Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Do Reflexes Even Matter in Gaming?
Back when I was obsessively obsessed with CS, that's Counterstrike not Computer Science or Chinese Syphollis, it was nerdcool to obsess over reaction times -- the belief was that if you could improve by even a few milliseconds, it could be gamebreaking in competitive play. Gaming "conditioning" for lack of a better word has never really gotten much traction though -- all top players across most games (of any genre) basically just stick to a "play a lot and you'll improve" mantra. Or dogma?
If you really think competitive gaming is an "eSport", why is there no equivalent of athletic conditioning? You don't "just play" football or basketball, you spend the majority of your time conditioning and working on drills.
What would the gaming equivalent really be? Reaction time and strategy study are probably the most obvious. I'm not sure APM is really a metric as it's sort of a complex measure of speed, but I think similar measures could certainly be predictive in performance.
With regards to reaction time specifically, in many games, this ends up playing out in a binary fashion -- are you fast enough to react to X? If yes with a high probability, then it is strategically sound to plan to react to action X, otherwise, you know you can't reliably counter via reacting. What's interesting to me is that no reflex tests I can find online really test for this, and the way that most nerdgamers approach reflex training is simply trying to get the best possible TOPSCORE. I'd argue that for most purposes, low variance is equally valuable to high speed -- or consider games where you're given a 1/2 second window to react an event, do you really always succeed in countering? Obviously not, you're distracted. It's my belief that top players, the people who look like they have "amazing" reaction times are not really any faster, they just have better anticipation. My ability to counter that 1/2 second move is basically flawless if I know it's coming in the next 2 seconds. (And so would anybody's)
Perhaps this nerdotry will get me back into gaming...
If you really think competitive gaming is an "eSport", why is there no equivalent of athletic conditioning? You don't "just play" football or basketball, you spend the majority of your time conditioning and working on drills.
What would the gaming equivalent really be? Reaction time and strategy study are probably the most obvious. I'm not sure APM is really a metric as it's sort of a complex measure of speed, but I think similar measures could certainly be predictive in performance.
With regards to reaction time specifically, in many games, this ends up playing out in a binary fashion -- are you fast enough to react to X? If yes with a high probability, then it is strategically sound to plan to react to action X, otherwise, you know you can't reliably counter via reacting. What's interesting to me is that no reflex tests I can find online really test for this, and the way that most nerdgamers approach reflex training is simply trying to get the best possible TOPSCORE. I'd argue that for most purposes, low variance is equally valuable to high speed -- or consider games where you're given a 1/2 second window to react an event, do you really always succeed in countering? Obviously not, you're distracted. It's my belief that top players, the people who look like they have "amazing" reaction times are not really any faster, they just have better anticipation. My ability to counter that 1/2 second move is basically flawless if I know it's coming in the next 2 seconds. (And so would anybody's)
Perhaps this nerdotry will get me back into gaming...
Friday, December 10, 2010
Top 25 Tracks of 10 (imho)
As I stated last year in my similarly humble and non-music-nerd but yet pretty music-nerd list, fuck significance, go read Pitchfork. And ky. And die.
WTF is there to say about 2010. Tons more dubstep. More organic, less obsession with THE DROP. Tons of AWFUL hiphop. People like the new Big Boi album? Drake? New Eminem? Seriously WTF. Lots of chillwave 80s throwback turbovirgin nonsense. Not a ton of sweet grime. IS GRIME DEAD? WAS IT EVER ALIVE?
Man that sounded pretty full of angst -- actually, the big thing to me, the big thing, to me, the big thing, is well, AWESOME SHIT COMES FROM TOTAL RANDOMS NOW. Just randomly surfing around what's popular on soundcloud this year has been soooo effective in finding cool new shit. Combine that with the fact that a lot of the first generation dubstep "innovators" have had pretty weak followup tracks this year and it's beautiful wonderful musical communism.
Anyways, fuck all the previous ado and here we gooo:
25: Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith - Not In Love
Yeah, this is going to be on a lot of lists because Crystal Castles are Pitchfork-cool plus it's an 80s cover which in 2010 means COOLEST THING EVER. I feel pretty awful putting this on my list but I live to disappoint both myself and others.
24: Massive Attack (Breakage Version) - Paradise Circus
Oh my god, like oh my god, like at 2:22 when the beat drops out like OMG. Hope Sandoval has a pretty hawt voice. I'd kill you for a shot with her. The piano interluuuuude into the second "drop" is also severely awesome. I'm sure a few people will opt to put Splitting the Atom on their year end lists to token head nod to Massive Attack but that's so school and me and this track are too cool for it.
23: The Roots - How I Got Over
Shocking turn of events -- a white boy is repping a "conscious" hip hop track. New wave soul hop ftw?
22: DJ Shadow - I've Been Trying
It's been a long time. Everything post Private Press doesn't count. I doubt many care about this track unless you're a longtime Shadow fan -- it's somewhat less innovative/fun than the house/dubstep offerings and could really just be a lost track from the early 00s but despite it not being HYPEWORTHY, I guarantee the syncopated straw sounds + guitar will eventually break your heart of downtempo hate. (You should have a heart of downtempo hate though)
21: Kink - Existence
Boom cha boom cha boom cha. And now the melody. Speed it up. Yes. Boom cha boom cha boom cha. Louder. Louder. Fade the boom cha boom cha. Base snare. Base snare. Melody. Faster faster. Okay this is kind of awesome classic house. Plus it lacks effeminate vocals and is light on the loud and proud.
20: Drake (Deadboy Version) - Fireworks
Woah, two house tracks in a row. How amateur of me. I doubt this track will get any love because chipmunking Alicia Keys is apparently some sort of sacrilege. I, however, think the vocal treatment is one of the best I've heard on anything all year. The melody is fully rinsed out of the sample without ever it getting squeaky or cheesily repetitive. Also there's no Drake which IMO is a huge win.
19: Katy B - Katy On a Mission
This right here I swear will end too soon. This right here I swear will...
18: Emancipator - Nevergreen
Old school instru hip hop. Could be a missing cut off Endtroducing. I was actually linked to this track by a retarded friend who messaged me describing it as a "sick new slow dubstep" track. Apparently anything that isn't indie rock or hip hop is dubstep now. Actually, that's not a bad assumption nevermind. How about them violins?
17: Janelle Monae - Tightrope
Wasn't I just bashing on Big Boi a few paragraphs ago? I don't really love his verse on this track either, but Janelle on this track is everything I loved about Lauren Hill that I was too ashamed to ever tell anyone about. Boy you better watch out, some girls, some girls are only about, that thing, that thing, that thing~~ Well, this one is actually officially cool according to the interweb boys and "girls" and I'm guessing nerdfork will top 10 this shit as it satisfies the need for pop/soul vintage that every Sea and the Cake fan needs. jk jk. (not really)
16: Hadouken! - Oxygen
Alright, I thought the first track off this new album sucked. Mechadeath? Err, Mecha Love. Yeah don't listen to that. Also, avoid the Gemini dubstep remix of this track. This track already has enough rave cheese + a faux dubstep drop with huge reverb. WHY ADD MORE? This shit will be shunned by the music snobs because the rock crossover groups are too low brow. Seriously how can you not love this band? Or Pendulum?
15: DJ Zinc ft Ms Dynamite - Wile Out
I've been pretty gay for Zinc ever since that's Ready to Die remix. Doesn't it seem like Dynamite has had some pretty amazing tracks the past two years?
14: Surfer Blood - Swim
Did everyone forget about this album? It was awesome. I'm sure Titus Andronicus, Deerhunter, Caribou, and Delorean will all get more love as people look back over 2010, but this track and Floating Vibes were on near constant repeat for me all summer.
13: Wiley - What They Want
Was there any chance I'd not include a Wiley track? Child please.
12: Mount Kimbie - Mayor
This is where I insert something clever like "eargasm." Well when I put it like that, it just sounds dirty. Speaking of dirty, omg @ 3:20 on. That's some Miles Davis improv space age style.
11: Raekwon & Twista - The Heat
Twista? You gay? No. Well, maybe. But only in the morning or days of the week with an 'A' in them. Extra points for anyone who can identify the guitar sample. I really love how the mixing on the track seems a little off -- the vocals are like 20% too quiet which just makes the blare kick that much harder.
10: Kayne West - Runaway
Hmnn, I also really loved Power and, like the rest of the internet, Nicki's verse on Power. (Though I hate the rest of the track and Jay is awful on it) The opening to this track is just evil -- you know what I'm talking about. Twenty-ish seconds in. Until Kayne comes in about 30 seconds later, this could have been a Massive Attack or maybe even a Nails track. Kayne's "soulful" vocals are so out of place on the sparse dystopic evil madness that is the beat and the piano melody but fuck, it owns.
9: JJ - You Know
The catchiest hook all year.
8: Traffic - This Sweet Love
Rumor has it another Traffic track is supposed to drop in the coming days, and I'll feel like a tool if it's somehow more awesome. But I'm prepared to take that chance.
7: Cassie - Skydiver
I love Cassie. Me and You is probably one of my 20 favorite tracks of all time. I think her vocals are consistently awesome and consistently nail the sing-songy melodies of her productions. This is much less sparse than a lot of the other tracks off the album, but to me doesn't sound very goooeey at all. Actually it just sounds awesome. Not Me and You awesome. But still pretty awesome.
6: Hyetal - Phoenix
I'm not sure how Scar Jo is related to this track.
5: James Blake - CMYK
Probably my most listened to track of the year. This or #4. I'll let the music blogs rep this one, as I'm sure it'll be top 10 in a lot of places. Unless, for some reason beyond my comprehension, Limit to Your Love becomes the preferred Blake anthem.
4: Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em
Fucking killer like a cereal. This track kills people sometimes. It's true. (How I wish I liked any of the other tracks on the album nearly as much -- but that's completely irrelevant to how incredibly unbelievable kickass Tell 'Em is)
3: Resolved Dissonance - Hero
WTF IS THIS VIDEO GAME SOUNDING NERD MUSIC? OH WAIT ITS AWESOME NVM. How this has gotten no play or hype is beyond me. It's unfair like when a Pro Life girl shoot you down. (She's killing a baby)
2: Magnetic Man ft Katy B - Perfect Stranger
First track on most recent playlist? Shocking that it's near the top of my end of year list. No other dubstep track is close for me this year.
1: Dynasty (Wileywebb Remix) - Kaskade
Dynasty (wiley Remix) - Kaskade by wileywebb
I'm not going to lie. Well, about this I'm not going to lie. I found this track while looking for an old Wiley instrumental. (As in eskiboy) It's incredible. The vox, the opening build, the distortion on the first drop, the stuttering to beat match the second minidrop, the slowed down whiney rev transitions, the echo harmonic vox as the track proceeds, ALL OF IT. But it's the rev crash drop at 3:50 that truly kills it.
GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Ten Other Tracks (Nearly as Awesome)
Joy Orbison - The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow
These New Puritans - Three Thousand
James Blake - Limit To Your Love
Starkey - Gasping For Air in the Vortex
Sully - The Loot/In Some Pattern
The XX - You've Got the Love
Ratatat - We Can't Be Stopped
XxXy - Know You
WTF is there to say about 2010. Tons more dubstep. More organic, less obsession with THE DROP. Tons of AWFUL hiphop. People like the new Big Boi album? Drake? New Eminem? Seriously WTF. Lots of chillwave 80s throwback turbovirgin nonsense. Not a ton of sweet grime. IS GRIME DEAD? WAS IT EVER ALIVE?
Man that sounded pretty full of angst -- actually, the big thing to me, the big thing, to me, the big thing, is well, AWESOME SHIT COMES FROM TOTAL RANDOMS NOW. Just randomly surfing around what's popular on soundcloud this year has been soooo effective in finding cool new shit. Combine that with the fact that a lot of the first generation dubstep "innovators" have had pretty weak followup tracks this year and it's beautiful wonderful musical communism.
Anyways, fuck all the previous ado and here we gooo:
25: Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith - Not In Love
Yeah, this is going to be on a lot of lists because Crystal Castles are Pitchfork-cool plus it's an 80s cover which in 2010 means COOLEST THING EVER. I feel pretty awful putting this on my list but I live to disappoint both myself and others.
