Life Chat Headphones

(This is not a paid advertisement. This is my personal review on a blog related product.)

A couple weeks ago I went out to look for a new set of headphones because my old ones were about 2 years old and constantly had a tone which was annoying. In the past I would always get Logitech headphones and they have always worked well for me especially since I refuse to buy headphones over $40. The store I went to had just stocked Microsoft Life Chat headphones. The ones I saw were $25 so I thought WTH I'll try them out.

When I was looking at them I liked the fact they were well padded. I have noticed when you use foam a lot of the sound is diffused so you have to turn up the volume to make up for this. My old headphones were always kept at 70-100% volume where these Life Chat ones I keep at around 20-25% system volume.

Another pet peeve is the volume control and mute buttons headphones have in the middle of the wire. What usually killed all other headphones I had was the wires inside that casing would come apart. When I would take apart that casing the wires were usually all frayed and up to 20% of them weren't even soldered correct. With the Life Chat headphones the connectors to the mute/volume are very sturdy. They probably aren't as good as a $150 set of headphones but they are much better quality than the others I've tried in the under $40 range.

The sound quality of the Life Chat phones are excellent! I usually keep my in game sounds low and when I'm flying on a drake my headphones rumble slightly giving me a bit of immersion feel. I have played around with various types of music and it has a lot of bass and completely clear sound quality.

This is the first time I have done a review besides replies on online stores from products I've bought but I have been so impressed with the cost and quality for these I had to let you all know. 8o)

Day 6 - Time Played

Today is total time played. I have only listed Autumnn and Treeana because they are my main characters I play. All through BC Autumnn was the only toon I played. Once LK came out I started leveling Treeana and she was 80 for the last 9 months or so for LK.

Raiding 101 - Mechanics

I am going to start a new series on basics of raiding. There are a lot of raid mechanics that has been used in previous expansions that are being brought back in Cata. With how many new players in LK tactics of older raids are not known to them. I am hoping this series will help you out when raiding. Know that not all of these apply to every boss fight. These are just guidelines that tend to repeat throughout the game.

Don't stand in front of the boss.

Unless you are the tank you shouldn't be in front of the boss. Many times bosses will have a cleave or cone effect that will cause a lot of damage to anything in front of it. Tanks have stats to help decrease this damage and the healers are focusing on them. A stray DPS standing in front will likely get one shot.

Dragons tail swipe so don't stand behind them.

Many of the dragon type bosses have a tail swipe which can cause a lot of damage and sometimes do a knock back. If you are a melee DPS don't stand any further back than the dragons hind leg. If you are ranged or a healer stand off to the sides or at the very least stand near max range behind the dragon.

Don't stand in stuff on the ground.

If you see the ground rumbling or some kind of fire or slime on the ground don't stand in it. Sometimes there is some sort of warning that something bad will be on the ground and other times it will just appear. Move away from these areas asap. Another thing is stuff falling from above. If you see stuff dropping on you then move out of the way. There are a few instances where you shouldn't move out of stuff on the ground like Shade of Aran in Kara's fire but those are few and far between. 95% of stuff on the ground should be moved away from.

You can't DPS or Heal when you are dead.

Not all fights are a DPS race. Some involve so much movement and environment awareness that slow and steady is the best option. If you are putting total focus on your rotation then you are not paying attention to the fire ball heading towards you. An old term for DPS was Glass Cannon. You can deal out a lot of damage but you can take very little. Blizz uses a lot of different mechanics and some are to throw people off of what they think is normal. Think of Heigan the Unclean in Naxx. Before you can DPS you have to master the dance so you wont die.

If you have to click something be there before hand.

This is another DPS flaw. There are some fights like Magtheridon where you need to be at a certain location to click on an object during the fight. When using an addon like DBM go to that location early enough so you are standing by the click for a few seconds at least. Don't try to DPS as much as you can and cut the travel time to the item short. You never know when there will be a knock back or stuff on the ground you have to run around causing you to take more time to get to the click.

