Radikal Noise

Another 10 Second Cata Clip

2010-07-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

I have no idea if anyone cares about this crap, doubtful, but here's a small clip showing that you can perform actions between poly ending and the Improved Poly stun kicking in. (This should have been obvious to anyone who's had impact/blackout)

You can do whatever you like during this window, counterspell, intercept, deathcoil, cloak whatever! Imp Poly is nonetheless quite powerful. (Though the stunlocklol is potentially pretty avoidable)

Can Anyone Get This?

2010-07-24T15:06:00.000-05:00

Anyone with a rogue on Beta able to get combat Gouge into CS guaranteed? I haven't been able to, but it seems possible with good timing + low latency. (I have 300ish)

I feel like I have 1/4 second to spare on the restealth but the typical 1/2 sec delay between stealth -> CS fucks me. I've tried with safe spam macro but I'm not sure it's better than just timing it, actually I think it's worse as you lose something like 100ms per failed action or some BS.

Here's a clip showing how close it is, lf nonbad rogue to viral this shit.

I Really Need a New Comp

2010-07-23T21:28:00.000-05:00

Forgive the 15FPS video, but the new Ogrimmar and my comp hate each other.

So This Patch

2010-07-23T02:04:00.002-05:00

IS FUCKING AMAZING FOR LOCKS AND MAGES?

Current Mage Thoughts:

PvP builds are starting to look much more promising with the latest build, particularly because Blazing Speed is now Tier 2 and Imp CS is Tier 1. Arcane builds of the 31+/7/2 and Frost builds of either 2/7/31+ or 7+/0/31 look like they have pretty awesome potential. The Fire Tree itself looks pretty terrible still for PvP (actually in general) but with some improvement, it has great subtreeing with 7+/31/2 type builds.

Arcane feels like the most complete spec thus far. There's the ability to invest 31/32 points and there are actually some choices to be made going down the tree deciding exactly what you want. I feel that shaving one point from Tier 3, 9->8, would help a lot as would shaving Torment or Mana Gem from 3->2. I like that you can't subtree and get both Improved Blink and Invocation. Despite the significant mage forum whining concerning the fact that you have to take PvP talents occasionally in PvE builds, I don't really see this as very true, as talents like NP/Torment/Nether Vortex are all PvE options that probably won't be in PvP builds.

My two largest concerns with Arcane, and the first of these pertains to Fire as well, are Mana Shield and Improved Poly. The new Incanter's, with the knockback when Mana Shield is destroyed, certainly helps but this seems unlikely to remain as it's likely pretty overpowered even with the 10s cooldown on Mana Shield now. Mana Shield only absorbing 1270 damage and not getting any benefit from spellpower IS A PROBLEM. Part of me feels this needs to scale and be more to the tune of 4 times this amount, at a minimum, but do we want Fire and Arcane survivability tied to Mana Shield, or do we want it to be completely useless except for Arcane mages who refresh it every opportunity for the knockback?

Improved Poly is problematic even once given it's own DR that actually DRs. If a priest deaths my poly, should he get really eat a 3s stun? (And then a half DR poly since he's probably stunned inside LOS) Do I really always want to poly-poly-poly-lance to maximize CC time? Breaking poly to "extend" the CC chain feels weird. I do feel that Arcane needs a distinctive deep tree PvP mechanic. Slow is unfortunately extremely mediocre without a dispel punish. My suggestions are one of the following:

Distortion - When you enter or exit Invisibility, you stun all targets within 6 yards for 1.5/3 seconds. (Opener stun DR -- i.e. doesn't DR with other stuns)
Attunement - When dealing damage with your non-Arcane spells, you syphon mana from the target equal to 3/6% of the the damage done.

The Fire tree is still a total mess and I can't really begin to speak about it without significant nerdrage. There's still no way of actually doing any damage in PvP or surviving even moderate pressure. Impact is awful at 7%. DB and Poly being shared DR is ridiculously stupid. Hot Streak is generally just not a very functional burst mechanic as you don't have demand burst when you need it. All of the DoT talents are problematic in PvP due to dispels and the need to cast sloooowww nukes to put up the DoTs.

