20 Questions With Pixelated Executioner
In WoW you have many different DPS classes. We Hunters are constantly underfire or at least we tend to feel that wasy. And even now, it sometimes feels like we might be fighting tooth and nail to secure our own DPS spots.
But there are other DPS classes that are feeling the pinch also. And this week we’re gonna talk to a player from one of those classes, Pixelated Executioner of Pixelated Executioner (Ok… Who Let the Gnome Carry the Flag?).
Pix may not be a Hunter, but he is a brother of the DPS role. So, without any futher adieu, let’s go meet Pix!
Hey Pix! I appreciate you being patient while I got life a bit more organized.
Now that we finally get a chance to get together, let’s start at the beginning. How did Pix get started playing WoW? And what finally led you to selecting and sticking with being an Arms Warrior?
I got started with WoW back during the beta. At the time, I was playing City of Heroes, but the game was growing a little stale, and I felt like I needed something new. A friend of mine that played EverQuest with us managed to score a beta key for Warcraft, and he shared his login info with me. My first character on the beta was actually a Rogue, but when the servers went live, my first character was a Warlock. I stuck with the Warlock role all the way up through Molten Core, but it got tiresome – supplying healthstones, soulstones, summons (back in the day when it took 2 shards per person), plus all the time I had to spend outside the raid just farming shards…it got boring fast. So, I created a Paladin, only to be told once I hit 60 that I had to heal or I couldn’t raid.
By the time Burning Crusade came around, I was tired of the healing game, and needed something new. One of my guildmates had been toying around with an Arms Warrior, and I thought one would be fun to play in PVP between raids, so I created Lelissa and practically rushed her to level 70. Once she got there, though, I was hooked. I started doing battlegrounds, arenas, it was really busy for a few weeks for me while I geared up an Arms Warrior in Season 3 armor (with Season 2 shoulders), and a Season 2 greatsword (I was sword spec then). I took her on her first Karazhan run and just crushed the damage meters… after that, I was hooked. Lelissa became my main, and everything else just fell by the wayside.
That’s cool! Think you’re ready for your 20 Questions?
Sure.
Alright, let’s get started.
1. Arms Warriors are often thought of being the Middle of the road or PvP spec. That leads me to ask, do you PvP/Arena?
Pix: I did do a lot of PVP and Arena prior to Wrath (back in the days of the 33/28/0), but as the new talent trees were being changed, Arms got a bit of a raw deal. We weren’t able to do as much burst damage as before, Bladestorm was a disaster (it still needs some work, in my opinion), and PVP Arms in general relies on being able to stance-dance like a pro. I love PVP, but I’m admittedly just not that good at it, so it fell by the wayside as far as arenas go. I do battlegrounds a bit more casually now, and as long as I’ve got a couple friends with me, I can still throw a beatdown or three. If I’m stuck by myself, I’ll play my Death Knight.
2. That being the case, how about the new Argent Dawn Tournament? I’m seeing that the jury is still out with many players. How about yourself?
I love the tournament area. I’ll go absolutely nuts over Arthurian legend, and the quests involving the swords from the “Ladies of the Lake” and the Black Knight (despite the Monty Python-esque achievement) made my day. Plus, I’ve always been a big fan of jousting – I go to Renaissance festivals to see the tournaments, and I even saw that Heath Ledger movie, “A Knight’s Tale.” I think it’s fantastic.
3. What’s your opinion on all the hybrid classes, DK’s, and the possibility of additional Heroic Classes? Do you think with all these choices are we maybe Blizzard is unintentionally “blurring” the traditional RPG roles and taking away some of the specialness of the game?
Oh, this is gonna be a long answer. I’ve only played one “pure” class in my entire career in WoW, and I’ve always been a big fan of hybrids. They’re more useful than people tend to give them credit for, and they do bring a lot to the table in a raid situation.
As far as Death Knights go, I’ve got one of my own, and I absolutely love playing her. The DK abilities are gloriously unique, and an Unholy spec is remarkably similar to an Arms Warrior, which is probably why I enjoy it so much – it’s that same in-your-face-swinging-a-giant-two-hander kind of feeling.
