I am not a dedicated raider, but I love raiding. Since I can never commit to the raiding schedules that guilds require of their raiders, I am in a constant state of pugging. When I'm not actively in a pug, I am scanning the trade channel looking for one that will have all the qualities required to be successful- gear, experience, patience, and maybe a little bit of luck. When I find such a group, I'm ecstatic. But more often than not, I face group after group of impatient, inexperienced, and under geared scrubs who simply want to be carried to the final boss so they can get their [EPIC LOOT] Those groups often end in a way that everyone who has ever pugged is familiar with- people getting frustrated and leaving. But every now and then, there is a group that fails so bad, the fail is almost a win, in and of itself, for being such a unique level of fail.

Those are the groups this blog is about.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Wait.... what?

That screenshot is fairly self explanatory. Doesn't even need a caption. You know a picture's good when it doesn't need a caption.

Sometimes I get in PUGs where people say the damnedest things. Gotta do a double take cause whatever they said was either so stupid, or so unrelated to the current conversation that I get a little "WTF?" bubble above my head IRL.

The situation that prompted this post happened in one of the new dungeons- the ones that feel the the dungeons did at the end of Wrath. The group was fairly decent, aside from being on the low end of dps and the tank facing the demons towards the group. I was healing, so the entire group taking about half their HP in damage every 15 or seconds was a bit annoying. After the first few times, I moved myself behind them so I could focus on the group and not myself. Anyhow, then somebody was all "hey, tank is out-dpsing the dps- lol!"

You can see what happened from there. When I attempted to explain how to not damage the whole group, he responded with "there not dragons".

...what?

Who cares if they're not dragons? It's a mechanic. You see wave of pewpew killing everyone, you turn whatever critter away from the group, even if it's a squirrel.*
Especially THIS squirrel.
*Exceptions of course being that one guy in that one raid where the wave needs to be split by the entire raid in order to survive.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Live fail feed!

For those of you who keep up, you'll know that I'm in a new guild. Really pew-pew paced and whatnot. My group was having issues and somebody, not sure who, thought up "hey, what if we feed it to the rest of the guild for constructive criticism and feedback and whatnot."

A few people kinda mumbled something about "maybe we'll try it out." I made that video guide awhile back and knew that my comp could handle making a video without lagging, so why not stream one? I screwed around with xfire for a bit, with terrible fail results, and went back to google. Google presented me with www.livestream.com. Pretty cool little tool. Free, too. After fiddling around with it a bit(it doesn't like dual monitors) I got it to work.

I now present you a nice little live feed, whenever I feel like streaming it. It's low quality, but if you're sitting here camping my stream, then deal with it.

Monday, December 12, 2011

SWTOR vs. WOW

SWTOR has lightsabers. End of story. Here's to hoping this doesn't turn out to be another Rift.
Don't get me wrong, Rift was fun, I enjoyed the time I spent there. But it didn't manage to hold me. In fact, I was back to wow within two months. When I was playing it, I just felt like something was missing. I still, to this day, don't know what it was. No idea.

But Star Wars... Star Wars has potential. Forget that I'm a complete Star Wars fangirl. Forget that I've been yearning for an awesome Star Wars game. Galaxies didn't cut it. We're not even gonna talk about galaxies. SWTOR: I got my beta invite, and I was having a blast. I tried a bunch of different classes and was just enjoying the hell out of them all. The starting areas and story lines are amazing. When playing it, it feels like a mmorpg, but it also feels like MY story. The game makes you feel like this is YOUR adventure. There's one small detail that I really liked and that, again, made it feel like it was "all about me": The crawl. Occasionally, on a loading screen, the star wars crawl popped up, and it was about me and my adventures. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!

...I was excited.

Still am. I'm so antsy for the game to come out. I feel like a fat kid outside a cake store right before they open. I feel like I do when I'm at the front of the line at Blizzcon right before they open the doors.
Fingers crossed that SWTOR measures up and delivers!

Monday, December 5, 2011

4.3

I couldn't find a cool picture, so here's the new paladin tier. It's so fucking ugly. Thank god for transmog.


