Congratulations to DB

Congratulations on 80 DB!!!

May your gear farming be more successful (and fun) than mine has been! hehe

DING!

No, I haven't gotten another alt to 80. The next closest alt of mine is only level 50. But I've found a pretty entertaining thing to do while grinding through heroics or farming instances for gear...

And it all started with a Retribution Paladin in Heroic: Utgarde Pinnacle...

Here's what happened:

We're fighting Skadi, and he used some ability that made him glow yellow for a second. It looked like he had just leveled up. It was late. Des was tired. Des says, "GRATS!" in Party chat.

As soon as Skadi was down, the tank says, "Grats? For what?"

Then it dawned on me. We're in a heroic. Everyone is already level 80. No ding. Duh...

So...

...I explained to him that the paladin was glowing gold for a second, and after having run so many instances on my Death Knight to get her some gear/leveled...I just got so used to people dinging in instances that...well...it's habit now.

The next night, I was practicing my Death Knight rotation on a dummy in Ironforge only to learn that when her Unholy Strength procs, it looks like DING!

hehe

Later, after tweaking my rotation a bit, I grouped up for a few random heroics. We were fighting the first trash pull when my Unholy Strength procced and I yelled, "DING!!!!!!!!" in party chat.

Three of them say, "omg grats!"

And then...an awkward pause where everyone just stood there for a long, quiet moment.

The healer inspects me, realizing that I'm in mostly tier 9 gear already...then says, "Duped!"

I know, I know...I'm a nerd. We already knew that. I play WoW, remember?

Maybe it's nerdy, but it's better than being super cereal all the time. I mean...it's just a game.

:)

...And Sometimes They Make It All Worthwhile...

My guild made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside last night on so many levels...

I've spent a lot of time trying to help one of our tanks get geared and trying to help one of our shamans switch from Elemental to Enhancement (which means going from caster dps to melee dps- and an entirely new set of gear). I've been trying to offer up more of my time recently to working with everyone to get them the gear they want or need and also trying to help some of our members gain access to resources that will ultimately help them develop as players. One of our guild members had told my husband that he was frustrated and felt sort of stuck at a place where his gear and dps and game knowledge was inadequate. It made me really sad, and made me realize that I really needed to focus on working more with our quieter guild members.

See, some of them are pretty open about what they want or need. They'll ask for help farming for this drop or that, or will ask other guild members to grind heroics with them for badges. They're not really shy about it, which means that, if the rest of us are unable to help them, they're happy to grab a random group and do what they need to do. There are a few others who have been very quiet. When we ask who wants to run heroics or go on a farm run, they don't say anything.

I assumed it was because they weren't interested in it or were busy doing other things. I didn't realize what all was going on behind the scenes there. I think that I, like so many other players, just take for granted the knowledge that I have of the game and where to learn what I need to know. I know that it probably means I'm one of those "WoW geeks", but it's more fun to enjoy your hobby if you're good at it, versus being a baddie and being left out of everything...

I'm actually really glad that this particular guildie spoke up and let my husband know what was up. It helped me know that he IS interested in learning more and doing a lot more with us. So, for the past two nights, I've been dragging him through just about as many heroics as I possibly can. In fact, last night we ended up pulling together a guild group for a few 5-mans since this new dungeon finder wouldn't let me queue for heroics based on the level of his brand new 80 priest's gear. Bear's aren't necessarily patient by nature. I don't care if Blizzard thinks he's ready...it doesn't make sense to grind a bunch of regular instances and get zero badges, only to get sub-par gear to go back and grind the same set of instances again on heroic for badges. So I badgered the guildies into a few runs.

I can honestly say I was really impressed when a few of them were absolutely willing to come along to help out. We had a tank volunteer and two DPS/Healers. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy to see folks jumping in to help out a guildie. :)

Not only that, but later in the evening I ended up logging into my Death Knight. The guildie that I had been helping out sent her a plethora of materials in order to help me max out her Blacksmithing. His note made me feel really good too! His note was so sweet. :) He mentioned that he sees that I give my time to help others in the guild to get geared and finish quests and whatnot, and that he wanted to help out since I rarely have time to farm these days. It was just really, really sweet.

I know I complain that we don't raid much and that there's bits and pieces of drama here and there that just drive me batty...but last night was one of those nights that just makes it all seem worthwhile. :)

Two Cents

I've read some recent comments and decided it might be easier to dedicate a post to replying, versus trying to squeeze my thoughts into a tiny text box. This box is bigger...and I like the font color better. hehe

Anyway...

The topic at hand is the recently added "Dungeon Finder". I really think Blizz's intent behind this was to give folks another option to find groups to run dungeons when their friends or guildies weren't available to run with them. I mean, we all remember the days of logging in to try and get a guild group for the daily heroic only to hear: "Sorry, I'm saved."

That left some of us sitting in the LFG channel for an eternity to try and find a group for the daily dungeons. If you were a DPS class...you were in there even longer trying to find a group to run with. I truly believe that Blizzard's intent with the Dungeon Finder was to eliminate this frustration.

Kudos to them for trying to eliminate some frustration...

But as with most things in the Wonderful World of WoW...eliminating one source of frustration seems only to have brought about more frustration. Perhaps it's a different breed of frustration, but it's frustration nonetheless. Instead of the frustration stemming from being unable to find a group, period...it comes from being unable to run with your guild mates as you have become accustomed to doing. Now, rather than everyone logging in and hitting the daily heroic together...people are logging in and zoom...they're off running randoms with just whoever...

Is this a huge problem? Yes and no.

