Some changes are more noticeable than others, like for example the changes to the mount system.

Mounts

I didn’t start playing until mid-BC, but I remember running all the way to level 40.  I remember how excited I was to be able to get my epic land mount at 60, my basic flyer at 70, and saving, saving, and saving to get epic flight.  That was on my hunter, on my warrior, I caught the middle of the transition, getting the basic mount at 30, but I was somewhere in the middle of the flying change.  Honestly, with where the game is at this point, I like these changes a lot.  Honestly, pretty much everyone just wants to get through the older content as quickly as reasonably possible.  Being able to get from point A to point B more quickly cuts down on that time, and more importantly, reduces time where you’re basically just sitting there, holding down a key, time where you’re so to speak doing nothing other than watching the scenery go by.

Leveling

XP goes faster, BoA leveling gear, all the recruit-a-friend bumps…  All of them can make leveling go much, much faster.  Again, they’re changes that sort of had to be made.  If one were a new player coming into the game, the first 68 levels of the game could be a somewhat boring, lonely place.  I do like the BoA gear also.  I can fully appreciate that Blizz wants people to follow the lore of the game a bit as they level, but realistically, those of us who have already leveled a toon (or several) really don’t care too much about it probably.  What the BoA gear does though is basically give you a switch to flip to accelerate the process.  If you want to level faster, here’s how you can, if you want to stop, smell the flowers, follow all the lore, etc, you can still do that too.

Those are among what I would consider really positive changes, however, I don’t think that all changes are for the better.  Honestly, I read today that there are more incoming nerfs on some of the 5-mans, and honestly, I think all but one of them is unnecessary.

Instances

I read a post on WoW.com this morning “Upcoming Adjustments announced for Old Kingdom, Nexus, Culling of Stratholme”.  It references a blue post on the official forums, and goes over some stuff that’s reportedly in the works.

Occulus

It’s not mentioned in the above post as slated to get any more changes, but we all know that Occulus has been pummeled to oblivion with the nerf bat.  I’m not honestly complaining too much about that, the last round I thought was really unnecessary, but hey, I actually got the mount in my bag o’ gems last night, so I’m not going to bitch too hard, and lets be honest.  It’s now an 8-badge run if you get it as a random, that’s why most of us are doing heroics at this point anyhow.

I really don’t understand why everyone still hates Occ as much as they do.  Yes, it used to be really bad, and if you have an incompetent group, it still is a little difficult, but it’s just not that tough any more.  I’d never just leave a group upon finding that’s where a random had landed me, though I think I only got it as a random a few times, I heard reports that some were getting it a lot.

Yes it’s a somewhat more challenging instance, that’s not a bad thing, and in particular, it’s more due to the vehicle mechanics than anything else.

Old Kingdom

Does this really need nerfed?  Yes, it can be a frustrating instance.  Why?  Because it requires that you pay attention to what you’re doing!  That’s it.  It’s tight, packs are close, and yes, you can easily agro more mobs than you intended.  It doesn’t lend itself well to the over-powered, sloppy mode of play that most of us are used to running in heroics.  Or perhaps more properly, the sloppy habits we’re teaching those who don’t have quite as over-geared toons that get to come along with us.  Have I done OK enough times that I don’t particularly care if I ever do it again?  Yeah, but I’m not scared of it or anything.  It’s just a reminder that you need to do things right.  That’s a good thing in my opinion.

Nexus

Ok, the Anomalus rift things are annoying, but does it really need changed?  Really, I did the achievement with a decently geared PuG group not long ago, and it wasn’t that tough, we got it first try.  Again, I see it as a “pay attention” fight, which I don’t have a problem at all with. Again, I ask, what’s wrong with having to pay attention to the game while you’re playing it?

Culling of Stratholme

They’re working on a way to eliminate the time-consuming intro!

Finally!  How long have we all been waiting for this?  Granted I’m sure that it’ll be a while coming, as there’s quite a bit to work out as it’s more involved than the intro to ToC, but really, the damn intro, and waiting around for Arthas (I’ve taken to calling him “Pokey the Pally”) take longer than the actual fights.  I do sincerely hope though that however they do it, they have it set so that everyone has to watch it at least once.  It really is something that was entertaining to watch the first time, and there’s a TON of lore encapsulated in the events.  I don’t think that you should be able to miss that, I just sort of dislike having to sit there with a group that has Mal’Ganis kills totaling into the triple digits, or at least approaching that, and having to listen to several minutes of cinematics for the manyeth time

And finally, my blogging

Just a note to those that read this blog, my work schedule has changed recently, and I can’t post quite as regularly as I did for a while.  I do intend to keep writing.  I’m not abandoning the project, or anything like that, however, posts may be less frequent, or they may come in bunches.  Just wanted to give you all a heads up. 

It’s pretty amazing how fast a mod can all but take over the game when you really think about it.  I first started hearing about GearScore a few months ago, but at least on my server I didn’t really start noticing it in the [Trade] and [LFG] channels until the last month or 2.  Now, almost anytime you see anyone looking for more for a raid, you seen a Gearscore req posted along with it.  I’m even starting to see it in guild recruitment posts.  Honestly, I’m sort of tired of it, but at the same time I totally understand.

Just remember you have to have at least a 5K GearScore to keep reading this !

What is GearScore?

Before we really get going, it’s important that you understand exactly what GearScore is.  The official website for the mod can be found here http://www.gearscoreaddon.com/.  To quote that site, it answers the question this way.

How does it work?

Again, the following is taken directly from the above-mentioned official website.

Essentially, it functions much like the item-level system Blizz has built into the game, except that it appears that GearScore puts more weight into items in certain slots, specifically weapons, and major armor pieces, where “average item level” is just that, no one piece is any more valuable than any other.  GS does not, however (at least in my experience) actually reflect how well a given item is itemized for your particular character or build.

In practice, what happens is that when you mouse over someone in-game, a new line is present in their little tool-tip bubble.  It will say “GearScore: 4657″ or some such.  It gives you a general idea of how well-geared a player is.

