Silence!

Something we may not always think about what our spells and abilities actually do in the setting of the game. Sure, for us, the tooltip tells us the basic information and we go on from there, but what are we actually doing? How does Arcane Shot work? Does the hunter just have a special magic arrow they shoot me with? Do they somehow wave the arrow around and it becomes magic, say a few words in Darnassian or Troll or whatever? Some abilities are pretty obviously spells, like almost everything a mage does, but for other classes the border between magic and skill can get pretty blurry... moves like Cloak of Shadows really beggar the imagination to explain in a non magical way.

A recent discussion on the forums about Thunder Clap and its being suppressed by silence effects (it always has, or at least has for so long that I've just accepted it) brings out Ghostcrawler to explain the reasoning. Quite frankly, it's a pretty reasonable explanation: if you're silenced, no one can hear the Thunder Clap going off, and thus, it doesn't do anything.

It's not due to the ability being magical or not, silences prevent spell casting by preventing the spells themselves from being uttered, they're not a dispel, so it makes sense in game that silences also prevent any other ability that needs to be heard from working. I know from tanking Raging Spirits on top of ICC that I also can't taunt when silenced, which makes sense. I can yell all the insulting words I want at the ghost, but he can't hear them. I'm honestly not sure if I can Shockwave in this situation (we have very fast dispellers) but some sources I've checked indicate that yes, Shockwave is also prevented by silence. (I really don't get silenced all that much. I'll run some tests later today.)

I find it very interesting to see the complexities of how abilities and conditions interact in game, and how abilities are changed by in-game world logic. One class obviously uses the Holy Light, while another is just getting by on brute force: the in game distinction creates new complexities.

The Lawbringer: Kids and Contracts

Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly visit to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I am a third year law student acting as your crossing guard and trying not to get run over myself.

For this week, we'll turn to my mailbag:


I've turned 18 and am on an account my father WAS paying for. Is there any way without having the Ban Hammer brought down on me for me to have exclusive rights to the account? Because I'm pretty sure my father does not play and never really has. Thanks- Tom
Tom's situation is not that unusual, but before we get into his question, I feel the need to reiterate something: I am not a lawyer. While I do appreciate the fact that I'm likely the closest thing to a lawyer that many of y'all feel comfortable contacting, I can't help you with real legal problems. That's a little no-no known as practicing law without a license; doing so could make me ineligible for the bar exam. And let me tell you, I do not want to end up with a loan bill bigger than my parents' mortgage without the piece of paper necessary to pay that debt off. I can tell you what the EULA and TOU says, what the current law is, what policies Blizzard has in place, but I can't tell you what you should do.

(I also feel compelled to note that I am female. For those wishing to accuse me of blind loyalty to Blizzard: if I were a fanboy, the byline would read Gregory Rummel.)

So let's look at Tom's dilemma: he's been sharing his account with his dad, but no longer wants to do so now that he's an adult. Well, first thing to do is look at the EULA/TOU. Account sharing is strictly forbidden under the Terms of Use:
You may not share the Account or the Login Information with anyone other than as expressly set forth herein.
You are not allowed to share your account with your siblings, your spouse, your best friend, or your roommate. Why not? Well, beyond the fact it means you can't play together, it leaves your account open to hacking. Preach it, Brother Waco! Now, note that you can share your information with someone "expressly set forth herein" (translation: someone actually mentioned in the document). If you scour the page, you will find that person in the section called "Eligibility."
3. You represent that you are an adult in your country of residence. You agree to these Terms of Use on behalf of yourself and, at your discretion, for one (1) minor child for whom you are a parent or guardian and whom you have authorized to use the account you create on the Service.
So there is one person with whom an adult can share their account information -- one authorized minor child. Now why might Blizzard have this rule? Why not just have the child form an account and agree on their own behalf?

Think back, all those many weeks ago, to the column on requirements for a contract. Remember that to enter a contract, you generally have to be a legal adult. What's so important about being a legal adult? For the answer, scroll up and watch Huey, Dewey, and Louie weasel their way out of the contracts that would bankrupt Uncle Scrooge's company. Under common law, "infants" -- persons under 18 -- may rescind contracts to which they have agreed at any time. (Statutory law has eroded this privilege somewhat for personal services.) So yes, you can tell your mom that you were actually learning good contract law watching the Disney Afternoon.

