You fail at ganking me. Me. ME.
I'm the mother of all baddies when it comes to pvp. I won't list all the humiliation I've suffered while getting ganked, trying to gank, getting ganked while trying to gank, getting ganked while running away from being ganked, getting ganked while AFK, getting ganked while flying, getting ganked in Tarren Mill, getting ganked at the graveyard, getting ganked right before getting ganked and getting ganked right after getting ganked.
My point is, I am really bad at pvp and I avoid it like the plague. My main is a rogue and I think it's arguably the best and worst class at pvp. If you can catch someone by surprise, we are awesome at taking them down (unless they wear plate...). We have stuns, we have burst, we sneak around. But getting caught unaware, especially by a kiter, is a miserable experience for a rogue.
But enough about that, I'm not here to talk about my rogue. I'm here to talk about my pally. My protection-specced tank pally.
I'm doing the dragonmaw dailies a few nights ago. I had just pulled the high shaman (level 84 elite) and like 4 of its adds. I'm sitting there fighting 5 mobs, one of them elite, when a ghoul starts beating on me. I ignored it but sooon an ally DK comes over and starts whacking on me as well! So I started to fight back. And killed him before I went right back to fighting the 5 mobs who politely waited for me to finish pvp'ing.
Mind you, he got pretty close - got my hp down so low I had to use lay on hands! But you silly DK, don't you know that I can heal myself using WoG, which consumes no mana but uses holy power, which I generate just by attacking you? Silly DK, don't you know that I can heal myself through autoattacks alone? Silly DK, don't you know you can't kill a prot pally?
I looked him up on armory and lol'ed even harder - nearly full pvp gear, and over 10 item levels higher than mine. Better luck next time!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Nerfbomb this
Come on Blizzard. Nerf this already.
Now I don't want to join that huge throng of people QQing about how hard this expansion is. Most of these people are complaining about how hard heroics are, which I don't agree with. Yes, in the first 2 months of the xpac heroics are hard, and I imagine they're still hard for undergeared people and especially healers. But I can't remember the time I failed to complete a heroic (or even bothered to do one...). As expected, once you get the gear and some practice things are almost as easy as the Wrath shit.
But raids are a different story. There are basically no pugs going on, ever, due to the sheer difficulty of these so-called "entry-level" raids. Difficulty that is almost irrelevant to a player's gear level, might I add. These are one-shot mechanics we're talking about here.
Back in Wrath, Naxx was the entry level raid. How tough was that? Sure, some of the bosses towards the end were tough but there were a few raid bosses even a disorganized pug could easily get down. Hell, even in ICC pugs were routinely clearing 1/3 of the raid in the first few months.
Take for example now the cata raids: first bosses in Blackwing Descent are Magmaw and Omnotron. I would love to see a pug of inexperienced people downing Omnotron. That takes a skilled guild to coordinate. There are no one-shot mechanics but it does require very high raid awareness. Magmaw is ridiculous - even in a guild group we have idiots jumping on magmaw and going, "huh wuhappen?" and wiping everyone. What part of "no one but these two designated jumpers jump" do you not understand?
Bastion of Twilight: Halfus is a crapshoot. It could be the easiest fight or a nightmare - god forbid you get the mortal strike/time drake combo. That's pretty much heroic halfus right there and even guild runs fail on hard more halfus.
Throne of the four winds - possibly doable with a pug, but again you still have idiots falling off platforms and missing jumps. You need people with gear and at least some experience to override the forced enrage at phase 3.
What really ticks me off is the fact that even organized, geared guilds are having trouble with fights because of the stupid mechanics. One stupid move can screw up the whole raid, which in a 25man means there are 25 people who can wipe you. And they do.
Look at Maloriak - one bad interrupt screws up add sequence, off-tank dies, raid wipes. One mistimed spellsteal and boss heals 20%, you miss enrage timer, raid wipes. Look at Atramedes - one mistimed gong click, searing flame wipes the raid. One bad turn of the boss, breath attack drives up your sound bars, half the raid wipes.
Chimaeron is the absolute worst. As a dps it's one of the most boring fights. You just sit there as your hp ticks to 1 and pray to god someone throws you a heal before the next massacre hits. Then in phase 2 everyone is the healer - instead of stabbing face I'm sitting there popping potions and bandaging myself. Basically you go from having absolutely no control over your survivability to being exclusively responsible for your own survivability. And this just goes back and forth and the last phase is yet another stupid dps race. It's like a heart attack for your healers and a borefest for the dps. All it does is force people to off-heal since you need so much freaking healing, then the off-heals are not good enough to keep everyone up so you just wipe over and over again, people start blaming healers, healers blame dps for splash damage and everyone goes home upset.
It's really no fun for anyone if microsecond reflexes become more important than actual skill.