So 4.3 hit. Lot of stuff to do. A LOT. There's, what, 5 new dungeons? Or something like that. I dunno. Transmog- thats fun, but it won't let me transmog my lightsaber for my sword. Made me /sadface a bit. Soul bank or whatever the fuck it's called. I haven't even fiddled with that yet. Raid finder. Did that the other day- more on that later. Oh right, and last but not least, the new raid- Dragon Soul. woo!

...When you read that whole paragraph up there, be sure to punctuate it a lot with sarcasm.

Back to what I said before: 4.3 hit. I left one shitty guild shortly before... Like, two or three weeks before. It was terrible, I'll spare you the details. Hell, I didn't just leave the guild, I left the whole fucking server. Never go to Ner'zul. Ever.
New guild is fun (queue obligatory brown-nosing in case any of them discover the internet) and I got into one of their raid groups as a MT. 4.3 hit and I was supposed to go but something happened and they had enough tanks without me so I got to sit bench.

This is not about benching- I really don't mind, especially since I hadn't studied.
*LE GASP* I know.
When patches and stuff hit, and the guild you're in is kinda competitive about killing shit, you're supposed to study and be ready to kick ass and take names. I totally did not do that. But like I said, I was benched, so no biggie. Kinda glad for it, too. I think they mighta been a bit mad if they tried to pull me in and I was all "eeerrrrr... so guys, you know when you said to study... you meant study kama sutra, right?"
It's all water under the bridge now, anyways. I googled. This week I'll be all prepared and whatnot.

During the first week of the patch (last week) I went and did the raid finder with a bunch of guildies... It was therein that they deduced&discovered that I hadn't studied. I had watched like... the first three, and then the last two... but the ones in between... no idea. Anywho, they asked me some question about a shaman boss and I was all "dduuurrrr...." at which point I realized that I looked like kinda a tard when the guild leader called me out for not being prepared when I was benched, but could have been called in. To be fair... It's not really a shaman. Just sayin.

Anyways, besides that, sometime that day it was mentioned in guild chat that people were totally exploiting by using the raid finder thing. Dunno how, some weird combo of DCing, relogging, dancing nekid under a full moon, etc. But they were using this exploit to get their gear pimped out and then go down deathwing.
And, rumor goes, it's a bunch of the TOP raiding guilds doing this!

First off- where did they even find the time to discover this exploit? Shouldn't they be glued to their chairs, in dragon soul, grinding relentlessly against the forces of evil in order to come out world first or server first or whatever?
Secondly- They're a top guild... don't they have any integrity with their kills? It like hiting a 20 point buck with your truck, and telling people you shot it from three miles away. Yeah, the bitch is dead and mounted on a freekin wall, but you still lied and now your truck is jacked up.
Thirdly! Exploits have come and gone. and EVERY time a guild has used em, their goodies have been stripped, and some of em even got banned. Did they not consider that at all? ....Dumbasses.


Edited to add- I totally forgot. The new 5 mans are fucking amazing.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Already not making progress!


What with the current content becoming easier and easier to farm(yay nerfs!) more people are getting their dungeons confused. They're doing one on Tuesday, and then trying desperately to do it again on Wednesday. And again on Thursday. And Friday. You get my drift.

People who are already saved to dungeons seem to be totally oblivious to the effect that their save has on a new group that they're trying to run with. And they seem to be unfailingly unable to admit their mistake and leave. They prefer instead to linger, looking to their left and right as though they're innocent of any wrongdoing and believe somebody else Must be the culprit... Just like the guy who busts ass in an inclosed space.

Allow me to run you through a couple scenarios:


Scenario 1
Guy1: uhm... guys.... says the dungeon is already started?
TheRager:  I thought this was a fresh run? WTF! I didn't come for a run that's already started. OMG!
RaidLead: It is a fresh run. Who's saved?
Crickets: Chirp, chirp, chirp.
RaidLead: C'mon guys, check you /raidinfo. If you're saved leave.
Crickets: Chirp
Guy2: Hey, I did 25 earlier, that doesn't save me to 10 right?
TheRager: /NERDRAGE

Scenario 2
Guy1: uhm... guys.... says the dungeon is already started?
TheRager:  I thought this was a fresh run? WTF! I didn't come for a run that's already started. OMG!

