It's been 8 Days since my last post...my warlock is now level 65, my shaman is level 48, my warrior is level 37 and I think my hunter is now level 27, but I could oh-so-easily be wrong. I'm too lazy to tab over and look on the armory for the time being. Maybe by the end of this post I'll have found the inspiration...guess we'll have to wait and see.
There isn't a whole lot going on in WoWland for my posse. I've been working on leveling my alts a lot lately, thanks to not feeling well again. The change in seasons seems to have brought on either allergies or a cold...either way...I'm so hopped up on cold meds right now that I can't even tell how many feet I have...if any...
But I digress...Updates...updates...let's see...
Oh, Rotface is still a rock solid brick wall for us. Slimes. It's the damn slimes! If we can master the slime management for this fight we will get the kill. We've gotten him down to 5% a few times now and then we just get inundated with little slimes and we find multiple large slimes wandering around killing us...or exploding on us...you know, whatever blows their skirts up at the time.
That's been a little frustrating, but I will give a bunch of credit to our guild members. Everyone has such an amazing attitude about things...even a wipe or 5 doesn't stop us. We're all willing to brush off (repair) and give it another go until we can't even see straight. So that's definitely a blessing. If everyone had miserable, negative attitudes...we never would have gotten past Lord Marrowgar...
We'll get the fight down. We've got it practically mastered. I think the only reason we're struggling with that last 5% is just that everyone can see how close we are to the kill, and having been denied this kill so many times before...we get tunnel vision and just want him to die and we lose our focus a bit on the slime management aspect of the battle. We'll get it. I know we will. We're cool like that!
Speaking of ICC, I've been watching a handful of the Tankspot videos for some of the fights. Now, let me first tell you that I am generally a huge fan of tankspot. It might just be the allergy meds fogging up my little druid mind, but I watched a couple today and at the end of the video...I stared blankly at my screen thinking..."Huh?!?!" I watched a few of the videos a bunch of times and still have no idea what's going on. I mean I get the basic gist of things, but do I think I could watch the videos and understand exactly what I'm supposed to be doing? Gawsh no!
Know what works best for me?
A raid leader on vent that gives basic, plain instructions. For example, our raid leader for our recent ICC runs explains what to do on Rotface like this:
- If there's green stuff on the ground, DO NOT stand in it and avoid running through it.
- If Rotface turns and starts to do Slime Spray, move out of the spray.
- When you get the mutation on you, run to the OT and merge YOUR slime (after you get dispelled) with the big slime.
- If you're the first to get the little slime, just run around the outside of the room until another raid member has a slime, then merge them.
- Make sure you merge the slimes.
- When the big slime explodes, move a few steps from where you were standing.
Seems easy enough. Tankspot doesn't do just that though. They talk about boss abilities and what each ability does...then they tell you how to "counteract" that ability as they begin to bridge into the next ability...it gets confusing. I watched the Festergut and Professor Putricide videos about 4 times each and STILL have no idea wtf I'm supposed to do. Spores? Enslave an Abomination? Gas clouds? What? @_@
So confusing...far too confusing for a tree in a self-induced cold med coma...that's for sure. Speaking of which, I'm sort of hoping I'm not desperately needed for any of our raids tonight. I'm so out of it. It's not fair to the rest of the gang for me to be there and be incapacitated and not giving a full 100% for the entire night. Maybe I'll talk to one of the officers and bench myself for the week. Guess I'll have to wait and see how things go.
You know, I'm just going to end this post before I confuse/annoy anyone else. I'm confusing myself really bad...I think I started off wanting to talk about my alts and then started with some other stuff and Rotface and...Gas clouds?
Yep, I think it's time for this little bear to get some coffee and research more strategies for Rotface!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Dessyre, Queen of Demons: Episode 1
It's been awhile since I really talked about my warlock, Dessyre. It's about time I dedicate a post to her, especially considering our most recent adventures and how much fun we've had.This is my warlock. If you're wondering, yes...she's completely decked out in Heirloom gear (including a staff and spellpower trinket). It's delicious. Last night in Slave Pens she had about 357 spellpower. Juicy, hmm?
At any rate, she's level 62 now and over half way to 63. I'm not going to lie to you and say I've been questing like a fiend with her, because I haven't. That would be the farthest thing from the truth...The last old world quests she did were in Stranglethorn Vale at level 40. I haven't quested with her since. It shows, I guess. Some of her gear is ancient. I mean, up until yesterday she was still wearing a ring from Deadmines...if I had actually just gone out and quested with her, I'm thinking that would have been replaced far sooner...but I digress. I hate questing. Period.
Let me tell you a little about her. First things first, She's an Affliction lock. Full Affliction, actually. I didn't branch out into any of the other trees yet because I really wanted to get Haunt as quickly as I could. It was worth it too! Great spell for massive mob grinding while questing. With haunt and drain life, there's zero downtime. Even in instance groups, I rarely need healing and I don't have mana issues...EVER.
Speaking of instance groups...I should probably tell you about Tinypickle, Dwarf Healadin Extraordinaire. Yeah...trust me...he was SPESHULL...
Anyway, here's the story:
I queued in for a Hellfire Ramparts run. When the group all teleported into the instance, we did our buffs and got ready to go. Because of a few previous groups wiping, I thought I'd be nice and soulstone the healer. Who wouldn't want a free rez? I also dismissed my voidwalker and summoned my imp. For anyone who doesn't have a warlock, the soulstone and summoning the Imp ended up costing over half of my mana. I lifetapped to refill and was ready to go...
...I thought.
Tinypickle (Holy Pally) "WTF are you doing?"
Me: "Um, soulstoning you?"
TP: "No, what did you just do after that?"
Me: "Um, I lifetapped?"
TP: "Don't do it again or I won't heal you."
Me: "Uh, well...I hate to break it to you but Warlocks lifetap to refill our mana..."
TP: "You better not, noob. You drink like the rest of us."
Me: "No, I lifetap like a good little warlock."
TP: "If you do it again, I'm not healing you."
Me: "Oooookay? You don't have to heal me like...ever. I have Haunt, Drain Life...I'll be alright."
TP: "Whatever! If you do it again I'm leaving group."
Me: "You may as well just leave now then..."
TP: "Don't. You drink like the rest."
*shrug*
I felt bad for the rest of the group, because obviously the drama starting right off the bat isn't really a good way to start the run. But people, please...Warlocks use lifetap. That's what we do. We don't stack spirit or Mp5, so we have no OTHER source of mana regeneration. Warlocks are DESIGNED for Lifetap. Why the hell else do you think we stack STAMINA as one of our main stats? Exactly. It's for lifetap...*sigh* Some paladins evidently don't know this.
About 3 pulls into the instance, I lifetapped to fill up then cast drain life on one of the targets. I didn't die. Between lifetap and haunt, I was damn close to full health anyway. But lo and behold, Tinypickle could not contain his rage! After telling me what a complete retard I was, he bailed on the group.
Tank: "Why'd you have to push it?"
Me: "I didn't realize that playing my class as it was intended was so offensive..."
We ended up getting a resto druid in the group to replace the Dunce of a holy pally. I made sure to warn him that I lifetap...
Me: "Sooo just so you know, I use lifetap when I get low on mana."
Druid: "I know. lol Just wanted to warn me?"
Me: "Well, no. The healadin that just bailed on us was terribly offended by it and I wanted to make sure you knew ahead of time. I'll self heal anyway, but just wanted you to know =)"
Druid: "ROFL Okay then."
The rest of the run was totally uneventful. No wipes and the druid didn't complain even ONCE about having to heal me. Well, he sarcastically complained...just to be a wise guy. But it was pretty fun.
Now, one thing I DID notice...My darling warlock's DPS was the SUCK...I had picked up a sword with spellpower on it for her and an offhand...but really...her DPS just wasn't great. I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get her the Heirloom Staff and the Heirloom spellpower trinket. Good times! Her dps is much better now, even as an affliction lock. I even had a few tanks complaining that they were struggling to hold aggro from me. Not that this is a great thing...it means I need to learn some threat management...but it's nice to be the top DPS in a group and really just enjoy the instance without fear of getting kicked out for "dps that's too low".