Gearscore in practice

If it seems like I was complaining about this mod in the intro to this post, I was.  Sort of.  But I run the mod, and I do use it as well.  What bugs me is that some people seem to blindly follow it.

As a player I have found it frustrating in the past.  For example, not too long ago, I was sitting in FLR for a variety of runs, Ony 25 among them.  I got a whisper from someone asking — “Are you a geared tank?”

I responded — “What do you consider geared?”

reply — “4500 GS”

I respond — “4485 here, want me to link my 10-man ach?”

reply – “We found someone, thanks”

Now I’m not getting all bent, but honestly, I’d already tanked in Ony 25, just never gotten her down.  I was one of the “off-tanks” true, picking up the whelps, and then assigned to getting the elites that come down the pathway.  But anyone that’s been to Ony knows that honestly, there’s almost no difference tanking between 10 and 25.  either you can pick up the adds, of you can’t, it’s that simple.  Personally, I think that warriors may actually have an easier time picking up the whelps than most of the other classes.  While our AoE threat is our weak point, I’ve found the whelps seem to have a communal agro pool, and as long as you position yourself right, and time it properly, one Thunderclap is sufficient to get the attention of a wave, and allow you to back into the center of the room, Cleaving as you walk back.  But that’s tanking theory, another post, another time.

As far as Ony goes, it’s much more of an issue of everyone staying out of the Deep Breath, out of the blast that the elite adds do, and such.  Ony’s about execution, not gear.

From the perspective of a tank and raid leader, GearScore is a tool.  If I’m looking for people to fill out something, or an initial target for my Vigilance, I’ll use it to give me an idea of who might be best.  But I don’t view it as the be-all, end-all of evaluation.

Let’s say for example, I’m tanking a random 5-man, and I want to throw my Vig on someone.  Generally speaking, I look for one of the 3 following options.  High GS melee DPSers, particularly those that wear plate, higher GS hunters (I play one, I know the agro they generate), well-geared warlocks.  Failing that, a rogue, mage, or feral druid, usually by whoever has the higher GS.  But I do watch my Omen, and I’ll change if I see that someone is consistently pulling high threat levels.

Use GearScore wisely

Remember, while gear is important, if we’re being honest about it, skill trumps gear every time, within reason.  Sure, if you’ve got someone in higher-level epics, they’re more than likely going to perform better than someone in quest blues/greens that just dinged 80 yesterday.  But the line blurs shortly there-after.

I’ve watched, and paid attention as I’ve gotten my hunter out of the moth-balls recently.  He’s reasonably geared (about 4500GS) but (because I was being cheap back  when I was playing him) he had almost all blue-grade gems.  But I have been consistently able to out-perform people with GS of 5k or better, all the while using Misdirection, etc, doing anything I could to make the runs go easier.  And that while using cheap vendor ammo, not even the blue stuff we all used for raiding before the new epic Ashen Verdict patterns came out.  I even out-did a couple other hunters.

Does that mean that perhaps I’m a more skilled player than average?  Maybe, I dunno, I don’t think I’m anything too special, yeah I know how to play my class(es), but I’m by no means some sort of expert, at least I don’t think so.  Maybe I’ve just run with batchs of well-geared goof-offs.  But when it happens almost every time I’m in a run, I kind of doubt it.

Another thing to remember is that for some builds certain items may be better, despite having inferior GS ratings.  For example, on my hunter I had been using Journey’s End, but I swapped it out for Marrowstrike.  Both are great choices for a hunter, but Journey’s End actually rates higher both by GS and ilvl, even though the itemization on Marrowstrike makes it a slightly better choice for my MM build.

Also, remember that GS doesn’t at all consider builds or classes, I know for a fact that it values something like the Keystone Great Ring the same (on a hunter, I’ve seen it) as Hemorraging Circle.  Obviously, one is much better than the other for a hunter.  So GearScore only reflects the quality of the gear someone is wearing, not weather or not the item is actually itemized for their class/build.

Basically, what I’m saying is, GearScore is a tool, but just because one person has a value higher than another person doesn’t mean a whole lot.  Frankly, if you’re building a raid, it still merits inspecting the people, and seeing who has exactly what gear.  But GearScore should not EVER be the only criteria that is used to select someone for something, except for possibly positioning people for encounters like Flame Leviathon, where item-level actually matters.  To do so would be to assume 2 things.

1)  Everyone is of equal skill level, and that all classes are perfectly balanced relative to each other.

2)  Everyone knows how to appropriately gear their characters.

If you actually believe the 2 statements above, please contact me, I have a couple of bridges, along with some ocean-front property in Kansas that I’m thinking of selling, and perhaps you’d be interested.

Seriously folks, just think about it before you start demanding some arbitrary number.  It’s one thing to have a general idea of where you want people geared, it’s another to blindly follow a number.  Like with all things, you’re still going to have to do a little work on your own.  You’re not going to ever find a mod that can filter out all the people you don’t want to play with for you.

The Good

Badges

Let’s face it, there’s a lot here to love. It gives you badges, 2 of the new, shiny Emblem of Frost for the first one every day, and 2 extra Emblem of Triumph for every one after that.

More badges

Another feature that I think is often overlooked is that if you feel the need to hard-core emblem-farm, you can do so all day long. While the instances you have done will show a lockout on an individual basis, you can still be directed back into them as a “random dungeon”. This means that your stack of Emblems of Triumph are only limited by the amount of time you, the player, are willing to dedicate to farming them. And let’s be honest here, there’s an awful lot of really good gear to be had with those emblems.

Take your friends

Another feature that I like is that you can join as a group. Say you’ve got a friend or a guildie or 4 that want to go run stuff together, a couple of clicks, and you’re signed up in the que, looking for whatever pieces you’re lacking. Even better, if you sign in as a complete party, it’s just ‘FWOOSH’ to the dungeon with you.

