Monday, April 27, 2009

April 27, 2009

Guild News
Let's see. Some drama has taken place in my guild the last few weeks, though in retrospect it doesn't seem interesting enough to note.

Our GM has made a pattern of rage quitting during raids. First couple times we felt bad for him. But now we notice he does it every time. He can't handle pressure, that's for sure. I think it all boils down to him wanting to please everyone. He doesn't know how to deal with a situation in which not everyone is happy.

I'm leading raids now. Yesterday was the first time. Tons o' fun. We cleared Arachnid and then Construct up to Thaddius. Progression is nice... :=)

I also got to return to Naxx 25 with guild #4 this past week. I got a nice new ring.

Miscellaneous
Umm...I guess I'm not too motivated to write at the moment. Kinda tired.

Monday, April 13, 2009

April 13, 2009


What a weekend!

Naxxramas (Heroic)
This is a little out of order, but I think it's the most positive thing that happened. On Saturday night, I joined guild #4 after my own guild raid runs were over. They were up to 4-horsemen. Well, I finally understand the mechanics of the fight and how to watch for the marks and deal with them.

We then did Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. Yippee! I finally finished Naxx. The priest T7 head piece token dropped, but I lost it to that darned Baby Spice throwing warlock I'm so fond of! hehee I did get some new robes, so I'm happy. =) And I got achievements too for the last two bosses and finishing Naxx. Woo hoo!

And...to top it off, I got just the right amount of emblems to buy myself some shiny new boots. I'm styling now!

Guild Raids
Saturday afternoon my guild did our raid runs. OS and VoA...no problems. Then we went to Naxx and did much much better than the first time. Our living-in-the-past druid healer actually joined us and she did well. We finished the Arachnid quarter then moved on to the Construct quarter. We got Patchwerk down by the skin of our teeth...we defeated him at the last possible second. Then we moved on to Grobbulus. As expected, we were unable to take him down. It's all good, though. He's a tough boss until you get the strategy down.

All in all...very succesful runs.

Guild Drama
Of course, this weekend was not without its drama!

After our guild raids on Saturday afternoon, I was taking a much needed break while waiting for guild #4 to have an open spot for me. After waiting a long time, I got an invite from my guild leader to run a heroic. I should never have accepted that invitation. Because, we all know how Murphy's Law works. As soon as I entered the heroic instance, guild #4 whispered me that the spot was open. They were willing to wait for me to finish the heroic.

It was all down hill from there. The run was a disaster. We wiped 2 or 3 times. The MT was using his dps druid with his "tank set". But he couldn't hold aggro at all. My heals kept drawing aggro and I was getting slaughtered. He meant well, bless his heart. but, I think this was a lesson learned -- don't try to fill a role for which you are not optimized in a heroic instance! It's going to lead to failure. Long story short, when I said we needed to hurry because I had a Naxx invite, he simply said "Bye", hearthed and logged. We were all stunned.

We disbanded. I went to Naxx and had a good time, even though there were only 3 bosses left.

So... yesterday was Easter. After visiting the in-laws, I got home and logged in. Guild master wasn't on, but a few others were. One of which pointed out to me that our Guild Message of the Day had been changed to a statement that the GM was stepping down and we'd be voting on a new one. At first I thought he was being over dramatic in his reaction to our failed heroic run of the night before. But, someone pointed out that the message had been there since Friday, well before this weekend's drama. Regardless, I have no clue why he's stepping down.

GM finally logged on later on in the night and didn't acknowledge/apologize for his actions of the night before. He acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I was so annoyed by it all. We have a "meeting" this week to discuss the election of a new GM. I predict this is the end of the guild.

Obsidian Sanctum (Heroic) and Vault of Archavon (Heroic)
Last night I joined an OS-25 run. No drops for me, just emblems of valor. Then we went to VoA. It took so long to organize the run that we were ported out during the boss fight. Ah well, it was fun trying.

