Linux guide I wrote a while back

Hey guys,
Possibly not entirely WoW-related I know, but this was a little guide I threw together prolly a year or two back to help someone learn about Linux from the ground up. I'm aware that this won't be for everyone, but some of you might be interested. This doesn't explicitly mention setting up WoW in Linux, no...but by the time you've gone through the six steps here, you'll know that much about Linux anywayz that you'll most likely be able to figure it out on your own. If you can't, ask me. :)

This also might take a couple of weeks for you to go through, a bit at a time. Another reason why you might want to look at it is because Vista is pretty much a complete flop. (As explained here by someone who's apparently a fairly hard core Microsoft fan) I'm still primarily with XP myself, but either Linux or FreeBSD will almost certainly be my next OS once XP hits end of life. Anywayz...here's the guide. :)

1. First of all, grab Knoppix, burn it to a CD, and spend a few days (or a few weeks, whatever you feel comfortable with) playing with it. Unless you go into the install option, the base CD doesn't install anything to the hard drive, so you can't harm anything. For the purposes of these exercises, you might want to just run from the CD for a while and do them that way. This is a completely safe, non-intimidating way for you to initially get your feet wet.

2. While you're exploring Knoppix, there are a few things to read which will really help you. This [tldp.org] will give you a very good
introduction to Linux, in terms of a little history of the system, how to begin using it, and how some basic things work. Here [tldp.org] is another in-depth document about using Linux, leading on from the previous one.

3. Once you've gone through those two, (take as much time as you need) this [tldp.org], written by the same
man as the introduction, will introduce you to the Bash shell, the textual command interpreter where as a sysadmin in
particular you'll likely be spending a lot of your time. This will ease you into scripting in what I think will be a very
non-intimidating way. You will be able to try out all of these exercises with the Knoppix CD, and again, because the CD
doesn't install anything to the hard drive, you needn't worry about destroying your existing system's contents while you
learn. This [tldp.org] is another book on Bash
scripting which to a degree follows on from that one, and will go into somewhat greater depth. Both of these should lead to
you feeling very comfortable writing shell scripts and moving around to a degree on the system.

4. Here [tldp.org] is where we get
to some meat. This document goes into compiling and installing generic Linux/UNIX software, and offers some basic
applications and examples. Once you've gone through this, coupled with the material above, you should now have sufficient understanding to be able to compile and install at least a basic application yourself.

5. The Pocket Linux Guide will take you step by step through the process of learning to make a small, bootable Linux system on two floppy disks.

Although compiling a basic custom kernel is part of this process, the Guide contains a link to another document which
explains very clearly how to do this, and given the background you will have received from the previous documents, this
should not be difficult.

6. Once you have completed the Pocket Linux Guide, you will then be ready to proceed to this [linuxfromscratch.org] site, which is the homepage of the Linux From Scratch Project. Here you will be able to read an HTML-formatted book which will give you the necessary information to successfully build an entire base Linux system of your own, and a more pure boot CD than Knoppix to initially build it upon. The Linux From Scratch Project also has a sequel book, Beyond Linux From Scratch, which describes how to install, among other things, a full graphical user interface with the X Windows system.

7. After you have completed all of this, although it is not crucial, I thoroughly recommend reading this [catb.org] book during idle moments. (It's still a good mealtime accompaniment for me) It will give you a detailed knowledge of the history and philosophy behind the UNIX operating system in general, which I am sure you will find enormously useful.

I'm on the threshold

Yesterday, for the first time with Survival, according to my meter, I broke 400 overall dps (me 320, my boar around 110) farming ogres in the Southwind Cleft. Granted, this was with a full 1:1.5 rotation, (I still can't do it without using Multishot) but especially considering that I'm actually pure trap spec at the moment, (no Barrage, no TotH) I don't think it's too bad.

My individual crits are lower than they were with Marks, (Multi was critting for around 1.7k at the high end with Master Marks, RWS, and the Barrage talents) but my crit rate is up 4% to 22% now, so it happens more often. Individual crits are back down to about 1.1k for multi/arcane, and prolly 1k white.

In a Mana Tombs run yesterday, with Leader of the Pack I hit 29% crit as well, and considering that I've also got Master Tac atm because I wanted Readiness for trapping, that means I was getting a temporary max of 39%. With a Shaman providing Wrath of Air and a Paladin with Blessing of Kings in a group, I'm reasonably confident that I could probably clear 35% before Master Tac as well, which would mean 45% while it's up.

These numbers are already telling me though that going forward, there is potential for absolutely Godlike ranged damage with Surv. Right now I'm feeling somewhat like how I'm guessing the Wright Brothers did during the initial test flights of their prototype plane; I'm on the runway, and just starting to temporarily leave the ground every so often. I can see myself eventually hitting 50% crit fairly easily if I can keep progressing with gear, and at that point I'll really be going into orbit.