Frost still feels very much the same as WotLK, which is maybe fine. Shatter is back to reasonable as is FoF with this latest build. The removal of Frostbite in favor of Imp CoC is excellent, but Imp CoC freeze should be DR with Shattered Barrier and not Nova. It's still impossible to come up with a PvP spec that doesn't leave out a lot of desired talents in tree. I think at least 2 out of Permafrost, Brain Freeze, or Fingers of Frost should be come 2/2 instead of 3/3s. Swapping Permafrost with Piercing Chill would also solve the problem, but I'm not sure if the first 5 of Frost are too strong in PvP if you do this. Improved Freeze doesn't seem to work for me on Beta with any consistency, but I like the idea -- the problem is, now that WE is permanent, he's nearly always use OOM and you can't generate this proc that much. (You can simply resummon the fatty I guess) I don't really understand the whole Frostfire Orb idea and I'm not really a huge fan of turreting frostbolts in PvP, but to each their own?

INFINITE COMMBOOOOOOOO

2010-07-22T13:36:00.001-05:00

Don't alpha counter me bro

Basically, current Imp Poly doesn't DR. You'll notice that the mob is still moving towards me despite the fact that it should be PERMALOLSTUNNED. This, I believe, and plz, some nerd correct me, is because the netcode is the same as with impact -- the server has to tell you the spell connected, in this case, poly has broken, and then you tell it that you've got Imp Poly and some nerd needs to get stunned, so during that roundtrip, there's a window pre-stun. (OR SOMETHING)

Curtain of Dicks

2010-07-16T15:00:00.004-05:00

Updated with wegame better quality

I'll be brief because I need to shower people with attention tonight instead of level my video game wizard, well I'm done leveling for now, so make that -- instead of PLAYING with my video game wizard, not my real video game wizard mind you, as it's beta, my practice wizard, yes, um, I've derailed, anyways, here's a short clip of messing around with curtain.

Learn more at the WoW Wiki

It does terribad damage and is a bit clunky and looks stupid. But you know what? I kinda like it. It's kind of like this:

I'm not really sure in what manner they're similar except that they are and if you don't understand I hate you and you're stupid.

What I do like is that it doesn't just drop at your feet and there's no targeting indication. (NOSCOPELOL)

The resnaring mechanic is a bit clunky as it seems the target has to leave the area and come back to be re-afflicted. There's a lot of stuff I want to test still:

Interactions with stealth/invisibility
Interaction with latency mechanics (Grenade-like or fear-like?)
How do you get more ticks?!
Is there any interaction with Frost mechanics? (Cold snap? Permafrost? I assume...yes?)
Z-axis?

It's hard to comment on this recent beta build with respect to the mage class because so much feels broken. Damage feels quite low, particularly AoE abilities -- I feel like the damage should be tripled on many of them. The elephant in the room still is the lack of critical strike damage bonus talents, are we going forward with 1.5x crits? Lack of pushback protection aside from Burning Soul and lack of range talents also are quite irritating. I'm not sure there's a point in dueling/PvPing until we get another build.

Thx Liter

2010-07-14T15:32:00.001-05:00

COOL INVASION

New Beta Patch

2010-07-14T02:21:00.002-05:00

WTF THESE TALENT TREES ARE BAD

It's pretty obvious that something needs to be done about Imp CS -- either move it down to T1 or T2, which would make subtreeing into Arcane necessary for every PvP spec, or make it baseline. Regardless of that, Arcane dominates the other trees currently across all aspects of the game.

I haven't yet tested if Imp Poly shares DR with other stuns -- I'm betting yes, but I'll confirm once I can get back on Beta, which might be a while since I'm unable to log in. COOL BRO.

Fortunately, there are less talents, and thus it's easier to rant about what's wrong with all of them.

