gdp's Comments

Righteous Orbs : The Unnatural Axe

Wed, 12 May 2010 06:52:21 +0000

Racists are largely, um, people like you and me, actually. I couldn’t honestly look you in the eye and say I’m definitely not a racist. I don’t mean I go around thinking less of people because they’re not the same colour as me, but the problem with being about as privileged as you can be is that, half the time, you just don’t notice shit. Every thing I watch, every book I read will have people in it who look, act and think like me and have a similar background to me. I genuinely don’t know what it’s like to not be me, to not be nestled to the breast of the dominant cultural ideology. So perfectly said. Seriously. ILU TAM. It is so bloody refreshing to come across someone getting privilege and expressing it in such a way. As for loot, in 25 mans we run with a KP system and we expect people to 'build up their main spec'. If they waste their kp on offspec items, they risk losing raid spots because their dps will suffer through their main spec not being upgraded. In 10 mans we tend to run Main Spec/Main Char > Main Spec/Alt Char > All offspecs are equal. While I understand, but grumble at, because the alts offspec will be even less used than mine, and i'm trying to gear my offspec so I can heal in situations where we are missing some healer signups. Even when I heal, I will roll/bid only when main spec healers have passed. My recent post [Spoilers Within] Enchants and Earthquakes and Flames, Oh My!

Righteous Orbs : The Unnatural Axe

Tue, 11 May 2010 22:26:37 +0000

Kiss My Alas : In which I am thoroughly neurotic

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:17:20 +0000

The internet IS a great equaliser, but it is also a reminder that everyone is starting from a different point of view. I'm British (English even) and I've lived in Scotland and the Netherlands in the past. There is nothing like living in a different place to make you check and re-evaluate your national identity and how you present yourself. "standoffish" is something I, for example, would apply to Brits because 'overly polite' is sometimes seen as cold or standoffish. When I am online I find that Americans are as apt to be as different from one another as they are to be different from Canadians. The attitudes and values of someone from Oklahoma can be as different as a New Yorker and a Yorkshire Lass. I think it is completely natural to look at yourself again when encountering new cultures. The trouble is not everyone is as expressive of their culture online, or even adept at expressing themselves.

I am a Paladin... : Why 25 man raids man may still be better in Cataclysm

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:35:56 +0000

AVR is indeed interesting. and I think you've got it bang on the nose with 25 man raiding and guild advancement. By raiding 25 man, I love the idea of being able to benefit our non-raiders! My recent post Cataclysm Raiding – I have more than 10 friends

Righteous Orbs : A very srs quandary or How I Made Myself Unhappy With Every Mount In The Game

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:15:25 +0000

Everything is better with alliteration! I might have to remember 'Twinge of Whinge' for the next whiny post day. Even if my spellchecker keeps telling me that 'whinge' is not a real word :( I think that every when you are made about something, the enjoyment of writing about it really shines through, somehow. And all your readers respond to that ;) My recent post Shared Topic: When the raid is cancelled I…

Righteous Orbs : A very srs quandary or How I Made Myself Unhappy With Every Mount In The Game

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:48:14 +0000

I love mah white hippogriff, and am contemplating the CE grind to get the Blue/green/orange one because it is SERIOUSLY PRETTY. And hey, this is your blog - WHINGING IS ALLOWED. Also your most entertaining posts all have a twinge of whinge. My recent post Shared Topic: When the raid is cancelled I…

Righteous Orbs : A very srs quandary or How I Made Myself Unhappy With Every Mount In The Game

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:13:37 +0000

I wish Hippogryphs and Griffins were...bigger. They just feel a bit underwhelming, because of the lack of colour choices. I always associate Dorfs with Gryphons because of wildhammer - they just seem right together. But there should be more choices of colours. My recent post Shared Topic: When the raid is cancelled I…

The 'mental Shaman : Cataclysm Raiding - I have more than 10 friends

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:13:36 +0000

Well, we already have that issue in our guild, where several of the 25 man tanks can't stand ICC and the last thing they want to do is raid 10 man. Alternatively we've seen a lot of guildies level tank alts that could help alleviate that issue. I wouldn't say a 'bench 10 man' would be entirely made up of mains. Currently we raid Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, so this might be an opportunity for us to review our raid nights anyway.