For anyone non-Survival who is reading this and considering conversion, (*grin*) if ranged DPS is what you're doing it for, the true break even point seems to be around 600 agility, in terms of it becoming competitive with the other two specs; that isn't even so much for EW, as it is to bump your crit up enough. My current base before Lightning Reflexes is in the neighbourhood of 540 or so; and LR has bumped that up to around 620, especially considering that I just finished socketing my helm as well. You don't need 600 base before LR, but you will want around 530-550 base before switching if you haven't used Survival before.

You will also likely struggle to clear 300 dps with Survival with less than 20% crit, as its' ranged damage is almost entirely crit based. My paperdoll DPS is still only around 227; my crit is the only thing that bumps it up. Contrary to what other people say, I actually don't recommend crit rating in favour of agility, either. Although it's true that you'll get your crit up more easily with rating than Ag, (and I am going to have to get more rating myself probably after around 27%) you only have room for so many stats. Gear space that is devoted to crit rating possibly isn't gear space devoted to Ag, which actually drives your ap down twice; first in terms of base, and second in terms of EW. Attack power is already at a premium for me as it is, so I'm finding I need to go Ag, Ag, Ag. ;-)

For the people who still want to do Surv between 10-60, at that point in the game it's primarily about the DoTs. (Serpent Sting and Immolation Trap) The trap and sting scaling in 2.3 is going to be a dream come true for us at the low end; I still use Serpent/Immolation trap when I need to solo mobs with massive health, (such as Tusker in Nagrand) but can't afford to risk pulling them off my pet.

In response to Karthis

Edit: I originally mistook this as having been from Pike, and not Karthis...hence the absolute URL for this post. I've edited it to the degree that I can, and I do apologise, Pike.

Karthis wrote a response to my Rogue rant here, and so this post is going to be a reply to it.

Where to begin? Well, how about with a fabricated counter-example that I could easily see appearing on a blog some day:

I hate Hunters... I mean, does any other class collect the number of unskilled braindead people as hunters? It's as if Blizzard woke up one morning and said: "Let's make a class for people who failed basic math, and have all the manual dexterity of a cinder block." I don't like grouping with hunters because their unprofessionalism and outright stupidity infuses any group they become a part of, and I feel as if my IQ is dropping by the second.

Total rubbish of course, but I have grouped with a number of utter huntards in the past - mostly in PUG scenarios.

I'm honest enough to admit that this actually isn't total rubbish, Karthis. Maybe it is when talking about every single Hunter in existence, yes...but I will admit that when I've been playing my alts, I've had some Hunter problems as well recently...and I also know what the class's general reputation is. I attribute my own recent negative alt experiences primarily to three causes:-

1) The groups I was in were below level 40. A Hunter without Feign Death is a Hunter who, while still being able to draw massive amounts of aggro, is unable to drop said aggro. Hence, they draw crowds and cause wipes.

2) Player impatience. Most of the new characters I've grouped with recently were people who already had multiple 70s, and ironically, this actually seemed to cause them to make more mistakes than an entirely new player...mainly because, given the length of time it had been since playing the early instances, they would underestimate the level of difficulty present in the low level instances for characters of equal level, and assume they could simply race through it chain pulling everything in sight.

3) The inherent level of complexity involved in playing the class. I wouldn't know how many times I've heard it said on the Hunter forum; while the Hunter is an easy class to begin to play, it is actually fiendishly difficult to play well. There are just so many different variables to keep track of; your provisions, pet control, threat management, shot rotation, trapping, to melee or not to melee...none of these things are difficult individually; but put all of them together, and then throw the Hunter into a completely unfamiliar instance...you possibly begin to get the picture.

I was practicing daily in the Scarlet Monastery for probably six weeks a bit back in order to try and shed some of my own Huntard tendencies, and based on a rather messy duo BRD run that happened yesterday, it would seem I'm still in need of a lot more practice as far as pull order and crowd control is concerned. I've also caused some utterly monumental wipes in the Steamvault in particular due to backing into random adds. So yeah...there are a lot of Huntards out there, quite honestly...and I'm entirely willing to admit that most of the time, I'm one of them.

One of my best WoW-friends is a Rogue, and she is an absolute joy to group with - friendly, courteous, and even humble.

I need to meet some of these people. ;-)

I have met Paladins with god complexes

Ah, yes. I refer to this particular affliction as "Buzz Lightyear Syndrome." It's a coincidence that you mention it, actually...with my alt Warrior I did half a Blackfathom Deeps run with a textbook case just yesterday. We'd barely even get one pull finished before she'd charge madly on to the next, all the while continually telling us at length about the Paladin's total invincibility. Never mind caster mana or any semblance of order...just charge, charge, charge. Although we didn't wipe, a Warlock and I ended up hearthing out in disgust around halfway through...although in hindsight, it's actually pretty funny.

