The Dein Perspective

Name Change

2008-08-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

After a very polite e-mail from a fellow blogger who happens to share the same blog name as myself, I have decided to change the name of this site. Nothing other than the name should be affected so it should be business as usual. for the meantime I think I will use the title, "The Dein Perspective" maybe not the most colorful name out there, but hopefully unique enough to not trounce on others intellectual property!

Back from vacation!

2008-08-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Well what a busy week it has been, or at least for me. Unfortunately the site has been left inactive in my absence while I camped out in the Canadian north, my apologies for not leaving a warning post!

All in all the camping trip was a lot of fun, and I got to do a lot of WoW activities in RL, ie: fishing, cooking, swimming, etc, etc... However, now that I'm back there are bills to be paid, names to be changes (see above), and raids to be had!

Wrathful Thinking

2008-07-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

Wrathful Thinking is a column about Wrath of the Lich King, our hopes, dreams, and concerns for the upcoming expansion.

Let's talk about the new 51 point BM talent, Beast Mastery!

The idea of taming such monstrosities such as the devilsaur has always been a dream to most hunters, myself included, and it seems like we are finally going to be able to do just that! Now from a raiding/min-max POV, it's a little hard to say how good this talent is actually going to be. The extra 5 talent points don't seem like much but it just might be powerful enough to hold its own. However, from an aesthetic point of view this talent is awesome. Players will now be able to easily distinguish between BM hunters since we are now getting awesomely unique pets, yay!

2008-07-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Misdirected now has Wowhead tool tips! What this means for those who are unfamiliar with this tool is that linked in-game items now have tool tips for easy viewing. For example: Sunfury

Hot Hardware

2008-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hot Hardware is an a column about gaming peripherals, if you have any suggestions for future articles, please e-mail me!

The Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard

I picked up this nifty little keyboard a few weeks ago, no small decision on my part because even at the discounted price of $85 CDN (the lady at tiger direct thought it was on clearance, I know it wasn't!), it was a lot of money to spend on a keyboard. Still, I've been wanting one of these babies for a few years now and I'm really glad I picked it up, it is by far one f the coolest peripherals I've ever bought. So, let's take a look at what makes this keyboard s special!

The first thing anyone will notice visually is the size of this thing, it's a beast! Fortunately the second version, of which I own, has been reduced significantly from the original, therefore fitting easier onto most desks and pull outs. Aside from the main key set it also comes equipped with 6 "G" keys which can be macroed for game use, but more on the later. The keys are large and sturdy, which to be honest made them a little awkward at first as you really have to hit them, however once you get adjusted to them it really feels great. If your the violent type of gamer who likes to smash his keys, this baby can withstand the blows with ease.

The keys are also backbit in a nice orange color, with the option of switching from high to low to off with a single button press. Originally I was a bit disappointed that the new version has orange keys instead of blue keys like the original, but a lot of reviewers say that the orange color is easier on the eyes and less of a distraction. I'm not sure what the blue lit version was like on the eyes but this version offers no discomfort at all. Aside from generally looking cool, the backlit keyboard really helps for people, such as myself, who are nocturnal gamers.

One of the biggest draws to the keyboard is the LCD screen. Built into the keyboard is an LCD screen with several different programs to help run your computer. The keyboard also supports software for most popular games, including WoW. To be quite frank the game addons seem rather useless, for two reasons. Firstly, they don't tell you anything that you couldn't see on screen anyway, and secondly even if it did, it's hard to stay focused on two separate screens. The WoW applet offers several features, the first of which is a stat tracker showing the stats as seen on the character tab. The second feature alerts you whenever you receive a PM, and the final one, and the one of only real use, is a BG tracker showing team balance, your Honorable kills, killing blows, time elapsed, and position in the charts. However, while the WoW applet may be moderately useless, some of the other program ones are not. The most useful by far is the ventrillo applet, this helpful addon shows you who's in the channel, who's talking, and even has a PM feed. I find this one endlessly useful, especially when in raids and trying to discern who's speaking. The second useful applet is the media tool which shows you what song is currently playing and how far along it is. Tied into this feature is the media shortcut keys built around the LCD screen which allow for volume control, play/ pause & stop, and forward/backward. Overall the LCD screen is a nice touch, but it is definitely not a strong enough feature to make you want to go buy it on those grounds alone.

