The reason LFR has issues!

People like the person I seen below!
The Scroll of resurrection raises its ugly head in a terrible way for many playing the game currently. Zones that are crowded, players not knowing their class but this is a totally special beast.

TBC prot pally tanking is not gone!
Welcome to WoW Vulgatron. Players like you are really the bad in this game. I can handle those who really don't know how to play their class, those who don't care and go ungemmed/enchanted, those who are running with friends and alts to gear up a main. But this kind of person and toon is really the worst.

You can tell this person has a tad of knowledge about the game I'm going to bet they have multiple toons, in fact I bet they have several toons on a few accounts. Or this wouldn't be a SoR type toon.

But looking over this guy, I see so much bad going on and it isn't because of lack of knowledge. Its because they don't want to go the correct route and play the game as designed.

In TBC prot pally's used Int for threat, its apparent this guy still thinks that is the case or maybe someone is feeding him bad info. My guess, is it is neither. My guess is he is trying to circumvent the system and get a higher ilvl to play in the better gear giving dungeons.

Can you image having this guy join your 5 man or LFR? This is the nightmare that everyone discusses so passionately on forums and community sites.

If I were to talk to this fella, I'd advise him on his spec, the fact that Resilience is not a tanking stat and that Int and spirit are no goes for pally tanking. On top of that pieces he is buying or using are obviously not meant for tanking. The bad part is, people like this would never listen and it would be a shouting match and then turn to a pissing contest. These are the know it alls that would blast you for a wipe in 5 man for doing anything remotely close to this.

Gratz to you Vulgatron, you make the GHoF for being a pure douche and gearing a prot pally with [Pauldrons of Conviction], [Vicious Pyrium Legguards] and [Cresent Moon] Clearly all tanking gear or NOT!

You might ask why I post or care about something like this? As the games community detoraites into the anonimity of the internet, people like this are the ones who cause the most trouble while running with them, or are to ungeared to help a subpar group succeed and its only out of pure greed.

Have you seen anyone this bad from SoR yet?

Prior to the Mist.

I can feel the end near! Oh, no no, not of me playing the game. Right now it is an amazing time killer and something I can just get away from my reality and well, I guess that is what a game is supposed to be, right?

I am not tanking anything right now, maybe only multiple mobs but not 5 mans and no raids. That time has come to pass for me. I'm to busy.

I do however want to see what MoP holds. So I have made a few goals I want to accomplish before MoP hits.

• #1 goal is to hit 85 with my Druid and Warrior. This is going to take some time with my Druid, he's only 40.
• Make GOLD! Lots of GOLD. Not sure where I want to total I want but I know I want to go into MoP and not have worries about gold.
• Have my Warrior to be max Blacksmith level.
• Have my Dwarf Pally hit 85 (currently 83).
• Get exalted with my Human Pally in its guild so I can get the mount.

Just a few things I'd like to do with my toons prior to MoP hitting. What do you have plans for? Do you plan to keep playing the same main?

I'd love to hear others plans.

The 1% club!

A few weeks back I posted a blog about a hunter soloing Algalon in 10 man. A few days after that MMO-Champion put up the numbers of who had completed and how low the total toon count that had actually cleared this fight in 10 and 25 man. I was pretty shocked to see it so low. This still is and will always (probably) be my greatest achievement I've done in game. Graph below shows more info.
(Source)

The reason it is so special to me is I put the run together, did this with a casual group of people who didn't live on the game, it was still a pretty relevant fight at the time (we were only the 7th group on our server to kill him) and none of us were over geared for it. Our GS was around the 240 range. None of us had heroic ToC gear. On top of that we did it the first night we faced him, last time we pulled.

This was a memorable fight, most of the people don't play the game any longer but of SWC rocked this fight and became 1% ers.

Any memorable fights you've got stored in the memory bank?

I AM IRON MAN!

Not really, nor do I intend to sign up for this challenge. Below are the rules for this contest (source) and they seem pretty steep. It really shoots at the hard core crowd wanting a challenge and allows those who don't want the end game to be everything.

Not sure if there is an official title, price or achievement. This seems like something that will keep you involved and make you work hard to finish and it won't be easy.

There is a huge thread if you click the source link up above, I'm sure like most WOW threads, there is plenty of bickering and nit wits placing their two cents in a conversation. It does however seem that there will be lots of people giving this a go to start with.

ENJOY THIS!

