I've gone back to Vampiric Touch.
I took it again just to check it out, I am sorely disappointed by it's mana return amount. It gives .25% max mana per second... So, 4 seconds for 1% of your mana... and it lasts 15 seconds... So, that's just under 4% of your maximum mana regenerated over 15 seconds. That kinda sucks, if you ask me.
To add insult to injury, Vampiric Touch no longer STACKS on multiple mobs, AND it no longer does the mana return on it's OWN... What you do is cast Vampiric Touch on the target, then you have to hit it with a Mind Blast while it's affected by Vampiric Touch. WTF? You can cast Vampiric Touch all you want, since it has no cooldown (beyond GCD), but you can only Mind Blast once every 5.5-8 seconds. So, it puts an artificial cap on how often you can activate the mana return. But that wouldn't matter anyway, since because it's a mana regen BUFF called Replenishment, you can only have it once anyway. Gone are the days of casting VT-SW:P combos on as many mobs as possible to get lots of regen going. Now it's just one at a time.
My initial reaction to VT, as you can see above, is that it sucked. But I wanted to test it out for it's damage. It's a 1.5 second cast DOT that does reasonable damage. What I didn't notice before is that they slashed it's mana cost almost by half. It used to cost me 300+ mana to cast, and now it's just over 200, and I'm several levels higher now. Also, because it's a 1.5 second cast, that means it goes very well with either SW:P or VE in a cast sequence/spell rotation so that you can land both at the same time. So, I've decided to use VT as my opening blast, followed by either SW:P or VE depending on if I want DPS or Heals.
Here's my priest spell rotation for DPS that I'm currently using:
Vampiric Touch - 1.5 second precast time
Shadow Word: Pain - as soon as VT hits, so they hit at the same time.
1.5 second global cooldown - I can move during this time to try to get some distance
Mind Blast - 1.5 second precast time - gotta stand still now
Mind Flay - As soon as MB fires, MF starts instantly after MB.
Note that because VT and SW:P are dots, they haven't started ticking yet. They both take 3 seconds for their first damage tick to go off.. so, they each tick at the same time as Mind Blast and Mind Flay starts.. that means when I start attacking, I get 3 seconds of NO damage based threat. At 3 seconds, I hit like a truck with 3 damage sources at once, and MF starts it's first tick one second later, so it can be easy to pull a mob off a tank if they haven't built their threat yet. Be Aware.
I'll MF again after the first runs out, and follow that up with another Mind Blast. The second Mind Blast is done before VT wears off, so it restarts the Replenishment buff. Also, but this time, almost any even-con level mob is about to die, the second MB usually finishes them off.
Also note that with the Pain and Suffering talent, I don't ever have to recast SW:P. I have a 66% chance to restart SW:P every time my MF hits, so it gets restarted plenty.
If I feel I need some extra punch, I'll add Devouring Plague in, but since I almost never take damage, I usually keep it in reserve.
The macro I use for all of this also checks for Shadowform. If I'm not in Shadowform, it shifts me before it starts attacking.
Here's the macro for all this:
#showtooltip
/castsequence [noform] Shadowform; [nochanneling] reset=target/combat/12 Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay
#show Mind Flay
Note that in a long fight, I'll do the rotation by hand to skip SW:P, since I only ever have to cast it once.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Priest Progress...
My priest has made it to 58 and has stepped through the portal!
OK, to be fair, I've been bound in Shattrath since 50 or so to save on travel time in the old world... But 58 is the first level you can officially start questing in Outlands, so it marks the transition to UBERLEETNESS in free gear!
So, I should have blogged about it when it happened, but I didn't because I was busy playing :P sorry.
So, now I'm 61 already. :P When I got to Outlands, I made it a point to look up all the gear I could get at 58 from quests, and I went right for those quests directly. within an hour or two, I had replaced at least half of my gear with new Outlands gear, each of which is roughly as powerful as the kind of gear we used to get from Molten Core. Woot!
My plan for leveling is this: Each level, I'm researching spellpower gear available via quests, and if it's better than what I'm wearing, I go after those quests. Those quests that only grant gold or experience are being saved until after the item quests are out of the way. With the change to the experience requirements from 60-70 that was put in in 3.0.2, I found I don't have to do anywhere near the number of quests I had to do the last time through outlands. That's a nice change. Also, getting the gear first increases my power and makes doing every other quest easier.
So, for those wondering, here's how I look up this gear:
Go to WowHead.com
Select Database > Items
Click Create a Filter
Select Usable by: Priest
Select Required level 58 - 58
select filter: Added in the Burning Crusade: Yes
Add another filter
select filter: Rewarded by a quest: Yes
change Yes to "Alliance" or "Horde"
Add another filter
select filter: Spell damage item: Yes
click Apply filter
This filter shows 12 items, each of which is available the moment you step through the portal at 58. Save a shortcut to this page, and each level, change the 58-58 to 59-59 and so on to see the new stuff. Other classes will need to adjust the filters a little, but that's how it's done.
I'm also running instances when I get a chance. I've found that the spellpower gear gives me the ability to heal in an instance as shadow spec with very little problem - Renew and VE:Mind Flay spam is enough to do the main healing job, with the occasional Greater Heal when the tank decides to pull big groups (frequently, LOL)
Another thing I've found is that using Outfitter, my Heal, Mana, and DPS sets have converged. It's all the same gear now in Outlands with very little exceptions. This means that as a priest, I basically no longer need to maintain multiple sets to fulfill all my different roles. One set can do it all. GO SPELLPOWER! Woot!
OK, to be fair, I've been bound in Shattrath since 50 or so to save on travel time in the old world... But 58 is the first level you can officially start questing in Outlands, so it marks the transition to UBERLEETNESS in free gear!
So, I should have blogged about it when it happened, but I didn't because I was busy playing :P sorry.
So, now I'm 61 already. :P When I got to Outlands, I made it a point to look up all the gear I could get at 58 from quests, and I went right for those quests directly. within an hour or two, I had replaced at least half of my gear with new Outlands gear, each of which is roughly as powerful as the kind of gear we used to get from Molten Core. Woot!
My plan for leveling is this: Each level, I'm researching spellpower gear available via quests, and if it's better than what I'm wearing, I go after those quests. Those quests that only grant gold or experience are being saved until after the item quests are out of the way. With the change to the experience requirements from 60-70 that was put in in 3.0.2, I found I don't have to do anywhere near the number of quests I had to do the last time through outlands. That's a nice change. Also, getting the gear first increases my power and makes doing every other quest easier.
So, for those wondering, here's how I look up this gear:
Go to WowHead.com
Select Database > Items
Click Create a Filter
Select Usable by: Priest
Select Required level 58 - 58
select filter: Added in the Burning Crusade: Yes
Add another filter
select filter: Rewarded by a quest: Yes
change Yes to "Alliance" or "Horde"
Add another filter
select filter: Spell damage item: Yes
click Apply filter
This filter shows 12 items, each of which is available the moment you step through the portal at 58. Save a shortcut to this page, and each level, change the 58-58 to 59-59 and so on to see the new stuff. Other classes will need to adjust the filters a little, but that's how it's done.
I'm also running instances when I get a chance. I've found that the spellpower gear gives me the ability to heal in an instance as shadow spec with very little problem - Renew and VE:Mind Flay spam is enough to do the main healing job, with the occasional Greater Heal when the tank decides to pull big groups (frequently, LOL)
Another thing I've found is that using Outfitter, my Heal, Mana, and DPS sets have converged. It's all the same gear now in Outlands with very little exceptions. This means that as a priest, I basically no longer need to maintain multiple sets to fulfill all my different roles. One set can do it all. GO SPELLPOWER! Woot!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Mount Macros in 3.0.2
People are looking for a working Mount Macro.
Here is what I've learned.
1) Mounts are now learned as spells, and the first time you use the "reigns of" item, it gets consumed and goes into your spell book (sorta, it's actually on your character window in the "pet" tab.)
2) The NAME of the spell isn't the same as the name of the item you used to click on. So, if you had "Reigns of the..." in your macro, you'll need to change it to the proper name.
3) To get the proper name, you can shift-click the mount icon in the pets tab while the macro window is open (and the cursor is flashing in it). It will auto-type the correct name for you.
4) For now, you MUST LOG OUT AND LOG BACK IN before it will work in a macro. I hope they fix this problem, but for now, just do this.
5) It doesn't matter if you use /cast or /use in your macro - they've always been secretly interchangeable. /use takes up one less character in your macros :P
I hope this helps those of you looking for information. Took me a little while to figure it out.
Here is what I've learned.
1) Mounts are now learned as spells, and the first time you use the "reigns of" item, it gets consumed and goes into your spell book (sorta, it's actually on your character window in the "pet" tab.)
2) The NAME of the spell isn't the same as the name of the item you used to click on. So, if you had "Reigns of the..." in your macro, you'll need to change it to the proper name.
3) To get the proper name, you can shift-click the mount icon in the pets tab while the macro window is open (and the cursor is flashing in it). It will auto-type the correct name for you.
4) For now, you MUST LOG OUT AND LOG BACK IN before it will work in a macro. I hope they fix this problem, but for now, just do this.
5) It doesn't matter if you use /cast or /use in your macro - they've always been secretly interchangeable. /use takes up one less character in your macros :P
I hope this helps those of you looking for information. Took me a little while to figure it out.