24: Massive Attack (Breakage Version) - Paradise Circus
Oh my god, like oh my god, like at 2:22 when the beat drops out like OMG. Hope Sandoval has a pretty hawt voice. I'd kill you for a shot with her. The piano interluuuuude into the second "drop" is also severely awesome. I'm sure a few people will opt to put Splitting the Atom on their year end lists to token head nod to Massive Attack but that's so school and me and this track are too cool for it.
23: The Roots - How I Got Over
Shocking turn of events -- a white boy is repping a "conscious" hip hop track. New wave soul hop ftw?
22: DJ Shadow - I've Been Trying
It's been a long time. Everything post Private Press doesn't count. I doubt many care about this track unless you're a longtime Shadow fan -- it's somewhat less innovative/fun than the house/dubstep offerings and could really just be a lost track from the early 00s but despite it not being HYPEWORTHY, I guarantee the syncopated straw sounds + guitar will eventually break your heart of downtempo hate. (You should have a heart of downtempo hate though)
21: Kink - Existence
Boom cha boom cha boom cha. And now the melody. Speed it up. Yes. Boom cha boom cha boom cha. Louder. Louder. Fade the boom cha boom cha. Base snare. Base snare. Melody. Faster faster. Okay this is kind of awesome classic house. Plus it lacks effeminate vocals and is light on the loud and proud.
20: Drake (Deadboy Version) - Fireworks
Woah, two house tracks in a row. How amateur of me. I doubt this track will get any love because chipmunking Alicia Keys is apparently some sort of sacrilege. I, however, think the vocal treatment is one of the best I've heard on anything all year. The melody is fully rinsed out of the sample without ever it getting squeaky or cheesily repetitive. Also there's no Drake which IMO is a huge win.
19: Katy B - Katy On a Mission
This right here I swear will end too soon. This right here I swear will...
18: Emancipator - Nevergreen
Old school instru hip hop. Could be a missing cut off Endtroducing. I was actually linked to this track by a retarded friend who messaged me describing it as a "sick new slow dubstep" track. Apparently anything that isn't indie rock or hip hop is dubstep now. Actually, that's not a bad assumption nevermind. How about them violins?
17: Janelle Monae - Tightrope
Wasn't I just bashing on Big Boi a few paragraphs ago? I don't really love his verse on this track either, but Janelle on this track is everything I loved about Lauren Hill that I was too ashamed to ever tell anyone about. Boy you better watch out, some girls, some girls are only about, that thing, that thing, that thing~~ Well, this one is actually officially cool according to the interweb boys and "girls" and I'm guessing nerdfork will top 10 this shit as it satisfies the need for pop/soul vintage that every Sea and the Cake fan needs. jk jk. (not really)
16: Hadouken! - Oxygen
Alright, I thought the first track off this new album sucked. Mechadeath? Err, Mecha Love. Yeah don't listen to that. Also, avoid the Gemini dubstep remix of this track. This track already has enough rave cheese + a faux dubstep drop with huge reverb. WHY ADD MORE? This shit will be shunned by the music snobs because the rock crossover groups are too low brow. Seriously how can you not love this band? Or Pendulum?
15: DJ Zinc ft Ms Dynamite - Wile Out
I've been pretty gay for Zinc ever since that's Ready to Die remix. Doesn't it seem like Dynamite has had some pretty amazing tracks the past two years?
14: Surfer Blood - Swim
Did everyone forget about this album? It was awesome. I'm sure Titus Andronicus, Deerhunter, Caribou, and Delorean will all get more love as people look back over 2010, but this track and Floating Vibes were on near constant repeat for me all summer.
13: Wiley - What They Want
Was there any chance I'd not include a Wiley track? Child please.
12: Mount Kimbie - Mayor
This is where I insert something clever like "eargasm." Well when I put it like that, it just sounds dirty. Speaking of dirty, omg @ 3:20 on. That's some Miles Davis improv space age style.
11: Raekwon & Twista - The Heat
Twista? You gay? No. Well, maybe. But only in the morning or days of the week with an 'A' in them. Extra points for anyone who can identify the guitar sample. I really love how the mixing on the track seems a little off -- the vocals are like 20% too quiet which just makes the blare kick that much harder.
10: Kayne West - Runaway
Hmnn, I also really loved Power and, like the rest of the internet, Nicki's verse on Power. (Though I hate the rest of the track and Jay is awful on it) The opening to this track is just evil -- you know what I'm talking about. Twenty-ish seconds in. Until Kayne comes in about 30 seconds later, this could have been a Massive Attack or maybe even a Nails track. Kayne's "soulful" vocals are so out of place on the sparse dystopic evil madness that is the beat and the piano melody but fuck, it owns.
9: JJ - You Know
The catchiest hook all year.
8: Traffic - This Sweet Love
Rumor has it another Traffic track is supposed to drop in the coming days, and I'll feel like a tool if it's somehow more awesome. But I'm prepared to take that chance.
7: Cassie - Skydiver
I love Cassie. Me and You is probably one of my 20 favorite tracks of all time. I think her vocals are consistently awesome and consistently nail the sing-songy melodies of her productions. This is much less sparse than a lot of the other tracks off the album, but to me doesn't sound very goooeey at all. Actually it just sounds awesome. Not Me and You awesome. But still pretty awesome.
6: Hyetal - Phoenix
I'm not sure how Scar Jo is related to this track.
5: James Blake - CMYK
Probably my most listened to track of the year. This or #4. I'll let the music blogs rep this one, as I'm sure it'll be top 10 in a lot of places. Unless, for some reason beyond my comprehension, Limit to Your Love becomes the preferred Blake anthem.
4: Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em
Fucking killer like a cereal. This track kills people sometimes. It's true. (How I wish I liked any of the other tracks on the album nearly as much -- but that's completely irrelevant to how incredibly unbelievable kickass Tell 'Em is)
3: Resolved Dissonance - Hero
WTF IS THIS VIDEO GAME SOUNDING NERD MUSIC? OH WAIT ITS AWESOME NVM. How this has gotten no play or hype is beyond me. It's unfair like when a Pro Life girl shoot you down. (She's killing a baby)
2: Magnetic Man ft Katy B - Perfect Stranger
First track on most recent playlist? Shocking that it's near the top of my end of year list. No other dubstep track is close for me this year.
1: Dynasty (Wileywebb Remix) - Kaskade
Dynasty (wiley Remix) - Kaskade by wileywebb
I'm not going to lie. Well, about this I'm not going to lie. I found this track while looking for an old Wiley instrumental. (As in eskiboy) It's incredible. The vox, the opening build, the distortion on the first drop, the stuttering to beat match the second minidrop, the slowed down whiney rev transitions, the echo harmonic vox as the track proceeds, ALL OF IT. But it's the rev crash drop at 3:50 that truly kills it.
GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Ten Other Tracks (Nearly as Awesome)
Joy Orbison - The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow
These New Puritans - Three Thousand
James Blake - Limit To Your Love
Starkey - Gasping For Air in the Vortex
Sully - The Loot/In Some Pattern
The XX - You've Got the Love
Ratatat - We Can't Be Stopped
XxXy - Know You
Thursday, December 9, 2010
What to Get That Special Someone
3===D ???
I promised a list of all my favorite tracks of the year and I shall deliver in the next week or so -- narrowed it down to about 50ish tracks so far.
More importantly though, where is Tim Riggins @?
PS I hope you jews enjoyed your 8 days of presents
I promised a list of all my favorite tracks of the year and I shall deliver in the next week or so -- narrowed it down to about 50ish tracks so far.
More importantly though, where is Tim Riggins @?
PS I hope you jews enjoyed your 8 days of presents
Friday, December 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
War WTF Is It Good For
$$$$?
Okay so this VHS Head hype as of late has been driving me crazy because, well, I thought it was turbonerd avant-garde homoerotica for super highbrow music snobs. (The kind of people who don't think Alien vs Ninja is an amazing idea) Nonetheless, Sunset Everett is a grower. (Not so much a show-er)
I'm sitting here watching old Futurama reruns waiting on someone to post the new Friday Night Lights so if my next entry here is full of RAGE -- it's probably going to be due to lack of Riggins and too much focus on the random cliche black jocks with hearts of gold that are seasons 4 and 5. It didn't help that MNF was fucking two NFC West teams holy shit bad -- although for my gambling addicts, you can get long the whole NFC West conference to win the NFC title at 14 to 1s. (Probably a do)
Okay, Futurama is kind of amazing. Why did this show get semi cancelled? Oh yeah, downies.
I'll be back.
Okay so this VHS Head hype as of late has been driving me crazy because, well, I thought it was turbonerd avant-garde homoerotica for super highbrow music snobs. (The kind of people who don't think Alien vs Ninja is an amazing idea) Nonetheless, Sunset Everett is a grower. (Not so much a show-er)
I'm sitting here watching old Futurama reruns waiting on someone to post the new Friday Night Lights so if my next entry here is full of RAGE -- it's probably going to be due to lack of Riggins and too much focus on the random cliche black jocks with hearts of gold that are seasons 4 and 5. It didn't help that MNF was fucking two NFC West teams holy shit bad -- although for my gambling addicts, you can get long the whole NFC West conference to win the NFC title at 14 to 1s. (Probably a do)
Okay, Futurama is kind of amazing. Why did this show get semi cancelled? Oh yeah, downies.
I'll be back.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
N Korea Dramas
North Korea puts S2S Missiles on launch pads. Kind of doubt anything will happen, but it's enough to keep tabbing me away from Ashlynn Brooke every few minutes. Also, isn't this Twista+Raekwon track aaaamazzzzinggg?
Also wtf thxgiving, you took Vampire Diaries from me. Oh well:
EXPLODINGDOG
Also wtf thxgiving, you took Vampire Diaries from me. Oh well:
N Korea Dramas
North Korea puts S2S Missiles on launch pads. Kind of doubt anything will happen, but it's enough to keep tabbing me away from Ashlynn Brooke every few minutes. Also, isn't this Twista+Raekwon track aaaamazzzzinggg?
Also wtf thxgiving, you took Vampire Diaries from me. Oh well:
EXPLODINGDOG
Also wtf thxgiving, you took Vampire Diaries from me. Oh well:
No Theo Parrish Amerie Mix on Youtube
Actually maybe I like the original better?
ITS THIS 1 THING THATS GOT ME TRIPPIN
ITS THIS 1 THING THATS GOT ME TRIPPIN
YOU DID
THIS 1 THING MY SOUL
MAY BE FEELIN
Novy playlist to the right to the right. Will def do some sort of top tracks of the year thing in the next few weeks. Probably be a lot of dubstep again on it as wtf else has come out this year.
Stay tuned internet.
ITS THIS 1 THING THATS GOT ME TRIPPIN
ITS THIS 1 THING THATS GOT ME TRIPPIN
YOU DID
THIS 1 THING MY SOUL
MAY BE FEELIN
Novy playlist to the right to the right. Will def do some sort of top tracks of the year thing in the next few weeks. Probably be a lot of dubstep again on it as wtf else has come out this year.
Stay tuned internet.
Friday, November 26, 2010
DROP DROP DROP BOMBS
Sup lovers. Been busy living the thug life, by which I mean lifting weights, fucking bitches and killing nerds, because nerds need killing and bitches need fucking and that's fucking that. Yup, that. Before I go any further, I dedicate this track to my slanty eyed brother from another mother, Kim Jong the Illest.
Samples - Drop Bombs (Mochipet Remix) [Unfinished] by Mochipet
HERE COMES THE HERE COMES THE. (Yeah you know where's that going)
Are any of you nerds currently in line at Best Buy somewhere?
Samples - Drop Bombs (Mochipet Remix) [Unfinished] by Mochipet
HERE COMES THE HERE COMES THE. (Yeah you know where's that going)
Are any of you nerds currently in line at Best Buy somewhere?
- Yes, I'm Jewish.
- Yes, I'm going to save $20 on a hard disk so I can get an extra TB of hentai incest porn HAMETE TYOODAI ONIISAN.
- No, I'm gay and fuck that nerdotry, I'm waiting in line outside Express.