RULES below:

Players across Azeroth have recently embraced a new, very personal achievement: leveling a character "Iron Man" style. What started out as only a small movement, this bare bones, no-frills style of play has now transformed into a community-wide call-to-arms known as the Iron Man WoW Challenge, inviting World of Warcraft enthusiasts to see how close they can get to level cap with only the barest of necessities.
The goal of the Iron Man WoW challenge is simple: level from 1 to 85. The catch, however, is that you must accomplish this task without the assistance of talents, class specialization, stat-improved gear, professions, buffs, item enhancements, or other players. And if you die? Well, then it’s back to square one.
Here are some of the latest rules:

1. All gear employed must be White or Grey. Also, no Heirlooms of any sort.
2. No transfer of gear, items, or money from any other character (yours or others).
3. No gear enhancement(s), thus no socketed gems, enchanting or reforging. Exceptions exist for class abilities (example: rogue poisons).
4. No specializations, talent points, or glyphs. This restriction also applies to talent points for pets.
5. No professions or secondary skills. An exception is made for First Aid.
6. No potions/flasks/elixirs (except those labeled as quest Items).
7. No food buffs or other external buffs (this includes buffs from items and other players).
8. No grouping or assistance from other characters, even if not grouped.
9. No dungeons/raids. No battlegrounds/arenas.
10. No guilds. An exception is made for Iron Man guilds. No guild perks.
11. No Recruit-A- Friend activities. The intention of the challenge is that it be done without assistance.
12. No add-ons that assist in combat and/or leveling.
13. THE BIG ONE: No deaths. Character death for any reason disqualifies the character.

Permitted:
- All mounts
- All bags/containers
- All quests (including holiday and daily quests)
- You may train and use all your class skills (including your own buffs)

Interested? Awesome! To sign-up for the Iron Man WoW Challenge and discuss your progress with fellow participants (once you get started), head on over to the official forums. Additional rules and details can also be found on the unofficial Iron Man WoW website, hosted and moderated by players like you.

Hunter SOLO's Algalon!

I love my Starcaller title, it is bar non my favorite title I earned. My guild did it when it was still pretty relevant, in fact we were the 6th guild on server to do it. Yes, ICC was out but just barely. We didn't have ICC heroic gear. We rocked Ulduar hard modes in one night and went back to Algalon the next week. We set up a plan on how to do it, I was to second tank him. Out other tank who had a great DPS set ended up second tanking him and I 3rd healed. We spent the entire hour, pulled our last time with 7 minutes on the clock and killed him in ONE night. We were so excited and amazed. I was a great fight, one of the best I've ever been a part of.

So I want to send out a big BIG congrats to the hunter 5 tiers did something I never thought could be done! Amazing job man! Here is the link and the video...

Still around

Not a ton to say as I haven't been playing much. In fact I haven't played at all. I'm logging in as I type this to check on things and run some daillies. I'm still around.

I heard rumor that a new patch is launching this week. I guess I have to do some look as to whats new there.

Life has been crazy, school started and I have a huge milestone birthday. Life has been busy.

Introducing the GHoF!

A call to ARMS: Hello my fellow bloggers, I'm asking for your help, I'm looking to all of you to call out the very worst you see in this game.

This is not in a tattle fashion, not in a media way, not everyone who irritates you just a tad but...I'm talking about the worst of the worst. We all have posts about them, but with LFR and LFG putting an even bigger whole in the whole "community" of realms people act horrible, more horrible than they ever did before because there is no way to cal them out. Well, as bloggers, we get a few hits everyday and its just a few more people to see how GROSS the players have become and I see its only getting worse.

Asshats are ruining this game. We have a platform to let other know about it. Lets make a resolution to give a very brief and very special hello in written words to those who are so deserving of YOUR Gross Hall of Fame award.
If you look towards the top you will see the GHoF, click on it to read all about it. If you send me an email I will also add your GHoF winners to the page as well. judgingchaseyghof@gmail.com

My 1st inductee:
Endboss  - SKULLCRUSHER - My 1st LFR inductee. A very special kind of raider. I entered LFR after a boss kill. As soon as I arrived this guys is lighting up the screen. He was hammering the raids DPS. The boss was pulled and even during the fight, instead of healing he was sending out raid warnings telling others how bad they were doing. We went to the Spine fight, he told everyone he was kicking them if they didn't do a certain DPS. We one shotted Spine, but honestly it was low DPS. As we arrived to the Deathwing fight, all he did was complain, 4 people were put up to kick and none passed. He told everyone he wasn't going to waste his time and wipe over and over on this boss. Our DPS was to low and how bad everyone in the LFR sucked.

I had enough, I wispered him. "Listen man, its LFR give it a break. This isn't hard, lets give it a go and calm it a bit" His response "f&ck you baddie, I'm not wasting time with you f&cking suck ass players, you don't deserve to raid with me". In raid chat he said I'm leaving as soon as we get enough. He wispered me, "people like you are the reason this game is bad, how can you pull 18k on boss?" Me the bad one? He has people leaving the raid left and right. My DPS was slightly low but Spine on a lap top is a horrid fight. By the time I targeted an ooze, it was dead. My DPS was not even close to the lowest. He starts yelling (chat)  "Lets boot Chasey and a hunter in the raid for low DPS."

