Warlock Therapy

A Destructive Invitation - No Newbies Allowed!

2009-11-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

Patch 3.3 is less than a short time away, and with it will arrive a couple of changes to the Warlock class, most notably being the return of raid-dominating DPS by the Affliction Warlock. I'm very excited to see our talent trees receive a bit more balance, as I'm sure many of you are too. Destroying raid bosses as a Destruction Warlock is great fun and very effective, but having options is a good thing... especially when Destro is a little too reminiscent of the simple "Shadow Mage" approach to DPS. And really, if I wanted to play a Mage, I would have already cut off my genitals and rolled one (did I really just say that?). But lets not digress or get too ahead of ourselves just yet... we've got some things to do before we can consider which spec to throw when standing within the gates of Icecrown Citadel.

Be it Affliction or Destruction or even Demonology, in order to hit the meters in the neighborhoods of 9-12k DPS, we're going to need the absolute best gear possible. I'm talking a full set of BiS gear, which will eventually include the somewhat-racist-looking abomination that is Warlock Tier 10 (one of the uglier Warlock sets imho). And to have a shot at all of that ethically questionable goodness, we're going to need regular, dependable raid invites. And to get those invites, we're going to need to raid now. We're going to need to raid often. And most importantly, we're going to need to raid well.

As a Warlock, there are a number of things we need and are expected to do at each and every raid that we attend. This includes showing up with a sack full of Soul Shards, calling upon a summoning portal and Soulwell whenever necessary, and dropping a Soulstone on the head of a raid member when it is available. Ignore any of these elementary requirements and we can kiss our raid invitations goodbye. But keep in mind that fulfilling them ensures you nothing, because more important than any of these principles is the amount of DPS a Warlock can produce. Excel there, and we can expect our invitations every week. Fail there, and expect to spend an eternity in Tradechat... *cough*

Here are a couple of classic ways that Destruction Warlocks can improve their DPS. Some are obvious and well-known, and others not so much, but all are very important and have allowed me to make enough of an impression to remain actively invited to guild runs as a PuG raider. Not too shabby, right? Hopefully you will gain something from this list too, and if you have something to add to it, please do so in the comments section.

(~~Backdraft~~ + Rain of Fire) > Rain of Fire
We've all seen it a million times: Onyxia takes to the air in Phase 2, out come the whelps, the idiot who yelled "MOAR WHELPS! HANDLE IT!" is told to shut up, and Rogues, Mages, DKs, and Hunters shoot up with Damage Meter. Baffled Warlocks, spam-casting Rain of Fire cry out, wondering why their AoE spell of choice falls short in situations like this and how to improve it.

The answer is Backdraft, which will increase the speed of RoF ticks by a whopping 30%! The trick is to plan for it and set it up properly - have a Conflagrate ready to go and then begin bathing your targets in fire from the sky at a fantastic rate. Just be sure to have your Soulshatter ready to use too. And to add even more "umph" to your AoE, cast Shadowflame on the targets before you Conflag, as you wait for the tank to establish enough aggro to handle your hate. The raid will thank you. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, there was a bug somewhere that was allowing Backdraft to impact channeled spells like RoF and even Drain Life, and was patched in 3.2 because it is NOT supposed to work as described above. But then what can explain this image from a raid just last week?

My Rain of Fire channeling time was a mere 4.7 seconds and was pumping out over 20k DPS! When trying to recreate this feat outside of Dalaran, however, the cast time was only impacted by my Haste rating (bring it to 6.7 seconds), and wasn't influenced by Backdraft whatsoever.

May we have stumbled upon something here or was it just a fluke?

More to come!

CONFIRMED! It is a bug, according to a WoW GM. He didn't tell me the details involved, but you better be sure that I'll be trying to recreate it come raid time this week! I will post updates in another post, also explaining how we can still up the damage from our Rain of Fire with a couple of very simple steps. In the meantime, if any of you figure out the exact bug, do tell in the comments section!

Happy 'locking.

Your Imp Needs Love Too
If you are sporting 2-piece Tier 9, you have no doubt noticed the set bonus that increases your pet's critical strike chance by 10%. This may not seem like such a big deal at first glance, and Warlock set bonuses have received quite a bit of criticism for their lack of awesomeness, but consider this: with the Empowered Imp talent (3/3), your next spell has a 100% chance to crit after your imp's Firebolt crits. In other words, increasing your imp's chance to crit also increases your chance to crit, and that's a big deal in terms of potential DPS.

Now we come to one of the biggest and most common mistakes that Warlock raiders make: using Phase Shift on their little fire-cracking minion. Doing so removes the pet from the active field of play, the original intent of which was to maintain Blood Pact on the the raid or party. Phase Shift, however, is removed the moment the Imp is brought into combat, so whatever use it once had is now null and void (and made redundant by the Fel Synergy talent). What it continues to do, however, is make the imp unable to receive raid buffs pre-pull, like Kings, MotW, AI, and anything else that would increase its chance to crit, thereby increasing your own. It's a simple mistake that when prevented, can result in a nice boost to your DPS. Easy enough.

If You're Gonna Get Stoned, Get Stoned Right
Warlock stat ratings are always a hot topic of discussion at blogs and websites like Elitist Jerks and The Warlocks Den. After much number crunching and discussion, they all have pretty much decided that Haste rating is a more important stat for Warlocks than Crit rating. That should make choosing between the Spellstone and Firestone pretty simple, right?

Wrong.

All Destruction Warlocks should be buffing their weapon with the Firestone. Its increase in Crit percentage and overall Direct Damage results in about a 25 DPS increase over the Spellstone, even for Warlocks with sub-standard Haste ratings (below 500 - ideal is about 600-620). The only times a Warlock should ever buff with the Spellstone is if he or she is Affliction spec or has taken the Master Conjurer talent in the Demonology tree. Otherwise, stat up with the Firestone and use your gear to itemize the important stats (Hit, Spell Dmg, Haste) accordingly.

Corruption is Corrupted
Damage per Cast Time, or DPCT, is a great way to gauge the importance of spell casts relative to one another and therefore which spell is best to cast in a specific scenario. To calculate the DPCT for all Warlock spells, simply take the amount of damage a spell produces and divide it by its cast time, taking into account bonus damage and global cooldown (Haste) modifiers, of course.

For a raiding Destruction Warlock with no talent points buffing shadow spells or specific DoTS and many buffing Fire-based abilities, Incinerate has one of the highest DPCT values, easily out-classing shadow spells like Shadow Bolt and Corruption. It is a wonder then that many Destro 'locks still include Corruption in their rotations - doing so is actually a DPS decrease vs replacing it with a higher DPCT Incinerate cast. The only time Corruption should ever be cast is when the Warlock is on-the-move and casting Incinerate is not an option... only then will it result in a DPS increase.