Coming from a smaller guild myself, it's difficult to make myself available to help all of my guildies grind badges and gear up all the time. The new dungeon finder keeps me from being stuck in chain heroics, tanking when I have other stuff going on. I didn't mind doing it, but it's hard to set up the raid schedule and do guild bank stuff and try to keep things in order when you're tearing apart one heroic after another. It's fun, but very time consuming.

So, in that regard, it's definitely a blessing. But some folks just don't do PuG groups. Maybe it's a fear of running with baddies and a general disdain for the frustration we all used to associate with PuGs, or perhaps it's just a preference to run with friends. Whatever the reason, some of us just do not like PuGs.

"So...don't PuG. Random in with guildies."

If only it was that easy...Touching on something Khel said in his reply to my last post: some of us smaller guilds suffer a bit because our guildies/friends tend to queue up instantly, leaving us with just a few choices: Either PuG into the random and take whatever comes your way...or just don't run the dungeons.

I mean, you could make a guild rule where you insist that everyone run X number of heroics TOGETHER on a daily/weekly basis. That's really probably not a great choice though. It would make you look like the guild dictator and really...who wants to have to face more rules in a place where we come to relax after work/school?

I'm not complaining. I PuG in with my two 80's and have gotten one full set of gear for my druid and am just about finished with my DK's first set of tier gear. I take the good with the bad, suck it up and keep doing what I can in order to get my toons appropriately geared. I'm just saying that I can totally see the "evil" in the dungeon finder as it relates to guild life.

And there is yet more "evil" in this whole thing, lurking quietly beneath the surface...

See, it's been so long since some of us have run heroics together that we've lost that sense of familiarity with each other. There's one tank in guild that I run with a lot regardless of the LFG system. So, I'm familiar with which trash he skips and which he pulls and how quickly he pulls, etc etc...

But when we ran Heroic Old Kingdom last night...I realized another way in which this Dungeon Finder is affecting us guilds...especially those of us in guilds that don't raid regularly at all...

See, Shadow is an amazing tank. Period. He's one of the few tanks in my guild that I am used to running with. He's very well geared and is very aware of his surroundings and pulls intelligently. He knows how much damage he and I can deal with as a healer/tank combo and rarely does he venture beyond that threshold. He's really good at making his pulls and doing so in a way that DPS can position themselves to do their job without bringing adds into the equation.

I'm so used to Shadow's tanking, that when he skips trash, I don't even think twice about it. I just follow along and la dee da...but last night we had two guild members with us and a PuGgie from another server. I know we have run together before...but it's been such a long time...

Our dps seems to have forgotten that Shadow only pulls the absolutely necessary trash - ESPECIALLY in Old Kingdom. He doesn't like the place. Not many of us really do like it...but anyway...We got into the first room with the weird scourge looking guys and the Spell Fingers. Shadow always skips the patrolling group. He waits for them to patrol away, and only pulls the group by the stairs to the right. Always. Knowing this...I throw some HoTs on him and let him pull, then I scurry to the edge of the stairs so that I'm out of the way of the patrolling mobs. Our DPS ended up pulling the patrol because I guess most of the PuG tanks in these random groups don't choose to skip it...we wiped just because of the stupid Spell Fingers and all their nonsense...

I think if we all ran together more often as a guild, we all would have been on the same page.

I still think it's good to run heroics and sometimes even raids with other people, outside of your own crew. I've learned a lot of cool strategies that way and been able to experience a lot of different play styles. I think it affords us the opportunity to learn from others and prevents that sort of stale feeling some of us get from doing the same old-same old all the time.

I guess my advice would be to try to balance the two. Definitely run some PuGs. I've met some really crazy, fun groups using the Dungeon Finder. I've learned a lot from PuGs, too. But also, try to make sure you include your guild mates once in awhile. Not only will they appreciate that you thought of them and wanted to include them, but it'll help keep that familiarity there. That familiarity is especially important for guilds that do any amount of raiding. It helps with communication, coordination and just understanding what everyone around you can or can't handle.

Don't be afraid to communicate with your friends and guild members about this. Open up a conversation in guild chat about it. I mean, I don't think laying down "laws" about using the LFG system would be good at all, but generating some open communication might help with this. In my guild, generally, folks ask if anyone is up for some random dungeon grinding. Those who are interested put their groups together and PuG in the rest and off they go. It seems to be working for us at this point.

In Conclusion: (I know...finally right?)

I think that, overall, the Dungeon Finder is an amazing addition to the game and a godsend for some of us. I think it comes with a few negatives, sure, but all in all this feature seems to be working out pretty well. If this feature's stirring up some trouble in the guild, just open up a friendly conversation about it. As far as nightmarish PuGs...sit back and enjoy the ride! Hehe! Where do you think I get the fuel for this blog these days? LOL

Happy Pugging!

~Des~

Desarra's Curse Continues...

I don't quite understand what the problem is...or how exactly my poor death knight has been damned into PuG hell this week...but it continued again last night!

When I logged in after work, I figured I'd finish up grinding the badges I needed in order to finish up my DPS set, so that I could start working on my tanking gear. Well...it's as if the WoW Gods are mad at me or something...

I log in, check my mail and work on my blacksmithing a little and then queue up for my random daily heroic. Being DPS, it takes awhile to get in so I decided I'd go farm some saronite to finish maxing out my blacksmithing in Sholazar Basin.

It didn't take as long as I had expected to get into the instance...but when the load screen popped up...my heart sank a little.

It was Azjol-Nerub. *gag* The last 2 posts have been about Azjol Nerub and how miserable my last few runs have been in there...so I wasn't really looking forward to it. I took a look at our group. Three of the party members were from the same group: the pally tank, the resto druid and the boomkin...

I thought, "Surely this won't be a bad run. It's almost like a guild run for them." I started to relax a bit.

