Onyxia 101: "Yes, you're tanking."

Tuesday night, immediately after I logged in, Om whispered me to ask if I was willing to heal their Onyxia run. "It's only 10 man, it will be easy," he says.

Oooh...easy...yeah I'm sure. I'd been pulled into maybe 3 or so other groups and it was just intense failure after intense failures. Tanks never could seem to pick up the whelps fast enough, the lair guardians were being tanked by healers...and that godawful deep breath from Onyxia...Every other attempt I'd been involved with turned quickly from a happy raid group into a writhing nightmare...Needless to say, I was a little hesitant.

We had a little trouble finding a tank, so I offered to switch and explained that my guildie could also heal if he was willing to bring him. Thankfully he said yes and off we went!

We logged into their vent server after being promised that their strategy was a no fail strategy (unless, of course, odd things happened during the encounter...). We listened to their strategy, buffed up, and got ready to go.

Well, the first, second, and third attempts ended shortly after phase 2 began. If you're not familiar with the Onyxia fight...here's how it works.

~Phase 1~
~ Tank picks up Onyxia and runs her to the wall straight behind where she is resting at the beginning of the encounter. Just avoid the tail and her frontal attacks and life is good.

~Phase 2~
~ Onyxia takes off into the air once you bring her down to a certain % of health. This phase probably requires the most coordination for the group. She lifts off into the air and you have waves of whelps spawning, Lair Guardians spawning, AND her deep breath to avoid. It's not hard, but raid members really need to be paying attention and aware of their surroundings. Usually the groups focus on killing off the adds and ranged will work on bringing Ony down to 40%.

~Phase 3~
~ At 40% health, Onyxia will land again. A tank has to pick her up and take her back to where she was initially being tanked. This is the Fear Phase. Every few seconds she'll do Bellowing Roar (or some such thing) which is a fear. It's probably a really good idea to have a shaman in the group to drop a tremor totem for this phase, but I'd imagine Fear Ward might help also.

Now that you know how the fight works, you can see a little more easily why the pug groups struggled so hard on Phase 2. At any rate, this group wasn't getting much farther. After our 3rd wipe, we lost and replaced one member. We pulled in one of the paladins from my guild (Again, thank you for inviting him Om!) and gave it another go.

There was something very different about this attempt. When the whelps spawned, the dps wasn't pulling aggro on them and getting splattered at the beginning of phase 2.

Actually, the only person that died during this fourth attempt was one of the hunters because I was sloppy in picking up Onyxia and didn't turn her fast enough to save him from her cleave. I'm really sorry about that, sir.
Well, we got her down.

I think the absolute best part about it was learning a new strategy so that I can lead my own guild against her. Now I can't wait until next week!

Guardian of Cenarius

Yes. I did. Saturday afternoon, while my husband and daughter were taking a nap I decided to grind my way to exalted with Cenarion Expedition. Rather than going out to Northrend and compete for Lackey Ears, I decided I'd just use Steamvault for rep.

Steamvault, at least for me, was the most efficient way to grind out the rep. First of all, there's no competition for kills. Regular Steamvault is almost hilariously easy to solo as a bear. Actually, heroic Steamvault was fairly easy to solo as well. The only boss that gave me any trouble at all was Thespia. I'm thinking it's because she uses less physical attacks and more magic...but I digress.

At any rate, the rep gains were:

Regular:
Non-Elite Trash: 2 CE rep per kill
Elite Trash (Naga, Tidal Surgers, Wrekt Slaves): 12 CE Rep per kill
Bog Overlord: 24 CE rep per kill
Bosses (Hydromancer Thespia, Mekgineer Steamrigger, Warlord Kalithresh): 120 Rep

On Heroic:
Non-Elite trash: 5 rep
Elite Trash: 15 Rep
Bog Overlords: 30 Rep
Bosses: 130 Rep

Well, I think that's what the rep gains were. After about the 15th time running it, my mind started to go numb and I didn't think about keeping track of rep gains until after I had finished. I will re-run them both and edit the post with the correct rep numbers.

At any rate, I did earn a few achievements doing this:













I figured I'd snag my Cenarion War Hippogryph as a reward for FINALLY grinding the rep with them. The Cenarion Hippogryph is really, really cool, by the way. If you don't have one, you should get one :) I'll post more screenies when I get a chance. For now, it's back to the real world :(

CSI: Azeroth

Just...wow...I didn't create this. Found it while messing around on YouTube and a few of us got a giggle out of it, so I thought I'd share. Credit goes to the creators who reside on BloodHoof.

Cenarion Circles

Alright, so I started a new project Wednesday night. I decided I wanted to get my Guardian of Cenarius title. It's pretty fitting, considering I'm a druid. That, and I like nifty titles that not many people are masochistic enough to grind out for themselves. Wednesday night, I started the grind at around 5100/6000 Friendly and ended at 1030/12000 Honored.

That's a few hundred Twilight Cultist kills, if you're wondering.

I had planned ahead for the grind. I knew the kills would grant reputation with Cenarion Circle until at least Revered. So, I purchased about 220 Encrypted Twilight texts, knowing that if I just killed cultists for rep until I hit revered, I would need 420 texts total to just turn in to get from 0/21000-Revered to Exalted.

I assumed I'd be able to get the remaining 200 or so from kills.

Anyway...I was happily kill grinding when another Ally came over to do the same. A human DK. I asked him to please group with me, as I was only here for the rep and would give him whatever drops he wanted except for the texts. Surprisingly, he agreed. The kill grind goes a LOT faster with more than one person. That's for sure. We were there for nearly an hour together before he decided he'd had enough and was going to log.

I couldn't blame him.

It's a really, really, agonizingly long grind. Agonizingly....long....grind....

Anyway, I kept on with my grinding. I felt bad for missing our guild's 10 man Naxx run, but...I had a good reason for just toughing out the rep grind. I know for a fact, if I would have left the zone, I probably wouldn't have come back to finish it. Ever. And I really want this title...so...I passed on the raid and stuck with my monotonous grind. (To my guild: I'm sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you.)

I was there all night. Toward the end of the evening, close to 10pm Server time...one of my guildies decided to join me with his mage. Again, the kill grind started to move along a lot faster. As it turns out, he was just over 8500/21000 Revered with Cenarion Circle as well.

Oh, you bet. We were both running this marathon to the bitter end. After another hour or so of kill grinding- I told him we should go turn in the texts, since I was reasonably sure I'd be able to hit exalted and have some texts to spare for him to do the same.

I hit exalted with 70 texts to spare and traded them to him. He was about 60 texts short of exalted, so I switched to my DK, ran to the Auction House and bought a stack of 57 of the texts. Expensive, but the least I could do to repay him for coming out and helping me get through it.

We both hit Exalted. It...was...awesome!

Now to grind out Cenarion Expedition rep. I'm currently at 2154/21000, which is a metric furkton closer than I was with Cenarion Circle. I mean, I started at Friendly with the Circle. I'm starting off on Revered with the Expedition.

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to grind the rep just yet. I've heard a few different ideas. One would be farming Lackey Ears in Northrend. The other is to farm Steamvault for armaments and kill rep. Considering I haven't soloed Steamvault yet, I'm probably going to give that a try, just to see how it goes. It should be kinda fun :)

Lord knows I'll try and solo just about anything. If Mar is interested in running together, it'll make the instance so much quicker and easy to get through. Makes the time investment for rep more valuable than struggling with it alone for hours at a time, right?

Anyway, after making a million Cenarion Circles worth of kills, I'm a very happy druid today. I'm an exalted Cenarion Circler. Now...to make it up to the guild...

Halfway! I'm halfway to my new title: Destinae: Guardian of Cenarius! WEWT!