No lay-overs

That’s another aspect of the new tool that I absolutely love. I can be wherever, doing whatever, and sign up for a group, and ‘ploop” I’m in the dungeon! No more flying all the way across Northrend to do a heroic, then flying all the way back to keep working on that quest chain or whatever you were farming. Step into the dungeon from wherever, step back out to where you were. This obviously saves a good deal of time, as well as gold, as you’re no longer paying the FlightMasters the fares they ask to send you all over the continent. Plus, if you’re feeling odd, and going back and doing old dungeons or something, you aren’t stuck who knows where, half an hour from an instance if you finally find a group.

If you’re solo

Yet another useful side of this tool is for those players that find themselves unguilded. Suddenly, you can get runs fairly easliy, even without the support-structure of a guild for mates to run with.

The Bad

While there are some overwhelmingly good things about the tool, there are a few things I’m not so crazy about also. Honestly though, they’re mostly things that are just the other side of the coin from points above. But on to what I dislike.

It’s well, random

Ok, there’s a certain amount of excitement when you get that ‘dungeon is ready’ message, and you wait for the loading screen to pop up, but really, I sort of like knowing what I’m doing. It let’s me be a little more prepared mentally, though honestly, for me, there’s really only one really challenging heroic out there, that being Halls of Reflection, assuming I have a decent group with me. So that one’s kind of a nit-pick.

If you’re not in a guild group, you have no idea who you’re getting stuck with

Now granted, this is not really any different than finding a PuG group the old way, though then you only had to keep a list of people that you didn’t want to group again with from your server, now it’s cross server, and you just can’t keep track of all those names. And honestly, where it used to seem that you got stuck with undergeared noobs with the old system, that doesn’t seem to happen as much now. At least not to me. I basically have 4 categories that I group people I run with into. They are as follows

Wow, they’re good!

These are the people that I would actively seek out to group with again. This is the healer that I don’t see health bars moving with, on anyone. This is the hunter that I see misdirecting to me on every pull. It’s the shadow priest that throws a heal because it needs thrown, and the main healer has to move out of bad stuff. It’s the DPSer that remembers to bring a stray add back to me, not try and run away, and make me chase half way to the entrance off the instance trailing a pack behind me. Or that high-output (often melee) dpser that notices I’ve forgotten to throw vigilance on anyone and whispers me to ask for it. I like these people, and it’s a real pleasure to run with them

They do their job

This is where the vast majority of the people I run with fall. They don’t do anything that particularly makes the run go better, but they also don’t do anything to make it more difficult. They target correctly enough that I don’t have to taunt things constantly, they just do their job, and we breeze on through the instance. Honestly, these people I like as well, though I largely don’t remember names or anything.

People who just don’t know how to play

This is the hunter wearing mp5 and spellpower armor, the rogue wearing tank rings, or whatever gear mis-match you tan think of. It’s the hunter dropping Volley during the Skadi fight, after all the adds have been killed (hey, it happened, I saw it). Or someone that comes to a run totally unprepared (“Uh, guys, I need to run and repair/get ammo…”) This also includes the person with reasonable gear, but who can’t put out what they should. I have no issues helping anyone get geared, but when it seems like all you’re doing is auto-attacking, you really start to annoy me, take a little time, and learn how to play your toon! I really don’t like getting a group with these folk.

OMG! We have to be done 5 minutes ago!!!

These are the folks that really annoy me. They put up good numbers on the meters, they do what they’re supposed to while you’re fighting (usually). But the instant something isn’t perfect they’re either leaving, or bitching. Or they ninja-pull. Or, they assume that I’m a pally tank, and AoE threat isn’t any sort of issue (I mean, I have a shield after all!), I don’t need to get my rage rolling, and they can just open up DPS full bore on whatever target they wish. I’ll be honest, I don’t “speed-pull” but I think I move fast enough. I don’t wait around, I do however like to make sure that my healer and dps are behind be before I go zipping into the next pull. In short, I try and move as fast as reasonably possible, not wasting time, but not rushing either. I think most of the older heroics take me somewhere in the 20-25min range to run. No, I’m not setting records, but I’m not wasting time either. And I know where I am regarding gear and badges, and most of these folk are enough ahead of me that the only thing they might be spending the badges on are off-spec pieces, or maybe PvP gear. There’s no need to be nuts about it. It’s just a f^%*(ing game.

One other thing I somewhat dislike about the new system is that it’s cross-realm. While that (obviously) makes it work much quicker, it makes it a bit harder for you to build a name on your server. You’re much less likely to be looking for a raid or something, and someone sees your name in the list and goes “Oh, yeah, I ran with him a few times, he’s solid, grab him.”

The Ugly

And now, the things that I feel may have been unplanned, and may have a much larger impact on the game than was initially planned.

It creates geared noobs.

There’s nothing at all wrong with making good gear accessible, and thereby making the endgame content more accessible for everyone. I actually applaud that step by Blizz. The problem here actually lies with us the players, not with Blizz.

I know some of you are scratching you heads, wondering what the hell I’m talking about. I’ll even admit that I play into it. Think about how some of the heroics played early in WotLK. We needed to use CC, we had to watch where we were standing. Proper targeting was important, we had to move at certain times. Now consider Naxx. Let’s see, don’t stand in bad stuff, Grob comes to mind. Targeting, well 4 Horseman, and alot of the trash required coordination there, along with Anub, as well as the Grand Widow. Movement, there was Thadius, and let us not forget, Heigen. Does anyone see a pattern here?

Look how many guilds still haven’t cleared Ulduar. You know why? It’s not that Ulduar is such a hard raid. Ulduar is a technical raid. Ulduar was/is all about staying out of bad stuff, while targeting the right thing, and coordinating damage on multiple targets. Ulduar is a raid that requires a team of people that all know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it together. I won’t say that Ulduar will never be ‘out-geared’, but I don’t think you’ll see it out-geared by players who couldn’t do it in lesser gear. In my opinion Ulduar is a raid that’s much more about the player than it is the toon.

