Its been about 12 hours since the servers came back on line after the ridiculous 3.1 installation maintenance window.
Lets reflect....
1) I.T. Slop - In my professional life, I'm involved with massive global software projects, so I understand all too well how complex the actual Go Time of installation is. I really do, and if you've never been exposed to it, its an experience worthy of a couple dozen red bulls, a whole box of Tums, and a pillow in your cubicle.
However, knowing how hard it is, but also knowing how important it is, I'm somewhat intolerant of slop. Most of Blizzard's big installations are full of slop. In my line of business, if we insisted on taking 7 extra hours, nearly doubling the originally advertised down time, we'd have serious problems. Sure, if it happens once, customers are forgiving, but if it is a routine occurrence for major upgrades, we'd have customers voting with their feet (and wallets).
Get it right!
2) Too Early - The patch came too early, damn it! I need 2 more cooking awards for my chef's hat :-( And the servers are still down this morning for a 2-hour follow-up maintenance, so I can't post the screen shot that I wanted to post first :-( :-(
3) Nuff QQ - No more complaints (wrong, there's more), because I'm actually a fan of the patch.
4) Got my Dual On - Through pure coincidence, I was logged out in Stormwind. Convenient to trot on over to the trainer and pick up dual-spec. One will be cookie cutter max DPS raid spec, the other will either be Mana Battery raid spec, or Indestructible Tank Pet spec for soloing stuff.
5) Black Arrow - If I understand it correctly, instead of trap dancing to trigger Lock n Load (which I never did in the first place), we just fire BA whenever the cooldown is up? Ok, another DoT and cooldown to juggle. No biggie.
6) Flame Leviathan - This one rocks! Very cool fight. Yes its a vehicle event, so it was chock full of UI issues, bugs, cludgey aiming mechanisms, and general slop (see #1). All that aside, the fight is friggin cool! I was sitting on the back of a Siege Engine, operating a gun turret. Just mowing stuff down and blasting stuff out of the sky. Lots of fun, and it'll only get better as bugs get fixed and addon authors tweak their code.
7) Its not a race - BUT, and its a big but, if it were a race, we got the server second kill of FL by a scant 5 minutes. Pretty cool stuff, especially because if you didn't kill him very quickly, the lag of all the other raids starting up destroyed your chances.
8) More with the slop - Ignis. A pretty standard choice for guilds to go after as the second boss. He randomly selects a raid member and puts them in a fire cauldron. If you survive, the raid moves on and you get an achievement with a great name, Heroic Hot Pocket. However, if the boss bugs out and does a melee attack on the cauldron'ed player for between 43k-73k damage, its pretty much undoable. Lots of other guilds reported the same problem. Get the damn early fights bug-free, Blazzard! If the final boss is buggy, it'll be weeks before we find out, but the early ones? That's the stuff that gets visited on the first night, so get it right.
9) So we change plans - So we switched to Razor-something. Very cool boss split between "nuke the adds" phase and "massive drake-thingie on the ground" phase. Sweet visuals of the drake or dorgon or whatever the hell the lore experts are calling this guy being hauled down to the ground.
10) And the lag bit us - A few attempts on Razor-something and we had to leave Ulduar, the lag was unbearable and made it pretty tough to interrupt the nasty raid-wiping chain lightnings.
11) Vault of [New Guy] - Alliance held Wintergrasp, so we fly on over to try out the new guy. Pretty neat fight, took 3 or 4 tries. Basic idea is that its one main boss with 4 adds. Periodically he'll select one of the adds and charge it up. When he charges it, you have a very short time span to focus fire and kill that add before it blows up the raid. Nice for a quick and easy pickup of some T8 gear.
12) Fishing daily - There were 24 other fishermen in that tiny lake in Sholazar when I was out there doing the quest. Silly, I tell you.
13) I can haz bag space - Hunter ammo goes in your regular bag now, no quivers needed. With my normal load of stuff that I carry around all the time, I can haz 47 empty bag slots now. Dual Gathering FTW!
Ok, time to check the servers to see if they're back up so I can get my Chef's Hat, and maybe try out the Argent Jousting thingie.
Showing posts with label quickies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quickies. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Druid Tanking Quickies
First things first, some awards to hand out. As promised, the best comments to my Haiku post a little while ago will receive special mention on this here blog. The main criteria for "best comment" is actually having picked my own personal favorite as their own favorite. My blog, my rules :-) so the awards for Top Commenter go to:
1) Kestrel - Sure, he covered all the bases by including a few of his favorites, but he nailed it! Good job by you, Kestrel!
2) Kat - flattery will get you everywhere!
3) Fimlys - You'd think that since he started off the current round of WoW-ku poems, he'd come higher in the standings, but alas, he opted to not commit to a favorite one which limited his potential with the judges. Bronze medal is pretty spiffy though!
Thank you all for playing!
Well, this one is definitely old news. I mean, what with patch 3.1 landing a few hours ago, does anybody really even remember life before dual-spec? I didn't think so.
This past saturday we went on an alt run through naxx 25, during which I was part time bear serving as the third tank, and part time kitty serving as horrid DPS.
The event was a mix of pretty cool and a pain in my ass. More after the fold....
-- fold --
1) The difference between playing DPS and Tank - Mr. No-I-couldnt-possibly-eat-any-more-beans Grobbulus. I'm in bear form, assigned to pickup slimes. Some how or other, the main tank dies while kiting El Farto around the room. Boss running loose. Raid Leader calls for wipe. Moody says "Not on my watch", taunts the bitch, and begins kiting. Although we ended up making 2.5 complete laps around the room due to low dps and a tank who has no clue what is the right kiting speed, we finished off the kill, no wipe needed. Try that lil move on your Hunter.