Now I don't want to join that huge throng of people QQing about how hard this expansion is. Most of these people are complaining about how hard heroics are, which I don't agree with. Yes, in the first 2 months of the xpac heroics are hard, and I imagine they're still hard for undergeared people and especially healers. But I can't remember the time I failed to complete a heroic (or even bothered to do one...). As expected, once you get the gear and some practice things are almost as easy as the Wrath shit.
But raids are a different story. There are basically no pugs going on, ever, due to the sheer difficulty of these so-called "entry-level" raids. Difficulty that is almost irrelevant to a player's gear level, might I add. These are one-shot mechanics we're talking about here.
Back in Wrath, Naxx was the entry level raid. How tough was that? Sure, some of the bosses towards the end were tough but there were a few raid bosses even a disorganized pug could easily get down. Hell, even in ICC pugs were routinely clearing 1/3 of the raid in the first few months.
Take for example now the cata raids: first bosses in Blackwing Descent are Magmaw and Omnotron. I would love to see a pug of inexperienced people downing Omnotron. That takes a skilled guild to coordinate. There are no one-shot mechanics but it does require very high raid awareness. Magmaw is ridiculous - even in a guild group we have idiots jumping on magmaw and going, "huh wuhappen?" and wiping everyone. What part of "no one but these two designated jumpers jump" do you not understand?
Bastion of Twilight: Halfus is a crapshoot. It could be the easiest fight or a nightmare - god forbid you get the mortal strike/time drake combo. That's pretty much heroic halfus right there and even guild runs fail on hard more halfus.
Throne of the four winds - possibly doable with a pug, but again you still have idiots falling off platforms and missing jumps. You need people with gear and at least some experience to override the forced enrage at phase 3.
What really ticks me off is the fact that even organized, geared guilds are having trouble with fights because of the stupid mechanics. One stupid move can screw up the whole raid, which in a 25man means there are 25 people who can wipe you. And they do.
Look at Maloriak - one bad interrupt screws up add sequence, off-tank dies, raid wipes. One mistimed spellsteal and boss heals 20%, you miss enrage timer, raid wipes. Look at Atramedes - one mistimed gong click, searing flame wipes the raid. One bad turn of the boss, breath attack drives up your sound bars, half the raid wipes.
Chimaeron is the absolute worst. As a dps it's one of the most boring fights. You just sit there as your hp ticks to 1 and pray to god someone throws you a heal before the next massacre hits. Then in phase 2 everyone is the healer - instead of stabbing face I'm sitting there popping potions and bandaging myself. Basically you go from having absolutely no control over your survivability to being exclusively responsible for your own survivability. And this just goes back and forth and the last phase is yet another stupid dps race. It's like a heart attack for your healers and a borefest for the dps. All it does is force people to off-heal since you need so much freaking healing, then the off-heals are not good enough to keep everyone up so you just wipe over and over again, people start blaming healers, healers blame dps for splash damage and everyone goes home upset.
It's really no fun for anyone if microsecond reflexes become more important than actual skill.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
This is why I was never in the Chess Club
Because Chess sucks ass.
Last night I soloed yet another raid all by my lonesome - what started out as a "I'm bored I'm gonna do Kara to see if the horse mount will drop" turned into a 2 hour solofest culminating in a near-full clear of Karazhan, a 10 man entry level BC raid.
I honestly expected it to be a lot harder - I recall going into Kara with a few level 70-80s back when we were Naxx geared and almost wiping on the Curator. We had a scrub level 70 paladin tank who was dying (and also had no threat generation whatsoever in the face of level 80 dps) and I ended up taking over and screaming "HEAL ME GODDAMNIT" as we downed him. But this time around I downed him in the blink of an eye with hardly a scratch.
The best part of the Karazhan solo was the sheer amount of netherweave cloth that dropped. I've been half-heartedly farming some heroic level BC instances to get enough cloth to level tailoring on my warlock alt, and only managing 3-4 stacks per run. Well by the time I had cleared the first half of kara, I had over 15 stacks. Later on in the instance I didn't get so much because the mobs weren't undead humanoids, but there was still a good amount of greens to shard (BC level chanting mats sell for quite a bit these days).
What almost stopped me from clearing Kara was the stupid Chess event. It's dumb, gimmicky mechanics like this that make soloing very difficult no matter what gear level you're at. Granted, when you're actually trying to clear the raid at the appropriate level I admit the gimmicky stuff can be fun, and is usually easy (ICC lootship anyone?). But when you're trying to do this stuff with a 1 person raid...it's a nightmare. Try soloing Malygos, no matter how badass your gear is. I dare you.
What really killed me was the 10 second debuff you get in between each chess piece move. I couldn't just hop in and out of pieces, I had to wait while my king stood in the fire or the alliance pieces were nuking down my healers. The strategy that finally worked for me was to move the pawns in front of the king out 1 space ASAP - this way when the "medivh cheat" occurs and fire drops on your king, you can quickly move him. I also moved the demons out near the king so that the AOE could nuke down the alliance king. In the end, it was a combination of luck and a little practice that finally got me through that stupid chess game.