RaidLead: It is a fresh run. Who's saved?
Crickets: Chirp, chirp, chirp.
RaidLead: C'mon guys, check you /raidinfo. If you're saved leave.
Crickets: Chirp
RaidLead: Everyone open their /raidinfo. See if you're saved. Press yes If you're not saved
ReadyCheck: I am ready to go! Everyone pressed yes lets rock this shit! WOOO!!!
Raidlead: Ok, somebody is still saved. Everyone look in your raidinfo
Guy2-7: We already looked we're not saved.
TheRager: OOMMMMMGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!q!!!!!!!!!WTF!!!!!!!  /leavegroup
Guy2-7: /leavegroup
RaidLead: omg /facepalm /leavegroup
Guy9: *whispers* Oh shit... That was me. >.>   Nobody noticed. It's cool. /leavegroup



That's pretty much how that's gonna go down. I have occasionally seen somebody do a type of readycheck for raidsaves using dbm, but I don't know how to do that myself. Here's to hoping blizz will implement some way for raidleaders to check the saves of their raid members.

Friday, September 16, 2011

The post 85 JP grind

So you hit 85 and you're ready to raid! But you have no gear. None. Ok, maybe you have a couple pieces of JP gear from doing dungeons before you could spend them. And a couple crafted pieces. But you've got nowhere near the gear you'll need to start raiding.

Unless your guild loves you, or is generally incredibly helpful to new 85's, it is time to beat your face against the PUG machine for awhile.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Poppin Cherries

Since I don't have any cool pictures for this one:
Here's a frog wearing a mask.






I love popping cherries. Noob cherries. You'll start an instance and then "hey guys! first time here!". There are a couple responses to that:
  • "Son of a bitch!"
  • /dc
  • "strats, strats, strats"
  • /facedesk
It really depends on the mood you're in, and the kind of run you were hoping for. If you joined ZA to get your shiny mount, you're probably going /facedesk for awhile. If you're feeling gracious, and are in a fairly relaxed mood, not really caring about loot and whatnot, you'll be more the type to give advise and whatnot.

...whether they take your tips to stay out of the fire, that's up to them.

Another cherry to pop is the sneaky cherry. They won't tell ANYONE they have no idea what they're doing. Until maybe the fourth or fifth wipe. They're gonna creep along, hoping they're in the right place at the right time, and watch as the healer gets charged twice by bear boss. All the while wondering why the healer didn't just get out of the way. Those types of cherries tend to bring forth one of these responses:
  • "Son of a bitch!"
  • /dc
  • "strats, strats, strats"
  • As stated before, there's always /facedesk, which looks kinda like this "ffggfvgdhhchbshsdvgv".

Monday, July 25, 2011

Why girls don't play wow

Really, guys, really?
In reality, we do play. There's a lot of us who play and we're pretty decent, too. We just don't tell you that we play. There's a reason, too. Lots of reasons, actually.
  • Why don't you get back in the kitchen?
  • Where's mah sammich?!
  • Well, yeah. you're a girl, but you must be some hideous beast living in your parents basement.
  • You're not really a girl- you're just some creep using voice changing software.
  • Tits or gtfo!
  • Where do you live?
  • How big are your tits?
  • Do you have a boyfriend?
  • *heavy mouth breathing*
Do any of those sound familiar?

We don't tell you boys we're girls because when we do we get bombarded by the above. We don't get it from all of you, probably not even from a majority. But the ones who do say that crap are so annoying that it sticks.
Like this guy:
Just makes you think.... wtf?
Thank goodness, that cretin was kicked out of the guild like... less than an hour later.

Imo, you guys take the whole "anonymity on the internet" thing way too seriously. Just because you're behind a screen doesn't mean that behaving like an asshole is acceptable. Some of the things you boys say... if you were really so stupid as to say them in real life to a girl, do you think that your jackassery is somehow going to make her like you?

