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Have you heard?

You may have noticed the massive amount of posts about Star Trek Online that have been cropping up around the blogosphere.

I'm just fucking with you.  No one is talking about it.  Why?  Probably because it's a half-finished game.

And I mean that in the nicest way possible.  Seriously.

I know there were a lot of haters when the game first came out, and they all said the same damn thing.  Well, two months and a lifetime subscription later, and I've reached the same conclusion that they have.  I still insist that, once you have reached max level, there is squat to do.  Sure, there are those two raidisodes (Try saying that and not laugh, WoW players,  I dare you), but they're poorly designed and are the -only- missions that they've thrown at us since launch.  It's like releasing Ulduar and letting that be the only content to do at level 80.

(Of course, I use Ulduar as an example because "LET'S ADD ADD PHASEZ HURRRRR" is not a good design philosphy.  Cryptic can't really get a grasp on this concept either, as is evidenced by the borg "zerg" tactics that we see in both "raid" episodes.)

That may seem like an exaggeration, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate.  -Nothing- to prepare you, gear or skill-wise, for the radical difficulty shift, and it also leaves you in the same predicament that made me leave WoW.  I don't like being tethered to people for the sake of gear (and in this instance, sheer gameplay), but the ridiculously difficult raid episodes and the lack of any other type of endgame content pretty much guarantees that.

So, yeah.  Half-finished.  No content.  Bored, QQ.  Honestly, if I hadn't given them my money for a lifetime (In my defense, they didn't announce their horrible design philosophy until after the 30 day "safety" period had passed) subscription, I would've already closed the lid on it.  But, since I have nothing better to do, I poke around from time to time, and play with Dayn when his job isn't owning his soul.

I was going to go on a rant about my car...  but I'm kinda tired.  Long story short:  My ride is busted and now I have to sell it to a scrapyard.  FUCKING YAY!

Additionally, my old computer is dead, but I managed to scrounge up the dough for a replacement (read: begged for cash).  It's got one of those new i5 chips, and she purrs.  Apparently, my little 9800 graphics card was being throttled by my crappy mobo and chip back in the day.  Add an i5, 4gigs of ram, and stir, and now I can run my games at their max settings.  BTW, Star Trek Online uses lots of bloom.

How much bloom?

Needless to say, there's a pretty drastic change. I'll have to see if I can find some before/after pics and do a montage.  Maybe when I feel like it.

Random Thoughts

Y'know those random fight scenes in movies where some dude gets choked?  Well, do you think they ever had to cut out the choking sequence because one of the actor's had an erotic asphyxiation fetish?  You see where this is going...

"Ugh, does he have a...?"
"Yep."
"Gross.. CUT!  Put in the stunt man!"
"...he's got an asphyxiation fetish, too."
"...does anybody in Hollywood have a normal sex life?"

"...shut it down.  Just shut it down."

The giant floating turd that is Star Trek Online's new "Raidisode" Infected has driven me back to City of Heroes.  For at least a vacation until they sort that shit out.

I mean, the entire thing is an exercise in frustration.  I left WoW so I wouldn't be tethered to a group of strangers just for the sake of shinies.  Since STO allowed me to solo or duo all of the content, I thought the name of the game was "casual."  Boy, was I wrong...  You need 5 players that are experienced with the game mechanics of a particular instance, and have the patience to sit through it, wipes and all.  (And you will wipe.)

Those players also have to "jump like jackasses" from platform to platform in the final room, hitting switches like a bad Doom level, only to get completely owned by the last boss (Which I should add, there is no gear to farm/craft to prepare for the amount of damage she puts out).

So yeah, Mission Architect, here I come.  I'm thinking of something comical...  Starfall's rehab center.  Has a nice ring to it.

For lulz!

Captain's Log: Star Trek Online

Beware, there might be spoilers ahead.

I guess it was just time for a change. Dayn, Lexi, and I all left World of Warcraft for Cryptic's new MMO, Star Trek Online. And it seems that all three of us really like it. I liked it so much, that I bought the game, a lifetime membership, and canceled my WoW account all on the same day. Pretty crazy, huh?