I can't even WAIT to send that staff and trinket to my mage and my priest! ZOMGOLLY!
hehe
*daydreams*
Oh, right...the warlock...To quickly summarize this post, I love my warlock and she is infinitely awesome! As soon as I get her leveled a bit higher, we'll be going back in for some more PvP fun. At level 62, she's just a sitting duck in battlegrounds. So I'll pass for now, but I can't WAIT!
And to think...way back when she was only level 10, I had taken her for a simple bank alt. I never imagined I would ever level her...I never would have told you that she would probably be my next level 80. Never. I wouldn't have even thought about it when I first started out with her. But now? Now I can't wait to get her to 80 so I can really see this class at it's full glory! Dessyre, Queen of Demons...SO...MUCH...FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!I don't really have an update for you today. I spent a little time working on my warlock last night, that's about it. Nothing too eventful, though she did reach level 57. One more level until Outland! I can't wait!
If I didn't have a raid scheduled for tonight with CoE, I would love to just get her to 58 and move on up to Outland. Leveling her has been really fun. I haven't quested since Strangelthorn Vale, and even then...I didn't finish all of the quests there. Almost all of her leveling has been through random instances. It...is awesome! The same has been true with my holy paladin. I haven't quested on him in an eternity and he's currently level 40. I love the LFG feature. LOVE IT!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Adventures in the Vault: The Leaping Archavon
One of the coolest things about the new guild Destinae is in is the fact that everything we do, wipe or not, we manage to turn into fun. As a guild, we decided to run Vault of Archavon (25). We only had about 22 people with us, but it really wasn't an issue. We got all of the bosses down with plenty of time to spare before the next Wintergrasp battle started, so they decided to have some fun with Archavon.Apparently, one of the members or officers of the guild had seen this interesting trick on YouTube or perhaps in a PuG VoA run and wanted to try it.
Basically, once you've cleared all of the Vault bosses and trash, you go in and pull Archavon. As you can see, there's a pit in the picture. The tanks stand on opposite sides of the pit and taunt Archavon back and forth. Normally, he'll run back and forth around the outside of the pit, but occasionally he'll jump right over it, as seen in the screenshot above. It was a lot of fun and definitely not something I ever thought I'd see in VoA. I think we got him to leap across the pit 3 or 4 times. Very fun! At any rate, the guild is going to try and get additional screenshots up on the website. This one was taken by Balz.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Storming The Citadel!
I don't think anyone in CoE knows about my blog yet. That could be a good thing for now. I'm still on my 2 week probationary period with them and I don't think I could handle getting kicked out because they worry I'll try to tank in a black dress. That being said, I'm in love with this guild.
CoE is everything I dreamed of in a guild: fun, lively, active, positive, and full of really amazing players. I have found quite a few of them to be rather spunky and wild, which is making me fall even more in love with the whole guild. Despite my lingering feelings of sadness for having left behind friends in the "old" guild, I feel like I made the right decision for me, as a player and a druid.
First things first: I really wish Dero would have just taken the belt. Better iLvL = Better Gearscore = sexier boomkin (hard to imagine a sexier Boombudgie than Dero, but it would make me happy if she'd take it). I'm happy enough just being included in the raids. It's the coolest feeling in the world to be able to see the new content and experience it with such fun people. Anyway, the belt is still trade-eligible for another hour or so tonight. I'm going to try and convince Dero to take it. I'm still in 2-week probation noob-ville, so I feel like she should have it, even if just to vendor.
This week has been really incredible! I saw things happen that I previously thought were impossible.
I mean, I tried to pug my way through ICC and never got Marrowgar down. I tried on both 10 and 25 man on a few separate occasions and never got anything but frustrated. On Wednesday, I saw Marrowgar get taken down on both 10 AND 25 man! I even got to see the Lady Deathwhisper fight on 25! Crazy fight.
And I'm not sure why, but on the few attempts I was present for, Lady Deathwhisper seemed to want to get rid of me right off the bat. Her ghosts would spawn and I was instantly blown up. I mean, one shot and I was just a pile of sawdust on the floor.
We got through the first wing of ICC on 10 man last night. It was so cool! I did realize that I'm REALLY rusty on raid skills like...
It's been a really exciting week. I feel totally revitalized so far as my enjoyment of the game goes. It's nice to break away from the stress and pressure of trying to solo-run a guild and just go out and have some fun. It was relaxing. I ended up getting a few achievements and experiencing some crazy new fights. I can't thank CoE enough for letting me tag along. It was great!
CoE is everything I dreamed of in a guild: fun, lively, active, positive, and full of really amazing players. I have found quite a few of them to be rather spunky and wild, which is making me fall even more in love with the whole guild. Despite my lingering feelings of sadness for having left behind friends in the "old" guild, I feel like I made the right decision for me, as a player and a druid.
First things first: I really wish Dero would have just taken the belt. Better iLvL = Better Gearscore = sexier boomkin (hard to imagine a sexier Boombudgie than Dero, but it would make me happy if she'd take it). I'm happy enough just being included in the raids. It's the coolest feeling in the world to be able to see the new content and experience it with such fun people. Anyway, the belt is still trade-eligible for another hour or so tonight. I'm going to try and convince Dero to take it. I'm still in 2-week probation noob-ville, so I feel like she should have it, even if just to vendor.
This week has been really incredible! I saw things happen that I previously thought were impossible.
I mean, I tried to pug my way through ICC and never got Marrowgar down. I tried on both 10 and 25 man on a few separate occasions and never got anything but frustrated. On Wednesday, I saw Marrowgar get taken down on both 10 AND 25 man! I even got to see the Lady Deathwhisper fight on 25! Crazy fight.
And I'm not sure why, but on the few attempts I was present for, Lady Deathwhisper seemed to want to get rid of me right off the bat. Her ghosts would spawn and I was instantly blown up. I mean, one shot and I was just a pile of sawdust on the floor.
We got through the first wing of ICC on 10 man last night. It was so cool! I did realize that I'm REALLY rusty on raid skills like...
Don't stand in stuff on the ground that is either doing damage or will eventually do damage to you.My reaction times are a little slower than they should be, but I chalk that up to lack of raid experience recently and I know I can improve on that. There are a lot of skills you pick up and build on with raid experience that I really need to work on. In an effort to stay with CoE and continue to be invited to their raids, I will be working on them as much as I can.
It's been a really exciting week. I feel totally revitalized so far as my enjoyment of the game goes. It's nice to break away from the stress and pressure of trying to solo-run a guild and just go out and have some fun. It was relaxing. I ended up getting a few achievements and experiencing some crazy new fights. I can't thank CoE enough for letting me tag along. It was great!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Better Days
This is sort of an apology to my own guild as well as an update on my druid on Durotan.
First of all, let me start with the apology because that's the most important part to me. To everyone in Ascendants, I'm sorry that I couldn't lead the guild better. I'm sorry that we never got things moving and I'm sorry that our journey together is coming to an end. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do related to the game is leave the very guild I helped bring into existence.
I hope that everyone understands why I made the decision I made. Like everyone else with any level 80 toon, I've put a lot of time and effort into getting there and getting geared. I worked really hard to learn how to heal, since I've always been a tank and healing was so new to me when we got Dual Specs. I've really invested a considerable amount of time working at trying to be a better druid and player overall. It was frustrating to have spent the time and effort on my most beloved druid only to have her watching everyone else raiding and enjoying the game...
It was so frustrating to schedule raids and have 2 or 3 people show up, even though 12 people had signed up to join us. I understand that RL is far more important than WoW...but we were supposed to be a team. It's hard to win the game if only 4 of 10 team members are showing up. Rather than disappoint the few people that did show up and were participating - we would spend the next hour in trade and recruiting channels trying to find what we needed in order to fill up our raid so we could go. And we all know how PuG raids are...if you're lucky you get a solid group of people together but they don't tolerate wiping very well...and if a few leave after you've taken down a boss or two...well...game over for the rest of us.
I can't even tell you how many times I logged out of the game in tears. It sounds stupid to you all, I'm sure, but I'll explain a little deeper.
I give guild leaders and officers a lot of credit, especially now that I've seen what it's like. I doubt I'll ever want to start another guild of my own. I think if that ever becomes my ONLY option, I'll just uninstall and play Mario. I'm not a good leader. I don't even pretend to be. Being a guild leader became a full time job and there was constant, intense pressure to "make the guild better"...it ruined the game for me for the longest time....