If you are to CC then that is your main focus.

If you are in a fight where you need to CC a mob, such as the Moroes fight in Kara, then your main goal is to keep that mob CCed. You doing slightly less DPS will make up for a mob running around smacking healers and wiping the raid.

Not all bosses have argo tables.

I mentioned Shade of Aran before and I will again here. There are some bosses that are not tanked like how we are used to. Some pick a random person and they have no threat level. On these types of bosses the DPS can do everything they can to top out their DPS so long as they pay attention to other game mechanics such as stuff on the floor.

If you are sucked in you need to get out fast.

General rule is if a boss is able to suck you to them you need to get away from them as soon as you can. We have seen this with Shade of Aran in Kara, Karsh Steelbender in Blackrock Caverns, and Asaad in Vortex Pinnacle.

One of the best things you can do when learning a boss fight is to check out web pages or YouTube channels that have write ups and videos. Don't just read one write up about a fight because many times they will list only one tactic and usually have a lot of numbers and theory crafting which is just too much info for the first time raider in an instance. Watch a few videos and once you have the fight down pat then you can go back to theory crafting of the fight.

Day 5 - Fav Raid

There are a lot of really fun raids in Warcraft. I love Kara, old ZG, Molten Core, and Black Temple. One night I just loved back in BC was our Gruuls/Mags night. I cannot pick one because both of those fights were awesome! I have added some videos of those fights at level. These were taken when Autumnn and Grumble were Alliance - Shandris.

Gruul's Lair

Magtheridon's Lair

Day 4 - Meaning/Significance behind your character’s name?

Todays question, actually yesterdays but I missed it, is what is the meaning behind your characters name. When I first started MMOs in Everquest my main character was a Woodelf Druid named Autumnwynd Ravensoul. I named her this because Autumn is my favorite season and with her being a Druid I felt in her lore spirits would travel in the wind to speak to her.

Then in 2004 our second daughter was born and I named her Autumn Rainn. Autumn for the same reason and Rainn because I viewed Rain as a symbol for life.

When I started playing WoW I couldn't get the name Autumn because it was taken on my server so I changed it to Autumnn. Now that I have server switched she is now Autúmnn.

Day 3 - Favorite race and why?

I have played both Alliance and Horde in the past 4-ish years I have been on Warcraft. Ally side I cannot say there is a race I like to play. I usually picked Night Elves in the past but I didnt really click with them and I hate the male model and position in Nelf society. If I had to create another Ally I would choose a Worgen.

Horde side I like all the races. I have had quite a few Taurens and my alt Hunter is a Troll. My new love is the Goblins. Autumnn has always been an engineer and the fact Gobbies are tinkerers is very appealing. I also like their small size. Being a Tauren I had to dismount to get through doors and running some instances like Shadowfang Keep were problems with the Taurens large size. I like how Goblins can get through anything and should always be expected to have a bomb in hand.

Day 2 - Favorite class and why?

Whenever I play a MMO I usually end up going with 2 classes, Druids and Hunters. When I played EQ I had a Druid main and a Beastlord alt. Now with Warcraft my main is a Hunter and my main alt is a Druid. I never could get into playing cloth classes. I would like to know I can take a few hits and live. I also haven't gotten into playing plate classes. Plate classes in my mind = a tank. I know they can DPS and heal depending on the class but in the back of my mind I keep seeing a tank strobe light going off.

I like the Druids and Hunters because they are nature based. They are friendly with animals and can usually be found somewhere out in the woods. This is how I am in real life.

In Warcraft my favorite class would be the hunters because I like the fact they are a ranged DPS and also the ability to collect pets. Each pet I tame and use are tamed for a specific reason. I like the idea of the Dark Ranger Hero class and it reflects in my pet choices. I have a Ghost Wolf and a Slime as my main DPS and Tanking pet. I also have an array of ghost animals in my stable. I like the idea of almost being a hybrid of a Hunter and a Warlock.