After I posted this image, I realized that I'm going to be getting two achievements at the same time! 20 Exalted Reputations AND my new title! That's SO AWESOME!!!!

Guild Update

I know, I know. I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy...ish. There's just been a lot going on. Balz brought home two kittens...and they're a full time job right now. Plus caring for my daughter, my dog, my guild, work...friends...I've been a busy girl.

I'm starting to feel a little like Felicia Day after she was given the "honor" of guild leader by Vork. This is a reference to The Guild. If you've never checked it out, you should. I love the show, personally. At any rate, things with the guild are going both awesome and terrible at the same time. We're definitely raiding more, but we just don't have the participation we need in order to even fill up a 10 man run. That puts 25 man runs in a really hard to reach place for us. We tend to pick up people to fill in the slots that we need filled for all of our runs. I've been trying to recruit, but it's going very slowly. There are only three of us in the guild that have been actively recruiting. I'm not saying that the rest of the guild members are less valuable because they're not recruiting. I'm saying we'd be hammering out 25 man content a LOT more easily if everyone was on board and recruiting and participating.

Recruiting is going slowly. Too slowly, really, but there's a lot to consider. Currently, our guild seems to lack a solid identity. We're sort of a raiding guild, but more of a casual guild. I think if we had more "raid" people, we'd eventually become a raiding guild and slide slightly farther from the more casual thing. *groan* I guess I really need to figure out what exactly this guild is before we start really recruiting heavily.

Also, we need to find a way to calm some of the current storms in the guild before we bring new people in. Lately, things have been very tense between our "raiding core" people, the super casual raid participants, and the non-participants. We've had a few explosions recently. I totally understand why. Our raiding "core", aka the people who participate in EVERY raid the guild does are getting a little worn out. We don't have a participation requirement. Our "Core" is the group of people who've realized that they are the foundation of our guild's ability to raid. They participate willingly, for the most part, but they also feel like it's their duty to show up and help carry the group

But, like I said...things are going awesome, too. My Paper Towel Priest's hunter is already level 79, which is very exciting! We have some other members that are very close to level 80. Hopefully, we can get them geared and interested in raiding. Also, we've managed to clear some bosses in Ulduar. We're getting ready to maybe try some Trial of the Crusader soon. I hope...I don't really know...who knows?

So, all in all things are going alright I guess. We've lost a few people, but they weren't really active participants in the whole scope of things anyway. I mean, I don't like losing people. Especially Ragno. I really liked having him with us. But I understand that people need to find a guild that's the right fit for them and aligns with their goals and needs as far as the game goes. Hopefully we get things moving in a more positive and relaxing direction soon.

Progress Report

I'm not going to lie. I am a tired druid right now.

Very tired.

You know though, it's a good tired. Last week, I promoted a new officer to help get our guild more active. I don't think I could have made a better choice! Bel has been an absolute blessing! He's somehow managed to get a few more guildies interested in raiding with us and has really gotten our guild active. He's been amazing. I'm eternally grateful for the hard work he's put in this week alone. He's just what our guild needed. He actually wore me out with raiding this weekend! IT WAS AWESOME! *cheers!*

Let's see...Previously, I had been denied my Naxx25 achievements because of stupid Thaddius. I'd never seen the final 2 bosses on 25-man. Last Friday, he grabbed the bull by the horns and MADE it happen!

Not only that, but we finally started our Ulduar progression. It's posted on our guild site but:

Ulduar 10
Flame Leviathan
2009/10/10
Razorscale
2009/10/10
XT-002 Deconstructor
2009/10/10
Kologarn
2009/10/10
Auriaya
2009/10/10
Ignis the Furnace Master
2009/10/11

Yeah...check that out! Our guild really owes Bel like thank you letters and flowers, and a new car...whatever he wants...

See, here's the thing. After weeks and weeks of trying unsuccessfully to bring our crew together to start raiding...I had completely given up. I was ready to leave the guild and move on. I'd even promised a tauren that I'd convert my druid to horde and server transfer to come hang out with him, especially since their guild raided so much. He's the one that planted that idea in my head, but at the same time he offered a lot of advice on how to get people motivated. His first suggestion? HIRE SOME DAMN OFFICERS ALREADY! The one man guild administration was failing miserably and we were all pretty frustrated. I had lost all hope. This weekend really helped to revive my spirit...

I mean, we not only destroyed Naxx25 Friday Night, but we started our Ulduar progression. After we called it quits on Ulduar (not enough frost resist gear lol), we moved back into Naxx10 for a gearing/learning run. Well, Naxx10 was a little rough Saturday night. We chalked it up to being tired from Ulduar and called it a night after one quarter.

Yesterday, we went in to try Hodir again. Who knew that trying to stay by the fire while avoiding other random damage was so hard? I was pretty tired though. Maybe this week we can try again and I'll "get it". We've come so far...even if we don't beat Hodir for another month it won't matter.

I'm the happiest guild leader ever! Not only do I have Bel as my right hand man, but our guild actually participated in a lot of activity together this weekend. I'm really impressed with the performance, perseverance, and participation of my guild crew this week. Beautiful, beautiful job guys! *wipes away a tear of joy* Thank you for renewing my hope in our little family!

Another, stranger update: I was asked by one of our guild pvp people if I'd go onto his 3v3 team. I think I might like to, but I don't want to drag his team down. I don't have any pvp gear so far...I pretty much hate battlegrounds...but, I'm thinking maybe if we go into some battlegrounds together, I can learn more and maybe grind out some honor for the pvp gear I need in order to participate. I really wish I knew SOMETHING about arena...it terrifies me. So, Dara, we'll schedule our first skirmish soon...but you probably need to teach me more about pvp 'cuz...yeah I'm fail at it. lol

He's really gotten my husband into PvPing, and they're possibly working on an arena team together also. I'm getting ready to create a PvP officer Rank. I just...need time to get that taken care of. It'll be nice to have a PvP officer, but I hope he's ready for a challenge. It's hard to develop a solid core of PvP players in a PvE oriented guild. We'll see how that all works out...

Hope you're ready for a bumpy ride, Dar...I'm clueless on PvP lol

The Winds of Change

What a week it's been! I've been a busy, busy bear.

See, things in our guild got sour after yet another failed Naxx25 run. Yes, I know. All the "good" guilds are past Naxx25. I know this. But we're a very new guild on our server, only a few months old, and we were trying to get through Naxx25 in order to snag a few pieces of gear for our members and get them prepared for Ulduar.

Last weekend's raid didn't go that well. I ended the weekend in tears of frustration. My husband was the Guild Master, but he's not around much lately because of work schedule changes, so the weight of the world was left on my shoulders. I adore the two officers we started off with, but we needed more "cooks in the kitchen". One person can't be responsible for ensuring good conduct, getting folks geared, scheduling raids and trying to live a real life on top of that. Given the workload I'm facing at work, I just didn't have the will left to schedule raids and fail at them anymore. I'd given up.

I vented to a really amazing friend about it, declaring that I was just "done". I didn't want to be on the server anymore. I no longer wished to be the one-bear driving force behind our entire guild's activity. I didn't want to prep for raids and have my own guild members ditch anymore. I was just...DONE.

After talking with him at great length, he somehow revived the RAWR in me. He gave me a lot of priceless advice on how to get things moving in a better direction. My husband, who was also quite frustrated at how stagnant things had gotten, was open to my suggestions.

But...

He didn't know that he could really follow through on all of my requests for this change and that, so...

He gave me the guild last night. I'm now the Guild Leader for our guild. O.O Wtf have I gotten myself into?!

I spent the evening rearranging our guild ranks, reassigning permissions, and trying to figure out where to start. The High Council. That's where I started. Okay, well, it wasn't a HUGE start, but I promoted one of our guild members to the High Council.

