Who knew?
Apparently most realms are infested with badkins to the point that having a moonkin "not suck" is a surprise.
28 January 2010
Well, my existence has been validated...
Who knew?
Apparently most realms are infested with badkins to the point that having a moonkin "not suck" is a surprise.
26 January 2010
Kili Rants... on why I'm a baddie
I have a confession to make.
I am a keyboard turner.
Go ahead, call me OMGn00b - I beat you to it in my "about me" blurb there on the sidebar anyway. I know it's not the "best" way of doing things, and sometimes it has caused more problems than I'd like it to... but hear me out here.
I was catching up on the last couple of weeks worth of posts at Tree Bark Jacket, and spotted this response to a reader question about how to learn to not be a clicker. It got me thinking about the good old days of vanilla WoW, when I was just starting to play, and how I've evolved into the player I am today. I left a comment about my keybinding philosophy there, and realized there was a lot more to say than I felt comfortable leaving in the comments section. I mean, when my comment starts threatening to be longer than the post that inspired it, I know it's time to hop back over to my own space to vent my thoughts.
See, unlike many of my friends, I came to this game not as an experienced gamer. I didn't have tons of FPS experience, or even play another MMO. I'd played a text MUD, and a bunch of computer arcade/puzzle type games that involved lots of clicking on the pretty pictures on the screen, or with maybe a few preset keystrokes that mimicked an arcade game's joystick/button commands. The concept of customizable keybindings was a bit new to me, and the sheer number of skills and usable items in WoW blew my mind.
I had the default UI for a while, until I learned more about different addons to change my button bars and other interface features. I didn't even know enough to turn on the extra action bars in the default interface for a while. Macros? Ha. Not a clue. I had the basic 12 action bar buttons to shove as many useful things as possible into, and then I clicked on things in my bags, or put them on the extra action bars once I figured out how to show them, and clicked on those.
Then, after a few weeks of low-level messing around, my good friend Dave, who was much more experienced in this sort of thing than I, informed me that I needed to keybind my commonly used spells and items, or I would be considered a baddie. "Don't be a noob clicker. Keybind everything." "EVERYTHING?" "OK, well, the stuff you'll actually use very often."
Trying to go from mostly clicking to mostly keybinding was a real learning experience. Of course, Dave didn't play a druid, which was my main by that point, so he didn't have any real advice on how to keybind effectively. If I could go back in time and teach myself a few things, I'd have done it very differently. Over the last 2 years, I've learned so much about how to play this game better - but unfortunately, unlearning 2 or 3 years worth of ingrained habits is... awkward at best. And at worst, disastrous.
I am a keyboard turner.
Go ahead, call me OMGn00b - I beat you to it in my "about me" blurb there on the sidebar anyway. I know it's not the "best" way of doing things, and sometimes it has caused more problems than I'd like it to... but hear me out here.
I was catching up on the last couple of weeks worth of posts at Tree Bark Jacket, and spotted this response to a reader question about how to learn to not be a clicker. It got me thinking about the good old days of vanilla WoW, when I was just starting to play, and how I've evolved into the player I am today. I left a comment about my keybinding philosophy there, and realized there was a lot more to say than I felt comfortable leaving in the comments section. I mean, when my comment starts threatening to be longer than the post that inspired it, I know it's time to hop back over to my own space to vent my thoughts.
See, unlike many of my friends, I came to this game not as an experienced gamer. I didn't have tons of FPS experience, or even play another MMO. I'd played a text MUD, and a bunch of computer arcade/puzzle type games that involved lots of clicking on the pretty pictures on the screen, or with maybe a few preset keystrokes that mimicked an arcade game's joystick/button commands. The concept of customizable keybindings was a bit new to me, and the sheer number of skills and usable items in WoW blew my mind.
I had the default UI for a while, until I learned more about different addons to change my button bars and other interface features. I didn't even know enough to turn on the extra action bars in the default interface for a while. Macros? Ha. Not a clue. I had the basic 12 action bar buttons to shove as many useful things as possible into, and then I clicked on things in my bags, or put them on the extra action bars once I figured out how to show them, and clicked on those.
Then, after a few weeks of low-level messing around, my good friend Dave, who was much more experienced in this sort of thing than I, informed me that I needed to keybind my commonly used spells and items, or I would be considered a baddie. "Don't be a noob clicker. Keybind everything." "EVERYTHING?" "OK, well, the stuff you'll actually use very often."
