The entire Bloodlust battlegroup went offline earlier this morning, so I decided to play with an alt on Earthen Ring. I went on a run through Razorfen Kraul with a couple of nice people from there.
Although I'm up to a level with that character (26) where I already had Multi and Arcane Shot, I decided to try using my more general pattern now of Immolation Trap and Serpent Sting with Auto, even in the instance. I started seeing some pretty amazing things happen.
There was one occasion when an auto crit pulled aggro from the boar onto me. On me turning auto off and standing still, the boar momentarily regained aggro, and I resumed fire. At that level I didn't have Feign or Disengage, but in this case, I didn't need either.
Another thing I'm able to do with my dots and pure auto, which I can't do if I use Arcane or Multi, is multimob pet tanking with 2 or 3 mobs, with nothing other than Growl. Our main tank nearly died, so I did this temporarily and was able to buy the healer some time to save his life.
It also means that if I get adds while soloing, where I once might have freaked out, now I relax. I can either 1) use Distracting Shot to pull the add to me to freeze it, 2) hit it with Wyvern Sting, 3) put Mend Pet on and drop Snake Trap to keep it mostly occupied until I've finished the first mob, or 4) throw Mend Pet on, redirect the boar to the add, give it 2 Growls, then redirect back to the first mob and finish killing it.
If on the other hand I panic and hit Arcane or Multi, I don't have those options. The mob just gets pulled to me, and sometimes won't get off me no matter what I do; including Disengage or Feign.
So, tomorrow when you're doing your dailies, I invite you to try that; using an Immolation Trap, Serpent Sting, and then straight Auto shot on mobs without any Arcane, Multi or even Steady at all. I also did that with my dailies this evening, and went through them I think faster than I ever have before, because I a) didn't die due to my ambient threat going through the roof, and b) didn't need to drink more than probably once every 8-10 mobs.
This also works great even with Beast Mastery, as it means you can keep Intimidation as a panic button for when you truly need it.
You'll see magic happen. ;-)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Pike's quote of the Rifleman's Creed
Pike has quoted the Rifleman's Creed, which is apparently an element of the philosophy of the Marines. What little I read about them once suggested to me that nothing incites their anger more greatly than the appropriation of any element of their identity by anyone who is not among their own number, and quite justifiably so. I therefore will not join her myself in quoting that here.
However, what I will say is that I believe that, particularly as WoW loses integrity and cohesion to an increasingly greater degree, dedication to, and the practice of, the core principles of patience, delayed gratification, economy, redundancy, and simplicity, are vital in at least my own individual success with, and full appreciation of the Hunter class within WoW. They've enabled me to continue to play the game when others have found things increasingly frustrating due to the threat generation nerfs, as one example.
There is a sense, as I have tried to impress upon Rilgon I think, that ultimately, the gimmickry and various exploits which Blizzard have tried to introduce with other classes and specs are entirely hollow and meaningless.
If the practice of lucid, deliberate initial preparation, and then (with contextually specific adaptations, of course) a calm stance of stand and fire are followed, the size, power, and other characteristics of the individual enemy become entirely irrelevant. The end result of victory becomes consistent, repeatable, and largely predictable each time.
However, what I will say is that I believe that, particularly as WoW loses integrity and cohesion to an increasingly greater degree, dedication to, and the practice of, the core principles of patience, delayed gratification, economy, redundancy, and simplicity, are vital in at least my own individual success with, and full appreciation of the Hunter class within WoW. They've enabled me to continue to play the game when others have found things increasingly frustrating due to the threat generation nerfs, as one example.
There is a sense, as I have tried to impress upon Rilgon I think, that ultimately, the gimmickry and various exploits which Blizzard have tried to introduce with other classes and specs are entirely hollow and meaningless.
If the practice of lucid, deliberate initial preparation, and then (with contextually specific adaptations, of course) a calm stance of stand and fire are followed, the size, power, and other characteristics of the individual enemy become entirely irrelevant. The end result of victory becomes consistent, repeatable, and largely predictable each time.
A poem
This is something I was inspired to write by a thread I found in the Suggestions forum. I've been accused of being emo before, so if anyone else wants to level that accusation, feel free. :)
I thought leave taking had already past,
Where roleplayers and the great old ones of yore,
Had drifted away, melted away,
Weeping, into our memories.
For now, sun slowly sets on Azeroth,
Where soon no one will ride out once again,
Orc and Human both fade into night,
And neither more, shall be remembered, then.
And what of me, why do I stay,
Knowing that this must pass?
That Black Rock's fire elementals, shall no longer burn,
No Tauren hoof beat down on Mulgore's grass?
I stay for love, of Troll and Orc,
Of polearm, bow, and sword,
All this and more was given me,
As servant of the Horde.
I stay because the real world that I live in,
Is now corrupt and mediocre, soft,
And so I, first time, sought something better,
And found it,
Now passed,
Once living,
In Azeroth.
I thought leave taking had already past,
Where roleplayers and the great old ones of yore,
Had drifted away, melted away,
Weeping, into our memories.
For now, sun slowly sets on Azeroth,
Where soon no one will ride out once again,
Orc and Human both fade into night,
And neither more, shall be remembered, then.
