I figured the title of the post would indicate this but I'm going to say it anyway. Before you read any further, be aware: **Spoiler alert**
For those of you who have seen the WoW Insider video of the world-first Garrosh kill, then you know who the new Warchief is. I've seen some comments from my fellow hordies saying that "now would be a good time to reroll Alliance." But I completely disagree. I was always a fan of Cairne being Warchief (I really miss the big wise lug...) but in his absence, I was rooting for either Vol'jin or Saurfang. I got my wish with Vol'jin, woo!!!
Contrary to aforementioned comments, I believe (and I've seen others who agree with me) that now is actually a really good time to be Horde. I believe that Vol'jin will be a good and honorable leader, who can bring the Horde back to their former glory, back to the way that the original leaders of the Horde intended it to be. And besides, what the Horde lost with Garrosh, the Alliance gained in Jaina. Seeing her reaction in that cinematic and hearing what she said to Varian about "dismantling the Horde" seriously made me say to myself, "Holy shit, Jaina turned from bleeding heart to mega-bitch." Talk about a complete 180. I almost prefer the old Jaina, as irritating as she could be, to this new bigot that used to be the ruler of Theramore. I mean, I get it. Her land was bombed to oblivion and all that. But we finally got some relief from Varian's bigotry and now have to deal with Jaina being almost as bad, if not worse. What the hell...
I'm anxious to get into some of the new stuff that was released this patch but holy hell is the lag ever bad on the Timeless Isle when one plays on a less-than-ideal computer. I'm thinking I'll have to wait a week or two for things to die down, like I did for the Isle of Thunder, before I can do anything in that area. It seems like a much more interesting place to quest, though, than Isle of Thunder, which got old real fast for me. At least it's a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
I'm also curious about how good/bad flex raiding will be. With all of the groups I've seen requiring a minimum 520, I won't be going into one anytime soon since I've really been getting the shaft on LFR loot. But from what I've heard, the raids seem to scale pretty well with however many players are in the group. I only wish that they had done this a little differently. It seems to me that the people who would benefit the most from this model are the guilds who can't get 10 people to fill a raid group. It would have made more sense to me to lower the minimum player requirement to, say, 7 players. It would give the small guilds made up of friends and family a chance to do these places without having to search for pugs, especially if they're on a particular small or even dead server. Even with the connected realms, it might still be hard to field a group of 10 for certain people so a little more, uh, flexibility in the flex raids would have been nice.
Not too many nerfs on the classes that I play, except to warlocks. Warlocks with a certain talent no longer have the ability to cast any spell while moving. Now, depending on their spec, they are only able to cast 1 specific spell while moving. I didn't think that one really needed to be changed but such is the nature of most nerfs since the dawn of Azeroth.
Proving grounds sound rather exciting; I think I will try the healer ones with my paladin and priest, the dps ones with my DK and mage. Once I get my monk to 90, I'll give the tanking one a shot. I just hope that people won't start requiring proving grounds achievements for raids or anything...
I'm looking forward to exploring more of this patch.
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Monday, 9 September 2013
Baddies can improve, but elitists will always be assholes.
Since I started leveling my new monk alt (currently level 52), I've been hitting the LFG pretty hard, trying to visit each dungeon at least once to complete the quests before they disappear from my list as I level. Of course, as usual, the LFG is populated with either baddies or elitists.
Today, I ran across the latter - two of them. I got pulled into my group and was greeted by the druid. She was our healer, it seemed, and she was perfectly pleasant and good at her role. Our tank was a very inexperienced paladin, who admitted right away that he was new to tanking and had never done the place before. Fine, no worries, the druid and I were more than willing to help. She told him which way to go and gave him briefs on the bosses while I passed down my pally tanking knowledge.The other two were a mage and shadow priest, both of whom immediately griped about how they got stuck with a "nubadin."
