ICESTORM Warning for Fizzcrank, residents be advised!

Well hi all!  So many things have happened in the past few days I don’t know where to begin.  I know I owe apologies to any of those who were looking forward to any and all articles I had in store.  Instead, I’ve come back with potentially juicy drama.  Let’s be honest, we all like to talk and read about drama, don’t we?  Eh?  Eh?

Let us start with what was supposed to be my raid recap from Tuesday night.  (I know I missed Tuesday’s Poker strategy post, but hey, its my blog.)   We started our weekly heroic Naxxramas run alittle differently this week by starting Construct Quarter first.  We figured, “Hey, lets get the hard part over with first and the rest of the raid is cake for us.”  Ah, the best laid plans seem to only be good for one thing.  Once again, Patchwerk was finished off like a box of doughnuts in a police station, acouple of tries on Grobbulus and Gluth, and ended up with Thaddius putting us down seemingly for the count as people began to pull out at this point.  Thaddius is tuned very tightly even for the best geared guilds and raids so any slip up by even one person is pretty much a given wipe.  It was at this point that frustrations proved too much to deal with any longer by some.  Action needed to be taken, or it would appear ICESTORM was finished.

The following questions have been haunting us for weeks.  Why do we as a guild have so many level 80 toons, yet must pug every week for 25 mans?  Why are we carrying around so much dead weight?  Why should we have to pug in ringers whose guilds are doing nothing but sitting on their thumbs waiting for 3.1 to go live?  Why are we raiding on a Pacific coast time zone server when most members of the guild seem to be on eastern and central timezones?

It was this last question that really caught our attention and may be the source most (but not all) of our problems.  For some reason, the idea of a server transfer seemed to take hold and rejuvenated the guild’s energy and enthusiasm to a level I haven’t seen in awhile.  Of course, there would be some who for some reason or another couldn’t make the move.  Yes, there were also some who felt betrayed that we even considered this move even after our assurances that this wasn’t personal against anyone.  Transferring servers for some players will never be an easy choice.  Even though I am excited about the prospects of a new server, I still feel somewhat saddened that my friends and I are leaving Arathor.  It is the first server many of us started our WoW careers on.  Farewell, Arathor, you have been a fine server and wish those who continue to play in the realm the very best!

So with this, I announce that ICESTORM is reforming on Fizzcrank.  This server is a Central timezone server which is much more in line with the bulk of our guild core group of raiders.  This gives us a shot at recruiting and raiding at times when more people are online.  Sure, Fizzcrank is a very young and low populated server, but it will grow and there will be raiders looking for a solid guild to join.  We’re hoping to be that guild.  To any readers who might be playing on Fizzcrank, we are currently recruiting new members into ICESTORM.  We are a progession raiding guild of mature, adult players.  Requirements for applicants is the toon applying be level 80 and the player behind the toon be at least of 18 years of age.  Previous raiding experience is greatly preferred.  Guild website coming soon.

*The age requirement isn’t only because of the maturity issue, but more because of the “Mommy said I have to get off the comp” issue.
**Funny though, over 18 it becomes more of a “Wife and kids say I have to get off the comp” issue

Smooth Rogue

I have had a very busy past few days at work so I haven’t had time to write the articles I have planned for this week.  I did manage to sneak in some time in Naxxramas with the guild over the weekend.  There is nothing in regular Naxx I need unless something drops that has +Hit Rating.  I don’t remember that stat being so hard to come by in the past and yet so crucial for rogues pumping out the DPS like we used to.  Just what exactly is up with all those glancing blows?  Do casters have to deal with glancing spells?  In anycase, it was still a good run.  Saturday went very smooth with us clearing three wings with only one wipe at Maexxna, the frenzy wasn’t timed with the web wrapping right.  Sunday was more on the rough side, but as it was the construct wing thats no surprise for us.  Patchwerk went bye-bye easily enough, but the rest of the bosses took multiple attempts each.  Unfortunately, I had to leave for work after the second attempt at KT and I haven’t logged on yet today to find out if they downed him after I logged.  I hope they did.

