Friday, January 27, 2012

Wouldn't ya know...

That the first PUG I do on my shammy healer would have an asshat. I haven't played that character for a while, and I spent a little time re-familiarizing myself with my capabilities. I zone into a fresh Dire Maul North run, and while I and the others are getting the quests from the NPCs at the entrance, the tank is already in combat. Sigh.

We clear most of the way to the first boss, and the tank pulls the boss before the last trash pack is dead. As soon as we drop the boss, he's on the way to the next trash pack. I manage to get a little drink to restore some mana between trash pulls. As we make our way to the second boss, we get into an area where there is several different levels of ground and columns that block line of sight. You can guess where this is going.

At level 45 I have 3 healing spells. I have Healing Wave - a mana cheap, long cast, low healing spell. I have Healing Surge - a shorter cast, mana expensive, slightly larger healing spell. I have Chain Heal. That's it. As the tank chain pulled up a ramp and out of line of sight, I had to stop casting my big heal and folow him to get off a quick heal. Meanwhile, one of the DPS butt pulls a group back down the ramp, past the pillars. Instead of using line of sight to gather the casters causing havoc, he gets out of my line of sight twice; once going down the ramp and again going out around the pillar. He dies along with the DPS that pulled the extra mobs.

The other two DPS and I kite the mobs around the pillars and get them down. As I'm rezzing the tank, I notice in the party chat that he had typed "You suck at healing". Had I not already pugged other healers a ton, I might have felt bad. I knew he was a fail tank, and I didn't let it bother me. If I sucked that bad, it would have been a wipe. Just another entry on the ignore list. We almost had another wipe at the boss who fears and calls adds. The tank couldn't keep aggro and I end up dead. The he and another DPS dies. The last two DPS (the same ones that lived last time) managed to get the rest down, using crowd control and kiting. We finished the rest without any other problems.

I did run it again with another pug, with a tank that knew what he was doing. It was a quick run with no wipes and no issues at all. Even with a healer that sucks. Go figure. I swapped over to my elemental spec and did some questing, calling it a day when I hit 50.

I logged onto my warrior and was questing along, trying out my respec to arms from fury when I realized that the new holiday quests were also giving experience points. I hearthed back to Stormwind and picked up the starter quests. After swooping in on an Omen kill, I proceeded to honor as many elders as I could. Between questing, holiday XP, and one run of the Nexus I managed to hit 75. I also learned that I truly suck at arms. My DPS in the Nexus was horrible, until I was in a group of mobs. Bladestorm was giving me numbers that i'm used to seeing on my 85! Adding the quest givers into the Northrend and Outland dungeons was also a nice surprise. I logged onto my paladin and followed my warrior's course. I skipped the old world elders for now and went back to Northrend. I tanked a run of UK before I logged, bringing me up to 73.

During the week, I spent some time on my 85s. On Tuesday, I ran through LFR on my druid. I picked a few drops; a set of bracers and two pairs of tier gloves. I wish they would fix the roll system. While I was trying to look for the next highest roller to trade, people were already complaining in chat about my winning two tier gloves off the boss, while still pulling trash for the next boss. I was finally able to trade it to a grateful mage. I tried to do a few heroics to cap valor points for the week, but getting even one fail pug later at night is enough to make me want to logoff. I was the only one trying to get Thrall out of the ice tomb. I think I was the only one staying out of the ice as well, being able to shift out of the snares kept me the last one alive. We almost made it on the third run, until Thrall was put into an ice tomb for a second time. I didn't even know that was possible. I left the group, hearthed home, and logged out for the night.

I hopped on my mage Wednesday and go into another DS run. i managed to put out some respectable DPS, although I only received valor points from the run. Thursday was my deathnight's turn, and it did not disapoint. I picked up a ring and tier shoulders! I also ran a Well of Eternity where I broke 100k DPS on the last fight. I'm really enjoying the frost spec, but I may take a stab at unholy to see just how much I can do. Tonight I'll run my hunter and my rogue through DS, and spend the rest of the weekend using up the rested bonus on my lowbies and gearing up my priest and warlock for DS.

Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Mage 85
Druid 85
Warlock 85
Warrior 75
Paladin 73
Shaman 50

Friday, January 20, 2012

Scattershot

There are a lot of things buzzing about this week; where should I start.

SOPA/PIPA - bad laws are bad for everyone. The media corporations are looking to cut off their nose to spite their face on this one. In the wake of the big multi-national law enforcement bust of a major copyright infringer, these bills have been shown their complete lack of need.

Back to WoW topics, the first nerfs to DS are going to be coming. The insane amount of QQ over this is astonishing. It is expected on the forums, but to see some of my regular bloggers overreacting to it has shocked and saddened me. I don't see what all the uproar is about. Blizzard has been monitoring the data, and they have their hand on the dial. They see the exact number of groups hitting roadblocks. The nerf is there to let them use it for that last little bit of push. Most people do not enjoy hitting their head against the same wall for weeks upon weeks.

Oh, using the nerf is optional as well. If you haven't already gotten the world first or server first, you aren't the elite group you portend to be. After two months, you are already nerfing the content by using DS drops and VP items, and most likely are already kitted out in LFR items to boot. If you and your guild want to keep running it without the nerf, you are free to do so. If you are upset because some other group may get the server first by using the nerf, you really need to realize that the rest of the world isn't going to wait for you. At this point, you've been weighed, you've been measured, and you've been found wanting. Get over it.

Other complaints about the nerf come from those who haven't beat the game yet, but have more of a concern for their epeen than anything else. To those, I say "Fuck You"! Please take your nerdrage and GTFO. If you fall into that camp, you are nothing more than elitist scum, please die in a fire. The complaints also mention that LFR is there for the "baddies" to see the content. LFR is there for those that do not have the option to otherwise raid. Period.