Admittedly, the tank was quite terrible - at first. He couldn't hold threat at all (turns out he was not using Righteous Fury) but that was easily fixed when I told him he needed to remember to always have that on. But while he was working out how to play his role, the other two dps were being total dicks - surprise, surprise. The mage kept yelling at him to hurry up and pull more because he had "other things to do." The shadow priest kept running around and pulling stuff for the tank in attempts to make the run go faster. The entire time, they were harping at this poor guy for being a "baddie" and "not knowing shit."
I dislike being that person who says, "well back in MY day..." and all but sometimes it just has to be said. In classic, this never really happened. Why? Because back then, the game was actually hard. No heirlooms for lowbies to wear and blow through dungeons on. Everyone you grouped with was from your own server so there was accountability - if you were an asshole or a really terrible player, the whole server would eventually know about it and no one would invite you to groups or raids. It was unheard of for a tank to take on more than 3 or 4 mobs at a time, depending on the type of mob, so you can forget about tanking 2-3 whole groups of stuff at one time. But now, with LFG especially, it's just a broken record of impatient dolts screaming "GO GO GO" all the freaking time.
Eventually, the poor paladin's confidence had hit rock bottom and he whispered me to say that he was just going to leave. I told him to just sit tight and not to move - literally. I told him to just stand there. I whispered the druid, told her what was going on, and she agreed with my plan. So all three of us just stood there, doing absolutely nothing. As I suspected, a votekick was initiated against the tank. We hit "no" and kept standing there. Then the two dps started to pull loads of mobs but our healer made no effort whatsoever. So another votekick was initiated against her. It was denied. Eventually, the two elitist pricks got fed up and left - first the mage, then the priest. It took about 15-20 minutes before they realized that the three of us weren't going to move and since we had the majority vote, none of us could be voted out. So then they left.
In come two more dps, who were silent the whole time and didn't say anything as we kept trying to teach the new tank. Maybe they figured out he was new and were willing to cut him some slack. Either way, he greatly improved in just the short time it took us to finish the place. He was able to hold solid threat and was using the correct spells for the right situations. Not all bad players will stay that way; usually they just need someone to show them the ropes. Elitists, however, will grow up to be elitists and likely have elitist babies, forever doomed to repeat the cycle and drive the rest of us up the freaking wall.
Today, I ran across the latter - two of them. I got pulled into my group and was greeted by the druid. She was our healer, it seemed, and she was perfectly pleasant and good at her role. Our tank was a very inexperienced paladin, who admitted right away that he was new to tanking and had never done the place before. Fine, no worries, the druid and I were more than willing to help. She told him which way to go and gave him briefs on the bosses while I passed down my pally tanking knowledge.The other two were a mage and shadow priest, both of whom immediately griped about how they got stuck with a "nubadin."
Admittedly, the tank was quite terrible - at first. He couldn't hold threat at all (turns out he was not using Righteous Fury) but that was easily fixed when I told him he needed to remember to always have that on. But while he was working out how to play his role, the other two dps were being total dicks - surprise, surprise. The mage kept yelling at him to hurry up and pull more because he had "other things to do." The shadow priest kept running around and pulling stuff for the tank in attempts to make the run go faster. The entire time, they were harping at this poor guy for being a "baddie" and "not knowing shit."
I dislike being that person who says, "well back in MY day..." and all but sometimes it just has to be said. In classic, this never really happened. Why? Because back then, the game was actually hard. No heirlooms for lowbies to wear and blow through dungeons on. Everyone you grouped with was from your own server so there was accountability - if you were an asshole or a really terrible player, the whole server would eventually know about it and no one would invite you to groups or raids. It was unheard of for a tank to take on more than 3 or 4 mobs at a time, depending on the type of mob, so you can forget about tanking 2-3 whole groups of stuff at one time. But now, with LFG especially, it's just a broken record of impatient dolts screaming "GO GO GO" all the freaking time.
Eventually, the poor paladin's confidence had hit rock bottom and he whispered me to say that he was just going to leave. I told him to just sit tight and not to move - literally. I told him to just stand there. I whispered the druid, told her what was going on, and she agreed with my plan. So all three of us just stood there, doing absolutely nothing. As I suspected, a votekick was initiated against the tank. We hit "no" and kept standing there. Then the two dps started to pull loads of mobs but our healer made no effort whatsoever. So another votekick was initiated against her. It was denied. Eventually, the two elitist pricks got fed up and left - first the mage, then the priest. It took about 15-20 minutes before they realized that the three of us weren't going to move and since we had the majority vote, none of us could be voted out. So then they left.
