Monday, December 08, 2008
Civilization IV - Keeping track of a large empire
Random Thought: One of the nice things about Civ4 is that you don't have to layout your cities perfectly (although dot maps are still somewhat helpful).
I tend to play huge / marathon maps, where you can be managing relationships with a dozen other civs and trying to keep track of a few dozen cities. What I've found as I move up the difficulty scale is that the game is actually more enjoyable when I pay attention to detail, then when I simply hit "next, next, next".
Now, I'm still trying to move from Warlord to Noble (huge / marathon / tectonic / 60% water / raging barbarians / no tech brokering). And I'm running the BtS Better AI module, which provides a good bit more challenge then the default. I tend to turn off the time victory as sometimes things are still hot and heavy come 2050 AD. I'm on the fence about the diplomatic (my diplomacy skills are not up to snuff yet) victory condition so I often turn that off. The culture and space race victories provide an interesting late-game dynamic where you have to commit to a path. Either by racing for the win yourself, or by attacking anyone who is building legendary cities or building spaceship components.
Alright, enough excuses.
When it comes to huge / marathon maps, it's impossible to look at every city on every turn. Instead, I tend to only go in-depth through all my cities about every 10-20 turns. In the meantime, I use other tricks to keep tabs on the overall health or special situations. So I'd boil down my strategy as follows:
Every Turn (things that tend to happen every turn)
- Press the "W" key to cycle between units that are ready for new orders.
- Glance at the surplus/deficit number in the upper left. Adjust the sliders to keep that number to match your current strategic goals.
- During wartime, look for enemy units.
- Glance at the city screen, looking for health, happiness or food problems.
My goal on every turn is to keep my finger on the pulse, but not do an in-depth review of every city.
On Demand (As prompted)
- Pick new technologies.
- Pick new buildings / projects / units to build.
- Deal with events.
- Deal with other civs that want your attention over some matter.
One trick that I have found is that you should use the "pick new thing for this city to work on" prompt as an alarm clock or reminder that you need to look at a city. To put it simply; don't fill a city's build queue with 500 turns worth of production. Your goal instead should be to set out a build queue that finishes up at around the time you need to re-examine the city.
For a city that is going to hit a health cap when it grows to the next population size in 50 turns (with 50 turns again before it grows past that point)... I will setup a build queue with about 50-75 turns worth of production. That way, shortly after the city grows to the new cap, I will get prompted to re-examine the city.
Sometimes it doesn't work out that you can do that. In which case you have to remember to look at the city again before that point, or use the Domestic Advisor to alert you of impending problems. But the majority of the time, it's possible to reduce the amount of detail that you're trying to keep track of by keeping your build queues small.
Every 3-10 Turns
- Spend more time with the Domestic Advisor (F1) screen. Have some idea of what units / buildings will be finished in the next few turns.
- Glance at the Foreign Advisor (F4). Keep in mind who is at war with who.
- Glance at Victory Conditions (F8). Are we keeping up with our rivals? Has someone started to complete space race parts?
- Open the Info Screen (F9). Check the power graph and make sure that other civilizations are not building up a "stack of death" and leaving you behind. If you're being left in the dust, you might find yourself the unexpected recipient of a Declaration of War (DoW).
- During wartime (or when preparing), spend time getting to know the territory and enemy disposition of troops.
Glances are just that, a "glance". Ideally, you should not spend more then a few seconds checking key information on those screens. Checking these screens is generally a last check before I press the "end turn" button.
The primary goal here is to prevent nasty surprises from becoming disasters.
Every 5-20 Turns (In-Depth Review)
- Check every city screen. I generally start with my capital city, then press the (Right Arrow) key to move to the next city until I get back to the capital. I'm looking for cities that need special buildings, or problems, or that tiles are worked properly or that the right specialists are present. This is the meat and potatos of city management and it should be reviewed on regular intervals.
- Look at the Change Civics (F3) screen. Are we running the correct civics? Is it time for a change?
- Look closely at the Foreign Advisor (F4) screen. Spend time reviewing the "Glance" screen so that you know who is friendly with who. Review your active trades. Look at the "Resources" tab to see if there are trades to be made. Take a peek at the other tabs to see if there are trade opportunities or upcoming threats.
- Hit up your Military Advisor (F5). Are your units where you want them? Do you need to shift units around to meet potential threats?
- Review the Religion Advisor (F7). Do all of your cities have the correct religions? Especially important when running Organized Religion or Theocracy civics.
- Look at all the graphs on the Info Screen (F9). Specifically, check your "Mfg. Goods (Prod.)", "Crop Yield (Food)", and "Power" graphs. How are you stacking up against the opponents? The "Cultur" and "Espionage" graphs are also useful at times. Review the "Top 5 Cities/Wonders" and see who is out in front. The Demographics tab is also useful for checking out whether we are keeping up with the other civs.
- Check the Espionage Screen (Ctrl-E). Make sure that you've assigned points (EPs) to the correct civs in the correct ratios. I usually work in multiples of 5s (5, 10, 15, 20) depending on how much of a threat or focus I consider the civilizations.
For peacetime, I usually work on a 10-20 turn schedule for the in-depth looks. Especially in mid-game where there's a lot of stuff perculating and I don't need to keep close eyes on things. But a lot can go wrong in 20 turns (especially with regards to the city screens), so I try to review all my cities every 10 turns.
But ever since I started going through all my cities every 10 turns or so, my gameplay has gotten a lot better. I end up more engaged and involved in the game and get a deeper enjoyment out of it.Labels: 2008, CivilizationIV
posted by Wuphon's at 10:13 AM (0 comments)
Monday, December 01, 2008
Civilization IV - Beyond the Sword - Domestic Advisor Screen Columns
So I've been mucking around with Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (a.k.a BtS); which is the second expansion pack for the original Civilization IV. They've done an excellent follow-on to the Warlords expansion, with more of a focus on Corporations, more wonders and civilizations, and a rebalancing of traits and the late-era tech tree. The timescale also seems to work better and is more accurate.
However, one of the changes in BtS is that the Domestic Advisor (F1) screen now has additional columns that are not explained in-game. Some of them you're used to from the previous versions, but from left-to-right, they are now:
- City Icon: Allows you to enter the city screen for any particular city.
- City Name: The name of the city.
- POP: The city population.
- Yellow Smiley Face: This column represents the number of happy people surplus (or deficit). Green (and positive) numbers indicate that your city has excess happiness.
- White Circle with Red Cross: Represents the amount of surplus (or deficit) for health. Green (>0) numbers are good and indicate excess health.
- Bread: The amount of excess (or deficit) food being produced (from tiles that are being worked). Green (greater than zero) indicates that your city is growing (or can grow).
- Hammer: The number of hammers (production) currently being produced. Useful for finding those high-production cities when deciding where to build military units.
- Yellow Coins (two columns): The amount of gold being produced by the city. Good for finding where to put the Wall Street national wonder.
- Green Beaker: The number of research points being produced by the city. Denotes science, so put your main science buildings in these cities.
- Red Circle Spy: Indicates how many espionage points are being generated by this city.
- Purple Music Notes: The amount of culture being produced per turn (the "rate") in this city.
- Three Yellow Arrows: The number of trade routes in this city.
- Red Coin Icon: A lot of people call this a "red unhappy face", but it's actually a red coin. It represents the amount of city maintenance for this city, rounded to the nearest integer. So if the city currently costs 1.80 per turn, you will see a "2" in this column. A value of 3.26 displays as "3". Good for finding out what cities urgently need courthouses.
- Yellow Icon with Black Silhouette: The number of "great person" (GP) points per turn being generated and the approximate time of the next Great Person being born.
- Black Hourglass: This is supposed to represent old-style castle towers that were narrow-waisted. It indicates the number of units currently stationed in a city. Makes it easier to find out where you left that "stack of death". And for Hereditary Rule, allows you to determine how much of the happiness surplus is due to military units.
- Production: The current unit or building being produced and the estimated time (in turns) until it is completed.
I've been playing Civ4 for a long time (since after it came out) and I confess that I've never really figured out the Domestic Advisor screen. The only columns that I had a grasp of were the name, the production, research and commerce columns, and the list of what city was producing what.
But now that I've sat down and puzzled out the various columns, city maintenance can become a whole lot easier. Basically every turn (or 5 turns), you should look at this screen and ask the following questions:
- Do I have any cities with zero (or negative) happiness? It can be risky to have less then 1 or 2 surplus happiness in a city, because of war weariness or adverse events. I generally try to keep one spare happy face in each city.
- Do all of my cities have surplus (or zero) health? Health is a little easier to plan for, so I'll often grow a city right up to the health limit.
- Do I have excess food being grown? No cities should be starving and smaller cities should be producing extra food to aid with growth.
Those are definitely the big questions to ask. It ensures that all of your cities are at least healthy, happy, and growing. Much faster then looking at the map and trying to find cities with red or green unhappy faces.Labels: 2008, CivilizationIV
posted by Wuphon's at 8:42 AM (1 comments)
Monday, November 03, 2008
Pern Series - Dragon's Dawn
So I dug back into Dragon's Dawn (Anne McCaffrey's Pern series) this week. The book is a lot shorter then I remembered, and it rushes at a head-long pace towards a pretty so-so conclusion. I think my problems with it were:
- Too hard to identify the protagonists, and then keep them straight. There were a lot of story threads going on at the same time, which made it difficult. We really needed to spend a longer time with each protagonist before the story thread jumped to yet another person.
- Pacing. Disaster piled upon disaster piled on top of yet another disaster. Which would have been a lot more interesting, had there been more pages between.
- Scattered focus. I think this goes hand-in-hand with having too many protagonists, all introduced at the same time.
I'll still probably plow ahead with the series, hopefully the author learned from her mistakes. But since Dragon's Dawn was published in 1988, at about the mid-point of the author's career, I'm not overly hopeful.
(It may simply be that I prefer the works and writing style of C. J. Cherryh or Lois McMaster Bujold.)
posted by Wuphon's at 8:44 AM (0 comments)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Morrowind - First Thoughts
I'm having a real difficult time getting into Morrowind. Even with a small selection of add-ons, the world feels empty and interfacing with it is painful. Oblivion just has a much more polished feel to the user interface and controls.
But I'm only up to level 2 and still finding my way around Seyda Need (the starting area) and Balmora (a nearby city).Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind
posted by Wuphon's at 9:25 AM (0 comments)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Morrowind - Technical Stuff
Morrowind is written for a 4:3 aspect ratio. As long as you have a more modern video card and modern NVIDIA drivers, this should not be a problem even if you have a widescreen monitor (16:9 or 16:10 aspect). In the NVIDA Control Panel, there's a setting that lets you set how you want scaling to work.
The default is to let your display do the scaling. Which doesn't do any good on my Asus, because it stretches all source out to be a 16:10 aspect at 1680x1050.
