So I finally hit 50 on my warrior tank. After running T2's as a healer and having seen tanks and DPS go splat due to undergearedness or stupidity and witnessing how unforgiving people can be of a new tank learning how to generate enough threat on everything so that the DPS who decides to burn a single target down doesn't die and how to properly execute pulls, I'd like to be properly specced and as geared as possible before tanking for people I don't know and don't trust to do their jobs.
That's a long sentence.
Anyway, So I took a peek at my stats and decided there's no way I could confidently tank even normal AP or CC. Most healers have no idea what a dispel is and the magic damage alone would be killer. I had 4300 health self-buffed in the spec that suits my playstyle. Zero toughness, minimal dodge or parry, but more block than i've seen stated as a good benchmark for T1's (woot!).
I went to every vendor and started searching online for recommended noob tank requirements. I'm still disappointed with the amount of user-generated information out here on the web :(
So here's the path I chose to gear up for tanking instances: Rifting. Aside from getting the items I could from the current holiday vendor (a descent, but hideous hat, and 2 planar essences (both lvl50 essences were upgrades), I waited for and participated in every invasion that popped in Stillmoor, Shimmersand, and IPP, which yielded about 20k Planarite over 2 days and spent it on the flawless planar focus, and on some toughness gear and essences from the "Rare Planar Goods" vendors in these three zones:
IPP - Whitefall (blue pants, purple gloves)
Stillmorr - Broken Vale (blue shoulders, purple hat)
Shimmersand - Fortune's Shore (blue chest, purple legs)
(these vendors sell the same pieces for every calling)
That's it - Theoretically T1-ready :)
Current stats after 2 days of rifting (self buffed):
Health: 8945
Armor: 7675
Block: 403
Parry: 290
Dodge: 160
Hit: 45
Toughness: 38
I could swap some gear for toughness (and will when I'm running something requiring it). These are just the numbers in my best gear, which is mostly green other than planar vendor and world event items.
I'd like to be a bit better geared before doing T1's, as I'm a bit behind the curve due to not playing as often as others, and the more geared the people I get in the queue are, the more likely they'll be dicks about my gear level even though I'm at-level and they're overgeared - people just expect equality because they either forgot what it is to play at-level or they're just stupid DPS for whom gear never has mattered as much as it does for tanks and healers and who are easier to carry if they're horrible.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tanking
The hardest thing about tanking is dealing with the lackluster performance of and mishaps caused by other people.
That is all.
That is all.
Monday, May 16, 2011
My Status
I've been playing Rift and Warcraft for the past couple of months and my overall time commitment to gaming has been essentially cut in half. It's been rather nice making time to get stuff done around the house and to satisfy my internet addiction in other ways (netflix, youtube, general browsing of ridiculous sites).
Cutting my gaming time in half and adding a new game has cut my Warcraft time by 75%. While this has been nice for me on a personal level, it has negatively affected the guild Dee and I run. Apparently, if I'm not online 24-7, people lose motivation and get bored. While this seems absolutely ridiculous because I spent almost all of my time standing around Orgrimmar and not actually doing anything productive or particularly social even, it's sadly not an exaggeration. I had been the most active person overall for years, so me actually having a life and tooling around in another game spells ruin to people - some have stopped giving a shit, some have moves their alts to other guilds simply to see more people online when they aren't raiding here, some have stopped playing all-together, some have started rumors of a guild collapse. Very few seem okay with me not being there all the damned time. Even the people who I log in for have started seeking refuge elsewhere.
So Dee and I are trying to decide if we want to bother continuing on. The general state of unrest isn't the only factor in our decision-making process. Also of consideration is the caliber and attitudes of the people we raid with every week, their commitment (or lack of) to us as a guild, my and everyone else's lack of interest in stepping up and recruiting or working on morale is a consideration. Really... not a single person has stepped up to try to remedy the issues they have or we have - they're just waiting for me or Dee to do it and quite frankly, we probably won't at this point. We have tasted failure and recruited enough idiots on this stupid server already - we'll pass. The liklihood of getting anyone who will actually fit what Dee and I think we need for raiding is so slim it's very discouraging.
What we need to keep the guild together depends on what people want. So what do they want? Fuck if I know because nobody actually talks about what they want - they just complain, leave or solve their own problems without care or consideration of others.
By raiding with other guilds on off days, they've indicated they want to raid on the weekends. That simply won't happen unless we manage to recruit an adequate raiding group or get enough interested alts for such endeavors.
By complaining that there's nobody to talk to in guild chat and leaving on alts to busier guilds, They've indicated they're lonely and want more chatter. They could have created more chatter by recruiting into this guild. Instead, they go for the ready-made easy chatter of an established social guild. Their problem solved. Ours as a guild, made worse. I understand not feeling responsible for guild recruitment, but it does clarify the effort they're willing to put in.
By complaining that it's taking us so long to kill stuff or stating repeatedly that they don't want to keep dying, they've indicated they want a free ride. These types of people are the bane of my existence (and they're usually DPS - those who have to work the least). If you don't work for something, it means nothing.
Now, we would have an easier time getting through content if we had a committed 10 people who made every raid night barring serious injury or illness. We just don't and we won't. Ever. The last time such things happened in my gaming life was the ZA bear runs every 4 days and even then, we still had 1 spot that alternated between 2 people because yea... one couldn't be there every night. It was a really tight group of almost awesome people (lilamb was an idiot, but aside from her, the group was great and she was only there because we needed a ranged dps who could prioritize these runs and be there all the time). Anyway, my point is, utopia doesn't exist people! Get over it!
So... will think aloud more later. been logged onto wow all night, but none of these bored people are online, so... so much for trying to be available.
Okay... a bit more.
By saying the Dee and I are trying to decide if we want to continue on, I mean as guild leaders, not as WoW players. For the time being, we still plan to play WoW, as it is still our obvious game of choice. While this may not seem obvious to those who haven't been listening to what i've been saying, it's obvious to us, as if it weren't front-and-center, we wouldn't be raiding on Fridays, at least, which is when the guild we're hanging out in in Rift raids. If Rift were more inportant or even equally important than/as Wow, we would be giving a shit about raiding there, which we simply aren't.
So, we do want to continue playing WoW, but, at least for me (can't speak for Dee), I play WoW primarily because I like most of my raid group - especially a couple of people without whom I'd have been lost long ago. These people have been very supportive and otherwise awesome friends throughout much of my WoW journey. One of these people, however, Oar, has stated that he's considering taking some toons over to another guild. While I understand the need for social connection and something to do other than hang around in the ghost of a guild during off raiding hours, I can't help but assume they'll eventually take priority over us, rendering us the secondary priority, which will be somewhat of an impetus to just shut this guild down. I mean, if we're not the priority for the people who matter to us (are our priority), why bother? They'll have another place to be, thus rendering the responsibility factor in our decision-making process null leaving only personal connections, the strength of which I've been debating.
Speaking of responsibility, We may not be the best people to be guild leading at this point in time. We are, but we aren't.
We are because we're there for every raid, usually set a good example, always bring our A game, are good players, are generally passable raid leaders (something nobody else wants to do), etc...
We aren't because we don't have the drive to recruit (Dee has done several long passes at recruitment and what do we end up with in the end?... The same people we've always been able to rely on - this server sucks for recruitment - we've been demoralized enough. We do have open recruitment, but nobody else is recruiting either), and we're no longer online all the time.
It's not even that we refuse to recruit. We would recruit if we thought it would help. Given the part timers and unreliable people we have, we never know what we're really in need of. We like to run a tight ship because we don't like to sit people who have as much business being included as anyone else. We also have several people with undeniable and irreplaceable talent - like Keith. I've known very few people who can match his talent. He has had life issues come up that have taken him away from the game, which meant either I or one of our ranged had to tank in his absence, which, in turn, meant we lost a good ranged DPS or Healer, spots that were filled with people who couldn't fill our shoes, making the group less successful. We *could* recruit another tank, but the likelihood we'd ever bring that person over Keith is pretty much null and I'd hate to recruit someone just so they can sit on the bench. So we've been dealing with these issues as they arise and they've definitely taken their toll on guild morale, confidence, and trust, all of which are very difficult to recoup.
Overall, I guess we still do more good than evil, so we're keeping our positions until someone shows some initiative and actually does more than we do overall. I've asked people for ideas about what we need to be doing and nobody has offered anything useful or offered to actually take on some responsibility themselves (recruitment, etc...).
So where are we?
ME: Aside from playing rift a couple hours a day on non raiding days, I've taken on several projects at home and have activities planned that will actually require us to leave the house (OMG!), my list includes swimming, getting the kitchen done, minimizing our junk, learning to be a better guitar player (doing some lessons with zoe), trying to be better at keeping this place guest-ready so zoe can invite friends over (which has been an absolute NO forever), doing more things that merit taking pictures, lots of different sewing projects (working on window treatments for kid's rooms now and it's soooo time consuming w/out a sewing machine). In other words, i'm not just sitting on my ass avoiding WoW.