You spend endless hours recruiting. Just when you think you finally have enough people for a 10 man raid...you find out that 3 of them left yesterday because they found something better. The others that you recruited still need to get geared up - so you start working on helping them get geared while you're recruiting to replace the three that left. By the time you get your semi-new folks geared, you realize that the new recruits need to be geared a little better and lo and behold, the original players leave the guild to join something "better". This cycle was endless and it got to be so frustrating that I just refused to participate in it anymore. It was completely ruining my ability to enjoy this game.
Realizing that I just couldn't put the guild together on my own, I asked guild members if they would want to be officers. No one was interested, it seemed. I struggled to find people who were willing to take on any part of the responsibility. We eventually found people who were willing to be officers...but after a few failed runs...they, too, left our team and we were back to square one. Some of our folks were willing to take on the title of "officer", but weren't willing to really take on the responsibilities. In great detail, I outlined exactly what we NEEDED from our officers.
The response I got when I started pushing our officers to do more to help blew my mind completely:
"Being an officer is ruining my enjoyment of the game."
Yeah? Well...*smacks head on desk a few times*
Anyway, the moral of the story is that running a guild is a TEAM effort. If there isn't a team supporting one another in trying to establish and build the guild...it fails.
When we originally formed Ascendants, my husband was working nights during the week and I was left on my own all week trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do in order to try to make things better for us all. I scoured every article I could find on how to run a guild successfully. I asked all of my WoW friends for help...I took every piece of advice and tried to apply it to our guild. I was either met with huge amounts of resistance or the change got ignored. The last ditch effort was to create "Raid" and "Raid Leader" ranks. We advised that the ranks were out there and that the criteria for promotion was: Show up on time, carry your weight in the raid, no drama. That's it! We had a pretty big sign up for that first raid, maybe 2 or 3 people actually showed up for it...It was at this point that I think I gave up completely.
I had invested a lot of time and sanity into trying to turn things around. Nothing was working. Not only that...but we ended up with so much drama...We had raid leaders treating other guild members like trash because of gear/performance, people leaving the guild because of how they were treated, or that they don't like this person or that person, people constantly complaining at me about even the most trivial of things...it turned into a very bitter mess...
I stopped playing most of my characters on Durotan and retreated to Crushridge to spend time leveling my Tauren druid.
And then...
I got to thinking...
I've already invested this much time in my main. She's level 80, dual spec, decently geared (by NO means amazingly geared, but we're getting there)...
Why should I abandon her JUST because things aren't changing in my guild?
I talked with my husband about possibly leaving the guild we formed together to find something new...something better...something that didn't drain me of every last ounce of my sanity...I wasn't too surprised to learn that he was in the same boat as I was. He stopped enjoying the game when he would come home and find me in tears because our own guild members couldn't get along, or this one got upset by something that one said and left...or because I got stuck trying to lead a raid and got pestered constantly with people second-guessing every decision and strategy I suggested we try...or because we had wiped for the 20th time on a boss that shouldn't have been difficult JUST because people refused to do what was asked of them...
He was ready to quit the game because of how stressful it had become.
So was I.
But...
Yesterday I started looking around the realm forums and found a few guilds recruiting for healers and such. I'm sort of a "special case" when it comes to raiding. Yes, I want to be successful at raiding, but I haven't got a whole lot of experience, especially in the new content...Icecrown Citadel. I tend to be rather shy and soft-skinned...meaning I don't think I would survive in a "hardcore" raid guild. I got a little discouraged as I was checking each of the recruiting guilds' sites...most of them seemed much too hardcore or their raid schedules wouldn't work for me...
And then I saw that CoE was recruiting for healers. I hopped over to their site and checked them out and fell in love. They seem like the perfect guild for a person like me. Established, active, and fun-loving! I nervously submitted an application and waited for a reply.
Within maybe an hour I had gotten a reply to meet up with one of the officers in-game to set up a "trial run" and get to know them a little better.
Well, with the exception of letting the mage die (And I'm still REALLY sorry about that Es...like... you have no idea...), everything went well and I got invited to join their guild. I adore them already! I wish I had thought to apply to their guild before we had formed Ascendants. It's sad, but it's true. They welcomed my druid and Balz's druid in with open arms. I think the best part is that I don't have to deal with the miserable pressure to try and "fix" a guild. I can finally just relax and enjoy the game. I can't tell you how happy I am right now!
To everyone in Ascendants, I tried so hard to get things going and my efforts seemed to be in vain. It is time for my druid to move on so that I can experience more of the raid content and get back to enjoying the game. My alts still call Ascendants their home, and they will until Balz says otherwise. I will still play my alts (I'm addicted to PvP on my warlock) and I will make myself available to help you guys out whenever I can. I just needed a break from the stagnancy. I still adore you all!
(Yes, I know some of you hate Balz and me for our decision, but we all pay to play and we all deserve to enjoy the game, right?)
OH! And before I forget!!!
Thanks to a really amazing PuG raid group, I FINALLY got my Malygos kill!!!
Finally! Went into Maly 10 yesterday and we were SO close on the first 2 attempts...we got him on try #3! So exciting!
Now I have an obnoxiously long Name, Title to annoy everyone with!
. Destinae
{Champion of the Frozen Wastes}
I'll post a pic or screen shot when I can...I forgot to send the SS to myself *_*
haha WOOT! So thank you Yoka for the invite and for having an amazing raid group! Grats to everyone who got their first Maly kill in that raid as well!
First of all, let me start with the apology because that's the most important part to me. To everyone in Ascendants, I'm sorry that I couldn't lead the guild better. I'm sorry that we never got things moving and I'm sorry that our journey together is coming to an end. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do related to the game is leave the very guild I helped bring into existence.
I hope that everyone understands why I made the decision I made. Like everyone else with any level 80 toon, I've put a lot of time and effort into getting there and getting geared. I worked really hard to learn how to heal, since I've always been a tank and healing was so new to me when we got Dual Specs. I've really invested a considerable amount of time working at trying to be a better druid and player overall. It was frustrating to have spent the time and effort on my most beloved druid only to have her watching everyone else raiding and enjoying the game...
It was so frustrating to schedule raids and have 2 or 3 people show up, even though 12 people had signed up to join us. I understand that RL is far more important than WoW...but we were supposed to be a team. It's hard to win the game if only 4 of 10 team members are showing up. Rather than disappoint the few people that did show up and were participating - we would spend the next hour in trade and recruiting channels trying to find what we needed in order to fill up our raid so we could go. And we all know how PuG raids are...if you're lucky you get a solid group of people together but they don't tolerate wiping very well...and if a few leave after you've taken down a boss or two...well...game over for the rest of us.
I can't even tell you how many times I logged out of the game in tears. It sounds stupid to you all, I'm sure, but I'll explain a little deeper.
I give guild leaders and officers a lot of credit, especially now that I've seen what it's like. I doubt I'll ever want to start another guild of my own. I think if that ever becomes my ONLY option, I'll just uninstall and play Mario. I'm not a good leader. I don't even pretend to be. Being a guild leader became a full time job and there was constant, intense pressure to "make the guild better"...it ruined the game for me for the longest time....
You spend endless hours recruiting. Just when you think you finally have enough people for a 10 man raid...you find out that 3 of them left yesterday because they found something better. The others that you recruited still need to get geared up - so you start working on helping them get geared while you're recruiting to replace the three that left. By the time you get your semi-new folks geared, you realize that the new recruits need to be geared a little better and lo and behold, the original players leave the guild to join something "better". This cycle was endless and it got to be so frustrating that I just refused to participate in it anymore. It was completely ruining my ability to enjoy this game.
Realizing that I just couldn't put the guild together on my own, I asked guild members if they would want to be officers. No one was interested, it seemed. I struggled to find people who were willing to take on any part of the responsibility. We eventually found people who were willing to be officers...but after a few failed runs...they, too, left our team and we were back to square one. Some of our folks were willing to take on the title of "officer", but weren't willing to really take on the responsibilities. In great detail, I outlined exactly what we NEEDED from our officers.
