3rd 4 t3h nrrd, Dec. '09

I know, it's not the 3rd. Get over it. moving on . . . .

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, the King of Nerdcore, an innovator in NerdRap, YTCracker!

This pale poet is among the most hard of the nerdcore element. Actually prosecuted for hacking crimes, he is a true Digital Gangster.

For detailed accounts you can go here, heyer, and NYAH!

Musically, YT is a rapper extraordinaire. A very -true- rapper, his content is always straight forward and practical. The subjects are just as telling about his life and times as mainstream artists, they just happen to be from a very nerdy G. While more well known performers will speak about tough times on the streets and their illicit activities, YTCracker has just as many songs about his hacking days, his struggles as a musician and is a prolific member of SpamTec Crew.

His samples and beats are excellently crafted. Whether producing original loops, borrowing from police station sound files, or Pirating from well known entertainment (turn this one up LOUD, i roll to this ALL the time) houses, the sounds slam you hard, and keep thumping till you can't take anymore.

As a wordsmith, he holds it down with a practiced and confident flow. I don't often hear anything overly complicated or lighting fast, but I don't think he needs to spaz through a song to keep it going. I believe he has an excellent sense of timing, pitch, and tune, and the songs are sick every time.

Currently he has been touring nationwide with MC Lars and Kay Flay, and is always producing more content.

Here's to YTCracker, stay l337, please don't hack me!

Warmth for the Cold

Oh Hai guys! Termenus here again, be right down.

Last week I told you guys how I was hanging out on the Public Test Realms, testing the changes to frost spec.

While I was there I joined 3 different guilds, saw a ton of content, new and old, experienced a couple epic stories, and experienced true joy and yet nerdrage in all its WoW glory.

Result? I'm a Frosty, and I'm staying that way, baby!

While on Broxigar, the normal test realm, I randomly received a G-invite to a "meh" guild, and felt fairly safe as an anonymous person in a semi-non-asshole-non-hardcore Guild. I was running the new 5 man Instances
( Forge of Souls[FOS], Pit Of Saron[POS], Halls Of Reflection[HOR] and you need to be attuned to POS, from FOS, and then POS attunes you to HOR. PLUS!! theres a questline that gives you an "event" in HoR. Fun dungeons, great loot, but the attunement thing is gonna be a bit of a hassle so everyone will most likely run them all a ton of times, just to finish HoR once. You get to say Hi to Arthas[AGAIN], see Frostmourne up close and personal in HoR, and you get to spend quality time with the Lady of your faction through all 3[Jaina or Sylvanis])
I never finished HoR, it was disappointing, but I had other fish to fry . . . my damage output! Although some cool stuff did drop . . . .

(That sword is called "Seethe" yes, it's a caster main hand, Aint it cool?)

I specced frost, obviously, and the only enacted changes on the PTR I saw for frost were Deep Freeze and a Glyph for Frost Elementals. (yeah, no sign of a ice lance crit making frostbolts 1 second quicker to cast.) Deep Freeze, the last talent in the mage frost tree, will now do about 2k damage to targets "PERMANENTLY IMMUNE TO STUNS." That's who? Bosses! Yeah damage output increase.
Glyph of Eternal Water makes your water elemental permanent, like out all the time. The trade off is that with this glyph your water elemental loses its AoE freeze. A detriment to PvP in almost every ones opinion. Although that is more damage in pvp, 99% of frost mages rely on that mobile/extra freeze. On top of that, you're still locked down by how often you can summon him, so make sure your not zoning in and out of areas, porting, or dying or your cooldowns will be hurting. Blizz has made changes to elemental pets to make them more mana efficient and I was pleased with my new friends performance.
I even had the idea that maybe Deep Freeze could be a DoT. I like the idea of it "being so cold it burns." But then, Blizz doesn't pay me. And with the new perm. pet some people are saying that Frost is the new Lock. To be honest, I don't care anymore. We've been so underpowered in instances for so long I welcome any change.
Although the changes did not blast me to the top of the damage meter, I saw a definite improvement and feel these changes are an awesome step in the right direction, and I will take them over nothing. I HOPE Blizzard has a bit more in development, but I think I can stand this till Cataclysm.