And what of me, why do I stay,
Knowing that this must pass?
That Black Rock's fire elementals, shall no longer burn,
No Tauren hoof beat down on Mulgore's grass?
I stay for love, of Troll and Orc,
Of polearm, bow, and sword,
All this and more was given me,
As servant of the Horde.
I stay because the real world that I live in,
Is now corrupt and mediocre, soft,
And so I, first time, sought something better,
And found it,
Now passed,
Once living,
In Azeroth.
Monday, April 28, 2008
A satisfying match in Arathi Basin
I've spent the last 4-5 days in Arathi Basin, slowly attempting to replace at least some of my current gear. Stat wise, the S1 set is utterly fantastic; with my current gear, once I've regemmed I'll be at 750 base ag. My plan is to hit 800 base before I finally pug Kara, and I'm on track at the moment I think to hitting that goal.
I wanted to share a screenshot though of the result of my last game. Alumatine's 0/28/33 hybrid spec is nice, with high burst; I can break 2k with multi fairly regularly with it. For PvP though it's not quite as good; I was having trouble getting past 5th place in kills.
This game was a loss overall, in terms of capturing nodes; we very rarely get teams who care about that at all, any more, and I've found it frustrating to the point of not being worth it if I try and encourage them to. People treat it like an open air, multiperson version of the Arena, and I'm learning not to swim against the tide in that respect. My own measure of success, then, has become my final place on the board, irrespective of if the node game is won.
I got the above with the respec; it's the same spec that my Armory profile should show currently, assuming it's updated now. Note in particular how low my damage output is comparitively with other people; it's even lower than people who are below me in the list.
I tend to hit flow state with this spec; there were times during this match where I can remember being only partially conscious, and I've had that happen during Scholo soloing when using it as well.
I'm also not going to try and tell anyone who feels the same way about BM that they should respec; most of the people on the forum are mere scenesters, but I know that Pike and BRK are not. It's why I can't respec BM for raiding, even if it does mean I never do raid. Where WoW is concerned, Survival is what I am, to the point where probably only really the Paladin holds much interest for me, in terms of other classes; and Ret is essentially Survival's mirror image in a melee sense anyway, as I've often said. It's why I actually largely stopped playing the game for almost six months and lived on the forum, truth be told; because I was tired of the amount of crap that I kept getting for being Surv, and so figured that if I couldn't be, I just wouldn't play at all.
Asking me to respec BM though would be the equivalent of asking BRK to respec Survival; it'd probably destroy his primary reason for playing the game, as that change largely would mine. That's why, even though I suspect he doesn't think it, I do still respect him; because like Pike, he is someone who plays BM for the right reasons.
True Beast Masters, as Pike have said; people who play it because they genuinely love the spec, are alarmingly rare, it seems. The impression I've consistently gained on the forum is of a group of largely ex-Marks people who play BM purely to be accepted in raid groups, but who privately absolutely hate it. I think that's why Survival has always been the rarest used, though. Unlike the other two trees, Survival has always been underground; it hasn't had a turn at being the in crowd's spec, and so the only reason why anyone uses it is because they really want to, actually in defiance of what others consider acceptable.
I did this with Immolation Trap, Serpent Sting, wing clipping/concussing opponents and then jumping back to start a usual 1:1.5 rotation. According to my numbers stated earlier in my trapping post, the Serpent/Immolation combo does 3k+ damage over 15 sec; at 9k, that's one third of a target's health. This damage is also magical, and therefore entirely unmitigated by what I consider the melee hack ratings, Defense Rating and Resilience. I also still use my boar as a pet, as although his damage output is lower, he very rarely dies in comparison with the experimental ravager that I had tamed.
The above was successful on multiple occasions against other Hunters, Warriors, Rogues, Paladins, and Mages, although Warlocks, Shamans, Priests, and to a lesser extent Druids are classes that I can still have some difficulty with. This can also be seen, I think, as independent verification that Bandet's philosophy is valid and effective, as in truth I suspect that he and I think somewhat alike.
After this, I've also realised that I'm no longer going to listen to people on the forum who try to tell me that I do not know how to play my class. The style might be unorthodox, I don't argue with that; but I have the numbers, I've done testing, and for just about everything other than raiding, it works.
I wanted to share a screenshot though of the result of my last game. Alumatine's 0/28/33 hybrid spec is nice, with high burst; I can break 2k with multi fairly regularly with it. For PvP though it's not quite as good; I was having trouble getting past 5th place in kills.
This game was a loss overall, in terms of capturing nodes; we very rarely get teams who care about that at all, any more, and I've found it frustrating to the point of not being worth it if I try and encourage them to. People treat it like an open air, multiperson version of the Arena, and I'm learning not to swim against the tide in that respect. My own measure of success, then, has become my final place on the board, irrespective of if the node game is won.
I got the above with the respec; it's the same spec that my Armory profile should show currently, assuming it's updated now. Note in particular how low my damage output is comparitively with other people; it's even lower than people who are below me in the list.
I tend to hit flow state with this spec; there were times during this match where I can remember being only partially conscious, and I've had that happen during Scholo soloing when using it as well.
