Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch

Gnomechewer is back with another music video. This time, it centers around the Draenei and their departure from the Man’ari Eredar. Of course, as is typical with our beloved frequent machinimator, he has to tell the story with a song instead of dialogue. My Violent Heart is pretty catchy. Using footage, pictures, and lyrics, he paints a tale of the lore that could only exist in his mind.

When you’re done watching, if you need another Gnomechewer fix, check out the video that he made to mock the Synergy contest. As a reminder, voting ends tonight!

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch …

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, News items

It’s probably fair to take bets on how many Beltway Insiders are aware of MMORPGs, or even WoW specifically. (At least one or two can be found in Azeroth, at least.) It’s certainly clear, however, that Dr. Roger Smith, a senior game designer for the Army, has some passing familiarity on the idea.

According to Dr. Smith, an MMORPG environment would be a great always-on option to provide training to the troops. Specifically, he says “something like World of Warcraft, but focused on the military training customer.” You can even check out his public PDF on work he’s already done on this kind of training environment.

The always-on world would provide training scenarios even outside the usual tactical simulation. Your avatars could interact with cultural representations, learning the fine points of behavior while interacting in foreign environments. Want to get your team a dose of decision-making expertise? Set up the environment to run reactions based on criteria you devise. And we definitely know WoW can teach you about a fictional history, maybe Dr. Smith’s could help the soldier with some real-world equivalents.

We’ve all heard about the government exploring virtual worlds before, but we don’t often hear that exploration directly connected to WoW. But if 10 million people — including soldiers — love us some WoW, maybe there’s something in the formula Dr. Smith can use.

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Filed under: Paladin, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Guides, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

Alright. Let’s call a spade a spade. I nubbed last week’s installment by putting down Agility as a stat. Agility is good — still not a Retadin’s primary strength (pun intended), but definitely part of the equation. An informative article can be found on WoWWiki comparing Strength to Agility and determining the point where investing points in Agility gives better DPS returns than investing in Strength. Unlike Rogues or Hunters, who will never reach a point where Strength gives better returns, there is a certain point for Paladins (or Shamans and Warriors, for that matter) where it becomes better to invest in Agility. It’s quite a bit of math, but suffice it to say that the equilibrium point is pretty high and not achievable by a fresh 70 gearing up for Karazhan.

I also dismissed Expertise (pfft, why make one mistake when you can make two!), a new stat introduced in Patch 2.3, which reduces the chance a mob will Dodge or Parry your attacks. If you can manage it, you should always attack from behind, negating Parry to begin with, but barring that, Expertise is a good stat to pursue after you’re Hit capped. In fact, as some readers pointed out, the Shard of Contempt is the best melee DPS trinket in the game right now as it prevents even yellow, or special, attacks from being Dodged or Parried. With all the technical stuff out of the way, let’s move on to the last part of this series, where we’ll take a look at all the permanent enchants, gems, and even consumables that you’ll need to do a good job in Karazhan.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Gearing up your Retadin for Karazhan part IV

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Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Expansions, Raiding, Bosses, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

We’ve known for a while that the developers have wanted to remove crushing blows, but now it looks like they’re starting the process for good: Ghostcrawler has confirmed that crushing blows will now occur only when a mob is 4 levels above you, rather than 3. Since “Boss” mobs are automatically 3 levels above the max level, that means that if you’re running level appropriate content, you should no longer have to worry about crushing blows at all.

As Ghostcrawler explains it, crushing blows were originally meant to discourage you from attacking high level mobs and to make bosses more challenging. Now, they serve only the latter purpose, and Blizzard is working on other ways to make bosses challenging without making them so random.

Continue reading Crushing blows (mostly) removed in Wrath as raiding changes

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Filed under: Alchemy, Leatherworking, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Instances, Expansions, Buffs, Wrath of the Lich King

Part of the allure of drums in raids has been the ability to overlap the effects of different types of drums by having several leatherworkers drumming at a time. One member might boost attack power and spell damage for party members in range, while another might restore health and mana.

With the new Tinnitus debuff, any targets affected by drums are immune to the effects of all other drums for two minutes. While this sounds like a nerf, it might actually have a balancing effect.

In fact, other professions are seeing similar changes. Potions will create Potion Sickness, which will prevent the consumer from using more than one in any given encounter. Players will have to rest out of combat in order to refresh the privilege.

So far, this also is affecting mana gems and similar items, although it is unclear if that particular effect is a bug or not. What does this mean?

Continue reading Tinnitus: Leatherworking drums cause a debuff

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