Well it looks like cross faction chat is now out of The Old Republic. I guess it was too much to hope for it being kept in especially after some interesting experiences I have had in WOW with people in PVP making characters specifically on your faction to start arguments over PVP.
Bit of a shame though as I know a lot of my friends want to try out both Imperial and Republic and it would have been nice to chat with them while we were playing different factions. I guess I was hoping the testers would have been a bit more mature and not start slating each other cross faction... Should have known better.
Never know though we could get something like real ID going forward maybe.
Zetter
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Pre order is in!!
So as promised in my last post when it comes out I am likely to be quitting WOW for The Old Republic.
I opted for the middle ground on pre order by going for the digital deluxe edition. I couldn't really justify splashing out £150 for the collectors edition though I know a few people who have (well more to the point I think the Mrs would have killed me :)). I only hope BT get their finger out and get high speed broadband rolled out soon so I can get it downloaded in less than three days.
So far my plan is to roll a trooper though specialisation I have yet to decide Commando is appealing with its big guns but I must admit I don't want to get tied to healing this game so I may give vanguard a spin.
Lets hope a 2011 release date is still on target.
Zetter
I opted for the middle ground on pre order by going for the digital deluxe edition. I couldn't really justify splashing out £150 for the collectors edition though I know a few people who have (well more to the point I think the Mrs would have killed me :)). I only hope BT get their finger out and get high speed broadband rolled out soon so I can get it downloaded in less than three days.
So far my plan is to roll a trooper though specialisation I have yet to decide Commando is appealing with its big guns but I must admit I don't want to get tied to healing this game so I may give vanguard a spin.
Lets hope a 2011 release date is still on target.
Zetter
Monday, 23 May 2011
Not with a bang but with a whisper
I guess there are not many people following the blog anymore except maybe some old guildies of mine but it seems a good a place to close as any. Anyone who still drops by has probably noticed I have not posted in quite a while.
To coin a phrase from Granny Weatherwax off the Discworld "I aint dead"
Basically I have had a lot going on at home and raiding in the Kingdom of Rust has effectively ceased. In an odd sort of way I expected it to all end in a big drama or everyone moving to a new game en mass. But like I guess a lot of guilds in Warcraft at the moment we didn't "rage against the dying of the light" but instead slipped slowly towards the end with key members of the raid team moving on to stuff like Rift or taking the summer off early. No one quit in a huff or disappeared without a word though which was nice.
I think at once several people who to be honest I have known through WOW and IRL for 4-5 years decided that the game had run its course for them and it was time to stop.
The great thing about 10 man raiding is you form nice tight knit raid teams and really get to know the people you are playing with. The downside is the loss of a few key players can turn a well geared progressing guild into a non event in very short order. In the space of a month or so we lost or are losing both our tanks, a healer(raid leader) and several heavy dps. This left us with the option of recruiting five plus people including both our tanks or calling it a day after several years.
Personally as the reluctant Guild Master I didn't have the heart or time to start it all over again and from the guildies remaining no one really felt we could recover as most of the people who left were friends in one way or another outside the game. So as of the end of this month Kingdom of Rust and probably my time raiding in WOW will come to an end.
I must admit in the time I have been raiding I have had a blast. From the first falter steps in Kara (Shade I still hate you!) all the way through to standing over the Lich Kings corpse it has been a great time with a lot of really nice people who I would not have known in any other way.
I have lots of fun memories of the heady days of killing Gruul (sometimes with the aid of shaky scanned diagrams when I was raid leading) through to the end of the story arc at the Frozen Throne.
Is it over for me in WOW as well? Well I dont know but I have found myself logging on less except for raids recently and I know I will be signing up for the Old Republic when it is launched as I am a Star Wars nut. So I wont be taking the blog down as there is a distinct possibility it will be revamped as my adventure in the Old Republic.
To anyone who reads this still thanks for taking the time to follow my musings over the past few years and to the Bloggers who I have followed over the years keep on writing as I have spent many happy hours following your adventure in Azeroth.
Finally to the guys and girls from Kingdom of Rust and before them Ascendo Tuum thanks for all the fun times both inside the game and outside it. If you ever get tempted by blasters and lightsabers you know where a few of us will be.
Zetter
To coin a phrase from Granny Weatherwax off the Discworld "I aint dead"
Basically I have had a lot going on at home and raiding in the Kingdom of Rust has effectively ceased. In an odd sort of way I expected it to all end in a big drama or everyone moving to a new game en mass. But like I guess a lot of guilds in Warcraft at the moment we didn't "rage against the dying of the light" but instead slipped slowly towards the end with key members of the raid team moving on to stuff like Rift or taking the summer off early. No one quit in a huff or disappeared without a word though which was nice.
I think at once several people who to be honest I have known through WOW and IRL for 4-5 years decided that the game had run its course for them and it was time to stop.
The great thing about 10 man raiding is you form nice tight knit raid teams and really get to know the people you are playing with. The downside is the loss of a few key players can turn a well geared progressing guild into a non event in very short order. In the space of a month or so we lost or are losing both our tanks, a healer(raid leader) and several heavy dps. This left us with the option of recruiting five plus people including both our tanks or calling it a day after several years.
Personally as the reluctant Guild Master I didn't have the heart or time to start it all over again and from the guildies remaining no one really felt we could recover as most of the people who left were friends in one way or another outside the game. So as of the end of this month Kingdom of Rust and probably my time raiding in WOW will come to an end.
I must admit in the time I have been raiding I have had a blast. From the first falter steps in Kara (Shade I still hate you!) all the way through to standing over the Lich Kings corpse it has been a great time with a lot of really nice people who I would not have known in any other way.
I have lots of fun memories of the heady days of killing Gruul (sometimes with the aid of shaky scanned diagrams when I was raid leading) through to the end of the story arc at the Frozen Throne.
Is it over for me in WOW as well? Well I dont know but I have found myself logging on less except for raids recently and I know I will be signing up for the Old Republic when it is launched as I am a Star Wars nut. So I wont be taking the blog down as there is a distinct possibility it will be revamped as my adventure in the Old Republic.