Fire:

Imp Fire Blast is still mediocre because Fireblast DPS is awful. Incineration is boring.
Burning Soul should be killed as should pushback in general. Impact needs to be scrapped probably as well. DR issues and RNG issues.
Blazing Speed should be activated or tied to Blastwave. Fire Power -- I don't know about mage nerd DoT nonsense but whatever it's fire nobody is going to play this dumb tree anyways.
Combustion is finally decent. Hot Streak has potential.
Imp Flamestrike LOL KY. BW/DB would still work better if they worked like those nerd meteors from AQ20 and they did correspondingly more damage against fewer targets.
PM/CM -- WHO CARES ITS THE FIRE TREE

Frost:

Frostbite is lame. Imp CoC >>> Frostbite. (But separate DR from FN or don't bother)
Shatter Tier 1 sup but 1.5x crits oh damn.
IV Tier 3 = only frosties which would be alright except this tree is terrible
FFB Orb - HAHAHA

Arcane:

TTW - STOP WITH THIS PLEASE JUST STOP
NP - I don't know why nerds love this, it's boring 3% haste axe-ity axe axe
Potency/Clearcasting synergy I kinda like nohomo
Arcane Repulsion doesn't seem effective due to -- multiple melee, stupid pets, and long CD + it's hard to justify 3 points here for a mediocre anti melee CD when Frost Armor is nearly as good, and better if Frostbite stays
IAM/MB - These combine to make AM useless without the talents which is okay since AM was pretty much always useless without OP talents
Imp Blink - YAY THIS RULES I LOVE WHATEVER GENIUS SUGGESTED IT I HEARD HES REALLY CUTE TOO
Imp CS needs to be base or move up didn't I say that already I think I did but in case I didn't it should be baseline or at least be baseline maybe if it was baseline or baseline instead of talented like if it was baseline or something baseline it would be baseline
Imp Poly has a sweet animation PEWPEW. Realistically it's just one extra cast on sheeps so depending on DR this might be awful.

I have no idea if a lot of mechanics are currently working in the Beta. Does Mastery work? Did some of the old talents become baseline? (Like Magic Absorb or SoTM?)

Ice Lance damage was nerfed a bit so mindless spam isn't quite what it used to be.

GCD HACKING

2010-07-13T17:14:00.002-05:00

Old news?

GET OFF MY KOOL AID MOTHERFUCKERS

2010-07-12T13:21:00.002-05:00

THANKS LITER YOU SNAKE, I HOPE YOU MEET A BEAUTIFUL GIRL WITH VAGINAL TEETH WHO DEVOURS YOUR MANHOOD

Also, I was looking through the google search terms that lead to my big gay blog and coolio mcgoolio, "Radikal David Schwimmer" is number fucking two. I hate everyone on the internet. I'm moving to Texas so I can drink some beers and shoot some deers and never have to deal with the interwebs or smart people again. Also because I'm in love with Tyra Collette. I'm way prettier than Landrey or whatever his name is, plus plus plus, I'm way nicer. I ooze compassion like a dead squashed slug. Like Toejam with salt all up in his face. Don't act like you never tortured insects as a kid you fucking high and mighty internerds. You can't just fucking start on mammals or you'll get skeeved and lose your nerve and nobody loves a quitter.

ALSO I LOVE YOU NERDS WHO ARE VOTING FOR MAGE NOW I WAS JUST KIDDING ABOUT HATING THE INTERNET I NEED YOUR AFFECTION AND ATTENTION SO BAD PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME FFS I NEED IT

Privacy

2010-07-06T14:06:00.000-05:00

[...]The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.
[...]

I strongly suggest that anyone who isn't down with the syndrome voice their objection to this change. I'm totally cool with being Facebook friends with guildmates and teammates I've known for a while, but I, me, I, me, would like the power to control who has access to my personal information. There are hard to predict repercussions from giving away information like this -- (If I can find your name and addy on spokeo, and I see you went offline or stopped posting, can I infer your current location to rob/rape you? Can I blackmail you if I know your employer and see you're playing games instead of working? Can I engage you in various confidence scams through WoW?)