In come two more dps, who were silent the whole time and didn't say anything as we kept trying to teach the new tank. Maybe they figured out he was new and were willing to cut him some slack. Either way, he greatly improved in just the short time it took us to finish the place. He was able to hold solid threat and was using the correct spells for the right situations. Not all bad players will stay that way; usually they just need someone to show them the ropes. Elitists, however, will grow up to be elitists and likely have elitist babies, forever doomed to repeat the cycle and drive the rest of us up the freaking wall.
Sunday, 9 June 2013
If this game is "so easy," why do baddies fail so hard?
I was on my mage, who belongs to a small guild recently formed by one of the members who also left the raiding guild we were both in. The following conversation occurred between me and who I gather is one of the new tanks that were recruited for the core team. We were discussing how he can get geared up before the next raid so he asked if anyone wanted to do HoF, but most of us were saved.
The guy wants to raid but thinks preparing for it is "too much work." Seriously? I looked him up and yes, he used to be in a solid raiding guild, though not Top 20 US like he claimed, and the GM to boot. But he was only in that guild for a grand total of 3 days so his claim was hardly a big deal. Why do people who get called out on their crap always have to claim that they're better than they actually are? How could you possibly expect people to believe that you used to be in a Top 20 guild when you think watching videos to learn fights is too much work? I'm willing to bet he left that guild after only 3 days because his attitude didn't fit in with the raiding environment. I've grouped with some of the people in that guild and they sure didn't mess around.
As a former GM of a raiding guild, I never would've let someone like this raid with my team. And we weren't even Top 20 or close to that. If he was the GM of such a guild, I really doubt they would have made even Top 20 on their server with his attitude, much less Top 20 in the US. He continued to argue and spout crap but I just paid him no mind since there really isn't anything more I could say to the guy. But he is a prime example of a raider who wants to get carried by others who came to the raid prepared. Fail "raider" is fail.
The guy wants to raid but thinks preparing for it is "too much work." Seriously? I looked him up and yes, he used to be in a solid raiding guild, though not Top 20 US like he claimed, and the GM to boot. But he was only in that guild for a grand total of 3 days so his claim was hardly a big deal. Why do people who get called out on their crap always have to claim that they're better than they actually are? How could you possibly expect people to believe that you used to be in a Top 20 guild when you think watching videos to learn fights is too much work? I'm willing to bet he left that guild after only 3 days because his attitude didn't fit in with the raiding environment. I've grouped with some of the people in that guild and they sure didn't mess around.
As a former GM of a raiding guild, I never would've let someone like this raid with my team. And we weren't even Top 20 or close to that. If he was the GM of such a guild, I really doubt they would have made even Top 20 on their server with his attitude, much less Top 20 in the US. He continued to argue and spout crap but I just paid him no mind since there really isn't anything more I could say to the guy. But he is a prime example of a raider who wants to get carried by others who came to the raid prepared. Fail "raider" is fail.
Monday, 3 June 2013
The lighter side of WoW
As I troll through the Intarwebz each day, I come across some really funny gems. I sometimes post them on my FB but so few of my friends actually get the jokes. I thought I'd start sharing all the good ones I find on here :)
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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| How many of my peeps out there remember this mess?? |
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| This one really made me laugh since I jump through the instance portals all the time. |
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| I never actually thought about how/where the loot masters would find the loot, if this were a realistic scenario... |
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| Ogres and their butt pockets... |
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Escalation begins!
Firstly, I would like to say that I'm 100% with the Darkspears in their campaign against Garrosh. Blizzard had said prior that they would make Garrosh more - err, likeable - in Cata but I think they pretty much failed on all fronts in doing so. If anything, they made him even worse. If Vol'jin can /end Garrosh, I wouldn't be the least bit upset. It would free up the title of "Warchief" for someone more deserving, such as Saurfang or even Vol'jin himself. Even the young Bloodhoof would be a better choice, though he lacks in experience compared to others.
