WoW Model Viewer, Blogrollin'

Thanks to raivyne of rogue chick who posted about this, I now have a working version of WoW Model Viewer again as you can see from this image.

So yeah. Can probably work on a custom banner now, and on custom images to accompany my posts. Rejoice !

Blogroll(s)
I also added two blog roll widgets, one for rogue blogs I am following, another for non-rogue blogs (you'll notice a heavy bias to druids and tanking here, because of my other character, a druid tank).

Aeltyr cheers.

Return of the rogue

I am soon returning to the game, and I was posting a reply to Zaltu's To-Do List on what I will do and have to do when I get back, so I figured I might as well post it here too, and add a few things.

Level
Yeah, still 78, so I gotta get those last two levels! Should be cake though, I haven't even seen half of Grizzly Hills, and I have Crystalsong, Zul'Drak, Sholazar, Storm Peaks and Icecrown left. I'll probably respec to Mutilate (despite having just specced Combat because I got Fang of Truth) so my dagger skill is maxed when I hit 80.
Since I'm mostly in Borean Tundra / Howling Fjord blues, I'll probably hit Storm Peaks and Icecrown so I can get some decent quest reward gear.

Get gear crafted
Easy as pie of course, I'll hit the AH for some materials and give them to a friendly guildie. Specificly, I'm looking to get the Eviscerator's set crafted. Some of those pieces I will probably use as fillers before I hit heroics and raids.

I'll also get at least the Trollwoven Shoulders crafted, I think.

PvP
If my memory serves me right, I have only a few marks to go for a shiny Black War Steed, and a few thousand honor points for a Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Victory (which will again be a nice filler for PvE purposes too).

Instance
Gonna put on my Kirin Tor tabard and go to town in lv 80 instances, for rep and some gear so I don't look like a total idiot when doing heroics or leeching epix in our guild raids.

Fish and cook
As much as I hate fishing, I'll probably have to do it, because buff foods don't make themselves !

Aeltyr feels the ice is slowly melting. Soon, he will be able to break free from his frozen state !

Rogue buffs, Forsaken professions

Short post here, but after reading Jessica's reply on my mail, I have decided to take Skinning and Herbalism on my Forsaken rogue when I revive him from the dead (I deleted him a few months ago). At 80 I will switch to Alchemy. My Death Knight bank alt will be going Inscription and Enchanting, so I can make my own enchants and glyphs.

This also means that I will have Lifeblood and Master of Anatomy at my disposal while leveling. Free crit and heal, hooray !

Also, the blue tracker of MMO-Champion had some insight in what Blizzard may have in store for us:

Hunger for Blood
We think it can be a little annoying to try to keep it up all the time. We have a plan to make it a little more usable and interesting (and buff rogues in PvE at the same time). (Source)

Do you plan to buff the Combat talent tree?
Yes. (Source)

Assassination and rogue DPS in PvE
Assassination is doing too much damage relative to other rogues. Rogues as a whole are still too low in PvE and we have plans to bring them up. (Source)

Aside from a general PvE buff for us, it will be interesting to see how they plan to change Hunger for Blood.

Also, happy lunar festival !

Picture: guildies kiting Omen to AQ and back, last years Lunar Festival.

Banners, Economics, and Ninjas

No, there is absolutely no link between those topics, except that I will put them all in this post, of course.

Banners
Admittedly, even I couldn't watch my screenshot banner, so I took an old screenshot of mine and some rogue pics, and made a little more effort in a header image.

Still, I'm not quite happy with how my character is depicted here. This is an old screenshot, because it is the only decent frontal screenshot. Aeltyr has a red ponytail in-game, and no beard. He's semi-naked in this picture, but there's a perfectly logical explanation for that: it is a shot from a beach party RP event, where he is sided with two Blood Elf babes.

Economics
I've asked Jessica over at WoWconomics for her opinion on a profession combo. When I get back to the game I will be starting my Forsaken rogue, and rolling a Death Knight as his banking alt. Since a lv 60 Death Knight can basicly learn Grand Master profession ranks, I thought it would be an idea to use him as a mule too. But I'm not very good at profession choices like this, so I asked Jessica what she would deem the best four-profession-combo.
Check her site later today for the answer, and check back some other time here for the concrete benefits this will mean for me.

On a non-WoW related note, I have an exam of Marketing Management coming up next week, so I'm in a real life economic mood as well.

