I let it go live, but I’m still not very happy with my second part of the WoW Insider Karazhan tip post.
I just don’t think I spent enough time on spellcasting for the basic section, or cleaning up the melee DPS section… but good lord, the thing is over 2700 words, at some point you have to let go.
Wish I could think straight today. Feels like I’m swimming and thinking in a sea of cotton.
It just gets so frustrating sometimes.
On the one hand, WoW Insider justifiably gets tired of my massive walls of text. They’re nice about it, but I keep getting asked to break it up over a couple weeks.
But on the other hand, there are a ton of topics people keep emailing in asking for, and there are only so many weeks. If I break this one topic up into 4 parts or more, that’s over a month gone before I turn to something else.
Not counting if special events pop up that I want to highlight, like the Lifebloom nerf, or the Epic Dolls Druid podcast with Phaelia. Or, heaven forbid, WotLK news.
There are only so many weeks, and I can only talk about one thing in a given week there… and so when I get on one topic, I try and cram as much as I can in.
But 2700 words… and it’s still weak. I blew off healing entirely. Le sigh. And casting, only touched on Barkskin/Hurricane.
And the best part?
2700 words, and I freaking guarantee you, SOMEONE will STILL point out things that I ‘missed’.
Not make suggestions on alternative ways of doing things, or their own tips or tricks.
No, someone will announce that I ‘forgot’ to include such-and-such.
And someone else will ask why we’re still talking about Kara, isn’t it kiddy-kara now?
Betcha.
For my friends that blog… do you ever want to just copy/paste the entire WoWWiki and WoWhead sites’ content, post it, and then say, “There! Now tell me, did I miss anything? Huh?”
Lol.
Ah, well.
Should my articles be shorter? Hell yes.
Do I feel that more content each week let’s me get to something new sooner? Sadly, yes.
So… I’m sorry for the walls of text. I guess I’m just that crazy long-winded guy.
And I’m cranky, because I have a nice strong cold that’s kicking my butt, and the workday has been pretty bad. Lots of things I had to fix, because we hired two new Technicians a week ago that, well… suck.
Geez, if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, don’t freaking break it worse and walk away! Ack!
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August 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Perhaps you could write a supplemental post here on your blog, just highlight the key points in the WI article, and say, for all those things I “missed,” check out my blog, the WoWWiki info, relevant forum posts in the official Druid forums (if you dare), etc.
Not sure how well that would go over with the WI folks, but it’s certainly a way to alleviate that feeling that you didn’t cover enough.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Oy, BBB, I love the long articles! I hate it when wowinsider does posts that amount to three paragraphs then asking the commenters to fill out the rest.
Keep up the good work!
August 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Personally, I really dig your long posts. I always learn something new and fun about my favorite class. Keep ‘em up!
August 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I think that a post should be as long as it needs to be … Honestly doing a short explination of kara would be like doing a short explination of Black Temple. It’s long, it’s involved, and no matter how you cut it, or how fast you chain pull it, there is still a lot to it.
Keep up the good work and do what you do best … if they don’t like it in the end, who cares?
And some people just complain to complain man … so that is what makes them happy, don’t take it personally … instead, feed em waffles.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I think that a post should be as long as it needs to be … Honestly doing a short explination of kara would be like doing a short explination of Black Temple. It’s long, it’s involved, and no matter how you cut it, or how fast you chain pull it, there is still a lot to it.
Keep up the good work and do what you do best … if they don’t like it in the end, who cares?
And some people just complain to complain man … so that is what makes them happy, don’t take it personally … instead, feed em waffles.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Rule #1: You can’t please everyone.
Rule #2: You shouldn’t try.
To be honest, I think a lot of WoWInsider “articles” are just flamebaits disguised as such. There’s nothing more irritating than reading the three paragraph blurb on the frontpage and finding out after the jump that there’s only one or two lines of text more after that. I _really_ hate it when someone formats their stuff to say “Check cool thang #15423 after the jump!” and it’s a totally lame link to somewhere the community’s had for months, or a muddy screenshot of something from the beta.
Your articles are actual articles, not blog posts, especially in comparison to some of the other writers. Keep it up, and give us theorycraft, personal experience and tips-and-tricks. Us ferals gotta show folks we’re smarter than the average bear…
Wow that was bad. Sorry.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I like your long articles too, although I was probably one of those people complaining about kiddy-kara /hide-behind-waffle. So sue me, I like to read about content I’m currently in /eat-waffle. Mmmmm, tasty
The idea of putting a lot more of the article here at BBB seems like a good idea to me.