Instantly, he scheduled a Naxx10 Gear/Badge/Learning/Morale Boosting run. I damned nearly cried tears of joy! FINALLY! Someone else willing to step in and get some momentum building with our crew! If I could have hugged him through the internet, I absolutely would have! Thank you Bel!

The winds of change have stirred up a little bit of uncertainty within our guild. Guys, relax. We're not going to become omgwtfhardkore...

Change is good. I sincerely hope that my guild embraces what we're trying to do here.

Also, I owe an immense amount of gratitude to a great friend for the tough love, advice, inspiration, encouraging words, and the revived spirit to change things. *hug* Thank you, sir.

I also owe thanks to my fellow druids for their gentle guidance and words of encouragement during some of the rougher times, and also for their help and advice and gentle push to get things turned around. *hugs you all* Thank you, guys.

Hangin' with my Hordies

Uh, yeah, the Horde is "HARDCORE!!!" SO hardcore, in fact, that this guy here actually posed for a photo-op with me. We played leap-frog, too. I made sure to omit his name to prevent the inevitable flaming he'd get from fellow Hordies. "zomg u had fun with teh enemee? omgwtfbbqsawce"

Server - Faction Transfer, please.

Yes, it's another rant. Well, not a rant so much as...I don't know what I'm doing. Just...bear with me, k?

Let me first say this: In general, I like my server, my guildies and my friends on this server. For the most part, it's just good in Dessieland. Then there are moments where, well, I just don't even know why I log in.

Issue #1: Leaving the guild because we don't "run with you enough".

Admittedly, with me, the squeaky wheels get my attention. If you ask me to run with you, I go with you. If you ask me for help, and I'm capable of helping, I help. If you don't tell me you want to run heroics with me, then how am I supposed to know you're interested?

Hmm? I'm a bear, not a mind-reader. Hell, as a tree I might be full of magical abilities to keep stuff alive- but still...I'm not a mind-reader. I didn't bother talenting into that because I didn't realize it was a necessary skill to have.

While I completely understand that people need to find guilds that suit their needs, goals, and personalities...I don't understand the ones that leave because we "weren't helpful enough" or don't run enough heroics for them...

Wait a sec...put on the breaks! We don't run enough heroics? I have all of my Emblem of Conquest gear, plus over 120 extra Emblems to spend on other things. I also have enough Emblems of Triumph for my healing AND tanking shoulders. I officially have enough Stone Keepers Shards to BUY Wintergrasp...

We don't run enough heroics? ORLY...

Have "cliques" formed in the guild? Sure. But do you know why cliques form in the guild? It's simple really. Going back to the whole mind-reader thing...If you don't speak up, we assume you don't want to run. If we ask in guild chat to try to put together a heroic group, and you don't reply to us, we assume you don't want to run. Ninja-invites are bad, mmkay?

/g "Hey Guys, would anyone run some heroics with us?"

So simple. And we're back at my first point. Guildies aren't generally mind-readers. If you want to grind heroics, you have to let us know. If you want us to help, you need only ask. So, generally, we won't randomly invite you unless we know you want to go...

I'm reasonably sure that goes for most guilds out there.

So, now I'm going to be on the lookout for the mind-reading trainer...but anyway...

Issue #2: Fairness

Without getting into great detail- I missed some chat from a friend who I had previously asked to run Brewfest Boss with me (Kodo plzkthxbai). After asking him to go, I realized my bags were full of old gear I don't need anymore. My bank was also full. Ugh...so I spent some time sorting through it. I was pretty much consumed in what I was doing. It's interesting the things we just toss in the bank and forget about. At any rate...I happened to look up a few times and see questions in guild chat- so I responded. I missed a few guild chat questions. It happens. The apparent issue is that I missed this friend's chat to me, and he noticed that I was answering a few things here or there in guild chat...so...He called me out on it.

Maybe I'm a bad Guild leader because I don't have the presence of mind to stare at my chat screen to ensure I am answering every single question/request/etc. This might be a shocker, but, GL's like to enjoy the game too. We don't log in under the assumption that we're expected to stare at our screen and be enslaved to every and all requests. We're aware that we're expected to help more and be more willing to help than maybe others. But we deserve to enjoy our game too...So I fail if I'm expected to stare at my chat screen all night long and not do anything else...

The accusation was that I was ignoring him. *sigh* Really? I scrolled up and was just about to apologize for missing his tells when the whole thing got blown WELL out of proportion...Well, I figured...may as well keep on ignoring him now because we can all see this is just going to be an argument, and a stupid one at that.

Fail.

Ignoring someone who's already mad at you because they think you were ignoring them makes them angrier, evidently.

And so it began...the ranting at me about how I treat him unfairly...a rant that included...*GASP*...the F-Bomb.

Drama...

Let's not consider that I might NOT be ignoring you. Let's not consider that I might be DOING something and happened to catch the guild chat completely by accident after closing my bank vault. No, no, no! Let's IMMEDIATELY jump to the conclusion that I'm blowing you off. Let's stress out the bear over absolute nonsense...

Here, let me lay out some simple math for you, jerk.

Des+Drama+Being Cussed At=Enrage

Des+Enrage=DOOM!

Duh...try thinking before you go off at the mouth. You'd be amazed at what a little self-control can do...

That whole server or faction transfer thing is becoming more and more enticing lately...If it weren't for some true and amazing friends on my server, I'd have taken off last night for sure. Who needs to be sworn at over a stupid game? Seriously now...grow up, k?

Ready for the real kicker? My bags and my bank are STILL full of the same crap as they were yesterday- on account of I was disgusted with the entire evening and gave up on the whole inventory cleansing I had started...So, not only did I get aggravated beyond belief, but I also didn't get my junk sorted out. Grrrrr....

Huntard FTL

BY THE WAY...I found this while searching for things to take my mind off of general frustrations:

Huntards

In essence, a huntard is a Hunter who does not know how to play his class well. While slang to describe badly-played classes is common, hunters have this stigma above all others.

Various reasons seem to exist to explain this. The class has an intuitive battle strategy, easily dumps aggro (more than likely onto the healer when in a group) and allows flexibility with weapons while also fighting long range. Huntards are especially disliked in low-level PuGs, where mismanaged growl-enabled pets can cause annoying and expensive wipes (versus the pet-using, squishier, and presumably more careful Warlock). Hunters also excel at solo PvE, compared to more group-oriented players like healers or tanks, and don't necessarily have grouping experience even at higher levels.

Huntards are also infamous for rolling Need on items and equipment not considered true upgrades, if not outright ill-suited to their class, usually under the excuse of being used as "Statsticks". One example of this is a hunter rolling need a 1-handed melee dps weapon and claiming, "It will help me get out of tight places." In addition, huntards are prone to frequent melee combat, something normally only done in emergencies. This not only puts their safety at risk and diminishes their damage output, but can lead to unnecessary competition in group loot rolls with other classes like rogues and shamans. They are notorious for being self-centered and egomaniacal, never taking the blame for a wipe. They have tricked themselves into believing that they are the core of the group, but unfortunately often control its failure.

Interestingly, many huntard traits have also become associated with Death Knights, leading to such terms as Death Knoobs and Dunce Knights.

Yep. I have my very own Death Knoob/Dunce Knight...and haven't we all met our fair share of huntards? Very awesome article. THANK YOU WOWWIKI!!!

I Promised Myself I Wouldn't...

Promised myself I wouldn't turn this blog into a QQfest, but...Bears and Trees get frustrated sometimes. We need to vent just like the rest of the world.

What do I need to vent about? Guild stuff, raiding...you know...that junk.

Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to the Co-Guild Leader job. Now, first let me say that I adore almost all of my guild members. ADORE them! There's really only two right now that I'm sad with. And no, not angry. Frustrated. Very, very frustrated.