This move does almost nothing to stop "malicious" posting whatever that means. It's not too terribly hard to have a John Doe account. (Which seems like a decent option going forward)

Honestly, I'm one of the least affected players by this -- outside of alpha/beta, I never post on the Blizzard forums and I arena with the same dozen or so players always, so I'm not terribly exposed to the change. I will certainly never post on the official forums or ever use RealID in game. (Despite the fact that I'm IRL friends with many of the people I arena with...because why do I need to, they're on skype/axon/vent with me) I fail to see any upside in this nonsense -- I have no idea what Blizzard's intentions are, and I'm really not a privacy nut, but is it so much to ask to just PLAY A GAME and not engage in some pointless and potentially dangerous social network clusterfuck?

So the NDA Is Lifted

2010-07-01T02:02:00.006-05:00

More to follow ^^

New talent trees on war tools.

Wowhead now updated.

Blue follow up on Shatter:

Shatter has been a lot of things. At the moment it is double crit chance vs. frozen targets for 1 point and triple crit chance vs. frozen for 2 points.

I'll try to update some of the other concerns and make corrections when I get some time. - GC

So, I meant to type up some thoughts on how things are progressing for mage (and rogue) so far, but after fucking up my hand playing bball, it'll have to wait. Sorry!

Okay, firstovh:

It's still super premature to really comment on much. Every recent build has a ton of random undocumented changes for mages, sadly none for rouges >.<, and it's pretty arrogant/stupid to really critique the "direction" their taking for the class in cata -- not that that will stop me. (An example being that Fireball and Frostbolt cast times were sekretly reduced by .5 seconds this build)

For those of you on alpha, it looks like we were right concerning AM, at least at this point in the design process -- the spell has been relegated to leveling and deep Arcane. I had thought it would be nearly impossible to balance across specs and that Frostfire Bolt made more sense as the flavor nuke for deep Fire and Frost PvE. This seems to be case for both. For fire, there is need to maintain DoTs, for Frost, there is need for a nuke when your procs are down that capitalizes on Frostburn. (Or is it called Deathfrost...whatever)

The recent build has attempted to bring about, some might say force, the inclusion of Ice Lance in Frost raiding through the FoF change. (Beyond ghost charges) I think that this will prove a very difficult balancing act because of the "need" for FoF burst in PvP. Double Frostbolt into Frostfire Bolt is HUGE damage, generally 50-65% of a WotLK target's total health. It's how Mage wizards global kids. It's pretty hated as there's not a lot you can do about it, whereas at least DF procs stun damage reduction talents, can be trinketed, dispelled, etc. It's hard to imagine the current Cata FoF being terribly potent or exciting in PvP, which is perhaps a good thing -- I could be very wrong and perhaps the hard hitting Ice Lances are more dangerous than I currently envision. Additionally, this iteration of FoF removes the Ghost charge, and while a lot of the PvE community loves this, I can't agree. Rewarding good timing at the expense of marginally penalizing the DPS of those with high latency is a trade I'm willing to make. (I really don't want to see the game "balanced" for 300 ping)

Some questions concerns with the existing talents, in no particular order:

Arcane Instability -- a 60% multiplier is crazy high and I don't understand the goal of this talent. Why should opponents be penalized for interrupting the mage? It would almost make more sense if you did more damage when they MISSED an interrupt, or perhaps it grants you additional Arcane damage when they interrupt a non-Arcane spell. This talent also has anti synergy with the Tier 1 Arcane Stability which grants you pushback immunity. (Yes I can imagine starting a scorch cast, letting the pet hit you, and swapping back to your stacked AB and melting someone's face)
Arcane Focus -- this talent is completely useless and should be avoided like syhpollis
Arcane Repulsion -- this has gotten a fair amount of discussion on the Alpha boards, but ultimately it comes back to, is this really necessary?
Improved Fire Blast -- cooldown ain't the problem hoss
Burning Determination -- another mana regen talent in Fire? zzz
Blazing Speed -- I think the best "idea" I've seen concerning BSpeed is to simply grant the buff after using Blastwave, thereby removing the RNG, and eliminates the need for the new Playing with Fire, which to be honest, I don't feel makes much sense. In general, I feel the Fire PvP talents have really gone a pretty stupid direction where attackers are simply RNG penalized for playing the game. (Sup Fiery Payback, and well the same is true of Frostbite)
Burnout -- what?
Piercing Chill, aka Chillcleave -- currently this does not requite the Frostbolts to be criticals, I assume that noncrits should proc this.
Arctic Winds -- pointless RNG defensive talent where neither you nor your adversary has much control over the outcome. The no cooldown CoC and FNs are amusing but not terribly useful.

Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku

2010-06-14T13:25:00.002-05:00

#showtooltip
/target Focus
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena1
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena2
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/target Arena3
/cast Kick
/targetlasttarget
/cast Kick

TORNADO KICK SOME NERDS

Sup

2010-06-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

Hi cuties.

TR GETS SERIOUS

2010-06-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

JK, it's still awful. I played all of like 5 games last night after having not played rogue since s6 and we won them all because I'm a boss and we're like 1500 rated still. Maybe more due to the latter. Yesterday was the first time I've played no mods in a very very long time and tbh it's a bigger pain in the ass than I thought. Gladius for keeping track of trinkets + DR is a pretty large crutch. (And if I was playing priest, no Interruptbar would drive me fucking crazy -- jk prep kick GOT YOU BRO)

I'd like to fraps + play more seriously but the new version of fraps (with the pre-capture shit) completely rapes my computer, which is probably best remedied by buying a new comp, but I'm also being gayed because the only non awful player on my team has decided that a vacation with his girlfriend is more important than his efriends. A certain filthy Euro druid who will remain nameless refuses to fucking get on US TR due to the "bollocks" ping. I have no idea what that means and he didn't really say "bollocks" but he says incomprehensible shit of similar obscurity that makes me angry and then confused and then angry once again.

Oh yeah, that thing I was whining about before I derailed to whine about other things, this current tournament realm:

LSD makes me want to cut my dick off and I hate it almost as much as I hate hunter comps
Hunter comps
Terrible RMPs. PROTIP -- If you're playing against a comp with a rogue as a rogue in RMP, if you wait for the other rogue to open, and then open on something else NEXT to him, you will get blinded. If you don't trinket, you will get sapped. This ain't TBC, you can get blinded before you trinket now. I KNOW CRAZY. If you do trinket, you should either blind me back, open on me, or have your team ready with defensive CDs because you're going to eat a KS in the next 15 sec probably and die. NVM JUST SIT IN SAP AND GET 3v2d. (TERRIBLES MAKE ME RAGE)
I've seen like 2 non prot warriors in the last like 100 games and less than that DKs.
I don't know what to do against triple hybrid wizard cleaves that start healing each other.

Anyways I probably won't be on except to duel this weekend as without Kryo we're awful + I want to watch the koreans win MLG.

TR

2010-05-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Still owns. I haven't really been using arena targetting (I do on my priest but only for dispelz), so I'm trying to figure out what the best way to intelligently bind shit like swap fear/poly/df/cyclone and can't really decide between 3 binds per spell or just some mouse scroll-ish way of manually selecting before using a single bind. I'm leaning towards the first but it involves being super macro dependent especially if you want the binds to be general enough for duels, 2s, and 3s. (And maybe someday 5s/BGs who knows)

I know a ton of nerds using shift+ASD for targeting but I find that a bit awkward because you can't really move and change targets, which is sort of fine because with the exception of DF, you need to stop anyway for the cast. I do kind of wonder how such targeting could even be as fast as gladius frame clicking, but I guess you need to practice NOMODZ style if you want to be baller.