Now, given that adults can terminate their contract with Blizzard at any time, it may seem strange to worry about minors rescinding their contracts at any time. It should be noted, though, that termination and rescission are not the same thing. When an adult terminates his contract, he simply stops paying for services. A rescission requires the parties be placed back in the same position they were in before the contract. Thus, the minor would return the software and Blizzard would be forced to refund the sales and possibly the fees. Like I mentioned before, nonrefundable services can't always be rescinded by a minor. Rather than deal with all this, Blizzard just requires that only adults may agree to the terms, and allow parents to share their account with their minor children.

So having established that sharing an account with a minor child is okay, we'll move to the second part of Tom's question. How can a new adult get control of the account owned by their parents? Fortunately for Tom, this is spring break, so I had the time to spend an hour and twenty minutes on hold with Blizzard to ask them about this. (Thankfully the on-hold music is actually decent.)

First, the teenager (We'll call him Mark) has to create a Battle.net account. Then Mark and his mom "Barb" have to call Blizzard to delink the WoW account from Barb's Battle.net account and connect it to Mark's Battle.net account. This has to be done over the phone, and both Mark and Barb must be available and agree to the change. No further paperwork is needed. Now, this is for when mom and son are just transferring ownership. If Barb likes playing her characters and she and Mark want to split the account, they have to use the paid character transfer system to let Mark have his characters and Barb have hers.

Well, I hope this has been a little bit of useful information. Stay tuned for next week, when we explore another intersection of law and Warcraft.

Heroic Nexus Boss Guide

Grand Magus TelestraThe Nexus has an open ended feel that allows adventurers to travel multiple paths to kill bosses in almost any order they prefer. Grand Magus Telestra is typically the second boss killed and is the holder of the achievement – Split Personality. This achievement is fairly easy to accomplish now as most players outgear this zone and will have more than enough DPS to burn the adds down together. There are two fairly simple methods to this depending on your group make up, if you have mostly AoE damage dealers simply use voice chat to monitor total damage and round them up to burn them down evenly.
AnomalusAn arcane elemental, Anomalus is the second boss in Heroic Nexus that we will take a look at. This is a two stage fight with the boss having a normal and invulnerable phase that cycle at 75, 50 and 25%. The achievement that he gives is known as “Chaos Theory” and is obtained by not killing any of the Chaotic Rifts that spawn during his invulnerable phase. The most popular and preferred method to achieve this is kite the mob around to the various platforms in the area, this is a more time consuming method but the most foolproof, just remember to clear the area completely before attempting! The kiting method allows you to control the damage taken by the rifts during his normal phase, however you will need a strong healer no matter which method you chose as the rifts gain unlimited range at the 25% intervals. If you have a mage you can apply dampen magic to the group and make the fight almost trivial for a moderately well geared healer. If you chose not to attempt the achievement you simply burn down the rifts during the invulnerable phase for an easy kill.
Ormorok the Tree-ShaperThe next boss in our look at the Nexus is Ormorok the Tree Shaper, a rather large and nasty elemental that inhabits a semi wooded area of the instance. Ormorok offers no achievements, but does need to be killed to allow Keristrasza to be activated so you cannot skip him. This boss can be the most straight forward tank and spank fight instance if all party members group up directly underneath him for the duration of the fight. He has several special abilities to contend with, but most only come in to play if the group is spread out. Ormorok summons small adds that root players in place if not dealt with quickly, these little guys have next to no hit points so you can AoE them or single target them down rather easily. Their root ability itself isn’t much of a bother until you add to it his second ability, Crystal Spikes, a ground based damage that can be avoided easily provided you aren’t rooted to the ground. He hits plate fairly hard and has an extra ability that enhances this damage so both the tank and the healer need to be mindful of spike damage.
Commander Kolurg or Commander StoutbeardThese optional bosses are only available on Heroic mode, offer no achievements and are completely optional as they do not have any bearing on freeing the end boss. Both of these bosses are found in the hallway leading from The Librarium back into The Axis of Alignment area of the zone. Kolurg is the alliance version and Stoutbeard is the horde version of essentially the same fight. This boss starts out frozen in place so you have ample preparation time. The boss will come with two cleric adds that have Shadow Word: Death and heals in their arsenals, burn the adds down before concentrating on the boss. The boss itself will whirlwind and fear so keep him pulled far away from any other NPCs to avoid adds, all players but the tank should avoid the whirlwind at all costs.
Keristrasza The final boss in the zone, Keristrasza can only be engaged once the other three primary bosses have been defeated. The dragon starts the fight inside a frozen tomb and is released by player activation of three orbs around the room. Keristrasza offers a Heroic achievement – “Intense Cold”, which is gained by not allowing the bosses stacking debuff of the same name to get higher than two stacks. This is an INDIVIDUAL achievement so you can complete it even if other members of your group fail. There are various class compositions that make this a much easier fight but the basic premise is to jump as often as possible to not allow Intense Cold to stack and to have some means to break out of her second ability, Crystal Chains. The chains will lock you in place for 10 seconds and effects all players in the Heroic version, the best bet is to have your PvP trinket to break out of the first ,use a free action potion to break out of the second and have high enough DPS not to have to worry about a third cast. Druids, Mages and Paladins can use their typical special abilities of shapeshift, blink and bubble respectively while shamans can drop a grounding totem to eat the effect. The chains are dispellable, so a mass dispel priest is optimal here, but any dispell class is a plus to have. In addition to the two abilities that pertain to the achievement the boss also has a tail swipe, a frontal cone spell and enrages at 30%.

