December 22, 2009

I Hate Spell Reflection
Yeah, yeah, QQ more. I know. But, nothing sucks more for a mage than spell reflection. Not even silence or disrupt effects. At least with those, you know you can't cast, so you can do something else. But with spell reflection, you often don't realize it until it's too late....when you've taken damage. Then, you don't have a clear idea when it is gone and you can start casting again.

Yeah, I know. There are usually visual signs...and often if you look at your target's buffs, you can see the effect and at what rate it is expiring. But still...I hate it. It hurts! :-)

I'm just QQing. I think it's a useful mechanic for the devs of the game, so my complaint is really just whining, nothing else. It keeps me on my toes and breaks the monotony of AB-AB-AB-AB-ABARR/AM.

But it still hurts!

Forge of Souls (Heoric) (Mage)
First thing I did last night was log on my druid. I'm determined to get a random heroic in on each of my toons each day. But, before I could get into a group, a friend of mine asked me to help run some of his friends through the new instances. Before we got inside, one of them suggested we try non-heroic first. In retrospect, we should have. It was a disaster. Complete disaster.

The only other time I had been there as DPS I was on my priest. It seemed easy. But, most likely because everyone was geared enough for it. This run was anything but easy. Partially because of not enough DPS, but mostly because of lack of attention to the details of the fights. The worst example was the Bronjahm fight. On the first two attempts, I was the only person dpsing the souls. The first time is excusable -- they didn't know the fight mechanics. But, the second time? It seemed like two of the dps thought it would be alright if they stayed on the boss while the other two of us took the souls. Well, that meant I was the only one dpsing them AGAIN. Third try was better...everyone did their job, but we still failed due to lack of DPS.

We exited, switched it to normal and completed it.

Halls of Reflection (Heroic) (Priest)
The first random heroic I did on my priest was heroic Halls of Reflection. I joined a group that was in progress. I couldn't help wondering why the previous healer left. I found out quickly. We barely survived the first encounter. Then, when we got to the "escape the Lich King" encounter, we wiped...twice! I know I haven't done that instance many times yet, but I've never failed at it. /sigh

This LFG system is good and bad. It's definitely easier to find spots in PUGs more quickly than before. However, the quality of the PUGs has begun to decline for me. I really like the new system. So, I think it's just a matter of accepting the bad side of it.

Tonight
Raid night tonight. I hope we do ToC 25 first so I get a chance at an upgrade. You never know what the officers will decide though.