Knights That Say Ni

Blog o’ the Week: Week 3 - Need More Rage

ologhai — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:04:31 +0000

In the pen and paper role-playing world, “crunch” and “fluff” describe either the mechanical or story aspects of source material. I think those terms apply equally well to blogs. Crunchier blogs will have plenty of theorycrafting and analyses of raids, often relying on various data-mining addons to provide fuel for extensive math and number crunching (see? crunch!). Fluffier blogs have anecdotes, progress diaries, and plenty of non-WoW-oriented posts. We’re going to be veering away from the crunch this week for the fluffy goodness that is Need More Rage. Need More Rage is a blog from the in-character perspective of an orc warrior. He does touch on crunchier topics now and again, but there is as much entertainment value in reading Ratshag’s blog as there is informational, probably more so. You can still mine his blogroll for goodies though. He’s got links to some tanking resources as well as a few of the more prominent blogs in the community.

Blog o’ the Week: Week 2 - The Egotistical Priest

ologhai — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:31:30 +0000

I’m firmly of the opinion that people need to spend some time in another class’ shoes to learn how to play their own class better. While creating seventeen characters is an option (whistles innocently…), reading class-based blogs is mite easier. Perhaps I’m biased because my main is a level 70 priest, but I think that people need to understand how healers operate in both small and large groups. Granted, healers are only 1/3rd of the Tank-DPS-Heal balance scheme, but the ratio of tanks & DPSers in the game to healers is a little uneven. The implication of which is that fewer people understand healers in general then say, DPSers. Which goes back to my original point: if you’re not going to play a healer, then you still need to read about them and how they work in order to better work with them. Week 2’s blog, The Egotistical Priest, is a great resource for non-healers.

If you’re a healer, especially if you’re a priest, then you should pretty much read every single post on the site. Now. Go. This post will be here when you get back. OK, now that all the healers are gone, I can get down to the nitty gritty with you tanks and DPSers. If you only read a few posts, start with posts under “The Essential Ego”, handily linked at the top right of the blog. Those should provide enough insight into a healer’s perspective. If you’re feeling especially daring and inquisitive, check out her posts on various spells and talents.

What makes her site useful for non-healers are the regular non-healing related posts. For casual players who’ve spent most of their time soloing or questing with a spouse or significant other and have never had a lot of group experience in instances and raids, posts that discuss group roles and responsibilities are a must-read. For the WoW veterans who know group dynamics forwards and backwards, he has a number of well-thought-out posts that discuss guild management topics. And for anyone looking for a chuckle (or a groan, if it’s not your kind of humor), check out the “Pun-ishment” category.

Now that the healers have gotten back, I’d like to point out that some of the most valuable posts she makes aren’t about healers, but about tanks.

“You have to poke your head up and glance around at something other than health bars from time to time, and there is a lot that you can do to make a group go more smoothly.” -Ego

Italicized because it’s true. As a young healer I ventured often into the Wailing Caverns. Despite the frustration of fighting with leather and mail wearers for cloth drops and of losing out on blue staves with tons of +spirit to warriors, I made a number of dumb mistakes, because I didn’t understand how other classes worked. Don’t be the priest that casts Power Word: Shield on the warrior before the first pull. Now that we’ve gotten the energy and rage users of the game to understand us mana-users, it’s time you headed on over to their camp and learned all about the classes who only need 100 mana for all of their spells.

Blog o’ the Week: Week 1 - Big Red Kitty

ologhai — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:05:45 +0000

There is a staggering amount of information available within the WoW community. It’s only recently that I’ve discovered the smaller subculture of WoW bloggers. Which is unfortunate, because I’ve learned more about all aspects of the game in the last few months from blogs than the last few years of playing, Thottbot-searching, forum trawling, et cetera. The Blog of the Week feature is an effort to highlight useful blogs for members of the Knights That Say Ni.

It makes sense then that my inaugural Blog of the Week post starts with the first WoW blog I came across: Big Red Kitty. I don’t recall how I came across it, but after spending some time reading his archives and watching some of his Newbie Hunter Guide vids, my opinions of the hunter class reversed completely. My original opinion was formed primarily on having grouped with the universally known and reviled Hunter sub-class, the Huntard. I tried my hand at Huntering, but compared to my warlock’s low-maintenance demons, pet training and care seemed like a hassle.

Big Red Kitty focuses on Beast Mastery as the One True Way for end-game raiding hunters (and has the experience, data, and chutzpah to back it up), but has lots of helpful information for Marksmen and Survivalist hunters as well. With over a year of archived posts, he’s got plenty of content for both experienced players and players new to the class or even the game. There’s too much to discuss in one single post, so I’m going to focus on the information he provides for newbie/lowbie hunters.

New and experienced players alike should head on over and watch themselves some BRK TV. His videos cover basic concepts like pet training, kiting, and trapping, as well as highlight difficult fights and the roles hunters play in end-game raid instances like Gruul’s Lair and Karazhan. Beyond his videos, he has a number of good Hunter Training articles, the topics of which are frequently prompted by email he receives from readers. His replies are informative and helpful and often a good deal more snarky and entertaining than that Abby chick (who probably plays a Night Elf smarmymancer anyways).

While I hope that KTSN members use the guild blog as a portal to the WoW community, BRK’s site certainly serves as a good source for WoW resources. Besides his entertaining commentary on WoW life, BRK offers up numerous links to online tools, data sites, other WoW blogs, and even a BRK-branded forum for like-minded Hunters.

Also, he is sponsoring an upcoming social event on the Drenden server on Feburary 9th: The Gnaked Gnome Race. Level 1 gnomes running from Coldridge Valley to Menethil Harbor. Check out his site for details. I’ll be rolling up a wee lil gnome as soon as I think of a good name…

Edit: The event is now scheduled for 7pm EST.

Further Edit: BRK used to be in the Air Force and occasionally shares highly entertaining stories about his experiences. They tend to run longer than normal posts (being that they’re stories), but their length also highlights BRK’s writing skills. He entertains, engages, informs, all while using full sentences, punctuation, and PARAGRAPHS!

Welcome!

ologhai — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:28:53 +0000

This is the new website, blog, and forum for the Knights That Say Ni of Hyjal. We intend this to be a repository of information as well as a community for guild members to connect with one another.

Please make an effort to read and post in the forums on a regular basis. If you come across something interesting, post it for other members to see. If you have a question about anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.

You can find the guild forums under Resources at the bottom of the page. Guild members are required to read and sign the Guild Rules thread (which would also require them to register for the forums).