Er... Wut?

Disciple of Khaine



•Khaine’s Embrace: The base healing value of this ability has been reduced and its cooldown has been removed.


•Khaine’s Vigor: The base healing value of this ability has been increased and its duration has been reduced.
 

I thought Khaine's Embrace didn't have a cooldown. In fact, as chance would have it, I was respeccing my DoK back to healing (and failing miserably at it) and I was spamming it like crazy, interrupted solely by my global cooldown. Maybe it's just me.

 

Also, I was farming some curios on my Magus late at night, while Epikk read to me the full details of that Wikileaks debaucle, and Indigo Fire of Change's debuff icon on my enemy still reads "If killed will turn into a horror!" or something to the same effect.
 
I mean, how hard can that be to fix? It's like the iPad's Safari not having a "find on page" function. Inexcusable. Or that I now currently have 15 "Wots a Subject?" mails in my inbox. I don't need them, I don't want them and I'm pretty sure I've completed the damn thing already.
 
While I'm here: Marauder=ganking goodness. I'm taking revenge on WLs everywhere. I'm only rk 19 but it's been great fun so far. Solo locking t2 zones for the influence weapons is a tad boring but when I find a little opposition its marvellous. For once, I don't have to worry myself with the survivability of me and my team mates. I can just run out and get killed.
 
Wots a punchline?

Working as Intended

I tried the PTS yesterday.

I got bombed the crap out of me in a keep by a flying Archmage.

Couldn't understand or purchase anything in the renown trainer.

Figured out the range you have to be from your flamer. Unfortunately I only figured it out by feel, much like the way I cook. Without measuring anything. Also understood that it has some vertical problems when it comes to range.

I only felt sorry that the templates were only for T3. Yes, I completely understand that they need to do some T3 testing first but... I feel completely underwhelmed when it comes to classes I came to know and love like Zealot and Magus when playing them without all of their skills.

Black Orcs are bigger, true, and, from what I hear they didn't have to mess with the hitbox.

There's a lot of good stuff there and I'll type more after I get what's going on.

Struggle and Single-Target Experiments

Still doing moving related stuff. Boxing stuff in and out. Cleanin, washing, drilling, urgh.

I haven't mustered much strength to porperly play WAR as of late.

I did dabble in a Single-Target specc. I was not impressed. The boost to my Single-Target speels wasn't as significant as I'd hoped (mostly because it was pretty high to begin with) and... well, I just didn't feel like I was in my own skin. My advice would be, if you wanna experiment with new speccs do so before you've been playing the same one for nearly two years.

But, I'll be honest, seeing as I just hit rr69 (kinky, isn't it) I'm gonna give my Zealot a rest and play my Magus for a while. I'll try the single-target specc on him too for... two reasons...:

1. I've heard say it's awesome
2. I need a change before the change.

My AoE build has brought me loads of fun and killage but I need something new to keep logging in. And it's not new content or more rr grinding that's gonna keep me coming back. It is going to be my own ability to find something new to do within the same environment, with the same rules and same interface.

Freak on a Leash

Magus changes. Yes indeedly.

So, what I know of it is:

• For Engineers, a portion of the character's Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, and Wounds from equipment will also affect their turrets.
• For the Magus, a portion of the character's Intelligence and Wounds from equipment will also affect their daemons. Additionally, the daemons' autoattacks will now deal magical damage - Elemental for the Pink and Blue Horrors, and Spirit for the Flamer
• For both careers, the character will begin receiving a new effect while they remain near their turret / daemon - Improvised Upgrades for the Engineer, and Unholy Empowerment for the Magus. This effect will start as a +4% damage buff, and will increase every 2 seconds by another 4%, up to a max of +20% damage after 10 seconds. If the character moves away from their turret / daemon, the effect will begin dropping back down, eventually fading from them entirely until they return to their turret / daemon's side. 

So my biggest doubt was: just what does "near" and "away" mean?

I found a non-answer.

"The actual range of the turret buff was omission by intent. We're still debating internally what the actual range should be. "

Andy Belford

Another interesting question was "Will redeploy reset the timed buff?", to which the answer was:

"As long as you're staying near the turret/daemon, the buff will build up; if you move away, it'll drop off.  If you move away and then Redeploy the turret to you, you'll see it start to drop off a bit and then promptly begin building right back up again once the turret "lands".

Nate Levy

And so I've heard say "boohoo, so not enough. I have no reason to spend 2s cast time and God knows hosw much AP (cuz I don't) to summon a meat bag that might give me a small dmg boost if it survives the flow of melee BWs inc to my position"... or something similar. Well, I think its's only fair tro stress out some other things that were disclosed. And I paraphrase:

• This does not involve tactics at all; the damage bonus is a passive benefit of having a turret / daemon out.
• Giving the magus/engy access to a loner tactic is not something that we're looking into at this time
• A network of multiple benefits (like a different aura based upon what you are doing) is something that we're more likely to do as a tactic - we are intentionally aiming to keep the passive effect clean, simple, and straightforward. Additional effects with more subtlety and/or complexity are definitely a possibility for future changes, but aren't necessarily our goal with this specific design.
• It's possible that buildup and/or duration timers may be adjusted in the future, but it's not on our plate right now.
• I currently hope to have these changes in 1.4 (with the caveat, of course, that plans and timelines are always subject to change as needed). I make no statements as to whether "in 1.4" is before or after RVR packs. =)
• Going after the enemy's turret / daemon should be a valid strategy to try and hinder them, as long as the turret / daemon has enough Hit Points to ensure that someone going after it is really focusing on it, rather than just tangentially happening to kill it via incidental splash damage.  Ultimately, much of the number-tweaking will be impacted by PTS results and feedback.

