Arena Match & My Char's Facebook Status

Last night the Bits, Raithen, and I decided to do some 3v3.  Just a little feral/holy-pal/afflock.  We're not pushing for gladiator (yet) as Bits' lock just dinged 80 not too long ago, and frankly, I suck at the feral ness.  But we were playing and having a fairly good time, winning as many as we lost.  So our last match we're fighting, frost mage, hunter, holy pal.  The exact kill order eludes, but I'm pretty sure their mage went down first, followed swiftly by the Bits.  Raithen is able to rez the Bits, who dies almost immediatley again, meanwhile having our pali dumping mana into him.  Now their pally is rezzes the mage (That's my bad, I tried to get to him in time, but failed.)  So I kill him again after stopping his evocate.  Well we play around with the hunter and I attacking each other, neither of us really doing much damage.  Both our pally's are gaining mana without having to drink.  I'm hopping around in bear form as we try and distract them for the rez again.  But they're sticking to Raithen like flies on....well, you know.  I'm trying to peel them and then realize, wait.  I have a rez too amiright?!  So I run away, hide behind a pillar and REZ MY FALLEN COMRADE!!  Hunter realizes what is going on just a smidge too late for him.  Bits comes up, stays alive, we finish off hunter and then pally, ya ya ya! USA! USA!

We decided that was a good one to stop on.

I armoried myself cause I was bored this morning and oh wow they updated the armory!  There's Karial staring at me in 3 EFFING D.  Not only that but I can put him in different poses??  and HOLYCOWWTFOMG he's got "recent activity"  Pretty soon I'll have to update his status and let it tweet out to the world.

"Karial would rather be in an arena right now"

Yeesh, we're getting closer to a live feed where people can watch my char's every move.  A lot of people are going to wonder why I spend so much time naked with Bits and Raithen in the Howling Fjord.

Karial: "Ok, you jump in the icy water first"
Bits: "NO! You won't do it, YOU go first."
Raithen: "Fine, fine, fine.  We'll all go on 3."

How do you learn to arena?

Obviously the answer is to play arena matches right? Well not really I've actually found this to be one of the worst ways to introduce an arena virgin into the wonderful (and fucking painful) world of arenas.

Stream of Consciousness

So after the long Holiday season, lots of traveling, and not a lot of WoW. I'm BACK!

So the Bits has a warlock now that he's gearing up, which means lots of heroic runs. Problem 1: He is the tank for our groups of insta-queue. Which means we needed to find another one. Raithen's response about asking if his Pally would/could tank. "Umm, I threw away/vendored all my tanking gear" Alright then, I've got a feral spec. Maybe not (even close to) the greatest, but could be fun.

In hindsight I'm dumb

I've played WoW since about a month after it came out. I've played a lot of RPGs in my time and am decently experienced with the genre. Occasionally I make the mistake of thinking I am actually pretty decent at the game, and then I immediately get murdered by someone better (or someone smart enough to play a class that can stomp on my face). Once I get to the state of thinking I'm halfway decent I begin to want to play with others that are also pretty good. This is true both for the world of arenacraft as well as killing large dragons.

My Thoughts on LFG System

So I've been reading a lot of blogs about the new LFG System. To me it seems as if people are having just as many mixed responses about it as ANY change implemented in this game. Some people have had terrible people in greens/blues/epics doing sub 1k DPS others have had 0 problems. I fall into the latter category. I've played through and had a pretty good time on every instance I've played in. Honestly I don't even think I've checked anyone's gear to see if it was good bad or in between. I've looked at my tanks health to see how much he has and I will base my "Time in Tree Form" accordingly. I still have yet to find the my low barrier to how much health means I shouldn't be hopping (necessary) about in caster form AMG MOONFIRE!!!, so I guess I've had good groups?

Sometimes I feel like Ron Popeil Yelling "Set it and forget it!" after giving the tank rejuv and regrowth. If it got dicey I had tranquility, and a battle rez.

I would complain about having to run with under geared people...but that would be hypocritical. I leveled to 80 when AV was ez-mode from 71 on. That's right I'm one of the proud leeches who took my afk marks and xp all the way. I did not do a SINGLE non-heroic 5 man in WotLK. I still don't think I have. Needless to say, I may not have been in full greens, but the blues (and greens for that matter) that I was wearing were from Outlands. MAYBE Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra.

I wish I could find the post in the wow forums I read about PuG's. Basically said that PuGs will find any and every way to test you, as DPS, Healer, or Tank. They will come up with the stupidest stuff to do. So think of it as a challenge. If you're only able to complete a heroic with a tank with 50k life and a healer with 3k spellpower...who's carrying whom?

I got carried, I still get carried. If someone wants to freeload off me, I'd feel flattered. It hasn't been a problem for me yet. If it becomes one? Well I'll cross that bridge when I find it.