With that said, moving on to new adventures as players begin assisting the Darkspears with their rebellion. Just like with Landfall, I'm not particularly happy about being forced to complete several scenarios before being able to get the actual quests. I'd be fine if they allowed us to do these solo, like with the Isle of Thunder ones. I dislike scenarios because they throw three players in there, group makeup be damned, and expect everything to go smoothly. It almost never does. The groups always rush in there and just start killing crap without even bothering to think, "Hmm, we're all dps - no one to tank and no one to heal. We should pull carefully." Thankfully, the Blood in the Snow and Dark Heart of Pandaria scenarios were fairly easy and, once each of my groups wiped once to stupid shit, they became more cautious with pulls.
I just started on the quests themselves so I'll write more later on those since I'm still not sure how I really feel about them. But the ones I'm doing are all in Durotar and when I arrived there yesterday, it was jam-packed with players, of course. It made it a little difficult to kill the mobs I needed and to loot the overturned caravans before anyone else got to them. However, it did make it easy to kill Commanders, since it's faction-tag and more horde seem to be around than alliance.
I'm happy with some of the class changes, and very unhappy with others. Mage aoe's were buffed, which is great because I could feel how weak they were before and they needed a little boost. Now I don't feel quite so useless when Frozen Orb is on cooldown. With the changes to Living Bomb, I swapped out Nether Tempest for that talent instead and it seems to do better for single-target than NT. I noticed a 1-2k dps increase. But for mass aoe, Frost Bomb still looks to be king.
More crying from the populace led to even more paladin nerfs. I should be used to this, really, since nerfs have been making paladins their bitches since the dawn of WoW. Oh no, how terrible that the pally tank in your raid is doing more healing than you because of Battle Healer. That shouldn't really be happening if you are actually healing and not whispering your friend while simultaneously chatting with your guild about how cute it is when your cat chases your mouse as you move it around. NERF. Non-bubble healers (and even rival disc priests) crying over how much holy pallies can absorb with Illuminated Healing. Sure, that's always #1 in my top 3 heals on the meters. But I have to actually cast heals to make that shield happen. Do you see how much mana I have to use to even cast that many spells for that many shields? Give me the heal-over-time capabilities of a druid or the mana regen of a priest, then you can nerf one of the few things that actually make my job easier. It's like taking crit/Illumination away from me all over again. And I'm still waiting (though not holding my breath) for Blizzard to give me back my 1-minute Divine Plea. At least the small change to Daybreak will make the T15 2-piece bonus a little more appealing. Yay for small blessings?
I'm not really sure but I might try main-healing on my priest, instead. Just a bit burnt out from playing the paladin for so many years and Blizzard completely gutting the class every time they feel like it. I don't think I will retire Rhu - she'll always be my favorite - but I think I just need a break. I got my druid to 90 but find healing on her to be kinda meh; same with my shaman. But I haven't touched my priest in a while and have always liked healing on her before so I might give that a shot now that the xp needed to level was been reduced by 33%. It gets a little tedious after the first 2-3 alts. And! I'm ecstatic that there is no GL bottleneck for rep with the other factions anymore. Time to get that Royal Satchel pattern!
With that said, moving on to new adventures as players begin assisting the Darkspears with their rebellion. Just like with Landfall, I'm not particularly happy about being forced to complete several scenarios before being able to get the actual quests. I'd be fine if they allowed us to do these solo, like with the Isle of Thunder ones. I dislike scenarios because they throw three players in there, group makeup be damned, and expect everything to go smoothly. It almost never does. The groups always rush in there and just start killing crap without even bothering to think, "Hmm, we're all dps - no one to tank and no one to heal. We should pull carefully." Thankfully, the Blood in the Snow and Dark Heart of Pandaria scenarios were fairly easy and, once each of my groups wiped once to stupid shit, they became more cautious with pulls.