Seriously?
Hell. The shit you guys say to try and be funny isn't even something close knit groups say to each other, much less random strangers.
Yes. It's creepy.
It's not funny. It's not ironic. It's not even vaguely entertaining. Highlighting the fact that you are a total social imbecile isn't even vaguely humorous. It's sad, pathetic, annoying, and yes- creepy.

So the next time you get pugged with a girl, or discover that one of your guildmates is female, reign in your immaturity, resist the urge to ask for naked pictures, and just say hello. You'll get a lot further being polite than being creepy.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Paladin Tanking Mathmetica's

Not really a pug post. At all. Just wanted to make this article from Ferocious Inspiration easy to access. http://www.ferociousinspiration.net/2011/01/prot-paladin-tanking-field-manual.html

Stats for Threat 
Hit capped at 8%, Expertise soft capped at 26. Then stack stamina over strength because not only does more Stamina mean more life, it means a higher top-end for Vengeance. Note: This is only for threat, mitigation should be the first thing you look at.



Hit <> Expertise <> Stamina <> Strength

Stats for Avoidance/Mitigation
With there being no real issue with threat at the moment, avoidance and mitigation to the 102.4% block cap is now the new recommended function. Do not reforge your mastery into hit even if you are not hit capped, you only need 2% hit. The above is a fast and dirty representation of the stat weighting, but there is really much to it.

The block cap is calculated as;
Dodge % + Block % + Parry % + 5%(automatic miss chance by all mobs) = 102.4%
In the game you can run this macro.
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 combat table coverage. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5))
What “combat table coverage” means is that there is a base chance mobs can hit you. If you get your total avoidance/mitigation up to 102.4% “normal hit” drops off of the table meaning the only thing a physical attack can do is be dodged, parried, or blocked, in that order. So if your stats are 20% dodge, 20% parry, and 40% block your percentage would be: 20 + 20 + 40 + 5 = 85% This leaves a 17.4% chance that a mob will get a “normal hit” on you with no reduced damage other than what you get from your armor and talents. This also means that if you have 112.4% avoidance you are wasting stats because the block cap stops at 102.4%. Anything past it does not count for anything unless you get a debuff reducing your chance to dodge/parry/block.

Diminishing returns occurs when you hit a certain percentage of a stat which is called a “soft cap.” At the soft cap and above each point of said stats will be worth less and less. At some point the return on a single point will be worth much less than using that point in another stat. This creates balance and helps to combat stat "stacking".

For the application of protection paladins, dodge and parry now suffer from the same diminishing returns so they are equal in terms of avoidance. If you have a choice put points into the lowest of the two, remembering though that strength also adds attack power and parry so it might make a better choice

For protection paladins this might surprise you but the soft cap against mastery is 10% dodge or Parry. Most of us will have more than this, but above 10% you can reforge dodge and parry into mastery and GAIN mitigation. You even out damage by getting to the 102.4% making it easier on everyone.
Actual percentage where mastery is better than parry. 10.139%
Actual percentage where mastery is better than dodge. 10.5182%
So the couple of questions you need to ask yourself for avoidance and mitigation. What are your current stats? Strength gives parry at the rate of 27% of strength over base level 85 strength.

Mastery<>Dodge/Parry<> Strength

Follow this weighting until block cap is reached.

How They All Unfold
In the end you still want the same three things, just now in a different order, look for block capping THEN worry about your threat stats.

Block cap<>Hit cap<>Expertise cap
Mastery<>Dodge/Parry <> Hit <> Stamina <> Expertise capped 
Never trade hit for expertise. The expertise hard cap is 56 so that gives you plenty to shoot for and replace strength for stamina as your gear puts you above the block cap.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Hating Huntards

ahhh... So many of my articles surround huntards. It's because I love to hate huntards. We all love to hate them. Their pets run amok, pulling critters that you didn't even know the dungeon held. They're given the option to need on practically every piece of gear, and they do. And feign death, ooooo, feign death. They've got that repair bill avoidance hack that they just milk the shit out of.

They're like the red-headed stepchild of all the wow classes. You almost want to lock them in a cupboard under the stairs.