Blurring the traditional RPG roles, though… I’m actually all for that sort of thing. You’ll never get away from the Holy Trinity (healer, tank, damage dealer), I think, no matter what people say, but everyone should be allowed to have as many options as they can get without anything being terribly game-breaking. Death Knights were game-breaking for a while, but I have faith in the dev team; typically, they know what they’re doing, so I’ll be happy to shut up and let them do their job. The main reason why I’m okay with it goes back to my days of being a DM for a D&D game I used to run. You could never, ever find someone who wanted to play a cleric, because in the beginning, they’d have a lot of options for play, and then in later levels, they were relegated to the back ranks and were nothing more than healbots. Warcraft has a lot going for it, and more classes being able to do similar things means that players don’t have to feel obligated to play a class they hate just because they provide a valuable service/buff/debuff to a raid that isn’t otherwise provided by someone else.
4. Name 3 things Blizz got right and 3 things Blizz could improve?
Things they got right:
1) The emotional impact of Ragnaros. I was in a pretty hardcore raid guild when I started on my server, and I still remember seeing him explode out of the lava for the first time. I was awed and terrified at the same time, and I remember remarking in guild chat, “Oh, there’s no way in HELL.” Ragnaros has always been the most memorable raid boss to me, and Blizzard just hasn’t been able to duplicate that feeling with any of the “final boss” encounters since. Not even Nefarian made me feel how Ragnaros did.2) Wintergrasp. Despite the bugs and lag issues we all experienced, this PVP zone has been one of the most fun places I’ve ever spent my time. I love the vehicle combat, I love jumping into a cannon and laying down some ground fire… it’s been a great run. The only thing that sucks is when you’re on a server where the Alliance population is so far above the Horde’s… I’ve never even seen a Tenacity buff. I couldn’t tell you what it’s like to have 40000 hitpoints and hit for 7500 on a white crit, but I can tell you what it feels like to be hit by that truck.
3) Death Knight starting area. I’m telling you, that is the coolest quest string I’ve ever seen. The best part about it is that you start off evil – you get to really see what the Death Knights are capable of – and you work your way toward redemption. The whole thing is compounded by the continual whispers you get from Arthas while you’re running around doing dirty deeds, and it’s just a really deep, immersive quest series. The only real problem I had with it is that it was just too easy to regain the trust of your faction – I’m sorry, but if you’re going to play a Death Knight, you shouldn’t automatically have your reputation all better just because you talked to Varian or Thrall or whoever. There should have been more quests to link the redemption together a little better. The way it is now, it’s too abrupt, and takes away from the experience.
Things they got wrong:
1) Arenas. When they were first implemented, it was too easy to exploit the system, and the people who enjoyed PVP in that way (myself included) who didn’t want to cheat ended up getting steamrolled by people who were good, but just looking for easy wins. It didn’t encourage those players to “get better” as the elitist PVPers would say, instead it just pissed us off and made us not want to participate. When Blizzard added huge rating requirements to the later gear sets, it made it even worse. Even casual PVPers would love to have a set of epic gear for the Battlegrounds, but the gap is impossibly wide when it’s not available, so even decked out in the crafted gear, you’d get steamrolled. It’s no surprise that the turnout for Season 5 was ridiculously low. Fortunately for the casual PVPers, though, the Wintergrasp bosses drop the epic gear, so it’s still possible to gear up, it just takes a lot more time. It works better that way.2) Pre-BC Naxxramas. It was an awesome instance, and fun to test the waters in, but with an expansion so close on its heels, they should have just left it alone. I’m glad they revived it for Wrath; a lot of the people in my guild weren’t able to see Blackwing Lair let alone Naxxramas.
3) Alterac Valley. Let me preface this one by saying I love Alterac Valley – I’ve spent so many hours in that place on so many different characters, at one point, I had six toons that were exalted with the Stormpike. It was an incredible battleground during its implementation, and people really fought hard in order to win; so hard, in fact, that one of the longest AV battles on my server lasted for over 36 hours.
The problem with AV is in the design, and the proof of it lies in how many changes were made to the whole thing from inception to what it is now.