The response I got when I started pushing our officers to do more to help blew my mind completely:
"Being an officer is ruining my enjoyment of the game."
Yeah? Well...*smacks head on desk a few times*
Anyway, the moral of the story is that running a guild is a TEAM effort. If there isn't a team supporting one another in trying to establish and build the guild...it fails.
When we originally formed Ascendants, my husband was working nights during the week and I was left on my own all week trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do in order to try to make things better for us all. I scoured every article I could find on how to run a guild successfully. I asked all of my WoW friends for help...I took every piece of advice and tried to apply it to our guild. I was either met with huge amounts of resistance or the change got ignored. The last ditch effort was to create "Raid" and "Raid Leader" ranks. We advised that the ranks were out there and that the criteria for promotion was: Show up on time, carry your weight in the raid, no drama. That's it! We had a pretty big sign up for that first raid, maybe 2 or 3 people actually showed up for it...It was at this point that I think I gave up completely.
I had invested a lot of time and sanity into trying to turn things around. Nothing was working. Not only that...but we ended up with so much drama...We had raid leaders treating other guild members like trash because of gear/performance, people leaving the guild because of how they were treated, or that they don't like this person or that person, people constantly complaining at me about even the most trivial of things...it turned into a very bitter mess...
I stopped playing most of my characters on Durotan and retreated to Crushridge to spend time leveling my Tauren druid.
And then...
I got to thinking...
I've already invested this much time in my main. She's level 80, dual spec, decently geared (by NO means amazingly geared, but we're getting there)...
Why should I abandon her JUST because things aren't changing in my guild?
I talked with my husband about possibly leaving the guild we formed together to find something new...something better...something that didn't drain me of every last ounce of my sanity...I wasn't too surprised to learn that he was in the same boat as I was. He stopped enjoying the game when he would come home and find me in tears because our own guild members couldn't get along, or this one got upset by something that one said and left...or because I got stuck trying to lead a raid and got pestered constantly with people second-guessing every decision and strategy I suggested we try...or because we had wiped for the 20th time on a boss that shouldn't have been difficult JUST because people refused to do what was asked of them...
He was ready to quit the game because of how stressful it had become.
So was I.
But...
Yesterday I started looking around the realm forums and found a few guilds recruiting for healers and such. I'm sort of a "special case" when it comes to raiding. Yes, I want to be successful at raiding, but I haven't got a whole lot of experience, especially in the new content...Icecrown Citadel. I tend to be rather shy and soft-skinned...meaning I don't think I would survive in a "hardcore" raid guild. I got a little discouraged as I was checking each of the recruiting guilds' sites...most of them seemed much too hardcore or their raid schedules wouldn't work for me...
And then I saw that CoE was recruiting for healers. I hopped over to their site and checked them out and fell in love. They seem like the perfect guild for a person like me. Established, active, and fun-loving! I nervously submitted an application and waited for a reply.
Within maybe an hour I had gotten a reply to meet up with one of the officers in-game to set up a "trial run" and get to know them a little better.
Well, with the exception of letting the mage die (And I'm still REALLY sorry about that Es...like... you have no idea...), everything went well and I got invited to join their guild. I adore them already! I wish I had thought to apply to their guild before we had formed Ascendants. It's sad, but it's true. They welcomed my druid and Balz's druid in with open arms. I think the best part is that I don't have to deal with the miserable pressure to try and "fix" a guild. I can finally just relax and enjoy the game. I can't tell you how happy I am right now!
To everyone in Ascendants, I tried so hard to get things going and my efforts seemed to be in vain. It is time for my druid to move on so that I can experience more of the raid content and get back to enjoying the game. My alts still call Ascendants their home, and they will until Balz says otherwise. I will still play my alts (I'm addicted to PvP on my warlock) and I will make myself available to help you guys out whenever I can. I just needed a break from the stagnancy. I still adore you all!
(Yes, I know some of you hate Balz and me for our decision, but we all pay to play and we all deserve to enjoy the game, right?)
OH! And before I forget!!!
Thanks to a really amazing PuG raid group, I FINALLY got my Malygos kill!!!
Finally! Went into Maly 10 yesterday and we were SO close on the first 2 attempts...we got him on try #3! So exciting!
Now I have an obnoxiously long Name, Title to annoy everyone with!
. Destinae
{Champion of the Frozen Wastes}
I'll post a pic or screen shot when I can...I forgot to send the SS to myself *_*
haha WOOT! So thank you Yoka for the invite and for having an amazing raid group! Grats to everyone who got their first Maly kill in that raid as well!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Twìtch's Adventures: Episode 2 - Twenty Steps Into The Journey
Twìtch continues to grow up really quickly, which makes me happy. I got him to level 20 last night - I haven't trained up yet, but...two really cool things about level 20:
Now I just need to figure out where little Hordies go to learn the rest of their weapon skills...I'm going to assume he probably learns this in Orgrimmar, but I'll look it up before I make the journey up there. Another really great thing about hitting level 20 is that he's getting his first mount. The sad part is that neither he nor my death knight on that server have enough gold to fund his riding training and mount purchase yet. Bleh...the downfalls of starting over on a new server.
I will say that I'm pretty damn excited to be able to be running instances now. My first time running an instance was Deadmines, and I got to tank. It was a little rough for the simple fact that he just doesn't have the "rage generating" talents that my level 80 druid has. You know...the talents that give you the gift of rage for dodging attacks and such. For anyone who doesn't understand rage-fueled tanks, let me explain.
Rage fueled tanks need rage to generate special attacks that boost us up on the threat meters. If we don't have rage, we're not generating much threat. That means that our dps has a much easier time pulling mobs off of us - especially caster dps. It happens at any level. Luckily, Blizzard is smart enough to give us a taunt as soon as we get bear form, so we can usually recover well enough.
Now, that first run, albeit a little rough, went MUCH better than I had imagined it could. I was happy. The second instance I ended up going into yesterday was Wailing Caverns. I stupidly queued as Heals and Tank, forgetting that I have no healing gear at all. We would have been alright except I got lost in the instance...I had stopped to drink, the group continued on, and let's just say I couldn't find them and they didn't want to find me. I ended up leaving the group and not finishing. I felt really bad, but the only way I could get back to them was to plow through mobs and that just wasn't happening...
I ran deadmines last night. I queued in as a tank but ended up giving up my tanking spot to a paladin who insisted on tanking. I sort of healed and sort of DPS'd for the entire run, and that's where I got my polearm. I was about 84% of the way through level 19 after I left there, so I ran around and turned in a handful of quests that I had completed and just hadn't turned in yet, and hit 20. It was late, so I just logged for bed.
It's still pretty crazy to be a tank at such a low level. I mean, there are SO many things you take for granted that you have at level 80 that you just don't have early on. Frenzied regeneration is a BIG one. I can't tell you the number of times I was tanking and watching my health plummet and I kept looking at my hotbar wishing Frenzied Regeneration would just appear there, even if just for that moment. Feral Charge is a lot of fun, and you definitely don't get that at this level. I do have Feral Faerie Fire now, which will make pulling a little easier, since I won't have to use my taunt to pull, especially if I'm trying to pull a group back away from another group. There are so many things that make low-level feral druid tanking a little more difficult than level 80 feral druid tanking...little things... like rage starvation and nothing that you, personally, can do to increase your "time to live", which is one of the things tanks focus on. I mean you can throw Rejuvenation and Regrowth on yourself before you pull, but that only lasts for the first few seconds of the fight.
I can't wait to see what cool things I get at level 20! I'll finally be able to queue as tank/dps, instead of just a tank. If I get into an instance where another tank insists on being in charge, I can just go kitty and scamper along for the ride. It'll be so cool! I can't wait.
I'll post again soon. It's been so much fun revisiting the early levels of being a druid, though. It's awesome :)
- He gets Cat Form
- He got his first kitty weapon from Deadmines last night.
Now I just need to figure out where little Hordies go to learn the rest of their weapon skills...I'm going to assume he probably learns this in Orgrimmar, but I'll look it up before I make the journey up there. Another really great thing about hitting level 20 is that he's getting his first mount. The sad part is that neither he nor my death knight on that server have enough gold to fund his riding training and mount purchase yet. Bleh...the downfalls of starting over on a new server.