Happy Holidays

Rogue Origins

I dedicate this post to Tooth. If there was ever someone that motivated me to hate horde it was that motherfucker. He was one of those motivated (defined in this particular instance as someone who did nothing besides play wow) individuals who hit 60 before I even bought the game. This was back in the day when leveling was significantly harder than it is now. Getting to 60 was further hindered by the fact that you would get unmercilessly griefed by horde whenever you tried to quest. This dude was a 60 troll rogue back when I didn't understand what aggro was and was trying to use fade to run closer to mobs so they wouldn't attack me and I could sneak by. He had some stupid dagger that at that time was probably the best non epic in the game (keep in mind epics at this time were rare in the way lottery winners are rare, I mean you've heard of people winning but never seen it happen). So there I am happily flying on the flightpath to Southshore in my horrible holy / shadow build. At this point I was used to Diablo 2 talents which give you new powerful spells that rock face, where as talents in WoW at this point vaguely enhance your existing abilities. I land and before the zone even fully loads I'm dead on the ground due to something called Ambush. This guy was nothing if not efficient he didn't even bother moving after he killed me he just restealthed and sat there waiting for his next victim. I ran back to get my body thinking I will run to the guards they will protect me! I rez and start hopping away, and suddenly get brutally ambushed again. This time he didn't crit and I lived long enough cast a shield, which his backstab immediately destroyed along with my remaining life. Then I got my first chance to see what emotes are. He spat on my body (so sorry being level 32 offended you) and then I got to see another first - the troll dance. Of all the dances in WoW the troll dance is obviously the "coolest" if you can consider anything in WoW hip. At this particular moment I was not quite in the mood to appreciate it. Where are the guards why aren't they killing him! My third rez I discovered if you are noob enough to die quickly in sucession you have to wait to rez. This time I ran into the town hall where the number of guards was overwhelming. They will protect me I told myself. They have shiny armor and swords and there are a lot of them! In the town hall I found another victim huddling praying for safety. He managed to squeak out "lookout there is a rogue ganking!" right before said rogue floored him right in front of me. My natural fear was tempered as the guards immediately responded and lept upon him with the full fury of Stormwind. The full fury of stormwind however was no match for this wily individual. He popped sprint (although at this point my only thought was FUCK HE'S MOVING FASTER WHY CAN HE DO THAT) and hopped over and finished me off. He then disappeared (little did I know this was the 1 time in WoW that vanish would actually work). Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Murder me three fucking times in a row I do the only thing possible. I immediately logged out, contemplated throwing my keyboard - resisted, and created a rogue.

My priest sat badly neglected, indeed I don't think I logged on him again until long after my 60 gnome rogue was completed. I was not alone in my frustrations as 3 other friends created rogues at the same time as me. Our little gonmes names were creatively Bippity, Boppity, and Bu (Boo was taken, and no for the thousandth time I don't watch DBZ stop whispering me about how awesome it is). My friends had not been systematically destroyed by Tooth so their dedication ran out at about level 14 (which is too bad because we would have been a hilarious ganking team) but I didn't pause. I got to 60 and on the way I murdered everyone I was remotely capable of killing. If you were horde and you helped me with an escort quest I would reward you at the end by ruthlessly slaying you and camping you for an hour. If you were higher level than me I would call in reinforcments. There was nothing fair about my hatred, it was all consuming and if it took 5 level 45s to drag a 60 down, so be it. If the fight went against me I used 1 of the hundred tricks rogues have to get away and then I plotted and schemed until you showed weakness.

My favorite zone to this day has to be the western plaguelands. This was with out a doubt the best place to world pvp as newly minted level 60s would head out to Stratholme as that was THE instance to be in to get gear. To do this horde needed to ride from safety in Tirisfal Glades out through the bulwark. The bulwark was a gate with a road leading through it. This road had hills and trees to the side of it and was in short the perfect place to launch an ambush. Me and a few rogue buddies would chill to the side of the road with a hunter shadowmelded as well. We would then have our paladin friend sit tauntingly in the middle of the road. Our grasp of slowing mechanisms and cc that could dismount enemies was vague at best so we relied partially on the horde stopping to engage this lonely paladin. The moment we saw enemies vent would rise to a fever pitch desperately calling out classes and levels of the enemies riding through the gap. Cheap shots ambushes aimed shots hammers of justice all used with desperate abandon. We didn't have any of that girly resilience and healing was for people who weren't smart enough to roll dps classes. Zerg or be zerged. The fury of battle without skill (god we were awful). The thrill of victory was usually ours, and then we would fight a running guerilla engagement because horde were very well organized on Burning Legion and poking one disturbed the bee hive. We ride into the hills trying to circle around and pick of our pursuers one by one, but inevitably this led to a huge pitched battle that only occasionally went our way. Now outnumbered, we struggled to get off rezes and remount and regroup. Honestly in all my WoW time nothing was more fun. Eventually we met more people and added to our guild. My brother played horde on the same server and he told us our guild was hated (not feared horde are too comptent for that) but at least hated. Our incursions into horde territory began. The zepplin tower was our new home. We would strike at people getting on or off the Undercity zepplin and eventually the Undercity itself would stir. Waves of horde would come out to engage us, with a key advantage. Their graveyard was WAY closer than ours.