Friday, April 10, 2009

April 10, 2009

Frustration, meet Boredom. Boredom, meet Frustration. Oh? You already know each other?
That describes how I felt last night. Logged in with my priest to see the the Naxx 25 run is still scheduled at the same time as the Naxx 10 run. I want to go to the former, but have to go to the latter. I logged off her in frustration. I logged on with my mage and couldn't find a heroic. It was getting dangerously close to the time for the follow-up Kara run. So, I logged.

I switched to Horde and stared at my toons. I logged in with a couple, then lost interest and logged.

I closed WoW and spent the rest of the night watching T.V. with my husband.

Personal Stuff
Taking a slight detour from my usual posting. I just want to remember which day this happened. Ronny (NYB) wrote to Michael and Shannon today. It's a courageous gesture on his part. Ronny has no idea if they'll respond. His biggest fear is that the message will end up in the spam filter list and never get read. I've advised him to wait a few days for a response. Then, try again from another email address that is less likely to get mis-marked as spam. Crossing our fingers.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

April 9, 2009

I'm sure someone reading my blog might want to throw their arms up in frustration and say, "Stop complaining and do something already!" But, luckily for me, I don't think anyone is actually reading this. =)

Guild Stuff
I'm at the point that I'm not so concerned anymore about anyone figuring out it's me writing this blog. My frustration level is that high.

Late last night we got a group together to run Heroic Nexus. I had to use my priest because we currently have no healers other than her. Well, we do, but the other priest has been having computer issues lately and the resto druid is the one living in the past. So, basically, it's just me. Don't get me started on how much I'm beginning to resent having no choice but to heal. Anyway, we had a PuG rogue and the rest were our GM tanking, our resident warrior/warlock, and a DK. We've been having problems forever with our warlock having incredibly low dps. Well, after last night's run, which took forever, we showed the recount statistics and the warlock was top of the list for DPS. People were applauding him. But all I could think was WTF? His DPS hasn't improved at all recently. It's still at 1300. The only reason he was on top last night was because everyone else's DPS was even worse. He has been 80 for months. Why hasn't he improved??? And why are people applauding him when they should really be pointing out that his DPS hasn't increased in the last few months??

Agh! They're so frustrating.

Have I become so obsessed with gear and raiding that I've changed my viewpoint on what makes the game fun? I was not this way when 70 was the level cap. But, is that because by the time my priest was 70 there was no real opportunity to do heroics since that expansion had been out for so long? Or maybe because heroics and entry-level raiding were not as accessible as they are in this expansion? I used to be content leveling to 70 then playing around. Now, it's all about raiding and gear for me.

Is this change in focus OK? Or should I re-evaluate my priorities?

One obvious choice for me to make is to leave my casual social guild and join a raiding guild. But, is that what I really want? Do I want to join a guild that has a regular schedule and expectations of their members? Do I want my full focus to be on raiding? Will it come to the point that I won't want to raid anymore and I'll miss the social aspect of my current guild?

In a way, my current situation meets my needs. I'm free to do what I want in guild and to interact with people with whom I've developed online-friendships. It only becomes a problem when my 25-man raid opportunities conflict with the 10-man raid plans of my guild. Well, also at any point I can be dropped from the invite list of another guild since they have no loyalty to me. I mean, if they get another priest into their guild, why would they invite me over her? It makes perfect sense and it's the risk I take by continuing to be a PuG raider.

But, if I joined a raiding guild I'd have a guaranteed spot. I'd have access to a group of people who can actually get through heroics. I'd be able to gear up and prepare for Ulduar. And, one thing I've never considered, I might even find a good group of people to interact with. Just because my current guild is filled with nice social people, that doesn't mean a raiding guild can't have people of equal caliber.

I can't play this game forever. When I do finally quit, what will I want to have accomplished?

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

April 8, 2009

Living in the Past
Apparently, a couple of my guild members are living in the past. They are a married couple who took several months off of playing right when Wrath was about to hit. So, they missed the initial leveling phase that all of us went through. They came back about a month ago and started leveling their mains. Good for us, since one was the main tank of my old guild and the other was an awesome healer. I was excited. I hoped they would level quickly then be able to join us in Heroics and Raids.