I'm also not going to try and tell anyone who feels the same way about BM that they should respec; most of the people on the forum are mere scenesters, but I know that Pike and BRK are not. It's why I can't respec BM for raiding, even if it does mean I never do raid. Where WoW is concerned, Survival is what I am, to the point where probably only really the Paladin holds much interest for me, in terms of other classes; and Ret is essentially Survival's mirror image in a melee sense anyway, as I've often said. It's why I actually largely stopped playing the game for almost six months and lived on the forum, truth be told; because I was tired of the amount of crap that I kept getting for being Surv, and so figured that if I couldn't be, I just wouldn't play at all.
Asking me to respec BM though would be the equivalent of asking BRK to respec Survival; it'd probably destroy his primary reason for playing the game, as that change largely would mine. That's why, even though I suspect he doesn't think it, I do still respect him; because like Pike, he is someone who plays BM for the right reasons.
True Beast Masters, as Pike have said; people who play it because they genuinely love the spec, are alarmingly rare, it seems. The impression I've consistently gained on the forum is of a group of largely ex-Marks people who play BM purely to be accepted in raid groups, but who privately absolutely hate it. I think that's why Survival has always been the rarest used, though. Unlike the other two trees, Survival has always been underground; it hasn't had a turn at being the in crowd's spec, and so the only reason why anyone uses it is because they really want to, actually in defiance of what others consider acceptable.
I did this with Immolation Trap, Serpent Sting, wing clipping/concussing opponents and then jumping back to start a usual 1:1.5 rotation. According to my numbers stated earlier in my trapping post, the Serpent/Immolation combo does 3k+ damage over 15 sec; at 9k, that's one third of a target's health. This damage is also magical, and therefore entirely unmitigated by what I consider the melee hack ratings, Defense Rating and Resilience. I also still use my boar as a pet, as although his damage output is lower, he very rarely dies in comparison with the experimental ravager that I had tamed.
The above was successful on multiple occasions against other Hunters, Warriors, Rogues, Paladins, and Mages, although Warlocks, Shamans, Priests, and to a lesser extent Druids are classes that I can still have some difficulty with. This can also be seen, I think, as independent verification that Bandet's philosophy is valid and effective, as in truth I suspect that he and I think somewhat alike.
After this, I've also realised that I'm no longer going to listen to people on the forum who try to tell me that I do not know how to play my class. The style might be unorthodox, I don't argue with that; but I have the numbers, I've done testing, and for just about everything other than raiding, it works.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
A relevant fable
http://www.storyarts.org/library/aesops/stories/tortoise.html
This is a story that I've considered relevant to Survival for a long time. Also another quote:-
The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
The Chinese here is tricky and a certain key word in the context it is used defies the best efforts of the translator. Tu Mu defines this word as "the measurement or estimation of distance." But this meaning does not quite fit the illustrative simile in ss. 15. Applying this definition to the falcon, it seems to me to denote that instinct of SELF RESTRAINT which keeps the bird from swooping on its quarry until the right moment, together with the power of judging when the right moment has arrived. The analogous quality in soldiers is the highly important one of being able to reserve their fire until the very instant at which it will be most effective. When the "Victory" went into action at Trafalgar at hardly more than drifting pace, she was for several minutes exposed to a storm of shot and shell before replying with a single gun. Nelson coolly waited until he was within close range, when the broadside he brought to bear worked fearful havoc on the enemy's nearest ships.
-- The Art of War 5:13, and translator's commentary.
To elaborate further; I admittedly took ages in doing the initial quest of killing the Gordunni Ogres for the Shatari Skyguard last night.
However, just after I started doing the quest, I had my latency spike to 1800 ms. In that sort of environment, a 1:1.5 or even 1:1 rotation with Steady isn't just more difficult; it's downright deadly. I had to move very, very slowly and carefully, and even then, died once due to the level 73 Elite showing up unexpectedly. Single mob pulls, in clear isolation of the others, Immolation Trap, Serpent and Auto as I've mentioned, and keeping my eyes glued to Diamond Threat Meter; with that much lag, I had to actually feign a few seconds ahead of when I otherwise would have.
People criticise Survival for being too slow when questing or farming, when what they don't realise is how beautifully the cool downs for both trapping and Charge actually can fit for per-mob killing. A lot of the time I take the full 30 seconds to kill each mob, and I find in Scholo when I'm killing mobs in an intuitive stream, my traps are always there exactly when I need them; the cooldowns can seem to vanish entirely.
At the other end of the spectrum, Beast Mastery emphasises speed, and it is true that there are times when I will die due to not administering a sufficiently large amount of raw damage within a short time. It is far more common, however (in fact I would say around 90% more) that the real reason why deaths and wipes occur is due to impatience and a lack of proper planning.
I was in a failed level 70 Ahn'Qiraj pug on my server yesterday. We did not get past the first boss, the Prophet Skeram. The raid leader simply led the entire group into the instance, and proceeded to simply charge Skeram three times. Each attempt was largely identical. After the third failure, the raid group promptly fell apart.