FUCK WHY DID I GO BACK TO WASD LIKE A NOOB ITS SO BAD

PS Kach get on US TR and carry me

Doods

2010-05-13T13:58:00.001-05:00

I've like not posted in a week. Not since me and my HFT friends celebrated the near death of US markets last week. It was nothing fancy. A bonfire of cash (TRUE WEALTH DESTRUCTION BABY). Sipping blood from the skulls of retailer investors who killed themselves. Urinating in each other's mouths. Basically the shit we do on days with an 'A' in them.

I went over to nerdriot and saw this madness. It's basically a crawler by ronmexicoz, a powerful shamanz with mighty nerd powers, jk web programming lol, that aggregates match results between top teams by comp on Ruin and bg9. I think it's a fucking sweet idea but I think that it's a bit too narrow in scope. It's hard to draw meaningful conclusions when some of the statistics are the result of a few matches. (And the set of total players is small, i.e is destro/ele/druid really that good or is the one team playing just outperforming?) Still I love the idea and it's the first solid analysis of "countercomping" I've, EVER, seen. (Instead of egotistical anecdotal BS)

I also see there's a dueling tourney going on. Sadly I'm too awful on mage to partcipate. I know because I managed to lose a few duels to total randoms outside IF. (Granted I was some bonkers DB spec...which I think would own if I wasn't so rusty but whatever) Kryoh, some pug shammy with a downie lisp who couldn't use skype, and I ran some double destro rshammy the other night which was pretty hilarious and ran into all kinds of freakshow TR only fun shit. (Tripple SP, tripple boomkin, tripple combat, etc) I haven't really played at all since a last minute s7 glad grind with Shift and Kryoh but TR is still fun as shit even if you're awful. (Maybe more so....) I like the idea of cash prize dueling tourneys -- I kind of wish that I set up something like this in the past -- I'll definitely consider it in the future. (Cata maybe?)

Beta opt-ins are starting up, so make sure you got that shit opted. I'm going to fist a dick if I don't get an invite early in the cycle because, well, I'm too pretty not to get picked first. And pretty >> talented any fucking day.

PS WHERE ARE YOU KACH YOU EUROFAG

PPS ME + KRYOH + PUG TR 2NITE (I'll be drunk and learning drooood)

Sup Stock Market

2010-05-06T15:03:00.001-05:00

There's been a lot of rumors flying around. (It was a Citi SPU order. It was a Citi P&G order typo. It was a Citi algo. It was a global macro fund algo. It was the Vs.) We'll eventually know, but the why doesn't honestly interest me all that much. I think the big thing in thursday's activity was not so much the blip lower but the ~4% move down BEFORE the blip, the HUGE swings in currencies BEFORE the blip, and the beginning of a real raping of the Nikkei.

Friday's continued, albeit weak, selloff is, well, more of the same. I'm pretty cynical concerning where this will take Europe and Korea, but as for the Japanese and US equity markets, I'm not sure all of the current Europe debt drama is THAT bad.

At Long Last

2010-05-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

Thx dab ^^

Been crawling through the spell db and aside from a few random class abilities, not a ton has stood out to me. Here's two of the cooler looking ones:

MORE SHADOWPRIEST BURST YESSSS (Cool mechanic imo)

Recuperate seems pretty interesting in its Alpha incarnation -- it lasts very very long, 30 seconds with 5CP. I had imagined something that was maybe like a 25% HP heal over 12 seconds, this is somewhat less potent, 4% every 2, but if you're toe-to-toe-ing, it seems quite possible to keep it up all the time. (And considering that a 5CP recuperate is almost 50% of your life even with an MS on you, the lost damage seems maybe trivial?)

The talent changes I'm sure everyone has seen by now over on mmo-champ. WTF balance druids? Cool AoE deathcoil. Rogue deep combat talent is sweet and I hope that similar mechanics crop up for other classes. (The ability to reduce the remaining cooldown on abilities by doing shit) Priest anti-wound and anti-bleed talent confuses me.

None of the mage stuff seems to have been implemented.