DEE: Is working on writing droid apps and watching Dr. Who from beginning to end. It's literally all he's been doing outside of WoW raiding (driving me nuts, btw).
That's all I have for now... ciao.
Cutting my gaming time in half and adding a new game has cut my Warcraft time by 75%. While this has been nice for me on a personal level, it has negatively affected the guild Dee and I run. Apparently, if I'm not online 24-7, people lose motivation and get bored. While this seems absolutely ridiculous because I spent almost all of my time standing around Orgrimmar and not actually doing anything productive or particularly social even, it's sadly not an exaggeration. I had been the most active person overall for years, so me actually having a life and tooling around in another game spells ruin to people - some have stopped giving a shit, some have moves their alts to other guilds simply to see more people online when they aren't raiding here, some have stopped playing all-together, some have started rumors of a guild collapse. Very few seem okay with me not being there all the damned time. Even the people who I log in for have started seeking refuge elsewhere.
So Dee and I are trying to decide if we want to bother continuing on. The general state of unrest isn't the only factor in our decision-making process. Also of consideration is the caliber and attitudes of the people we raid with every week, their commitment (or lack of) to us as a guild, my and everyone else's lack of interest in stepping up and recruiting or working on morale is a consideration. Really... not a single person has stepped up to try to remedy the issues they have or we have - they're just waiting for me or Dee to do it and quite frankly, we probably won't at this point. We have tasted failure and recruited enough idiots on this stupid server already - we'll pass. The liklihood of getting anyone who will actually fit what Dee and I think we need for raiding is so slim it's very discouraging.
What we need to keep the guild together depends on what people want. So what do they want? Fuck if I know because nobody actually talks about what they want - they just complain, leave or solve their own problems without care or consideration of others.
By raiding with other guilds on off days, they've indicated they want to raid on the weekends. That simply won't happen unless we manage to recruit an adequate raiding group or get enough interested alts for such endeavors.
By complaining that there's nobody to talk to in guild chat and leaving on alts to busier guilds, They've indicated they're lonely and want more chatter. They could have created more chatter by recruiting into this guild. Instead, they go for the ready-made easy chatter of an established social guild. Their problem solved. Ours as a guild, made worse. I understand not feeling responsible for guild recruitment, but it does clarify the effort they're willing to put in.
By complaining that it's taking us so long to kill stuff or stating repeatedly that they don't want to keep dying, they've indicated they want a free ride. These types of people are the bane of my existence (and they're usually DPS - those who have to work the least). If you don't work for something, it means nothing.
Now, we would have an easier time getting through content if we had a committed 10 people who made every raid night barring serious injury or illness. We just don't and we won't. Ever. The last time such things happened in my gaming life was the ZA bear runs every 4 days and even then, we still had 1 spot that alternated between 2 people because yea... one couldn't be there every night. It was a really tight group of almost awesome people (lilamb was an idiot, but aside from her, the group was great and she was only there because we needed a ranged dps who could prioritize these runs and be there all the time). Anyway, my point is, utopia doesn't exist people! Get over it!
So... will think aloud more later. been logged onto wow all night, but none of these bored people are online, so... so much for trying to be available.
Okay... a bit more.
By saying the Dee and I are trying to decide if we want to continue on, I mean as guild leaders, not as WoW players. For the time being, we still plan to play WoW, as it is still our obvious game of choice. While this may not seem obvious to those who haven't been listening to what i've been saying, it's obvious to us, as if it weren't front-and-center, we wouldn't be raiding on Fridays, at least, which is when the guild we're hanging out in in Rift raids. If Rift were more inportant or even equally important than/as Wow, we would be giving a shit about raiding there, which we simply aren't.
So, we do want to continue playing WoW, but, at least for me (can't speak for Dee), I play WoW primarily because I like most of my raid group - especially a couple of people without whom I'd have been lost long ago. These people have been very supportive and otherwise awesome friends throughout much of my WoW journey. One of these people, however, Oar, has stated that he's considering taking some toons over to another guild. While I understand the need for social connection and something to do other than hang around in the ghost of a guild during off raiding hours, I can't help but assume they'll eventually take priority over us, rendering us the secondary priority, which will be somewhat of an impetus to just shut this guild down. I mean, if we're not the priority for the people who matter to us (are our priority), why bother? They'll have another place to be, thus rendering the responsibility factor in our decision-making process null leaving only personal connections, the strength of which I've been debating.
Speaking of responsibility, We may not be the best people to be guild leading at this point in time. We are, but we aren't.
We are because we're there for every raid, usually set a good example, always bring our A game, are good players, are generally passable raid leaders (something nobody else wants to do), etc...
We aren't because we don't have the drive to recruit (Dee has done several long passes at recruitment and what do we end up with in the end?... The same people we've always been able to rely on - this server sucks for recruitment - we've been demoralized enough. We do have open recruitment, but nobody else is recruiting either), and we're no longer online all the time.
It's not even that we refuse to recruit. We would recruit if we thought it would help. Given the part timers and unreliable people we have, we never know what we're really in need of. We like to run a tight ship because we don't like to sit people who have as much business being included as anyone else. We also have several people with undeniable and irreplaceable talent - like Keith. I've known very few people who can match his talent. He has had life issues come up that have taken him away from the game, which meant either I or one of our ranged had to tank in his absence, which, in turn, meant we lost a good ranged DPS or Healer, spots that were filled with people who couldn't fill our shoes, making the group less successful. We *could* recruit another tank, but the likelihood we'd ever bring that person over Keith is pretty much null and I'd hate to recruit someone just so they can sit on the bench. So we've been dealing with these issues as they arise and they've definitely taken their toll on guild morale, confidence, and trust, all of which are very difficult to recoup.
Overall, I guess we still do more good than evil, so we're keeping our positions until someone shows some initiative and actually does more than we do overall. I've asked people for ideas about what we need to be doing and nobody has offered anything useful or offered to actually take on some responsibility themselves (recruitment, etc...).
So where are we?
ME: Aside from playing rift a couple hours a day on non raiding days, I've taken on several projects at home and have activities planned that will actually require us to leave the house (OMG!), my list includes swimming, getting the kitchen done, minimizing our junk, learning to be a better guitar player (doing some lessons with zoe), trying to be better at keeping this place guest-ready so zoe can invite friends over (which has been an absolute NO forever), doing more things that merit taking pictures, lots of different sewing projects (working on window treatments for kid's rooms now and it's soooo time consuming w/out a sewing machine). In other words, i'm not just sitting on my ass avoiding WoW.
DEE: Is working on writing droid apps and watching Dr. Who from beginning to end. It's literally all he's been doing outside of WoW raiding (driving me nuts, btw).
That's all I have for now... ciao.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Public Groups Rock
I ran into some mobs in Rift that were impossible to solo so I asked in zone chat for others who needed it and formed a group. We finally found one of the things we needed to kill and another group strolled right up and pulled it. Before I could finish typing a bitchy response, they had merged public groups and we all got credit and continued on to complete all 3 group quests in the area.
You see, Rift groups are public by default, allowing anyone to join them, so if you see another person or party killing something you need for a quest, you can right click on their frame and click join public group and walaa! you get credit when it dies (if they don't manage to kick you first).
Unfortunately, some people are making their groups private, myself included, because some people who join groups hang around after the mission is complete, which is extremely annoying and forces others to kick them and reform, which seems far more rude than just not letting them join in the first place.
But, the mechanic itself is wonderful. I will try to remember to make my groups public when killing things that can't be soloed, but still can't imagine having it public all the time because if you're near a rift with a public group, you get all sorts of rift dwellers in your group stealing your xp and not leaving when they're done.
You see, Rift groups are public by default, allowing anyone to join them, so if you see another person or party killing something you need for a quest, you can right click on their frame and click join public group and walaa! you get credit when it dies (if they don't manage to kick you first).
Unfortunately, some people are making their groups private, myself included, because some people who join groups hang around after the mission is complete, which is extremely annoying and forces others to kick them and reform, which seems far more rude than just not letting them join in the first place.
But, the mechanic itself is wonderful. I will try to remember to make my groups public when killing things that can't be soloed, but still can't imagine having it public all the time because if you're near a rift with a public group, you get all sorts of rift dwellers in your group stealing your xp and not leaving when they're done.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Rift Screenshots
There are Life, Death, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire rifts. This site provides a little more information on them, but basically, there are tears in the world that anyone can open into rifts (not sure if they open on their own after a while or if they'll despawn if nobody tears them).
This is a life rift, perhaps the prettiest rift in game.
This is a Death Rift.
These are pics of the latest town we've been spending time in. It's located in the Droughtlands and is perhaps the coolest hub we've come across so far.
This is a life rift, perhaps the prettiest rift in game.
This is a Death Rift.