Righteous Orbs : revenge is best served chargrilled

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:54:15 +0000

Man those worms. They induce Headless Chicken Syndrome in SO MANY PEOPLE. STILL. I totally had that syndrome. The only thing that took it away was practise, sadly. Even now, pretending to be a cool and calm raider, I still get WTF WHAT THE HELL DO I DO MOMENTS, even though I know intellectually what I should do. Firefighter causes this in me often. Congratulations on the Blake Drake! Disqus or ID? SO CONFUSED My recent post Cataclysm Raiding – I have more than 10 friends

The 'mental Shaman : Share the Love

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:01:53 +0000

oh ho, was it really THAT bad? xD Can't wait to find out My recent post Share the Love

The 'mental Shaman : A New Generation of Boss Mods?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:37:53 +0000

I think a UI is an extremely personal thing. What works for one doesn't work for all. I'm at the stage where I am starting to turn off bossmods on a per boss basis to avoid clutter, and I run with few addons aside from castbar, event horizon and unitframes/dominos. I like this AVR stuff because I have difficulty with green transparent blogs in a mainly green room >> My recent post A New Generation of Boss Mods?

The 'mental Shaman : A New Generation of Boss Mods?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:34:12 +0000

Well, according to the development thread of DVE, the addon author is looking at packaging AVR with the main mod. However AVRE is not a full boss mod package, merely some pre-defined meshes, so they might just recommend that AVRE is downloaded instead. My recent post A New Generation of Boss Mods?

Righteous Orbs : What’s my job?

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:22:18 +0000

After a wipe or so, the healer asked for a bit of help with decursing from the mage – who returned that he couldn’t spare the GCD. OMFG. It pisses me off so much when someone who is capable of throwing a decurse/dispell/cure out there DOESN'T EVEN BOTHER TRYING. Yes, a missed global cooldown is annoying, but that curse and other such abilities throughout the game are even more fucking annoying than that. On a healing intensive fight I think it is even more important that the entire dispelling capable section of the raid all chips into help. Fights like Faction Champions were never about super high DPS, for example, but about surviving and countering the abilities deployed by the Champions. I will agree with Charles that sometimes the argument is just not worth it, but I'm in a guild where 9 times out of 10 I'll be one of three guildies, and we can power through without the other two and if they want to come along that's up to them. Luxury I does have it. My recent post Which Potion Should I Use?

The 'mental Shaman : Twitter Dev Chat: Shaman Edition

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:14:56 +0000

I think perhaps they mean the mass crowd control will play a bigger part, as it is going to be used in the new, rated Battlegrounds. We could see mages controlling the pace of battle in an entire dungeon room, as opposed to just one or two mobs. Maybe it won't be so much slow stuff, as adventurers taking on entire battalions of enemies at once? Well, I think Emblems are going the way of Badges. We will probably have Tokens or Medal, or Ribbons instead. This is just a speculation based on the new 'Emblematic' achievement though. My recent post Twitter Dev Chat: Shaman Edition

The 'mental Shaman : Twitter Dev Chat: Shaman Edition

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:58:38 +0000

I used to get to use it in the Tunnel of Thorim, and occasionally when we were low on mages, but there is no trash that needs it these days. My recent post Twitter Dev Chat: Shaman Edition

The 'mental Shaman : Breaking the Chain, Lightning the Load

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:41:43 +0000

Yeah, they did stunning work on the FEEL of that spell, something you don't get with Lightning Bolt (although I suppose perhaps overuse would lessen the impact.) My recent post Breaking the Chain, Lightning the Load

The 'mental Shaman : Breaking the Chain, Lightning the Load

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:29:08 +0000

Yeah, I used to have long discussions with my fellow shamans, trying to point out that they might actually do better if they dropped CL on single targets. They won the argument with 'pretty' ;) Fun should always win in the end, if Blizzard has done their job properly. I prefer not to, also, but have found the dps boost in my current gear is just too great. Like, way too great. As for the site, well I moved to a privately hosted site instead of wordpress.com. I'm glad I did. Still working on some custom header graphics though, I should probably do a post about the changes >> My recent post Breaking the Chain, Lightning the Load

The 'mental Shaman : Breaking the Chain, Lightning the Load

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:26:26 +0000

Oh yeah.The CC breaking moment definitely only applies to the first couple of weeks of an instance. Unluckily for me, Vezzax was progress at the time and I caused a wipe. I don't think I broke CC with CL unintentionally since then though ;)

The 'mental Shaman : Ghostcrawler Gave Us A Sparkul Pony

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:11:24 +0000

Only if you're prepared to queue for 4 hours for a 15 minute window for purchasing!

The 'mental Shaman : Mastering the Totem

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:52:38 +0000

No problem! I have a whole gear set that is languishing because I have so many different activities, so I know all about needing a prod ;) My recent post Mastering the Totem