2) Eating Hateful Strikes - Or is it Hurtful? Who the hell cares, I was eating them. Patchwerk with a bunch of entry-level geared 80's. Not quite the 2.5 minute snoozefest we experience on our mains.
3) Damage Meters be damned - It was such a refreshing change to not care about the Damage Meters even a bit. If I'm alive and the boss is dead, we won. Works for me.
4) Raiding with the uber gf - Her first real raid ever. And she rocked it! Lol at #3 above, Damage Meters are the only thing that even matters in the game. Is there other stuff to do in WoW besides try to make your bar the biggest? I didn't think so. After Amava's first week of the Performance Improvement Plan early on during WotLK raiding, she reached a nice healthy 3.4K dps on our favorite benchmark, Patchwerk, and that was as a totally OP un-nerfed BM Hunter. The uber gf nearly did that on her first raid ever. And only died in the fire once all night. And didnt cross up the polarities on Thaddius. And avoided all the various and sundry nasty stuff on KT. A good time had by all.
1) Three tanks is like three thumbs - On boss fights where we needed all the tanks, it was awesome. The rest of the time, I was a kitty wearing dodge and stamina gear. Meh.
2) OT with better geared MT - Our MT was not quite entry-level 80, he's got some good equipment. Even his damn consecrate was tough to pull mobs off of, damn threat machine. And a rage-starved bear really doesn't stand a chance against a fully mana-loaded Pally.
3) Way too fast - We nearly went at the speed of our main raid. Not quite, but pretty damn fast. Makes it kinda tough to explain upcoming boss fights to the gf in between pulls. But we cleared the place in one long night, so I guess we have that going for us.
4) Pugs, just don't go there - Ok, so none of the puggers were THAT bad, but when you're used to a pretty disciplined, pro team, the random calls for "somebody list the damage meter" or whatever just add up over the night. But luckily I was distracted by how fast we were moving.
This post will likely disappear amongst the full blown 3.1 hype that's running rampant through the community, but I wanted to share some of the thoughts that were going on, finding a new way to enjoy stale content just hours before it became obsolete(ish).
1) Kestrel - Sure, he covered all the bases by including a few of his favorites, but he nailed it! Good job by you, Kestrel!
2) Kat - flattery will get you everywhere!
3) Fimlys - You'd think that since he started off the current round of WoW-ku poems, he'd come higher in the standings, but alas, he opted to not commit to a favorite one which limited his potential with the judges. Bronze medal is pretty spiffy though!
Thank you all for playing!
On to the tanking quickies
Well, this one is definitely old news. I mean, what with patch 3.1 landing a few hours ago, does anybody really even remember life before dual-spec? I didn't think so.
This past saturday we went on an alt run through naxx 25, during which I was part time bear serving as the third tank, and part time kitty serving as horrid DPS.
The event was a mix of pretty cool and a pain in my ass. More after the fold....
-- fold --
Pretty Cool
1) The difference between playing DPS and Tank - Mr. No-I-couldnt-possibly-eat-any-more-beans Grobbulus. I'm in bear form, assigned to pickup slimes. Some how or other, the main tank dies while kiting El Farto around the room. Boss running loose. Raid Leader calls for wipe. Moody says "Not on my watch", taunts the bitch, and begins kiting. Although we ended up making 2.5 complete laps around the room due to low dps and a tank who has no clue what is the right kiting speed, we finished off the kill, no wipe needed. Try that lil move on your Hunter.
2) Eating Hateful Strikes - Or is it Hurtful? Who the hell cares, I was eating them. Patchwerk with a bunch of entry-level geared 80's. Not quite the 2.5 minute snoozefest we experience on our mains.
3) Damage Meters be damned - It was such a refreshing change to not care about the Damage Meters even a bit. If I'm alive and the boss is dead, we won. Works for me.
4) Raiding with the uber gf - Her first real raid ever. And she rocked it! Lol at #3 above, Damage Meters are the only thing that even matters in the game. Is there other stuff to do in WoW besides try to make your bar the biggest? I didn't think so. After Amava's first week of the Performance Improvement Plan early on during WotLK raiding, she reached a nice healthy 3.4K dps on our favorite benchmark, Patchwerk, and that was as a totally OP un-nerfed BM Hunter. The uber gf nearly did that on her first raid ever. And only died in the fire once all night. And didnt cross up the polarities on Thaddius. And avoided all the various and sundry nasty stuff on KT. A good time had by all.
Pain in my ass
1) Three tanks is like three thumbs - On boss fights where we needed all the tanks, it was awesome. The rest of the time, I was a kitty wearing dodge and stamina gear. Meh.
2) OT with better geared MT - Our MT was not quite entry-level 80, he's got some good equipment. Even his damn consecrate was tough to pull mobs off of, damn threat machine. And a rage-starved bear really doesn't stand a chance against a fully mana-loaded Pally.
3) Way too fast - We nearly went at the speed of our main raid. Not quite, but pretty damn fast. Makes it kinda tough to explain upcoming boss fights to the gf in between pulls. But we cleared the place in one long night, so I guess we have that going for us.
4) Pugs, just don't go there - Ok, so none of the puggers were THAT bad, but when you're used to a pretty disciplined, pro team, the random calls for "somebody list the damage meter" or whatever just add up over the night. But luckily I was distracted by how fast we were moving.
So there you go
This post will likely disappear amongst the full blown 3.1 hype that's running rampant through the community, but I wanted to share some of the thoughts that were going on, finding a new way to enjoy stale content just hours before it became obsolete(ish).
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Alt Leveling Quickies
Looking over my posts from last week, one might notice a small slowdown. Leaves a hole in most of your hearts.