These are pics of the latest town we've been spending time in. It's located in the Droughtlands and is perhaps the coolest hub we've come across so far.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
While Warcraft still remains the focus of my end-game gaming, I've been messing around in Rift since it's launch and It's a very enjoyable game much akin to Warcraft. It is, in fact, a Warcraft clone, which is a good thing, as it'd have little chance of surviving if it wasn't.
How similar are these two games?
The menu system, action bars, default layout, professions, zone progression, reputations, dual-factions, battlegrounds, instance group size, default key bindings and combat system are all strikingly similar - down to where to change the setting to show your helm, how to pull up your character or profession window, etc... It is a brainless transition for those searching for a Warcraft replacement.
What is different in Rift?
Der... Rifts. They are both awesome and annoying. They show up as little swirly things on your map and upon mouseover, you can see if they're minor (relatively soloable) or major (almost definitely not soloable at level) rifts. Also on your map, you can see the paths the invaders are taking during an invasion. These are very cool and different from anything we see in normal Warcraft play and will indeed take a day or so to get used to. Tips: If there is a major invasion happening in the area you're trying to quest in, either go do rifts or pvp for a while or be prepared to die miserably as you accidentally pull 8 elite mobs you didn't see coming. Rift rewards are based on participation regardless of the group you're in and participation is based on how many global cooldowns you use (heresay), so buff people and use your instants if you're out for max rewards. Don't bite off more than you can chew - as in normal play, pull one at a time until you can get a feel for how hard they hit and how easy they are to kill. Join the public group so you can heal other people, be easily healed by other people, and so you can feel more productive not always seeing grey health bars (meaning it's not your kill).
Aggro Radius - it changes very slowly and mobs can knock you off your mount while you're trying to get to your destination, which is mildly annoying until you realize most mobs are on a pretty short leash and thus reset after following you only a short distance. It's still an adjustment to make coming from Warcraft - land of easy travel.
Level Scaling - Fighting things above your level is dangerous business. 2 level 17's should be able to kill a level 20 elite, right? Fuck no. You will die in 3 seconds flat unless you happen to have a good tank pet and a healer (the holy trinity), but even then, you're pretty likely to eat it. The more you play, the easier taking on multiple mobs and elites will get, but when you first start out, you're likely to be shocked at how squishy you are - I know I was.
PVP - will take much longer to formulate sound plans of attack given the amount of choices people have. You see rogue, but it could be a hunter, a WoW-like rogue, a Bard, all 3... You see a Mage, but it could just as easily be a healer. You see a cleric, but it might be melee or instant-cast heals or cast-time, etc... I've always been easily confused when PVPing, but this game takes it to new levels of "WTF was that?" There are designated PVP trees (souls in Rift) that you can purchase after about 4 hours of running battlegrounds. How many points you can put in these souls depends on your PVP rank, so you'll likely just be replacing your 0-point soul with this one at the start, but I'm guessing it's worth it. For my cleric, the 0-point talent gives me "break free," an ability that gets me out of fear, stuns, etc, which is awesome.
Healing - not just 4 healing trees. Rogues and mages have viable healing abilities which make them very useful in instance groups and PVP. Holy shit can they pump out a LOT of group heals! These souls also make solo play a bit more friendly, as your survivability goes way up. Within the main healing class (calling in Rift), the Cleric, there are a veritable shitton of different options for every healing style. I LOVE this! you want to be a druid today - dooo eeet. Shaman tomorrow? yes please! Paladin? Priest? gotcha covered. It's a beautiful thing - perhaps the most wonderful thing in Rift thus far. I started out as a Sentinel (very pally-like) and have since moved to Warden (shammy/druid ish). There is some overlap in the soul talents, so if you're looking to be a healer, pick souls that complement each other well - your main soul, then one with 10-20-point talents that complement nicely, then a 0-point soul that you can switch out whenever you like without paying to respec.
Beauty:
Character creation is marginally more interesting than WoW and your toons look much better overall. It's not as customizable as I've seen with no ability to change your body style and still too few hair options.
The world itself is very well done - not as pretty as Aion was, but the textures and lighting are beautiful - truly dynamic and realistic.
Leveling:
There aren't any leveling zone choices in Rift - you start here, then go there, then there, then there - it's very linear. If you don't like a zone, too freakin bad - do it anyway. The only other alternatives are PVPing or Rifting to level, which you can do, but it takes arguably longer unless you win every match or stage with ease. Overall, leveling seems to take less time per level than in WoW, but Tirion has stated that the bulk of the game exists at max level, so we shall see about that.
Instances:
The first 2 instances are very easy to get through - nothing spectacular to look at, no interesting boss mechanics. The bridges and walkways in Deepstrike Mines were cool, but not game-making. So far, I can easily say Warcraft instances are more fun, but Rift's instances could definitely improve as more class distinction emerges and more instances are explored. I'll give it time before my final evaluation.
Screenshots (mostly just me trying to capture the amazing lighting effects, which is really not possible - you just have to fire it up and go stand by a fire to see for yourself):
Friday, February 4, 2011
Instances are Hard!
I've been reading a lot of forum threads about instance difficulty level.
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of those complaining about it's difficulty are trying to skip a step (or two) in their gear progression and are not doing what is within their power to help a group succeed.
1. Skipping a gear tier
Remember - we had no LFD tool in BC or at the beginning of wrath when we were all grinding 5-mans for adequate gear to succeed in raids. There was nothing telling us when we had sufficient gear to complete instances. Now that we do, people assume they're ready because their average Ilvl of the best items for each slot in their possession is this or that. Individual readiness is not solely dependent on your average Ilvl - more-so for some classes and specs who seem more gear-dependent than others and for whom stacking particular stats early on makes a world of difference.
Just because you CAN queue for normals doesn't mean you're ready to.
Just because you CAN queue for heroics doesn't mean you're ready to.
Just because you have all heroic-level gear doesn't mean you're ready to raid.
If you're sitting in all obtainable pre-heroic gear (all 333 with some 346 from revered) and still having issues in heroics, there's something else wrong (see below).
If you're sitting in all obtainable heroic-level gear (all 346 with crafted gear and exalted rep gear) and still having major issues with the first raid bosses, there's something else wrong.
Confidence is a pretty big contributor to group success and confidence comes from gear-readiness, encounter knowledge, and firm grips on class mechanics. Not only must you have gear to be confident, you have to practice the encounters enough to know what to expect and you have to know your class well enough to know what you can do to aid in your own survival or to help your group succeed.
Before stepping foot in a raid in any expansion, I have always been wearing the highest and most suitable gear available to me via any avenue. For me, this was a way to tell my peer's i'd put the work in and deserved to be there along side them. Not everyone needs to go this far, but nobody should complain about difficulty level when part of that difficulty would disipate with proper gear.
I didn't do very much raiding in Vanilla - was just filler for AQ and did strat and scholo when they were 10-mans.
In BC, I was in nearly all epic gear before stepping foot in Kara (did the normal grind to get gear and rep to do heroics then did the heroic grind, crafted what i could, and grinded all reps to exalted) and I still found a few of the bosses in there to be really annoying. Moroes, Curator, and Prince all took about 3 weeks for us to kill. After everyone had everything (except the Spite Blade) they wanted out of Kara, we moved on to Gruul, who took us at least 2 months to kill. We skipped Mag until we were in SSC/TK gear because we were disorganized. SSC and TK both fell very quickly with the exception of Vashj and Kael, both of whom took us a month of concerted effort to down. We then moved to BT and Hyjal. Before the Nerf, we cleared Hyjal, but Archimonde took us a good month of two. The hardest encounter for us in BT was Reliquary of Souls, which took us another month to kill.
In Wrath, again, I was in the highest level and best-suited to my role gear I could get my hands on before stepping foot in Naxx. I went through all the normals to get the gear I needed then all the Heroics to get the gear I needed. Of course, this gear grind didn't seem that necessary in retrospect because everything in Naxx was a total cakewalk (except Thaddius when the lag was really bad there for a while - we called him the lag boss). We then went into Ulduar and lost 4 solid raiders upon wiping on Ignis and Razorscale a combined 8 times. I never got to kill Yogg or Algalon because my guild decided to switch to TOC upon it's introduction, but I suspect they would have been challenging. TOC was comparably easy and, with no trash whatsoever, didn't take more than a night to clear. We moved to ICC and amongst some guild fraying, we started doing 10-mans instead of 25. ICC, trash aside, was either difficult or interesting enough the first kill of everything, after which, it became a grindfest for main toons, alt toons, super sucky bank toons.