How to Clique
I know people are interested in Clique. It's one of my favorite Addon's for WoW, especially for any class that needs to cast anything on party members. That means ANY HEALER or DECURSER,or BUFFER. Priests, Druids, Shaman, Paladins, Mage, Warlock. There's not much here for warriors, rogues, or hunters, but even they can find uses for it.
So, again, here's what Clique is: Clique is an addon that lets you define "click casting" for the unit frames on your screen. Here's more:
If you play a healer with no addons, you probably play like this: When someone needs to be healed, you click their health bar to select them, or you press F1-F5 to select them. This sets them as your target. Then, you click an action bar button that has a heal spell on it; or you press the keyboard hotkey that has a heal on it, and your character begins to cast a heal.
Alternatively, you might have nothing targeted, or the monster targeted, and then either click an action bar button, or press the hotkey for an action bar button with a heal spell on it. This causes your pointer to glow white, which means it's looking for a valid heal target. Then, you click on a party member's health bar, or press F1-F5. This method only works if you don't have the auto self-cast function activated, otherwise you end up healing yourself.
If you're very creative, you might have created macros that let you cast a specific heal spell if you click the action bar button normally, but something like Remove Curse if you happen to be holding down CTRL or ALT when you click it.
So, What if simply CLICKING on your party member's health bar while holding down CTRL or ALT would tell the game that you want to cast Remove Curse? What if Shift-Right-Clicking on their health bar would tell the game that you want to cast your BIG heal on them - all without having to click an action bar button at all (or it's hotkey?) THAT is the ESSENCE of "Click Casting". (Mechanically, Click Casting works the same as hitting a spell action button to get a "spell seeking cursor" and then clicking on the target. It just works faster, and you still don't loose your current target, and it gets around auto-self-cast settings)
Clique is an addon that lets you ELEGANTLY setup those click-casting definitions. It provides a clean interface to view the click-casting definitions that you've set up, and a perfect gesture for actually setting them up.
So, when you install Clique, it adds a new tab to your spellbook. Open your spellbook and look for the white rabbit tab as the last tab in your spellbook. Click that, and it opens the Clique window.
The first time you open the Clique window, you are greeted by a message explaining how this works. At the top is a Click Set: dropdown, and at the bottom are a few extra buttons that I'll talk about in a bit.
To create a click cast definition, all you have to do is actually perform the gesture you want to use - directly on the spell button in the spell book. For exaple, if you want to be able to cast Flash Heal on someone when you shift-click (left click) on their health bar, then you would go to your HOLY tab in your spellbook, find Flash Heal, hold down shift, and then left click on the Flash Heal button in the spellbook.
Once you have defined a click cast definition, the Clique window updates to become a list of your click cast definitions. This makes it easy to look-up the list if you forget - just open the spellbook and click the rabbit to see the list. Be aware that anytime the list is open, it's in define mode, so if you click any spells while it's open, it thinks you're trying to define a click-cast. Close Clique's window if you need to click on a spell for some other reason (like to drag it to your action bar)
An important thing to understand is that Clique will define the click cast as the specific rank of the spell you clicked to define it - even once you learn higher ranks. To tell clique that you want to always use the highest rank of a spell when you click cast, then here's what you do: Click the click cast definition in the click window (the border of the tile lights up yellow when it's selected). Then, click the Max button at the bottom. You will see the "(Rank x)" text disappear off the tile to let you know that it will now try to cast the highest rank of that spell available.
To change the mouse button or modifiers that you want to hold down when clicking for a click cast defintion, you just select the defintion as above, then click the Edit button at the bottom. The custom window comes up, and you will see a button with the current mouse button assignment on it. To change the buttons, just hover your mouse pointer over that button, hold down the keyboard modifier buttons that you'd rather use, and then press the mouse button that you'd rather use, and it changes. Click save to finish.
To remove a click cast definition that you don't want, select the Click Cast definition and the click the delete button.
Those other buttons at the bottom are for more advanced setup. The Profiles button is for helping you copy entire Clique setups from one character to another (useful if you have more than one of the same class on your account). The Frames button lets you select exactly which healthbars Clique works with. "Out of the box", it works with pretty much ANYTHING, so you might want to turn some off if you have special needs. Finally, the Custom button lets you create specialized click cast defintions.
Here's an example of a custom definition that you might want to know about: I like to heal by simply right-clicking on someone's health bar. When I set up a click cast defintion for Right-Mouse-Button without any keyboard modifiers, it will ruin the "Pop-Up Menu" that you usually see when you right click on someone's health bar. That's the menu that you use to set someone else as the group leader, or even to LEAVE A GROUP(right click your own health bar). So, for me, I always define one extra click-cast defintion to bring up that menu when I hold down ALT and SHIFT and then right click their health bar. To do this, I click Custom, the select "Show Menu" at the bottom of the custom list, then hodl down Alt and Shift, and right-click the button next to the question mark icon. Then click Save. Now I can still get to that menu.
Lastly, that "Click Set" dropdown at the top... Click Cast defintions can be sensitive to the type of unit that the healthbar you're clicking on belongs to. By that I mean it can tell the difference between a friend or an enemy(it also knows when you're out of combat). You can create different click casts for the same mouse-button-modifier combinations depending on if the healthbar is for friend or foe - for example, a druid could set Right-Click to be Rejuvenation for a friend, and Moonfire for an enemy. Personally, I never use that feature because I exclusively hotkey keyboard actions intended for myself or my target - I only use click casting to cast spells on my group or raid members. But, the feature is there if you want it.
For me, Click casting makes up one third of the critical triad of techniques that I use to play. Clique is the one single addon that makes it possible, so it's an addon I wouldn't want to play without. The other techniques that I use are Mouselook/Hotkeys, and Mouseover Macros, both of which I've talked about before and will probably cover again.
So, that's Clique in a nutshell. It's a tool that lets you create those click cast definitions, and it works with almost any unit frame or raid frames addon out there. It provides a nice quick-reference list to look at when you need it, and it stays quietly out of the way while you're playing. I'd also like to mention that it's written by one of the foremost EXPERTS on World of Warcraft add-ons / Mods - Cladhaire. He's brilliant. Go Him!
Thanks for reading!
So, again, here's what Clique is: Clique is an addon that lets you define "click casting" for the unit frames on your screen. Here's more:
If you play a healer with no addons, you probably play like this: When someone needs to be healed, you click their health bar to select them, or you press F1-F5 to select them. This sets them as your target. Then, you click an action bar button that has a heal spell on it; or you press the keyboard hotkey that has a heal on it, and your character begins to cast a heal.
Alternatively, you might have nothing targeted, or the monster targeted, and then either click an action bar button, or press the hotkey for an action bar button with a heal spell on it. This causes your pointer to glow white, which means it's looking for a valid heal target. Then, you click on a party member's health bar, or press F1-F5. This method only works if you don't have the auto self-cast function activated, otherwise you end up healing yourself.
If you're very creative, you might have created macros that let you cast a specific heal spell if you click the action bar button normally, but something like Remove Curse if you happen to be holding down CTRL or ALT when you click it.
So, What if simply CLICKING on your party member's health bar while holding down CTRL or ALT would tell the game that you want to cast Remove Curse? What if Shift-Right-Clicking on their health bar would tell the game that you want to cast your BIG heal on them - all without having to click an action bar button at all (or it's hotkey?) THAT is the ESSENCE of "Click Casting". (Mechanically, Click Casting works the same as hitting a spell action button to get a "spell seeking cursor" and then clicking on the target. It just works faster, and you still don't loose your current target, and it gets around auto-self-cast settings)
Clique is an addon that lets you ELEGANTLY setup those click-casting definitions. It provides a clean interface to view the click-casting definitions that you've set up, and a perfect gesture for actually setting them up.
So, when you install Clique, it adds a new tab to your spellbook. Open your spellbook and look for the white rabbit tab as the last tab in your spellbook. Click that, and it opens the Clique window.
The first time you open the Clique window, you are greeted by a message explaining how this works. At the top is a Click Set: dropdown, and at the bottom are a few extra buttons that I'll talk about in a bit.
To create a click cast definition, all you have to do is actually perform the gesture you want to use - directly on the spell button in the spell book. For exaple, if you want to be able to cast Flash Heal on someone when you shift-click (left click) on their health bar, then you would go to your HOLY tab in your spellbook, find Flash Heal, hold down shift, and then left click on the Flash Heal button in the spellbook.
Once you have defined a click cast definition, the Clique window updates to become a list of your click cast definitions. This makes it easy to look-up the list if you forget - just open the spellbook and click the rabbit to see the list. Be aware that anytime the list is open, it's in define mode, so if you click any spells while it's open, it thinks you're trying to define a click-cast. Close Clique's window if you need to click on a spell for some other reason (like to drag it to your action bar)
An important thing to understand is that Clique will define the click cast as the specific rank of the spell you clicked to define it - even once you learn higher ranks. To tell clique that you want to always use the highest rank of a spell when you click cast, then here's what you do: Click the click cast definition in the click window (the border of the tile lights up yellow when it's selected). Then, click the Max button at the bottom. You will see the "(Rank x)" text disappear off the tile to let you know that it will now try to cast the highest rank of that spell available.
