CC- Conan Continues

keeping it real
well, I said I'd try and update this thingy more often, which I will do, it's surprisingly difficult to get enough info to update stuff like this. so, it's time to fill you in
What have I been up to?
Relationships- 2 girlfriends in the past 6 months...first fucked off with my best friend (no joke) second wasn't comfortable with the relationship...which makes no sense to a guy like me but ah well, still looking for someone.
Exams- no brainer
Real Life(WUT?)-I've taken a much more systematic approach to MMORPGS now, I'm not gonna be sucked in by something so I can have more shiny pixels, so stuff in real life is paramount and therefore detracts a lot of time i'd otherwise spend on AoC.
School holidays are upon me now, 10 weeks of doing nothing :D going to Sardinia for 2 weeks next weekend which should be awesome :)
Now, onto important stuff :P
Age of Conan
Well, I've been playing AoC (as you all know) and my HoX is now 51.5, the levelling system is good, assuming you do quests.
Not many updates guild wise- LOTS of new members in the guild, who didn't necessarily play WoW, which is good
guild city is continuing to flourish...which reminds me...i need to pay the guild tax...not that expensive though so no problem :)
My character
Aloran is his name, killing stuff is his game.
Herald of Xotli is a very fun class which I really enjoy playing, who wouldn't want to play a crazy warrior with a demon stuck inside him?
But anyway, here are some screenies :)
Secondary area (Khopshef Province, lvl 20-30)
This was an area just on an island, full graphics settings (I think)

Guild city:
on top of one of the first guild buildings- Hives is the dancing noob.

Now Hives is the constipated noob ^^
me and Vengian (AKA Kipucka AKA guild leader)
scenery screenies:
here are some screenshots of when i was travelling, look pretty good imo :)
Old tarantia:
Can't quite remember where this was....
Alo got his mount!
Yep, thanks to EXTREME luck in finding a epic lvl 50 shield (and a little donation off muda :) I got my mount :D lvl 51, so 11 levels higher than the necessity, I blame the guild city for my slackness :P So here it is :D
that's all for now folks, cya soon :)

UPPPPPPPDAAAAATE

Well hello there boys and girls (there are girls on the intarwebz? :O) :P
I'm FINALLY updating this thing
The chief reason being:
MY EXAMS ARE FINALLY BLOODY OVER!!!
8 weeks of exams are really no fun at all....trust me.
So, what've I got planned for the summer? surprisingly not so much- parties, relaxing, might try and catch a music gig or 2, just gotta see :)
World of Warcraft
I am sad to say I cancelled my subscription to WoW. I just couldn't be bothered with it (exams were also a major factor) and I will not be re-subbing until I see some useful stuff for shamans (my druid is currently sitting at 62....I just can't find the will to lvl him).
So, with the end of the world....of warcraft dawns a new era....the era of AGE OF CONAN

Now, I know what you all are thinking "lawl fanboi wtf" I've actually taken a rather lax approach to it- rather than jumping in going "LAWL THE COMBAT SYSTEM ROX MY SOX" I've tried to look at it, comparing aspects I like of it to aspects I like of WoW.
Pros:
-The combat system is, in my honest opinion, a bloody damn lot better than the combat system in WoW- you actually have to react in this. I'm not talking about reacting to a cast to make sure that you CS it, but you have to react to most if not all moves (granted, reacting may involve pressing the next attack button in the combo, but you get my point :P)
- The looks. I am NOT stating that they are BETTER than WoW. WoW's cartoony looks have been a major role in getting to be the MMO titan that they are today, but I just like AoC's looks more.
-the people. I'm not saying that there are no ass-tards on AoC, but the complete-fucking-idiot:normal guy ratio on AoC is somewhat equal, possibly leaning towards the normal side. Compare this to WoW..."DIRGE" ringing a bell?
Cons:
- Although the idea of AoC is good, I believe that they released it too early- there are way too many bugs atm- I'm not just saying that because I walked through a wall by accident and killed a boss mob i needed to kill for a quest before I got the quest and then had to wait for 4 hours before he respawned, but you get the point. In essence, where AoC stands atm is it's a paid Open beta test. However, what in my mind grabs people is the sheer shitload of potential it has.
-The grind. Enough said- I need 3g to get my mount+skill at lvl 40 (42 atm) and I have a grand total of....12s...I gave money to the guild city though so I have my reasons :)- light bribery off Zarthena (a.k.a Simon a.k.a the only other english guy in Ravens in AoC atm) worked wonders to loosen my otherwise tight pockets.
- the people. I'm not talking about the randomers, but the people who I left behind in WoW. Special mention goes to Melany (I would talk to her but she's never on msn), Art (I do talk to him- he's currently trying to "get healthy..." so I wish him all the best with it :) ), Jonez, Vinnie and most of Ravens in general.