So what’s my point? Next time you run a 5-man, watch how carelessly your group steamrolls through everything. Think about it. What habits are we building? More importantly, what are we teaching those folk who are just getting their first toons up to max level? We’re creating fail-raiders. We’re gearing people well past the level they understand playing at. We then complain that these same people don’t know how to play, but we blame it on the gear, and then we ask for insane numbers on gear-score, or ilvl average for whatever run. So these same people go out and run more heroics with people who are just blasting through, not really using any technique, get better gear, and the cycle repeats… We blame Blizz for making gear to easy to get, but we aren’t teaching people how to use it right either.

Guilds are going to change

Let’s face it. Guilds are going to change because of the new dungeon tool. Guilds in many ways (at least for me) were an assembly of people who you usually did things with. They were the people that you almost always grouped with to run instances, raid with, etc. Now, they’re not as necessary for 5-mans. The waits even for DPSers aren’t terribly long, and I think my average wait time as a tank is under 20 seconds. From everything I hear, healers aren’t having to wait too long either. That’s if we’re signing up alone. Honestly, I’m at a point where I’m geared and confident enough in my abilities where I don’t feel a NEED to run with guildies. I like to, I prefer to, but I don’t feel like I need to. If I want to do something, I’ll ask if there’s anyone in guild interested, but I don’t wait too long.  I’ll que up for a full random run without thinking twice. The only thing I actually look to the guild for is raids, crafters, and fun conversation.

I’m honestly beginning to think that the guild concept we’ve all lived with for a while is dying. Guilds are becoming more of a more formalized friends list, or, they’re becoming a raiding roster. I think we may see an emergence of “raid teams” even more than they already exist. They may cross guild lines totally.  They might exist within, but separate from, a given guild.  I don’t see a problem with the concept, but it may prove hard for some players to understand, and could cause shake-ups in  some current, more socially-based guilds.

I’d love to delve further into some of the above concepts, but honestly, I’ve gone on far longer already than I ever intended to on the actual topic, and I’m venturing into areas where I could write complete separate (and lengthly) posts.  I probably will eventually, as the gears of though have been spun into motion now, and won’t stop for a while.

Also, look for another version of this review written from a DPS perspective, as my hunter may soon climb out of the hammock he’s been lounging in for the last couple months, and actually do something other than an occasional farming circuit.

What I already have.

I already have a fully leveled and raid-level-geared Night Elf Hunter. I also have my Dwarf Warrior, who’s actually more well-geared than my hunter. I have a lvl 33 Draenai Pally (some version of a ret-ish spec), a lvl 22 Gnome Rogue, a lvl 16 Night Elf Druid, and a lvl 60 Night Elf Death Knight, oh, yeah, there’s also my lvl 2 Draenai Mage, but he’s just a banker/auction-monkey. That’s on my ‘main’ server, Whisperwind.

I also have a few Hoarde toons spread between Nazgrel and Thunderhorn.  I have friends that play Hoarde on both servers, and so I have a few toons on either, nothing out of the ‘teens, with the exception of a DK on Nazgrel who’s lvl 60.

So basically, I already have a ranged DPSer, and a tank/melee DPSer, thought I’m very much considering going with a second prot spec on the warrior, as I basically never use the DPS spec, or I might set up a spec specifically for PvP.

This leaves one notable role I don’t have a toon to fill. I have no healer. I also technically have no caster DPS, but I do have a ranged DPS, so close enough for my tastes, at least for now.

What I want.

I want to give healing a try. Granted, I’m a little skeptical of just how I’ll fare, as I’m very, very easily distracted by anything shiny. But regardless, I want to be able to say that I’ve given it at least a fair attempt. This takes my class choices down from 10, to 4. Paladin, Priest, Druid, and Shaman.

Those are the 4 healing-capable classes.

If you were paying attention above, you’ll notice that I already have a paladin in the 30s, and a priest and druid both in the high teens. The paladin would be the obvious choice, but after spending a lot of time on my warrior, the paladin just feels slow and plodding. Not so much in terms of leveling, but in the pace of the actual game-play.

So, what about a priest? Well, I could, I dunno, I have this bizarre aversion to clothies for some reason though. I think it goes back to my early gaming days playing D&D. I’m just not good at playing a squishy. Granted priest does appeal to me, because it’s got 2 different healing trees, one focusing more on raid heals, and the other on individual targeting heals. But I’m just not feeling it for some reason.

So, then a druid perhaps? Well, I could, but you see, I’ve promised my wife that we’ll level characters together eventually once we have 2 computers, etc, and just to make things easier, I’d like to level the same class. And she really, really likes the shape-shifting abilities of the druid, and we’ll be able to use Worgen for them once Cataclysm hits.  So a druid is out for now also.

Which leaves me with a shaman.  Shaman are kinda cool, they seem to play at a fairly quick pace, and they’re versatile as well.  There’s only one thing with a shaman.  It has to be a Draenai.  I’ve actually fiddled with a shaman a time or 2, I’ve just never gotten very far.  I think part of it is that I simply don’t care for the Draenai models much.  Yes I have 2 others already, but I just don’t like ‘em that much.

It’s not the size, or the hooves, or anything like that, I’m sure of it.  My preferred Hoarde race is actually tauren, and those models are HUGE, and have hooves.  Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that I simply HATE finding my way around the Exodar.  For whatever reason, while the place is beautiful, I can’t find a damn thing there without asking a guard, and looking at a map 3 times.

Why, Why, Why?

I know dwarves will be able to be shaman in Cataclysm.  I know that until Burning Crusade you couldn’t even play a shaman on Alliance.  I really don’t care.  If it’s going to be ok then, why not now?

I’ll grant that I’m not really up on the lore of the game at all.  I never played any of the original Warcraft titles, and I’ve mostly focused on getting up towards the end levels with the toons that I have, as that’s where all my friends have been playing.  Maybe there’s some deep, dark reason for it.  But I can’t really come up with one.  Let’s be realistic here, some race of semi-goat-like creatures from another planed crashes a spaceship into Azeroth, and somehow has a mystical connection with the elemental spirits here?  Think about it for a second, that’s kinda like the Keebler elves hiring Cookie Monster to run their shipping department!