The macro feature is probably the main pull for this keyboard and the primary feature distinguishing it as a gaming peripheral. On the left side of the keyboard are six G keys, at the top of the keyboard there are three M keys which let you switch between three sets of G keys, ultimately allowing you to have 18 programmable keys (not to mention each key can have an alt- shift- or control- command making the total much larger). The keyboard also has a MR key which allows you to set up the macros with just the keyboard, bypassing the software option of configuration. For WoW purposes the extra keys are very helpful, after all, who doesn't need more programmable keys? Personally I have the keys set to various items such as mounts, emotes, and pots/ bandages. while it is possible to program them to attack keys I chose not to, if only because I'm already so familiar with tier placements. This function is a great reason to by this board, especially if you feel like you need more keys for all of you macro-whores out there!

The keyboard also has some nifty little odds and ends, such as two USB ports, a mute button, and a gaming switch which turns off the windows key so you can tab out of your games. Overall this is a nice piece of equipment, if your willing to put down the cash. It is in no way a required tool, and while the features it provides are nice, you can get by without them. However, if your looking for a feature rich keyboard and have some spare cash laying around then I would say go for it, I'm happy I did.

Wrathful Thinking

2008-07-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Wrathful Thinking is a column about Wrath of the Lich King, our hopes, dreams, and concerns for the upcoming expansion.

I have to admit, when it comes to MMO's, I'm pretty vain. To me, the look of my character is almost as important as the the stats that accompany it. It's for this reason that I really dislike leveling, your character looks ridiculous until you start to acquire set gear. WoW in particular seems to suffer from this more than others due to the bright colorful clown suits they call armor. Unfortunatly with a new expansion heading our way we have no choice but to say good bye to our awesome looking set gear and hello to 10 levels of clown wear. That however, is not what I wish to write (complain) about. No, today is actually about the hunter armor design and how I would like to see it changed in the expansion.

As I see it there are two types of armor designs in the game, Plate armor and Cloth armor. In turn this makes everyone in the game look either like a warrior or a mage, which is pretty sad since theres a lot of potential for armor sets that can really flush out the style of particular classes. Now to express what I mean by "flushing out style", take a look at the warlock and druid armor sets. The cenarion set has a very earthy feel with leaves and branches, very much the naturalistic feel of the druid class. The warlock Malefic set is very demonic with its wings and horns, very much attune to the evil feel behind the class. Now I only wish that this design theory was spread throughout the other classes, particularly hunters.

Now to be honest, I do like the look of the current hunter sets, so I'm not complaining about them or how they look, I just feel that there is a lot of wasted potential for armor sets that reveal the feel behind the class. Firstly I think we should look at what exactly that "feel" is. Hunters are, as the name implies, hunters. Therefore I think furs and scales make pretty appropriate designs sicne hunters are often known for wearing their kills. I also don't mind the addition of mail, since we do wear it after all and even i don't want to see the class go from a total plate look to a total leather look. However when it comes to mail I think it would look best if worn underneath the furs and scales, mostly hidden but shown enough so it is still reasonably considered as mail armor. Horns, cameo patterns, and teeth are also pretty generic hunter motifs that I think would make great additions to adding some flair to the sets. It's also my opinion that the armor should proobabl avoid the clean and polished look, and lean more towards rustic and worn out, after all, hunters spend most fo thier time in the wilderness. Add all this in togather and throw in some blizzard flair and I think you would have one badass looking armor set.

Of course maybe I'm just being picky, but overall I really do hope that blizzard brings more theme and style to the new armor sets, especially since were leaving the space age of Outlands and heading back into the cruel Gothic world of Northrend!

Progression!

2008-07-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been very busy for my guild as we have managed to progress much further into the raid content. Last night we managed to tackle down Anetheron, our first progress kill in awhile. To be honest it really didn't look like it was going to happen last night as we seemed to suffer from server issues and player mistakes. However, on our last push of the evening we were able to take him down, and finally push deeper into Hyjal. Tonight we take on Kaz´rogal , should be interesting!

We have also experimented in Black Temple this week as we tried to take on High Warlord Naj´entus. Unfortunately due to healers having to leave we only got in two attempts, however wee managed to get him down to below 60% twice, not bad for a first attempt.