To change the mouse button or modifiers that you want to hold down when clicking for a click cast defintion, you just select the defintion as above, then click the Edit button at the bottom. The custom window comes up, and you will see a button with the current mouse button assignment on it. To change the buttons, just hover your mouse pointer over that button, hold down the keyboard modifier buttons that you'd rather use, and then press the mouse button that you'd rather use, and it changes. Click save to finish.
To remove a click cast definition that you don't want, select the Click Cast definition and the click the delete button.
Those other buttons at the bottom are for more advanced setup. The Profiles button is for helping you copy entire Clique setups from one character to another (useful if you have more than one of the same class on your account). The Frames button lets you select exactly which healthbars Clique works with. "Out of the box", it works with pretty much ANYTHING, so you might want to turn some off if you have special needs. Finally, the Custom button lets you create specialized click cast defintions.
Here's an example of a custom definition that you might want to know about: I like to heal by simply right-clicking on someone's health bar. When I set up a click cast defintion for Right-Mouse-Button without any keyboard modifiers, it will ruin the "Pop-Up Menu" that you usually see when you right click on someone's health bar. That's the menu that you use to set someone else as the group leader, or even to LEAVE A GROUP(right click your own health bar). So, for me, I always define one extra click-cast defintion to bring up that menu when I hold down ALT and SHIFT and then right click their health bar. To do this, I click Custom, the select "Show Menu" at the bottom of the custom list, then hodl down Alt and Shift, and right-click the button next to the question mark icon. Then click Save. Now I can still get to that menu.
Lastly, that "Click Set" dropdown at the top... Click Cast defintions can be sensitive to the type of unit that the healthbar you're clicking on belongs to. By that I mean it can tell the difference between a friend or an enemy(it also knows when you're out of combat). You can create different click casts for the same mouse-button-modifier combinations depending on if the healthbar is for friend or foe - for example, a druid could set Right-Click to be Rejuvenation for a friend, and Moonfire for an enemy. Personally, I never use that feature because I exclusively hotkey keyboard actions intended for myself or my target - I only use click casting to cast spells on my group or raid members. But, the feature is there if you want it.
For me, Click casting makes up one third of the critical triad of techniques that I use to play. Clique is the one single addon that makes it possible, so it's an addon I wouldn't want to play without. The other techniques that I use are Mouselook/Hotkeys, and Mouseover Macros, both of which I've talked about before and will probably cover again.
So, that's Clique in a nutshell. It's a tool that lets you create those click cast definitions, and it works with almost any unit frame or raid frames addon out there. It provides a nice quick-reference list to look at when you need it, and it stays quietly out of the way while you're playing. I'd also like to mention that it's written by one of the foremost EXPERTS on World of Warcraft add-ons / Mods - Cladhaire. He's brilliant. Go Him!
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Vampiric Embrace nerfed into the dirt
I'd been using a combination of Renew and Vampiric Embrace to do the majority of my healing in 5 man groups. It's been working well.
...However, I just read that Blizzard intends to SEVERELY nerf VE for group members. Down from 25% of my damage to 5%. That SUCKS. It would be nice if they could shore it up by making some of the Holy talents bolster VE for those of us that go Hybrid.
Added: I've been mulling it over... I'm always shielded while I'm soloing, so I don't really take any damage. If I did, VE doesn't do enough to make it worth casting over renew and another shield anyway... so, if it doesn't heal my group mates, what the hell is it good for now?
...However, I just read that Blizzard intends to SEVERELY nerf VE for group members. Down from 25% of my damage to 5%. That SUCKS. It would be nice if they could shore it up by making some of the Holy talents bolster VE for those of us that go Hybrid.
Added: I've been mulling it over... I'm always shielded while I'm soloing, so I don't really take any damage. If I did, VE doesn't do enough to make it worth casting over renew and another shield anyway... so, if it doesn't heal my group mates, what the hell is it good for now?
Stormwind Harbor
So, I wandered over to have a look at this new harbor behind Stormwind.
WOW. The architects worked overtime on this one! If you haven't taken the time to go look at it, you should, it's beautiful. It's probably waaaay more than was needed for just a boat dock function, because it's huge. I'm not sure if dueling is allowed in that space, but it probably should be, since there is so much space.
Load in an alliance toon, and go have a look!
WOW. The architects worked overtime on this one! If you haven't taken the time to go look at it, you should, it's beautiful. It's probably waaaay more than was needed for just a boat dock function, because it's huge. I'm not sure if dueling is allowed in that space, but it probably should be, since there is so much space.
Load in an alliance toon, and go have a look!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Finally checking out the patch!
So, I've finally got time to try to really log into the game. First things first, it's time to check out my addons.
My own addon work perfectly. Mouse Look Lock, which you can get over at WoWInterface.Com is working fine. Always has. lol.
So, I've been going through all my addons, one at a time, enabling just one, and logging in looking for errors. Geez, almost everything is broken. Looks like they made some changes to dropdown boxes in the UI, so any addon that uses them is borked until those addon authors get off their asses and fix them.
Some notable addons that still seem to work, at least in my very basic tests so far:
AllPlayed
Aperature
Auditor2 (and it's fubar plugin)
Fubar2 (textures don't work?)
AuldLangSyne
Binding Reminder
Carbonite Quest (these guys are on the ball for such a complex addon!)
Clique (seems to be ok)
CooldownTimers 2 (one of my favorites!)
Leeroy (lol, yes, there' an addon for that)
Proximo
Scrolling combat Text (just the basic, SCTD seems broken)
SRaidFrames (seems to be ok)
that's about it, out of my set. I guess it's time to start reviewing addons again. I used to dig into new addons all the time. I guess I'll be posting about addons I like :)
My own addon work perfectly. Mouse Look Lock, which you can get over at WoWInterface.Com is working fine. Always has. lol.
So, I've been going through all my addons, one at a time, enabling just one, and logging in looking for errors. Geez, almost everything is broken. Looks like they made some changes to dropdown boxes in the UI, so any addon that uses them is borked until those addon authors get off their asses and fix them.
Some notable addons that still seem to work, at least in my very basic tests so far:
AllPlayed
Aperature
Auditor2 (and it's fubar plugin)
Fubar2 (textures don't work?)
AuldLangSyne
Binding Reminder
Carbonite Quest (these guys are on the ball for such a complex addon!)
Clique (seems to be ok)
CooldownTimers 2 (one of my favorites!)
Leeroy (lol, yes, there' an addon for that)
Proximo
Scrolling combat Text (just the basic, SCTD seems broken)
SRaidFrames (seems to be ok)
that's about it, out of my set. I guess it's time to start reviewing addons again. I used to dig into new addons all the time. I guess I'll be posting about addons I like :)
Weird...
So, I loaded WoW after the patch ran. The servers are still down, but what was interesting is that the patch seems to have reset my client so that it decided to replay the BC cinematic. Then, afterward, it showed the WotLK login screen.
Whoa.
Whoa.
MouseLook - Now called "Mouse Look Lock"
I've tested my own addon, MouseLook to make sure it works with Wrath of the Lich King. As such, it will also work with today's patch, 3.0.2.
Please note that I have change it's name to "Mouse Look Lock" because there is an Ace2 mod that decided to call itself Mouselook, and I don't want the Ace Updater deleting my add-on.
Here's a direct link to get it from WoW Interface: CLICKY! You can find it's page here.
I can't play the game without this. I won't buy Warhammer because it doesn't have this.
Please note that I have change it's name to "Mouse Look Lock" because there is an Ace2 mod that decided to call itself Mouselook, and I don't want the Ace Updater deleting my add-on.
Here's a direct link to get it from WoW Interface: CLICKY! You can find it's page here.
I can't play the game without this. I won't buy Warhammer because it doesn't have this.
WoWInterface.com
It looks like WoWInterface.Com isn't yet under it's usual deluge of hits because they haven't put up their usual SUPER ULTRA MEGA LOW BANDWIDTH site yet.
If you're quick, you may be able to start grabbing some updates.
My suggestion - go there and mark your favorites. They send out an email with a direct download link in it when an addon is updated, this helps get around the site when it's SLAMMED.
If you're quick, you may be able to start grabbing some updates.
My suggestion - go there and mark your favorites. They send out an email with a direct download link in it when an addon is updated, this helps get around the site when it's SLAMMED.
Thinking of...
While I'm at it, I thought I'd mention that I'm thinking about writing a full article on doing some cool stuff with Ventrilo, like how to play sound effects(drop-ins) and music, how to morph your voice, how to get cool phonetics when you log in, how to use multiple sound cards, how to search for your friends and buddies, etc. Any interest? I'll watch how many times this post gets hit by Google.
Druid Changes!
So, I'm reading through the Druid changes in the patch notes. Here are the changes that REALLY jump out at me.
- Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors. This change potentially turns us into the KINGS of CC. Blizzard has always said that roots couldn't be cast indoors because it needed some kind of drawback because it was the only real long duration CC spell that can affect ANY TYPE OF TARGET. Polymorph only affects biological units (humanoids, beasts, etc), and it heals the target so it really shouldn't be used mid-fight. Roots doesn't stop a spellcaster or an archer from attacking, but if we can now cast it anywhere, that is a MASSIVE change for Druids.
- Feral Swiftness: The movement speed buff can now be used indoors.
- Feral Charge (Feral): Can now be used in Cat form. So, now combined with feline swiftness, we can basically intercept ANYTHING that needs damage done to it asap. I'd always wondered why a cat charge but a bear could. I wonder if we can charge while prowling? I don't see why not...