In Cata, again, I did the normal circuit then the heroic circuit now the raid circuit. Honestly, I'm finding the raid bosses MUCH easier to down than those in BC or Wrath, with only 1 or 2 nights spent learning the encounters before downing the bosses. I attribute this to the heroics being more of a training ground than in expansions past and to having a lot more collective experience on the toons I play. I run a casual raiding guild wherein we have about 5 players who we can count on to do what they can to help an encounter run smoothly with the other 5 spots filled by people who have shown an ability to learn from mistakes and work as a team. Magmaw took us 2 nights of learning, Omnitron - 1, halfus - 2, Valiona - 2, Conclaive of Wind - 2. 5 raid bosses down in less time than it took us to kill Moroes or Ignis or Putricide and in 1/4th of the time it took us to kill Archimonde, RoS, Thorim, or LK. This does not bode so well within the argument that this xpac is hard. I use the bosses above as examples a lot when newer players start whining or sighing openly upon experiencing defeat for 2 days - 2 days is NOTHING. When we get to a boss that requires both gear and coordination, I fully expect it to take us 5 or 6 days of learning based on our experience so far, but I wouldn't say it's hard until we wiped on it for a month.
It's important for people to realize that Bosses aren't meant to fall at their feet and hand out epics (anymore) - if they were, they would not be bosses, but rather some at-level elites taking a stroll in a world of daisies and candy canes.
It's also important for people to have reasonable expectations given their level of gear and competence. If you're not in appropriate gear and don't do your best to help a group succeed, failing should be expected, not an impetus for unreasonable QQ in the forums.
2 - Helping a group succeed
There are many things you can do to make everything run smoothly. First and foremost - view heroics as training grounds for raids and normals as training grounds for heroics. Learning how to use your classes' abilities to control your environment and keep you and others alive is part and partial to your success and that of your group.
You don't have to hone these skills in Heroics, for the most part - You can (and should) practice in normals. Our new Mantra's are:
"I have an interrupt and I'm not afraid to use it"
"I have cc and I know how to use it"
"My mana is precious, I shall use it wisely"
"My cooldowns need more down time"
I'd suggest running normals until your most important abilities become second nature. No, your damage output is not your most important ability - it will always be secondary to your ability to play your class well.
The mantras really say it all.
If you are a tank, you might have an instant queue and feel a power to do whatever you want and be as much of a jerk as you want, but you are still responsible for doing what you can to help especially your healer out - you have many damage-mitigating cool downs - start using them.
If you are a healer, you are now in resource management mode. To give your group less down-time between pulls, try to be efficient - not everyone has to be at full health all of the time. 1- they won't notice and don't care as long as they don't die. 2- most pauses between pulls are for healer mana. Blizz has given healers choices as to how to use their mana. All healers have a quick heal, a big heal, an efficient heal, a group heal,etc... knowing what heal to use when is important and using your mana regaining abilities freely will make a big difference.
If you have an interrupt, keep it on cooldown to mitigate the damage going to whoever is targetted by the interruptable (thus avoidable) ability. Just because it's not usually targetting you doesn't mean you shouldn't interrupt it. It's a global cool down used for group success instead of extra dps. Nobody cares how good you look on the meters if you're not doing your job. If the tank dies because you didn't interrupt, that wipe is YOUR fault. I always thank the pugs who actually interrupt because all 3 of mine have been on cool down when I'm about to get wtf owned by some special ability - it saves my life, which, in turn, saves the group from a wipe. Lack of interrupts is a major contributor to instance difficulty. Yes,it's going to hit you for 95,000 if you don't interrupt it and 0 if you do. It's a no-brainer, yet people seem to have some aversion to using their interrupts.
Crowd Control is an obvious choice for mitigating overall damage - if it's incapacitated, it can't hurt you (or anyone else). Most CC happens before the pull, but there is no law against using it in the midst of battle. If a mob is headed for one of your group members - regardless of fault or egos, cc it. I know - if they're dead, you'll look even better on the meters, but with anyone dead, a group as a whole has less chance of succeeding. Just incapacitate the bad guy until the tank picks it up.
Aggro also has a very important spot on the helping a group succeed list, but I won't expound on it too much here (made a whole blog post about it). I'll just say this: If it's hitting you, stop hitting it and use any aggro dumps you've got. If it's about to hit you, stop hitting it. I know it's a common theme, but you will look worse on the meters if you're dead. You are just as responsible for keeping your threat in line as the tank is. Yes, the tank has 1 or 3 taunts, but they are likely on cool down if mobs are peeling off her (or him), so do what you can to survive - don't keep nuking (at that point, it's no longer even remotely the tank's fault if you die).
TLDR:
If everyone looked at pugs as an opportunity to practice placing group success over personal gratification and had appropriate gear and observation skills, they'd all be much easier. It's not the encounters, it's the people in them.
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of those complaining about it's difficulty are trying to skip a step (or two) in their gear progression and are not doing what is within their power to help a group succeed.
1. Skipping a gear tier
Remember - we had no LFD tool in BC or at the beginning of wrath when we were all grinding 5-mans for adequate gear to succeed in raids. There was nothing telling us when we had sufficient gear to complete instances. Now that we do, people assume they're ready because their average Ilvl of the best items for each slot in their possession is this or that. Individual readiness is not solely dependent on your average Ilvl - more-so for some classes and specs who seem more gear-dependent than others and for whom stacking particular stats early on makes a world of difference.
Just because you CAN queue for normals doesn't mean you're ready to.
Just because you CAN queue for heroics doesn't mean you're ready to.
Just because you have all heroic-level gear doesn't mean you're ready to raid.
If you're sitting in all obtainable pre-heroic gear (all 333 with some 346 from revered) and still having issues in heroics, there's something else wrong (see below).
If you're sitting in all obtainable heroic-level gear (all 346 with crafted gear and exalted rep gear) and still having major issues with the first raid bosses, there's something else wrong.
Confidence is a pretty big contributor to group success and confidence comes from gear-readiness, encounter knowledge, and firm grips on class mechanics. Not only must you have gear to be confident, you have to practice the encounters enough to know what to expect and you have to know your class well enough to know what you can do to aid in your own survival or to help your group succeed.
Before stepping foot in a raid in any expansion, I have always been wearing the highest and most suitable gear available to me via any avenue. For me, this was a way to tell my peer's i'd put the work in and deserved to be there along side them. Not everyone needs to go this far, but nobody should complain about difficulty level when part of that difficulty would disipate with proper gear.
I didn't do very much raiding in Vanilla - was just filler for AQ and did strat and scholo when they were 10-mans.
In BC, I was in nearly all epic gear before stepping foot in Kara (did the normal grind to get gear and rep to do heroics then did the heroic grind, crafted what i could, and grinded all reps to exalted) and I still found a few of the bosses in there to be really annoying. Moroes, Curator, and Prince all took about 3 weeks for us to kill. After everyone had everything (except the Spite Blade) they wanted out of Kara, we moved on to Gruul, who took us at least 2 months to kill. We skipped Mag until we were in SSC/TK gear because we were disorganized. SSC and TK both fell very quickly with the exception of Vashj and Kael, both of whom took us a month of concerted effort to down. We then moved to BT and Hyjal. Before the Nerf, we cleared Hyjal, but Archimonde took us a good month of two. The hardest encounter for us in BT was Reliquary of Souls, which took us another month to kill.
In Wrath, again, I was in the highest level and best-suited to my role gear I could get my hands on before stepping foot in Naxx. I went through all the normals to get the gear I needed then all the Heroics to get the gear I needed. Of course, this gear grind didn't seem that necessary in retrospect because everything in Naxx was a total cakewalk (except Thaddius when the lag was really bad there for a while - we called him the lag boss). We then went into Ulduar and lost 4 solid raiders upon wiping on Ignis and Razorscale a combined 8 times. I never got to kill Yogg or Algalon because my guild decided to switch to TOC upon it's introduction, but I suspect they would have been challenging. TOC was comparably easy and, with no trash whatsoever, didn't take more than a night to clear. We moved to ICC and amongst some guild fraying, we started doing 10-mans instead of 25. ICC, trash aside, was either difficult or interesting enough the first kill of everything, after which, it became a grindfest for main toons, alt toons, super sucky bank toons.
In Cata, again, I did the normal circuit then the heroic circuit now the raid circuit. Honestly, I'm finding the raid bosses MUCH easier to down than those in BC or Wrath, with only 1 or 2 nights spent learning the encounters before downing the bosses. I attribute this to the heroics being more of a training ground than in expansions past and to having a lot more collective experience on the toons I play. I run a casual raiding guild wherein we have about 5 players who we can count on to do what they can to help an encounter run smoothly with the other 5 spots filled by people who have shown an ability to learn from mistakes and work as a team. Magmaw took us 2 nights of learning, Omnitron - 1, halfus - 2, Valiona - 2, Conclaive of Wind - 2. 5 raid bosses down in less time than it took us to kill Moroes or Ignis or Putricide and in 1/4th of the time it took us to kill Archimonde, RoS, Thorim, or LK. This does not bode so well within the argument that this xpac is hard. I use the bosses above as examples a lot when newer players start whining or sighing openly upon experiencing defeat for 2 days - 2 days is NOTHING. When we get to a boss that requires both gear and coordination, I fully expect it to take us 5 or 6 days of learning based on our experience so far, but I wouldn't say it's hard until we wiped on it for a month.