Another option is to use no scaling at all. Which means your smaller resolution games end up sitting in the middle of the screen with large black bars on the top and sides. Games that are 640x480 become very amusing, as you're trying to play by looking through a postcard sized view instead of using more of the screen.
The best option (for this at least) is to tell the video card to do the scaling, but to preserve the aspect ratio of the source. So for 4:3 video games, you end up with as big of a window as possible, but with black bars on the left/right.
For Morrowind, I chose to go with a 1024x768 resolution, scaled up to approximately 1400x1050 and centered on the screen. The 800x600 is too small (only shows 3 lines of icons in your inventory), while the 1280x960 size results in text that is slightly too small to read (but you can see 5 lines of icons in your inventory).
For the stuff that I record with FRAPS, I plan on scaling the 1024x768 source material down to 800x600 and using somewhere in the range of 800-1000Kbps XVid 2-pass to do the encoding. That leaves the text still legible, softens up the textures a bit so they're not so harsh, and reduces the required bit rate slightly.Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind, NVIDIA
posted by Wuphon's at 7:42 AM (0 comments)
Morrowind - Custom class (Brigand)
I've always been one to play custom classes in Oblivion, partly to min/max leveling (although that is dangerous with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul), but mostly because my roleplay doesn't fit into a narrow niche.
For my first character in Morrowind, I'm going for the extremely sneaky and underhanded style. This has an emphasis on bows, stealth, and ambush attacks. Definitely living in the grey areas of the world, rather then going for heroic acts of unselfish valor.
Race: Wood Elf (Bosmer)
Specialization: Stealth
Favorite Attributes: Luck, Endurance
Sign: The Thief
Major Skills: Spear (END), Armorer (STR), Marksman (AGI), Security (INT), Illusion (PER)
Minor Skills: Mysticism (WIL), Speechcraft (PER), Alchemy (INT), Light Armor (AGI), Long Blade (STR)
It's a rather eclectic build, but one that should work out well. Marksmanship is high at the beginning, and I'll need to use 2H Spears in order to build up endurance at the start.Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind
posted by Wuphon's at 7:16 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Morrowind - Basics
I picked up Morrowind, GOTY edition a while ago, but hadn't installed it yet. It's definitely an older game, and the graphics show it (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is much prettier and more polished). Still, I figured I'd give it a try while I wait for Wrath of the Lich King to arrive.
Naturally, UESP Wiki about Morrowind is a good place to start for information. Or the UESP Morrowind Forums.
The start up area and introduction to game play is definitely much less polished then the starting area for Oblivion. In Oblivion, you're led by the hand, with a good bit of backstory along the way. In Morrowind, you have to pick your race and class right at the start, before you really know what is going on. You'll also end up starting with nothing more then a dagger, which means that you're going to have to go shopping in the starting town.
Skills and their relation to attributes is a bit more hodge-podge then in Oblivion. If you choose to play a stealthy thief style character, you're going to have trouble getting Endurance attribute skill-ups unless you specifically level up your Medium and Heavy Armor skills.
On the PC, you can open the console using the ~ (tilde) key and type "tfh" to get information on item ownership. Especially useful before you put something in a container (putting items in container causes them to be owned now by the owner of the container).
Places to (maybe) visit early:
Thrisk Mead Hall (apparently has some items outside)
Venim Ancestral Tomb (a bow of shadow)
A link over on the official forums: Hints for Beginners.Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind
posted by Wuphon's at 10:35 PM (0 comments)
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Xav's Warlock Gear
So, as we approach Wrath of the Lich King release (probably Nov 13th), I'm trying to streamline and figure out exactly what I need for Xav's warlock gear using the badges that we're getting by running Karazhan each week. (Usually at least 11 badges, sometimes as many as 20 in a single night.)
Her gear is pretty good. And she even has a set of PvP gear that she uses in the Battlegrounds.
When the 3.0.2 patch comes out, she'll only need 164 spell hit instead of the 202 spell hit. So I've been trading off from my high of 180 spell hit and slowly working my way down to the 164 number (anything in 160-164 range should be fine).
1H Weapons:
Not a whole lot of choices here. A lot of the mages want the drop off of Prince in Karazhan, so I'll probably lose out on a roll there. The only dagger that's worthwhile is a 150-badge purchase from the Smith, and that's an awful lot of badges.
If I can farm the honor points in Alterac Valley, and get 3 more EotS marks, I'll probably buy the Gladiator's Spellblade for PvP (and possibly for PvE). I already have about 11k honor points, and the blade 25k.
Alternately I could try to get to exalted with Honor Hold for their blade. If I can get enough spell hit in other areas, I may be able to go after some of the other 1H daggers/swords.
Wands
Only possibles here are the drop off of Aran in Karazhan. Or the 25-badge wand, which has a blue socket and is a strong contender. The wand is very tempting... inexpensive and has a socket.
Back (Cloak)
60-badge Cloak of Subjugated Power.
Alternately, there's a drop off of Prince in Karazhan, but I don't like the look.
Chest
My T4 chest item drops off of Mag. Not sure how often we'll be doing Mag, so I doubt that I'll see it.
There's a 100-badge robe that looks nice and warlocky.
Or the Robe of the Elder Scribes off of Nightbane. But I usually get stuck healing with Corish on that fight.
PvP Gear
I have a few pieces of PvP gear already, but I should look at:
Vindicator's PvP rewards
Merciless Gladiator's DreadgearLabels: 2008, WoWWarlock
posted by Wuphon's at 9:23 AM (0 comments)
Monday, September 29, 2008
AMD Phenom 9850 and XVid Encoding
So I've been using my new AMD Phenom 9850 quad-core CPU to do a bunch of FRAPS conversions to XVid. The source video is typically 1576x984 (not quite 1680x1050) at 30fps. The output is 1280x720p, XVid format, at around 2.8Mbps with 160Kbps MP3 audio. I'm doing 2-pass encoding for the XVid, which gives superior results over a single-pass style.
Unfortunately, Virtual Dub won't use (currently) more then 2 CPUs, so the Phenom ends up a bit underutilized. So the CPU utilization is only around 50-55% during the first pass and 60-65% during the second pass. (A value of 100% would be running all 4 cores at full utilization. So the 2nd pass is using almost 3 cores.) But since the Phenom 9850 is the 2.5GHz CPU, it's at least doing a passable job at getting the encoding done quickly.
Source video - 30m 59s
Pass 1 - finished in 46 minutes (1.5x more then real-time)
Pass 2 -
So for every minute of source material, I needLabels: 2008, FRAPS, VideoEncoding, XVid
posted by Wuphon's at 1:34 PM (0 comments)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Lucille 8.4lbs
So, Lucille is about 17 months old now and weighs about 8.4 lbs.
She's all healed up from the surgery. Often, during the evenings if I'm reading on the couch, she'll come and sit on my lap and nuzzle for scratching.
posted by Wuphon's at 1:53 PM (0 comments)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core
(The previous benchmark report is at NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT.)
Overall with the old CPU (dual-core Athlon64 X2 5200+) was 10283 3DMarks. With the new 2.5GHz quad-core Phenom, I'm seeing:
Dual 8800 GT in NON-SLI mode:
11458 3DMarks
(4723 SM2 4835 HDR 3719 CPU)
Dual 8800 GT in SLI mode:
12844 DMarks
(4731 SM2 6286 HDR 3718 CPU)
The big gain here is the CPU performance, which boosted from ~2000 up to ~3700. The SM2 number got a boost, even without switching to SLI mode while the HDR test took a hit because I wasn't running in SLI mode.
In SLI mode, numbers for SM2 are higher (4700 vs 4300) and HDR is 6300 vs 5800. So between the Phenom CPU and the faster DDR2 800MHz memory (instead of 667MHz), I'm seeing a fairly decent boost without paying an arm and leg. About what I thought I'd see, so I'm pleased.Labels: 2008, Benchmarks, NVIDIA
posted by Wuphon's at 10:45 PM (0 comments)
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Corish's wish list for gear (update)
I got my Whitemend Pants made last night, so I'm now sitting at the following for stats (self-buffed, no potions or stat food):
Health: 7670
Mana: 9435
Healing: 1484
MP5: 236
STA: 431
INT: 473
SPI: 406
One Handed Weapons
Currently using:
[Hammer of the Penitent] +227 Healing 6 MP5 16 INT 13 SPI
- Got this in Mechanar and I'm very happy with it.
Looking for:
[Shard of the Virtuous] +348 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 20 INT 0 SPI
- Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan. Great stats, only a so-so look (it's very big and very glowy blue). I'll probably pass on this if it does drop as I have my eyes set on the next two items.
[Light's Justice] +382 Healing 0 MP5 16 STA 21 INT 20 SPI
- Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, nice gold hammer with green gem accents. No MP5, but 20 SPI (roughly 4 MP5).
[Gavel of Naaru Blessings] +464 Healing 0 MP5 42 STA 28 INT 0 SPI
- 150 Badges of Justice. Lots of +healing power.
- Looks mace-like, with a golden bird motif.
At the moment, I'm saving up Badges of Justice for the 150-badge Gavel. Which would give me 82 more healing power and better stats then the hammer that drops off of Prince in Karazhan. There's also a sceptre that drops off of Lady Vashj in SSC which is comparable to the 150-badge gavel. Basically, if Light's Justice drops, then I'll use the saved up badges for other gear upgrades. But if I get to 150 badges first, then I'll just go buy the gavel.
Off-Hand Items
Currently using:
[Aran's Soothing Sapphire] +51 Healing 8 MP5 0 STA 22 INT 0 SPI
Next major upgrade comes from either Black Temple or Hyjal Summit. The 25-badge [Tears of Heaven] is 75 healing and 6 MP5 with no other stats. The [Windcaller's Orb] from Cenarion Expedition (Exalted) reputation is 64 healing 16 INT 12 SPI and no MP5.
Neck Items
I went ahead and bought the Living Ruby Pendant off of the Auction House:
[Living Ruby Pendant] +35 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- About 90g at the Auction House.
[Necklace of Eternal Hope] +48 Healing 4 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice. Yes it has a bit more healing power and INT, but the pendant has a 10-charge use effect which is quite useful. So of the two items, I think the pendant is the better choice.
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 21 INT 19 SPI
- drop off of Netherspite in Karazhan.
[Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration] +70 Healing 7 MP5 19 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Requires exalted status with Shattered Sun Offensive (easily gotten as I'm running non-stop dailies?)
- 4% chance of Aldor proc granting "Light's Salvation" which adds +220 healing and +74 spell damage for 10 seconds.
[Brooch of Nature's Mercy] +75 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 24 INT 19 SPI
- Also has 33 spell haste
- Drops from Akil'Zon in Zul'Aman.
- The lack of STA is worrying as I'm struggling to stay above 7500 self-buffed for Karazhan
Head Equipment
What I have now is [Light-Collar of the Incarnate] +73 Healing 6 MP5 28 STA 34 INT 25 SPI.