I'm guessing people don't really care or understand what goes into my job. As much as I adore my husband and almighty Guild Master, he gets the glory of calling this guild his while I end stare at this list of duties:

-Stimulate Guild Conversations
-Get to know guild members individually
-Try to schedule raids when most people are able and willing to come
-Try to figure out how to get the shy folks involved
-Try to figure out how to get members geared quickly
-Try to make sure everyone enjoys our guild
-Try to keep the website updated
-Approve Guild Applications
-Enforce Code of Conduct
-Maul my officers for not enforcing the Code of Conduct when I need a break
-Try to make sure we raid "enough" but not too much
-Try to keep the guild drama free
-Be available to help guild members with whatever they need help with
-Be available and able to answer questions
-Try to find decent guides that will help people gear up, learn fights, etc.
-Try to keep up guild morale
-Try not to maul random guild members when I'm having "a day"
-Continue to try to learn about each individual class and spec so that I can assist members who aren't druids with class/gear/spec questions
-Try to promote Guild togetherness and team-work
-Other random duties as assigned by Balz The Guild Master

I'm sure the list could be cut down a bit, but there are more individual duties I have to try to do that I can't even remember off the top of my head. It's tiring. Oh, and somewhere while I'm thinking of ways to accomplish all of this, I have to try and figure out how I'm supposed to enjoy the game.

What I'm trying to say is...I'm doing the best I can.

Give me a break sometimes.

Don't whisper-spam me with nonsense. I don't have the time or patience for unnecessary drama.

If I schedule a raid you don't want to go to, then just decline the invitation. Don't rant about it in guild chat and proclaim yourself to be "better" than the guild so you're going to run off and do something "better" than what we've got planned. Know why you shouldn't do that? Because...

When you do that...I have to try and respond to our other members who are now concerned with the things you just said in guild chat, while I'm being mauled by some random heroic boss...while I'm explaining, I lose agro and some poor, innocent warlock loses his life. Yeah. The poor innocent warlock dies all because you started drama in guild chat.

Poor warlock. *In quiet contemplation, Dest mourns the death of Warlock.*

Know why else you shouldn't do it? Des+Enrage=DOOM. 'Nuff said...

There's a reason we're still smashing our faces against early progression content, and that's because we, as a guild, want and need to become better together. If you're not on board, I don't need you to go off in guild chat about it. Just decline the invitation and be quiet about it. Seriously.

Now that I've ranted about things...let me just applaud all of my fellow guild leaders and officers out there. Keep fighting the good fight, friends!

Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better. Guess I just needed another good cry.

Lubs,
Brewmaster Des

Drunken Bear

I'm sure by now, you're well aware that Brewfest is going on. Get involved! It's the one holiday where Blizz encourages Humans, Gnomes, Elves and Draenei of all ages to get SHMASHED! (I didn't include dwarves because the assumption is that they're always drunk anyway...YAY ALLIANCE!)

Make sure you go out and experience EVERYTHING this holiday has to offer.

Things to do during Brewfest:
- Complete your Brewfest Achievement and become "Brewmaster ______"

- Get your toon smashed.

- Get your toon smashed and go for a fly.
* We all know that getting your toon drunk and trying to ride your ground mount is a wild ride. Make sure you try out the flying though. Definitely fun.

- Get your toon so smashed, they spew green goo.
* Make sure you're standing with a group of friends and be sure to spin in place while spewing the goo. After all, You don't want anyone's shoes to feel left out.

- Run at least one heroic or raid while completely smashed. Make sure to bring extra "booze" along. You don't want to sober up in the middle of Onyxia's deep breath, trust me.

- Get smashed, and tell someone you are "saved" to such and such an instance, even if they don't ask. Do this in guild chat. Trust me, the conversations that will be generated from this are worthy of screen-shotting and putting in your scrapbook. People will love to hear that you are "shaved...hic!"

- Make sure to whisper random people and congratulate them on their holiday achievements if you're in the vicinity and see it. On second thought, just whisper random people during this holiday. It is, after all, a drinking holiday. This sort of thing is to be expected.

- Find a resto druid and /hug them. There's no real reason for this, we just really like hugs. =) Come to think of it, Bears like hugs too, so go for it.

Most of all, have a little fun. After all, it's nice to take a break from the daily grind and enjoy two weeks of binge drinking and random acts of hilarity. This is, by far, one of my favorite holiday events because it promotes a happy, jovial feeling overall. Yes, we still got camped by some horde outside of Blackrock Depths while trying to get to the Brewfest Boss...but for the most part, people are busy having fun. Enjoy yourself =)

I'll be waiting for my /hugs, and I better get LOADS of them. I'll stay in bear or tree form as much as possible so I'm easy to find. =) Thanks for reading! Enjoy your holiday!

Des's Raid Dos and Don'ts v 1.0

I know, I know. It's been a long time since my last post (like exactly a month...sheesh...I'm a bad druid =( sorry guys). It's been pure chaos at work and by the time I get home, the last thing I think of is posting. I'm a bad druid. Chain me to a wall and spank me, please? (wink wink- lol)

Alright, well, I suppose a good update is in order.

First, let me start with a list of things NOT to do in a raid with Des.

1. Do not, under any circumstances, bring a train set to the raid. If you do have one in your inventory, keep it there.

*The reasons*
- It's irritating.
- It's distracting.
- It's irritating.
- It's annoying.
- It's irritating.
- It's childish.
- Did I mention it's irritating? I did? Good. Because it is.

*Des?*

Obviously, if we're all in a jovial mood and you drop a train set for haha's at some point in the raid, that's cool. I don't mind. But to drop the damn thing EVERY time it's off cooldown, even during fights (even boss fights)...well now you're treading into a danger zone. Des has her own enrage timer and has been known to one-shot obnoxious train-set officianados who obnoxiously choose to play with this toy in the midst of a raid. Use them at your own risk.

2. Do not, under ANY circumstances, play with your juggling torches while we are battling a boss.

*The reasons*
- It is obnoxious.
- It "spams" people's chat windows, and sometimes much needed boss-fight communications are MISSED because of it.
- You should be doing your JOB in the raid, not messing around. We didn't bring you for entertainment and we don't need the dead weight. Do your job or get the hell out of my raid.

*Des?*

Let me first ask you, the reader, have you ever thought it to be a good idea to do such a thing? Yeah, I didn't think so. Unfortunately, someone in my raid DID think this was acceptable. On PATCHWERK no less. *sighs and shakes her head* Listen, if you want to stand on the highest peak in Northrend and toss your juggling torches until you giggle yourself into a fit, go for it. But on a boss with an enrage timer...don't. Again, I refer to Des's enrage timer. If you've already gotten yourself into the danger zone with the train set, you're only going to hasten your inevitable demise. We don't bring you because we like your cologne. We bring you into the raid because we need the dps slot filled. If you're going to be tossing your torches during a boss fight, Des will deem you absolutely useless not to mention completely moronic, and you know what? Screw the enrage timer. You're doomed. If the raid WIPES because of your idiotic and childish behavior, not only are you going to be doomed, but Des will rez you and kill you over and over again.

3. Don't play with juggling torches in between fights when your raid leader is trying to explain a fight in raid chat for folks who haven't been there before.

*The reasons*
- It is obnoxious.
- It "spams" people's chat windows, and sometimes much needed boss-fight communications are MISSED because of it.

*Des?*

Listen, not everyone has been to all of these raids and not everyone cares to hop on vent. If we're all huddled in a corner getting ready to take on a boss and you're standing their like a twit-face, spamming everyone's chat windows with your stupid juggling torches....bad things are going to happen to you. Des is approaching enraged status. Stuff the torches up your nose (haha what? you thought I was going to say ass huh?) and stop preventing people from learning what they need to do. Again, if the group wipes because of your idiotic behavior...Doom, Rez, Doom Again, Rez, Doom again...I think you get the picture.

