On the back of my last post I have setup a new website for the mawson lakes internet cause.
Please log in and sign :) It would be much appreciated.
When/If I get 10000 signs (or more hopefully) I will forward the report to Local/State Government and Telstra.
mawsonlakesinternetpetition.orbitservices.net
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Mawson Lakes - South Australia: internet makes me cry a little inside
Well I've been having a few issues with my internet lately and thought I'd have a whinge! I live in Mawson Lakes, South Australia ... the "technology hub" of Adelaide (apparantely). For those who dont know Mawson Lakes is a relatively new area in Adelaide, is organised by Delfin and for most parts is a great place to live.
That is however until your trying to get reliable high speed internet access, you see in the infinite wisdom of the company in charge of setting up the original infrastructure (telsta) they chose to go the easy road and installed old technology and RIMS instead of a genuine exchange with quality lines to the various "areas" of mawson lakes. Instead they created a fibre connection from an exchange several kilometers away and then installed RIMS around the place to provide phone lines and internet access.
The problem with this is that RIMS do not handle higher speeds of ADSL such as ADSL2+. I went from an old area (Prospect) with ADSL2+ at 21mbmps to an area I could get an unreliable ADSL connection. The best I can currently get is a 512k connection which SHOULD be fine, but it seems to me that on busy nights the net comes to a grinding halt causing sever latency in game and occasional disconnections from the server.
The more questions you ask about how are they going to solve this the less response you seem to get from them, it's becoming something that annoys me all day haha
That is however until your trying to get reliable high speed internet access, you see in the infinite wisdom of the company in charge of setting up the original infrastructure (telsta) they chose to go the easy road and installed old technology and RIMS instead of a genuine exchange with quality lines to the various "areas" of mawson lakes. Instead they created a fibre connection from an exchange several kilometers away and then installed RIMS around the place to provide phone lines and internet access.
The problem with this is that RIMS do not handle higher speeds of ADSL such as ADSL2+. I went from an old area (Prospect) with ADSL2+ at 21mbmps to an area I could get an unreliable ADSL connection. The best I can currently get is a 512k connection which SHOULD be fine, but it seems to me that on busy nights the net comes to a grinding halt causing sever latency in game and occasional disconnections from the server.
The more questions you ask about how are they going to solve this the less response you seem to get from them, it's becoming something that annoys me all day haha
G9 & G13 Review and Mappings
Well I got my G9 Gaming Mouse and G13 Advanced Gameboard. Im am bloody happy at the moment :)
just a bit of a learning curve for my game play but that's cool :)
G9 Gaming Mouse
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3053&cl=au,en
For me the cool stuff with this mouse include the additional buttons that can be clicked by my thumb (I was previously using a 2 button + wheel mouse) and the ability to on the fly.
Mappings
Wheel Mouse Up
Wheel Mouse Down
Thumb Button 1
Thumb Button 2
Jump
G13 Advanced Gameboard
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/pc_gaming/mice_keyboards/devices/5123&cl=au,en&WT.ac=mb|819||hp&creative=12137|G13
This is probably the single biggest change in my gameplay since I stopped click-casting. It is great fun.
First off I decided to not go for a traditional WASD mapping for my movement keys, instead utilising the stick for my movement, combined with mouse movements.
Now to my mappings :| this may take a while haha
My fingers primarily sit on G10-12 and primarily move to G3-5 for my oh crap buttons.
G15-19 are for my wicked dps spells haha
Summary
In summary both devices are true to their 'Gaming' names and I believe are great pieces of equipement. I hope that by removing the need to use 4 keys for movement my reaction time to get important heals out should improve.
I am sure their are plenty of other similar products out there... in saying that I'm excited by these ones and happy with my choice!
just a bit of a learning curve for my game play but that's cool :)
G9 Gaming Mouse
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3053&cl=au,en
For me the cool stuff with this mouse include the additional buttons that can be clicked by my thumb (I was previously using a 2 button + wheel mouse) and the ability to on the fly.
