I Can Be Seductive

Image courtesy of Penny Arcade

Yesterday Fulguralis posted a great Affliction Pet Guide, in which he states that he has "very little use" for the Succubus' Crowd Control spell, Seduction.

I happen to be an excellent Seducer, as thousands of ladies around the world can confirm. You think it's a coincidence that many of my most faithful readers are female?

What were we talking about? Right, Seduction.

The confusing thing about the spell is that it has a cast time of 1.5 seconds and THEN is channeled. This makes the skill a little hard to pull off. Here's my strategy:

This only pertains to PVE.

Step 1: Focus your target.

Right-click its portrait, type "/focus" while targeting the mob, or just use a macro.

Now, my Nazverre is a fragile little thing. She hates breaking nails. So, I want to keep the enemy away from her.

Step 2: Cast Searing Pain on the target.

Just one should do. You want the tank to be able to get the enemy off you when it's time comes up in the kill order.

This is doubly effective as it makes it very obvious when the Seduction breaks, as the enemy will be pounding on you. Make sure you're able to take a few hits when using this tactic.

You may also want to drop a Curse of Elements on the mob, just in case.

Step 3: Pull the enemy to a safe location.

You don't want damage from the battle to break your Seduction early, so pull the mob out of the way. If it's a caster, make sure to use line-of-sight to your advantage. Practice.

This is where my experience as an old-school Hunter comes in handy. Back in my day, Freezing Trap could only be used outside of combat, so you had to get it right the first try. Freezing Arrow? Please.

Step 4: Seduce!

Seduce the Focused mob. This way, you can continue DPSing the main target. You're probably going to want a macro for this.

Step 5: Recast Seduction as necessary.

Again, if you used Searing Pain, you'll know when this happens.

Seduction uses 24% of the Succubus' base mana. Basically, count on getting 4 off before she's spent. At 15 second a piece, that's over 60 seconds of CC, taking into account recast times. Sure, CC isn't as useful as it was back in the old days, but it's nice to have this trick up your sleeve. Your groups will be amazed that you can do something very few other Warlocks can.

I'm leaving the macro part out because, honestly, I'm terrible at them. I have some lame-functional thing that I use, but it's too embarrassing to post publicly.

Sam's Argent Tournament Strategy

A lot of people seem to be struggling with the Tournament. Jousting is not easy, but it's also not as tough as some make it seem.

I've read several other guides, and nobody seems to use my strategy.

There's Gnomer's guide, which is great for high-latency players or those who have extreme trouble reacting. It works, but it's a little too slow and doesn't always work.

Then there's Stop's guide, which is awesome, but a little on the difficult side.

What about the in-betweeners? Fear not, Sam's got your back.

This guide assumes you at least understand the basics of jousting. If you keep dying to the training dummy (looking at you, Junior) you may want to do a little research.

Step 1: 3 stacks of Defend. Standard.

Step 2: Engage

Step 3: As soon as your opponent gets to range, Charge.

Step 4: A second or so after making contact (about 2 strides), start veering to the left or right, depending on terrain. Yes, use your keyboard.

Step 5: As you come around, hit Shield Breaker repeatedly until it fires.

Step 6: Rush back to melee range and start Thrusting.

Step 7: Reapply Defend as necessary.

Step 8: Repeat steps 3-7 until victory.

OK, here's how this works. At Step 3, your Charge will carry you THROUGH your opponent, and you will be behind them. Apparently, the NPCs are keyboard turners and will be unable to attack you for a couple seconds until they get back around. In this time, you will exploit the range where you're far enough for Shield Breaker, but to close for Charge.

The key is to get your timing right, and it may take a little practice.

If executed PERFECTLY, you will get behind your enemy, come around and still be in Shield Breaker range. You will fire that off while they're still turning and get back to melee range before they can do anything. You have removed 2 stacks of their Defend and they've done nothing.

If executed WELL, you will get behind your enemy, come around and still be in Shield Breaker range. However, your opponent will also be able to come around and fire a Shield Breaker. You have removed 2 stacks of their Defend and they've removed one of yours. As soon as your cooldown is up, you can easily reapply and stay at 3 stacks.

If executed POORLY, you will get behind your enemy, come around but be too close for Shield Breaker by the time you get him in your sights. Your opponent may have been able to fire a Shield Breaker of his own. Worst case scenario, you each lose one stack of Defend, which you can again easily reapply. Your opponent will probably reapply as well.

If executed MISERABLY, you will get behind your enemy, but will run too far away, into his Charge range. He will possibly Shield Breaker and definitely Charge while you're running around trying to find your target. You have removed one stack of Defend, while losing 1 or even 2 of your own. You will have to try to regain your full stacks.

