Sunspots (Moonkin PvP)

by Oozo

FULL movie is here: http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=158561

I was disappointed in the feedback on this one. I put a lot of effort into the editing, but apparantly it was too much. That many people with consistent negative feedback can't be entirely wrong. Because of this feedback, I toned down the editing in the my new warrior movie. I also made sure that my health was always available for the viewer no matter how I was zoomed in. That's a good thing. I learned a new technique which I will apply to future movies.

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This is a segment from an upcoming L80 moonkin PvP video. There have been some moonkin videos put out recently that don't even come close to showing the full gameplay that is necessary to solo PvP successfully with a moonkin. The moonkin is by far the most challenging class/build I have solo PvPd with, but recent movies are doing the moonkin a serious disservice by portraying them as nothing but starfall and typhoon.

Some people actually believe that all you have to do is press starfall, run in and win. This, obviously doesn't work. If you don't get chain-CCd, they will just pop their defensive cooldowns and laugh at you. You have to set starfall up against any opponent with a brain. That means trying to survive while they work with superior tools against yours. And, by superior tools.. I mean things like offensive dispels (which moonkins don't have), instacast silences and interrupts (which moonkins don't have), get out of jail free cards (which moonkins don't have), get the picture?

Of the two more recent moonkin videos, one is a pure editing movie that doesn't showcase shifting, cyclone/starfire, kiting, or fighting against our hardest matchups (other casters). The other movie is by a top-end arena player that doesn't show these things either. After the arena player got flamed he went back and changed his introduction to the movie to appease the viewers. Quote:

Moonkins CAN'T do anything else but dmg. Look at the talent tree: dmg, dmg, dmg, range, dmg, a new skill with dmg, dmg and ultimate: DMG!

This... from a top arena players. Pathetic might be the word I'm looking for here. I'm going to try to refute this perception, but I doubt I will successful as the "moonkin don't take any skill" mindset has taken strong root.

Be sure to watch in highest definition. The quality is pretty good.

FUDK2: Battleground Hero

by Oozo

Update: The movie is published at http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=152675

As expected, the ratings are all over the place. Some like it, others hate it. Most that hate it, hate it for lame and/or incorrect reasoning. But, that's just the way it goes. :) What was unexpected, is that they decided to feature it. Pretty risky, given that a good portion of WCM viewers dismiss this kind of movie out of hand.

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The movie is rendering now and should be uploaded to WCM within a few days. This movie will focus more on objective-based PvP than the 1vN PvP bloodbath featured in FUDK. I've also decided to add some humor segments to the movie, similar to what I did for the Huntard movie.

ATM, I'm inclined to keep a humor storyline going as it opens up avenues to talk about different elements of the game. Are DKs overpowered from 50-79? Can a lowbie contribute in his PvP bracket? How do you jump warrior charges and intercepts consistently?

It would also allow me to tie in my shadowpriest, hunter, druid, and rogue 70 movies and even go waaaaaaay back and do a "best of" nostalgia movie from my Chromed/Oozo pre-TBC footage. I am missing a few of the fullsize movies (Oozo's Fear and Chromed's Poison most noteably), but I should have enough to put something interesting together.

But, I digress. Breakdown and credits for the movie follow. Again, it is heavily edited such that the action and events in the movie sync up with the music. In order to do this I have to zoom, fast forward, slow mo, cut, paste, etc. etc. Lots of work went into this.


PART 1 - Scrubs Anonymous (humor intro)

- Toasty Loop by Jimbob

- Stealth Game Over by Jimbob

- Badass Theme - Loopmaster

- Eeeeeeeeeee! from Austin Powers "Goldmember"

PART 2 - Return to Bass by Meat Beat Manifesto (pvp segment)

PART 3 - Tzolk'in by Imprintz & Kleo (pvp segment)

PART 4 - Showdown (Excision Remix) by Pendulum (pvp/dance segment)

PART 5 - Industrial Love by ISTW (humor segment)

PART 6 - Montage from Team America (pvp montage, duh?)

PART 7 - Ray's Whipass by Mike O'Connor and Ray (credits)

Will update with link when it is published.

Summer Vacation, Finally

by Oozo

Work has been rough since I released FUDK, but now I'm on summer vacation so I can get back to working on some movie projects. I've already started work on FUDK2. This movie will be more about actual battleground objectives than the first movie. WSG flag returns and flag caps will be the main focus. I'm also going to be adding some humor commentary, similar to what I did for my 70 hunter movie.