All of the above should warrant killing yourself. (Sorry Jewbros but ffs what does a Jew need that you can't just pay for out of our sekret Jew trust fund)
Also, popculturally:
- Weeds wtf this season was good
- Why the fuck do I watch Nikita seriously
- 30rock is getting boring and reminds me of the spiderwebs outside my window
- Please let the superbowl be thugs only - Vick vs Big Rapist Ben
- What's a rapestand?
- New Girl Talk >> New Kayne
- I love this so fucking much
- Miami Heat lolol get fucked
- My RL APM is sub 50
- Female snowboarded are kinda scary jacked
- Peyton Hillis = Riggins?
- Glee is now too awful to watch
Friday, October 15, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Oh Sup
I don't got shit for you cept 3==D.
Going on vacation for next 3 weeks to booze + crush azn girls. When I return I'll be in full nerd form I PROMISE. Btw, by "crush" I mean pay to get sat on by fat naked girls. The Japanese love that shit.
I just head this 2nite and I gaurantee you nerds haven't, even you hardcore dubstep nerds, yes you know who you are.
Also, does anyone else love this season of Weeds so far? AND VAMPIRE DIARIES + NFL START UP THIS WEEK. THANK YOU ELIJAH. Or was it Adonai? Or teen wolf? Yeah I'm pretty psyched. As in, "I'm pretty and you are too, PSYCHE."
Also, I have no idea what's going on since my last update, I've been totally AWOL with food poisoning + work. Apparently eating lots of shit you are allergic to is an idea which is lacking in goodness. No, it wasn't dicks.
Wish me lots of STD free girls in my travels. I'll try to fraps at least a few of them for you my <3s.
Also, who's going to be my gay Hellcats friend?
Going on vacation for next 3 weeks to booze + crush azn girls. When I return I'll be in full nerd form I PROMISE. Btw, by "crush" I mean pay to get sat on by fat naked girls. The Japanese love that shit.
I just head this 2nite and I gaurantee you nerds haven't, even you hardcore dubstep nerds, yes you know who you are.
Also, does anyone else love this season of Weeds so far? AND VAMPIRE DIARIES + NFL START UP THIS WEEK. THANK YOU ELIJAH. Or was it Adonai? Or teen wolf? Yeah I'm pretty psyched. As in, "I'm pretty and you are too, PSYCHE."
Also, I have no idea what's going on since my last update, I've been totally AWOL with food poisoning + work. Apparently eating lots of shit you are allergic to is an idea which is lacking in goodness. No, it wasn't dicks.
Wish me lots of STD free girls in my travels. I'll try to fraps at least a few of them for you my <3s.
Also, who's going to be my gay Hellcats friend?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Could My 5v5 Arena Team Beat Any WNBA Team in Basketball?
And if we could, would it be worth it to Juwanna Mann that shit? Would I be be the ugliest or prettiest?
Did anyone catch Weeds? Yes, I know it's been fucking awful for a long time. But well there's murder and Clue references and a Milf druglord -- a few of favorite things. It's also the only thing on till the NFL gets going. Well...there's also Rubicon. But when I watch that shit, I feel like a huge NERD. Plus it's on AMC so the pacing is atrocious, ie nothing the fuck ever happens, sup Mad Men.
I don't really like scary old guys in America secret society phobia plots anyways. I'm just not very scared of impotent dying white guys unless they're Jon Voight. They're like the wrong kind of Republicans to be afraid of -- it's the creationists and anti-abortion crazies that worry me more.
Do you believe in Math? Yeah. Do you believe in Calculus? Of course. Do you believe in Carbon Dating? FUCK NO SATAN IS TRIKING U.
Or:
Do you believe that God created the whole universe 5000 years ago? Yes. Do you believe that the stars are far away? Of course. What about shit that's really far away, say the Andromeda Galaxy? Yes. It's 2.5 million light years away... So?
Did anyone catch Weeds? Yes, I know it's been fucking awful for a long time. But well there's murder and Clue references and a Milf druglord -- a few of favorite things. It's also the only thing on till the NFL gets going. Well...there's also Rubicon. But when I watch that shit, I feel like a huge NERD. Plus it's on AMC so the pacing is atrocious, ie nothing the fuck ever happens, sup Mad Men.
I don't really like scary old guys in America secret society phobia plots anyways. I'm just not very scared of impotent dying white guys unless they're Jon Voight. They're like the wrong kind of Republicans to be afraid of -- it's the creationists and anti-abortion crazies that worry me more.
Do you believe in Math? Yeah. Do you believe in Calculus? Of course. Do you believe in Carbon Dating? FUCK NO SATAN IS TRIKING U.
Or:
Do you believe that God created the whole universe 5000 years ago? Yes. Do you believe that the stars are far away? Of course. What about shit that's really far away, say the Andromeda Galaxy? Yes. It's 2.5 million light years away... So?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
What Did Cinderella Say When She Reached the Ball?
(GAGGING NOISE)
So WoM is on the way out, for those who care, which, I do -- despite extreme levels of slackerness on my part and a lot of guest bloggers who I never liked much, 'cept you Trance you sexy motherfucker, I still have read the majority of the hokage's ramblings over the years and still think he was probably one of the reasons I stayed interested in the game as long as I have. (AND STILL AM SHIFT LET'S LSD SOME BITCHES)
Why is it "LSD" instead of "DSL" anyways?
I apologize, jk I'm not sorry at all, jk I am, for the lack of Beta rambling but the last few patches haven't changed much. For those out of the loopty-loop, the Mirror Images glyph now rapes faces (and makes them look up while doing so). As Arcane those little mini-mes start ABing kids for almost 3k a cast, which from my experience in the new WG zone, which is pretty gay tbqh, is basically enough to easily solo 1-2 people of most classes. This should remind you probably of Mirrors in the last Beta -- so this shit will definitely be hugely nerfed and it's unclear whether the whole Mirrors casting different nukes depending on your spec will be largely cosmetic.
Sprint change for rogues is okay. As much as I love rogue -- it's going to take a few more changes to lure me away from priest/mage. Sub is actually pretty fun but the inability to do shit to plate is pretty frustrating. I actually think Muti isn't too far away from being sweet.
That's all I got. Summer == basketball.
So WoM is on the way out, for those who care, which, I do -- despite extreme levels of slackerness on my part and a lot of guest bloggers who I never liked much, 'cept you Trance you sexy motherfucker, I still have read the majority of the hokage's ramblings over the years and still think he was probably one of the reasons I stayed interested in the game as long as I have. (AND STILL AM SHIFT LET'S LSD SOME BITCHES)
Why is it "LSD" instead of "DSL" anyways?
I apologize, jk I'm not sorry at all, jk I am, for the lack of Beta rambling but the last few patches haven't changed much. For those out of the loopty-loop, the Mirror Images glyph now rapes faces (and makes them look up while doing so). As Arcane those little mini-mes start ABing kids for almost 3k a cast, which from my experience in the new WG zone, which is pretty gay tbqh, is basically enough to easily solo 1-2 people of most classes. This should remind you probably of Mirrors in the last Beta -- so this shit will definitely be hugely nerfed and it's unclear whether the whole Mirrors casting different nukes depending on your spec will be largely cosmetic.
Sprint change for rogues is okay. As much as I love rogue -- it's going to take a few more changes to lure me away from priest/mage. Sub is actually pretty fun but the inability to do shit to plate is pretty frustrating. I actually think Muti isn't too far away from being sweet.
That's all I got. Summer == basketball.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
New Choons
Bout time, huh?
Yes, there's a lot of dubstep, but after attending Pitchfork a few weeks back, one feels the need to purge oneself of Indie rock.
Yes, there's a lot of dubstep, but after attending Pitchfork a few weeks back, one feels the need to purge oneself of Indie rock.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Dedicated To One of the Dumbest SNL Skits
Okay, so even without fraps running, I'm at 91% CPU usage, so yeah, fraps FPS, not so hot. (New computer inc soonish)
I switched to PlayClaw to try to improve FPS while recording, and it helped, FPS went from 10ish to 25ish, and I recorded a few duels vs a few actually good players, but well, PlayClaw MORE LIKE GAYCLAW because every single file is corrupted and unwatchable. It was basically just me getting raped by mages as Shadowstep -- I'd say "Shadowdance" but, well, Beta as cool it is, I can't actually train Shadowdance as Sub, so it's more like Hemostep.
Even if I had a PvP trinket, I think non sub specs will have a lot of trouble with Frost + Blazing Speed mages, especially once they learn to improve their gayness. (Put your pet more than 25 yards away and pet freeze the sap, mix up trinket DF timing variants or just sit in sap while pet autoattacks whatever) Fancy openers really aren't possible with a single set of cooldowns. It feels like pet kill into redirect 5KS is an okay opener, blind the blink and reopen with garotte, vanish if they trinket etc etc. Typical nub style rushdown as Muti feels decent, Garotte over sap into muti, clos, expose, kidney if they BS proc, else envenom zerg zerg vanish as clos fades and judge from there.
More serious clipzz once a few of my friends actually get the fuck on beta. ^^
I switched to PlayClaw to try to improve FPS while recording, and it helped, FPS went from 10ish to 25ish, and I recorded a few duels vs a few actually good players, but well, PlayClaw MORE LIKE GAYCLAW because every single file is corrupted and unwatchable. It was basically just me getting raped by mages as Shadowstep -- I'd say "Shadowdance" but, well, Beta as cool it is, I can't actually train Shadowdance as Sub, so it's more like Hemostep.
Even if I had a PvP trinket, I think non sub specs will have a lot of trouble with Frost + Blazing Speed mages, especially once they learn to improve their gayness. (Put your pet more than 25 yards away and pet freeze the sap, mix up trinket DF timing variants or just sit in sap while pet autoattacks whatever) Fancy openers really aren't possible with a single set of cooldowns. It feels like pet kill into redirect 5KS is an okay opener, blind the blink and reopen with garotte, vanish if they trinket etc etc. Typical nub style rushdown as Muti feels decent, Garotte over sap into muti, clos, expose, kidney if they BS proc, else envenom zerg zerg vanish as clos fades and judge from there.
More serious clipzz once a few of my friends actually get the fuck on beta. ^^
Monday, July 26, 2010
Another 10 Second Cata Clip
I have no idea if anyone cares about this crap, doubtful, but here's a small clip showing that you can perform actions between poly ending and the Improved Poly stun kicking in. (This should have been obvious to anyone who's had impact/blackout)
You can do whatever you like during this window, counterspell, intercept, deathcoil, cloak whatever! Imp Poly is nonetheless quite powerful. (Though the stunlocklol is potentially pretty avoidable)
You can do whatever you like during this window, counterspell, intercept, deathcoil, cloak whatever! Imp Poly is nonetheless quite powerful. (Though the stunlocklol is potentially pretty avoidable)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Can Anyone Get This?
Anyone with a rogue on Beta able to get combat Gouge into CS guaranteed? I haven't been able to, but it seems possible with good timing + low latency. (I have 300ish)
I feel like I have 1/4 second to spare on the restealth but the typical 1/2 sec delay between stealth -> CS fucks me. I've tried with safe spam macro but I'm not sure it's better than just timing it, actually I think it's worse as you lose something like 100ms per failed action or some BS.
Here's a clip showing how close it is, lf nonbad rogue to viral this shit.
I feel like I have 1/4 second to spare on the restealth but the typical 1/2 sec delay between stealth -> CS fucks me. I've tried with safe spam macro but I'm not sure it's better than just timing it, actually I think it's worse as you lose something like 100ms per failed action or some BS.
Here's a clip showing how close it is, lf nonbad rogue to viral this shit.
Friday, July 23, 2010
So This Patch
IS FUCKING AMAZING FOR LOCKS AND MAGES?
Current Mage Thoughts:
PvP builds are starting to look much more promising with the latest build, particularly because Blazing Speed is now Tier 2 and Imp CS is Tier 1. Arcane builds of the 31+/7/2 and Frost builds of either 2/7/31+ or 7+/0/31 look like they have pretty awesome potential. The Fire Tree itself looks pretty terrible still for PvP (actually in general) but with some improvement, it has great subtreeing with 7+/31/2 type builds.