He did one of the most gross things I've ever seen, we filled up the rest of the raid. He talked to Thrall while we were buffing. He said a few choice words and he left group. We weren't quite ready but we were fighting.

We one shot Deathwing! Even with all that 'low' DPS and bad players, in spite of NINJA pulling we got him. Here was a shot even with all that low DPS. BTW I was 6th in DPS behind only rogues and DK's. Not bad for my DPS gear.


I did something I never do, he made me so mad I rolled a toon on his server and simply sent him 3 tells, "Thanks for the Ninja pull, that Ret Pally that was so bad you wanted to kick was highest non Rogue/DK in the raid and just so you know" "BTW We one shot DW" "You sir are everything that is wrong with this game, you make LFR/LFG unbearable and in general make the better people not want to play."

Gratz Endboss you are the 1st LFR Gross Hall of Fame entry.

The Year that Was, 2011.

Paladins -
Kind of a lack luster year for Pally's in general. We didn't get the big nerf, nor did we get a buff. All in all we got more nerfs than buffs but really we hold strong where we started the year, as a very viable tank who isn't a "face roll" (all tanking is kinda) and we aren't so strong that everyone wants only Pally's.

Blizz did take our walking heal away from the prot and ret tree's making WoG a 20 second cooldown. With this they also changed the way Holy Shield works, making it a slight cooldown and adding to the challenge for us to block cap. Ultimately Blizz didn't nerf any tanks Mastery which was good for all tanks. I think Mastery is pretty nice for all tanks currently.

The buff to threat was surely a head scratching moment! Why on earth would you buff threat making it a non factor in game? Oh, I know why, the game killer strikes again. LFG/LFR had long que's for tanks, people who join LFG forget what manners are and they berate the tank because they have attacked the mob prior to tanks saying hello. I wish there was a way Blizz could buff the player base's common sense instead of dumbing the game down.

What I would love for the new year is a quest line everyone must do prior to entering LFG/LFR - your class/spec must run an attunement chain before you can que for either. Not sure how they would do this but something along the lines of the elite bear quest in Grizzly Hills. That would much more of a help in knowing what your roll in a 5 man or raid is than ilvl.

Game / Patches -
We have seen far to much glitz and glamor in game, to much reused stuff and nerfing of content way before its time. Cata hasn't been a great expansion for many, you can see that in the lose of subscriptions and negative feedback.

FL, ZA and ZG came out with a puff... I can't speak to the quality of the raid for FL, I've yet to walk into it and I never will...EVER! It put a halt to my days of raiding, well that and my computer.

ZA and ZG made a return to the floods of tear from everywhere, those that were geared enough knocked it out easy and told those who weren't geared they were bad for not having fun spending hours trying to finish it. I really liked ZA being back. I loved the original and for a brief while it felt like we were back in TBC.
The Troll heroics got old FAST and Blizz is putting out a poor business model, over promising and under delivering. Its supposed to be the other way around right?

Deathwing released and with it, they brought out three new 5 mans, a new raid and epic gems and patterns....oh, and one thing I forgot, a little thing called LFR. Looking For Raid, a puggable version...oh hell, you all know what it is, problem is no one knew what to expect. I don't think anyone thought you could walk in, push few macros and watch the raiders complain about everything and watch bosses fall. Its what we wanted, and its what we got. I didn't mention the loot, yes the loot.

The loot mechanic that was so poorly set up, it took a few of the top guilds down because they were allowed to roll on it. That is almost understandable, things happen. If the game allows you to do it, why not, right? Well the really nasty issue came when the ilvl greed bore its ugly head, you had classes rolling on weapons, just because it had a higher ilvl and they "could".

Blizz spilled the beans -
Now they are on MoP up duty, did you see what I did there?
At Blizzcon we all got to see the future of the game. A revised talent system, Monks and Pandarian as playable toons and the Far East theme.

My feelings on this? It is one thing I'm optimistic about with the game. So far, Cata  has missed the mark, or wait, let me rephrase that, Blizz keeps moving the mark on what the game should be. I do want to see the new zones, how the Monk works with the support and how many versions of "Sadpanda" run around zones or PVP.

2011 as a whole was a turning point, not only me but how I view the game. Now really, its a time sink that allows me to spend some time remembering the history I have with the game. I go quest, do dailies and view what I've missed in the past always wanting to raid.