Bask in the Flask
Back in the day of Vanilla 40-man raiding, flasking was an absolute necessity. If you didn't flask, you didn't progress, period. Blizzard began to move away from that requirement in TBC, eventually limiting flasks by number and type, and tuning encounters without even considering their use. To be honest, at that point, I stopped using them because, well, they weren't at all necessary and there weren't many other raiding 'locks to compete with.

Today it is a different story. Raiding is more accessible than ever and that means more players are vying for your raid spot than ever. Every little extra bit of effort counts, and flasking is one of those bits that pays a little towards your overall DPS and, perhaps more importantly, how your fellow raiders perceive you. Both are incredibly worth the small price to pay (about 20-30g per Flask of the Frost Wyrm), and therefore should be given attention at every opportunity.

Call of CoE Duty
I know you've been in a raid like this - one with 3 or 4 Warlocks and wondering which would be the one to cast Curse of Elements instead of the more personal-DPS-friendly Curse of Doom. You run into the encounter right behind the tank and tag the boss with CoD, internally bellowing a "not it!" as you begin your standard DPS rotation. And then it happens... 3 more CoDs appear on the boss, and CoE is no where in sight.

Assigning CoE pre-pull is incredibly important, and that importance grows with each additional magical damage caster that you have in the raid. So who should cast it? Should it be a Destruction Warlock? An Affliction Warlock? Does it matter? The simple answer to that last question is yes, it does matter... but the reasoning behind it is semi-complicated and a topic of heated discussion within the raiding community. The basic position to this argument is that the Warlock who brings the least amount of DPS to the raid should be the one to cast CoE because the raid would lose the least amount of DPS possible with him or her doing so. Many try to complicate the matter by arguing in terms of relative DPS (Affliction DPS suffers more by casting CoE than does Destruction DPS, etc.), but what is important is the overall effect of the cast on the raid, not the individual, and that is what you must consider when looking to maximize DPS.

If all Warlocks in the raid are equally specced and geared, do what I do and call for a /roll. Lowest roll casts CoE. Done. :)

Curse an Off-Target with Doom
Sticking with the curse topic for just another second, one thing that I do not see many Warlocks doing is maximizing their use of CoD and CoE as a collective group. If you find yourself on CoE duty for an encounter that has multiple targets, cast CoD on a tanked off-target for a DPS increase. As a compliment, if you are casting CoD in the same situation, cast CoE on the Doomed off-target. A perfect example of where this works perfectly is during the ToC Beasts of Northrend encounter versus Acidmaw and Dreadscale. Both should have at least one CoD and CoE applied to them.

Again, using curses in such a way takes coordination and planning, so the previous piece of advice about taking care of curse assignments applies.

Running is Bad for the Knees, and Your DPS Too
Demonic Circle is first and foremost a PvP spell, no doubt. Its main purpose is to increase the Warlock's survivability by giving him or her more mobility and a fighting chance against snares, which the ability breaks upon use. A secondary purpose, however, is PvE-related and directly impacts the amount of DPS the Warlock can produce... if only by a small amount.

As we discussed earlier, it is well-established that Incinerate has a higher DPCT value than Corruption when working within the confines of the Destruction tree. That means time spent running around the field should be limited to the absolute minimum so that Incinerate can be cast as much as possible. DC provides a great way to help make this happen and can be applied readily in a number of situations. For example, putting one down on Heigan's platform while he channels his dance and teleporting back to it when it is finished, or planting one as Icehowl prepares for his Massive Crash and teleporting to it once he begins to charge. Another great use is to place a DC by one of the Twin Val'kyr portals, and teleporting to it when they cast Vortex. Oh and of course DC is useful for when you get caught in Sapphiron's Chill and need to move out of it asap, or when Thaddius casts a Polarity Shift and you must move to the other side of him, or when... well... you get the idea.

Hellfire Isn't Completely Useless Afterall
Hellfire... what can I say about this spell? It is one of the most limited of Warlock abilities, and probably sees the least amount of use amongst Destruction spells in general. I can remember only a few occasions where the spell came in handy to me as I struggled to make it useful in some way. First, there is "Ghost Walking," when upon impending death, a 'lock would Life Tap to near empty health and then Hellfire to death. This resulted in no durability damage being applied to gear and as a result, no repair bill either - not a bad deal. Another application I remember was in Karazhan while fighting Illhoof. A Warlock would be tasked with standing between the boss and his imp portals, and spam Hellfire as heals were constantly thrown his or her way. It was an interesting approach to take through the encounter, and was the only effective significant application of Hellfire in a raid setting that I can think of... until ToC.

In what is surely a feature that will see a nerf someday, Hellfire triggers the Light Essence buff during the Twin Val'kyr encounter in Trial of the Champions. Stacking this buff to 100 results in the Empowered Light buff, which provides a huge DPS increase to the player. I'm sure you all are familiar with this and how annoying it can be... how one must wait until they have collected a certain number of Light Orbs (while dodging the Dark Orbs) that sporadically make their way throughout the field of play and only at specific times throughout the encounter. But using Hellfire, the first proc is a little less annoying to work with, as Warlocks can pre-buff the ability before the pull is even made to a point where it would only take 1 or 2 orbs to set off the Empowered Light buff. Pure win, imho. Get to it before it's gone. ;)

Spread the Hate Around, Fast!
The transition between DPS targets is elementary, but has been a very underrated mechanic in this era of OP AoE. Your raid comes across a bunch of mobs stacked up next to one another? No problem... just AoE all of them to oblivion for the win. Back in the day (I say that too much...) when 40-mans were the norm and even in TBC to an extent, trash mobs had to be CC'd and tanked carefully. AoE'ing was a no no, and individual attention was everything. This made moving from one mob to the next an art form in a way, that when done right, resulted in a seamless transition that did not break up damage produced by the raid in any way.

These days, however, I notice sloppy movement and transitions between mobs. I see Warlocks continuing to begin casts on a target that is about to die, even DoT'ing them, and having their duration or cast interrupted and losing DPS as a result. Instead, what a Warlock should do is switch to another mob before their current target is dead to ensure that damage production is constant and consistent. All this requires is a little bit of attention, and it can result in some noteworthy DPS (depending on how bad your current methodology is =P). Trust me, when you start working on this mechanic, you'll be amazed at how something that is seemingly so insignificant can render such a large impact on your performance. It really is a big deal.

