Saturday 16 October 2010

Boomkin!


Well what a week of changes 4.0 hit and after about 2 hours of downloads, extra patches,add ons not working and my video driver deciding they were too old to display the new water I finally got on line.

The guild decided that rather than raiding on Wednesday (which seemed a bit pointless with half the guild not being able to get on till 10pm) we would hold a guild meeting to discuss who is doing what in Cataclysm. A few people as I mentioned previously have definitely decided to switch roles already and it was a good time to see if we had all the spots filled for a raid team.

Well after a bit of discussion we got most people sorted out for the roles they wanted to do.


Which left me and my resto shammy mate as people who could go any way. I was happy to fill any role but one thing I didn't want to do was be a tank/ healer again as I found that trying to keep up with both roles in terms of addons and gear was too much hard work. So after we had filled the tanks spots and the healer spots I find myself in the unlikely role of Boomer Main spec with a healing offspec.

This should be an interesting challenge as I have never played DPS in my whole WOW playing experience. I have always been a healer or a tank so I am looking forward to the challenge of chasing big numbers for a change rather than playing whack a mole with grid (disclaimer I am still healing offspec so we can cover real life issues in our raid, I am not abandoning the trees completely).

After setting myself up with a few addons to help me out such as power auras and some dot timers I realise that I still have a lot to learn about Moonkin DPS so if anyone can give me some pointers it would be much appreciated.


Zetter

Sunday 10 October 2010

Were you a better raider in BC

So Wednesday was another busted raid due to a few people being off. On the plus side I got to finally finish Glory of the Hero (yep I could never be bothered before) and basically shoot the shit for a couple of hours on vent.
Eventually the topic got round to raiding back in BC with our old guild and the people we used to raid with (it kind of felt like when you try and recall the people you have worked with over the years). Our pally Faster then threw into the conversation the comment "do you think you were a better raider in BC" now this really made me stop and think for a sec was I a better raider in BC?

I think for me the answer was a definite yes. Despite the fact that I have achieved much more during Wrath such as finishing all bosses, doing several glories of the raider and getting many kills withing a respectable timescale I don't think I am as sharp as when I was raiding in BC.
Its difficult for me to exactly say why but I am going to have a go.

Possibly the bosses just felt harder, even in Kara I can recall us wiping for three weeks solid on Shade ( in fact I think there was some tears over vent when we got the bugger down) before moving on and prince could still wipe a raid several times even when Kara was on farm.

I knew more about classes and buffs during BC due to being a raid leader. Also buffs were generally not raid wide so you spent ages planning where to put your shammys or your survival hunters for best effect on the five people they could affect.

Trash needed tactics we recalled (during our chat) the night we killed Gruul for the first time and on a high went to Tempest Keep, the trash in the first corridor kicked our ass for two hours as we didn't know their abilities!

Gear inflation didn't seems so severe I can recall on my druid finishing BC with a tier 4 chest I had got from Gruul despite having a crack at and downing a couple of bosses in Mount Hyjal pre 30% nerf.

Finally heroics dungeons kept me sharper Shadow Labs was still to be feared even packing some T6 gear, Shattered Halls were a risky proposition with a warrior tank (I still have memories of one of our warrior tanks failing to keep an add off me in there and watching my tree get lumberjacked ,then the long run back as I only had battle Rez) and I only did Acatraz on heroic once successfully during the whole expansion.

Don't get me wrong this isn't a whine post as I have enjoyed Wrath immensely and thank Blizzard for the chance to see all the end game which if raiding had been structured as it was in BC I probably would not have seen.
However as with the fact as an adult I can buy any sweets I want at any time it does seem to make those sweets taste a little less special than when as a child I had to wait/ do some chore for them.

Zetter