DYSP: The FF MMO Group

The article is $51 so I'm not actually gonna read it... - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

...but the WoWInsider summary (http://wow.joystiq.com/2013...) says, "Out of the 1,413 participants in the study they have played on average nearly 24 hours a week and have played for 20 months. The mean age of the participant was 26 years. The study found that those of us who play WoW for socialization are higher on the... more... - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

Stephen, yeah. This is the issue with journals, in my opinion. I find interesting stuff all the time, but it's always locked away with a normal minimum fee of $20, for a 10-30 page whitepaper, that I'm only slightly interested in. [I'd gladly pay $3-5 for some of these, though.] - Gimminy

LOL, I got 510 honor in less than 10 minutes in AV after going with one tower down. - Victor Ganata

Doing these PvP quests are kind of fun in an extremely masochistic way. - Victor Ganata

Oh dude. I don't know when FM unlocked stage 2 since I haven't bothered keeping up with the dailies, but I checked it out last night with a friend. Finally saw what you meant. I don't think the honor is worth it. heheh You also get more rep if you do the PvE side anyway. - Arlan K.

I would've thought they'd use last login or recent played time. - Arlan K.

You'd think, but our GM has been inactive for 5 months, but can't be dethroned, because other toons are still active and getting achieves. I was trying to give it to Victor, before I quit. - Gimminy

Originally the activity log only updated once that toon logged into the game. Have they since changed that? And who is currently listed as GM of DYSP? - Hookuh Tinypants

Hookuh, yep, most actions by any of the user's toons, go into the activity log for all of the toons. At least if you look at the toon on Battle.net. I'm pretty sure it's because of AWA. - Gimminy

Yes, but those actions only update for each toon as they log into the game. If the toon doesn't log in, they don't receive the cheevs/pets/etc and their activity log does not update. At least, that's how it was originally working. - Hookuh Tinypants

Apparently, not. They're showing up on all toons activity log on Battle.net. Though maybe, they aren't actually sent to the toon until login. Kashindra's last login in game was 5 months ago, like I said, but the activity log says otherwise. http://us.battle.net/wow... - Gimminy

And who does Kashindra belong to? Is that one of Gunny's toons? - Hookuh Tinypants

Kamala, I think. - Gimminy

How did in the hell did Kamala end up the GM? The best you can do is submit a GM ticket to request a dethrone and then submit a bug report on the dethrone issue. There was a problem after MoP dropped where you'd log in and receive dings for cheevs you'd completed months or years prior; it's possible that when Blizzard implemented the fix to stop that, they broke the logging system entirely. - Hookuh Tinypants

Yeah, Battle.net gives the last character login at the bottom. "Last updated 10/13/2012." - Gimminy

Hookuh, she did it while I was away from the game, and took it from Haggis who hadn't logged into the game in over a year. I ran into some dude when MoP dropped I'd never met, just randomly running around in the guild, and thought it was Rod, but it was just someone she invited in. I tried to convince Victor several years ago to dethrone Haggis, because he's the only one who consistently plays in the guild. - Gimminy

Had a Silvershard Mine match last night against a Crushridge premade. Their DK double death gripped me and /laugh while I was being a nuisance at lava side to keep them occupied (4v1 at the time). I proceeded to kill him and any healers with him whenever I could. NEVER piss off a warrior. Rage is their mana bar. - Arlan K.

Ouch. I would say, AoE blind and use Speed of Light (if you have it equipped). Pop bubble if they break out of the blind or it wears off before you can put much distance and drop combat. - Arlan K.

I never picked up a trinket this season and my bubble was on cooldown, so it was pretty much game over. I did manage to kite them deep underwater, but combat didn't last long anywhere near long enough to drown us all. - Victor Ganata

It's kind of funny that you can cast Judgment on people chasing you. I don't remember if Judgment was always like that. I had always thought you had to have your target in front of you. If I remember to switch to Seal of Justice, usually the slow from that and Long Arm of the Law can keep me out of their grasp for a little bit, and now that they seem to have buffed WoG, it can even keep me alive long enough to run up a field before they get enough guys to CC me to death. - Victor Ganata

You should get a trinket. :P Yeah, you definitely could cast judgment on people behind you in Cata. I don't remember if could in Wrath though. Or race change to Human. XD - Arlan K.