I just started on the quests themselves so I'll write more later on those since I'm still not sure how I really feel about them. But the ones I'm doing are all in Durotar and when I arrived there yesterday, it was jam-packed with players, of course. It made it a little difficult to kill the mobs I needed and to loot the overturned caravans before anyone else got to them. However, it did make it easy to kill Commanders, since it's faction-tag and more horde seem to be around than alliance.
I'm happy with some of the class changes, and very unhappy with others. Mage aoe's were buffed, which is great because I could feel how weak they were before and they needed a little boost. Now I don't feel quite so useless when Frozen Orb is on cooldown. With the changes to Living Bomb, I swapped out Nether Tempest for that talent instead and it seems to do better for single-target than NT. I noticed a 1-2k dps increase. But for mass aoe, Frost Bomb still looks to be king.
More crying from the populace led to even more paladin nerfs. I should be used to this, really, since nerfs have been making paladins their bitches since the dawn of WoW. Oh no, how terrible that the pally tank in your raid is doing more healing than you because of Battle Healer. That shouldn't really be happening if you are actually healing and not whispering your friend while simultaneously chatting with your guild about how cute it is when your cat chases your mouse as you move it around. NERF. Non-bubble healers (and even rival disc priests) crying over how much holy pallies can absorb with Illuminated Healing. Sure, that's always #1 in my top 3 heals on the meters. But I have to actually cast heals to make that shield happen. Do you see how much mana I have to use to even cast that many spells for that many shields? Give me the heal-over-time capabilities of a druid or the mana regen of a priest, then you can nerf one of the few things that actually make my job easier. It's like taking crit/Illumination away from me all over again. And I'm still waiting (though not holding my breath) for Blizzard to give me back my 1-minute Divine Plea. At least the small change to Daybreak will make the T15 2-piece bonus a little more appealing. Yay for small blessings?
I'm not really sure but I might try main-healing on my priest, instead. Just a bit burnt out from playing the paladin for so many years and Blizzard completely gutting the class every time they feel like it. I don't think I will retire Rhu - she'll always be my favorite - but I think I just need a break. I got my druid to 90 but find healing on her to be kinda meh; same with my shaman. But I haven't touched my priest in a while and have always liked healing on her before so I might give that a shot now that the xp needed to level was been reduced by 33%. It gets a little tedious after the first 2-3 alts. And! I'm ecstatic that there is no GL bottleneck for rep with the other factions anymore. Time to get that Royal Satchel pattern!
Friday, 19 April 2013
Council down!
A nice, clean kill with only 24 raiders and 3 of them constantly disconnecting throughout the fight. Onwards to Tortos!
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Winter came, but not for Impulse.
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Monday, 15 April 2013
For the Horde!
As mentioned in a previous blog post, my guild (and the
entire Silver Hand server, really) has been dying/dead for quite some time now.
In searching for a new home, I decided to make a character on Zul’jin since it
was a relatively progressed server with a large population. Last I checked, Zul’jin
was #11 in progression while Silver Hand was #156. Tanmaya later informed me
that Silver Hand fell even further to #193 later that week. The extent of
progression is quite prominent; on ZJ, I was surprised at how many people were
pugging heroic modes for tier 14 already whereas on SH, very few guilds had
even finished those as a group.
The amount of active subs on ZJ far exceeds SH also, at
15,000+ subs to 3000+. I can put up obscure and obsolete items like Hearts of
Darkness on the AH and they’ll actually sell. Good luck trying to sell such
items on the market of SH. Items in general are cheaper on ZJ also since the
population is too large for any one person to corner the market, which has been
such a huge problem on SH. And with such a large population, one would think
that the amount of trolls on ZJ would be higher, but luckily such is not the
case. People actually use Trade to spam for – gasp – Trade-related things! On
SH, ads for guild recruitment or pug raids would be drowned out by all the
trolls in Trade; on ZJ, the trolls are the ones being drowned out. What a
wonderful twist of events.