Honestly, if they’d kept shaman as Hoarde only, and pallys Alliance only it would have been ok with me.  Then it wouldn’t irritate me so much.  I think honestly though, pallys have become such a huge factor on the tanking scene that there would be much QQing if they were still Alliance only.  I think that the shaman contibutions would be missed as well, no Heroism would make certain fights much more tricky, and a well-played shaman is an absolutely amazing healer.  I know I’m seeing things from the perspective of the way the classes play now as well, and that they’ve changed a good deal offer the life of the game, but still.

And why can only tauren and night elves be druids?  I get the whole natural/animal thing, and such, but again, if worgen and trolls will be able to in Cataclysm, why not more now?  And if draenai can be shaman, why not druids?  I know the elements and the animals are different, but sorta same church different pew IMO.

Then there’s hunters.  Can someone explain to me why a human hasn’t been able to be a hunter?  Again, I know it’s changing in the expansion, but wtf?

And perhaps the one that makes the least sense of all, blood elves can’t be warriors.  Now I understand they have a magical history/culture, and all that, but really, what is a warrior?  It’s someone who picks up a stick and beats the bad guy with it.  No hocus-pocus, not sneaky stuff, just brute force.  Why would any race in the game be excluded from this class?  I can see perhaps making some races not as suited for it, or certain races being better, as they do with the racial abilities, but just flat out ‘no warriors’ makes no sense.  We all know there’s some challenged blood elf out there in a back alley of  Silverymoon going “But I just want a sword, and a shield, and some plate.  I don’t want any ‘Judgment of…’ or ‘Seal of…’  I just want to pummel it into oblivion!

I’m sure somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of the Blizzard lore-vaults, or somewhere there has to be a justification for some of this stuff, but frankly, some of it’s just frustrating at times…

I have a friend that’s done Ony every week since she was put in, looking for the caster ring. He hasn’t seen it drop yet. I don’t know how many times I ran H-ToC trying to get the tank shoulders out of there (granted I think I only have like a dozen clears there, but still…), and they finally dropped. They dropped the first run after I plunked down a stack of Triumph badges to get an upgrade from the blue ones I had been wearing. Back when I first hit 80 with Drey, I ran reg HoL a number of times, trying to get the +def trinket, never saw it, not once, I still havn’t seen it, but I haven’t run it on reg in a while either. And now I don’t really have a use for it… I don’t know how many kills I have on Sarth between my 2 toons, but I have yet to win that damn 22-slot bag on either of them.

But I can’t whine too loudly either, I’ve had my share of good luck as well. Shortly after turning 80, and joining a new guild I was pulled through an H-ToC run (I was having issues with Paletress on regular still) by my GuildMaster (prot pally) because he wanted to see what we might get me. Well, we struck gold, Peacekeeper Blade dropped, and I’ve been wielding it ever since. Up until that point I had been using the mace from the Ragemane’s Flipper quest.

I got more drops here and there, but I ended up buying alot of my gear with emblems. Look, they’re farmable, and honestly, the gear is pretty damn good! I got a belt drop my only trip (so far) into Naxx25, and managed a shield on one of 2 trips in on 10-man. Ulduar, was a bit more reluctant to give up loot, but I got the bracers off FL25 too. I guess basically, I don’t get drops too often, but when I do it’s usually worth the wait.

So like 2 weeks ago, when we descided to go into ToC10 as a guild like we really meant it, I finally felt like I was ready. We 1-shot Beasts, and Jaraxxus, and then struggled mightily on Faction Champs. Finally, after having had enough one night, we hung up the blades, and called it. We came back a night or 2 later, and after more attempts, we were standing over the loot chest. We proceeded to 1-shot the twins, and then it was on to Anub. We got a few cracks in, but it was getting late, and more than one of us had to be at work the next morning, so again, we hung ‘em up and came back later. We did manage to get him then, and we were all happy, but for me, the only loot I got from the whole run was a gun for my off-set, which I only took because the only other person in the raid who could use it already had it. In fact, no (plate) tank loot dropped in the whole run, sometimes it just happens that way.

So we went back on the next reset, and proceded to (I believe) 1-shot everything all the way to Anub. The tanky neck dropped of Jaraxxus, and it was an upgrade for me, so I rolled. I won! Cool! My first ToC loot for my tank! Woots! I happily went along the rest of the run smiling. (Best part? An upgrade that I could just swap in, no enchanting/gemming needed!) When we got Anub down and we were standing about starting loot, I got a tell from someone of “Grats”, and I was like “huh?”, they respond with “Nice shield dropped, and the other tank already has better.” Oh! Sweet, I had been wanting to upgrade my shield, and indeed, I got it, being the only person there who would use it main-spec. I made out like a bandit that night.

Fast forward another couple days, and I’m running H-Pit of Sarron.  Nothing really dropping I can use, but no matter, just learning the new run, and so forth.  We get up to the last boss (and I know he drops the nice new tanky sword, and we beat on him.  Still not sure what exactly happened, but I went down right as he did, but hey, we got the win, that’s what matters.   And lo and behold a nice shiney Rimefang’s Claw drops in the loot-pile, and guess who gets to take it home!

I don’t do runs and raids for the loot, I do it because I enjoy it.  Even as a tank, which some people find odd.  I just like tanking, something about always being at the center of the action or something I guess.  Raids I do because I enjoy the comraderie of friends, and the challenge off the content.  That’s not to say I don’t like getting shiney new purplez.  I do, but that’s not my focus.  I do like to keep upgrading my gear, but in my mind that’s a means to an end, not an end in itself.

So don’t always go into a run thinking about what you can get out off it.  I think that’s the best way to make sure that it doesn’t drop.  Instead, just go in to have a good time, have some fun with friends, and you never know when the Loot-gods will smile at you!

So what brings this topic on?

