Ever heard of Chad, Matt, and Rob? Me neither. But this … this is so brilliant I wish I’d thought of it myself.
Category: Fred Smith
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Maximize your DPS: Retribution Paladin Edition
(Editors note: this post is current as of 3.0.3.)
Background
For the past two years I’ve spent my time in World of Warcraft behind the proverbial steering wheel of an orc warlock. I did the raiding thing pre-Burning Crusade, but got burned out a few months before Burning Crusade came out. Around six months after BC launched I did what every other Horde player did on a PvP server, and rolled a blood elf paladin. I got him to level 25 or so and left him sitting there for the next year while school and work kept me away from spending any significant time in WoW. About three weeks ago I got tired of never being able to find a healer and decided to level up the old pally. I leveled with a standard protection spec after level 40, and kept that spec until 3.0.2 came out, upon which I respecced to retribution to try out this wonderfully ‘OP’ spec I’d been hearing everyone complain about.
Two days ago I dinged 70. The next day 3.0.3 rolled out the promised nerfs to our wonderfully over-powered retribution tree. Not to be discouraged, I equipped my Blessed Battlegear of Undead Slaying and a nice axe I picked up from Kara a few hours after I dinged and set out to learn all I could from my helpful guild mates about my class and spec. Here’s a few helpful tips I learned that can boost you up the damage meters. (more…)
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Exercising the basic function of democracy
This afternoon I walked down the alley and across the street to my local voting center. I gave them my name, took my ballot, and enjoyed the privilege that so many men and women have died to protect. I voted. Freely, without fear of repercussion, I cast my opinion into the sea of Americans who all come together to celebrate this thing we call democracy.
Now to endure the hype, controversy, and childish infighting that embodies American politics.
Yay, democracy!
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Microsoft Academic Alliance
There’s two colleges in the town where I live. The state university, and the community college. The university has the football team, the prestige, and most importantly the student discounted software available for those who enroll. Naturally, I go to the community college ($47 per credit hour? Yes please).
I spent some time being bummed about my lack of cheap operating systems and copies of Office. Than I started in the Microcomputer program, and enrolled in the Microsoft Academic Alliance. I knew it included access to programming suites, but that was about it. Here’s a sampling of the more useful programs available for my educational pleasure:
- Microsoft Access
- Windows XP Pro
- Windows Vista Business
- Windows Server 2008
- MS-DOS 6.0 (!)
- Visio Professional 2007
- XNA Creator’s Club Subscription
The one that really surprised me was the XNA Creator’s Club subscription. It’s basically an SDK for making games for the xbox, and the ability to rate and critique other member’s creations. You can learn more about it here. Normally they charge you 100 bucks for a subscription, which although a mere drop in the bucket compared to the price of say..Windows Vista Business..is still nothing to sneeze at.
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The Scourge Invasion: A Survivers Guide
If you play WoW and have logged on in the past few days, you might have noticed that Azeroth is under attack by the Lich King. Turns out Arthas wasn’t too excited with the prospect of having us crash his pad up in Northrend, so he’s sending us a little taste of what’s in store for us in Wrath of the Lich King. Can you say zombie apocalypse? I knew you could. The event hearkens back to the opening of Naxx pre-BC.
It all started with crates of zombie contagion and infected roaches appearing last week, and the arrival of Argent Healers in the capital cities. Players infected with the disease would turn into zombies in ten minutes, then were able to infect other NPCs and PCs. Argent Healers could cure you of the plague, and kill zombies with holy retribution to the face. The plague has gotten progressively worse over the course of the past week, dialing down the incubation time from ten minutes, to five minutes, and now to one minute. The Argent Healer’s numbers have been decimated. You can find them next to faction leaders and outside the main gates of capital cities.
Your experience may vary, but on my server Shattrath is completely overrun with zombies, PC and NPC alike. Getting anywhere in the city without a flying mount is near impossible without getting infected, but here’s a few tips that might save you from becoming a ravenous zombie (and taking that 10% hit to durability).
- The infection debuff is the equivilent of 3 disease counters. Paladin’s Cleanse and Priest’s Abolish Disease can remove it, but it takes a few casts. If you arn’t one, make sure you’re good friends with a few.
- Zombie’s are slow. Their Lurch ability increases speed by 100% for 10 seconds with a 30 second cooldown, which ratchets up their movement speed to that of a normal mount. That means that if you’re over level 30, you can outrun them 66% of the time, and if you’re over level 60, you can outrun them 100% of the time.
- Avoid major cities. B list Capital cities like Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon, Exodar, and Darnassus are good places to hang out. Most of the player organized raids are being conducted against Shattrath and Orgrimmar/Ironforge. Undercity isn’t a great place to be either due to it’s proximity to the quest hub at Light’s Hope Chapel in EPL. Avoid these hotspots and you’ll avoid the bulk of the zombie population.
- If you fight a big group of zombies, you’ll probably lose. If you disagree, go try it. Trade is filled with people griping about how sick they are of the zombie event, but the truth is if you don’t pick a fight with them you’re probably not going to get infected. You’re faster, more agile, and you have more tricks up your sleeve then they do. Be alert, and you’ll be fine.