5. Out of those, what do you think, hope Blizz does as it’s next major move forward?
Well, they’re genuinely trying with Arenas to make them a little less punishing for the PVP-deficient, but I still don’t think it will be enough to bring back the numbers of arena fighters we saw prior to Season 3/4/5. Once those epics got too far out of reach for most players, interest died off.
Naxxramas has already been redone, and we’ve all seen it by now (at least, I hope so), so there’s no room for improvement there.
Alterac Valley, on the other hand, has seen all the changes I think we’re likely to see. I’d like to see some new battlegrounds – I know Zarhym has hinted at one coming up fairly soon – but the WSG/AB/EotS/AV grind got old a good while ago, especially when you’re on a battlegroup where the Alliance rarely wins anything but AV.
6. Recently, we saw GC come out into the public and shed some light on the Armor Penetration stat. (link) At the same time stating that we players shouldn’t expect them to just hand us the “Theorycraft”. The response has ranged from, “Whatever” to “Theorycraft ruins the game.” What do you think? Should Blizz just open up the mechanics? Leave them hidden? Does it really change the game? If so, is it a positive or negative effect?
I don’t really keep up with the blues, but Ghostcrawler saying that they shouldn’t hand us the theorycraft… has he even LOOKED at those equations? It’s like Physics and Calculus had a baby genetically manipulated by Schrödinger’s Cat. Those are equations that couldn’t possibly be discovered without knowing what’s going on behind the scenes. I mean, sure, it’s not necessary to know the exact hit rating required to never miss on a boss fight when doing testing – you can figure it out through trial and error – but for things like Armor Penetration, it would almost be a requirement. Even I don’t know what the ArP cap is now that they’ve flipped it all upside down again. I don’t even think I could hit it with the gear I have access to.
Theorycraft is what you make of it. I’ve tried my hand at some of the mechanics, and sometimes I really don’t think I get it. I’m not a mathematician – I can’t really figure it out. I’ll happily read up on it, just because I’m that kind of player, but I’ll leave the hard work for the think tank at Elitist Jerks. Does it change the game? Sure. Is it good or bad? I think that’s relative. On the one hand, it lays bare the mystery behind the game, the unknown factor that is known as “combat math.” On the other hand, it’s good for the casual player that wants to work hard at the game, but doesn’t have the time for all the theory that goes into it. They get the summary of what they need and why, and now they can spend their time playing.
7. I tried to do some research on the Warrior class and it seems to always be in two camps, Tanking or Fury DPS. Not much on the whole Arms tree. Is this because of a lack of understanding then? Or do you feel it’s part of the normal Blizzard Class balance formula supports 2 decent specs and seems to forget the third?
I think there are two things, actually: partly a lack of understanding, and partly because of a bias among players. It’s not Blizzard’s fault at all, this belief that each tree is pigeonholed into a single role. Arms was, for the longest time, regaled as the “PVP spec” because it prized burst damage over sustainability, and it chews through rage like you wouldn’t believe. It never was the best possible choice for PVE because of these two factors, but the changes as we moved toward Wrath, and even more recently as 3.1 landed, it’s slowly moving back into favor as a spec you can comfortably take to a raid, and you won’t feel weakened by their presence. My goal as an Arms Warrior (much like any other class I’ve played, really) is to try to break the mold, and get people to think more broadly about what “viability” means, and how it applies to each class/spec combination.
8. Many players may feel that Arms DPS isn’t really needed. That all Warriors should just spec Prot and Tank, or go Fury for PvE only. How do you explain to those Players that Arms DPS has a solid raid spot?
Unfortunately, you can’t just explain to someone that Arms is viable – you have to be able to prove it. Prior to 3.1, that was a really tall order, and you really had to have a combination of luck, skill, and a perfect priority list. Nowadays, it will be easier to prove that you can keep up, it’s getting past the stigma that “Arms iz 4 pvp lulz” that’s the hard part.
9. What would be your perfect grouping? Do you use Hybrids? Ranged? Casters? Hunters?
I’m not picky about classes. I’ll take whatever works. As long as I’ve got someone who can remove diseases, poisons, and curses, someone who can heal, and someone who can stand between the healer and the mob that wants to eat them, I’m good to go. Just promise me you’re not wearing all greens and sub-ilvl 200 blues as we go into this heroic, and you’re okay by me. I don’t mind carrying someone sometimes, but god help them if they come crying to me when we don’t beat the Culling of Stratholme timer because they’re pushing 600dps on Recount as a DPS class. And yes, that has actually happened to me before.