I will say that I'm pretty damn excited to be able to be running instances now. My first time running an instance was Deadmines, and I got to tank. It was a little rough for the simple fact that he just doesn't have the "rage generating" talents that my level 80 druid has. You know...the talents that give you the gift of rage for dodging attacks and such. For anyone who doesn't understand rage-fueled tanks, let me explain.
Rage fueled tanks need rage to generate special attacks that boost us up on the threat meters. If we don't have rage, we're not generating much threat. That means that our dps has a much easier time pulling mobs off of us - especially caster dps. It happens at any level. Luckily, Blizzard is smart enough to give us a taunt as soon as we get bear form, so we can usually recover well enough.
Now, that first run, albeit a little rough, went MUCH better than I had imagined it could. I was happy. The second instance I ended up going into yesterday was Wailing Caverns. I stupidly queued as Heals and Tank, forgetting that I have no healing gear at all. We would have been alright except I got lost in the instance...I had stopped to drink, the group continued on, and let's just say I couldn't find them and they didn't want to find me. I ended up leaving the group and not finishing. I felt really bad, but the only way I could get back to them was to plow through mobs and that just wasn't happening...
I ran deadmines last night. I queued in as a tank but ended up giving up my tanking spot to a paladin who insisted on tanking. I sort of healed and sort of DPS'd for the entire run, and that's where I got my polearm. I was about 84% of the way through level 19 after I left there, so I ran around and turned in a handful of quests that I had completed and just hadn't turned in yet, and hit 20. It was late, so I just logged for bed.
It's still pretty crazy to be a tank at such a low level. I mean, there are SO many things you take for granted that you have at level 80 that you just don't have early on. Frenzied regeneration is a BIG one. I can't tell you the number of times I was tanking and watching my health plummet and I kept looking at my hotbar wishing Frenzied Regeneration would just appear there, even if just for that moment. Feral Charge is a lot of fun, and you definitely don't get that at this level. I do have Feral Faerie Fire now, which will make pulling a little easier, since I won't have to use my taunt to pull, especially if I'm trying to pull a group back away from another group. There are so many things that make low-level feral druid tanking a little more difficult than level 80 feral druid tanking...little things... like rage starvation and nothing that you, personally, can do to increase your "time to live", which is one of the things tanks focus on. I mean you can throw Rejuvenation and Regrowth on yourself before you pull, but that only lasts for the first few seconds of the fight.
I can't wait to see what cool things I get at level 20! I'll finally be able to queue as tank/dps, instead of just a tank. If I get into an instance where another tank insists on being in charge, I can just go kitty and scamper along for the ride. It'll be so cool! I can't wait.
I'll post again soon. It's been so much fun revisiting the early levels of being a druid, though. It's awesome :)
Friday, March 5, 2010
Ignis...Impossible?
I am a sad, sad druid today. Okay, maybe sad is the wrong word. Infinitely frustrated might be a better word. Our weekly raid quest on Durotan was: [Ignis the Furnace Master Must Die!]It's really not a difficult fight. There are probably hundreds of different strategies that work....But last night...every strategy we tried failed us...MISERABLY!
Let me reiterate that this is not a difficult fight. Here's Tank Spot's Guide
There are a bunch of other strategies that also work, are easier, or work better with certain group makeups. Nothing worked with our group. Not Ciderhelm's guide. Not the thirty other strategies that group members were suggesting. Nothing.
We started Ulduar at 8:45. We took down Flame Leviathan without any issues at all. We took down the trash in Ignis's wing without any issue. I don't recall anyone dying, but if we did it was only one person. We got to Ignis probably around 9:15pm at the latest. We wiped steadily on him for the next almost 3 hours. I give the group credit for hanging in there...well most of the group. It's really difficult to want to stay in a group that has wiped repeatedly on the same boss.
At any rate, these are the reasons we failed:
- The adds were not being held in the scorch zone long enough, and when dragged into the water, nothing happened. Adds weren't being picked up quickly enough.
- Because of ^ that...the adds were not getting killed.
- Because of ^ that...healers were having to tank adds.
- Because of ^ that...healers were out of mana far too early in the fight.
- Because of ^ that...the players who were thrown into the Slag Pot were dying.
- Because of ^ that...we didn't have enough DPS to kill the boss quickly.
- Because of ^ that...the debuff got too high on our main tank and he ultimately ended up being one shotted.
- Because of ^ that...we wiped.
It wasn't a lack of heals either. I kept a close watch on the healing meters and we were all healing our asses off. It's impossible to keep tanks and other raid members alive when you're trying to heal-tank some stone golem that's hitting you for 5-9k per hit. Couple that with having to run to avoid the scorch zones and trying to heal through Flame Jets...it's a recipe for disaster.
I've been in groups where this fight has gone smoothly. I've been in groups where we've wiped once, figured out what the issue was, fixed it and then downed him on our next attempt. Until last night, I had never been in a group where we had wiped SO many times that the trash began to respawn around Ignis. I decided at 11:30pm that enough was enough. A hefty chunk of gold for repairs and nearly 3 hours of wasted time...was enough.
I can't lay the blame on one person completely. We did have a tank that was trying to learn the fight for the first time. That's the ONLY reason I stuck around. He's a guild member and a tank for our guild - so as a guild officer I felt compelled to try and give him the opportunity to learn and be successful...I'm sure he'll learn eventually and I'll try to help when I can. But I can't help feeling the same way one of the pugged shamans felt before he finally gave up - "Saved to yet another failed raid for the weekly quest..." I hear ya, hun...believe me. I do.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Twìtch's Adventures: Episode 1 - Growing Up So Fast
I had mentioned before that I had begun to level a Tauren Druid named Twìtch in hopes of raiding with a friend on a new server. I thought I'd introduce you to him.This is Twìtch just standing there near the druid trainer on Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff. I had worked on getting his bear form last night, and it seemed to be a little easier than the Alliance version...
It seems to me that getting Des's bear form was a little more difficult, only because I had to kill a bunch of moonkin just to get to the cave that had the right stone in it. I didn't have quest helper at the time (or any other addons for that matter), so it took me quite a few tries to find the right cave. I ended up getting a friend to help out of frustration.
The only obstacle that Twìtch met was a big Stormsnout lizard (level SKULL to poor little Twìtch, by the way) that kept trying to blow him up with lightning bolts. Once I figured out how to get to the stone without drawing the attention from the lizard, it was really easy to complete that quest. Then I hoofed it back to Thunder Bluff and learned bear form. Because I was completing a bunch of other quests on my way through, I ended up being level 12 by the time I actually completed the final quest to get my bear form.
I had forgotten how few skills you have at such a low level. Right now in his caster form he has:
- Entangling Roots
- Rejuvenation
- Healing Touch
- Wrath
- Moonfire
- Nature's Grasp
- Mark of the Wild
- Thorns
- Teleport: Moonglade
- Revive
- And he "should" have regrowth, but I don't think I put it on his hotbar.
- Enrage
- Growl
- Demoralizing Roar
- Maul
Only time will tell what fate has in store for this little druid. And you'd think I'd be sick of leveling and playing druids. I'm not. My main is a druid and she is, by FAR, my favorite character to play. It's been really cool to revisit the early stages of the druid again as well. You know, getting new forms and stuff. It's been really fun. Reminds me of the early days with Des. :)
Anyway, before I logged out last night I took a quick picture of Twìtch in bear form. He's fierce! He's terrifying! Rawr!!!
And there he is. My little Twìtch.
I'll be posting some of his adventures here. With him being a brand new druid (and a brand new Horde member), I'm sure I'll noob stuff up from time to time. I'm hoping to get to level 15 soon so that I can begin queuing in for dungeons to get him leveling and gearing faster. (I still hate questing...it's become the bane of my existence ever since I started and finished Loremaster on Destinae.)
Rawr!!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
A Brand New World
I've decided to try my hand at leveling Horde on a new server...a PvP server. There's a lot of reasons behind this decision: the first being that my Alliance guild has fallen into a sad state of inactivity. The second reason is that I can't justify spending $60 to transfer my beloved druid over to another server and change faction.