As much as I would love to write another article slamming huntards, this article isn't going to be it. This one is about the people who unfailingly Hate huntards. Don't get me wrong! I totally understand the hating of huntards. They deserve it and have it coming to them.
But. There is occasionally, a time when a hunter does something normal, something that anyone else would do, and they are bitched at, simply because of their huntardness.
In particular, this is about loot, and the needing thereof.

Huntards are special, in that they can roll /need on pretty much anything. Except wands. I don't think they can need on wands. But I could be mistaken. Anyways, huntards can roll on pretty much everything. Most often, they do. Str/Stam/Spirit/Int/Dodge... whatever. They'll roll on /need on it, cause they can.They even come up with Awesome crackpot reasons why they "need" said item.
Like This Guy!
 But the best crackpot reason ever? When they actually need it for an upgrade. And when it's actually a hunter item. /le gasp That.... happens?! Yes, people. It may be as rare as a wow geek* getting laid, but it does occasionally happen. And people who have become stuck in the "I hate huntards" vortex freak the fuck out.
The lol-guy. One ninja'd item away from going postal.
They're just shocked, shocked to their very core that a hunter dared to /need on something that they wanted as well. Hell, they'll freak out even when it's something they didn't want. Why? because people love to hate huntards.




*- Atypical stereotype wow geek. IE:













































































































Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Achievement Whores

I'm an achievement whore. I love the little noise it makes, I love the bright flash, the little square at the bottom center of my screen, I love that it announces to everyone nearby exactly how awesome I am. Hell, on my priest, I even worked my butt off for achievements that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. (Just my priest... more than that would take Forever!) I'll harass my guildmates to pull together just so we can go kill some critter in a fabulous manner that's a complete pain in the ass.

What I don't do is harass pugs to attempt that same kill. Because it's a pug. They're innately totally incapable of that nonsense. It's in their blood and everything. (This is, of course, simply referring to your average pug. All you fuckers who get grouped with people who can talk, chew gum, and get out of the fire at the same time, I hate you.)

So this run I'm in the other day, some twit had already annoyed the hell outa me, bitching and moaning about some buff he wanted really, really bad, so he could pretend he was cool by being just a bit closer to the top of the dps meters. But I digress. We get to some boss, I don't even remember which one, and he's all "lets go fer duh achiev, guyz! Mage! Hit your time warp asap!"

Now, I already did my assessment of the group, and it just was not an achievement group. A couple people got hit by things, a couple people weren't where they needed to be, and nobody was freeking icing a single damned monster, and most of all, the dps wasn't where it needed to be(mine included, whatev) It just wasn't an achievement group. I told him no, and that we would be doing it regular... We start the fight, and he tries to get the achievement all by himself- by not contributing to what the group as a whole was doing. We finished the fight pretty well, if a little sloppily, and started to the next boss.
The achievement whore then piped up with "we woulda had it if the mage had used time warp when I said".

Back to what I was ranting about- there are achievement groups, and there aren't. The chances of finding one in your guild, or even on your own server are infinitely better than finding one in a pug.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Huntards

So I finally got back into pugging after my break. To be fair, it's not really pugging, since I'm not doing it with my mains. I'm only doing it with alts. But you know what? It still counts.

Anyhow. I got another group with an awesome little gem in it. a Hunter. Really, I need say no more. That, by itself, is more than sufficient to complete this article and close out the post. But I thought I'd go ahead and explain.
Huntards...
The huntard in question was pulling... well, it's SFK. His damage was adequate for the level he was, the gear he had, and the dungeon we were doing.

But, on the second boss, he decided to jack the ring that dropped. The healer then squared him away, and he gave, without question, THE BEST EXCUSE EVER for ninja-ing an item.

"if that ring don't qualify fer me you should get in contact with blizz. they fucked up and wrote the code where i can click need"
I was amazed. Sometimes when somebody jacks something, they come up with some fun little explanation or just bail out asap. This guy though. I keep re-reading it and it just brings a smile to my face.

Oh yeah, the guy did bugger off right after I called him a huntard. We got somebody else and rocked a couple more dungeons with that group.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Ungrateful Git

Sometimes, you just gotta be grateful for what you get, because at least you're not stuck with nothing.
Although if you're this guy, you actually are stuck with nothing.

