ozvillafan

Merson was never a legend in my book but he is far and away the most skillful player I have seen in my time at VP, no other player comes close.

Now that I cant argue with. I like Lee, I think he has great talent and is a real asset.

But Merson was better.

His off field stuff never impinged on Merse's ability on the pitch and when it came out no-one actually ever knew it publically.

seen how articulate Merse is on TV, seen how fair he is and someone I know who has met both Merse and Hendrie has said the gulf in class is palatable.

Nothing was ever too much for Merse, signing autographs etc. Hendrie did it all with a sneer and snarl.

Perhaps that's it then. They have their flaws, but maybe Hendries are more in his personality whereas Merson had some personal struggles.

Still, I'd like to see Hendrie get his chance under MON.

I'm not sure even Lee himself would, to be honest, put himself in the same class as merse.

Neither would I, PB. Merson played many games for England, Lee played 1. There is a reason for that.

The similarities are just with their role on the pitch, and their poor behaviour off the field. Interesting how many have opposite views on them.

And that is the only point I am trying to make.

I don't remember Merson ever getting involved with away fans

I don't remember Merson ever being a petutlant little boy on the field

I don't remember Hendrie ever having the same impact that Merson would have on a game

I dont remember Hendrie having a drinking problem

I dont remember Hendrie having a gambling problem

I dont remember Hendrie ever stop running or go missing like Merson would.

I dont remember Merson celebrating a goal like Hendrie did.

The point I was making was simply this: Both players were flawed. And both had some real talent that - when on song - was a joy to behold.

However, one is regarded as a "legend" in his 3 villa seasons. The other - despite 10 years of service - is a favourite with the boo boys.

Maybe the reaction just shows, for once, what I wrote to be right.

I wouldn't be so harsh on yourself, Blandy. Most of what you write is not only right but well thought out and well presented. I - like most posters here, I suspect - not only enjoy your posts and game reviews but look forward to them.

Sorry if this comes across as pissing in your pocket - it's not meant that way.

As for Hendrie - is there any news of his staying or going yet?

But isnt 0.333 comparison nicked from our starting spot in WoW?

Would it be fair to say that this is how it starts because people are still learning? And because it's very easy to die just by aggroing 2 mobs?

Conversely, by Level 70, would it be fair to assume that they know their class/role (more or less) and so it could change to a different proportion other than 0.3333?

Those of you who like to see the Villa knock the ball around in a creative, dangerous manner will look back on some of our better performances under JG and DOL and see the name Hendrie on the team sheet.

When coupled with players who like to push the ball around and move intelligently - particularly Angel, Solano and Barry - Hendrie was in his element and would cause opposition defence all sorts of headaches with his dummies, turns and lay offs. He could also shoot from a distance and scored some spectacular goals.

I would like to see him get his chance under MON - especially as Davis has been out of sorts and Petrov struggling to find his feet.

However, people seem to judge him by his off the pitch behaviour and the fact that he was NOT the "ball-winner" type of midfielder....

... while conveniently forgetting that this mirrored Merson's behaviour and playing style - who remains a firm fan favourite.

Confirmation that Blizzard didn't think too hard about the shaman class in BC:

Level 61 Totem

Level 70 Epic equivalent

Uhuh.

And more windfury problems. Casting windfury 4 on both your main and offhand means you cannot proc the off hand for 3 seconds after the main hand. Why? Because that was their fix for stopping windfury proccing windfury, apparently.

However, cast windfury 4 on your main and windfury 3 on your offhand, and you can. Whats more, the proc will stack it's attack power if you get both at once - meaning a massive burst - and there are many reports that the main hand swings 4 times instead of 2, since it cant tell which weapon proc'd windfury.

Awesome stuff.

Nah, I love being a shammy at the moment! I'm L62, and am 31/0/21/ EM and NS, awesome grinding, and still able to heal a 5 man instance. Plus we get some nice group buffs and totems later on in the levels, we'll be alright, you'll see!