Arcane feels like the most complete spec thus far. There's the ability to invest 31/32 points and there are actually some choices to be made going down the tree deciding exactly what you want. I feel that shaving one point from Tier 3, 9->8, would help a lot as would shaving Torment or Mana Gem from 3->2. I like that you can't subtree and get both Improved Blink and Invocation. Despite the significant mage forum whining concerning the fact that you have to take PvP talents occasionally in PvE builds, I don't really see this as very true, as talents like NP/Torment/Nether Vortex are all PvE options that probably won't be in PvP builds.
My two largest concerns with Arcane, and the first of these pertains to Fire as well, are Mana Shield and Improved Poly. The new Incanter's, with the knockback when Mana Shield is destroyed, certainly helps but this seems unlikely to remain as it's likely pretty overpowered even with the 10s cooldown on Mana Shield now. Mana Shield only absorbing 1270 damage and not getting any benefit from spellpower IS A PROBLEM. Part of me feels this needs to scale and be more to the tune of 4 times this amount, at a minimum, but do we want Fire and Arcane survivability tied to Mana Shield, or do we want it to be completely useless except for Arcane mages who refresh it every opportunity for the knockback?
Improved Poly is problematic even once given it's own DR that actually DRs. If a priest deaths my poly, should he get really eat a 3s stun? (And then a half DR poly since he's probably stunned inside LOS) Do I really always want to poly-poly-poly-lance to maximize CC time? Breaking poly to "extend" the CC chain feels weird. I do feel that Arcane needs a distinctive deep tree PvP mechanic. Slow is unfortunately extremely mediocre without a dispel punish. My suggestions are one of the following:
Current Mage Thoughts:
PvP builds are starting to look much more promising with the latest build, particularly because Blazing Speed is now Tier 2 and Imp CS is Tier 1. Arcane builds of the 31+/7/2 and Frost builds of either 2/7/31+ or 7+/0/31 look like they have pretty awesome potential. The Fire Tree itself looks pretty terrible still for PvP (actually in general) but with some improvement, it has great subtreeing with 7+/31/2 type builds.
Arcane feels like the most complete spec thus far. There's the ability to invest 31/32 points and there are actually some choices to be made going down the tree deciding exactly what you want. I feel that shaving one point from Tier 3, 9->8, would help a lot as would shaving Torment or Mana Gem from 3->2. I like that you can't subtree and get both Improved Blink and Invocation. Despite the significant mage forum whining concerning the fact that you have to take PvP talents occasionally in PvE builds, I don't really see this as very true, as talents like NP/Torment/Nether Vortex are all PvE options that probably won't be in PvP builds.
My two largest concerns with Arcane, and the first of these pertains to Fire as well, are Mana Shield and Improved Poly. The new Incanter's, with the knockback when Mana Shield is destroyed, certainly helps but this seems unlikely to remain as it's likely pretty overpowered even with the 10s cooldown on Mana Shield now. Mana Shield only absorbing 1270 damage and not getting any benefit from spellpower IS A PROBLEM. Part of me feels this needs to scale and be more to the tune of 4 times this amount, at a minimum, but do we want Fire and Arcane survivability tied to Mana Shield, or do we want it to be completely useless except for Arcane mages who refresh it every opportunity for the knockback?
Improved Poly is problematic even once given it's own DR that actually DRs. If a priest deaths my poly, should he get really eat a 3s stun? (And then a half DR poly since he's probably stunned inside LOS) Do I really always want to poly-poly-poly-lance to maximize CC time? Breaking poly to "extend" the CC chain feels weird. I do feel that Arcane needs a distinctive deep tree PvP mechanic. Slow is unfortunately extremely mediocre without a dispel punish. My suggestions are one of the following:
- Distortion - When you enter or exit Invisibility, you stun all targets within 6 yards for 1.5/3 seconds. (Opener stun DR -- i.e. doesn't DR with other stuns)
- Attunement - When dealing damage with your non-Arcane spells, you syphon mana from the target equal to 3/6% of the the damage done.
The Fire tree is still a total mess and I can't really begin to speak about it without significant nerdrage. There's still no way of actually doing any damage in PvP or surviving even moderate pressure. Impact is awful at 7%. DB and Poly being shared DR is ridiculously stupid. Hot Streak is generally just not a very functional burst mechanic as you don't have demand burst when you need it. All of the DoT talents are problematic in PvP due to dispels and the need to cast sloooowww nukes to put up the DoTs.
Frost still feels very much the same as WotLK, which is maybe fine. Shatter is back to reasonable as is FoF with this latest build. The removal of Frostbite in favor of Imp CoC is excellent, but Imp CoC freeze should be DR with Shattered Barrier and not Nova. It's still impossible to come up with a PvP spec that doesn't leave out a lot of desired talents in tree. I think at least 2 out of Permafrost, Brain Freeze, or Fingers of Frost should be come 2/2 instead of 3/3s. Swapping Permafrost with Piercing Chill would also solve the problem, but I'm not sure if the first 5 of Frost are too strong in PvP if you do this. Improved Freeze doesn't seem to work for me on Beta with any consistency, but I like the idea -- the problem is, now that WE is permanent, he's nearly always use OOM and you can't generate this proc that much. (You can simply resummon the fatty I guess) I don't really understand the whole Frostfire Orb idea and I'm not really a huge fan of turreting frostbolts in PvP, but to each their own?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
INFINITE COMMBOOOOOOOO
Don't alpha counter me bro
Basically, current Imp Poly doesn't DR. You'll notice that the mob is still moving towards me despite the fact that it should be PERMALOLSTUNNED. This, I believe, and plz, some nerd correct me, is because the netcode is the same as with impact -- the server has to tell you the spell connected, in this case, poly has broken, and then you tell it that you've got Imp Poly and some nerd needs to get stunned, so during that roundtrip, there's a window pre-stun. (OR SOMETHING)
Basically, current Imp Poly doesn't DR. You'll notice that the mob is still moving towards me despite the fact that it should be PERMALOLSTUNNED. This, I believe, and plz, some nerd correct me, is because the netcode is the same as with impact -- the server has to tell you the spell connected, in this case, poly has broken, and then you tell it that you've got Imp Poly and some nerd needs to get stunned, so during that roundtrip, there's a window pre-stun. (OR SOMETHING)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Curtain of Dicks
Updated with wegame better quality
I'll be brief because I need to shower people with attention tonight instead of level my video game wizard, well I'm done leveling for now, so make that -- instead of PLAYING with my video game wizard, not my real video game wizard mind you, as it's beta, my practice wizard, yes, um, I've derailed, anyways, here's a short clip of messing around with curtain.
I'll be brief because I need to shower people with attention tonight instead of level my video game wizard, well I'm done leveling for now, so make that -- instead of PLAYING with my video game wizard, not my real video game wizard mind you, as it's beta, my practice wizard, yes, um, I've derailed, anyways, here's a short clip of messing around with curtain.
Learn more at the WoW Wiki
It does terribad damage and is a bit clunky and looks stupid. But you know what? I kinda like it. It's kind of like this:
I'm not really sure in what manner they're similar except that they are and if you don't understand I hate you and you're stupid.
What I do like is that it doesn't just drop at your feet and there's no targeting indication. (NOSCOPELOL)
The resnaring mechanic is a bit clunky as it seems the target has to leave the area and come back to be re-afflicted. There's a lot of stuff I want to test still:
The resnaring mechanic is a bit clunky as it seems the target has to leave the area and come back to be re-afflicted. There's a lot of stuff I want to test still:
- Interactions with stealth/invisibility
- Interaction with latency mechanics (Grenade-like or fear-like?)
- How do you get more ticks?!
- Is there any interaction with Frost mechanics? (Cold snap? Permafrost? I assume...yes?)
- Z-axis?
It's hard to comment on this recent beta build with respect to the mage class because so much feels broken. Damage feels quite low, particularly AoE abilities -- I feel like the damage should be tripled on many of them. The elephant in the room still is the lack of critical strike damage bonus talents, are we going forward with 1.5x crits? Lack of pushback protection aside from Burning Soul and lack of range talents also are quite irritating. I'm not sure there's a point in dueling/PvPing until we get another build.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
New Beta Patch
WTF THESE TALENT TREES ARE BAD
It's pretty obvious that something needs to be done about Imp CS -- either move it down to T1 or T2, which would make subtreeing into Arcane necessary for every PvP spec, or make it baseline. Regardless of that, Arcane dominates the other trees currently across all aspects of the game.
I haven't yet tested if Imp Poly shares DR with other stuns -- I'm betting yes, but I'll confirm once I can get back on Beta, which might be a while since I'm unable to log in. COOL BRO.
Fortunately, there are less talents, and thus it's easier to rant about what's wrong with all of them.
Fire:
It's pretty obvious that something needs to be done about Imp CS -- either move it down to T1 or T2, which would make subtreeing into Arcane necessary for every PvP spec, or make it baseline. Regardless of that, Arcane dominates the other trees currently across all aspects of the game.
I haven't yet tested if Imp Poly shares DR with other stuns -- I'm betting yes, but I'll confirm once I can get back on Beta, which might be a while since I'm unable to log in. COOL BRO.
Fortunately, there are less talents, and thus it's easier to rant about what's wrong with all of them.
Fire:
- Imp Fire Blast is still mediocre because Fireblast DPS is awful. Incineration is boring.
- Burning Soul should be killed as should pushback in general. Impact needs to be scrapped probably as well. DR issues and RNG issues.
- Blazing Speed should be activated or tied to Blastwave. Fire Power -- I don't know about mage nerd DoT nonsense but whatever it's fire nobody is going to play this dumb tree anyways.
- Combustion is finally decent. Hot Streak has potential.
- Imp Flamestrike LOL KY. BW/DB would still work better if they worked like those nerd meteors from AQ20 and they did correspondingly more damage against fewer targets.
- PM/CM -- WHO CARES ITS THE FIRE TREE
Frost:
- Frostbite is lame. Imp CoC >>> Frostbite. (But separate DR from FN or don't bother)
- Shatter Tier 1 sup but 1.5x crits oh damn.
- IV Tier 3 = only frosties which would be alright except this tree is terrible
- FFB Orb - HAHAHA
Arcane:
- TTW - STOP WITH THIS PLEASE JUST STOP
- NP - I don't know why nerds love this, it's boring 3% haste axe-ity axe axe
- Potency/Clearcasting synergy I kinda like nohomo
- Arcane Repulsion doesn't seem effective due to -- multiple melee, stupid pets, and long CD + it's hard to justify 3 points here for a mediocre anti melee CD when Frost Armor is nearly as good, and better if Frostbite stays
- IAM/MB - These combine to make AM useless without the talents which is okay since AM was pretty much always useless without OP talents
- Imp Blink - YAY THIS RULES I LOVE WHATEVER GENIUS SUGGESTED IT I HEARD HES REALLY CUTE TOO
- Imp CS needs to be base or move up didn't I say that already I think I did but in case I didn't it should be baseline or at least be baseline maybe if it was baseline or baseline instead of talented like if it was baseline or something baseline it would be baseline
- Imp Poly has a sweet animation PEWPEW. Realistically it's just one extra cast on sheeps so depending on DR this might be awful.
I have no idea if a lot of mechanics are currently working in the Beta. Does Mastery work? Did some of the old talents become baseline? (Like Magic Absorb or SoTM?)
Ice Lance damage was nerfed a bit so mindless spam isn't quite what it used to be.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
GET OFF MY KOOL AID MOTHERFUCKERS
THANKS LITER YOU SNAKE, I HOPE YOU MEET A BEAUTIFUL GIRL WITH VAGINAL TEETH WHO DEVOURS YOUR MANHOOD
Also, I was looking through the google search terms that lead to my big gay blog and coolio mcgoolio, "Radikal David Schwimmer" is number fucking two. I hate everyone on the internet. I'm moving to Texas so I can drink some beers and shoot some deers and never have to deal with the interwebs or smart people again. Also because I'm in love with Tyra Collette. I'm way prettier than Landrey or whatever his name is, plus plus plus, I'm way nicer. I ooze compassion like a dead squashed slug. Like Toejam with salt all up in his face. Don't act like you never tortured insects as a kid you fucking high and mighty internerds. You can't just fucking start on mammals or you'll get skeeved and lose your nerve and nobody loves a quitter.