To anyone who reads this still thanks for taking the time to follow my musings over the past few years and to the Bloggers who I have followed over the years keep on writing as I have spent many happy hours following your adventure in Azeroth.
Finally to the guys and girls from Kingdom of Rust and before them Ascendo Tuum thanks for all the fun times both inside the game and outside it. If you ever get tempted by blasters and lightsabers you know where a few of us will be.
Zetter
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Getting Older
Larisa over at http://www.pinkpigtailinn.com put up a moving post this week about leaving her guild and the happy ending of getting back with them. Also she linked an interesting post by Calli at http://pewpewlazerz.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/a-confession/ over getting older and not having reflexes like "rattlesnakes on crack" anymore which is a great line which tied in with some of the issues she had been having playing DPS in a progression guild.
I find myself in a similar position as I hit the big 40 this year and am now finding that my reflexes are not what they used to be, hard modes in games such as Call of Duty or Halo are a lot harder as I don't get that first shot off before some computer generated baddie filled me full of pixilated lead.
However in WOW I think I am luckier in a way as I play a healer. If you have read the blog in the run up to Cataclysm I was originally on the roster as a dps type (boomkin) but after various changes switched back to healing. Now I run a Boomkin offspec and have done some of the easier raids such as BH and consistently find myself mid to bottom on the dps meters. I think its because I just don't pick up the rotation quickly and don't react to procs as quickly either.
But healing now healing I rock at. I have been consistently been one of the top healers in the guild all the way through BC and Wrath. I can carry idiots through 5 man PUGs abet with a bit of sweat but most times unless they insist on pulling the whole room most people tend to walk out of an engagement alive (of course I lose the odd dps but hey don't stand in the fire for ages stoopid).
I have pondered why I am much better at healing than dps a bit recently and feel its because healing is slower paced but much more tactical. Generally during boss fights you are always planning ahead, especially as a druid as it takes time to run up HOT's and we don't have much in the way of tank saving specials like lay on hands. I find during fights I am planning using cooldowns for damage spikes, anticipating curses/ magic debuffs, planning Innvervates so I can get the best use out of them and watching timers for tank switches.
Hyper reflexes don't seem to help much with healing especially during Cataclysm as if tanks dip too low saving them is an uphill struggle with huge health pools. Also if you not pre planning for damage spikes or AOE raid damage generally its too late when you are not getting things in place before they happen.
So does anyone else find this they their reflexes are not what they were? Do you find the tactical pace of healing doesn't need hyper reflexes but the ability to plan ahead a few moves and keep your head when things go a bit wobbly?
Zetter
I find myself in a similar position as I hit the big 40 this year and am now finding that my reflexes are not what they used to be, hard modes in games such as Call of Duty or Halo are a lot harder as I don't get that first shot off before some computer generated baddie filled me full of pixilated lead.
However in WOW I think I am luckier in a way as I play a healer. If you have read the blog in the run up to Cataclysm I was originally on the roster as a dps type (boomkin) but after various changes switched back to healing. Now I run a Boomkin offspec and have done some of the easier raids such as BH and consistently find myself mid to bottom on the dps meters. I think its because I just don't pick up the rotation quickly and don't react to procs as quickly either.
But healing now healing I rock at. I have been consistently been one of the top healers in the guild all the way through BC and Wrath. I can carry idiots through 5 man PUGs abet with a bit of sweat but most times unless they insist on pulling the whole room most people tend to walk out of an engagement alive (of course I lose the odd dps but hey don't stand in the fire for ages stoopid).
I have pondered why I am much better at healing than dps a bit recently and feel its because healing is slower paced but much more tactical. Generally during boss fights you are always planning ahead, especially as a druid as it takes time to run up HOT's and we don't have much in the way of tank saving specials like lay on hands. I find during fights I am planning using cooldowns for damage spikes, anticipating curses/ magic debuffs, planning Innvervates so I can get the best use out of them and watching timers for tank switches.
Hyper reflexes don't seem to help much with healing especially during Cataclysm as if tanks dip too low saving them is an uphill struggle with huge health pools. Also if you not pre planning for damage spikes or AOE raid damage generally its too late when you are not getting things in place before they happen.
So does anyone else find this they their reflexes are not what they were? Do you find the tactical pace of healing doesn't need hyper reflexes but the ability to plan ahead a few moves and keep your head when things go a bit wobbly?
Zetter
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Efflorescence
Usually I don't post much about specific talent builds in the game. I am a middle of the road player and leave the heavyweight discussions on whats hot in the talent builds to people like Keeva over at http://treebarkjacket.com/2011/02/26/ptr-efflorescence-smart-heal/ or Beruthiel at http://fallingleavesandwings.wordpress.com/ who do some great stuff on builds/ theory crafting.
However at the moment on thing that has left me in a quandary is dear old Efflorescence. I currently have it in this build http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZMfzIbcruoko. As you can see I have fully talented into Efflorescence and do use it quite a lot during raiding but I am beginning to question if it is worth it or not.
Our raid composition for healers is generally me, a pally and a holy priest with sometimes (if the pally is tanking) two holy priests (on this point Tessy from http://www.reflectionsfromthepond.com/ should on no account going forward let her son anywhere near her router near raid nights!) so I generally find myself tank healing on a lot of fights to a greater or lesser extent. With the fact we always have a holy priest in the raid as a raid healer I am questioning if it is worth keeping Efflorescence in the build anymore.
I think Efflorescence should be a lot cooler than it is and at the moment it doesn't feel like its competing with Circle of Healing or Healing Rain. I kind of want to hang on it as I feel almost I should as a nod to my raid healing past but I am wondering if a build like http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZrfzIbcrzodo would be more beneficially to the type of healing I am doing?
Has anyone else out there tried out dropping Efflorescence from their build and how has it worked out? I think I may try it for the next raid and see how it pans out though I think I will miss out on seeing green puddles all the time.