As with a current trend among some bloggers I’ve read, I have picked out a theme song for my rogue.  This is the London Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Michael Jackon’s Smooth Criminal.  I think it really fits my toon and plus it just sounds so awesome.

 

Here is the link to the Youtube user who put the video clips together very nicely to go along with the song:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Coolfox1988

Arkoro Hits Level 80!

Just a really quick note before I head off to work for the evening. I finally got my alt to level 80. Arkoro is a protection spec’d Paladin. Now to get him geared and set for running heroics and raids.

Busy Week and Shameless Plug

I had set Wednesdays aside for recapping what happened during last night’s raid, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to raid last night.  I did manage to log on later on in the evening to find that the guild had basically breezed through three wings of Heroic Naxxramas.  The downside is though that the construct quarter seems to be our bane.  Don’t fret guys, we’ve still got all week to get it down starting with tonight.

With that said, I will be unavailable to raid all week actually.  Today starts a six day work week for me.  The reason being is we are hosting a poker tournament series starting tomorrow night.   These tournament events are a blast.  If you happen to be in the NE Oklahoma area, or looking for an idea for a weekend getaway, then come on by for a visit.  Here is a  complete tournament schedule of our events.  ( Warning!  Link requires you to be able to read .pdf  files.  I don’t like Adobe, but I didn’t build the website.)

Would you like to see my playbook?

How many times has someone you are competing against in a game asked you this?  Figuratively speaking, I hear this all the time at the poker tables.  It’s a trend I’ve noticed for a long while now.  I assumed people would wise up eventually, but players are still doing it.  I have no clue as to why either.  Do they not realize that almost every word they say when sharing their thoughts about a hand they just played is being heard by everyone else at the table and is basically just giving free information to the enemy?

I would like to share my view about poker before I continue with this topic.  Although poker is classified as a game, to me it is one of the dirtiest, subtle versions of warfare you will ever see waged.  The table is the battlefield. The chips are your resources.  The cards are the fortunes of war.  You are the general.  Your objective is to capture the other players chips as they are attempting to do the same to you.  If anyone one has ever told you something that sounds like this, “I like to go to have a good time rather I win or lose”, then they are lying to you and battle is already under way.  Everyone who sits down at a poker table hopes they win money, your money.

It happens at almost every table I deal.  I hear something along these lines; “I put you on the flush draw”, “I figured I had good odds to make that call”, “If an Ace hit the river, I was going to bet it and scare you out.”  Now granted, some people who engage in ‘work-shopping’ about hands might be employing strategy of their own by either drawing out their opponent’s strategy under the guise of being social or maybe even spreading around  misinformation.  I applaud these types of players, but they are few and far between.  Most players I see that engage in workshop talk about played hands are doing it to be counterproductive to their aims.  There could be a “sucker” at the table who has no clue about any type of strategy.  The more a player lets on that there is a strategy to the game is wising them up and making that player who was a “sucker” much more difficult to play against and win their money.  Most players out there now know and deploy some type of strategy.  They know what kinds of player classifications they can label people (for example, a solid player, a tight player, or a reckless manic) and have certain game plans designed to use against them whenever they are in a hand together.

I heard this one last night at work.  I heard one player tell another, “I checked that hoping you would bet it.”  The player that said this was thinking the player that acted after him would bet out and that the other players still in the hand would call.  The first player would then raise trapping all the players caught in the middle that called the initial bet.  Very rarely do I see the check-raise move used as its intended such as here (next week’s article).  When I heard the first player say that to his intended check-raise target, I hear in my mind that player really saying, ‘I have labeled you an aggressive player and the rest you behind him as passive players with weak holdings.’  Most players with knowledge of the game will also interpret what the first player said along the same lines as well.

What would I do if I got caught trying to check-raise?  It depends on different factors.  If no one asked about it, then I don’t say or do anything.  I just file it in my head that it didn’t work and keep it in mind next time.  If someone asks or calls me out on it, then I form my response around myself by saying something like “Oh, I wasn’t sure how strong my hand was”, or if I’m playing somewhere people don’t know me “I wasn’t paying attention” is good for a ploy.  If they don’t take that at face value then I can surmise that this player could be formidable, but if they do . . .  sucker.