I would love to hear more about your thoughts on WotLK, and it seems like you have plenty of readers here, so why not just do more WotLK in-depth articles on BBB?
August 5th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
One comment on DPS in feral forms:
The usual advice I’ve seen is “get to 4 or 5 combo points, then wait for enough energy to rip then mangle”.
That means your mangle will be up for the entire duration of the rip, and you get the refreshed mangle for the upcoming shreds.
Sorry.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Aww… get some soup, dear, and then a nap. You’ll feel much better.
Also - can’t believe Insider wouldn’t love to have your FULL thoughts on every topic - even if you published 2-3 posts back-to-back. And if they don’t want it - WE DO! Keep ‘em coming, BBB.
/hug
August 5th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Chalk me up in the “loves lots of words” column. I’m also partial to content hereabouts, as most of the best WoW articles I’ve read have been either BBB or BRK.
What’s the phrase? “More input!”
August 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Hey, sorry a ways beyond kara but talking of itemization, has no one else noticed that wrath feral leather has zero intellect? I guess we’ll treasure those few shapeshifts we’ll be able to do each fight, and won’t pvp be awesome?
August 5th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I wanted to say 2 things. First I love your long posts. If anything I would say your post in WI is too short. Second some of the nay sayers do offer some good advice. In effect they add to the “wall of text” that you couldn’t have posted. Either way I love it keep it coming. Oh and I am ex-Navy so Semper Fi has a bit of a different tone coming from me but its still understood.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Having a newbie feral druid, and hoping to see kara before the xpac, I’ll read every work, and most of the comments. If you really feel like it was a touch long, then I’d say thats ample reason to keep doing it as part 3, 4, 5, etc.
Keep em comming.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
If it helps, I’ve just started running Kara; as in, two weeks ago. So there are definitely still people out there for whom Kara is new.
People who call it Kiddy-Kara are elitist gits who need to let a little hot air out of their egos; Kara’s new for me and I’m having a blast running it. So *blows raspberry at gits* there!
Also, I concur with others regarding the length and content of the average WoW Insider post. The “ZOMG click here for one extra sentence” thing bugs the hell out of me. That said, that’s not nearly as bad as Amanda’s frequent spell-check and proof-reading lapses. I can always tell one of Amanda’s posts when my text-to-speech program starts talking funny…
August 5th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I just got into my first real Kara last night.
It was really fun and scary and exciting and fun.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Caelean@Akama says: The usual advice I’ve seen is “get to 4 or 5 combo points, then wait for enough energy to rip then mangle”.
The information is correct but for different reasons than you stated. The attack power modifier is the same for a 4 point or 5 point Rip. So the only dps difference is the base damage which is relatively small.
But awesome work though BBB. Love your articles.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:27 am
BBB, it’s the curse of a good story teller. I suggest you do your best and let it go. You’ll never make everyone happy, just make yourself happy.
Greylady, Feral Druid, Farstriders
August 6th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Was gonna say, you TOTALLY missed the usefulness of aquatic form in Kara. Like when you cross the creek ta gets ta the back door.
Slacker.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Actually, I stopped reading WI entirely, and most of the Massively content, due to the brief 3 paragraph ‘articles’. The whole bloody point to the ‘break’ link is to allow you to post a _complete_ article without overruning the ‘main’ page.
WI’s ‘tl;dr’ pandering just means its not worth my time, so, I hit blogs like yours.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:48 am
So sorry about your technicians. I like to say that there’s some subjects I know just enough about to make you think I know what I’m talking about all the while making everything worse… seems to me your two newbies haven’t quite come to that realization yet.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:54 am
No idea why people complain about too much content.
Keep up the good work.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Some of us started playing the game not long ago and appreciate the Kiddy-Kara articles. I am going to Kara for the first time tomorrow and have been reading your articles on gearing up and on what to do. So I don’t mind massive blocks of text, I appreciate it! Thanks for all that you do to help us new druids get our growl on!!
August 6th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Nit pickers will always find fault. Yours was a very good article. It got the most important things right. You want to see heat? Read BRK’s first pieces in WoWInsider and the attendant comments.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Huh, that’s funny. I never would have thought WOW Insider had standards, judging from some of the bloated, sensationalistic, typo-riddled flame-bait that they post as “news.” (Borrowing Thomstel’s word ^^)
Thankfully, you do, B3. It kinda blows that you’re not permitted to compose submissions that are up to your own standards, but I like what you write regardless of its length, and I think there are plenty of others who do as well.