Zetter
However at the moment on thing that has left me in a quandary is dear old Efflorescence. I currently have it in this build http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZMfzIbcruoko. As you can see I have fully talented into Efflorescence and do use it quite a lot during raiding but I am beginning to question if it is worth it or not.
Our raid composition for healers is generally me, a pally and a holy priest with sometimes (if the pally is tanking) two holy priests (on this point Tessy from http://www.reflectionsfromthepond.com/ should on no account going forward let her son anywhere near her router near raid nights!) so I generally find myself tank healing on a lot of fights to a greater or lesser extent. With the fact we always have a holy priest in the raid as a raid healer I am questioning if it is worth keeping Efflorescence in the build anymore.
I think Efflorescence should be a lot cooler than it is and at the moment it doesn't feel like its competing with Circle of Healing or Healing Rain. I kind of want to hang on it as I feel almost I should as a nod to my raid healing past but I am wondering if a build like http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZrfzIbcrzodo would be more beneficially to the type of healing I am doing?
Has anyone else out there tried out dropping Efflorescence from their build and how has it worked out? I think I may try it for the next raid and see how it pans out though I think I will miss out on seeing green puddles all the time.
Zetter
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Wipes, Wipes and more Wipes
Well all this week the Kindom of Rust have basically had the crap kicked out of them by The Ascendant Council.
What has made it doubly frustrating is we have had about 10 <4% wipes with the damage from the end burn phase killing us before we manage to finish of the Elemental Monstrosity.
The first night was quite enjoyable as we really made progress people learned the fight and got their moves down. So having to call it at the end without a kill had the refreshing smell of raiding back in BC when we hit the wall for a couple of nights on Curator in Karazan. However the second night did involve me swearing profusely at the PC due to the number of near misses on a kill.
I think we will get them on Monday as all the raiders have now had a good bash at it and when it happens it will be very very satisfying I can tell you.
Zetter
What has made it doubly frustrating is we have had about 10 <4% wipes with the damage from the end burn phase killing us before we manage to finish of the Elemental Monstrosity.
The first night was quite enjoyable as we really made progress people learned the fight and got their moves down. So having to call it at the end without a kill had the refreshing smell of raiding back in BC when we hit the wall for a couple of nights on Curator in Karazan. However the second night did involve me swearing profusely at the PC due to the number of near misses on a kill.
I think we will get them on Monday as all the raiders have now had a good bash at it and when it happens it will be very very satisfying I can tell you.
Zetter
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Odd role changes in healing raids
If you have been following the blog for a while you have probably noticed that I will probably end up being a healer forever. Despite dalliances with tanking and the tempting mistress that is DPS I always tend to gravitate for my hardcore play back to healing.
Now for part of BC and all of Wrath raiding I was a raid healer.
If there raid wide damage to heal or constant AOE pulses going off I was your Tree, with a flourish of my leaves rejuvenation, wild growth or back in BC lifebloom would be rolling on all you lucky people to stop you slipping into the land of no DPS dealing death.
Basically for most of BC and all of Wrath the only tank healing I did was in 5 Mans or when content was really on farm and we ran with 2 healers instead of three. Tank healing was the domain of Pallys, Disco priests and in our case our resto Shammy.
Now I find myself in Cataclysm and druid healing has altered. Rejuvenation got a kicking (thankfully boosted recently with the hotfix), Wild growth is ok but if a shed load of damage hits the raid its like using a bucket of water to put out a factory fire and tranquility/ Tree of Life are on reasonable cool downs to prevent them being of use except in real pinch moments.
Meanwhile Holy Priests still have major tools for raid healing, Pallys have a lot more tools and Shammys get nice things like healing rain (who's area of effect is going up!!!).
So for the moment enter Zetter the tank healer! Rolling his Mighty 3 stack of lifebloom backed by rejuvenation, Nourish and with the hmmm mastery Symbiosis of he can keep that tank up and swinging. Also he can help out on raid healing with rejuvenation and tree of life pops.
Big movement fight no problem! his hots just keep on healing till he can get off a healing touch!
Meanwhile oddly enough our pally healer is raid healing ahhh bless who's a good little plate wearer then :).
I think its will all change again as Wild Growth is getting a buff on cool down and healing power so I can see myself swinging back towards raid healing again especially as Pally beacon still rocks but I have enjoyed the change of pace and my time in the sun.
Oh and yay I finally got blown up by Deathwing!
Zetter
Now for part of BC and all of Wrath raiding I was a raid healer.
If there raid wide damage to heal or constant AOE pulses going off I was your Tree, with a flourish of my leaves rejuvenation, wild growth or back in BC lifebloom would be rolling on all you lucky people to stop you slipping into the land of no DPS dealing death.
Basically for most of BC and all of Wrath the only tank healing I did was in 5 Mans or when content was really on farm and we ran with 2 healers instead of three. Tank healing was the domain of Pallys, Disco priests and in our case our resto Shammy.
Now I find myself in Cataclysm and druid healing has altered. Rejuvenation got a kicking (thankfully boosted recently with the hotfix), Wild growth is ok but if a shed load of damage hits the raid its like using a bucket of water to put out a factory fire and tranquility/ Tree of Life are on reasonable cool downs to prevent them being of use except in real pinch moments.
Meanwhile Holy Priests still have major tools for raid healing, Pallys have a lot more tools and Shammys get nice things like healing rain (who's area of effect is going up!!!).
So for the moment enter Zetter the tank healer! Rolling his Mighty 3 stack of lifebloom backed by rejuvenation, Nourish and with the hmmm mastery Symbiosis of he can keep that tank up and swinging. Also he can help out on raid healing with rejuvenation and tree of life pops.
Big movement fight no problem! his hots just keep on healing till he can get off a healing touch!
Meanwhile oddly enough our pally healer is raid healing ahhh bless who's a good little plate wearer then :).
