The Daily Quest: Death and guilt
by Anne Stickney 
Feb 28th 2011 at 7:00PM
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
I don't know whether or not I consider WoW a guilty pleasure. It's something I enjoy doing, even if nobody in my family plays -- much less has any idea about the game at all. And there's nothing quite like being at a family reunion, getting the inevitable "So what do you do for a living?" question and cheerily responding that I write about internet dragons and little green men. On the internet.
The looks on the faces of my relatives makes it all worth it.
So today, we've got one post about the guilty pleasures of WoW, and a couple more regarding other potentially embarassing things, most of which I've experienced at one point in time or another:
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
I don't know whether or not I consider WoW a guilty pleasure. It's something I enjoy doing, even if nobody in my family plays -- much less has any idea about the game at all. And there's nothing quite like being at a family reunion, getting the inevitable "So what do you do for a living?" question and cheerily responding that I write about internet dragons and little green men. On the internet.
The looks on the faces of my relatives makes it all worth it.
So today, we've got one post about the guilty pleasures of WoW, and a couple more regarding other potentially embarassing things, most of which I've experienced at one point in time or another:
- Target Dummies ponders the possibility of WoW as the ultimate guilty pleasure.
- Shot and Awe has a chat about learning from death in raids, something I'm very familiar with.
- The Stories of O talks about why Al'akir isn't the best raid boss ever. (I bet it has something to do with those blasted cyclones.)
- Lastly, I Like Bubbles has a nice guide detailing the strats surrounding the successor to the deadly Aldor Rise elevator -- the Blackwing Descent elevator. It's evil, it moves up and down, and it's going to kill you.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kaeri Feb 28th 2011 7:04PM
Wow, good timing. I JUST got home to see if this was up, and it was.
New post on The Healing Hammer, where I consider different ways to keep previous expansion's raids relevant to roleplaying guilds.
http://healinghammer.madeoffail.net/2011/02/saving-throw-keeping-old-raids-relevant/
MusedMoose Feb 28th 2011 7:20PM
I hope to make my living as a writer, so that when someone asks me what I do for a living, I can say "Oh, I make up stories." ^_^
raingod Feb 28th 2011 8:06PM
Reminds me of this quote:
"When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer. "
— Isaac Bashevis Singer
MusedMoose Feb 28th 2011 8:12PM
Ooh, I like that; that's going in the quotes file. Thanks.
Ice Feb 28th 2011 8:33PM
Why I personally hate Al'akir. I'm gonna comment over here too what I wrote there.
1) Ledges on the platform. If you fall off you normally get spinning animation back to the platform - intended. If you fall to these platforms however, couple things can happen:
a) You will 80% of cases die - its more than 60 yards fall. If you dont die by luck(like being at 100% health) you WILL take fall damage and if its phase 2 (aoe damage to whole raid) or you are tank and he channels the lighting? DEAD
b) You cannot get up to the platform by jumping down hoping to get spinning.. you will fall to your death.
2) Cyclones don't respond well to lag.
Every raider has "latency". My "ms" is about ~60-100 and it seems ridiculous that its still a lot for them. Either its that or it has big annoying mechanic of sucking you in. Sure, its cyclone and they tend to do that in real life. But when I stay slightly to left of the exact middle of the safe zone? Sucking you in!
Demonic teleport just second after the cyclones passed the portal? Sucking you in.
Basically their "hitbox" does not respond well to their visual graphics at all.
Oh and if you are very unlucky you get all that AND ice patch under you taking ridiculous damage from both sources.
3) Boss swats melee randomly
This cannot be mechanic. I know most bosses have big F- you abilities to melee in this tier (some has been hotfixed, sure) but this? Tank has perfectly fine threat. Lets say tank has 100% threat (pull aggro is 110% for melee) and next guy has 60% threat and is ranged, next melee has 50% threat.
All of sudden "Melee has died". Why? "Al'akir's melee hits MeleeDPS for huge amounts of damage". Oddly this only seems to occur on phase 1 for us on following occasions:
a) Tank has to run to safe zone of the cyclones, gets lighting cast and .. bam melee gets hit.
b) He just does it as he pleases. Puny mortals have no change!
