Stand against SOPA

This is going to be off topic but it is of the utmost importance in my opinion to spread word of this.



PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Arms Warrior DPS 4.2 - Test

I just released a new DPS Test vid on my youtube channel :)

In the vid I go over my opening rotation and some thoughts in general.

I plan on doing a more proper look in to Arms DPS as 4.3 hits, provided that the raiding and gearing does not take up all my waking hours (it should not though). It might even turn in to a proper guide but that we shall have to see.

Blizzcon and Mists of Pandaria

Blizzcon this year was huge. As a follower of all Blizzards games I must say that this years event had the most information ever. Tons and tons of info on Diablo 3, Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and of course WoW: Mists of Pandaria (aka MoP).

Mists of Pandaria was both expected and unexpected. Crafty people had already found out that Blizzard had trademarked the name a few months before Blizzcon so it was no surprise really. What was unexpected was how drastically Blizzard had changed from their ususal semi-dark themed expansions into something that could basically air on the disney channel.

The theme is controversial and personaly I'm not very happy about it either, however a lot of people have jumped on the "omg I'm gonna quit this game after cataclysm"-train solely based on pictures of pandas. For those of us that followed the panels there was a lot of other points that really stood out.

Kill-vid celebration!

Ok, I must admit that I have a weakness for neatly edited kill-vids. This is especially true is it manages to capture some of the lore or premise of the fight in question. There is also, in my opinion, no better way to honour your guild. Some guilds are famed as much for their fast progression as for their inspiring videos. Examples would be Paragon or Vodka or even the WotLK Ensidia kills.
Paragons video of their amazing world first Heroic Lich King 25man will forever be remembered as a milestone in both the art of making kill-vids and in guild promotion. The second bit is important as nowadays people can actually follow their favorite guild, see them progress and also distinguish individual raiders performance thereby learning and improving their own techniques. The mystique previously attached to the top end guilds have dissapated somewhat and instead revealed their true dedication and skill, plain for all to see.

Now with the release of the Firelands 4.2 patch a new flood of kill-vids are about to decend upon us. In a sort of celebration of this impending delight I've put together a little list of the top five videos from the patch 4.0 era. All after the jump.

Arms Warrior DPS in 4.1

I recently put together a new dps-test vid to see how patch 4.1 had treated Arms, and I was pleasantly surprised. 19k dps on a raid dummy is not hard at all.

(view on youtube for proper annotations and info)



The major change that came in 4.1 was that Mortal Strike now refreshes Rend. This is a bigger help to the complexity of the rotation than one might think, however with the removal of re-rend'ing Arms suddenly feels very different.
Rend is at the core of the mechanic that makes the class tick (no pun intended) and with the removal of it from the rotation it almost feel as if Arms has lost some of it's soul.

I have not yet had the pleasure of testing the new system in the execute phase of a fight. I really hope that this change improves the buff tending bore that preceded it in patch 4.0.6.

Even though Arms is far from the 'very challenging to play' class it used to be, it is still a ton of fun. And to new warriors out there it is at present a very appealing dps-class choice.

Patch 4.2 and the new legendary staff

Lately I've been afk a lot. Either not having access to my computer and when I have, I havent had access to the internet. So I have not seen much of 4.1, except that my raid dummy DPS has increased quite a lot. Thank you Blizzard, Arms pve is quite sweet atm.

During my gaming absence I have however been keeping up, as much I can, with the new info comming out on 4.2. And from what I can tell it will be really good. The new phasing technology that only affects what you as a player can see, while you still can see people who are in different "phases", seems like a huge leap forward in enhancing the personal progression experience. They have said that it is a bit experimental but I hope that this works out well since this would mean that you truly get a feeling of having your actions affect your enviorment while at the same time not losing out on social interaction (no more invisible node-stealers, yes!).

Editing vids and why Sony Vegas hates me

I thought I'd write and explain a little bit about why my vids are so few and far between at the moment. I know a lot of people are waiting for Part 2 of my "Scepter of the Shifting Sands" movie (link to Part 1 here, also avalible on warcraftmovies.com).

The big issue I have with the videomaking process at the moment is limitations with my computer hardware. Sony Vegas is operating quite slow on the system I have available today and that makes working on a project the scale of my "Scepter of the Shifting Sands" movie most taxing. I will however not let that stop me of course and I will keep working on it.

I have a lot of other projects lined up that I want to get to working on but I feel it is important to finish this movie before I start with something else, exceptions might be smaller simpler vids I can throw together just for the fun of it like boss kills or exploration vids.