulders? Well, that's pretty unlikely.

So, will I be back?

Well, to be honest, I already tried coming back. With some generous help, I was able to level my Warrior from 70-80 and do a little bit of Honor/Arena grinding. It was fun in a way, but ultimately more of the same old, same old. The feelings of frustrating kept coming back and because of them, I haven't been back in the game for a while.

Will I come back with Cataclysm? Maybe. I'm not entirely sure. If Blizzard gets rid of the stupid Honor grind then there's a good chance of that happening. If I break my leg before my Marathon, then it's likely as well. (stay away, all you would be Tonya Hardings) I am looking forward to Starcraft 2 and a little Diablo 3, however, so you might see me pop up there.

So what of the blog?

In some ways, I wanted to be the next Resto4Life or the next BRK, and get widespread acceptance as a go-to person for my class, but my general distaste for raiding and talking about what I view to be mundane (anything not associated to PvP) didn't exactly make me a popular destination with the general masses. I think

As such, It's unlikely that there was -THAT- much traffic here, but from a casual writer, it was a good exercise in expression. I was able to give a bit of info, get a sense of level of effort that some of the more prolific bloggers output, and vent a few frustrations all in one outlet. Hopefully, I was able to do it in a easy to read and readily consumable form. So, thank you, reader(s), for giving me the space to be creative.

I'll probably leave this as the last post until I come back or move on to another MMO or competitive video game.

Any regrets?

Nah. Things are better now from a macro perspective.

Actually, scratch that. I do have a regret.

I regret that by leaving, there will be one less PvP healer willing to subject themselves to the mindless paintrains and that my friends who are still playing this game will be forced to find other healers to help them out.

Because, in the end, it's about the people, not the game.

Cheers!

Why I'm Not Going to Blizzcon

I thought about trying to nab a ticket to Blizzcon and taking a trip out to California, but for whatever reason, I couldn't justify it. I am, however, completely cool with not going because my twisted imagination has me thinking that the random conversations out there would resemble something like this:

Me to neighbor prior to the PvP discussion panel: Hey, nice to meet you! This panel should be pretty interesting. I hear Ghostcrawler has some interesting points to bring up about the weakness of casters against melee.
Neighbor: Eff that, ganker. I hope they announce that they're removing the Arenas and BG's. You griefing assholes ruined my game!
Me: ...

or

Me to dude wearing a Boomkin costume: Nice costume! What are you? Some kind of demented WoW Furry? You know there's no real life achievement for pretending to be the product of a Pigeon, Deer, Bear 3 way, right?
Boomkin: ...

or

Ghostcrawler: We're buffing melee!
Me: ...

Regardless of the possible exchanges with tardtastic WoW nerds, the underlying sentiment that completely nullifies any possible justifications for buying a ticket is that the game as developed a pattern in it's production/development cycle. Due to that established pattern, there is no real anxiety for me to go as I can pretty much anticipate what's coming next in WoW. To explain this, let me give a broad and reasonably vague example.

In the world of software, a typical business model for generating a continuous revenue stream consists of 3 phases: Implementation, Maintenance and Renewal. The implementation phase is where the software company installs their software and trains the end user how to manipulate the program to their benefit. Teething issues are worked out and eventually the software goes into the Maintenance phase where the software company supports the continued use of the product. When the next version comes out, the company works to secure continued use of the product (via the upgrade) and the cycle repeats itself: Implement new version, Maintain new version, sell next version. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

WoW has gone through this cycle once already from Classic to TBC, and now from TBC to WotLK. Heroic 5 mans? Check. Badges for Gear? Check. Entry level 10 man? Check. Entry level 25 man? Check. Completely borked first Arena season? Check. Completely stupid Honor grind? Check. How many people suspected that there was going to be a 'New Isle of Quel'danis' in WotLK? I know I did.

The bottom line is that the formula for Blizzard's last two WoW expansions works. It's generated record sales and subscriptions and has consistently produced excellent consumable content for a variety of gamers. To me, this formula is also stale and unexciting. As Blizzard is the master of taking what works and building upon it, I can already predict how the next expansion will play out and unfortunately, going to hear presentations on their upcoming content (ie: how they're tweaking their established business model) doesn't excite me or make me anxious for future releases.

And that is why I'm not going to Blizzcon.

Actually, that's all a big fat lie. I could justify it, but I totally forgot that the tickets were going on sale and happened to be away from the computer.

... Sorta.

P.S. I would totally wear a Boomkin costume for some hot cosplay action.

Grr...

Why is there no epic crafted spellpower sword or dagger?

Because of this, my 'I have a family so I can't do Naxx' Warlock PvP buddy (who I plan to do 2's with on my Druid) has to run Heroic Occulus for a shot at a decent ilvl 200 weapon.

I hate Heroic Occulus with a severe passion.

Hate

Hate

Hate

Green Grass

The old saying goes, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." and for those who have genetically inhibited higher thought functions, this particular saying is used to identify people who aren't satisfied with their own situation; they think others have it better.

I've used the short form of this saying, "The grass is always greener..." in reference to several situations in WoW, and here's that short list of grievances where I'd call out some major QQ.

• Alliance always win BG's. I bet that if I rerolled Alliance, I'd win!
• I can't break out of the 1700's because I'm a (insert race here). If I were a (insert other race here), I'd be rated over 2k!
• My guild sucks! I bet that if I joined another guild, I'd get that weapon off of 25KT next week!

Just a few points of note, to set the record straight:

• If you're solo queueing for BG's, thank the stars if you have a 50% win rate, regardless of your faction. There are idiots abound on both sides of the faction coin.
• If you can't break the 1700's because you don't have a specific racial ability, your skill may be lacking far more than your racial abilities.
• If you think that joining another guild will let you have instant access to top gear without putting in a massive amount of effort to get in the good graces of your new eFamily, think again.

Usually, I'm the guy who calls people out for excessive QQ'ing (aka, being a whiny bitch), but, last night I had a major bout of QQ. My Priest's 2's partner (a DK) and I went 1-6 earlier that day and due to the new match up system, ran in to 1900+ teams all day. We ended up only 17 points down from where we started, which means all of our losses were single digit losses, BUT, its the losses that hurt. Why? Because every dps/healer team we fought had a Paladin as the healer.

The ability to crank out insane heals from using PvE gear and gem for mana instead of stam/resil all because they wear plate and because they can go immune is just beyond my partner and I's skills to cope. The additional fact that they can spec for an additional instant ranged cc (Repentance) that's not on DR with their primary CC (HoJ) is just ridiculous. My clothy butt has to manage mana, pre-heal myself with several instants to just survive a single Kidney Shot and tank damage because I have no way to remove snares.

See? I've started QQing again.

I toyed around with a level 7 Paladin and killed exactly one Springpaw Cub before I logged off that Blood Elf Goku twin and back onto the Priest.

In this case, the grass is definitely greener. If Holy Paladins were grass, they'd actually be so effing lush, smell so crisp, and be so god damned green that Kermit the Frog could drape his naked butt all over it like some sick Muppet porn and no one would notice anything. It's like the dev's poured Scott's Turf Builder all over the Paladins and created the perfect healing class for today's sick burst and low survivability environment.

But, I digress.

I'm going to stick with the Priest and the Druid (talk about another gimp healing PvP class) for now because I can't level another character to 80.

It would literally kill me.

At least until my Asian Power Leveling Racial Ability comes off of its 6 month cooldown.