Mappings
Wheel Mouse Up
Wheel Mouse Down
Thumb Button 1
Thumb Button 2
Jump
G13 Advanced Gameboard
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/pc_gaming/mice_keyboards/devices/5123&cl=au,en&WT.ac=mb|819||hp&creative=12137|G13
This is probably the single biggest change in my gameplay since I stopped click-casting. It is great fun.
First off I decided to not go for a traditional WASD mapping for my movement keys, instead utilising the stick for my movement, combined with mouse movements.
Now to my mappings :| this may take a while haha
My fingers primarily sit on G10-12 and primarily move to G3-5 for my oh crap buttons.
G15-19 are for my wicked dps spells haha
Summary
In summary both devices are true to their 'Gaming' names and I believe are great pieces of equipement. I hope that by removing the need to use 4 keys for movement my reaction time to get important heals out should improve.
I am sure their are plenty of other similar products out there... in saying that I'm excited by these ones and happy with my choice!
Monday, March 23, 2009
New Toys
Well my Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard and Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse have arrived and I'm hooked :)
I will be posting a full review and setup soon :)
I will be posting a full review and setup soon :)
Macro Basics
I thought I would post a quick guide on macro creation as this is something people may not have done before or understand.
Step 1 - Access Macros Screen
Hit Escape to see the game menu and click the "Macros" button
Step 2 - Create a New Macro
Click the "New" but and a new little window will appear
Step 3 - Name and Pick and Icon
type in a name that is meaningful for you and select an icon. If you pick the "?" the icon will be the default icon for the first spell\ability\object relevant in the macro.
Click "Okay" once that's done.
Step 4 - Create Your Macro
now this is the hard part, you can either work on your own or download one from websites.
Breaking down the example here;
#showtooltip will mean when you mouseover the macro it will should be Tooltip for the relevant spell. If you put a spell name in it will show that tip, if not will show the first spell\ability etc.
In this macro it will trigger the use of your trinkets if they are available and then cast Arcane Shot.
Step 5 - Add it to your hotbar
Easy peasy, just drag and drop the macro icon to the toolbar of choice, this can then be triggered via your hotkeys :)
Wowwiki has a vast range of macros that are both general and class specific so have a read of that :)
Step 1 - Access Macros Screen
Hit Escape to see the game menu and click the "Macros" button
Step 2 - Create a New Macro
Click the "New" but and a new little window will appear
Step 3 - Name and Pick and Icon
type in a name that is meaningful for you and select an icon. If you pick the "?" the icon will be the default icon for the first spell\ability\object relevant in the macro.
Click "Okay" once that's done.
Step 4 - Create Your Macro
now this is the hard part, you can either work on your own or download one from websites.
Breaking down the example here;
#showtooltip will mean when you mouseover the macro it will should be Tooltip for the relevant spell. If you put a spell name in it will show that tip, if not will show the first spell\ability etc.
In this macro it will trigger the use of your trinkets if they are available and then cast Arcane Shot.
Step 5 - Add it to your hotbar
Easy peasy, just drag and drop the macro icon to the toolbar of choice, this can then be triggered via your hotkeys :)
Wowwiki has a vast range of macros that are both general and class specific so have a read of that :)
Monday, March 16, 2009
T8 Resto Piece Bonus
Well I was reading about this the other day and it's pretty cool stuff
First time I read this I got a little excited as I thought the 4P was saying that it instant healed the total Rejuv amount then ticked but it is really just that the first tick is instant. So you are effectively getting a 1.5-2k instant heal then rejuv ticks as normal. Still tasty and something I'll be working towards come 3.1
Item - Druid T8 Restoration 2P Bonus -- Increases the healing done by your Swiftmend spell by 10%.
Item - Druid T8 Restoration 4P Bonus -- Your Rejuvenation spell also instantly heals your target for its periodic healing amount.
First time I read this I got a little excited as I thought the 4P was saying that it instant healed the total Rejuv amount then ticked but it is really just that the first tick is instant. So you are effectively getting a 1.5-2k instant heal then rejuv ticks as normal. Still tasty and something I'll be working towards come 3.1
Friday, March 6, 2009
I think I'm Happy now
Well after much tweaking and playing I think I'm happy with my new UI.