Trying to go from mostly clicking to mostly keybinding was a real learning experience. Of course, Dave didn't play a druid, which was my main by that point, so he didn't have any real advice on how to keybind effectively. If I could go back in time and teach myself a few things, I'd have done it very differently. Over the last 2 years, I've learned so much about how to play this game better - but unfortunately, unlearning 2 or 3 years worth of ingrained habits is... awkward at best. And at worst, disastrous.
Oh, Ignore List, how I love you.
I've been running a lot of random heroics lately, between my 5 level 80s on Skullcrusher. I try to get one a day on Kili and the healers, for the 2 frost badges as well as keeping a stock of triumphs for offspec upgrades on the healy girls and epic gems for the main. My mage has been running as many as I can squeeze in, because there are actual upgrades from some of those instances, in addition to needing triumph badges out the wazoo for T9 and other items.
So I've seen a lot of PUGs - good, bad and indifferent. Most of them I just let roll off my back, but the last few days I've been feeling quite a bit more intolerant of bad pugs - especially bad tanks.
Last night, for instance, on the mage... Heroic Utgarde Keep popped, and as per my usual routine, right after I ported in, I buffed AI, refreshed my Molten Armor, picked out my target for Focus Magic (the resto shaman this time, as the other DPS were a ret pally and feral druid), and start to drop a table. The ret pally hung back with me to buff and then said he needed to run AFK really fast, and the feral druid tried to help me drop the table, but the tank, Mr. Impatient, ran ahead of us and pulled almost immediately, so the shaman followed, and the table didn't get dropped.
Instead, Mr. Impatient Tanky-pants started griping at the DPS who were all back at the entrance (either AFK or trying to set out the refreshments, thank you very much). "Can someone other than me come DPS this stuff?" I abandoned the ritual of refreshment cast, and ran up the steps to help with the first pull. And then mildly chastised the tank by reminding him that some us had to buff, and I was trying to help the group by dropping a table. He, not mollified in the least, then began bitching at the resto shaman for not healing him after the pull was over.
Now if I were the shaman, I'd have healed him before he asked. But since he asked, and in such a nasty tone of voice, the shaman took offense to how badly the whole thing had started, and told him he could eat or bandage, as we were out of combat. I actually bandaged the tank myself, since he was being such a prima donna about it. And the tank, trying to prove something to someone, then ran off at 3/4 health and decided to pull ALL THE MOBS in the first hallway of Utgarde Keep. Now, I've run this instance many times, on many characters. I've run it as a healer with my guild's best geared bear tank - who was much better geared than Mr. Warrior Pants there - and when he tried to pull the entire room, he got positively owned. Hardcore. Armor reduction debuffs FTL.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Impatient Prima Donna Uber Tank died. Quickly. I know the shaman actually attempted to heal him, but couldn't keep up with the damage when Mr. I Wear Plate Hear Me Roar was fully sundered, and proceeded to die as well. I backed up into a corner and hit Invisibility, so I was the only one alive when the tank began to positively berate the shaman, who gave back as good as he got, and the other DPS joined in. The tank felt that he had done nothing wrong, and that clearly the shaman's attitude and lack of skill was at fault. Riiiiight.
And of course, being the second pull of the instance, we were not yet able to vote kick Mr. Tank Wearing Pants on Head. When he was informed of our desire to do so, he laughed at us, refused to either leave the party or continue to pull, and said "go ahead, you'll have to wait for another 20 minutes to find a new tank while I insta-queue into the next one."
After several minutes of him bragging about himself both in game (playing for 4 years, six level 80's) and out of game (married with a child, and therefore "mature" and not twelve years old as he was accused of being, WITH A GOOD JOB... as they all seem to have....), I finally reminded the rest of the party to put Mr. Asshat Tank on their ignore list so they wouldn't have to group with him ever again, and proceeded to set him straight.
You see, it may make our wait longer, Mr. "Ghettoboy" of Bloodhoof-US, but every single person in that party would rather have sat there for 30 minutes watching paint dry while waiting for a new tank instead of spending one minute more in that group with him.
So I've seen a lot of PUGs - good, bad and indifferent. Most of them I just let roll off my back, but the last few days I've been feeling quite a bit more intolerant of bad pugs - especially bad tanks.
Last night, for instance, on the mage... Heroic Utgarde Keep popped, and as per my usual routine, right after I ported in, I buffed AI, refreshed my Molten Armor, picked out my target for Focus Magic (the resto shaman this time, as the other DPS were a ret pally and feral druid), and start to drop a table. The ret pally hung back with me to buff and then said he needed to run AFK really fast, and the feral druid tried to help me drop the table, but the tank, Mr. Impatient, ran ahead of us and pulled almost immediately, so the shaman followed, and the table didn't get dropped.
