The new ParentDish: helping raise kids of all ages
Posts with tag kills

WoW Things Considered interviews Vis Maior

Posted Mar 10th 2008 4:40PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Guilds, Interviews


As scheduled, our good friend Duncor (and his co-host Cadwallion) on WoW Radio's WoW Things Considered podcast sat down for an interview with three guildies from Vis Maior, the guild that's been rolling through the PTR so far. It's a good interview -- Duncor and Cadwallion go through Vis Maior's (not Vis Major) history, how they've moved on to the PTR and begun raiding there, and what they think of the new content.

It's interesting to hear not only from a guild that has been around for a while, but is just now coming into the spotlight. And it's also cool to hear what the GMs are doing for the guilds testing the new content on the PTR -- they've deathtouched trash a few times, and even spawned "flaskators," which are NPCs which will give out consumables and other raiding standbys.

They also tackle the debate of whether "world firsts" actually count on the PTRs. Vis Maior does agree that PTR kills don't necessarily count if they're just being tested, but a world first kill of a "final" version of a boss should count. Duncor and Cad don't press them on this, unfortunately, but I'd disagree -- the only way you know a boss is final is if it is on the live realms, so only live realms should count. Still, Vis Maior sound like a great bunch of people (they sound like they really love to raid, which is always good for a high-end guild), and what they've done so far on the PTRs is definitely impressive. Kudos to them, and nice job to WoW Radio on the interview.
  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [5]

The Eredar Twins dead in PTR

Posted Feb 17th 2008 9:37AM by Hong Tan
Filed under: Patches, Guilds, Instances, Bosses


Vis Maior once again adds another PTR first by slaying the Eredar Twins, Lady Sacrolash and Grand Warlock Alythess (courtesy of worldofraids). If you were fortunate enough, you were one of the 1300+ viewers of their live stream when they killed the 4th boss of the new Sunwell raid instance. The loots were:

Band of Ruinous Delight
Grip of Mannoroth
Shroud of Redeemed Souls
Sin'dorei Pendant of Conquest
Essence of the Immortals

According to their Ustream schedule, they're at it again at 9:00 p.m.(EST) tonight.

Video of their kill inside.

Continue reading The Eredar Twins dead in PTR

  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [12]

World firsts on the PTR

Posted Feb 14th 2008 4:31PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Guilds, Odds and ends, Instances, Raiding, Bosses, NPCs

So here's the question: Do PTR world first kills count? MMO Champion has done a great job of following along with world firsts in the Sunwell on the PTR, and Vis Maior, an Alliance guild on Bonechewer has done most, if not all, of them-- they were the documented first to topple Kalecgos, Brutallus, and Felmyst (Forgotten Heroes and our old friends in Death and Taxes are also among the first boss downers on the PTR). But do kills on the PTR count as world firsts, or do the kills need to happen on live realms before they're considered world firsts?

Now, I know lots of you readers don't care about world first kills anyway (and you've got a point-- the only down that matter is the one you do with your guild), but lots of players believe there is value in being the first guild in the game to down a boss, and certainly the best guilds in the world work really hard for that honor. But technically, a boss isn't really "done" until it reaches the live realms. Then again, it usually isn't "done" yet anyway even after that.

Personally, I don't think they do count, which is one reason why we haven't yet reported them on this site. I have to applaud Vis Maior and the other guilds for their hard work, and I'm definitely impressed by what they've done, but this content isn't done yet, and in terms of documenting who got there first, my opinion is that we need to wait until after the bosses hit the live realms. You readers disagree?
  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [37]

Liquidor's rep calculator works for US realms, too

Posted Aug 10th 2007 1:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Expansions, Leveling, Factions


Ask and you shall be given-- the other day we posted about Liquidor's rep calculator, and lamented that it was EU only, and now only a few days later, he's updated it to not only include US realms, but he's completely revamped the design.

Sure enough, I punched in my character from the US realms, and I got the nice readout of where I'm at for all my reputations, and one click access to what exactly I need to do to move up a level (apparently I need to keep running Shadow Labs, grrr). Seems like it pulls everything directly from the Armory (where else would he get it from?), so all the info is as up to date as it is on Blizzard's official site.

There's also a checkbox now for "TBC Reputation only" that when unclicked gives a warning that says "Soon!," so apparently Liquidor is working on including Old World Azeroth rep as well. Just like we said the other day, this is a terrific tool for working on those all important rep grinds. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm LFG Shadow Labs. Anyone? Please?
  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [33]

Doing the Math on the New Honor Kill Decay Rate

Posted Aug 8th 2006 9:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Economy, PvP

There's lots of questions going around on the changes in the Honor system coming up in patch 1.12, but not a lot of clear answers, so let's pull out the old nerdulator and crunch some numbers.

First, if you're just wondering what the story is and don't care much about the numbers, the news is good for most of you. Basically, you'll be able to get more kills on the same person before they're worth no honor at all. Additionally, Blizz is changing the honor curve a bit-- even though there's no numbers on that yet, they say it's "to allow more people into the ranks." So we assume that's good news for most of us-- if you're one of those players who farms honor in the battleground for forty hours a week, you're probably not real happy about that, because there will be more higher ranks walking around. But then again, you were probably one of the kids who messed up the grading curve for the rest of us in math class.

But speaking of math class, let's see what they're actually doing with the "diminishing returns" on honor kills. Currently (before 1.12), there is a diminishing return of 25% every time a PVP player gets killed. That is, the first time they're killed, 100% honor is given (the actual number of honor is based on all kinds of other factors-- the ranks and levels of the players involved, whether you're in a group or raid, and a few other things). Then, the second time they're killed, 75% honor is given, then 50%, 25%, and on the fifth time they're killed, no honor is given. But in 1.12, we're told that the diminishing return will fall back to 10% per kill. The first kill, then, will grant 100%, but the second will grant 90%, then 80%, and so on and so forth. Which means you'll be able to kill the same player more times, while still gaining honor.

