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News
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Written by Vectivus
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Tuesday, 29 July 2008 00:00 |
Yeah, we totally just killed Kalecgos on our second night of attempts. Total of like, a dozen pulls. That's how we roll.
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Written by Vectivus
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 00:00 |
In preparation for the vacationing season, and in anticipation of starting Sunwell in late July or early August, Virtuous is actively recruiting for our raiding roster.
Applicants should be understand relevant end-game raiding concerns, and should have sufficient gear and experience to demonstrate their familiarity with the level of content we are pursuing.
Our goal is to complete Sunwell prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, which is going to require a number of highly motivated, immensely competent players. As always, however, our primary concern is that our current and prospective members be patient, considerate players - an enjoyable gaming environment is our overarching focus.
Currently, we are specifically interested in the following classes for full-time raiding positions:
- 1 Resto Druid
- 1 Mage
- 1 Holy Paladin
- 1 Shadow Priest
- 2 Resto Shaman
In addition, strong players of any class with sufficient gear/experience are encouraged to apply.
We look forward to progressing through Blizzard's most impressive raiding content to date, and we hope you'll consider joining our team for this final push. |
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Written by Vectivus
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Monday, 16 June 2008 00:00 |
 Our duplicity was hardly surprising.
He should have slaughtered us and our malformed brethren long ago.
We told him we would end his reign.
He remained unconvinced.
His time, however, had come.
And we were so prepared, it was scary.
On June 16, 2008, Virtuous defeated Illidan Stormrage. And it was everything we ever thought it could be.
Three months ago, we had given up - we disbanded, and went our separate ways. Our little intertube fairy-tale has a happy ending, though. We've reformed, renewed, and revitalized; we have a fantastic spree of progression and immense satisfaction to show for it.
In no particular order, I'd like to thank some special people for this momentous occasion:
- Arianne (Adrienna) and Renslip (Rezylarap) - for helping me to give birth to the reality of a fantastic notion of a guild.
- Togus, Widdicuss, Sedi (Desi), and Rylea (Rukia) - for their patience, understanding, and support in keeping the good times rolling.
- the Virtuous members from TUB - for calling us home, twice.
- the Exodus folks - for giving us some not-so-subtle nudges in the right direction.
- all of our recent, post-BDF transfer acquisitions - for your kindness, encouragement, and commitment.
- and finally, to everyone who berated me relentlessly until I agreed to put out the call to reform this guild. You guys deserved this, and I'm proud to have done your faith in me and this guild justice.
Here's looking forward to the intense, but exciting, challenges of the Sunwell Plateau.
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Written by Vectivus
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 00:00 |
As I've said numerous times, this is the Kentucky Derby of not standing
in the fire. After about three hours of experimenting with what did or
did not constitute "standing" in the "fire", though, we managed to get
some pants. Mmmm, pants.
Congratulations Virtuous on 8/9 Black Temple. The big man himself (years behind, yada yada) is next.
We're still recruiting Holy Paladins. |
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3.0.2 - On Debuffs, Buffs, and Raid Stacking |
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Written by Desi
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Friday, 29 August 2008 09:38 |
I think this would make an interesting read for everyone.
With the release of upcoming content patch players will see a change in
the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For
the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs
that were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that
many buffs and debuffs that only a single talent specialization could
bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The
philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have
made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs
raid-wide. We want players to be able to form raids and parties based
on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents
and abilities to min-max their raid performance.
Raid
composition will still matter to some extent, but without this change,
it would have overwhelmed every other aspect of raid planning (as we
added new capabilities to each of 30 different talent trees). You no
longer need to rigidly control the melee/spellcaster balance of your
raid, or make sure every group has all the critical buffing classes,
etc. This change has many class balance implications.
IMPORTANT!
Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the performance of every
class. It should not be assumed that one class' current performance
relative to others in beta is final. Some classes (and specializations)
will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many may feel the
change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all of
those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.
There
are thirty or so different categories into which buffs and debuffs fit.
Here you will find a comprehensive list of the changes made broken down
by category and which spells/talents are in that category.