Instead, Mr. Impatient Tanky-pants started griping at the DPS who were all back at the entrance (either AFK or trying to set out the refreshments, thank you very much). "Can someone other than me come DPS this stuff?" I abandoned the ritual of refreshment cast, and ran up the steps to help with the first pull. And then mildly chastised the tank by reminding him that some us had to buff, and I was trying to help the group by dropping a table. He, not mollified in the least, then began bitching at the resto shaman for not healing him after the pull was over.
Now if I were the shaman, I'd have healed him before he asked. But since he asked, and in such a nasty tone of voice, the shaman took offense to how badly the whole thing had started, and told him he could eat or bandage, as we were out of combat. I actually bandaged the tank myself, since he was being such a prima donna about it. And the tank, trying to prove something to someone, then ran off at 3/4 health and decided to pull ALL THE MOBS in the first hallway of Utgarde Keep. Now, I've run this instance many times, on many characters. I've run it as a healer with my guild's best geared bear tank - who was much better geared than Mr. Warrior Pants there - and when he tried to pull the entire room, he got positively owned. Hardcore. Armor reduction debuffs FTL.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Impatient Prima Donna Uber Tank died. Quickly. I know the shaman actually attempted to heal him, but couldn't keep up with the damage when Mr. I Wear Plate Hear Me Roar was fully sundered, and proceeded to die as well. I backed up into a corner and hit Invisibility, so I was the only one alive when the tank began to positively berate the shaman, who gave back as good as he got, and the other DPS joined in. The tank felt that he had done nothing wrong, and that clearly the shaman's attitude and lack of skill was at fault. Riiiiight.
And of course, being the second pull of the instance, we were not yet able to vote kick Mr. Tank Wearing Pants on Head. When he was informed of our desire to do so, he laughed at us, refused to either leave the party or continue to pull, and said "go ahead, you'll have to wait for another 20 minutes to find a new tank while I insta-queue into the next one."
After several minutes of him bragging about himself both in game (playing for 4 years, six level 80's) and out of game (married with a child, and therefore "mature" and not twelve years old as he was accused of being, WITH A GOOD JOB... as they all seem to have....), I finally reminded the rest of the party to put Mr. Asshat Tank on their ignore list so they wouldn't have to group with him ever again, and proceeded to set him straight.
You see, it may make our wait longer, Mr. "Ghettoboy" of Bloodhoof-US, but every single person in that party would rather have sat there for 30 minutes watching paint dry while waiting for a new tank instead of spending one minute more in that group with him.
25 January 2010
Fantastic! Amazing! Spectacular!
As a blogger, I'm inconsistent and often indecisive. When WoW.com put out a call for applications to write their resto and balance druid articles, I immediately wanted to apply - get paid for blogging? Yes please! - but started to realize how very difficult it would be for me to come up with topics, and how very hard I would take criticism that all prominent WoW writers face, whether writing for a major site like WoW.com or maintaining a guide on the official forums.
Lissanna from Restokin.com was a natural choice for the job, but she declined to apply, as she's too busy with grad school... So without Liss in the running, and with my own reluctance to apply, I sat back to wait and see who WoW.com would wind up with. They've introduced new writers lately for several features, and I figured we'd end up with an obscure individual for the resto/balance druid column like myself, who knows some good resources and has a penchant for writing, but with a little more confidence.
Thus, today, when the announcement came, I was stunned. I was astounded. I was inordinately pleased.
One of the best known moonkin theorycrafters out there is the new WoW.com "voice of the boomkin" - Tyler Caraway, better known on the druid class forums, DPS role forum, and TheMoonkinRepository.com as Murmurs.
I did not expect Murmurs to apply. I'm curious now about whether any of the other well known forum moonkins - from TMR, Elitist Jerks, or the official class forum - bothered to apply, and what kind of sample articles Murmurs provided.
One thing that makes me happy... I will be able to read the moonkin posts on WoW.com without constantly second-guessing the theorycrafting behind the advice, since I know Murmurs will have done his research with all due diligence.
Excellent choice, WoW.com.
Lissanna from Restokin.com was a natural choice for the job, but she declined to apply, as she's too busy with grad school... So without Liss in the running, and with my own reluctance to apply, I sat back to wait and see who WoW.com would wind up with. They've introduced new writers lately for several features, and I figured we'd end up with an obscure individual for the resto/balance druid column like myself, who knows some good resources and has a penchant for writing, but with a little more confidence.
