DXE? Can it really be you?

So I was perusing a thread over at Maintankadin about Boss Mods and it came up that DXE was updated and available for Cataclysm.

How did I miss this momentus event?

When I first started raiding during BC, I used Big Wigs. And I loved it. As far as I was concerned, Big Wigs was the only boss mod for me. Wrath came out, and all the way through Tier 7, I still used Big Wigs.

Then I changed guilds, and started raiding Ulduar-25. I was still using Big Wigs, but I quickly started noticing that Big Wigs gave me alerts that DBM wasn't giving, and vice-versa.

For instance: On the Kologarn fight in Ulduar, Big Wigs would make a big audible alert whenever the Kologarn tank had 2 stacks of "Crunch Armor". Basically, Big Wigs told me exactly when to taunt the boss. However, I learned that everyone else in the guild was using DBM, so I switched to DBM as well. At least that way, we would all be working with the same set of timers. After I switched to DBM, I screwed up the Kologarn fight the first time, because DBM didn't give me the "Crunch Armor" alert that Big Wigs did. Regardless, I liked a lot of the features of DBM, and stuck with it until well into ICC.

That is when I discovered Deus Vox Encounters (a.k.a. DXE). I instantly loved DXE. I liked the options interface better that DBM, the little "dock" with the boss health, the sounds (although they took a little getting used to), the 3D arrow, the whole "sh'bang". I got so used to the different sound alerts from the Lich King fight, that I still hear them in my sleep sometimes (quick, pickup the Raging Spirit before it kills someone!).

So, as I stated at the beginning of the post, DXE is available and up to date for Cataclysm. Guess what i am downloading as soon as I get home tonight?

I'll give you three guesses, but only the first one counts.

Two Months Gone

Wow.  It’s been two months since my last blog post.  Where does the time go?

Let’s see, what has happened since I last posted?

• Patch 4.2 has hit.
• Paladins got Holy Shield redesigned (which included lots of crying by the window lickers on the official forums).
• EF took another month+ off of raiding because of the persistent attendance issues.
• I have started playing my warrior a lot more, not because of any nerf to my paladin, but just because he is fun.
• I’ve also started doing a ton more PVP in the last couple of weeks (we’ll see how long that lasts).
• I finally power leveled my leatherworker to 525, so I can start providing my own leg armors now

EF did get back to raiding, and with the nerfs that came in 4.2, were able to down Cho’gall on only our second night working on him.What I am doing a lot of, is dailies.  I login every day and do my Molten Front dailies.  I tell you, the day I can stop healing Wounded Guardians of Hyjal cannot come soon enough.

The Heroes Return

After a forced hiatus of over a month and a half, due to attendance woes, Empyreal Fray fielded a raid team last night and actually raided. It felt good. It also felt a little odd. It has only been a month and a half but I know, at least on my part, that there was some serious rust that needed knocking off.

We started at Baradin Hold, where I momentarily forgot where my taunt button was. I'm not sure what happened there, but when it was time to taunt the boss off of the other tank, I instead hit my interrupt button, and then proceeded to question in my mind why the boss hadn't turned toward me. Luckily I figured it out before he did his big thing again.

Then we moved on to Blackwing Descent and proceeded to one-shot the big worm (Magmaw), the fours statues (Omnotron), and captain chemistry (Maloriak).

We did have to pug one DPS, a warrior, and he played pretty well. Although, he did get two pieces of gear off of three bosses and then, without much warning, left.

But such is the price of pugging.

Regardless, it was a great night, and it felt really good to be raiding again. Here's hoping that we can repeat tonight.

Of Trolls and new Tiers

I really need to get better at this blogging thing. I don't post anywhere near enough. Anywhoo . . .

Attendance is still our biggest problem in EF. We have picked up a couple of new players, but at the same time, lost a couple of our core raiders, so it was a zero-sum action. Anyone interested in joining a raiding team that is good, just perpetually short-handed?

Of Trolls

Cataclysm has done something that no other expansion has ever done before. It has continually made me feel sub-standard. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the harder content. It is just the virtual kick to the junk when you wipe in a 5-man. And let me tell you, I have been doing a lot of wiping in 5-mans of late.

Of the two new (new = recycled) troll instances, I have only seen Zul'Gurub. On raid nights, when we are short, we are just running random troll instances instead. I have queued for a random troll instance three times now, and have gotten Zul'Gurub each time. That also means, I have spent three nights in Zul'Gurub. I have yet to finish the instance. Not due to giving up, but just due to running out of time.

The boss mechanics are . . . unforgiving. Anyone who knows us EF people, we have traditionally been weak when it came to mechanics, and tended to just power through fights. In the Wrath era, that was possible, in Cataclysm, not so much. It is funny, most of the bosses we can one-shot (even on the first night). But others, whose mechanics are more brutal (like Zanzil) we wiped again and again on.

Tonight is another scheduled raid night, and while I am holding out hope that we will see 10 people online, I am planning on going back in and finally finishing Zul'Gurub.

New Tiers

Also, a few days ago, Blizzard released the new artwork for the Tier 12 Paladin gear. At first glance, I didn't like it at all. It doesn't even look like plate armor. It seems more like something a Warlock would wear. Much like Tier 10, as I have looked at it more and more, it has grown on me. At first glance, I didn't like Tier 10 either, but when it came time to get rid of it, it was hard. I had really come to love the look of the burning skulls on my shoulders. Maybe it will be the same with Tier 12. We will see.

