The incompetent and the lazy

Well, so it looks like our guild leader might be quitting WoW soon. Maybe not quitting for good, but he did say he won't be able to put as much time into leading raids.

This doesn't bode well for us, as evidenced by the guild's horrible performance the other night.

The night started out good, we cleared some easy quick bosses without wiping, everyone was happy and ready to move onto the next challange. But the guild leader had to log off, putting another officer in charge. Things just went downhill from there. People were confused and the guy in charge was equally clueless. The worst part was the long, long downtime between fights which frustrated everyone, including myself whose dinner grew cold (well it was a sandwich so it was cold anyways) while I waited and waited for the long-winded and rambling explanation to be over with. After a few pathetic attempts we called it a night.

My first thought was, "I could've run that raid a lot better", with my reasoning being that I knew the fight. I had done it several times before, I'd watched the videos to study up on it. I grumbled about the temporary raid leader's incompetence.

But then it dawned on me that if I were in his place, I'd probably be equally incompetent. Because he was the tank, whose job is probably the most important and most demanding, especially for complicated fights where adds are spawning left and right and you need to kite the boss back and forth. My job is to DPS the boss and dodge whatever I shouldn't be hit by. I have never tanked before, I just know what the strategy is based on wowwiki and youtube. Actual execution, I imagine, is much more difficult.

On top of that as raid leader/tank you need to be on top of everything. You need to call out the adds, call out who's taking too many hits, who gets heal priority, who needs a dispel, all the while keeping threat on multiple mobs everyone is trying to nuke and moving them around specific locations. I don't know if I could handle all that.

What I think I could've done, was to explain the fight more concisely and make decisions with more confidence - sometimes you just have to say, "Ok you tank the adds and you assist me with part" instead of saying "do you think you can off-tank or should I do it? Who can assist me with the dispels?" Democracy is nice, but it takes twice as long and people just end up frustrated after long debates. The temp raid leader was totally lacking in that. By the last attempt I was ready to throw my headset at someone.

I have a lot of appreciation now for our guild leader. He can tank, he knows the fights, and he delegates. And he's patient (at least until 3 wipes or so) with people who aren't listening or just don't have a clue. When he's no longer available to lead raids for us, I'm not sure what will happen. Best case scenario, someone equally competent will take his place, but looking around at the people in the guild I don't see that being likely.

Could I do it? Probably. Do I want all that responsibility and general headache? Not in a million years. I might just have to find another guild and make some new friends.

Yes, my guild still runs Ulduar...

We wiped on Iron Council (or is it Assembly of Iron? I forget) and people began moaning and whining, as usual. I don't understand why people hate that fight - I think it's one of the funnest bosses in Ulduar. XT Deconstructor is probably my favorite because, well, that boss has hilarious emotes. Also he stretches before the fight??? So amusing.

Anyways, I love the iron council fight because it's not just a tank-and-spank fight like so many other bosses. There's 3 bosses each with different things to watch out for and everyone needs to remember their roles and be on their toes and ready to switch onto the next guy.

Onyxia is kind of like that during phase 2, where you have to worry about so many things at the same time. Big adds, small adds, breath, AoE, and on top of that range DPS still needs to nuke down Ony herself...I can literally feel the tension through the vent chat. By the time she comes back down I'm like, "holy crap we're all still here. How did we manage that?"

We did vault afterwards, which in my opinion is so boring. Don't get me wrong, the loot is awesome. But the bosses are all pretty much tank-and-spank. No convoluted strategy involved, just run away when DBM tells you to and kite the boss around if people are standing in AoE or whatever.

I think Naxx had the best boss fights in terms of complexity and originality. Every boss (well, except Patchwerk) had some crazy ability. Heigan for instance, what a blast (no pun intended) that fight was! The eruption phase is so chaotic and even with an uber geared group you need to dodge the waves if you want to survive. Or Gluth and his zombie chows, Thaddius and the +/- charges, Gothik who splits up the raid into 2 DPS race teams, or the Four Horsemen! Surprisingly enough KT and Sapphiron themselves are relatively simple compared to the sub-bosses.

My point is, you had to know those fights. You had to know where to be at certain times, you had to know when to DPS hard and when to back off, when to run away, when to stack on the tank and when to be behind the boss, you had to constantly watch DBM meters and know when the next phase was coming. The raid leader spent more time planning out the fight than on actually downing the boss. Whereas fights like Archavon or Kologarn can be explained in about 10 seconds.

I haven't been inside ICC yet, but I hear that the boss fights are not simple tank/spanks. So I guess that's something to look forward to...if my guild is ever going to run ICC.

Hello, I am addicted to video games.

I love video games. And I am a woman. I almost said girl, but I'm turning 25 this year, which is even sadder that I love video games.

Yes, I know it's 2010 and women video gamers are not as rare as they were, but I still feel like a weirdo most of the time I try to share my interests with people. Either they look at me as a sad, lonely person or some kind of tech nerd. I'm not the most social person in the world, but far from sad and lonely (I'm engaged to a wonderful man and I have several close friends). And I'm certainly no tech geek - I can barely work a remote control.

Not a single female friend I have plays video games, at least not to the degree I do, and not with the history I have with games. I don't think I knew any girls in high school who would rather spend an evening zerg-rushing a terran outpost than go out to a movie with her boyfriend. I didn't know any girls who had 4 different emulators (how else would I play the classics?). I didn't know any girls who got up at 6am on Saturdays to fit more Final Fantasy into her schedule.

My latest addiction is World of Warcraft. Again I find myself in the minority. My guild members are mostly teenage boys (the uproar when they found out I was a girl!). I enjoy this game so much and I spend a large chunk of my time playing it. And all I wish for is someone to share this experience with (my fiance plays too, but not with half the enthusiasm I have).

Alas, that is the point of this blog. It is an outlet for my passion for video games. Mainly for WoW, but for all of the many video games I love, both past and present. When something cool/funny/unbelievable happens to me on WoW, I'll tell about it on this blog.

So here I am, fellow internet users. I'm addicted to video games, and I have boobs. Judge me if you dare!