This is the breakdown of how my UI is split up. I decided to hide my bottom bars as I know the mappings well enough now anyways and also place a bar up the top to highlight my cooldowns so I can quickly and easily see what of my cooldown spells are available. May add my rebirth in there too later.
Modules;
This is the breakdown of how my UI is split up. I decided to hide my bottom bars as I know the mappings well enough now anyways and also place a bar up the top to highlight my cooldowns so I can quickly and easily see what of my cooldown spells are available. May add my rebirth in there too later.
Modules;
- SatrinaBuffFrame - Allows you to move and customise the Buff Frame.
- HotCandy - I think is a real essential for a HoT based class like druids, will track your LB stacks etc
- Grid - I use grid although HealBot is supposed to be good as well. I added a couple of Grid addons to place corner warnings for stacks etc too and invert the colors! Makes it so much easier to see who needs heals I think (see my config guide)
- Decursive - great for single click (left or right) decursing/cure poison.
- RangeDisplay - displays the range of your target
- Dominos with ButtonFacade - Dominos is an action bar addon while ButtonFacade makes them look purty
- Minimalist - does a few things like hiding chat rubbish and buttons etc but also automates a few painful things like repairs and selling grey items.
- Minimap Button Frame - this mod is cool, it grabs all the icons around your map and puts them into a frame that you can move around.
- Autobar - is a great dynamic bar mod that will give you all you need. Very neat!
- Chinchilla - Map movement/customisation
- Recount - Damage/Healing Meters, some guilds ban these because people tend to try to top the list so use this with smarts, fact it's a great tool for breaking down your performance and comparing it to others but nobody cares too much about being up the top of the list as long as your assigns dont die!!
- PitBull Unit Frames 4.0 -Upgraded from 3 and very happy with the new configuration etc (see my review/guide).
- QBar - used to dynamically display your quest items in a bar (Autobar doesnt do this the best.
- SLDataText - provides game stats and info in text on your screen (used to replace FuBar)
- Skinner - This is what makes it all look nice really and added the black bar across the bottom.
- Deadly Boss Mods - must have for raiding, timers and notices etc
- oRA2 - A CT_RaidAssist alternative, another requirement for raiding in most guilds
- QuestHelper - this is great for leveling but I recommend turning this off while raiding, can be resource hungry and cause performance issues.
- Postal - replaces and enhances the wow mail system, much better
- WIM - adds a nice chat interface for whispers similar to MSN
- ArkInventory - consolidates bags and also allows viewing all yours toons at the same time.
- Cartographer - world map replacement
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
1000 visitors
Well it's been about 1 month since "the mild rantings of a druid" started up and I have now got over 1000 visitors (with 700 being unique visitors) so hopefully my blog will become a useful resource for all of those friendly trees out there :)
Bye to a Good Friend: Lifebloom
Well maybe the title is a little over the top but their has been much discussion around the 3.1 changes to lifebloom.
My personal opinion on the change is that coupled with the mana regen nerf the double or 100% increase in mana cost is a bit extreme. I would be surprised if it didnt drop to 50-75% through the PTR testing.
LB is one of the most unique healing spells around and it would be a shame for it to be put down as a less important spell in our healing rotations.
Clearly their is a big push towards Nourish and this is yet another nudge in the direction Bliz thinks trees should be going, expect tree overheals spiking after the change and our play style change drastically to suit this big increase in mana usage, i.e. no more laying stacks of 3 on 3 tanks.
- Lifebloom: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications.
My personal opinion on the change is that coupled with the mana regen nerf the double or 100% increase in mana cost is a bit extreme. I would be surprised if it didnt drop to 50-75% through the PTR testing.
LB is one of the most unique healing spells around and it would be a shame for it to be put down as a less important spell in our healing rotations.
Clearly their is a big push towards Nourish and this is yet another nudge in the direction Bliz thinks trees should be going, expect tree overheals spiking after the change and our play style change drastically to suit this big increase in mana usage, i.e. no more laying stacks of 3 on 3 tanks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