I think its will all change again as Wild Growth is getting a buff on cool down and healing power so I can see myself swinging back towards raid healing again especially as Pally beacon still rocks but I have enjoyed the change of pace and my time in the sun.
Oh and yay I finally got blown up by Deathwing!
Zetter
Monday, 17 January 2011
Archaeology and Azeroth the grand tour!
Gordon over at http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2011/01/14/why-my-wife-wants-to-kick-the-sht-out-of-the-guy-who-designed-archaeology/ did a nice little piece over his obsession with troll archaeology and big swords.
I can sympathize with him as I am similarly obsessed with night elves and the only damn thing I need off them http://www.wowhead.com/item=64645 I think I am on my 100th solve since my last rare off them and its becoming a bit of a lost cause now for me as I think with raiding kicking off I can probably do better soon.
However one of the great things I found about my travels during my Archeology leveling is to find out about how big a change the shattering wrought to Azeroth. When the patch hit to be honest I was on a bit of a down time from WOW so didn't do a lot of sight seeing after the shattering. Boy did I miss a lot!
I mean even going to Tanaris I was merrily puttering along and then suddenly though "hang on a sec I don't remember Gadgetzan being this close to the sea" well of course it is now dummy after the blooming great tidal wave.
Also you find yourself wondering what the Horde are up to in Azshara after all they appear to be building the equivalent of a Railway Gun which worryingly is pointed straight at Stormwind!
Then you move on to Darkshore and find that basically the night elves have received not to put to fine a point of it a "bit of a kicking".
So thank you Blizzard for making a profession that shows off these massive changes to the world while driving me mildly insane by giving me odd items such as http://www.wowhead.com/spell=91761 which is generally only great for freaking out new players in Goldshire.
Zetter
I can sympathize with him as I am similarly obsessed with night elves and the only damn thing I need off them http://www.wowhead.com/item=64645 I think I am on my 100th solve since my last rare off them and its becoming a bit of a lost cause now for me as I think with raiding kicking off I can probably do better soon.
However one of the great things I found about my travels during my Archeology leveling is to find out about how big a change the shattering wrought to Azeroth. When the patch hit to be honest I was on a bit of a down time from WOW so didn't do a lot of sight seeing after the shattering. Boy did I miss a lot!
I mean even going to Tanaris I was merrily puttering along and then suddenly though "hang on a sec I don't remember Gadgetzan being this close to the sea" well of course it is now dummy after the blooming great tidal wave.
Also you find yourself wondering what the Horde are up to in Azshara after all they appear to be building the equivalent of a Railway Gun which worryingly is pointed straight at Stormwind!
Then you move on to Darkshore and find that basically the night elves have received not to put to fine a point of it a "bit of a kicking".
So thank you Blizzard for making a profession that shows off these massive changes to the world while driving me mildly insane by giving me odd items such as http://www.wowhead.com/spell=91761 which is generally only great for freaking out new players in Goldshire.
Zetter
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
First Raid Of Catacylsm
Last night Kingdom of Rust finally entered our first proper raid in Cataclysm. After a lay off over Christmas and giving people time to gear up we sallied forth into Blackwing Descent to see what the new content was like.
After a bit of a chat we decided to take on Magmaw as our first try. Everyone had read up on the tactics so we did the recommended one camp of ranged moving between two points when the lava parasites spawn with one of our melee and a hunter smacking the boss up side the head to force him onto the spike.
Three hours later on the last try of the night we finally got the git down! This was after one 2% wipe when we hit the enrage timer which was a real pain.
The healing team consisted on myself (yep I'm back healing I appear to be mediocre at dps), our Holy priest Kai and our Holy Pally Faster. Basically it was I and Kai on the raid and Faster looking after the tanks.
From a resto druid point of view on 10 mans this was a real test of manna use and popping cool downs such as TOL/ Tranquillity. We lost quite a few tries due to DPS being low on heath after a lava AOE spray and then being one shotted by a lava bolt so you cant afford to have DPS on low heath for too long after lava spray or they could be the unlucky one on the receiving end of a lava bolt which will kill them as it hits for about 50K damage.
I can see this fight becoming a lot easier for resto druids when the new patch hits and Rejuvenation becomes a viable raid healing tool again with the manna cost being halved. I found that overuse of Rejuvenation during the fight at the present cost basically just ran me dry of manna which was a shame as it will be a good tool to use on the run between lava parasite spawns.
Nourish isn’t great on this fight due to the cast time and its requirement to have a HOT on the target to make it a good heal, Healing Touch also suffers from cast time issues and I was mainly using Effervescence as the raid was tightly grouped coupled with Wild Growth/ Lifebloom where possible to top people off.
Of course dependent on healing group composition I could have healed the tanks but we felt that Faster would probably do better on this due to bacon and generally Pally tank healing power.
A good fun raid boss overall but it was a real step up in terms of manna use from heroics.
Zetter
After a bit of a chat we decided to take on Magmaw as our first try. Everyone had read up on the tactics so we did the recommended one camp of ranged moving between two points when the lava parasites spawn with one of our melee and a hunter smacking the boss up side the head to force him onto the spike.
Three hours later on the last try of the night we finally got the git down! This was after one 2% wipe when we hit the enrage timer which was a real pain.
The healing team consisted on myself (yep I'm back healing I appear to be mediocre at dps), our Holy priest Kai and our Holy Pally Faster. Basically it was I and Kai on the raid and Faster looking after the tanks.
From a resto druid point of view on 10 mans this was a real test of manna use and popping cool downs such as TOL/ Tranquillity. We lost quite a few tries due to DPS being low on heath after a lava AOE spray and then being one shotted by a lava bolt so you cant afford to have DPS on low heath for too long after lava spray or they could be the unlucky one on the receiving end of a lava bolt which will kill them as it hits for about 50K damage.
I can see this fight becoming a lot easier for resto druids when the new patch hits and Rejuvenation becomes a viable raid healing tool again with the manna cost being halved. I found that overuse of Rejuvenation during the fight at the present cost basically just ran me dry of manna which was a shame as it will be a good tool to use on the run between lava parasite spawns.