Since PvP are such CC festivals now, even with 5.2, I almost feel like the trinket isn't worth it. I'm still constantly stunlocked on my human toons. They actually feel more crippled than my draenei pally, because at least he has two abilities to get out of being rooted (three if you count the bubble) although no real stun or fear protection. - Victor Ganata

True about the mass CC. You also have easy root/snare break ability. But still, at least for me, there are clutch times where using a trinket to break a stun, horror or disorient effect can really turn the tide. Blinding Light is still instant cast for Ret, right? You could macro trinket and spell and spam that macro when you need to. - Arlan K.

From snippets I've caught, those recipes are unlocked when the portion of Isle of Thunder is unlocked. Something like phase 3 or 4. Seems pretty dumb, but I'm not sure how fast these "phases" run. - Arlan K.

I figured out that for tailoring, there's a chance to learn a new pattern every time you make Imperial Silk, but for BS you have to do a daily quest. So I guess it's not too bad. A little more than a week to get the main pieces, at least. - Victor Ganata from iPhone

Multiboxers waste their time in BG's? They ought to be ashamed. - Hookuh Tinypants

It's basically free honor :) The number of silly Alliance players sitting on Noob Hill who end up charging into Drek's lair after getting repeatedly shot at by a turtling mboxer is quite astounding sometimes. - Victor Ganata

And the worst Temple of Kotmogu I was ever involved in featured a Horde 8-boxer with all hunters who basically turned mid-field into a pit of death completely covered with Alliance bones. - Victor Ganata

$120 a month just to destroy in BGs? Sad... - Chris Topher

It's weird, but I never see any Alliance mboxers in BGs. At least, never any good ones. - Victor Ganata

Because we multibox in places where it's more impressive, like hardmode raids. :) - Hookuh Tinypants

Yeah, the PvP mboxers keep saying it takes skill. Well if it does, then stop queueing random and go do rated BGs and Arena where you can fight 2-15 people all coordinated instead of random bunches of pugs. Of course, it's fun to rush in and fear bomb the bastards. :) And on several occasions to kill the main controller. - Arlan K.

I would be super impressed to see more arena multibox teams. Now THAT is skill. - Hookuh Tinypants

http://us.battle.net/wow... Looks like mboxing wasn't the primary focus concerning this change, but was definitely something they were willing to "hurt" to address their actual focus. - Arlan K.

You can still /follow in Arenas, apparently. I kind of wonder how many bots really rely entirely on /follow, though. - Victor Ganata

Bashiok's comment says it's the basic bots. I've seen a few avatars that go on follow and stay on follow, but were they bots? Maybe. I haven't seen too much of that recently though. - Arlan K.

I keep forgetting that it's tomorrow. Hot damn. I am so behind. :( - Hookuh Tinypants

Didn't they used to have a week between the end of the season and the next patch? I guess it is March already, though. - Victor Ganata

I remember that the patch would go live on the day the season ends. But my friend said that they also did what you mention. So I guess it's random? - Arlan K.

Wow, DKs got buffed, especially frost. Like they weren't already near the top of the damage charts :D - Victor Ganata

Dang, now I don't what I should work on, and on what toon. Thunder Island dailies, the warlock green flame quest chain, PvPing at max level or while leveling until my eyes bleed. So many choices! - Victor Ganata

Hey, if you're ingame now can you see if you can buy honor weapons right off the bat? That's pretty much the only thing I'm interested in that I haven't found concrete info about. >_> - Arlan K.