[Hood of the Third Eye] +90 Healing 13 MP5 36 STA 40 INT 0 SPI
- (1) red, (1) yellow, (1) blue socket, +2 MP5 for socket bonus
- Drops from Hex Lord Malacrass in Zul'Aman.
The other alternative is [Cowl of the Avatar] which requires a "Helm of the Vanquished Defender" token from SSC (Lady Vashj). It's part of the Avatar Rainment. The head, hands and legs drop in SSC and the shoulders and chest drop in TK:Eye.
Wrist Equipment
What I have is [Wristguards of Tranquil Thought] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 17 INT 16 SPI.
In fact, the WoTT are probably the best, even past Karazhan due to the socket. The next upgrade is then [Wraps of Purification] from SSC (Hydross the Unstable).
Hands / Gloves
I now have:
[Handwraps of the Incarnate] +57 Healing 10 MP5 28 STA 26 INT 18 SPI
The next possible upgrade is probably from SSC (Leotheras the Blind) which would be my T6 token piece.
Back / Cloak
This is a spot that I need to examine more closely. I have a [Cloak of Healing Rays] +33 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 13 INT 15 SPI there which looks very nice with the Primal Mooncloth set. So I've kept it, even though it's only a L63 item that I've had since winning it back at L62. There's only a handful of upgrades that look nice and go with the PMC set:
[Cloak of Scintillating Auras] +42 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 16 INT 18 SPI
- Zereketh the Unbound in the Arcatraz, a gold cloak similar in looks to the Cloak of Healing Rays.
[Kharmaa's Shroud of Hope] +51 Healing 6 MP5 34 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badgets of Justice, white cloak with gold trim.
- If I don't end up buying the 150-badge hammer, I'm very likely to purchase this. On the other hand, we're downing Prince in Kara reguarly, so I should be able to get Prince's drop.
[Light-Touched Stole of Altruism] +55 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- Exarch Maladaar in the Auchenai Crypts (heroic mode), nice white cloak but no SPI or MP5.
Kharazhan drops are:
[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] +53 Healing 7 MP5 22 STA 23 INT 0 SPI
- White cloak with gold trim.
- Drops from Prince in Karazhan
Upgrades after this point come from TK:Eye or BT.
I'll probably enchant my cloak with [Enchant Cloak - Subtlety] or +7 to all resists or +15 to Shadow resist.
Rings
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Ring of Spiritual Precision] +0 Healing 7 MP5 13 STA 18 INT 15 SPI
Both rings are enchanted with the +20 healing enchant.
Possible upgrades:
[Band of Halos] +46 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice, this is probably the replacement for the Ring of Spiritual Precision. If I don't get the 150-badge hammer, this is a strong possibility.
[Anveena's Touch] +66 Healing 11 MP5 27 STA 19 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badges of Justice
- Another strong possibility. It's definitely an upgrade over the Band of Halos, but possibly not worth the extra 35 badges.
[Violet Signet: Friendly] +42 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 18 INT 12 SPI
[Violet Signet: Honored] +48 Healing 0 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 15 SPI
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Violet Signet: Exalted] +55 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 23 INT 17 SPI
Trinkets
Currently, I'm using:
[Auslese's Light Channeler] +59 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] +70 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
Which is actually a pair of really good trinkets for a healing priest. The scarab cuts my 2.5 sec greater heal down to 2.08 sec when it procs (which it does moderately often). The light channeler lets my next heal within 10 seconds cost 215 less mana (with a short 2 minute cooldown).
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I want to replace either trinket before I get to SSC or Black Temple. Although I may replace the Light Channeler with:
[Essence of the Martyr] +84 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Use: Boosts +healing by 297 for 20 seconds
- 41 Badges (G'eras in Shattrath)
[Ribbon of Sacrifice] +73 Healing 0 MP5 0 INT 0 SPI
- Use: Boosts +healing by 30 to 150 based on # of heals given
- Drops from Opera in Karazhan (all events)
Leg Equipment
I have [Whitemend Pants] +62 Healing 11 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
[Adorned Supernal Legwraps] +114 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 40 INT 42 SPI
- (1) blue and (1) red
- 100 Badges of Justice
- These are *very* tempting because they are just outstanding. On the downside, it would take 6-8 weeks to earn another 100 badges.
Karazhan drops:
[Pantaloons of Repentence] +68 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 34 INT 26 SPI
- (2) blue and (1) red socket = 6 MP5 plus ~5 MP5 from the 26 spirit.
- Drops off of Netherspite
- I would pass on this unless I'm the only one who needs it
Feet Equipment
Wearing: [Boots of the Incorrupt] +57 Healing 8 MP5 24 STA 24 INT 23 SPI
[Boots of the Long Road] +73 Healing 9 MP5 25 STA 26 INT 22 SPI
- non-BoP pattern from SSC or The Eye (raid zones), but the crafted result is BoP
- Basically equivalent to the boots that drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan, but with a bit more +healing.
[Slippers of Dutiful Mending] +86 Healing 0 MP5 28 STA 25 INT 34 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice
- I would gain almost 30 healing, but give up around 3 MP5.
- Not a high priority upgrade for spending badges on.
Wands
I'm using [Wand of the Netherwing] +16 Healing 19 STA
Upgrades:
[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] 175.7 DPS +18 Healing 0 MP5 9 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- Has a blue socket, so can be boosted another 9 Healing and 2 MP5.
- 25 Badges of Justice
[Blue Diamond Witchwand] 161.0 DPS +29 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 13 INT 11 SPI
- Wizard of Oz event in Karazhan
[Luminescent Rod of the Naaru] 177.3 DPS +35 Healing 6 MP5 0 STA 14 INT 0 SPI
- Drops from Morogrim Tidewalker in Serpentshrine Cavern.
posted by Wuphon's at 9:25 AM (0 comments)
Friday, July 04, 2008
Corish's wish list for gear
I'm now sitting at the following for stats (self-buffed, no potions or stat food):
Health: 7670
Mana: 9435
Healing: 1425
MP5: 236
STA: 431
INT: 473
SPI: 406
One Handed Weapons
Currently using:
[Hammer of the Penitent] +227 Healing 6 MP5 16 INT 13 SPI
- Got this in Mechanar and I'm very happy with it.
Looking for:
[Shockwave Truncheon] +317 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Murmur in the Shadow Labyrinth (Heroic). Has a lot of STA, but no INT/SPI, so I'm on the fence about it. It would depend on looks whether I would go after it.
[Gavel of Pure Light] +299 Healing 8 MP5 12 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
- Exalted reward with Sha'tar. Which will probably take me a long time to attain.
After that, I'll be waiting for either of the following from Karazhan:
[Shard of the Virtuous] +348 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 20 INT 0 SPI
- Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan. Great stats, only a so-so look (it's very big and very glowy blue).
[Light's Justice] +382 Healing 0 MP5 16 STA 21 INT 20 SPI
- Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, nice gold hammer with green gem accents. No MP5, but 20 SPI (roughly 4 MP5).
[Gavel of Naaru Blessings] +464 Healing 0 MP5 42 STA 28 INT 0 SPI
- 150 Badges of Justice. Lots of +healing power.
Off-Hand Items
Currently using:
[Aran's Soothing Sapphire] +51 Healing 8 MP5 0 STA 22 INT 0 SPI
Next upgrade comes from either Black Temple or Hyjal Summit.
Neck Items
I went ahead and bought the Living Ruby Pendant off of the Auction House:
[Living Ruby Pendant] +35 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- About 90g at the Auction House.
[Necklace of Eternal Hope] +48 Healing 4 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice. Yes it has a bit more healing power and INT, but the pendant has a 10-charge use effect which is quite useful. So of the two items, I think the pendant is the better choice.
Karazhan Drops:
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 21 INT 19 SPI
- drop off of Netherspite in Karazhan.
Head Equipment
What I have now is [Light-Collar of the Incarnate] +73 Healing 6 MP5 28 STA 34 INT 25 SPI.
The next upgrade is from SSC.
Wrist Equipment
What I have is [Wristguards of Tranquil Thought] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 17 INT 16 SPI.
About the only possible upgrade is:
In fact, the WoTT are probably the best, even past Karazhan due to the socket.
Hands / Gloves
I now have:
[Handwraps of the Incarnate] +57 Healing 10 MP5 28 STA 26 INT 18 SPI
The next possible upgrade is probably from Hyjal Summit - Azgalor.
Back / Cloak
This is a spot that I need to examine more closely. I have a [Cloak of Healing Rays] +33 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 13 INT 15 SPI there which looks very nice with the Primal Mooncloth set. So I've kept it, even though it's only a L63 item that I've had since winning it back at L62. There's only a handful of upgrades that look nice and go with the PMC set:
[Cloak of Scintillating Auras] +42 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 16 INT 18 SPI
- Zereketh the Unbound in the Arcatraz, a gold cloak similar in looks to the Cloak of Healing Rays.
[Kharmaa's Shroud of Hope] +51 Healing 6 MP5 34 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badgets of Justice, white cloak with gold trim.
[Light-Touched Stole of Altruism] +55 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- Exarch Maladaar in the Auchenai Crypts (heroic mode), nice white cloak but no SPI or MP5.
Kharazhan drops are:
[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] +53 Healing 7 MP5 22 STA 23 INT 0 SPI
- White cloak with gold trim.
I'll probably enchant my cloak with [Enchant Cloak - Subtlety] or +7 to all resists or +15 to Shadow resist.
Rings
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Ring of Spiritual Precision] +0 Healing 7 MP5 13 STA 18 INT 15 SPI
Possible upgrades:
[Band of Halos] +46 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice, this is probably the replacement for the Keeper's Ring of Piety. Assuming that I don't get something from Karazhan off of the Prince (which is +68 healing with 12 MP5).
[Anveena's Touch] +66 Healing 11 MP5 27 STA 19 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badges of Justice
[Violet Signet: Friendly] +42 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 18 INT 12 SPI
[Violet Signet: Honored] +48 Healing 0 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 15 SPI
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Violet Signet: Exalted] +55 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 23 INT 17 SPI
Trinkets
Currently, I'm using:
[Auslese's Light Channeler] +59 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] +70 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
Which is actually a pair of really good trinkets for a healing priest. The scarab cuts my 2.5 sec greater heal down to 2.08 sec when it procs (which it does moderately often). The light channeler lets my next heal within 10 seconds cost 215 less mana (with a short 2 minute cooldown).
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I want to replace either trinket before I get to SSC or Black Temple. Although I may replace the Light Channeler with:
[Essence of the Martyr] +84 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Use: Boosts +healing by 297 for 20 seconds
- 41 Badges (G'eras in Shattrath)
Leg Equipment
I have [Imbued Netherweave Pants] +30 Healing 10 MP5 39 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
[Pants of the Naaru] +77 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 22 INT 25 SPI
- Netherstorm quest, but I give up at least 5 MP5. I don't think they're worth it, even though they'd give me +47 healing.
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] +101 Healing 0 MP5 34 STA 35 INT 0 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice, but zero mana regen (giving up 10 MP5), so not really a desireable option either.