- Armor Debuff (Major): Acid Spit (exotic Hunter pet), Expose Armor, Sunder Armor
- Armor Debuff (Minor): Faerie Fire, Sting (Hunter pet), Curse of Recklessness
- Physical Vulnerability Debuff: Blood Frenzy, (2nd Talent Spec TBA)
- Melee Haste Buff: Improved Icy Talons, Windfury Totem
- Melee Critical Strike Chance Buff: Leader of the Pack, Rampage
- Attack Power Buff (Flat Add): Battle Shout, Blessing of Might
- Attack Power Buff (Multiplier): Abomination's Might, Trueshot Aura, Unleashed Rage
- Ranged Attack Power Buff: Hunter's Mark (only Hunters benefit, so no need to exclude against other class abilities)
- Bleed Damage Increase Debuff: Mangle, Trauma
- Spell Haste Buff: Wrath of Air Totem
- Spell Critical Strike Chance Buff: Moonkin Aura, Elemental Oath
- Spell Critical Strike Chance Debuff: Improved Scorch, Winter's Chill
- Increased Spell Damage Taken Debuff: Ebon Plaguebringer, Earth and Moon, Curse of the Elements
- Increased Spell Power Buff: Focus Magic, Improved Divine Spirit, Flametongue Totem, Totem of Wrath, Demonic Pact
- Increased Spell Hit Chance Taken Debuff: Improved Faerie Fire, Misery
- Percentage Haste Increase (All Types): Improved Moonkin Aura, Swift Retribution
- Percentage Damage Increase: Ferocious Inspiration, Sanctified Retribution
- Critical Strike Chance Taken Debuff (All types): Heart of the Crusader, Totem of Wrath
- Melee Attack Speed Slow Debuff: Icy Touch, Infected Wounds, Judgements of the Just, Thunderclap
- Melee Hit Chance Reduction Debuff: Insect Swarm, Scorpid Sting
- Healing Debuff: Wound Poison, Aimed Shot, Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks
- Attack Power Debuff: Demoralizing Roar, Curse of Weakness, Demoralizing Shout
- Stat Multiplier Buff: Blessing of Kings
- Stat Add Buff: Mark of the Wild
- Agility and Strength Buff: Strength of Earth Totem, Horn of Winter
- Stamina Buff: Power Word: Fortitude
- Health Buff: Commanding Shout, Blood Pact
- Intellect Buff: Arcane Intellect, Fel Intelligence
- Spirit Buff: Divine Spirit, Fel Intelligence
- Damage Reduction Percentage Buff: Grace, Blessing of Sanctuary
- Percentage Increase Healing Received Buff: Tree of Life, Improved Devotion Aura
- Armor Increase Percentage Buff: Inspiration, Ancestral Healing
- Cast Speed Slow: Curse of Tongues, Slow, Mind-numbing Poison.
In
each category, you can only benefit from the most powerful spell
granting that effect. For example, Fel Intelligence grants spirit and
intellect, both weaker than Arcane Intellect and Divine Spirit. If a
player has Fel Intelligence and receives a stronger Arcane Intellect
buff, he will gain the intellect value from Arcane Intellect and the
spirit value from Fel Intelligence.
In most cases,
fully-talented players will have exactly equal power on the strength of
these buffs and debuffs. Fel Intelligence is an example of where one
ability is weaker than others. The buffs in the "Increased Spell Power
Buff" category are also not all the same potency, as they scale and
grow in radically different ways. In virtually every other case,
however, the buffs are equal. This means, for example, that
fully-talented Battle Shout and Blessing of Might now grant the exact
same amount of attack power.
In addition to this change, we also
needed to address the "mana battery" roles in a raid. The mana
regeneration effect they grant is no longer limited to their own party,
and it no longer depends on the amount of damage they deal. Each time
they trigger the mana regeneration effect, 10 people in their raid
group will receive a buff which causes them to regenerate 0.5% of their
maximum mana each second. This buff, Replenishment, will be given
preferentially to raid members with the lowest mana, but will
re-evaluate which raid members receive it each time it is fired.
Replenishment is provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and
Retribution Paladins.
Finally, we have modified Heroism and
Bloodlust to affect the entire raid. However, all affected raid members
will be unable to cast or benefit from Bloodlust/Heroism for 5 minutes.
Below
you will find a list of the changes to abilities which exhibit new
behavior regardless of the exclusive categories. The changes usually
mean the old behavior was removed and replaced by the new behavior.
Numbers listed are for maximally-talented versions. Here is that list
of changes:
 Improved Scorch: Increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
- Winter's Chill: Also increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
 Elemental Oath: Grants 5% spell crital strike to raid members.
 Improved Moonkin Aura: Grants 3% haste of all types.
- Earth and Moon: Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.
 Misery: Causes spells cast at the target to have +3% spell hit.
- Shadow Weaving: Buffs only self.
 Improved Shadow Bolt: Buffs only self.
 Expose Weakness: Buffs only self.
- Shadow Embrace: Buffs only self.
- Blood Pact: Grants health instead of Stamina.
- Fel Intelligence: Has replacement ranks that grant flat values of Intellect and Spirit.
 Frost Aura: Excludes properly against all other resistance buffs.
- Grace: Reduces damage taken by target by 3%.
 Rampage: Increases melee and ranged critical strike chance by 5% for the raid.
- Improved Faerie Fire: No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit.
- Hunter's Mark: No longer increases attack power bonus from attacks against the target.
- Improved Hunter's Mark: No longer grants melee attack power.
- Sting (Hunter exotic pet - Wasp): Now acts as a minor armor debuff.
 Waylay: Attack speed reduction changed to 20%.
- Icy Touch: Only slows melee attack speed (not ranged or spell).
- Tree of Life: No longer grants healing based on spirit, grants 3% increased healing received to raid.
- Demonic Pact: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
- Focus Magic: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
- Totem of Wrath: Now grants a flat amount of spell damage, and all enemies in its radius have an increased chance of being struck by criticals.
- Heroism: Cannot be recast while caster has Exhausted debuff, and those with Exhausted debuff cannot be affected by it.
- Bloodlust: Cannot be recast while caster has Sated debuff, and those with Sated debuff cannot be affected by it.
- Vampiric Touch: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on dealing damage.
- Hunting Party: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on specified shots.
 Judgements of the Wise: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on Judging.
(Source)
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Last Updated ( Friday, 29 August 2008 09:49 )
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Reliquary of Shahraz obliterified! |
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...and a Virtuous victory!