So one night I jumped into a pugged ToC 10 man with some real jerks and some real pro's. We wiped a couple times on Gormok, no big, communication wipes, we got it together and moved to the worms, wiped a few times as our tanks had two different ideas as to how to tank the worms. lost a few people, gained a few people. We got through gromok, used all the B-rez's at the beginning of the worms, downed the worms with 3 dead, and Icehowl hit. 1 person died from the leftover damage of the worms and there weren't enough heals to keep the lock and the rogue alive, and the priest went into spirit healer. We we're down to me, a DK and shammy healer. Cause the priest had just died we we're all at max hp when Icehwol decided to charge me, he was down to 68%. We lived. the three of us managed to down that ugly beast. After Icehowl the raid fell apart, but not to worry!

A jumped into a Black Temple PuG (great idea, right? I know.) and met a fellow "character copy" player - Crim - an Orc Fury War rocking the purple banana helm! (you know, the new one from Ony. Its a green bobba fette wanna be but all they could afford was a football helmet with a purple dildo strapped to the top. Thats how I rememebr it anyway.) He recognized a kindred spirit in me as one who was looking to actually test the new content as a realistically geared player, not some OP l337 XBox live reject who cant get gear on live realms so you rolled a copy so you can feel like you accomplished something, GET A LIFE AND STOP BEING A DOUCHE BAG AND READ THE TRADE CHAT POST, DONT ASSUME!
( i was trying to get some enchants I'd been meaning to get on live. I tried asking EVERYONE ON THE SERVER WHO HAD A PREMADE CHARACTER WHO AUTOMATICALLY COME WITH EVERY ENCHANT IN THE GAME AND A SHIT TON OF MATS!!!, and all I got was "noob, u have enchanting, duh!" I even got into group with a guy, ported to Ogrimmar and he whispers me "I know what you do" I'm like, whuh? "piss off" he says, and puts ME!?!? on ignore!?!?)
Anyway, Crim and I saw each other in action and acknowledged our "pro" gaming style. He helped me get into - The Non Premades - a guild of, you guessed it, copy characters. Started by 2 interesting female characters, fairly sure they were legit females IRL. Cool people.

I saw an increased dps in my spec, so I came back to live realms. continued to be arcane for a day, literally, then respecced back to frost, and my dps increased by about 300. Familiarity, and devotion to the spec make a huge difference.

To all you people who think Frost can not raid, a dead mage does not put out damage, and a good, alive one, can help you get through the most difficult content. Most fights are strategy fights and require movement, survivability, and technique, not just to be a glass cannon, we do that, but most frosties I know, we do it, and make it look good. Its too bad we cant put out the same numbers as arcane. I respect good fire & arc mages, but this mage is staying frost, for everything.

Light for Frosties?

Hello, My name is Termenus, and I am frost mage(yes, I know, one is arcane spec, but let me explain). Since just before the reopening of the Dark Portal (less than a few months before Burning Crusade) I reawakened as a Forsaken and have been Frost ever since.

As far as putting the Hurt on some Alliance, us Fridgeomancers are more than adequate. I'm horrible at PVP so, I don't really care, so long as I have fun.

My issue for some time, has been damage output in PvInstances. (Raids, dungeons.)
Going back a few steps, until very recently, both my pvp and my pve spec, were TOTALLY frost. I just loved it. Faster casting, survivability and control of combat like none other. Honestly, If I had three more talent points I would love to just fill up the tree. I originally speced it for leveling and fell in love. It was FUN no matter what I was doing. Grinding, farming, 5-mans, raids, questing, world pvp, bg's, helping lowbies. I had "tanked" some old instances at lower levels and even managed to pull & survive fel reavers at lvl 56 while NPC's dropped it.

(WHA!!?? NORLY! I did it for a few friends, they were all very impressed. I was l337. You see, you stand near Thrallmar and wait for it to pat towards the caravan. You use frost barrier AND mana shield and tag it at max range w/ any instant spell. Then, you RUN! Turn around and run straight towards the group of mages and the large orc. Blink to get distance. You SHOULD be able to survive one hit as it breaks the bubbles. Then, ice block, let him thump on you till ice block wears down, and blink again immediately. Double bubble as you run straight into the group. hit cold snap if the group doesn't pull the Reaver right away and keep blinking/bubbling/Ice Block into thrallmar till NPC's pull him, and, watch the show. I used this trick to help my 70 S-priest friend get his kara key. Good times.)

I even raided with a couple guilds in BC, Kara, Mag, even a couple jumps into SSC & TK. Full frost, nobody said anything. The only complaints I got in raids were to not sheep the Healers when they got MC'd. I still believe polymorph should be castable on anyone at anytime, it is a passive aggressive heal. Those were happier times, simpler times, when demons were bad and we could kill all of them we wanted. Alli's stayed on there own damn side of Outland and you didn't have to like them, just not kill them inside Shatt.