- Plus I don't want to spend Badges of Justice unless I absolutely have to.
[Pontiff's Pantaloons of Prophecy] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 27 INT 24 SPI
- Captain Skarloc in Old Hillsbrad Foothills (Heroic)
- (1) red (2) blue sockets, which means it could be boosted a bit to provide (6) MP5, but I'd still lose out on 27 STA, overall it would be an upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants (once gemmed).
[Pontifex Kilt] +66 Healing 0 MP5 25 STA 29 INT 27 SPI
- Warlord Kalithresh in the Steamvault (Heroic)
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) MP5 along with the ~5 MP5 from the 27 spirit. This would be a definite upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants. These are basically equivalent to the Whitemend Pants.
If I happen to get the Whitemend Pants pattern (from Dalliah the Doomsayer in The Arcatraz), I may go ahead and make those:
[Whitemend Pants] +62 Healing 11 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) more MP5 along with a good bit more healing power.
- I plan on getting these made now that I've found a tailor that both knows the pattern and is someone that I trust.
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] +101 Healing 0 MP5 34 STA 35 INT 0 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice
- Again, I'd prefer not to spend badges if I don't have to.
[Adorned Supernal Legwraps] +114 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 40 INT 42 SPI
- (1) blue and (1) red
- 100 Badges of Justice
- These are *very* tempting because they are just outstanding. On the downside, it would take 6-8 weeks to earn another 100 badges.
Karazhan drops:
[Pantaloons of Repentence] +68 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 34 INT 26 SPI
- (2) blue and (1) red socket = 6 MP5 plus ~5 MP5 from the 26 spirit.
- Drops off of Netherspite
Feet Equipment
Wearing: [Boots of the Incorrupt] +57 Healing 8 MP5 24 STA 24 INT 23 SPI
[Boots of the Long Road] +73 Healing 9 MP5 25 STA 26 INT 22 SPI
- non-BoP pattern from SSC or The Eye (raid zones), but the crafted result is BoP
- Basically equivalent to the boots that drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan
[Slippers of Dutiful Mending] +86 Healing 0 MP5 28 STA 25 INT 34 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice
Wands
I'm using [Wand of the Netherwing] +16 Healing 19 STA
Upgrades:
[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] 175.7 DPS +18 Healing 0 MP5 9 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- Has a blue socket, so can be boosted another 9 Healing and 2 MP5.
- 25 Badges of Justice
[Blue Diamond Witchwand] 161.0 DPS +29 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 13 INT 11 SPI
- Wizard of Oz event in Karazhan
- The 25 badge wand is definitely superior from the DPS standpoint
Enchants
I still need to get to Revered (Exalted?) with Honor Hold in order to buy the +healing enchant item for my helm.
posted by Wuphon's at 7:08 AM (0 comments)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Lucille's recovery
Got a big piece of good news this afternoon. When the vets operated on Lucille, they found it that the lump was nothing more then a bit of fat protruding through a hernia in the abdominal wall. Apparently, whoever did the spaying operation last October, did not close it up correctly.
So, no cancern, no lumps, just an easily fixable issue that required a few stitches. It was important that it be fixed, because it could have gotten worse.
Of course, all this means a kitty with a shaved belly and the joy of wearing an elizabethan collar for most of the week. She's still getting used to that collar, but we're getting there. I fed her a bit of dinner earlier (sweetened with a bit of dried fish flakes) and she's spent about two hours in my lap so far, sleeping.
I'll have to give her a bit of a scrubdown with a washcloth and towel twice a day, because she can't bathe herself at the moment. She was well-behaved at the vet, letting them carry her around. She was completely wide-eyed, but mostly calm. Suffering through it all without complaint.
They even managed to trim all of her claws before they took her in for her operation (and she put up with it). So I guess I'll have to try my luck. I've been massaging her front paws for a few months now, and she's been letting me hold them longer and longer, but I didn't press the issue long enough to trim them.
Fortunately, I spent most of the day in the office, so I should be good to work from home the rest of the week.
posted by Wuphon's at 11:00 PM (0 comments)
Friday, June 20, 2008
Lucille's Lump
Got a bit of bad news concerning Lucille in the past few weeks. A week or three ago, I noticed a strange lump on her belly when I was petting her and checking for such things. (It took me a few months for her to consent to being touched anywhere other then her back, now she lets me pet her pretty much everywhere.)
From re-reading my cat care books, this could be anything from a benign tissue growth up to and including mammary cancer. It's inside of her right rear leg, right near one of her nipples, so I took her to see the vet yesterday. So I've been stressed all week and not sleeping well. On top of working 60+ hour weeks, plus side work, plus the normal day to day stuff, this wasn't a good time.
She was not happy about being put in the cat carrier! Round one went in her favor as she freaked out at the last second and raked me pretty badly as she made her escape. After washing out my wounds, we went for round 2. While she didn't growl or spit, she was meowing at me in a very complaining manner. I finally got a hand underneath her with the other on her scruff and she then went meekly into the carrier on the second try.
I didn't know what to expect when we got to the vet. Would she turn into a hellion with teeth and claws everywhere? Given that she was a feral cat as a kitten, there was a strong possibility of that. Or maybe she would struggly wildly. So I warned the vet and he had a nurse come in to assist. We just cracked open the cat carrier, slipped a rope around her neck, and the nurse picked her up while I moved the carrier out of the way.
I was surprised when she didn't cry at all, but just went into a little tense ball of unease. Tail curled under the belly, ears about halfway down, but no vocalizations or struggle. She wasn't thrilled by the situation, but wasn't totally panicked either. The nurse didn't have to do much more then keep her flat against the table with a hand on the scruff of her neck.
So they poked and prodded her, but they couldn't find the lump at first. So I had to show him exactly where it was (it's roughly grape sized). At first, he wanted me to just keep an eye on it, but I convinced him to at least draw a needle sample for analysis.
They took her into the back room for that, then the nurse brought her back. While we were waiting for the vet, I got out her brush and gave her a few strokes. That got her to purr a little bit.
The other (elder) vet came in, and they both poked and prodded her for a bit. While the mass is free moving, they felt that because of its proximity to mammary tissue, the fact that she may have gone into heat once before being fixed, and that it may be connected to the mammary glands that it's best to take it out. While mammary cancer is unlikely in a young cat, it's not unheard of. It's also extremely nasty (as in survival time measured in months).
Now, Lucille doesn't show any signs of ill health (other then a bit of gingevitis around the teeth). She's still bright eyed, perky ears, and runs around like a young cat would. She loves to be brushed and petted, and will pull your hands or the brush towards her with her paw for more.
So I'm giving her lots of extra attention this weekend before she goes into surgery on Monday morning. She finally forgave me for the vet trip after about 6 hours of hiding under the bed yesterday. Hopefully, I'll have better news when I pick her back up from the vet on Monday evening.
I'm not sure what the surgery will cost, but my pet insurance should pay about 80% of it. So I'm not overly worried about that. Or at least, I don't have to worry about not being able to afford the surgery. If there's going to be chemo/radiation treatments, then it's possible that I'll have to make a hard decision (my level of insurance probably won't pay for that).
The office visit was only $55, which is a very reasonable price. They didn't charge me for the needle sample since I'm going to be bringing her back for full surgery anyway.
Worst case, if it's mammary cancer, I'll probably end up just monitoring her health. If she starts to get ill and in a good bit of pain, then I would choose to put her down.
posted by Wuphon's at 9:52 AM (0 comments)
Friday, June 06, 2008
Time to check those first aid kits
It's that time of year again, time to check out the first aid kits and makes sure everything is as it should be.
The difference for me this year is that I have to prepare a 72 hour bugout bag, on the off chance that my town would be evacuated due to a hurricane. All part of the joys of living close to the coastline.
My bag is about 1/3 put together at the moment. I'm still waiting on some odds and ends to arrive and I need to find my bag that I used when riding the trails.Labels: 2008
posted by Wuphon's at 9:12 PM (0 comments)
Sunday, June 01, 2008
FEAR: General Impressions
I've been mucking around with the F.E.A.R. FPS game for a few months now. F.E.A.R. stands for "First Encounter Assault Recon". It came out back in 2005 with the expansion pack released in 2006, but I always pick these up late. The rating is "M" (17+) and deserves it due to heavy language (lots of f-bombs), decapitations and dismemberment, and a lot of blood and gore. There's also a few good scary parts, and spots where you will jump out of your seat.
Definitely not for kids. Probably not for impressionable teens either.
It performed very well on my GeForce 7950 SLI setup and runs even better on my new GeForce 8800 SLI setup. Even though I have a 1680x1050 display, I run it in 1280x720 mode so that it runs faster and so I can do vidcap with FRAPS in a 16:9 aspect ratio.
The strong points of the game are:
- A very effective team-based AI. The enemy soldiers will scout (recon) ahead with 1-2 members while the rest stay hidden. Once they discover your position, they will attempt to flank, or fall back, or flush you out with grenades, or shoot blindly from cover. If they know where you are holed up, they will try to flank you and keep you pinned down. The only thing I haven't seen them do yet is to lay boobytraps (except in rare, pre-scripted spots).
- The usual selection of weapons and enemies. Ranging from the pistol up to the rocket launcher and simple infantry, heavily armored infantry, armored walking suits, and little flying robots.
- You can carry multiple (up to 10) health kits at the same time. Each health kit restores ~30% health (unsure on the amount), and they are liberally sprinkled through the levels.
- A limited power that lets you slow time. While you can't cover distance any faster during this few seconds, you can spin and aim extremely accurately. I thought it was a gimmick at first. While you could manage to play through without using it, you'll find that it makes it a whole lot easier when you're up against multiple enemies.
The weak points:
- Puzzle areas are sometimes obvious, with no enemies around. I won't say that they're entirely predictable, and none of them are overly fiendish, but they're often simply a matter of running around and clicking on anything that shows the hand icon. You can't undo a solved puzzle (that I've seen yet).
- Some of the subtle level design choices make it apparent whether you are coming up on a combat section or a puzzle / scary section. Some of the scares get old after a while.
- You will learn to hate the interior designers at ARMACHAM headquarters. The section of the game that takes place in an empty office building gets really tedious.
- Linear gameplay. There's not much choice involved in FEAR. You'll go down this hallway, past those enemies, and you'll learn to like it! There are a few sections where corridors branch and meet up again in a few dozen paces, but that is mostly so that the AI can flank around behind you.
posted by Wuphon's at 2:18 PM (0 comments)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Ewwwwwww, hairball!
Blech, Lucille's first hairball issue. All over her window seat and the desk area behind my monitors. I've apparently been remiss about brushing her at least once a week...
Still, AFAIK, that's the first mess that she's made.
posted by Wuphon's at 1:16 PM (0 comments)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Misc apartment stuff
My apartment is finally starting to feel a bit more like home and less like a place to store boxes. I'll be spending most of the weekend moving some things down to basement storage, and making final decisions on furniture and timing.