I did not know anything about the strategy for that encounter, and I have also had it stressed to me on numerous occasions in the forum that the most important behaviour in a raid is simply to maintain an attitude of quiet humility, and wait for orders. This, then, is largely what I tried to do, however I did internally reflect, even at the time, that if I had had a more influential position in the raid heirarchy, I think I would have tried to emphasise a lot more prudence and co-ordination.
If you find yourself rushing, stop.
Try, for just a moment, to forget about the idea that you've probably only got an hour or two at a time to play, before you have to go to work, or to church, or to buy food, or to mind your children.
Breathe. Study the environment.
Whereabouts in the game are you?
Look at tracking; study the layout of the mobs, in relation to the terrain. Is there a single one you can perform a low threat pull with, and avoid alerting any of the others?
What abilities are you going to use here; a higher powered rotation, or lower?
Survival as a spec, and Hunters in general, actually have a lot of different weapons at our disposal, but to me the single most powerful of all of them is one which very few people seem to think of.
Time.
This is a story that I've considered relevant to Survival for a long time. Also another quote:-
The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
The Chinese here is tricky and a certain key word in the context it is used defies the best efforts of the translator. Tu Mu defines this word as "the measurement or estimation of distance." But this meaning does not quite fit the illustrative simile in ss. 15. Applying this definition to the falcon, it seems to me to denote that instinct of SELF RESTRAINT which keeps the bird from swooping on its quarry until the right moment, together with the power of judging when the right moment has arrived. The analogous quality in soldiers is the highly important one of being able to reserve their fire until the very instant at which it will be most effective. When the "Victory" went into action at Trafalgar at hardly more than drifting pace, she was for several minutes exposed to a storm of shot and shell before replying with a single gun. Nelson coolly waited until he was within close range, when the broadside he brought to bear worked fearful havoc on the enemy's nearest ships.
-- The Art of War 5:13, and translator's commentary.
To elaborate further; I admittedly took ages in doing the initial quest of killing the Gordunni Ogres for the Shatari Skyguard last night.
However, just after I started doing the quest, I had my latency spike to 1800 ms. In that sort of environment, a 1:1.5 or even 1:1 rotation with Steady isn't just more difficult; it's downright deadly. I had to move very, very slowly and carefully, and even then, died once due to the level 73 Elite showing up unexpectedly. Single mob pulls, in clear isolation of the others, Immolation Trap, Serpent and Auto as I've mentioned, and keeping my eyes glued to Diamond Threat Meter; with that much lag, I had to actually feign a few seconds ahead of when I otherwise would have.
People criticise Survival for being too slow when questing or farming, when what they don't realise is how beautifully the cool downs for both trapping and Charge actually can fit for per-mob killing. A lot of the time I take the full 30 seconds to kill each mob, and I find in Scholo when I'm killing mobs in an intuitive stream, my traps are always there exactly when I need them; the cooldowns can seem to vanish entirely.
At the other end of the spectrum, Beast Mastery emphasises speed, and it is true that there are times when I will die due to not administering a sufficiently large amount of raw damage within a short time. It is far more common, however (in fact I would say around 90% more) that the real reason why deaths and wipes occur is due to impatience and a lack of proper planning.
I was in a failed level 70 Ahn'Qiraj pug on my server yesterday. We did not get past the first boss, the Prophet Skeram. The raid leader simply led the entire group into the instance, and proceeded to simply charge Skeram three times. Each attempt was largely identical. After the third failure, the raid group promptly fell apart.
I did not know anything about the strategy for that encounter, and I have also had it stressed to me on numerous occasions in the forum that the most important behaviour in a raid is simply to maintain an attitude of quiet humility, and wait for orders. This, then, is largely what I tried to do, however I did internally reflect, even at the time, that if I had had a more influential position in the raid heirarchy, I think I would have tried to emphasise a lot more prudence and co-ordination.
If you find yourself rushing, stop.
Try, for just a moment, to forget about the idea that you've probably only got an hour or two at a time to play, before you have to go to work, or to church, or to buy food, or to mind your children.
Breathe. Study the environment.
Whereabouts in the game are you?
Look at tracking; study the layout of the mobs, in relation to the terrain. Is there a single one you can perform a low threat pull with, and avoid alerting any of the others?
What abilities are you going to use here; a higher powered rotation, or lower?
Survival as a spec, and Hunters in general, actually have a lot of different weapons at our disposal, but to me the single most powerful of all of them is one which very few people seem to think of.
Time.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Anzac Day
(Disclaimer:- I make some statements in this post which are critical of the contemporary American government. I know several of the people who read this will be Americans, and I highly value and appreciate your continued friendship, so I ask you to please understand that this criticism is not levelled at you personally. I understand that as regular citizens of America, your current government causes you almost as much suffering domestically as it does other people internationally.
This is also a long post. I talk about a lot of things, but mainly what being Australian means to me individually; probably engage in some rambling, here and there, and only briefly touch on anything related to WoW directly. I think this post is a form of therapy; there are some things here which, looking at it now, I've needed to bring up and admit to for a while. I'm digging up some skeletons here, and in the process, expressing that some things have bothered me which the sociopathic element of WoW's community would tell me are inconsequential, and that I should simply get over. There'll probably be stuff here that some people won't like, and that I'll get verbally trashed for; some of that criticism will probably hurt, as it often does. I've learned however that online, that goes with the territory, so I don't fear it.