We took out the gauntlet and first boss with almost no issue. One of them even linked their completed achievement for "Watch Him Die". Phew! One wipe I don't have to worry about!

We headed down into Hadronox's lair...and then...the curse hit again like a freight train.

We took out all of the Anu'bar Crushers like normal. I assumed this was a normal run and not an achievement run...but...I was wrong...

Turns out, they were trying for "Hadronox Denied" but none of them bothered to mention this...

Instead, and to my horror, as Hadronox entered the room the tank raced down and instantly engaged this big, bad spider. Ugh...

As previously mentioned...

As he enters the room, he's being attacked by a bunch of Anu'bar. As they attack him, he puts leeching poison on them. Leeching poison heals the Hadronox. Another quick note: Once he enters the room, he webs the doors closed where these Anu'bar spawn from, thus preventing adds during the encounter.

So, here's what happened...and why we wiped...

1. Tank engaged Hadronox before the doors are webbed.
2. Hadronox is surrounded by about 20 Anu'bar bug-guys that heal him via leeching poison.
3. Not only do these leeched bug guys heal Hadronox, but so does the leeching poison he casts on the rest of the party.
4. Some of the bugs take their frustration out on the tank, causing him/her to take an obnoxious amount of damage.
5. Adds continue to spawn.
6. Despite the best efforts of our dps getting Hadronox down to about 25% health, the leeching poison ultimately heals him to 100%.
7. An endless cycle of adds healing the boss begins. Since it's endless...

...The tree and boomkin both end up going oom a few moments into the fight
...the hunter's pet as well as my ghoul have died and can no longer tank or taunt adds that are now racing for the tree
...the tree has healer aggro through the roof on the newer adds, so my best attempts at picking them up to keep them off the tree ultimately fail
...the healer dies...
...the tank dies...
...the rest of us die...
...repair bills are generated.

Now, I realized that they were trying to do the achievement, and I know how I got it on my druid, so I offered up my strategy...and even offered to sacrifice my ghoul in order to get them their achievement. I don't care about the achievement, personally, but I know what it's like when you want to get an achievement and can't get a group that wants to help. I explain exactly how I got it on my druid...in detail...and offer my services...

But rather than heed my advice and listen to me when I explain why "this" strategy just won't work...the tank does EXACTLY the same thing again...it was like...deja'vu.

We wiped again. As we were running back, I said that unfortunately, I'm unwilling to try it their way again and if that was the intention to please let me know and I would just leave and find another random group...BUT...again offered to get them the achievement if they wanted it and told them how easy it would be.

They decided to skip the achievement...blaming "slow dps" for the failure.

Listen, 2.8k single target dps is not "slow dps". Maybe it isn't the most "letesauce" of DPS, but it's not bad...especially considering I've been 80 for only one week and this is my first and only melee DPS toon at level 80.

The reason for the failure was a lack of understanding of the mechanics, spells and abilities of the boss and the adds...It's a huge pet peeve of mine when people blame everyone else. My knowledge of the mechanics of the game and how to get things done is NOT clouded by the color or item level of my gear...or damage output. I could have been doing 500 dps and STILL could have gotten them the achievement had they just listened and allowed me to help.

Anyway, we fought the "normal" boss fight and moved on to kill Anub'Arak without any issues really after that.

It frustrates me a little though. Azjol-Nerub and I are just NOT getting along...not at all. It seems like every group I take in there is just ...I mean...ugh!

I queued as a healer on my druid a little later, after helping my husband's warlock get through Forge of Souls and part of Pit of Saron (normal), and of course, got plopped into H:AN for her first random heroic in almost two weeks...

Well, I guess it wouldn't have been terrible except that our tank pulled the first group of the gauntlet, then taunted the second before the last mob of the first group was even dead, and then pulled the third group in the gauntlet AND the Boss in the first room all at once...saying..."Oops" in party chat after doing it.

I managed to keep them all alive. But poisons, plus little boss bug friends nibbling on me while I'm trying to keep a tank alive that's taking a lot of damage, plus the dps taking damage trying to keep the little bugs off and mobs that no longer want to eat the tank off of me...it was exciting for sure...

I hate Azjol-Nerub again. It's sad.

I'm also starting to resent the LFG system...Also...I am REALLY missing the days when our guild would get together and run heroics at night. One of the sweetest of our guildies got on his pally tank last night to help us finish AN after our tank bailed on us just before the final boss...and then after...he offered to tank a few heroics for my DK to grab some emblems...

He is an amazing tank. Period. He pulls intelligently. He is geared well. He doesn't take much damage and if he does, he knows where his "holy shit" buttons are and will heal himself if he thinks I'm not going to get him healed in time. He knows what he's doing...and he's just incredibly sweet and helpful all the time. Actually, even his other level 80 toons...he's just a well-rounded and all around skilled player.

Healing him in H:AN last night made me miss the good old days where we'd all pick up the Daily Heroic quest in Dalaran and we'd fumble around trying to put a guild group together. A few of us would purposely wait until he logged in for the privilege of running the daily heroic with him- knowing that it would be a smooth, easy, fun run.

I suppose the LFG thing is good in a way...as it has DEFINITELY made me appreciate my guild a lot more. Maybe we're not all insanely well geared and we don't raid as much as others...but my Ascendants are all good at what they do- be it healing, DPS, or tanking. They're all usually quite friendly and helpful and just fun to be around. :) Love my guild!

Remember When...H:AN Edition

...Heroic Azjol Nerub was damned near impossible???

I was just sitting here thinking about last night's runs and how I didn't even cringe when I got plopped into H:AN on my death knight...and it got me thinking...