It is a little more difficult to farm things on such a
high-pop server, though, so there are some drawbacks. Gatherers and
rare-hunters will find stiff competition. With so many people on the server, it
can also be difficult to remember which guilds and players one should avoid
when trying to form pugs. For those of us who don’t have top-of-the-line rigs,
densely-populated areas such as Orgrimmar and the Shrine of Two Moons are hell
on frame rates, even with all settings turned down to Fair.
And you might be wondering, “Why, Rhu… What are you doing in
the Shrine of Two Moons?” Yes, after 8 years of being a human crusader for the
Silver Hand, Rhulain now belongs to the Blood Knight order. I felt it was time
for a change and so long as I was changing servers, I might as well switch factions,
too. So far, I don’t regret it. Though the Horde are not largely deemed to be
as “honorable” as the Alliance, I find them to be much more interesting. My
only complaint is that I absolutely can’t stand Garrosh and wish for him to die
in a (very large) fire. Vol’jin once threatened to “be there to end [Garrosh’s]
rule” after which Garrosh spit at his feet. I think it’s time soon for Vol’jin
to make good on that threat. I’ve only been Horde for a few months and I’m
already tired of Garrosh’s attitude. Vol’jin would make an excellent warchief,
I think. Even Baine, who although is young, will be a better warchief since he’s
proven to be his father’s son. Thrall must have been out of his damned mind,
passing the title to Garrosh…
One by one, I will be moving my characters to Zul’jin. I
have a lot of memories on Silver Hand and will likely leave my lower-level alts
there for nostalgia, but it’s definitely time to move on, though the decision
to do so didn’t come to me easily. And so here begins a new chapter for
Rhulain.
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| At least I kept her original hair style? lol |
Monday, 11 March 2013
Runescape spammers, really?
Anyone else getting a lot of spam comments from people linking stuff about Runescape? I've had to delete at least 12 comments in just as many days. It is getting frustrating. I don't want to have to start restricting the settings for comments but it looks like I might have to...
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Holy transmog
It's been a while since I last posted a transmog screenie. Here is what my paladin is currently wearing for her healing transmog. I've gotten quite a few queries from people, even from LFR and LFG, about what pieces I was using. It's not all from the same set so I usually just refer them to my Armory page for simplicity lol.
So here are the pieces that I used to build this set:
Shoulders - Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Chest - Valorous Aegis Tunic
Gloves - Gloves of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Belt - Girdle of Soulful Mending
Pants - Valorous Aegis Greaves
Boots - Silver Sabatons of Fury
Axe - Last Laugh
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I know Wrathion thinks my mog is cool. |
So here are the pieces that I used to build this set:
Shoulders - Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Chest - Valorous Aegis Tunic
Gloves - Gloves of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Belt - Girdle of Soulful Mending
Pants - Valorous Aegis Greaves
Boots - Silver Sabatons of Fury
Axe - Last Laugh
WTB Raiders
For the past few months, my guild has been struggling to fill its raids. Our first big hit was when a raider and his two brothers disappeared over the Thanksgiving holiday. No word from them except a previous mail from the eldest stating that they were having a real-life issue. At this point, I'm more concerned about everything being okay for them rather than them not being online. But replacing them was difficult.
We were finally able to fill the raids somewhat when Tanmaya, some of her guildies, and one of her friends from another server decided to join Afterlight. Then they were followed by Ayzera, a former AL member, who decided to come back to the guild with some of his guildies in tow. Finally, we had a full raid team and even some reserves on stand-by.
As luck would have it, a few days before the first raid, RL tragedies struck. 2 of the friends that Ayz brought had to go MIA for personal, RL reasons. Only one of them returned (and I don't really expect the other to) but her schedule is greatly limited now that she has picked up a second job. She has only been on 2-3 raids since. Then Ayz started to get bombarded with work and his erratic schedule doesn't allow him to commit as he used to. He can only make it to maybe 50% of the scheduled raids. Another of his friends came on a few raids but then he also had to pick up a second job and can no longer commit. Yet another brought outstanding dps to the table but at a price - he was undisciplined, arrogant, condescending, and - for lack of a better word - was just an asshole. I had to make a choice between keeping him or losing everyone else, since no one particularly wanted to defend him. I chose to keep the other raiders but that meant losing yet another raider. To top it off, we lost more bodies when one of the healers took offense to me saying things like "Don't stand in puddles" or "Don't break chains." I never once actually called her out for doing it so my conscience is clear. But when she left, she took her husband with her, leaving us down two more raiders.
