I'm sat in the office this Friday morning (which is when I'm writing this draft), one of only two people in as everyone else has the day off, listening to a bit of Adele (not my usual bass pumping dance music) with very little to actually do today.  On such days my thoughts naturally drift towards blogging which is why blogging is somewhat eratic; it largely all depends on my workload which is by no means consistent.  Such is the life of a consultant.  Lately, however, I've been finding it harder to blog about WoW and then I suddenly realised that's because lately I haven't been playing a whole lot of WoW.  Sure I'm still running the RBG matches, I've been making my arena team commitments and I even ran with a guild 25 man Firelands Raid so we could finish the legendary (congratulations Anoris by the way, I'm insanely jealous of course but you completely deserve it) but I haven't really been 'playing' WoW.  I've been going through the motions.

Don't worry this isn't some 'I'm quitting WoW' post, that time may come and it may be soon or it may be a long time from now but it isn't now I can assure you of that.  But I can't help but be aware that my enthusiasm has waned somewhat.  I still love PvP (I've always loved PvP really) and when the RBG team gathers with our war drums sounding I get goosebumps.  I have euphoric moments in arena when we thrash a team that, by rights and looking at composition, should have easily defeated us.  I'm still playing aspects of the game and I love those aspects, but I'm picking and choosing not playing the game as a whole.  Now some people have been playing like this for a long time but it's not how I like to play.  I was mostly levelling through TBC (in the days before speedy levelling) but once I hit max level with my little Magey wagey I started in Wrath, I played every aspect of the game.  I raided, I never missed a daily heroic, I never missed out on dailies, I BG'd, I even did some arena (although then I was experimenting with it and did it to experience it and never consistently).  The idea of missing out on some Emblems of Whatever was abhorrent, I would never even dream of it.  A gentleman raider would do his duty, get his emblems and do his dailies to ensure he had the gold to make sure his gear was in tip top condition.

Now I still make sure my PvP gear is always ready to go, but my raid gear is a dusty hotchpotch of Tier 11 and 12 gear that lies mostly unused in the corner of my study (that's a euphemism for being sat in my bags by the way).  So what's changed and why?

If I had to pick a word (in a very gross and over generalised way) to pinpoint the cause then that word would be Cataclysm.

Anyone currently playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) will know that Bioware released Patch 1.1 a couple of days ago which sought to fix a number of issues with the initial release(and forced a very hurried addendum to my first impressions article, cheers Bioware... bastard).  Well aside from making the UI a little more user friendly it would also appear that Bioware broke Ilum, the world everyone goes to at level 50 for their daily and weekly quests.  The intention was good, they wanted to provoke more world PvP on, what is essentially, their world PvP planet and so they adapted several quests to require the killing of players from other factions AND upped the amount of Valour earnt from each kill.  Unfortunately it would appear that Bioware didn't bother to look at the server population balances before they rolled the patch out, which meant good times for any Imperials but the Republic players had to endure this...

Additionally, there is a handy little feature that alerts you to whenever an enemy player gets near an important objective, you know just in case you try to be sneaking and avoid the big roaming packs of death called the Imperial Playerbase.

Even on those servers with a slightly fairer population balance the net result seems to be one big AOE grindfest as demonstrated below.

Bioware did not think this one through... no siree... *sucks gums*... nope.

(Warning: Very minor spoilers about the Sith Inquisitor story but nothing that will ruin your experience.  I can't, however, guarantee the spoiler free status of links so beware!)

I have done something terrible, something absolutely heinous and I feel awful about it.  I didn't for it to happen, events conspired against me so as to make my final course of action inevitable.  It's really not my fault, I mean he would have killed me wouldn't he?  It happened on Balmorra, a planet recently conquered by the Sith Empire deep within the galactic Core Worlds.  I'd been sent there by my Master to retrieve a powerful artifact but upon my arrival I quickly learnt that this was no pacified planet.  A brutal guerilla war had been ongoing since the Republic's withdrawal as the local population was less than chipper about have a bunch of sadistic force users as their lords and ladies. On top of, judging from the state of the place, it was pretty clear that the Imperial Governor had reduced trash bin collections to once a fortnight.  Daily Mail readers would be incensed by the whole thing.  So being a responsible member of the Sith Empire I resolved to clean up the mess my fellow Sith had created, bring an end to the conflict and pick up that artifact along the way.  They'd call me Runz the Peacemaker!  Well that's the plan anyway.