I ended up skipping a couple nonessential bosses because, well, Karazhan is so freaking big and I had no idea they were even there. But I killed all the required bosses and got the achievement! The raid lockout resets today so I think I'm going to go for a full clear this week, including all the side bosses. It's totally worth it for the dusts, essences, cloth, rep, BoEs, and sheer bragging rights. "oh yeah, Kara's easysauce bro, I solo that shit every weekend..."
Though, should I really be bragging about how I spend every weekend playing wow? Hrrmmm...
Last night I soloed yet another raid all by my lonesome - what started out as a "I'm bored I'm gonna do Kara to see if the horse mount will drop" turned into a 2 hour solofest culminating in a near-full clear of Karazhan, a 10 man entry level BC raid.
I honestly expected it to be a lot harder - I recall going into Kara with a few level 70-80s back when we were Naxx geared and almost wiping on the Curator. We had a scrub level 70 paladin tank who was dying (and also had no threat generation whatsoever in the face of level 80 dps) and I ended up taking over and screaming "HEAL ME GODDAMNIT" as we downed him. But this time around I downed him in the blink of an eye with hardly a scratch.
The best part of the Karazhan solo was the sheer amount of netherweave cloth that dropped. I've been half-heartedly farming some heroic level BC instances to get enough cloth to level tailoring on my warlock alt, and only managing 3-4 stacks per run. Well by the time I had cleared the first half of kara, I had over 15 stacks. Later on in the instance I didn't get so much because the mobs weren't undead humanoids, but there was still a good amount of greens to shard (BC level chanting mats sell for quite a bit these days).
What almost stopped me from clearing Kara was the stupid Chess event. It's dumb, gimmicky mechanics like this that make soloing very difficult no matter what gear level you're at. Granted, when you're actually trying to clear the raid at the appropriate level I admit the gimmicky stuff can be fun, and is usually easy (ICC lootship anyone?). But when you're trying to do this stuff with a 1 person raid...it's a nightmare. Try soloing Malygos, no matter how badass your gear is. I dare you.
What really killed me was the 10 second debuff you get in between each chess piece move. I couldn't just hop in and out of pieces, I had to wait while my king stood in the fire or the alliance pieces were nuking down my healers. The strategy that finally worked for me was to move the pawns in front of the king out 1 space ASAP - this way when the "medivh cheat" occurs and fire drops on your king, you can quickly move him. I also moved the demons out near the king so that the AOE could nuke down the alliance king. In the end, it was a combination of luck and a little practice that finally got me through that stupid chess game.
I ended up skipping a couple nonessential bosses because, well, Karazhan is so freaking big and I had no idea they were even there. But I killed all the required bosses and got the achievement! The raid lockout resets today so I think I'm going to go for a full clear this week, including all the side bosses. It's totally worth it for the dusts, essences, cloth, rep, BoEs, and sheer bragging rights. "oh yeah, Kara's easysauce bro, I solo that shit every weekend..."
Though, should I really be bragging about how I spend every weekend playing wow? Hrrmmm...
Monday, March 21, 2011
Ragnaros & BWL
Well, I gave it a shot...I solo'ed Molten Core!
I must say, after all the trepidation it was pretty anti-climatic. I re-specced to a "survival" combat spec, ie putting all the points into health regen, damage reduction, defensive skills. I even put a healing enchant on a sword just for molten core! After all that prep, everything was shockingly easy. The only part I had some trouble with (but didn't die!) was the packs of core hounds right before Magmadar. Who knew they would all respawn unless you kill them within 10 seconds of each other? Once I figured that out I just pulled one group at a time and everything went very smooth.
All in all, took me about 1 hour to kill every single thing in there. It was annoying having to run around since all the mobs were so far apart. I didn't use a single potion or bandage, and just healed myself through recouperation. Sadly, no [Bindings of the Windseeker] from Garr or Baron Geddon. But tons of old-school epics (including a piece from the nightslayer set! Rogue raid tier 1 here I come!), some still-valuable trade mats, and even a couple of BoE rares from Ragnaros himself. He was stupidly easy, btw. He just had more health than everyone else, I suppose, but my hp barely ticked past the 80% mark the whole fight.
Then I tried to do Blackwing Lair...big mistake. Apparently that's one of the few raids no one can solo, ever. It requires a complicated mind-control mechanic which means you need an absolute minimum of 2 people to clear that encounter. Very annoying. Which means I will have to drag someone else in there with me if I'm ever to collect the mats I need for my legendary weapon....maybe I'll just go buy them. It feels like cheating to say I soloed it when I had a healer with me...
I must say, after all the trepidation it was pretty anti-climatic. I re-specced to a "survival" combat spec, ie putting all the points into health regen, damage reduction, defensive skills. I even put a healing enchant on a sword just for molten core! After all that prep, everything was shockingly easy. The only part I had some trouble with (but didn't die!) was the packs of core hounds right before Magmadar. Who knew they would all respawn unless you kill them within 10 seconds of each other? Once I figured that out I just pulled one group at a time and everything went very smooth.