- Hurricane: No longer has a cooldown (was 1 minute). This is another MASSIVE change for druids. I've always loved playing my mage because I love using Blizzard every chance I get. Now, druids can AOE continuously if they want. Granted, it will burn mana quickly, but the way Blizzard designs pulls, it usually means that a particular pack was INTENDED to be AOE'd down... packs like the gnomes before the second boss in Steamvaults, for example. I've never played a BOOMkin, but this change alone might make me finally try out that third spec on my Druid for a while.
- Nature's Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish, Entangling Roots, Wrath, and Cyclone. I've always said that this is one of the most important talent in any of the druid talent trees for a solo druid. One of the things about the druid class is that we are a self-healer. That what balances out our low damage - we live long because we can heal ourselves. This talent helps to ensure that you get your Regrowth spells off when you need them. It enfuriates enemies when they can't slow your heals down, and this talent helps reduce the need to use barkskin just to heal yourself. If you solo as a druid, you should have this. Now, it's almost free!
- Nature's Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors. This is now a base ability at level 11 and has a 100% chance to proc. I'm not sure how much I like this change. I've always used NG without it's improved talent because I like having it go off a few seconds later. I do this because I like to move away and heal as soon as it procs. Now, it will proc immediately. This means I can no longer precast it before a fight, run in and fight for a few moments before it procs. I will have to save the NG cast until I NEED to move away. Darn.
- New Spell: Revive - Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. (Ranks 1-7 added) I think the Starcraft 2 video said it best "Hell. It's ABOUT TIME."
- Omen of Clarity (Restoration): Now a passive spell. Now also works for spells (healing and damage). Proc rate is roughly 6% with a 10 second internal cooldown. So, this makes it UNDISPELLABLE, if I understand correctly. Someone asked this at Blizzcon, and Blizzard brushed him off. This is probably why. Spec it, and it's on. (Like mages).
- Rake: The damage for this ability has been increased. O M G. I'm sure Elitist Jerks will have to check it out first, but perhaps maybe I can stop yelling at other druids who actually use this waste of energy spell.
- Remove Curse can now be used in Tree of Life form. Freakin finally. Sheesh.
Healing Gear!
Another new mechanic in the game is Spellpower. Here's how it affects healing:
So, now I'm going to have to go through all of my gear and find out if my +spell damage gear will improve my heals more than my +heals gear. I suspect that some of it will, and some of it won't. As a hybrid shadow priest, however, the +spell damage gear will probably win because I do half of my healing with Vampiric Embrace. I have found that if I have 2 or more group members taking damage, I should cast Renew on each of t hem, then VE on an mob, and just Mind Flay. This gives me an efficient group heal, and when bolstered by Renew, can actually bring the tank back up to full health, even when being smacked by a few mobs (well, it worked VERY well when I was grouped with an overgeared tank :P - plus, my damage killed the mobs faster, so less damage gets taken overall)
I welcome the chance to throw away much of my +heal ONLY gear.
Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.So, as a priest, I have a gear set that focuses on bonus healing, and another gear set that focuses on bonus spell damage. Two different sets.
So, now I'm going to have to go through all of my gear and find out if my +spell damage gear will improve my heals more than my +heals gear. I suspect that some of it will, and some of it won't. As a hybrid shadow priest, however, the +spell damage gear will probably win because I do half of my healing with Vampiric Embrace. I have found that if I have 2 or more group members taking damage, I should cast Renew on each of t hem, then VE on an mob, and just Mind Flay. This gives me an efficient group heal, and when bolstered by Renew, can actually bring the tank back up to full health, even when being smacked by a few mobs (well, it worked VERY well when I was grouped with an overgeared tank :P - plus, my damage killed the mobs faster, so less damage gets taken overall)
I welcome the chance to throw away much of my +heal ONLY gear.
Thoughts on the Patch!
I'm reading through the patch notes, and I thought I'd take a moment to mumble about important changes to game mechanics.
One notable change is the change to "spell pushback". That's what happens when you get smacked while trying to cast a spell - it takes longer... or, in the case of a channeled spell, it takes shorter.
So, it is no longer possible for any spell to take longer than one extra second to cast. Heal spells are now guaranteed to go off in at most one more second than normal. So, a druid casting Regrowth, for example, while being hit by many mobs will take at MOST 3 seconds to cast. I guess we will probably be seeing less use of hunter's snake traps, which (if I understand correctly) were intended to make it difficult for spellcasters to cast spells.
Here's the specifics of how this new mechanic works... When you're casting a spell, the first time something hits you, it will had half a second to the cast. Regrowth would go from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds. The second time you get hit, it adds another half second so that it takes a total of 3 seconds. Any other hits after that will have no effect.
This is GREAT news for healers that pull aggro. It means that if your tank sucks, and you pull 2 mobs or 5 mobs, it will feel the same - your heals will be delayed by 1 second, but they will still go off. Flash Heal will take 2.5 seconds, no matter how many mobs are hitting you. As a healer, I look forward to this change. As a healer with instant Silence and Fear buttons, I'm not really worried about my opponents getting help with this new mechanic :P
So, this change also affects channeled spells. This is great news for mages like me who love to cast Blizzard, or priests who use Mind Flay. Druids are also now able to chain cast Hurricane, since it no longer has any cooldown (other than GCD). So, Druids can now AOE like frost mages. NICE!
Anyway, for channeled spells, here's what happens. When you're casting a channeled spell, and something smacks you, the duration of the channel will be reduced to 75% duration (shortened by 25%). The second time something smacks you, the duration will be reduced to 50% of it's duration. So, an 8 second channeled spell like Blizzard can, at most, be reduced to 4 seconds. This is MUCH better than having it last 1 or 2 seconds :P
So, my big question about all this is this: If the pushback cuts a channeled spell by 50%, then for spells that would normally tick exactly at that 50% mark, if you have ANY haste rating at all, does that cuase you to get that extra tick back? I'll have to test to find out. Blizzard has 8 ticks over 8 seconds. Mind Flay has 3 ticks over 3 seconds. So, I'll have to experiment to find out which does what, especially since many of us can now SPEC for some spell hate.
One thing I noticed on the test servers is that if you have spell haste equipped, then spell tool tips, even for talents that you don't even have are automatically updated to reflect the spell haste. For example, on my test priest, the Mind Flay talent button showed as doing X damage over 2.97 seconds, even though I didn't have the talent yet. When I removed my spell haste gear, and rechecked, the talent button showed 3.0 seconds.
If the channeling pushback pushes the duration back to 50% of the TALENTED spell duration, then I guess it doesn't make any difference, since it's a percentage of the duration, rather than a flat amount of time like unchanneled spell pushback. We'll see.
One notable change is the change to "spell pushback". That's what happens when you get smacked while trying to cast a spell - it takes longer... or, in the case of a channeled spell, it takes shorter.
So, it is no longer possible for any spell to take longer than one extra second to cast. Heal spells are now guaranteed to go off in at most one more second than normal. So, a druid casting Regrowth, for example, while being hit by many mobs will take at MOST 3 seconds to cast. I guess we will probably be seeing less use of hunter's snake traps, which (if I understand correctly) were intended to make it difficult for spellcasters to cast spells.
Here's the specifics of how this new mechanic works... When you're casting a spell, the first time something hits you, it will had half a second to the cast. Regrowth would go from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds. The second time you get hit, it adds another half second so that it takes a total of 3 seconds. Any other hits after that will have no effect.
This is GREAT news for healers that pull aggro. It means that if your tank sucks, and you pull 2 mobs or 5 mobs, it will feel the same - your heals will be delayed by 1 second, but they will still go off. Flash Heal will take 2.5 seconds, no matter how many mobs are hitting you. As a healer, I look forward to this change. As a healer with instant Silence and Fear buttons, I'm not really worried about my opponents getting help with this new mechanic :P
So, this change also affects channeled spells. This is great news for mages like me who love to cast Blizzard, or priests who use Mind Flay. Druids are also now able to chain cast Hurricane, since it no longer has any cooldown (other than GCD). So, Druids can now AOE like frost mages. NICE!
Anyway, for channeled spells, here's what happens. When you're casting a channeled spell, and something smacks you, the duration of the channel will be reduced to 75% duration (shortened by 25%). The second time something smacks you, the duration will be reduced to 50% of it's duration. So, an 8 second channeled spell like Blizzard can, at most, be reduced to 4 seconds. This is MUCH better than having it last 1 or 2 seconds :P
So, my big question about all this is this: If the pushback cuts a channeled spell by 50%, then for spells that would normally tick exactly at that 50% mark, if you have ANY haste rating at all, does that cuase you to get that extra tick back? I'll have to test to find out. Blizzard has 8 ticks over 8 seconds. Mind Flay has 3 ticks over 3 seconds. So, I'll have to experiment to find out which does what, especially since many of us can now SPEC for some spell hate.
One thing I noticed on the test servers is that if you have spell haste equipped, then spell tool tips, even for talents that you don't even have are automatically updated to reflect the spell haste. For example, on my test priest, the Mind Flay talent button showed as doing X damage over 2.97 seconds, even though I didn't have the talent yet. When I removed my spell haste gear, and rechecked, the talent button showed 3.0 seconds.