Stems from a few places: new and exciting stuff going on at work, in-game doldrums between patches, and more importantly, a super top secret pet project that I've started in WoW. I've been feverishly writing about it, but not posting yet, because I don't want my posts to actually interfere with the project itself. So lots of content that'll be posted probably starting in May or so, once I've concluded the project.
Of course, that means that once Ulduar comes out, and I've got lots to talk about, I'll also likely open the flood gates on these extra articles, so the timing is unfortunate, but what can I do. The inspiration for my project came to me when it came to me, and sadly not at a convenient time for posting purposes.
Here's a few quickies from this weekend:
1) Working on leveling an alt. Another player and I are mostly keeping our two alts close to eachother. Fun because its tank/healer (or at least was until he respec'd), so I'm seeing forming PuG's from the other side of the tracks.
2) One nice part of the design of Northrend quest zones is that we can keep one zone for solo work, and also keep another zone with quests totally synchronized (aka, don't go to the zone when the other guy isnt on). Piddle at your own pace in the solo zone, and then when we're on at same time, the synchronized zone just flys.
3) If you've never done a "Kill 15 xyz" quest by rounding up 15 mobs on a Feral Druid, and having a Shadow Priest Mind Sear them down, its a sight to behold.
4) One of my toons is a level 65 who's only real activities are earning tips as a Blacksmith and following Amava around for the daily JC quest. She went the full way through level 65 and dinged 66 simply by doing the one quest daily. If I was clever, I'd calculate how long it'll be till this girl turns 68 and becomes eligible for Northrend proper, but I am not so I won't.
5) Progress continues....slowly...on the Explorer's League. Roughly 1 month till Revered, then close to 4 months beyond that for Exalted, that is if I don't miss any days. At least the one quest is fun...ish.
6) I've been using the alt as a place to learn tanking. I've put that on hold, just a little bit. 3.1 will give 360 degree, non-targeted swipe, basically consecration for bears. I'll re-learn tanking once that's in place. Or just tank an instance when I have quests for it.
7) Group quests take on new meaning when you've got a level 80 with a gorilla hovering overhead ready to drop down and lend a helping hand.
8) Achievements that just sorta happen are a very amusing addition to the game. I fell off a cliff. I nearly died. I dinged "falling down" achievement adding a big chuckle to the moment. A level 80 Orc death knight was harassing two level 74 Alliance players. When we turned on him and killed him, I dinged some achievement for killing one of each race, adding a big chuckle to the moment.
Stems from a few places: new and exciting stuff going on at work, in-game doldrums between patches, and more importantly, a super top secret pet project that I've started in WoW. I've been feverishly writing about it, but not posting yet, because I don't want my posts to actually interfere with the project itself. So lots of content that'll be posted probably starting in May or so, once I've concluded the project.
Of course, that means that once Ulduar comes out, and I've got lots to talk about, I'll also likely open the flood gates on these extra articles, so the timing is unfortunate, but what can I do. The inspiration for my project came to me when it came to me, and sadly not at a convenient time for posting purposes.
Here's a few quickies from this weekend:
1) Working on leveling an alt. Another player and I are mostly keeping our two alts close to eachother. Fun because its tank/healer (or at least was until he respec'd), so I'm seeing forming PuG's from the other side of the tracks.
2) One nice part of the design of Northrend quest zones is that we can keep one zone for solo work, and also keep another zone with quests totally synchronized (aka, don't go to the zone when the other guy isnt on). Piddle at your own pace in the solo zone, and then when we're on at same time, the synchronized zone just flys.
3) If you've never done a "Kill 15 xyz" quest by rounding up 15 mobs on a Feral Druid, and having a Shadow Priest Mind Sear them down, its a sight to behold.
4) One of my toons is a level 65 who's only real activities are earning tips as a Blacksmith and following Amava around for the daily JC quest. She went the full way through level 65 and dinged 66 simply by doing the one quest daily. If I was clever, I'd calculate how long it'll be till this girl turns 68 and becomes eligible for Northrend proper, but I am not so I won't.
5) Progress continues....slowly...on the Explorer's League. Roughly 1 month till Revered, then close to 4 months beyond that for Exalted, that is if I don't miss any days. At least the one quest is fun...ish.
6) I've been using the alt as a place to learn tanking. I've put that on hold, just a little bit. 3.1 will give 360 degree, non-targeted swipe, basically consecration for bears. I'll re-learn tanking once that's in place. Or just tank an instance when I have quests for it.
7) Group quests take on new meaning when you've got a level 80 with a gorilla hovering overhead ready to drop down and lend a helping hand.
8) Achievements that just sorta happen are a very amusing addition to the game. I fell off a cliff. I nearly died. I dinged "falling down" achievement adding a big chuckle to the moment. A level 80 Orc death knight was harassing two level 74 Alliance players. When we turned on him and killed him, I dinged some achievement for killing one of each race, adding a big chuckle to the moment.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Oh noes, the blog
I'll try to keep it quick, since the burning drama that I'd like to talk about (and no, those of you who incorrectly think I'm suffering from infatuation, its not the drama that you think it is, although there is some awfully big cannon fodder out there this week) is best kept quiet for now. You've been warned, it might be boring(er than normal).
1) Oh noes, the tadpoles! - My level 70 alt is questing through Borean Tundra and has reached the Murloc Quest line. It remains one of the most entertaining things in WoW for me. Between the baby murloc immature murgle-murgle noise generating glands, the goofy murloc suit, and the general clamminess of the event, its just fantastic.