That's all I had time and patience to read but all of these statements (coming from Nate Levy) give me hope for the future. We can rest assured that our cries of "LOL Magus iz gimp" have reached the developers' ears and even if you don't consider these changes to be enough, at least there are changes which means its not a stagnant career like, say, a While Lion (*snicker*snicker*).

Cmon, we all have a WL in some server going like:



Make a Difference

Hecticness has struck and I am still amidst a tidal wave of tasks (including watching Supernatural season 5. That show is awesome). So I can be forgiven for taking a week off WAR, just to clear me head and all.

Today I went back. As luck would have it (or wouldn't) today was the day of the supposed launch of 1.3.5. But since things didn't go very well across the big blue wet thing, patchness was delayed.

Still, I went cruising around t4 SCs with mah main healer to grab me some emblems while I wait for the new city.

I read somewhere that WAR had a big fault as in it didn't make the individual feel like he was crucial or vital to the unfolding of events in a battle. I beg to differ. Especially in scenarios, which is where I've spent most of my time lately. Even if one cannot, for various reasons, contribute much to the overall healing or damage dealt, there's always other ways of making yourself worthy of the bandwidth you're taking up. If your side is getting farmed, go around and cap some flags. If you, as a tank, can't get your marks under 50% hp before they're healed back up again, go back and punt the healers' threats away.

Today I felt like I mattered. Faced with yet another Nordenwatch spawn point farm I went around and joined 2 other players in capping Lighthouse and Fortress. When we get to Barracks I start reading complaints about how people "haven't had a single heal since the beggining of teh SC QQ". Since we were done capping anyways, I bravely rode my steed headfirst into the red multitude and kicked them with my new morale 4 goodness and started healing away. Sure enough, we drove them back and ended up winning it. It's not like I was the only healer because I wasn't, and I wasn't near the top of the healing chart. But my efforts made a difference. We capped the flags for time enough to swing the points in our favor and eventually kept enough people up for us to drive them back.

Same with Dex, later on. Although I agree that damage alone is not the way to go and we should all strive for a good dmg/DB ratio, that rarely happens with Dex. Mostly because I entertain myself interrupting their backline and keeping the healers busy on themselves so their frontline withers away. Yes, healers are extremely difficult for just one player to finish off, I know that from personal experience. I also know how important it is to be concerned about other health bars apart from my own. So I usually top the damage table and have very few deathblows. But all that damage mattered for something. It might have been healed away but at least those heals, that cast time, that AP was spent on my effort, allowing other people's efforts to get through and kill and whatnot.

Maybe I'm just an optimist and revert to over-analyzing just to feel better about myself. But I do. I feel good about myself. About my noob dmg and all.

Bring forth thy DoTs

I get a lot of visits from Washington and California. And I had someone from Brighton here! Aussum! Never been, but its in some of my Rankin readings. Lots from Denmark too. Makes me miss the broodparents. (You know who you are!)

So, Darkdeadly invited me to a ToVL run he was having. They had apparently been wiping on the 5th boss and needed an extra healer to help out. Lil' old me had only done the first 2 ToVL bosses so far but I offered to help out to the best of my ability. After they insisted I should have Superior Wards for it I broke down one of my 2 Warlord Crests to buy an Invader helmet and get to 4/5 Sup wards. All the good it did me, I don't think I ever got hit except on purpose.

Anyways, by the end of the night we were stumping on the final boss. First we were doing well but not quick enough and he was enraging, then with only one tank, we started wiping and after much blaming on my heals (no, I wasn't actually healing for 300, my HoTs were, actual heals were around 3k but who the fuck is coutning anyway) we had Semor come and help out and, lo and be utterly amazed, we still failed.

I'm not the best healer, I've said that countless times and I am also severely miss geared but, personally, I blame the tank. But I don't give a shit, I got mah second Glyph! \0/ Nau I haz 2.

Seeing as I had to respec to single target and buy the AP ritual (apparently, this together with the stagger is quite useful in ToVL. I wouldn't know cuz I've been there just twice and if you can do it without a zelly, you can do it without those 2 skills), I got poor again. Something always comes up to slice my finances down the middle.

So I hoped on Dex to try and farm a few city dungeons for curios. I had shelved Dex for a while because I had full Invader in the bank. Yes, I shelved him because of the good gear I had for it. It's just that I was going to take so long to get there I lost my motivation. It's dealing fair enough damage over time but still lacking in stopping power, aka, not enough deathblows. I'm thinking of trying to get some Darkpromise for it while I get to Invader but, by God, I'm scared of going LV with him and watching Zealot drops while not on the donkey. I just know they will.