The key to Jousting is not killing your enemy. It's a game of chess involving wearing down your opponents defenses while keeping your own up. Of these two, your own well-being is more important. You will have plenty of opportunities to take down your opponent's shields, but may have a hard time fitting multiple Defends into your cooldowns.

If you practice my method even a LITTLE, you can definitely achieve the "POOR" result, and should often get "WELL" and "PERFECT." You will keep your stacks up while taking down your opponent's.

I have been able to take down all 4 Champions WITHOUT using a single Refresh Mount in between. I take 15-20% damage each fight. If I'm not paying attention, I may suddenly find myself with NO shields in the middle of a fight because they wore off without me ever needing to reapply.

Happy Jousting!

T's Death Knight Guide

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.



This guide, in keeping with my mission statement, is designed for casual players. If you're just starting out, or are a bit confused how to play this fancy new Hero Class, then this guide is for you. It may not be as in-depth as some other sites out there, but I feel it is a very good starting resource.

Chapter 1: Basics
1-1: Roles and Resources *3.1
1-2: Stats, Presences and Runeforging *3.1

Chapter 2: Spells
2-1: Basic Spells *3.1
2-2: Talented Spells *3.1

Chapter 3: Talents
3-1: Blood Talent Builds *3.1
3.2: Frost Talent Builds
3.3: Unholy Talent Builds
3.4: Hybrid Talent Build

Chapter 4: Combat
4.1: Basic Combat ***READ ME FIRST***
4.2: Blood Rotation
4.3: Frost Rotations
4.4: Unholy Rotation

Recognition
I'd like to thank the forum communities at WoWHead, MMO Champion and Elitist Jerks. They are excellent sources of information and were invaluable in the creation of this guide.

How to be a Hardcore Casual

Well, first of all, what IS a Hardcore Casual?

A Hardcore Casual is someone who really enjoys the game. Who knows the ins and outs of every mechanic. Who can play their class blindfolded... successfully. Who could, if they applied themselves, become a top-tier player in the game.

And why would someone not accomplish these goals?

The answer is simple: time.

Not everybody puts WoW before everything else in their life. We have jobs, families and other interests. Personally, I play for a few hours Friday night, a good chunk of Saturday afternoon and evening, then an hour or two some nights throughout the week. Playing with this schedule for the better part of the past three years, I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished.

Here's a list of things to do in order to be a successful casual player:

1: Plan
Plan ahead for what you want to accomplish on a character. Keep a mental list of your goals. Better yet, write them down. Keep a notepad file handy on your desktop. Start a blog. No matter what you do, always be working towards something. Let's take a look at my Warlock, Samodean, starting at the launch of Burning Crusade.
Step 1: Level to 70
Step 2: Buy a flying mount
Step 3: Complete all Outland quests
Step 4a: Level Tailoring to 375
Step 4b: Complete the Frozen Shadoweave set
Step 5: Reach Exalted with Scryers

2: Know your limits
Once those 5 steps were complete, I considered my Warlock "done." Sure, there was plenty more he could do, but I was happy with where he was. I did a little PVP for fun, but never really dedicated myself to it. Due to time constraints, raiding was out of the picture, but I would keep the character available for the odd Guild instance run. I try to avoid PuGs, so constanly farming instances for Oblivion wasn't a smart goal, although I would have liked to at least get that 2-piece bonus. Heroic keys required Revered status at the time, so those weren't even an interest. At this point, I decided it would be a better use of my time to focus on another character.

3: Focus
Don't keep jumping around from one character to another. Sure, play an alt here and there for fun or to break up the monotony, but try to kep the bulk of your playing time dedicated to one or two characters. For example, I play on 2 separate computers. My weekday computer is a bit of a POS. With a lame video card and low-tier DSL, I try to keep things simple. Most notably, I don't run any addons. So, without the aid of Necrosis or Totemus, I try not to play my Warlock or Shaman during the week. On the other hand, weekends are on the primary system with cable internet, and I have no limits to what I can do. So, weekdays are currently Hunter time and weekends are Shaman-focused.

4: Take a breather
Focusing on one character is all well and good, but don't burn yourself out. Set aside some time to play a low-level alt, play some Battlegrounds, have some fun with your Guild, or just go pick some flowers. Whatever works for you.

All in all, keep in mind: This is just a game. The primary goal should be to have fun. If banging your head against your desk for hours every night trying to clear a new raid instance is your idea of fun, that's all well and good. Personally, that's not my thing. And there's the thing I love most about WoW compared to other MMOs I've played. A casual player can log on for an hour or two and get something done. No, maybe they can't be the best of the best on their server, but they can be proud of what they've done. They can have fun with their game.