A Ruling Class

So I have been Pugging a lot recently. Its really nice to be playing a healer again because I don't even have to join LFG and I have people whispering me. I was asked on 5 separate occasions last night to heal an instance, sadly I am questing and not up for dealing with Pugged blood DK "tanks." Trust me, a blood DK is not a tank. Anyway, regardless of that I decided I needed to lay down rules for Pugging. I know that I have seen a post on this before and there will be many similar posts to come, but I'm going to do it anyway. Deal

1.Play your class
One of the things that annoys me most is people who decide that because they are wearing plate they are a tank. This couldn't be further from the truth. If I was sitting in LFG claiming I was a healer when I was specced for something different people would get annoyed, and yet somehow the tanks are immune to this. I have a theory that this is because the healers job is to make up for the poor tanking abilities and since they are the only one who could really say, "Hey guys, this is a good tank, he hardly takes damage," they are the ones who mainly complain about bad tanks. Its not because we're whiners, its because if we spam heals for the entire instance you will be waiting for us to drink a lot.
I have a different set of standards for dps. If you are dps I don't care what your spec looks like. I know the differences between leveling specs and raiding specs, and I'm fine with you having better mana regen for less dps. My qualifications for dps is that you are doing more damage than our tank, unless hes a Death Knight.

2.Let the tank, tank.
This is best alleviated by something that I call the three second rule. When the mobs notice the tank is not the time to attack. Wait until they get in melee range and strike the tank, then count to three. THEN you will be able to dump every cooldown you could possibly imagine. If you have the right tank (specced correctly) you will not be able to pull off of them, and the group will survive longer because of it.

3.Don't Stand in the Shiny Shit
Honestly, You don't have to know anything about the instance. If fire starts raining from the sky, or a large hole opens on the ground underneath you your best bet is to get the heck out. Don't finish your spell rotation. Get out. If you are not the tank or healer then you will not be a priority on getting healed so get out and your heal will come in a timely manner. With all of the bosses that do more and more AoE damage the healer will see you are in trouble and be able to address it as soon as the tank is stable.

4.Run back
When you wipe it is no one's job but yours to get yourself back to life. If someone has a Soulstone fine, stay there. But in my experience even if we have a warlock I have to beg them for one (something about how they are out of weed and no one else can be stoned if they aren't, I dunno). It only makes everyone's day longer if you choose to go afk and get something to drink on a wipe. You are wasting everyone's time and no one likes you.

5.Don't ask for something, Don't make anyone ask for something.
If you have a buff that you bring to the fight, buff it. Don't make me ask for it. For things like which pali buff you want its okay to request something different, just know that your getting the cheepy. Don't come to a raid and ask if anyone has water. This if fine if we are just hitting the stone to summon, or someone had to pop by town to do something, have them pick you some up and pay them for it. But when we are in the instance buffed and ready to go is not the time to ask for water. I carry between 20-100 drinks on me at all times and I don't share. Go get your own.

So those are my top 5 rules for Pugging. Surprisingly they are almost the same rules for a raid too. I hope I'm not crazy in assuming that people can handle those rules. Give me some feedback. Do I ask too much? Is this hard for people to do? Do cats actually lol?

Power Word: WTF

So a while back I posted how I wanted to kill PUGs altogether. I wanted to make sure I never had to deal with terrible players ever again. Well guess what! Last night I fell for that shit again.

-asshat "wanna heal Drak'tharon"
-unassuming moron "sure, give me a sec and I'll be right there"
-unassuming moron "I just got dual spec, so you are all in luck"
-asshat 2 "Great, this should be cake then"

btw, im the unassuming moron

So if any of you have been in there, you know there are void zones. Large holes of death in the ground that are almost impossible to NOT see. Somehow asshat 2 managed to tank an entire pull inside of the void zone and then bitched at me when I asked him to wait for mana. Now I can take some criticism, but overly bitchy and I get kinda pissy, I can accept that but he might have deserved it so there.

-unassuming moron "Don't complain, I just kept your ass up in a void zone. use your head next pull and we will all be happier."
-asshat 2 "shut up and heal dumbass"

I decided to drop it. On the fourth pull in you have a pull of four mobs, I was having trouble healing with default UI because the text numbers was still on my screen, I asked for a second to turn them off. asshat 2 pulls. I try to save him from my menu screen, but he dies all the same. That's fine, maybe he didn't see it. We had a second death knight in the group, he picked up tanking, i start healing him... then i notice asshat 1 running past me. a warlock who is running out of the instance. one of our other puggers then falters and follows him. with mobs trailing. they hit the door and the improv tank and I die trying to recover.