I remember back when I first got to 80 and the [Essence of Gossamer] was the tanking trinket to have, so everyone wanted to run H:AN every day to get it for their tanks. I remember going in there shortly after hitting 80 with a few epics and a few blues, much like the rest of the party, and wiping face on that gauntlet before the first boss. It seemed like there was no possibility of healing through the poisons and the damn skirmishers were always eating the healer before the DPS could get them down...

And then the second wave would come and start beating on your party before you had even gotten the first group of 3 down...come on...I know some of you must remember this...

That was back when 2.5k dps made you a god amongst men. How quickly things change...I used to run and hide if I was asked to heal for a group for H:AN and when it was the daily heroic ... ugh... we'd argue over who had to heal and who got to tank it and try to pay shamans to come along for the cleansing totems...

Now, it's...well it's easymode, no? I mean, getting plopped in as a tank, healer or even dps for H:AN doesn't bother me whatsoever. It's kinda like...no big deal.

Just thought I'd toss that out there...you know...to reminisce...I know some of you surely remember going in there with your guild's tanks having to farm the trinket that would either drop the first time in or else wouldn't drop for 50 more tries...lol. Oh the joyous joys of being a tank =) hehe

Oh my gosh and remember when Anub'arak's POUND was just ...holy-craptastically devastating to a tank if they didn't know how or were too slow in avoiding it? And the little poison spitting bugs during that last fight used to just destroy the entire group with little to no effort...those were the days, my friends. Those were the days...

Misery Likes Company

...And that's why you get a pet Perky Pug for having the ability to punish yourself by running random PuGs with 100 other people...

Let's not kid ourselves. There's a reason we join guilds. It's so that we can avoid these PuG groups that seem to end in one form of hell or another. Sometimes they're poorly geared...sometimes they're arrogant jerks...sometimes they just have no clue what they're doing at all...

Many of us choose to align ourselves with a particular guild in order to avoid having to deal with the drama/nonsense that seems to emerge from PuG groups. I'm no exception to this. I mean, I've been the noob in the group that's caused a wipe more times than I really want to admit. Even recently I caused a near wipe in Heroic: An'kahet- The Old Kingdom. It happens. The group was forgiving enough and we moved on.

But last night...oh lord of lords...what the ... was WRONG with people last night? I met a bunch of tanks that had no clue, healers that couldn't keep up with damage, and a bunch of just...idiots. Initially, after the first two groups were really rough, I thought, "Man, I should just stop now and work on grinding badges tomorrow..." But did I? Nope. Wanted to go back for more. I think the main reason I went back into more PuGs after the first two wipefests was because, well...I was really curious. I mean, two bad PuGs in a row? What are the odds? The third one HAD to be better, right?

RIGHT???

Yeah, not so much...it was just as bad as the previous two.

The evening started with Heroic: Azjol Nerub. Not really a hard instance, but not a great one either. Lots of poisons to worry about, skirmishers dropping aggro and eating healers...yeah...It's true. In the first boss's room, there are skirmishers that will just drop aggro and go after a healer or ranged dps. They're immune to taunt. Death gripping them pulls them off of the healer just long enough for the healer to maybe heal themselves, but if they aren't killed quickly...it's bad news for whoever the Skirmie decided it wanted to devour.

Most groups will mark these to be killed first. Not my PuG. Oh lawwd no...we'd much rather just let the little monstrosity eat our shaman healer...Shamans must be tasty critters. I had a hell of a time getting the bug dead before the shaman died. Somehow I managed on the first pull...And then the tank gets a brilliant idea...

"Let's go for the [Watch Him Die] achievement!"

Mmk well...it's not really a hard achievement, given that most people are far overgeared for heroics. (Not me, personally, but most people are...) Instead of discussing a strategy, this darling paladin goes racing in and starts beating on the boss. I've seen it done this way before. This is actually how my druid got this achievement...however...it is an unavoidable wipe. This particular strategy requires RIDICULOUSLY high DPS and a boss zerg...ignoring all adds and just nuking the boss. Well, as I had started trying to tell him BEFORE he ran in...My dps isn't that good and perhaps we should have gone with the OTHER, slightly more intelligent strategy that doesn't end in an inevitable wipe for the group.

If you're wondering, Strategy 2 works like this: You start the gauntly and dps all mobs EXCEPT for the Watchers...with the three of them still alive, you THEN engage the boss and burn him down. Once he's down you return your focus to the watchers and -POOF- achievements for all!

It's easier on the healer and dps. It's easier on the tank. Everyone takes less damage, you don't have 2 Skirmies running off to destroy your shaman healer, the tank only has to manage threat on 4 mobs, versus like...12...see? It's just better with strategy 2. But that's not how we did it. Oh no...no no. We did it the "other" way...

I'm sure you already know that it was a complete cluster**** and we wiped...hard. Rather than trying to get his achievement the "smart" way, like myself and a few other party members suggested, the tank bailed on us.

Alrighty, back to looking for a tank now. It didn't take long before another paladin joined us. We didn't try for the achievement and took the gauntlet on and the boss down without any issue at all. Things had begun to look brighter. I was feeling really hopeful.

And then...

We get into Hadronox's lair. We take on the first group of trash, pull the second two groups at the same time, no big deal. Seemed to be going really well.

Before I continue, however, let me explain how this Hadronox fight works, for any of you who have not yet experienced this one.

As he enters the room, he's being attacked by a bunch of Anu'bar. As they attack him, he puts leeching poison on them. Leeching poison heals the Hadronox. Another quick note: Once he enters the room, he webs the doors closed where these Anu'bar spawn from, thus preventing adds during the encounter.