4. When Des asks you politely to stop doing something, stop doing it the first time you're asked. The next time Des asks, it won't be so nice.

*The Reasons*
- If I need to list a reason for WHY you need to stop being annoying when Des asks you to stop being annoying...then you shouldn't even be ALLOWED to have an account. You're obviously too immature.

*Des?*

I always try to ask nicely the first time. If I have to ask a second time, chances are it's going to be unpleasant. If I have to ask a third time for you to stop whatever offending action you're obsessed with doing that's obviously quite irritating, chances are REALLY good that it will be REALLY unpleasant...or you'll have hit Des's enrage timer and your doom has arrived. Either way, I don't care if you pay your $30 a month (I'll explain in a little bit here, bear with me), if you're ruining the raid experience for even ONE other person, then you need to stop. If you want to act like a 4 year old and play with toys, find a group that also likes to play with toys while engaging bosses. Des and her beloved raid members, do NOT. We ALSO pay our monthly fee and are entitled to an idiot-free raid experience. Now, wiping is fine. If we're learning content or struggling a bit with a boss. No problems there. But to do irritating things over and over, even after being asked to stop...that ruins it for us. Go play with the other toddlers and GTFO of my raid please.

5. Do not EVER, NEVER EVER, pretend that you are the raid leader and "call" the raid for the evening when you aren't, in fact, the raid leader.

*Des's Reasons*
- It's rude.
- It upsets the raid members.
- It's obnoxious.

If you want to leave our raid, go. Say so in raid chat or vent and go. We'll replace you. It's up to our raid leaders or the group as a WHOLE to determine when we've had "enough fun" for the evening.

6. For the love of everything holy, DO NOT WHINE that the raid isn't "fun" for you because you aren't being allowed to act like a nit-wit!!!

*Um, Des?*

I think we've covered a lot of ground here. Don't drive the raid group insane with torches and train sets. Check. If you're asked to stop, just stop. Check. Don't interrupt vital raid communication with idiotic nonsense. Checkaroo! Don't pretend you're the raid leader and upset the raid by saying we're "calling it". Yup. But this last one...*growls menacingly*

Let me explain...

Des is a patient and loving bear...tree...druid thing. Des adores her guildies. She loves them dearly. Des also has a husband who wants to provide these most cherished guild members the ability to see raid content in a relaxed and stress-free environment, as friends. Now, maybe some folks are geared past Naxxramas-10. We wanted to take a few new folks in to let them experience it. And this is where the story begins...

Once upon a time, on Durotan-US....yeah...I'm not even going to get into the "We invited...and summoned...we fought..." Raids are raids.

But, what I WILL tell you is that after the first quarter we did, our warlock needed to leave. So, we talked to our guild to see if anyone was interested in filling the slot. My mom was supposed to come, but apparently this WKnight whispered her and begged for her slot. She willingly gave it up to him. Don't ask me, because I don't know why. So, WKnight gets invited and summoned. Great fun.

Take a quick look, again, at the list of Des's Raid Gripes above. Wknight committed all of the above offenses. IN ONE QUARTER OF NAXX!!!

Yeah, I promised this wasn't going to be a slanderfest, but for the love of Grob...how are you seriously going to come into a raid and do all of that? He was invited just before we took on Maexxna and we prepared to enter The Construct Quarter.

First of all, the train set issue was instant. He was asked to please not do it again as soon as he dropped it the first time. I wasn't even the one who asked him. So...

You can't really call me a mean druid yet. When it came to the torches...I have a screen shot of it...him juggling torches on Patchwerk. YUP! included in this post for you to stare at in disbelief, just like I did when my officer emailed it to me. *shakes head in disbelief* We were 11 seconds away from the 10 Man Achievement [Make Quick Werk Of Him], so HAD he been DPSing, we might have actually been successful...but I digress.

The whining started when, after alt-tabbing to look at this screen shot, I whispered him and advised that if he was not there to dps, then he would be dismissed from the raid and we would bring someone who actually wanted to raid. Then, our raid chat began to look like this...

[Raid] Wknight: this raid ain't fun. y'all r too tense
[Raid] Wknight: yall r 2 srs this raid sucks
[Raid] Des: Um, leave then.
[Raid] Wknight: why cant u guys have fun and relax?
[Raid] Wknight: srsly
[Raid] Wknight: too tense in here
[Raid] Otherraider: Dude, just leave if you don't want to be here.
Wknight whispers: u all r too tense. this raid isn't any fun!
To [Wknight ]: leave. We've been having fun so far, up until your antics.
Wknight whispers: whats with your high and mighty attitude? ur too tense des. tryin to have fun
To [Wknight ]: Like I said, we were having fun. Just stop with the nonsense. We're not too serious, but we ARE trying to enjoy our raid...and you're killing it.
[Raid] Wknight: Sry guys, we're gonna call it for tonight. im gettin tired so we'll finish 2morrow
[Raid] BalzTheEnforcer: Yeah, no. We're not calling it. If you're so tired, hearth.

He hearths.

WKnight has left the raid. Phew...

But here is where the story starts to transform into something more tragic and annoying. I didn't believe it could get more annoying, but it did. Yeah, I know...

Apparently, Wknight whispers my husband and complains that the raid wasn't fun, and he pays his $30 a month, so he deserves to have fun and play how HE wants to play. My husband explained that, yes, to some degree he does deserve to do what he wants in game, but that in a raid situation, it isn't all about ONE member of that raid. There are 9 other people who also...wait...$30 a month??? Wtf? Anyway, there are 9 OTHER people who also deserve to enjoy themselves, and that his antics were ruining it for everyone else. This we know to be true, because we had both been receiving complaints from other raid members about him, the things he was doing, the things he was saying, etc.

Wknight continued to maintain that HE was wronged by us ruining his experience. After quite a lengthy conversation, This message appears in guild chat...

Wknight has been removed from the guild by BalzTheEnforcer.

To this DAY, Balzy won't tell me what went down in their conversation, but I can only imagine what was said, since I was having a similar argument with the kid for the duration of the raid. I will say that if this Wknight was removed from the guild, he must have REALLY gone too far. Balz is infinitely patient. He just ...doesn't...get upset over things, especially in game.

Now, there are plenty of other reasons he had been removed from the guild. Talking disrespectfully to the Guild Master was the final breaking point that got him booted.

After the same conversation regarding HIS needs being paramount to all others, I ended up placing him promptly on my ignore list.

Folks, listen...We don't pay to play this game to deal with middle-school drama. We log in to relax and get our minds off of things. Maybe maul a few bosses...get some sweet new gear...There are lots of reasons people play. Putting up with childish nonsense, idiotic behavior and needless drama is NOT one of the reasons I log in.

In all seriousness, I'm about the last person to go off and tear people apart over drama. But, given the large number of people that he had upset over the course of just a few weeks, and other members saying they were considering leaving to get away from him...

I mean, I don't like upsetting people and I surely don't want to think that I've hurt anyone's feelings. But there comes a time where it's better to hurt them a little bit by refusing to build a bridge they've burned (yes, you should HEAR the rumors I'm being told about that he has allegedly started)...It's just sometimes better to refuse to build that bridge. Because you know, if you rebuild that bridge and something else happens...well...ENRAGETIMERDOOM!!!!

BTW- I doubt Ara will read this, but if he does...You are absolutely welcome to bring a train set to our next raid if you desire, sir, but you're doing so at your own risk. Remember...Des...Enrage Timer...DOOM!

lol eye heart my guildies =D

Screenshot or it didn't happen!

Wow...it's been awhile...