All in all, took me about 1 hour to kill every single thing in there. It was annoying having to run around since all the mobs were so far apart. I didn't use a single potion or bandage, and just healed myself through recouperation. Sadly, no [Bindings of the Windseeker] from Garr or Baron Geddon. But tons of old-school epics (including a piece from the nightslayer set! Rogue raid tier 1 here I come!), some still-valuable trade mats, and even a couple of BoE rares from Ragnaros himself. He was stupidly easy, btw. He just had more health than everyone else, I suppose, but my hp barely ticked past the 80% mark the whole fight.
Then I tried to do Blackwing Lair...big mistake. Apparently that's one of the few raids no one can solo, ever. It requires a complicated mind-control mechanic which means you need an absolute minimum of 2 people to clear that encounter. Very annoying. Which means I will have to drag someone else in there with me if I'm ever to collect the mats I need for my legendary weapon....maybe I'll just go buy them. It feels like cheating to say I soloed it when I had a healer with me...
Friday, March 18, 2011
I swear I won't use it just for trollin'
So I'm thinking about getting myself a [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]. I've never had a legendary before, and this will be the easiest of the legendaries to get, I think. Here is my rationale:
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
Pros: Stylish lookin'. Rogues can equip it. You can link it in trade chat for hours on end.
Cons: Requires multiple runs of Molten Core. Requires either $$$ or hours of farming in Blackwing Lair.
Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
Pros: BoE, so technically can be purchased for shitload of $$$.
Cons: Oh so many. First off, 2H mace, unequippable by rogues, and therefore will not reward the Feat of Strength achievement. Requires multiple MC runs due to very low drop rate from Ragnaros (RNG mechanics.../rage) for required item. Requires extensive farming or $$$.
Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian
Pros: No longer obtainable in the game...so extra points if you somehow get it!
Cons: Um, no longer obtainable. Also unequippable by rogues as 2H staff. Looks like a giant chicken drumstick.
Twin Blades of Azzinoth
Pros: Serious style points. This looks SO. BITCHIN. Especially on a dual wielder like a rogue, this looks incredibly badass. Also, no need to collect materials, as it simply drops from Illidan Stormrage.
Cons: Very low drop rate from Illidan, final boss in Black Temple - end-game BC raid. Hence un-soloable by a rogue, no matter how badass. Very low droprate. Need to get both of the warglaives to complete the set.
Thori'dal, the Star's Fury
Pros: Again, really badass looking. Drops from Kil'Jaedan in Sunwell Plateau.
Cons: Nice looking, but how often do rogues whip out a bow? It's not normally displayed on your char...Very low drop rate from a boss that's unsoloable by a 85 rogue.
Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings
Pros: Rogues can equip it, it's sparkly!
Cons: Err...caster mace, hence useless (not that you obtain legendaries for utility, but just sayin'). Requires multiple clears/farms of 25man Ulduar. Not even close to soloable by a rogue, probably need at least 10-15 really geared people to clear Ulduar even at this point.
Shadowmourne
Pros: Badass axe. Nuff said.
Cons: 2H axe, cannot equip *sadface*. Also requires multiple clears of ICC & a pain-in-the-ass extended questline. Cannot solo, not even close.
So yeah, given that I want to be able to get all these without having to resort to pugs, I'd say the post-BC weps are all out of question. Ideally I'd love to get the twin blades of azzinoth but there is just no way I can solo black temple. Even with the help of a healer I just don't think it will happen - I believe there's a mind control encounter which means I'll just get MCed and kill the healer. Whenever there's MC you need to either have 1 person or more than 2. This is why we couldn't solo Hakkar in ZG - that damn MC mechanic.
So I suppose I will have to stick with Thunderfury. I didn't think it possible since MC is still quite tough, but I found some videos of a 85 rogue soloing MC! His gear was pretty good, although not full epics, and he came close to dying at the last boss. I think it can be done. Thunderfury here I come!
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
Pros: Stylish lookin'. Rogues can equip it. You can link it in trade chat for hours on end.
Cons: Requires multiple runs of Molten Core. Requires either $$$ or hours of farming in Blackwing Lair.
Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
Pros: BoE, so technically can be purchased for shitload of $$$.
Cons: Oh so many. First off, 2H mace, unequippable by rogues, and therefore will not reward the Feat of Strength achievement. Requires multiple MC runs due to very low drop rate from Ragnaros (RNG mechanics.../rage) for required item. Requires extensive farming or $$$.
Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian
Pros: No longer obtainable in the game...so extra points if you somehow get it!
Cons: Um, no longer obtainable. Also unequippable by rogues as 2H staff. Looks like a giant chicken drumstick.