Most groups wait for Hadronox to kill all of his little friends before engaging him...but not OUR tank...ooooh no. No, he ran right into the fray! Why wait when you can wipe your group right off the bat?

Here's the problem with engaging Hadronox before he has webbed the doors closed: Adds.

Why are adds bad?

- They inflict more damage onto the tank, putting more stress on the healer.
- They drain the resources of the DPS, particularly casters.
- IF THE TANK DOESN'T PICK THEM UP, THEY WILL EAT YOUR HEALER.

See how that last one is in all caps? That's because it's really important to understand. As a tank, you HAVE to have control of ALL of the mobs present or you're going to lose party members. The last person you want to lose at any point in a fight is your healer. Dead heals are bad, mmkay?

As you can imagine, the flood of adds continued. The tank wasn't picking them up, which left myself, my ghoul and the rogue tanking the adds. My taunt was constantly on cooldown, the healer was healing all five of us and we were all taking ridiculous amounts of damage...it was just bad news for our group. Ultimately, a few of the adds got past myself and the rogue and killed the healer and we wiped.

Good times. That's wipe two on instance #1 of the night. Groovy. We regrouped, the tank said he was going to wait for the doors to get webbed and adds to die and then we'd engage the boss this time.

Well, at least he waited for the doors to get webbed. Didn't wait for the adds to die, but a bit of AoE gets them down pretty quickly it seems. We managed to drop Hadronox and forged ahead. Surprisingly enough, we didn't wipe on Anub'arak and life was good.

Or so I thought...

I got tossed into Heroic: The Pit of Saron right after this, as I queued right away.

We didn't make it to the first boss.

We didn't even make it past our second trash pull.

It was that bad.

First, let me say that I know a little bit about tanking, considering my druid's primary spec is bear. So, when I see a bear druid screwing things up, it makes me want to kick things. Tanking isn't really hard, but does require a bit of focus and awareness.

For any of you tanks out there that don't know the basics, let me share...

1. DPS needs to stand BEHIND your target for a bunch of reasons: This prevents their attacks from being parried or blocked. It also prevents the dreaded "parry gib/parry hasting" situation...You might have heard this before...

But...when a mob/boss parries an attack, they get a reduced swing time for THEIR next attack against your tank. That results in the tank ultimately taking more damage. Not a good thing. So, Melee DPS- gtf BEHIND the mobs please and tanks...for the love of god...GIVE YOUR MELEE DPS ROOOOOOOM TO GET BEHIND THE MOBS/BOSSES- k thx bai.

2. Tanks need to be aware of their surroundings. Period. You need to know where patrols wander, you need to know how close you're positioning your group to other nearby mobs, especially with AoE caster classes in your group.

3. Tanks need to hold aggro and be prepared if uninvited mobs decide to crash the party. Be ready to pop cooldowns, health potions...do whatever it takes to keep yourself and your healer alive first...get control of the situation to protect your DPS.

If you take all three of those things and...oh...I dunno...throw them out the window...then you'll understand why my Pit of Saron group failed miserably on the second trash pull.

Our bear tank pulled a group of mobs, but didn't move them to a place where her melee dps could safely do their job without pulling a patrolling group of mobs. So, we have the first set of mobs, plus 4 more. Good times. In trying to gain control of the situation, the tank backed up into yet another set of mobs. Even if all of us were putting out 6k DPS...The Pit Of Saron trash mobs, at least the dozen or so that we ended up pulling all at once...were mostly casters. Most tanks don't mitigate magic damage very well at all...and so the tank was taking huge damage from the first two groups. As the healer frantically tried to keep the tank alive, she caught healer aggro from the third group of trash and, being a priest, died almost instantly despite the DPS's best efforts at taunting and distracting the mobs from our healer.

We wiped.

The group disbanded.

It was a sad, sad day in the Pit of Saron.

The groups continued like this for the rest of the evening. I met a tank in H:Trial of Champions that didn't comprehend that we needed to get BEHIND the mobs, and so faced them toward us with their backs against a wall. Then screamed at the group for not interrupting the Tauren's healing waves...well, mostly me. But you know, Cooldowns are the enemy. I did what I could, WHEN I could. Considering there was a ret pally and the tank was a warrior...there were more interrupts than just my own...but I digress...after two wipes, that group ultimately fell apart.

I'm not totally innocent in all of the misery last night. I'm sort of new to instancing with a "pet". As an Unholy Death Knight, I have a permanent Ghoul Minion. When we take "shortcuts" in instances...I tend to forget to dismiss him. If you're not familiar with the "pet situation..."

When you jump off of something, say, the platforms in The Nexxus...to avoid having to fight extra trash to save time...your pet, whether you're a hunter, warlock, frost mage, or death knight...will always try to take the "correct" path. Meaning: your pet will walk down the ramps and go all the way around the instance, collecting mobs until it dies (and then they aggro on you) because they're not programmed to take the stupid shortcuts.

I've done it in The Nexxus. And now...I've officially been a Deathtard in H: OK. Our tank decided to jump off the side of the stairs after the tunnel behind Prince Taldaram. The rest of us, including myself and a Demonology warlock, did the same. Well, both of our pets went down the stairs and pulled umteen other mobs on us...it was a near wipe...but somehow the healer managed to keep some of us up long enough for us to get the final mob killed. I felt terrible!!! :(

Luckily, the group just warned me to please be more careful and we continued onward, since we were just about at the final boss anyway and it wasn't just me...it was our lock as well.