It's been a long while since my last post. To briefly explain- things have been hectic at work and I haven't had the time to really post here. I "seem" to be caught up with things, at least momentarily, which is why I'm taking a little while to post here today. The other reason there's been a general lack of posting is because, well...I have allowed myself to get burnt out again. My fault. I have recently been taking time off from the game and am slowly easing back into it. It's really hard to want to play when things just aren't "fun".

I'm not going to sit here and whine about it, but I will say that I had tried to plan "fun" events for the guild. Fail. Seems like people don't enjoy doing fun, silly things in game. I imagine that was my mistake- for thinking that this game could be anything less than SRSBZNSSZOMFG. But, I tried to make things fun. No one wants fun...they want high pressure, drama, and better-than-you gear. *shrug* Whatever...

With all the RL stresses and recent in game stress, I've been fishing a lot. That's what I do when I'm upset/irritated. I go fishing. I get much needed "alone" time. I hide my chat screen and just relax. At any rate, that doesn't really afford TOO much opportunity for stupid things to happen.

Speaking of fishing, though...I got a pet from my very first outlands fishing daily! I got a Snarly! Cutest little crocolisk ever! Hell yeah! He was the highlight of my entire week...how sad is that?

I mean there have been a few things that have happened this month that have been a little funny.

The new 5 man dungeon: Trial of the Champion. WOW! My first time in there, I was healing and we just got OWNED on the first set of bosses. I mean, instantly owned. We ended up getting the rogue (undead), warrior (orc) and hunter (troll). We got destroyed. Between poisons everywhere and the friggin Mortal Strike...it was ugly. VERY ugly. I did quite a bit of research on the strategies for that entire instance and posted a pretty lengthy, but detailed guide on the guild website that no one uses. At least I learned something from the guide. Guess that's what counts.

Um, we had a Naxx25 noobism happen. We had gone through a big portion of the instance as a PuG without much issue. Do you know what dissolved the ENTIRE group? The slime room before Patchwerk. Yep. Go figure.

See, our Raid Leader had given us a 5 minute break to repair, go get drinks, eat, breathe- whatever we needed to do before continuing. When break time was over, we get our ready check, good to go- then we start plowing through the slimes. We get to the other side only to find out that 2 of our raid members had gone off to repair instead of coming through the slime with us. Not ONE warlock in the group...so we couldn't summon them. We tried to take on patchwerk without them- but failed. So, the raid leader posts in raid chat that we're going back for the others. Before we even get the chance- they start plowing through the slimes themselves and wiped half the raid. It was all downhill from there...eventually people began leaving the raid and that's where it ended. Joy.

Other than that, no real wild stories to tell. Hopefully I'll be back to post soon...once things settle down a little more.

3.2 Live?

It sure seems that way! There are soooooooo soooo many cool things for 3.2! Let's just hope this one is rolled out without any need for rolling restarts and extended maintenance due to bugs. GO BLIZZ!

I haven't been posting much lately. Here's why:

My husband recently started a new guild, and I'm Co-GM. You wouldn't THINK that helping to establish a guild would take so much time, but my GOLLY does it ever! So far, it's been one of the more time-consuming things I've taken on in the game.

Recruiting and answering questions, trying to get the website up and running...developing guild Fun Nights, trying to help out our new family of guild members and farming gold to fund our guild has pretty much consumed my free time.

Do I regret it?

Absolutely not! We're only 2 weeks old and already have begun to grow rapidly. We've actually gotten quite a few more members than I had even imagined we'd have by now! We have a lot of absolutely incredible people who have come in and are helping out so much! We've got some very generous guild members- and already have 4 guild tabs! 2 weeks old...4 guild tabs...that's AWESOME!

We have some really fun members. The conversations are normally a LOT of fun in guild chat! Everyone seems to be getting along really well.

I'd like to plan some more guild togetherness events, so we can get to know each other- and more importantly, so that I can get to know each of our members better. For me, that's really important. There are people behind those pixelated faces- and in most cases- really awesome people! You bet I'm going to make every attempt to get to know them!

So, for now, I will post whenever I get a free moment. Things will be slow here at LBT until we get established and I have a few more officers I can boss around....hehe kidding!

....or am I? I have two friends from RL in the guild with me that I tend to rely on for about everything right now...proofreading guild policies, suggesting fun events, helping to make sure everyone feels welcomed into our family, helping out folks with quests when I can't make it over to help out personally...yeah I tend to send them on an endless slew of errands.

But like the Wordy Warrior said, "Being an officer IS NOT A PERK!" So they're cool with it, and Draco keeps me grounded while gently encouraging me...Mighty tends to help more with the hands-on stuff right now. They're both absolute gems! Love them!

Hopefully I'll be back soon! I have a new hunter that I just started leveling. I'm quite sure you'll be hearing stories about her soon, since I'm the worst hunter in the history of histories!

When Shadows Fail...

I'm sure I've mentioned my shadow priest at some point. Well, recently, one of her new guild mates offered to run her and my husband's shaman through Scarlet Monastery. Good times! Easy loot (which means enchanting mats for her, also), and free XP.

Yeah, maybe if I knew well enough to not hit any buttons.

I can't not hit buttons though. I have to do SOMETHING or I get bored when I'm being run through anything. This is why I insist on doing only on-level instances with full groups. I have to hit buttons! BUTTONS ARE SO FUN!

So, I ended up with all of my armor completely red by the end of it. My cute little friend who was running us through felt like a failure, and apologized about eleventy billion times. But really, the shaman never died. Only me. And it was my fault.

First, there was a point where he pulled a LOT of mobs on himself (this being my Death Knight Beast of a friend. I'll call him DKB for short...). His health was steadily dropping, and rather than waiting until he threw a death and decay down, I felt compelled to heal him with all of my level 39 might! I cast some heals. I tried to bubble, but with 5 guys beating on me...the bubble didn't last long and within seconds I was one splattered little priest. Oops!

There was one time where I thought I could be sly and bubble him, just to see how long the bubble lasted. Fail. As soon as the bubble went up on him, half of his mobs came running for me. SPLAT! Dead again.

Well damn...

Another time, my husband decided to use some sort of lightning on one of the mobs being tanked. Turns out, that mob really had a craving for Shamansteak, so he started chasing my husband's toon. Bingo! Perfect time for me to bubble the shaman and heal her, right? No. *slaps priest's hand* Bad priest! BAD! You guessed it. I bubbled the shaman, and was dead before the cool down on my Power Word: Shield had come up.

Multiply this by 4 wings of Scarlet Monastery. Yeah. Wild ride for sure. But like I said, I can't blame DKB because it was my fault for not being smart enough to just stay back and leave the buttons alone. I guess I feel kinda bad for making him feel like a failure...but you know...I had fun regardless.

Got a Hypnotic Blade for her, so she can use an off-hand weapon also, adding to her spellpower. She's also level 40, thanks to his help in running her through. Do you know what that means?

That means...

SHADOW FORM, BABY! YEAH!

Yes, I am SUPER excited about this. It makes the coolest noise when you cast it...kind of a Ssshssshsssss noise. It's eerie and wonderful! And, NOW it doesn't matter that her gear doesn't match her hair! You can't even SEE her hardly! She's growing up so fast! *wipes tear* If only I knew how to leave buttons unpushed!

Oh, and holy spells cancel shadow form...makes for more cool sssssshssssshssssss noises switching back, but less PEW PEW when you're out of form...I am SO EXCITED right now!

Oh, and as soon as she got done training up and everything, I went to Darnassus to buy a WHITE tiger for her to ride. Ok, TWO white tigers for her to ride...yeah...they look the same in shadow form as the black one. But I'm a sucker for accessorizing with mounts.

My druid has a mount that matches her armor and her hair. Yes. Lame, I'm sure, but it makes me happy.

I'm going to hopefully dual spec my priest very soon. Holy and Shadow. Healing AND Pwnage. I'm happy about that too!