Of course, in my own head, WoW and everything else that I am are both completely connected, but if you don't want to know more about how I think outside of this game, but which ultimately links back and connects with how I think inside it, feel free to skip this post.)
---
I'm an Australian.
It's not something I consciously acknowledge often, truthfully. Part of the reason why is because of a dissatisfaction with how most of my countrymen behave online, and with what the country has become, in many ways. Partly also because, at least to a degree, reincarnation is a conscious reality for me, and in the context of that belief, Australia is somewhere I'm visiting at the moment, but it's not where I'm from.
You see, I'm only just old enough to dimly remember the end of a time when Australia had some kind of genuine cultural/ethnic uniqueness of its' own. We truly don't now; not any more. People quote pieces of slang and other stupid things, but in terms of the way most of us think, we're simply trying nationally to be a clone of America with as much effort as we can muster.
I've taken the time to read about at least some of the founders of America. They weren't perfect; in fact some of them were deeply flawed, in a few respects, and it's important to acknowledge that. However, in terms of their intentions, they were also sincere, I believe, and they were gifted with a degree of lucidity that is not often present within human beings.
Their only real desire was for their country to be the author of its' own destiny, and for every other country to be able to do the same. John Quincy Adams, an early American President, once said in a speech to the American House of Representatives that America did not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. I do not believe that America's founders would countenance the degree of interference which America's current rulers engage in with regard to the governing of Australia.
There are a lot of people who want to see Australia become a Republic; to cease being a member of the British Commonwealth, the remnant of that empire, and to become our own country. I personally do not advocate that, and the reason why I do not is this:-
Currently Australia acknowledges England largely in theory, but to a comparitive degree, at least where England is concerned, is its' own country largely in practice. If we become a Republic, we will be our own country in theory, but the 51st state of America in practice. We will have a ruler with the title of President, and our system of government will surely be based largely on that of America. We will be compelled, through various means (as to a large extent we already are now) to participate in the American government's unjustifiable wars of aggression, both present and future.
Australia will be purchased to exactly the same degree that both Alaska and Louisiana have been, but it will happen informally and silently. We will be permitted to carry the name and the illusion only of being our own country; it will make governing us by proxy that much easier.
Some Australians make an annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli, on the coast of Turkey, now. I've asked myself how I feel about that.
Truthfully, the entire concept of militarism more or less in general is one that I have probably a lot more psychological baggage about than I should. My grandfather was an Allied bomber pilot during World War 2, and my father and pretty much everyone on his side of the family worshipped the ground my grandfather walked on. Some of his war stories are still talked about to some degree today.
Physically I'm about as civilian as it gets. I've always been overweight, with various other problems, and had a kidney removed at 13; I'd fail a physical even before it began. Psychologically, I'm even further away; in some areas I'm a complete wimp, and in others there's that case of what Ippon calls "snowflake syndrome," to the point where I can't have virtually anything to do with the rest of the human race offline, (including a girlfriend or half of my extended family) or even conform in WoW to the degree that I should.
Although it wasn't constant, to some degree the earlier years of my life were coloured by the occasional background implication from my father (and a cousin on that side of the family who went through the Australian Cadets and ended up studying a form of martial arts) of Patton's stated belief; that war is the only genuinely meaningful, significant, or consequential form of human activity, and that as an extension of that, being a civilian meant being someone who not only was very much a second class citizen, but it also meant being someone who existed in violation of the Darwinian principle on a daily basis, for the entirety of said civilian's life.
There was also something that happened fairly early on during my year of kindergarten, which was the beginning of when I was starting to interact with human society in a greater sense. I had someone drive my face into a steel washbasin, permanently dislodging a couple of my front teeth.
I'm not going to try and claim that that, in itself, was necessarily terribly bad, or that other people haven't experienced worse things. Of course they have. "So what?" I can hear people like Ippon saying. "Cry me a fucking river. GTF over it, scrub. How pathetic are you?"
The point though wasn't the event itself. The point, I think, was what it (and a number of other similar, subsequent events which have occurred repeatedly more or less whenever I have tried to integrate socially throughout the course of my entire life) communicated to me psychologically.
That I was weak, but that others were strong; that strength was respected, while weakness was unacceptable; that my grandfather was very strong, and that was why people respected him; that due to my issues, although I could physically improve myself incrementally, I would always be weak and autistic; and most of all, that because I would not (and to some extent because of my physical issues, literally could not) willingly allow myself to be subjugated by a society that I have always seen as being inherently dysfunctional and broken, that said society would literally kill me if it could.
I'm not writing about this because I want to wallow in it. I'm writing about this because I want to resolve it, and get past it.
I admit that part of me at least, has spent my entire life trying to compensate for the fact that I'm not my grandfather; I'm someone else.
I admit that soldier wannabeism is one of the main reasons why I play World of Warcraft; that running instances or Warsong Gulch is, as chronically and unutterably pathetic as this is, the closest I will ever get experentially to being part of a military unit.
I admit that part of me at times loves the idea of killing and even terrorising the Alliance in-game; at times I cuss people out, swear at them and verbally treat them as badly as anyone else does in the game. At times I enjoy that, as well.
