This week we have a new comic up for scrutiny concerning Blizzcon, a comic depicting the humorous side of the Midsummer Fire Festival, and some pretty aggressive battle strategy.
A new comic has sprung up about the adventures of two 'durids' attempting to get to Blizzcon. It makes use of a bit too much lol-speak for my tastes, but what do you guys think?
The fellows of Dark Legacy Comics are going to require a Plan B if they hope to reclaim their place on the top of the hierarchy. Also, I am jealous of their murloc action figure.
We get our motivation today from Thongsnapper (nice name) of Gorefiend who asks, if you could have any spell in Warcraft in real life, which one would you have? Hearthstone would be an interesting choice for sure, and Polymorph would make for an interesting life (though its uses might be pretty limited, considering that real life doesn't actually have aggro management), but I think personally I'm going to have to fall back on the old superpower standby: stealth. Moving around unseen just seems too fun to pass up.
Actually, I might second guess that -- in terms of practicality, healing spells might actually be more beneficial to the world. Wave your hands, and any ailments, no matter how big or small, are done away with. I'll have to give this some serious thought. In the meantime, let's hear it: if you could have any spell from the game in real life, which one would you choose?
Rogues probably remember well the day that their current stealth animations were altered over a year ago now. People complained that their character suddenly seemed wobbly or constipated while walking around in stealth, but Blizzard responded with promises of brand-new super-cool stealth animations for rogues of all races to help solve the issue. They said, and I quote, "Currently this issue is expected to be resolved in patch 2.1," (which obviously didn't happen) "but there is a chance that the new animations will not be ready by that time, which may result in the fix being delayed for a later patch."
A later patch indeed! Which later patch, you ask? 2.4 perhaps? The official word is "no new ETA," which, as you know, is Blizzard-speak for "sorry guys and gals, we wish we could do this right now, but there just isn't time. We might have time to do it sometime between now and the next global ice age, perhaps."
No, to be fair, they probably will get around to it some day, probably even sometime during the 21st century!
All the World's a Stage is skipping class (gasp!), and playing with roles every Sunday evening.
Our spells are shiny and bright, well worth using in more than just combat situations! Last time we talked a bit about this idea, as well as how druids, hunters, and mages could use their spells to entertain their friends. Today we turn to the remaining classes: priests, paladins, rogues, shamans, warlocks and warriors.
Each roleplayer would do well to sit down and examine his or her action bar to pick out those spells which can be used outside of combat, and think of whatever opportunities imaginable to make good use of them. Chances are, if you put your mind to it, you can come up with some really creative ideas.
Buffing, for instance: You've got these beautiful abilities that can benefit anyone around you, no matter what class or level they are. If you're going to bless them with such a neat thing, why not say something about it while you do so? You can say, "<Deity Name> guide you, sir!" or, "you look pretty dumb -- have some extra intellect!" or whatever expression sounds right for your character.
To paraphrase the Matrix: unfortunately, you cannot be told what this video is. You must see it for yourself. After watching it, I can't help but wonder if spending my days in stealth might occasionally be an improvement. (Think about all of the dull office conversations that could be avoided!) The only difficulty would be perfecting the walk -- well, that and the air of certainty that no one can see you! Previously on Moviewatch...
Cach, a player on the Spanish-speaking Zul'jin realm wrote in to tell us a little story about him, a GM, and the chests in the Mechanar. So the story goes that Cach was going through his usual sneaky-stealthy chest farming run in the instance, when he was messaged by a GM. It appears that such a run is about to be considered an exploit, and that Cach was getting a note on his Permanent Record and would soon be sent to the Principal's Office if he didn't stop.
Didn't stop? If he stops playing a rogue, they mean. Okay, I may be wrong on this, but I honestly thought being sneaky and inventive was what the rogue class was all about. Turns out that using their skills to achieve monetary gain is a no-no. Oh wait, what about Pick Pocket you say? Yeah, my point exactly. I fail to see how using the skills programmed into the class is exploiting the game. Yes, he is able to stealth through the instance and collect items from chests. Yes, this enables to rogues to make cash in an inventive way. So does AoE farming fire elementals on the Elemental Plateau. Will this too be considered an exploit soon?
There is a fine line between using the skills your characters have in an inventive way and exploiting weaknesses in the game. A rogue's ability to stealth by enemies? I really hope they don't consider that an exploit. Otherwise why not just roll a warrior and have done with?
If you've ever watched Monty Python (and of course you have), you've probably seen the wonderful informational film "How Not To Be Seen." It takes the form of a crash course on how not to be detected, with explosive consequences for anyone who fails. Among the tips are not to stand up, not to choose an obvious hiding place, and not to let anyone know where you're planning on taking your holiday.
How Not To Be Seen reminds me a lot of questing and world PVP as a rogue. As long as you're invisible, you're fine -- but if you get caught out in the open, prepare to get pyroblasted into eternity. Other classes have huge swords, the light of the gods, demonic powers, endless channels of arcane magic, angry animal companions, and the powers of nature itself. We've got, what, two measly daggers? No wonder we need to hide.
So this week, Encrypted Text will present some tips -- both physical and psychological -- on how not to be detected when in stealth.