So I was meandering through Utgarde Keep at a decent pace when one of the DPS had to go- something about framerates.
No worries- the tank and heals are there, so picking up a DPS from the queue was really quick.

Some people join a group and say hi, some don't talk at all. Whatever. Then the first thing that *this* guy does is bitch about it not being a "fresh" run. Half joking, I threw up a kick vote, reason- "Ungrateful Git" and then nearly died laughing when the rest of the group agreed and voted his ass out in less than half a second.

Now, this is probably obvious, but DPS really has no reason to bitch that their queue popped. Even if you get into the dungeon when the group is on the very last boss. Your queue popped, you're getting XP, and a chance at loot. Not to mention, some groups stick together at the finish of a dungeon and do a couple more.

In conclusion... LOLz when the rest of the group agreed with me and kicked him out. Not only did he have to wait for the queue to get in our group, but then he got kicked out, and had to wait for the queue for his next group.
That's what you get.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Another one bites the dust...

Rift was ok to start, very pretty.... but it didn't hold me. I'm back to bitching about wow pugs.


And all is normal in the world again.

Learning Again

A new game came out: Rift. I'll be honest, I didn't even know what it was until somebody mentioned it to me. Then I googled and was pretty amazed, because it actually looked fairly decent. I've shopped around for alternatives to wow before, but never really found anything. Games were just lacking in general, had poor support, shitty graphics, or an unsatisfactory population. I've always ended up going back to wow.

Rift though... Rift might take the place of wow for me. I'm loving the graphics, the character options, the world events that incorporate everyone of every level. The environment is...acceptable. There will always be trolls, but overall, the playerbase seems slightly more mature than wow.

So now I'm learning this new game. There's always a learning curve, but Rift doesn't really seem to have an exceptionally steep curve. And, since it did just come out, nearly everybody else is on the same curve.

Here's to hoping Rift lasts :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the PUGly



There are groups that are so fantastical, it's like those little walkways in the airport. You just sail along, zipping past the people sitting waiting for their planes, and blasting past the people stumbling around while texting on their cell phones. It's like being on the fast track to awesomeville. With lots of purple loot waiting for you at your destination.

Then there are groups that also feel like being on one of those walkways.... if it suddenly and sporadically switched between running forward and running in reverse.

Sometimes, there are groups that are a combination of both, combining both good people and bad people. You stick with it because the good outweighs the bad, or the goods just get sick of the baddies and vote them off the island.



This is a story about voting a retardadin off the island.

I jumped into a nice little pug on my shaman healer. I'm heirloomed, the tank is heirloomed, I think a couple others were as well. The run started with a collective /facepalm when we all loaded into gnomeregan. We bounced on over to the first boss and giggled a bit as somebody died to a cave in after the little gnome yelled out "OMG RUN AWAY!!!". After that, the retardadin began to make himself known. He lagged behind us to do something(no clue what) and died when he got lost. Then, he started needing on everything. My curiosity was peaked when he needed a stam cloak, but being a pally, I assumed it was for os. Then I watched him need a spirit hat.

Oh yes.

You know shenanigans and drama ensued.

Now, trust me, I do understand they're crappy little greens. There's is no denying that. And hell, nobody in the group even needed them for upgrades. Had we won a greed roll, we all would have probably vendored them asap. But, considering the previously demonstrated uselessness of this individual, and the fact that he displayed no remorse or willingness to change his erroneous ways, a kick was as appropriate as it was inevitable.

I'd like to go on to /cheer at Zagat - Silver Hand server. I completely agree that tanks and healers don't have to put up with any bullshit from dps, and I'm usually the one to say that to them(you beat me to the punch) Some people bitch and moan and tell us to get off our high horses, but they can go ahead and kiss my horses ass. The reality, whether dps likes to admit it or not,  is that the ratio of healers and tanks to dps is such that the good ones really don't have to deal with any crap. We can replace scrubs in the blink of an eye. Scrubs have a much more difficult time trying to replace us.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Ugh

Somebody mentioned that I hadn't posted any new blogs lately. They then went on to optimistically ask if I hadn't run into any terrible groups lately.

