Claymore

I don't easily accept and start chasing series. A series, be it an anime or drama series, is quite a long affair of which requires you to catch every episode. I also wouldn't be bothered watching something from the middle, missing out on all the plot before where I've started, especially if I can't access the old episodes. I'd always be skeptical of what's popular - having a weird general impression that "the show everyone's talking about" is most probably just overrated until I actually watch it myself. To start stacking series means we'll end up with heaps of shows to download every week. In worst case scenario we end up restricting ourselves to the TV during their show times. I don't like schedules.

Come to think of it, I'm watching a lot less anime than I used to. It's pretty much just Bleach, Naruto and Death Note. Perfect time to check out for new, well-acclaimed series.

Then I'm introduced to "Claymore". Hot female warriors, anyone?

Plot Summary from Anime News Network: In a world where monsters called Yoma prey on humans and live among them in disguise, humanity's only hope is a new breed of warrior known as Claymores--silver-eyed girls who have willingly become half monster to destroy the predators. But the more the Claymores call on their supernatural strength, the closer they come to losing their human sides forever. (image: Clare, main character.)

After watching the released 9 episodes so far, I'll have to say its pretty decent. Not your typical shonen bish and bash violence. It's no-bullshit limbs and blood well-choreographed swordplay with some nudity and an interesting plot. Also, the animation is near movie-quality, contrary to animes who get away with terrible animation like Naruto, at least pre-Shippuden especially during the fillers. What else could I say? Hot females warriors. K go.

On World of Warcraft: GMs has announced that arena Season 1 ends June 12, which means it's most likely the date for arena titles and rewards to be bestowed upon the deserving. New Arena, honor rewards would also be made available. The official thread as follows: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=106771822&sid=1

Due to our warlock having to deal with IRL issues and not renewing his account anytime soon, hopes of climbing the 3v3 ladder are slim. Hence I'm currently working on my 2v2 with my full focus on maintaining the top 25 spot for my Armored Netherdrake with my Paladin, Leonardo. Problem is, the nature of 2v2 combat inevitably means there would be counter-combos. It's hard to climb steadily unless we end up playing safe and avoiding certain combos. A Warrior/Pally for example, details aside, has too huge an advantage over a Rogue/Pally to make it worth the risk. Now that poisons are easily dispellable, it makes it much harder for rogues to control the game. Mathematically speaking, it is an impossible matchup assuming both teams are of equal standards.

I don't often bother about PvE news - but it's impressive to see guilds already killing Kael'Thalas. According to the feedback from those hardcore pve guilds themselves, the content is actually fun. I do feel kinda bad tho, as I sorta hoped deep down he doesn't die and just kinda bails out at 1% :). He was one of my favorite heroes back in WC3, along with Illidan who I hope doesn't die either. But then again, following the end of Frozen Throne, he should have been killed by Arthas already.

Here's my summary of World PvE Progression:
Serpentshrine Caverns cleared. (Lady Vashj slain)
Tempest Keep cleared. (Kael'Thalas slain)
Mount Hyjal 4/5 killed.
Black Temple 5 bosses killed.

Check out the boss kill videos at www.warcraftmovies.com

My respects to Nihilum guild for their astounding chain of world-first kills. PvE is not hard, but it sure requires each and every member to provide their full, professional commitment and prowess to the guild and much more.

I'll leave other topics for next. Going off to sleep, Ciao!

P.S. Check out this legendary female player recruiting post here.

Gay Expressions While Drunk are Serious Business

I just had to interrupt my blog to bring you this special, special post.

P.S. That is not me.

Starcraft 2 New Units, WoW Patchnight

Heaps of Starcraft 2 gameplay and demonstration videos has been posted up on gaming websites and youtube. I can't remember the last time a game generated this much hype. This is serious epic business.

Instead of discussing about the details and giving unit analysation, I'll just give a couple of links to useful footages and professional coverages.

Gamespy's Starcraft 2 Coverage Index

Starcraft 2 Units Part 1

Starcraft 2 Units Part 2

On World of Warcraft - tonight's the patch night. The rogue buffs are welcome, although once again I don't feel like going into details tonight. I'm pretty sick of the limitations of dagger builds. It's frustrating when one can easily negate the entire possibility of a backstab/mutilate happening. Most rogues are so frustrated they don't even speak about it so as not to spread that cheap, dirty trick.

I may just pick up the gladiator mh sword next season due to the sword spec buffs this patch. With but not limited to swords spec being a yellow damage proc that no longer resets your weapon swing and the existence of resilience, it's easy to argue that swords would be superior to fists.

Come to think of it, I've lost at least 1k gold thanks to following my regular morning routine of creating flasks in bulks this afternoon. The patch greatly reduces the materials and potency of flasks. Since I haven't sold what I have in hand, it'll be making a huge loss on all those flasks. Can't say I welcome the buff to alchemy discovery chances. I've made at least 25k pots since TBC and worked hard for my 3 discoveries, climbing up since ages ago as the Alchemy monopoly on my server, being able to make all elixirs, all flasks (except arcane & shadow) and most potions. The alchemy nerf would, I estimate, cut my income by at least half of what it was.