So there you have them - a few items that can help elevate your performance when doing so is as important as ever as we approach 3.3 and the next expansion. If you have any tips or critiques, as always, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Happy 'locking. ;)

WoW T-Shirt Fail

2009-09-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

SwagDog, makers of Warcraft-themed clothing and sponsor of WoW.com's Guild of the Month contest, has released a new t-shirt design that I must say that is quite a bit sexier than what I've seen from the company thus far. Alex Z. of WoW.com does a good job of detailing why this new T is "better" than the others, and it basically comes down to simplicity. They've chosen to ditch a lot of the clutter that made the other T style a bit too distracting, including a banner graphic and icons for a player's faction, battlegroup, and class. They've even chosen to remove a letter or two from class descriptions, making them take up less space as well.

Wait... what?! That can't be right...

An astute commenter over at WoW.com, named Captn Obvious, noticed that the T-shirt being worn by SwagDog's current covergirl (who is getting a lot of attention in the comments herself) has a not-so-obvious error being advertised to the WoW populace.

If you look carefully at the class section of the T, you'll notice that Deathknight is misspelled as "Deathnight," which has prompted some criticism from world leaders and politicians (read: players and commenters) alike. Commenter Elearen even goes so far as to attack SwagDog's love for the game, stating in not so many words that their disinterest in WoW is about as obvious as their blonde model's dark roots. Okay, so that's exaggerated a bit, but the message is roughly the same, kinda...

While this whole thing is a total and complete T-shirt and marketing fail, I personally don't see this as a big deal at all. SwagDog does some seriously good work, and if you've ever been over to their site and created a hoodie, t-shirt, or hat, you already know that. We all make ~~type-os~~ typos every now and then, and I very much doubt that anyone will receive an item from SwagDog with a mistake of this magnitude printed on it. And especially not after being alerted to the problem, am I right?

So order up without worry, as I likely will. I may get one for my wife too, just so I can walk downtown Seattle showing that even a nerdy guy like me can score a hottie that plays WoW. Sure, she has only logged in for a total of 3 minutes in the last year or so, BUT IT HAPPENED, okay? Let me have my moment.

And apparently, judging by the facial expressions of the SwagDog models sporting the new Ts, you can have yours too.

Happy ordering. =P

P.S. - Dear SwagDog, WTB new style in hoodie form pls. Kthx.

It's About Time, Literally

2009-09-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me well know that I'm a pretty punctual guy. When I say that I'm going to get something done within a certain time frame, it usually gets done. But Father Time definitely throws me curveballs every now and then, as when I first began the Battlemaster grind in 1997 (it feels that way, anyway). Little did I know that 6 short minutes would equate to 3 MONTHS of pain, sweat, and agony on the fields of AV.

[The Alterac Blitz] Achievement, the LAST Achievement I needed for the [Battlemaster] meta, was supposed to be one of those easy, "cheesy" accomplishments. After all, it could be completed via having "Not Enough Players" at the start of an AV game, and indeed, I spent countless nights pissing off my wife and logging into WoW in hopes of finding a thin Alliance team that would sputter towards Galv as the timer ticked from 5 to 0 minutes. But those pesky Alliance players just kept signing in time after time, and to my disappointment, all of the AV games that I queued into continued on to a miserable completion, reminding me just how difficult this process was really going to be.

There was a point where I thought that I would never get the Blitz done. My Battlegroup was and is very much against the idea of rushing past Balinda, all bunkers, and flags on a straight shot to Vann "just for an Achievement," and players were very vocal and derogatory about the "Achievement whores" for sure. The resulting lack of coordination made the Blitz difficult enough in it's own right. And coupled with the flood of low level toons now taking advantage of Battleground XP and leveling in the Valley (read "/afking at the spawn point"), it seemed nearly impossible to find a mostly-empty game or a decent PuG to work with.

Completely frustrated with the process, I began putting together partial premades to help better my chances. But because of face-pulling lowbies (oh how I hate the AV level scale...), a complete disinterest in the Blitz Achievement amongst the well-geared PvE crowd, and even Horde teammates that would pull Vann early and towards the awaiting crowd to purposefully ruin our attempts (I saw this way too often), the string of disappointing attempts continued week after week, and month after month.

But thankfully, the cycle of complete and seemingly infinite fail had an end, and didn't continue beyond last night.

After spending several hours recruiting friends and acquaintances over the past few days, and convincing players to download and install Preform AV Enabler, we finally had a solid group of capable tanks, heals, and DPS to work with. We completed the Achievement on just our second attempt, and when the Battlemaster announcement was displayed to our BG group, most of the guys were just as surprised as I was.

Tonight, each of them is 100g richer (not a bad income for 6 minutes of work, right?) and for the first time, I'm displaying a title other than High Warlord. Battlemaster Jagoex just sounds too good to pass up, doesn't it?

Better late than never. ;)

The Face Behind the Avatar

2009-09-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

I came to a very depressing realization the other day while talking with a friend about the current bane of my existence in Azeroth, [The Alterac Blitz] achievement. After asking him to help out on his very well-geared tank, he agreed to jump in, but only after he was done cooking the food he had on the stove. Several hours and achievement attempts later, he was still online, doing Heroic 5-mans, and apparently still awaiting his food (I began to wonder how long bullsh*t had to simmer before it was ready to eat). Finally, later still, I found him in the Nagrand Arena, having been online continuously since approaching him earlier in the day, and now busy assisting his grandfather with a project (Arena rating, maybe?). At that point, I just gave up... and that's when the reality of what was happening hit me.

Everyone lies.

To many of you, that may not be the revelation of the century, because we get lied to ALL THE TIME, especially as online gamers. But to trusting idiots like me, it is a huge letdown to realize that it's not just the bad people out there slipping some lies into your daily drink. It's good people too--the ones you've spent years playing the game with, trust, and think you know so well. They too would lie to you, and probably already have.

We don't really need to get into the psycho-bulk of WHY this happens, because for the most part, we all kinda get it: lying and dodging drama is more convenient than some potential social discomfort that may come with telling the truth. My friend would rather make up a story about waiting for food than risk having me get even slightly upset at him for not wanting to help in AV, for example.

And if we get caught in a lie, does it really matter? We are protected by the cloak of web anonymity, after all, and many people, even GOOD people, are willing to take advantage of it.

Gaming in that kind of environment, it has got to be difficult... or at least it SHOULD be difficult... to develop a certain amount of trust for the people that we surround ourselves with. I mean, how do we know if the T8.5 Paladin that is applying to your guild didn't just transfer to your server because he was a known ninja on the realm he just left? How do we know if the mic-less girl in your guild (there's always at least one of them) is really a girl and not some guy hoping to capitalize on playing the gender card? How can we truly know if people are who they say they are?

