Cataclysm - is everything

The early signs of Cataclysm are upon us. If you have not noticed there are strange earth quakes happening all over. Many mechanics have been places into 3.3 that Cataclysm will use. Hints of the next big expansion of world of warcraft are being revealed. I have a feeling more and more signs will emerge as more time passes.

The two major races, Worgen and Goblin, have been introduced. Their racials skills are pretty amazing. This leads me to believe Blizzard will revamp all races with similar stats. It looks as if stats will include damage/improved casting, escape, and a nice passive. Worgens look cool, but I like horde too much. So my next character is going to be a Goblin Shaman. I already have the leveling chest, shoulders, and working on ring. Figure it should take 1 month to hit 80 and historically Blizzard has configured the XP rate to take a months time to level to max level of current expansion.

Image credit: Paul Adam

2009 is gone 2010 is here!

So much has happened in 2009 and there is no way I have time to cover it all. The best thing that has happened in wow is of course patch 3.3. Hands down the best patch in the 5 year history of wow.

Best new content, greatest talent and ability revamp, new looking for group cross realm tool, and epics for everyone who can't get into raid.

World of warcraft cataclysm is going to hold so much new content, story, raids, battle grounds, new races, etc...

I think I am going to level my way to 85 in dungeons mostly.

6 months to a six pack

Getting a six pack does not mean you are healthy but it shows you are more healthy than unhealthy. Honestly having a six pack sets you apart from everyone else at the gym as someone who is dedicated. I have been a fitness and health enthusiast for close to 5 years now. I never really gave up high calorie/sugar/fat foods. I simply worked out harder. This year is going to be different though as I am going to go for the elusive six pack abs and I am over 30. I do have about 10 lbs of fat to lose and about 6% body fat to drop before I even start seeing abs. Abs start showing up at about 8% - 10% body fat.

Goals

• 6 pack abs

• Go to more beaches this summer

These goals seem self centered and they clearly are. When you stroll down the beach with no shirt on with abs you are envied. To be envied at the beach is truly the pinnacle of personal fitness.

Plan
A goal without a plan is just a wish. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This is a two part plan. Exercise + diet = result.

Exercise Plan
5 sets and 5-8 reps of heavy weight. Anymore reps than 8 and you are going to not gain muscle. You also want to force movement when exercising. Just going through the motions is not enough to stimulate muscle fibers. There needs to be force exerted.
Monday - Military press, Leg squat, Chin ups, Abs, Dips, Bent over row, 20 min cardio
Tuesday - 20 min cardio
Wednesday - Military press, Leg squat, Chin ups, Abs, Dips, Bent over row, 20 min cardio
Thursday - 20 min cardio
Friday - Military press, Leg squat, Chin ups, Abs, Dips, Bent over row, 20 min cardio
Saturday - 20 min cardio
Sunday - Rest/Lite walk

Now I can add shrugs, fore arms curls, etc... But these exercises focus on large muscle groups. Thus burning the most amount of calories. Technically you could just do Bench press, Squats, Bent over row and cover every large, and small muscle, but you would get bored.

Food
I don't like the word "diet" because it sounds too temporary. If your going to get serious eating healthy needs to be instinctual to the point when you see french fries you know your going to have to run for 45 minutes to burn them off. Here are some simple rules of eating better...

Don'ts
1. If it has the word fried in it. Don't eat it.
2. Don't eat high fructose corn syrup/white breads
3. Don't eat too much cheese
4. If it comes in a box it's not good for you

Dos
1. Do shop for foods on the outside edge of the grocery store
2. Consume .75 your weight in protein grams per day
3. Think about what you are eating
4. Eat every 3 hours if possible

Stronglifts 5x5 program

Battle over the hilt

The Battered Hilt is a rare epic drop that starts a quest ending in an epic sword/mace. For an assassination spec Rogue those are not very good choices.

