Thursday, December 31, 2009

WoW Rant: Premature DPS

So tonight’s random pug dropped me into UK, one of the easiest, if more annoying runs because amount of trash, in the game. The first pull consist of two groups, left and right with pats going back and forth and there’s another guy up ahead and will eventually join the main group.

This pull can be done several days. Back in Ye Olden Days, when we were all nub 80s and in our shiny quest blues and if we’re lucky or rich a crafted epic or two, we’d try to pull one side then the other. Occasionally the guys going back and forth would pull both sides (getting 8 instead of 2-3), hilarity ensues and we died. Flash forward a year and, on my tankadin main, we just run in, consecrate and aoe the bastards down.

Imagine my surprise when we get in and our warrior tank pulls old school style, gets the 2 mobs on the right. Actually a great pull only getting 2 as intended. I, assuming we were gonna nuke the place, ran a bit to far ahead and aggroed the other side bringing another 3 into the fracas (oops, my bad). Anyway, tank responds and manages to pick them up, for a second. Another moment later 2 of the adds make a beeline for the hunter. Me and the tank scramble around after them, hilarity ensues and we all live.

I think, maybe the tank just isn’t good at handling multiple mobs and intentionally getting small pulls. I glance at his health, 25k, or maybe he just turned 80 a week ago (like I did on the DK) and can’t take the hits from 8 mobs. Groovy, I consciously dial it back a bit to allow an extra second for the tank to establish aggro before jumping in.

Next pull: Tank runs in, half second later mobs run to hunter. Same on next pull and the next. This isn’t a rant about hunters, it’s about dps in general. Slow. The. Fuck. Down. Dead DPS is no DPS. DPS running around chasing mobs is gimped DPS. Noob DKs running around chasing hunters are angry DPS.

Here’s the thing, if the tank can’t keep up with healing aggro, he fails and needs to learn what the fuck he’s doing. If the tank can’t keep up with DPS, the DPS needs to wait 2 seconds and let the poor guy establish aggro. Wait, 2 freaking seconds before launching an Alpha Strike. 2 seconds per pull, that’s what, a minute per instance? Surely you can wait a whole minute and keep the new 80 from scrambling.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Random Thoughts

Megatron’s worst nightmare:

“Me, Grimlock, say fuck it! Dinobots… MERGE!”

Friday, December 25, 2009

Random Thoughts

I wonder if Michael  Jackson ever got sick of Thriller.

Lazy Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

This is the first time I’ve gone to a movie on Christmas Day. It’s odd driving through town, everything is deserted, except for IHOP (which is packed) and Walgreens. I get to the theater and it’s the longest line I’ve ever seen there. Christmas is apparently a busy movie day. Also due to the line the trailers are nearly done – I hate that.

Anyway, movie starts with the apprehension of the murder… Blacksomething, can’t remember his name, let’s just call him ‘Big Bad’. Holmes and Watson take down Big Bad and several of his goons about a minute before Lestrade and Scotland Yard show up.

Flash forward 3 months, Big Bad is set to hang in a few days for his previous murders. Watson is also in the midst of packing up to move out of 221b Baker St, seems he’s found a girl and Holmes is not taking it well. Holmes has locked himself in his room, utterly bored to death unless he’s in the middle of a case. All the prospective clients bore him. In walks old flame… let’s call her Feisty Damsel. Feisty Damsel is a thief, but smart and pretty so Holmes is smitten. She leaves a bag of money and a missing person case with Holmes before scampering off.

Anyway, Big Bad hangs, Watson (as the attending physician pronounces him dead. The next day Big Bad rises from the dead and renews his reign of terror, Feisty Damsel’s missing person is found in the grave – The Game’s Afoot.

Overall I liked the movie though it does fall short of greatness. Holmes is a bit more physical than I picture him being. Granted I’ve never read the books, you might say I’m a fan of the idea of Sherlock Holmes rather than Holmes himself, Holmes may very well be in the books a kung-fu master. In the movie, Holmes is a boxer who, if he doesn’t have exotic martial arts training, is at least brilliant enough to think 5 punches ahead (something shown in slow-mo as Holmes narrates his plan of attack) the actual fights use that quick-cut technique Hollywood’s been in love with for the last decade and everyone else hates.

Watson is a bit of a surprise. As stated earlier I’ve never read the books, right or wrong, my pop culture supplied image of Watson is a bit of a pudgy, clumsy doctor who acts as Holmes assistant. Jude Law is a lean, mean, partner of Holmes who can fight and hold his own in terms of deductive reasoning. Also, may be a first where the sidekick get the girl.

Film had a supernatural element that was a bit of a surprise, I don’t recall anything about it in the trailer. Still, it’s more CSI than X-Files. Holmes end with a nice, logical summation at the end so the idiots in the audience can be brought up to speed.

I was also pleasantly surprised and impressed that a certain professor was not the main villain. Professor Moriarty does make a cloaked appearance and the Big Bad, in the end, winds up being Big Diversion. The Game’s afoot… in the sequel.

3 1/2 out of 5

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Random Thoughts

It’s disconcerting to see your grandmother bust out laughing at The Family Guy.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Things That Piss Me Off: Marvel Unlimited

Things that piss me off, this will likely be a recurring column because a lot of things piss me off. In the column's inaugural post, I bring you Marvel Unlimited.

Marvel Unlimited is a subscription service that Marvel offers that gives you unlimited access to their library of digitized comics. Monthly and yearly options are available. For the most part, the service is great. The current viewer (while initially buggy) has since been fixed and allows a variety of viewing options, loads quickly and has a decent interface. I have no complaints about the viewable comics.

However, who selects what gets digitized? Is he/she on crack? Here I am on a reading marathon of Runaways when I run into a problem.

Runaways is an excellent comic that I never would have bought, but can read online. It’s about a group of 6 teenagers (age 11-17) who are the kids of the members of The Pride, a villainous super group that controls LA. After the kids witness moms and dads murder a girl, they runaway and eventually take down The Pride. The kids all have powers, some natural, some stolen from mom and dad while on the run (the youngest is a mutant just realizing she’s different, stolen inventions from the future, a magic staff, a pet dinosaur). Great series and I was having fun reading into.

Here’s the snag – not every issue has been digitized. 1-10, 13-19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 30. Why the gaps? Seriously, why? This is not Spider-man where certain issues are going to be clamored for (Death of Gwen Stacy, villain intro issues, etc). That gap in with issues 11 and 12, it’s part 3 and 4 of a story arc started in issue 9. Why are they missing? Seriously, I’d like to know.

There’s a trade edition of the original Transformers comic out collecting the first 16 or so issues, except for #3 and #9. #3 has an appearance of Spider-man and #9 has an appearance by Circuit-Breaker, both Marvel properties which IDW Publishing cannot print. Thing is, the reason for the missing issues is clearing spelled out of the book’s forward, you know why those two issues are missing, it makes sense by any reasonable measure and it’s not a problem.

So back to Marvel Unlimited, either finish the damn series or tell me why you’re screwing with me.

-Lazy Basterd

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Another test?

Test post using Windows Live Writer.

Blogging?

Wow, I'm now a blogger.

So, I started this blog because I have something to say. I'm not sure what that something is, but I'm gonna say it. This will start out as a random assortment of thoughts on whatever happens to pop into my head when I feel the inclination to talk about something.

I will comment upon movies, games, pop culture observations and whatnot. I'm curious if anyone will ever read it except for me. Hrm... that is a good question, perhaps someday there will be a comment and I'll find out if anyone has paid any attention to me. Post will be random and can happen at anytime. I am afterall, a Lazy Basterd.

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