Over the next few days, we will be looking at ways to help clear the fog that covers the faces of the people we "see" every day. With the help of my friend Wilhella (that's her in the picture above), we'll talk reality, and how to uncover the con, sneak, stalker, cheat, guild-breaker, or loot whore in everyone.

Yes, I said "everyone." We all lie, afterall.

See you soon. ;)

A Rare and Dreaded Sight

2009-07-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

After playing WoW for about 4 years now, and having almost 360 days /played on my Warlocks, I can honestly say that there isn't much I get blown away by these days. One thing that does stop me in my tracks every time, however, is a Warlock in full Dreadmist gear. Today, that's a given rarity since the rainment is a Level 60 collection of pieces from the heydays of Vanilla WoW. But even back when running Strat and Scholo was the norm, it was still very uncommon to see a 'lock sporting a full Dungeon 1 set. It was inspiring to see, and still is to me.

But that is nothing compared to what you're seeing in the image above.

Resurrected (a fitting name for sure) is a member of my good friend Demordrah's army of alts. Not only did he spend a good amount of time gathering Dreadmist pieces from the several Level 60 dungeons that drop them, but he also invested a lot of questing and gold to put together the super rare and epic Deathmist set. That's DEATHmist, as in Dungeon Set 2 - a full set of which I had NEVER seen before his accomplishment.

To fully appreciate this feat, you really have to go back and actually experience the long and arduous tasks of putting together a full D1 set, and then questing hard to upgrade the pieces to D2. Even today, it would be a hella tedious task, so just consider how difficult it must have been for a Level 60 'lock to get a group motivated enough to help him get the job done. I remember being 7/8 Dreadmist myself (damn Jandice Barov and the shoulders that never dropped for me) and starting the upgrade quests, only to drop them after having put them off for months.

Looking back, and seeing Demo's alt in all of its D2 glory now, I very much wish that I had gone through with the upgrading effort. D1 was more than enough to strike fear into opposing players that loathed getting Feared and DoT'd to death--could you even imagine what it must have felt like for them to come across a 'locked decked out in full D2?! Total dread, imho. The set had, and still has a kind of "oh damn" look to it that just screams Warlock. Even in modern Azeroth, Demordrah was telling me of instances where people in Hellfire were whispering to ask about the "crazy" gear he was wearing. If only all armor design was still that compelling!

Congrats to you, Demo. It's nice to see someone with the motivation (and pain threshold) to get such an epic and true achievement done. I am indeed impressed. Well done, sir! :)

Twit Me My Title!

2009-06-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed out on an opportunity to nab yourself an official Blizzard Authenticator, here's another chance!

Find me ASAP on Twitter -- the first two people to @Jagoex to me my currently "equipped" in-game title will win one of the two remaining pieces of plastic security, courtesy of Warlock Therapy!

Click the link in the right column, or visit www.twitter.com to get started. Good luck!

UPDATE: Both are spoken for. Congrats to the winners!

Contest Winners, Check Your Email!

2009-06-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Fellow blog-aholics, today is the day! After spending many hours with a random number generator and Google Analytics, the winners of the first major Warlock Therapy contest have been chosen! Check your email pronto for the winning message, and follow the instructions provided to receive your free Blizzard Authenticator. Congratulations to all of the winners!

If you didn't receive an email, don't fret -- there are many other contests incoming and many other prizes to give away. Stay tuned for more details. ;)

All of that said -- I must admit that choosing the winners for this contest went about as smoothly as tonight's Retaliation Battlegroup stability (it's crashing repeatedly, for those of you who do not know). Many users made multiple Blogger accounts and posted several comments instead of abiding by the unwritten but common sense rule of "one post per person." As a result, many comments were disqualified, and I am left wondering how to prevent such a debacle in the future.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Patch 3.2: Resilience No Longer Only Applies to DoT Damage

2009-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Fellow Warlocks, wannabes (Mages), Shadow Priests, and anyone else with a close relationship to the DoT'ing kind. Go grab yourself some food and a drink, a towel, and then return to your seat, where you will more than likely spend the next few hours frozen in awe and excitement at the glorious news I am about to relay to you. Seriously. It made my wife pee a little.

Hidden deep within the PTR 3.2 Patch notes is a little bit of Warlock love in the form of a major change to Resilience -- the stat that has been the bane of DoT damage for almost 2 years running.

Here's the little nugget in all of it's DoT-loving glory:

Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that DoT damage is getting an indirect BUFF via the direct application that Resilience will equally have against ALL forms of damage. In other words, DoTS will do relatively more damage than they do now, compared to other forms of offensive attacks.

Within the current state of World of Burst-craft, this is a VERY big deal! It not only means that Resilience-heavy Affliction Warlocks will see more survivability, but it also means they will be dishing out a higher percentage of overall damage done!

Shwing?!

Together with all of the other pro-Affliction changes that 3.2 is slated to bring (the Pandemic Buff to Haunt that we will discuss in an upcoming post, for example), this should be a big help to a long-ailing tree in PvP. Only time will tell if it will be a large-enough step in the right direction to make a difference.

Now, go clean up a bit, and be sure to check back for an update on Affliction's performance on the PTR very soon.

See you then. ;)

Warlock 101: "Drain Some Dummies"

2009-06-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

Warlock 101 looks to shed some light on the basic truths of Warlocking, for those that are new to the class, or just may have missed them while QQ'ing about the constant nerfs to Fear.

Ask a Warlock, any Warlock, what changes they would like to see implemented in a future patch, and amongst the calls for "green fire" and a new Megan Fox succubus skin, you are more than likely to find a few that will wish for stack-able Soul Shards.

We 'locks have often complained that our shard reagents are an inconvenience, taking up too much space and taking far too long to farm before a night of raiding or PvP. Even after the recent lifestyle tweak to Drain Soul, we still complained that the shard mechanism was too costly, taking up too much of the the time we could be spending doing something else equally as unimportant as shard-farming.

Well, my friends, the reality is that the Soul Shard mechanism isn't that big a deal, and it is far less time consuming than you think. Check out the video below for a hot tip on how to make Soul Shard farming super efficient, no matter your level or experience.

Free Authenticator Contest Ending Soon!

2009-06-06T11:43:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update to let you all know that the contest giving away 25 Blizzard Authenticators is almost over! If you haven't posted a comment in the active contest thread, head over there right now and do so!