Now, I've gone and created a few toons on this new server. I currently have a level 60 Blood Elf Death Knight, a Level 6 Tauren Druid (male, because the female tauren annoy me...), and a level 10 or so Blood Elf Priest. Obviously I haven't really been grinding too hard, since each of those toons is such a low-ish level. I'm keeping the death knight there as a source of funding for my new druid. I think eventually I'll grind her to 80, but I'm really not sure just yet.
The first thing I've learned is that I keep forgetting that I'm horde on a PvP server. Well, I guess I forget that I'm on a PvP server in general...but I need to keep in mind that when I see a level 80 Draenei paladin, it's probably not the best idea to go and wave to him. He didn't end up killing me because I managed to get away from him, but it was sort of a shock to just be hanging out and BLAMMO- getting attacked. It was definitely an eye opener, and I realized I'm really going to have to learn to PvP.
The second thing I've learned is that I'm lost. I've now leveled 2 Alliance characters through outlands, and I'm pretty accustomed to the quests that are available- where to pick them up and turn them in and what I need to do to finish the zone really quickly.
Being horde means new places to pick up quests and new places I'll have to call home. It also means I'll have to learn about the Horde cities now. I went to Undercity on my Death Knight to buy some bags for my new druid and had NO idea where the Auctioneer was. I had to switch my tracking to Auctioneer in order to find them. It was sad. Really sad. I didn't want to ask for help because honestly, I didn't feel like getting laughed at. It's a crazy new world.
I've found that Horde players really are no different than Alliance players, in that there are still tanks that aren't that great and healers that call them out on it...viciously. Thank goodness I'm not a tank, right? Well, for now. I think my up and coming druid is going to level as a tank so that I can instance grind while I'm questing. Tanks seem to be few and far between even for horde.
I also found that when I'm on my horde toons, I miss my Alliance friends a lot. That's the downfall to waiting nearly 3 years to level any horde toons. I've made so many friends on my journeys while leveling Alliance...it's hard to turn my back on them and go horde. That's another big reason I'm just leaving my Alliance toons where they are on Durotan. I still intend to try to raid on my Alliance 80's and hang out with my Durotan friends. The Horde toons, for now, are sort of a side project. I'm still trying to get my White Hawkstrider from H:MgT on my druid along with the little Sea Turtle. It's a strange new world.
I had thought long and hard about just transferring my druid to the dark side, but I've put so much work into some of her alliance achievements and items - her Winterspring Frostsaber, for example. That is one HELL of a grind and if I go Horde, I lose that mount. Not awesome.
Wow, I'm rambling. All I really wanted to say was this: I'm playing Horde, I have no idea how to navigate the cities, I don't know where to pick up more quests, and I'm now afraid of the Alliance...go figure...
Now, I've gone and created a few toons on this new server. I currently have a level 60 Blood Elf Death Knight, a Level 6 Tauren Druid (male, because the female tauren annoy me...), and a level 10 or so Blood Elf Priest. Obviously I haven't really been grinding too hard, since each of those toons is such a low-ish level. I'm keeping the death knight there as a source of funding for my new druid. I think eventually I'll grind her to 80, but I'm really not sure just yet.
The first thing I've learned is that I keep forgetting that I'm horde on a PvP server. Well, I guess I forget that I'm on a PvP server in general...but I need to keep in mind that when I see a level 80 Draenei paladin, it's probably not the best idea to go and wave to him. He didn't end up killing me because I managed to get away from him, but it was sort of a shock to just be hanging out and BLAMMO- getting attacked. It was definitely an eye opener, and I realized I'm really going to have to learn to PvP.
The second thing I've learned is that I'm lost. I've now leveled 2 Alliance characters through outlands, and I'm pretty accustomed to the quests that are available- where to pick them up and turn them in and what I need to do to finish the zone really quickly.
Being horde means new places to pick up quests and new places I'll have to call home. It also means I'll have to learn about the Horde cities now. I went to Undercity on my Death Knight to buy some bags for my new druid and had NO idea where the Auctioneer was. I had to switch my tracking to Auctioneer in order to find them. It was sad. Really sad. I didn't want to ask for help because honestly, I didn't feel like getting laughed at. It's a crazy new world.
I've found that Horde players really are no different than Alliance players, in that there are still tanks that aren't that great and healers that call them out on it...viciously. Thank goodness I'm not a tank, right? Well, for now. I think my up and coming druid is going to level as a tank so that I can instance grind while I'm questing. Tanks seem to be few and far between even for horde.
I also found that when I'm on my horde toons, I miss my Alliance friends a lot. That's the downfall to waiting nearly 3 years to level any horde toons. I've made so many friends on my journeys while leveling Alliance...it's hard to turn my back on them and go horde. That's another big reason I'm just leaving my Alliance toons where they are on Durotan. I still intend to try to raid on my Alliance 80's and hang out with my Durotan friends. The Horde toons, for now, are sort of a side project. I'm still trying to get my White Hawkstrider from H:MgT on my druid along with the little Sea Turtle. It's a strange new world.
I had thought long and hard about just transferring my druid to the dark side, but I've put so much work into some of her alliance achievements and items - her Winterspring Frostsaber, for example. That is one HELL of a grind and if I go Horde, I lose that mount. Not awesome.
Wow, I'm rambling. All I really wanted to say was this: I'm playing Horde, I have no idea how to navigate the cities, I don't know where to pick up more quests, and I'm now afraid of the Alliance...go figure...
Monday, March 1, 2010
Hell Hath No Fury...
I wrote a few of these posts over the weekend but just got around to posting them today, for those of you who think I'm on some sort of posting rampage. I'm not really.
This post, however, I'm writing today. It's a small rant, but a rant nonetheless.
It all started in Heroic: Pit of Saron...
Let me start out by saying that stupid things are BOUND to happen if you insist on skipping a great deal of trash. That's just how it is. It takes maybe a minute to clear that extra group of mobs. If you try to skip them and you wipe, it takes more like 5 minutes to get everyone zoned back in, rezzed, and buffed up again. Food for thought, my friends.
As a DPS, I tend to sit in queues for an everlasting eternity before I finally get grouped up. So I was happy as hell to FINALLY get queued into H:PoS. Finally...after being in the queue for over an hour...
Now, I ended up getting stuck in a group of miserable people. The mage ended up pulling the first set of trash that the tank and huntard insisted on skipping...and they had threatened to kick him. As we recovered from that, I tried to reply to a question in guild chat and ended up taking a step sideways...pulling another group of trash on us.
I felt terrible. It was one of those moments where I THOUGHT I was about to type into /guild but ended up not hitting enter before I typed to reply and...well...there are buttons on your keyboard OTHER than the arrow keys that move your toon. Enough said. The hunter took it upon herself to unleash on a vulgar, obnoxious rant about "glue drinkers"...and what idiots the mage and I were for aggroing the extra mobs.
I'm not one to take such moronic rants without a fight...so I said my piece and put the huntard on ignore.
I was GOING to leave the group.
In hindsight, I wish I HAD left the group.
They had initiated a vote to kick me from group...which evidently finally passed as we engaged Garfrost. Nice... Initially, I didn't think I'd get saved to the instance...but lo and behold...when the window lickers downed him...I got saved. I was so frustrated over getting saved to the instance...and unable to even finish getting the badges or gear I had waited an hour for...I was so, so frustrated.
...Saved to an instance...that I waited over an hour in queue for...and never got the chance at the loot I was hoping for...or the badges...and why? Because of an accidental thing? An honest mistake? Seriously...
If I was as much of a douche as the huntard was, I probably would have nerdraged over it...but...
Mistakes happen. That's life. That's WoW. That's reality. No one is perfect 100% of the time...well except for maybe Skwid...but I'd have to run with him sometime to see if he has flaws too...and I'm not sure I'm ready to transfer to his server just to see if he's capable of screwing up like the rest of us.
I have been the tank when someone has pulled adds on us...you pick them up, pop cooldowns if need be...and keep going. I've been the healer when someone's pulled adds or unexpected mobs. You heal through it and move on. Pouting and nerdraging never solves anything. Ever. Sure, it's frustrating, but it happens and it's not the end of the world.
Ms. Huntard seems to have forgotten a key point here:
IT'S A F*CKING GAME.