I have no soulstone, and I'm the only person with rez... shouldn't I be the only person with the option to run out, but the pull wasn't lost.

-unassuming moron "dude, what the heck, we still had that pull, don't run out like a douche."
-asshat 1 "f*** off d***"
*Unassuming moron has left the group
-w- asshat 1 "We don't need some shitty prick priest anyway, F*** YOU"
*asshat 1 is being ignored
-w- asshat 2 "YOU STUPID...(this continued for about three lines, but I forgot what it was and really doesn't matter)"
*asshat 2 is being ignored

here is the best part. I don't know the other two Puggers that we were grouped with, but one I have pugged with a lot recently. He whispered me a few minutes later asking if I wanted to heal again. I said sure, but I get to bring the tank. Ark to the rescue. My arena partner brought his pali tank, took almost no damage the whole fight, we accidentally pulled a boss before we meant to and still we ended the instance with no deaths.

The guy I have pugged with before said great job heals, sorry for what I got you in to earlier.

I like this server. Jerks get ignored, the good are victorious, and order is restored to the world. Just to be clear, I still hate pugs. Maybe I will put up my rules for Pugging later... look for that tomorrow.

*****
To clarify my edits, I am fine with the word ass, but anything past that I have decided to keep out... just to at least pretend this is family friendly. I don't think I have had any language up to this point, but I'm trying to keep it down to a minimum. Just beware the ranty ones.

Nom Nom Lazers!

Ah, the life of a Laser chicken

A Boomkin druids main role is to pew, to pew pew, and to pew pew pew. Their only buff to the raid comes in the silly way they look. And they have perhaps the most colorful assortment of spells in the game. If you are a fan of shiny graphics I would recommend rolling one. Called OOMkin in BC they were very frequently running out of mana and most coveted their only other significant buff in Innervate to be used only on themselves. More recently they have been much better at keeping mana, however with the new patch setup who knows. Time will tell if this will be the return of OOM however the new setup with the glyph of innervate will definitely help.

Is this when I use the shiny one or the kaboom one??

The recent setup for Balance druids has made them "harder" to play. the players need more situational awareness and have to pay attention to RNG buffs that give their next spells more damage or damage capabilities. Boomkin are incredibly fun to play regardless. Their capabilities for dealing damage through both Arcane and Nature damage means that when locked out of one type they are still a force to be reckoned with.

The Chicken Behind the laser.

A player who plays a boomkin druid is a fickle being. Changing their casts throughout the fight keeps their ADD in check, and also the bright colors keep them entertained. They are good friends to have as they are fuzzy and soft, however be careful because they rarely clean their feathers. A typical boomkin player may enjoy explosions, lasers, or large carnivorous birds. They are an enigma of the WoW community as no one really understands why a form which seems to have no purpose other than amusing dancing may actually yield so much power. If you find yourself constantly pressing one button and want to do more and entertain yourself, feel free to go with the Balance Druid. They are a class that seems purely bound for fun.

Patchial amusement

Good Morning Blogosphere!

I can't help but smile this morning. All of my wildest dreams were in fact realized last night. I hate to say it because I feel like all I've heard is QQ about this patch. "You didn't warn us the season was over, we cancelled our account and were going to farm all the rank we needed in the last week of the season" WAAAA! Anyway, the less air time those people get the better, so I continue.

My favorite Patch EVA!

So I have played some hybrid character for about a year and a half now. I played a hunter to start, but quickly turned to a Druid. I really love druid spell dps, and druid healing is really just a minor amusement. I have done both however, and frequently switched between the two when going from PvE-PvP. Having experienced this I knew when I rolled a priest that it would be the same. Before I even hit level 70 on my priest I had respec'd enough times for level 68-70 dungeons that My respec cost was 50g a piece. All told I figure I have spent about 375g on respecs give or take a few. I know by experience that I like to change my playstyle frequently and So I saved money ahead of time to grab me some dual specciery.

How happy I am about the changes. Did anyone else notice that when you spec'd for the first time the game already remembered where your buttons were PRE-Patch and put them back in the appropriate spot. I was very surprised and excited. Also, I could have lived a fine life with only having the main 1-= bar change when you switched specs, but no, everyone of them changes. Have I mentioned I like this patch.

I dueled against a Death Knight and won, as a Shadowpriest. I don't know if that's really impressive, and you can say I'm a noob, but we were both level 73 and I didn't just beat him, I trounced him. Sure I used cooldowns, but he didn't even get me below half health, I didn't have to heal, and he potted in the fight too.

All in all, I enjoyed myself more last night than I have in a very long time. I am excited that Blizzard has made such great steps forward in their game. Matter of class post later!