Where's My Alpha Key Dawg?

2010-05-04T01:43:00.002-05:00

Hook it up blizzard.

Also, Jack killed Starbuck, but she's immortal anyways so I'm predicting she's gonna come back @ kill kim and eat her baby.

Glee Japan Ad

2010-05-02T12:21:00.003-05:00

What's to say, really?

Why!?

2010-04-26T14:41:00.001-05:00

Why was Vampire Diaries the first show I felt it necessary to catch up on? WHY GOD WHY?

BACK FOR MORE IN A BIT. (Watching 24 be awful as per usual)

Woops I lied. Yeah I don't 'h' that shit.

God Glee has sucked recently. It lacks the massive teen drama now. I can't deal with this current batch of spring TV shows. >.<

So Beta looks to be soon. Sup blizzard. Looking for 9 more for unstoppable WSG crew.

Did You Know That Dolphins Are Just Gay Sharks?

2010-04-16T20:01:00.002-05:00

I don't have much to say, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but, I'll be gone for a week trying my luck with uppity Italian girls in Capri (and settling for beers with chubby Aussie tourists most likely). I'm hoping Cata beta will be starting shortly after my return stateside and not while I'm away because, well, I like to be there first, nahmean? Also, if anyone at Blizzard is reading this, sorry about that whole calling you all nerds every week for the past three years, please send me a few dozen beta invites, kthx.

Am I supposed to be psyched that Kick Ass is out? I actually read the comics a long long time ago, but I'm now suddenly bored with the concept and really wonder how amused I'll be by McLovin getting his ass kicked over and over.

And that's all she wrote. (PS GLEE RULES AND ILL FUCK YOUR HYOID IF YOU HATE)

STOP PERMAING ALL MY ACCOUNTS BLIZZARD YOU NERDS

2010-04-10T13:04:00.000-05:00

Despite not playing WoW in, well, 7 months, I randomly decided to see what's up with everyone, but well yeah, my US mage is perma'd and my EU rogue is perma'd. COOLIO. I assume this problem will be resolved by the fat virgins at Blizzard if I call them and remind them who the fuck I am, but these pretty fingers weren't meant for dialing long distance. (So kryoh, how about you give me that mage since you're awful)

The class previews looked pretty sweet not going to lie. Arena looks like it's going YUGIOH style - YOU TRIGGERED MY TRAP CARD WALL OF FOG. OH SHIT THIS BOOMKIN IS SHROOMING ME. FUCK I CANT HIT HIM THE ROGUE SMOKE BOMBED. WAIT NVM THE OOMKIN IS JUST HURRICANING.

It's way too soon to react to specifics of the mage changes (YES I WILL BE PLAYING MAGE AGAIN FINALLY), but shit like logic has never stopped before, so without further ado, than this right here, ado, here's my initial feelings: (not thoughts, FEELINGS)

Flame Orb - This sounds nerdy and dumb but maybe hilarious depending on how stupid and big the orb is and if it matters if it hits you. Will it break CC? (Please god no) Is kiting along your orb path viable? It's a little hard for me to imagine how this could be amazing in PvP (and as for PvE, I think it's slightly cooler than just spamming LB), but it sounds like there's probably some small handed potential.

Time Warp - "Grants a passive Haste effect ..[]" Passive? WTF does that mean? It's unclear to me if this is actually heroism even though nerds everywhere are like OMG MAGE BUDLUST. If it is heroism, it's cool but retarded as I'm not looking forward to getting exhaustion from nerds who sprint out the gate in WSG to steal my zerking. My guess would be that this doesn't give exhaustion but is somewhat less powerful (15% maybe?) and simply doesn't stack. I would rather this me location based and not party/raid based as that seems like the direction things are going. (POSITIONING > MINDLESSNESS) It would be particularly badass if it was just like a 15 yd AoE granting friendlies 15% movement + haste and hostiles - 15% etc, but I best shut up before the vultures scream OH PENIS.