Well, the whole Winter Veil thing starts today, and I’ve decided to go for the Violet Proto-Drake with my warrior. Seems simple enough right, most of the holidays aren’t really that hard, just a little time consuming. But there’s one minor issue. The one achievement requires you do the Ogri’La bombing-run quest on a holiday mount. No biggie right? Not for most of you vets out there, but my warrior was originally leveled as an alt, and conveniently, happened to be in Outlands during the Midsummer Flame Festival, which was the first holiday I actually decided to do on him. Actually it worked out rather well, I got like 2 1/2 levels on him running around doing the flame things, and had my Flame Warden title at like 63-64. Remember too, that was before they popped flying back to lvl 60. So anyway, I ended up basically skipping alot of Outlands between the levels I got from the festival, and having the leveling gear. I didn’t really quest in Nagrand, BeM, SMV, or Netherstorm.

So guess what, I don’t even have the Ogri’La opened up to where I can do the dailies for them.

So last night I set off to open them up. Nothing terribly difficult really, I’m a tank after all, so I manage to relatively easily solo the 5-man group quests that you have to do early in the questline. But let’s be honest, I have a short attention span, and I get bored easily. I got to the quest where you need an ass-load of Apexis Shards. I’m pluggin along collecting them when a good friend in my guild asks if anyone wants to help out on an Occulus achievement run.

So the little conversation in my head goes something like the following…

“Oh F#@k, Occulus, HELL NO!”

“But they nerfed it again, how bad can it be?”

“It’s freaking Occulus you moron!”

“But you’re gonna want the achievements eventually, why not do it with people that are also trying it?”

“Um, yeah, you got a point… But it is Occulus.”

“Look it’s a break from this mucking along…”

“But it’s Occulus…”

So I tell my friend that I’ll come along as my “off-spec” and dps.

It goes kinda like this…

What happens when you take a pally tank, 2 ret pallys, and an arms warrior, along with a druid healer, into Occulus? Well, when the druid is the lowest geared toon of the bunch, and is pushing 4k Gearscore, my off-spec is like 4300, and the 3 pallys are all like 4800-5200 its’ what’s normally reffered to as a “Beat-Down”. We plowed through everything, not paying a bit of attention to agro-tables and pulling technique. It didn’t really matter to us if we pulled threat, we were all wearing plate, and it was dying very fast anyhow. Then we got to The Fight.

The achievement we were going for was Ruby Void, the one where no one uses a ruby/red/”tank” drake. We also had 2 people who needed to do the fight on the emerald drakes for the Experienced Drake Rider achievement, so we figured with 3 amber, and 2 emerald, that should work well right?

Well, we sorted out our time-stop order, and proceeded to mess it up the first try. So we all release, run back in, fly back up, and away we go again. We kept getting to about 12-15% before the adds were just too much. We tried over, and over, and over, changing up time-stop strat, even tried swapping to 4 amber, and 1 emerald, and same results.

In the end, we spent like an hour and a half attempting the achievement. Finally, after about 130 gold in repairs (that was my cost, I assume everyone was in that range) we decided to give in, I grabbed a ruby drake, and we killed him easily. It wasn’t a total failure really, we got at least one person their Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement, 2 people got Experienced Drake Rider, and I only need the emerald to get that one myself.

It’s sort of amusing though when you really look at it, the amount of irritation and frustration we’ll put ourselves through to get these “achievements” in a video game.  I mean really, when I log out, I’m still the same person I was before I got the “achievement”.  Nothing’s really changed about me, I just gave up some time I could have spent doing something else to frustrate myself.  I guess it really stands as a testimony to Blizz really understanding the psychology of their customer base, and understanding what will make us keep coming back.

So, what sort of crazy, insanely frustrating things have you put yourself through in the name of “achievement?

So anyway, my thoughts on what I’ve experienced of the 3.3 fun so far? I’ll break it down a bit by category.

Random Dungeon Finder thing.

I just stone-cold PuGged a group with it. I know alot of people don’t like PuGs. I’ve had a few where they were incredibly bad myself. But I actually would somewhat try to PuG a bit before the patch anyway. Why? Because as a tank, I want to be prepared for the unexpected. While runs with guildies almost always go more smoothly, they’re also much more predictable. As a tank, I want to stay on my toes, how better to do it, get 4 other people who may not even be from your server?

I drew Heroic: Drak’ Theron Keep. Group was actually pretty good, 3 were geared similarly to me, one a bit lower, either a well-geared fresh 80, or someone with a few heroics already under their belt. Everyone seemed to know how to play, and we walked through, only lost one person once on a range-pull where I didn’t pay attention, and Bloodrage was on CD.

So my overall impression?  After only one use, very, very impressed.  It worked smoothly, I found a group very, very fast (matter of seconds).  I also like very much that it simply ports you to the dungeon, and then back to where you were when done, much like the BG system.  It cuts down alot on the wasted ‘travel-time’ as well as the gold spent on flight-point flying.  While I was initially somewhat skeptical of the concept, I think this one works excellent!

New 5-mans

After the run above, I was curious to see some of the new content, so between guild-chat and vent we soon had a tank (myself), a healer, and one DPS.  I grabbed the quest from Apprentice Whats-her-name, and took off for the (all of a sudden on my map) Death’s Rise FP.  I flew up to Icecrown Citadel, and looked at the sights.  Visually, very impressive, I have to say.  Not that the whole area wasn’t pretty neat in the first place, but I love the general feel of the architecture of the structure.  (I still hate questing in the zone, but it’s fun to look at!)

We decided that since neither myself, nor the healer had ever done the instances before, we were going to do them on regular, plus I’m looking to try and farm up a shield upgrade, and I’ve got my eye on the one from HoR.  We pugged in the last 2 slots, getting a warlock, and a DK, giving us the following group:  Tank — me, warrior,  Healer — guildie, holy pally,  DPS — Rogue, guildie,  ‘Lock, PuG,  DK, PuG.

Forge of Souls

Quick, short, 2 bosses.  Very cool theme, looks awesome.  I like the pathing, nothing terribly complicated, and there’s the 20-slot bag that drops, so overall, I like it, probably won’t bother again on regular though, doesn’t seem to have anything terribly difficult from a tank perspective.