I am not advocating being anti-social at the poker table.  If you are one of the ones that do go for the social aspect of the game as well as wining money, then that’s great as you can talk about whatever your heart’s desire; the weather, sports, current events, etc.  Just be warned about commenting on hands at the table.  You could be letting on how much you know or don’t know about poker and the people you are waging a war against.  Beware the quite ones.  They are the ones who are taking in every syllable you utter and smelting it the weapon they will use to strike down your chip stack with the smallest of smirks.

3.1 Rogue Reboot?

I highly doubt patch 3.1 goes live tomorrow during the usual Tuesday maintenance, but if it does it comes with the new Ulduar raid as well as the new feature I find most interesting, dual spec talents.  As it stands now on the test realms for a one time fee of 1000g at level 40, a player may switch his or her talents also bringing up new action bars and second set of glyphs.  This is big news for classes that have multiple roles, but what about us rogues whose seemingly only reason for being is to kill things?

Well, let us take a look at what else is coming in the new patch.  First, poisons have had some modifications made to them.  Instant and Wound poisons have changed to where their respective proc rate is based upon the speed of the weapon of which the poison has been applied.  Currently, Instant poison’s  proc rate is lower than Wound poison which is why some rogues choose Wound over Instant in raids, but  Wound poison deals less damage with the added affect of reducing the targets healing it receives.  If both poisons chance to hit are based on weapon speed instead, then I think that would make Instant Poison more viable for PvE encounters than Wound as long as Instant’s damage done remains unchanged.  I see that Deadly poison is getting an increase in damage as well so that’s a nice little boost on top of that.

Second, I see some nice buffs in the talent trees overall.  For the mutilators out there, Hunger for Blood became less irritating by being a single application and increases all damage by 15%.  For the combatants, we also received some nifty buffs. I especially like the reduced cooldown on Adrenaline Rush which could make it possible to pop twice during the longer boss fights out there.  I’ve never heard a raid say “Thank goodness we had a rogue with us that applied Savage Combat debuff to the boss” and I very much doubt any raid will say that after its been buffed to 4% , but I appreciate the thought, its what counts after all.  The more subtle among us get a new action bar show up when they Shadow Dance.  Um?  Yea?  I kid, I kid.  I heard that move was a key-bind nightmare so I have never tried it.

Finally, there are new glyphs for us in the next patch.  There appear to be some really great ones in there too.   I can see using the glyphs of Adrenaline Rush, Fan of Knives, and Killing Spree all being used in combination to give us some really good AoE power.  The new Glyph of Cloak of Shadow sseems pretty cool for PvP encounters.  Mutilate got a glyph which I thought should have had one in the first place.  I absolutely love the increased speed on lock picking.  I am glad they made that a minor glyph.

So, am I going to use the dual spec system even though as a rogue I only have one role?  Sure.  Why?  Most rogues will probably go with a PvE raiding build and a PvP  build.  I am sorry to say I haven’t done any PvP since the expansion released, and it is not likely I will do any in the near future.  I would like to try a couple of things though with two completely different PvE specs.  I may try the build I have now (see armory) with current glyphs that are setup for raiding, heroics, and farming; but then switch to the Honor Among Thieves (HAT) for the 25 man raids.  I may also use the same spec for both, but each with a different set of glyphs.  For example, one glyph set will be what I have now (Sinister Strike, Rupture, and Slice and Dice) then switch to the other glyphs with the same talent tree (Fan of Knives, Killing Spree, and Adrenaline Rush).  That way I can AoE with the best of them during the trash pulls then switch to a single target kill mode without worrying what talent moves I do and don’t have.

 Ah, the options, I like them.

“It’s all part of the plan.”

I would like to start off by thanking everyone who has already visited my very young blog thus far.  I was extremely delighted by the comments left as it encourages me to keep on with my writing.  I hope to deliver articles that are both informative and entertaining.

One of the suggestions I received from my friend Kyrilean is to have a daily theme, or at the very least plan out how many posts a week I would like to accomplish.  Both ideas struck me as fantastic as it gives the blog some structure to work with.  So, starting next week expect the blog to follow this  format.