First of all, I must apologize. In all the cowfusion, I udderly lost track of time and thus found that many Rogues had a serious beef with me over this column being late. But not to worry, dear readers! I've finally detoxed, and many hamburgers later, I'm back and ready to dish this week's Encrypted Text. Of course, there is one last remaining bit of Bovine Inspiration for this week's column... And that would be a little thing I like to call Content Avoidance.
Now, any Rogue worth their salt knows precisely what I'm talking about. The first time that you sneak past every mob in a particular area just to take out the named mob you have to get to, then proceed to sneak back out, you've experienced your first bit of Content Avoidance. Of course, many others will call it stealth running, or sneaking past mobs, etc. No matter what you call it, it equates to the highway to speedy quest completion. As hinted at above, I must give a nod to the other class that is almost, but not quite as good at stealth runs: Druids. Despite the fact that feral Druids love Rogue armor just as much as Rogues do, there is an excellent relationship that can be cultivated here if the Druid and Rogue in question are willing... I am speaking, of course of the Perfect Stealth Run Team.
Last time we checked in on our rogue friend Gweedo, he was stealthing around Thunder Bluff, looking for likely assassination targets. I asked, at the time, when we might be seeing the inside of Silvermoon City from a rogue's perspective -- and Gweedo does not disappoint. While Silvermoon apparently has better security than Thunder Bluff or the Undercity -- including patrols that can see through stealth as well as a special anti-rogue patrol that spawns behind Lor'thermar when a stealthed player is detected in the area -- but apparently a well-trained rogue can still work their way into the heart of the city. But, really, my description doesn't do the trip justice -- for a full accounting of a dwarf's day in Silvermoon City, you really need to read Gweedo's story yourself.
After his recent tour of the Undercity, our friend Gweedo decided to continue with a nice trip to Thunder Bluff. Now, I would personally presume Thunder Bluff to be quite safe from alliance incursion -- it lies atop a high bluff (unsurprisingly) and can only be accessed by elevators carrying you up, with guards above and below. (Heck, of course you can sneak into the Undercity -- it has a back door and everything.) But it seems that Thunder Bluff's finest aren't particularly observant, as Gweedo had no trouble infiltrating the city. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) Cairne Bloodhoof seems to have a more secure setup, being that he's mostly blocking the doorway into his tent -- but a single death later, and Gweedo was able to resurrect directly behind him for another attempt. I'm guessing the assassination attempt went poorly, involving more dead dwarves than dead tauren -- but there's only so much a single dwarf can do.
And when will we see postcards from Orgrimmar? Hard to say, as Thrall apparently has excellent stealth detection.
A rogue has never been my main, so I've never had the pleasure of stealthing in to an opposing faction city just to explore, like Gweedo has. Sure, I've done my share of charging into the gates of an enemy cities, and even done a bit of corpse-hopping touristry once I've gotten there. (Did you realize that the tram between Stormwind and Ironforge is considered neutral territory? On a PvE server, once you get down there, you can stay and visit with the Alliance for as long as you'd like!) But it's not quite the same as stealthing all the way to the faction leader and stabbing them in the back. I'm going to need to level my rogue some more purely for the pleasure of having such an experience -- but in the meantime, we can all live vicariously through Gweedo's tale of stealth and subterfuge.
Vaneras over at the EU forums has answered many rogues' prayers today:
We have just received some feedback from the developers regarding this issue and it is good news indeed :-)
The animators are currently working on completely new stealth movement animations to solve this issue. This basically means that the current "funny looking" stealth animations will be replaced with new better looking ones :-)
Currently this issue is expected to be resolved in patch 2.1, but there is a chance that the new animations will not be ready by that time, which may result in the fix being delayed for a later patch.
And shortly later, on why they weren't just restoring the old ones: I think the animators felt like they wanted something new instead of reverting back to the old animations. Something awesome that wouldn't make it look like that you are moving too fast or too slow when being in stealth.
I remember the old "ice skating" animations quite well, and I do personally agree that they looked better than the current ones, but they still looked kind of silly IMO. :-) I don't know anyone who likes the new animations, so I can't see why this is anything but welcome news.
Stealth and invisibility abilities have been altered for the 1.10 patch, and if you're a class with a stealth
ability, you aren't going to think it's for the better. Presently, when in stealth, you can use a skill, and are
unstealthed at the end of the skill cast. However, in 1.10, you are unstealthed at the beginning of the skill
cast rather than the end. What does this mean to you? Well, if you're trying to cast aimed shot from
shadowmeld, people now have a chance to spot you. Though there are pages
of complaints, Blizzard has confirmed that this change is intentional.
This week we have a new comic up for scrutiny concerning Blizzcon, a comic depicting the humorous side of the Midsummer Fire Festival, and some pretty aggressive battle strategy.
Rogues probably remember well the day that their current stealth animations were altered over a year ago now. People complained that their character suddenly seemed wobbly or constipated while 
Cach, a player on the Spanish-speaking Zul'jin realm wrote in to tell us a little story about him, a GM, and the chests in 
Vaneras over at the EU forums has 
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