Ooey Goey goodness

So 3.1 came out today. I'm stuck at work till 6 and unable to try wonderful things out. I'm kicking myself for not being somewhere I can grab my duel specs right away at. Well, that doesn't matter. I'll have time to look at my first spec on the flight back to a zeppelin. At the moment I am at level 73 with my priest, and I have bounced back and forth between a shadow leveling spec and a Disc healing spec more than on any other character. I am so excited to have duel specs. So excited in fact that I refused to purchase my original flying training because I found duel spec more important. I did manage to save up enough money through questing alone that all i need is another 600g between 73 and 77 and I will be able to buy everything to be able to fly when I hit that level. Now rather than list what changes are awesome or bad or just list in general I am going to give you a play by play of my afternoon.

1. Jump on gryphon to the nearest zeppelin route to my trainer.
2. Spec for a gorgeous new Disc Spec in flight
3. Purchase Dual spec from trainer
4. Spec a Shadow leveling spec.
5. Queue for a Battleground from wherever I am
6. Ride my mount to the nearest river
7. Hearth back to Northrend because the cooldown is only half an hour.


I am very excited for all of the changes. I think that my friend and I will be good to go with our Disc Priest/Ret Pali 2v2 team when we hit 80 and it will be very soon now that I don't have to spend 100g per instance not including repair and reagent costs. This is going to be a fun night.

Thought of the day:
What happens when I join a battleground while flying on a gryphon. Does the gryphon wait for me to come back? Do I drop out of the sky to my death like what happens when a summon fails because an instance is too full? I hope it is messed up and I can use that to shortcut to places while I'm flying over them.... hmm... what old world flyby places have you always wanted to visit. I have levitate so even if I fall off I will never die....

A new type of game

So over the weekend I took a lovely Easter trip with my Familia. We went to Mammoth Cave. For anyone not in the know, it is the longest cave system in the world and is only about two hours from my place of residence. Also I am dumb/nerdy/geeky enough to enjoy it. Immensely.

We went on two tours. The first tour was a tour done entirely by lantern light. For anyone who has never been in a cave with lantern light ever before I would recommend trying. It was the same as the last time I did it except I got to be the special volunteer who walked the lanterns down the secret path and back so everyone could experience the magic of "Sunset-Sunrise."

The main thing about this tour is that more than half of the tour is in places that are to this day unlit by any electric lighting and are only traversed by the one tour that I was on. It is an interesting thing to know that there is no backup and that your little lantern is the only thing keeping you sane.

The next tour we went on was the next morning. It starts at 10, and is four hours long, includes a lunch at 11 and has lots of walking and hills in it. My family had hoped that this would keep out the "Shoebies" (Rocket Power references should be commonplace in every one's lives) and allow us to enjoy a brisk walk through the cave where we could observe its natural beauty and splendor in a peaceful environment. We were wrong, dead wrong.

(This post is under the rant category so please forgive any lack of writing skill it may contain. From now on we will call it a bonus feature of any "Rant" posts I might do.)

The following game is inspired by the preceding events.

Tourist 2010

This new next-gen game promises to break every boundary of gaming sciences as it brings you the true experiences of tourism at its best. Visiting places such as national parks, theme parks, thrill parks you will be able to manipulate emotions like never before. Cause other visitors to hate you on principle and the staff to have such deep burning loathing for you they quit their jobs. Enjoy every moment over and over again with our Security cam replay feature.

You are a tourist whose goal is to enjoy yourself as much as possible with no regard to anyone else in the park. Use many different techniques to create as much mayhem/confusion/destructive tendencies as possible.

Work to gain special un-spend-able goal points

Rides goals
-insist your child is tall enough and that the other guy said he would be fine causing more than 200 people to wait more than 30 minutes for you
-Force management to close a ride for you so you can get a photo you dropped while riding
-Cause enough commotion at a carnival game that your child gets a stuffed toy as well even though he lost
-Cite the first amendment in an attempt to get a picture of you riding and giving the Bird.

Theme park goals
-take more than five pictures of your child with a Costumed character while they are crying the entire time
-allow your child to cry for more than an hour
-force other people's children to wait for 10 minutes while your child throws a tantrum
-Refuse to leave a line after your child has left and is running unattended throughout the queue

National park goals
-Blind entire tour with one attempted photo
-Take more than 50 pictures within a 10 foot radius.
-Pass someone 5 times in a 5 minute period while you take pictures of other family members.
-Allow your children to run around throughout the group completely unattended.
-Encourage your children when they ask entirely unrelated questions.
-Cause your guides mental trauma from your questions.

Coming to a Park near you sooner than you think!

Thought of the day:
Colleen is a scary guide, possible ghost.