So far I've really been enjoying the raiding experience provided by WoW, it's currently my my draw to the game. All I can say in contempt now is this: Hyjal. Waves. Reseting. GARGHHHH!

Time For A Revamp

2008-07-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

I've sadly been neglecting this blog of late, instead of posting everyday as promised i have left the site to whither in non-activity, and for that I'm sorry. Both to my readers, and to myself, as I started this project as a way to keep myself writing daily, a hobby I usually enjoy but often neglect during the summer months. Therefore i have decided to change the purpose of the site a bit. Instead of simply posting updates about my progression I have decided to introduce different columns or daily topics to fill my blog.

Everyday for the next week there will be a brand new daily for everyone, including myself, to enjoy. I haven't decided what these dailies are going to be yet, but I have enough ideas to keep it going for the next few days at the very least. The dailies are bound to change a bit over the next few weeks but I will do my best to keep them as intended, meaning of course, DAILY!

That being said I will still post other tidbits of news/progression, but the main articles are going to be the dailies, enjoy!

New Screenies!

2008-07-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

Check em out either at my photo bucket page or in the sideshow to the right!

Hyjal!

2008-07-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Oh yea I somehow managed to forgot to mention that my guild (with myself present) was able to down the first boss in Hyjal, and gave a good few runs at the second boss too! Our Gm (who was once a core raider in one of our servers best raiding guilds) plans on ultimately skipping T5 since most of the tanks and healers are more then geared for T6. I'm not really sure how this will unfold, some people think its possible while others disagree and say it's more important to gear up in T5, guess we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, Hyjal is an interesting raid, if not incredibly annoying. We managed to 1-shot the first boss and all was good, however it was a pain taking down big guy number two due to the fact that you have to clear all th waves all over again every time you fail, should be a *fun* few weeks in store as far as Hyjal is concerned =P

It's been awhile!

2008-07-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I last posted but a lot has happened and deserves to be mentioned! Firstly I have found yet another new guild, one that has not only let me raid but is filled with numerous server friends. I'm not a big fan of guild jumping but untill now I hadn't really found a guild that I felt truly comfortable in, fortunately these guys seem like a great guild and I have no plans of leaving anytime soon.

Most of my in game time has been spent raiding, and boy have I progressed! Our guild has fully progressed into T5 and is now working on taking out both Kael and Lady V, both incredibly tough bosses (imo) and will take a little while to take down. Tier 5 content has been a lot of fun for me, even though I have yet to receive any loot from this tier I have learned a lot about playing my hunter and fighting against technical boss fights. I've personally managed to attend all of the TK progress kills but have yet to go anywhere in SSC (with the exception of fighting Vasj, but i'll get to that in a bit) and have had a great time learning all these new fights.

Tempest Keep has been a pretty fun experience overall. I really like the feel and lore behind the raid and think it holds a semi-epic quality to it, if at the least for letting you take down Kael at the end. Loot Reaver is a fun fight full of dodging, Alar is a DPS fest, and Solarian lets you reach new heights (bad pun?). We haven't attempted Kael yet but I feel I'm ready for it, Ive watched several movies, listened to Total Biscuits podcast guide, and read through Bosskillers walk through. Yes Kael, I am Prepared!

I have yet to adventure in SSC so I was a bit surprised when my GM brought me to our first Vasj attempts last night. It was a pretty awesome experience, if not an utter failure. Well, thats not true, it was our first attempts and we managed to get to phase 3, with like 2 people alive, and at the very least managed to teach the fight to most of the core raiders. It''s a very intense fight and like nothing I have seen in the game before, there is so much going on. That being said, the fight was a lot of fun to attempt and I look forward to trying her again in a few days.

Unfortunately due to the high amount of raiding on both my side and the Pally's, we have been unable to do any arena matches lately, which is a bit unfortunate since I was having a lot of fun with it, maybe next week though.

In smaller news I have began maxing out my mining in hopes of farming out my epic flyer in the next few weeks, I'm currently at 350 and have already noticed a flow in cash, should be fun to see what the cash is like when maxed!

I feel so....cheated.

2008-06-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

So about a week ago I grouped up for a regular Magisters Terrace run in the hopes of my epic chest piece dropping. Unfortunately the group collapsed after the second boss (again) and I was left with a bored pally who I chatted up a bit. Eventually we decided to try some arenas, something I had never done before.