Now to work on that mage...

What idiocy is this?

It's been a little while since my last post. A lot has been going on and I just haven't had the time. I missed my LBT...so here I am today, shirking all other responsibility to hang out with you for a few. =) It's great, isn't it?

Let's see...here are the most recent updates...Monday morning (July 20th), my husband decided he was ready to venture out on his own and start his own guild. He created Ascendants. I'm not a fan of the guild tabard really. It doesn't match my armor. But, it's really been a pleasant change of pace. While we no longer have access to a slew of players at level 80 in the same guild as we are, it's been incredibly peaceful. We just hang out and relax together as friends. There's no pressure, there's no drama. It's very, very nice! We're still quite small and we're trying to build right now. I'll keep updates coming on our progress.

But that's not where the title comes from, since we don't allow idiocy in our guild. Where could it be coming from then, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

Utgarde Pinnacle was the daily heroic dungeon. One of my guild mates and I decided we were going to PuG for it. We found some really great folks for DPS- a hunter and a shadow priest. Well, we were stumped for a tank, and I really don't like to tank that instance. The Skadi gauntlet always gives me trouble and I'm just not a fan of it. So, the mage from my guild offered to find a tank. And he did. A paladin.

Good deal! So we head into the instance to get started.

My first concern was the gear on the paladin. A few blues, some crafted purples and fully buffed he had only 26k HP. Not too big of an issue, I wouldn't think. I've healed paladins with similar HP through H:Halls of Lightning, so I wasn't all too concerned.

We get started. The first room has 4 mobs in it. Three Vrykul looking people and an abomination. Well, the paladin pretty much pulled them all at the same time. The Abominations hit like trains, so it was a wild ride trying to keep him and the group alive. We survived the pull...and then in party chat:

[Party][Paladintank]: I like to Jenkins pull :p

Joy of joys...a low HP tank that's squishy as hell who likes to pull like an absolute mad-man...Party chat looked like this after that statement:

[Party][Priest]: ...great...
[Party][Mage]: well this should be fun...
[Party][Paladintank]: this is my third tankadin. my other 2 r fully ulduar geared.

Well, I don't know about you all reading this, but boy oh BOY was our group comforted by this...Okay, so we weren't. But we continued on anyway because it was the daily and we really just wanted to get it over with...

We move into the next room which has a long "hallway" with a few pulls. This is when I first started to realize that we were in for a "fun" run. The tank started instructing us to keep up, as he needed the instance to be done rather quickly...The concerns started to mount when the tank wasn't holding aggro well, and I was having to try to spam heals off on the 3 dps in the group as well as him. He was taking pretty big damage and it was hard to take my eyes off of him in order to heal the group. We managed, somehow...and got to the first boss room. Svala Sorrowgrave.

And it continues...

[Party][Paladintank]: You are all ranged DPS, make sure to DPS her while she's in the air.
[Party][Priest]: ...
[Party][LittleTreeMe]: ...but what about the ritual?
[Party][Paladintank]: I'll deal with the adds
[Party][LittleTreeMe]: ok...I guess...

Well, he didn't get the adds down fast enough. The hunter was the first pulled up into the ritual of the sword, and the sword smooshed him. He didn't die instantly, but the DoT that the ritual leaves on a player that's been hit by the sword is HELL to heal through. I just was NOT able to get off big enough heals fast enough. The hunter died. At this point, I felt terrible for letting the hunter die. I was just about to hit my Rebirth when...BLAMMO! I'm up there under the ritual of the sword. The Mage and the Priest did their best to get me out, but it was to no avail. I died shortly after the sword hit me. They DID manage to get the boss down within a few seconds. The paladin rezzed me, I rezzed the hunter. I chalked it up to him not really understanding the mechanics of the fight, and we moved on.

[Party][Paladintank]: tank rez ftw
[Party][LittleTreeMe]: We probably should have just killed the adds...I'm sorry Hunterguy =( I tried
[Party][Hunterguy]: lol np

So we continue on. We get to the room right before Skadi, called the Trophy Room (I think...). We get started.

As we're fighting the first of these rather large creatures to come to life...The paladin starts healing himself during the fight. He just casts Flash of Light over and over again.

[Party][Paladintank]: self healing tank ftw
[Party][Paladintank]: we don't even need a healer
[Party][Paladintank]: i could probably solo this place, just bringing you guys along so you can get your quest done

Self-healing shouldn't "really" be an issue, except that by doing so he's now lost threat to the DPS. For the first of the "trophies" he never ended up regaining threat. I believe the hunter ended up tanking that "mini boss". Great fun.

He does this for the remaining "statues" and even the big final boss in that room. You know, the one with the miserable impale. Well, we got through that, and I'm not sure we lost anyone, but it wasn't very much fun.

[Paladintank] whispers: did you enjoy that? self healing tank pwnage
to [Paladintank]: not really...
[Paladintank] whispers: wut wut? cuz i heal better than you?
to [Paladintank]: ......

Yeah, his self healing tank bit was a little insane. We move on to the Skadi fight. We run in, aggro the boss, run out and force a reset then RACE to the end of the room with the harpoons. He instructs the group exactly what he wants us to do...

But it doesn't exactly turn out as planned...He had us all try to stand in that little tiny room, and myself and the priest were getting destroyed by mobs he wasn't picking up. It's VERY hard to type in Party Chat that you're getting destroyed while you're trying to self-heal and also trying to keep everyone else alive.

But I digress...

We managed to get Skadi to drop out of the sky pretty quickly, unfortunately his first Whirlwind took out the hunter and the priest. I probably COULD have kept them alive, but our tank was so squishy...his HP was dropping liked a lead weight through thin air. It was a struggle to keep him alive...and it came down to a choice...

Keep the tank alive to protect me and whoever else is still here...or try to keep the DPS alive also and risk losing the tank...Unfortunately, I had to choose the tank.

I say unfortunately, because throughout the instance, his arrogance was so intense that it was almost sickening.

His pulling was terrible. In the room just before the final boss fight, he pulled a group, plus two pats and didn't manage to get the aggro off of myself and the dps so that we could try to survive....it was miserable. And of course, he accused me of being a lousy healer because we died "before the pats came". That's actually a little untrue. The patrol aggro'd on me right off because of healer aggro I had from trying to heal through his initial pull.

We wiped again.

We ran back and took out the rest of the trash in that room. But before we could move on...

[Party][Paladintank]: priest, im surprised ur only doin 1900 overall dps
[Party][Priest]: ... /facepalm
[Party][Paladintank]: seems like u could be doin better

Well, it was a silent ride after that. The group managed to clear the final room and take down the final boss.

The mage from my guild thanked everyone from the group for the run and left immediately. In Guild Chat, he said he would have said something miserable had he not left.

Before I get into what unfolded next, let me just say that I refuse to be grumpy at anyone if I can avoid it. I don't want to make my guild look bad because I'm frustrated at someone. Also, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I don't like being treated like crap by other players, so I try to avoid doing it to them. Our mage left group for this reason, but I hung out for a sec...

[Party][Hunterguy]: for the record, if this truly is your 3rd tankadin, then you have failed not once, not twice, but three times now.
[Party][Paladintank]: says you with your whoppin' 1600dps
[Party][Hunterguy]: I could have nothing more than a shield and sword on my paladin and hold threat better than you. The 1600 DPS was because if I had even tried to do more, I pulled threat.
[Party][Priest]: yeah, I couldn't really do full dps the whole time. I had to hold back.

The drama unfolded. As it turns out, the Hunter works from home and this is his 5th level 80 toon. He's got a prot pally himself. They unleashed on the paladin...and while I'm normally not an advocate for this sort of behavior, I think it was deserved in this situation. The paladin was arrogant and, honestly, a poor tank. I can normally throw huge heals and not risk getting healer aggro. This was the first heroic instance where I've had healer aggro as much as I did, not to mention innervate was frequently on cooldown because he was rather difficult to heal for.