However. Ravens continues in Age of Conan!
the guild is up, people are levelling (Simon is about 67 atm), the guild city is alive- things can only get better :)

If anyone wants to talk my msn is
Scuba-Scott@hotmail.co.uk
I was scuba-diving in egypt when i made that; it seemed like a sensible username at the time :P.

I'll be keeping this a lot more updated :)
laters

Aloran
Level 42 Herald of Xotli Stygian
EU Wildsoul PvP

I am BACK!!!

WAZZAP?
tbh I can't really say anything major has happened in the past 3 months or so. I took an extended leave and will continue to only be semi-active until I have finished my exams. I need all A's and A*'s to be a vet, so...bleh.
What's new?
Well, Blizzard are once again fucking shamans over the rear end of the wazoo with regards to PvP. A simple anti-CC is what shamans need. Instead, we get SR being made undispellable (a boon I grant, but nothing particularly major) and other stuff which I really can't be bothered to comment on.
As it seems Zhero's and Art's blog have, shall we say, gone comatose? I will now be attempting to revitalise this blog using humour, although my type of humour is the sarcastic, narcicistic humour that tends to make people very aggravated and want to punch me in the head. But, to eaches own I suppose.
Now, as a personal note to blizzard from a 16 year old shaman who just wants to have fun.
Dear Blizzard:
The current state of shamans at the moment is atrocious. There is simply no empirical evidence for the justification for the way that you have systematically ass-raped, murdered, molested, resurrected, ass-raped and then murdered the shaman class ever since TBC was released. The major point is that, you gave EVERY OTHER BLOODY CLASS some form of CC/anti-CC or a mixture of both. This, combined with the fact that the shaman 40-point talents are about as useful as a chocolate covered fireguard that's been hand-made by leper gnomes, means that the shaman class at the moment is...How can i put it eloquently...oh wait...I can't...the shaman class at the moment is fucked...big time (in PvP, we're doing pretty damn well in PvE I must say).
Now, how you (blizzard) can simultaneously mainline heroine and cocaine whilst having your head so far lodged up your own backside that your farts come out as a burp quite astounds and confounds me. But I digress. With the major MMORPG competitors coming up (WAR, Age of Conan, Lego Online...) I highly suggest that you actually listen to the shamans who have been playing the class since the beginning and know what it needs. Because, at the moment the only way you seem to be fixing things is by going "hmmm....lets add a mortal strike debuff to it!!" and then sitting around clapping like a bunch of mentally handicapped seals trying to tell yourself that you've done a good job.
Yours disgruntedly
Aloran
70 enhancement shaman

P.S. your developers are poosticks

A general look at all classes in PvP

Now, I do not pretend to be an expert in PvP knowledge, the highest rating I ever played was at 1800 with Woks' team, but I will try and give my view on the classes and how they perform in the 5v5 arena bracket. Please note that these comments are merely from an observational point of view.
Warriors
lets face it, Warriors are quite commonly known as THE class to have in a 5v5 team.
I will not talk about fury or prot spec in the 5v5 arena, as they aren't exactly viable- the only thing I can think about prot warrs is that they'd be a good meatshield, and fury warriors might be a good distraction, but with no healing debuff it would be quite difficult to justify them in a 5v5 team.
MS Spec
Pros-

• Mortal strike- a very powerful healing Debuff that also does damage. Possibly the most useful thing about Mortal Strike warriors

• High Armour (yes, that's how you spell it :P)- as a very high armour class, they are quite hard to take down for any melee classes
• Hamstring- can effectively make it so that the warrior can constantly keep hitting a target if it doesn't have any anti-CC abilities (*cough- shamans*)
• Anti-fear. Yes, a properly specced MS warrior can effectively be immune to fear for quite a while
  