I admit that the reason why I live online is because the offline world is No Man's Land to me, in the sense that a couple of times I literally have nearly been killed when trying to interact with it, and also due to the number of people close to me who've died because they were killed by it in one way or another. So yeah, I'm a coward.
I admit that the real reason why I've never got anywhere occupationally is partly because I see the offline world as such a threat, and also partly because, due to that, even as a child I was never able to focus on more than keeping myself physically breathing and psychologically sane for another single 24 hour block.
I admit that all of the above is only one half of me; a vestigial part that I'm trying to move beyond. I admit that although I still must offline, online I'm not going to follow the advice of Yurch or the offline survivalist philosophy of keeping a low profile. I write this blog because yes, I am an attention seeker. I want attention; I want to communicate and interact with others, and I feel that this and WoW are the only truly safe ways I can do that, at least for now. I want to try and take some tentative steps offline again soon at some point; I'm going to hope that this time I won't get slapped down again for doing so like I have been in the past.
Part of me is trying to see, ever so slowly, that there's something a lot more important than mere survival, and that's actually living, and that if I don't do that, physically surviving isn't much point.
Part of me is exhausted by and wants to stop being attracted to women like my ex-girlfriend, the Sarah Connor type; and instead find some nice, quiet, meek, totally unchallenging woman who I can have quiet, meek, clean, uncomplicated missionary sex with periodically. ;-)
Part of me craves and needs for war to be over. Everywhere, universally, and for all time. I don't want people to be killed in Iraq, or Afghanistan, South Africa, Bosnia, or anywhere else, ever ever again. There are times when it causes me physical pain to see how people treat each other verbally in the forum or in-game, and yet I know that this is nothing at all compared to how monstrously people are treating each other offline, every hour of every day.
One of the primary stereotypical associations of Hinduism is the suggestion to, as Lennon put it, give peace a chance. We need to do more than give it a chance; we need to make it a predominant element of how we live.
That's what the people buried at Gallipoli are saying to me, though. They're saying that the reason why they want anyone to remember them, is not so much because of what they actually did, but because they're hoping that the memory itself will cause us to ensure that what happened to them doesn't happen again.
If we really want to honour them, it isn't enough to remember them. We need to actually stop sending people to join them, and that especially means ending particularly dumb, pointless conflicts like the one in Iraq. War is something humanity needs to outgrow. If it doesn't stop, eventually all of us will be destroyed by it.
That's actually something Sun Tzu wrote about, as well.
This is also a long post. I talk about a lot of things, but mainly what being Australian means to me individually; probably engage in some rambling, here and there, and only briefly touch on anything related to WoW directly. I think this post is a form of therapy; there are some things here which, looking at it now, I've needed to bring up and admit to for a while. I'm digging up some skeletons here, and in the process, expressing that some things have bothered me which the sociopathic element of WoW's community would tell me are inconsequential, and that I should simply get over. There'll probably be stuff here that some people won't like, and that I'll get verbally trashed for; some of that criticism will probably hurt, as it often does. I've learned however that online, that goes with the territory, so I don't fear it.
Of course, in my own head, WoW and everything else that I am are both completely connected, but if you don't want to know more about how I think outside of this game, but which ultimately links back and connects with how I think inside it, feel free to skip this post.)
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I'm an Australian.
It's not something I consciously acknowledge often, truthfully. Part of the reason why is because of a dissatisfaction with how most of my countrymen behave online, and with what the country has become, in many ways. Partly also because, at least to a degree, reincarnation is a conscious reality for me, and in the context of that belief, Australia is somewhere I'm visiting at the moment, but it's not where I'm from.
You see, I'm only just old enough to dimly remember the end of a time when Australia had some kind of genuine cultural/ethnic uniqueness of its' own. We truly don't now; not any more. People quote pieces of slang and other stupid things, but in terms of the way most of us think, we're simply trying nationally to be a clone of America with as much effort as we can muster.
I've taken the time to read about at least some of the founders of America. They weren't perfect; in fact some of them were deeply flawed, in a few respects, and it's important to acknowledge that. However, in terms of their intentions, they were also sincere, I believe, and they were gifted with a degree of lucidity that is not often present within human beings.
Their only real desire was for their country to be the author of its' own destiny, and for every other country to be able to do the same. John Quincy Adams, an early American President, once said in a speech to the American House of Representatives that America did not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. I do not believe that America's founders would countenance the degree of interference which America's current rulers engage in with regard to the governing of Australia.
There are a lot of people who want to see Australia become a Republic; to cease being a member of the British Commonwealth, the remnant of that empire, and to become our own country. I personally do not advocate that, and the reason why I do not is this:-
Currently Australia acknowledges England largely in theory, but to a comparitive degree, at least where England is concerned, is its' own country largely in practice. If we become a Republic, we will be our own country in theory, but the 51st state of America in practice. We will have a ruler with the title of President, and our system of government will surely be based largely on that of America. We will be compelled, through various means (as to a large extent we already are now) to participate in the American government's unjustifiable wars of aggression, both present and future.
Australia will be purchased to exactly the same degree that both Alaska and Louisiana have been, but it will happen informally and silently. We will be permitted to carry the name and the illusion only of being our own country; it will make governing us by proxy that much easier.
