I’ve been absent. Most people probably think I got hit by a bus or something, or that the blog is well and truly dead and I’ll never post to it again.

The latter is probably closer to the truth, but it’s hard to just close this thing down. Too much time has gone into it. Too much work. Too much money. Maybe I’m just being stubborn and denying the inevitable. Maybe not.

I started this blog many years ago, when I was so passionate about the World of Warcraft, when I was so passionate about Arms Warriors, that I felt that I had something to say, and that Arms needed a voice to speak on its behalf.

I’m still passionate about World of Warcraft, though not as much as I once was. To be fair, much of my passion in the game was because my life at the time was a wreck, and I needed an escape more than I thought I did. Denied that truth for a long time, too. I’m still passionate about Arms Warriors, and Lelissa remains my flagship sword-wielding warrior queen in Azeroth… and in Arborea, Skyrim, Amalur… anywhere a powerful fighter with a two-handed sword can be found.

The problem is that I feel that I’ve run out of things to say. I’ve tried to rekindle that theorycrafting spark; I’ve tried to force myself to write on the upcoming 5.2 changes and rage management and the loss (finally!) of Heroic Strike… and I just don’t have it in me.

I don’t know what the future will hold for this blog. I’m going to try my hand at returning to a little fanfic, but posts will likely be sporadic (as I’m sure anyone remaining has noticed). I have stories to write and stories to finish – believe me, Lelissa has been screaming at me from the corner of my mind that she calls home – and I’m going to tell those stories. Just bear with me.

If you’re still following me after all this silence, then thank you. Thank you for sticking around, just in case there was something to be said.

I leave you with this – wonderful, wonderful art provided by my most excellent friend, Lorelai:

Lelissa and Malyss, fighting the good fight, back to back as they should have from the very beginning before Arthas took that away from them.

I should be asleep right about now, but I’m still fairly jazzed up about a secret project I’ve been working on for a while now, and just finished (no details yet, it was just shipped off to the responsible parties a couple hours ago), and I’ve also been pondering some turns of events.

The D&D group has undergone a transformation. Some playstyle conflicts arose, and two of the players left to make way for others who fit in a little better. To that end, I devised a bit of an interviewing process (that I’m still fairly convinced that only I took remotely seriously), with the intention of bringing on two or three new players. The end result was a bit of a surprise, where I suddenly found myself actually willing to take on FOUR new players, bringing the total up to eight, making this only the second-largest game I’ve ever run, and the largest I’ve ever run with an online-only audience. Who are the new players? Well…

Those of you who have been reading some of the older blogs will recognize Llanion, formerly of the Mad Cow Chronicles, which is no longer available on the web. Others may be more familiar with a blogger fairly new to the scene, but gaining in popularity: Kialesse, of The Sisterhood of Kia. This won’t be the first time I’ve been a DM for a couple (she and Achloryn are quite the interesting pair), and it won’t be the first time that I’ve DM’ed with my own significant other in the game as well, who is the third addition to the team. The fourth and final addition, which is also the one that terrifies me simply because of his ability to pick out a story like nobody’s business, is Rades. Yes, that Rades. I have to admit, I’m more than a little intimidated at the thought of being the DM and storyteller for someone who has dissected Blizzard’s lore with the skill of a surgeon, and writes his own established fiction with the flair of a professional writer. I know I’m my own worst critic, but comparing my work to Rades’ is not unlike comparing a Hyundai with a Ferrari. They’ve both got four wheels and an engine, but the Ferrari is going to turn a lot more heads.

I have so much to do, and so much I have been doing. I still haven’t been able to put as much time into the beta as I would have liked in order to test Arms, and I gave up a while back thanks to the bug with CS that forced a client crash every time you used it. I have somewhere between 4 and 8 game sessions to post. I have been dabbling with TERA, and greatly enjoying the combat system. The new players have revitalized my creative process with regards to my D&D world, and I have been scribbling notes like mad whenever I’ve had a spare minute (if I can sort it all out when I’m done having ideas, it’ll be a bloody miracle). Diablo 3 is being released in 6 days. I’ve finished gearing Lelissa for Mists, but Malyss and Velyth are still picking up some late pieces. I’m working out again. I’m still employed at a company I like with a job that I despise. It’s stressful.

Anyway, enough whining. Just look forward to some new character updates soon, and the new D&D session posts. My goal is to get as much caught up as I can before the next game on the 20th, where the new and the old combine and move forward following the death of a hero.

You’ll see. I don’t want to ruin it.

One-Time Rend

Now that Mortal Strike refreshes Rend, we no longer have to worry about burning a cooldown for an ability that does no damage simply for the sake of adding an extra ability every six seconds. To a certain extent, that “waste” of a GCD counted for a bit of a DPS loss, and actually made Arms DPS very mid-range. It’s not a bad thing, really, to be in the middle, but it was a bit of a balance issue.

Not having to worry about reapplying Rend every 15 seconds is a great benefit, and the damage done by Rend is automatically adjusted with each Mortal Strike, removing the need to keep an eye on your Attack Power for new applications. It also means that you won’t have that odd second left over prior to your reapplication, leaving you with irregular rend tick timers. Anyway.