Seriously. Maybe she thought that if her precious huntard died in the game that somehow she'd die IRL? Hm...might be a blessing to the world....
Also...
For all you nerd-ragers out there: We're all laughing at you. It's the truth. I'm sure Khel or Paper Towel will back me up on this...Nerd-ragers are entertaining. So, go ahead and stomp your feet and swear and prove how awesome you are by acting like a complete f*cktard...please do. It's hilarious. Thank you for the laughs. :)
(You'll have to excuse the language. It's obnoxious that such idiots still parade around the world and the game...and we all know by now that stupid people are the bane of my existence, right?)
This post, however, I'm writing today. It's a small rant, but a rant nonetheless.
It all started in Heroic: Pit of Saron...
Let me start out by saying that stupid things are BOUND to happen if you insist on skipping a great deal of trash. That's just how it is. It takes maybe a minute to clear that extra group of mobs. If you try to skip them and you wipe, it takes more like 5 minutes to get everyone zoned back in, rezzed, and buffed up again. Food for thought, my friends.
As a DPS, I tend to sit in queues for an everlasting eternity before I finally get grouped up. So I was happy as hell to FINALLY get queued into H:PoS. Finally...after being in the queue for over an hour...
Now, I ended up getting stuck in a group of miserable people. The mage ended up pulling the first set of trash that the tank and huntard insisted on skipping...and they had threatened to kick him. As we recovered from that, I tried to reply to a question in guild chat and ended up taking a step sideways...pulling another group of trash on us.
I felt terrible. It was one of those moments where I THOUGHT I was about to type into /guild but ended up not hitting enter before I typed to reply and...well...there are buttons on your keyboard OTHER than the arrow keys that move your toon. Enough said. The hunter took it upon herself to unleash on a vulgar, obnoxious rant about "glue drinkers"...and what idiots the mage and I were for aggroing the extra mobs.
I'm not one to take such moronic rants without a fight...so I said my piece and put the huntard on ignore.
I was GOING to leave the group.
In hindsight, I wish I HAD left the group.
They had initiated a vote to kick me from group...which evidently finally passed as we engaged Garfrost. Nice... Initially, I didn't think I'd get saved to the instance...but lo and behold...when the window lickers downed him...I got saved. I was so frustrated over getting saved to the instance...and unable to even finish getting the badges or gear I had waited an hour for...I was so, so frustrated.
...Saved to an instance...that I waited over an hour in queue for...and never got the chance at the loot I was hoping for...or the badges...and why? Because of an accidental thing? An honest mistake? Seriously...
If I was as much of a douche as the huntard was, I probably would have nerdraged over it...but...
Mistakes happen. That's life. That's WoW. That's reality. No one is perfect 100% of the time...well except for maybe Skwid...but I'd have to run with him sometime to see if he has flaws too...and I'm not sure I'm ready to transfer to his server just to see if he's capable of screwing up like the rest of us.
I have been the tank when someone has pulled adds on us...you pick them up, pop cooldowns if need be...and keep going. I've been the healer when someone's pulled adds or unexpected mobs. You heal through it and move on. Pouting and nerdraging never solves anything. Ever. Sure, it's frustrating, but it happens and it's not the end of the world.
Ms. Huntard seems to have forgotten a key point here:
IT'S A F*CKING GAME.
Seriously. Maybe she thought that if her precious huntard died in the game that somehow she'd die IRL? Hm...might be a blessing to the world....
Also...
For all you nerd-ragers out there: We're all laughing at you. It's the truth. I'm sure Khel or Paper Towel will back me up on this...Nerd-ragers are entertaining. So, go ahead and stomp your feet and swear and prove how awesome you are by acting like a complete f*cktard...please do. It's hilarious. Thank you for the laughs. :)
(You'll have to excuse the language. It's obnoxious that such idiots still parade around the world and the game...and we all know by now that stupid people are the bane of my existence, right?)
Deadliest Catch
I figured I'd post a little guide on the "Deadliest Catch" achievement for Zul'Gurub. This guide is assuming you haven't done the quest...First, here is the map...(adapted from Wowwiki.com, so I didn't create this, I just drew a white line on it).At any rate, you'll need to be in a raid group in order to enter this instance. Find a friend who isn't questing to start a group with, make sure to convert to a raid group. If they're grouped with you in a raid group, they won't be able to complete any of their quests...a few things that have worked for me: Getting a friend to switch to an alt they aren't working on...invite them to party, convert to a raid and they can go offline. This keeps you in the raid group but prevents you from getting ported out of the instance if they drop group. So far, I've been lucky enough not to get ported if my friend happens to drop group, but why risk it?
I'd recommend grabbing a few "Elixirs of Water Walking" to make this really easy. It saves you a lot of trouble, ultimately. Once you enter the instance, make your way down to the water and follow the white path to "area 9" on the map. If you haven't finished Loremaster, you should be able to "track low level quests" and find a quest on Nat Pagle's toolbox on Nat's Landing in ZG. Take the quest and head back to Nat Pagle off of Theramore Isle.
BUY MUDSKUNK LURES. A friend of mine wanted to do this achievement and he turned in the quest but forgot to buy the lures. He didn't realize it until he had already made his way back to ZG and then had to turn around and go back. Save yourself some trouble. Buy them after you turn in the quest.
Now, make your way back to ZG and down to the water. Switch tracking to "Find Fish" to make it a little easier for you. What you're looking for is "muddy churning water" pools in the little moat surrounding Hakkar's little island. Fish up 5 Zulian Mudskunks.
Once you have all five, you should be able to click the "Mudskunk Lure" and it'll automatically get tossed into the water. You "should" also have your achievement just from doing this. That's how it happened with me, at any rate. If you have no intention of fighting Gahz'ranka, then you should probably throw the lure and either stealth or start running away right after you get the achievement.
If you WANT to fight Gahz...here is what works for me:
After throwing the lure in the water, I pop into bear and wait for Gahz to spawn and make his way up onto the landing. Position him in such a way that Gahz ends up standing on the edge of the landing and YOU are in the water.
This will prevent huge amounts of fall damage when he uses his Massive Geyser ability.
I, personally, fight him with myself under water and him standing on the very edge of Nat's Landing. He
does Massive Geyser often enough that you shouldn't run out of breath, but it's easy enough to just come to the surface if you're running low. (Now, I'm a tank, so really I don't take much damage from him. I'm pretty sure you could solo him easily as a caster if you play intelligently.) When he uses massive geyser and blasts you up into the air, you should be landing right back in the water, taking NO fall damage. From there on in, it's just destroying Gahz and collecting loot. The picture isn't that clear, but I forgot to screen shot it. Figures, right? He's pretty easy anyway, to be completely honest with you. I can only imagine the hell that he unleashed back when it took 20 people to raid ZG.
Go go Gahz'ranka! :)
So that's my little Deadliest Catch/Gahz guide. Super easy boss, and I'm sure if you get the Tome of Polymorph, you could sell it for a nice chunk of change at the AH or even donate it to a mage in guild. Not a whole lot of CC going on these days, but I imagine a mage would find something fun to do with it. hehe
Happy Achieving!
Learning To Go It Alone
Just like the title says here, I've been learning how to survive soloing some of these "mount dropping" bosses. I had a few "firsts" yesterday.
See, while I've been in ZG a few times now, I've never just gone in alone to try and solo any boss but Gahz'ranka. I failed miserably the first time I tried the fight. There's ONE ability that Gahz has that was really just messing me up. The ability is called "Massive Geyser" and it shoots you high up in the air...then you plummet and take massive amounts of fall damage. That is what killed me the first time I tried to solo this boss. I was hellbent and determined to get the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle for the mages I love so much, so rather than give up after one attempt, I decided I'd give it another go.
I had read on an old "raid strategy" guide that the best thing was to have your tank fight Gahz'ranka under water...so, I positioned myself in such a way that the Massive Geyser would send me into the air, but I'd still land in the water when I come back down. Taking ZERO fall damage makes this boss nothing more than a lengthy spankfest. I had gone into Zul'Gurub last week (Wednesday, I think) with Shadowmuse. We effortlessly took down the Tiger and Raptor mount bosses and called it a night. I decided that I wanted to try and summon Gahz'ranka (I got the achievement Deadliest Catch, btw) and see if he/she/it would drop the tome for me. No such luck, but I did learn how to solo this boss with ease.