Pit of Saron

Visually much less impressive in general, but still enjoyable.  Some of the trash packs aren’t all that easy to pick up as a prot-warrior, but then I was also dealing with a trigger-happy DK who only wanted to whine about wanting to go kill more stuff and getting a hilt, and telling us all how easy this is, all the while residing comfortably below me (the tank) on the DPS meters. 

*Note:  I know meters aren’t everything, but I also know that there’s if you’re a DPSer and can’t keep ahead of your tank on the meters, you’ve got issues.  Also, it really helps if you attack the mob that the tank is attacking, so the tank isn’t constantly having to try and grab up the ones you’re pulling off to wherever you happen to drag them.*

The fights themselves, just your basic don’t-stand-in-bad-stuff, move the boss outa the bad stuff deals from a tanking perspective.  By the end of this run I had had all I could take of the DK, I actually tried to put him on ignore, but apparently you can’t do that to a party member, at least one not on your server.  So we took a short break, the DK got bored and left, and when I got back we got another guilldie to fill in for Halls of Reflection.

Halls of Reflection

Visually a pretty neat instance as well.  The event to kick it off is pretty neat, though hopefully we don’t have to sit through it every time.

The first part of the instance sets up sort of like the gauntlet think in HoL, where the guys come unfrozen and attack.  They do it in waves.  The fun part?  It’s a round room, a la ToC, but much smaller.   And every wave of 4-5 seems to have a mage and a hunter type in it.  As all good tanks know, there’s only one good way to deal with multiple ranged mobs.  That’s line-of-sight pulling.  But wait, we’re in a round room!  Never fear, there’s a raised platform in the center with this altar like thing in the center. of that.  Basically, you need to try and play ring-around-the-rosie to draw everything in, then spam every AoE ability you have as a warrior to keep everything’s attention while everyone else kills it.  But wait, there’s more, since you’re running around this altar thing LoSing the mobs, your healer has to really pay attention as well, since you’ll LoS them as well.

This encounter lasts through the second boss, and is probably the most challenging of the all 3 instances.  I’ll have to think about it a bit, but the LoS-behind-the-altar strat doesn’t lend itself at all to the abilities of a warrior, so I’m going to put some thought into possible alternate strats to use, but I’ll need to test those out.  The bosses themselves aren’t terribly tough, and other than a bit of kiting on the second boss, nothing special is required.  Off course neither the caster, nor the tank shield dropped for us, so I’ll be going back for them again…

Then comes the fun part.  There’s a confrontation with Arthas, and you all have to run away.  You run up the path, and there are these walls of ice that form.  Basically, you want to put your back on the ice-walls, and pick up the waves of undead that Arthas throws after you.  Word of note, be careful, you can accidentally get on the wrong side of at least the first wall, leaving you useless to your party…

On normal mode there were I believe 4 walls, and the waves get more intense as you go on.  Basically, you need to keep ahead of Arthas, and that’s about it.  You run out onto a ledge, and the ship pulls up and blasts the cave shut, saving you from Arthas.  And that’s pretty much that.

I haven’t gotten to see the new raid yet, but I’m sure it’s equally impressive, and will provide hours of progression-wiping excitement for all.  I’m looking forward to going in and having a crack at it.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with what I’ve seen of the new patch.  Some of the features are very well done, and very useful.  The new instances are fun, and while somewhat challenging, shouldn’t prove overly daunting.  I’m happy.

Thank you Blizz!

I accomplished something Saturday night that I’ve never done before.  I got a clear in TotC 10.  I know, alot of you are probably working on hard-modes, and 25-man, etc. That’s cool, good for you. I’m seriously happy for you. But this meant something more to me. Why? Because it represents the first time that I’ve actually gotten a clear on the ‘current’ content before the next patch was released. To some of you, I’m sure that’s old hat, and seems minor, but for me, it feels like a real accomplishment. Granted, I still haven’t cleared Naxx (need KT and Sapp) with the warrior, and I have yet to down Mally with either toon, and I still don’t have an Ulduar clear either. But I can now say that I’ve got a toon that’s cleared the “current” content. It feels really good.

Ironically, I got the clear on my recently-become-main prot-warrior, not the hunter who I initially leveled, and learned much of the game on. In some way though, it sort of feels sweeter. Why? Well, it’s mostly in my head, but it comes down to this. You can’t really carry a tank, You can carry a DPS. Not to say that my DPS was in any way sub-par, for my gearing, I think I was doing quite well, and by pure score numbers, my hunter is still slightly better geared than my warrior.  There’s just something about the warrior though, he seems to fit right.  Along with that, the guild I joined a month or 2 back really needed a second tank.  We have plenty of people that tank as an off-spec, or on an alt, or as an off-spec on an alt, or…  But they were short a second “primary tank” when I joined up.  At the time I was just barely able to tank heroic 5-mans, but (again with some shortage of people that really wanted to tank) I was able to get a lot of heroic runs in, and build my gear-set very quickly between (h) ToC5, and badges.  I actually got to a week or two ago where there was nothing I needed (main-spec) that I could buy with Conquest badges, I’ve even traded enough down to get the cloak and boots from EoV.  So I’m left with building my DPS and PvP sets with whatever badges I get right now.  I have 2 pieces from Triumph badges already also.  Not bad for a little over 2 months, and least not in my mind.

So that has me sitting where I’ll quickly be able to finish off the Triumph gear when the patch drops.  I should be able to work my way fairly quickly towards the EoF gear, and have my DPS and PvP sets filled nicely as well.  And more than that, I’m reasonably ready to start working on Icecrown Citadel.

It feels really, really good to be sitting in a place where I’m not really playing catch-up for once.  Not that I’m not behind some, I know I am, and I’d love to be further, but this is as close to being “on the curve” as I’ve ever been.  And I like the feeling.

Joining a raid does not a raider make.

Look, I can wire things in my house, I’m not an electrician. I can usually fix a dripping faucet, or a running toilet, but I’m not a plumber. Just because you can (and sometimes do) do something, doesn’t mean that it defines you. This is both a good and a bad thing really, but that’s an enormous discussion that could better be handled by others. Let’s focus on our specific little corner of (cyber) reality, shall we?