Above is a picture of the dynamic duo, (at the time) Ensigns Xirelle and Elexin in the mess hall before the Borg Assault on the Vega colony that starts the game off with a kick.

My character became the acting Captain of the U.S.S. Carthage, and later received a promotion to Lieutenant for her valiant efforts. Something you'll notice about some of these screenshots are the varying differences in quality. Cryptic had a few... performance issues to work out through open beta and some of the first few days of release. So I was toying with the sliders with each patch, trying to make my game look a little less like ass while still being able to play.

The Carthage, for anybody who saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, is a Miranda variant light cruiser.

Following a promotion, Lieutenant Xirelle was put into the Captain's seat of the U.S.S. Aurania. This ship was about the size of the original Constitution class starship used in the original Star Trek.

Now would be a good time to let everyone know that there is an awesome in-game bridge that you can visit. It's more of a social/afk area, for now, but hopefully there will be some more options added at a later date.

Next on the table is the newly commissioned U.S.S. Carthage-A. This unusual ship had a peculiar design. Based one the Constellation class featured in an episode of "The Next Generation," the Heavy Cruisers have four nacelles instead of two. I never did quite figure out what they were for...

You'll probably notice the increased detail here. The developers fixed some of the performance problems (although, there's still some work to be done), and I was allowed to turn on high level lighting, which, in my opinion, makes the game look absolutely stunning.

The detail put into the ships amazes me. You'll see the ship's designation numbers in many places (depending on design), the ship's name, as well as different colors and patterns that can be added at the shipwright menu.

When I was promoted to Captain, a strange thing happened with the next ship, the U.S.S. Salvation. There were several problems with her warp core, which delayed her maiden voyage for several days (read: Cryptic screwed the pooch and kept me from purchasing my tier 4 cruiser for a whole 4 days... I was not a happy camper). In all seriousness, I should work for Cryptic for the amount of bullshit I can shovel in a single sitting...

Besides serving as my desktop (The screenshot was captured at just the right time/angle), the Salvation doesn't hold a very special place in my heart. I used it for a total of five levels, since I had made it to Captain grade 5 by the time Cryptic fixed the bug, which required a patch. It's almost fitting that, during my last mission, Chief Engineer Meelok told me the warp core was failing, and that we would have to gather materials in the surrounding meteors to repair it. It was so bad, they were pumping radiation out of through the nacelles, and it took everything we had to remain on impulse power. What a way to go, huh?

Enter the Carthage-B. Sleeker than her previous incarnations, and armed to the teeth with phaser banks and quantum torpedoes, she represents the finest of Federation technology.

Her model is based off of the Sovereign class that was featured in the last few Next Generation films. And she is absolutely stunning in and out of combat. Her maiden voyage saw her flying to Cardassia Prime to procure a Bajoran Artifact that the Cardassians were willing to give up as a peace offering. The True Way stood to gain by seizing this treasure, and the Carthage-B ripped them to shreds. Diplomacy at it's finest.

I've still got a lot to do in-game, even though I'm in the last ship I'll ever use. Still have a lot of sights to see, and I have a lot of time to spend with my two good friends, who I'm sure have their own tales to tell.

U.S.S. Salvation

Xi's Guide to Warrior Tanking

Listen up, Hombres. I know I usually don't do this for anybody but fury warriors, but a few people I know want to learn how to tank like a boss. And because pugging a Fury Warrior is the WoW equivalent of being the fat kid on the playground, I have extensive experience tanking both pug heroics and a smattering of 10 and 25 man content. Now to figure out where to begin...


Part I: Talent Build

This is the tanking build I use. It is by no means "standardized," but it holds a lot of utility for heroics and raids, and is rather balanced between threat generation and damage mitigation/avoidance.

Take special note of the glyphs. I absolutely love the Glyph of Revenge, as well the Glyph of Blocking.

Part II: Rotation

I talked about rotation a lot in my "How to Fury" post, and it's no less important here. It is the thing that makes a tank stand out in a raiding environment, although, admittedly, it is slightly less important in heroic tanking situations. The single target rotation is "First-Come-First-Serve," and attacks should be prioritized in the following order:

1. Shield Slam! (Every time it's up)
2. Revenge
3. Devastate
4. Heroic Strike above predetermined rage threshold (I like 65, personally)

It should be noted that Shield Block should be used prior to Shield Slam every time it's up, unless you are saving it for defensive purposes.