ALSO I LOVE YOU NERDS WHO ARE VOTING FOR MAGE NOW I WAS JUST KIDDING ABOUT HATING THE INTERNET I NEED YOUR AFFECTION AND ATTENTION SO BAD PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME FFS I NEED IT
Also, I was looking through the google search terms that lead to my big gay blog and coolio mcgoolio, "Radikal David Schwimmer" is number fucking two. I hate everyone on the internet. I'm moving to Texas so I can drink some beers and shoot some deers and never have to deal with the interwebs or smart people again. Also because I'm in love with Tyra Collette. I'm way prettier than Landrey or whatever his name is, plus plus plus, I'm way nicer. I ooze compassion like a dead squashed slug. Like Toejam with salt all up in his face. Don't act like you never tortured insects as a kid you fucking high and mighty internerds. You can't just fucking start on mammals or you'll get skeeved and lose your nerve and nobody loves a quitter.
ALSO I LOVE YOU NERDS WHO ARE VOTING FOR MAGE NOW I WAS JUST KIDDING ABOUT HATING THE INTERNET I NEED YOUR AFFECTION AND ATTENTION SO BAD PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME FFS I NEED IT
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Privacy
[...]The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.
[...]
I strongly suggest that anyone who isn't down with the syndrome voice their objection to this change. I'm totally cool with being Facebook friends with guildmates and teammates I've known for a while, but I, me, I, me, would like the power to control who has access to my personal information. There are hard to predict repercussions from giving away information like this -- (If I can find your name and addy on spokeo, and I see you went offline or stopped posting, can I infer your current location to rob/rape you? Can I blackmail you if I know your employer and see you're playing games instead of working? Can I engage you in various confidence scams through WoW?)
This move does almost nothing to stop "malicious" posting whatever that means. It's not too terribly hard to have a John Doe account. (Which seems like a decent option going forward)
Honestly, I'm one of the least affected players by this -- outside of alpha/beta, I never post on the Blizzard forums and I arena with the same dozen or so players always, so I'm not terribly exposed to the change. I will certainly never post on the official forums or ever use RealID in game. (Despite the fact that I'm IRL friends with many of the people I arena with...because why do I need to, they're on skype/axon/vent with me) I fail to see any upside in this nonsense -- I have no idea what Blizzard's intentions are, and I'm really not a privacy nut, but is it so much to ask to just PLAY A GAME and not engage in some pointless and potentially dangerous social network clusterfuck?
[...]
I strongly suggest that anyone who isn't down with the syndrome voice their objection to this change. I'm totally cool with being Facebook friends with guildmates and teammates I've known for a while, but I, me, I, me, would like the power to control who has access to my personal information. There are hard to predict repercussions from giving away information like this -- (If I can find your name and addy on spokeo, and I see you went offline or stopped posting, can I infer your current location to rob/rape you? Can I blackmail you if I know your employer and see you're playing games instead of working? Can I engage you in various confidence scams through WoW?)
This move does almost nothing to stop "malicious" posting whatever that means. It's not too terribly hard to have a John Doe account. (Which seems like a decent option going forward)
Honestly, I'm one of the least affected players by this -- outside of alpha/beta, I never post on the Blizzard forums and I arena with the same dozen or so players always, so I'm not terribly exposed to the change. I will certainly never post on the official forums or ever use RealID in game. (Despite the fact that I'm IRL friends with many of the people I arena with...because why do I need to, they're on skype/axon/vent with me) I fail to see any upside in this nonsense -- I have no idea what Blizzard's intentions are, and I'm really not a privacy nut, but is it so much to ask to just PLAY A GAME and not engage in some pointless and potentially dangerous social network clusterfuck?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
So the NDA Is Lifted
More to follow ^^
New talent trees on war tools.
Wowhead now updated.
Blue follow up on Shatter:
Shatter has been a lot of things. At the moment it is double crit chance vs. frozen targets for 1 point and triple crit chance vs. frozen for 2 points.
I'll try to update some of the other concerns and make corrections when I get some time. - GC
So, I meant to type up some thoughts on how things are progressing for mage (and rogue) so far, but after fucking up my hand playing bball, it'll have to wait. Sorry!
Okay, firstovh:
It's still super premature to really comment on much. Every recent build has a ton of random undocumented changes for mages, sadly none for rouges >.<, and it's pretty arrogant/stupid to really critique the "direction" their taking for the class in cata -- not that that will stop me. (An example being that Fireball and Frostbolt cast times were sekretly reduced by .5 seconds this build)
For those of you on alpha, it looks like we were right concerning AM, at least at this point in the design process -- the spell has been relegated to leveling and deep Arcane. I had thought it would be nearly impossible to balance across specs and that Frostfire Bolt made more sense as the flavor nuke for deep Fire and Frost PvE. This seems to be case for both. For fire, there is need to maintain DoTs, for Frost, there is need for a nuke when your procs are down that capitalizes on Frostburn. (Or is it called Deathfrost...whatever)
The recent build has attempted to bring about, some might say force, the inclusion of Ice Lance in Frost raiding through the FoF change. (Beyond ghost charges) I think that this will prove a very difficult balancing act because of the "need" for FoF burst in PvP. Double Frostbolt into Frostfire Bolt is HUGE damage, generally 50-65% of a WotLK target's total health. It's how Mage wizards global kids. It's pretty hated as there's not a lot you can do about it, whereas at least DF procs stun damage reduction talents, can be trinketed, dispelled, etc. It's hard to imagine the current Cata FoF being terribly potent or exciting in PvP, which is perhaps a good thing -- I could be very wrong and perhaps the hard hitting Ice Lances are more dangerous than I currently envision. Additionally, this iteration of FoF removes the Ghost charge, and while a lot of the PvE community loves this, I can't agree. Rewarding good timing at the expense of marginally penalizing the DPS of those with high latency is a trade I'm willing to make. (I really don't want to see the game "balanced" for 300 ping)
Some questions concerns with the existing talents, in no particular order:
New talent trees on war tools.
Wowhead now updated.
Blue follow up on Shatter:
Shatter has been a lot of things. At the moment it is double crit chance vs. frozen targets for 1 point and triple crit chance vs. frozen for 2 points.
I'll try to update some of the other concerns and make corrections when I get some time. - GC
So, I meant to type up some thoughts on how things are progressing for mage (and rogue) so far, but after fucking up my hand playing bball, it'll have to wait. Sorry!
Okay, firstovh:
It's still super premature to really comment on much. Every recent build has a ton of random undocumented changes for mages, sadly none for rouges >.<, and it's pretty arrogant/stupid to really critique the "direction" their taking for the class in cata -- not that that will stop me. (An example being that Fireball and Frostbolt cast times were sekretly reduced by .5 seconds this build)
For those of you on alpha, it looks like we were right concerning AM, at least at this point in the design process -- the spell has been relegated to leveling and deep Arcane. I had thought it would be nearly impossible to balance across specs and that Frostfire Bolt made more sense as the flavor nuke for deep Fire and Frost PvE. This seems to be case for both. For fire, there is need to maintain DoTs, for Frost, there is need for a nuke when your procs are down that capitalizes on Frostburn. (Or is it called Deathfrost...whatever)
The recent build has attempted to bring about, some might say force, the inclusion of Ice Lance in Frost raiding through the FoF change. (Beyond ghost charges) I think that this will prove a very difficult balancing act because of the "need" for FoF burst in PvP. Double Frostbolt into Frostfire Bolt is HUGE damage, generally 50-65% of a WotLK target's total health. It's how Mage wizards global kids. It's pretty hated as there's not a lot you can do about it, whereas at least DF procs stun damage reduction talents, can be trinketed, dispelled, etc. It's hard to imagine the current Cata FoF being terribly potent or exciting in PvP, which is perhaps a good thing -- I could be very wrong and perhaps the hard hitting Ice Lances are more dangerous than I currently envision. Additionally, this iteration of FoF removes the Ghost charge, and while a lot of the PvE community loves this, I can't agree. Rewarding good timing at the expense of marginally penalizing the DPS of those with high latency is a trade I'm willing to make. (I really don't want to see the game "balanced" for 300 ping)
Some questions concerns with the existing talents, in no particular order:
- Arcane Instability -- a 60% multiplier is crazy high and I don't understand the goal of this talent. Why should opponents be penalized for interrupting the mage? It would almost make more sense if you did more damage when they MISSED an interrupt, or perhaps it grants you additional Arcane damage when they interrupt a non-Arcane spell. This talent also has anti synergy with the Tier 1 Arcane Stability which grants you pushback immunity. (Yes I can imagine starting a scorch cast, letting the pet hit you, and swapping back to your stacked AB and melting someone's face)
- Arcane Focus -- this talent is completely useless and should be avoided like syhpollis
- Arcane Repulsion -- this has gotten a fair amount of discussion on the Alpha boards, but ultimately it comes back to, is this really necessary?
- Improved Fire Blast -- cooldown ain't the problem hoss
- Burning Determination -- another mana regen talent in Fire? zzz
- Blazing Speed -- I think the best "idea" I've seen concerning BSpeed is to simply grant the buff after using Blastwave, thereby removing the RNG, and eliminates the need for the new Playing with Fire, which to be honest, I don't feel makes much sense. In general, I feel the Fire PvP talents have really gone a pretty stupid direction where attackers are simply RNG penalized for playing the game. (Sup Fiery Payback, and well the same is true of Frostbite)
- Burnout -- what?
- Piercing Chill, aka Chillcleave -- currently this does not requite the Frostbolts to be criticals, I assume that noncrits should proc this.
- Arctic Winds -- pointless RNG defensive talent where neither you nor your adversary has much control over the outcome. The no cooldown CoC and FNs are amusing but not terribly useful.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku
#showtooltip
/target Focus
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena1
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena2
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena3
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/cast Kick
TORNADO KICK SOME NERDS
/target Focus
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena1
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena2
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena3
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/cast Kick
TORNADO KICK SOME NERDS
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
TR GETS SERIOUS
JK, it's still awful. I played all of like 5 games last night after having not played rogue since s6 and we won them all because I'm a boss and we're like 1500 rated still. Maybe more due to the latter. Yesterday was the first time I've played no mods in a very very long time and tbh it's a bigger pain in the ass than I thought. Gladius for keeping track of trinkets + DR is a pretty large crutch. (And if I was playing priest, no Interruptbar would drive me fucking crazy -- jk prep kick GOT YOU BRO)
I'd like to fraps + play more seriously but the new version of fraps (with the pre-capture shit) completely rapes my computer, which is probably best remedied by buying a new comp, but I'm also being gayed because the only non awful player on my team has decided that a vacation with his girlfriend is more important than his efriends. A certain filthy Euro druid who will remain nameless refuses to fucking get on US TR due to the "bollocks" ping. I have no idea what that means and he didn't really say "bollocks" but he says incomprehensible shit of similar obscurity that makes me angry and then confused and then angry once again.
Oh yeah, that thing I was whining about before I derailed to whine about other things, this current tournament realm:
I'd like to fraps + play more seriously but the new version of fraps (with the pre-capture shit) completely rapes my computer, which is probably best remedied by buying a new comp, but I'm also being gayed because the only non awful player on my team has decided that a vacation with his girlfriend is more important than his efriends. A certain filthy Euro druid who will remain nameless refuses to fucking get on US TR due to the "bollocks" ping. I have no idea what that means and he didn't really say "bollocks" but he says incomprehensible shit of similar obscurity that makes me angry and then confused and then angry once again.
Oh yeah, that thing I was whining about before I derailed to whine about other things, this current tournament realm:
- LSD makes me want to cut my dick off and I hate it almost as much as I hate hunter comps
- Hunter comps
- Terrible RMPs. PROTIP -- If you're playing against a comp with a rogue as a rogue in RMP, if you wait for the other rogue to open, and then open on something else NEXT to him, you will get blinded. If you don't trinket, you will get sapped. This ain't TBC, you can get blinded before you trinket now. I KNOW CRAZY. If you do trinket, you should either blind me back, open on me, or have your team ready with defensive CDs because you're going to eat a KS in the next 15 sec probably and die. NVM JUST SIT IN SAP AND GET 3v2d. (TERRIBLES MAKE ME RAGE)
- I've seen like 2 non prot warriors in the last like 100 games and less than that DKs.
- I don't know what to do against triple hybrid wizard cleaves that start healing each other.
