Monday, September 28, 2009

FOLLOW THE CODE FFS!

OMFG. Yeah, you can probably already guess what happened. If you can't, here is a hint, I POSTED A BLOG ON THE EXACT TOPIC YESTERDAY. Before you read further, I am warning you, you might wish you hadn't. So here it goes...

10 minutes ago.

I walk to the bathroom (floor 2) and see one of the two stalls is occupied. So I walk out and head to floor 3. Walk into the third floor bathroom, empty. Go into the stall and start my business. Someone walks in, I wait, they use the urinal. "THANK GOD," I was thinking. They leave. Then someone else walks in. Could I be so lucky as to have two pissers in a row? OF COURSE NOT! Some fucking guy comes in and sits right down next to me. So I hurry up and try to finish and bolt out of there. But no... Not fast enough. No, I couldn't make it out unharmed. I was subjected to hearing him pissing, grunting, shitting, and some other noise that I am hoping I can repress.

Look, I get if you gotta go you gotta go, as the old saying goes. But why couldn't he have done what I did and try to find another bathroom, or hold it for 5 minutes? It's not like it grosses me out to where I am going to be sick, I know everyone does it, but why does he feel the need to subject someone else to his bodily functions?

I almost feel the need to put fliers in every bathroom at work, reminding people of the code.

So yeah, just a quick update and a chance to say, FML!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Rant over Public Bathrooms




Ahh... "The Code." Many men know of this fondly. Instead of familiarizing everyone with the code I will link to some awesome other articles I found while doing "research." They have a lot of the same rules and stuff so you can just skim through if you like. (Note: Image above is from a t-shirt that can be purchased at the first link below.)

http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/stick-to-the-code-light-tshirt-neutral-grey/283534551

http://www.listafterlist.com/tabid/57/listid/9325/Everything+Else/Mens+Bathroom+Etiquette+and+Toilet+Stall+Rules.aspx

http://www.thoughtsfromthejockstrap.com/articles-2009/august/taylor.html

http://nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com/2009/07/urinal-rules-and-ettiquette.html

Now we are back to the original reason I wanted to write this. What happens when there can be no code? Well, at least, no code in the original sense of the code. For example, at my office on each floor there is a restroom. Two urinals and two stalls. You have no choice but to get shoulder to shoulder and get down to business. And I am not just talking about urinals. THERE ARE ONLY 2 STALLS RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I can't stress this enough. Also, no they are not like the big handicap stalls or anything. They are both, combined, about 6 ft across. So you are literally sitting in a less than 3' cube with about 6 inches separating you from the guy next to you. So while it is already bad enough you have to sit in the stall next to some stranger and listen to them do their business, YOU ARE LITERALLY INCHES AWAY FROM THEM.

It is so bad that if there is someone in there already in a stall, I have to walk to another floor. The most I have had to go up was three floors to find an empty restroom. Luckily, some other guys recognize how horrible this is and as soon as they walk in and see someone going, they turn right back out and leave. So I guess that is the code for my work. "If someone is already in session, just turn around and leave. Hold it for 10 minutes and try again." A very shitty code, no pun intended, but it works.

Of course, not everyone follows this code. It is so torturous to me to have to sit that close to a stranger that I have actually, swear to God, gotten up and went up a floor to finish in private. Immature? Maybe. Better? ABSOLUTELY.

So I will close this up with a quiz. Hopefully you browsed through the links. Answers are below the quiz to check if you passed.



















Answers: A-1. B-3. C-1. D-5. E-Sink. :)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Raging over Bestial Wrath change and my findings...

I used this picture because I had planned on being a happy hunter after testing the new Bestial Wrath on the PTR. So does is actually get the seal of approval? NO!!! The change is SHIT! Blizzard had the perfect opportunity to close the gap in PvE dps from BM to MM and SV and what did it do? Gave us an overall 2% dps increase. FUCKING 2%! Honestly, after taking forever to download the PTR, testing my dps on the PTR, and then testing my dps on live I could see no difference. It seriously looked like I was doing less dps on the PTR if not the same. This could be because of procs and crits and the sort, but what I am trying to say is a 2% increase on a spreadsheet can easily lead to an increase of NOTHING when actually fighting.

Here is what Bestial Wrath was changed to and what I assume will be it's final rendition before going live this week or next:

Bestial Wrath - Blah blah blah lasts 10 seconds.

The Beast Within - "Increases all damage you deal by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 50% for 10 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.”