Tanking multiple mobs uses the same type of rotation, except you should use thunderclap and Shockwave as often as they come up to add to your group threat. Your rotation will likely be altered depending on who is in your group, who's being an ass hat, who's attacking off targets, etc.

Part III: Addons and Macros

One might wonder how to keep track of all the procs in a build that uses Sword and Board and Glyph of Revenge. It's simple, really.

I absolutely abuse Power Auras Classic, for both my dps and tanking needs. I keep the 65 rage threshold animation from my fury rotation turned on, and add animations for Sword and Board and Glyph of Revenge. Terribly terribly useful if you have trouble seeing your body amidst all the aoe effects.

It's also worth mentioning that Omen isn't a bad addon to have, although it's not nearly as important to a tank as it is to DPS.

Now for my favorite part: My macros!

Shield Slam!

#showtooltip Shield Slam
/use Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600
/use Coren's Lucky Coin
/use Lavanthor's Talisman
/cast Bloodrage
/cast Shield Slam

Yes, I realize Coren's Lucky Coin isn't something that people can find anymore. But I still have mine and I'll use it until they remove block from the game.

The reason we have this novel condensed into a macro is to keep you from needing to think too much about your special block trinket use and rage generation. I have the same utility built into my Bloodthirst and Whirlwind macros, to increase rage generation passively, without ever having to glance over and check to see if Bloodrage is off cooldown.

Charge

#Show Charge
/cast [help, exists] Intervene; [harm, exists] Charge; Intervene

Charge and Intervene, in a nice one button package. Win.

Mouse-over Devastate

/cast [modifier:ctrl,harm,nodead]Sunder Armor;[target=mouseover,harm,nodead] Devastate

This macro isn't nearly as important as it was in BC. But it is still pretty useful to be able to reach and click with a secondary mouse button and hit a devastate while you're heroic striking the main target. Seriously useful in heroics, not so much in raids.

Part IV: Gearing up

Gearing up to tank heroics is easier than it used to be.  The hard and fast rule is that you -must- have 535 defense to tank in heroics (and 540 in raids).  Other than that, it's whatever gear you can strap on until you can find yourself in a position with enough gear to optimize your tank suits.

Some general tips:

• In the beginning, gem for stamina (unless you're not def capped)
• Block value is really nice to have in heroics, but isn't so useful in raids
• Austere Earthseige Diamond is probably the best meta for tanking.  Eternal Earthsiege Diamond is an interesting substitute if you're not def-capped or really like block
  

When you get there, you'll want to try TankPoints. This wonderful addon allows you to determine mathematical survivability against your predetermined amounts of incoming damage. That sounds like a mouthful, but basically you tell it "He's gonna hit me for a truck load" and it tells you "Oh, well this piece of gear is better than that for this amount of damage." As a baseline, the numbers originally packaged were 10505 for heroics, and 24365 for Naxx.

Closing Thoughts

I think the most important part of tanking is something that is difficult to teach. In a group of five strangers, they will look to you for guidance. You will, more often than not, be the designated party leader, and you must deal with the situation with a confidence and awareness that isn't easily described or taught.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes, but don't be afraid to ask questions, either. Take your time in dungeons if you're learning the pulls, and it isn't a sign of weakness to use the CC in your party.

Tanking as a Dk.

I've gone fully from healer to a DK tank, and its been a learning experience... I do great at AoE tanking but it seems I fall apart at single target, I don't know if it is my spec or maybe my rotation is weak for single target... but I'm dieing to figure it out......

I mean is there some attack that DK's have that can really front load the threat over a bunch of hair trigger dps that would run ahead of the tanks if we didn't keep them on a leash? and seriously would it kill some dps to wait a moment before whapping a target before it gets to a tank..... really dps........ Dead dps doesn't ya know dps....... can't kill the boss if your killed.... It shouldn't be numbers people it should be getting the boss down.