From My Better Half: RNG and Other Things...

Hello, this is Stuart again!  Today, I am going to leave the fiction aside and tell you about something that I like to do to relax, the World of Warcraft.  As I describe why I love this game, I will be using the terminology that common players use.  In case you don’t play, I will have a glossary at the end of the article to help decipher the lingo. 

My husband's altar ego.

I have a handful of characters in WoW, but my main character is named Thornagol (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/blades-edge/Thornagol/simple).  Out of the millions of players in WoW, I actually have a unique name that no one else has taken.  That is a rarity nowadays.  Thornagol (Thorn) is a hunter.  This means that I have a pet that accompanies me everywhere I go in my journeys.  Actually, I have a total of 20 pets that do different buffs and debuffs.  I might take some pets over others if it works to the advantage of the raid.  The other great thing about the pet is that it is the most powerful DOT in the game.  If I don’t have him/her out during fights, I’m easily losing out in about 12 to 13% of my DPS.

Overall, there are three reasons why I like playing this game.  First, is that I get to use my hunter skills to kill a lot of things in a fantasy environment.  My pet and I will roam the countryside and dungeons looking for creatures to kill and plunder.  I will occasionally group with one of the support classes to help them in their journeys as well.

Second, is that I get to do a lot of analysis into what is the best when fighting those creatures.  I get to look at things like rotation and gear upgrades to factor in what will be the best for ol’ Thorny.  For example, “is it better for me to cast aimed shot (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=82928) in this fight or arcane shot (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=3044)?  Technically, Aimed Shot does more damage per focus used because of the bleed effects that happen when it hits, but the fight is pretty movement-heavy and if I have to break an aimed shot cast to move, I’ve lost the shot and my auto-shot has been reset.  Whereas using arcane shot would let me move and fire those shots while not resetting my auto-shot timer.”  In reality, I play survival anyway, thus I don’t spend much time on analyzing my Aimed Shot rotation.

The last reason why I like WoW is because of the auction house.  This is literally a virtual marketplace where I can place in-game items up for sale and make gold for my characters.  I’ve actually done pretty well since I started playing it.  It has become a little hobby of mine to see how much I can ultimately end up with.  My goal is to reach the cap (‘gold cap’) they have put in-place for the game at some point.

Well, that is all for today.  I leave you with a picture of Thorn and his Big Love Rocket.  FOR THE HORDE!

Glossary:

RNG – Random Number Generation ; WoW works on a ‘dice roll’ mechanic similar to Dungeons and Dragons.  Random numbers are generated for use in ability equations to determine the actual amount of damage dealt by your character. 

Hunter – The main character class of WoW.  The best looking and most intelligent character class, which just so happens to possess the qualities of their real-life owners.

Buff – something that increases one of your stats or abilities.

Debuff – something that decreases one of your or your opponent’s abilities.

Raid – a group of people that get together to kill stuff.

DOT – Damage Over Time; some abilities are used for the large amount of damage they do over a certain period.

DPS – Damage Per Second; the amount of damage that a character does every second of the battle.  This is an important metric in all fights.

Support Class – Every other class in the game that is not a hunter.  Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights, Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, Monks, Shaman,  Priests, and Druids are the support classes that require Hunters for them to function at maximum effectiveness.

Auto-shot – The shot that hunters automatically perform.  The heartbeat of a hunter.

Bleed – a debuff that causes damage over time.

Survival – one of the three Hunter specs.

Gold Cap – Maxiumum amount of gold that a character can earn.  Currently is 999,999gold, 99silver, 99copper.

Big Love Rocket – A very rare flying mount that is looted by killing the “Love is in the Air” (WoW’s Valentine’s Day) bosses.

Horde – One of the two factions in the game.  They are savage and have been beating up the Alliance (the other faction) for years now.