If the channeling pushback pushes the duration back to 50% of the TALENTED spell duration, then I guess it doesn't make any difference, since it's a percentage of the duration, rather than a flat amount of time like unchanneled spell pushback. We'll see.
Patch Day!
Well, folks, patch 3.0.2 is finally upon us! We're all getting forced respec's, which means my mage, my druid(s), and my priest are all going to have to learn to spec all over again.
Today, Blizzard will change the game we know and love, hopefully for the better!
I will be going through my macros and trying to update them as needed, and I'll do my best to post here about the changes that I learn about. One change I know I'll be making is a change to my priest's Silence macro, since it is no longer on the global cooldown. This means I can not only cast it anytime (when combined with /stopcasting), but I can also couple it with a retaliatory spell in the same macro if I want. I'm not sure if I will be doing that, but I USUALLY cast mind flay immediately after silencing something... I guess we'll see what new habit I develop.
Druids can now cast ROOTS indoors. This makes druids the new KINGS of CC, since roots affects ANY TYPE OF TARGET, unlike polymorph, shackle undead, etc. Only a hunter's frost trap is so universal, but isn't directly casted like roots. I think Hunters are getting some new kind of freeze effect, though, so I'll reserve my assumptions for later.
We'll see what happens.
Today, Blizzard will change the game we know and love, hopefully for the better!
I will be going through my macros and trying to update them as needed, and I'll do my best to post here about the changes that I learn about. One change I know I'll be making is a change to my priest's Silence macro, since it is no longer on the global cooldown. This means I can not only cast it anytime (when combined with /stopcasting), but I can also couple it with a retaliatory spell in the same macro if I want. I'm not sure if I will be doing that, but I USUALLY cast mind flay immediately after silencing something... I guess we'll see what new habit I develop.
Druids can now cast ROOTS indoors. This makes druids the new KINGS of CC, since roots affects ANY TYPE OF TARGET, unlike polymorph, shackle undead, etc. Only a hunter's frost trap is so universal, but isn't directly casted like roots. I think Hunters are getting some new kind of freeze effect, though, so I'll reserve my assumptions for later.
We'll see what happens.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Respec'd!
I respec'd my priest. I didn't really feel VT was worth it for soloing or even for small groups. I prefer to be able to heal better in groups when called upon to do it.
So, I put just enough points into Shadow to get shadowform, and the rest is going in to holy. I have enough points at level 52 to get to Holy Nova, which is fun for when the opportunity to AOE exists. For example, I healed for a group last night that asked me to heal for a ZF run. Since I couldn't find anything else to do, I decided to go along (I still want that vodo mask, adn the witchdoctor's staff) When we got to the scarabs, someone pulled too many, so I spammed Holy Nova and helped kill them all. Recount shows that I did 800 dps during those 10 seconds. Sure, I was totally out of mana, but I still had a mana pot in reserve, and all the bugs were dead. Wheee!!
When looking at the Holy tree, there really aren't that many talents that directly contribute to pure healing, as in being the healer for a 5 man group and standing there doing nothing (conserving mana) but healing. I've got 11 points into it now, but I can't really get the next talent I want until I've got 18 points into Holy. I guess I have to spend on some talents I don't really care about.
So, I put just enough points into Shadow to get shadowform, and the rest is going in to holy. I have enough points at level 52 to get to Holy Nova, which is fun for when the opportunity to AOE exists. For example, I healed for a group last night that asked me to heal for a ZF run. Since I couldn't find anything else to do, I decided to go along (I still want that vodo mask, adn the witchdoctor's staff) When we got to the scarabs, someone pulled too many, so I spammed Holy Nova and helped kill them all. Recount shows that I did 800 dps during those 10 seconds. Sure, I was totally out of mana, but I still had a mana pot in reserve, and all the bugs were dead. Wheee!!
When looking at the Holy tree, there really aren't that many talents that directly contribute to pure healing, as in being the healer for a 5 man group and standing there doing nothing (conserving mana) but healing. I've got 11 points into it now, but I can't really get the next talent I want until I've got 18 points into Holy. I guess I have to spend on some talents I don't really care about.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Priest Gear Adjustments
Yesterday I did some gear changing on my priest. I bought some gear with more +intel, and my total mana pool went from 3400 to 4400. He's level 51 at the moment, but it's still an increase of over 25%. Maybe that will help me with the healing and DPSing in a group.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nothing
I didn't play wow at all yesterday. Wow, what's wrong with me? Spent some time with the wife, walked out at the track, bought some file folders for my day planner... but No WoW. I must be sick or something. :(
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Maintenance Day!
Ugh. It's maintenance day.
Thank god there's no patch today. We get a few more days to play the game we know and love. So many changes coming in the next patch, it will be a whole new game!
I've got the beta client, and I suppose I should be messing around with it more, but at least I've been able to verify that Mouse Look Lock still functions as expected in the expansion.
It's a shame WarHammer doesn't have mouse look lock yet. Bummer.
Thank god there's no patch today. We get a few more days to play the game we know and love. So many changes coming in the next patch, it will be a whole new game!
I've got the beta client, and I suppose I should be messing around with it more, but at least I've been able to verify that Mouse Look Lock still functions as expected in the expansion.
It's a shame WarHammer doesn't have mouse look lock yet. Bummer.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sunken Temple eats another group.
I just ran Sunken Temple on my Shadow Priest with a PUG. I lost count of how many times we wiped.
I love the challenge of playing in a pug. I look for ways to challenge myself to keep the group going, keep them alive, and come out on top every time...
But ST is just not a very good place to do that. There are WAY too many mobs in every pull. I just can't be heroic as a shadow priest in there. I'm starting to really not enjoy playing a shadow priest anyway, and I'm tempted to respec back to Holy because I CAN be the hero when I'm holy. I always find new and amazing ways to pull the save out of my ass as holy.
I just don't have the mana as a shadow priest to do anything. It's probably bad gear choices. I've been focusing on +spell damage gear for the last 20 levels or so, so I really don't have a very good mana pool. On most of the other casters I've leveled, that strategy works best. On this Shadow Priest, however, I'm starting to think perhaps +Intel gear and much less +spell damage gear might be the better way to go. Perhaps it's time to stop at the AH and make some changes. Eeek.
I love the challenge of playing in a pug. I look for ways to challenge myself to keep the group going, keep them alive, and come out on top every time...
But ST is just not a very good place to do that. There are WAY too many mobs in every pull. I just can't be heroic as a shadow priest in there. I'm starting to really not enjoy playing a shadow priest anyway, and I'm tempted to respec back to Holy because I CAN be the hero when I'm holy. I always find new and amazing ways to pull the save out of my ass as holy.
I just don't have the mana as a shadow priest to do anything. It's probably bad gear choices. I've been focusing on +spell damage gear for the last 20 levels or so, so I really don't have a very good mana pool. On most of the other casters I've leveled, that strategy works best. On this Shadow Priest, however, I'm starting to think perhaps +Intel gear and much less +spell damage gear might be the better way to go. Perhaps it's time to stop at the AH and make some changes. Eeek.
Warhammer?
I want to try Warhammer. Honest, I really do!
But as I understand it, there is no "Mouse Look LOCK" function built into the game. WTF?
It was Dark Age of Camelot that trained me to enjoy using the locked mouse look.
World of Warcraft doesn't have Mouse Look Lock. It does, however, have a robust add-on API, which allowed people to create addons that could simulate Mouse Look Lock. I myself wrote one such addon, which I still use today.
I"m not sure if the Warhammer API is expansive enough to allow the creation of such an addon. I've looked at the Wiki for Warhammer's API, and I don't see anything in there for what is needed.
I really hope I'm wrong, or that they just haven't documented enough of the API... I really do want to try Warhammer, but I refuse to play without a locked on mouselook.
But as I understand it, there is no "Mouse Look LOCK" function built into the game. WTF?
It was Dark Age of Camelot that trained me to enjoy using the locked mouse look.
World of Warcraft doesn't have Mouse Look Lock. It does, however, have a robust add-on API, which allowed people to create addons that could simulate Mouse Look Lock. I myself wrote one such addon, which I still use today.
I"m not sure if the Warhammer API is expansive enough to allow the creation of such an addon. I've looked at the Wiki for Warhammer's API, and I don't see anything in there for what is needed.
I really hope I'm wrong, or that they just haven't documented enough of the API... I really do want to try Warhammer, but I refuse to play without a locked on mouselook.
Further Troubleshooting Ventrilo
I get quite a lot of readers on my Troubleshooting Ventrilo page. It's by far my most popular post.
Several people have responded to that post with various other issues, and I've never really taken the time to address any of those directly. So, here I will try to help were I can.
By the way, I've started a new website for issues like these. It's Home Tech Lab. Have a look!
One person asks why he can't hear anything that other people are saying. I've run into this problem myself on occasion, and every time it happens, I discover that I've accidently MUTED vent. This is really easy to do because all you have to do is activate vent and hit "m". For example, when I'm playing World of Warcraft, and I want to bring up the map, I hit M. But, if I've forgotten that I've alt-tabbed over to vent, and I hit M, I end up muting vent without noticing it. that would be the first thing to check.
Another thing that happens is that someone else is just too quiet. You can adjust how loud someone else in vent using special effects. To do this, you right click on someone in vent, select Miscellaneous, and then Special Effects...