Ah, Elemental Mastery. I do miss that.

But have made up my mind to stay full DPS since I hate just healing in end game/instances. 0/41/11 at level 62, with a view to going 0/42/19 at 70.

Heya Juju

Shammies feel much the same way. We get owned in PVP and our talent trees outside of resto are limited and largely hopeless. We now have Pallies on the Horde side, which do a better job at buffing, tanking and healing and now deal decent DPS. Add to that the limited gear for pure DPS shammies (be that melee or casting) and there is no point inviting one to a raid.

But the hope is that, by level 70, some of these problems will be addressed. I'm not ready to give up just yet.

Too true.

Managed to off heal in the ramparts as an Enhance shammy with zero healing gear while the main healer was a feral druid. It can be done....

... but a priest - of any build - would've done it better.

And hunters can't make water, or portals, or summon people! I trust Blizz is on the case as we speak!

Heh heh...

Wait till he gets Ghost Wolf: a 40% speed increase compared to aspect of the cheetah's 30%. Nerf!

*e-peen alert* Got my highest Windfury crit ever yesterday. A clothie in the Ramparts for 1k normal then 1.5k wf. Damn thing dropped so I didn't get my third swing :cry:

this might have been posted before, but its nice

If you use a lot of that Ace2 stuff, its an updater. The Mods you have it will update for you. Just install it. Extract it. Run it. Press F4 and then f12. Bobs yer uncle.

Nope. Tried it but the executable fails. Bummer.

As for BC - played for 1 hour, did 2 quests and already swapped out my epic Skyfury Helm for some quest green.

Nicely said, PB.

However, I would not call The General's comments about European cups and the like "ill-advised". The last thing I wanted from a takeover was someone with the same "ambition" as Ellis: Survival and scrape Europe every now and again.

I want to see them aiming high. And I want to see that immediately - not in 5 years time.

Granted, it may not happen for years - but the ambition must be there from the beginning, or it will never happen.

Then I started vendoring/AH most of the shit in my bank, Hearts of fire, Aquamarine, diamonds, herbs, rugged leather etc but I drew the line at vendoring any epics I don't use. If I did, I could make another 50-60 gold but dunno if I have the balls to do it.

I have full tier one, 2 epic necks, 2 epic weapons and an epic ring I can vendor, should I do it?

Diamonds? Ouch. Pretty sure you could use them for sockets come BC.

As for the epic stuff - I have a few I wont ever use sitting in my bank too. I will shard them...

... but probably not till I've levelled a bit and can confirm they are truly useless. (Read: No balls here either).

Anybody tried out the AV/AB bug? Basically, you can cap the flag from a distance - which means Far Sight or Eagle Eye can be used.

Problem is, you need to be at the perfect height on the flag, or it wont work - and the alliance are on the lookout for people trying the hack.

I haven't succeeded, but a guildie managed to claim an AV bunker by bouncing Far Sight off the inside wall.

Leave the poor shammies alone, theyre a joke of a class. Soon they will all become paladins and we won't see anymore of them.

Exactly.

Have you got Wusholaay's Charm Oz, doubles lightning shield damage (at least until it gets nerfed, see above!)

Nope.

Fury Warriors are the only tanks who cause me even a bit of bother. Just slow them down with FS, then let them damage them self on lightning shield and magma totem. Then NS plus full heal, and they dont stand a chance.

Damn resto shammies! You are almost as annoying as a pally! :winkold:

Your right, Rev.

I've got totems down which buffs my crit and AP and provide a little bit of healing. Shock and storm strike when possible and keep lightning shield up. Offhand enchanted with Frostbrand or Flametongue to add additional magic damage. Warstomp heal, PvP bubble trinket heal and pot if necessary.

All this while running in circles around the warrior.

Even then, it's touch and go.

Standing toe to toe sees me down with only 20% hp damage to the warrior.