2) Poundin' Some Bosses - No official performance plan update, other than to say that my Patchwerk numbers are back to right around where they should be. I might switch trinkets and regem for next week for no other reason than to try something different. 7 or 8 gems to switch, but luckily some joker is messing with the jewel market, listing stacks and stacks of dirt cheap gems. Annoying to my JC, but pleasing to my raider.
3) Enough with the leftovers - Infused Mushroom Meatloaf. Maybe 6 days in a row now. On three toons per day. My boots are starting to stink from running around the Sewers so much.
4) Slow Boat to China - JC daily quest is required to buy JC recipes. Most of the JC dailies can be done in Grizzly Hills. Not too far from there is the Explorer's League's one and only daily quest. The flight out to the area and the completion of both those dailies feels like the absolutely Slowest Boat to China in the world, with the end goal being 4 or 5 months out for both of them.
5) Big Love - Among the joys of multiple boxes is that you can take care of other stuff (see #3) while riding the slow boat to china (see #4).
6) On the Boosting front - The uber gf and amava went on a nice trip to Heroic Violet Hold with some friends. Its a great place to run because (A) its pretty quick and (B) if you're not a veteran raider/dungeon runner, it offers some chaos and requires paying attention to dynamic targeting and threat management. Fun had by all.
7) Melting Faces - Also on the Boosting front, the uber gf's gear is getting pretty solid according to the shadowpriest.com pre-raid recommendations. Plus she's performing better and better in runs with friends and PuGs, so that means pretty soon I won't be able to call it "boosting" anymore, which makes me both happy and sad at the same time. Plus, her shadowy flying carpet looks awesome.
8) Snot Rocket - Somebody had what I think is a baby murloc pet during our raid last night. During the quietest of quiet times, you suddenly hear this eerie giggle/whine noise. Soda came out my nose (tmi). I love it, and more to the point, I hope they don't over do it, because I rather enjoy the cleansing that comes with a carbonated beverage passing through your sinuses, but if it happened all the time, it'd lose its impact. I think celebrities and rich people pay thousands of dollars for these types of cleansing treatments at spas, whereas I get it for free as added perk thrown on top of raiding with the guild.
1) Oh noes, the tadpoles! - My level 70 alt is questing through Borean Tundra and has reached the Murloc Quest line. It remains one of the most entertaining things in WoW for me. Between the baby murloc immature murgle-murgle noise generating glands, the goofy murloc suit, and the general clamminess of the event, its just fantastic.
2) Poundin' Some Bosses - No official performance plan update, other than to say that my Patchwerk numbers are back to right around where they should be. I might switch trinkets and regem for next week for no other reason than to try something different. 7 or 8 gems to switch, but luckily some joker is messing with the jewel market, listing stacks and stacks of dirt cheap gems. Annoying to my JC, but pleasing to my raider.
3) Enough with the leftovers - Infused Mushroom Meatloaf. Maybe 6 days in a row now. On three toons per day. My boots are starting to stink from running around the Sewers so much.
4) Slow Boat to China - JC daily quest is required to buy JC recipes. Most of the JC dailies can be done in Grizzly Hills. Not too far from there is the Explorer's League's one and only daily quest. The flight out to the area and the completion of both those dailies feels like the absolutely Slowest Boat to China in the world, with the end goal being 4 or 5 months out for both of them.
5) Big Love - Among the joys of multiple boxes is that you can take care of other stuff (see #3) while riding the slow boat to china (see #4).
6) On the Boosting front - The uber gf and amava went on a nice trip to Heroic Violet Hold with some friends. Its a great place to run because (A) its pretty quick and (B) if you're not a veteran raider/dungeon runner, it offers some chaos and requires paying attention to dynamic targeting and threat management. Fun had by all.
7) Melting Faces - Also on the Boosting front, the uber gf's gear is getting pretty solid according to the shadowpriest.com pre-raid recommendations. Plus she's performing better and better in runs with friends and PuGs, so that means pretty soon I won't be able to call it "boosting" anymore, which makes me both happy and sad at the same time. Plus, her shadowy flying carpet looks awesome.
8) Snot Rocket - Somebody had what I think is a baby murloc pet during our raid last night. During the quietest of quiet times, you suddenly hear this eerie giggle/whine noise. Soda came out my nose (tmi). I love it, and more to the point, I hope they don't over do it, because I rather enjoy the cleansing that comes with a carbonated beverage passing through your sinuses, but if it happened all the time, it'd lose its impact. I think celebrities and rich people pay thousands of dollars for these types of cleansing treatments at spas, whereas I get it for free as added perk thrown on top of raiding with the guild.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A Weekend of Quickies
A random assortment of fun from this weekend, which included some WSG action, some alt leveling, my first stab at tanking level-appropriate content, and paying a visit to Black Morass, Lurker Below, and Prince Malchezedoodle (and his whole band of merrymen in that there tower).
Coordinated BGs: If given the choice between premade and pug WSG, I vote premade. One small example: Horde FC is hiding in the Horde base. He's a Paladin, and he has with him two additional paladins and a priest. In a PUG that equates to hellish nightmare turtle with allies running in one at a time, chipping off 1% of the pally FC's health, and then getting crushed. However, a coordinated surprise assault by 4 of our players focus fired on the priest (dead before he knew we were there, /assist macro FTW), faked a focus attack on one of the others (to distract the healers away from the FC), then slaughtered the FC.
The Fisherman Below: A couple of us wanted to go fish up Lurker for the achievement. SSC with 5 players is an interesting sight to see. Fun to remember how intimidating some of those trash pulls in between Hydross and Lurker were the first time we saw them at 70. Also fun to AOE them into the ground at 80.