I can assure you all, that is not why there haven't been any recent posts. I just haven't played recently. Had I played, I guarantee I would have encountered a shitty pug. They're not exactly a rare spawn.

I just haven't felt the urge. And when I have logged in, I run smack into a city filled with alliance scum, and a guild that makes me want to /headdesk. I've decided that with my playtime about to become incredibly limited, that I actually want to enjoy myself all the time when I'm logged in, not just once a year. So I'm gonna be gradually moving my toons over to another server where I can play with some of my RL Blizzcon friends.

And in parting, I leave you with this comic from http://www.darklegacycomics.com/

Friday, January 7, 2011

"oops"

So I had another fantastically fail pug yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite so fail that it was a group that required me to leave and re-queue. So I stuck with it.

Our makeup-A fresh, bright faced DK tank, a rogue, a warlock, and a huntard. Imma stress that last one. A huntard was in that pug.

Our instance- Grim Batol, regular mode. I don't know why I'm still doing regular's- I have more than sufficient ilvl. I just worry about running into a group that fails as hardcore on heroic and they currently are on regular. After last nights group, however, I think that I am just about ready to move on to heroics.

We started the run off with the tank running headfirst into the first pat without any cc. And without moving the adds out of puddles that buffed them. We managed to kill them all(surprisingly) and then the first rogue bailed. At that point, while we're waiting for another dps, the huntard threw a trap at the next pull while I was still drinking. The DK then compensated for a pull without a full group while the healer isn't topped off by throwing down DD in the middle of the group. For those of you not familiar with Grim Batol, the second pull without CC looks like this:



About halfway through it, the dps spot got filled and we got another rogue. Somehow, even with DD up, mobs were breaking loose. It might have had something to do with each dps targeting a different mob. But I'm just a healer, what do I know? Anyhow, we managed to survive that one as well. If a GM had been watching, he probably would have banned us all for hacks, cause there's no way we should have survived.

Next pull... Again, while I'm drinking. I had gone oom the previous pull(doh!) and was at like... 25% when the huntard lobbed another trap and the dk dropped another DD. Awesome. I continued drinking until the dk's health had fallen as far as I was comfortable with then jumped into combat with 60-75% mana and healed them all up. The drake run.... Ugh. I dunno who was doing it, but somebody was wasting hits on the groups that nobody ever clears, leaving other groups with lots of delicious hp.

Ok, so the run continued like that. It was terrible. First boss we managed to take out without... too much of a problem. Second boss, though. Second boss is where my left lower eyelid really started to twitch. The huntard was kind enough to explain that when the boss pops his shield, people need to attack from behind, but neglected to explain the rest of the fight. I'm just thankful he didn't pop his mace out and roflstomp the group. The huntard was also then kind enough to stand in a cave in. THE ENTIRE FIGHT.

I did what any mana conscious healer in cata should do: I let him die. To be fair, the boss had maybe around 25% hp left, and I was confident in the other dps's ability to bring him down. So yeah, I let the moron die.

Sorry guy, I didn't have enough spell penetration to get through the rocks that were falling on your head. Mybad.










He then sent me a nice little tell-
.
Yeah. Imma get right on that

This guy then kept up the "Heal me" mantra the rest of the dungeon. Too hard for him to eat when he see's me drinking after a pull. Any heals beyond that point were accidental aoe heals intended for other party members, and a topoff before bosses, which the group then proceeded to pull while I was still drinking from toping them off.

Third boss- The huntard again provided an awesome and elaborate explanation, detailing every aspect of the fight.

Uuuhhhh... What about the puddle of evil goop that you're not supposed to stand in?mmmmm. so awesome.

Nevermind. I see the group wants to stand in the goop for that sweet buff it gives. OH! And not kill one of those "he really hits hard" adds. Two party members died that time, the huntard and the rogue. I didn't mean for them to die, but I was really busy spamming everything I had on the tank who was standing in a puddle of the dragons awesomesauce.

The dungeon carried on and finished with more of the same. All in all, it was an INCREDIBLY long dungeon. And because of it, I didn't have time to run another one and get badges for my paladin. But, on the plus side, my mood was improved just by the single "oops" I gave. I was considering tossing in the "spell pen" comment that I tagged to the picture above, but decided against it. It still makes me lol though.

