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Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem

It's another week with another Overpull. This just in, a guild gets banned and hotkeys are your friends. Keep reading below for more Overpull.

Here’s the lineup this week


What's the Buzz

Love is in the Air is here. Click here to view our guide on it.

Love is in the Air 2010 is brand new and we were there day one to get you a guide on it. Be sure to check Ten Ton Hammer for all of the new event coverage.

So, guess who got a temporary ban! Hahaha, you guessed it. Ensidia got banned for three days for exploiting the Arthas encounter. Of course, people are up in arms about it. Want more information? Read out in-depth look about it here. I’m all for players getting banned for exploiting, but in this case I’m unsure about it. There is so much to both sides of the story that it’s kind of hard to make a choice.

There were a ton of hotfixes last week. We have the coverage available here.

Azeroth Advisor is shutting down on February 17th. To be honest I have never used their service so I wouldn’t know what this means, but it’s apparently a pretty popular thing for some WoW players. I guess we’ll see what it becomes when their new MMOG comes out.

Icecrown Citadel now has weekly quests. Not that the daily dungeon quest, the Wintergrasp weekly quests, the weekly raid quests, the cooking/JC/fishing daily quests, and tournament quests weren’t enough for your plate.

Blizzard announced that they will be integrating the Armory with the Auction House. It will involve some kind of premium feature as well. The community is up in arms over Blizzard charging players for certain things that they feel entitled to. Personally, I doubt I’ll use it one way or another, so it won’t really affect me or my gaming experience.

I’m fine with Blizzard charging players for certain extras. The keyword here is “extras.” If it isn’t going to give you an advantage over other players then it’s fine. I’m sure the premium feature may be something like canceling auctions and seeing how they’re doing. That’s not that big of a thing to be honest. I’d be more curious if they’re planning on Armory themes for premium WoW subscribers or something like that.

There is now a WoW Facebook application. You can spam your friend’s walls with your latest WoW achievements or, do as I mention here, and make sure that function is off. Blizzard is really getting on the social networking craze.


What's the Buzz

We are now running the Loremaster's Corner as it's own seperate weekly feature due to popular demand. This week we're covering Illidan, the betrayer, and his extremely confusing story. Next week we'll be covering Arthas, because by then most everyone should have at least known what has happened.

Great harm can come from good intentions and Illidan is a great example of this. All through his story he keeps trying to help save everyone, but he makes too many sacrifices to achieve his goals. The end justifies the means only works some of the time. It’s also a story of why magic is inherently bad in Azeroth.

Click here to read the Loremaster's Corner.


What's the Buzz

This Week’s Question Is: Are you ready for Cataclysm?

This week I’d like to talk about kind of a controversial subject, which is what I like to use the Weekly Musing for. This week I’d like to address clicking skills vs. using hotkeys, which is something that I know a lot about. It’s true, at one time I sat there trying to slowly find all of my skills, click them, and then panic as I tried to find the next skill I needed to click. It was a frustrating experience that many WoW players endure. Many are happy and content with it, which is fine by me, but for those of you who are finding it to be kind of frustrating like I did once before (or would like to gain the added DPS/HPS/TPS from using hotkeys) keep on reading.

One of the quickest ways for your application to get denied by a large raiding guild is to click skills. Many assume it’s because of an elitist attitude. On the contrary (most of the time, sometimes there really are jerks out there), it’s factually true that clicking skills reduces your overall in-game effectiveness. It takes much longer to move your mouse to a skill and click it then it does to press a button on your keyboard. There is no denying that. Test it yourself. Place you finger on the spacebar and your mouse in the middle of the screen. Now try to click a skill on the bottom right before you can press spacebar down. It’s not happening.

Additionally, your mouse isn’t capable of being useful while it is delegated to clicking skills. Mousewalking is a highly accurate way to move when you need to move with finesse. Targeting, via the mouse, is also easier to do because you don’t need to return to your skill bar once you’ve clicked something. Not to mention its usefulness for healing. You can mouseover heal (where you simply have to hover your mouse over someone’s name) with Clique or macros or simply use the mouse for targeting while you walk and cast with your other hand. Additionally, using Clique you can assign certain click-cast abilities to the raid frame to be able to click for instants and use your keyboard for casting spells.

I’ve heard a lot of excuses, but most of the time it’s because no one has tried it before they talk poorly or say the dreaded “I can’t do it.” Sometimes they say they’re left handed and can’t put their fingers on WSAD (which can be remedied by placing your right hand on JKIL, the alternative to WSAD. KOL: also works for some). So my first request, if any of you out there want to improve but don’t want to give up the mouse is to try it.

If you’re an arrow key user I have another rarely used alternative, especially if you’re left handed. The numpad makes an excellent gaming area. You have 8456 for movement and 79 for strafing. Then you have for skills. It’s not the most efficient and doesn’t give you easy access to modifiers like CTRL, SHIFT, or ALT but it’s something to consider.

So, how do you set things up? Well, place your left hand with your middle finger on W and the other two fingers on A and D. Now, S can be used for backing up but I find it’s better to assign it to a casted ability (because you wouldn’t be moving forward while your hand hits S). Now, Q and E are by default strafe left and right. However, some people prefer to use them for abilities. I do a lot of mousewalking and don’t need them (because A and D are strafe while mousewalking). That leaves all within the reach of your hand. That’s 12 abilities, plus an additional 36 if you count the SHIFT, ALT, and CTRL modifiers.

The real trick to learning is to make sure you remember what your abilities are and keep the abilities you use the most in the most comfortable position for you. For instance, my main attack (Shred) or heal (Rejuv, Flash of Light) is bound to F because my hand can find F very easily. Other main attacks are bound to zxcv with shift-C always being my AoE attack. It can be different for you. Go to a target dummy and practice with what works best for you.

I’d like to also take a moment and talk about click-casting. Click-casting can be REALLY helpful if used as a supplement and not a crutch. For instance, Clique will let you mouseover heal removing the need to click someone before you can heal them. You can also assign right click to dispel a target and target them, so you can do two actions at once. A true timesaver if you need to pull off a debuff and follow up with a big heal.

In conclusion, if you find yourself having difficulties clicking your skills then give hotkeys a try, or if you’d like to see an improvement with how you interact with the game. I’ve known people who have jumped up 400-700 DPS or more in some cases when they finally took the leap. Then again, if you’re having fun clicking your skills and you’re content with that, then keep doing it. Games are all about fun, and in the end, that’s what really matters.

This Week's Forum Post

- David "Xerin" Piner

Do you have any questions, comments, or feedback about the Overpull you want to deliver personally to me? My inbox is always open, email me at [email protected]

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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