Cons-

• Quite easily controlled- a simple sheep can take out a warrior for the duration of the sheep
• Only melee- this is a no brainer, they can get frozen/rooted/stunned, there they can do no damage

Overall Warriors are a very useful addition to any arena team, high DPS with an almost guaranteed finisher when a target is under 20%
Rogues
Now, I won't pretend to know much about rogues in 5v5, as I have barely seen them in action.
Pros:

• Poisons- although they can be dispelled, the poisons that a rogue can provide can quite effectively stop people from healing/DPS'ing at all
• Clothy enemies- Yes, I did say that rogues are indeed the enemies of clothies, with kick, gouge and other such, they can be a real hassle to anyone trying to cast even 1 spell
• Cloak of Shadows- a flat out 90% (I think) chance to resist any spells cast- again coming into the anti-caster territory
• Evasion- this falls into the survivability category, giving rogues a very high dodge chance is a very useful skill, enabling them to take little damage for a while
• Blind- now that Blind has been changed to a physical effect, you can't get rid of blind unless you use your pvp trinket- this effectively removes a player for 10 seconds.

Cons:

• Very squishy- rogues, although they can dish good damage, are altogether quite squishy and can be killed quickly
• Limited use- apart from making sure healers can't cast, rogues don't really have a definitive role in a 5v5 team, although "DMG DEALER" is probably a good description :P

I can't really think of much more to say about rogues at the moment, as I have not had much experience with them (they do kick my ass in duels though)

Warlock
There's a reason Warlocks are pretty feared in the Arena, I will not go into great depths, as I know that the reason why warlocks are good are very widely known.
Needless to say, I will not write the Pros and Cons about warlocks as I believe they are widely known enough already. If you really are THAT interested in warlocks go read Zhero's blog :P
Paladin
Ah, the Paladin, the good old healing class. Let's face it, in PvP there really aren't that many more options for a paladin than Holy, Retribution may be a bit more viable now, but I haven't experienced many as of yet.
This will be about Holy Paladins
Pros:

• Awesome healing- Needless to say, Paladins are one of THE best PvP healers, low mana cost for the quick heals, great efficiency itself, a holy paladins heals are amongst the best for a 5v5 team
  
• Bubbles- their nickname "bubbleboys" isn't there for a reason, when you can become immune to everything and heal yourself and other members uninterrupted for 10(I think??) seconds, is a great asset to any team
• Temporary bubbles for teammates- I am of course referring to Blessing of Protection, a physical immunity bubble which can save a player
• Blessings- although they will get purged/dispelled very quickly, the blessings do help a lot in an arena, with blessing of freedom for any class that needs it badly they are a very useful tool and ability if used properly.
• Plate armour- same high armour as warriors, and therefore can take a lot of damage
• Cleanse- anti disease/poisons, no further explanation needed

Cons

• Very easily silenced- A well timed counterspell on a paladin can leave him out of the fight for 8 seconds (5.6 with auras), like shamans they are very susceptible to any silence mechanics.
• Casting heals- all a paladins heals are casted, no instants here, therefore it is an easy target to silence

Overall, Holy paladins are a VERY useful addition to a 5v5 team with their abilities far outweighing their disadvantages.
Shadow Priests
Shadow priests are a very powerful spec, and quite a powerful addition to any 5v5 team
Pros

• Very high damage- with their DoT's and nukes they can pack a powerful punch
• DoT's- their DoT's can be very powerful, and if there is a class that can't dispell them rapidly- can take off a lot of damage.

Cons

• VERY squishy- from what I've seen, although great at being able to damage other people, if they get focus fired they die very quickly
• Easily CC'd- barely any anti-CC's
  

I didn't include the heals and such from vampiric embrace, as in an arena match these are negligible
Holy priests
From what I've seen Holy priests aren't seen much in the arena, I haven't had many experience with them, but from what I've seen they get dispelled and silenced and killed.
Disc priests
Discipline priests are somewhat of an oddity for me, their high survivability is obviously an asset, and their heals are good, but I would rather take a paladin instead of a discipline priest.
Feral Druids
Feral druids can serve a variety of roles, they can jump and annoy casters, or even serve as a meatshield that can deal ok damage (if you're wondering why I stopped putting bullet points for things it's cause I can't think of enough reasons and I am a slacker) Altogether they can serve a variety of roles
Balance druids
Pros:

• High Damage- starfire hurts and moonfire is painful
• High armour- I know druids with 10k armour in moonkin form, that's just a bad thing from a caster :P
• Treants- these little bastards are the ultimate caster interruption, although easily killed, they're a pain in the ass while they're still up.
• Relatively good heals- if they choose to help out by healing, they do benefit somewhat from their +spell damage, so they can make good off healers
• Rooting- their roots can be a pain to melee'ers

Cons

• They're a moonkin....
• They're a moonkin
• They'll often refer to themselves as a Boomkin or "Panzerkin", which makes everyone slightly annoyed :P

Resto Druids
Pros:

• They have Instant heals- they are the only healers that have instant heals, a great asset to any team
• They can move about and throw their instant heals- this makes resto druids the most mobile healers
• Cyclone- i forgot to mention this about boomkins, but cyclone makes druids a very valuable addition

Cons

• Purgable heals, although this is a good thing in the case of lifebloom, in comparison it is quite a bad thing when 2 of their main heals can be removed

I couldn't really think of any more cons, but I'm sure there are some :P
Hunters
I know basically nothing about hunters, but from what I have seen, they're not THAT useful in 5v5, as they don't bring anything to the table, this might have changed with 2.3, but I'm not sure
Fire Mages
Pros

• High Damage

Cons

• Very squishy

Frost mages
Pros

• GREAT survivability- a good mage is practically impossible to beat
• good damage
• Sheeping- every mage can do this, sheeping is a great way to interrupt anyone, and if you've killed their main source of dispelling, then sheeping is a great way to incapacitate anyone

Cons:

• if they get focus fired they can only last for so long.

I don't say I know a lot about mages, but if you want to know a bit look at Artanias' blog- scroll down, there are some golden posts.

Now we get to the shamans, what I've been waiting for (I will ninja this off arts blog, he sums it up very nicely)
First something that is equal to all shamans in what they bring to an arena team:

Bloodlust, 35% extra attack and cast speed, should be pretty clear in itself how friggin awesome this is, spam mana burning, spam healing, spam dps, etc etc, simply helps you get stuff done faster, doesnt need alot of explaining.

Totems, grounding, earthbind, poison cleansing, and almost most importantly, winfury totem. Grounding can with good timing save you from a CSed paladin, that hurtfull deathcoil or sheep, yea its 5v5 and alot of spells and being thrown around, still grounding aint to be underestimated. Earthbind, quiet clear what this does, snares the entire enemy team(if well placed). Poison cleansing, dispelling Wound poison, viper sting, crippling poison and even blind, remove a crucial blind or viper sting and generally having a poison remover is obviously a huge asset.

Healing, pretty much a no brainer shamans can heal, of course how good depends on the spec, not much explanation needed here.

Shocks/purge, r1 earth shocking enemy healers and purging buffs off the main target, if the shaman aint dpsing or healing, he should be purging the enemy big time, removing a mages Molten armor or mage armor can be quiet annoying seeing as theyre more fragile towards a warrior or rogue. Purging all buffs off priests are devastating, they rely on their buffs to keep them alive under focus fire, Inner fire, renew, PoM, and shield, remove all this and theyre fodder for a warrior.


So! Enhancement:
Pros:
Fucking, sick, crazy, uncontrollable, burst dps. Yea, thats right, given the timing and luck no class in the entire game can burst dps like an Enhancement shaman with a big fat 2 hander.
Now why is this good? Personally i see it best in a 2345 team, seeing normally they cant just charge a random person and kill them instantly, they wear down the enemy slowly looking for an opening to burst down someone, an enh shaman adds greatly to this, seeing as he VERY easy can create openings with a few winfury procs(stick him on a clothie and sooner of later that guy will be below 50%)

Cons:
The key word, uncontrollable if youre unlucky you can be running around for 20 seconds without getting one single winfury proc, that is completely shit and makes you wanna cry and whine at your shaman "why are you so gay?". Uncontrollable = bad, enh shamans cant follow orders like other classes if the leader says "burst priest!" all he can do is walk up and poke the priest a bit hoping for the best, its almost worse dps than me wanding!