10. How about solo play? I’ve heard that many Warriors hate playing the solo leveling game? What about you? Solo much?
PiWell, before Wrath, I had two accounts. My level 70 Paladin was on one, and Lelissa, the Warrior, was on another. While I was leveling Lelissa, Leyl was always right behind her, out of group, as a healer. Once Wrath came, though, Lelissa moved forward on her own. Leveling as Arms wasn’t bad at all, but then again, I’ve been playing one for 80 levels now. I’ve got a good idea of where the spec’s limits lie, and just how much I can push. The only time I was ever in a group was for instances and the occasional group quest that I couldn’t solo, or if my partner in crime was online.
11. Speaking of the social aspect of the game. What is the life of a Arms Warrior like in game these days? Do you find getting groups pretty easy? Hard? Do you get many requests to change specs?
It’s pretty easy for me, but then again, I’ve got a lot of options that most people don’t. There are a lot of good folks in my guild that are talented players, but I know a lot of people outside my guild as well. I’ve never been asked to change specs, but I couldn’t anyway – I don’t carry a second set of gear around except for PVP.
12. That being the case then, what are your feelings on dual spec?
On the surface, it’s a pretty good idea. It’s always handy to have people who can change at the drop of a hat, but it’s possible to run into issues. It depends on the nature of the player and how greedy they might be, and maybe how clear your guild’s loot rules are. I imagine there are a lot of guilds out there that had to rewrite their loot rules in order to clarify what’s what for dual specs. I don’t envy anyone that job.
13. You play Alliance, why not Horde? It’s the babes right? Just kidding. But what made you decide to roll Alliance?
Actually, I’m Alliance because that’s how my first guild started. When all of the servers went live, my guild already knew which server we were going to start on (we had an insider at Blizzard who already had the list of server names for us), so it was a matter of creating a toon and running with it. On the third day of live (and some 19 levels) later, we found that the Whisperwind server was a colossal hunk of garbage – it crashed or lagged badly every day – so my entire guild packed up, forgot our old toons, and moved to Aggramar.
14. Since you play a Female toon and I ask this of all the female gamers, I only think it fair to ask you if you have ever danced for gold. Be honest.
You know, I’m a pretty open-minded guy, but even the thought that someone might otherwise be aroused by my in-game avatar is just a little skeevy. I’ve always wondered, though, since dancing on a mailbox is essentially the in-game equivalent of a strip club…does that mean the person doing the dancing has imaginary daddy issues? But no, I’ve never danced for gold.
15. Okay then, what was your most embarassing in-game moment?
Ugh. Karazhan. We were in the middle of a Moroes fight, and I was playing my paladin as a healer then. Well, we were using the “kill three, control one” strat for the adds when fighting Moroes, and our CC guy on the last add dies. I see this, and after a heavy heal on our tank, I say “I got it,” and target the add, nailing it with a Turn Undead. The add immediately goes charging out of the room, and Moroes reset at 10%. I was absolutely livid, and I ended up growling obscenities at myself for the next fifteen minutes. I was not happy.
16. That of course leads us to your proudest in-game moment.
Strangely enough, it was a PVP situation. A few of my guildmates and I decided to hit an Alterac Valley one evening, maybe seven or eight of us. We played our usual game of defense, keeping an eye out for Belinda and the nearby towers, and we saw a pretty big force heading for Belinda to take her out. We all rode down on the heels of it, and just annihilated most of them, racking up 25 HKs on the same group before we finally got taken out. The thing that made me laugh about it afterward was the Tauren who came running up to me as I died, pointed at me and laughed… and here I was thinking, “Right, you’re laughing like you’ve got something to laugh about… we were outnumbered at least 3 to 1, and wiped out almost all of your assault force.” It made me smile, especially after we rezzed, rode him down, and squashed him. We didn’t lose a single tower in that fight, or Belinda either.
17. How about game/life balance? Do you ever find yourself struggling with it? Balancing life in and out of game? What’s your advice on maintaining it?