I'll be enabling comments for my blog. Please do contribute and make this blog feel more alive.

Next Post: An analyzation of the "famous" blogs in our local Singapore blogging scene. The condemnation begins.

P.S. Pardon my poor grammatical standards compared to my usual posts. I've hastily wrote up this blog.

Live from Korea: Starcraft 2 announced

So much speculation since the word spread about Blizzard going to announce their new game. Gamers hoped it was the much-anticipated SC2. And then there were confusing sources about it being a new MMO, possibly eating into Blizzard's own market. They've also cancelled Starcraft: Ghost. Apparently they have issues making good FPS. It's better off that way than releasing a shit game to taint the franchise.

Over the past days, the Blizzard website index has been updated once a day with a past Blizzard title, starting from Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994). It ended up with World of Warcraft (2004) and the next title being a question mark, which is supposed to be revealed in the Blizzard's WWI (Worldwide Invitational) event in Korea today (19 may). Don't be too happy tho - they have yet to announce an official release date. It may probably take ages.

I'm having some issues directly posting youtube vids up here. I'll hotlink em for now.

Below is the announcement trailer at WWI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXoekeDIW8

Gameplay Video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3980165796053569246

First ever released screenshots of SC2:
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html

Personally, as hyped up as I am about SC2 I'm not sure if I won't be disappointed. The screenshots and new units sure look impressive, but it may just be the exact same game after all. Apart from shiny graphics and pew pews, I wonder how deep it's core gameplay would be.

WC3 introduced the hero system and made micromanagement a huge factor. It revolutionized RTS and changed the graceless aspect of unit spamming. Without a hero system, SC2 would probably feel dull, tho I feel it's rather inappropriate and may throw the game off-balance if the heroes were as game-breaking as in WC3. It's sheer customizability has led to countless custom maps that many play more than the melee game itself (DotA LOL). I'm sure most would try and compare SC2 to WC3. It has to play differently to make an impact.

Official sources has announced a couple of new features upcoming for World of Warcraft as shown below:

I've some other stuffs to write up, but I'll leave it for next.
Signing off.

World of Warcraft Blog? No wai!

As usual, it's WoW maintenance night this tuesday. It used to be worst - every tuesday was the maintenance. It was a much needed break for people who simply need the downtime to convince themselves to take a break and do something else.

I'd be the last person to admit being good at time-management. I would never spend these kinda free time working on tasks that I've probably been procrastinating months for. If I have my mind on something, it frustrates me having to deal with something else before I've had my fun with it. Same goes with anything I guess.

Yeah. I've played WoW for probably two years? Started in Feb 2005. Including the 6-month period in which I quit (but am still paying for the subscription), it's actually slightly more than two years. The longest MMO I've played, and it sure is worth the fun, although it pretty much consumed an entire chunk of my life.

I'm not intending to move on to any other MMO in the near future. What attracts me most in playing an MMO is it's background. Moving on to waste another part of my life on a new MMO in a universe I don't already know is pretty much a waste of time. That's precisely why I'm not showing too much interested in Warhammer.

So, nowadays my focus is on WoW arenas - the only aspect of the game keeping me going. It's competitive nature and level of depth has exceeded what I ever imagined an MMO could achieve. Balance issues are still a problem, despite a very welcome next patch that would solve a bunch.

To provide everyone with some extra information on gladiator titles and rewards by the end of the season based on the battlegroup for EACH ladder:
top 0.5% will receive the armored netherdrake mount (310% spd) in mail and the "Gladiator" ranking.
0.5~3% will receive the "Duelist" ranking.
3~10% will receive the "Rival" ranking.
10~35% will receive the "Challenger" ranking.
Above information confirmed by blue post.
Also, in order to receive award/titles, a player needs to have played at least 20% of the team's total games for the entire season.

Based on the above percentiles and armory information, bg9 (Bloodlust) has 4994 2v2 teams, 4997 3v3 teams, and 2767 5v5 teams to date (16/5). If I'm not wrong, it means you have to either be in a top 24 2v2/3v3 or top 13 arena team. I like how this distributes - the netherdrake should be an absolutely rare reward only made available to the most competitive. However, since it's based on battlegroup, many realms especially the PvE ones will be left out and probably never get to see it.

And as the title answers: Should I convert this blog into a WoW blog? Should I literally convert an account of my life, tainting this source of reminiscence into a bunch of nerdy theorycraft, guild drama and arena techniques? No I don't think. Despite the possible fame, hits and shit. I'd much rather keep it more personal for the time being. But then on the irony, everything here's about the MMO. Guess I'll leave these posts far and few in between.

Ciao :)

Blog, K GO.

No more long and boring comeback posts.
Everything from then and now I won't bother summarizing either..
With that said, I'm blogging again now!