Thus, today, when the announcement came, I was stunned. I was astounded. I was inordinately pleased.
One of the best known moonkin theorycrafters out there is the new WoW.com "voice of the boomkin" - Tyler Caraway, better known on the druid class forums, DPS role forum, and TheMoonkinRepository.com as Murmurs.
I did not expect Murmurs to apply. I'm curious now about whether any of the other well known forum moonkins - from TMR, Elitist Jerks, or the official class forum - bothered to apply, and what kind of sample articles Murmurs provided.
One thing that makes me happy... I will be able to read the moonkin posts on WoW.com without constantly second-guessing the theorycrafting behind the advice, since I know Murmurs will have done his research with all due diligence.
Excellent choice, WoW.com.
21 January 2010
ZOMG EPIXXX ZOMG!
Less than 24 hours after dinging 80, four of my bored friends carried my little mage butt through heroic Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection.
I replaced my weapon twice (lulz), my neck, and after the run was over I did one random heroic and had enough badges to pick up T9 shoulders.
In random heroics, I picked up the belt from Ymiron and the ring from Ingvar. If I hadn't had real life stuff to attend to last night, or plans to be productive today, I may well have been able to grind enough heroics and normal mode TOC/ICC 5 mans to be fully epic'd out by now.
Patch 3.3, great for gearing out new alts. Combine that with my last post's rant on how doggone easy it is to play an arcane mage, and I very well may have a non-healing alt worthy of bringing to ICC-10 within a week or two.
Score!
I replaced my weapon twice (lulz), my neck, and after the run was over I did one random heroic and had enough badges to pick up T9 shoulders.
In random heroics, I picked up the belt from Ymiron and the ring from Ingvar. If I hadn't had real life stuff to attend to last night, or plans to be productive today, I may well have been able to grind enough heroics and normal mode TOC/ICC 5 mans to be fully epic'd out by now.
Patch 3.3, great for gearing out new alts. Combine that with my last post's rant on how doggone easy it is to play an arcane mage, and I very well may have a non-healing alt worthy of bringing to ICC-10 within a week or two.
Score!
20 January 2010
Kili Rants... on Level 80 #6
My cute little bundle of hurt hit 80 tonight - red pigtails and all.
I originally started my mage as fire spec, with advice from a guildie who was the best mage I know. Leiseletta was going to be "The Burninator", and I ran battlegrounds with her at 19 and 29, with some semi-twinked gear, and had a good bit of fun.
The low level PVP, by the way, was my reasoning for her Engineering profession. I'd considered picking up something else instead, but if I can force myself to level it I think I'll stick with it. The toys are fun, and I still may PVP on her again.
After bouncing around between a few other alts, I got the urge to pick her up again after Patch 2.3 improved leveling in the 30's and beyond, and after talking to another friend, I followed his advice and went frost for the survivability... and for the ability to ride around in a big circle, aggro 7 or 8 mobs, and AOE them down, coming out alive on the other end with a quest half done.
Leiseletta was my last alt to 70 before WOTLK hit. She was intended to be my PVP alt, but I didn't have enough time to get used to mage PVP (and not being able to heal myself, zomg) before the expansion, and time to level my main again. And then my priest. And then my shaman. And then another druid. And another druid. (And let's not forget the fits and starts of playing my rogue and hunter!)
Throughout this process, off and on, I soloed my way through Borean Tundra - with a little help from a guildie on a couple of difficult group quests - and struggled to find instance groups for Nexus and Utgarde Keep. I finished a couple of quests at the first quest hub in Howling Fjord, and put the mage back on the shelf again for a few months... and then, 3.3 hit. Cross server instance groups meant I could quest for about 20 or 30 minutes while in queue, port directly to the instance no matter where I was questing, and then pop right back to my quests when done. Following Jame's leveling guide, I started at level 72 in Howling Fjord, and was just nearly level 79 when I finished HF due to all the instance XP. I hit 79 after doing 3 or 4 quests in Dragonblight.
I originally started my mage as fire spec, with advice from a guildie who was the best mage I know. Leiseletta was going to be "The Burninator", and I ran battlegrounds with her at 19 and 29, with some semi-twinked gear, and had a good bit of fun.