I do recognize the similarities in style between Tier 12 and Tier 2. It very much has that Inquisitor feel to it again. This time with an added fiery theme.

Me, a Starcaller?

As has been well documented in this blog, Empyreal Fray has been plagued with attendance problems all throughout Cataclysm. Now, we have seen the return of one of our originally planned healers, and times are looking up. However, we still missed two out of three raid nights due to lack of attendance last week. My co-tank, and our regular raid leader was on vacation for one night, so that night was expected.

Anyway, I didn't want another soul draining raid cancelation, so I suggested that we go do all of the hard modes in Ulduar. Sort of a night off, while still spending time to gether as a raid team. Most people in our guild never got their Proto-Drakes out of Ulduar, so I thought that this would be easy, and fun. And, we could knock out the Guild Achievement for Ulduar while were there.

Also, only a couple of the guildies had seen Algalon, so this would allow that as well.

How did it go?

In a word, fantastic.

Flame Leviathan was easy sauce, even with all four towers up. Razorscale only took three attempts to finish off the Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare achievement, and only that because the boss has an enrage timer, and you don't get 25 dwarves in a single fight to begin with. Ignis keeled over without much of a fuss. XT-002 was a snoozefest. Steelbreaker was chosen, and found to be lacking. We got robbed of the Disarmed achievement on Kologarn, but would come back and get it on our second night in Ulduar. The crazy cat lady went purr-fectly. Hodir's hallway trash took longer than Hodir himself. Thorim, was interesting, because the debuff he puts on the tank still reduces defense skill by 200, even though no tank has defense skill anymore. And, to close out the night, we killed Freya, after having to remember the fight mechanics on the fly.

On our second night of the week, We blew through Uludar at a record pace. We skipped Razorscale and Ignis. Disarmed Kologarn, and did the hardmodes of Hodir, Thorim, and Freya again, as I was collecting the parts for the Algalon key. Then we moved on to do Firefighter. Afterwards we continued on to General Vezax, where we smelled saronite and loved it. Then Yogg fell.

We closed out the night with me completing the key to Algalon, and then us killing him as well. Guild Achievement gained, personal achievement gained. New mounts and new titles for most of us. But most importantly, we had a really good time doing it. It was a nice break from Cata raiding. I know, for me at least, it sort of re-filled my tank.

I am chomping at the bit to get back to raiding current content this Sunday night.

Let’s just imagine for a moment

I've been chewing on this for a while, and decided to go ahead and post it.

Not that this has any chance of being implemented, but let's just imagine for a moment. I think that each paladin spec should have its own single target and AOE HoPo finisher, unique to that spec. I also think that each spec should have a single target and multi-target HoPo generator. Something like this:

	Single	Multi
Prot Generator	Crusader Strike	Hammer of the Righteous
Prot Finisher	Shield of the Righteous	Blinding Shield (the old abandoned level 81 Cataclysm ability modified to use HoPo)
Ret Generator	Crusader Strike	Holy Storm
Ret Finisher	Templar's Verdict	Insert AOE spell here (how about Inquisitor's Tempest for a name?)
Holy Generator	Holy Shock	Insert small AOE heal here (how about Virtue's Illumination for a name?)
Holy Finisher	Word of Glory	Light of Dawn

I am a really big believer in symmetry, and believe that the paladin class could use a little more.

A Rifting we will go . . . or will we?

Attendance problems are killing us in WoW. We have three scheduled raid nights a week, but are lucky if we can actually raid once a week right now. It is really a catch 22, as we need more people to join so that we can raid more often, but who wants to join a guild that is having problems putting a raid together on a consistent basis?

So, to pass the time, several guild members have bought and started playing Rift. As I mentioned in my last post, I have done the same (because I am weak).

Now, I know this may come as a surprise to many of you, but I decided before I ever set foot in the game, that I wanted to play a tank.

I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment that way.

For those of you that don't know, in Rift, there are only four classes. Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Cleric. Sounds boring, right? Each class has eight "callings" to choose from. However, you are limited to three callings in your spec. And initially, you are limited to the first three callings that you choose at level 1, 2, and 4. So imagine that you are new to MMOs in general. This system could get REAL confusing, REAL fast.

That aside, obviously, I am NOT new to MMOs. So what class do I choose? Why warrior of course. Duh! What calling do I choose at level 1? I'll give you three guesses (but only the first one counts).

*crickets*

No one? Okay, I'll give you a hint. It starts with the letter "P" and ends with "aladin".

I know, you're all shocked.

I rounded out my spec with Void Knight (for more magic damage reduction), and Reaver (for more AOE threat). And I started playing with ferver.

Things were moving along well, I got to about level 16 or so, and was getting ready for my first foray into a Rift dungeon, when something strange happened.

I started to resent Rift.

Everytime I login to WoW, things are just stressful and depressing…a.k.a. not fun. Rift, on the other hand is perfectly fun. I just don't want to play it anymore. Not because it is a bad game, it is probably the best MMO I have played outside of WoW, but because deep down inside, I think I blame Rift (fairly or not) for our WoW attendance problems. So now, I have a $50 game that I don't even want to play. And that makes me resent it even more. Because not only is Rift destroying my ability to have fun in WoW, but it also tricked me into paying out $50. I am not only weak, but apparently I am also a moron.

I DO know, that if my WoW guild falls apart, and we quit raiding, I will most likely just quit playing MMOs altogether. I really have no drive to go raid in Rift. As it stands right now, I can't even stand to login to Rift. I would rather go watch TV.

Maybe Star Wars: The Old Republic will capture my interest.