Nourish isn’t great on this fight due to the cast time and its requirement to have a HOT on the target to make it a good heal, Healing Touch also suffers from cast time issues and I was mainly using Effervescence as the raid was tightly grouped coupled with Wild Growth/ Lifebloom where possible to top people off.
Of course dependent on healing group composition I could have healed the tanks but we felt that Faster would probably do better on this due to bacon and generally Pally tank healing power.
A good fun raid boss overall but it was a real step up in terms of manna use from heroics.
Zetter
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
LFG just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water!
With Christmas and work I haven't posted a lot, also I have been playing WOW rather than writing about it recently.
But overall things are going well I have made my way to 85 while reading all the quest text (loved Mount Hijal lore it was awesome and very druidic). I have also managed to get both my primary professions to 525 as well so things are going well for commencement of raiding in January with the guild.
I have not been getting on with DPS really as a boomkin as for some reason even with following rotations and add ons I still cant seem to push out the numbers I would like. So I healed a few heroics and found it fun still, after a bit of readjustment to the new way of healing (damn you Blizz did you have to nerf Rejuve that much!) I found myself doing quite well with my guild groups and have decided that I will probably be healing in raids rather than dpsing for main spec. I had a chat with the raid leader about it and it looks like it could be ok going forward.
All the above leads me to the main point of the post (yep yep ramble, ramble) as I needed some Earthen Ring rep to get some legs and a back I decided (as no one was about) to heal a normal pug group with the dungeon finder. Now bear in mind at this point I have healed a lot of heroics including Stonecore, SFK and Deadmines with minimal wipes. All I can say is I pity any poor deluded fool who uses the Dungeon Finder for Heroics.
We zoned in and it was Grim Batol I had not done this instance before but I was pretty confident on normal that I could adjust to boss tactics on the fly and I had a brief read of the abilities beforehand. Before I had even fully zoned in the druid tanks was off! In fact so far off he was out of range with a charge straight into the first group, I legged it to get in range as his health started dipping and quickly lobbed some big heals in as fast as I could. The party stayed up but I was at 50% mana and before I could take a drink he was off again! Damage was flying about all over the shop and the tank was dipping like hell despite me having 3x lifebloom on him and spamming healing touch coupled with the odd swiftmend.
This fun continued part the way to the first boss with me sweating buckets and CC just not happening. Finally he did a pull on one of the bridges and did not gather up all the mobs. I pulled healing aggro and despite fade went splat. The tank then quit without a word and we joined the queue for another one. The next tank was a bit better and at least waited for everyone to drink/ eat between pulls, though still insisted on pulling everything. After a few deaths and me drinking like a mad man when ever I could we finished the dungeon.
This has made up my mind on one thing now I am NEVER using Dungeon Finder for heroics. I don't think I could take the stress or the repair bills if people act like they did in the normal.
Also to the druid tank, I didn't catch your name as you went off so fast I was mainly watching grid. I hope to hell you never inflict yourself on a heroic group as you would be wasting their time and your as you obviously dont have a clue what you are doing. This isn't Wrath, Healers use mana now and you take a lot of damage when you pull lots of mobs as you gear is not great yet. Also if you pull a lot of mobs at least get aggro on them all so they don't kill your healer otherwise he dies then you die then the group dies. Tanking 101 bloody read it in fact here is a link to a great site for some advice that you probably wont read or take but hey its worth a shot.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/
Zetter
But overall things are going well I have made my way to 85 while reading all the quest text (loved Mount Hijal lore it was awesome and very druidic). I have also managed to get both my primary professions to 525 as well so things are going well for commencement of raiding in January with the guild.
I have not been getting on with DPS really as a boomkin as for some reason even with following rotations and add ons I still cant seem to push out the numbers I would like. So I healed a few heroics and found it fun still, after a bit of readjustment to the new way of healing (damn you Blizz did you have to nerf Rejuve that much!) I found myself doing quite well with my guild groups and have decided that I will probably be healing in raids rather than dpsing for main spec. I had a chat with the raid leader about it and it looks like it could be ok going forward.
All the above leads me to the main point of the post (yep yep ramble, ramble) as I needed some Earthen Ring rep to get some legs and a back I decided (as no one was about) to heal a normal pug group with the dungeon finder. Now bear in mind at this point I have healed a lot of heroics including Stonecore, SFK and Deadmines with minimal wipes. All I can say is I pity any poor deluded fool who uses the Dungeon Finder for Heroics.
We zoned in and it was Grim Batol I had not done this instance before but I was pretty confident on normal that I could adjust to boss tactics on the fly and I had a brief read of the abilities beforehand. Before I had even fully zoned in the druid tanks was off! In fact so far off he was out of range with a charge straight into the first group, I legged it to get in range as his health started dipping and quickly lobbed some big heals in as fast as I could. The party stayed up but I was at 50% mana and before I could take a drink he was off again! Damage was flying about all over the shop and the tank was dipping like hell despite me having 3x lifebloom on him and spamming healing touch coupled with the odd swiftmend.
This fun continued part the way to the first boss with me sweating buckets and CC just not happening. Finally he did a pull on one of the bridges and did not gather up all the mobs. I pulled healing aggro and despite fade went splat. The tank then quit without a word and we joined the queue for another one. The next tank was a bit better and at least waited for everyone to drink/ eat between pulls, though still insisted on pulling everything. After a few deaths and me drinking like a mad man when ever I could we finished the dungeon.
This has made up my mind on one thing now I am NEVER using Dungeon Finder for heroics. I don't think I could take the stress or the repair bills if people act like they did in the normal.
Also to the druid tank, I didn't catch your name as you went off so fast I was mainly watching grid. I hope to hell you never inflict yourself on a heroic group as you would be wasting their time and your as you obviously dont have a clue what you are doing. This isn't Wrath, Healers use mana now and you take a lot of damage when you pull lots of mobs as you gear is not great yet. Also if you pull a lot of mobs at least get aggro on them all so they don't kill your healer otherwise he dies then you die then the group dies. Tanking 101 bloody read it in fact here is a link to a great site for some advice that you probably wont read or take but hey its worth a shot.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/
Zetter
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Damn you Blizz show me the leather!