Next is the limited healing abilities a shaman geared for melee has, low +healing and a low mana pool compared to the other specs limits the off healing they can do, this also adds to their relatively weak survivability, most enh shamans have NS for an instant heal to help them out but thats about it. Also an enh shaman focused by more than one melee needs to pick out his shield or hes gonna get buttfucked big time, this removes alot of their dps potential.

And in the end, an enh shamans complete lack of abilities to close distance, no intercept, CloS, vanish or sprint makes them extremely vulnerable to CC, yea frost shock, but the chance that you arent playing with either a mage or warriors is VERY low, so the main target will be slowed anyway.

Thats about all i can think off for enh shamans.

Elemental:
Pros:
The more controlled, less sick dps spec of the shaman, ele shamans are without a doubt the most popular spec for arenas, their dps is high AND controllable, you ask for it and they bring you 3k+ burst in a few seconds, ele shamans can. An ele shaman have potential burst very close to that of an enh shaman, Overload procs can be friggin nasty to have send at you. Not much to say about ele shamans dps, its a very high sustainable dps they output and a good asset to the team, cant say much else hehe.

Target Switching, unlike an enh shaman, ele shamans dont need to close distance, they switch targets instantly and start their imba dpsing, this is huge for any kind of setup, fast on-demand burst is so damn powerfull, anyway im repeating myself.

Cons:
Runs oom very very fast, limited healing compared to resto, and like enh shamans lose alot of their dps when getting focused, and focused they most likely will be. Cant really find any huge cons looking at an ele shaman apart from that, when comparing it to the other specs.

Restoration
Pros:
Resto shamans, have absolutely no dps whatsoever, however are very very powerfull at healing, earth shield is an extremely powerfull spell. Natures guardian with mail armor, earth shield and NS makes a resto shaman a very hard class to kill fast. Chain heal is also a strong group heal for when 1 target isnt being focused big time.

Cons: No defensive magic dispell, combined with no offensive CC, this is a pretty bad thing seeing as healers espeically are required to have a defensive magic dispell, removing CC and other magic effects.

Hope you enjoyed this big update, i'll try and be more active, school really swamped me this time though
Scott

MORE UPDATES

Well, the time came for me to update it again, so here it is.
Recent things
I started going back to school about 2 weeks ago, nothing much new has happened (the building company who SWORE to build a new astro-court haven't even started on it...). Was nice to see all the people from school again (the ones who I didn't see during the holidays). I got my GCSE results back, I got the following:
Physics:A
Maths:A
Spanish:B (but an A overall)
R.E. (religious education):A
Biology: A* (96%)
Chemistry:A*(100%!!!)
I'm very happy with my results and am aiming to do better next year, which means a lot more revision (which sucks).
Shaman corner!!
Ok, I ninja'd this part from Muda's blog, but his is "Druid corner". In this I will just put about my current thoughts on the shaman class. At the moment I personally think that enhancement in arena and in PvP in general is just ridiculous- it's unbelivably luck-reliant. It isn't windfury, IT'S CASINOFURY!!. But seriously, the state we're in at the moment is ridiculous, if I get CC'd I can't do anything, that includes fear,sap,sheep,gouge (to a lesser extent). The ONLY guaranteed way to get rid of these as a shaman is the PvP trinket, grounding totem isn't worth the mana it costs to casts anymore against a good mage, we have no anti-CC and especially as enh spec you can attack and just pray for a lucky WF proc.
Belgium
Well, I went on my first trip away from home to another country without my parents during the second-last week of the holiday to Belgium to visit Vanjet. I stayed there for 5 days, during which I visited Brussels, Brugge and had an authentic Belgian Waffle!!!!. I had a great time and I even saw the famous piss-man!!
Arena!!
Well, got some arena done, the 3v3 is the same really, with it being at around a constant 1600 rating, the 2v2 is me and Van's back up team, when our 5v5/3v3 doesn't go that week, at the moment we've faced the same team 3 times in a row, Spriest and Marksman (possibly a bit of survival) specced hunter. WE HAVE NO COUNTERS AT ALL. If we get lucky we kill the spriest, but right before he dies I always die (can't heal due to spriest shitty silence), that just leaves Van to get kited to death, now I know that we're possibly the worst combination, but it's ridiculous. The 5v5 mysteriously died, BUT IS NOW ALIVE AGAIN. We got to 1840 rating, but then when we played on the sunday, we faced 5 teams with every single one of their rank either gladiator or High Warlord, so that dropped our rating to 1771, which is still a lot of points :D. I think we need to talk properly about the team and decide the direction we're going to take.
Artanias
Everyone knows this dude, he's a good PvP'er and an all round (relatively) nice guy, but I decided to play some fun, as he is know to over-react. This leads me onto:
Art's big adventure!!!
Well, as I said, I decided to play a little joke on Art. So I logged onto his character and made him the naked dude in org. I will tell the tale IN PICTURES!!!This was art naked admiring the view in Shattrah.In case you're wondering, we put art on the floating ship in Netherstorm- he had no HT and no reagents and no flying mount. As you can see the view is quite lovely.These are the evil Perpatrators who helped me in this dastardly deed!!!. In case you can't see it is Veri, Nimra and Pedropress, veri wanted to be sadistic and put all arts gear on him so he got repair costs, but I couldn't do it.This is art saying bye bye to the Org Portal.And Art's reaction when I logged on (unfortunately I didn't get any of when he logged on) Athzag is a shaman who keeps asking me for advice.