It's important for people to realize that Bosses aren't meant to fall at their feet and hand out epics (anymore) - if they were, they would not be bosses, but rather some at-level elites taking a stroll in a world of daisies and candy canes.
It's also important for people to have reasonable expectations given their level of gear and competence. If you're not in appropriate gear and don't do your best to help a group succeed, failing should be expected, not an impetus for unreasonable QQ in the forums.
2 - Helping a group succeed
There are many things you can do to make everything run smoothly. First and foremost - view heroics as training grounds for raids and normals as training grounds for heroics. Learning how to use your classes' abilities to control your environment and keep you and others alive is part and partial to your success and that of your group.
You don't have to hone these skills in Heroics, for the most part - You can (and should) practice in normals. Our new Mantra's are:
"I have an interrupt and I'm not afraid to use it"
"I have cc and I know how to use it"
"My mana is precious, I shall use it wisely"
"My cooldowns need more down time"
I'd suggest running normals until your most important abilities become second nature. No, your damage output is not your most important ability - it will always be secondary to your ability to play your class well.
The mantras really say it all.
If you are a tank, you might have an instant queue and feel a power to do whatever you want and be as much of a jerk as you want, but you are still responsible for doing what you can to help especially your healer out - you have many damage-mitigating cool downs - start using them.
If you are a healer, you are now in resource management mode. To give your group less down-time between pulls, try to be efficient - not everyone has to be at full health all of the time. 1- they won't notice and don't care as long as they don't die. 2- most pauses between pulls are for healer mana. Blizz has given healers choices as to how to use their mana. All healers have a quick heal, a big heal, an efficient heal, a group heal,etc... knowing what heal to use when is important and using your mana regaining abilities freely will make a big difference.
If you have an interrupt, keep it on cooldown to mitigate the damage going to whoever is targetted by the interruptable (thus avoidable) ability. Just because it's not usually targetting you doesn't mean you shouldn't interrupt it. It's a global cool down used for group success instead of extra dps. Nobody cares how good you look on the meters if you're not doing your job. If the tank dies because you didn't interrupt, that wipe is YOUR fault. I always thank the pugs who actually interrupt because all 3 of mine have been on cool down when I'm about to get wtf owned by some special ability - it saves my life, which, in turn, saves the group from a wipe. Lack of interrupts is a major contributor to instance difficulty. Yes,it's going to hit you for 95,000 if you don't interrupt it and 0 if you do. It's a no-brainer, yet people seem to have some aversion to using their interrupts.
Crowd Control is an obvious choice for mitigating overall damage - if it's incapacitated, it can't hurt you (or anyone else). Most CC happens before the pull, but there is no law against using it in the midst of battle. If a mob is headed for one of your group members - regardless of fault or egos, cc it. I know - if they're dead, you'll look even better on the meters, but with anyone dead, a group as a whole has less chance of succeeding. Just incapacitate the bad guy until the tank picks it up.
Aggro also has a very important spot on the helping a group succeed list, but I won't expound on it too much here (made a whole blog post about it). I'll just say this: If it's hitting you, stop hitting it and use any aggro dumps you've got. If it's about to hit you, stop hitting it. I know it's a common theme, but you will look worse on the meters if you're dead. You are just as responsible for keeping your threat in line as the tank is. Yes, the tank has 1 or 3 taunts, but they are likely on cool down if mobs are peeling off her (or him), so do what you can to survive - don't keep nuking (at that point, it's no longer even remotely the tank's fault if you die).
TLDR:
If everyone looked at pugs as an opportunity to practice placing group success over personal gratification and had appropriate gear and observation skills, they'd all be much easier. It's not the encounters, it's the people in them.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Let's Hear it for the LFG tool!
... or against.
Okay... it's not necessarily the tool itself I have come to detest, but rather a fairly large portion of those using it and taking advantage of some of it's "features."
Here are some of the more annoying occurrences I've witnessed using the LFG tool and the reasons why they occur:
Estelle - average ilvl 343 - holy priest
First, and the impetus behind this post:
queue time: 15 minutes / bosses down: 1 / Group make-up: bear, warlock, and 2 mages(all from the same guild), and me
Neither of the mages put up a table. I mean, really, how hard is it?
On each pull, one mage polymorphed one mob and the bear tank tried to pick up the other 4 mobs, but was unable to establish threat over the dps, all of whom took damage from various unmarked mobs. The tank died on 1 pull because he bit off more than he could chew (and I was busy keeping the mages from dying, figuring he'd use a cooldown if he got low or something), but other than that, nobody died despite their careless overconfidence. The boss fight went fine - didn't even dip below 80% mana. But right after the boss fight, they all dropped group.
You see... you can leave a group after a boss dies without getting a dungeon cooldown debuff, then you can immediately requeue. So people who are either trying to obtain a specific item or grinding rep can kill the most beneficial part of the dungeon then bail, leaving the person or people who actually waited in the queue without getting their valor badges - even if their performance was close to, if not absolutely, perfect. So yay for tanks and those grouped with them! They don't have to give a shit about wasting other people's time!
A couple of days ago, I joined the random queue and got Shadowfang Keep with another guild group from another server. Everything was going smoothly until the first boss, on which we wiped. Apparently, they wanted to do the achievement for that boss without bothering to tell me (the healer). I just assumed they were going to let the boss's heal tick on us once, so I wasn't panickly trying to heal people up after the asphixiation (which knocks everyone in the group down to 1 HP). Nevertheless, I had a lightwell up and a POM on the tank. My chakra had fallen off, so I didn't have chastise immediately available. Given the otherwise lack of instant heals, I cast Circle of Healing on the tank and immediately thereafter started a flash heal (1.3 second cast). The tank was dead before the Flash heal went off and obviously it went down from there. They proceeded to blame me in not-so-diplomatic phrase. This went on for about 5 minutes after which I simply asked them when their kick timers were up so they could remove me from the group (i wasn't going to leave and get a dungeon cooldown because they're inconsiderate assholes).
Solution: All they had to do was tell me before the encounter that they were doing the achievement and things would have run smoothly, but blindsiding me with it in combat then pissing and moaning about how much I suck was just way more fun (fyi - not 1 of them used any helpful sustaining abilities (hello.... cooldowns?) or clicked on the lightwell). I agree COH wasn't the most ideal spell to cast, but if I had known what they were doing, they would have gotten more than a knee-jerk reaction from me.
Okay... it's not necessarily the tool itself I have come to detest, but rather a fairly large portion of those using it and taking advantage of some of it's "features."
Here are some of the more annoying occurrences I've witnessed using the LFG tool and the reasons why they occur:
Estelle - average ilvl 343 - holy priest
First, and the impetus behind this post:
queue time: 15 minutes / bosses down: 1 / Group make-up: bear, warlock, and 2 mages(all from the same guild), and me
Neither of the mages put up a table. I mean, really, how hard is it?
On each pull, one mage polymorphed one mob and the bear tank tried to pick up the other 4 mobs, but was unable to establish threat over the dps, all of whom took damage from various unmarked mobs. The tank died on 1 pull because he bit off more than he could chew (and I was busy keeping the mages from dying, figuring he'd use a cooldown if he got low or something), but other than that, nobody died despite their careless overconfidence. The boss fight went fine - didn't even dip below 80% mana. But right after the boss fight, they all dropped group.
You see... you can leave a group after a boss dies without getting a dungeon cooldown debuff, then you can immediately requeue. So people who are either trying to obtain a specific item or grinding rep can kill the most beneficial part of the dungeon then bail, leaving the person or people who actually waited in the queue without getting their valor badges - even if their performance was close to, if not absolutely, perfect. So yay for tanks and those grouped with them! They don't have to give a shit about wasting other people's time!
A couple of days ago, I joined the random queue and got Shadowfang Keep with another guild group from another server. Everything was going smoothly until the first boss, on which we wiped. Apparently, they wanted to do the achievement for that boss without bothering to tell me (the healer). I just assumed they were going to let the boss's heal tick on us once, so I wasn't panickly trying to heal people up after the asphixiation (which knocks everyone in the group down to 1 HP). Nevertheless, I had a lightwell up and a POM on the tank. My chakra had fallen off, so I didn't have chastise immediately available. Given the otherwise lack of instant heals, I cast Circle of Healing on the tank and immediately thereafter started a flash heal (1.3 second cast). The tank was dead before the Flash heal went off and obviously it went down from there. They proceeded to blame me in not-so-diplomatic phrase. This went on for about 5 minutes after which I simply asked them when their kick timers were up so they could remove me from the group (i wasn't going to leave and get a dungeon cooldown because they're inconsiderate assholes).
Solution: All they had to do was tell me before the encounter that they were doing the achievement and things would have run smoothly, but blindsiding me with it in combat then pissing and moaning about how much I suck was just way more fun (fyi - not 1 of them used any helpful sustaining abilities (hello.... cooldowns?) or clicked on the lightwell). I agree COH wasn't the most ideal spell to cast, but if I had known what they were doing, they would have gotten more than a knee-jerk reaction from me.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Typhoon is a crappy PVE talent
Why?