The contest ends June 10, and winners will be notified on June 19. And don't forget that you must comment using a valid Blogger account!

Good luck!

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT AND ENTER THE CONTEST!

The Best Questions a Warlock Can Ask

2009-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again. The great (and sometimes sexy) Dr. Eyonix has made his Summer rounds on the official forums, summoning the "questions you may have concerning your class." Playing a Warlock, I know we got a whole bunch of them. But before you go off running to ask why we haven't seen green fire applied to all of our spells just yet, hear me out. There are far more important matters at hand.

Here are 10 of the best questions we Warlocks can ask in the current state of the game. And please feel free to bombard Eyonix's thread with them. Maybe we'll get some much-needed attention!

Will incoming pet/spell-pathing and redirection after a Demonic Teleport ever be tweaked to result in a miss?

While defending the Farm in AB the other day, I was approached by three mouth-breathing Death Knights. After being LOL-Gripped by two of them back-to-back (that's where the "lol" comes in), I Teleported into the shed to escape the ridiculously high damage they were doing... and that's when it happened! A Deathcoil that one of the DK's had fired off came through the wall and hit me square in the face!

If a Rogue Vanishes, a spell headed towards them will miss (unless it's still bugged), and a pet will run back towards it's master. If a Warlock Teleports, a spell will redirect and shoot straight for them, and a pet will hunt them down and continue to attack. Sure, Vanish and Teleport are different spells, but shouldn't their effect on spell/pet-pathing be treated the same? If not, why not? At best, it's an awkward mechanic difference as is, and is in desperate need of a change.

Will our pets ever be allowed to Teleport with us if they are set to Passive?

Our pets. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. And I ESPECIALLY hate them when they lead opponents straight to me after I break off a Teleport. They're like the worst little back-stabbing snitches ever, and I often find myself having them attack an opponent and get killed just to keep myself alive. Broken, imho.

Will melee always be able to cut-off spells when "running through" the caster?

At range, Destruction Warlocks are where it's at. They have some of the best combos and burst in WoW (which we'll talk about in an upcoming post), and are game-makers as a result.

In close-quarters, however, they are about as useful as a pair of scissors with no handles. This is mostly because of melee's ability to "run through" a caster and interrupt his class if timed right, and which isn't that hard to do. Melee have a huge advantage over casters as a result, and it is a shame this long-broken mechanic hasn't received the attention it deserves.

Will the Soul Shard cap ever be raised?

Let's face it: Soul Shards will never stack. So the question is, will we ever need anything beyond an Abyssal Bag? Inquiring Warlocks, especially ones that Arena regularly, want to know... because if the Soul Shard cap isn't going to see a change, it's time to get a maxed out shard bag, pronto.

Are there any plans to lower the Soul-shatter cooldown?

Of all the spells a Warlock has in his arsenal, Soul-Shatter is by far one of the most poorly maintained. As a spell, it's fine, just as any aggro-reducing ability is. As a spell that has a 5-minute cooldown and costs a Soul Shard, however, it is not. Almost every other class has an aggro drop on a much shorter cooldown... why not Warlocks?

Are there plans to introduce more consistent burst damage to the Affliction Tree?

Affliction burst is based upon RNG DoT crits that are great during long PvE boss encounters, but not so hot for PvP. In order to make Affliction a viable Arena spec again, it needs to have a controllable amount of burst that is not dependant on an automatic, uncontrollable, and untimable DoT tick. Perhaps make Shadowburn trainable? Or even better yet, give the Afflicton 'lock an ability to consume a DoT for 50% of it's overall damage on-command. That'd be a start!

Are all pets going to scale equally from their master's stats?

When I heard that Ghostcrawler and his development crew had finally decided that it was time to work on pet scaling, I called Hell to see if it had frozen over. It hasn't, so I remain cautously optomistic. We are Warlocks, afterall, and whenever we see something good come our way, there is often a catch.

So I have to ask, when the pets get these incoming buffs, are they going to receive them equally across the board, or are each of their specific weaknesses going to be addressed?

And semi-related to this question comes the next:

Will switching between pets quickly ever become an untalented option?

Warlocks are dependent on their pets, now more than ever at least since the "mushroom" era of PvP. Each has a very specific use and strength meant for a very specific environment. So when we find ourselves stuck in the mud with the wrong pet out... we're pretty boned.

Currently, the only way to summon a pet quickly is to spec at least 10 points into the Demonology Tree, where you'll find Fel Domination. Fifteen points in, you'll find Master Summoner, which will reduce the cast time of your next summon by 9.5 seconds to a mere half-second. Unfortunately, each of these talents is on a 15 minute cooldown, which doesn't do much for the Warlock enjoying World PvP or a day in the Battlegrounds.

We need more... and faster too!

Is Fear going to be tweaked to better compliment the Affliction tree?

After the recent Fear "nerf," the spell seems fairly balanced to a Destruction Warlock. Destro 'locks don't DoT, so the spell can easily be used as an off-target CC or to setup a powerful destruction spell combo.

As an Affliction 'lock, however, whose quasi-purpose and strength is to afflict damage to as many targets on the field as possible, it is quite useless. It cannot be used as an off-target CC, because Affliction Warlocks SHOULD be doing consistant, constant, dependable damage to as many enemy players as possible. And almost any damage to Fear currently breaks the CC, making it one of the worst offensive spells in the game.

And yes, you read that right. I wrote "offensive," because that is how it was originally designed. Afflicton Warlocks are SUPPOSED to DoT their targets and Fear them to death. Now, sadly, that's not the case, and they need Affliction-tree-specific buffs to Fear that will allow them to do so competitively. Add a talent, add a glyph, whatever. Just do it already.

Is Immolate going to get some much-needed dispel protection?

As is stands, Immolate is one of the most important spells in a Destro 'locks arsenal. It increases the damage of Incinerate and Chaos bolt via Fire and Brimstone, and is the opener of choice for an instant-Conflag. However, it's as easily removed as Paris Hilton's panties, yet unlike those panties, it comes with no ~~STD~~ penalty whatsoever.

An Afflicton Warlock's DoTS are the bread and butter of his offense, and protected by Unstable Affliction. Immolate is the core ability of a Destruction's Warlocks offense, and has no protection whatsoever. Without Immolate, we lose the burst damage of Conflagrate, and the CC of Aftermath -- both of which are very necessary to keep the spec a successful one.

So those are my questions -- ten issues that need addressing. Hopefully they won't fall upon blind eyes or deaf ears, and hopefully yours won't either.