I guess all in all it wasn't a terrible night. I got a few badges and learned a few things...like...to dismiss the ghoul so he doesn't pull an entire instance full of crap on us...*shrug* Eh well, noob happens. Gotta learn and move on, I guess. And I mean, aside from the tank in H:ToC with the miserable attitude...it wasn't all bad. In fact, I ran H:Halls of Lightning with a really friendly and sweet group. It was pretty great. That kind of made up for some of the failures from earlier in the night for sure.

Ah well, here's to better PuGs! *Cheers!*


~~Des~~

My Newest 80

Hey guys! I've been meaning to post for quite awhile now, but I've been wretchedly sick. I'm posting something quick here today because I miss you all! Just wanted to let you know that I finally managed to get an alt to 80 and she's pretty well geared already, all things considered.

I had been working on my Death Knight for awhile. I was never really interested in the class before, but decided that it would be quicker to get her to 80 than any of my other alts- the highest level of any of my others is 50...bleh.

Here's a quick picture of my darling Death Knight in her up-and-coming triumph gear.

It's sad...she's almost better geared than my beloved druid already, and only dinged 80 on 1/8/2010...I really love that she's DPS only for the time being though. I don't get asked to tank and I don't have to worry about healing. It takes awhile to find a group, that's for sure, but it's worth it to just be free to go in and beat on stuff and call it a day hehe.

By the way, I hide helm in game. I'm not sure I'm fond of this helm style yet.

I'm not sure I like the build of her weapon either, considering it's the same model as the Jawbone from Naxx...oh, that reminds me...her weapon...She's carrying Garfrost's Two-Ton Hammer for now. I haven't put a gem in it yet, and haven't gotten around to slapping a Rune on it either. I got it late last night, after farming regular Pit of Saron since she was geared enough to get in there. A former guildie and friend forced one of his guild's tanks and rogues to come help kill Garfrost for me again so that I could get the mace, and sure enough...it dropped. So much better than the De-Raged Waraxe or whatever she was carrying before! So, a special thanks to Merc, Mad, Sado, and my beloved towel Sel for coming out to help me get her a better weapon again last night. (Now I won't have much to wine about in guild chat hehe)

At any rate, I'm back to trying to figure out how to get hit-capped again. It seems like there's no hit rating on any of the badge gear except for the one trinket...so I'm going to have to tinker around now and see what I can do. The trinket has 128 hit, which will put me at least 100 points over hit cap...do you know what that means? That means I can swap out some of my yellow +20 hit gems for GASP...+20 STRENGTH gems!!! Yeah, I'm pretty psyched about that, as if you couldn't tell.

Anyway, just a quick update. I do have a noob story about her and The Pit of Saron, but that's going to have to wait for another time. I have to get caught up on things at work...you know...my IRL stuff...hehe. Catch ya later!

<3 Des

Death Knoob In The Halls

Yeah, it's true. I'm perfectly capable of making ridiculous mistakes, thank you very much.

I've been trying to get my Death Knight, Desarra, to level 80 lately. The grind from 71-77 wasn't that bad. The grind from 77-78 has been a really, really long one. To supplement the experience I'm getting from questing, I usually queue as DPS in the new LFM Feature that Blizz recently implemented.

In general, I can usually stay right on top of the DPS meters. Yes, yes I know...I'm a death knight...why am I surprised that I can top the DPS meters? Well, one reason is that I'm not sure I know too awfully much about melee DPS. Actually, this is my first high level DPS character. My druid has always been a tank or healer, never dps...well...rarely has she ever been DPS...I fail miserably at being a kitty, so I'm not often asked to do so.

Anyway...I like to think I'm doing alright as far as DPS is concerned. So, I queue up and the instance ends up being Halls of Stone. Well, I've been there a bunch of times, so it's no big deal.

Right?

I'm aware of all of the groups of mobs that need to be pulled carefully because of how close together they are. I'm aware of the patrols. I know how this works. The group was a bunch of heirloom wearing alts. We all knew what we were doing.

My ghoul, however, doesn't seem to understand. As the tank made the first pull, I opened up with Icy Touch, as most Death Knight's do. Well...my ghoul goes saaaaaailing through the air into the fray...we already had 3 mobs on the tank. The ghoul managed to pull 3 more patrolling dwarf guys AND two of the stone guardian things in there...

You know...the ones that do Forked Lightning and make your healer miserable...

Those ones. Yeah.

Well, I apologized profusely, explaining that I didn't expect him to jump PAST the mobs we pulled...The tank was quite blunt about the situation...

"Don't apologize...just don't let it happen again or I'll boot you from group."

O.O

Yeah...stupid ghoul...err I guess I can't blame him completely. He's undead-ish so...probably doesn't have much left in the way of brains anyway.

It never occurred to me that, for the first few precarious pulls that I should either set him to passive or dismiss him. But if the inadvertent ghoul induced adds weren't bad enough...

In Azjol'Nerub a few nights ago, Mr. Ghoulpants decided to engage Hadronox early. I'm not entirely sure how it happened or why...but he launched himself right on into the fight. Actually, maybe it was the poison spray...he was set to defensive...that might have been it. *nod* That was probably it, come to think of it...

The ghoul and I...we have some adventures together for sure. I'm going to be sad if I ever decide to give up my Unholy spec. Right now, he's a permanent minion. If I switch to either of the other two specs, I lose his permanency and the ability to summon a gargoyle...EEK! Hopefully I'll be able to work out a way to stay Unholy. We'll have to wait and see what 80 brings. I have 2 levels and like 3 or 4 bubbles til I hit 80, so I have a little bit of time to work that out.

As an example of how things tend to work out for us: In general, I can solo most group quests at my level. Between the ghoul and the gargoyle, I usually have enough damage going on to burn the elites down before they can splatter me all over. I figured I'd be alright to try and solo Ragemane (Zul'Drak Wanted Quest).

