iSamurai’s blog

Here's a bonus track off Sage Francis' 2002 album Personal Journals.  This song is about the media after the attacks of 9-11. My favorite line : "We taught that dog to squat, how dare he do that shit in our own back yard!"

Grab the CD here : http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Journals-Sage-Francis/dp/B000063Y38

2. My Madden '09 disc got a huge crack through it.  We can't figure out why, considering we were playing it last night, and all we did was put it back in its case since then.  Thinking of a way to return it and get a new one.

3. Top Chef this year has been pretty decent.  All of the characters/chefs have interesting personalities, but for some reason this season feels like its falling short, and I can't quite put my finger on it.  The recipe for success (pun intended) is still there, and the chefs all seem fascinating, but there has yet to be any memorable moments.  I figure it will get better though, as more people are eliminated.

Sorry if this post looks a bit ugly, I can't figure out how to work with these images on Vox.  Huge problem in my opinion.  They don't ever do what I want them to do and the previews always look completely different from what they look like once the post goes out.

Let it be known that I HATE arena.  I find no fun in it. I suppose I would like it more in a tournament setting where every player has equal gear, and you don't have to spend days of your life leveling different classes to play them in arena.  The main reason I dislike arena is the lack of fairness.  Team composition is too much of a factor for casuals and the like.  I do not plan on respeccing Resto just to play arenas, nor do I plan on speccing a PvP spec at all.  I enjoy my PvE and don't want to be spending useless G so I can enjoy PvP some more.

So with that said, the new gear is both good and bad for a player like me.  The entry level PvP set (Savage Gladiator) costs a crapton of Honor.  On the other hand, they're purchasable with Emblems of Heroism.  Since I have nothing else to spend my badges on now except heirloom items, I now have the chance to grab some PvP gear with absolutely no PvPing.  On the other hand, this gear is going to suck once decent arena players pick up Hateful and Deadly gear and I will be of no match, but at least I'll have some gear to do BGs in, where gear is less of a factor.

Hateful Gladiator gear is when arena points and ratings come into play.  The points and ratings are decently priced, but I don't plan on having decent points or ratings.  Lucky for me, the pieces drop off of 10-man Archavon and are also purchasable with Emblems of Valor. So again, a PvE'r like me can grab mid-level PvP gear with absolutely no PvPing necessary.  I plan on picking these up with Emblems and running Archavon as well.

Deadly Gladiator gear is for the more hardcore arena players.  I.E. not me.  Some of the pieces drop off of 25-man Archavon, so I might be able to grab a piece or two without PvPing.  The rest, though, costs good points and a good rating.  Also, the PvP weapons are restricted to Deadly Gladi tor, and you'll need a good rating and points to grab one, so I'm completely left out of the loop on this one.

I can't decide right now what I'm going to do with my PvP gear.  I'd rather save my Emblems of Heroism for heirloom items for an alt so I can finally get a second 70+ alt.  I don't plan on doing arenas, unless there's a very compelling reason for me to.  With dual-specs I could have an alternate PvP spec as an option which could very well be my initiation into serious arena play, but I still dislike arena gameplay in general.  I do, on the other hand plan on BGing and I'd need some PvP gear to compete, even if I just have the lowest tier.  So I'll probably end up running Archavon and some raids and getting whatever gear I can with Emblems of Valor, Archavon drops, and plain old Honor.

Here's what I ask of Blizzard, though, for people like me.  Equality.  Blizzard is in love with arena way too much. They've almost completely ditched BGs and I cannot figure out why for the life of me.  There's still no way to PUG arenas so you'll have to find a team, and then coordinate with that team to play.  Some of us don't have regular playing times, or for other reasons just cannot coordinate playing times with their teammates.  Fortunately Blizz tried to fix this by making a lot of items obtainable without stepping foot in a BG or Arena at all.  I see this as a good step towards PvP gear for casuals.

Those of us who do enjoy BGs but still can't stand Arena cannot get comparable gear (Deadly), at all.  The way I see it, they're both just different forms of enjoying and playing PvP.  It feels to me like Blizzard has ditched us and instead is trying to lure us out of BGs and into Arenas, without trying to fix the reasons why we don't like Arenas in the first place.  I read a comment on WoWInsider regarding this issue.  He was on the same boat as me, hates Arenas, enjoys BGs.  He suggested Deadly gear for BGs, buyable with Honor or maybe even a BG rating system, that couldn't be used in Arena, and vice versa.  This doesn't seem like the perfect fix to me, but I think it will alleviate the frustrations us BGers have.  On the other hand, it will further polarize BG and Arena players, and discourage playing in both because it would be wasting time spend on the other.

There's still a ton going through my head at this moment.  There's a lot of good with the new requirements, but also a lot of bad. Unfortunately, I'm seeing the bad more.  Small steps though, small steps.

Here's a track with Eso from Main Flow and 7L's Flow Season. Check it.

Here's another post before I go spark a bleezy.  This is a song from an album I just found recently featuring all 80's samples for the beats.  Very interesting album, you should definitely give it a listen

Testing out the Vox platform with my first blog post.  More of an audio post.  I plan on putting up a song every day or so, so keep checking back.  This will probably be the place for me to discuss and share interesting links and articles I find around the web as well as just a spot to place my ramblings on.  Lemme know if you like the music or whatever I'm posting in the comments!!

This is Emanon's "The Waiting Room" off of their 2005 (I think) album of the same name.