I don't really see the benefit of busting my ass to gear up my 80s with Cataclysm right around the corner. That work would effectively be wasted once the level cap moves to 85 and gear inflation strikes once again. So, I am planning on getting as many of my toons to 80 as possible and doing BGs with friends so I have flexibility when Cataclysm arrives.

For future movie projects, I'm thinking of doing some humor/tutorial types of videos for entry-level PvPers. I'm also thinking of doing some nostalgia videos for Oozo and Chromed. It's funny, I look back at some of those videos and see me vanishing charges, knocking rogues out of stealth before they can open on me, restealthing for openers with dots on me, 5-8 kiting warriors etc. None of which I got much credit for, but other rogues were celebrated for doing. One of the mistakes I made when doing those videos is I thought people would watch the movies carefully enough to notice these things so I did not emphasis them. That was a mistake, and it's a mistake I corrected when working on FUDK. I made a point to emphasis the key elements of the fight and that strategy paid off as the movie was well-recieved.

iFyoUDeathKnight (FUDK)

by Oozo

UPDATE: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=143667

FUDK is an L70ish Deathknight 1vN movie focusing on action, entertainment, and music.

Many of the 1vNs in this movie are 1v4+ with some sustained fights reaching up to 8-10 kills. I'm not trying to make a statement with these fights. They are for entertainment, as 1vNs typically make for exciting and visually dynamic clips. My DK/gear was definitely OP in the 70 AV. But, I also know that means little to nothing with respect to L80 balance (and so should you).

Here is what you can expect:

• keybinds (everything except for food, sorry)
• strafing (yeah, I know.. I'm amazing, right?)
• engineering (pyro & lightning, very very frightening!)
• 1vNs (lots of them)
• a few 1v1s against arena-geared-perma-AV-twink hunters (level-capped FTW)
• editing such that the action fits the music (or maybe it's the music that fits the action)
• some pro-deathgrip action (sarcasm)
• no arenas (yeah, I know... L70, duh)
• no duels (what? and give away the advantage of SURPRISE!?)
• no mercy (many green cons were hurt during the making of this movie)
• humor & humility (I am not GOD and I know it)

Movie Outline:

Part One - "Omen" by The Prodigy (Noisia Remix)

• intro
• 1v5 (69 hunter, 70 deathknight, 63 rogue, 70 rogue, 67 mage)
• I gots death runes
• 1v5+ chain (70 priest, 70 priest, 68 warrior, 67 mage, 62 deathknight)
• TIME FILLER 1v1 hunter (meny snaeks kilt!)
• 1v5 (70 hunter, 66 shaman, 70 mage, 61 hunter, 70 rogue)

Part Two - "Poison Arrow" by ABC

• 1v1s versus arena-geared L70 hunter twinks
• and a bizarre love triangle?

Part Three - "The Great Destroyer" by NiN (Darkstar Remix)

• raw footage with minimal editing
• 11-man chainkill (64 priest x2, 63 warrior x3, 66 warrior x2, 70 druid x2, 62 paladin, 70 paladin) with some assistance from a suicidal holy nova spamming L64 priest (I tried to save her, really - I did)
• 1v4 chain (67 druid, 62 warrior, 70 shaman, 65 paladin)

Part Four - "Scorpion" by The Immortals

• GET OVER HERE
• 1v4+ (63 shaman, 62 deathknight, 70 rogue, 65 hunter)

Part Five - "No Man Army" by The Prodigy

• hungering cold+parachute+cliff = lulz
• 1v5+ (70 priest, 62 rogue, 66 deathknight, 64 deathknight, 68 paladin)
• BERSERKER BUFF E-PEENERY
• 1v8 chain (70 hunter, 64 hunter, 68 rogue, 64 deathknight, 65 shaman, 66 warrior, 61 deathknight, 61 ALTERAC RAM)
• FUDK2 preview?
• will I get crushed when I'm the green/gray con?

Part Six - "I'm About To Whip Somebody's Ass" by Ray (Acid Jazz Remix)

• outro/credits

Movie link will be given when movie is uploaded and accepted.

FUDK INC

by Oozo

As I type, iFyoUDeathKnight (FUDK) is uploading at Warcraft Movies. There is a risk that they will reject it because of it's filesize (930 MB for 23 minutes). I wanted to keep the movie HQ for those who stream. I'm crossing my fingers on this one, because I really really really don't want to sit through another 15 hour render hoping some error doesn't occur 10+ hours into the render (which has happened a few times on this movie already).