Kirin Tor Reputation Guide

The Kirin Tor eventually became the ruling body of the small yet grand city of Dalaran. Their headquarters being the Violet Citadel, which contained many libraries, research chambers, classrooms, and bedrooms. The ruling council of six met in a room with no visible walls, the Chamber of Air. But even the Kirin Tor eventually found themselves unable to stop Prince Arthas in his advance on Lordaeron.
Arthas gained the spell book of Medivh and Kel’Thuzad used it to summon Archimonde who then destroyed Dalaran. Since Kel’Thuzad was once a part of the Kirin Tor many felt the destruction was deserved and punishment for Kel’Thuzad’s crimes. The Kirin Tor however refused to leave their home and they returned to the ruins. Once they had reclaimed the city they erected a giant purple dome around the city that would destroy anyone so bold as to touch it.
Led by Malygos, the blue dragonflight has recently declared war on all mortal magic users and in response the mages of Dalaran have levitated the city high above Northrend. Dalaran today floats above the Crystalsong Forest as a neutral haven for both Horde and Alliance in direct defiance to the blue dragonflight as well as the forces of the Lich King.
Daily QuestsThe Kirin Tor do not have daily quests available like the other factions in Wrath of the Lich King as Kirin Tor reputation can only be gained by completing Dungeon and Heroic Dungeon dailies, and Dalaran profession (cooking, jewel crafting, and fishing) dailies. This can make the reputation grind harder or easier depending on how many daily Dungeons you wish to do and how many of these professions you are involved in.
FishingAll the fishing dailies can be obtained from Marcia Chase in the Eventide located in Dalaran. Fishing dailies can be completed by any fishing skill (although higher skill makes things much quicker) and are available at level 70. All Fishing dailies award 250 reputation with the Kirin Tor.
Normal Daily DungeonThese quests can be picked up from Archmage Timear near the Violet Citadel. Starting at level 78 these quests can be obtained by both Horde and Alliance and will send you to one of various instances throughout Northrend. The quests will vary day to day. Each Normal Daily Dungeon quests requires you to enter an instance and kill a certain number of specific mobs that can be found there. Upon completion of the quest not only will you receive an Emblem of Conquest, but also will have your choice of Commendation Badges. Each Commendation Badge gives 250 reputation to a specific faction. Choose the Kirin Tor Commendation Badge and use it and you will gain an instant 250 reputation with the Kirin Tor.
The easiest way to gain reputation with the Kirin Tor is to complete the quests (and possible daily quests) available and purchase the Tabard of the Kirin Tor once you have reached Friendly. While wearing the Tabard of the Kirin Tor in any level 80 Dungeon, Kirin Tor reputation is rewarded for each kill. Reputation can be gained like this all the way through exalted.
The Tabard of the Kirin Tor can be purchased from the Archmage Alvareaux the Kirin Tor Quartermaster located near the Violet Citadel in Dalaran. Most classes will start at neutral with the Kirin Tor and will have to do some questing to purchase this item, however mages begin at Friendly and could in theory purchase the tabard at level 1.
Kirin Tor RewardsThe Kirin Tor (once enough reputation is gained) offer many decent rewards for almost everyone including a fire resist stamina head slot enchant and a spell power critical strike head slot enchant. All can be purchased from Archmage Alvareaux in Dalaran.