The office is the closest to being "finished". The big issue in the office is that I need to order (6) 72" tall shelf units. Four of them will be put back-to-back and placed perpendicular to the long walls on each side. The office is about 10' wide, so this will leave about a 42-48" gap between the ends of the shelves. The effect will be to isolate the office from the walk-through section along the back end of the room (between the two doors). The other two shelves will go along the back wall, making the walk through section lined by shelves. Unfortunately, because I want all (6) shelf units to match, I need to buy them all at the same time.
The other thing I may do in the office is window treatments of some sort. It's not a high-priority item, however. I'd rather have the (6) shelf units; because that will let me unpack a lot of boxes. Plus it will give me a place to put a floor fan to push hot air out of the office and into the kitchen (where the A/C unit is).
The kitchen still needs a bit of work. Probably a 30x36 table and a few chairs for the middle. I haven't quite decided what I want in there. I also need curtains in there, but it's also not a high priority. I need to put up a few coat hooks behind the door and assemble my 2nd utility shelf in the corner. Both will give me a bit more organization then I have now. I'm also considering putting some sort of fabric / shower liner around the taller shelf unit (48" x 24" x 72") to hide the storage boxes that are there. And, of course, to hide Lucille's litterbox which is at the bottom of that shelf.
The bathroom needs the new towel racks mounted on the back of the door. And I have a wardrobe hook to be mounted in the one corner behind the door. Other then that, the bathroom is in pretty good shape.
My hallway still needs a 52" tall shelf unit right inside the door. I'd like to buy it at the same time as the office shelving, so that it's of a similar style. The closet door sticks, so I need to sand down that corner (too much paint).
The bedroom still needs a pair of 4/5 drawer chests. My clothes are currently just sitting in piles on the floor, which isn't a long-term solution. I also need something across the opening of the closet, or I need to get doors mounted. There's also room for another piece of small furniture or a chair. The bedroom is pretty tiny, so there's not a lot of extra room in there for extra items.
Lastly, I've started tackling the living room. When I moved up here last fall, I had the movers dump any and all extra boxes into that room as a holding area. So I've spent 6 months slowly working through the boxes out there and have unpacked about half of them. Now I think I can start tackling moving things around in there and starting to make it useable.
I ordered the window treatments for the (4) windows in there last night. I'm going very conservative, with a plain tab-top navy blue curtains with plain white sheer panels underneath. I debated taking the curtains down to the floor, but with the baseboard heaters I chose to only go down to the window skirt. Besides, I plan on putting the two DVD storage chests under two of the windows, the TV below the third window, and the fourth window has the A/C unit with baseboard heat under it.
The walls are a cream with white trim and the floor is a medium wood flooring. Sort of a light walnut or oak color. So I plan on going with dark navy for the couch cover and the curtains. That should give me a nice solid set of base colors to work with in there without making it too dark.
Ah, which reminds me, I need to get the electrician back out to replace the one outlet along the south wall. While I don't absolutely need that outlet, I want it fixed in case I want extra power in there.
Eventually, I plan on having (2) queen-sized futon couches in there, but to start I'll just order one along with a footstool. Which will give me some place to sit company besides folding chairs. I'll probably move the TV and cable box back out to the living room until I can afford to buy a 2nd TV for the living room.
I have to decide what to do for lighting in the L/R. There are no ceiling fixtures out there. I know that one light will probably be a japanese style lamp that sits on a piece of furniture, but the other piece will probably be a floor lamp of some fashion.
So I need to go shopping for the lamps and the one couch at some point this weekend. Because that's the absolute minimum needed to get the L/R in somewhat functional shape.
posted by Wuphon's at 12:14 PM (0 comments)
Friday, May 23, 2008
Platelet Donation
It took almost 3 weeks for that hemotoma to fade completely. For the first two weeks, it was a very visible red/purple and didn't seem like it would ever fade. There were small areas around the sides that had turned yellow and were fading, but the center area was still a pretty solid color.
Once it started fading though, it faded within the space of 4-5 days. If I look really closely, I can still see a bit of yellow tinge under the skin, but it's basically completely healed.
I was talking to our receptionist at work. She's an older gal who has spent some time in the hospital this past year for foot surgery and some other issues. Apparently her platelet count is low, so she was quizzing me about platelets and their function (clotting). I don't know whether she would end up being given platelets as a treatment, or whether they'll change what medications she's taking.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:43 PM (0 comments)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Corish's gear wishlist (update)
I'm now sitting at the following for stats (self-buffed, no potions or stat food):
Health: 7420
Mana: 9300
Healing: 1200
MP5: 224
STA: 421
INT: 465
SPI: 376
Things I need to work on:
- STA is dropping down to 420, I need to push that back up to 425.
- I'd like to get SPI up to 400.
- More +healing. I need to cross +1400 or so.
- INT: I may push to get to 475 INT.
- MP5: I need to stay above 220. The 2.4 patch changed how MP5 is calculated, so I regen a good bit more mana per 5 seconds then before (I was around 180 prior to the change).
- I need to get Enchanting up to 375 an obtain some of the less common recipes. And to be able to enchant my rings with +healing power. I'm at 360 enchanting at the moment, so I'm close.
One Handed Weapons
Currently using:
[Hammer of the Penitent] +227 Healing 6 MP5 16 INT 13 SPI
- Got this in Mechanar and I'm very happy with it.
Looking for:
[Shockwave Truncheon] +317 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Murmur in the Shadow Labyrinth (Heroic). Has a lot of STA, but no INT/SPI, so I'm on the fence about it. It would depend on looks whether I would go after it.
[Gavel of Pure Light] +299 Healing 8 MP5 12 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
- Exalted reward with Sha'tar. Which will probably take me a long time to attain.
After that, I'll be waiting for either of the following from Karazhan:
[Shard of the Virtuous] +348 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 20 INT 0 SPI
- Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan. Great stats, only a so-so look (it's very big and very glowy blue).
[Light's Justice] +382 Healing 0 MP5 16 STA 21 INT 20 SPI
- Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, nice gold hammer with green gem accents. No MP5, but 20 SPI (roughly 4 MP5).
[Gavel of Naaru Blessings] +464 Healing 0 MP5 42 STA 28 INT 0 SPI
- 150 Badges of Justice. Lots of +healing power.
Off-Hand Items
Currently using:
[Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm] +33 Healing 6 MP5 0 STA 15 INT 15 SPI
There's also:
[Lamp of Peaceful Repose] +35 Healing 6 MP5 16 STA 18 INT 0 SPI
- Dalliah the Doomsayer in the the Arcatraz.
- I'd probably switch to this instead of the [Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm] if it dropped.
[Lordaeron Medical Guide] +46 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 10 INT 16 SPI
- Lieutenant Drake in the Escape from Durnholde Keep (Heroic)
- Likely the best upgrade, even into Karazhan. I'd still prefer the lamp, but having a book in my off-hand is good for RP purposes.
Karazhan drops:
[Signet of Unshakable Faith] +37 Healing 0 MP5 19 STA 21 INT 22 SPI
- Drops from Moroes in Karazhan. The stats on it are pretty good, although I'd give up maybe 2-3 MP5. Well worth rolling on.
[Aran's Soothing Sapphire] +51 Healing 8 MP5 0 STA 22 INT 0 SPI
- Also a so-so piece compared to the others. I'd probably pass on it because all it has is INT.
Neck Items
I went ahead and bought the Living Ruby Pendant off of the Auction House:
[Living Ruby Pendant] +35 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- About 90g at the Auction House.
[Necklace of Eternal Hope] +48 Healing 4 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice. Yes it has a bit more healing power and INT, but the pendant has a 10-charge use effect which is quite useful. So of the two items, I think the pendant is the better choice.
Karazhan Drops:
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 21 INT 19 SPI
- drop off of Netherspite in Karazhan.
Head Equipment
What I have now is [Halo of Transcendence] +48 Healing 0 MP5 17 STA 27 INT 22 SPI, which is a very nice piece from Onyxia. Upgrades for this are going to be a bit few and far between:
[Scintillating Headdress of Second Sight] +73 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 27 INT 32 SPI
- Shirrak the Dead Watcher in Auchenai Crypts (Heroic)
- Probably one of the few upgrades prior to Karazhan
[Cowl of Naaru Blessings] +66 Healing 0 MP5 28 STA 29 INT 23 SPI
- Has both a BLUE and a META socket, so can be boosted
- 50 Badge of Justice
I'll probably chase after the Cowl of Naaru, assuming that I don't happen to get a Karazhan drop prior to getting 50 Badges of Justice. On the other hand, there are probably other items that I should buy with Badges of Justice first. So getting the drop from Auchenai Crypts may be my best hope.
Karazhan drops:
[Light-Collar of the Incarnate] +73 Healing 6 MP5 28 STA 34 INT 25 SPI
- Bought with a Helm of the Fallen Defender (drops from Prince Malchezaar in the Karazhan instance.)
- (1) META (1) BLUE sockets
- Looks like a stiff high collar that is white
- Part of the Incarnate Raiment set
[Headdress of the High Potentate] +81 Healing 0 MP5 37 STA 38 INT 32 SPI
- obtained by winning the Chess Event in Karazhan
- Looks like a silver floating halo type crown with purple gems
Wrist Equipment
There are hardly any good choices here. What I have is [Shattrath Wraps] +21 Healing 0 MP5 15 STA 15 INT (with socketed gems). About the only possible upgrade is:
[Wristguards of Tranquil Thought] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 17 INT 16 SPI
- 35 Badges of Justice
- Has a yellow socket, Shattrath Wraps had a red socket.
[Bands of the Benevolent] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 20 INT 18 SPI
- Talon King Ikiss in the Sethekk Halls (Heroic)
In fact, the WoTT are probably the best, even past Karazhan due to the socket. So I'm going to buy a Royal Nightseye and replace the Royal Shadow Draenite in my current Shattrath Wraps and work on Badges of Justice.
Karazhan drop:
[Bands of Indwelling] +46 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 18 INT 20 SPI
- Drops from Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan.
Hands / Gloves
I now have:
[Handwraps of the Incarnate] +57 Healing 10 MP5 28 STA 26 INT 18 SPI
The next possible upgrade is probably from Hyjal Summit - Azgalor.
Back / Cloak
This is a spot that I need to examine more closely. I have a [Cloak of Healing Rays] +33 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 13 INT 15 SPI there which looks very nice with the Primal Mooncloth set. So I've kept it, even though it's only a L63 item that I've had since winning it back at L62. There's only a handful of upgrades that look nice and go with the PMC set:
[Cloak of Scintillating Auras] +42 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 16 INT 18 SPI
- Zereketh the Unbound in the Arcatraz, a gold cloak similar in looks to the Cloak of Healing Rays.
[Kharmaa's Shroud of Hope] +51 Healing 6 MP5 34 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badgets of Justice, white cloak with gold trim.