Then, with the march upon Northrend, new abilities became available and FREE FIREBALLS!?!?! yes please! I hit 80 and started to get serious about some raiding again.
Two patches later, I'm starting to get into some SRZ BZNZ, Ulduar, ToC, Ony. And no shortage of WoW friends and even fellow mages have been asking/wondering/hinting/threatening, when I was going to respec Arcane for raids.

A fact of life right now for every frost mage is that you do crap for dps. Blizzard is VERY aware of this and did nothing for almost a year or more. I started doing serious research on output and optimization of talents. The truth is that frost puts out 30% less dps than all other raid mage specs. For allot of timed fights this doesn't cut it. On top of this I find it annoying that every spec dips into arcane for Torment the Weak, but whatever.

I respecced my pvp tree to what it is today to accommodate the TTW necessity and starting looking at arcane rotations. I wanted to be a HARD hardcore raider! even at the expense of my beloved, cold love.

So, less than two weeks ago, I made the change to Arcane (see? peer pressure kids). As I lamented my betrayal of the chilly path to my friends and guildies two of the champions of my demise decided to deride me by telling me tales of changes to come making Deep Freeze a pyroblast-like damaging spell. I dismissed them and spurned them for mocking me. But, they are reliable sources, and I had hope. So, I sought ought the information, and lo and behold, they were right. Assholes.

In the next patch, the one currently on the test realms, if a target is PERMANENTLY immune to freeze effects(Bosses), Deep freeze deals some set amount of damage. ALSO, there is a Major Mage Glyph that makes your water elemental permanent at the expense of his frost nova. (100% up time in raids, increasing dps. this COULD be a pvp buff, but almost every pvp frostie LIVES for that extra freeze) AS WELL AS, there are rumors of a change to frozen core that when ice lance crits, your frostbolt's casting time is reduced by 1 second. This is not likely to last or be useful. most of us frosties are already stacking haste and have a really short cast time for frostbolt, with a bloodlust and an icy veins, not to mention any other thousand haste enhancers, its probably going to be thumping against the GCD and becoming overkill.

SO! the first two are currently on the test realms and I have rolled to learn if my dps can become viable once more in raids.

Some people might complain that with a frost elemental up all the time, frosties have started to look like a lok. I call shenanigans, loks look like us. Jaina was there first. Frankly, Raid frost has been so gimped so long I'm not sure any of us care anymore. I approve, it changes the use of the elemental and is potentially a buff for raiding frosties. It also has become apparent that ooming out might be a problem for the pets and that has been worked with.

Deep Freeze as a big damage spell. I approve. Initially I had always wondered why it couldn't be a "cold DoT", you know, "so cold it BURNS!" anything that is permanently immune to stops/stuns. some might argue that's Fire's realm, or once again, a Lock's expertise. but, whatever, honestly. The mechanic is different and you have a very different skill set and raid role in your spell set. You CC differently, you drop aggro differently, you dps differently. I see no huge issues. I will be raiding and instancing on the test realms to see if the spell change & the elemental have a large enough impact to make frost viable again.

I'll report back with more after some raiding & 5-mans, maybe some pvp, on the PTR's and lets keep our cold, clammy, fingers crossed.

Termenus, The Incredible Tanking Mage, Frost Imp extraordinaire, Mage of the Grave Chill, Ambassador, Explorer, Crusader, Sergeant, of Sen'Jin(I'm a raptor whore). Shadoweave tailor, Goblin Engineer -Lords of Ancient Sin- Cenarius, U.S.

Common Vocabulary

As you hang around you might notice certain proclivities within my vocabulary. Today I think it might be nice to define and clarify some things that might confuse or just generally help give insight into some of the madness running around here.
Also, don't feel afraid to look up any word I use, even if you know the word, I often twist and have my way with meanings. Something I know I enjoy sharing with some of my closest friends. I.e. the inordinate amount of food metaphors for things that are distinctly NOT edible in any way.
(Me being geeky at a LAN party. ol school, no flat screens. back in HS days)

Definitions:

Geek: A self identifying term I use constantly. To me a geek is CAPABLE, not necessarily comfortable, but capable of social interaction and more often than not, enjoys it, especially when in the company of other geeks. Common interests can range from anime to movies, to music, to zoology. He (I use the male tense because frankly, its from a male perspective, but I know many female geeks, I'm engaged to one.) may not be born a geek, nor may he even realize what he is, but will more often than not become aware at some point in his pursuit of things geeky. Such as conventions, D&D, Renaissance Faires, reenactments, video games.