Vault of Archavon Guide

The other thing that makes VOA different from other raids is the loot that is available there. Each boss can drop PvP or PvE gear of varying quality, for any class or spec in the game. This makes loot quite random, as a piece of gear may drop for a spec or class that is not present, or all PVP gear could drop, or all PVE gear could drop. The randomness to the loot frustrates many players. It also means that groups should attempt to bring as many different classes and specs as possible so that most loot can be used.
The raid currently contains three bosses, but has expanded from one on initial release. Currently in ascending order of difficulty the bosses are: Archavon the Stone Watcher, Emalon the Storm Watcher, and Koralon the Flame Watcher. While we will describe the fights and strategies in this order, realize that most groups will start with the hardest boss first. That way if they fail to down him, they are not saved to a failed group and can instead look for a better group of raiders. If you are raiding with your guild, then this is not an issue and you can do the bosses in any order.
Archavon the Stone WatcherArchavon is a pretty simple fight that is a DPS race due to his 5 minute enrage timer. While he has a few abilities that need to be dealt with, nothing is overly complicated. He does, however, require two tanks due to his abilities.
Archavon’s Abilities
ArchavonRock Spikes – Roughly every 30 seconds Archavon will launch a barrage of rock spikes at a random player. They can not be avoided and cause damage to the player and anyone nearby.
Crushing Leap – Roughly every 30 seconds Archavon will leap at a random player and knock them back. He will then cast a choking cloud and then return to the tank.
Choking Cloud – The choking cloud is an AOE damage effect that stays in place for roughly 20 seconds before dissipating. While active anyone in it or moving through it will suffer damage every second.
Lunge – This is the ability that takes the current main tank out of combat and is preceded by the emote “Archavon the Stone Watcher lunges for ”. He will grab that player and hold them for 8 seconds and inflict damage to them during that time, then throw them across the room.
Archavon Fight StrategyThe fight starts with both tanks engaging Archavon and fighting for threat to ensure both are ahead of all other players. Ranged DPS and healers need to spread out around the room to minimize the damage taken from Archavon’s AOE abilities. While you should have some distance between everyone, you also want to be close together so that everyone can be healed and players are not running all over. Once everyone is in place DPS can lay into Archavon.
When rock spikes are shot at a ranged player if no one else is near simply stand in place and take the hits. If someone is near, move away from them. If someone in melee is targeted, the tank should move the boss away, while the targeted player moves away in an opposite direction. In general though, you want as few people moving as possible.
When Archavon leaps at a player and places a choking cloud, everyone simply needs to move out of the cloud area and wait for Archavon to return to the tank. The distance and time that it takes Archavon to return is based on how far players are standing apart. This means that while you should not group up, you should also not stand 30+ yards away from each other.
When Archavon lunges at a tank and removes them from the fight, the other tank simply picks up tanking duty. When the first tank is release they can either become the off tank waiting to resume tanking the next time Archavon lunges or if they are geared significantly better, taunt off the other tank and resume being the main tank.
That’s all there is to the fight. Keep in mind that you need to have enough DPS to down him quickly as you only have 5 minutes before he enrages and starts one-shotting players. You do not need a huge amount of DPS though since he only has 2.3 million health in 10 player raids and 10 million in 25 player raids. If all DPS players are above 2,000 DPS each you will have more than enough to beat the enrage timer.
