Big Crits – Week 1

logoThe first episode of Big Crits, the raiding guild web show by Stoneybaby, is available right now on their website with week 2 coming soon. Here is the description from the website:

Week 1 is about getting used to a new guild and a new group of people. Normally when you join a raiding guild you’re joining an existing group of people who are accustomed to working and playing together. Now imagine joining a raiding guild where every single person is new.

It was a good first week over all. We cleared the Lower Spire, Plague Wing, and Blood Wing, and rescued Dreamwalker.

So go check it out!

Resource Site Spotlight - Authenticators

Who among you has been hacked? Probably not a majority of WoW-users. But now let’s add a layer: who knows someone who has been hacked? In a hypothetical room of WoW players, a lot more hands just went up. Next question, how many of you have had money or materials stolen from your guild bank by a hacker? A similarly alarming number of hands would remain up.

Authenticators are cheap and easy to use. And they all but ensure you won’t be hacked. Now, the majority of us would never be hacked anyway, so what’s the worry, right? The worry is, I play WoW a lot, and if you’re online reading WoW blogs chances are you play it a lot too. The risk is too great given the amount of time and money we devote to the game.

Twisted Nether has devoted blog and podcast space devoted to raising awareness and concern about account hacking, and the potential benefit of authenticators. And Blizzard has made them accessible to obtain, even waiving shipping costs to keep the cost low.

I was among those who simply ignored the risks, but have had two guildies in less than a month get hacked, both pillaging the player and our guild bank. Blizzard is usually good about returning lost materials, but you sacrifice time and could be crippling your raid or guild bank for a number of days or weeks, and nobody wants that. I’m a dedicated WoW player and have this TN blog with which to spread this valuable message.

Here’s the link:
http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100000822

Mine’s in the mail as I write this. Go get yourself one, and rest easier at night knowing that you aren’t contributing to the filthy hackers who propogate gold buying sites.

Shared Topic: No Comments = Better Bloggers?

I apologize for the delay in posting this, I’m in the process of moving across the country and things are crazy hectic! Now, on with the show!

No matter how much most of us claim to “blog for ourselves”, we almost all get a bit of a rush every time a post of ours receives a new comment. Anea from Oh look, an alt! wondered if the satisfaction that comes from receiving comments (or the fear of receiving negative comments) hinders our ability to express ourselves to our full intent and proposed, as a Shared Topic, would no comments make us better bloggers?

One of the things that can make us happiest as bloggers is seeing e-mails notifying us of comments on our blogs. However, if we took that away – and the influence it may have over our writing – would we become better bloggers?

Would writing what it really is you want to write make you truer to the purpose that you started the blog for? To write exactly whatever is in your head, rather than worrying about whether or not anyone will find it “interesting” or “good enough” to comment on? For the joy of writing?

Or are comments integral to your blogging experience and if you don’t have them, you don’t write?

Sharing their thoughts this week are:

Lissanna from Restokin

Ardol from WoW Philosophized

Pewter from The ‘mental Shaman

Rilandune from Heroically Random!

Cornelious from Techadin

Khraden from Illumination

Borsk from Borsked

Tryssta from The Snobby Blood Elf

Windsoar from Jaded Alt

Artie from Blade Barrier

Gazimoff from The Mana Obscura

Dwarven Pinball from The Dwarven Pinball

Tarinae from A Healadin’s Tear

Psynister from Psynister’s Notebook

Demeternoth from Deme the DK

Ophelie from The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon

Lunaire from Lunaire’s World of Warcraft

This week’s Shared Topic takes a look at the 1-10 level bracket. Considering that many accounts never reach level 10, we explore the first few levels that come after the “create new character” screen. What do we like about them, what don’t we like? How could they be improved?

To take part, head over to the thread at Blog Azeroth!

Want to participate in a different Shared Topic? Here’s a sample of the topics coming up:
What to do when your raid is canceled
Best and Worst Cities in Azeroth
An Explorer Task

Episode 84 - Tradechatocolypse

This week we welcome Steve, David and Kat from Inside Azeroth! Another HUGE show. Another GREAT conversation! We also talk about the news.. What news? Of course all the new Cataclysm news that has been being released. Hot Topics and a few Emails round things out. Don’t miss it!

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— Continue reading Episode 84 — Tradechatocolypse —

Resource Site Spotlight - Event Horizon

Some classes have it easy. Back in BC, a Beastmaster hunter could spam Steady Shot constantly and out-dps many other classes. And while Blizzard has taken care to add some complexity to the spec, it remains the “easiest” hunter spec to play admirably (though, like any spec, difficult to fully master). And a quick glance at any rotation discussion on the internet will reveal a contempt for the “easy” classes.

For the majority of us, however, we’re watching cooldowns a-plenty, and managing complex rotations.  Even without lag and complex boss mechanics, it can be difficult (Locks and Enhance Shamans come to mind).  This is particularly true for dps classes, but can be said of any class and spec, since tanks and heals often have to ration their spells meticulously as well.  And there’s a lot of ways to manage a rotation beyond just staring at your cast bar.  Today we’re looking at one of the most popular, EventHorizon.

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/eventhorizon.aspx

The picture should describe the function of the addon quite well.  It’s a small, handy series of bars that track cooldowns and timers for important abilities.  The tracking is highly customizable, and it can give you advanced notice of powerful abilities or cooldowns that are coming up in the near future.  The white line represents the present, and the bars track the time until an ability will be ready.

This is by no means the only method of managing a rotation, but if you’re not already doing so and would like to, this might be a good place to start.

This entry was a bit later than planned (RL aggro), but I have many installments already planned for the coming weeks.  Among them are some tools for raid leaders, some introductory tips for prospective WoW movie makers, and a look at the often-talked-about Power Auras add-on.  So stay tuned!

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