Jumpshots with the Flag: Although this does not require a premade BG, it is substantially more fun when you are the flag carrier being protected by a pain train of friends on Vent. When you're the FC, your normal reaction is to run in a straight line towards your own base. As the situation allows, you sometimes might engage in combat. As a hunter FC, you're generally dropping frost traps, wyvern stinging healers that're in front or off to the side, using Aspect of Cheetah or Pack when there's no enemy around, and running like Forrest Gump. A new twist I stumbled upon this weekend. Jump shot the pursuit team with Concussive shots and/or Wyvern Sting. Keep running, jump and spin in the air, and nail them to keep them away while you continue forward progress. Such fun.
Back to the Future: Upon reaching level 68, my Druid became eligible to specialize her alchemy. Elixir spec requires collection of quest items in Black Morass. So Amava, the uber gf, and the druid-on-follow went off to caverns of time. Discovered you need to rescue Thrall before you can do BM. These are two of my favorite TBC instances, especially when we were at a gear level that made them hard. Anybody else remember how much fun being on add duty was in BM and trying to keep the shield at 100%?
Important Safety Note: the frenzy fish in SSC will one shot you if you're naked. It is inconvenient to learn this by having your two available rez'ers drop into the water before putting their clothes back on.
Freezing Arrow, FTW: Run into WSG flag room via the tunnel. See enemy defender standing by ramp. Shoot arrow, freeze him, grab flag, and GTFO. Either he has to blow his trinket, making him easy to take out on the way back to your base, or he sits there till he thaws, in which case you're at mid-field already. This also works for freezing people that're off to the side of your path when you're the FC, although (A) your traps are likely on cooldown from frost traps, and (B) it requires you to use your keyboard briefly for movement so you can use the mouse to target the trap aiming reticle or activate autorun for a moment.
When was the last time you went to Karazhan? After fishing up Lurker, somebody wanted to see if Moroes would drop Mongoose since its still a very viable enchant. Well, he didnt drop it, but we did go on to clear the entire place, including both dragons and illhoofy hoof. We were a pack of school girls having a pillow fight, giggling amongst clouds of feathers. It was awesome. Pull entire rooms of trash dinner guests. If it gets too tough for the Warrior (pansy), just Gorilla-tank everything you can get your thunderstomp on. Chess was the only boss fight that was hard, but with only a couple players and no official healer they were all chaotic enough, and definitely nostalgic enough, to make the run worth its weight in gold.
I can haz tank: There's probably too much to talk about on this one to call it a quicky, so go read the next post.
/shoo Nightbane: For anybody unfamiliar, he switches modes and flies up into the air every 25% of health. But you can continue to DPS him while he's up in the air. We were cackling with glee to burn a full 25% of his health while he's up in the air, and then watch him fly down to the ground to start a ground phase, only to instantly fly back up, touching his feet for less than a second.
Coordinated BGs: If given the choice between premade and pug WSG, I vote premade. One small example: Horde FC is hiding in the Horde base. He's a Paladin, and he has with him two additional paladins and a priest. In a PUG that equates to hellish nightmare turtle with allies running in one at a time, chipping off 1% of the pally FC's health, and then getting crushed. However, a coordinated surprise assault by 4 of our players focus fired on the priest (dead before he knew we were there, /assist macro FTW), faked a focus attack on one of the others (to distract the healers away from the FC), then slaughtered the FC.
The Fisherman Below: A couple of us wanted to go fish up Lurker for the achievement. SSC with 5 players is an interesting sight to see. Fun to remember how intimidating some of those trash pulls in between Hydross and Lurker were the first time we saw them at 70. Also fun to AOE them into the ground at 80.
Jumpshots with the Flag: Although this does not require a premade BG, it is substantially more fun when you are the flag carrier being protected by a pain train of friends on Vent. When you're the FC, your normal reaction is to run in a straight line towards your own base. As the situation allows, you sometimes might engage in combat. As a hunter FC, you're generally dropping frost traps, wyvern stinging healers that're in front or off to the side, using Aspect of Cheetah or Pack when there's no enemy around, and running like Forrest Gump. A new twist I stumbled upon this weekend. Jump shot the pursuit team with Concussive shots and/or Wyvern Sting. Keep running, jump and spin in the air, and nail them to keep them away while you continue forward progress. Such fun.
Back to the Future: Upon reaching level 68, my Druid became eligible to specialize her alchemy. Elixir spec requires collection of quest items in Black Morass. So Amava, the uber gf, and the druid-on-follow went off to caverns of time. Discovered you need to rescue Thrall before you can do BM. These are two of my favorite TBC instances, especially when we were at a gear level that made them hard. Anybody else remember how much fun being on add duty was in BM and trying to keep the shield at 100%?
Important Safety Note: the frenzy fish in SSC will one shot you if you're naked. It is inconvenient to learn this by having your two available rez'ers drop into the water before putting their clothes back on.
Freezing Arrow, FTW: Run into WSG flag room via the tunnel. See enemy defender standing by ramp. Shoot arrow, freeze him, grab flag, and GTFO. Either he has to blow his trinket, making him easy to take out on the way back to your base, or he sits there till he thaws, in which case you're at mid-field already. This also works for freezing people that're off to the side of your path when you're the FC, although (A) your traps are likely on cooldown from frost traps, and (B) it requires you to use your keyboard briefly for movement so you can use the mouse to target the trap aiming reticle or activate autorun for a moment.
When was the last time you went to Karazhan? After fishing up Lurker, somebody wanted to see if Moroes would drop Mongoose since its still a very viable enchant. Well, he didnt drop it, but we did go on to clear the entire place, including both dragons and illhoofy hoof. We were a pack of school girls having a pillow fight, giggling amongst clouds of feathers. It was awesome. Pull entire rooms of trash dinner guests. If it gets too tough for the Warrior (pansy), just Gorilla-tank everything you can get your thunderstomp on. Chess was the only boss fight that was hard, but with only a couple players and no official healer they were all chaotic enough, and definitely nostalgic enough, to make the run worth its weight in gold.