In other news. I am redoing my UI and will post a screenshot when it is completed, along with a list of addons used and detailed instructions on how to achiev the same. Then I'll be submitting the whole thing to wow interfaces UI of the week thing. Hopefully get some more traffic, since the whale shark guide wasn't up to par for mmo champions guide contest.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Go Guy



So today. I ran into a go-guy. Normally, they sit there and say "Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" incessantly. I can ignore them and carry on the dungeon at my own comfortable pace. This go guy was different. Huntard type. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Todays adventures started with me logging my priest and getting stuck with a dungeon already in progress. The tank oulined what CC was to happen, placed marks, everyone said they were ready. Then we waited. I'm not sure what for. The tank might have been waiting for the dps to cc pull, and the dps were probably waiting for the tank to pull. After a couple minutes of us starring at the mobs, and them starring back, the druid decided to run up and root the square. The blue square. The blue square that the tank had previously outlined as the hunter responsibility.

The mage then tried very hard to sheep the skull, which is immune to CC. The hunter dropped a trap, at his own feet. And the tank... *sigh* the tank sat there. And sat there. And sat there. As we are all running back from the graveyard, the tank suddenly pipes up with "sorry guys, my kid needed to go potty."

Thanks, dude. You coulda just said "afk" and saved us that unnecessary wipe. The rest of the run carried on like that. It was terrible.

Ok, so my fuse was already short. back to the Go Guy.

I queued up for a random with my tank. Man. My tank so needs ilvl gear and to get into heroics. Seriously. Everytime I'm on my priest, tank gear drops. And whenever I'm on my tank, caster and dps crap. RNG sucks. But I digress. I queued up and got stuck with another dungeon in progress. I zoned in. Grim Baton. Thankfully, not in the middle of a pull. I examine my group for CC's- Boomchicken, warrior, hunter, shammy. Ok... so- trap, hex, and that one tornado thing druids can do. Not to bad.

Fíx from Arthas
I looked at the pull in front of me to start putting marks. All mobs- full health. I figure, maybe they missed that one. I check out the next pull. Full health. I check out a group a few pulls down- full health. I turned around to look for the dragons- gone. I seriously don't know what the fuck they were doing while riding the dragons. The scenery isn't that damned amazing. So after facepalming, resolving myself to a VERY long run, and turning back to the group in front of me to decide CC and marks, the Go Guy makes himself known.

Another facepalm, then I ignore him and get back to choosing marks.

Lo and behold. The huntarded Go Guy decides to randomly throw a trap into the group.

My resolve crumbled. I turned tail and ran out of the dungeon. I can generally tank and heal oops. I can occasionally tank and heal WTF?! also. But I simply refuse to tank and heal stupid.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Mechanics are hard.

Recount - Calling out terribads


Guess what, ya twit? NOBODY CARES.

Most of these bosses has fairly simple mechanics: move out of fire(or other random puddles of evil goop) move away from adds, kill targets in order of A,B,C, move out of more fire, or goop. Most people have got it down. We have relearned that fire burns and that goop will melt our faces off, even though it's on our feet. We've learned that when we're not the tank, we shouldn't be provoking critters in dungeons, lest they come and smash us with a with a [Can-o-Whoopass]



But it seems, even quite awhile after cata release, that scrubs are still scrubs. (Bringing more proof to the fact that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a damned pig) Even after a fight is explained, carefully outlined, there is always that one guy who refuses to follow a simple mechanic.

"Run away! Run away, run away, runaw-!" KABOOM. "shit."

Worse than not running away from a mob that will blow you to smithereens upon contact, is running two meters. TO THE HEALER. Seriously. This terribad. He didn't run from the first one. Got blown up. THEN. The next one he runs to me, and stands there till it blows us both up. I tried to run. But by the time I registered that he really was actually that bad, I was already burnt to a crisp.

We survived. Then this tool had the nerve to post recount like he was a badass and leave. Total scrub. Guess what, Aveera from Kargath, NOBODY FUCKING CARES. If you can't follow a simple mechanic, you're a hindrance, not an asset.