Sword rewards
Non-sword rewards

What Rogues DO need is gold for items enchants like Berserking going for 800-1200 gold right now. The battered hilt is going for 10k - 20k gold on the AH. That would cover enchants, gems, and repairs for the next few gear upgrades. Clearly Blizzard wanted the quest item to be rare and sell-able on the AH by not making the item BOP. People lucky enough to get the hilt can use it for gold or an item. The spoils of war are your to do with what you want.

There are, of course, two schools of though on this...

Don't roll on the item unless you are going to use it.

and the..

I can use gold so I am going to roll on it.

Let's tackle the "unless you are going to use it" school first.
1. This school complains about a boomkin/shaman rolling on cloth.
2. This school will later stalk the AH seeing if BOE gear, that dropped in last nights raid, is being sold in the AH.
3. This school demands BOE gear is equipped right then and there.
4. This school complains when if other DPS are doing 10% less then them and wins a roll.

Now the "I can use gold crowd"
1. This school does not care if other classes need on gear they can use.
2. This class enjoys playing the AH and understands supply and demand.
3. This class does not equip BOE won gear until they are ready.
4. This school may not be doing top DPS but they is why we are here in the raid in the first place. To get better gear.

If you can use and item or gold. Roll need on this item.

Rogues 3.3 are all about the attack power

Back in the days of 3.2, like a week ago, Assassination Rogues focused on stacking as much agility as possible now you want to replace all your agility gems with AP gems. My how things have changed in a single patch. I will show you the old build and old rotation.

3.2 PVE Assassination build 51/13/7

-Stats to focus on were-
Agility
Crit

-Priority was-
HfB
Slice and Dice
+4cp Rupture
+4cp Envenom

3.3 PVE Assassination build 51/18/2

-Stats to focus on-
Attack Power
Haste
Crit

-Priority is-
HfB
Slice and dice
+4cp Envenom
+1-5 Rupture to keep HfB up

I know what your thinking. "But agility is what Rogues are all about". Yes Rogues will always be about agility. The change to how weapon poisons work is the cause for this huge change to Rogues. Once you have a 5 stack of deadly poison your off hand will now proc instant poison in your main hand.

IP: Each strike has a chance of poisoning the enemy which instantly inflicts [300 + 0.10 * AP]
DP: Each strike has a 30% chance of poisoning the enemy for [296 + 0.12 * AP]

Go respec and buy all the AP you can.

/stealth

source info
Elitistjerks.com pocket guide for Rogues
Elitistjerks.com Rogue FAQ

Frozen Orbs - Need or Greed

Loot rules on my server have always, always, always been.

Need
1. Green items
2. BOE items
3. Items you need as an upgrade
4. ***Frozen Orbs***

Greed
1. Blues are going to vendor (dis greed if an enchanter is in your group)
2. Purples you are going to sell

These rules help cut down on ninjas. Significantly. Some servers have different loot rules but with cross relm instances, and raid soon, there needs to be a standard loot system. This IS the new loot system. Read it, print it, put it to memory.
ALWAYS roll need on frozen orbs.

Naix, Gone again but not forgotten

---
-2009 @ 3:08PM
Adam Holisky said...
Heya Naix,

How's it going? Did you think we wouldn't find out?

-2009 @ 8:58PM
Adam Holisky said...

Oh, well, then let this be a lesson then to future tolls. Behavior like this won't be tolerated. WoW.com wants its comments to be better than what we see on the general forums.

Failure to post above that level will result in a ban.

Thanks for understanding all.
---

On wow.com my account used for linking back here was discovered to be another account that was banned. *dun dun dun* The information is basically plastered all over my blog about who I am. Not really hard to view traffic and link reports to see where this is coming from. Hay even I got network traffic reports too.