Emalon the Storm WatcherEmalon the Storm Watcher is a boss in VOA that is accompanied by a group of four guards called Tempest Minions. These guards respawn whenever they are killed, therefore DPS should not be wasted on them other than when required. Instead they are simply held by the off-tank. Emalon himself has a few abilities that need to be watched for, while the guards’ main ability is to explode when overcharged.
Emalon’s AbilitesChain Lightning – This spell hits the target and then bounces to additional nearby targets increasing the damage it causes to each subsequent target.
Lightning Nova – This is an AOE damage attack that Emalon casts roughly every 20 seconds. It hits everyone nearby for a large amount of damage, and will wipe most non-tank players. The damage it causes is maximized if you are within 20 yards of Emalon. Lightning Nova has a long cast time though, so melee DPS has a plenty of time to get away.
Overcharge – Emalon casts this ability on one of the Tempest Minions 45 seconds after the last overcharge ended. It applies a stacking buff to one of the minions that grants 20% extra damage caused and grows the minion to roughly double the size. A new stack of the buff is granted every 2 seconds, and when the stack hits 10 the minion will explode causing significant damage and most likely wiping the raid.
Emalon Fight Strategy
EmalonThis fight requires two tanks each with their own healer(s), or healers alternating tanks from a central position. The fight is started by the off-tank engaging the adds and Emalon to establish aggro and then moving to one side of the room. The main tank then pulls Emalon off of the off-tank and drags him to the opposite side of the room. Normally the off-tank goes left of the door and the main tank goes right, however either side, or front and back work just as well.
Once the tanks are in position, ranged and healers setup more than 20 yards away from Emalon and in range of both him and the minions. They also need to spread out as much as possible so that any chain lightnings that are cast at the group do not bounce through too many targets. Melee DPS then starts in on Emalon.
When lightning nova is cast all melee needs to run at least 20 yards away from Emalon before he finishes the cast. Once nova goes off they can run back in to DPS.
When overcharge is cast, one of the minions will be healed to full health and grow in size to roughly twice as large. All DPS must immediately switch to this minion and kill it within 20 seconds. If it lasts longer than that it will explode, wiping the raid. Since overcharge is on a 45 second timer you can start moving to the minions before they actually get overcharged, that way you can start DPS faster. Once the minion dies, DPS goes back to Emalon. A new minion will spawn by Emalon and the off-tank needs to pick him up and drag him back to the add location.
AbilitesBurning Fury – This is a stacking buff that Koralon applies to himself every 20 seconds after he is engaged. For each stack on him he causes an extra 5% damage.
Burning Breath – When cast Koralon spins around breathing on everyone in the raid, causing significant fire damage each second for three seconds.
Flaming Cinder – Koralon targets a random player and hits them and anyone near them (roughly 5 yards) for fire damage. The attack also leaves a pool of fire on the ground that will burn for roughly 20 seconds. Anyone in or moving through the fire will suffer damage.
Meteor Fists – When cast, Koralon does an addition 100% damage in fire damage in addition to his normal melee attack. This damage is split with another target in his front ark. The buff lasts for 15 seconds.
Strategy
KoralonThe fight requires two tanks to be present, although the off-tank can focus more on damage than threat. Determine which way Koralon will be moved during the fight and let everyone else in the raid know before engaging. Normally he is dragged counter-clockwise around the room. Both tanks move in and engage Koralon and get him into position just outside of the glass octagon on the floor. An ideal distance is 5-10 yards away from the octagon so that players can clearly see the fire pools that are dropped. Once engaged the tanks stay stacked on top of each other for the duration of the fight.