I'll have a full write-up for this movie later tonight.

iFyoUDeathKnight Trailer

by Oozo


By far, the Death Knight has been the most dominating class I've played in 70 AV. This had led to many 1vN clips, many of which are 1v4s or 1v5s. Also, I've had some crazy kill chains up to 8 to 10 people back-to-back.

Now, the question is: how do I present this material?

I could go documentary style similar to my Warhammer Choppa movies with added commentary. Or I could go for editting and pure entertainment value. Either way I want to give the viewer some way of understanding what happened and how my enviroment affects the decisions I make. In this trailer I am going for editting, but also do some slowmos and zooms to help the view follow the action, particularly for those who only watch movies via streams. Without zooming, stream-viewers would miss so much of what is happening.

But, does trying to accomodate both types of viewers lead to overall failure? I could go for a movie that is a mixture of what I do in this trailer but also uneditted footage with commentary. This might be the best approach. Otherwise, I fear most viewers would miss the little things I do that help me win these 1v5s. It's not facerolling. There is a lot of thought put into my actions here. But, how should I convey that without coming across as a pretentious ass?

Wait. I am a pretentious ass. Ah, nevermind then.

You can get a fullsize download at Warcraft Movies. Don't forget to rate! (even if you think it sucks)

Allods Grounded for Bad Behavior. Back to WoW Again

by Oozo

Taugrim and Keen have covered the Allods cash shop fiasco in its entirety. I'll just say that once I lose trust in something (or someone) they have almost zero chance of getting me back. However, I'll still keep an eye on the game in case a miracle occurs.

As far as the positives for Allods for me? The game is very pretty and runs extremely well on my machine. I never dropped below 30 FPS while recording with FRAPS. No other game has performed that well under FRAPS for me. It would have been a pleasure making Allods movies. Also, the character development system intrigues me.

Besides the cash shop, there were other significant negatives for me. The character development system is intriguing, but also slow. It takes a good bit of time before your character "progresses" by picking up new abilities. So, you have to spend a lot of time using the same abilities over and over and over and over. That's not so bad at upper levels where you have many abilities to learn and explore synergies. However, it's not good at low levels where you only have a few abilities. Tedium set in pretty fast for me.

Another thing I did not like was melee movement. It felt clunky to me. Then again, pretty much anything is going to feel clunky when you are coming directly from playing WoW. It took me a long time to get used to the clunkiness of Warhammer. So, that is something I might have gotten used to over time. One thing I would never get used to is one of the Scout abilities. It causes you to vanish and appear behind or at the side of your target. Unfortunately, it also drops mouse look when you use it. I use my mouse for circle strafing. Using that ability takes you out of strafe mode. You actually have to release the mouse button and then hold it down again to continue strafing. By that time your movement has been compromised.

If I was to play Allods, I'd probably play a caster.

For now, I'm back to playing WoW. This time I'm checking out the Death Knight. It's easily the most powerful of my twink projects so far. Even surpassing the rogue who had quite a bit of arena gear. 1v3s are common and 1v4+s are doable in the 69-70 range. I've thrown up a clip as a preview. There are a few things I still need to fix with the editting, but it gives a pretty good idea what the DK is capable of in the 61-70 AV.

edit: Clip removed as I've added a legit trailer for the movie.

Allods Online (pregame thoughts)

by Oozo


As mentioned in the previous post, this game shows promise based upon community reviews and youtube clips. There is no doubt that it borrows heavily from WoW, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. WoW runs very smoothly and has many player friendly features.

Where WoW fails for me is in longterm PvP. I've had a lot of fun playing different toons in the 70ish brackets. Why? Because I know that my gear relative to other players is not hampering me or a disadvantage in any way. When I die, I have no excuses. If someone beats me 1v1 at that level, it's because I got outplayed.

What do I have to look forward to if I level to 80? Months and months of grinding PvE and PvP just to be competitive (but still be at a disadvantage to many players due to gear). There just doesn't seem to be much of an incentive for me to reach level 80 in WoW, which is why I have considered it a stopgap. I'm only playing it because that is where most of my friends are. I don't see longterm potential in WoW for a player with my RL responsibilities and my playstyle.