Speaking of yours, what Warlock questions do you have for the devs? Is there anything that you see as vitally important to the class and wonder why it hasn't been addressed? Let me know in the comments section -- link to it in the official thread if you wish.

Now, lets get this done, people. Good luck to us all.

What's Up With Ferarro & Paladin Schmaladin?

2009-05-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have to take a quick time-out from the norm to outline a concern that I have about the honesty of blogging and bloggers. For those of you who normally read blogs, it may impact you on some level, so it won't be a complete waste of your time.

If you found yourself over at fellow WoW-blogger Ferarro's website today, Paladin Schmaladin, you were greeted with a new message that the "blog is open to invited readers only." According to her Twitter updates, she believes that she has a stalker, and things are getting a bit too uncomfortable with all of the private information she has been posting.

Now let me be serious for a second (it's all I can muster): if she does have a legit stalker, she made the right decision in closing shop. Playing it safe is the only way to go in that scenario. There is nothing worse than feeling exposed, after all (we Warlocks know that all too well). However, I am getting reports that the stalker story is about as straight as Tom Cruise, and that I should have listened to my mother when she told me to never believe everything I read on the internet... that I don't write myself.

According to multiple sources in-WoW and out, Ferarro was outed as a fraud when an astute Warlock posted a convincing link on the WoW Forums, pointing to a website called TechDarling. All over the site are pictures of a girl that we know as Ferarro. In fact, many of the pictures there are identical copies of those we've seen on Paladin Schmaladin. But instead of the WoW game-tester we all know, we see a real-life social-blogger who is into the tech scene and has posted pictures from various blogging expos and web design events -- pictures stolen by and featured on Paladin Schmaladin and that Ferarro presented as of herself, and her job as a game-tester for WoW.

Doing a little bit of digging, it seems that all of the self-portraits posted of Ferarro on Paladin Schmaladin originate from TechDarling and its author's own web pages, including Facebook and Flickr. In fact, there are many images there that authenticate TechDarling as the legitimate source and owner of the pictures and events. Oh, and btw, WoW is never mentioned on these other sites. Not once.

So what does all of this craziness mean, exactly?

Well, for starters, a bunch of love-struck boys are going to experience some heavy frustration when this comes to light, and we are bound to see some nerd rage soon. For bloggers like me, it is a little disheartening. Ferarro has basically been lying about her identity for years, and stealing someone else's content and posting them as her own. She has taken advantage of another blogger and her reader's trust, and that makes my job as a fellow blogger just that much harder.

On a WoW-related front, this mess also means that Ferarro isn't a game tester for Blizzard. The "game-testing" images that were posted on Paladin Schmaladin were relabeled TechDarling images that were taken at a blogging expo.

I gotta admit, just thinking about this gets me a little angry, and my mind is going crazy with a series of difficult questions: what drives a person to do this kind of thing? Why would anyone lead people on like that? And for what means? And do you know what the worst part about this whole thing is? Paladin Schmaladin was a great resource and excellent WoW blog. Why it needed to be masked by someone else's pretty face is straight attention-whoring.

And here's a piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood Warlock Therapist: if you post someone else's picture and get caught, don't take down your blog and try to explain it away as a problem with a stalker. Don't go into hiding and conjure up 7 different identities when that doesn't work either. Fess up, make things right, and move on. It may hurt at first, but it is the only way to help guarantee yourself respect and friendship in the long-run. And lets face it, you owe at least that much to your readers, right?

It will be quite interesting to see where Ferarro goes from here. While watching the changing status of Paladin Schmaladin's accessibility, I wish her, or him, some much-needed sanity.

I am Jagoex. I'm a husband, a father, a professor, and a warlock. That's all you need to know. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, Ferarro has closed her Twitter account and many of her articles at Retpaladin.com are MIA. Threads started on the WoW Forums linking to TechDarling or this post are being reported as harassment and immediately removed. Also, many young boys are in complete denial.

UPDATE 2: TechDarling is aware of what is going on and according to her Twitter page, she was unaware anyone was stealing her images and content and using them as her own.

UPDATE 3: Retpaladin.com admins played no hand in the posts that were being deleted on their website, and were clueless on what was going on until after the fact. Also, Ferarro's character on Alexstrasza is no longer showing up on the Armory.

UPDATE 4: Paladin Schmaladin is available for viewing once again, with a long explanation of what has happened -- including a creative story detailing 7 different owners of "Ferarro" the Paladin.

UPDATE 5: WoW.com just posted a very detailed look into Ferarro's explanatory post, basically debunking her statement that Ferarro was operated by 7 different people over the years.

Contest Preview: Commenter of the Month

2009-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Being a blogger, I thrive on the comments of my readers. Being a learning and behavior guy, I also thrive on principles of reinforcement. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that you reward me by giving me feedback to my posts, and in return, I should reward you too. That's where the Commenter of the Month contest comes into play.

At the end of every month, I will be giving away an in-game WoW item to a steady, dependable, and strong commenter here at Warlock Therapy. For example, June's item is the Tabard of Flame, one of my favorite-looking tabards of all-time and which fits the 'lock personality quite well.

Items will change monthly, and may or may not be announced just to keep you guessing. But believe me, you WANT to comment. So get to it, and good luck!

Post Preview: Battlemaster as a Solo Warlock

2009-05-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

In my mind, one of the greatest achievements currently implemented in WoW is the Battlemaster achievement. Aside from getting what many consider to be the "best" title in the game, it is also widely considered to be the ultimate BG achievement, akin to the Rank 14 grind. That, my friends, is up for debate. But what isn't is that when Warlock Therapy "officially" goes live on June 3, one of the first articles I'll be posting will take an in-depth look at the achievement's requirements, how a solo Warlock player stacks up against them, and how to improve your chances at getting the deed done.

Personally, I am currently in the midst of a semi-hard push towards fulfilling Battlemaster, and in many ways, it actually does remind me of the High Warlord grind. It is probably due to the fact that it requires a lot of time invested in the Battlegrounds, but thankfully, you can take a break if you want to, which wasn't the case back in the old honor system. As a result of regular break-taking, I have a long way to go to finish the achievement, but I have already completed a good chunk of the chain and am pretty excited about fulfilling the remaining requirements.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one. ;)

An Authentic(ator) Giveway

2009-05-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Want a Blizzard Authenticator? Of course you do, and I don't blame you. Who wouldn't want to keep their account safe from hijackers and gold thieves? So then, why haven't you picked one up just yet? Is it the $6.50 fee? The fact that you cannot pry yourself away from WoW long enough to complete the transaction?

No worries bud. I understand, and I got your back.