Speaking of LFR, I now have five characters that can take advantage of the new raid. I have done the LFR on my main, my deathknight, my rogue, and my mage. I may run my druid through there this weekend as well, but I have already capped VP doing the new heroics to gear up so I may wait until next week. Last night, I completed one and a half LFR runs. Prior to LFR, I only ran raids on my main. Towards the end of WotLK, I ran two of my druid alts occasionally during alt runs. This new tool has increased my options for enjoying this game exponentially. There was no possibility for me to raid on such a diverse group of character types before, and I am extremely happy for this. Even with the asshats sometimes found in LFR.

There are several varieties of asshats in the new LFR, and I have seen them all. There are the leeches, who just lurk and autoattack. They usually get kicked. They also draw attention to people who, while at least trying, don't put out much DPS. They sometimes get kicked as well. I find that to be a bit much; a dead boss is the only standard I feel is required. Having the minimum gear for LFR will result in low DPS. Using a class that you are not used to will also result in low DPS. I had a tough time transitioning from a ranged to a melee character, but I improved as I went along. I always gemmed, enchanted, and reforged my gear before LFR. There is no excuse for not using the cheap enchants or gems.

Being number one on the DPS meter doesn't excuse you from being a dick. Last night, the top DPS, a mage, kept spamming recount and waving his epeen. The mage actually had the gall to whisper me for my drop at the end of the raid. Not to trade for another item, but to just give it to him to complete his four set. There was no way I would even consider helping that prick. I had a similar issue occur with the healing crew, with the top healers demeaning the others. There is no need for that if the raid is progressing. These people make my ignore list, sometimes even during the raid.

There is a special place in hell for the following people. This particular asshat sometimes works alone, and sometimes works as part of a larger group. If you roll need for items you don't need, this would be you. I don't care if it is because you want to use it for trade for something you want, to give to a friend also in the raid, to act like some kind of master looter to hand out loot to people you find deserving, or to troll by selling or sharding the item.

I have had little trouble gearing up using the LFR. Sometimes I get a piece or two during the raid, sometimes I only leave with VPs. I only need on items that are an improvement to the gear that I already have. Some feel it is OK to roll need whenever the dice are lit. Those people are assholes, and deserve a swift kick in the balls. Blizzard has started to address some of the issues already, with more changes on the way. Currently, if multiples of an item drop, one person could win them all. This was obviously not intended, and will be fixed in the next patch. If I were to win two of the same pieces of tier on one boss, I would trade one to the next highest roller. Even on my characters that could use it for two specs. Don't be a dick.

My 10x85 project has stalled with all the LFR action this week.

Friday, January 13, 2012

LFR

I've been neglecting my 10x85 project as the Darkmoon Faire and gearing up a few of my alts for LFR has filled my free time. The first alt to enter LFR was my rogue. I spent some time running both normal and the older heroics to be able to enter the new five-man dungeons. I didn't want to be "that guy" showing up in PVP gear and being carried by the rest of the party. With some JP purchases, I was competitive with the rest of the party. After a run through all three, I had enough upgrades to my gear to be very competitive on the DPS meters. I wasn't able to meet the gear requirements for LFR until the second week, but once I did I had a blast. I've never raided on a melee character before, but I managed to make it through without any major issues and picked up a few drops as well!

I started the process with my deathknight, whose best items were leftovers from the holiday bosses. As I did some questing in the Twilight Highlands, I queued for a Cata heroic. I zoned in to Ripsnarl in Deadmines. After the first wipe, I knew it was going to be a rough one. I wasn't happy with my DPS, but it was better than anyone else in the party. I inspected the tank after the second wipe. He had half tank gear, and little to no gems or enchants. Instead of dropping, I decided to just use the experience as practice.

We managed to drop the boss, and made it through the nightmare portion of the next boss. I managed to not wipe on the rope boss, only to have us wipe a few minutes later. We did eventually down the boss. I managed to pick up the achievement for Cookie, and went back to working on my Wildhammer rep. I still wasn't happy with my DPS, so I took a better look at my spec. I realized that I was setup for a two-handed weapon build instead of the two one-handers I was currently using. I fixed my spec and hit the auction house. I picked up a bunch of PVP gear and did some reforging.

The next day I was back in the highlands, and was doing a lot better. I queued for a new heroic, because I didn't want to get stuck in another fail group. I managed to make it through all three new heroics, and the only people that beat my output were those in raid gear. I ran the new heroics until I was valor capped, and between the quest rewards, boss drops, and justice/valor purchases I had replaced all my PVP gear and was eligible for LFR. Even though i was capped on valor, I still ran LFR hoping to get a new piece of gear.

The first run started like they all do, with a faceroll of the first boss. When the only death didn't get rezzed, I felt something was off. We cleared the trash around the beach ball boss, and again the dead didn't get rezzed. We one-shot the boss and moved on to the next one. We made it through the trash ok, but then things went downhill. Normally, the raid lead would either mark or call out the kill priority; nothing but silence. We managed the first two add waves ok, but the third is where everything broke down. Half the raid went to the wrong add, and we eventually wiped. As we were being rezzed, the boss respawned and engaged again with half the raid dead and the rest at partial health. I dropped group for the first time in a LFR. I repaired and queued up again. The second time through we one-shot the entire wing. The overall DPS was better, and there was communication during the fights. The difference was night and day.

I have a three day weekend coming up, and after running LFR on my other two raid-ready 85s I'll most likely get back to leveling my 10x85 characters.


Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Mage 85
Druid 85
Warlock 85
Warrior 72
Paladin 70
Shaman 45