One of the effects you can select is Volume. You find it in the Right hand side of the window, then select it and click Add. Next, a slider control pops up that lets you adjust how much you want to adjust them. Be careful, though, because the slider scales ALOT! Try setting it to +200% first if someone is too quiet. If that doesn't fix them, try a higher setting.
When you've set a special effect on someone, you will always see a "S" in front of their name in the main vent window.
Another person says he can't find the vent window. It sounds like it's off the screen. This can happen to any program, but the fastest way to fix this is to Alt-Tab until the program is selected, then hit Alt-Space, M, then Up Arrow. Now, move your mouse around and the missing window should be stuck to it.
Another reader says he can't get past the "msg: Contacting server..." message. I assume this is in the New 3.0 version of vent, since the old version didn't say this. There's a couple of things that might cause this, but the most likely is that the server you're trying to connect to is still running the OLD 2.0 version of vent. when 3.0 came out, it couldn't connect to the older server for some reason. There could also be a problem with a firewall blocking the port, so you could check that.
Another reader says he can't seem to adjust his mic volume in his windows Master Volume control. He says he's got a Realtek HD Audio device.
I recently upgraded my Motherboard, and I too have this same type of sound card now. It works differently than my older card, in that it doesn't take input from just once source, it actually takes input from ALL sources. When I select my audio input, I get a control panel with many sliders that are all greyed out, and check buttons for Mute below each one. This is window's way of telling you that you can select which inputs will be "listened to" by the recording input, but you can't adjust them individually - at least, not from the recording control.
On my sound card "Recording Control", I have a master slider called "Recording" and four greyed out sliders called "Aux Volume", "Mic Volume", "Line Volume", and "Stereo Mix". The mute check marks at the bottom let me control which sources my recording control picks up, and I usually keep Aux, Line, and Stereo Mix checked as Muted. My Mic Volume is not muted. This means that normally, only my Mic is picked up by the recording input. In this case, the "Recording" slider, the main one all the way on the left controls the input volume of my Mic. Programs like Skype can automatically adjust this "Recording" slider (unfortunately, I often have to fix the setting because skype turns it down to far)
Occasionally, I like to mess around with people on Vent, so I've discovered I can unmute the Stereo Mix setting, and then the recording input picks up anything that my soundcard is currently playing, and pipes that back into my input. That means I can play an MP3 using iTunes or whatever through my usual speakers, and that same audio gets sent back into my recording input and sent out through vent - in addition to my voice over the mic! This let's me play background music and soundbyte "drop-ins" in vent! Lots of fun can be had this way.
Ok, Another reader says that his PTT (push to talk) key isn't working. I've noticed that there are just some keys that don't work right with vent for Push to Talk. (at least, in the old version). My only suggestions here are to try different keys until one works, or try changing the setting of "Use Direct Input to detect Hotkey". Also, make sure the game you're playing isn't stealing that particular key for something it needs to do itself.
That's it for now, I hope that helps more people with Ventrilo!
Several people have responded to that post with various other issues, and I've never really taken the time to address any of those directly. So, here I will try to help were I can.
By the way, I've started a new website for issues like these. It's Home Tech Lab. Have a look!
One person asks why he can't hear anything that other people are saying. I've run into this problem myself on occasion, and every time it happens, I discover that I've accidently MUTED vent. This is really easy to do because all you have to do is activate vent and hit "m". For example, when I'm playing World of Warcraft, and I want to bring up the map, I hit M. But, if I've forgotten that I've alt-tabbed over to vent, and I hit M, I end up muting vent without noticing it. that would be the first thing to check.
Another thing that happens is that someone else is just too quiet. You can adjust how loud someone else in vent using special effects. To do this, you right click on someone in vent, select Miscellaneous, and then Special Effects...
One of the effects you can select is Volume. You find it in the Right hand side of the window, then select it and click Add. Next, a slider control pops up that lets you adjust how much you want to adjust them. Be careful, though, because the slider scales ALOT! Try setting it to +200% first if someone is too quiet. If that doesn't fix them, try a higher setting.
When you've set a special effect on someone, you will always see a "S" in front of their name in the main vent window.
Another person says he can't find the vent window. It sounds like it's off the screen. This can happen to any program, but the fastest way to fix this is to Alt-Tab until the program is selected, then hit Alt-Space, M, then Up Arrow. Now, move your mouse around and the missing window should be stuck to it.
Another reader says he can't get past the "msg: Contacting server..." message. I assume this is in the New 3.0 version of vent, since the old version didn't say this. There's a couple of things that might cause this, but the most likely is that the server you're trying to connect to is still running the OLD 2.0 version of vent. when 3.0 came out, it couldn't connect to the older server for some reason. There could also be a problem with a firewall blocking the port, so you could check that.
Another reader says he can't seem to adjust his mic volume in his windows Master Volume control. He says he's got a Realtek HD Audio device.
I recently upgraded my Motherboard, and I too have this same type of sound card now. It works differently than my older card, in that it doesn't take input from just once source, it actually takes input from ALL sources. When I select my audio input, I get a control panel with many sliders that are all greyed out, and check buttons for Mute below each one. This is window's way of telling you that you can select which inputs will be "listened to" by the recording input, but you can't adjust them individually - at least, not from the recording control.
On my sound card "Recording Control", I have a master slider called "Recording" and four greyed out sliders called "Aux Volume", "Mic Volume", "Line Volume", and "Stereo Mix". The mute check marks at the bottom let me control which sources my recording control picks up, and I usually keep Aux, Line, and Stereo Mix checked as Muted. My Mic Volume is not muted. This means that normally, only my Mic is picked up by the recording input. In this case, the "Recording" slider, the main one all the way on the left controls the input volume of my Mic. Programs like Skype can automatically adjust this "Recording" slider (unfortunately, I often have to fix the setting because skype turns it down to far)
Occasionally, I like to mess around with people on Vent, so I've discovered I can unmute the Stereo Mix setting, and then the recording input picks up anything that my soundcard is currently playing, and pipes that back into my input. That means I can play an MP3 using iTunes or whatever through my usual speakers, and that same audio gets sent back into my recording input and sent out through vent - in addition to my voice over the mic! This let's me play background music and soundbyte "drop-ins" in vent! Lots of fun can be had this way.
Ok, Another reader says that his PTT (push to talk) key isn't working. I've noticed that there are just some keys that don't work right with vent for Push to Talk. (at least, in the old version). My only suggestions here are to try different keys until one works, or try changing the setting of "Use Direct Input to detect Hotkey". Also, make sure the game you're playing isn't stealing that particular key for something it needs to do itself.
That's it for now, I hope that helps more people with Ventrilo!
Understanding Trinity Bars
When I FIRST installed Trinity Bars, I found myself staring a the screen wondering to myself: WTF.
How do you set this up?
When you add Trinity Bars as an addon, and log in to your character, what you see is basically an empty bar that looks pretty much like the standard actionbar. Why is it empty? How do you do this magical "unlimited buttons" and "unlimited macros" thing that it's supposed to do? I had to figure that out.
First of all, it was really easy to add spells to the buttons by just opening the spellbook and dragging spells to the bar. But what happened to the bars I had before? did the addon erase all my previously configured bars? Usually a bar addon inherits the buttons I had selected before I installed it.
Well, here's the thing. Trinity Bars uses independant stand-alone buttons that are separate from the built-in buttons.
Understanding Action ID's
What you need to understand about Wow's usual action bars is that they use Action ID's. Inside WoW, under the hood, WoW has a concept called Action ID's. Wow's usual buttons are linked to Action ID's, which are like little button containers that live under the buttons.
In Vanilla (no addons) WoW, you get a button bar with 12 buttons on it. When you drag a spell to the button bar, you're actually placing the spell into an Action ID container that is attached the the button.
Let's say you start a new Mage. You open your spellbook and drag Fireball to action button number 1. When you press Shift-2, the Fireball icon disappears! This is because the action bar shifts out the Action ID's that are attached to the buttons. Press Shift-1 and the Fireball icon comes back.
What's actually happening is like this: When you start up WoW, the 12 buttons of the action bar contain ActionID's number 1 through 12. When you press Shift-2, WoW changes the ActionID's that are on the bar from 1-12 to 13-24. Your Fireball spell is still contained in Action ID #1, but button number 1 is currently showing Action ID #13. When you press Shift-1, WoW changes the ActionID's back to 1-12, and Fireball reappears.
WoW internally has 120 action ID slots. The first six sets of twelve action ID's correspond to the Shift 1-6 that you can do to the standard action bar. There's more sets of 12 that correspond to other bars. For example, if you play a Druid, when you shift into Cat Form, the bar swaps out Action ID's 1-12 for another set that's only for Cat Form. It does the same when you shift to Bear Form. Rogues have a set for Stealth mode, and Warriors also get a set for their difference stances.
You can kind of see the Action ID concept better if you switch on the game's built in Extra bars - Bottom Left Bar, Bottom Right Bar, Right Bar, and Right Bar 2 (all can be switched on from the Interface Options -> ActionBars screen). When you switch these on, you will see extra bars on the screen in addition to the main bar. What makes this interesting is that if you press Shift 3, Shift 4, Shift 5, or Shift 6, the main actionbar changes to match one of the extra bars on the screen. If you then move some buttons around on the main bar, you will notice one of the additional bars will also be changed. This is because the main bar has the same Action ID's as the additional bar, and when you change the spell on button on a bar, you're actually changing the ActionID's contents, which reflects on any button that has that same Action ID.