Twin Blades of Azzinoth
Pros: Serious style points. This looks SO. BITCHIN. Especially on a dual wielder like a rogue, this looks incredibly badass. Also, no need to collect materials, as it simply drops from Illidan Stormrage.
Cons: Very low drop rate from Illidan, final boss in Black Temple - end-game BC raid. Hence un-soloable by a rogue, no matter how badass. Very low droprate. Need to get both of the warglaives to complete the set.
Thori'dal, the Star's Fury
Pros: Again, really badass looking. Drops from Kil'Jaedan in Sunwell Plateau.
Cons: Nice looking, but how often do rogues whip out a bow? It's not normally displayed on your char...Very low drop rate from a boss that's unsoloable by a 85 rogue.
Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings
Pros: Rogues can equip it, it's sparkly!
Cons: Err...caster mace, hence useless (not that you obtain legendaries for utility, but just sayin'). Requires multiple clears/farms of 25man Ulduar. Not even close to soloable by a rogue, probably need at least 10-15 really geared people to clear Ulduar even at this point.
Shadowmourne
Pros: Badass axe. Nuff said.
Cons: 2H axe, cannot equip *sadface*. Also requires multiple clears of ICC & a pain-in-the-ass extended questline. Cannot solo, not even close.
So yeah, given that I want to be able to get all these without having to resort to pugs, I'd say the post-BC weps are all out of question. Ideally I'd love to get the twin blades of azzinoth but there is just no way I can solo black temple. Even with the help of a healer I just don't think it will happen - I believe there's a mind control encounter which means I'll just get MCed and kill the healer. Whenever there's MC you need to either have 1 person or more than 2. This is why we couldn't solo Hakkar in ZG - that damn MC mechanic.
So I suppose I will have to stick with Thunderfury. I didn't think it possible since MC is still quite tough, but I found some videos of a 85 rogue soloing MC! His gear was pretty good, although not full epics, and he came close to dying at the last boss. I think it can be done. Thunderfury here I come!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Ok, one more ragetoon...
True story. Happened to my husband!
(BTW in case it wasn't clear, I made all these ragetoons. (Credits for the original ragetoon template goes to ragetoon.tumblr.com)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Geared to tank
On nights that the guild doesn't raid, there really isn't much for me to do. I can't really work on getting gear because there are no more upgrades I can buy or farm. The only +agi leather bracers drop from Magmaw, and that's usually the first boss we down on Tuesday nights. It hasn't dropped yet so basically I'm waiting for that from week to week. The rest of my gear is either BiS or near-BiS epics. Until heroics there are really no more upgrades for me.
I don't really do dungeons since there is nothing for me to buy with valor points. Although I did grind a few dungeons to get enough for the BoE shoes for my hubby (you're welcome honey) - being a noob I accidentally bought leather caster boots for a priest and had to exchange it via auction house. But in the end it all worked out and now I have no motivation to run more dungeons. Sure I could buy more VP boots and sell them, but I'm pretty loaded at the moment...
I just maxed out my archaeology last night so I'm not really motivated to work on that. I do want to get my sandstone drake eventually, but when I see that my 4 digsites are literally on all four corners of the map and none of them are in Uldum, it's reeeeeally hard to work up the energy to take a 15min flight path somewhere to dig. Archaeology is so boring, to be honest, and so far I haven't seen any truly great rewards from it.
Which brings me to the point that I've been working on alts mainly. I've got a warlock and warrior ready for outlands, but I decided to finally get my pally and shammy to 85 before I touch the other two. I've only levelled them to 83 so they could go to Uldum and farm herbs and ore nodes, but I decided to put a little more effort into it.
I had the day off Friday and in about 5-6 hours I was able to get my 83 pally with crappy quest rewards all the way up to 85 and geared enough for heroics! I honestly don't understand what all the fuss was all about regarding getting geared for heroics. People used to QQ a lot about how it was impossible to get any gear for heroics because normal dungeon groups were so atrocious...well, try getting gear though quests, rep grinds and AH! I assure you it's very easy. Finishing the Hyjal questline gets you about 1/3 into revered and unlocks several pieces of 333/346 gear. You will be able to hit at least honored with most other factions just by questing in the appropriate zone, unlocking most of the 333 pieces. If you're a pure class it kinda sucks (ie rogues only need agility leather gear and ONLY agi leather), but if you're a prot pally, it's alright to equip some off-set +str dps plate gear. AH prices have dropped quite a bit too so it's nice for filling in some gaps.
Well, now that I'm geared enough tank heroics...I'm scared to! I haven't even tanked a normal cata dungeon on my pally let alone heroics. It's rather daunting, what with the new changes requiring CC's on pulls and weird mechanics. I know all the fights as dps, but not as a tank. In wrath everything was a joke - I used to get all these super ICC-heroic geared dps who would pull threat constantly and just one-shot all the mobs anyways. I once had a DK with shadowmourne during a Gundrak run - he basically tanked and dps'ed the whole dungeon while healing himself. Ridiculous.
