Spamalot! and Lance-a-lot

I have an aversion to ToC (5 man heroic).

Part of this may be due to my getting kicked from a group on this instance, or it may be due to the need to joust at the start. Or it could be that it is one of the most godawful, boring and monotonous instances I've seen.

Most likely, it's a combination of all of those.

Last night, at my usual late log-in time (9:30 or so, server/local time) I start to collect my dailies and grudgingly include myself in the LFG queue.

A new guild memeber that had also started queueing asked me and another guilide to join, so we went in as 3 DPS. (me on Ret, him on an ele shammy and a third as Warlock)

When we got our notice, we all groaned when we saw ToC. The good thing is that it *is* relatively short and usually not too diffficult.

We finish the jousting with a *little* difficulty and then proceed on the the next fight, with the Shaman, rogue and one other.

We're going through, and half my bittons aren't working. *CRAP* I STILL HAVE MY LANCE EQUIPPED!. I open my bags and don't have any luck seeing my weapon, so I open up "C" (character screen, which is where my equipment manager "Outfitter" button is) and switched to my DPS items. *no change* AARGH! So I hit my tank gear, just to get SOMETHING with an actual weapon selected.

I did this in a hurry, without thinking all that much, or even remembering it much.

We finished this fight, and the next group, though I was staggered by how bad my DPS was.

We go into the last fight (Paleetess? the one with the summoned shadow thing) And things go bad. I'm not sure what happened, but from what I understand (from their own description)the tank & healer got out of sync, or lost aggro or something.

Anyhow, I noticed when the first of us dropped, another DPS, but I didn't worry too much. Next thing I know, it's me and one caster (the healer I believe) and the shadow dood is chewing on her face. I taunt and bubble and *sort of* help. The only problem is that with me bubbled, my DPS drops even further and my threat/aggro drops through the floor. (I hadn't thought to turn on Righteous Fury to increase my threat) So the baddie loses interest in me, and chews the face, neck and upper torso off the healer.

Eww.

I sit there clobbering away, well aware it's a lost cause. (the shadow dude still has ~30% health, and the other boss is STILL left after that)

I finally die and we all run back and start buffing. At this point, the HEALER said (right as I noticed something strange about the looks) "OMG, I still have my lance equipped. No WONDER I went oom!!"

I laughed. HARD. And then typed: "ROFL, no worries, I did that for the first part of the first fight too! lol".

We all laughed, buffed and got ready for the re-match.

So the Bear tank pulls, and away we go. And my DPS is STILL crappy. WTF?!?!?!?

We kill the boss pretty quickly this time and in comes the Black Knight. First phase is a breeze, but MAN my DPS is STILL sucking. And then I notice the shield on my back.

ARGH! Tanking gear. I had forgotten that I had done that earlier. /facepalm

So I switch over and the we all do our thing. My DPS is still crap, but this time it's beacuse I'm keeping the adds off the healer, which is slow & bursty. *shrug* Keeping healers safe during this phase is my self assigned task when I run this so that's cool by me.

The best part? I got these:

Vambraces of Unholy Command

It's only an i219 piece, but that's an upgrade (both numerically and "really") from my previous i200 bracers. w00t!

The only downside was "upgrading" them. I smithed on the gem socket with spare mats, so not a big deal. However, the cost of getting the enchant (greater assault) 350 gold, YIKES. I used honor points to buy an uncut gem, then paid 20g to get a strength gem made.

Ah well... Every little bit helps.

I'm a Travelling Man, and I Quest in a Lot of Spots

Now that I finally remembered to bring in my screen caps, I can continue with my rambling, all over the place post...


Yeah, I've been going back and doing some questing. Remember how I mentioned I was doing some stuff related to cooking? Well, there are a number of results of my doing so. First was getting the "Into the Basin" achievement. I got it by finishing all the Nessingwary quests. You know, the ones where you run all over the place, "hunting" 60+ game animals. (and if you were like me, and didn't get all the related quests at once, the number climbs to well over 100)

The good news is that Katt & I now have a good supply of Rhino Meat and Chilled Meat.

And I got another achievement in the process:

OK, so... WHAT am I trying to get?

Well, the one above is what you get for completing part 2 of the achievement: getting 30 of the listed. My *intent is to get the full achi for getting (and making) all 45 recipies.

After much running around, and spending a few more Dalaran Cooking awards (most of my running was to complete the quest chain for Kungaloosh) I now only need one more recipe:

Freaking Haunted Herring.

Ugh. It's a rare drop, mainly from various Northrend bosses. Yuck. It wasn't on the AH, and it may not even be BoE, so this will be a bot of a challenge...