I can haz tank: There's probably too much to talk about on this one to call it a quicky, so go read the next post.
/shoo Nightbane: For anybody unfamiliar, he switches modes and flies up into the air every 25% of health. But you can continue to DPS him while he's up in the air. We were cackling with glee to burn a full 25% of his health while he's up in the air, and then watch him fly down to the ground to start a ground phase, only to instantly fly back up, touching his feet for less than a second.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Stupid Quickies
Some quick, some not-so-quick. All stupid.
Stupid Glyphs - Why is it that you find a glyph you crafted on the way up to the high levels has no current listings on the AH. So you list one for a reasonable price. It sells. So you list another one for 2 gold more. It sells. So you list another for 2 more gold. You continue doing this happily for several days. Then some other scribe comes by and lists 20 auctions at half what your original price was 5 days ago. Could be another leveler, although you rarely make too too many of the same glyph during leveling, since they go from orange to green pretty quickly. Why undercut like an insane person? Is he trying to squeeze competition out of the market? No problem, easy enough to just wait until the cheapo glyphs are gone, he eats his loss, and then resume selling, which tends to happen within a few days. Its consistent across 6 different glyphs now, and different players each time (same person using alts to disguise the effort?). Strange though.
Stupid Phasing - I found myself sitting with 129/140 quests complete in Icecrown, with a big old pile of group quests left to complete, stagnating in the quest log for 2 or 3 months now. Flying back from buying a new Oracles egg, I cut through the zone to pick flowers on the way home. Saw "LFM group quests". Phasing is a cool feature to WotLK zones, but it sucks when you can't figure out why you cannot see any of your teammates and they can't see your quest mob. But, the quest log is clear, which is nice.
Stupid Cards - Nobles cards were absolutely insane on /trade this weekend. Continuous streams of WTT, WTB, WTS for nobles cards. So I went ahead for giggles and made a card on my scribe. It was a nobles card. It sold within minutes, nearly paying back the entire investment to level Inscription, not that I'm necessarily doing it for the profit. But profit never hurt, amiright?
Stupid Mojo - The trolls in Grizzly Hills have way too many types of Mojo. Each quest in the Guru chain required a different kind of mojo. I'm surprised we didn't have to collect any soiled mojo during that outhouse quest.
Stupid Horde - Up in Icecrown, there's an Amphitheater of Anguish-type event. Sometimes Horde think it'll be fun to interfere with our attempts at the event. I think its classic when they tried to surprise, but were caught early via Track Humanoids. I wonder how the priest and mage felt when they were lying dead and saw their paladin friend bubble hearth to safety, while we finished up the last boss guy in the amphitheater?
Stupid Lewtz - What are people thinking when trying to sell BoE epic raid drops? A guy lists a pair of bracers in /trade WTS pst with offer. So I pst with offer that is 10% less than my auctioneer appraisal, and a little less than WoW Head's list price. No answer. So I check AH. He listed it for 800% mark up. Later, some other guy lists a ring I'd like in /trade WTS pst with offer. So I pst with offer. No answer. I pst him just for fun, knowing we definitely are not doing business with eachother, but I'm curious. I ask what's the story? He says it's done, it just sold for 6500 gold. Yeah, ok. Auc values it at a hair over 1000g with 15 having been seen and WoW Head about twice that. Are people really buying these for 6.5k? I mean, I'd like the ring and what not, but Shirley you must be kidding me.
Stupid Mercenaries - Ok, this one isn't stupid, I kinda liked it. There's a quest in Grizzly Hills where you can request the help of an imprisoned Furbolg Druid, and you have the option of asking him to tank, dps, or heal. Pretty cool idea, mercenary NPC's.
Stupid Dungeon Idea - The massive tree fortress in the middle of the zone is visually outstanding. I'd love a dungeon or raid instance in that tree where you fight through gauntlet event through the battle raging outside, and then spiral around the ramp going around the outside down to the bottom, facing bosses along the way, and a final challenge at the bottom. I'm just sayin.
Stupid Timesink - Upon completion of Grizzly Hills and Icecrown, I can haz Northrend Loremaster Achievement. I debate seeking The Seeker via questing in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Probably better to level an alt, but I am kinda liking the rep gain for old world factions that'll come with the journey. Probably just go in small chunks of 10 or 15 old world quests at a time to keep myself from burning out.
Stupid Glyphs - Why is it that you find a glyph you crafted on the way up to the high levels has no current listings on the AH. So you list one for a reasonable price. It sells. So you list another one for 2 gold more. It sells. So you list another for 2 more gold. You continue doing this happily for several days. Then some other scribe comes by and lists 20 auctions at half what your original price was 5 days ago. Could be another leveler, although you rarely make too too many of the same glyph during leveling, since they go from orange to green pretty quickly. Why undercut like an insane person? Is he trying to squeeze competition out of the market? No problem, easy enough to just wait until the cheapo glyphs are gone, he eats his loss, and then resume selling, which tends to happen within a few days. Its consistent across 6 different glyphs now, and different players each time (same person using alts to disguise the effort?). Strange though.
Stupid Phasing - I found myself sitting with 129/140 quests complete in Icecrown, with a big old pile of group quests left to complete, stagnating in the quest log for 2 or 3 months now. Flying back from buying a new Oracles egg, I cut through the zone to pick flowers on the way home. Saw "LFM group quests". Phasing is a cool feature to WotLK zones, but it sucks when you can't figure out why you cannot see any of your teammates and they can't see your quest mob. But, the quest log is clear, which is nice.