Overpower Fix

Right now, it’s possible to time your Overpower in such a way that you can hit it, and by the time the GCD has refreshed, Overpower is ready for use again (which, I suspect, is why it’s being given a 1.5 second cooldown in 4.2 – keeps the ridiculousness out of the Arena). It’s not necessarily important to do this, however, so don’t practice it – just be aware that if you can’t always hit Overpower right away, it’s not the end of the world. You have time, and if you get it soon enough, you won’t miss a proc. After 4.2, however, you’ll need to be more diligent; don’t wait for the last second to hit it, or you’ll be stuck with the cooldown.

Stat Priority

I haven’t seen anything that changes the need for hit to cap and expertise to cap, and I’d be hard-pressed to believe that having less of either could be made up by more strength or more crit. However, Mastery has become less important in the face of Crit rating. As it stands:

Hit and Expertise to softcap, then Strength > Crit > Mastery > Haste. I’ve actually started reforging any extra stats to crit where applicable (even Mastery!), and have noticed an appreciable DPS increase. Gemming should be Strength for all red or blue sockets, and Strength/Crit for yellow sockets. Also, if you can find it on your server (and you should be able to by now), be sure to grab the Strength/+3% Critical Damage metagem.

Priority/Rotation

Unchanged. Always try to hit Mortal Strike following a Charge, and make sure Rend is applied. Following that, Colossus Smash -> Mortal Strike -> Overpower -> Slam, and (surprise!) Heroic Strike for excess Rage (though to tell the truth, now that there is only a single Rend application, it is much more difficult to find yourself with excess Rage than before). The only thing that makes Heroic Strike worth it (because I have yet to see a Heroic Strike match Slam for damage) is that Heroic Strike is no longer tied to the global cooldown, and can be used whenever.

Other Shenanigans

A good friend of mine brought to my attention a technique used in one of his heroic groups. If you’re feeling up to the micromanagement, it’s possible to set up a talent spec in such a way that you do the majority of your damage in Berserker Stance, and switch back to Battle in order to use Overpower. I have a few problems with this.

In the first place, it means you’re giving up some very important damage or speed talents in favor of a 5% damage increase that requires micromanagement on an extraordinary scale. Furthermore, the sheer number of boss fights that involve target changes mean that you will be shifting stances far more than typically necessary. Could you imagine having to stance dance on the Omnitron Defense System? Switching with every change in order to Charge and Rend, then back into Berserker again? With Mortal Strike on a 5 second cooldown, the internal 6 second cooldown on Overpower, and the GCD on top of it… if I had to estimate (and I do, since I don’t have any numbers to back it up), I’d say you’d get 1500dps extra out of it. Not worth the micromanagement, if you ask me, but if you’re crazy enough to want to try, be my guest and let me know how it works out.

Arms Guides

Nothing new on these just yet. I’m sure the more observant readers have already noticed that I’ve pruned a majority of the older posts from the blog, mostly those involving outdated Arms data or posts that I wrote that haven’t really been in the true spirit of the blog since the beginning. Nevertheless, I will get the new Arms guides up, but most likely not until the 4.2 changes are in full swing, and I’ve had more time to poke at a low level Warrior to make recommendations.

D&D Posts

If you’re reading these posts, I hope you’ve enjoyed them thus far. I’ll be posting the next session within the next couple of days, continuing the story of our adventurers in the world of Dar na Theria.

So keep on the lookout – plenty more to come, and lots more to see!

It’s amazing how things change.

Six years ago, I was playing City of Heroes and taking a breather from EverQuest when I was approached by a buddy of mine who had been invited into the beta for World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2. He asked if I had beta invites to either, and I said that I hadn’t, but was eager to hear any news on the new games, as EverQuest had gotten stale and the grind was just insufferable. He provided download links for both clients and his login information, and said, “Try them out. See what you think.”

I was familiar with the Warcraft franchise, and was interested to see what a new MMO under their expertise would offer. However, I first went to EverQuest 2 to see what the new game would be like. The lore behind the game was fascinating – a Norrath completely devoid of divine influences, having been abandoned by the gods? I dove into the game eagerly, marveling at the new graphics and relearning the basics of the game in the tutorial.

In one of the late quests of the tutorial, I was instructed to battle some skeletons on the outskirts of a village, and return with several bone fragments. I rushed into battle, sword swinging, and I heard…

…the exact same laugh that EverQuest used for their skeletons.

I never even finished the fight. I closed the game, and never returned to Norrath. Logging on to the World of Warcraft client, I started a character. Opting to take a different route than my EverQuest norms, I created a rogue: a night elf, named Teachdaire, after one of my oldest MUD characters on a realm called Astaria. Teachdaire was level 8 before I decided that I didn’t like the combat system for rogues. Logging out, I deleted Teachdaire and created Velara, a warlock.