Well, I go in and start trying to beat up Ragemane. I summon the gargoyle, but notice that the fight is going on for an unusually long time...I look around and can't seem to find the ghoul anywhere. *sigh* I try to use his attack command after I finally realize that he's been on passive (thanks to him getting me in trouble in Azjol'Nerub)...he walks over...I don't mean like...he rushes to my side to save the day. No, I mean he quite literally walked over just as slow as he could and stood there for a second. I had already blown cooldowns and popped a health potion...so my few survival tools were just about gone. He finally ended up slapping Ragemane, but by then it was too late. I ended up being a Plate-Wearing Corpse floating in the water...yeah...good times. I'm sure he and I will have more stories to share, but for now I have to get back to RL :(
My Ghoul...in all his infinite awesomeness...:)

Looking Back: 2009

Now that Oh-Nine has ended...I thought it might be a good time to look back on the past year and see how far we've come... I hope you enjoy!

Before I sat down to write this post, I revisited all of my old posts. I’m wishing I had written more regularly, but as with most recreational projects, LBT ended up taking a back seat to real-world responsibilities. I’m hoping that 2010 affords me a little more time to get on a more regular posting schedule…but I digress…

This year was definitely a roller-coaster ride, full of ups and downs, good times and bad. Let’s look back a little into 2008…(I know, I know…but there’s a method to this madness…)

I believe I joined the World of Warcraft community in May 2008 after my husband bought the game and subscription for me for Mother’s Day. He tried to play it off as if he was being very thoughtful, but I still think it was just to end the “Wife Aggro”. Either way…That’s what got me into WoW.

Initially, the only character I had was a druid named Destinae. I had my heart set on tanking from the very first moment she entered Azeroth. As I leveled higher, I began to realize that I really didn’t know much in the way of being a “good” player. I hadn’t tanked any instances, didn’t know anything about gearing my bear or even how to tank or use the bear in a most effective way. It was then that I began to scour the web in search of really great resources in order to help me understand my character, her abilities, her gear priorities, and the game in general. After nearly two weeks of reading websites I didn’t understand at the time…I finally stumbled onto The Druid’s Grove.

The Grove is really the reason LBT came into existence. Through their gentle guidance and support, I’ve learned a great deal about my druid and get complimented frequently now. (I owe it all to you guys, so thank you!) They answered all of my noobish questions with kind, gentle guidance. A few of us began to talk more in the OOC boards and friendships were born. We began to share stories of our most successful moments, as well as our least successful moments…and here is where LBT came to be…

Near the end of 2008, there was a lot of real life stress and in-game stress which caused me to take a few months off. It wasn’t until January 2009 that I got back into the game and started playing again. I began the journey to level 80 after a few weeks of just wasting time farming pets and doing random achievements. As my journey to 80 began… I started a thread about noob stories at The Grove. Well, it turns out that I was posting most of the stories while the rest of the druids giggled at my craziness. I felt a little bad for taking up all of their forum space with random stories of noobish nonsense, so I had suggested to Khel that I should just create a blog for all of my insanity…and on May 19, 2009, Little-Bear-Tree was born.

In June of 2009, we learned that someone had hacked The Grove, leaving many of us druids angry and missing our friends for a few days. The owners of The Grove allowed us to post on their Ever Quest Druid forums, but it just wasn’t the same. Thanks to the tenacity and determination of the owners of The Grove, it was restored and none of the posts were lost. Our library of druid knowledge was resurrected in its full glory! So, to those who fought to get our grove back- Thank you!

2009 was a really fun year as far as WoW was concerned. It was the first full year of Wrath of the Lich King and there were so many changes! The folks at Blizzard brought forth so many changes for us…too many to even really mention. The badge upgrades throughout the year made it a lot easier to get your most cherished toons ready for bigger, better raids. There were new raids to explore, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and now Icecrown Citadel (where, rumor has it, you’re able to defeat my beloved Arthas). I haven’t had the time to visit the new raid just yet, but I’m hoping to see it soon. I’ve been more committed to things outside of the game lately with all the holiday stuff going on and just so much other stuff to take care of…I’ll see it someday though!

Feral druids got a makeover in Oh-Nine. The fur colors of kitty and bear druids were now based on the elf’s hair color and they changed the model from the old “cartoony” look to something a bit more realistic (although, Tauren bears still make me giggle…their noses are a little wide…hehe).


The new Dungeon Finder feature has been a blessing in most cases and the weekly raid quest seems alright- although, some of the bosses are still a little out of reach for some of us.

One of the other changes that 2009 brought about was a guild change for me. I had been in the same guild from the very beginning when I started to play. AoW was my Azerothian family, but after reaching 80 and some guild drama…I began to find that I had been stricken with wanderlust. I wanted to find something new, meet new people, and hopefully start raiding more regularly. I tried a few guilds out, but found myself homesick and miserable- so I ultimately returned to AoW…well, until things reached a breaking point there... I won’t get into details, but it ended my time with that guild. My husband followed suit and it was on July 20, 2009 that my husband decided to form our own guild. Ascendants was born.


While Ascendants has faced its fair share of frustrations and trials, I have to say that it’s definitely been a great experience. We’ve pulled together an amazing group of people and our family continues to grow. In the few short months we’ve been around, we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve experienced one of our officers getting hacked, we’ve had to deal with some cranky folks, had a few bouts of drama, and as much as we’ve grown, we’ve also lost members along the way. Not just members…friends. I prefer to think of everyone in my guild as a friend. While I can’t always make it around to help them with individual things or everything they need help with – I do adore each and every one of them. We’ve managed to cleanse the guild of jerks and now we have a happy, bubbly, spirited, and spunky bunch! It’s been one of the most rewarding things I think I’ve done in-game so far. So, a very special thank you to all of my fellow Ascendants! You guys ROCK!