My life has to be all about balance. I work full time, and I’m a full time student as well, on top of being a raid leader and an active member of my guild (I’m on almost every day, some weeks). Outside of the game, I’m an avid reader, and I’ve been going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week in order to get back into shape.
Sometimes I feel like there’s not enough hours in the day, but it’s all about prioritizing, and getting things done when you otherwise think you wouldn’t have time. One of the advantages I have is because of my work schedule: my days off are during the week, so I can get errands done on my days off where most people might otherwise have to use a lunch hour for it.
In the end, though, it’s all about what’s important. Real life has to take priority. Sure, it’s all well and good to be focused, and it’s great if you’re part of a raiding guild leading cutting edge content, but we all have to remember that it’s just pixels, and life doesn’t come rendered in 1280×1024. It’s one of the reasons I left my first guild – I love progression and I enjoy being a focused team player, but it’s just not worth it to me to sacrifice that much of my life to be number one when it really doesn’t *mean* anything. If I were getting paid to play, like the guys of Ensidia, I’m sure it would be different; but then it’s not really a game, is it? It’s a job.
18. And what about these Achievements? I’m not a big fan of then myself. But some almost go out of their way for them. What’s your take?
It’s just another way to experience the game. I can honestly say that without the achievements, there are a lot of quest chains that I would otherwise have never experienced; my Warrior holds both the Loremaster and Seeker titles because of that exploration. In a way, it’s like a game within the game. It also gives you something to do when you log in and might not otherwise have a lot of time on your hands. I don’t play the auction house, so I do easy achievements when I only have a half hour to play, or when I’m trying to fold laundry and game at the same time.
19. Can you name 3 of your must read WoW related sites?
Pix: Well, that depends on a lot of different things, really. When a patch is on test, the sites I never fail to hit are MMO Champion, WoWHead, and up until recently, BigRedKitty. After a patch goes live, I’ll stick with WoWHead, but I throw in the TankSpot forums, as well as Elitist Jerks.
It used to be that I couldn’t live without reading WoW Insider, but I think the site is a little misnamed these days. Without naming any names, a lot of the information ends up completely wrong, and the comments on some of the more insightful posts are just flat-out disrespectful. I see enough of that on my realm forums; I don’t want to read it elsewhere.
It’s not really fair to just limit my must-read sites in that way, though. I mean, take a look at the blogroll I have on my own blog, and you’ll have an idea of just who I read every day (or rather, when they update
).
20. What’s has been your favorite Quest chain? Why?
Pix: Actually, I have a ton, but I’ll stick with three. The all-time favorite is definitely the Death Knight starting questline. It’s the most dynamic, it’s filled with lore, and shows just how bad Azeroth would have had it if not for one little event in one little corner of the world.
There weren’t any really good quest chains in Burning Crusade, in my opinion, but in the original release? I’m gonna get lynched for these, I know it, but… Onyxia is one. I remember going through that event for the first time, and man, I hated it. I hated every trip back and forth through Blackrock Depths, and it was loathsome… but then when you finish it all up and go back to Stormwind for that one final encounter, only to find out that after all this time, the advisor to the boy King is a dragon? It was wild. The only way it could have possibly been better would be when the original quest completion had the model they use for her transformation now.
My other favorite quest chain is the one in Auberdine that sends you all over hell as you track down the Worgen and the Scythe of Elune. (Coincidence that werewolves and a weapon of the Moon Goddess are connected somehow? I think not!) I always wanted to see more lore about that whole thing, and the best part was seeing more of it appear in Grizzly Hills. That made my day.
There you have it. We got through all 20. Thanks for doing this. Any last thoughts for the readers?
Thanks for doing this – it’s been great to be a part of it.
Last thoughts… It’s all well and good to be serious about a game, but there is such a thing as taking it too seriously. Take a step back from it every so often, whether you think you need to or not.
Oh – BTW!
Yo momma’s so ugly, she’s being considered as a boss in the next expansion! Hah I just couldn’t resist!
Yeah, well, yo mamma’s so short, she’d need a stepladder to a gnome!
Ouch! That was a good one Pix. As a side, note, if your wondering about the Yo Momma jokes you really need to go check out Pixelated Execution!