Now, we went from having almost enough for a 25-man or two 10-man teams, to having only 9 regulars. This makes things difficult as those 9 raiders consist of 3 married couples, myself included. So if something comes up with our respective families or schedules, that usually means we lose 2 people at once. My husband is schedule to work 10-hour shifts soon and not only does that mean he likely can't raid, but it means I won't be able to, either. So that brings the numbers down to 7 regulars. This would be doable, as the last 3 spots can be pugged. However, if anyone else can't make it, even if for just one week, it leaves the raid severely shorthanded.
I know this is frustrating for me, as a guild leader, to handle. But I'm more concerned with how this situation leaves my raiders. Do they feel tied down to AL out of loyalty? Am I being selfish for not just cutting them loose? They know they're free to raid with another group if raids are canceled for any given week. But I still feel bad that I can't provide them with a proper raiding environment.
Recruitment on Silver Hand is pretty much futile. All of the good raiders are already in established teams and we don't exactly have streams of people lined up to server-transfer. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to regroup come 5.2 because I really enjoy playing the game with my guild and the team.
We were finally able to fill the raids somewhat when Tanmaya, some of her guildies, and one of her friends from another server decided to join Afterlight. Then they were followed by Ayzera, a former AL member, who decided to come back to the guild with some of his guildies in tow. Finally, we had a full raid team and even some reserves on stand-by.
As luck would have it, a few days before the first raid, RL tragedies struck. 2 of the friends that Ayz brought had to go MIA for personal, RL reasons. Only one of them returned (and I don't really expect the other to) but her schedule is greatly limited now that she has picked up a second job. She has only been on 2-3 raids since. Then Ayz started to get bombarded with work and his erratic schedule doesn't allow him to commit as he used to. He can only make it to maybe 50% of the scheduled raids. Another of his friends came on a few raids but then he also had to pick up a second job and can no longer commit. Yet another brought outstanding dps to the table but at a price - he was undisciplined, arrogant, condescending, and - for lack of a better word - was just an asshole. I had to make a choice between keeping him or losing everyone else, since no one particularly wanted to defend him. I chose to keep the other raiders but that meant losing yet another raider. To top it off, we lost more bodies when one of the healers took offense to me saying things like "Don't stand in puddles" or "Don't break chains." I never once actually called her out for doing it so my conscience is clear. But when she left, she took her husband with her, leaving us down two more raiders.
Now, we went from having almost enough for a 25-man or two 10-man teams, to having only 9 regulars. This makes things difficult as those 9 raiders consist of 3 married couples, myself included. So if something comes up with our respective families or schedules, that usually means we lose 2 people at once. My husband is schedule to work 10-hour shifts soon and not only does that mean he likely can't raid, but it means I won't be able to, either. So that brings the numbers down to 7 regulars. This would be doable, as the last 3 spots can be pugged. However, if anyone else can't make it, even if for just one week, it leaves the raid severely shorthanded.
I know this is frustrating for me, as a guild leader, to handle. But I'm more concerned with how this situation leaves my raiders. Do they feel tied down to AL out of loyalty? Am I being selfish for not just cutting them loose? They know they're free to raid with another group if raids are canceled for any given week. But I still feel bad that I can't provide them with a proper raiding environment.
Recruitment on Silver Hand is pretty much futile. All of the good raiders are already in established teams and we don't exactly have streams of people lined up to server-transfer. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to regroup come 5.2 because I really enjoy playing the game with my guild and the team.
Monday, 14 January 2013
"Just ask."
Oops, been a month since I made a post! I was busy with the holidays and exams and I was also sort of writing a holy paladin guide. But more about that another time!