The newest change was reducing the shot cost by 50% for the ten second duration. What I got from that when I tested was that I lasted about 10 - 15 seconds longer before I was out of mana AT THE MOST. I didn't really test this as much, but it was just something I noticed.

And here are a few links for the mathy stuff behind the change... Which like I said, 2% increase is the general consensus, even though it looked pretty much the same.

http://huntsmanslodge.com/3860/beast-mastery-buff.htm
http://huntsmanslodge.com/3871/how-bout-them-apples.htm
http://huntsmanslodge.com/3891/beast-mastery-changes-acceptance-and-ponderings.htm
http://hunter-dps.dungeoneer.com/2009/09/new-ptr-tooltip-reads-increases-all.html

So, in closing, Blizzard/WoW Dev Team/Ghostcrawler all know what to do to increase BM dps. They had a perfect opportunity and didn't go for it. This actually reminds me of a reflection I had about the new mastery system unveiled at Blizzcon... Maybe I will post about that next...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Rage and Reflection: BM Hunter Nerf/Buff in Patch 3.2 PTR Build 10433


First things first,

New Format - I am going to go weekly with this blog!
No Holds Barred - I am going to cover anything and everything that comes to mind!
NSFW - Fuck trying to be polite and proper! I am an adult and time to rage like one! (Or will I be raging like a child? I think that only applies to QQ...)

So the topic of controversy today comes from MMO-champion.com (link to the right, fuck all that embedding shit).

Hunter
Beast Mastery
The Beast Within now lasts 10 sec (Down from 18 sec) but now also increases all damage you deal by 10% at all time.
Bestial Wrath now lasts 10 sec. (Down from 18 sec)


When I first saw the change I was like, "WTF IS THAT SHIT!!!!" Then I thought about it some more and realized that the change is a clever one, Blizzard nerfed BM PvP and "buffed" BM PvE. I used "buffed" because 10% increased damage at all times sounds like a buff but I have not tested it. But guess what? It just so happens I am a Hunter who raids as... BM! I also raid as MM, so now I can go download the PTR when I get home and actually test it and edit my post since I am obviously a fucking failure who would complain about something before ever doing any research on my own. Wait a second... isn't there a huge amount of people on forums about the World of Warcraft that do that? Like the classic, "WoW is too easy because you can get epics from heroics and a guild cleared a 25 man heroic dungeon in one day so everything is too easy even though my guild still runs Naxx." Another time... Another time...

Back on topic. Once upon a time there was a spec for PvP that was along the lines of 50/21/0. It was nicknamed the "36 second hunter build." If you didn't look at the spec or don't know anything about this, it meant that you popped all your cooldowns, zerged the other team, focus fire someone for 18 seconds, then hit readiness, and do it all over again to the same person (if they need it) or another person. Such a ridiculously FUN, and sadly OP, spec. So they nerfed readiness and made it to where is doesn't affect Bestial Wrath. Apparently 18 seconds is still too long to be OP, so they made it a 10 second duration. You know what else has a 10 second duration? A fucking mage's iceblock and a pally's I-take-no-damage bubble. So, as people pointed out on the MMO-champion forums, BM hunters in arena get to be laughed at as they blow Bestial Wrath only to watch a mage or pally sit there are be immune for ten seconds. Personally, I think they should change readiness so when BW is wasted, it can be useful again. I know this sounds crazy but isn't there another class in the game that excels in close quarters combat and can use all there cooldowns and then reset them? *cough* FUCKING ROGUES THAT'S WHO *cough*

So a rogue gets to open up on someone twice if they blow all their cooldowns but a hunter doesn't?

On the PvE side of things, as BM, your pet does about 40 - 60% of your DPS. The variety is from the mobility of the fight. If you get to stand still a lot, then you and your pet are even and you are possibly ahead. If you have to run around a lot, your pet usually passes you in dps contribution. As MM, your pet does about 20% of your dps, if even that much. So by nerfing (arguably) the only signature in the BM tree, your pet's dps is nerfed and yours is buffed. From what I have noticed with my own test prior to this news, my MM spec is a constant 200 - 300 dps above my BM spec. However, my MM spec isn't straight agility gemmed due to BM being my main spec so the dps increase from BM to MM could be more. If this change adds a flat 10% dps increase, with no loss from the shortening of BW (unlikely), my BM spec would be on par with my MM spec.

I PvE more than I PvP. So do I think the change sucks for PvP, yes. I don't know if it sucks for PvE yet but just throwing this out there, BM is a really cool tree. My one hope if this change goes live is that it brings BM dps up and people will stop saying that BM DPS IS NOT VIABLE.