Velara survived to level 25 or so in the beta before the actual game was released. I picked up my copy at the midnight release (still kicking myself for not getting the collector’s edition, but oh well), rushed home, installed the game, and a few hours later found myself on the Whisperwind server with many EQ friends. Whisperwind, however, was literally plagued with crashes and server issues, and three days after the servers opening (many of us were already level 20+), we completely abandoned Whisperwind and started over fresh on Aggramar, where Order of the Raven was born.

Velara was the Queen of DoTs through Molten Core and later, Blackwing Lair. She even had her day of tanking in Nefarian’s room. She was fun in PVP, but her abilities in PVE were disappointing, to say the least. Rarely was I able to do damage – I was providing Curse of Elements or Curse of Weakness, spending all my time replenishing soul shards to give out healthstones and soulstones (being the sole warlock for most raid content was tiring). I went on vacation, returning to find that the guild had recruited two new warlocks, and so I decided to try a Paladin. Leyl was born, and was on the fast track to level 60. In those days, Retribution was a really broken leveling spec, but the drawback to Paladins was that once they hit 60, they weren’t good for anything but healing. On the one hand, while I wanted to be smacking bosses with a giant two-hander, being a healer kept me in the background in relative safety, and was surprisingly enjoyable.

Leyl and Velara left Order of the Raven due to a few philosophical differences between me and the guildleader (the same guy who gave me access to the beta in the first place), and found a new home in Purgatory with a few other OtR expatriates and friends. I remained a healer, and was knocking on the doors of Ahn’Qiraj when Burning Crusade came.

By then, many of my old friends from EverQuest (and City of Heroes) made their way to Azeroth by this time, and I departed from Purgatory to join Fate’s Legacy. Near the time that Black Temple was released, Lelissa was born, and indirectly, Malyss (who would not be created until Wrath). Lelissa literally took over, and came to life on her own through the end of Burning Crusade and through Wrath of the Lich King. By the time we were less than halfway through Naxxramas, my concern for the Arms mechanics, as well as the disappointing sets geared toward Fury Warriors rather than Arms, caused me to put Lelissa aside in favor of another melee DPS class – the Death Knight. Unholy at first, graduating to Blood toward level 80, Malyss became a dark force to be reckoned with, competing with rogues for the top DPS slot even in lower level gear.

I despaired of Lelissa ever catching up to the juggernaut that was the Death Knight… and then along came Cataclysm. It’s strange to be Arms and competing at the top of the meter. Finally, it seems as though all DPS is in a good place – everyone is very competitive, and Arms is no longer the “gimmick” spec for Warriors.

Sadly, that leaves me in a place where I feel that I no longer have anything to blog about. For Burning Crusade, my goal was to prove that Arms was just as effective as Fury, and that it was an enjoyable spec with many utilities. In Wrath, my goal was the same, unfortunately mechanics and lack of appropriately scaled abilities defeated me soundly on that end. Here we are now in Cataclysm, and Arms is “in,” even having guides and recommendations on Elitist Jerks. My work here is done, and I don’t feel that I was really able to do anything.

There’s also the question of the validity of my role as an “Arms expert.” Everything that I have ever done with the class has been the result of my testing. Zero outside influences. I have spent piles of gold on respecs and regemming, countless hours at test dummies to find the best possible priority, gone through stacks of notepads and a paycheck’s worth of mechanical pencil lead. At the end of the day? Hard, cold data. Solid proof that what I have done works, and works well. Yet, the question I still receive often is, “well, if you’re so sure you’re right about this, why didn’t you post the information to Elitist Jerks so that we could find all this information in one location?”

The simple answer is that I don’t want to. EJ prides itself on having raw numbers, mathematical ratios as to what’s best and what isn’t, and I can’t do that. I’m not as mathematically inclined as I was when I was a teenager, and I doubt I could ever get back to that again.

In terms of the game, I still don’t have much to write about. I could say how I’ve switched back to a PVP server and left my dreams of running a successful 10-man guild behind with the dead shell of Hilarity Ensues. I could say how I’m running headlong into bosses once again with Amber and the rest of the Stands in Bad crew, and how well we’re doing. I could say all these things, but it’s truly hubris to think anyone cares, and it’s not really what I want to write, so weeks go by without posts.

I had always thought that I was writing this blog for myself. After a lot of soul searching, I now realize that this was never true. Originally, this started out as a blog for my guild, then it was a tool for the Arms community (what little of it there was). Occasionally I wrote about what I wanted to write about, but most of the time, posts just wasted away in the drafts page because I was concerned that my audience wouldn’t care.

So I’m going in a new direction. I’m going to take an extended break from posting, and I will return in May. I plan on documenting a D&D game that I am running for a few friends, and will be writing more fiction. I might talk Warcraft and Warriors on occasion, but it is sadly no longer my focus. Yes, this unfortunately also means that the guides are done. They’re not what I want to write.

(TL;DR version: Pixelated Executioner will not be a focused Arms Warrior blog anymore. If you don’t like it, you’ll have to unsubscribe – my work here is done.)

It’s been a great run, a good deal of fun, and occasionally a bit of a hassle, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

See you guys in May.