[Light-Touched Stole of Altruism] +55 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- Exarch Maladaar in the Auchenai Crypts (heroic mode), nice white cloak but no SPI or MP5. Personally, I'd rather go with the Bishop's Cloak due to the 8 MP5.
Kharazhan drops are:
[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] +53 Healing 7 MP5 22 STA 23 INT 0 SPI
- White cloak with gold trim.
I'll probably enchant my cloak with [Enchant Cloak - Subtlety] or +7 to all resists or +15 to Shadow resist.
Rings
Another area that I need to re-examine. There's a lot of options, so I need to sit down and decide which ones I like. What I have now are:
[Heirloom Signet of Convalescence] +44 Healing 0 MP5 7 STA 11 INT 5 SPI
[Keeper's Ring of Piety] +42 Healing 7 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 18 SPI
Basically, one ring will be for +healing and MP5, the other ring will be for +healing and stats.
Possible upgrades:
[Band of Halos] +46 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice, this is probably the replacement for the Keeper's Ring of Piety. Assuming that I don't get something from Karazhan off of the Prince (which is +68 healing with 12 MP5).
[Violet Signet: Friendly] +42 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 18 INT 12 SPI
[Violet Signet: Honored] +48 Healing 0 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 15 SPI
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Violet Signet: Exalted] +55 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 23 INT 17 SPI
Trinkets
Currently, I'm using:
[Auslese's Light Channeler] +59 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] +70 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
Which is actually a pair of really good trinkets for a healing priest. The scarab cuts my 2.5 sec greater heal down to 2.08 sec when it procs (which it does moderately often). The light channeler lets my next heal within 10 seconds cost 215 less mana (with a short 2 minute cooldown).
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I want to replace either trinket before I get to SSC or Black Temple.
Leg Equipment
I have [Imbued Netherweave Pants] +30 Healing 10 MP5 39 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
[Pants of the Naaru] +77 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 22 INT 25 SPI
- Netherstorm quest, but I give up at least 5 MP5. I don't think they're worth it, even though they'd give me +47 healing.
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] +101 Healing 0 MP5 34 STA 35 INT 0 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice, but zero mana regen (giving up 10 MP5), so not really a desireable option either.
[Pontiff's Pantaloons of Prophecy] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 27 INT 24 SPI
- Captain Skarloc in Old Hillsbrad Foothills (Heroic)
- (1) red (2) blue sockets, which means it could be boosted a bit to provide (6) MP5, but I'd still lose out on 27 STA, overall it would be an upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants (once gemmed).
[Pontifex Kilt] +66 Healing 0 MP5 25 STA 29 INT 27 SPI
- Warlord Kalithresh in the Steamvault (Heroic)
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) MP5 along with the ~5 MP5 from the 27 spirit. This would be a definite upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants. These are basically equivalent to the Whitemend Pants.
If I happen to get the Whitemend Pants pattern (from Dalliah the Doomsayer in The Arcatraz), I may go ahead and make those:
[Whitemend Pants] +62 Healing 11 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) more MP5 along with a good bit more healing power.
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] +101 Healing 0 MP5 34 STA 35 INT 0 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice
Karazhan drops:
[Pantaloons of Repentence] +68 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 34 INT 26 SPI
- (2) blue and (1) red socket = 6 MP5 plus ~5 MP5 from the 26 spirit.
Feet Equipment
Wearing [Jeweled Boots of Sanctification] +55 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 25 INT 0 SPI
[Boots of the Long Road] +73 Healing 9 MP5 25 STA 26 INT 22 SPI
- non-BoP pattern from SSC or The Eye (raid zones), but the crafted result is BoP
- Basically equivalent to the boots that drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan
[Boots of the Incorrupt] +57 Healing 8 MP5 24 STA 24 INT 23 SPI
- Shade of Aran in Karazhan.
[Slippers of Dutiful Mending] +86 Healing 0 MP5 28 STA 25 INT 34 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice
Wands
The only wand on my list is:
[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] 175.7 DPS +18 Healing 0 MP5 9 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- Has a blue socket, so can be boosted another 9 Healing and 2 MP5.
- 25 Badges of Justice
Enchants
Once I reach 370 enchanting and gain the repuation needed to buy the recipe, I can enchant my rings with +20 Healing (each ring). Which is the only enchant that can be placed on rings.
posted by Wuphon's at 12:46 PM (0 comments)
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Corish's re-spec
Going to re-spec Corish slightly:
Discipline Tree - 23 points
T1 - Unbreakable Will (5/5)
T2 - Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2/2)
T2 - Improved Power Word: Shield (3/3)
T2 - Silent Resolve (2/5) - in place of Martyrdom (2/2)
T3 - Meditation (3/3)
T4 - Mental Agility (5/5)
T5 - Divine Spirit (1/1)
T5 - Improved Divine Spirit (2/2)
Holy Tree - 38 points
T1 - Improved Renew (3/3)
T1 - Holy Specialization (5/5)
T1 - Healing Focus (2/2)
T2 - Divine Fury (5/5)
T3 - Holy Nova (1/1)
T3 - Inspiration (3/3)
T4 - Improved Healing (3/3)
T5 - Healing Prayers (2/2)
T5 - Spirit of Redemption (1/1)
T5 - Spritual Guidance (2/5)
T6 - Spiritual Healing (5/5)
T7 - Holy Concentration (3/3)
T8 - Empowered Healing (3/5)
I'm not entirely comfortable with giving up Lightwell (HOLY) or not taking Inner Focus (DISC). If I respec again, it will be to take Inner Focus (DISC). By taking the 3 points in Inspiration (HOLY), I gave up 3 points in Spiritual Guidance (HOLY). This results in about a 50 point drop in my +healing power.
posted by Wuphon's at 11:32 AM (0 comments)
Corish's current gear wishlist
I'm now sitting at the following for stats (self-buffed, no potions or stat food):
Health: 7420
Mana: 9300
Healing: 1220
MP5: 224
STA: 421
INT: 465
SPI: 376
Things I need to work on:
- STA is dropping down to 420, I need to push that back up to 425.
- I'd like to get SPI up to 400.
- More +healing. I need to cross +1400 or so.
- INT: I may push to get to 475 INT.
- MP5: I need to stay above 220. The 2.4 patch changed how MP5 is calculated, so I regen a good bit more mana per 5 seconds then before (I was around 180 prior to the change).
- I need to get Enchanting up to 375 an obtain some of the less common recipes.
One Handed Weapons
Currently using:
[Hammer of the Penitent] +227 Healing 6 MP5 16 INT 13 SPI
- Got this in Mechanar and I'm very happy with it.
Looking for:
[Shockwave Truncheon] +317 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
- Murmur in the Shadow Labyrinth (Heroic). Has a lot of STA, but no INT/SPI, so I'm on the fence about it. It would depend on looks whether I would go after it.
[Gavel of Pure Light] +299 Healing 8 MP5 12 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
- Exalted reward with Sha'tar. Which will probably take me a long time to attain.
After that, I'll be waiting for either of the following from Karazhan:
[Shard of the Virtuous] +348 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 20 INT 0 SPI
- Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan. Great stats, only a so-so look (it's very big and very glowy blue).
[Light's Justice] +382 Healing 0 MP5 16 STA 21 INT 20 SPI
- Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, nice gold hammer with green gem accents. No MP5, but 20 SPI (roughly 4 MP5).
Off-Hand Items
Currently using:
[Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm] +33 Healing 6 MP5 0 STA 15 INT 15 SPI
There's also:
[Lamp of Peaceful Repose] +35 Healing 6 MP5 16 STA 18 INT 0 SPI
- Dalliah the Doomsayer in the the Arcatraz.
- I'd probably switch to this instead of the [Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm] if it dropped.
[Lordaeron Medical Guide] +46 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 10 INT 16 SPI
- Lieutenant Drake in the Escape from Durnholde Keep (Heroic)
- Likely the best upgrade, even into Karazhan. I'd still prefer the lamp, but having a book in my off-hand is good for RP purposes.
Karazhan drops:
[Signet of Unshakable Faith] +37 Healing 0 MP5 19 STA 21 INT 22 SPI
- Drops from Moroes in Karazhan. The stats on it are pretty good, although I'd give up maybe 2-3 MP5. Well worth rolling on.
[Aran's Soothing Sapphire] +51 Healing 8 MP5 0 STA 22 INT 0 SPI
- Also a so-so piece compared to the others. I'd probably pass on it because all it has is INT.
Neck Items
I went ahead and bought the Living Ruby Pendant off of the Auction House:
[Living Ruby Pendant] +35 Healing 6 MP5 24 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- About 90g at the Auction House.
[Necklace of Eternal Hope] +48 Healing 4 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice. Yes it has a bit more healing power and INT, but the pendant has a 10-charge use effect which is quite useful. So of the two items, I think the pendant is the better choice.
Karazhan Drops:
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 21 INT 19 SPI
- drop off of Netherspite in Karazhan.
Head Equipment
What I have now is [Halo of Transcendence] +48 Healing 0 MP5 17 STA 27 INT 22 SPI, which is a very nice piece from Onyxia. Upgrades for this are going to be a bit few and far between:
[Scintillating Headdress of Second Sight] +73 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 27 INT 32 SPI
- Shirrak the Dead Watcher in Auchenai Crypts (Heroic)
- Probably one of the few upgrades prior to Karazhan
[Cowl of Naaru Blessings] +66 Healing 0 MP5 28 STA 29 INT 23 SPI
- Has both a BLUE and a META socket, so can be boosted
- 50 Badge of Justice
I'll probably chase after the Cowl of Naaru, assuming that I don't happen to get a Karazhan drop prior to getting 50 Badges of Justice. On the other hand, there are probably other items that I should buy with Badges of Justice first. So getting the drop from Auchenai Crypts may be my best hope.
Karazhan drops:
[Light-Collar of the Incarnate] +73 Healing 6 MP5 28 STA 34 INT 25 SPI
- Bought with a Helm of the Fallen Defender (drops from Prince Malchezaar in the Karazhan instance.)
- (1) META (1) BLUE sockets
- Looks like a stiff high collar that is white
- Part of the Incarnate Raiment set
[Headdress of the High Potentate] +81 Healing 0 MP5 37 STA 38 INT 32 SPI
- obtained by winning the Chess Event in Karazhan
- Looks like a silver floating halo type crown with purple gems
Wrist Equipment
There are hardly any good choices here. What I have is [Shattrath Wraps] +21 Healing 0 MP5 15 STA 15 INT (with socketed gems). About the only possible upgrade is:
[Wristguards of Tranquil Thought] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 17 INT 16 SPI
- 35 Badges of Justice
- Has a yellow socket, Shattrath Wraps had a red socket.
[Bands of the Benevolent] +46 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 20 INT 18 SPI
- Talon King Ikiss in the Sethekk Halls (Heroic)
In fact, the WoTT are probably the best, even past Karazhan due to the socket. So I'm going to buy a Royal Nightseye and replace the Royal Shadow Draenite in my current Shattrath Wraps and work on Badges of Justice.