So, if there is a "WoW-clone" which doesn't have these flaws (as I see them) then I'm going to be interested. Allods has a PvP system based on gaining "glory" (cough-honor) on a weekly system. It sounds a bit like, oh - I don't know... WoW's original PvP system. The game should have World PvP, but it won't be forced. If you PvP flag, then you will gain exp at 110% rate. If you don't PvP flag, then you will gain exp at 90% rate. This can work well as long as the game population is high enough to sustain it. All you need are a few people to PvP flag. When, not if, they get attacked some of their faction will flag to attack the attackers. Next thing you know, the zone is full of flagged people.

This is how Tarren Mill and Southshore became PvP hubs even on PvE servers. Except with Allods system there will be more incentive to actually flag to begin with.

One of the things that killed WoW for me was the move to cross-server battlegrounds. To me, server community is a main draw for MMORPGs. The move to cross-server battlegrounds destroyed server community overnight. I'm not sure what system Allods has in mind here, but it is my hope that they keep most (if not all) PvP local.

The main concern that most have with Allods is that it is a F2P game and thus must generate income via an online cash shop. People are concerned that you will be able to pay RL cash to win or gain unfair advantages. My gut reaction to cash shops is /ew. However, for the most part the nonF2P games already have built in unfair advantages given to those who have more time to play the games. Or for those more willing to be in a guild full of asshats just because they can clear certain content. For the record, I hate asshats and no amount of phat lewt can overcome that particular distaste.

I gave some more thoughts on the cash shop on Taugrim's blog:

My main concern is being able to remain competitive in PvP. My guess is
that it would be easier to remain competitive via cash shop than it would for a
WoW-type system which requires a horrible PvP gear grind, in which the rich get
richer and those with more free time have a huge advantage.

The question is, how much money has to be spent to remain competitive?
Well, if it’s under the amount you spend on a typical subscription to a game
like WoW it would actually be a better system for people who treat PvP seriously
but have RL responsiblities which force their playtime to be more
“casual”.

Here is a talent calculator to get an idea of what kinds of skills and roles are available.

The following video (not by me) gives a good idea of the graphics, animation, and gameplay for AO:



Another vid from the same player (good quality in HD expanded view)



Astral spaceship

Update

by Oozo


I've been very busy with work starting back up in early January, but should be having a bit more free time to work on some projects. There is a fullsize download of my last movie available at warcraftmovies if you have a membership. It went through the listings so fast it didn't get many views, which is probably a good thing. As views for me in the warcraft community = flames. ;)

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=135705

When I have had time, I've been messing around with a Death Knight in WoW. It's extremely powerful in PvE. Soloing elites that outlevel me is nice, I guess. :/

A couple of days ago I learned of a game I had never heard of before via Taugrim's blog. The game is called Allods Online and it's a F2P game. I typically totally ignore F2P games, which is most likely why this game never made it onto my radar screen. However, there are some good reviews from what I consider to be reliable sources and the youtube clips I've seen of it's gameplay do show promise.

The open beta for the game starts on 2/16. I've already downloaded the client and will be checking it out. More thoughts on the game incoming.

Centurion Xö

by Oozo

The full movie is up on Youtube and will be up on Warcraft movies soon. I'm curious to see what the comments will be. I suspect that there will be a number of flames, just because... well, it's me. I also suspect that there will be negative comments on the number of green cons squished in this movie. :)

As stated in the intro, I outgeared most people in the AVs that I did. I tried to compensate for that by singling out the alliance twinks and putting myself into some crazy 1vN situations. Unfortunately, the alliance twinks didn't present much of a challenge in 1v1 situations. The warrior with the Brutal 2Her used none of the tricks an experienced warrior would use (how did he get that weapon?) and the perma-twink warlock trinketed my, erm... nothing and then shadowfuried straight into my cloak of shadows. They no doubt had a macro that did trinket-->shadowfury. Which would work against the standard rogue vanilla opener cheapshot-->kidneyshot. Not so hot against against cheapshot-->cloak of shadows-->kidney shot. That's the danger of letting your macros play too much of the game for you.

Of course, the best players don't make these kinds of mistakes. Then again, you aren't going to find the best players doing 70AV. Myself included.

Now, back to the green cons. I will probably get flamed for this, but the thing is... gear > level. I have clips doing 70-79 WSG with this rogue, but decided to exclude them for consistency and length (damn that 10 minute restriction on Youtube videos.) To atone for the sins of this movie I might be persuaded to do a followup with me being the green con, if there is interest.

And again, always remember: i hope u enjoy this movie as much as i enjoyed making it! and be nice! this is my first ever pvp movie. also im a girl irl lol!!!