To help celebrate the return of Warlock Therapy, I'm going to be giving away 25 Authenticators on June 19!

All you will need to do is leave a comment to this post by 11:59 p.m. on June 10. Twenty-five of you will be chosen at random, and whether you play a Warlock or not, I will send you a Blizzard Authenticator at no charge to you. I'm even covering the shipping cost, so you really have nothing to lose!

Oh, and one other thing. You MUST have a Blogger account in order to participate in this contest. But don't worry if you do not have one -- they are free and take just a minute or so to register. Anonymous posting will do you no good.

Not a bad way to get things started again, am I right? And since there are only like 2 people reading this blog these days (you and me, I'm thinking), odds are pretty good! Now get commenting, and good luck to all who participate.

Mobile Photo Test

2009-05-26T08:41:00.001-07:00

Again, just making sure the blogging app features are WAI.

This poorly-lit image is of a boxed Razer Mamba, the first product I'll be reviewing, which will coincide nicely with an upcoming post on key binding and Warlock PvP.

Testing Mobile Blogging

2009-05-26T08:23:00.001-07:00

This post is just another test looking into some mobile applications. Gotta potentially be ready whenever and wherever, right? If it works, it would make live-blogging from Blizzcon super streamlined.

More to come!

UPDATE: Works great!

Soulstone Resurrection

2009-05-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick post to check the look of the blog. More to come. ;)

Once Upon a Time

2008-10-23T22:31:00.001-07:00

A License to Warlock

2008-08-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Like driving heavy machinery or working in a specialized profession, sometimes I think that playing WoW should require a license to operate. Not that I think the game is difficult to play or anything like that, but so few people actually take the time to learn the intricacies of their class, that it'd be nice to have a simple and clean way to separate those that do from those that don't.

Achievements are a step in the right direction, but won't help in picking out the Warlock in Kara gear that can out-perform T6-level 'locks in Black Temple content (*cough* more on that later this week)... even though the system totally should.

But because we will never see licensing of that kind implemented in-game, I guess we'll just have to turn to our good friend novelty to get our licensing fix. =)

Inspired by Mike Schramm's post over at WoW Insider, I threw together these Warlock "licenses" for the sheer heck of it. They're pretty fun, if I do say so myself, and best of all, they are totally unspoken for in the State of California! I'm actually thinking about picking one of them up myself. =D

So here ya go, friends in curses, and be sure to let us know if you got some of your own novelty statements to share, or if you are sporting an auto-based tribute yourself!

See you guys soon... even on the road, maybe. ;)

20 Silver, 91 Copper

2008-07-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

That's how much money I have across all of my characters this morning, down from about 8000 gold or so. I'm also out 8 Primal Mights, 32 Primal Fires, and just about any other Primal or item of worth that I had in my bags when I logged out late last night. In all, it amounts to well over 10k gold worth of materials lost.

So this is what it feels like... for the second time.

This is really getting old.

I logged into my Warlock expecting to be in Dire Maul, where I usually plant him upon logging out for hopes of finding a rare spawn upon my return. But when I logged in this morning, I noticed immediately on the Character Select screen that he was in Shattrath and felt incredibly uneasy about it. I loaded him up, and indeed found his bags empty. I checked my other toons--theirs were empty too.

The uneasy, eerie feeling I experienced during those first moments were not unlike those that I felt when I logged into my blog and found a vacant, empty space those many weeks ago. It's not so much an "OMG MY STUFF IS GONE!" kind of emotion as it is a "How on earth did this happen?" kind of thing.

Now before you go on thinking about all of the irresponsible actions and behaviors that could result in having an account compromised, hear me out.

I don't visit weird sites. I don't download weird programs.

I scan my HD regularly, and am very cautious and concerned about my internet security. I have set up Firewalls, both software and hardware, and felt pretty secure about all of the extra precautions I have taken.

Obviously, none of this was enough, and even after scanning my drive with two different programs, nothing turned up. I am totally baffled, but will be taking more time to figure out how things went wrong. Hopefully it'll be something to learn from.

In the meantime, I really have to ask myself if this game is really worth all of the trouble it has been lately. And sadly, I don't have an answer for that just yet. Ironically enough, the thief left all of my TOONS intact, allowing me to play just as I have been over the past many weeks. No gear was vendored. All gear is accounted for.

And if this is some sort of twisted joke, it's totally not funny. Not at all.

If any of you could offer up some advice on what to check, where to check, etc, after an account has been compromised, please let me know. And thanks if you do.

The Warlock vs. Melee Conundrum

2008-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why I have a picture of a little Farm boy on my blog this morning, waiting by the fireside by the buff. Indeed a valid question, especially when considering my one-month hiatus from blogging. But whatever you pervs are thinking, stop. It is simply to illustrate a Warlock/WoW-related point, which we'll come back to it in just a second.

But first, one of the issues, if not THE issue PvP Warlocks are facing these days is the lack of balanced survivability against melee classes. Rogues and Warriors are currently the bane of our existence, with an array of tools and abilities that can keep them close in proximity and preventing us from doing anything substantial. I'm sure you've all had the pleasure of experiencing what seems like hours worth of spell push-back due to fast melee attacks, all while getting intercepted, gouged, cheap-shotted, and kidney-shotted all the way to death, and with no real means of escape.

Fear? Please. If it hadn't been nerfed to death with immunities, trinkets, and diminishing returns, maybe. But in it's current form, it is a VERY weak defensive spell, and sadly, it is our class-defining ability. What does that say about Warlocks as a whole?

Deathcoil, while a great stand-alone defensive spell, only delays the inevitable. Warriors can intercept right back to the Warlock and continue smashing their faces in, and Rogues can, well, do about 10 different things that will keep them in control of the encounter--thinking about all of them makes my head spin, actually.

NO class should have absolutely NO chance to win when engaged with another, but in the case of Warlocks and melee, we are pretty close to that point. Even Soul Link, with the lack of Pet Scaling and the 5% nerf it will be receiving soon, isn't enough to handle the obscene amounts of white damage melee can produce. Such unbalanced encounters can make for very frustrating, one-sided experiences akin to the "Warlocks are Mushrooms" days of early WoW PvP. Add to that the multi-crippling effect that Resilience has on our abilities and the availability of Ignore Armor stats to melee and you can understand the up-hill-balance-battle that we Warlocks are now facing.

Things have got to change, and as we approach the beta phase of WotLK production, our question becomes this: what changes would help create balanced survivability for Warlocks against heavy, fast-hitting melee?