Wall of Fag - WHY YOU CLEAVERS BREAK DOWN MY SHITTY WALL. This sounds fucking awesome.

AM Change - A little confusing but I can see no downside to greater spell variety if the balance is solid. I assume this goes along with removing MBAM and reworking the spell to be generally a similar dps burst mechanic.

No Frost Haste Mastery - NOESSS I NEED SICK DF COMBOS FML

Scorch Change - Probably cool but it still doesn't really solve the fire pvp issue that there's no good way to actually deal damage unless it interacts differently with different fire spells. (Increases next fireball by say 5%, next BW/DB/fireblast by 25%)

Mirror Image - Can we get a redesign for these dumb nerds?

Junk Buffs - HOW WILL I PROTECT MYSELF FROM DEVOURDOGS?

Playing With Fire - Cool idea maybe? I don't really like the RNG disarm crap in fire so hopefully there will be a more predictable/controllable punish for melee training fire mages. (BETTER NOT LEAVE HIM ALONE OR HE MIGHT START SCORCHING US GUYS)

Burnout Change - YAY I WONT LOSE DUELS BECAUSE I OOMED MYSELF WITH MANA SHIELD. I need to lay off the caps. I love this shit though. LOOK AT ME MOM IM A BIG WARLOCK NOW.

Arcane Adept - DOUBLE MAGE 2S TRINKET AP IV GEM ABABABAB DID WE WIN? FUCK IM AT 60% WERE FUCKED. Actually...this is retarded. I think innervate needs to go if this stays as I can't imagine the nerdrage that's going to result from the DPS swings that not getting a vate is going to cause. Maybe some spells aren't affected by the penalty/bonus such as barrage? So you have one high mana rotation, one med, and one low? Sounds complicated and not really that cool tbh.

New Ignite - It sounds like this is per spell which is potentially cool as it might reward mixing in a few more spells to max your running ignite. (ffb, fb, and fblast even maybe?) Could be cool in PvP depending on relative strength of dot as you could maybe get decent single target dps with BW+instant FS+fireblast and all 3 dots.

Deathfrost - Yay no more fbolt turreting and BF procs might actually matter.

Lolla + Pitchfork 2010

2010-04-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

So, most of the lineups are announced, and after my initial excitement over pitchfork getting Raekwon, LCD, and Modest Mouse, the rest of pitchfork has descended into shitty folk/indie hell whilst Lolla has once again managed to shit all over the pitchfork nerds recruiting Arcade Fire, Phoenix, MGMT, The XX, The Stars, and The Walkmen + a bunch of other sort of cool live acts + some truly fucking awful headliners. Chris Cornell is alive? GREEN DAY LOL. I'm having trouble trying to sleep. I'm counting sheep but running low. As times ticks by. Yeahhhhhh kill yourselves.

Crystal Castles at Lolla last year was the best show I've ever attended and while Lolla is full of the "wrong kind of white people" (jean shorts), the Pitchfork hipster crowd is equally disgusting in their skinny jeans + cardigans considering they're all 15 lbs overweight and there's significant muffin leakage. I really don't get the folk vibe these past two years.

It's kind of like Chicago's obsession with snobby hamburgers. In the past six months, an another dozen or so trendy burgher places have opened and yelpers and 4sqs of the world unite to fluff, finish, and gargle burger joints that are all but identical to either what you'd find at any random bar in the city, or on the grease-burgher side, In and Out. (But probably shittier because no animal style)

I actually ended up at one of the better chicago hamburger obsessions last night after failing to close this cutie because her madcow "friend" leap of faithed me when I just about to get her to do another round of soco and limes. Which is perhaps fine because I got to have ground up cow instead of spelunking a girl who, based on her dress and sluttiness towards me, was probably more Sarlacc than doorway to Narnia. Speaking of tentacle vagina toys:

Okay, so there's no way a little kid wants that shit. WHICH OF YOU SICKO VIRGINS IS BUYING STAR WARS VAGINA MONSTERS.