Nerd: In its potentially negative form, a nerd is one who is socially retarded, wallows in his outcast state and resentful of a world that does not understand his obsessions, nor his singular focus on ideas that many might find trivial.
In its more mundane definition and in both situations a Nerd is smart and often a specialist in what ever subject his fanboy heart clings to. By result, his knowledge usually surpasses that of the geek, but at the cost of being less well versed in other things.
(as this very guy would often yell at me, "NERD!!!")

Trekkie vs. Trekker: As I understand it (and I'm not sure I entirely do, as I am a Star Wars fan first, but my fiance is a ST:NG fan so I have sampled it as well and enjoyed it.) Trekkie/Trekky is someone who is a Trek Nerd. A sad creature who speaks klingon, has SEVERAL starfleet uniforms and has an opinion on who the better captain was that would rival religious fervor in the middle east. They are numerous and not to be trifled with, use caution when interacting with them. As well as be kind, they know not what they are. A Trekker is a Trek obsessed geek, very similar to a trekky in most habits and collectibles, however, will only THREATEN to cut off your head with a Bat'Leth if you disagree with their chosen captain.

Freak: A horrid beast akin to a nerd but without any redeeming values. A freak doesn't know how to wear a trench coat, wears black faded jeans with said trench coat, and is rarely a viable expert on any geeky/nerdy subject, but believes himself to be one. Often names his characters after main characters from whatever realm he cherishes at the time thinking he is the first to do so, but stubbornly refuses to be creative when confronted with the fact that several hundred have come before him. So, left to his own design forces names such as "xStriderx3285" or "neofromthematrix" upon the world. Trolls, noobs, flamers, reprobates, the filth of our sub-culture. Often they will attempt to perpetuate the idea that others believe they are actually witches/vampires/werewolves/aliens/not virgins, no matter how solid any argument is otherwise. Take the high road and either ignore them, or try to be generous and tactful in your recommendations about being less of a dick and maybe try creating an awesome character of their own. . . . . which brings me to a theory . . .

In Live Action Role Playing:
-LARP by yourself- Masturbating. But you're doing it by yourself, so no harm done.
-2 person LARP- If it's out of normal campaign progression there shouldn't be any need to dress up, SO then its naughty
As soon as you get a third person or more in on the action, SOMEBODY, somehow, one of the participants will get too into it, get a little out of hand, or try too hard and turn into a freak. Ruining the experience altogether, or worse in my opinion, making things JUST uncomfortable enough to distract from play and then letting everyone dwell on the idea that things might get out of hand.
If you can not identify who this person is, step back, asses the situation and I can only offer 3 solutions; 1, YOU"RE IT! I'm sorry, try not to reproduce. 2, you're all it, in which case cease and desist, you are a danger to yourselves and society, go play a console game or seek counseling. 3, a miracle has occurred, you managed to find an assemblage of geeks who not only trust each other, but realize boundaries, follow rules and put just enough enthusiasm into it to make the game great, but not at the expense of their real lives. Cherish this, for in my decade plus of geeky experience I have never even heard rumors of such a thing.

Old R4n7 (the first)

As afore mentioned i owe housing a ton and as such there is a hold on my account and because theres a hold i cant add classes, and if i cant add classes i cant get aid AND>>>.... i cant pay the debt until aid comes in.. isnt beaurocracy wonderfull.
p.s. I dont sp43k in l337 t00 much, i simply utiliz3 it.
so that should sum it up...
More R4nt later.... (posted before april sometime.) (before 08 even eddit:09)

JabberWow

4-8-08
JABBERWOW
Twas WoW time, l337s and noobs
did Pug to raid.
The Gold Beggars yell LOLBBQ!
And Chinese farmers got paid.

"Beware flagged skulls, dood,
one shot and you are pwned.
Shun loot ninjas, the rude,
and players who are stoned."

He accepted the quest,
Fiery chant on a Grey item.
He medded to grind the next.
Targeted? he'd take 'em.

Aggroed out of no where,
an elite rare did add.
The Lowbie hit his cool down buttons.
Now he's mad.

Oh shit, crit crit, finishing blow.
The mobs went down.
He bandaged, looted just so,
and hearthed back to town.

"You roxord boxors of creeps?"
The quest guy did ask.
The rewards: a silver piece
and a blue quality mask.

Twas WoW time, l337s and noobs
did Pug to raid.
The Gold Beggars yell LOLBBQ!
And Chinese farmers got paid.