"To infinity...and beyond!" ;-)

drunkard Priests

I did an SM library run with a stoned tank once. Not a positive experience.

I think that Mirshalak needs to get over himself, and give Rogues another chance. Perhaps massive bad luck has landed him with a few bad apples in the past, but that is no excuse to blacklist the entire Rogue community.

I was actually thinking earlier today that I possibly do need to reverse my stance here. I can only conclude that my bad luck has indeed been massive, because the bad apples honestly have numbered more than a few...but you're right. My attitude has been bad.

Rogues

I want to write today about probably the single greatest source of emotional pain which currently exists in my life at this point, as ridiculous as it may sound; the Rogue class in World of Warcraft.

Most people, even the most positive and mature, have at least one thing in their lives that bothers them to the point of complete and total irrationality. For some people it's spiders. For others it's cockroaches or slugs. For me, it's the Rogue class in this game. I actually don't like mentioning the above animals in association with Rogues, since to be honest, my feelings towards those three groups of animals are actually highly compassionate and tolerant, compared to how I feel towards Rogues.

In just under two years of playing this game, I can honestly say that I have encountered three rogues who were played by people that I did not consider at least partially (and usually completely) sociopathic. The rest were people who had no concept whatsoever of working with people in a group, and generally caused silence and bad feeling in groups, as well as having an overwhelming tendency to hijack control of groups and engage in dominant behaviour.

In other scenarios where, for example, a member of a group had died and needed help getting back to our position in an instance due to respawns, the Rogues that I have grouped with will generally refuse to assist the rest of the group, instead announcing that they would rather continue to solo mobs in the instance by themselves. They also tend to be obsessive about people waiting for Sap, and I have no patience for that...mainly because I know that virtually every other form of CC in the game can be used after combat begins.

Part of the reason why I think they are like that is because the mechanics of their class are actually designed around sociopathic behaviour. The class was fairly obviously designed almost exclusively with pvp griefing in mind; with possibly the single exception of Sap, it has virtually no value within a group pve scenario at all. An adjunct of this is that, despite the shameless favouritism that the class has been shown by Blizzard historically where class balance is concerned, players of the class typically have the gall to turn around and accuse other classes of being overpowered. Of course, I understand; in a Rogue player's mind, any class is overpowered unless said class is completely unable to defend itself against a Rogue. If any of the other classes in the game are in any way able to defend themselves against the Rogue, then in the archetypical Rogue player's mind, said other classes are overpowered.

The Rogue can do generic DPS, yes...but for group PvE I'd generally prefer to get that from another class which not only usually doesn't attract the same degree of psychological problems, and from a mechanic point of view has other redeeming characteristics as well.

Given the consistently negative experiences that I've had with players of this class over time, I will confess that it is the one class in the game that I now refuse to group with or really associate with in any way at all. This might come across as bigoted, discriminatory, and generally highly unpleasant...but on one side of the coin there are the number of problems I've had with Rogues, and on the other, as I've stated, the fact that the class contributes nothing whatsoever that cannot be obtained from virtually any other.

I tell myself it's immature...I tell myself it's petty, and that it only brings me down...but I can't bring myself to cease honestly, fervently wishing that the Rogue class in general quite simply did not exist.

Trapping

I just ran into this on the forum.

Hello,

I've just started to do instance runs with my move to the Outlands. I've noticed that my trapping technique seems sloppy (I don't always grab aggro, I feel a little slow, etc.). I've also noticed there seems like a significant delay between when the mob becomes trapped and when I turn to DPSing.

So I want to know, after your trap target has been marked, and someone else makes the first pull, what sequence do you follow (with macros, move order, or whatever) to ensure your mob gets trapped and to fairly seemlessly start DPSing with yourself and your pet.

First of all, I assign focus target to my up arrow key. Focus is good to use because it means you can lure your trap target and then commence DPSing Skull smoothly without risk of shooting your trap. You will also want to download a mod which lets you view your focus. Some use Focus Frame, but I use Perl Unit Frames because it does a few other useful things as well.

When you've got it, go into the Player section, turn on player portrait and 3D player portrait, and move the scale down to around 85 or so. Do the same for Party, and then go into Combat Display and set it to Always Hidden. You will want to drag the bars to the right a bit to get your player portrait to fit in the screen; you can right click the Perl Unit Frames minimap icon to unlock them, and then just right click it again to lock them in place once you're happy with it.

Then you want this macro:-

/cast [target=focus] Distracting Shot

Then, as soon as your targets have been marked, (you have to be quick, here) target blue square, (usual trap target) and press the up arrow to set the blue square target as your focus. Then set your target to Skull. Notice that this effectively means that you can have two mobs targeted at once.