Well, that's not what they did. Instead, they've spent almost their entire time in the old world getting achievements. At first I thought it was just a phase. But it ended up being an obsession. We'd ask them if they wanted us to run them through some dungeons, and they'd say "no, doing Scarlet Monestary" or, "No, fishing to get the xxx achievement." On their level 70+ toons!

Don't get me wrong; I enjoy getting achievements and occasionally go out of my way to get one when I have nothing better to do. But, I just can't understand their focus on them while they still have an entire new continent to explore. So much new content. So much better gear.

Well, they finally dinged 80 a couple nights ago (yes, they were questing now and then). They seemed really excited about being 80, so I thought they were finally ready to join the rest of us. But, what's the first thing they decide to do? Go to Kara! WTF???? Kara's fun and all, and going there with a bunch of 80s makes it a piece of cake. But, really, that's the first thing you do when you hit 80?

Not wanting to be a bad sport, I went along. I chose to take the opportunity to try to convince them, gently of course, to turn their sights on Northrend content. But, their answers amazed me. They were in Kara because they wanted an enchant drop that they had never been able to get pre-Wrath. An enchant drop? An enchant that is totally useless now that there are better ones available? Ugh!

Also, before the run started, the two of them were focused on making sure we had all of our potions, food buffs, etc. We delayed the start of the run for almost 45 minutes because of their insistence that we be as buffed as possible. Why the heck? We're friggin lvl 80s and most of us have epic gear on!

We get in there and tear through the mobs so quickly it's not even funny. We were so OP for that place that we were rarely in danger of anyone dying. But the druid healer, still stuck in the past, panicked and SCREAMED in Vent every time she got aggro. For heaven's sake! I can understand that reaction when we were going through Kara at 70. But, at 80? It's as if she thinks she, and the rest of us, are still lvl 70.

They're living in the past. I suspect they'll be stuck there for a while. It's so disappointing.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

April 7, 2009

Last night was kind of a slow night. I played my mage for a little while -- did a couple PuG heroics, including HoL. It's incredible how smoothly runs go when you've got good players. I'm beginning to fear HoL less and less.

Since our druid healer quit the other day and our other priest has been having computer problems, we've been without heals. I just don't feel motivated to play my priest unless it's to go to 25-mans. I know my guild is counting on me to heal, but I'm a little burnt out on healing.

My mage on the other hand...that's fun lately! DPSing is low stress and high satisfaction when I see those big numbers jumping across the screen and the bosses dying. I've been wanting to play her or my boomkin more than my priest lately.

Nothing happened in the guild last night. Pretty much everyone was doing their own things.

Monday, April 6, 2009

April 6, 2009

This weekend was fun, interesting and not without its drama.

Naxxramas (Heroic)
On Friday I returned with guild #4 to Naxx 25. Man! The speed of the run took a little getting used to. I mean, the main tank just moved forward and quickly. Barely any time was ever given to mana users to drink up. Then, after we downed a boss, while the master looter was dealing with loot, the main tank was running forward, clearing trash. There was even a time when we made it to the next boss before the master looter was done assigning loot from the previous one. We had to lock summon her!

I got a couple new shineys: Digested Silken Robes and Matriarch's Spawn. They definitely increased my overall stats. But, my mana regen was lowered by a bit. I'm gonna have to watch closely to see if my increased over all heals make up for the lower regen. The robes are very sexy and the spawn...that looks way cool!

I was successful at the Instructor Razuvious fight for the first time. I really don't like the pressure that priests are under for that fight. I chose the Priest class because I don't like tanking. I don't like that I'm forced to use tanking techniques -- though, admittedly, only a couple of them -- to do this fight. And if I fail, it's a wipe. We wiped 2 or 3 times before we got him down. But the last time was very close. Most of the raid was dead when all was said and done. One thing that was especially difficult for me was knowing when the other priest had actually taunted him off me. I couldn't see anything other than the million spells flashing before me. I wonder if I need to turn down my spell effects for that fight.