4) Last phase and 3D space.
It seems that for some reason people cant grasp the concept of 3D space and if they would they hate it (oculus? Dreamwalker?)
Theres "always" -someone- who is miles above you making the next lighting cloud there..going thro that will result atleast 2-3 people dead if they arent either full health (healers are pretty oom at this point) or wind burst just happens to hit before/after you get thro it.
Overall scores for al'akir? 5/10. Doesnt feel tested. Has lot of RNG that isnt suppos to be there. Loot feels unrewarding (right item! ...wrong stats). Doesnt even have cool music or even have voice acting. Just seems they threw it in there as some bizarre test to see if random enchanted gear would work as loot.
Malygos of the tier. Do once for achi/progress raise. Stay heck away from it.
pancakes Mar 1st 2011 7:19AM
Try tanking him at 300-400 latency. You've got to run 1/2 way around the platform to get through the wall then back into melee range before he knocks you into them (or off the edge) then thunderbolts you to death while you spin helplessly. Alright, then you run straight through the gap. OWAIT you're stuck in the tornado anyway!
jfofla Feb 28th 2011 9:37PM
Why is the elevator so hard?
You wait for it to come, you step on.
You ride it all the way down, you step off.
I don't need a counter to tell me how many deaths I have to the elevator. It is ZERO.
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) Feb 28th 2011 10:57PM
Well, I've fallen /through/ the elevator before, somehow, when someone else who got on with me didn't.
I find it easier to just jump off when I want to and bubble rather than try to ride the 'Vator of DOO(OOOOOO)M.'
cloudhopper013 Feb 28th 2011 10:16PM
This website desperately needs more "Internet Dragon" pictures. The concept behind them (the article is somewhere, not willing to look it up) is simply amazing, and it's worthy of being a WoW-based meme. But it's not! WE MUST FIX THIS!
Corath Mar 1st 2011 12:16AM
Honestly, when I first read Anne's "Internet Dragons" post, I thought I was going to literally bust a gut I was laughing so hard. I loves it. :D
Latest post on Corath's Blog... http://corath.wordpress.com
It's Blizzard's 20 year anniversary! Hard to believe that I was only 5 when they started the company... sheesh. My new post is called "Blizzard Entertainment: Twenty Years of Awesome".
http://corath.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/twenty-years-of-awesome/
Enjoy!
Darkdust Mar 1st 2011 1:49AM
I'm going to suggest that if you consider WoW the "ultimate" guilty pleasure, then you need a bit more vice in your life.
PaulC Mar 1st 2011 7:38AM
agreed.
Lets start you off slowly.
THIS is a martini.
No. Stay away from the hookers, you aren't ready yet.
jczarnyjr Mar 1st 2011 2:41AM
I have started a fairly new blog that has been live for about 5 weeks now. It has gotten some good response and feedback. I finally decided I should share with you guys here. The information there isn't ground breaking but more of an interesting look at a certain aspect of the game. The blog posts are a little bit longer then most, but there is only one submission per week so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to keep up with. Thanks for checking it out in advanced if you do.
www.OverRaidedBlog.com
Daigeil Mar 1st 2011 12:58PM
Insightful post on looting & the role of the lootmaster from a (very) new WoW blog.
http://wowtithe.blogspot.com/2011/02/lootmaster-priorities.html
jc Mar 1st 2011 2:42PM
New post at my blog, LOL Survival about the future of the SV talent Counterattack:
http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-to-do-with-counterattack.html
I'd love to hear what Frostheim and Euripides think:)
Thomas Higgins Mar 1st 2011 5:33PM
Oh I remember the Aldor elevator well, it didn't kill me as often as my own stupidity though. I had a habit of summoning non-flying mounts in Aldor Rise by mistake and actually riding over the edge to my inevitable humiliation.
I also found out too late once that the bat form you can pick up in Netherstorm doesn't actually allow you to fly.