My last post was a question "am I opening a goodbye" I can't answer that right now, I can say it probably won't be because SWToR blew me away, which it hasn't. I can tell you what is moving me out faster than anything...the people. The community is gone, the friends I once had have moved, cancelled, or don't raid. I have 3 people on my friends list. This game is ugly, its a virtual bar fight any time you sit in a city. The boredom of people brings out the ugly, and the simple fact that people will talk shit to you, then ignore is way beyond fun any longer. There is ZERO accountability about your actions or disrespect in this game. Blizz took that away from us with the LFR/LFG. It used to be if someone was a bone head,  your realm knew that and would run with him. Now, you can play with anyone and will probably never see that person again, so hey...why not just act like a total tool?

My next post will be another LFR hall of fame addition.

Everyone have an amazing new year and enjoy your time in game!

Am I Opening a Goodbye?

This is going to be a slightly somber day for me today. After I post this up I'm going to be logging on to WoW to do my set of dailies for the FL mount and it might be the last time I log on. See today is Christmas and I'm going to open SWTOR and I can't wait.

Over this past year WoW has grown very boring and, well, I don't know maybe I've moved past the game.

I don't have a ton of time to invest in a video game lately, so I won't have the time to jump on both and I know me, I'll be leveling as fast as possible.

Hopefully MoP will bring me back full time, unless the primary word on SWTOR is wrong by what most say.

I will let everyone know as soon as I have it figured out but I do know this if I start a tank on SW, I'll blog about it too. I really enjoy doing this.

Happy holidays to everyone out there. I hope this day finds you healthy and happy and be safe out there for the New Year.

Thoughts on LFR and a pug experience.

My gear!

Above is a shot of my Tier 6 retro gear!

Last post I mentioned I hadn't got into the LFR system yet. A few hours later I jumped on, que'd up and gave it a go. This was literally 8 days after the LFR system opened up. I came in mid fight as a DPS and was in tank gear so I took off RF and put up my 9k dps (hey I tried, bad gear and lil vengeance doesn't equal good DPS in prot spec and gear). Down went the boss and I was thinking, I heard it was easy but wow. That was the final boss for the 1st part.

I que'd back up. Now sadly I'm on a lap top and it doesn't handle the 25's well as I learned in my first LFR.. So I went as DPS. We smoked the first group of bosses. The ease is amazing. My thoughts are that 5 mans are harder.

On to the DS, which I figured would be harder. Nope, in fact we wiped on the back of Deathwing and 7 people left saying this was a fail group and they don't group with bads. How did we wipe, no one listened to the 9 stacks the NPC must get or the tentacles spawn.

Of the 9 bosses I did in LFR (one twice) we wiped twice. Once because it seemed all the healers lagged on Hagarar. Deathwing was total FACEROLL and I did win the sword Gurthalak from ole deathy himself. I know I'm a tank but I was DPSing and that is my other spec. Every class that can use that can spec prot so I took a shot and won it. yay for me.

Pugging HoF-

I was chatting with a friend on RealID. He told me to come over and we could que up for the new 5mans on a DPS toon. I was excited because I don't like to que on my DPS, takes too long and I never get a good group. I was pretty happy that he was going to run me thru.

I went on my hunter Zumhug, I neglect him big time and his gear suffers for it. I waltzed into the new 5 mans in my broken MM spec and started doing 9k DPS on trash. The tank who was on vent told me it was a tad low but wait til a boss. Some how, some way ZIXIO a frost DK who was pulling a whopping 16k told me how bad I was and my DPS was to low to be in "this stuff".

Now in my defense (and excuses) I was low; my gear was bad, I think it was ilvl 351 and I'm playing on a laptop where I don't have use of my key binds and my bar add-on which leaves me on stock UI which is a bit clunky.

Our 1st boss was Jania, I went all out and since I was in vent with the tank I head a heads up on when it was going to start. I put everything I had into it. I pop'd cooldowns and tryed not to let a global pass, to my dismay, I hit a horrid 12k. Oh my I didn't hear the end of it. Then they started on my gear. My poor hunter got a beaten. I do have the rogue/druid agi trinket (Unheeded Warning) which isn't bad, it has nice Agi on it and well, I'm not raiding with this toon.

Since Zixio was a frost DK he did a pretty decent amout of damage and the the Rogue just smashed the charts. I was feeling shame and I heard over and over how bad I was at this game, I was a kid and it was my kind of player who was ruining the game for good people like him.

My response was, you are a DK and you think your DPS is good. It takes skill to play a frost DK and do good damage, am I correct in that?

Anyway, the last boss in our 5 man dropped the Agi and the healer (shammy) rolled and won it. Before leaving he ad sure to tell me my 17k on that boss was pathetic and left.

I won a few peices, bougth a trinket and paid for the crafted xbow. I hate being bad. On my next go round in those 5 mans, I hit about 20k on bosses and felt better.

My lord are people in LFG nasty. What a community wrecker.