As others here have said, move to a good distance to the side of the group if you can and then drop your trap, in order to prevent your trap being broken by someone else's AoE.

As soon as the pull begins, use your Distracting Shot macro to lure your trap target over to the trap. Wait a moment to ensure that the trap target is coming towards you before you begin shooting Skull. Ideally, the single Distracting Shot will be enough, and you can continue shooting Skull. If it isn't enough, try using an aimed or arcane shot with the trap target as your target, but be careful to press Escape twice immediately after the single shot, in order to ensure that you do not break the trap as the mob moves into it.

When the current fight is over, press Escape to clear your target, and then press the up arrow again to clear your focus, ready for the next target.

As far as spec is concerned, if trapping is something you want to focus on to a degree, you may be interested in trying to obtain a few of the midlevel talents in the Survival tree. Trap Mastery is the main one which is desirable, as it reduces mobs' chance of resisting your traps by 10%, and in a number of the higher level 5 mans, that is necessary in order to be able to trap reliably.

I hope this is of some assistance.

The Arena is Killing this Game

I'm noticing a very disturbing trend in this game, recently. I'll be trying to run 5 man instances, and will be looking for a tank. I do /who Shattrath, and after searching through a number of the other cities, find that by far the largest concentration of different people (and Warriors in particular) are in that city.

I go down the list, messaging them and asking them if they are willing to come. Usually it's the Steamvault, but sometimes it's the Shattered Halls as well. To a man, the answer is no thanks. From my time on the forums, I've begun to realise that nearly every one of those 70s I see in Shattrath will be in queue for the Arena.

I've been looking at the Arena gear recently, as well. From what I've been able to figure out, it's better than just about everything else in the game, other than maybe Black Temple stuff. Hence, people have very little real incentive to do group PvE any more.

The forums have become even more toxic than usual recently, as well. There has been an unbelievable storm of crying and screaming among Hunters in particular, but other classes as well, for class changes. Every change however that is asked for is purely in relation to the Arena, and anyone who dares voice concern about the effect that this might have on PvE balance is immediately and ruthlessly shouted down.

Another negative change on the forum has been the use of someone's Arena rating as a measure of the worth of their opinion. It is now standard practice on the forum, that if you don't agree with what someone has written, to simply use their arena rating (or lack of, according to your own standards) to entirely discredit said person's opinion, rather than attempting to mount a counter-argument based on the actual topic at hand.

I believe that all of these elements, both within the game and outside it, (in terms of the forum) are contributing to the continual decline of player population within the game. Some of you may not have heard of a man called Tom Chilton, or Kalgan, who is apparently the lead designer of the pvp elements of the game, among other things. This man, it turns out, was also the lead designer of the Ultima Online expansion, Age of Shadows, which is generally blamed for the downfall of that game.

Age of Shadows introduced a particular dungeon, Dungeon Doom, which was very different in design to the earlier dungeons of the game. Dungeon Doom ended up becoming the sole focus of nearly everyone who played the game; you didn't log into UO to do anything other than farm Dungeon Doom, in the end.

Dungeon Doom also led to UO becoming much more explicitly item-based than it had been previously, but you didn't get the items from there in order to use them anywhere else, because there was nothing else in the game that was more difficult than Dungeon Doom. People got the items from Dungeon Doom solely for the purpose of being able to claim that they were inherently superior to others who didn't have said items.

Hence, what had once been a varied and worthwhile game degenerated into nothing other than an e-peen contest. Not long before I finally left the game for good, I actually saw one particular character outside the Britain Bank with nearly all of the rare drops from Dungeon Doom equipped.

The character's name? Peter North.

Voice Chat Adventures

I was finally able to get a group together to do the quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley for the Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight. Now I just need to farm up enough cash for two more Delicate Living Rubies, in addition to money for my flying mount, in addition to another possible spec adjustment once I hit 650-700 Ag.

During this group though, I had voice chat going and was talking to one of the people in the group; it's a great addition to the game, and I strongly recommend trying it out if you haven't already. I had a really interesting conversation with a guy from America while playing an alt for a bit on Demon Soul the other day, too. It's great for meeting people.

My first experience with it was also a scenario where a guy flew with me over to the Black Temple and showed me some great mobs for cash and signet ring grinding, which was probably the best of the three, as well. I'm trying to be a bit more social in the game, and am discovering that I can learn a lot of secrets about earning gold and other things by doing so.

It could just be my hardware, but I wasn't able to get it going via Linux, unfortunately...it's one feature that is Windows only, it seems. That is a bit of a shame, because it means I can't have OpenGL, (which I love) with lower latency and voice chat all at once.