The hunter and the priest and I all friends listed one another. Hopefully we'll be able to run together in the future. The paladin, however...I think I'll pass.

A brief summary of why I'd never run with him again:
1. He was more focused on trying to prove what an amazing player he was, that he forgot to generate threat.
2. His shenanigans reminded me of things 10 year olds do...yet he insisted that the instance had to go quickly because he had to go out drinking with his friends.

...

Kool-Aid? Maybe. Anything with alcohol in it? Doubtful.

Thank goodness that's over. And yes, he's on my friend's list with a note that says, "Self Heal ShenaniganTank"

More Congrats in Order!

I wanted to make a quick post this morning to congratulate the most recent level 80! Mighty, one of the mages who appears in a picture here on LBT reached level 80 last night! Congratulations to him! He officially has twice as many level 80's as I do ^_^

Also, wanted to congratulate Suley again on successfully knocking out the Military Quarter and part of Construct with us last night. She snagged a few gear upgrades, which is just awesome!

Congrats to both! Now I'll be able to drag Suley and Mighty through heroics together! Woot!

A Brand New Level 80!

I thought I'd make a special post to congratulate Suleyman on reaching level 80 last night! For those of you who don't know, Suley is my mom's Death Knight. *wipes a tear* I'm so proud!

She's worked her butt off to level her Death Knight and I'm looking forward to getting her toon geared up and Naxx-ready! We dragged her through her first heroic...H: Drak'theron Keep and while I'm sure it's overwhelming, she did really well!

A really amazing guy from another guild that I run with from time to time helped her change her spec and she was able to put out 1.7k DPS on a training dummy. That's excellent considering she's not yet in level 80 gear! I'm a very proud daughter right now and am really looking forward to being able to bring my mom on raids and heroic runs with me now!

Very exciting!

So Congratulations, Suley, on reaching level 80! May your days of daily quests, rep grinds, and heroic dungeon grinds be fruitful and fun! Welcome to the wonderful world of END GAME!

Our Tank Didn't Go!!!

Last night, I joined up with the guild I had started running Naxxramas (10-man) with last week. We got stuck on Thaddius and thought we'd continue and try to take him down. First, let me explain the fight.
Phase 1: There are two mini-bosses before Thaddius. He's the last boss in the Construct quarter. These two mini-bosses are connected via what Blizz calls "The Tesla Coil". Stalagg and Feugan must be engaged simultaneously and killed within 15 seconds of one another (I believe...though the time frame might be a little shorter).

The raid splits in half. A healer, 3 DPS, and a tank on each side. These two mini bosses are set up on platforms opposite one another in Thad's room. The tank has to hold them to the far back of the platform to prevent them from disconnecting from the Tesla Coil and nuking the raid. Sounds hard, but it's not. It's pretty easy. Every 15-20 seconds or so, these two bosses will do a "tank toss". Stalagg will throw the tank on him to Feugan and vice versa. Provided the healers pick up their new tank, all is good. There's a little bit of AoE damage, but nothing horrifying. Simple enough.

Phase 2: Thaddius Engaged. Here's where the fight tends to take a misery inducing turn for most folks. When Thaddius is engaged, it's pretty much tank and spank with a 5 minute enrage timer (6 on Heroic, I believe). But no, there aren't any hateful strikes here. What he does is a "Polarity Shift." Everyone with a negative charge has to stay to the left of the boss, everyone with a positive charge has to stay to the right of the boss. He casts this about once every 20-30 seconds (I don't recall the exact interval), and you have to keep an eye on your buff/debuffs to find out which side you need to be on.

I imagine that sounds simple enough. But what happens if you're charged with a positive polarity and don't move away from negatively charged raid members? You explode everyone around you. That's what happens. Ah, yeah, there we go. THE CATCH! The same thing happens if you're negatively charged and stand in a group of Positively charged friends. You explode them, the group wipes, Thad wins.

This fight, all by itself, could generate a novel of stories. My experiences with Thad haven't been great at all. I have never managed to stay alive to help take him down. I'm always a corpse somewhere when he's taken down.

The group I was with is a really good group. So, even though it was late and I had already had my fill of misery from stupid Skadi, I agreed to come along to heal for them. Here's a quick summary of events.

Attempt #1: Downed the two mini-bosses easily. I missed the jump from the mini boss platform onto Thad's platform and had to run around to try and make the jump again. Why is that an issue? Well, it's an issue because there were only 2 healers, first of all. Second of all, it's an issue because to get back into the group I have to wade through a poisonous pool of yuck and run back and forth depending on my charge before I can jump. Nothing like a healer jumping down to save the day and blowing up half the raid...

Attempts #2: Pretty much the same except we kept blowing each other up. It's hard for a healer to be staring at health bars, watching for a polarity change, and also trying to cast healing over the group. We blew each other up.

Attempt #3: Our tank didn't go! The raid leader did a countdown in raid chat. The tank on the opposite side of the room picked up his mini-boss, but our tank lagged and didn't get him picked up in time. As I described earlier, if the mini-boss breaks away from the Tesla Coil- it nukes the raid REALLY badly. This is what happened here. On vent, our side was calling out, "Our tank didn't go!" It was funny, to be totally honest, and these things happen. Ah well...

By this time, the Main Tank of the guild we were running with had developed a pretty serious attitude problem. I know not everyone is affected by nasty people the same, but it does make everyone in the group miserable to some degree to get sworn at and have to listen to a tank whining about his repair costs. If you don't like repair costs, honey, don't raid. I tend to get very upset and almost shaky when I feel a lot of pressure to "not fail." If I'm nervous, I'm making mistakes.

Attempt #4: Most of us managed to make the jump (including me), but when the polarity changed, folks ended up blowing each other up. I managed to keep myself, 2 tanks and 2 DPS alive as long as I could, but there was no way we were going to beat the enrage timer. Lo and behold- we didn't make it. He enraged and one-shotted the few of us remaining.

Attempt #5: "Our" tank left the raid group, so another tank took over for our side. Death Knight tanks are great, except if they try to tank in Blood Presence. It doesn't make them generate the threat needed- another death knight pulls too much aggro, and here's what you end up with:
A DPS pulling aggro and being tossed to the other side of the room, both Actual tanks on our platform and a lot of confused folks- which leads to a wipe.

It was at this point that the MT decided to start cussin' folks out and telling his guild mates that he was going to pick up less fail groups to raid with, etc etc. Well, the DK tank had made an honest mistake. It happens with Dual-Spec. I guess when they change spec it doesn't change their presence or sometimes it wipes it completely. Either way, it was an honest mistake, especially considering he had just dual-spec'd earlier that day. There was no way he'd have gotten so familiar with it that quickly. Anyway, the MT started crossing lines. I let him know it was an honest mistake, and that there was no reason to act the way he was acting and I left the raid group.

Thaddius. Destroyer of Guilds. It's not really a hard fight, it just takes a lot of concentration. After 7+ wipes on Skadi the Ruthless just a few moments before joining the raid group, I just didn't have it in me to try to deal with Thad's stupid polarities and a miserable tank who did nothing but whine about his repair costs all night.

Here's Tank Spot's take on the Thaddius fight, if you wanted some sort of video reference to see this fight played out. Of course, Ciderhelm makes it look incredibly easy.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is this: We all get frustrated by repeatedly wiping, but don't take out your frustrations on the group. Repair costs suck. Wiping sucks. But what sucks worse is having some jackhole ranting and raving, cussing out the team, and stomping his feet like a toddler on a rabid temper tantrum. Breathe! It's just a game.