Karazhan drop:
[Bands of Indwelling] +46 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 18 INT 20 SPI
- Drops from Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan.
Hands / Gloves
I now have:
[Handwraps of the Incarnate] +57 Healing 10 MP5 28 STA 26 INT 18 SPI
The next possible upgrade is probably from Hyjal Summit - Azgalor.
Back / Cloak
This is a spot that I need to examine more closely. I have a [Cloak of Healing Rays] +33 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 13 INT 15 SPI there which looks very nice with the Primal Mooncloth set. So I've kept it, even though it's only a L63 item that I've had since winning it back at L62. There's only a handful of upgrades that look nice and go with the PMC set:
[Cloak of Scintillating Auras] +42 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 16 INT 18 SPI
- Zereketh the Unbound in the Arcatraz, a gold cloak similar in looks to the Cloak of Healing Rays.
[Kharmaa's Shroud of Hope] +51 Healing 6 MP5 34 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- 60 Badgets of Justice, white cloak with gold trim.
[Light-Touched Stole of Altruism] +55 Healing 0 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- Exarch Maladaar in the Auchenai Crypts (heroic mode), nice white cloak but no SPI or MP5. Personally, I'd rather go with the Bishop's Cloak due to the 8 MP5.
Kharazhan drops are:
[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] +53 Healing 7 MP5 22 STA 23 INT 0 SPI
- White cloak with gold trim.
I'll probably enchant my cloak with [Enchant Cloak - Subtlety] or +7 to all resists or +15 to Shadow resist.
Rings
Another area that I need to re-examine. There's a lot of options, so I need to sit down and decide which ones I like. What I have now are:
[Heirloom Signet of Convalescence] +44 Healing 0 MP5 7 STA 11 INT 5 SPI
[Keeper's Ring of Piety] +42 Healing 7 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 18 SPI
Basically, one ring will be for +healing and MP5, the other ring will be for +healing and stats.
Possible upgrades:
[Band of Halos] +46 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- 25 Badges of Justice, this is probably the replacement for the Keeper's Ring of Piety. Assuming that I don't get something from Karazhan off of the Prince (which is +68 healing with 12 MP5).
[Violet Signet: Friendly] +42 Healing 0 MP5 18 STA 18 INT 12 SPI
[Violet Signet: Honored] +48 Healing 0 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 15 SPI
[Violet Signet: Revered] +51 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 22 INT 17 SPI
[Violet Signet: Exalted] +55 Healing 0 MP5 24 STA 23 INT 17 SPI
Trinkets
Currently, I'm using:
[Auslese's Light Channeler] +59 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] +70 Healing 0 MP5 0 STA 0 INT 0 SPI
Which is actually a pair of really good trinkets for a healing priest. The scarab cuts my 2.5 sec greater heal down to 2.08 sec when it procs (which it does moderately often). The light channeler lets my next heal within 10 seconds cost 215 less mana (with a short 2 minute cooldown).
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I want to replace either trinket before I get to SSC or Black Temple.
Leg Equipment
I have [Imbued Netherweave Pants] +30 Healing 10 MP5 39 STA 12 INT 0 SPI
[Pants of the Naaru] +77 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 22 INT 25 SPI
- Netherstorm quest, but I give up at least 5 MP5. I don't think they're worth it, even though they'd give me +47 healing.
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] +101 Healing 0 MP5 34 STA 35 INT 0 SPI
- 75 Badges of Justice, but zero mana regen (giving up 10 MP5), so not really a desireable option either.
[Pontiff's Pantaloons of Prophecy] +55 Healing 0 MP5 12 STA 27 INT 24 SPI
- Captain Skarloc in Old Hillsbrad Foothills (Heroic)
- (1) red (2) blue sockets, which means it could be boosted a bit to provide (6) MP5, but I'd still lose out on 27 STA, overall it would be an upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants (once gemmed).
[Pontifex Kilt] +66 Healing 0 MP5 25 STA 29 INT 27 SPI
- Warlord Kalithresh in the Steamvault (Heroic)
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) MP5 along with the ~5 MP5 from the 27 spirit. This would be a definite upgrade over the Imbued Netherweave Pants. These are basically equivalent to the Whitemend Pants.
If I happen to get the Whitemend Pants pattern (from Dalliah the Doomsayer in The Arcatraz), I may go ahead and make those:
[Whitemend Pants] +62 Healing 11 MP5 21 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
- (1) red (1) blue (1) yellow socket, so it can be boosted to provide (6) more MP5 along with a good bit more healing power.
Karazhan drops:
[Pantaloons of Repentence] +68 Healing 0 MP5 27 STA 34 INT 26 SPI
- (2) blue and (1) red socket = 6 MP5 plus ~5 MP5 from the 26 spirit.
Feet Equipment
Wearing [Imbued Netherweave Boots] +23 Healing 8 MP5 30 STA 21 INT 0 SPI
[Slippers of Serenity] +35 Healing 0 MP5 10 STA 22 INT 15 SPI
- Exarch Maladaar in Auchenai Crypts
- (1) red (1) blue socket so could provide 4 MP5, plus the ~3 MP5 from 15 spirit
[Light-Woven Slippers] +29 Healing 10 MP5 19 STA 24 INT 13 SPI
- Darkweaver Syth in Sethekk Halls
- Lose out on a bit of STA, but pickup more mana regen
[Jeweled Boots of Sanctification] +55 Healing 6 MP5 22 STA 25 INT 0 SPI
- Warbringer O'mrogg in The Shattered Halls
- I'm not fond of the look, but they might hide well under the robes
[Boots of the Long Road] +73 Healing 9 MP5 25 STA 26 INT 22 SPI
- non-BoP pattern from SSC or The Eye (raid zones), but the crafted result is BoP
- Basically equivalent to the boots that drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan
Wands
The only wand on my list is:
[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] 175.7 DPS +18 Healing 0 MP5 9 STA 15 INT 0 SPI
- Has a blue socket, so can be boosted another 9 Healing and 2 MP5.
- 25 Badges of Justice
Enchants
Once I reach 370 enchanting and gain the repuation needed to buy the recipe, I can enchant my rings with +20 Healing (each ring). Which is the only enchant that can be placed on rings.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:37 AM (0 comments)
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Platelet Donation
So I went in to give platelets yesterday. They (NY Blood Donor services) have been bugging me for a while, because apparently my platelet counts are relatively high compared to others. While I'm sure they want my O+ blood, it sounds like they're more interested in my platelets.
It was an interesting experience. First off, they had misscheduled me for whole blood donation rather then for platelets. So we had to get that straightened out first. My blood pressure was in pretty good condition, closer to 120/80 then the 130-140 / 90-100 that I had been running. So that was a spot of good news.
Finally, they got me into the chair and started hooking me up. I went with the two-arm procedure (intake needle on one arm, outtake needle on the other -- the single-arm procedure uses a single needed and switches between draw/replace). The downside of the two-arm series is that you can't use either arm at all, so no reading for me.
As usual, it stung for a bit at the start. Not bad, but the fluid and blood coming back from the machine was a few degrees cooler. This causes a slight stinging sensation and also makes you feel cool. I asked for a blanket after 15-20 minutes because I was cold.
The machine is pretty well programmed. It can tell what your platelet levels are. How fast you're managing to create the 2-units in the machine, and how much longer it will take for the donation. (Figure 75-90 minutes for a two-unit donation.)
So, word of warning, make sure you don't shift your arms too much. Towards the end of the donation (last 5 minutes or so), I managed to shift the needle coming back from the machine. Ended up with a good 2 inch by 2 inch hemotoma under the skin. I had noticed a stinging sensation in the left arm towards the end, but it was under the blanket and I didn't think anything of it. Turns out that I was developing a nasty bruise from leaking fluid / blood under the skin. The nurse had to ice down my arm quick to reduce the swelling. She was pretty upset because everything had gone well up until that point.
Me? Well, it's not painful at all. I'm just hoping that it heals properly and doesn't prevent future donations. My next scheduled donation isn't until May 30th, so there is plenty of time for it to heal.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:31 PM (0 comments)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
OOO: More notes from the spoiler threads
1) Most Ayleid ruins contain meteoric weapons. But only the two weapons in Culotte are easily found, the rest are hidden in some fashion.
...
I'm probably going to re-roll again, not entirely happy with my major/minor skill picks:
Race: Wood Elf (Bosmer)
Birthsign: The Thief
Spec: Stealth
Favored Attributes: Strength, Endurance
Major Skills:
25 Blade (Strength)
25 Armorer (Endurance)
35 Light Armor (Speed) -> 25 Athletics (Speed)
30 Security (Agility)
40 Marksman (Agility) -> 25 Illusion (Personality)
25 Conjuration (Intelligence)
25 Restoration (Willpower)
I'll only have a starting Luck of 60, which means it will be level 40 until I hit 100 in Luck. I only have 495 points available for leveling (which means I'll top at level 50.
So I'm going to swap out Athletics (starts at 25) for Light Armor, and put Illusion (starts at 25) in the place of Marksman. Which gives 520 points for leveling (max level of 53). But that assumes that all of my skills won't yet be at 100 (which also prevents leveling).
That build has a starting strength/endurance of 35. Which is enough to carry a decent bit of equipment (175 lbs) and starts with a modest bit of health (52 HP).Labels: 2008, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 7:33 AM (0 comments)
OOO: Fort Nikel, Fort Roebeck
Still working my way through the dungeons surrounding the Imperial City.
Fort Nikel - This is somewhat of a pushover at level 17 with good potions and a moderately enchanted bow. The bandits and the marauders still mostly slaughter each other off in the last section, but you'll still end up with 3-4 left overs that you'll have to snipe from above. So bring lots of poisons and arrows.
Fort Roebeck - This was a good bit more difficult at level 17. I packed along 100 silencing poisons, 150 arrows, health potions and there were still some rough spots. With OOO, you're going to find low-mid level daedra outside, along with conjurers. Inside, you'll likely find Frost Atronachs, Flame Antronachs, various types of metallic golems, conjurers, and at least 1 plane summoner. Fortunately, you can snipe most of the conjurers from walkways above their areas. The best loot that I got out of here (in addition to 3-4 enchanted pieces of clothing for selling) was a journeyman level piece of alchemy equipment.
I also want to take a look at Fort Black Boot, Sage Glen Hollow and any other goblin / bandit dungeons around the Imperial City. Basically working my way around the Red Ring Road as a starting point.
By running the two dungeons, I earned enough gold (and gathered a few more greater souls) to enchant a new pair of weapons. One is a Fine Steel Bow that I've enchanted to do +8 damage with fire / frost / shock (compared to +5 with the old bow). And I enchanted a shortsword with +11 damage for each of the three damage types. Both weapons also inflict a light spell on the opponent (magnitude 10 for about 20-30 seconds), which makes it easier to see my opponents after I hit them.