Lastly, I went on a LFG Random with one of our guildies... we ended up in HoS. I actually like that instance, because there are these easy to kill crystal looking mobs that are certain to make my ePeen swell:

Yeah, that's me hitting 10k DPS. Sadly, I didn't hit screen cap fast enough, because when more of them were alive, it peaked at roughly 13k, then dropped rapidly. Still, w00t!

Yah, I *do* pay attention to recount, but I do *not* base my tactics on it. Per esempio:

I ran Hall of Reflection last night in my LFG Frost run. During that first series of fights, I was 3rd in DPS (below the tank) because I was focusing no getting one of the ranged mobs CCed on each and every wave.

In a couple cases, it took me nearly 10 seconds of running out, casting and running back before I was actually able to start DPSing. Does the low DPS bother me? Not in the slightest.

But it doesn't mean I don't take a certain amount of pleasure topping the meters ;) I think, therefore I ego.

Toodles!

Ramble On, Cuz I do it Often

Sorry about this post being so "all over the place", but much of what's happened lately has been of that sort. Back to my monotone babbling later...

I don't mind GearScore (GS) or Elitist Group (EG) They have small use for me in that it helps me look back at a heroic and try to understand why things went the wasy they did. Or, it lets me stroke my ePeen (not because my number is so high) but because when I am lower geared than someone, and I *still* out DPS them. And they are a Mage or Warlock.

And honestly, I can never remember what mine is. And, given how little I raid and how slowly I am accumulating Frost & Triumph badges, it stays the same for pretty long periods. *shrug*

[EDIT] - and... and... and... yes I know, my grammer sucks as of late. [/EDIT]
~~~~~~~

I *did* buy a Triumph badge upgrade for my Tank spec. I think it was shoulders (I honestly suck at remembering some crap. LET ALONE try remembering the item name) The neat thing is that I can finally start gemming for stats other than Defense. I'm still sitting at exactly 540 (capped) but am slowly increasing my stamina.

A few guildies let me tank through Utgarde Keep. I didn't do very well. The healer is a sweetheart and was quite patient. The others were... less so, but not rude or anything. But when they re-grouped for another random, I wasn't asked to tank. (I really need to get Vuhdo set up and learn it)

~~~~~~~

Kattastrophe left our guild a couple weeks ago. The guild I'm still in has some *slightly* more hardcore players in it. They tend to perform a bit better than your average guys. (not uber-leet hardcore by ANY stretch, but some pretty knowledgable and skilled players)

If you aren't in the "in group" you will get left out and not really invited to much of anything. And that's if they are runnning anything in the first place. It's not a super cold guild, but if you aren't close to the core members, it's not always super friendly either. (There are some GREAT folks there, which is why I've stayed)

Anyhow... Katt had ended up runnning with another guild for a bit over a week. They were just doing rep runs into ICC 10 man. They appreciated Katt, and as a group, they hit it off. Since they could use another good healer (they only have 1 tree - he's good, but he's only 1 guy) they asked her to join.

She was on the fence until she got asked to come along & bring me in for DPS. We're sitting at the summoning stone, and up trots a couple of our current guildies sommoning folks for a guild run for OUR guild. Never a peep or anything from our own guild asking us if we were interested. The worst part? They Pugged 2-3 spots.

This was the last straw, and Katt g/quit. It was uncomfortable for a while, but things have settled down. She's in her guild, I'm still in mine. They keep asking me to join, but I'm still not willing to jump ship on the folks I am friends with over there.

As of now, kind of the best of both worlds. We both have access to folks in both guilds.

~~~~~~~

Last night I was finishing up some stuff for cooking (more on this in a later post) and I see one of my guild officers promoting some folks up from recruit to member.

I whisped the guy, asking when I would get promoted up from "Raider" to "Active Raider".

"Hold on, let me check your gear... you were really close last time I looked." (referring to my Gear Score)

Now, this has been my only negative run-in with GS. And yeah, it's made a bit more annoying, because I HAVE done a couple 5 mans with him and other officers, I can *do* my job as DPS prety well.

A couple minutes later I was promoted. What does this mean? As far as I can tell, it really only changes my bank/repair access. (I never use the guild bank, so I'm making an assumption about that, but I did notice I now have a guild allowance for repair)

~~~~~~~~

So with Katt's guild, I ran a number of Rep runs into ICC 10 man last week. I didn't make it to friendly, at least not that time. They were interesting, and it's neat to actually be a part (even a non-guilded part) of a team.