Anyways I probably won't be on except to duel this weekend as without Kryo we're awful + I want to watch the koreans win MLG.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
TR
Still owns. I haven't really been using arena targetting (I do on my priest but only for dispelz), so I'm trying to figure out what the best way to intelligently bind shit like swap fear/poly/df/cyclone and can't really decide between 3 binds per spell or just some mouse scroll-ish way of manually selecting before using a single bind. I'm leaning towards the first but it involves being super macro dependent especially if you want the binds to be general enough for duels, 2s, and 3s. (And maybe someday 5s/BGs who knows)
I know a ton of nerds using shift+ASD for targeting but I find that a bit awkward because you can't really move and change targets, which is sort of fine because with the exception of DF, you need to stop anyway for the cast. I do kind of wonder how such targeting could even be as fast as gladius frame clicking, but I guess you need to practice NOMODZ style if you want to be baller.
FUCK WHY DID I GO BACK TO WASD LIKE A NOOB ITS SO BAD
PS Kach get on US TR and carry me
I know a ton of nerds using shift+ASD for targeting but I find that a bit awkward because you can't really move and change targets, which is sort of fine because with the exception of DF, you need to stop anyway for the cast. I do kind of wonder how such targeting could even be as fast as gladius frame clicking, but I guess you need to practice NOMODZ style if you want to be baller.
FUCK WHY DID I GO BACK TO WASD LIKE A NOOB ITS SO BAD
PS Kach get on US TR and carry me
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Doods
I've like not posted in a week. Not since me and my HFT friends celebrated the near death of US markets last week. It was nothing fancy. A bonfire of cash (TRUE WEALTH DESTRUCTION BABY). Sipping blood from the skulls of retailer investors who killed themselves. Urinating in each other's mouths. Basically the shit we do on days with an 'A' in them.
I went over to nerdriot and saw this madness. It's basically a crawler by ronmexicoz, a powerful shamanz with mighty nerd powers, jk web programming lol, that aggregates match results between top teams by comp on Ruin and bg9. I think it's a fucking sweet idea but I think that it's a bit too narrow in scope. It's hard to draw meaningful conclusions when some of the statistics are the result of a few matches. (And the set of total players is small, i.e is destro/ele/druid really that good or is the one team playing just outperforming?) Still I love the idea and it's the first solid analysis of "countercomping" I've, EVER, seen. (Instead of egotistical anecdotal BS)
I also see there's a dueling tourney going on. Sadly I'm too awful on mage to partcipate. I know because I managed to lose a few duels to total randoms outside IF. (Granted I was some bonkers DB spec...which I think would own if I wasn't so rusty but whatever) Kryoh, some pug shammy with a downie lisp who couldn't use skype, and I ran some double destro rshammy the other night which was pretty hilarious and ran into all kinds of freakshow TR only fun shit. (Tripple SP, tripple boomkin, tripple combat, etc) I haven't really played at all since a last minute s7 glad grind with Shift and Kryoh but TR is still fun as shit even if you're awful. (Maybe more so....) I like the idea of cash prize dueling tourneys -- I kind of wish that I set up something like this in the past -- I'll definitely consider it in the future. (Cata maybe?)
Beta opt-ins are starting up, so make sure you got that shit opted. I'm going to fist a dick if I don't get an invite early in the cycle because, well, I'm too pretty not to get picked first. And pretty >> talented any fucking day.
PS WHERE ARE YOU KACH YOU EUROFAG
PPS ME + KRYOH + PUG TR 2NITE (I'll be drunk and learning drooood)
I went over to nerdriot and saw this madness. It's basically a crawler by ronmexicoz, a powerful shamanz with mighty nerd powers, jk web programming lol, that aggregates match results between top teams by comp on Ruin and bg9. I think it's a fucking sweet idea but I think that it's a bit too narrow in scope. It's hard to draw meaningful conclusions when some of the statistics are the result of a few matches. (And the set of total players is small, i.e is destro/ele/druid really that good or is the one team playing just outperforming?) Still I love the idea and it's the first solid analysis of "countercomping" I've, EVER, seen. (Instead of egotistical anecdotal BS)
I also see there's a dueling tourney going on. Sadly I'm too awful on mage to partcipate. I know because I managed to lose a few duels to total randoms outside IF. (Granted I was some bonkers DB spec...which I think would own if I wasn't so rusty but whatever) Kryoh, some pug shammy with a downie lisp who couldn't use skype, and I ran some double destro rshammy the other night which was pretty hilarious and ran into all kinds of freakshow TR only fun shit. (Tripple SP, tripple boomkin, tripple combat, etc) I haven't really played at all since a last minute s7 glad grind with Shift and Kryoh but TR is still fun as shit even if you're awful. (Maybe more so....) I like the idea of cash prize dueling tourneys -- I kind of wish that I set up something like this in the past -- I'll definitely consider it in the future. (Cata maybe?)
Beta opt-ins are starting up, so make sure you got that shit opted. I'm going to fist a dick if I don't get an invite early in the cycle because, well, I'm too pretty not to get picked first. And pretty >> talented any fucking day.
PS WHERE ARE YOU KACH YOU EUROFAG
PPS ME + KRYOH + PUG TR 2NITE (I'll be drunk and learning drooood)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Sup Stock Market
There's been a lot of rumors flying around. (It was a Citi SPU order. It was a Citi P&G order typo. It was a Citi algo. It was a global macro fund algo. It was the Vs.) We'll eventually know, but the why doesn't honestly interest me all that much. I think the big thing in thursday's activity was not so much the blip lower but the ~4% move down BEFORE the blip, the HUGE swings in currencies BEFORE the blip, and the beginning of a real raping of the Nikkei.
Friday's continued, albeit weak, selloff is, well, more of the same. I'm pretty cynical concerning where this will take Europe and Korea, but as for the Japanese and US equity markets, I'm not sure all of the current Europe debt drama is THAT bad.
At Long Last
Thx dab ^^
Been crawling through the spell db and aside from a few random class abilities, not a ton has stood out to me. Here's two of the cooler looking ones:
MORE SHADOWPRIEST BURST YESSSS (Cool mechanic imo)
Recuperate seems pretty interesting in its Alpha incarnation -- it lasts very very long, 30 seconds with 5CP. I had imagined something that was maybe like a 25% HP heal over 12 seconds, this is somewhat less potent, 4% every 2, but if you're toe-to-toe-ing, it seems quite possible to keep it up all the time. (And considering that a 5CP recuperate is almost 50% of your life even with an MS on you, the lost damage seems maybe trivial?)
The talent changes I'm sure everyone has seen by now over on mmo-champ. WTF balance druids? Cool AoE deathcoil. Rogue deep combat talent is sweet and I hope that similar mechanics crop up for other classes. (The ability to reduce the remaining cooldown on abilities by doing shit) Priest anti-wound and anti-bleed talent confuses me.
None of the mage stuff seems to have been implemented.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Where's My Alpha Key Dawg?
Hook it up blizzard.
Also, Jack killed Starbuck, but she's immortal anyways so I'm predicting she's gonna come back @ kill kim and eat her baby.
Also, Jack killed Starbuck, but she's immortal anyways so I'm predicting she's gonna come back @ kill kim and eat her baby.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Why!?
Why was Vampire Diaries the first show I felt it necessary to catch up on? WHY GOD WHY?
BACK FOR MORE IN A BIT. (Watching 24 be awful as per usual)
Woops I lied. Yeah I don't 'h' that shit.
God Glee has sucked recently. It lacks the massive teen drama now. I can't deal with this current batch of spring TV shows. >.<
So Beta looks to be soon. Sup blizzard. Looking for 9 more for unstoppable WSG crew.
BACK FOR MORE IN A BIT. (Watching 24 be awful as per usual)
Woops I lied. Yeah I don't 'h' that shit.
God Glee has sucked recently. It lacks the massive teen drama now. I can't deal with this current batch of spring TV shows. >.<
So Beta looks to be soon. Sup blizzard. Looking for 9 more for unstoppable WSG crew.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Did You Know That Dolphins Are Just Gay Sharks?
I don't have much to say, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but, I'll be gone for a week trying my luck with uppity Italian girls in Capri (and settling for beers with chubby Aussie tourists most likely). I'm hoping Cata beta will be starting shortly after my return stateside and not while I'm away because, well, I like to be there first, nahmean? Also, if anyone at Blizzard is reading this, sorry about that whole calling you all nerds every week for the past three years, please send me a few dozen beta invites, kthx.
Am I supposed to be psyched that Kick Ass is out? I actually read the comics a long long time ago, but I'm now suddenly bored with the concept and really wonder how amused I'll be by McLovin getting his ass kicked over and over.
And that's all she wrote. (PS GLEE RULES AND ILL FUCK YOUR HYOID IF YOU HATE)
Am I supposed to be psyched that Kick Ass is out? I actually read the comics a long long time ago, but I'm now suddenly bored with the concept and really wonder how amused I'll be by McLovin getting his ass kicked over and over.
And that's all she wrote. (PS GLEE RULES AND ILL FUCK YOUR HYOID IF YOU HATE)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
STOP PERMAING ALL MY ACCOUNTS BLIZZARD YOU NERDS
Despite not playing WoW in, well, 7 months, I randomly decided to see what's up with everyone, but well yeah, my US mage is perma'd and my EU rogue is perma'd. COOLIO. I assume this problem will be resolved by the fat virgins at Blizzard if I call them and remind them who the fuck I am, but these pretty fingers weren't meant for dialing long distance. (So kryoh, how about you give me that mage since you're awful)
The class previews looked pretty sweet not going to lie. Arena looks like it's going YUGIOH style - YOU TRIGGERED MY TRAP CARD WALL OF FOG. OH SHIT THIS BOOMKIN IS SHROOMING ME. FUCK I CANT HIT HIM THE ROGUE SMOKE BOMBED. WAIT NVM THE OOMKIN IS JUST HURRICANING.
It's way too soon to react to specifics of the mage changes (YES I WILL BE PLAYING MAGE AGAIN FINALLY), but shit like logic has never stopped before, so without further ado, than this right here, ado, here's my initial feelings: (not thoughts, FEELINGS)
Flame Orb - This sounds nerdy and dumb but maybe hilarious depending on how stupid and big the orb is and if it matters if it hits you. Will it break CC? (Please god no) Is kiting along your orb path viable? It's a little hard for me to imagine how this could be amazing in PvP (and as for PvE, I think it's slightly cooler than just spamming LB), but it sounds like there's probably some small handed potential.
Time Warp - "Grants a passive Haste effect ..[]" Passive? WTF does that mean? It's unclear to me if this is actually heroism even though nerds everywhere are like OMG MAGE BUDLUST. If it is heroism, it's cool but retarded as I'm not looking forward to getting exhaustion from nerds who sprint out the gate in WSG to steal my zerking. My guess would be that this doesn't give exhaustion but is somewhat less powerful (15% maybe?) and simply doesn't stack. I would rather this me location based and not party/raid based as that seems like the direction things are going. (POSITIONING > MINDLESSNESS) It would be particularly badass if it was just like a 15 yd AoE granting friendlies 15% movement + haste and hostiles - 15% etc, but I best shut up before the vultures scream OH PENIS.
Wall of Fag - WHY YOU CLEAVERS BREAK DOWN MY SHITTY WALL. This sounds fucking awesome.
AM Change - A little confusing but I can see no downside to greater spell variety if the balance is solid. I assume this goes along with removing MBAM and reworking the spell to be generally a similar dps burst mechanic.
No Frost Haste Mastery - NOESSS I NEED SICK DF COMBOS FML
Scorch Change - Probably cool but it still doesn't really solve the fire pvp issue that there's no good way to actually deal damage unless it interacts differently with different fire spells. (Increases next fireball by say 5%, next BW/DB/fireblast by 25%)
Mirror Image - Can we get a redesign for these dumb nerds?
Junk Buffs - HOW WILL I PROTECT MYSELF FROM DEVOURDOGS?
Playing With Fire - Cool idea maybe? I don't really like the RNG disarm crap in fire so hopefully there will be a more predictable/controllable punish for melee training fire mages. (BETTER NOT LEAVE HIM ALONE OR HE MIGHT START SCORCHING US GUYS)
Burnout Change - YAY I WONT LOSE DUELS BECAUSE I OOMED MYSELF WITH MANA SHIELD. I need to lay off the caps. I love this shit though. LOOK AT ME MOM IM A BIG WARLOCK NOW.