Got it? I hope so.
So, back to talking about Trinity Bars. In Trinity, each "Button" is a stand alone button that can be configured to contain a spell, or a macro, or an item... or, an Action ID. When you FIRST install Trinity, however, all the buttons are configured to be SPELL type buttons, instead of Action ID's. Most other Addons default to showing Action ID's (that because MOST other addons have no concept of a button holding anything but an ActionID). What makes Trinity different is that you can create as many "buttons" as you want, and any of them can contain pretty much anything.
To make life with Trinity easier, at least to START with, I recommend changing the starting bars from SPELL type to Action ID's. That way, at least it will behave as you expect an action bar to behave. Here's how to do it:
First, find the button on your Mini Map for Trinity bars. The button looks like a blue bird flying straight up. If you Right Click that button, you get Trinity's template editor, which you don't want yet. if you LEFT CLICK that button, you get 4 more buttons that spin out. The bottom button is for controlling individual buttons. You can either Left click or Right click it. If you right click it, you'll get Trinity's dialog box that pops up to help configure buttons. If you just Left click it, it stays hidden, but you can still do what you need to do.
When you click that bottom button under the blue bird (looks like a piece of a keyboard), you will see that your buttons now show the word "spell" on them. Now, right click the first button a few times until you see Action id:#. The first button should hopefully show Action ID:1. If it doesn't show 1, don't worry, we will fix that in a minute. Now, right click each of the other 11 buttons until each one shows Action ID: and some number. You might even notice that your original spells now show up under the label that shows Action ID.
If they correctly numbered themselves from 1 to 12, then you're almost done. If they didn't we need to fix it:
To fix it, you will need to right-click that bottom button that looks like a piece of a keyboard. The Trinity Button Edit dialog box will pop up. Next, left-click the first button on the action bar. The Button Edit box should update to show the settings for Button number 1. On the edit box, if the button is set to Action ID, you will see a section called "Action ID Editor". It's just a slide control that can be set from 1 to 120. Adjust the slider all the way to the left to set the button to ID #1. Next, find the button below the slider that says Apply. What this does is automatically adjust all buttons that come after the one you're editing to be the next sequential action ID's. Now, click the red Done button on the top of the Button Edit box, and Trinity will go back to normal mode, and your buttons will now be ready for use. If you had spells and icons on your bars before installing Trinity, they will now be back to normal.
This, I HOPE, should be enough to get you started exploring the settings of Trinity Bars. Those 4 buttons around the Blue Bird button are your main method of tuning and adjusting Trinity Bars. Try right-clicking each of those buttons to see what options become available. the top button lets you create and edit the bars that contain the buttons. You can create as many bars as you need. The button on the Right lets you control keybindings. All you need to do is point at a button and press a key on the keyboard to set a binding (this is freakin brilliant, btw). The Left button lets you lock all buttons so you don't accidently mess them up during play.
If this is helpful, I'll consider writing more guide to using Trinity. Please leave a comment is this was helpful to you.
How do you set this up?
When you add Trinity Bars as an addon, and log in to your character, what you see is basically an empty bar that looks pretty much like the standard actionbar. Why is it empty? How do you do this magical "unlimited buttons" and "unlimited macros" thing that it's supposed to do? I had to figure that out.
First of all, it was really easy to add spells to the buttons by just opening the spellbook and dragging spells to the bar. But what happened to the bars I had before? did the addon erase all my previously configured bars? Usually a bar addon inherits the buttons I had selected before I installed it.
Well, here's the thing. Trinity Bars uses independant stand-alone buttons that are separate from the built-in buttons.
Understanding Action ID's
What you need to understand about Wow's usual action bars is that they use Action ID's. Inside WoW, under the hood, WoW has a concept called Action ID's. Wow's usual buttons are linked to Action ID's, which are like little button containers that live under the buttons.
In Vanilla (no addons) WoW, you get a button bar with 12 buttons on it. When you drag a spell to the button bar, you're actually placing the spell into an Action ID container that is attached the the button.
Let's say you start a new Mage. You open your spellbook and drag Fireball to action button number 1. When you press Shift-2, the Fireball icon disappears! This is because the action bar shifts out the Action ID's that are attached to the buttons. Press Shift-1 and the Fireball icon comes back.
What's actually happening is like this: When you start up WoW, the 12 buttons of the action bar contain ActionID's number 1 through 12. When you press Shift-2, WoW changes the ActionID's that are on the bar from 1-12 to 13-24. Your Fireball spell is still contained in Action ID #1, but button number 1 is currently showing Action ID #13. When you press Shift-1, WoW changes the ActionID's back to 1-12, and Fireball reappears.
WoW internally has 120 action ID slots. The first six sets of twelve action ID's correspond to the Shift 1-6 that you can do to the standard action bar. There's more sets of 12 that correspond to other bars. For example, if you play a Druid, when you shift into Cat Form, the bar swaps out Action ID's 1-12 for another set that's only for Cat Form. It does the same when you shift to Bear Form. Rogues have a set for Stealth mode, and Warriors also get a set for their difference stances.
You can kind of see the Action ID concept better if you switch on the game's built in Extra bars - Bottom Left Bar, Bottom Right Bar, Right Bar, and Right Bar 2 (all can be switched on from the Interface Options -> ActionBars screen). When you switch these on, you will see extra bars on the screen in addition to the main bar. What makes this interesting is that if you press Shift 3, Shift 4, Shift 5, or Shift 6, the main actionbar changes to match one of the extra bars on the screen. If you then move some buttons around on the main bar, you will notice one of the additional bars will also be changed. This is because the main bar has the same Action ID's as the additional bar, and when you change the spell on button on a bar, you're actually changing the ActionID's contents, which reflects on any button that has that same Action ID.
Got it? I hope so.
So, back to talking about Trinity Bars. In Trinity, each "Button" is a stand alone button that can be configured to contain a spell, or a macro, or an item... or, an Action ID. When you FIRST install Trinity, however, all the buttons are configured to be SPELL type buttons, instead of Action ID's. Most other Addons default to showing Action ID's (that because MOST other addons have no concept of a button holding anything but an ActionID). What makes Trinity different is that you can create as many "buttons" as you want, and any of them can contain pretty much anything.
To make life with Trinity easier, at least to START with, I recommend changing the starting bars from SPELL type to Action ID's. That way, at least it will behave as you expect an action bar to behave. Here's how to do it:
First, find the button on your Mini Map for Trinity bars. The button looks like a blue bird flying straight up. If you Right Click that button, you get Trinity's template editor, which you don't want yet. if you LEFT CLICK that button, you get 4 more buttons that spin out. The bottom button is for controlling individual buttons. You can either Left click or Right click it. If you right click it, you'll get Trinity's dialog box that pops up to help configure buttons. If you just Left click it, it stays hidden, but you can still do what you need to do.
When you click that bottom button under the blue bird (looks like a piece of a keyboard), you will see that your buttons now show the word "spell" on them. Now, right click the first button a few times until you see Action id:#. The first button should hopefully show Action ID:1. If it doesn't show 1, don't worry, we will fix that in a minute. Now, right click each of the other 11 buttons until each one shows Action ID: and some number. You might even notice that your original spells now show up under the label that shows Action ID.
If they correctly numbered themselves from 1 to 12, then you're almost done. If they didn't we need to fix it:
To fix it, you will need to right-click that bottom button that looks like a piece of a keyboard. The Trinity Button Edit dialog box will pop up. Next, left-click the first button on the action bar. The Button Edit box should update to show the settings for Button number 1. On the edit box, if the button is set to Action ID, you will see a section called "Action ID Editor". It's just a slide control that can be set from 1 to 120. Adjust the slider all the way to the left to set the button to ID #1. Next, find the button below the slider that says Apply. What this does is automatically adjust all buttons that come after the one you're editing to be the next sequential action ID's. Now, click the red Done button on the top of the Button Edit box, and Trinity will go back to normal mode, and your buttons will now be ready for use. If you had spells and icons on your bars before installing Trinity, they will now be back to normal.
This, I HOPE, should be enough to get you started exploring the settings of Trinity Bars. Those 4 buttons around the Blue Bird button are your main method of tuning and adjusting Trinity Bars. Try right-clicking each of those buttons to see what options become available. the top button lets you create and edit the bars that contain the buttons. You can create as many bars as you need. The button on the Right lets you control keybindings. All you need to do is point at a button and press a key on the keyboard to set a binding (this is freakin brilliant, btw). The Left button lets you lock all buttons so you don't accidently mess them up during play.
If this is helpful, I'll consider writing more guide to using Trinity. Please leave a comment is this was helpful to you.
Playing with Addons - Trinity Bars
I've been experimenting with a new actionbar addon.
First, I should explain that I play WoW with a Nostromo N52. I have the two top rows of buttons assigned to 1,2,3,4,5 and 6,7,8,9,0. The third row is assigned to Alt, Shift, Tab, and Q(jump!) The thumb button is set to auto-run, and the hat (gamepad) it set to move forward, move backward, strafe left and strafe right. I also use Mouse Look Lock so that my mouse is always in control of my camera, unless I hold down the thumb button on the mouse to bring up my cursor.