The Violet Hold Guide

Inside the Violet HoldOnce inside the Hold you will see the Kirin Tor guards bravely fighting against the blue dragonflight invaders. To activate the instance you will need to speak with Lieutenant Sinclari. The Lieutenant will call for his guards to fall back and your group will be left alone to defend the Hold.
Similar to Black Morass there will be a total of 18 portals opening one after another. These portals will either spawn a Portal Guardian which will spawn continuous non-elite adds or a squad of elite dragon kin which spawn no adds. Your group’s mission will be to kill theses spawns quickly so that your group is not overrun as more portals open, and to keep the spawns off the door so that they don’t break through. On the 6th and 12th portal an unattackable dragon will spawn. The dragon will then proceed to randomly open one of the prison cells located within the Hold releasing a boss. After you defeat the boss you will have a small break so drink up! If at any time you feel overwhelmed by the spawning mobs, there are 5 switches located on the walls throughout the room that will do damage to all mobs currently up.
Bosses and Achievements
Lockdown!This achievement cannot be placed with any one boss as it requires you to kill all of the bosses inside the instance with the exception of Cyanigosa. This achievement is based mostly on luck as the bosses spawned in the instance are random. If you can clear the Violet Hold with no problems, then it just becomes a waiting game. Keep running The Violet Hold every chance you get and eventually (probably when you least expect it) you will finally have killed all the bosses and gain this achievement. A brief description of the boss fights, and other achievements that go along with them are below.
ErekemAn arakkoa type boss, Erekem will spawn from the left side with 2 guards that cannot be crowd controlled. All DPS should be on the boss, ignoring the adds. If the adds are killed first he will apply the Stromstrike debuff which will do tons of damage to your tank. The boss will throw Lightning Bolts from time to time, has a Windfury attack, a quick casting Chain Heal, and can Bloodlust.. All of Erekem’s spells are interruptible. Overall a very simple tank and spank.
MoraggA giant floating eye located on the right side of the Hold. Will cast Ray of Suffering (DoT that inflicts 8% of the target’s total health every second for 5 seconds), Ray of Pain (shadow damage to a target and reduces healing received), Optic Link (channeled beam that does damage over time), and Corrosive Saliva (stacking debuff that reduces the targets armor). This boss encounter is mostly a tank and spank, with the majority of the damage going out going to the tank. It should be noticed both the Ray of Pain and Ray of Suffering can be reflected back on the boss by a warrior, making the fight faster and easier.
IchoronA water revenant located near the center of the instance, in the only cell with water in it. Ichoron will come out with a protective bubble with about 35 charges on it that needs to be removed. Each attack that hits it will remove one charge from the shield. Once removed Ichoron will collapse and a few water elementals will spawn. The boss will become active once again when all of these have been slain, or if one of the elementals reach him. If an elemental reaches him, it will restore some of his health so they should be killed quickly. Keep in mind the elementals do AoE damage when killed, so rounding them up and killing them is not a good idea. For an easy kill simply use the levers around the room when the adds are spawned. The resulting damage should wipe out the adds and save your group the AoE damage. Rinse and repeat a few times until Ichoron reaches 25% at which time he will stop summoning adds, but will enrage.
Dehydration This achievement requires you to defeat Ichoron without allowing any Ichor Globules to merge. To make this achievement easy assign someone to click one of the levers around the room each time the adds spawn. The result should be the adds are killed instantly before they even have a chance to move closer to Ichoron. Keep an eye out just in case any manage to escape. Do this until Ichoron is dead and this achievement will be yours.
XevozzAn ethereal, and probably one of the toughest mini-bosses in the instance. Xevozz has three man abilities: Arcane Barrage Volley which shoots arcane blasts at nearby players, Arcane Buffet which will increase his damage, and he will also summon Ethereal Spheres. The handling of the Spheres will make or break this fight for you.
Throughout the fight Xevozz will summon Spheres, while Xevozz himself does not do much damage if you allow him to get close the Spheres he will feed off them and gain an extra damage boost. If Xevozz is in line of sight of the Spheres for any length of time, he will teleport your entire group right on top of one of theses Spheres. Since the Spheres themselves have an damage aura this should be avoided. The first Spheres should be spawned at the bottom of the instance, so move the boss (making use of the rubble) to the top walkway. Kite him slowly with healers and DPS following along. If all goes well, continue to make circles like this until the boss is dead.
LavanthorA giant core hound located on the bottom right of the room, Lavanthor proves to be a very easy fight compared to most. A basic tank and spank, simply face Lavanthor away from the raid and have your DPS go to town. The tank can try to step away to avoid Lava Burn, but since the rest of the group should be taking almost no damage the healer should have no trouble healing through it.
A Void DanceThis achievement requires you to kill Zuramat without killing any void sentries. Probably one of the more exciting DPS race encounters in WoTLK 5-man, your group will have to push their limits to defeat the boss before the damage becomes overwhelming. To make this easier bring a class that can dispell/purge Shroud of Darkness, making the healing less intense for your healer. If you are lucky enough to have a DK tank have him place an Anti Magic Zone for your group to stand in. Otherwise cross your fingers and DPS, DPS, DPS.
CyanigosaThe final boss in the Violet Hold, Cyanigosa will spawn after the final portal without a pause, so mana users should try to conserve during the last few portals. Cyanigosa is a typical dragon, don’t’ stand behind her (Tail Sweep), or in front of her (Uncontrollable Energy). Cyanigosa will also cast Blizzard on a selected area, move quickly out of this to avoid taking additional damage. Cyanigosa will cast Arcane Vacuum throughout the fight, which pulls your entire group to her. Return quickly to your original positions to avoid the Tail Sweep and Uncontrollable Energy. This effect also causes an aggro wipe so allow the tank to regain threat before continuing DPS. Overall Cyanigosa ends up being a pretty simple tank and spank with a few twists.
Cyanigosa related Achievements:

DefenselessThis achievement asks you to defeat Cyanigosa without using and Defense Control Crystals while keeping the Prison Seal Integrity at 100%. This achievement is rather straight forward, do not allow anyone to click on the levers throughout the room, this will take away your crutch and make things harder for those who struggle with some of the bosses and portal packs, but can easily be done. The only real difficulty is keeping portal packs who spawn 3-4 adds from reaching the Prison Seal. Have a good tank who does quick pick ups and slow them when needed and this achievement will be yours.