Yesterday, I went back in to kill the three bosses again, but I decided to try it alone. I mean, if it's just me and a mount drops...no competition right? I was surprised at how easy they were to take down.
At any rate, no mounts dropped but I did get the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle from Gahz. I
offered it to my husband for his mage, but he didn't seem all that interested in it. I'll probably give it to my own little mage so that when she hits level 60, she's got something fun to play with in PvP.
Why would I say this is for PvP only? Well, it's become increasingly rare to see any polymorph flavored crowd control in our current end-game world. It's pretty sad. That's one of the cool abilities that mages have, and it seems like they're making more and more of each classes CC abilities obsolete. I'm going to leave it at that because I have a "gripe" session coming up in one of my next posts. The moral of the story right now is that I was pretty excited to see this drop. I mean, even if I don't give it to my own mage, I'm sure it's worth at least a small chunk of gold.
Moving on...
I've been trying to figure out how to solo Heroic: Magister's Terrace. There's a chance that the Swift White Hawkstrider will drop from Kael'Thas Sunstrider. What would be better than a Night Elf on a Blood Elf's mount? I mean, seriously...it's incredibly cool. And, I have the
Orb of the Sin'dorei from previous farming runs. So, I mean, I could probably confuse some horde in a BG if I really put my mind to it. Sounds entertaining to me!
I suppose the raptor mount would work also...hmm... well, I'll have to see which one decides to drop first.
Wow...I just took a pretty big detour...sorry about that. Back to the topic at hand. Kael'Thas Sunstrider...
Now, I'm the type who'll try to solo just about anything. No, it's not to prove how "leet" I am. I do it because it's fun. I've been working on trying to solo Heroic Magister's Terrace for months now. Most of the time, I'd get to Vexallus and get splattered there and have to stop, as I couldn't get past him. He hits hard, the sparks put a nasty DoT on you...bleh.
However...last week, I FINALLY managed to get past Vex. I wiped once on him, ran back and tried again and got him down. Feeling pretty victorious, I prowled in and took down the Priestess and her little posse.
I really figured Kael'thas would be no problem at all. I cleared the trash leading up to him, still had a flask on from a raid earlier, at some AP buff food and figured..."Let's DO this!"
I know that you HAVE to get Kael to 50% within the first 60 seconds of the fight, or he pyroblasts, doing 55K damage...and unless you're a paladin capable of bubbling your ass through that...it's going to destroy you. Well, the first time in there...I got him to 51% and couldn't break through his little bubble fast enough to avoid the Pyroblast. He killed me.
Knowing how close I was, I figured I'd try opening up in kitty and change up the rotation a little. I only got him to 55%. He pyroblasted again and I died. I waited until my husband got on later to take him down. With the two of us, it's really easy.
For those of you who don't quite know me very well...I'm stubborn and determined. When I set my mind on doing something, I'll do it if it kills me. I KNOW I can take Kael down by myself. I've seen dozens of videos from other folks boasting about how they can solo him. I know it's possible, and I know I can do it.
I thought of a million different things to try. I decided I'd try again yesterday and for the first time, was able to bring Kael'Thas down SOLO. *throws a huge party* Hell yes! No mount, but still... This will keep me from only being able to try this run when I have a friend with me. So that's good news.
I was just reading over this post, realizing how scattered and incoherent it is...You'll have to bear with me today. I'm still sick as a dog and the cold medicine I've been taking is making my head so very foggy...
At any rate, I'll post some strategies and how to get the lure for Gahz'ranka a little bit later. For now, I have to go get some coffee. :)
See, while I've been in ZG a few times now, I've never just gone in alone to try and solo any boss but Gahz'ranka. I failed miserably the first time I tried the fight. There's ONE ability that Gahz has that was really just messing me up. The ability is called "Massive Geyser" and it shoots you high up in the air...then you plummet and take massive amounts of fall damage. That is what killed me the first time I tried to solo this boss. I was hellbent and determined to get the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle for the mages I love so much, so rather than give up after one attempt, I decided I'd give it another go.
I had read on an old "raid strategy" guide that the best thing was to have your tank fight Gahz'ranka under water...so, I positioned myself in such a way that the Massive Geyser would send me into the air, but I'd still land in the water when I come back down. Taking ZERO fall damage makes this boss nothing more than a lengthy spankfest. I had gone into Zul'Gurub last week (Wednesday, I think) with Shadowmuse. We effortlessly took down the Tiger and Raptor mount bosses and called it a night. I decided that I wanted to try and summon Gahz'ranka (I got the achievement Deadliest Catch, btw) and see if he/she/it would drop the tome for me. No such luck, but I did learn how to solo this boss with ease.
Yesterday, I went back in to kill the three bosses again, but I decided to try it alone. I mean, if it's just me and a mount drops...no competition right? I was surprised at how easy they were to take down.
At any rate, no mounts dropped but I did get the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle from Gahz. I
offered it to my husband for his mage, but he didn't seem all that interested in it. I'll probably give it to my own little mage so that when she hits level 60, she's got something fun to play with in PvP.Why would I say this is for PvP only? Well, it's become increasingly rare to see any polymorph flavored crowd control in our current end-game world. It's pretty sad. That's one of the cool abilities that mages have, and it seems like they're making more and more of each classes CC abilities obsolete. I'm going to leave it at that because I have a "gripe" session coming up in one of my next posts. The moral of the story right now is that I was pretty excited to see this drop. I mean, even if I don't give it to my own mage, I'm sure it's worth at least a small chunk of gold.
Moving on...
I've been trying to figure out how to solo Heroic: Magister's Terrace. There's a chance that the Swift White Hawkstrider will drop from Kael'Thas Sunstrider. What would be better than a Night Elf on a Blood Elf's mount? I mean, seriously...it's incredibly cool. And, I have the
Orb of the Sin'dorei from previous farming runs. So, I mean, I could probably confuse some horde in a BG if I really put my mind to it. Sounds entertaining to me!I suppose the raptor mount would work also...hmm... well, I'll have to see which one decides to drop first.
Wow...I just took a pretty big detour...sorry about that. Back to the topic at hand. Kael'Thas Sunstrider...
Now, I'm the type who'll try to solo just about anything. No, it's not to prove how "leet" I am. I do it because it's fun. I've been working on trying to solo Heroic Magister's Terrace for months now. Most of the time, I'd get to Vexallus and get splattered there and have to stop, as I couldn't get past him. He hits hard, the sparks put a nasty DoT on you...bleh.
However...last week, I FINALLY managed to get past Vex. I wiped once on him, ran back and tried again and got him down. Feeling pretty victorious, I prowled in and took down the Priestess and her little posse.
I really figured Kael'thas would be no problem at all. I cleared the trash leading up to him, still had a flask on from a raid earlier, at some AP buff food and figured..."Let's DO this!"
I know that you HAVE to get Kael to 50% within the first 60 seconds of the fight, or he pyroblasts, doing 55K damage...and unless you're a paladin capable of bubbling your ass through that...it's going to destroy you. Well, the first time in there...I got him to 51% and couldn't break through his little bubble fast enough to avoid the Pyroblast. He killed me.
Knowing how close I was, I figured I'd try opening up in kitty and change up the rotation a little. I only got him to 55%. He pyroblasted again and I died. I waited until my husband got on later to take him down. With the two of us, it's really easy.
For those of you who don't quite know me very well...I'm stubborn and determined. When I set my mind on doing something, I'll do it if it kills me. I KNOW I can take Kael down by myself. I've seen dozens of videos from other folks boasting about how they can solo him. I know it's possible, and I know I can do it.
I thought of a million different things to try. I decided I'd try again yesterday and for the first time, was able to bring Kael'Thas down SOLO. *throws a huge party* Hell yes! No mount, but still... This will keep me from only being able to try this run when I have a friend with me. So that's good news.
I was just reading over this post, realizing how scattered and incoherent it is...You'll have to bear with me today. I'm still sick as a dog and the cold medicine I've been taking is making my head so very foggy...
At any rate, I'll post some strategies and how to get the lure for Gahz'ranka a little bit later. For now, I have to go get some coffee. :)
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