Some Australians make an annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli, on the coast of Turkey, now. I've asked myself how I feel about that.
Truthfully, the entire concept of militarism more or less in general is one that I have probably a lot more psychological baggage about than I should. My grandfather was an Allied bomber pilot during World War 2, and my father and pretty much everyone on his side of the family worshipped the ground my grandfather walked on. Some of his war stories are still talked about to some degree today.
Physically I'm about as civilian as it gets. I've always been overweight, with various other problems, and had a kidney removed at 13; I'd fail a physical even before it began. Psychologically, I'm even further away; in some areas I'm a complete wimp, and in others there's that case of what Ippon calls "snowflake syndrome," to the point where I can't have virtually anything to do with the rest of the human race offline, (including a girlfriend or half of my extended family) or even conform in WoW to the degree that I should.
Although it wasn't constant, to some degree the earlier years of my life were coloured by the occasional background implication from my father (and a cousin on that side of the family who went through the Australian Cadets and ended up studying a form of martial arts) of Patton's stated belief; that war is the only genuinely meaningful, significant, or consequential form of human activity, and that as an extension of that, being a civilian meant being someone who not only was very much a second class citizen, but it also meant being someone who existed in violation of the Darwinian principle on a daily basis, for the entirety of said civilian's life.
There was also something that happened fairly early on during my year of kindergarten, which was the beginning of when I was starting to interact with human society in a greater sense. I had someone drive my face into a steel washbasin, permanently dislodging a couple of my front teeth.
I'm not going to try and claim that that, in itself, was necessarily terribly bad, or that other people haven't experienced worse things. Of course they have. "So what?" I can hear people like Ippon saying. "Cry me a fucking river. GTF over it, scrub. How pathetic are you?"
The point though wasn't the event itself. The point, I think, was what it (and a number of other similar, subsequent events which have occurred repeatedly more or less whenever I have tried to integrate socially throughout the course of my entire life) communicated to me psychologically.
That I was weak, but that others were strong; that strength was respected, while weakness was unacceptable; that my grandfather was very strong, and that was why people respected him; that due to my issues, although I could physically improve myself incrementally, I would always be weak and autistic; and most of all, that because I would not (and to some extent because of my physical issues, literally could not) willingly allow myself to be subjugated by a society that I have always seen as being inherently dysfunctional and broken, that said society would literally kill me if it could.
I'm not writing about this because I want to wallow in it. I'm writing about this because I want to resolve it, and get past it.
I admit that part of me at least, has spent my entire life trying to compensate for the fact that I'm not my grandfather; I'm someone else.
I admit that soldier wannabeism is one of the main reasons why I play World of Warcraft; that running instances or Warsong Gulch is, as chronically and unutterably pathetic as this is, the closest I will ever get experentially to being part of a military unit.
I admit that part of me at times loves the idea of killing and even terrorising the Alliance in-game; at times I cuss people out, swear at them and verbally treat them as badly as anyone else does in the game. At times I enjoy that, as well.
I admit that the reason why I live online is because the offline world is No Man's Land to me, in the sense that a couple of times I literally have nearly been killed when trying to interact with it, and also due to the number of people close to me who've died because they were killed by it in one way or another. So yeah, I'm a coward.
I admit that the real reason why I've never got anywhere occupationally is partly because I see the offline world as such a threat, and also partly because, due to that, even as a child I was never able to focus on more than keeping myself physically breathing and psychologically sane for another single 24 hour block.
I admit that all of the above is only one half of me; a vestigial part that I'm trying to move beyond. I admit that although I still must offline, online I'm not going to follow the advice of Yurch or the offline survivalist philosophy of keeping a low profile. I write this blog because yes, I am an attention seeker. I want attention; I want to communicate and interact with others, and I feel that this and WoW are the only truly safe ways I can do that, at least for now. I want to try and take some tentative steps offline again soon at some point; I'm going to hope that this time I won't get slapped down again for doing so like I have been in the past.
Part of me is trying to see, ever so slowly, that there's something a lot more important than mere survival, and that's actually living, and that if I don't do that, physically surviving isn't much point.
Part of me is exhausted by and wants to stop being attracted to women like my ex-girlfriend, the Sarah Connor type; and instead find some nice, quiet, meek, totally unchallenging woman who I can have quiet, meek, clean, uncomplicated missionary sex with periodically. ;-)
Part of me craves and needs for war to be over. Everywhere, universally, and for all time. I don't want people to be killed in Iraq, or Afghanistan, South Africa, Bosnia, or anywhere else, ever ever again. There are times when it causes me physical pain to see how people treat each other verbally in the forum or in-game, and yet I know that this is nothing at all compared to how monstrously people are treating each other offline, every hour of every day.
One of the primary stereotypical associations of Hinduism is the suggestion to, as Lennon put it, give peace a chance. We need to do more than give it a chance; we need to make it a predominant element of how we live.
That's what the people buried at Gallipoli are saying to me, though. They're saying that the reason why they want anyone to remember them, is not so much because of what they actually did, but because they're hoping that the memory itself will cause us to ensure that what happened to them doesn't happen again.