So, I had previously been using Bartender3, which is an Ace2 addon. I had used it to create a buttonbar near the center of my screen that has 5 buttons across in 2 rows to emulate the top 10 buttons on the Nostromo. I had it configured so that when I hold down Alt or Shift, the icons would automatically change to reflect buttons that are available while holding down Alt or Shift. This makes for a VERY asthetically pleasing visual cue for my nostromo hotkeys.
Well, Bartender3 has a critical bug. Every now and then, without warning, and without any specific input, the default (no alt or shift held down) bar decides to switch to another hotbar. My usual kill and heal buttons are suddenly totally unavailable, and I find myself crippled.
This bug is a problem when exploring solo, a BIG problem when I'm grouped, and a CRITICAL WIPE issue when I'm in a raid tanking something. It's simply not acceptable.
I've never been able to figure out a way to fix the problem while in game. I've even tried to do a "/console reloadui" and that doesn't work. The only way to fix it is to log out of the character to the character screen, and log back in. This is not acceptable during a raid, or almost any time, really.
So, I decided to try to find a new addon. The one I'm using now is Trinity Bars. For now, I think it's excellent. I've been able to perfectly replicate the setup from Bartender3, including the visual shifting of buttons when I hold down the alt and shift keys.
An extra bonus in Trinity is the fact that EACH button can be configured to have a macro script embedded on it, with a text limit of 1023 characters. When a button is configured this way, it doesn't consume an actual "macro" from the game's built in macro system, which is GREAT, because I've run out of room for any more macros on almost ALL of my characters!
As a bonus, if you embed a macro on one of Trinity's buttons, you can still move them around by dragging and dropping them, as if they were spells! This one feature causes me to give this addon a MASSIVE thumb's up, even if I happen to find some other huge bug.
The only problem I've had so far with Trinity is that occasionally, I find myself having to re-keymap certain buttons. I'm not certain why this happens, but I usually notice it immediately on login - the problem doesn't occur randomly during combat like the Bartender3 problem.
The addon doesn't appear to have been updated in a little while, but the author does appear to be working on a new version that will hopefully be released in time for the 3.0 patch in a week or so. We'll see how it goes!
First, I should explain that I play WoW with a Nostromo N52. I have the two top rows of buttons assigned to 1,2,3,4,5 and 6,7,8,9,0. The third row is assigned to Alt, Shift, Tab, and Q(jump!) The thumb button is set to auto-run, and the hat (gamepad) it set to move forward, move backward, strafe left and strafe right. I also use Mouse Look Lock so that my mouse is always in control of my camera, unless I hold down the thumb button on the mouse to bring up my cursor.
So, I had previously been using Bartender3, which is an Ace2 addon. I had used it to create a buttonbar near the center of my screen that has 5 buttons across in 2 rows to emulate the top 10 buttons on the Nostromo. I had it configured so that when I hold down Alt or Shift, the icons would automatically change to reflect buttons that are available while holding down Alt or Shift. This makes for a VERY asthetically pleasing visual cue for my nostromo hotkeys.
Well, Bartender3 has a critical bug. Every now and then, without warning, and without any specific input, the default (no alt or shift held down) bar decides to switch to another hotbar. My usual kill and heal buttons are suddenly totally unavailable, and I find myself crippled.
This bug is a problem when exploring solo, a BIG problem when I'm grouped, and a CRITICAL WIPE issue when I'm in a raid tanking something. It's simply not acceptable.
I've never been able to figure out a way to fix the problem while in game. I've even tried to do a "/console reloadui" and that doesn't work. The only way to fix it is to log out of the character to the character screen, and log back in. This is not acceptable during a raid, or almost any time, really.
So, I decided to try to find a new addon. The one I'm using now is Trinity Bars. For now, I think it's excellent. I've been able to perfectly replicate the setup from Bartender3, including the visual shifting of buttons when I hold down the alt and shift keys.
An extra bonus in Trinity is the fact that EACH button can be configured to have a macro script embedded on it, with a text limit of 1023 characters. When a button is configured this way, it doesn't consume an actual "macro" from the game's built in macro system, which is GREAT, because I've run out of room for any more macros on almost ALL of my characters!
As a bonus, if you embed a macro on one of Trinity's buttons, you can still move them around by dragging and dropping them, as if they were spells! This one feature causes me to give this addon a MASSIVE thumb's up, even if I happen to find some other huge bug.
The only problem I've had so far with Trinity is that occasionally, I find myself having to re-keymap certain buttons. I'm not certain why this happens, but I usually notice it immediately on login - the problem doesn't occur randomly during combat like the Bartender3 problem.
The addon doesn't appear to have been updated in a little while, but the author does appear to be working on a new version that will hopefully be released in time for the 3.0 patch in a week or so. We'll see how it goes!
Playing a Warrior (again)
I've started another Warrior from scratch again. I've been playing a priest (again), and a shaman(again) lately.
For some reason, I decided to start another warrior. A Gnome warrior. I guess I think it's funny to have a tiny little guy who think's he's a huge bad-ass. I even tried to come up with a good name to play on the idea that he's tiny, but he think's he's huge. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a good one, so I ended up calling him TinyThug.
So as I started him, I started plugging in some of my usual macros. My basic attack macro looks like this:
#showtooltip
#show Attack
/startattack
This very simple macro doesn't do much other than start attacking, but it won't turn off auto attack if pressed again. Also, if I don't already have a target, it aquires the closest target in front of me, the same as tab. (target nearest enemy)
I also always create a bandaid macro such as this:
#showtooltip
/use [target=mouseover,help][help][target=player] Linen Bandage
This macro uses my usual logic that lets me bandage a friendly unit if I point at them with the mouse, or target them, then hit the button. If I don't target or mouseover a friendly unit, then it will bandage myself when I hit the button.
The last time I created a warrior on Horde side, I ended up making several macros that switched stances to do thinks like shield bash. I think I posted them all before, so you should be able to search for them in my archives if I don't end up posting them again.
For some reason, I decided to start another warrior. A Gnome warrior. I guess I think it's funny to have a tiny little guy who think's he's a huge bad-ass. I even tried to come up with a good name to play on the idea that he's tiny, but he think's he's huge. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a good one, so I ended up calling him TinyThug.
So as I started him, I started plugging in some of my usual macros. My basic attack macro looks like this:
#showtooltip
#show Attack
/startattack
This very simple macro doesn't do much other than start attacking, but it won't turn off auto attack if pressed again. Also, if I don't already have a target, it aquires the closest target in front of me, the same as tab. (target nearest enemy)
I also always create a bandaid macro such as this:
#showtooltip
/use [target=mouseover,help][help][target=player] Linen Bandage
This macro uses my usual logic that lets me bandage a friendly unit if I point at them with the mouse, or target them, then hit the button. If I don't target or mouseover a friendly unit, then it will bandage myself when I hit the button.
The last time I created a warrior on Horde side, I ended up making several macros that switched stances to do thinks like shield bash. I think I posted them all before, so you should be able to search for them in my archives if I don't end up posting them again.
Vampiric Touch - Is it worth it? (to ME?)
I haven't been posting much, but I've been playing. I've gone back to Alliance side (because my wife wanted to go) and I've been playing a new Priest (again).
So, I finally got my shadow priest up to level 50. I respec'd and got myself some Vampiric Touch. I've been waiting a long time to try out this spell, hoping that I would feel a sudden change in my mana usage.
I didn't. At least, it doesn't FEEL like I have more mana. Perhaps the mana cost and time spent to cast Vampiric Touch outweigh the benefits to myself to make me really feel it. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I still feel like I should just Mind Blast, then Mind Flay twice, and repeat.
When partied with my wife, she says that her Paladin feels the increased mana. So, I guess I'll keep it up when partied with her.
I tried to play Healer for a Mara group the other day, and I tried casting VT on mobs as she was tanking them. As it turned out, the mana cost to cast VT a few times really hurt, as I was down to 75% mana by the time I started healing. As a Shadow Priest, I already hurt for mana by the end of every fight, so if TV isn't bringing back enough mana to me, then I can't afford to cast it. I'm sure if I were playing as DPS in the group, instead of healer, I would feel much more comfortable casting VT, VE, and SW:P on each mob and not worry about letting the group die. /Sigh.
I don't enjoy healing a group as a shadowpriest unless I outlevel the instance. Simply put.
So, I finally got my shadow priest up to level 50. I respec'd and got myself some Vampiric Touch. I've been waiting a long time to try out this spell, hoping that I would feel a sudden change in my mana usage.
I didn't. At least, it doesn't FEEL like I have more mana. Perhaps the mana cost and time spent to cast Vampiric Touch outweigh the benefits to myself to make me really feel it. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I still feel like I should just Mind Blast, then Mind Flay twice, and repeat.
When partied with my wife, she says that her Paladin feels the increased mana. So, I guess I'll keep it up when partied with her.
I tried to play Healer for a Mara group the other day, and I tried casting VT on mobs as she was tanking them. As it turned out, the mana cost to cast VT a few times really hurt, as I was down to 75% mana by the time I started healing. As a Shadow Priest, I already hurt for mana by the end of every fight, so if TV isn't bringing back enough mana to me, then I can't afford to cast it. I'm sure if I were playing as DPS in the group, instead of healer, I would feel much more comfortable casting VT, VE, and SW:P on each mob and not worry about letting the group die. /Sigh.
I don't enjoy healing a group as a shadowpriest unless I outlevel the instance. Simply put.
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