For those of you in the raiding community, the title of this post probably makes sense, even seems obvious. To experienced players, it’s probably much the same way. I remember back to my earlier playing days though, and I know I didn’t understand, so I’m going to try to maybe help some newer players along. I’m not trying to be an elitist about it, or anything of the sort, but more trying to help those who haven’t taken it to that level understand where the rest of us are looking at things from.

Let me also make clear that I don’t think that you need to be a “raider” to participate in a raid. It’s a learning process, and you have to start somewhere, and there’s nothing wrong with just having some fun with friends in a larger group either, if that’s what you want. If that’s what you want, good for you, have fun! Just be aware that some of us take it more seriously than that, so please try and understand our point of view, and we’ll hopefully try to understand yours!

What makes a Raider a Raider?

If I had to pick one word to define it, it would have to be “focus”. That’s probably the best single definition. When I go into raiding mode I’m focused on the encounter in front of me. That’s not to say I don’t joke around, and have (short) conversations in vent unrelated to the actual raid at hand, but my focus is on the raid, my goal is defeating the next encounter without dying. I run a spec(s) set up with raiding in mind, not PvP, not soloing. I skip talents that might be great for those things, instead taking some that maximize my damage capabilities, or survival, or they may grant some sort of raid-wide buff. I’m not specing with me as a single character in mind, I’m specing to fill a specific role in a group. The group as a whole can be greater than the sum of it’s parts.

How do you become a Raider?

There’s not really one answer to that, it’s sort of a process, you do certain things, and then you see something else you want to improve on, so you work on that, and…. Basically, it comes down to you, as a player taking the time to learn more about your class, and how to properly spec/gear/play it. Does that mean you need to be a theory-crafter, and figure out everything on your own? No, not at all. What you need to do is go out, do a little research, and then try some stuff out. If you don’t want to use the target dummies, don’t , pick a 5-man that you can usually get people to run (ToC-5 in reg mode works well right now), and run it for a baseline (maybe a couple times even), then change your spec/rotation/gems/glyphs/whatever, and do it again, see what the results are. Granted you can do this with a raid run, but it it’s not working well, it’s much more of a hassle to fix than on a 5-man, where you can just gut it out. Find what works well for you, and use it. That’s pretty much that. For me personally, I don’t understand the intricate details of a warrior spec as well as I do a hunter one, however, I understand enough to know which points I might want to move for what, and which ones I need to leave where they are. I also have done enough research that I know where to go to look for info. That’s perhaps the biggest thing, it’s not so much knowing it yourself, it’s knowing where to get the info from. Depending on class, Eliteist Jerks, TankSpot, WarcraftHuntersUnion, ShadowPanther.net, and various other sights have a wealth of info just sitting there for you to pick up and use. Use it, keep trying to improve, that’s a big part of the raiding mentality.

Another thing that helped me greatly was having a “gear-map”. Basically all that is, is a play of what gear you need from where. Currently, with the emblem system working as it does, it’s more just having a priority list of what you want first from which emblems, but taking the time to look over what crafted pieces might be helpful, and so forth can really help you out at well, plus, it provides a point of focus. (See, “focus” again!)

As sort of a part of this process, you’ll start understanding which stats really benefit your class/spec, and you’re thus able to make better informed choices about which pieces of gear you roll on, or how you gem a given piece.

But what about “Hard-Core Raiders”?

They’re another breed all of their own, but not so much either. In large part, they just take everything I’ve outlined above, and crank it up to another level. They may take 2 specific crafting professions in order to maximize the enhancements they can put on their own gear, and have alts to farm the materials to supply those professions. For example, a plate-wearer might go with Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting, because they get the extra gem slots, and the better gems. Or perhaps for a leather/mail wearer, Leatherworking, and something else, for the wrist enhancement they can do on their own gear. I have seen guilds that require such a profession set-up of their raiders. They also work very hard to have the absolute best gear they have available to them equipped, particularly crafted pieces, and their gems and enchants. Basically, it’s an even tighter focus. They may spend their non-raiding free-time in a fairly strict and organized grind of gold and materials to keep themselves supplied for raiding.

So where do you fit in?

What level do you want to commit to? How far do you want to push it? That’s something you have to answer for yourself.

For me, I guess I’m probably on the more dedicated end of the “casual” spectrum. With my warrior, I’m fully epic-gemed, and while I currently am a miner/blacksmith, I’ve toyed with the idea of taking Jewelcrafting for the little extra bump, I just don’t have another miner to feed me mats as of yet. All my tank gear is enchanted, and while there may be one or 2 that aren’t the “best” enchant, everything is “acceptable”. I don’t have the high-end crafted epics, but I have the best I can reasonably afford. I have alot of emblem gear, and try and run the daily heroics as much as I reasonably can to keep upgrading that way. Is my off-spec gear up to that level? No, not yet, It still needs some gems and enchants, but it’s sort of a work in progress. I’m saving to get my epic flying, so my off-spec is lagging a little behind. Do I expect everyone I run with to approach a raid with the same level of dedication I do? No, I don’t, I understand that not everyone has the time or gold to get the best gear. What I expect from someone I consider a “raider” is that they make a reasonable attempt to have appropriate gear, gems, and enchants. That they try to do the best they can for the level of dedication they can give to the game. It is after all, only a game, and people enjoy things differently.

In Conclusion

Hopefully I’ve helped someone out there, if in no other way than perhaps you’ll understand better what those ‘other’ people in your guild think like, or the other people in a group. I think many times those of us that do get into raiding often forget what it was like before we understood things the way we do now. We probably don’t remember the blissfully ignorant days of “Oh, look at that button, what’s that do?” So if you’re just learning, try and ask questions, we’ll try and answer them. Understand that some of us focus quite a bit, and don’t always remember that everyone else doesn’t. Understand that if we’re trying to beat a specific encounter, we may expect everyone to be focusing like we are, because that’s what’s needed for that level of content..

And hopefully, we’ll try and remember that not everyone looks at things the way we do as well. Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet in the middle and have some fun together as well, because, after all, isn’t that what games are about?