Monday:  Rogue related article
Tuesday: Poker related article
Wednesday:  Raiding Recap from Tuesday night
Friday: Random

This layout gives a good solid four posts each week with two being WoW related, one poker related, and one day for whatever I feel like raving writing about.  Friday could be another WoW article, about Poker, or anything from dog training to a movie review.  I like having a little bit of freedom to do whatever I feel like so I don’t get in stuck in a rut.

In the mean time, I keep looking for ways to make the blog look more professional or at least presentable.  Don’t be surprised if the appearance  changes from time to time while I try different things, add a bit of color here or there, nick of paint, nick of paint . . .

Failboat and Lootwh***

Hey all, Shrielkul here.  I am writing this after my work shift instead of writing this Wednesday morning like I originally intended.  See?  Its just my second post and I am already falling behind.  If you’re wondering why the title is censored, its not because I’m worried about offending anyone, but more that I don’t want my articles showing up in the wrong places when people are doing their Google searches.

Anywho, let’s start things off with a WoW article.  Tuesday night was an interesting night for me in Heroic Naxxramas.  I got a new achievement. . .

Yep, that’s what happened to me while the raid was attempting the Grand Widow boss.  I somehow pulled aggro thanks to a new move during the trash leading up to her which is something I haven’t done since the Burning Crusade (curse you Fan of Knives).  Thing was we hustled ourselves down the halls toward the final boss in the Arachnid Quarter, Maexxna, and downed her with maybe a minute or less to spare for the achievement.  Even though I didn’t participate in the Grand Widow fight, I still got the 20 minute wing clear achievement along with the rest of the guild.  Cool.

My interesting raid night didn’t end there.  Maybe because I don’t get to raid as much as the rest of the guild or I’ve been too busy concentrating getting my paladin to level 80, but my rogue’s dps was very lackluster compared to the others.  I usually pride myself being in the top 5 on boss battles, but last night I didn’t even crack the top 10!  Not even on melee class friendly fights like Patchwerk.  To top things off, the bosses were dropping leather gear like crazy and since I was the only rogue and the druids in raid either a) hate feral or b) for some reason didn’t want to take away from a rogue, I got a few upgrades but I felt like a dirty lootw****.  I even tried to pass on one piece that was a slight upgrade for me instead wanting to let the druids take it for offspecs, but my fellow guildies insisted I take it.  I am not complaining because I realize that I am damn lucky to be raiding with this great guild.  I just hope that the others know that I do realize it seemed like I got quite a bit that run and that I am grateful for it, and that I personally would have preferred to be playing better that night in so that the loot I did get would be somewhat deserved.  Now that I think about it, maybe my dps was so bad that the rest of the raid was feeling sorry for me.

First Deal, First Cut

Hi all!  Welcome to my blog.  Please make yourself comfortable.  May I get you a pillow?  Cup of hot chocolate?  Anyways, excuse the crudeness of this blog as I get started out.  I’m having difficulty picking a theme I like that is easy to read and navigate.  I guess all blogs have to start somewhere.

So, why have I started a blog such as this?  Good question. 

First, I was mostly impressed and greatly inspired by the blogging of a now former WoW guildmate, Kyrilean, who has recently transferred servers seeking a fresh start from experiencing burnout and a guild whose raid times are more line with his time zone.  I hated to see him leave the guild <ICESTORM>.  He plays the most dependable Holy spec’d Paladin I know.  Never had to worry about the tank going down during a boss fight with him in the raid due to insufficient healing.  I wish him the best of luck in his new server and guild!

Second, my goal with this blog is to hopefully post helpful information from things I’ve learned in two activities I enjoy doing; dealing poker and playing a rogue in World of Warcraft.  Apart from dealing poker, I also spent my fair share of playing poker as well although in the past few months I admittedly haven’t played very much.  In WoW, I have alts of other classes too such as a paladin that is about to reach level 80 and a low level priest (as well as other low level alts) but I always think of myself as a rogue first and foremost.  I don’t know why, but the class just resonated with me even when I first started playing WoW and didn’t know much about the game.  Must be the masks us rogues get to wear, makes us look dashing.

So here’s to my fellow card dealers, casino employees, rogues, and WoW players, these “cuts” are for you.