Heh, I'm still at work, but it looks like the servers are still down anyway. Hopefully they'll be up by 5 pm PST. :) - Victor Ganata

They nerfed fire mages but buffed frost mages?!? What is this madness? - Victor Ganata

"The base damage of Consecration has been increased by 789%" o_O - Victor Ganata

Please tell me I just read that incorrectly. - Hookuh Tinypants

http://us.battle.net/wow... — what a random number to massively buff an ability by — and now I'm even more annoyed that ret has no ability to flush out pesky rogues - Victor Ganata

Didn't they nerf consecration saying it was too powerful before? I mean. Does Blizzard listen to itself anymore? Sometimes I think they make changes JUST CUZ. - Hookuh Tinypants

Yeah, I've always thought removing an untargeted aoe from ret paladins was a bad idea. Every other melee dps class has some kind of aoe that can be used on the fly. And word Tiny, that's how I see Blizzard devs. They're just loling it up with their changes. of course, part of me thinks it makes sense. Back then, consecrate may have been too powerful in terms of ilvl gear and comparison... more... - Arlan K.

If a ret paladin wants an untargeted aoe, they have to spec Light's Hammer, while rogues, warriors, DKs, EnhS and WW monks have an aoe they can use. Maybe not spammable, but still usable to flush out stealthers. I couldn't get into druids so I don't know if ferals have an aoe or not. - Arlan K.

I'm interested in the Overpower costs 10 rage but lowers Mortal Strike CD by 0.5 seconds. In PvE the OP rage cost shouldn't be a big deal, but might make PvP more strategic instead of spam whenever possible. I'm thinking of going Warbringer with Staggering Shout and Bladestorm as Arms. Alas, Second Wind is still best for PvP. Maybe I'll try Impending Victory to see what the +5% really comes out to. - Arlan K.

Looks like they tried to make MM Hunters more viable. I wonder if it worked. - Victor Ganata

I'll let you know when I get home. I've never felt like I wasn't viable though, so my mileage may vary. - Hookuh Tinypants

Heh, it may not ever have been viable for PvE, but supposedly it was the PvP spec during Cata and I didn't want to respec as BM. Not that I've really played with my hunter since MoP dropped. - Victor Ganata

I really connected with Survival since they broke the 34/20 (or whatever the numbers were back in classic WoW) and never played any other spec as much. Even when BM became so OP in PvP. I only specced BM to tame a molten core doggie for an RP thing. - Arlan K.

MM was viable for PvE prior to MoP. They kind of fucked it in the ass hard in MoP and it's been a frustrating run ever since. I'd raided MM since Wrath and never had an issue topping meters. MM used to be the PvP spec for a long time, and after the ICC patch it became incredibly viable as a single tree spec (I hybridized parts of it with BM for raiding prior to that). And I think it remained viable all throughout Cata. - Hookuh Tinypants

Ah, Amanda, I misread your comment, I thought you were saying MM was *never* viable. But, yeah, my end game experience is pretty limited to PvP :D - Victor Ganata

Boo. You can't buy honor weapons off the bat. You still need 7250 HP. - Victor Ganata

God, that is so ridiculous. - Arlan K.

Of course, after thinking about it, it makes sense still. They're better than anything you can get when you first get to 90 so having the pre-req still is a good deterrence. I just wish the req was lower. Either that, or they should add crafted PvP blue weapons. - Arlan K.

Nightsong. Most people don't play with the music on? - Gimminy

I don't know the titles to any of the songs. Well, the Honor Hold theme (AKA Chopin: Nocturnes Op 27 No 1 in C Sharp Minor.) I actually like a couple of the new songs in Cata: I really like this song they play in all the dwarven zones that I now have to find, and there's this one song in Mt. Hyjal that makes me think of the Game of Thrones theme song. - Victor Ganata

I can't name the music, but Grizzly Hills is one I can remember. I'm mostly enchanted by the scenery. My first time seeing Darkshore was when I knew I could stay playing WoW. - Arlan K.

