Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Wheels in the Sky, and Mountains Too!

I've been mulling a couple posts "in process", and they're all a bit grim/frustrated, so considering the season, they will likely never see the light of day, so here are a couple random bits:


Go see Avatar, if for no other reason than to get to see Zangarmarsh & Nagrand "for real". Somebody on James Cameron's design team HAS to be a Wow player... (as a movie/plot snob, I give the movie an 8 (as if you care) - But Kattastrophe gave it a 10+)

I learned something that I had "rubbed up against", but never really put together: right before a fight/pull, target your tank. As he runs in, hit "F". So simple, so helpful. (it makes you target the same mob as the tank)

Even though I getting better, I still end up taking a stupid number of dirt naps.(yes, even using the "F" tip I mentioned above) Some of them are the result of less than ideal tanking, but many are still me standing in the stupid. (not necessarily fire/voids, I'm actually ok avoiding that, it's just other stupid shit)

A red flashing screen (when you have Omen) is bad, m-kay? Learning this (I asked a guildie the other night) and the "F" bit have definitely been helpful, and have reduced my time spent sniffing pavement, but haven't stopped it.

I need to assign Hand of Salvation to a hotkey.

One other observation, that relates to my dirt naps: even with time time spent face down, I am usually at the top for both damage and DPS. Even when in groups with folks 500-1,000 gear score higher. I've had one Warlock, and one Ele Shammie beat me out, but that's all I recall. And I'm still doing this while I'm either: a) throttling my DPS down to lose aggro and b) standing there confused because [tab] won't target and I'm struggling to click on one c) too focused on my rotation and didn't notice that the tank pulled the mobs away from me. (doh)

I wanted to thank Amber (Forthebubbles)for posting the meme-du-jour: "5 Things you PUG [insert class] wants you to know" and posting the links for Tank, DPS, Mage and DK. I learned a LOT reading these posts, as well as the comments below. THANK YOU!!!!!

Oh, and I had never thought about the fact that Prot Warriors needed to chain pull to keep rage. It's very nice to know. It doesn't make uber-fast chain pulls less annoying, but it's nice to know there's a legit reason for it :)

4 comments:

  1. Before patting yourself on the back, make sure your Recount's up to date. Older versions (including one or two released after 3.3?) don't correctly account for all the damage done by someone on another server. Pet damage is the notable omission, which will under-represent damage from pet classes (BM hunters in particular get a very notable chunk of their damage from their pet). I think the current version handles things okay, but for all I know it's still not pulling everything.

    Now, assuming you have a current version of Recount and you're *still* topping damage done (a more useful statistic than DPS, by the by) even including dirt naps, *then* commence with the well-deserved back patting.

    Oh, and you can use focus targeting to streamline your "F" process so you don't have to fuss with targeting the tank manually. Make a macro as follows (though test it out a bit to make sure it does what I describe: I'm writing this offhand and haven't tested it in-game):

    /focus [modifier:shift] target
    /target [modifier:alt] focus
    /assist [nomodifier:shift/alt] focus

    Throw that in your action bars somewhere and keybind it to F.

    Shift-F: Set your focus. (Use this on your tank at the beginning.)

    Alt-F: Target your focus, aka target the tank. (If for whatever reason you want to do that.)

    F without modifiers: Assist the tank directly, without having to target them first.

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  2. Recount's up to date, but I think it's still a bit wonky. The "good" news is that I ran U.P. tonight and came in a solid third behind an arcane mage and a fury warrior. So Recount *can* work "properly". lol. Again, the group were all in the 4,500 - 4,900 range.

    DK Tank - 4524
    Mage - 4818
    Warrior - 4997
    Me - 3783


    Here's a summary of all the data:
    http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f206/slikrx/Warcraft/so-soDPS.jpg

    Overall, I don't put TOO much faith in recount, because I do not have it verify damage across players (to minimize data x-fer) so that the farther someone is away from me, the worse the data is.

    I also think that damage done is more important, so I usually try to mention if I led one or both. (in most cases, if I'm tops for one, I'm tops for both)

    That all being said, it's a comfort to know, at the very least, that I'm not a complete Failadin, even if my class of choice is a "lolret" :)

    I'll try out those macros, because that sounds GREAT! But I'll have to try them "as-is".... I have only done a couple VERY simple ones (like "/chicken" for the cluck quest) but barely know what I'm doing with them.

    Thanks!

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  3. Just to clarify, those three lines are all *one* macro.

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  4. Thanks for pointing that out!!!

    I know I *WOULD* have made it as 3 different ones! lol

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