The only downside is that they are not obssessed with getting the most out of their gear & stuff as the top guys in my current guild. Don't get me wrong, they DO work on their gear and they DO try to learn. BUT, the majority of them are not spending hours a week reading EJ, tinkering and beating on test dummies for hours to optimize their rotation. (although a couple of them certainly do though) They play to spend time together and have fun.

(Also, one mage there isn't a fan of Omen -or any- aggro meter)

Then on Saturday, they decided to make a run for Marrowgar. We went in semi-cold. A few of us knew his abilities, but there was no pre-arranged strategy. we went in, cleared the trash Then?

Multi-wipe.

We all watched the tankspot vid and prepped for a Sunday attempt. After clearing the trash (and got my ring for being friendly with Ashen Verdict), we stood around outside Marrow's room discussing strat. We did a dry run there, using a DK's Death & Decay (D&D) to simulate Marrow's hitbox and try to get our placements. We then went in.

Multi-wipe.

We understood the fight a LOT better, but still didn't do a whole lot better. The fire was just kicking our asses. Especially when it gets dropped right on top of someone that is spiked, and you're trying to rescue. Nasty, and it happened several times.

One note about tankspot's video: I think that staying underneath Marrow while he's doing his spinning thing is not the best idea. He's moving around pretty quickly, and dropping a TON of his fire. Often multiple "shots" (each shot goes in 4 directions) right next to each other. With him focussed on everyone in the center of the room, the fire becomes so dense you can't avoid it, and "head for the hills" seems like it may be a better tactic. This also gives the tanks time to regain aggro after the phase re-starts.

~~~~~~~

When I am doing random PuGs for my emblems (as opposed to guild/friend runs) I have started removing gear prior to selecting "join queue". Every time I have done so I have gotten low level/fast/easy runs. (barring one Malygos/Oculus fiasco) I'm not 100% convinced that it isn't simple RNG giving me these runs, and not my reduced "visible gear score", but I'll take fast, easy runs for my badges, athankuverymuch!

I want to run Forge of Souls (FoS), Pit of Saron (PoS) and Halls of Reflection(HoR) but I don't care to run them in randoms (PoS & HoR in particular) They are just tough enough that they will likely cost you more in repair bills than you will get out of them. The "Follow Arthas" trick in HoR has made it much more manageable, but it still requires some really good DPS and tanking to make it, and PuGs seem to fail too much (no badges, BUT a hefty repair bill)

~~~~~~

Later!

Who Can it Be, Now?

It was late at night, and things weren't going normally. I don't know, the whole place looked normal, but was just different.

OK, I was on Azuremist Isle. There's the crashed ship, all the half dead refugees, there's the dude tha tlets me fly with totems and whatnot.

Yeah, there's some idiot Nelf with Mohawk Grenades, but... that's "normal.

"G'day..."

Whu?

I wander around... and other little things... like the sun moving the wrong way across the sky.... toilets flushing backwards, and the clock being 19 hours off...

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!!!!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I"M LEVEL 8?!?!?

WHERE'S MY COOL PHAT LEWTZ?!?!

Then it dawns on me... I'm not in Kansas anymore (or California for that matter, but hey...)

This is some strange world of "Aman'Thul"... and WHAT is that little Gnome doing dancing over there?

Then it hits me; "Aman'Thul Oceanic" is some weird Azerothian dialect for the word "Australia"

Who'd a thunk it?

Gnomeaggedon, thanks for the hospitalilty, the kickass Tabard and everything else... (great company, btw) and I'll pester you every now & again, so long as your willing.

I don't plan to level "Down Under Balth", since that would take months, but I *did* roll a Gnome DK, just to skip the first 50-odd levels. (and since I've never played/rolled a DK, the lore should be interesting)

Cheer!

(and no Gnome or Drae panties were left asunder by this post or any of the fiddling around done prior to posting this)

HELP! Internet Inetptitude Ensues

OK, I think I mentioned this in a comment or post a bit ago, but this is frusternating (yes, that word is intentional) I am writing this from my home gaming PC.

I can browse.

I can play WoW.

I can do MS office type stuff.

I can play other games (well, not world of goo, it won't work)

I think you get my drift...

But I can't frikkin' post a comment on my own frikkin blog.

As I type this, I'm on IE8.

I have tried with Firefox (whatever the latest versionis, as of 3 days ago)

I have tried with Google Chrome (new version)

And yet none will let me comment. (I can at work, on Kattastrophe's PC, on my ASUS EEEPC and others, just not this one) This would lead me to believe there's some setting on my PC that is being uppity. Not the browser or the network.


I am using XP Pro, latest service pack (3 if I recall correctly)

I have Kasperski internet protection

... and that's about it.

Thoughts?