It knocks mobs out of melee range, which often means the tank has to chase them down (not usually in charge range and most tanks don't have charge), which means that the tank isn't generating threat on them while they're way the hell over there still being assaulted by ranged dps. It's retarded. Glyph it or don't use it in instances. It's a great PVP talent and great on Saurfang. aside from that, it's stupid.
It knocks mobs out of melee range, which often means the tank has to chase them down (not usually in charge range and most tanks don't have charge), which means that the tank isn't generating threat on them while they're way the hell over there still being assaulted by ranged dps. It's retarded. Glyph it or don't use it in instances. It's a great PVP talent and great on Saurfang. aside from that, it's stupid.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Grouping101
I've just finished leveling my Warrior via tanking instances and I also tank at max level on a Druid, Death Knight, and a Pally, which has convinced me that neither level nor gear has much to do with how people act in a group. The new instance queue seems to have diminished most of what was left of social responsibility in groups, as people have fewer reasons to set aside their e-peens and make choices in the best interest of a group.
There are several concepts you should be aware of before grouping with other people. If you know how tanks work and make choices accordingly, you'll be a better group member and have a more speedy and successful run.
1 - Threat
Every mob keeps a list of those who have offended it in one way or another. You're on this list if you've hit it with any ability, buffed someone who hit it, pulled it from rest, been close enough in combat to be seen by the mob's abilities, etc...
Elite mobs in instances can hurt or kill you. [Enter Tank] - we employ Tanks to take a shitton of damage via gear and talents; they're easier to heal and have tools at their disposal to decrease incoming damage and otherwise enable them to survive attacks that would kill others. If you want to tank, do it in a proper spec and with proper gear. You can only mage-tank so many things at level, though most tanks will let you try, as we have a you spank it, you tank it policy.
Threat is not automatically given to the tank upon entering an instance - they must earn the attention of every group of bad guys as the instance group approaches them. Tanks don't have a 1-button massive threat generating attack that will keep the mobs interested in them for more than a second or two - they all have things they must do to ensure solid threat - especially when multiple mobs are present.
This seems to be the biggest misconception among DPS in instance groups. They assume the tank magically gets awarded massive amounts of threat and thus open up with their biggest burst spells and abilities and 95% of the DPS I've run across watch their damage meter instead of their threat meter because they're more concerned with how much damage they do than they are about the success of a group.
If a tank has to chase something down because a DPS pulls off them, they're no longer generating threat on the other mobs nor on that one, which effectively screws up the natural progression of a fight for everyone and makes the tank's job much more difficult, which in turn, makes the healer's job much more difficult.
Don't get me wrong - it's not always the DPS's fault - there are indeed crappy tanks and horrible heals out there - especially in the instance queue because lots of people are tanking or healing to get shorter queue times, not because they like to tank/heal or have some idea what they're doing or how threat works. There's enough blame for crappy groups to go around -- I prefer to not be responsible for a rough run. Don't you?
A common rule of thumb is it's okay to go full throttle after a Tank's third threat move - assuming no haste, that's 4.5 seconds into the fight. If you're going all out before then and aren't significantly undergeared, you're not doing your job.
2 - Aggro
Group members generate threat either to hurt or get aggro on mobs. Having aggro is having the attention of all surrounding mobs and is the tank's job - not anyone else's.
Keeping aggro is where things get a little hinky when DPS goes balls to the wall from the start of a fight. It's really trivial when DPS waits until you've successfully landed an attack of any sort on the mob or mobs they're attacking.
If you are not a tank and you have generated enough threat over the tank to get aggro on a mob or mobs, stop attacking and use your class abilities to drop your threat or keep yourself alive. You have them for a reason. If tanks were guaranteed aggro, nobody else would have feign, bubble, deterrence, invisibility, soul shatter, ice block, or any other self-saving abilities.
If you don't wait until the tank has established threat on the mob/mobs you want to damage, fully expect to get aggro. If you keep attacking the mob/mobs as they're moving toward you or range attack you, fully expect to keep aggro. Taunt will not keep the mob from attacking you for more than 3 seconds if you keep hitting it.
How Taunts work:
Taunt puts the tank's threat at the same level as the person who had aggro on the mob at the time of the Taunt and puts a debuff on the mob forcing it to look at the tank for 3 seconds. If you generate ANY threat on the mob and if it's not in melee range of the tank for those 3 seconds, it will turn night back around and eat your face and it will be your own fault thus your responsibility to fix it via your class abilities.
3 - Other Considerations
If you need a mana break, ask for one. Tanks should watch the healer's mana and adjust their pace accordingly. Some, however, don't show mana on their raid frames and forget to manually check. It's in the group's best interest that everyone has sufficient mana to do their jobs, so don't be afraid to ask.
If you feel the tank is moving through the instance too slowly, ask them to speed it up a bit. "GO GO GO!" is not asking. Pulling stuff for them and expecting them to pick it off you is not asking. They're not going slow to annoy you, but usually to ensure everyone is ready and some are too cautious.
Try not to go AFK in an instance, but if you do, tell the group and give them an eta for when you'll be back. Don't just say "one sec;" if you're gone more than a minute, they'll kick you and justifiably so. Say "bio - back in 2 minutes" etc... Don't expect to go afk and let the group clear the instance for you - they should kick you before a boss dies and you'll be back in the queue.
Make the group a table. It costs next to nothing and they'll love you for it.
Try not to criticize people you don't know. They don't know you either and have no reason to assume you know what you're talking about. I've seen so many lengthy conversations about classes and specs in pugs that are a pointless use of the group's time.
If you want to do a full clear or kill certain mobs for a quest, let the group know ahead of time. Don't pull the mobs you want to kill and expect the tank to take them off you or the healer to heal you.
Roll need only on loot that is an upgrade for your current gear and role. If you want to roll need on offspec loot, be prepared to trade it to the mainspec who also rolled need. I'll grant you that the instance queue makes it easy to just need on everything because there are no social ramifications of being a douche, but karma will come eat you (i hope) if you take advantage of this.
Using the LFD feature makes me feel like I've struck gold when I get a competent group. If more people understood these very basic concepts, random dungeon runs would be much quicker and smoother.
There are several concepts you should be aware of before grouping with other people. If you know how tanks work and make choices accordingly, you'll be a better group member and have a more speedy and successful run.
1 - Threat
Every mob keeps a list of those who have offended it in one way or another. You're on this list if you've hit it with any ability, buffed someone who hit it, pulled it from rest, been close enough in combat to be seen by the mob's abilities, etc...
Elite mobs in instances can hurt or kill you. [Enter Tank] - we employ Tanks to take a shitton of damage via gear and talents; they're easier to heal and have tools at their disposal to decrease incoming damage and otherwise enable them to survive attacks that would kill others. If you want to tank, do it in a proper spec and with proper gear. You can only mage-tank so many things at level, though most tanks will let you try, as we have a you spank it, you tank it policy.
Threat is not automatically given to the tank upon entering an instance - they must earn the attention of every group of bad guys as the instance group approaches them. Tanks don't have a 1-button massive threat generating attack that will keep the mobs interested in them for more than a second or two - they all have things they must do to ensure solid threat - especially when multiple mobs are present.
This seems to be the biggest misconception among DPS in instance groups. They assume the tank magically gets awarded massive amounts of threat and thus open up with their biggest burst spells and abilities and 95% of the DPS I've run across watch their damage meter instead of their threat meter because they're more concerned with how much damage they do than they are about the success of a group.
If a tank has to chase something down because a DPS pulls off them, they're no longer generating threat on the other mobs nor on that one, which effectively screws up the natural progression of a fight for everyone and makes the tank's job much more difficult, which in turn, makes the healer's job much more difficult.
Don't get me wrong - it's not always the DPS's fault - there are indeed crappy tanks and horrible heals out there - especially in the instance queue because lots of people are tanking or healing to get shorter queue times, not because they like to tank/heal or have some idea what they're doing or how threat works. There's enough blame for crappy groups to go around -- I prefer to not be responsible for a rough run. Don't you?
A common rule of thumb is it's okay to go full throttle after a Tank's third threat move - assuming no haste, that's 4.5 seconds into the fight. If you're going all out before then and aren't significantly undergeared, you're not doing your job.
2 - Aggro
Group members generate threat either to hurt or get aggro on mobs. Having aggro is having the attention of all surrounding mobs and is the tank's job - not anyone else's.
Keeping aggro is where things get a little hinky when DPS goes balls to the wall from the start of a fight. It's really trivial when DPS waits until you've successfully landed an attack of any sort on the mob or mobs they're attacking.
If you are not a tank and you have generated enough threat over the tank to get aggro on a mob or mobs, stop attacking and use your class abilities to drop your threat or keep yourself alive. You have them for a reason. If tanks were guaranteed aggro, nobody else would have feign, bubble, deterrence, invisibility, soul shatter, ice block, or any other self-saving abilities.