Ninjas

Okay, let's face it. Many people roll rogues for that ninja-feeling. Sneaking, assassinating, daggers, ... gotta be a ninja right?
Well, in fact, ninjas used a far larger range of weapons. They frequently used claw-like weapons much like the fist weapons you can find in the game, or a sickle with a weighted chain attached to it, or a simple club even. There's also a 'fun' weapon called a chigiri-gi, a "breastcutter" which is a staff with two spikes around the middle of the staff, and a chain with a claw attached to it. The spikes are used to trap and break swords, and the claw, well .. to rip you apart. Other than that, smaller things like poisoned caltrops, or less stealthy things like bombs (after the Dutch brought gunpowder to Japan), were also amongst the arsenal of things you can kill people with.
I'll do a post on "Are rogues ninjas ?" some other time to compare more similarities and differences between the two. I'll leave you with a shot of myself, so you have at least a visual image of the nutcase behind this blog.

The female ninja in this blog post is Yù Jiāolóng from the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Rogue aesthetics and patch 3.0.8

Just a note that I will be working on a layout that is more appealing when my exams are done and I can get back into WoW to have a little photoshoot with my character.
For now, you'll have to do with my lazy header, which is secretly a screenshot I just smacked some text on.

In other news, I suppose this is where I talk about the new patch and what it did for rogues. Well, honestly .. not that much. (No, Ogre, that doesn't count as complaining !)

* Cheap Shot: This ability no longer has diminishing returns against anything other than itself.
* Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.
* Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
* Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.

The first two work together (they switched the diminishing returns). Not that important in PvE, but in PvP it means less stun combining with your teammates stun spells (e.g. no more full duration Deep Freeze + Kidney Shot for example)

The Fan of Knives change is nice - combat rogues can use Adrenaline Rush for some FoK spamming. Mutilate rogues won't be throwing out that much AoE hurt, but still 50% more damage !

Feint .. well I guess we have an excuse to put it on our action bar now. Finish your cycle and Feint before disengaging a target that is going to AoE you to minimize the load on your healers. In PvP, not really that useful I reckon.

There's also material changes for a lot of enchants, but I'm not going to list them all and instead refer you to the post on MMO-Champion.

Aeltyr tries to find his knives and realises he left them in his other armor. Aeltyr casts Fan of Handkerchiefs, but it fails.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Over at Blog Azeroth, the current Shared Topic of the month was started by Jaramon from DeathCoil.org

In his post, he asks himself and the readers: how do you define a good player? This calls for a very subjective answer.

The Good
One can interpret 'good' as 'good' in a moral sense, in which case a good player is, in my opinion, one that is not loot-greedy when raiding, not spiteful when killing or being killed in PvP, and not attention-seeking in RP (and preferably all of these together). A good player in the moral sense is someone you'd want to hang out with, someone you'd want in your guild. A social, friendly and helpful player.

The Bad
Sadly, one can see 'good' as 'good for', a utility. For example, recruiting someone who is clearly very annoying, but because you need his specific role, you recruit him, because he's 'good for tanking' or 'a useful arena healer'. You don't really like the guy, but he's useful, so you call him a 'good' player. This isn't really the kind of relationship you want to have with other players, you just need to make friends with enjoyable people that also happen to be of the class/role you want. After all, what's more fun than just rounding up a bunch of friends and having a great time?

The Ugly
The final interpretation of 'good' is 'good at'. This involves skill and expertise (in [role]playing your character). This is very subjective of course, but in my opinion a 'good' player is one that is aware of what is happening around him (fire/goo on the ground, an enemy player bandaging under the bridge, a healer about to get squished), that knows what he's doing, and can anticipate things, like refreshing Slice and Dice right before you run out of an AoE of which you know it will come, or throwing on some HoTs right before a raid-wide silence.


This is also the most controversial definition of 'good'; because while you may think you are good at something, others may not agree (proof of this can be found daily on the official WoW forums). While a group of semi-casual players clearing 10-man Naxx after a few times may think they are good, a semi-hardcore group clearing 25-man Sartharion with 3 drakes may argue they still have a lot to learn.

As a closing statement, I would like to add that I found a lot of this reflects my guilds philosophy:

[...]but because in the end, this game is about people and about having fun. Our main policy has always been 'People over classes/players'. Playing skill can be learned, and the character you play as your main can be changed, but being a good person - that's not something we can teach you, but rather an important part of finding a home with the Athanatoi. We expect maturity and good behavior from our members[...]

Speaking of which .. happy second anniversary, guys!

Aeltyr slips his letter in the mail, steals a small slice of birthday cake and quietly sneaks away.