I am having great fun in Cata leveling, Harrison Jones in Uldum is just awesome and very very well put together.
One thing that does bug me a bit though is the total lack of decent caster druid leathers you get from big quest rewards or dungeons. In the past this wasn't an issue as you could just collect whatever cloth bits came along and round out with leather when you found it.
But with the Leather Specialisation skill if you pick up cloth and do not go all leather you take a fairly hefty hit on intellect to do it. While leveling it isn't so much of an issue but I can see this being a bit of a pain when I am gearing up to raid in Heroics.
Zetter
One thing that does bug me a bit though is the total lack of decent caster druid leathers you get from big quest rewards or dungeons. In the past this wasn't an issue as you could just collect whatever cloth bits came along and round out with leather when you found it.
But with the Leather Specialisation skill if you pick up cloth and do not go all leather you take a fairly hefty hit on intellect to do it. While leveling it isn't so much of an issue but I can see this being a bit of a pain when I am gearing up to raid in Heroics.
Zetter
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Leveling Too Fast?
From my last post you know I have rolled a baby gnome lock and am slowly questing my way through to (eventually) level 85. I have no desire to really raid on this toon he is mainly a vehicle to experience the new worlds quests and to try something different.
However you just seem to zoom through levels and out level zones too fast now. For example I am now leveling in the Loch Mordan area which has seen a lot of changes due to the Stonewrought Dam being nuked by Deathwing. Some of the quests here are now awesome and have taken it from what I remember being a disjointed leveling experience (with trips to places like Westfall being needed to bolster experience) to a smooth and exiting area with lots of quests being seamlessly woven together.
The problem is with enhanced experience gain you now just blitz through the area and if I had moved on to Wetlands when I was supposed to I would have missed 50% of the quests in the area (including a great one with Bingles the Gnome). This is with me deliberately taking off my heirloom gear that provides experience boost to a least try and put a brake on my leveling. There is I suppose the option to pay to freeze my level for a bit as I do zones but this is a bit of a pain to switch it on and off all the time.
I know the reason experience gain was enhanced was to allow people to get to top level in a reasonable amount of time especially considering the big level climb required. But I do think that for the sake of expediency the experience of leveling and all the stories that have been crafted to go along with it are getting missed in the stampede to level 85.
For new players to the game it does seem a bit of a shame that they will miss a lot of the effort that has been put in to making questing more in depth and quests more than "kill 5 bears" type.
Has anyone else who has started a new alt found this?
Zetter
However you just seem to zoom through levels and out level zones too fast now. For example I am now leveling in the Loch Mordan area which has seen a lot of changes due to the Stonewrought Dam being nuked by Deathwing. Some of the quests here are now awesome and have taken it from what I remember being a disjointed leveling experience (with trips to places like Westfall being needed to bolster experience) to a smooth and exiting area with lots of quests being seamlessly woven together.
The problem is with enhanced experience gain you now just blitz through the area and if I had moved on to Wetlands when I was supposed to I would have missed 50% of the quests in the area (including a great one with Bingles the Gnome). This is with me deliberately taking off my heirloom gear that provides experience boost to a least try and put a brake on my leveling. There is I suppose the option to pay to freeze my level for a bit as I do zones but this is a bit of a pain to switch it on and off all the time.
I know the reason experience gain was enhanced was to allow people to get to top level in a reasonable amount of time especially considering the big level climb required. But I do think that for the sake of expediency the experience of leveling and all the stories that have been crafted to go along with it are getting missed in the stampede to level 85.
For new players to the game it does seem a bit of a shame that they will miss a lot of the effort that has been put in to making questing more in depth and quests more than "kill 5 bears" type.
Has anyone else who has started a new alt found this?
Zetter
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Having a Homer Moment or D'oh
Well the shattering has hit Azeroth and zone have been nuked badly so like I most of the blogging community I rolled an alt and set forth to experience the new quest content.
Podling the Gnome Warlock was born (cliched I know)
Podling the Gnome Warlock was born (cliched I know)
I had fun in the gnome starting zone which is sooo much better than the old zone and is nicely worked in with the retaking of Gnomer.
While questing though I suddenly remembered it was the last day of the Thanksgiving event and a brilliant chance to level my cooking rapidly on my little Gnome rather than doing it the hard way. So I pottered between Ironforge and Stormwind merrily cooking the festival fair until it came time to head to Darnassus for potatoes.
(Now at this point remember I have not leveled an alt from new for over three years and spent all of Wrath doing high level stuff like raiding)
So I thought "Darnassus eh have to run it". Off little Podling set full of hope, after all his guide had done this before on a hunter and a druid at similar level back in BC days.
Boy things have changed a bit!
Boy things have changed a bit!
I got to Kalimdor ok via the usual route of the Wetlands and then onto Dustwallow Marsh which was a bit nastier than I remembered, however Jaina and all the crew at Theramore helped a bit by putting a bloody great road through the middle of the marsh. I had a few crocodile related deaths but made it through eventually and thought the worst was behind me.
Then I hit southern barrens and the wheels came off badly. Creature levels appear to have changed a bit so my aggro radius was huge, also blizz appear to have increased mob speed a lot so you cant out run them. I got eaten quite a bit.
But still I persevered and made it to the great rift. However the Alliance and Horde are now going at it big style in this area and this proved to be too much. There are really high level Horde (well compared to my level 5 Gnome) like fleas on a dog and I could go no further. Tail between legs I ported back to Ironforge and decided I would have to get a portal if one of the Guild Mages was on as I could not think of any other way to reach Darnassus.