The most useful piece of dungeon gear that I have at the moment is a simple enchanted headpiece with Detect Life on it. Its range is 115 ft, which is quite good and a lot more then I can create at the enchanting altar. Since it is additive, I may equip a 2nd piece for more range (150-200 ft is what I prefer). It's extremely handy to have a permanent item with that enchant because I get tired of casting it all the time in dungeons.Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 5:33 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
OOO: Sideways Cave - Lost Abagarlas, Ayleid Reliquary
So I went back to Sideways Cave at level 17 to get some revenge and finally clear out the last room with the gargoyles. Most of my kills were made using a single shot with the enchanted bow (+5 damage for each of the 3 damage types: fire / frost / shock). The regular imps die immediately due to the 3x sneak damage multiplier (10 pt arrows, 8 pt bow, 5 pts for each of the three enchants).
Only the mystical imps, trolls, or gargoyles required a bit more finesse. But because I have a sneaky mod installed (Attack and Hide), if I shoot from absolute darkness I can often get off 2-3 shots before they locate me.
The trick to the gargoyles is that you can't stay hidden. Otherwise after each time they take damage, they'll shield (reflect spell damage), fall over, and then regenerate. So you have to get their attention and let them shoot their drain spells at you. At which point, it's just a matter of shooting 5-6 arrows at them, each one with poison (I was using 4 pt over 17 seconds).
My last mystery is trying to figure out what the ayleid reliquary in the last room of Sideways Cave - Lost Abagarlas is for. It's a locked reliquary off to the right side in the caved in corridor in the last room.
(The answer is found on the OOO FAQ page. Basically if you have OOO 1.31 or later, you'll come across the key as part of the last mission of the Thieve's Guild.)Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 11:04 PM (0 comments)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
OOO: Sardavar Leed, Yellow Tick Cave, Belda
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Sardavar_Leed - Tried this at level 15 as a sneaky type character with moderate skills. A "guardian of oblivion" toasted me inside the entrance way. Apparently it has been beefed up by OOO. I suspect I'll need to be level 25-30 before coming back and tackling this dungeon.
Yellow Tick Cave - Another attempt at tackling a conjurer cave at level 15. Now, either my level is too low, my sneak is too low, or conjurers are exceptionally aggressive - because my second pull resulted in a train of 6 or 8 conjurers along with pets. So I probably won't be able to tackle this until I have potions capable of silencing and killing conjurers.
Belda - This one is doable at level 16 if you pack the right potions and equipment. You'll need about 50-75 silence poisons (Motherwort Sprig, Nightshade, White Seed Pod, and Sacred Lotus Seeds), another 50-100 regular poisons, lots of health potions, and some cure disease / poison / restore attribute potions. If you're a bow user, you'll need an enchanted bow that you create in the Arcane University. My first bow is typically a silver bow enchanted to do 5 points over 1 second of three damage types (fire, frost, shock). With a greater soul gem (1200 points), you'll be able to get about 80 shots from the bow before you need to recharge it. Lastly, you'll need a few soul gems and at least 100 arrows (200 would be better). I also carry a sword enchanted in a similar manner to the bow (4 points of damage over 2 seconds for fire, frost, and shock). There was still one "very hard" chest deep within the dungeon that I couldn't open yet (so I'll have to come back). And some of the traps on the chests can kill you instantly if you only have ~150 health. So save frequently.
One of the hardest areas is towards the end (but not the last room) where you may face a Plane Summoner, who is a tougher then normal conjurer. Not to mention all of the iron / gold / mithril / other golems that take 5-10 shots from the bow (silence poison is useful, otherwise don't bother) to put down. Make sure you have lots of room to back up when fighting those, because they hit hard.Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 2:45 AM (0 comments)
Friday, April 18, 2008
ES4 Next steps with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
This is a follow-up post for Getting started with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. After all, once you've done the things in that post, what next?
1) If you have Shivering Isles - go ahead and start the main quest. You'll obtain Dawnfang/Duskfang, which is a good low-level 1H sword that will work for you until you can get into the mage's guild to enchant one of your own. At lower levels, it only weighs 19-23 lbs, so it's reasonable to carry for something that will never run out of charges (it refreshes twice per day). The higher level versions are a lot heavier.
2) Your 2nd goal is to get the Ruin's Edge bow. This is an outstanding bow for a young character who likes to sneak around and open combat with a ranged attack. Your enemies will often attack their cohorts (Frenzy effect), or they'll be stuck standing in place (Burden), or they'll fall down (Paralyze), or simply run away (Demoralize). The bow is not leveled, so you'll want to obtain it sooner rather then later.
3) Your 3rd goal in Shivering Isles should be to obtain lots and lots of potion making ingredients. Especially Black Tar from the Dementia side of the isles.
4) You can do some of the Mage's Guild recommendation quests prior to level 10. Specifically Skingrad, Chorrol, Cheydinhal, Bravil and Bruma. The Leyawin quest will be difficult at level 12 (drink health potions early and use poisons freely). The Anvil quest tends to be another difficult one as well with a high-level opponent (but you do have allies in that quest). In order to get the Bravil recommendation quest, you may have to do the nightmare quest first where you fight two minotaurs. You'll probably have to turn the difficulty slider down a bit in order to pull it off.
5) Some of the fighter's guild quests are reported to be easy at the start. Later ones are much more difficult.
6) Start collecting souls (Lesser / Common / Greater). This will allow you (once you gain access to the Arcane University) the ability to create magical equipment.
7) Train your armorer skill. One way is to create a self-only "damage armor" spell in the Arcane University. Then you put on an old suit of junk armor and cast it on yourself. When the armor breaks, you repair it. The other way is to use armor damaging spells on your opponents, then loot and repair their armor. Once you get to level 50 in Armorer, you'll be able to repair magic gear.
8) One poster suggested Fort Ash, Fort Virtue or Fanacasecul. The goblin mine east of Skingrad along the road is rumored to be a good low-level dungeon as well.
9) One random note - having Mysticism as a starting skill is not a good idea if you use Gather Ye Rosebuds.
10) Another suggests starting with dungeons: Fort Urasek, Fort Ash, Fort Virtue, or Fanacasecul, Fatback Cave, Dzonot Cave (has amazons - so I disagree that you should go there much before L25),
11) Find the Winged Bow.
12) Loot the clams in the waters around the Imperial City. (Personally, I save the drops from those clams for use with Geomancy.)
13) Work on getting your security skill up to 60+ in order to pick the hardest chests (41+ for Hard Locks). Alternately, train up Alteration to 75 to cast the "open hard lock" skill and 100 for the "very hard" lock spell.
14) Buy at least (1) spell of every type so that you can create enchants with it later. Key spells are touch spells that do fire / frost / shock damage. Don't forget telekenisis, heal self, heal other, or resist / shield spells.
15) Beginner dungeons are scattered near Imperial City, with the ones on the west side of the city/lake probably easier then the ones on the east side. (The one exception that I know of is southwest of Chestnut Handy Stables - it contains amazons.)Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 9:26 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, April 13, 2008
ES4O: Gargoyles!
I think I posted about Sideways Cave before and how it's a good place to come when you're a wee little adventurer? I think I also mentioned that in the "Lost Abagarlas" zone that there are a set of 3-4 iron gates that keep you away from the last area which contains (3) gargoyles and (1) mystical imp?
Well, I went back there at level 8, with a bit more power under my belt. Poisons that do 4 points of damage per second for 15 seconds, steel arrows, better marksmanship skills, etc.
Apparently, I haven't found what they're weak to, because the poison barely moves their health bar. Plus, when a gargoyle gets damaged, they shield themselves (becoming stone) fall over and regenerate. I'll come back after preparing a fire / cold poison and after getting a few more levels.
(Tested with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.33. Rumors indicate that they may be roughly level 20. I dragged an outdoor gargoyle through a pair of guards on the road outside of Skingrad and the gargoyle wiped them out. Hopefully it will despawn before I have to travel back through there.)
...
The other low-level dungeon near the Imperial City is Vilverin. It is guarded by a trio of bandits outside and a bunch of bandits in the first section. After that it switches over to skeletons and other undead.
Once again, the first 2-3 areas are doable at levels below 10 (I did well at level 8). But the final area contains a boss and spectral warriors / wolves that will give you trouble without the proper equipment. I figure I'll come back at around 12-15 when I have weapons that are enchanted with shock.Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul
posted by Wuphon's at 5:57 PM (0 comments)
Monday, April 07, 2008
Day in the life with Lucille
My day usually starts around 6am. That's when Lucille comes looking for breakfast. With a little mew, she'll jump up on the bed. If I happen to be facing in her direction, she'll start purring. Then comes the nuzzling and the licking of my hands and fingers. It's an interesting way to wake up. If I happen to be facing the other way, she'll cry a bit before clambering over to the other side. Either way, there's a good bit of purring and nuzzling involved.
She'll generally keep it up for a few minutes until I either wake up or until I pet her. Depending on how hungry she is, she may give up and go play for a few minutes before coming back, or she may stack around and keep licking me until I get up. It's a behavior that I don't mind reinforcing, because she's close enough to pet. If she was out in the hallway, wailing away, it would be more difficult to deal with.
When it looks like I'm getting up, she'll run to the end of the bed by the door. She's learned to stop and look back to see whether I was really getting up. Once I'm up and moving, the race to the kitchen has started. I'll put the kettle on, and pop her food into the microwave (if it's leftovers from the previous evening); then go clean the litterbox. Once the microwaved dish (only 10 seconds) has cooled, I'll put it down and then fix my breakfast.
(She generally eats about 1/2 of a 3.0 oz can at a go right now. And I'll usually put another 1/4 can down about 30 minutes later if she eats the first 1/2 can. If I'm going into the office, then I put the last 1/4 down before leaving. Still feeding her kitten food for another few weeks. At least she's now willing to eat the canned food without my having to grind up the dry food and mix it in.)
...
She loves to be brushed now. I have a wire brush (with the large flat head with bent thin wire bristles) and a flea comb (metal with close together straight tines). If I'm standing by the cat tree in my office, and scratch along the wire bristles, she'll generally come running to the top of the tree for brushing. That's a handy behavior to have if I ever have to give her medication down the road.
I generally try to brush long enough to fill the bristle brush once with loose hair. Usually that's a bundle about the size of a ping pong ball. By doing that a few times per week (as often as I feel the need for a short stress break), I'm greatly reducing the chance that she'll have to cough up a hairball.
So I think we're well past the point where she's afraid to be touched. She'll even put up with petting of her belly, but I don't push my luck. Very rarely, she'll put her teeth on my hand as a warning. Usually, it's because she's become over stimulated rather then out of fear.
But I still take every chance while she's up on the tree, where she's happy, to touch her legs, look in her ears, look at her claws (including holding the paws) and generally manipulate her body a bit. She'll let me hold the rear paws quite a bit and we're still getting better about the front paws (not there yet).
(Lucille's weight is still around 7.8 lbs.)
posted by Wuphon's at 5:23 PM (0 comments)
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