It won't be a total ROFLSTOMP FACEROLL type of experience. I'm going to be kiting a lot and picking up adds and assigning CCs...ugh. What a pain. I think I'll go gear up my shammy instead.
I don't really do dungeons since there is nothing for me to buy with valor points. Although I did grind a few dungeons to get enough for the BoE shoes for my hubby (you're welcome honey) - being a noob I accidentally bought leather caster boots for a priest and had to exchange it via auction house. But in the end it all worked out and now I have no motivation to run more dungeons. Sure I could buy more VP boots and sell them, but I'm pretty loaded at the moment...
I just maxed out my archaeology last night so I'm not really motivated to work on that. I do want to get my sandstone drake eventually, but when I see that my 4 digsites are literally on all four corners of the map and none of them are in Uldum, it's reeeeeally hard to work up the energy to take a 15min flight path somewhere to dig. Archaeology is so boring, to be honest, and so far I haven't seen any truly great rewards from it.
Which brings me to the point that I've been working on alts mainly. I've got a warlock and warrior ready for outlands, but I decided to finally get my pally and shammy to 85 before I touch the other two. I've only levelled them to 83 so they could go to Uldum and farm herbs and ore nodes, but I decided to put a little more effort into it.
I had the day off Friday and in about 5-6 hours I was able to get my 83 pally with crappy quest rewards all the way up to 85 and geared enough for heroics! I honestly don't understand what all the fuss was all about regarding getting geared for heroics. People used to QQ a lot about how it was impossible to get any gear for heroics because normal dungeon groups were so atrocious...well, try getting gear though quests, rep grinds and AH! I assure you it's very easy. Finishing the Hyjal questline gets you about 1/3 into revered and unlocks several pieces of 333/346 gear. You will be able to hit at least honored with most other factions just by questing in the appropriate zone, unlocking most of the 333 pieces. If you're a pure class it kinda sucks (ie rogues only need agility leather gear and ONLY agi leather), but if you're a prot pally, it's alright to equip some off-set +str dps plate gear. AH prices have dropped quite a bit too so it's nice for filling in some gaps.
Well, now that I'm geared enough tank heroics...I'm scared to! I haven't even tanked a normal cata dungeon on my pally let alone heroics. It's rather daunting, what with the new changes requiring CC's on pulls and weird mechanics. I know all the fights as dps, but not as a tank. In wrath everything was a joke - I used to get all these super ICC-heroic geared dps who would pull threat constantly and just one-shot all the mobs anyways. I once had a DK with shadowmourne during a Gundrak run - he basically tanked and dps'ed the whole dungeon while healing himself. Ridiculous.
It won't be a total ROFLSTOMP FACEROLL type of experience. I'm going to be kiting a lot and picking up adds and assigning CCs...ugh. What a pain. I think I'll go gear up my shammy instead.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The day I take advice from an arms warrior
Is probably the day I roll a healer. Meaning never.
I don't like taking advice in general, but I admit I haven't played the game as long as some people have and there are things out there that I'm sure would be beneficial for me to learn. But seriously, don't tell me how to play a rogue unless you play a rogue. By rogue I mean a level 85 rogue that has cataclysm raiding experience, ok?
I might not know everything about wow, but I know enough to play a rogue pretty damn well. I know the rotations (even if I sometimes forget to backstab at 35%!), I know optimum itemization, I know the stat priorities, and I know how to kick a lot of ass. So naturally it irks me a little when a arms dps warrior (apparently arms is ok for raiding now, but I still consider it pretty fail - why WOULDN'T you roll fury for raiding???) tells me I have the wrong glyphs.
Excuse me, mr. barely-there 10k dps, but elitist jerks told me these glyphs were the best, and I'm quite inclined to believe them. How nice of you to link that glyph for me, but I have no interest in using it. Honestly, I should never need more than 60 seconds of sap because things should be dead by then and the tank can pick up the add when sap breaks. There's plenty of other utility classes who can long-term cc. Plus if a raid of 25 people can't kill a focused mob within 60 seconds, that's pretty fail right there. Don't ask me to waste dps so I can earn you 20 more seconds of faildom.
Ugh then later in the night he gives me flack for not having the best-in-slot enchants. Seriously? Maelstrom crystals are about 2k per pop. So if I were to get the BiS enchants for both my weps, that would be about 20k gold. Is it really wise to spend that much to enchant something that will become obsolete in the next three months? Not to mention when the next patch hits, epics will drop from heroic dungeons and maelstrom crystal prices will plummet. All for what? Like a 100-200 dps increase? No thanks, I'm just fine being #2 on the recount charts (can't beat those damn warlocks these days).
You can go ahead though, your numbers look like it could sure use a boost.
I don't like taking advice in general, but I admit I haven't played the game as long as some people have and there are things out there that I'm sure would be beneficial for me to learn. But seriously, don't tell me how to play a rogue unless you play a rogue. By rogue I mean a level 85 rogue that has cataclysm raiding experience, ok?