I relayed my tale of woe on Guild Chat (bearing in mind I had been mucking about at this for 2 hours) and wondered if one of the Mages would be on in time when our DK tank Nightmare piped up with "lol mate why don't you just take a boat from Stormwind". "Boat from Stormwind when did that make it in the game?" I asked. "Only about two years mate" was the response.
As Homer would say D'oh!
Zetter
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Saying goodbye to The Lich King
So its the end of the expansion and raiding has finished in the Kingdom Of Rust, we are all on a nice break until Cataclysm where the prospect of fighting for spawns awaits until raiding gets into full swing again.
I am looking forward to the expansion a lot but from a lore point of view I think I will be sorry to say goodbye to Arthas and his undead minions. I don't know why but I have always been fascinated and horrified by the whole Zombie/ getting taken over as undead thing.
I remember watching the Dawn of the Dead remake round a friends a couple of years ago and being quite disturbed by the whole zombie infestation thing. Especially at the start when the main protagonists daughter is infected and then kills her husband who also rises as one of the undead. I think its probably the whole idea of losing yourself so to speak but still being there that I find disturbing.
Personally I think I prefer the approach taken by Lt Gorman in Aliens (don't know if you have seen this) when he and Vasquez are cornered and about to be turned into basically lunch or alien breeders. He pulls out a grenade and takes a load of them with him rather than being torn to bits or eeeew impregnated. I think if I was in the same situation I would prefer to go out with a bang!
Anyway rambling a bit, but this is what I think makes Arthas and the Scourge such a great enemy, not only are people you are fighting beside killed by them but your friends suddenly get up and start trying to kill you! Take this section from the story of Kel'Thuzad's fall to the dark side
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/1p11/naxxramas/roadtodamnation2.html
damn disturbing or what.
From my point of view especially playing someone tied to the natural world like a druid it felt that you were really fighting for all you held dear as the alternative wasn't just death it was worse.
For cataclysm I don't think Deathwing has the same impact for me as an enemy. Yep hes a dragon and a damn big one at that but really he doesn't seem to have quote the air of evil about him as the scourge. Sure he can incinerate you and blast towns etc but the scourge not only killed you and obliterated your town but you got up the next day and munched down on the survivors. Also from reading the linked extract you probably were horribly aware of it.
So roll on Cataclysm but I don't think I will be as afraid of Deathwing as I was of Arthas and his Scourge horde.
Zetter
I am looking forward to the expansion a lot but from a lore point of view I think I will be sorry to say goodbye to Arthas and his undead minions. I don't know why but I have always been fascinated and horrified by the whole Zombie/ getting taken over as undead thing.
I remember watching the Dawn of the Dead remake round a friends a couple of years ago and being quite disturbed by the whole zombie infestation thing. Especially at the start when the main protagonists daughter is infected and then kills her husband who also rises as one of the undead. I think its probably the whole idea of losing yourself so to speak but still being there that I find disturbing.
Personally I think I prefer the approach taken by Lt Gorman in Aliens (don't know if you have seen this) when he and Vasquez are cornered and about to be turned into basically lunch or alien breeders. He pulls out a grenade and takes a load of them with him rather than being torn to bits or eeeew impregnated. I think if I was in the same situation I would prefer to go out with a bang!
Anyway rambling a bit, but this is what I think makes Arthas and the Scourge such a great enemy, not only are people you are fighting beside killed by them but your friends suddenly get up and start trying to kill you! Take this section from the story of Kel'Thuzad's fall to the dark side
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/1p11/naxxramas/roadtodamnation2.html
damn disturbing or what.
From my point of view especially playing someone tied to the natural world like a druid it felt that you were really fighting for all you held dear as the alternative wasn't just death it was worse.
For cataclysm I don't think Deathwing has the same impact for me as an enemy. Yep hes a dragon and a damn big one at that but really he doesn't seem to have quote the air of evil about him as the scourge. Sure he can incinerate you and blast towns etc but the scourge not only killed you and obliterated your town but you got up the next day and munched down on the survivors. Also from reading the linked extract you probably were horribly aware of it.
So roll on Cataclysm but I don't think I will be as afraid of Deathwing as I was of Arthas and his Scourge horde.
Zetter
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Why I still dont join PUG raids on the Peak
One thing I am looking forward to in Cataclysm is the hopeful end of the gearscore, achievement crap that you appear to need now to even get a mage teleport to Dustwallow Marsh (well at least for a while until the purveyors of said crap can find someone to carry them through content so they can get said achievements/ gearscore).
Here is another classic example of the GS/Achievement Mentality on the Peak at the moment. I was wandering through Dalaran sorting out my UI in my admittedly patchwork Boomkin gear that still needs a bit of work when I got the below whisper.
Here is another classic example of the GS/Achievement Mentality on the Peak at the moment. I was wandering through Dalaran sorting out my UI in my admittedly patchwork Boomkin gear that still needs a bit of work when I got the below whisper.
Now as I said I was sorting out my UI so it was a mess and I generally only raid with the guild so I sent a cheery "no thanks" and went on my way only to get the following DND message.
Yep Mr come DPS in ICC needs my inside leg measurement before talking to him? Obviously this paragon of playing expertise must be ICC at least 12/12 on heroic 10 man and wants a fast run, so is weeding out people who haven't seen the fights? Nope after checking the armoury he hasn't even done Blood Queen or Professor on 10 man or for some reason done Storming the Citadel on 25 man.
It makes you want to cry sometimes it really does.
Zetter
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
The gangs getting back together
Well after a quiet few weeks it appears people are coming back out of the woodwork for the ramp up for Cataclysm. At the moment our Cataclysm raiding roster includes 15 players for our 10 man team including the return of some old friends from our old guild. The most exiting thing is the amount of people we have who are prepared to do healer and tank roles so we should have a bit of varied rotation going on for raids rather than just the DPS being subbed our or raids being binned because one of our healers cant make a raid.
On the highlight front recently we finally managed to get all the raiders their 10 man ICC drakes including our returning friend Tess from http://www.reflectionsfromthepond.com/ who pitched in with her Shammy to show us how the healing was done :).