To begin with lets talk about areas a little bit. Arenas had never really interested me much, even though I enjoy pvp I prefer to do my slaying in the battleground or (as rare as it might be) in the open world. However, once I tried out the arena my opinions changed a bit. For starters I like how quick and easy it is, all you have to do is group with your member, talk to an arena guy, and poof! within 30-40 seconds your in an arena. Theres also the bonus that arenas are pretty much costless, aside from making the team of course. There are no repair builds and you can't use potions and other consumables in game. It's also fun to play with a regular partner and have rewards that are very attainable, assuming you have some skill and enough time to play some games.

Anyway, our foray into the world of arenas was pretty successfully, we ended up 12-12 after a night of good matches, note that this was a few days before season 4 was released. Skip ahead a week or so and suddenly were getting smoked by high skilled, well geared players. Unfortunately this is a downside to the release of a new season, that being that the skilled teams just starting the new season get a chance to smoke through the lower end teams who are also at the bottom of the rung due to rating resets.

However the real kicker is that I logged on today to discover that there was a new member to our 2v2 team, a warrior. And he was good, real good. Together, him and my old partner were able to go 17-12, not bad when a lot of good teams are in the lower brackets. Now I won't lie, I was a little heartbroken. I thought we had something special, something that couldn't be broken. A great little team that no one can tear apart, no, those aren't tears, I swear! I guess in the end as long as I get the points its all worth it..... I guess.... ((tear))

Come back my pally friend, Ill respec, ill get better gear, Ill give you more than that warrior could ever get you (except a decent rating), just don't leave me.... bah what am I saying, Arenas are for scrubs*, lets go raid Mag!

*just kidding!

Diablo 3, Pet Talents, and much more besides!

2008-06-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

WWI is well under way and many big announcements have been made. The biggest, no doubt, is the announcement of Diablo 3. Once upon a time I was a big fan an avid player of Diablo 2 and am therefore quite excited for the third installment, especially with the introduction of new classes and updated graphics, as well as an epic looking story line.

In WoW related news they released some interesting information about a whole bunch of classes including hunters. In wrath, hunter pets will get their own trio of talent tree's, a tanking one, a utility one, and a dps one. This will be replacing the current point system, hopefully making a more wider variety of pets viable for competitive pvp and raid content. They are also doing away with the steadyshot clipping issues which will greatly simplify the shot rotations used by hunters.

Some other tidbits they have mentioned include: modulated DK character voices, CC for shamans, and a relook at warrior DPS.

Now back to the stream!

The Anticipation...

2008-06-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

So, tomorrow marks the start of the World Wide Invitational, a Blizzard event held in Paris! The event will include all sorts of fun goodies like contests, arena tournaments, WotlK demo's etc.. However, the big thing most Blizzard fans are awaiting is the big new announcement that is scheduled to be announced tomorrow. Everyday, for the past few days, Blizzard has put up an ever changing splash screen up on it's main sites, apparently signaling the upcoming announcement. Rumors are all over the place saying that the new announcement is going to be Diablo 3, or early Death Knights. We'll just have to wait until tomorrow morning for the official announcement!

Player Info

2008-06-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

Character Name: Deinonychus
Class: Hunter
Faction: Horde
Server: Blackwing Lair (US)
Time Zone: Eastern
Started Playing: July 06

Mag-ing My Day:

2008-06-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

My new guild pulled me into a Mag run last night, it was a progress run and we only got him to about 60% before we wiped due to cube mishaps. IT was a pretty interesting experience as it was my first 25 man raid, nothing quite like it I must say. It was a little stressful and exciting, unfortunately I only got to run it once as it was about the third wipe that night and they plan on picking it up tonight. Due to work, I won't be there. =(

In other news I was made officer of an alt-guild and got ROFLSTOPMED in arenas....

That is all....

Everyone Makes Mistakes...

2008-06-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

So apparently Patch 2.4.3 was not supposed to be released yesterday, only the new arena season, oh well. In other news I tried the Ram racing on the public test realms for the new Brewfest holiday coming up, it's a pretty fun mini-game and the rewards, including a kodo, look pretty sweet. Of course I still need to focus on the current holiday as I'm trying to get the dancing flames brazier, but i still need 150 blossoms, back to the grind!