The Violet Hold & Heroic: The Violet HoldThese achievements simply ask you to defeat Cyanigosa on heroic and normal difficulties. Get a group together and fight your way to the end of the instance, wipe out Cyanigosa and these achievements are in the bag.

Guild Hopping Guide

Someone beat WoW. Yes, that’s right, on a Taiwanese server they have every single achievement in the game except BB King which was recently added to the game. That means it is possible to do everything in WoW and reach a point where the only thing left is to min/max gear and farm gold. Until you hit the gold cap, that is.
Of course, WoW is a big winner in that you can alt. Yes, that’s right, alt, and then all of a sudden all of those things you’ve done are now uncompleted and the cycle continues.
There is no news this week, other than a sparse telling or two. There were some server outages, the fifth year anniversary which we’ll talk about in the weekly musing, and the Pilgrim’s Bounty event. Oh and Mohawks.
Did you have fun with Pilgrim’s Bounty? My adventures led me city to city as a level 58 trying to sit in each seat, taking turns running myself and someone else through the instance wherein someone released when they died at the Talon King. If I was an angry person I would have went into their room and deleted WoW for something like that, because that instance is still painful 10 levels later.
Here is my review of the holiday. I find it to be a 7 on the scale of “the most fun you’ve ever had” sitting at 10 and “reading WoW erotica in front of a large crowd” at 1. Well, that’s a weird scale, but I found it to be the most rewarding for instant gratification. You instantly gain 320 cooking within no time, even if you don’t want the meta, and that itself means the most to me. Any holiday event where you get this instant sense of character development is really good.
However, there is always an issue. I’ll use the recent Halloween event as a comparison. The Halloween holiday requires persistence, yes, and requires travel. It’s time consuming, but in no way painful. You log in during your spare time and collect your goody bag. Within no time you’re loaded up with the items and call it a day. With Pilgrim’s Bounty, it’s a difficult and arduous journey through the world, sitting on tables and spamming buttons, and involves Darnassus which you’ve already heard my complaints about.
I relate this achievement to something between Brewfest and Halloween. It’s got a very high practical use to it, like Halloween, with free buff food and immediate cooking skill but it also has that high annoyance factor. Finding rogues is the hardest thing to possibly do when they’re either already turkeys or just not around. The trips to the enemy cities are annoying and some cities like Darnassus are impossible to get through to get to the tables for everyone but stealthers. I’m sure many will read it as whining, but I aim to have fun in my games. I don’t aim to hike it through an enemy city to sit on a stable or run the bird man instance again.
In other news, the Guild’s 3rd season ended with Codex going mental. Surprise.
I always join a guild made between me and my friends, but I went and did some research for this one. Here are my findings, published here in theoverpull.
Reality is subjective and in World of Warcraft we can often lose ourselves to thinking the game holds a static meaning. Sure, we all assume that raiding and purps are the endgame and that PvP is its own entire little minigame within WoW, but we would be wrong to assume that it was the end of the possibilities. There is a lot more life and depth in the game than the static world we often attempt to dictate that WoW has.
EVE Online has no real story nor does it have any instances or dungeons in the traditional sense. It doesn’t have an Arthas in space chilling in his house waiting on you to stop having a tournament and to come to him and fight. It just has space, spaceships, and the freedom to let players dictate their own game. WoW, on the other hand, does have Arthas, it does have a story, and it does have breadcrumbs leading to a life of arenas or raiding as your de facto “endgame” with farming (gold, achievements, whatever) as a secondary goal. Writers like me often wax poetic about how this is what makes WoW good (or to some bad) and is what keeps players going.
However, let me ask you a question. What if you were not in your guild right now that’s capable of raiding, even if it was Naxxramas? What if you were incapable of setting up a winning arena team? What if you were a step below a casual? Stuck in a world where even the welfare purps were overpowered. What if you were that guy, you know, the one you constantly gank with ease in the battlegrounds or just one of the filler people in Orgrimmar that no one knows?
They’re like ghosts and the world is full of them. You see their guild tag, but have no clue what the guild is. You see their gear and it’s a mix of blues and epics, epics you probably never even heard of. You see their achievements, they were 80 half a year ago, but there they stand a complete enigma. They’ve made no progress in the world. It’s as if they’re NPCs filling the world up to give it a sense of mass.
The truth is though, that these people play an entirely different game. They don’t play the game that you and I play. They don’t play World of Warcraft: Gear is Cool. They play a game where egos are set to fight, people are at war, and any second now they could lose everything. It’s not the story missions I’m referring to, they play a social game.