If we really want to honour them, it isn't enough to remember them. We need to actually stop sending people to join them, and that especially means ending particularly dumb, pointless conflicts like the one in Iraq. War is something humanity needs to outgrow. If it doesn't stop, eventually all of us will be destroyed by it.
That's actually something Sun Tzu wrote about, as well.
Hunter success in the Arena
One of the things that there is always a steady background noise of crying about in the Hunter forum, is the Hunter's degree of representation in the Arena. Ordinarily this is a topic that I would not comment on, due to the fact that most would consider me unqualified to comment on it. I do not play in the Arena, and it is not, generally speaking, my area of focus.
However, a thread in the forum that came up just a few minutes ago caused me to think about it.
Bandet made Gladiator in season 2 because he understands what our class is for. Most people do not, and sadly that includes the majority of Hunters. Although they certainly are not the majority, the very fact that Hunters like Bandet exist proves conclusively that it can be done; but it requires a degree of intimacy with the class and its' real function which most do not have.
The Hunter is not, truthfully, primarily a DPS class; as Bandet writes, we're tactical co-ordination (fight control) and support. The only real reason why so much confusion has developed surrounding that issue is because of the fact that in this game, we have traditionally virtually never been allowed to serve in that role, even though it genuinely is what we're really for.
Because of that, we have to fall back on pure DPS in order to convince people we're not entirely redundant and worthless.
However, stop and think for a minute. What's the very last skill we get, at level 70?
Misdirection. What does that talent do?
It epitomises the role of this class.
Every single class/spec combination in this game has to be able to do some damage; from Holy Priests onward. Also, as BRK says, BM is a damage tree, obviously.
Think, however, about what Misdirection does. It assists in controlling the flow of a fight. It determines which character in a group becomes the focus of a mob's attention. In other words, how the fight is conducted.
Then start looking at some of our other abilities. Traps, Feign Death, Disengage, Distracting Shot. What do all these abilities do?
They're not about doing damage directly, at all. They're about choreography. Sequencing. Deciding what happens when.
Do I fight this mob directly myself, or do I Feign or Misdirect (two different ways of accomplishing the same thing) and pass it to someone else in the group?
Once I've set the kill order for this next pull in an instance, am I going to use CC to enforce said kill order, and make sure the other mobs can't hurt us while the one I've chosen to be the first is killed, possibly even with someone else doing the killing?
In AB earlier, I was being attacked by two different classes, a Warrior and a Priest. I often can't kill a Warrior myself, and I certainly can't alone; so I froze the Warrior, and killed the Priest, which thus bought me time until a friendly Druid arrived and healed me until I eventually kited the Warrior to death.
Other people often do more damage. We decide who lives and who dies.
There are often times in battlegrounds where I will have a higher number of kills (and killing blows) than some others, yet they will have a higher overall amount of damage done.
Read the Sun Tzu quote on my sidebar again, and think about that paradox.
However, a thread in the forum that came up just a few minutes ago caused me to think about it.
Bandet made Gladiator in season 2 because he understands what our class is for. Most people do not, and sadly that includes the majority of Hunters. Although they certainly are not the majority, the very fact that Hunters like Bandet exist proves conclusively that it can be done; but it requires a degree of intimacy with the class and its' real function which most do not have.
The Hunter is not, truthfully, primarily a DPS class; as Bandet writes, we're tactical co-ordination (fight control) and support. The only real reason why so much confusion has developed surrounding that issue is because of the fact that in this game, we have traditionally virtually never been allowed to serve in that role, even though it genuinely is what we're really for.
Because of that, we have to fall back on pure DPS in order to convince people we're not entirely redundant and worthless.
However, stop and think for a minute. What's the very last skill we get, at level 70?
Misdirection. What does that talent do?
It epitomises the role of this class.
Every single class/spec combination in this game has to be able to do some damage; from Holy Priests onward. Also, as BRK says, BM is a damage tree, obviously.
Think, however, about what Misdirection does. It assists in controlling the flow of a fight. It determines which character in a group becomes the focus of a mob's attention. In other words, how the fight is conducted.
Then start looking at some of our other abilities. Traps, Feign Death, Disengage, Distracting Shot. What do all these abilities do?
They're not about doing damage directly, at all. They're about choreography. Sequencing. Deciding what happens when.
Do I fight this mob directly myself, or do I Feign or Misdirect (two different ways of accomplishing the same thing) and pass it to someone else in the group?
Once I've set the kill order for this next pull in an instance, am I going to use CC to enforce said kill order, and make sure the other mobs can't hurt us while the one I've chosen to be the first is killed, possibly even with someone else doing the killing?
In AB earlier, I was being attacked by two different classes, a Warrior and a Priest. I often can't kill a Warrior myself, and I certainly can't alone; so I froze the Warrior, and killed the Priest, which thus bought me time until a friendly Druid arrived and healed me until I eventually kited the Warrior to death.
Other people often do more damage. We decide who lives and who dies.
There are often times in battlegrounds where I will have a higher number of kills (and killing blows) than some others, yet they will have a higher overall amount of damage done.
Read the Sun Tzu quote on my sidebar again, and think about that paradox.
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