**I just read the strategy info on wowwiki.com. It seems one reason we did so poorly was that we didn't switch quickly enough. Even though Bone Shield has a 30 second cooldown, it only actually lasts about 10 seconds. So, we should have been switching every 10 seconds, not every 30, like we had been. I'll suggest that next week.

We stopped at the four horsemen. We tried a couple times but wiped both. I have to admit, even though I had done it once before, I really didn't know what was going on. I died both times to massive damage coming from nowhere.

**I read the straegy info on wowwiki.com for this one too. Now I have a much better idea what goes on in the fight and what contributed to my death. Though, I'm still unclear about what I'm supposed to be doing at what time.

Guild Drama
Oy vey! Was there guild drama or what? An influx of new members took place over the weekend. Most of them appear to be young kids. Definitely not our guild's style. Also, one of our healers left in a hissy fit. Confusion about a Naxx invite for another guild's run caused a bit of an uproar.

Ugh...it never ends.

Alts
I'm leveling my moonkin -- she's finally a moonkin! Having fun with that.

My mage got some good gear upgrades over the weekend. Her dps is now up to about 1900, even hitting 2000 occasionally. Not bad, not bad at all.

Friday, April 3, 2009

April 3, 2009

It has been quite a while since I last wrote. Let's see...what has happened since then?

Guild
In addition to merging with my other guild, we've taken on a couple new members. Suddenly, we have enough lvl 80s to actually consider raiding. It's exciting, but brings about a new set of stresses.

A couple of the members of my old guild who merged in are very very good players. Although they're incredibly nice people, they're not necessarily tolerant of the more casual personalities of the older members of the guild. Specifically, they're clashing on game play and itemization. Let's face it, many of the original members of the guild do not have the skills or knowledge of their class to do well in a raiding situation. It's frustrating when we're trying to do Heroics or Naxx with them. Their dps is insanely low and they make stupid mistakes during fights. That is a big source of tension right now in the guild.

So, what do we do? The not so good (hereafter referred to as "NSG") players want to do heroics and Naxx with the rest of us. But, they make progression close to impossible. This makes the consider themselves good (hereafter referred to as the "CTG") players very frustrated. When the NSGs are in a Heroic run, we barely make it through Nexus and UK alive. We can't even go to the next step up or we die a horrible death. And don't even get me started on Naxx. Last weekend we stepped in there and only got two bosses down. We tried all weekend but couldn't get the last one in the quarter down.

I'm torn. The NSGs should be able to play how they want. The bottom line is that everyone who pays the monthly fee for access to WoW should feel free to play how they want, even if that means not wearing the right equipment, not having the right spec, not knowing how to be strategic and stay out of the fire, etc.

However, I also understand how frustrating it is to not progress. I hate the fact that we spent two days in Naxx and only got down two bosses. What a friggin waste of everyone's time. And, we can't say that we'll do better this weekend because we have no new gear to help us out. No bosses down = no new gear. It's the NSGs that are keeping us back.

So...should the CTGs have to put up with the NSGs? Or should we be able to say that only CTGs are allowed in the raids...at least at this point while we're still trying to gear up?

Ugh! We're returning to Naxx tomorrow, so stay tuned.

25-man Naxx
I found another 25-man guild to run Naxx with - guild #4? Is that what number I'm up to in my list of guilds I run with? I went with them a couple of weeks ago and topped the healing meters. So, we're going back again this weekend. I will honestly say I am SOOO looking forward to playing with people who know what they're doing. Though I must admit I'm nervous about the mind control fight. I don't think I'll do very well on that -- so much pressure on priests for that one. :(

Alts
My mage is 80, is now arcane, and has done some heroics. I haven't progressed her much, though, since I'm called upon to heal so often.

My druid just reached 40 - MOONKIN form! Yay!

I created a Ret pally recently. Haven't played her much, but she's there when I want low pressure playing.

Conclusion
I'm enjoying myself lately, though the tension between those who want to progress and those who just want to have fun gets to me sometimes. Now that we have so many 80s, I am called upon often and have less freedom to do PuGs. Ah well...those glory days are over.