The low level PVP, by the way, was my reasoning for her Engineering profession. I'd considered picking up something else instead, but if I can force myself to level it I think I'll stick with it. The toys are fun, and I still may PVP on her again.
After bouncing around between a few other alts, I got the urge to pick her up again after Patch 2.3 improved leveling in the 30's and beyond, and after talking to another friend, I followed his advice and went frost for the survivability... and for the ability to ride around in a big circle, aggro 7 or 8 mobs, and AOE them down, coming out alive on the other end with a quest half done.
Leiseletta was my last alt to 70 before WOTLK hit. She was intended to be my PVP alt, but I didn't have enough time to get used to mage PVP (and not being able to heal myself, zomg) before the expansion, and time to level my main again. And then my priest. And then my shaman. And then another druid. And another druid. (And let's not forget the fits and starts of playing my rogue and hunter!)
Throughout this process, off and on, I soloed my way through Borean Tundra - with a little help from a guildie on a couple of difficult group quests - and struggled to find instance groups for Nexus and Utgarde Keep. I finished a couple of quests at the first quest hub in Howling Fjord, and put the mage back on the shelf again for a few months... and then, 3.3 hit. Cross server instance groups meant I could quest for about 20 or 30 minutes while in queue, port directly to the instance no matter where I was questing, and then pop right back to my quests when done. Following Jame's leveling guide, I started at level 72 in Howling Fjord, and was just nearly level 79 when I finished HF due to all the instance XP. I hit 79 after doing 3 or 4 quests in Dragonblight.
16 January 2010
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
I logged on last night without much in mind - I figured I'd do the random daily on my level 80s, and work on leveling my mage a bit more... It was Friday night, and one of my guildies had been trying to start up his regular TOC25 PUG again, and I thought if he was online, I might bring my main and try ONE MORE TIME to get that stupid trinket from Anub'arak.
Another guildmate, a non-raider whose brother is part of my regular 10 man crew but who himself is often ignored as bad or annoying (to be fair, he is only 14, and only started playing with WOTLK), was trying to organize an ICC10 group, and not getting a lot of positive response. I personally didn't plan to join the group - again, I was thinking I'd do heroics until TOC25, if it happened - but as 7:00 server time approached and the TOC raid leader was not online, I got a tell from a friend who'd agreed to main tank and lead Mura's ICC10 group, asking if I had a character I'd like to bring. As my main was saved, I offered him a choice between rarbare, loltree, shammy heals, bad enhancement shammy, priest heals, or bad spriest. They had a resto shaman and resto druid already, so my priest in healing spec was a good fit for the group, and we managed to pull together a pretty solid team of well geared alts and a few mains who hadn't done 10 man yet this week.
The group flew through the first wing, at least until Saurfang, where we had a couple of aborted attempts and a full wipe before we got serious and made healing assignments. Yeah, I can't heal everyone at once. With our team, we decided the best route was to have the resto druid watching the ranged dps and other healers, the resto shaman chain healing the tank and melee DPS, and me primarily on tank heals, while tossing up PW:S on the ranged when the blood beasts were targeting them just in case. I'm not discipline spec'd, but every little bit helps, and in this case, we got well into enrage before the first mark went out. And nobody died, at all.
Another guildmate, a non-raider whose brother is part of my regular 10 man crew but who himself is often ignored as bad or annoying (to be fair, he is only 14, and only started playing with WOTLK), was trying to organize an ICC10 group, and not getting a lot of positive response. I personally didn't plan to join the group - again, I was thinking I'd do heroics until TOC25, if it happened - but as 7:00 server time approached and the TOC raid leader was not online, I got a tell from a friend who'd agreed to main tank and lead Mura's ICC10 group, asking if I had a character I'd like to bring. As my main was saved, I offered him a choice between rarbare, loltree, shammy heals, bad enhancement shammy, priest heals, or bad spriest. They had a resto shaman and resto druid already, so my priest in healing spec was a good fit for the group, and we managed to pull together a pretty solid team of well geared alts and a few mains who hadn't done 10 man yet this week.
The group flew through the first wing, at least until Saurfang, where we had a couple of aborted attempts and a full wipe before we got serious and made healing assignments. Yeah, I can't heal everyone at once. With our team, we decided the best route was to have the resto druid watching the ranged dps and other healers, the resto shaman chain healing the tank and melee DPS, and me primarily on tank heals, while tossing up PW:S on the ranged when the blood beasts were targeting them just in case. I'm not discipline spec'd, but every little bit helps, and in this case, we got well into enrage before the first mark went out. And nobody died, at all.
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