We've all heard of the new self-teleporting Demonic Circle ability Warlocks will be receiving in Wrath of the Lich King, and indeed it's sole purpose is to help the Warlock escape from within melee range. But in thinking critically about the spell, you should also be asking yourself a multitude of questions about it. For example, in it's final form, what will it's range limit be? Will it be affected by line of sight? What will be it's cooldown? Will it be enough?

Since the ability, as with all new WotLK abilities, is still under development, it's tough to say. But the short answer is "no," and here's why:

Each combat stat is designed to have a single counter-stat in the World of Warcraft. Or, at least, this is the ideal blueprint that Blizzard used to apply. Spell Resistance was countered by Spell Penetration. Percent chance to Dodge was countered by Hit Rating, etc. It was simple, and for the most part, successful... until the Arena came along and the concept of Resilience was introduced.

Resilience, from the start, was a terrible idea--to minimize Critical strikes in the PvP equation completely gimped Mages, Destruction Warlocks, and a multitude of other classes and specs that are only successful when they are allowed to crit with no penalty. But, it was what it was, and at least it ONLY severly gimped one Warlock talent tree. That is, until Blizzard strayed from their original blueprints and allowed Resilience to counter a SECOND variable, Damage over Time spells, and therefore indirectly affecting Spell Damage at the same time.

At this point, two Warlock staples, Spell Damage via DoTS and Spell Crit Chance, are countered by a single PvP stat. And it didn't stop there.

Soon, Channeled spells were thrown into the mix, becoming the THIRD variable affected by Resilience. This was only done to minimize the effect of drain teams, but a change to the approach Warlock PvP should be played nonetheless.

Lets put everything together now to put this problem into perspective.

The Warlock class has had its defensive spells nullified by buffs to melee. What offense we did have left is nullified by the effects of Resilience on our spells and abilities. What on earth do we have left? An SL/SL build that requires us to ride the coattails of our Rogue or Priest or Druid or whatever other cookie-cutter combo we can team up with?

Things have got to change, and it is up to the Warlock and general player communities to place pressure onto Blizzard and it's backward-stepping e-Sport fetish to refocus the game and help make things right again.

Now, consider the picture of the child at the top of this post again. Notice what he's wearing? Chain mail armor. In a system where Resilience exists in it's current form, THAT KID HAS MORE LASTING POWER AGAINST MELEE THAN A WARLOCK DOES.

GG.

Tay Zonday Does "Pork and Beans"

2008-06-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic weekend. Mine was AMAZING.

I experienced my first Father's Day ever, which was truly an awesome time! I'll write more about it later, when I'm not totally exhausted and drained of energy, cause the day really deserves my utmost attention to convey just how adorable it was.

I've also been working on a few Warlock-centric pieces that I promise I'll put up soon.

But in the meantime, enjoy this clip of YouTube's own Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame doing Weezer's "Pork and Beans." It's epic, and for now, it's all you get, so enjoy it! =P

Something Cool about the Blue and SK's World First

2008-06-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Kil'jaeden is down, and has been for a short while now, thanks to the quick work that SK Gaming made of him after only 4 days of attempts.

Crazy, isn't it? How a boss that can take months and even years to create and tune can be dropped almost instantaneously? I mean damn, what must the developers think? How do they feel when all of their hard work comes crumbling down around them?

I thought it would be similar to what anti-piracy companies must feel like when their million-dollar CD-protection tools that they spend tons of time developing are broken via a simple Sharpie pen or something like that. I mean, how incredibly frustrating is it to put your absolute best out there only to see it easily beaten, right?

Wrong. Totally wrong.

Turns out that Blizzard developers and designers, who love to see their creations come to life and spend countless days and nights making them as perfect as possible, find an even greater level of excitement when those creations of theirs ultimately fall, and especially for the first time.

While top end guilds were making their run in the Sunwell Plateau, Blizzard was there. Devs, designers, GMs, CMs... they were watching every move and toasting every bit of every guild's success.

During SK Gaming's world first Kil'jaeden encounter, a good number of Blizzard employees at headquarters in the U.S. and Europe were watching the action as it happened.

As the story here in Irvine goes, which I was just told in detail earlier today, a small group was watching the pull at one of the many vacant GM stations. SK Gaming had wiped, so the number of people watching was a bit smaller than it had originally been (people had work to do, after all), but everyone was still very much interested in what was happening, so announcements were called out to the room. This is how, in very brief terms, the rest of the evening went down:

"75%."

At this point, a few comments were made about some graphical errors, but mostly about how smoothly the encounter plays out.

"50%." A few people walk over. Others stand up and watch with squinting eyes from a distance.

There was more casual talk, this time about how fast SK Gaming had progressed, and how Spell Haste was working during the encounter exactly how the devs hoped it would.

"35%."

More talk about SK Gaming's approach and their fantastic Orb control. But at this point, everyone started to sense it was getting pretty serious, and the talk slowly faded to nervous whispers, and then to nothing at all.

They're taking it all in -- all of their hard work and creativity -- it's all playing out right in front of them and for the first time outside of their own control. It's a most "surreal" experience, as one dev put it.

"25% and looking great."

Many more run towards the group, cramming themselves as closely to one another as possible. Others stand on chairs. No one talks.

***SPOILER WARNING***

Everyone is watching intently, and listening to the dramatic exchange between Kalecgos and Anveena. She is sacrificed, and Kalecgos yells for the raid to strike. A few in the crowd of creators actually start to cry.

This moment must have been so totally intense.

"10%. They got this."

Many in the group have their hands clasped together and raised to their lips as if uttering a silent prayer.

"5%."

EVERYONE in the room is frozen still, watching as the raid group scrambles away from the millionth Armageddon, when it finally happens.

Kil'jaeden falls.

The crowd roars with excitement, throwing their hands up into the air and cheering heavily and loudly. There were high-fives, pumping fists, hugs, tears, and applause. Everyone was THRILLED, and cell phones were brought out left and right to contact more of the Blizzard crew to tell them of the good news that had just happened overseas.

Oh, to have been there in person. How incredible would it have been to actually witness the creators of the game watch it play out, getting all emotional and personal with the experience that they themselves helped to create? I can only imagine what that must feel like, and what an epic time it must have been for all of those who got to see it happen. I'm so jealous. =)

Anyway, I find it very, very cool that Blizzard digs the end-game experience just as much as the raiders do. And kudos to them for making it happen, because without the designers and devs, there would be nothing to raid and experience in the first place.

Grats, guys. Well done. =)

PS - Thanks for the story, Jeff. I hate you. =)

October 2008

2008-06-10T01:25:00.000-07:00