Oh, and I really like the music in Wintergrasp, with the trumpets and all. - Victor Ganata

Jimminy, most people I know - especially raiders - turn their music completely off because "it's distracting." Honor Hold theme and Grizzly Hills theme are two of my favorites. I also really love the piece they play in Mount Hyjal which is known as "Nightsong" on the Cataclysm soundtrack (found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch... best part begins at 1:20. I'm a HUGE... more... - Hookuh Tinypants

Also, love the Tuvan throat singing in Deepholm. That and Honor Hold were two of the themes I was ripping from the game files last night. Can't forget "Call to Arms" either. An oldie but a goodie. And I will be so bold as to say right now that I think that the WotLK version of the WoW theme is the best of all of them. <3 - Hookuh Tinypants

This snapshot of class distribution right before 5.2 is fascinating http://cynwise.wordpress.com/2013... It's weird that, during Wrath, I never really felt like Paladins were all that well-loved. I guess having significant advantages with regards to fighting undead had its uses, though. - Victor Ganata

It wasn't just undead bonuses. In decent gear as Ret you could easily solo that group Argent Tourney daily where you had to kill the dragon and its 3 minions. WoG back then was so OP. It was pretty fun for rets that had raid gear because of the buff to divine storm too. - Arlan K.

That said, my warrior was still my main back then. As for warlocks, I've never really enjoyed the class at all. Well, that goes for all clothies. - Arlan K.

That's true, these are end-of-Wrath numbers, when everybody already had plenty of time to get several alts raid geared, so maybe they weren't actually that popular *during* Wrath. I still do kind of miss just wildly spamming DS when the 4 piece bonus proc'ed. While WoG in the Cata pre-patch was OP, I remember my DPS getting nerfed by almost 90%, but they fixed that really quickly. I... more... - Victor Ganata

Man, everyone I knew who was a warrior leading up to Wrath switched to their pally alts or created new pallies in Wrath. It was just much more awesome that way. That was also when you could still create hybrid specs and pallies were just outrageous in PvP because they could hybridize into a sexy semi-healing spec. :) - Hookuh Tinypants

In BC I had the intention of having my pally as a main. That didn't last long (these decisions never do, I always go back to warrior). Before dual spec, I was going to have my pally as the tank and my warrior as dps because pally tanking (when they fixed it in BC) was great. More especially in Wrath. - Arlan K.

I did think warriors were really hard to play well during Wrath, but it's hard for me to really say since I *still* don't have a max level warrior :D - Victor Ganata

The problem for me in early WoW with warriors were as a tank, they were great single target on bosses, but I had difficulties with AoE trash threat. I had my warrior as a backup since the two MMOs before WoW, I played tanks so if huntering didn't go well I had at least another char. In Wrath, I don't know if they were hard. Maybe Arms? Fury was the rotation spec. If you knew the... more... - Arlan K.

In TP before that, my spriest was the #2 for heals, beating a Mistweaver :D Granted, the #1 heals did 10x more healing than I did and the Mistweaver wasn't 89, but it's amazing how PW:S+Renew+PoM can turn the tide of battle. - Victor Ganata

Well, that's lame. You get an achieve for getting 2 characters to 90 and for getting 3 characters to 90, but you get nothing for getting 4 characters to 90. - Victor Ganata

Spriests are still phenomenally powerful at max lvl but nothing I would consider OP for a caster. I can still top 'em in the meters on my hunter if I actually try. :) - Hookuh Tinypants from FreshFeed

I loved my spriest, even when I was lower gear then others I could keep up the dps. Hunters though, no shot at topping them. :) - Heather

Oh, I'm definitely not at the top of the meters, but I can frequently end up with 10+ KBs per match. It's also nice to be on the giving end of chain fears rather than on the receiving end :) - Victor Ganata from iPhone

Spriests are OP at max level. Haven't you done enough bgs to know that? XD That's why they're getting a nerf in 5.2. Chain fear, heal in shadow form to full. Although, much harder to deal with as a Paladin than as a Warrior. - Arlan K.

