Nerd Culture Podcast

Welcome to my next WoW spec, this time focusing on the Mage.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#oGcrMRMRrRoofZcb:s0VMzbVmo

The Power Within is designed to take down your enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Your Arcane Blast is the most useful spell at your repertoire, while your Arcane Missiles and Barrage will be your strongest.  A lot of utility and trickiness also exists in the spec.  For example, if you use Frost Nova or Ring of Frost, your chance to cause critical hits increases by 3 times the normal amount.  Also, all of your spell critical hits will refund 30% of the mana due to Master of Elements.  Also, Improved Polymorph will allow for a very interesting purpose.  Torment the Weak will increase your damage for 3 seconds after the 1st hit.
There are also numerous ways to increase your own damage further, such as Incanter’s Absorbtion, Invocation, and several more such talents.  To further your damage, you can use Mage Armor to keep you mana as full as possible, especially with the glyph.

The spell rotation I would recommend, is to use Arcane Blast until you have 4 stacks of damage increase buffs.  At this time, if Arcane Missiles is not yet ready, then use Arcane Barrage.  You will want to make sure to keep Mana shield up, if you know damage will be coming your way soon, so that way you can gain your Absorption as soon as possible.  These Arcane Tactics (haha, sorry, couldn’t help that) will show your enemy your true power within.  (Couldn’t help that one either!)

Until David asked me to do a piece on my online gaming experience I had only ever played one RPG MMO, Dungeon and Dragons Online.  So, what to compare it with?  World of Warcraft was suggested, but at the start it sounded like I was comparing a donkey to a thoroughbred.  World of Warcraft has the servers, longevity and popularity that far exceeds any other RPG MMO.  What did pokey DDO have to offer in comparison?  But then I started playing WOW and came to what I thought was a surprising conclusion.

Choice of Systems

First point went to WOW as I could play it on my beloved shiny 21inch iMac.  To play DDO I had purchased a Sony Vaio which in its specs was just the ticket for playing online but in reality continually reminds me why I am a Mac owner.  Dropouts, video card stuffing around, an inability to do screendumps and trips to the computer repair shop that exceed my visits to a Mac store all make me happy to be playing on a iMac.

Free vs Pay

Until very recently DDO was the only one of the two you could play for free (P4F) as opposed to pay to play (P2P) for any great length of time.  There are limitations to the freeness of DDO, a P4F member does not get access to all quests or wildernesses, does not easily gain access to some races and classes and can not advance to the higher levels.  WoW provides a starter pack which allows you access to the first twenty level of the game.  Still, out of the two, DDO has the better co-op and feels like it was important to the developers to have it.

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Welcome to my latest WoW spec, this time focusing on the bastion of fury, the Warrior!

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LGbfcRMRuMkhbZcb:RcM0Racz0

This spec is all about spilling your enemy’s blood while keeping yourself alive and well.  There is plenty of self healing in this spec as well as a good amount of damage to be dealt, by dot and burst.  With Lambs to the Slaughter, you will keep a high amount of damage on your main abilities, which are Slam and Mortal Strike.  Also, if several enemies get the drop on you, Sweeping Strikes and Deadly Calm will be your best friends, allowing you to hit several enemies at a zero rage cost.  Also, if you are level enough, throw in your Bladestorm to become a whirling death zone… or for my personal favorite, a gnome, a little blender of death!  Also, Blood Frenzy will be very handy to increase all bleed damage from your Rend and Impale, and your Blood and Thunder will spread it to nearby enemies.

To help keep you alive, Blood Craze, Toughness, and Second Wind will be your friends.  Also, the glyph for your Victory Rush will also restore hit points.  If you feel that you have too many enemies on you, feel free to use Throwdown to decrease the pressure on you.  Also, due to the talent Taste for Blood, you will want to keep the Rend effect on as many enemies as possible and allow the frequent use of Overpower.  Sure it has an internal cooldown of 5 seconds, but the more enemies you have Rend on, the more likely it is to proc that 5 seconds.  And, the great part about this spec is that you really only need to have Battle Stance active (no Stance Dance!).

I have used this spec for leveling my now lvl 85 Warrior, and after defeating almost EVERY enemy, I left with 100% of my hit points.  In the case that I didn’t have full hit points, I would after hit the next enemy with Victory Rush and be right back to full.  By the use of this spec, you can spill your enemy’s blood with ease, while keeping onto your own right where it belongs!

People often ask me my opinion about the future of books and libraries. Given that I work in the industry, I guess that’s a fair question.

It is my belief that libraries will always exist in some way, shape or form.  Libraries aren’t a stuffy repository for old dusty books no one reads any more, they move with the times.  Libraries give people access to free information, and as long as that’s their mandate they will exist just to do that.  Libraries give people access not only to print books, but eBooks & other digital media as well.  Many people also go to the library to use the internet either on terminals provided or to use wifi.  Printed magazines are also still very popular.

The job has changed in the 14 years I have been in the industry.  There are far fewer reference type question and many more technical questions.  I still see as many people come through the doors, they are just using the library in different ways.  In the digital world people are more confident about accessing information for themselves, it is no longer the domain of the librarian to impart the secret wisdom of the Dewey decimal system.

Actually, I see more people using the library for recreation now, rather than research.  The fiction collection is more widely used than the non-fiction section.  The PCs are heavily used, as is the audio visual collection (DVDs & CDs) although, very recently I noticed that there appears to be more DVDs on the shelf than usual.  I wonder if more people are turning to digital downloads (these, at least, wouldn’t be scratched up by careless users).

When people ask if I think books will die out, they of course mean hard-copy books.  I think they will exist for many years to come, but as digital books become more popular we may see less of them.  There are people who will not use eBooks, there are people who will only use eBooks, and there are people like myself who use both.  I do foresee a time in the far off future when people will take for granted that they can access literally thousands of books at the touch of a button, use all the functionality that comes with an eBook as second nature (dictionary, web-links, etc.)  In fact going back to a hard copy book may prove an effort.  But hopefully that lies far, far in the future.

There may be a weird time when hard copy books make a comeback, like vinyl records are now.  It appears that digital music and vinyl records are selling, but CDs aren’t doing so well. And besides, you just can’t beat the smell and feel of a new book. I’m happy to embrace new technology and will often turn to an eBook, but I also have an extensive book collection  and I’m always on the lookout to add to it. So for me, books and the libraries that house them will always have a place and that makes me happy.

Episode #11 features:

Popcorn Junkie: In Time

War Room: Sci-Fi Predictions that haven’t come true yet

Interview with Marvel writer and creator of Action Philosophers, Mr Fred Van Lente (from Armageddon Expo Melbourne

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Click More to see the Show Notes for Episode #11

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