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)
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...
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
This isn't the end of the world
Deathwing, Destroyer of the worlds, has gone and done it: he hath sundered Azeroth in twain, he hath set the lands aflame with his fiery vengeance, he hath left a scorched and scarred wasteland in his wake.
But perhaps his most unforgivable offense is that he hath killed raiding for our guild.
Raiding got off with a rocky start for us as we could no longer run both 10mans and 25mans. Attempting 25mans off the bat in crappy heroic gear and minimal experience proved difficult, and trying to split up everyone into 2 10mans left one group ahead of the other and a few people feeling left out. Following one particularly bad week that had several no-shows and cancellations, the officers decided to stop raiding altogether.
For a couple weeks some people tried to organize their own raids without the officers help, but there was a general lack of interest. Lots of people still wanted to raid, but didn't want to lead any raids themselves nor wanted to be led by a nonexperienced leader. So a few people gquit in search of a new raiding guild.
Raids suddenly picked back up again. But this time, it was a "secret raid", which included only the GM, top officers and her close select friends in the guild. It wasn't so secret because it was obvious to everyone else in the guild that 10 people were in the same raid instance, but secret in the sense that there was no raid signup and thus not open to everyone.
I got invited to one of these secret raids last week, where the officers announced their intention to continue these 10 mans, inviting a few random people in the guild each week to "give them a taste of the cataclysm raids".
So...basically you're going to toss a few scraps to some people like you're feeding a dog under the table, while the officers and a select few get to binge all night? Doesn't sound very fair to me at all. My opinion is that either we raid (where everyone who is willing and capable are given a chance), or we don't raid. At all. There's no middle of the road here - trying to do anything in between the two extremes will just leave a lot of people feeling left out and upset. With the way things are currently, 5-6 people in the guild are reaping all the benefits, with only a few token gestures handed out to the rest of the guild.
How the officers think that this is fair or "alright" is beyond me. Already several more have left without any explanation or goodbye, so I'm assuming they're pissed too.
So what am I to do? Well, I could leave and join another guild. I almost want to gquit just to show how BS this situation is, but I don't think it will change anything. If every single other person in the guild left too, then that might really get my point across, but I don't see that happening. I could sit in the guild and stew over how unfair it is and drool over the new loot all the officers are getting. I could eagerly wait every week and hope that I get invited on a raid.
I've decided not to leave the guild for now, mainly because there's no guarantee that I will get a raid spot in a consistent, good raiding guild. I know what all the big guilds on the server are, and none of them suits me perfectly as far as raid schedule, open spots, or quality is concerned. Switching guilds means starting at the very bottom all over again, and there's no telling if a new guild will suddenly fold or break apart. There's no telling a guild is actually good until you've run with them. I don't want to waste 2 hours wiping on a boss I know we could easily down in my current guild. Perhaps if I get recruited during an excellent pug run I will switch, but until I've found a guild that really matches my skill level and availability I won't bother switching.
But neither will I sit there every night eagerly waiting for the crumbs to fall from the table. If I get invited on a run, that's cool but unless my name is actually on the calendar I'm not going to get my hopes up. There's plenty of things to do in wow besides raid - achievements, seasonal stuff, levelling alts, making money, archaeology, etc etc.
Besides, I think it's time for me to take a little semi-break from wow anyways. I don't think I want to quit for good or cancel my account or anything, but just playing less. There are other things in life and other video games out there. I still haven't tried starcraft 2 and I hear Diablo 3 is nearing its release date. I have to study for the GREs and figure out my life, and perhaps now is a good time to take a break from raiding after all.
So yes, it's a little bittersweet, but it's alright. I just go look in my bank where I have tier 1 raid items from vanilla wow to remind myself that all awesome gear becomes obsolete in a matter of months. What took me 15 min to farm just for kicks probably took some poor guy months of raiding to obtain 5 years ago. It's just a game.
But perhaps his most unforgivable offense is that he hath killed raiding for our guild.
Raiding got off with a rocky start for us as we could no longer run both 10mans and 25mans. Attempting 25mans off the bat in crappy heroic gear and minimal experience proved difficult, and trying to split up everyone into 2 10mans left one group ahead of the other and a few people feeling left out. Following one particularly bad week that had several no-shows and cancellations, the officers decided to stop raiding altogether.
For a couple weeks some people tried to organize their own raids without the officers help, but there was a general lack of interest. Lots of people still wanted to raid, but didn't want to lead any raids themselves nor wanted to be led by a nonexperienced leader. So a few people gquit in search of a new raiding guild.
Raids suddenly picked back up again. But this time, it was a "secret raid", which included only the GM, top officers and her close select friends in the guild. It wasn't so secret because it was obvious to everyone else in the guild that 10 people were in the same raid instance, but secret in the sense that there was no raid signup and thus not open to everyone.
I got invited to one of these secret raids last week, where the officers announced their intention to continue these 10 mans, inviting a few random people in the guild each week to "give them a taste of the cataclysm raids".
So...basically you're going to toss a few scraps to some people like you're feeding a dog under the table, while the officers and a select few get to binge all night? Doesn't sound very fair to me at all. My opinion is that either we raid (where everyone who is willing and capable are given a chance), or we don't raid. At all. There's no middle of the road here - trying to do anything in between the two extremes will just leave a lot of people feeling left out and upset. With the way things are currently, 5-6 people in the guild are reaping all the benefits, with only a few token gestures handed out to the rest of the guild.
How the officers think that this is fair or "alright" is beyond me. Already several more have left without any explanation or goodbye, so I'm assuming they're pissed too.
So what am I to do? Well, I could leave and join another guild. I almost want to gquit just to show how BS this situation is, but I don't think it will change anything. If every single other person in the guild left too, then that might really get my point across, but I don't see that happening. I could sit in the guild and stew over how unfair it is and drool over the new loot all the officers are getting. I could eagerly wait every week and hope that I get invited on a raid.
I've decided not to leave the guild for now, mainly because there's no guarantee that I will get a raid spot in a consistent, good raiding guild. I know what all the big guilds on the server are, and none of them suits me perfectly as far as raid schedule, open spots, or quality is concerned. Switching guilds means starting at the very bottom all over again, and there's no telling if a new guild will suddenly fold or break apart. There's no telling a guild is actually good until you've run with them. I don't want to waste 2 hours wiping on a boss I know we could easily down in my current guild. Perhaps if I get recruited during an excellent pug run I will switch, but until I've found a guild that really matches my skill level and availability I won't bother switching.
But neither will I sit there every night eagerly waiting for the crumbs to fall from the table. If I get invited on a run, that's cool but unless my name is actually on the calendar I'm not going to get my hopes up. There's plenty of things to do in wow besides raid - achievements, seasonal stuff, levelling alts, making money, archaeology, etc etc.
Besides, I think it's time for me to take a little semi-break from wow anyways. I don't think I want to quit for good or cancel my account or anything, but just playing less. There are other things in life and other video games out there. I still haven't tried starcraft 2 and I hear Diablo 3 is nearing its release date. I have to study for the GREs and figure out my life, and perhaps now is a good time to take a break from raiding after all.
So yes, it's a little bittersweet, but it's alright. I just go look in my bank where I have tier 1 raid items from vanilla wow to remind myself that all awesome gear becomes obsolete in a matter of months. What took me 15 min to farm just for kicks probably took some poor guy months of raiding to obtain 5 years ago. It's just a game.
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