Server Dowtime... and what a douzy!

2008-06-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

As I write this, the WoW servers, including my home of Blackwing Lair are currently down for extended maintenance. This Tuesday is slightly different than most, at least for the WoW community, as today marks the release of the newest patch, 2.4.3.

This patch, while rather small, has gained quite a bit of anticipation, most noticeably for the release of Season 4. Its' been quite a while since season 3 was released and most avid arena goers are eager for new epic gear, in fact most pvp'ers have spent the last few weeks saving up their honor and arena points in hopes of getting the new gear right off the bat. Seeing as i'm not much of a pvp'er, at least outside of battle grounds, the arena rush is a little foreign to me. That being said there is still something for the casual pvp'er, and that would be the season 2 honor hear. Sure, it's hardly comparable to the new season four stuff, and it's definitely worthy of the title welfare, but it's a good way of filling in those blue slots that most beginner raider/pvp'er has. I'm looking forward to grinding out a few thousand armor for the chest and leg slots, not to mention shellign out a few hundred gold for the gemming costs....

Also included in this patch is Harris Pillton, a new vanity and bag merchant resembling everyones fav celeb (I jest!). If you feel like spending 1.5 gold on the biggest bag (gold sink) in the game then I'm sure your excited. There are also some mentioned class changes, the ones relating to me being:

Hunters:

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet's Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

It'll be interesting to see how much of a nerf this is to pet aggro... hopefully nothing too dire!

And so we wait!

Who am I?

2008-06-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

"So who am I?" you ask. Well I'm a home bred Canadian of 18 who's spent a life, amongst other things, of playing video games. I'm a fan of most genres, I was really into RTS games like W3 and Starcraft, a fan of shooters like Halo and Cs Source, dabbled in Guns, and revelled in the horror shooter games like Bioshock and F.E.A.R. I'm no stranger to rythym games like Guitar Hero, and Ive spent a lot of time in Rpg's like Morrowind and Oblivion. But thats not why your here.

Your here because I, like over 8 million other people, play World of Warcraft. To get the basic stuff out of the way:I began playing in 2006, at the time of the release of Naxx, I have one lvl 70 character and he's a Troll Hunter, my home server is Blackwing Lair and my main in game intrests are raiding and Bg's.

"A raider" you might be thinking, along with: "probably some BT or Sunwell elitist who want to show off his epeen on a blog" or "probably some scrub who thinks he's pro". Neither would be right however, as I'm neither a scrub or a pro, just some in between guy like a lot of 70's out there. I recently started raiding about a month ago and with my previous guild cleared Kara (except for the two dragons) and managed 3/6 through ZA. Ive raided as both Surv and BM specs and was throughly disappointed when my guild was disbanded last week due to drama.
I'm not the best raider by far and will never see sunwell or even black temple before the expansion hits, but I'm still excited by progressing through what content I can.

Currently I'm guildless and in the process of a few recruitment opportunities, not to mention contemplating a name change for my character, so I'm sorta at the bottom right now. Hopefully if you continue to read this blog you'll see improvement in my status, things can only get better right?

Anyway, as the days go on and as I continue to update this blog, I'll post more and more information about my character, my experiences, and my Rl influences. So in other words, stay tuned!

And So It Began...

2008-06-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays, that inconsequential day of little importance. Too soon after Sunday, and too far from Saturday, Tuesdays come off as rather dull, especially since they bring about another dillema... server maintenance!

Yes, thats right, as any WoW player should know Tuesdays are server maintenance days, meaning for a few hours every Tuesday morning we are cut off from WoW. And, of course, as any WoW addict would know, downtime leads to unimaginable things. Whether it's going outside to walk the dog (gasp) or watching the excuse they call morning T.V (mourning is more like it with all the soaps on these days...), or even starting a blog, we have to find something other than Warcraft to occupy ourselves.

That is in fact how this blog came to be, it is currently Tuesday June 24, at 11:54 Et and to occupy my cravings I have decided to start this blog. I know not if anyone will ever read this, or even if they should, but if you happen across this blog and are interested in the insights of a fledgling raider, a dedicated player, or even just a young gamer, then you may just find something of interest! Enjoy.