Healing stream totem actually benefits from plus healing now though, so full resto plus decent gear gets it ticking along at a fair old rate.

Which always made me wonder why Mana spring doesn't do the same. Ok, it's not healing, but couldn't it work off your existing mana regen?

Fury warriors are just rogues without all the intensely annoying stuns and interrupts. Piece of cake.

Not when you are dual wielding. It's a close fight, but execute usually wins it for the warriors.

Had that happen in AB the other day, so I popped and frost shocked the last 3% of the warrior's health and then bandaged. He then chased me around for the rest of the game

Heh heh... it's just like dropping a stoneskin totem against a fury warrior or rogue. Pointless.

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

What IS the point of that? The point about earth shock was that you could silence NPC casters, and drag agro back from mages and priests if you had to (not Locks though obviously). Earth Shock plus Rockbiter were great for off tanking.

I'm a bit surprised at this too.

So silencing an opponent doesn't cause threat....

... but slowing their movement while they are already in melee with someone else does?

What next? Earthbind totem gains aggro? And what does this mean for mobs that run?

Daft.

But anyway Oz, I've had a revelation, and that revelation is Stoneclaw totem! I last used this I think while questing in the Thousand Needles, in that cave with all the harpies, and haven't bothered to train it since about Rank 4. But it turns out it rather nicely taunts those druid tree things for a good few seconds, bunching them all up rather nicely for a CL or magma totem strike.

Nice! I will have to make a button for that mostly useless totem now :winkold:

Next challenge, think of a reason for using Windwall Totem!

I use it every time I fight a hunter....

... and it does nothing.

The Burning Crusade

Shaman

* "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.

* "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.

* The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.

* "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have an enemy targeted.

Wow. Must have spent all of 5 minutes on that. Thanks for nothing.

Meanwhile, Pallies get a further buff to their buffs. Go figure.

* Enchantments

o The Crusader Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above level 60.

Well that's just dandy. Spent 60g yesterday getting Crusader put on, damnit! It will now be largely useless within, what? 2 levels?

* Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.

So specialization is largely useless then. You cant make money from it since you can only make things for yourself.

Oh, and thanks for letting me learn the old recipes.....

... since nobody wants them now.

Anybody else feel totally worked over?

The Warlock nerf is an absolutely massive one.

This patch has been a bad thing. It was never intended to be in place as TBC was always supposed to be released sometime in November/December. All we have had since is a strange time where people have been spending ten times as long in battlegrounds as they usually would. When we come through the other side and actually go back to the game we all want to play the tree that actually makes Locks different from being just another nuker (and not a very good one at that) is actually nerfed to the point where it is worse than it was pre 2.01? Its a lame duck tree again.

Its even more crazy when you think of the big nerfs Locks got in the patch so called "equivalent" abilities remain unchanged.

This feels like a real kick in the balls.

I know how you feel.

Shammies are screwed when pallys can be rolled on horde side. They are better tanks, have better buffs, are equivalent if not better healers and can now match our DPS. Throw in a couple of CC's and who needs shammies?

Much like Warlocks and Mages, methinks.

As for the balance thing - my hope is that at level 70 it all evens out.....

... cause its hunters, warlocks and pallies at the top of the tree by a long way at the moment.

PRAISE THE LORD

That. Is. Awesome!

No, not the dot reduction, the blue post directly after a white one.

The shaman boards (US) have blue posts too...

... the last one was 15 pages ago and it said "Yes, we do read and post on these boards".

And that is not a joke.

:evil:

Anyhoo, if Warlocks are getting a nerf then surely huntards are due for one!

Ho hum

BC is just around the corner and now that I have the honour for the High Warlords Razor as an offhand to my High Warlords Cleaver with Don Julios Band and Death Guards Cloak - I really have nothing else to do.

Guess I'll farm for a bit and maybe get an enchant or 2.....

.... since all I have is +40 to armour on 4 items.