I might not know everything about wow, but I know enough to play a rogue pretty damn well. I know the rotations (even if I sometimes forget to backstab at 35%!), I know optimum itemization, I know the stat priorities, and I know how to kick a lot of ass. So naturally it irks me a little when a arms dps warrior (apparently arms is ok for raiding now, but I still consider it pretty fail - why WOULDN'T you roll fury for raiding???) tells me I have the wrong glyphs.
Excuse me, mr. barely-there 10k dps, but elitist jerks told me these glyphs were the best, and I'm quite inclined to believe them. How nice of you to link that glyph for me, but I have no interest in using it. Honestly, I should never need more than 60 seconds of sap because things should be dead by then and the tank can pick up the add when sap breaks. There's plenty of other utility classes who can long-term cc. Plus if a raid of 25 people can't kill a focused mob within 60 seconds, that's pretty fail right there. Don't ask me to waste dps so I can earn you 20 more seconds of faildom.
Ugh then later in the night he gives me flack for not having the best-in-slot enchants. Seriously? Maelstrom crystals are about 2k per pop. So if I were to get the BiS enchants for both my weps, that would be about 20k gold. Is it really wise to spend that much to enchant something that will become obsolete in the next three months? Not to mention when the next patch hits, epics will drop from heroic dungeons and maelstrom crystal prices will plummet. All for what? Like a 100-200 dps increase? No thanks, I'm just fine being #2 on the recount charts (can't beat those damn warlocks these days).
You can go ahead though, your numbers look like it could sure use a boost.
A funny thing happened in Uldum...
So I was farming some volatile airs on my level 83 paladin alt. Mind you, she's got terrible gear - all greens and a few low level blues from questing, no gems/enchants, not even fully glyphed. God knows if I even specced correctly, but she's protection.
I'm fighting one of the elementals when I suddenly get stunned. A level 84 rogue pops out of nowhere and begins to wail on me. Normally when someone catches me off guard I die, so usually I don't even try to fight back. So I alt-tabbed out to check my email for 30 seconds or so. When I tab back into the game....not only am I not dead, but my health had barely dropped.
So I thought, "well, shit. I'm not giving up that easily then" and started attacking back. Being prot specced, my damage is absolute crap and I don't have the rotations down pat, so I'm basically smashing buttons and using whatever is off CD. The rogue's health drops and drops (while mine stays above 90% the whole time) until he's almost dead and he vanishes and runs off.
After he ran off, I thought "well now that was interesting", and was about to go look for some more elementals when lo and behold, he ambushes me again! He managed to use all his bursts and get me down to about 20%, at which point I laid on hands! Hahaha, I'm sure his face was priceless if I had been able to see it. After that he runs off once more, and just to be safe I got on my mount. I wasn't sure how lucky I'd get the third time.
Flying around for a bit, I saw him so naturally I /lol'ed at him and /bye just to rub it in. But either that was the worst rogue of this century, or classes really need to be balanced.
I'm fighting one of the elementals when I suddenly get stunned. A level 84 rogue pops out of nowhere and begins to wail on me. Normally when someone catches me off guard I die, so usually I don't even try to fight back. So I alt-tabbed out to check my email for 30 seconds or so. When I tab back into the game....not only am I not dead, but my health had barely dropped.
So I thought, "well, shit. I'm not giving up that easily then" and started attacking back. Being prot specced, my damage is absolute crap and I don't have the rotations down pat, so I'm basically smashing buttons and using whatever is off CD. The rogue's health drops and drops (while mine stays above 90% the whole time) until he's almost dead and he vanishes and runs off.
After he ran off, I thought "well now that was interesting", and was about to go look for some more elementals when lo and behold, he ambushes me again! He managed to use all his bursts and get me down to about 20%, at which point I laid on hands! Hahaha, I'm sure his face was priceless if I had been able to see it. After that he runs off once more, and just to be safe I got on my mount. I wasn't sure how lucky I'd get the third time.
Flying around for a bit, I saw him so naturally I /lol'ed at him and /bye just to rub it in. But either that was the worst rogue of this century, or classes really need to be balanced.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
And here we go again
Well, you knew it was probably going to happen. What else could be the outcome when you're in a raiding guild that you joined in order to raid but doesn't actually raid anymore? I said I'd stick it out for a bit, and two days after I said it I app'ed to another guild and got in right away.
This new guild seemed like a good fit - ~300 members, a bit larger than the old guild (which has rapidly declined in numbers in the last month or so), advertised as mostly 18+ adults, decent progression without being too hardcore, etc etc. Uses the EPGP system which was foreign to me but as long as they're not playing favoritism with loot or giving out rogue stuff to hunters or DKs I'm happy.
I got into the guild and the first thing I notice is...an idiot. An absolutely moronic asshat. This guy seriously won't shut up and is spamming guild chat with "why do women have arms? Why don't women need shoes?" type of jokes. Now there are very few women jokes I appreciate, and only when it's actually clever and only when told by another woman. The last thing I need is some douche spamming my chat box with feeble, heard-it-before lame sexist jokes. So I put him on ignore.