Arcane Adept - DOUBLE MAGE 2S TRINKET AP IV GEM ABABABAB DID WE WIN? FUCK IM AT 60% WERE FUCKED. Actually...this is retarded. I think innervate needs to go if this stays as I can't imagine the nerdrage that's going to result from the DPS swings that not getting a vate is going to cause. Maybe some spells aren't affected by the penalty/bonus such as barrage? So you have one high mana rotation, one med, and one low? Sounds complicated and not really that cool tbh.
New Ignite - It sounds like this is per spell which is potentially cool as it might reward mixing in a few more spells to max your running ignite. (ffb, fb, and fblast even maybe?) Could be cool in PvP depending on relative strength of dot as you could maybe get decent single target dps with BW+instant FS+fireblast and all 3 dots.
Deathfrost - Yay no more fbolt turreting and BF procs might actually matter.
The class previews looked pretty sweet not going to lie. Arena looks like it's going YUGIOH style - YOU TRIGGERED MY TRAP CARD WALL OF FOG. OH SHIT THIS BOOMKIN IS SHROOMING ME. FUCK I CANT HIT HIM THE ROGUE SMOKE BOMBED. WAIT NVM THE OOMKIN IS JUST HURRICANING.
It's way too soon to react to specifics of the mage changes (YES I WILL BE PLAYING MAGE AGAIN FINALLY), but shit like logic has never stopped before, so without further ado, than this right here, ado, here's my initial feelings: (not thoughts, FEELINGS)
Flame Orb - This sounds nerdy and dumb but maybe hilarious depending on how stupid and big the orb is and if it matters if it hits you. Will it break CC? (Please god no) Is kiting along your orb path viable? It's a little hard for me to imagine how this could be amazing in PvP (and as for PvE, I think it's slightly cooler than just spamming LB), but it sounds like there's probably some small handed potential.
Time Warp - "Grants a passive Haste effect ..[]" Passive? WTF does that mean? It's unclear to me if this is actually heroism even though nerds everywhere are like OMG MAGE BUDLUST. If it is heroism, it's cool but retarded as I'm not looking forward to getting exhaustion from nerds who sprint out the gate in WSG to steal my zerking. My guess would be that this doesn't give exhaustion but is somewhat less powerful (15% maybe?) and simply doesn't stack. I would rather this me location based and not party/raid based as that seems like the direction things are going. (POSITIONING > MINDLESSNESS) It would be particularly badass if it was just like a 15 yd AoE granting friendlies 15% movement + haste and hostiles - 15% etc, but I best shut up before the vultures scream OH PENIS.
Wall of Fag - WHY YOU CLEAVERS BREAK DOWN MY SHITTY WALL. This sounds fucking awesome.
AM Change - A little confusing but I can see no downside to greater spell variety if the balance is solid. I assume this goes along with removing MBAM and reworking the spell to be generally a similar dps burst mechanic.
No Frost Haste Mastery - NOESSS I NEED SICK DF COMBOS FML
Scorch Change - Probably cool but it still doesn't really solve the fire pvp issue that there's no good way to actually deal damage unless it interacts differently with different fire spells. (Increases next fireball by say 5%, next BW/DB/fireblast by 25%)
Mirror Image - Can we get a redesign for these dumb nerds?
Junk Buffs - HOW WILL I PROTECT MYSELF FROM DEVOURDOGS?
Playing With Fire - Cool idea maybe? I don't really like the RNG disarm crap in fire so hopefully there will be a more predictable/controllable punish for melee training fire mages. (BETTER NOT LEAVE HIM ALONE OR HE MIGHT START SCORCHING US GUYS)
Burnout Change - YAY I WONT LOSE DUELS BECAUSE I OOMED MYSELF WITH MANA SHIELD. I need to lay off the caps. I love this shit though. LOOK AT ME MOM IM A BIG WARLOCK NOW.
Arcane Adept - DOUBLE MAGE 2S TRINKET AP IV GEM ABABABAB DID WE WIN? FUCK IM AT 60% WERE FUCKED. Actually...this is retarded. I think innervate needs to go if this stays as I can't imagine the nerdrage that's going to result from the DPS swings that not getting a vate is going to cause. Maybe some spells aren't affected by the penalty/bonus such as barrage? So you have one high mana rotation, one med, and one low? Sounds complicated and not really that cool tbh.
New Ignite - It sounds like this is per spell which is potentially cool as it might reward mixing in a few more spells to max your running ignite. (ffb, fb, and fblast even maybe?) Could be cool in PvP depending on relative strength of dot as you could maybe get decent single target dps with BW+instant FS+fireblast and all 3 dots.
Deathfrost - Yay no more fbolt turreting and BF procs might actually matter.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Lolla + Pitchfork 2010
So, most of the lineups are announced, and after my initial excitement over pitchfork getting Raekwon, LCD, and Modest Mouse, the rest of pitchfork has descended into shitty folk/indie hell whilst Lolla has once again managed to shit all over the pitchfork nerds recruiting Arcade Fire, Phoenix, MGMT, The XX, The Stars, and The Walkmen + a bunch of other sort of cool live acts + some truly fucking awful headliners. Chris Cornell is alive? GREEN DAY LOL. I'm having trouble trying to sleep. I'm counting sheep but running low. As times ticks by. Yeahhhhhh kill yourselves.
Crystal Castles at Lolla last year was the best show I've ever attended and while Lolla is full of the "wrong kind of white people" (jean shorts), the Pitchfork hipster crowd is equally disgusting in their skinny jeans + cardigans considering they're all 15 lbs overweight and there's significant muffin leakage. I really don't get the folk vibe these past two years.
It's kind of like Chicago's obsession with snobby hamburgers. In the past six months, an another dozen or so trendy burgher places have opened and yelpers and 4sqs of the world unite to fluff, finish, and gargle burger joints that are all but identical to either what you'd find at any random bar in the city, or on the grease-burgher side, In and Out. (But probably shittier because no animal style)
I actually ended up at one of the better chicago hamburger obsessions last night after failing to close this cutie because her madcow "friend" leap of faithed me when I just about to get her to do another round of soco and limes. Which is perhaps fine because I got to have ground up cow instead of spelunking a girl who, based on her dress and sluttiness towards me, was probably more Sarlacc than doorway to Narnia. Speaking of tentacle vagina toys:
Okay, so there's no way a little kid wants that shit. WHICH OF YOU SICKO VIRGINS IS BUYING STAR WARS VAGINA MONSTERS.
Crystal Castles at Lolla last year was the best show I've ever attended and while Lolla is full of the "wrong kind of white people" (jean shorts), the Pitchfork hipster crowd is equally disgusting in their skinny jeans + cardigans considering they're all 15 lbs overweight and there's significant muffin leakage. I really don't get the folk vibe these past two years.
It's kind of like Chicago's obsession with snobby hamburgers. In the past six months, an another dozen or so trendy burgher places have opened and yelpers and 4sqs of the world unite to fluff, finish, and gargle burger joints that are all but identical to either what you'd find at any random bar in the city, or on the grease-burgher side, In and Out. (But probably shittier because no animal style)
I actually ended up at one of the better chicago hamburger obsessions last night after failing to close this cutie because her madcow "friend" leap of faithed me when I just about to get her to do another round of soco and limes. Which is perhaps fine because I got to have ground up cow instead of spelunking a girl who, based on her dress and sluttiness towards me, was probably more Sarlacc than doorway to Narnia. Speaking of tentacle vagina toys:
Okay, so there's no way a little kid wants that shit. WHICH OF YOU SICKO VIRGINS IS BUYING STAR WARS VAGINA MONSTERS.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Why Is There No Llamas with Hats Three?
It's an early gray morning and as I sit here, whilst watching Jack Bauer thug out and catching up on WoW news, I can't help but think, a la Danny Glover, "I'm too old for this shit."
But then I remember that I'm not an old black man and feeling old is but one step towards becoming a Ganondorf and losing your princess to a gay elf. Speaking of old, and well black men, I'm apparently supposed to care about the Master's because Tigger rhymes with bigger is back. I even caught some of his press conference where apparently he regurgitated the well known dark side manta about death leading to prescription drugs, and then to sexting, and then hookers, and so forth. I noticed the wife was conspicuously absent so if Tiger starts moving erratically, we can assume that voodoo doll shit works. Oh, and the goatee? ONLY BAD GUYS WEAR THAT SHIT, TIGER!
I'm going to go now.
But then I remember that I'm not an old black man and feeling old is but one step towards becoming a Ganondorf and losing your princess to a gay elf. Speaking of old, and well black men, I'm apparently supposed to care about the Master's because Tigger rhymes with bigger is back. I even caught some of his press conference where apparently he regurgitated the well known dark side manta about death leading to prescription drugs, and then to sexting, and then hookers, and so forth. I noticed the wife was conspicuously absent so if Tiger starts moving erratically, we can assume that voodoo doll shit works. Oh, and the goatee? ONLY BAD GUYS WEAR THAT SHIT, TIGER!
I'm going to go now.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Bieber or Die
Why are we rallying?
I think there's a significant probability that we end up in a long slow equity grind for the next 18 months with a few minor, by which I mean, sub 5% corrections, but this is all contingent on there being no news/events that can't be discounted -- wars, European political craziness, aliens, etc. The driving force for this rally has zero to do with any changes in the domestic or international economic situation, because there's been no reform, housing has yet to recover at all, there's increasing unrest in Easter Europe (Sup Hungary, plz don't elect a nazi), attempts to stabilize the Middle East (and the horn of Africa) have been generally a failure and Israel is still trigger happy, and yeah the world is still the world and more than all of that nonsense, there's still this underlying dread that we can't meaningfully employ the masses. (Which is a vague thing to say but in the 21st post-mechanical post-industrial economy, what is the use of hundreds of millions of workers?)
BUT, despite all of that BS, there's still a lot of money that needs to find a home, and although treasury yields are pretty steep in the US and Europe relative to the short end of the curve, so much of that is a product of sovereign CDS fears (notice that J&J Corp debt is cheaper than US debt cool bro), that basically, the only option is to dump $$ into equities. This is magnified by an unattractive housing market, which is made unattractive through not only still-high prices, but also extremely punitive mortgage rates.
This is all not terribly interesting and the sort of bullshit you could read on yahoo, but I think what IS pretty interesting in this equity rally is the annihilation of volatility in both Asia and the US. If the world is truly "reluctantly" going along with the equity rally because of simply a lack of options, wouldn't one expect vol to remain bid? Is the world synthetically hedging against repeat catastrophic equity failure in other ways? (Which I guess would be something like long crude, short Euros, long Yen) Is this a super crowded trade and what happens on the unwind?
I think there's a significant probability that we end up in a long slow equity grind for the next 18 months with a few minor, by which I mean, sub 5% corrections, but this is all contingent on there being no news/events that can't be discounted -- wars, European political craziness, aliens, etc. The driving force for this rally has zero to do with any changes in the domestic or international economic situation, because there's been no reform, housing has yet to recover at all, there's increasing unrest in Easter Europe (Sup Hungary, plz don't elect a nazi), attempts to stabilize the Middle East (and the horn of Africa) have been generally a failure and Israel is still trigger happy, and yeah the world is still the world and more than all of that nonsense, there's still this underlying dread that we can't meaningfully employ the masses. (Which is a vague thing to say but in the 21st post-mechanical post-industrial economy, what is the use of hundreds of millions of workers?)
BUT, despite all of that BS, there's still a lot of money that needs to find a home, and although treasury yields are pretty steep in the US and Europe relative to the short end of the curve, so much of that is a product of sovereign CDS fears (notice that J&J Corp debt is cheaper than US debt cool bro), that basically, the only option is to dump $$ into equities. This is magnified by an unattractive housing market, which is made unattractive through not only still-high prices, but also extremely punitive mortgage rates.