I dunno, I haven't done many BGs at max level solo lately. Maybe our groups make them seem far squisher than they actually are :D - Victor Ganata

Oh that's right. You're talking PvP. Yes, they are OP for PvP. :) But that's the way the cookie crumbles as long as Blizzard continues to refuse to create separate tables for calculating PvP versus PvE stats. With as many years as they've been fighting this (8?) they could have corrected it by now. Which would have saved them a LOT of nerfing and buffing over the years too. Oh wait. Job security. Nevermind. - Hookuh Tinypants

The whole goblin Hitler sequence was just generally lame, too. I like Indiana Jones and all, but they went with that entire storyline for *way* too long. - Victor Ganata

Yeah, I got super annoyed that Uldum didn't play out more like Tanaris. I think that would have been far more preferable to what we got. In general I liked Uldum as a zone. But the pygmies and the Harrison Jones shit was just...ugh. Just gimme Bran and I'm good. - Hookuh Tinypants

*mails one stack at a time back, c.o.d.* - Heather

amateur, I would have mailed one piece back at a time c.o.d. :P - Joe "Funkasaurus" Pierce

Well, it was the 85-89 bracket, so it's possible they just had a lot of 85s, but we capped ST/LM/GM and then a couple of druids and a couple of priests held the choke point between BS/farm/LM for most of the game, like, literally road fighting for the entire match. The horde did try zerging mine several times, but somehow we managed to hold it. They stopped bothering with ST because two... more... - Victor Ganata

So now I'm wondering where do those kinds of pugs go when they level cap? It's like we always get the noobs more than not. - Arlan K.

Even though I hate it when Hordies in full elite Malevolent show up in max-level randoms, I guess the difference between a fully PvP geared 90 and a PvE geared 90 is still a lot less than the difference between an 89 and an 85. That was actually the first match I won in the 85-89 bracket after losing 6 in a row, most of them very badly :D - Victor Ganata

I'm probably going to ding 90 on my aff lock by the end of the week. I'm wondering if I should bother gearing him up during the last two weeks of 5.1, or if I should just level someone else until 5.2 drops. I have an spriest who's been stuck at 88 for the last two months, and my fury warrior is still mired at 84. Hmm. - Victor Ganata

Probably not worth gearing up the lock when 5.2 is so close. Unless you aren't able to acquire the crafted pvp set or don't have honor banked to buy at least 2pc immediately once 5.2 drops. - Arlan K.

I'd like to hear more about this IRS TV studio... - Hookuh Tinypants

Finding ways to improve quality of life for seniors is a waste of money? - Chris Topher

Well, they don't really have a vested interest in helping people who can't shoot their way out of their problems. - Victor Ganata

I'm now wondering how much the conception of Illidan was influenced by Magus from Chrono Trigger. - Victor Ganata

Interesting! - Arlan K.

Apparently, Magus's name in the Japanese version of Chrono Trigger is 魔王 — Maō "demon king" He also wields a scythe, which looks a hell of a lot like a glaive (although I realize the Warglaives of Azzinoth don't really look like glaives….) - Victor Ganata

Next time I replay Chrono Trigger, I'll be thinking of this. - Arlan K.

Looks like we only have about 3 weeks until 5.2 drops. I guess I should try to get enough CP to upgrade the few pieces of Malevolent gear I've got before they get rid of the upgrader NPC. - Victor Ganata

Man, I thought it was gonna be mid-March. I've slacked off on my Operation Shieldwall dailies. Ah well. At least I'm banking honor. It's nice to see they aren't converting Valor Points, too. I'm short of being able to buy something, but I have enough VP to have been pissed if it got converted. >_> - Arlan K.

Yeah, I seem to remember that after hitting revered and getting the grand commendation, I was able to finish the non-repeatable quests all on one day. - Victor Ganata

Cool beans. Something to look forward too. Some of the quests in the mine is messing up my zen thing. - Arlan K.

Heh, yeah, that mine is a cluster. - Victor Ganata