Stupid Cards - Nobles cards were absolutely insane on /trade this weekend. Continuous streams of WTT, WTB, WTS for nobles cards. So I went ahead for giggles and made a card on my scribe. It was a nobles card. It sold within minutes, nearly paying back the entire investment to level Inscription, not that I'm necessarily doing it for the profit. But profit never hurt, amiright?
Stupid Mojo - The trolls in Grizzly Hills have way too many types of Mojo. Each quest in the Guru chain required a different kind of mojo. I'm surprised we didn't have to collect any soiled mojo during that outhouse quest.
Stupid Horde - Up in Icecrown, there's an Amphitheater of Anguish-type event. Sometimes Horde think it'll be fun to interfere with our attempts at the event. I think its classic when they tried to surprise, but were caught early via Track Humanoids. I wonder how the priest and mage felt when they were lying dead and saw their paladin friend bubble hearth to safety, while we finished up the last boss guy in the amphitheater?
Stupid Lewtz - What are people thinking when trying to sell BoE epic raid drops? A guy lists a pair of bracers in /trade WTS pst with offer. So I pst with offer that is 10% less than my auctioneer appraisal, and a little less than WoW Head's list price. No answer. So I check AH. He listed it for 800% mark up. Later, some other guy lists a ring I'd like in /trade WTS pst with offer. So I pst with offer. No answer. I pst him just for fun, knowing we definitely are not doing business with eachother, but I'm curious. I ask what's the story? He says it's done, it just sold for 6500 gold. Yeah, ok. Auc values it at a hair over 1000g with 15 having been seen and WoW Head about twice that. Are people really buying these for 6.5k? I mean, I'd like the ring and what not, but Shirley you must be kidding me.
Stupid Mercenaries - Ok, this one isn't stupid, I kinda liked it. There's a quest in Grizzly Hills where you can request the help of an imprisoned Furbolg Druid, and you have the option of asking him to tank, dps, or heal. Pretty cool idea, mercenary NPC's.
Stupid Dungeon Idea - The massive tree fortress in the middle of the zone is visually outstanding. I'd love a dungeon or raid instance in that tree where you fight through gauntlet event through the battle raging outside, and then spiral around the ramp going around the outside down to the bottom, facing bosses along the way, and a final challenge at the bottom. I'm just sayin.
Stupid Timesink - Upon completion of Grizzly Hills and Icecrown, I can haz Northrend Loremaster Achievement. I debate seeking The Seeker via questing in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Probably better to level an alt, but I am kinda liking the rep gain for old world factions that'll come with the journey. Probably just go in small chunks of 10 or 15 old world quests at a time to keep myself from burning out.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Incohesive Ramblings (aka, some more quickies)
This is not a cohesive post. At least less cohesive than usual.
Maybe call it a quickies post? We'll see how it turns out.
[EDIT: as it would turn out, its a mish-mash of Surival Hunting, Naxx Achievements, and other stuff]
1) Survival Performance - Doin pretty well. 4.8K DPS on Patchwerk. If I compare that to my pre-nerf BM best of 5.3K, the result is an approximate 9.4% decrease, which is less than I had predicted (15.6% was the prediction). Sure, I'm comparing apples (BM for 3.5 minutes) to oranges (SV for 2.5 minutes) because I was trying to model the change to BM before / BM after the patch, but I'm trying to make a point here, so sue me.
As a comparison, Brass went from 5.5K BM-best to 5.1K SV last night, 7.3% decrease. So I suppose I feel pretty good about my baseline stand-and-deliver numbers. Not to say I'll just let it stay at that, but also not going to douse myself in gasoline and light the match.
2) Quickwerk - Its not even funny. Our previous best was 3:03. Last night was 2:34, a full 29 seconds faster than the previous attempt. There were 5 players over 5K, and nearly everyone over 4K. If I'm reading what one of our Officers posted correctly, this is the 247th fastest Patchy kill ever, which I find incredibly amusing. Rock on! The improvement is attributed to (A) Warlocks using Doomguards and (B) Hunters adjusting to the nerf and not sucking this week.
3) The Immortal - no, we didn't get it. This one makes me laugh though. You kill three or four bosses with no deaths, and all of a sudden everybody's on the edge of their seats for The Immortal. HELLO, McFLY! THERE'S A REASON YOU DON'T SAY THE WORD "SHUTOUT" TO A GOALIE WHO HAS NOT ALLOWED A GOAL YET, HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST PERIOD! Sorry to be shouting there, I'm more amused than angry, I figure this achievement will happen when it happens without any special deliberate attempt, beyond the normal desire a player has to NOT die. Or not.
4) Splitting up the Horsemen - We did the Four Horsemen one where you kill them within 15 seconds of eachother. This one was fun, because it takes some precise coordination between the 4 sub-groups on each boss mob. Fun to see that the Officers want to allow some focus on Achievements. Sure, the Achievements themselves don't mean much, but it is cool trying to do farm-status fights in strange ways. Along the way, I discovered a hidden pitfall for a SV hunter....
5) Sniper Training can sting you in the rear - If you dump points into Sniper Training, you'll generally want to stand very far away from your target. However, along the back of the Horsemen room, if you stand further than 30 yards from your target, you'll still be in range to get the debuff from the boss you just swapped off of. Fail Hunter is fail, dead as a door nail. But we got the achievement, so that works for me.
6) Burst the Webs - Maxxena. Hunters are assigned to break people free of the webs. Explosive Shot, FTW! Very fun to have strong burst damage for this. As a BM, this was actually tough, because you'd not use your pet (since she'd have to run all the way across the room, would be very ineffective), and your personal Hunter burst is ZERO. Webs were being busted faster than you can say "Lock n Load".