Time went by and people started raiding dungeons more and my rogue was sadly not needed. The guild master and a few other were rogues and there were a lot of them on the server. We needed healers and tanks, there was none of this dual spec opportunities. So our pvp group shifted focus and began raiding. I picked my priest back up and quickly finished him off becoming the healer officer. We entered the leviathan now known as molten bore and had our triumphs and disasters. This was fun, this gave us epics, but it wasn't quite the same as the old world pvp. I got my first piece of prophecy - indeed the first epic our guild got were the bindings of prophecy. More time went by and occasionally we'd go back to the bulwark but it was never the same. PvP was now dominated by the guilds that were tearing through Molten Core and was centered in Blackrock Mountain. My rogue was now outgeared and outclassed as horde shamans and warriors with shiny epic weapons could kneel on my face. My priest was well geared and could heal my friends but keeping someone alive while they put a sword through a horde skull just isn't the same as personally getting the blood on your hands.

So when I kill you even though you are 20 levels lower than me. When I camp you for an hour and then slaughter your main that comes to teach me a lesson. When I attack you to 5% health and let the mob you were attacking kill you so you take durability - don't blame me. Blame Tooth. I certainly do, although now I'm glad he did it because it made me start a rogue and it made me love the fierce joy of killing people who can't defend themselves. Yes I arena and battleground and do all those things blizzard wants me to do to get gear. I even raid on my rogue to gain a slight advantage, but its the moments where I kill ten noobs and then pick off their mains one by one that I live for. These moments keep me playing WoW, and I treasure them.

I Think I Started Raiding Again...

Our guild (like many others I am sure) has had problems keeping members, especially during the pre-patch lull everyone was experiencing. With this we've had players come and go in every which way. Some people went to different guilds, some quit the game, some did both, some just stopped raiding, or any other number of things. I quit playing before WotLK came out and probably started again about 6 months or so ago, but did not get back into raiding as I don't usually enjoy using the limited evening time I have at home in one instance regardless of what it is. As Raithen or Naughty will let you know, I ADD out quickly. For the past month or so I've come to a few raids the guild did if they were short a healer. For the most part healing in full PvP gear, I wasn't great at it, I won't lie. But they weren't expecting too much from me and were great about offering tips/suggestions as opposed to telling me I suck and that my furious gear has resil gems in it instead of SP. So that was enjoyable.

So Naughty got promoted to officer the other day and IMed me yesterday asking if I would raid that night. Well he'll be raiding all night, as would Raithen, so I figured I might as well go with them as they're two of the main reasons I play this game. I went, messed up on first boss (stood in the fire...awkward.) As someone pointed out, there's been fire you shouldn't stand in since vanilla. Touche sir, but this fire was MOVING! And it blends in the with the floor and stuff. Anyways, Mr Marrow goes all bone tornado and I swear decides he will follow me forever. So I finally juke him and am dutifully about to nourish someone who I had cleverly pre-hotted...Why am I standing next to a bear? Wait...that means.. Naughty informs me about this time on vent that where I am currently is not the place he'd prefer me to be. "Yessir, just let me finish casti..." *Dead*

Oh you meant right meow.

After a wipe or two we had a nice little bit of drama/emorage from some people and an ensuing gquit. We refilled the raid (we had more than 25 people willing to raid!?!!?) I think we called in some favors, not sure. On at least one attempt we had some chain battle rezzes going on. (I think at one point we had..7? druids in the raid) *shrug* was fun. Anyways, we killed that guy, got some neat loots and went on our way. As we made some attempts on Miss Deathwhisper people were getting antsy I believe.

Which brings me to a problem we began to experience which as I read through others blogs I notice a LOT of people posting about.

Advice.

There's a time and a place for advice/ideas. New content is cool, and usually challenging, and unfamiliar. This means there is probably more than one way to do something. With 25 people in a raid you've got a lot of different personality's/experiences. Some people had tried these fights on the PTR, some had tried it since it had gone live on different toons. Some have absolutely no idea what's going on, but will still give you their opinion. I'm guilty of some of this as well. I make jokes in vent during fights, I have given my opinions on things to try. After reading a lot of these posts I found myself last night saying less in vent, and giving my opinions/thoughts to an officer and letting them decide if they want to voice that to the rest of the raid or not. I think a problem a lot of people run into is the too many chiefs not enough indians issue. Maybe you think you know better than the raid leader what's going on. Maybe you DO know what's going on better than the raid leader. Either way, as Ky said in his post, unless you're the raid leader it's not your job to decide the strategy. Make suggestions sure, but maybe in a tell, or only when asked for your opinion.

All in all a fairly fun night of raiding. We ran some heroics afterwards that were pretty funny. I enjoy heroics with a group I know well because we don't usually take it seriously. Any instance I'm playing where I feel my innervate is best used on the pally tank is usually pretty enjoyable. I think these groups teach me to be bad. All 5 of us are hunkered down in the soup and just healing/dpsing through it.