So the big question is, how much more honor will we get? (We told you we were pulling out the nerdulator for a reason.) Just for calculation, let's use an honor score of 100. Under the system before 1.12 (the formula is 2.5x, if you want to get really nerdy about it), you'll get 100 + 75 + 50 + 25 + 0 = 250 honor before your target is honorless. Under 1.12 (formula: 5.5x), you'll get 100 + 90 + 80 + 70 + 60 + 50 + 40 + 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 550. That's a whopping 220% more honor before every kill goes honorless. Sounds nice! Except that everybody else is getting honor at the same accelerated rate, too. So not so fast on shopping for that new High Warlord gear. Blizzard's updating of the ranks curve will help get you the rank you want, but the new honor kill decay rate just means there's lots more points for everybody to fight over.
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [6]


RESOURCES

Blizzard Events
BlizzCon (190)
Worldwide Invitational (104)
Class Columns
(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (46)
(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (36)
(Hunter) Scattered Shots (21)
(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (43)
(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (51)
(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (25)
(Rogue) Encrypted Text (33)
(Shaman) Totem Talk (51)
(Warlock) Blood Pact (31)
(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (55)
Gameplay
(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (26)
(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (25)
(Casual) WoW, Casually (21)
(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (63)
(Professions) Insider Trader (63)
(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (20)
(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)
(Raiding) Ready Check (26)
(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (44)
Hybrid Theory (20)
New Players' Guide (3)
Tank Talk (6)
AddOns and UI
AddOn Spotlight (89)
Macro Anatomy (14)
Reader UI of the Week (27)
Reader WoWspace of the week (31)
The Creamy GUI Center (14)
Lore and Stories
Around Azeroth (523)
Ask A Lore Nerd (9)
Barrens Chat (9)
Know your Lore (58)
Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)
WoW Moviewatch (515)
Features
15 Minutes of Fame (25)
About the Bloggers (28)
Ask WoW Insider (63)
Azeroth Security Advisor (4)
Breakfast topics (725)
Build Shop (35)
Forum Post of the Day (21)
Gamers on the Street (24)
Guildwatch (81)
He Said She Said (4)
Illusionary Tactics (2)
It came from the Blog (29)
Phat Loot Phriday (92)
The Colosseum (0)
Two Bosses Enter (61)
Well Fed Buff (27)
World of WarCrafts (26)
WoW Insider Show (67)
WoW Rookie (40)
[1.Local] (13)
Classes
Death Knight (97)
Druid (319)
Hunter (288)
Mage (180)
Paladin (305)
Priest (255)
Rogue (181)
Shaman (286)
Warlock (197)
Warrior (219)
News
Account Security (23)
AddOns (256)
Analysis / Opinion (3160)
Blizzard (1662)
Bugs (220)
Burning Crusade (378)
Contests (232)
Economy (198)
Events (465)
Expansions (637)
Fan stuff (919)
Features (674)
Forums (283)
Guilds (504)
Hardware (41)
Humor (805)
Interviews (164)
Lore (315)
Mounts (142)
News items (1602)
NPCs (213)
Odds and ends (1716)
Patches (1153)
Podcasting (78)
Ranking (55)
Realm News (295)
Realm Status (244)
RP (177)
Rumors (68)
Virtual selves (676)
WoW Insider Business (304)
WoW Social Conventions (155)
WoW TCG (57)
Wrath of the Lich King (420)
Strategy
Alts (115)
Arena (257)
Battlegrounds (157)
Bosses (361)
Buffs (129)
Cheats (74)
Classes (325)
Enchants (36)
Factions (166)
Guides (406)
How-tos (413)
Instances (682)
Items (882)
Leveling (302)
Making money (194)
PvP (779)
Quests (381)
Raiding (773)
Talents (153)
Tips (586)
Tricks (232)
Walkthroughs (92)
Media
Comics (80)
Fan art (49)
Galleries (193)
Machinima (601)
Podcasts (52)
Polls (67)
Screenshots (673)
Races
Alliance (118)
Draenei (66)
Dwarves (21)
Gnomes (46)
Human (21)
Night Elves (48)
Horde (119)
Blood Elves (72)
Orcs (29)
Tauren (51)
Trolls (27)
Undead (26)
Professions
Alchemy (80)
Blacksmithing (63)
Cooking (76)
Enchanting (77)
Engineering (112)
First Aid (19)
Fishing (63)
Herbalism (51)
Inscription (14)
Jewelcrafting (87)
Leatherworking (66)
Mining (50)
Skinning (31)
Tailoring (71)
Retired
Pimp My Profile (1)
(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)
Azeroth Interrupted (24)
Back In The Day (3)
World Wide WoW (8)
/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

    Featured Galleries

    Scarlet Crusade Tabard T-shirt
    Reader UI of the Week 6/29/08
    Worldwide Invitational goodie bag
    WWI08 Costume and Dance Contest
    Worldwide Invitational 2008
    World of WarCrafts: Midsummer magnet
    June 2008 splash screen speculation
    Blizzard splash screen speculation
    Midsummer Fire Festival

     

    Most Commented On (30 days)

    Recent Comments

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

    PS3 Fanboy
    WOW Insider
    Xbox 360 Fanboy
    Nintendo Wii Fanboy
    DS Fanboy
    PSP Fanboy
    Big Download Blog
    AOL Sports Blog