That was the first warning sign. Next up was a jackass who thought it would be funny to hop onto his ally and gank people in his guild. Then proceeded to brag about how he used to be so good at wow, how he "almost beated the game back in vanilla". Yeah, those are his words (and grammar), not mine. Apparently he went to prison which I can almost believe given his poor grasp on the english language. But my guess is his paraents cut off his wow account for a few months and he is pretending to be some sort of badass. So I called him a jackass and put him on ignore as well. Second warning sign.
The third was the quality of applications they were receiving (and accepting). I put a bit of thought into my app, giving detailed answers and even linking a parse meter. I thought these guys were a serious guild. But after I joined I noticed that pretty much any application was being accepted. The people who got in seemed to be ok raiders, but I question their committment. The kind of people who put no thought into their applications are generally guild hoppers. They scribble an app, get into a guild, raid a few times then repeat the process with another guild once they think they've got enough gear from their current one. It definitely speaks for the quality of the guild when they indiscriminately accept applicants just to fill their slots.
With all that being said, yes I have my reservations but I am still in the guild. I only raid 2-3 nights a week which isn't too much time I'm forced to spend with a few idiots. The guild leader, his girlfriend and a few others are actually very nice and mature people, and I won't let a few bad apples spoil the whole experience for me. Most of the asshats are already on my ignore list anyways. And when it comes to crunch time people generally seem to know what they're doing and how to play their class. The damage output is good, healers are on their toes at all times, and I don't see anyone standing in fire too often. We downed 7 bosses doing 25mans for the first time last week!
Was I happier in my last guild? Definitely. I was there for almost 9 months. I got to know some people rather well, I was comfortable enough to crack jokes over vent and run dailies with them and take it easy. Here, I don't feel like I fit in as well. But that's ok, I'm here to raid a few nights a week and not much more, to be honest. Who knows, these asshats might grow on me. Maybe my old guild will pick raiding back up again. Maybe I'll just stop playing wow and get on with studying for the GREs!
HA! If only...
This new guild seemed like a good fit - ~300 members, a bit larger than the old guild (which has rapidly declined in numbers in the last month or so), advertised as mostly 18+ adults, decent progression without being too hardcore, etc etc. Uses the EPGP system which was foreign to me but as long as they're not playing favoritism with loot or giving out rogue stuff to hunters or DKs I'm happy.
I got into the guild and the first thing I notice is...an idiot. An absolutely moronic asshat. This guy seriously won't shut up and is spamming guild chat with "why do women have arms? Why don't women need shoes?" type of jokes. Now there are very few women jokes I appreciate, and only when it's actually clever and only when told by another woman. The last thing I need is some douche spamming my chat box with feeble, heard-it-before lame sexist jokes. So I put him on ignore.
That was the first warning sign. Next up was a jackass who thought it would be funny to hop onto his ally and gank people in his guild. Then proceeded to brag about how he used to be so good at wow, how he "almost beated the game back in vanilla". Yeah, those are his words (and grammar), not mine. Apparently he went to prison which I can almost believe given his poor grasp on the english language. But my guess is his paraents cut off his wow account for a few months and he is pretending to be some sort of badass. So I called him a jackass and put him on ignore as well. Second warning sign.
The third was the quality of applications they were receiving (and accepting). I put a bit of thought into my app, giving detailed answers and even linking a parse meter. I thought these guys were a serious guild. But after I joined I noticed that pretty much any application was being accepted. The people who got in seemed to be ok raiders, but I question their committment. The kind of people who put no thought into their applications are generally guild hoppers. They scribble an app, get into a guild, raid a few times then repeat the process with another guild once they think they've got enough gear from their current one. It definitely speaks for the quality of the guild when they indiscriminately accept applicants just to fill their slots.
With all that being said, yes I have my reservations but I am still in the guild. I only raid 2-3 nights a week which isn't too much time I'm forced to spend with a few idiots. The guild leader, his girlfriend and a few others are actually very nice and mature people, and I won't let a few bad apples spoil the whole experience for me. Most of the asshats are already on my ignore list anyways. And when it comes to crunch time people generally seem to know what they're doing and how to play their class. The damage output is good, healers are on their toes at all times, and I don't see anyone standing in fire too often. We downed 7 bosses doing 25mans for the first time last week!
Was I happier in my last guild? Definitely. I was there for almost 9 months. I got to know some people rather well, I was comfortable enough to crack jokes over vent and run dailies with them and take it easy. Here, I don't feel like I fit in as well. But that's ok, I'm here to raid a few nights a week and not much more, to be honest. Who knows, these asshats might grow on me. Maybe my old guild will pick raiding back up again. Maybe I'll just stop playing wow and get on with studying for the GREs!
HA! If only...
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