The rabbit hole starts eerily with those screams and shouts in the Barrens. You know the ones. They offer tabards and guild bank slots to any and all that would join. On the surface, I’m sure the majority of us ignore them and scuff them away as a joke. As a guild full of lowbies all aiming to take the first ginvite they get and leave around level 40 (assuming they don’t quit) when they make friends in Scarlet Monastery who invite them to their guild. In some cases it’s true, but sometimes it’s far from it.
I joined one of these guilds on a Priest I was leveling because the guy sounded genuinely desperate for friends and a guild tag would stop the invites. However, after joining, I soon found a world that exists separately from our own. A world filled with intrigue, mystery, and war.
I was soon to find out that these guilds are like jobs at mega department stores. The guild leader is the store manager, his officers are the department managers, level 80s are the full time workers, and the lower levels are the part time workers. Make anyone above you mad and you’re out. Fail to do your job within the guild and you’re out. Work hard and you’ll be rewarded – with little to no compensation and a job that feels like it’ll never be done.
The guild leader was a charismatic guy. He talked, a lot, and had a good head on his shoulders when it came to recruitment. After all, he recruited me of all people. The guild ranks were well established, and like I said they were the focal point to your work within the guild. You start at the bottom and if you do a good enough job you can get to the higher ranks. Higher ranks mean more bank access, more grepairs, and more trust.
Within a short period of time within the guild I was made aware of a war when someone screamed “those mafia guys are camping me!” in guild chat enough times that I was dizzy with the text movement. The guild leader ordered everyone to come to the barrens immediately. Curious to what the spectacle was about I made my way to the barrens from Orgrimmar. There, I saw it, their rival guild circling the defenseless noob on their mounts.
I stood and watched, then pondered what the problem was. They weren’t Alliance. They weren’t enemy creatures. They were just players on our side circling around this guy. However, to these guys, these people were the enemy. I was quick to find out that they were at war with this guild and this guild was at war with them. They had a few allied guilds to their cause, but this was personal. This lowbie was one of the officer’s alts and he was fuming.
Within no time, members of this guild went to action. They dispatched someone to Org to begin trade spamming that “The Mafia” (that’s not their name, but we’ll call ‘em that) were ninjas. That explains a lot of the ninja spam you can read in /trade these days. Then, they quickly began flinging insults back and forth like children, as if they were engaged in a turf war. Almost, as if, they were roleplaying.
Roleplaying they were, in a non-descript way. They weren’t taking on the role of anyone but themselves and there was no fictional story about it, but they were enacting a story. A story that was weaving right in front of my eyes. Before long, The Mafia was outnumbered, thanks to the guild leader’s latest efforts in recruitment, and ran away with their tails between their legs. In victory, the guild leader congratulated many of the members, many of whom received promotions. People were ecstatic, even the level 80s.
Now, much like a department store, the turnover rate was obscene. Promotions were required to keep the members happy. They worked hard, helping the guild master, running lowbies through instances, and more to achieve a higher rank. In reality, the rank means nothing. You don’t get anything tangible from it, except for a new note next to your name in the guild list. Yet, these players still strived to get it.
As a matter of a fact, not many things mattered to the players in the guild other than their guild rank. Gear didn’t matter and having it wasn’t a reason for a guild rank increase. After all, they’re not in a PvP war and an 80 can run alts though instances in greens and blues. Gold doesn’t matter either, unless it’s being poured into the guild bank which is perpetually in need of funds for repairs and more bank slots.
It’s as if the players get stuck, progression wise, and resort to creating their own new endgame. One where they’re at war with rival guilds and their worth is dictated not by gear score or arena points, but by their rank within the largest and most powerful guild. Like I said, reality is subjective and it’s all based on your perspective. To these players Arthas might as well not exist nor Yogg-saron.
In the end, the guild like many of these guilds, collapsed. The story being told ended as no one logged on and everyone fled to another guild to repeat the same begging for promotions and seeking more bank tabs that have nothing in them. In the end, I remain in the guild, a few people log on (even 80s) who I assume are too lazy to find another one. I sit there and think of all of the excitement and action that went on for one short week before the store closed shop and the employees went to the next place that’d hire them with no questions asked.