This is all not terribly interesting and the sort of bullshit you could read on yahoo, but I think what IS pretty interesting in this equity rally is the annihilation of volatility in both Asia and the US. If the world is truly "reluctantly" going along with the equity rally because of simply a lack of options, wouldn't one expect vol to remain bid? Is the world synthetically hedging against repeat catastrophic equity failure in other ways? (Which I guess would be something like long crude, short Euros, long Yen) Is this a super crowded trade and what happens on the unwind?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Grooveshark
This shit is pretty sick. Radio feature seems way better than Pandora's because you can add new tracks to your playlist feed to "steer" the direction of recommendations. I still have the same problem as ever with "recommendation" systems in that I basically have to choose between rock/indie and grime/hiphop/dubstep because if I toss all of it into one list, I get just total shit. And when grooveshark tosses me some total random bullshit track, it tends to be a random 90s grunge track, which is way preferable to Pandora giving me some fucking wanna be Cat Power emo track. I should be careful saying that, as I can't stop it from giving me fucking Skinny Puppy tracks right now. >.<
Also, why have I never heard of Moving Units before? West Coast only thing?
I'm gonna dedicate a few weeks to "training" it to see how it improves with increased use -- hopefully better than Netflix which can't seem to reconcile that my favorite genres are HK action, 80/90s scifi-action, old school Noir, and snarky comedies.
Has anyone seen Outlander? I watched that shit the other week and thought it owned. Way fucking better than the crappy CGI Beowulf from a few years back. I really love re-imaginings of classic stories. I mean it obviously has flaws, hence the direct to dvd release, but have you ever seen anything where modern + middle ages isn't fucking dreadful?
Also, why have I never heard of Moving Units before? West Coast only thing?
I'm gonna dedicate a few weeks to "training" it to see how it improves with increased use -- hopefully better than Netflix which can't seem to reconcile that my favorite genres are HK action, 80/90s scifi-action, old school Noir, and snarky comedies.
Has anyone seen Outlander? I watched that shit the other week and thought it owned. Way fucking better than the crappy CGI Beowulf from a few years back. I really love re-imaginings of classic stories. I mean it obviously has flaws, hence the direct to dvd release, but have you ever seen anything where modern + middle ages isn't fucking dreadful?
Monday, March 22, 2010
WTF Cornell?
Yeah I refuse to call them the Big Red, mostly because I hate those Verizon commercials and I hate fucking Luke Wilson. YOU'RE THE BROTHER WHO SHOULD KILL HIMSELF. Not Owen, beautiful Owen -- you can derelique my balls any day Hansel!
I actually almost went to Cornell but then I learned that they had a "prestigious" school for Hotel Administration and that pretty much ended that brief love affair. (In all fairness, despite the longstanding snob mentality that only fuckups who didn't get into their top Ivy go there to kill themslves in that big fucking ravine, I would probably have sooner committed suicide at Brown when I finally realized that none of the pretentious granola hippies were Summer Roberts. God I reference the OC a lot...)
I'm pretty butthurt that post- Sean Miller Xavier keeps winning (especially over Pitt) but such is life. The one nice thing about having gone to a school with atrocious athletic programs (besides not getting your bike stolen) is that it lets you be a fairweather fan to a half dozen teams you have "loose" ties to and focus on cheering against the teams you hate. Sup Mich St. Hi2u Kansas.
Does anybody watch Caprica besides me? It's too geeky to talk about irl with people, one of those you've got to hide your love away things (sup WoW and SC2), but despite the fact that nothing ever happens, I love it like dicks and don't know why. Rumor is that it may get a second season which is cool but also kind of sucks because it means the lethargic pace will continue for quite a while.
For those of you nerds who watch the show, you're aware there's an mmo in the show in which the characters just randomly kill people, accumulate wealth, etc, but with no real purpose or specific goal. Which sort of seems quite silly, but then I remembered WoW 1.0 before the honor system and the similarity in mentality is pretty striking. Some became obsessed with griefing/ganking and world PvP. Some farmed for hours on end for gold or extremely rare world drops. Others worked on pointless rep grinds with no specific goal in sight. (Wintersabre lol)
I think that despite my fond memories of this time in the game (memories unfortunately aren't the most trustworthy things), most players hated it and Blizzard has really adeptly shifted the game to a place where there are always specific short term goals with tangible rewards. It's actually hard to login and play for a few hours and NOT accomplish something. Truthfully, this is equally silly as the "accomplishments" are first of all virtual and beyond even that generally ephemeral as new tiers of gear, new arena seasons, and on a larger scale, new characters, and new expansions really trivialize previous work-reward cycles. This is very tired thinking, but I'm somewhat amused by that as the game moves increasing towards a player-centric not character-centric model (by this I don't mean just BoA crap, I mean that players transcend characters and play multiple chars, multiple accounts), the ever increasing amounts of "character progression" are increasingly marginalized, or at best divided.
This is obviously not specific to WoW or Blizzard games, or even just games. Increasingly virtual systems have integrated positive feedback loops to reward participation and give the illusion that time "invested" is "well spent." I don't mean to condemn such a strategy nor pretend to be above it -- I don't think that time used for entertainment is necessarily time wasted, nor am I even sure I believe that if you're enjoying yourself, it's possible you've wasted time, but complex systems (and by this perhaps I mean "REAL LIFE") don't function this way at all. Studying 10 hours doesn't guarantee an A. Working harder doesn't necessarily yield a promotion. Telling the "right" joke doesn't always get you laid. (Or often...)
I actually almost went to Cornell but then I learned that they had a "prestigious" school for Hotel Administration and that pretty much ended that brief love affair. (In all fairness, despite the longstanding snob mentality that only fuckups who didn't get into their top Ivy go there to kill themslves in that big fucking ravine, I would probably have sooner committed suicide at Brown when I finally realized that none of the pretentious granola hippies were Summer Roberts. God I reference the OC a lot...)
I'm pretty butthurt that post- Sean Miller Xavier keeps winning (especially over Pitt) but such is life. The one nice thing about having gone to a school with atrocious athletic programs (besides not getting your bike stolen) is that it lets you be a fairweather fan to a half dozen teams you have "loose" ties to and focus on cheering against the teams you hate. Sup Mich St. Hi2u Kansas.
Does anybody watch Caprica besides me? It's too geeky to talk about irl with people, one of those you've got to hide your love away things (sup WoW and SC2), but despite the fact that nothing ever happens, I love it like dicks and don't know why. Rumor is that it may get a second season which is cool but also kind of sucks because it means the lethargic pace will continue for quite a while.
For those of you nerds who watch the show, you're aware there's an mmo in the show in which the characters just randomly kill people, accumulate wealth, etc, but with no real purpose or specific goal. Which sort of seems quite silly, but then I remembered WoW 1.0 before the honor system and the similarity in mentality is pretty striking. Some became obsessed with griefing/ganking and world PvP. Some farmed for hours on end for gold or extremely rare world drops. Others worked on pointless rep grinds with no specific goal in sight. (Wintersabre lol)
I think that despite my fond memories of this time in the game (memories unfortunately aren't the most trustworthy things), most players hated it and Blizzard has really adeptly shifted the game to a place where there are always specific short term goals with tangible rewards. It's actually hard to login and play for a few hours and NOT accomplish something. Truthfully, this is equally silly as the "accomplishments" are first of all virtual and beyond even that generally ephemeral as new tiers of gear, new arena seasons, and on a larger scale, new characters, and new expansions really trivialize previous work-reward cycles. This is very tired thinking, but I'm somewhat amused by that as the game moves increasing towards a player-centric not character-centric model (by this I don't mean just BoA crap, I mean that players transcend characters and play multiple chars, multiple accounts), the ever increasing amounts of "character progression" are increasingly marginalized, or at best divided.
This is obviously not specific to WoW or Blizzard games, or even just games. Increasingly virtual systems have integrated positive feedback loops to reward participation and give the illusion that time "invested" is "well spent." I don't mean to condemn such a strategy nor pretend to be above it -- I don't think that time used for entertainment is necessarily time wasted, nor am I even sure I believe that if you're enjoying yourself, it's possible you've wasted time, but complex systems (and by this perhaps I mean "REAL LIFE") don't function this way at all. Studying 10 hours doesn't guarantee an A. Working harder doesn't necessarily yield a promotion. Telling the "right" joke doesn't always get you laid. (Or often...)
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Posting On A Friday Night
Hi internet friends.
So, yes, it's Friday night, and I'm here blogging instead of boozing. What's even more sad is I'm halfway through a tallboy of high life and I'm listening to soul2soul and trying to understand how anybody likes this Modern Family show. It's hard for me to watch TV shows when there isn't a character I (maybe secretly) want to have sex with. I mean V has Lisa, 24 has Jack, Glee has well everyone, Gossip Girl has Chuck, Flashforward has his milf wife, but I just want to murder every MF char. (And not the fuck them first) I'm like four episodes in and it's the same gay jokes every week. Now to be fair, one, and this one would be a one I don't like very much, but this one, the one I don't like, could perhaps claim that this blog is a rehash of the same gay jokes over and over. NOMNOMNOMPENIS HAHAHAHAHA SO FUNNY. PS. DICKS.
(That person would be gay and wrong)
Where have I been?
Nowhere really. Briefly stopped by Candy Mountain. I've gone from addicted to all the way to bored by 4square in a month. I've yet to have success by telling a girl that she "has to" because I'm THE MAYOR but it's not for lack of trying and I've always been a romantic at heart and know that some day I'll meet the right girl. My last date did end pretty poorly, I'm not going to lie, but who lives in Chicago and doesn't know what a Belmont transfer is? (It's a train stop where you can xfer off the red line onto the brown line, and I don't know wtf UD kids are smoking with all the period nonsense but that shit is unrelated)
I've been cold turkey on all things gaming for the past month or so -- I even gave away all my SC2 keys. (Which tonight I very much regret as I'm too hungover to go out again) I do very much miss all my ethugs and epoons and not so secretly hope that Cataclysm or SCII can seduce me away from this shitty RL mmo where all you do is farm gold and chat and never actually get to kill anyone unless you go all Patrick Bateman, but honestly both hookers and homeless people both skeeve me out and who else can you really serial kill these days? Children?
I'm not dead nor have I abandoned you. I don't really do the "I MUST BLOG THREE TIMES A WEEK OR KILL MYSELF" thing, which by now you've probably noticed, but keep checking in, as I'm still alive and still enjoy letting you watch my rough sex with words.
So, yes, it's Friday night, and I'm here blogging instead of boozing. What's even more sad is I'm halfway through a tallboy of high life and I'm listening to soul2soul and trying to understand how anybody likes this Modern Family show. It's hard for me to watch TV shows when there isn't a character I (maybe secretly) want to have sex with. I mean V has Lisa, 24 has Jack, Glee has well everyone, Gossip Girl has Chuck, Flashforward has his milf wife, but I just want to murder every MF char. (And not the fuck them first) I'm like four episodes in and it's the same gay jokes every week. Now to be fair, one, and this one would be a one I don't like very much, but this one, the one I don't like, could perhaps claim that this blog is a rehash of the same gay jokes over and over. NOMNOMNOMPENIS HAHAHAHAHA SO FUNNY. PS. DICKS.
(That person would be gay and wrong)
Where have I been?
Nowhere really. Briefly stopped by Candy Mountain. I've gone from addicted to all the way to bored by 4square in a month. I've yet to have success by telling a girl that she "has to" because I'm THE MAYOR but it's not for lack of trying and I've always been a romantic at heart and know that some day I'll meet the right girl. My last date did end pretty poorly, I'm not going to lie, but who lives in Chicago and doesn't know what a Belmont transfer is? (It's a train stop where you can xfer off the red line onto the brown line, and I don't know wtf UD kids are smoking with all the period nonsense but that shit is unrelated)
I've been cold turkey on all things gaming for the past month or so -- I even gave away all my SC2 keys. (Which tonight I very much regret as I'm too hungover to go out again) I do very much miss all my ethugs and epoons and not so secretly hope that Cataclysm or SCII can seduce me away from this shitty RL mmo where all you do is farm gold and chat and never actually get to kill anyone unless you go all Patrick Bateman, but honestly both hookers and homeless people both skeeve me out and who else can you really serial kill these days? Children?
I'm not dead nor have I abandoned you. I don't really do the "I MUST BLOG THREE TIMES A WEEK OR KILL MYSELF" thing, which by now you've probably noticed, but keep checking in, as I'm still alive and still enjoy letting you watch my rough sex with words.
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