If you don't wait until the tank has established threat on the mob/mobs you want to damage, fully expect to get aggro. If you keep attacking the mob/mobs as they're moving toward you or range attack you, fully expect to keep aggro. Taunt will not keep the mob from attacking you for more than 3 seconds if you keep hitting it.
How Taunts work:
Taunt puts the tank's threat at the same level as the person who had aggro on the mob at the time of the Taunt and puts a debuff on the mob forcing it to look at the tank for 3 seconds. If you generate ANY threat on the mob and if it's not in melee range of the tank for those 3 seconds, it will turn night back around and eat your face and it will be your own fault thus your responsibility to fix it via your class abilities.
3 - Other Considerations
If you need a mana break, ask for one. Tanks should watch the healer's mana and adjust their pace accordingly. Some, however, don't show mana on their raid frames and forget to manually check. It's in the group's best interest that everyone has sufficient mana to do their jobs, so don't be afraid to ask.
If you feel the tank is moving through the instance too slowly, ask them to speed it up a bit. "GO GO GO!" is not asking. Pulling stuff for them and expecting them to pick it off you is not asking. They're not going slow to annoy you, but usually to ensure everyone is ready and some are too cautious.
Try not to go AFK in an instance, but if you do, tell the group and give them an eta for when you'll be back. Don't just say "one sec;" if you're gone more than a minute, they'll kick you and justifiably so. Say "bio - back in 2 minutes" etc... Don't expect to go afk and let the group clear the instance for you - they should kick you before a boss dies and you'll be back in the queue.
Make the group a table. It costs next to nothing and they'll love you for it.
Try not to criticize people you don't know. They don't know you either and have no reason to assume you know what you're talking about. I've seen so many lengthy conversations about classes and specs in pugs that are a pointless use of the group's time.
If you want to do a full clear or kill certain mobs for a quest, let the group know ahead of time. Don't pull the mobs you want to kill and expect the tank to take them off you or the healer to heal you.
Roll need only on loot that is an upgrade for your current gear and role. If you want to roll need on offspec loot, be prepared to trade it to the mainspec who also rolled need. I'll grant you that the instance queue makes it easy to just need on everything because there are no social ramifications of being a douche, but karma will come eat you (i hope) if you take advantage of this.
Using the LFD feature makes me feel like I've struck gold when I get a competent group. If more people understood these very basic concepts, random dungeon runs would be much quicker and smoother.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
post in progress
A year ago, my objectivity and unfettered dedication to run a casual hardcore guild ended. During the 10 months to follow, we hung on by the very thin lines of connect thrown out by a very small minority of dedicated hardcore gamers. Toward the end of my jaunt as guild leader, my primary motivation for logging in was to prove a few people wrong -- you know how i am about proving stupid people wrong, right? After i felt satisfied in the completion of this goal, the only things holding me there were the connections i thought i had to several people. Enter Dee (the voice of reason)... he started planting seeds of truth and clarity. People in the guild watered these seeds so well, they grew record heights in record time. I really knew very little about the people with whom i played this game. I kept trying to forge real connections to them, but most of them spurned my advances, leaving me with little to cling to. If i want fake fake friends, i'll go to a role playing server and be someone completely different. I'm a stay at home mom with so few connections to people in real life; i feel a need to have real conversations with people over the age of 6 and honesty is required.
Every lie is wasted time and my time is worth more that which i was getting from the guild there at the end. Those who we put in charge were annoying the shit out of me, but being that we didn't want the job and none of the other people we asked wanted it either, we felt like the best thing to do was to just let them continue on their own path without us. While this was our goal in the first place, we were really hoping to be able to at least feel proud of instilling good values and management practices in people. As it turned out, the new guild is mismanaged (by our definitions) and it's people are mistreated. Some key people have left because of it and several others are there for lack of something better or out of perceived obligation (which i know all too well), which makes me very sad.
Anyway, we distanced ourselves from wow and are slowly creeping back into it -- me a bit more slowly than dee. We're in a bit of an odd place right now... Most of the people we like playing with and feel connected to are in the guild that our guild became after we left, but even if they did want us back, their raiding hours simply won't work for us and neither of us are convinced we'd be treated fairly. The hours didn't work when we were the ones who made the hours and they've made them a half hour worse since then nd i've already been treated unfairly, so if we decide to join a guild, it's highly likely to not be obsidian. As tab has said numerous times, the guild you're in has little or no bearing on who your friends are. We need to find a guild (preferably on skywall) with later raiding hours and fair and transparent leadership. Will the people we consider friends still consider us friends if we don't join their guild? Would it be better for us to just fly solo if we decide to again make wow a part of our lives so as to not cause any upset?
Meh... after having just typed that out, the answer is clear... who the hell cares?! If they are our friends, they'll understand that the raiding hours don't work for us and will still call on us for friend stuff... the'll only get all huffy if they're selfish bastages :) Thanks for helping me with that.
(not spell checked. typed on laptop. may fix later)
Every lie is wasted time and my time is worth more that which i was getting from the guild there at the end. Those who we put in charge were annoying the shit out of me, but being that we didn't want the job and none of the other people we asked wanted it either, we felt like the best thing to do was to just let them continue on their own path without us. While this was our goal in the first place, we were really hoping to be able to at least feel proud of instilling good values and management practices in people. As it turned out, the new guild is mismanaged (by our definitions) and it's people are mistreated. Some key people have left because of it and several others are there for lack of something better or out of perceived obligation (which i know all too well), which makes me very sad.
Anyway, we distanced ourselves from wow and are slowly creeping back into it -- me a bit more slowly than dee. We're in a bit of an odd place right now... Most of the people we like playing with and feel connected to are in the guild that our guild became after we left, but even if they did want us back, their raiding hours simply won't work for us and neither of us are convinced we'd be treated fairly. The hours didn't work when we were the ones who made the hours and they've made them a half hour worse since then nd i've already been treated unfairly, so if we decide to join a guild, it's highly likely to not be obsidian. As tab has said numerous times, the guild you're in has little or no bearing on who your friends are. We need to find a guild (preferably on skywall) with later raiding hours and fair and transparent leadership. Will the people we consider friends still consider us friends if we don't join their guild? Would it be better for us to just fly solo if we decide to again make wow a part of our lives so as to not cause any upset?
Meh... after having just typed that out, the answer is clear... who the hell cares?! If they are our friends, they'll understand that the raiding hours don't work for us and will still call on us for friend stuff... the'll only get all huffy if they're selfish bastages :) Thanks for helping me with that.
(not spell checked. typed on laptop. may fix later)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Prepared for WTLK
So, here's what i've done so far in prep for the expansion:
Estelle:
Got the quintessential T6 pieces for her shadow set which will look hot until 80 (the non-visible pieces might change (/cry).
Got a healing set that looks pristine and shiny (again, will look swank until 80).
Worked a little on her honor. might do more, but i doubt it.
Kept her professions (tailoring/jewelcrafting).
Cecelia:
Leveled from 0-70. Got her epic flight form (it's wonderful).
Maxed her professions (mining, herbing, cooking, fishing)
Worked a bit on her honor. will definitely do more. would like her to have the max since she won't be instancing as much as est, so staying current will be more difficult.
Desmadona:
Dropped herbing.
Maxed inscription (well... 365 i think, since all patterns are green atm).
Endora:
Dropped mining.
Maxed enchanting (omg what a pain in the ass and wallet).
Blue:
Leveled to 60.
Deciding if my time would be best spent leveling this toon to 70 or working on max honor for my druid. Unfortunately, I don't really have time for both.
This toon will be an alchemist and... what else is missing from my tradeskill list? Blacksmithing? fat chance. Will wait to see what BOP craftables work best for this toon.
Would like to do dailies on at least 2 toons a day, so i can have the funds to buy up all the underpriced mats from the auction house in early LK like i did in early BC. Not sure if i'll have time to do so, but i'll try.
That's about it.
ciao.
oh... and we did kill archie before the nerf, so that felt good. We got illidan post-nerf. He's still a fun fight, but i would have much prefered more of a challenge.
Estelle:
Got the quintessential T6 pieces for her shadow set which will look hot until 80 (the non-visible pieces might change (/cry).
Got a healing set that looks pristine and shiny (again, will look swank until 80).
Worked a little on her honor. might do more, but i doubt it.
Kept her professions (tailoring/jewelcrafting).
Cecelia:
Leveled from 0-70. Got her epic flight form (it's wonderful).
Maxed her professions (mining, herbing, cooking, fishing)
Worked a bit on her honor. will definitely do more. would like her to have the max since she won't be instancing as much as est, so staying current will be more difficult.
Desmadona:
Dropped herbing.
Maxed inscription (well... 365 i think, since all patterns are green atm).
Endora:
Dropped mining.
Maxed enchanting (omg what a pain in the ass and wallet).
Blue:
Leveled to 60.
Deciding if my time would be best spent leveling this toon to 70 or working on max honor for my druid. Unfortunately, I don't really have time for both.