7) Professional Madness - I flipped out this morning and decided to start leveling two toon's worth of cooking, and while I'm out there, make a skinner, and using the gathered mats, level a leatherworker. I can tell already that its biting off too much, but I suppose that's Classic Amava in action. If I let myself take time (aka, not force it all to Grand Master level this weekend), I might retain some sanity and sociability (real word?). I doubt it'll work out that way.
8) Uber GF - She's knocking on the door of 80 with 4.5 XP bubbles left. Rock on! Once she dings, we'll enchant whatever she's wearing and head straight on into Heroic Gumdrop to finish off The Elder.
9) Last bit about SV - The "shot priority" style of WotLK Surivial Hunter DPS, versus the "shot rotation" that was king in TBC, is fun. I like slamming my #3 key macro as much as the next guy, but maintaining a priority of Serpent Sting > Explosive > Multi > Steady is pretty cool, especially when Lock and Load procs and you've got to weave things such that you don't overwrite any ES DoT ticks. Mentally taxing, but as I get the hang of it, its kinda fun. Still want a better contribution from my pet, but I'll bet that doesn't surprise you.
I think I'm going to blow off the rest of the day and go drink while it snows the three or four feet that're predicted for the weekend. [EDIT: we did not get that 3 feet. Only one foot on friday. But the drinks worked their magic anyway]
Maybe call it a quickies post? We'll see how it turns out.
[EDIT: as it would turn out, its a mish-mash of Surival Hunting, Naxx Achievements, and other stuff]
1) Survival Performance - Doin pretty well. 4.8K DPS on Patchwerk. If I compare that to my pre-nerf BM best of 5.3K, the result is an approximate 9.4% decrease, which is less than I had predicted (15.6% was the prediction). Sure, I'm comparing apples (BM for 3.5 minutes) to oranges (SV for 2.5 minutes) because I was trying to model the change to BM before / BM after the patch, but I'm trying to make a point here, so sue me.
As a comparison, Brass went from 5.5K BM-best to 5.1K SV last night, 7.3% decrease. So I suppose I feel pretty good about my baseline stand-and-deliver numbers. Not to say I'll just let it stay at that, but also not going to douse myself in gasoline and light the match.
2) Quickwerk - Its not even funny. Our previous best was 3:03. Last night was 2:34, a full 29 seconds faster than the previous attempt. There were 5 players over 5K, and nearly everyone over 4K. If I'm reading what one of our Officers posted correctly, this is the 247th fastest Patchy kill ever, which I find incredibly amusing. Rock on! The improvement is attributed to (A) Warlocks using Doomguards and (B) Hunters adjusting to the nerf and not sucking this week.
3) The Immortal - no, we didn't get it. This one makes me laugh though. You kill three or four bosses with no deaths, and all of a sudden everybody's on the edge of their seats for The Immortal. HELLO, McFLY! THERE'S A REASON YOU DON'T SAY THE WORD "SHUTOUT" TO A GOALIE WHO HAS NOT ALLOWED A GOAL YET, HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST PERIOD! Sorry to be shouting there, I'm more amused than angry, I figure this achievement will happen when it happens without any special deliberate attempt, beyond the normal desire a player has to NOT die. Or not.
4) Splitting up the Horsemen - We did the Four Horsemen one where you kill them within 15 seconds of eachother. This one was fun, because it takes some precise coordination between the 4 sub-groups on each boss mob. Fun to see that the Officers want to allow some focus on Achievements. Sure, the Achievements themselves don't mean much, but it is cool trying to do farm-status fights in strange ways. Along the way, I discovered a hidden pitfall for a SV hunter....
5) Sniper Training can sting you in the rear - If you dump points into Sniper Training, you'll generally want to stand very far away from your target. However, along the back of the Horsemen room, if you stand further than 30 yards from your target, you'll still be in range to get the debuff from the boss you just swapped off of. Fail Hunter is fail, dead as a door nail. But we got the achievement, so that works for me.
6) Burst the Webs - Maxxena. Hunters are assigned to break people free of the webs. Explosive Shot, FTW! Very fun to have strong burst damage for this. As a BM, this was actually tough, because you'd not use your pet (since she'd have to run all the way across the room, would be very ineffective), and your personal Hunter burst is ZERO. Webs were being busted faster than you can say "Lock n Load".
7) Professional Madness - I flipped out this morning and decided to start leveling two toon's worth of cooking, and while I'm out there, make a skinner, and using the gathered mats, level a leatherworker. I can tell already that its biting off too much, but I suppose that's Classic Amava in action. If I let myself take time (aka, not force it all to Grand Master level this weekend), I might retain some sanity and sociability (real word?). I doubt it'll work out that way.
8) Uber GF - She's knocking on the door of 80 with 4.5 XP bubbles left. Rock on! Once she dings, we'll enchant whatever she's wearing and head straight on into Heroic Gumdrop to finish off The Elder.
9) Last bit about SV - The "shot priority" style of WotLK Surivial Hunter DPS, versus the "shot rotation" that was king in TBC, is fun. I like slamming my #3 key macro as much as the next guy, but maintaining a priority of Serpent Sting > Explosive > Multi > Steady is pretty cool, especially when Lock and Load procs and you've got to weave things such that you don't overwrite any ES DoT ticks. Mentally taxing, but as I get the hang of it, its kinda fun. Still want a better contribution from my pet, but I'll bet that doesn't surprise you.
I think I'm going to blow off the rest of the day and go drink while it snows the three or four feet that're predicted for the weekend. [EDIT: we did not get that 3 feet. Only one foot on friday. But the drinks worked their magic anyway]
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