Why did I include the guild in the “bad” memories section if all I’m doing is praising it? Well, let’s just say that we got off to a rough start, and at one point I had just about given up on our entire server and had begun to look into moving off server and considered switching to Horde to join a fellow Grove friend for raiding…I changed my mind and I am glad I did! I can’t imagine being without my guildies! I love them! (Not that he’ll ever stop by, but I luv you Neva. Now I’ve said it TWICE! hehe)

Looking back, 2009 definitely had more entertaining and good times than bad…that’s for sure. I met a lot of amazing people over the year. I was working on the achievement: “Higher Learning” where you have to find and read books in Dalaran that spawn randomly. I had gotten all but one…the one upstairs in the Legerdemain Lounge. I had seen about a million different book spawns there, but all were trash books. Eventually I ended up meeting a level 19 Twink Draenei hunter named Qwin, and a level 80 mage named Qinman. He might not have been level 80 when we first met…I don’t think he was…he was perhaps level 78 or 79? At any rate, we frequently camped the book’s spawn point together. I remember sitting upstairs in the lounge waiting for the book to spawn and trying to ease our boredom with games we’d create…We used to play catch with the heavy leather ball or jump from one bed to another just to see if we could go continuously without missing. We did just about everything we could think of to ease the boredom. Eventually, we all must have gotten the book spawn and our Legerdemain meetings ended.

Occasionally I still see Qwin in game and say hello. I bet you’re wondering why I brought this up? Well, making a new friend tends to be something that helps to make the year a great one: and after the Legerdemain Meetings, I ended up building a friendship with Qinman. He has since left WoW, but we are now friends outside of the game.









2009 was a year of learning:

I learned that dropping Death and Decay while questing sometimes came with consequences and that a level 65 Death Knight is no match for Durn the Hungerer…(the drooling jackass).

I learned that voidwalkers seem to get giggles from letting their Warlock draw aggro from them and get killed.

I learned that, when being run through a dungeon, it’s generally a better idea to just let the person who’s running you do their thing- pushing buttons, as irresistible as it is, can lead to a quick demise.

I learned that Kel’Thuzad really doesn’t care about my druid’s happiness at all (yeah…what? Did you think I’d forget?).

I learned the value of having a nice computer to play on – and now that I have a really nice computer – I no longer run in circles while in Violet Hold.

I learned a lot about how to fail in Naxxramas – tanks not running into the fray first, missing the jumps on the Thaddius fight, how to successfully hide from Patchwerk after a wipe…wait, that’s not a bad thing… Yes, I learned how to successfully hide from Patchwerk when things go really, REALLY, bad.

I learned that I have NO idea how to use my warrior as a tank and that people don’t really enjoy being stuck in a group with me while I try to figure it out. Also, warriors don’t have a swipe button...

I found out that falling off of any of the walkways in The Nexxus = a really long fall and guaranteed death, and that it’s really important to be aware of your surroundings.

I learned that there are a lot of people with huge egos that they really enjoy stroking and having stroked - I also learned when it's good to stroke their ego and when it's better to try and teach them a little bit about humility...

I learned that you cannot tank heroics in a Lovely Black Dress. I also found out that people remember things a lot longer than you’d think and stupid mistakes tend to haunt you for a really, really long time.

I learned that no matter how much I "love" Arthas, he'll never love me back and also found out that his beautiful aura in Halls of Reflection will actually kill me...

I learned that Loremaster isn’t “hard”, but requires tenacity and patience. By doing Loremaster, I’ve learned that patience is a virtue that, someday, I really hope to possess.

I realized that, no matter how frustrated I get with guild stuff, it’s worth it to be surrounded by friends like the ones I’ve made there. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a guild. We continue to grow and I hope our success continues into 2010 and Cataclysm! Thank you, guildies, for all of your hard work and support.

Unfortunately, I also found out that Jex’s dice curse is contagious and that I’ve been cursed with bad rolls...and haven't won an item in a raid in months...

I learned that WoW means a lot to my mom in some ways, and that she got tears in her eyes when her Death Knight hit level 80. She’s not as noobie as she used to be and I’m proud of her. Might just be a game, but if you had seen how tentative she was when she first began the journey into the great big world of WoW…and how far she’s come, you’d be proud too!

I learned that the title “Destinae the Patient” is a paradox.

I also learned that some of us veteran players take our knowledge and game or computer skills for granted. It might not take a second thought for some of us experienced druids to cast thorns on our tank, rather than ourselves, but for some it’s a brand new thing and patience and understanding is really something that us veteran players need to exercise. So to all of you who like to cuss at people who are new to the raiding scene...You were a noob once, too. Get over yourself.

I learned that great friends are the best thing you can find, both in game and out. There is nothing more awesome than finding a rare new friendship and watching it blossom into a long-lasting and awesome friendship!

And lastly, I learned that I tend to be really long-winded and I need to learn when to shut it down! Haha! Let’s just say I learned a lot of cool stuff and had a lot of fun over the past year – and I owe it to you guys!

All in all, 2009 was good to me. I started LBT, rejoined the ranks of WoW players and have experienced some really cool stuff over the past year. My love for writing has been reignited thanks to LBT and the friends who have supported it and commented on my posts. I’ve met a lot of really cool people and made a lot of really great friends. It’s been a good year.

Thank you all for all the smiles and laughter, the support and guidance...and Thank you all for an amazing 2009!

Here’s to an even better 2010 for all of us! *(sorry for the delayed posting, but I haven't been able to log in to post in almost a week! grr...)*