As of yesterday, Dextrose is rr47 so it's not that far from his first Invader pieces anyway. As I am kinda hoping for the patch to hit and boost my Leaping Alteration and favourite ritual (i like it because its cast time is lower, you hate it because it doesn't give AP) I might start playing Dex more often now. That and its less stressful. I don't have to worry about what EVERY destro is doing around me all the time.

I even defended IC after I promised mysef I wouldn't bother until the patch came. We had an unusual combination of a Rift, Changing (me) and Havoc Magi so, even while being farmed, I had a good time. Eventually Order came 1VP short of locking and we all /loled at them in the end. Good times.

After that, we took the opportunity to lock some zones so I roamed around in a good PUG for a while, which is how I finally dinged. Looking back, I can sure tell the difference between being Annihilator geared (I was in it for the longest time) and my new Sent/Conq mix, especially on keep mobs. Before, they took quite a while to die, now... they don't. Looking forward to my Invader now.

Nothing too interesting today, expect the rest of the LV guide when my lockout ends and I find a good group to breeze through it. Any volunteers?

"Darkdeadly deals devastating damage," says Dextrose Docinho

That's pronounced "Do-see-ñoo" not Docking Ho.

Alliterations aside, which have been further prolongued by my choice of screenshot, this be the truth. Most Magi do deal tons of damage. You'll see them deal less deathblows though. Yet, Magi seem to be the most memorable characters for me. I can remember at least five Magi from the top of my head (Darkdeadly, Jimix, Zoycolt, Yogiroth and Lowprofile) but I can't say the same about any other class. They just look so imposing and bad-ass, makes me want to cuddle up against them.

So, why Magi all of a sudden? Well, after my short adventure in the guise of a dps Zealot, I missed the true dps of my Magus. On Dex I hopped and damage I most surely dealt. I have been reading Keagen's guides and whatnot but, me being me, I can't follow instructions very well. I just do what comes natural to me.

What comes natural to me is this: always look for a clusterfuck; start off with a Glean Magic to lower spirit resist; slap on Dissolving Mist, half of it where they are, half of it where they are likely to move to; Pandemonium for more dps, Surge of Insanity if there are casters in the midst; Seed of Chaos on a retreating tank; coup de grace with an Infernal Blast, followed by a Warpfire and some good whooping with Daemonic Lash for good measure. For single targets I add all the other DoTs, Baleful Transmogrification, Withered Soul and even a Mutating Blue Fire. I usually throw in a Surging Violet Fire paired with Changer's Blessing if I lack healers. It's probably not the most effective way to go about it but, for me, it's the second most fun I could ever have with a Magus. Why second? Because Magi have a suicide spec more suicidal then any emo Sorc out there.

In my dreams I see a world where Magi roam freely and are loved by all. Treated as equals, they feel free to spec however they wish. In this world there are some who spec for close-combat damage, reeling their enemies in with a Chaotich Rift and acting like a hot plate with their Agonizing Torrent and Aegis of Orange Fire. But they are not alone and, right behind them, more Magi come and cast the aforementioned AoE DoTs. And if some dare survive, behind them are even more Magi with their Tzeentch's Firestorms, Perils of the Warp and Bolts of Change. Who needs healers anyway? Give me more Magi any day.

Again, this might not be the best way to go about playing a Magus but, the best way isn't what Dex is about. I play Dex to unwind from doing the right thing, from ressing people in scenarios (yes, because I do that), from keeping other parties other than myself HoTed from spamming group heals when necessary, criting for 3k. I play Dex to see them purty white numbers fill my screen. It's gratifying.

On a related note, there seems to be hope for me yet! I decided to stop whining and bitching and random arm-flailing and went back to my AoE spec. Seems I'm better at what I "grew up" doing. Which must be why I play vanilla. Well, mostly. What I mean is, I don't use Squared or Healgrid or anything like that. Yes, that might be my loss but, honestly, I've tried it and I seem to spend so much time remembering how to do things that I end up using my good old reliable hotbar and party windows. With that in mind, I went back to AoE, determined to do the best I could and pray for the best. Must've been a good day for my Restorative Burst because AP wasn't too much of an issue yesterday. And most, if not all, of that damage came from my Manipulation, a little something to remind me of my DPSing days.

Speaking of DPSing Zealots, I saw Bauros in full Invader, or Conqueror or what was it, DPSing in a SC. Although I wasn't impressed by his output, I was impressed by his renown gain. He was in my party so he wasn't whoring. You'll notice that the boss, Mike and I ranked right after the dude/dudette and we all have similar RRs. I am yet to fully comprehend how this renown table works.

All in all it was a good day for me to be back on Norn. Most of all because I found my buddy Krueg again! Krueg was one of our off-tanks, back in the day where we still had a guild to speak of. He was a RAWRing Khorne worshipper that could always lighten the mood. He had a ficticious homossexual affair with our other Chosen, Ranark who has since also gone the way of Jimmy Hoffa.

Krueg is currently following his heart and pursuing his love for naked lady elves, i.e., he rerolled a WE. We hope to see him back in T4 with us soon.