Also we ran one of our casual members through Lich King 10 man to get the title and see what all the fuss was about. This looked like it was going to fail as one of our raider had to drop for an emergency. So we decided to 9 man it and at the end of it despite a tank dieing (get in there battle rez and damn your new cooldown!) we added another member to the Kingslayer club.
THE GUILD WITH THEIR DRAKES
Despite my future Boomkin plans I healed both runs due to gearing issues for the people who are planning to change roles in Cataclysm (obviously as one of the two raiding druids in the guild I have a set of about everything from ICC so don't have this issue and it would only have gone to waste otherwise).
Overall I found druid healing hasn't changed much at the moment from pre the patch. The hots are shorter so you tend to use direct healing spells more and Nourish is a bit pointless at the moment (I suspect it will be more useful during Cata). Other than that and the fact tranquility is a lot more useful now it was the same old same old for me and I fell back into healing with little issue. I think this is probably because doing 10 mans with a Shammy and Disco priest as my healing buddies I tended to use every spell in arsenal as my role varied a lot during ICC fights (especially if we lost a healer part way through the fight).
I know I will probably annoy a few other tree bloggers over this but new tree of life cooldown is AWESOME and really powerful. For example on the phase changes on Professor Putricide Heroic when damage is flying about all over the place being able to hit loads of people with wild growth and bomb heal on the move with regrowth really helped. Also with the cooldown at 3 mins I was able to use it for both phase changes. I can see this being really useful for spike damage phases in fight in cataclysm.
Overall though I think this is probably the end of ICC serious raiding now and going forward it will be more fun runs to gear alts/ try out new roles. Bring on Cataclysm!
Zetter
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
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
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
All Change?
Well patch 4.0 is just round the corner and with it loads of changes to Talents, stats etc etc. In the guild everyone is starting to thing thing what they will play in Cataclysm.
Being a 10 man guild now the real working out starts on how many tanks, dps and healers we are going to end up with and if we need to recruit to fill the roster on certain roles. Blizz had made this a bit easier with the proposed homogenisation of healer talents so for example not having a pally or druid will not be as crippling hopefully as it once was.
However for us the changes have already started our raid leader (who is one of the tanks) has already said that he wanted to take his pally holy for the expansion with all the spiffy spells pallys are getting to move them away from the 2 they currently rely on a lot. Also it looks like we will lose a couple of DPS to globe trotting adventures and maybe a healer dropping from the raiding scene for a bit.
Now for me this could be an interesting opportunity for Cataclysm. One thing I have decided is I am not going to switch mains I have invested too much time on my druid (and though I am ashamed to admit it I am a bit of an achievement lover at heart).
But as far as his role goes the call of tanking is tempting, I did start out BC on my pally as a tank but got sidelined into healing during Kara and found that I enjoyed it so stuck with it. One thing that I do have some reservations on though is if I can hack it as a tank. Our tanks during Wrath were impressive they steered fights got us past Mimeron (when he was nasty) etc etc. They seemed to have a great awareness of fights and tactics. I just wonder if I can match up to it going forward. I think it will be an interesting change of pace though and a real change from healing so if things pan out the way they are looking to it may be a view from the bear going forward rather than the tree.
One thing I have definitely decided though is that I am either as healer or tank going to take DPS as my offspec. Running healer and tank is too confusing for my brain, at least the dps specs of druid have some synergy with their respective healing/ tanking specs. I find the jump from healer to tank is a real jolt for me and I have to totally change my way of thinking about my toon.
So anyone else out there planning to change roles radically for Cataclysm or are you going to stick with the role you know for your main?
Zetter
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Subjective time and WOW
A while ago I heard a report on the radio about a study into the human perception of time. The crux of the research was that every human essentially manipulates their personal perception of time through their lives.
If you think about it you can probably recall times when this has happened those moments of danger when time slows to a crawl and seconds stretch into minutes or when you were young and the summer holidays seemed to last for years rather than weeks.
One of the depressing things the research bough up was as you get older your perception of the passing of time speeds up dramatically. As I approach my 40th year this is definitely noticeable, weekends seem gone in a blink of an eye and the weeks seem to fly by with not enough time to fit everything in which always seemed so easy in my 20s.
This got me to thinking that WOW is a real demonstration of this phenomena in action. I have seen my perception of time slow in game and speed up over and over again.
For time seeming to crawl one of my most vivid memories of this was not surprisingly in a raid in fact in my first raid experience in Kara. I joined my old guild almost as they were starting Kara and after a bit of rejigging ended up as one of the healers and for some reason a raid leader.
We made good progress through Kara despite the fact our healing team was 2 holy pallys and a priest.
Then we hit Shade of Aran and oh my god what a block he was we must have wiped on him for weeks despite all the tactics with banishment of elementals and people not moving during the fire phase it was a nightmare. In fact it was a real moral sapper for the whole team especially as there was no raid ID extension in those days so if you didn't do it in the two raid days we had we had to start all over again!
Then finally one night after multiple wipes just as raid time was almost up it all came together and he was going down the % ticked down 3,2,1 then time seemed to stop 1%, 1%, 1% die you undead bastard die! A healer goes down then a DPS, mana looking low no no no not on 1% then time restarts and he crumples victory! A cheers rings out over vent and time restarts it ambling path again at a sensible rate.
For time dragging I guess at the moment is a good time in WOW to say time is extending horribly for me. I have achieved what I want in Wrath, Arthas lies dead and his citidel in ruins, Cataclysm is looming with new patches heralding a new dawn but its still looking like two months to go which I think is going to seem like an age.
For others time at the moment time in WOW may seem to be racing by, will the next patch with its changes for the classes not gel with current raid mechanics denying them that final kill, will they get their tiger from ZG before it goes the way of the Dodo?
What about you? Can you recall those times in WOW when time seemed to stretch on forever and the tick between seconds seemed like eternity or and afternoon passed in a blink of an eye playing with friends. Welcome to the Blizzards time machine but your not at the controls!
Zetter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)