My guild raid group seems to have an overabundance of healers right now so I've been trying to gear out my death knight so that I can provide some dps instead. I am currently chain-running heroics like crazy. Plate drops and other dps items have not been plentiful; I've only seen 4 items so far in about a week and some days. And you know what? Tanks have rolled against me for each one of those items. I will, though, not include the tank who rolled against me on Ook's Hozen Slicer because 1) He asked me first if it was okay for him to roll on it; 2) I know that sword is BiS for tanks pre-raid. I won the sword and he didn't complain, was just happy I let him have the chance to roll on it. But all of the other tanks wouldn't give up the dps items that they won, items which I believe I have more right to than they do. I asked nicely and was either awarded silence or hit with rudeness.
Today was no different. Bracers of the Fallen Crusade dropped and I said in chat, "Finally! Those are a big upgrade for me." (This part was cut out in the screenie, got pushed too far up by the time I was able to take a shot.) And I rolled on it. Ten seconds later, the tank rolls need on them and wins. The following discussion occurs:
Apparently, I was being bitchy. But come on, I even said in chat that it was an upgrade for me! Which means that I needed it badly. The tank took a whole ten seconds before he decided to roll, so I don't buy the "oops," (Here's Your Sign moment #1) as that roll couldn't have been an accident. As for his guildie, I don't even know what the "And u tank?" comment was about because I don't even understand what she meant by that. After asking clarification, I got nothing. At the end of the run, the tank asks, "Did u want bracers?" (Here's Your Sign #2) and I said "I would, if you don't mind." So he hands them to me and says, "Next time, just ask." (Here's Your Sign #3). I shouldn't have HAD to ask because firstly, I said in chat when the item dropped that I needed it and secondly, because it was off-spec for him and main-spec for me. He shouldn't have rolled on it in the first place.
I am not a fan of the changes to LFR's loot rules since you can trade stuff you get, but don't need, to other people who could use it. But I am becoming a fan more and more of the "assigned loot" aspect of it. I am so tired of losing healing/spirit gear to mages and warlocks on my druid and tired of losing dps gear on my DK to inconsiderate tanks.
/end rant
My guild raid group seems to have an overabundance of healers right now so I've been trying to gear out my death knight so that I can provide some dps instead. I am currently chain-running heroics like crazy. Plate drops and other dps items have not been plentiful; I've only seen 4 items so far in about a week and some days. And you know what? Tanks have rolled against me for each one of those items. I will, though, not include the tank who rolled against me on Ook's Hozen Slicer because 1) He asked me first if it was okay for him to roll on it; 2) I know that sword is BiS for tanks pre-raid. I won the sword and he didn't complain, was just happy I let him have the chance to roll on it. But all of the other tanks wouldn't give up the dps items that they won, items which I believe I have more right to than they do. I asked nicely and was either awarded silence or hit with rudeness.
Today was no different. Bracers of the Fallen Crusade dropped and I said in chat, "Finally! Those are a big upgrade for me." (This part was cut out in the screenie, got pushed too far up by the time I was able to take a shot.) And I rolled on it. Ten seconds later, the tank rolls need on them and wins. The following discussion occurs:
Apparently, I was being bitchy. But come on, I even said in chat that it was an upgrade for me! Which means that I needed it badly. The tank took a whole ten seconds before he decided to roll, so I don't buy the "oops," (Here's Your Sign moment #1) as that roll couldn't have been an accident. As for his guildie, I don't even know what the "And u tank?" comment was about because I don't even understand what she meant by that. After asking clarification, I got nothing. At the end of the run, the tank asks, "Did u want bracers?" (Here's Your Sign #2) and I said "I would, if you don't mind." So he hands them to me and says, "Next time, just ask." (Here's Your Sign #3). I shouldn't have HAD to ask because firstly, I said in chat when the item dropped that I needed it and secondly, because it was off-spec for him and main-spec for me. He shouldn't have rolled on it in the first place.
I am not a fan of the changes to LFR's loot rules since you can trade stuff you get, but don't need, to other people who could use it. But I am becoming a fan more and more of the "assigned loot" aspect of it. I am so tired of losing healing/spirit gear to mages and warlocks on my druid and tired of losing dps gear on my DK to inconsiderate tanks.
/end rant
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