Ideas?

Ridicule?

HELP!

kthxbye :)

Vuhdo... Voodoo and Odd Thoughts About Tanking

Situational awareness is a kinda big thing in WoW. The best players seem to not only have their toons very well geared/gemme/etc, they know the fights inside and out, knowing their own role, and the roles of everyone there, but they also seem to have this innate ability to know EVERYTHING that is going on, from the tank, off tank, Main healer, raid healer, OT healer and all the weirdness happening with the DPS.

Um, that's not me.

Standing in the middle of the fight, thwacking monster crotch and trying to avoid the fire, I am usually just about overloaded, at least in the more challenging fights (ICC 5 mans and up) As I've mentioned before, trying to keep an eye on things (watch my aggro, keep a safety eye for mobs on the healer, etc) is something I like to do. And I have problems doing it.

And that's only as DPS.



Now that I'm trying to tank a bit, the workload is up a notch (mainly because you HAVE to know the fights) but also because you are now DIRECTLY responsible for the well being of the healer, as well as trying to keep the DPS as safe as reasonably possible.


With your screen filled with monster crotch (not to mentione a bunch of other stuff), this can be a challenge.


Having the healer as focus can help, but that still only puts a small green bar up top that can be tough to see. Even moving it around only helps to a degree.


The other day I was watching Kattastrophe healing in her guild's 10-man attempt on Ony, I watched her do the whack-a-mole thing to heal everyone.

"Man, something easy to use, really obvious and visible, would be really nice to help taunt/etc folks getting attacked by loose mobs, the healer especially."


Then the thought came: I wonder if the add-on Vuhdo would let me bind OTHER spells to the frames. Then it could be as easy as a quick scan over to the frames - see someone in trouble (ie, taking damage that they shouldn't) - and then left click for Righteous Defense or maybe right click for Avenger's Shield (or even Hand of Reckoning)

And so, I will have to try this out. There's no guarantee that Vuhdo will LET me put alternative spells into its guts. After all, Pally Power (an addon for Paladin Blessings) will NOT let you control anything other than pally blessings. It may be that Vuhdo is coded to only allow healy spells into its hallowed clicky boxes.

Just a thought, and a radnom bit of musing... I'll try it out and let you know.

He Ain't Heavy, He's a Newbie...

Well, it happened to me: I ran a Heroic (Halls of Lightening) with "sub par" DPS. I don't have the screen caps here at work, but his overall DPS was about 650. I was a bit awestruck, since I had never run across anyont that low before.

So, looking above (wow-heroes) his gear isn't great. And looking below, a couple things become aparent:

1 - He's in a TON of crafted PvP gear. Well, as it turns out, he's on a PvP server, so this actually makes a fair bit of sense. (and the guys is a BS, so I assume s/he's rather proud of all that work!)

2 - He has no gems (belt) or any enchants.

3 - His talent placement looks less than ideal: 70/1/0.

I did a bit more digging (thanks to stalker.com, I mean wowarmory.com ) I found out that he had dinged 80 literally the day before, and that this was his 3rd Heroic run.

This would (to a degree) explain the lack of any enchants: this is probably his first toon, and on a PvP server, farming for stuff is a tad risky, so it's likely he's simply cash starved. (one confounding piece of info is that he's in a moderately large -202 members- guild, so I'm not sure why he isn't getting *some* help/direction)

But clearly, he has some learning to do.

Anyhow...

He died once on the mobs before Loken, but other than that, he was there fighting, but not accomplishing much.

From Recount, his melee atack was about 60% of his damage, with 2 other abilities making up the remainder (sorry, I can't remember what) so I don't think he really "gets" how to play his toon to the max... BUT, he didn't do anything glaringly stupid either. (even if his gearing/talenting is sub-par, he didn't PLAY badly - and that, in my opinion is HUGE)

So, do I feel like my gme was ruined because I carried a newbie, that didn't gem, didn't enchant, didn't chose talents as optimally as he/she could?

Not in the slightest. I just wish s/he were on my server so I could possibly help the guy out. because:

- not everyone KNOWS to even look for info on blogs. (let alone EJ or similar)

- clearly nobody in that guild has bothered to teach/guide him (well, the guy could unwilling to learn- but if someone is *that* hard headed, they are usually booted from a guild)

- if someone is new to the game (and possilby to online computing) it can be daunting to even know WHAT to Google for.

So, yeah, I will cut the guy slack. Even if he isn't a top performer. After all, I bet that trip through HoL was a pretty fun run for him.

And that's what matters...

Hmmm... maybe I'll start a toon on that server and, as politely as possible, try to give him a bit of advice.