	Source/Medium		Visits	Pages/Visit	Avg. Time on Site	% New Visits	Bounce Rate
1.	wow.com		158	1.73	00:05:10	87.97%	57.59%
2.	(direct)		153	1.75	00:10:09	95.00%	65.00%
3.	i.wow.com		7	1.43	00:08:28	100.00%	71.43%
4.	blogger.com		179	1.80	00:12:22	0.00%	60.00%

Not to bad for 1 day is it? So considering I was never "hiding" I never really cared if I my account was found out. After all my other account was deleted how else was I suppose to inform and entertain?

Yes future tolls let this be a lesson to you all. Consider your selves warned tolls! The typo makes me laugh, but I get what Adam means. What is a troll really?

Someone who sole goal is to disturb a forum and bring it off topic.

For some reason people who disagree while backing up their argument with facts in their rebuttal are labeled trolls. Reply's were met with troll responses because they disagreed with my points. *shrug* Having my comments "darkened" really helped me find my comments. I consider it a badge of honor.

So let Adam's stern warning thwart any thoughts of disagreement you may have. Just agree with everyone, give bland comments that don't rock the boat, and above all don't talk about selling epic gear you win in a raid. It could result a 3 minute new email/wow.com account generation.

I have no hard feelings against anyone at wow.com. Really do enjoy the site and information they provide.

Patch 3.3 First Impressions

Blizzard you are never prepared!

Echos of the most famous saying, you are not prepared, in burning crusade the day of launch are heard...every...single...content..patch. Because there are so many problems. I know what your thinking "But Skonged Blizzard does their best and everything is all complicated...blah...blah..blah" Sorry but Blizzard is not getting a free pass from me. I also work in IT, have for many years, when something big is going to happen you want to be ready. What could be bigger than the final content patch where we face down the last remaining bosses until Aurthus, last talent changes for at least 6 months, and everyone reactivating their account and logging on to try the new LFG system. That a lot of activity and here is my suggestion to better handle the situation.

Triple everything.
-Cluster every server with at least 3 of the highest end servers.
-Upgrade network to fiber channel with load balancing.
-Buy more bandwidth or if topped out move to data center with higher bandwidth availability.

Clustering is the new hot high availability in server rooms now. Blizzard needs to , with highest priority for customers, spend the money to rebuild wows foundation on the fastest, most robust, network infrastructure money can buy. Stability and speed come down to one thing in the server room. Cost. To rebuild will take millions, but they can afford it. In fact they lose money when things don't go as planned. Spend the money Blizzard. Every content patch.

Test Test Test
-Simulate max ammount of people connecting, simultaneously.
-Simulate max load and see where you can upgrade.
-Simulate max raids/instances groups

Testing content is important but your priority should be testing the foundation of wow then content. Don't want to put the horse in front of the bull.

Overall
-Awesome LFG tool
-Great instances
-Content is superb.

I loved the LFG tool and it has been a long time coming. The New instances are a lot of fun. Content is always top notch.

Just prepared next time.

Type A personality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_A_and_Type_B_personality_theory

"Type A individuals can be described as impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about their status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive, and incapable of relaxation."

Wow is full of different types of people, but a TON of type A personalities are drawn to the game. In fact, I would guess over 50% of wows population is full of Type A wanta be over achievers at something types. More than likely your going to run into a few who think they know more than you and everyone else. The classic mantra of the type A is "actually..." and it pains to me to say that word. With some slight research on the subject the type A personality will crumble before you while backing into a corner of other "facts...".

Another place you will find these type A personalities is forums. These places are full of them. There is even a personality type above A that lurks here. The troll. The number one goal of the troll is to first identify someone else as the troll. Then spout miss information until the forum is in a uproar. Some people say "Don't fead the troll" But I say " Challenge the Troll until they give up."

On sites, like wow.com, I put good information out there that may challenge PUG raid leader, type A, loot practices that benefit them. This brings out the troll, now it's time to battle them back into their cave with troll kryptonite, facts. Try as the troll may, facts can not be overcome with hearsay and personal experiences.

Try is sometime it really helps sharpen your argument skills.