This toon will be an alchemist and... what else is missing from my tradeskill list? Blacksmithing? fat chance. Will wait to see what BOP craftables work best for this toon.
Would like to do dailies on at least 2 toons a day, so i can have the funds to buy up all the underpriced mats from the auction house in early LK like i did in early BC. Not sure if i'll have time to do so, but i'll try.
That's about it.
ciao.
oh... and we did kill archie before the nerf, so that felt good. We got illidan post-nerf. He's still a fun fight, but i would have much prefered more of a challenge.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Panic mode (rant)
In my guild, people are in large part in pre-xpac panic mode.
They're worried about what titles they have and don't have. Imo, if it was important to have, they'd already have it. Instead, they make comments in guild chat about how "this guild doesn't want to do anything to help people get their titles," indicating that it makes perfect sense to them to ask 24 other people to help them, when they can't even get 5 to go run a heroic because everyone is too busy preparing for the end of BC.
They're worried about how much honor they have. Grinding to 75k to find out all honor is getting wiped. They freak and cry a lot to find out it's not getting wiped. It's all good. This is actually one of my goals, but i have so many other things i'd like to finish that i doubt i'll have the requisite time to lose AV a thousand times.
They're dropping their current professions and leveling new ones in anticipation of what's to come. This annoys me because my profession options for my priest are Tailoring (current), Leatherworking, or Inscription and they haven't allowed tailors to level in the alpha so we can see what the tailor sets are going to be like. I am unable at this time to make an educated decision about which profession would be best for my #2, so... i've picked all the herbs nec. to level inscription in case that will be the profession of my choice. I figure, if it's not, i can probably rake in some gold from all the other inscription wannabe's.
They're trying to sell everything in their banks (though, they are a bit late for that) to make as much from their stashes as possible before everything they have is deemed worthless except by the very few people who will lend any merit to previous-xpac stuff. There are a handful of people who firmly believe all of their LPSs and primals will be worth a killing after nobody is farming them anymore. I disagree, but who am i to interrupt their quiet time on their fluffy white cloud?
They've stopped raiding to some degree. I'm extremely annoyed at anyone who stops raiding because an xpac is on it's way. It speaks volumes about their priorities, dedication, and personality. I absolutely intend on excluding every person who has stopped raiding from our lvl 80 endgame progression. No slackers needed (or wanted). Buh Bye.
They're leveling alts so as to shorten the path to 80 for the toons they plan to level to max to either become their PVE main, PVP main, or support toon.
They're playing in the beta or PTR because they're anxious to find out how their class will work in the xpac or to give themselves a perceived upper hand. I myself have no interest in seeing the content in a broken state. I'm annoyed at all the QQing going on about classes which are still being tweaked. Granted, that QQing might result in appropriate (or inappropriate) changes in thier final pass throughs.
All-in-all, people are crazy busy preparing for upcoming changes to their class, nerfs to current content, and new content.
I am no exception to most of the above (with the exception of not raiding - because i'm not a putz).
Here's my pre-xpac wish list:
1) level my druid
(current progress - lvl 66)
2) level my druid's professions (fishing, cooking, herbing, and mining) to 375
(current progress - 225, 325, 300, 0)
3) obtain my druid's epic flight form
3) grind 75k honor on my main
(current progress - 134)
4) kill archimonde (preferably this week before the pre-xpac patch)
(current progress - 22%)
5) analyze raid participation of our current members and demote/remove those who have no moral fiber to speak of.
6) dump close to everything in the guild bank
(current progress - 50% done)
7) level inscription on my mage (if i don't need her to farm any more, may as well give her an extra glyph eh? Might consider leveling enchanting isntead to make me completely 100% self-sufficient, but... yea.... yuck)
8) level alchemy on my pally (druid will take over the herbing (i can herb in form. woot!), and my husband is slow making pots)
They're worried about what titles they have and don't have. Imo, if it was important to have, they'd already have it. Instead, they make comments in guild chat about how "this guild doesn't want to do anything to help people get their titles," indicating that it makes perfect sense to them to ask 24 other people to help them, when they can't even get 5 to go run a heroic because everyone is too busy preparing for the end of BC.
They're worried about how much honor they have. Grinding to 75k to find out all honor is getting wiped. They freak and cry a lot to find out it's not getting wiped. It's all good. This is actually one of my goals, but i have so many other things i'd like to finish that i doubt i'll have the requisite time to lose AV a thousand times.
They're dropping their current professions and leveling new ones in anticipation of what's to come. This annoys me because my profession options for my priest are Tailoring (current), Leatherworking, or Inscription and they haven't allowed tailors to level in the alpha so we can see what the tailor sets are going to be like. I am unable at this time to make an educated decision about which profession would be best for my #2, so... i've picked all the herbs nec. to level inscription in case that will be the profession of my choice. I figure, if it's not, i can probably rake in some gold from all the other inscription wannabe's.
They're trying to sell everything in their banks (though, they are a bit late for that) to make as much from their stashes as possible before everything they have is deemed worthless except by the very few people who will lend any merit to previous-xpac stuff. There are a handful of people who firmly believe all of their LPSs and primals will be worth a killing after nobody is farming them anymore. I disagree, but who am i to interrupt their quiet time on their fluffy white cloud?
They've stopped raiding to some degree. I'm extremely annoyed at anyone who stops raiding because an xpac is on it's way. It speaks volumes about their priorities, dedication, and personality. I absolutely intend on excluding every person who has stopped raiding from our lvl 80 endgame progression. No slackers needed (or wanted). Buh Bye.
They're leveling alts so as to shorten the path to 80 for the toons they plan to level to max to either become their PVE main, PVP main, or support toon.
They're playing in the beta or PTR because they're anxious to find out how their class will work in the xpac or to give themselves a perceived upper hand. I myself have no interest in seeing the content in a broken state. I'm annoyed at all the QQing going on about classes which are still being tweaked. Granted, that QQing might result in appropriate (or inappropriate) changes in thier final pass throughs.
All-in-all, people are crazy busy preparing for upcoming changes to their class, nerfs to current content, and new content.
I am no exception to most of the above (with the exception of not raiding - because i'm not a putz).
Here's my pre-xpac wish list:
1) level my druid
(current progress - lvl 66)
2) level my druid's professions (fishing, cooking, herbing, and mining) to 375
(current progress - 225, 325, 300, 0)
3) obtain my druid's epic flight form
3) grind 75k honor on my main
(current progress - 134)
4) kill archimonde (preferably this week before the pre-xpac patch)
(current progress - 22%)
5) analyze raid participation of our current members and demote/remove those who have no moral fiber to speak of.
6) dump close to everything in the guild bank
(current progress - 50% done)
7) level inscription on my mage (if i don't need her to farm any more, may as well give her an extra glyph eh? Might consider leveling enchanting isntead to make me completely 100% self-sufficient, but... yea.... yuck)
8) level alchemy on my pally (druid will take over the herbing (i can herb in form. woot!), and my husband is slow making pots)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Perhaps I'll Blog Here...
... one day.
For now, suffice it to say that I've deleted my old blog, which was primarily a bunch of nonsense about how much i thought my life sucked and who was to blame for it. While i still take very little responsibility for the state of my past life, it's just that: the past.
I'm hoping one day I'll feel motivated enough to blog here about warcraft. The main obstacle to doing so is that I'd really rather be playing it than writing about what I'd rather be doing.
In a nutshell, though, warcraft came to me late at night in a hotel room when my choices were to watch some lame movie via the hotel's pay per view movie channel or give warcraft a shot. I chose warcraft and haven't looked back. Leveled a toon of every class except hunter. Tried out every spec of those i played. Ended up with a paladin, who i miss dearly at times. When BC came out, I rolled horde to appease my husband's desire to do fancy spins. This time, I rolled a priest, which was a thundering epiphany for me, as it's easily the best class in the game (how did i not know this?). Every spec is wonderful. While I occasionally feel trapped, I will never shelf my priest. She's just too damn fun.
For now, suffice it to say that I've deleted my old blog, which was primarily a bunch of nonsense about how much i thought my life sucked and who was to blame for it. While i still take very little responsibility for the state of my past life, it's just that: the past.
I'm hoping one day I'll feel motivated enough to blog here about warcraft. The main obstacle to doing so is that I'd really rather be playing it than writing about what I'd rather be doing.
In a nutshell, though, warcraft came to me late at night in a hotel room when my choices were to watch some lame movie via the hotel's pay per view movie channel or give warcraft a shot. I chose warcraft and haven't looked back. Leveled a toon of every class except hunter. Tried out every spec of those i played. Ended up with a paladin, who i miss dearly at times. When BC came out, I rolled horde to appease my husband's desire to do fancy spins. This time, I rolled a priest, which was a thundering epiphany for me, as it's easily the best class in the game (how did i not know this?). Every spec is wonderful. While I occasionally feel trapped, I will never shelf my priest. She's just too damn fun.
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