That's pretty much all the new stuff I can think of, until next time!!

Explanation for Major lack of updates

Hey again, I didn't forget about the blog, Just couldn't really find anything to write about, well, what's new?, quite a bit has happened in these 4 weeks (only 3 left till school *cry*)
Deep Thunder!!!!
Well, I finally got it, the badass mace known as Deep Thunder, all I can say is it's very fun to play with in Battlegrounds. Pics of Mace inc (I had pics of me getting #1 in AV, but the quality is really bad for some reason)
DEVIL MACE!!!
On the topic of my new found mace it seems to have sent me some sort of an Omen when I was helping kill allies in hellfire (2 in fact!!!)Ravens Ownage!!!
Shortly after I got back from holiday (about a week after) I did my second Gruul's Lair raid, and we Downed Maulgar and his back of bitches!!! Good job to everyone who attended!!
Arena!!
Well, I'm back to doing some Arena at the moment, my 2v2 team is pretty much dead, as the healer and MS warr (who are really the only people who play in the team) are rarely on both at the same time, so that rating is stuck at 1470

The 3v3 team however is progressing quite nicely, we just got Vanjet in the team and his MS seems to be helping Craps' healing and Ljung's nuking quite extensively, we've managed to get a pretty nice 1681 rating, so that's very good for Vanjet, whose only source of points was my 2v2 team
5v5 Team
I left Peanut Power in favour of a change of pace to get a few more games per week in, I joined Woks' newly formed 5v5 team called "Blame Woks", and after 2 weeks of being formed we are at a 1726 rating, which is imba for a relatively steady influx of ~650 points, Screenie of members coming up.
Warrior Ownage!!
After a recent bout of 5v5, me, Zeteba (Disc priest) and Daboss (MS warr) decided to do some WSG, now, as you know, WSG can go on forever, and this was probably my longest WSG ever, going at 1 hour 11 minutes, after this he did an astounding 79 and around 750k damage done. The screenie is a bit crappy quality, but you can kind of tell the numbers.
Quotes of the week
Kind of stole this idea off Zhero's blog, but here we go:

Veritha (Eleutherios) gives us his excuses on going afk during a instance, and Nimra shows us what he thinks of romantic walks.
Alo Signing out!!!

Current things

Holiday
Well, I got back from my 2 week holiday in Mauritius, it was pretty good, but there weren't many people my age, but I did my deepest dive (scuba) so far at 38 metres and also learnt how to Water-ski a bit better. All in all a very good holiday, if a little lonely. Now, I have 6-7 weeks of no school!! wohoo!!
Dragonmaw
on Monday I got the final 2 Primal Nethers I needed to upgrade my Dragonstrike Hammer up to Dragonmaw, and all I can say is it completely owns!! I love it, the upgrade in damage is really noticeale (especially since I came #1 in heroic Mechanar today).

PvP
While I was on holiday I got my friend to farm honour for me- all I can say is he did an amazing job (I think he got his insomniac brother to help), so, when I got back I had enough honour to get a few Veteran's pieces- this meant that I now have 9.6k hp and 190 resilience, hopefully this will help a bit in the arenas