You see I'm no conventional Sith.  I am Runz, a Sith Assassin with a heart of gold and an eye for the ladies.  Oh I talk big about crushing my enemies but that's mostly to impress my Dashade companion.  You see I am secretly a member of the Revanites, an outlawed cult within the Empire that believes that Revan's mastery of both the light and the dark sides of the force is the true way and will bring both power and peace to the galaxy.  Really I didn't even want to be Sith, I'd originally set my sights on being a Jedi Sage, but all my friends were being Sith and I just wanted to be one of the cool kids.  Funny, this story seems to sound exactly the same as the story of why I started smoking, oh hum.  So I spend my days trying to advance myself in Sith society, pleasing my somewhat twisted master whilst attempting to maintain some sort of moral code.  It boils down to this;

Killing defenceless civilians is bad.

Killing Rebels/Republic soldiers is fine if they're on the field of battle, they knew the risks.

Killing Jedi is justifiable if they conflict with my goals and will not stand aside, but I won't go out of my way to start a fight with them.

Killing fellow Sith is completely acceptable as they're a big bunch of arseholes who will kill me given the opportunity.  Most of the time I don't have to go out of my way to start a fight with them, it just happens and shouting "SAME TEAM, SAME TEAM" appears to have little effect on the situation.

A TALE FOR THE AGES

You'll notice that so far I've mostly been talking about me and my character and not very much about the actual game but that is for one very good reason; the story of your character is inextricably linked to the game and it's mechanics.  Many of the game's mechanics are used to drive the story, and the drive of the story propels you through the more traditional game mechanics that might otherwise be somewhat uninspiring.

Let's be very clear and get this said right at the start; for all its glitz and glammer SWTOR is essentially another WoW clone, it is another hotkey MMORPG based on statistics, gearscore and RNGs.  There's no escaping that fact and aside from some elements of gameplay it is not a player skill based game.  Granted gaming basic skills are still required, such as not standing in the fire and being able to position yourself behind the enemy to backstab but, much like WoW, a lot of your performance is more likely to be based on how good your gear is and how you've built your spec.  Those with greater spatial awareness and faster reactions are more likely to be better at the game but these personal abilities are not essential to have in great abundance to play the game well.  As long as you have an awareness of where to stand and what your abilities do, your spec and your gear will likely carry you through the rest of the way.  This is generally how MMORPGs work, we all know this so this will unlikely be a surprise to anyone.

Hey guys, just a very quick update for the Patch 4.2 Arcane Mage Guide.  Something a lot of people have trouble with is the relative value of trinkets, I definitely include myself in this as things I see and think 'hey that looks awesome for me' actually end up being pants (translation for non-Brits: Rubbish).  So thanks to the guys at MMO-Champion and their thread here I'm able to stick up a rough and ready guide to BiS for Patch 4.2.  Better late than never I guess.  I also take a quick stab at what will be BiS for Patch 4.3 according to early simulations but this may well change by the time of release.

4.2 Best in Slot Trinkets for Arcane

These are in decending order (ie. the one at the top is best, the one at the bottom is... um... least best? lol).

Variable Pulse Lightning Capacitor (Heroic) - Comes from the Cache of the Fire Lord after you defeat Ragnoros on Heroic.

Shard of Woe - Only available on Heroic, comes from the Cache of the Broodmother after you defeat Sinestra in Heroic Bastion of Twilight.

Variable Pulse Lightning Capacitor (Normal) - Comes from the Cache of the Fire Lord after you defeat Ragnoros on Heroic.

Theralion's Mirror (Heroic) - Drop from Theralion on Heroic Bastion of Twilight.

Darkmoon Card: Volcano / Moonwell Chalice - DMC:V is acquired turning in the Volcano deck to Darkmoon Faire.  The Volcano Deck is made up of the Ember Cards (get them from Inscription or buy them on the Auction House).  MWC is purchased from Ayla Shadowstorm after completing the required Molten Front daily quests.  Why are these two at a comparable level?  Well it depends on if you're an engineer or not.  Unfortunately you cannot use Synapse Springs and MWC at the same time so it works out that if you're an engineer DM:V is the better option.  However, if you are NOT an engineer then you should take MWC.  The difference between the two is not that great from what I've seen.  Personally I take MWC over DM:V as an engineer but that is purely a personal playstyle choice and in strict theorycrafting terms I shouldn't do that but for me personally I accept the slight DPS dip for a trinket that I feel more comfortable using.

Theralion's Mirror (Normal) - Drop from Theralion on Normal Bastion of Twilight.

Probable BiS Trinkets in Patch 4.3

Like I said at the start, the jury is still out but it looks like Cunning of the Cruel (Heroic) and Will of Unbinding (Heroic) are set to be the BiS for Arcane come the new patch.

Taking a quick look at the stats Will of Unbinding (Normal) may well sit in third place depending on proc rate followed by VPLC(H) then Cunning of Cruel (Normal).  Don't quote me on this, this is just taking a rough look at the available stats and Simcraft et al may well show something different once the patch actually drops.

So there we go guys, hope this helps.