School and Distractions

So you may have noticed my blog has been slipping. I blame this squarely on two things:

1) School - It has to be done and has been really really time consuming for the last few weeks. I did manage to finish the website project. You are welcome to check it out at IAmPaladin.com. Its is nothing impressive, and the info is stuff that most of you know. Some of it is a bit off too and needs tweaking/clarification. It also needs to be prettied up a good bit.

I would say though, that for my first actual website, its not completely and utterly horrible :P At least everything seems to work!

2) Other Games - so what have I been doing when not working, going to school, or taking care of the cutest baby ever (ok maybe I am a little biased on that one :P)? I have been playing either Street Fighter 4, Dawn of War 2, or EVE Online.

Street Fighter 4 is just awesome! My Ken is pretty good. They made Zangief usable by the masses (awesome!), and C. Viper is awesome! I like the game bunches and the online play is really fun and easy to get into.

Dawn of War 2 is okay. It is very very fast paced and its really not about building up your base and getting resources. Its about combat and managing your units. To me, that is what RTS games SHOULD be about, not "Look at how cool my buildings are!" So in that respect, DoW2 is great!

The voice acting is really good too, especially the Orks. They crack me up all the time and are my favorite race to play, although I think that I may actually be more effective with the Tyranids.

What the game doesn't do very well, in my opinion, is help you control your troops. For being based around unit management, it doesn't do much to help you manage your units and move from group to group quickly. Either that or I am missing something. If they did include tools to make unit management faster and easier, they certainly don't make it obvious and they do not explain it. It is still fun though!

Lastly is EVE Online. GASP! Okay okay... close your mouths already. I just installed it today. The last two times I tried playing this game I got bored quickly within a month. Then again, I was over whelmed when the first time around. There were really no tutorials in the beginning and the learning curve was really really really steep.

Second time around was winter of 2007. The learning curve was still steep, but only really really instead of really really really. The difference was an enhanced tutorial system. I was very excited about the game the second time around, but that is about when all my friends and my brother were firing up WoW again, and I couldn't resist. So I dumped EVE for WoW and hadn't looked back up to now.

So what is different now? I don't know. I really never got to play the game much and I have always had a thing for space. I also found that I have had more fun in WoW playing the auction house and exploring old dungeons I have never seen. Sounds a lot like what I imagine I would be doing in EVE; buying, selling, and flying around space, with a little combat thrown in for good measure.

I don't think I will be canceling my WoW sub quit yet, but I will give EVE a good shakedown. I think I should give it at least three months of play time due to the ramp up time in EVE.

So we will see what happens. I think there is a good chance I will be bored out of my skull, but I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

And school is also out til the 30th... WOO HOO!!!!

Just for Fun

Epic!

Where is the damned loop!?

Yeah, I am out of the loop for sure..... apparently there are a bunch of pally changes coming down the pipe. Perhaps I will find some time tomorrow to research and elaborate.

Of course, lately I haven't even had time to play! Damned school and work.... *grumble grumble*. I would like to squeeze a little playtime in this weekend so I can do the Lunar Fest achievements. They only come once a year after all.....

New Spell On The Block

Paladins rejoice! After nearly 5 years since the release of World of Warcraft, we finally get a pulling tool. One that isn’t our face. Yes indeed, Hand of Reckoning is here. There is no question that this is going to change the way that we play. Flying mobs will no longer be the bane of our existence, warlocks and mages will no longer beat us to tagging a kill, and we won’t HAVE to dump a bunch of mana with either Holy Shock or Avenger’s Shield. Really, it’s a buff for everyone involved. Some specs more then others though. Let’s take a look.

Holy:

Yeah, the new Hand spell is super cheap to throw out, but Holy Shock is still very mana efficient considering the amount of damage that it does. And let’s face it, if you are trying to get a mobs attention, you are probably trying to kill it anyway. So front loading a lot of the damage before it gets near you is always a good thing.

The only thing that Holy Shock lacks is range. At 20 yards max, it can get you a little too close to the action sometimes. As such, you should keep Hand of Reckoning on your toolbar.

Verdict: The new spell is useful, but the old standby of Holy Shock will see more use.

Protection:

This is a HUGE deal for prot paladins. Hand of Reckoning is more then just a pulling tool; it’s a single target taunt AND a single target pull. Of the four classes capable of tanking, Paladins have been the only ones that have lacked both.

Granted there has always been Avenger’s Shield, but using that can risk hitting up to three targets when you just want one. And when you need to grab a mob from your off-tank, usually you don’t want to snag three with Righteous Defense. Granted, paladins are great at multi target tanking, but sometimes one more is just too many.

Verdict: Best thing to happen since sliced bread and plate armor.

Retribution:

Before this change, ret paladins had only Judgement to pull with. At a mere 10 yard range, you might as well have head butted the mob to get their attention. Especially considering that most mobs seem to have an aggro radius a good bit larger then 10 yards.

