Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bout time!

Allow me to show praise and get the word out that its about time Blizz recognized this person. He is a good guy, does tons for the community and lets face it, some of us tanks would be lost without his "thing" he does.

The only thing missing is a cool lil tag at the bottom stating his moniker he has been given on Maintankadin which he is "bringer of pounding headaches" but luckily he is brilliant enough to put a TL; DR in each section to allow the "rest of us" to understand all that crazy math. Thank you Theck, for always giving us your best, the Paladin community would be far behind without you and you have always taken time to answer my questions with class! People like you make this game better.
[Theck's Emberseal]

My Absence -

While all the blogs are talking about the new HS mechanic and the changes in the spec, I'm sidelined with an ailing computer and a bruised ego, only slightly thou. My guild is raiding without me and while the get their feet wet I'm stuck listening on vent on my laptop. I'd love to be there dying with them, killing trash and planning strats. I'm a few weeks from being back operational so not only will I be behind in gear but I'll be the new tank again. I'm grateful that I'm in a causal guild at times like these. While I haven't been on alot with my computer being down, I'm not in raider status right now so I have the cold shoulder turned to me, ever so slightly. Time will tell.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Contract

Are you really wearing that?
Now, we have all run across these people, we seen them in PUGs or the LFD system. The clueless, the misinformed, the lazy. Some of us take pride in our toons, as much pride as we would in ourselves, I mean why wouldn't you? We spend hours playing the toon, putting our personality on a pixel. Don't we? Every time we step into a 5 man LFD or PUG raid, people look at our gear, choices and spec to make judgements about us. Rightfully so, this toon we play tells alot about us and its all our mates playing with us know.

The inspection -
When we enter LFD people are inspecting you. Looking to see if you are a good player. Who are they to judge on how we play by the loot we have, gems we use of enchant we put on? In essence there is an accepted way to play this game. If you gear isn't right, the reforging is bad or you say wear spirit on a DK, this is the only know way we have to tell if they can find their as with both their hands. This would be no different than going to a job interview in coveralls or try to put out a house fire with polyester pants on. Neither one is going to make you very successful.

D-Bags and gear snobs aside, when we enter the LFD or a PUG we in a way enter into a social contract that states we know how to play, and we won't be an anchor to the system. Far to often people who que don't hold up to their end of the contract. The ill's of the LFD aren't part of this post, I don't think I have enough room or time to get into that.

The Clueless -
Probably the easiest to help of the offenders. A simple tell stating where to look for help or a nudge that mastery might be better than crit and they are on their way to being a better player. Often times these are people that are newer to the game or have a very controlling class lead in the guild. There is a fine line between the clueless and the misinformed.

The Misinformed -
This is the player that will snap at you if you try to help or ask "why did you chose X over Y"? This is the person who "knows it all" yet still does it wrong. For the most part in my book these are the worst players. They do it wrong. They do it bad and won't take advice. Its clear where ever they get their info it holds them back. I'm not condoning have an EPEEN discussion in a pug but if they are doing it wrong and you think you can help, give it a shot. This is in general the play that will disrupt the group and let everyone know just how much they know, even thou they do just about everything wrong.

The Lazy -
This is the one that drives everyone nuts. They don't even care to gem, let alone bother getting hit capped. This is usually an alt, farmer or part time player. These are the people who will wear the PVP trinket and brag about the ilvl they have. This is an unsat toon. Its far worse than the clueless, they don't know any better, the lazy just won't do it. They feel they can get carried and of the above two mentioned this is the biggest reason groups argue or are dysfunctional. They don't pull their weight and don't care.

Every time we enter the LFD or pug we will not be at our best. Not everyone who plays this game is PRO or 'leet. But I think you at least need to have an idea of how to play your class and gear/gem/enchant them. You have 4 other people who are with you counting on you to do your job. This is that social contract you sign up for by que'n. No one is asking for all epics or BiS to do your daily but at least don't step into something you cheated the system on by buying PVP gear off the AH or throwing you healy spec'd trinket in to DPS a pug.

TL; DR
We owe it to try hard and gear correctly. There is no excuse for doing a run with others and expecting that they carry you or cover for your ineptness in spec/gear choices. As in society we owe it to uphold the contract of the norm while playing with others. Expect a vote kick or heckling if you are Lazy, Misinformed or Clueless.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Top 100!

Kind of a BIG deal!

The duality of this post is crazy! This my friends, this is my 100th post and I also wanted to brag a tad about something I set out to do.


Goals are different for everyone in this game. This was the kind of goal that you can work at and not hope for, like say...a piece of loot dropping from a boss. I'm not sure why I wanted to try and get ranked, maybe boredom, but I wanted to try this.

I did some looking and seen what kind of DPS I needed to pull and I was very...very close already. I put in a hit trinket, switched a glyph and added some expertise. There is no secret on what we need to do for damage output. At one point I was at 14.8K DPS but things got a tad hectic at the end and I needed to pop CD's.


A few things I noticed while doing this fight in a pure pure selfish way, when it comes to ONLY worrying about numbers.things seemed off and  I didn't like tanking this way, hell I didn't even like the feeling after the kill was complete. I won't lie, I'm slightly happy I accomplished my goal but I felt selfish. Here is what I noticed; My health meter was low ALOT! I became much more tunnel visioned, I only knew what I was doing and didn't have a firm grasp of the raids position. I never worried about WoG on anyone and my CD usage was delayed to say the least, it wasn't proactive. Would I do this again? Probably not, it wasn't fulfilling, that's just my opinion. (Source)

Personal -

Life has been crazy and hectic and I don't want it any other way. I'm helping coach my kids softball team and my son is playing T-ball for the first time. The sun is out and I think....SUMMER is finally here. These days and times make me me happy I'm in a casual yet competent guild.
If posting is erratic and a tad small on the content side, hang in there with me. The rest of my world is getting my attention.