Ret paladins have been left with either dynamite or boomerangs for pulling. Neither one is a good option. Most ret paladins have adjusted to this limitation and have had to learn to analyze a situation very closely before going in. This is not a bad thing, but when your target is 70 feet in the air, no amount of planning is going to bring it down.

Really, the biggest challenge for veteran ret paladins will be remembering that Hand of Reckoning exists.

Verdict: The toolkit is now complete, putting them on par with every other class and spec in the game… if they remember to use it.

With your powers combined.....

I am Captain Website! Oh hai! Yeah so really the things that are combining here are going to be school and WoW.

Yeaiknowrite!

I am taking a class right now called Writing for the Web. The final project is to create a website with 5 pages. The content is entirely up to the student, and it can be about anything. The instructor would prefer that you are excited about whatever you make your website on.

I said "So I could make a website about Paladins in World of Warcraft?"

"Yes."

"Oh ok, I will think of something else.... HEY! You said yes!"

"Yeah that is fine. I just hope this game has enough to write 5 pages of web content on. If you have trouble with that, let me know early so you can change your project."

"I think I can manage."

So guess what? I am going to do my take on a Paladin-centric website. Most likely leaning heavy toward ret. I know there are plenty of websites that will cover this stuff already, but I have a few of my own ideas for it. This should be a freakin' blast! And I can play WoW and claim that I am doing research! Double win!

What happened to my DK?

I will tell you.... there are too F@%#ING many of them! And its not because its the Flavor of the Month class. Its because they are kinda awesome! I can guarantee that there will be tons and tons of DKs well into the next expansion. So, I don't see a need for another one. And right now, I have my hands full with my two pallys, so maybe I will work on Amadis later. For now, he can look cool at the character select screen.

You must have control!

It's about time I made the post on my control setup. Euripides @ CriticalQQ has posted on how he does things with his mage. My original inspiration for this post came Ferraro @ Paladin Schmaladin, which kinda covers all pallies. So I figure I should get my post out there.

This setup is really geared toward ret paladins. Although, it is easily swapped around for holy or prot with minimal movement of the main hotkeys. Also, my Dominoes setup is made to closely mimic the layout of my keypad. I am a visual person, so it helps me remember where things are.

My setup differs from a lot people in that I use a peripheral pad (the Saitek Cyborg/Pro Gamer Command Unit) to do almost everything. The one pictured above is what I use, well pretty close anyway. Mine is the Cyborg version with a different color scheme, but that is irrelevant. I also make use of a Logitech G5 mouse and a Logitech G11 keyboard. The mouse, I don't think I could do without it. The keyboard, well my bro gave it to me because I needed a keyboard, and he had this laying around. As long as the damned thing types, I could care less what keyboard I have.

So lets look at the main part of my control scheme, the Saitek Command Unit. I have this thing mentally broken down into sections:

-Top Row: This is where I put buttons that I need to hit quickly, but not often. Left to Right is Arcane Torrent/GoTN, Divine Plea, Trinket, Repentance
-Second Row: This is the workhorse row. The things I need to hit fast and often are here. L to R is CS, Judgement, DS, HoW
-Third Row: Easier to reach then the top row, so I put a lot of spells on here that are used almost as much as the second row. L to R is HoJ, Seal of Choice, Consecrate, Exorcism
-Fourth Row: This row is a little tricky to reach, so stuff that gets used on occasion goes here. L to R is Turn Evil, Reserved for Hand of Reckoning, Holy Wrath
-Palm: Easy to smash when things get hairy. Lay on Hands.
-Left Vertical Row: The top "button" isn't a button. Its a switch to change the key layout. I leave mine on Red (top position). Down from there is Jump, Vent, Divine Shield
-Thumb Area: I use the hat for movement. Top button is Flash of Light, bottom is Wings/Trinket Macro

So that is the Saitek. Next is the mouse. The only thing special here are the center mouse button for HoF, page forward button for Cleanse, and page back button for auto-run.

I had tried the Belkin N52Ti right after my first Saitek wore out last month. I couldn't get used to it. It looks comfy, but in practice the giant hump is really limiting. The D-Pad, with or without the stick attachment, is too stiff, which makes it distracting. The scroll wheel is pretty useless since I can't think of a reason why you need one on the pad when there will be one on most mice. Really, the most positive part of the Belkin pad is that short throw keys, which would be awesome on the Saitek. Also the interface is a little nicer for setting up key binds on the Belkin. However, the Saitek one isn't too bad either, you just have to take the time figure it out. The Saitek programming software is also a lot better at setting up combo keys like CTRL+1 and macros (which are kinda useless in WoW, in my opinion).

All in all, I think the Saitek is awesome, and its fairly cheap compared to the competition. And there you have it, my control setup and a bonus review. Enjoy!