Examples of When to Kick

I'm generally a patient guy when it comes to people. I understand that not everyone has the best computer, best Internet connection, or the best gear. I understand that people generally don't want to wipe time and time again, especially on a boss that should be considered "easy". I also understand that there's a pretty big difference in purples these days. Consider that there are items that are purple that are ilvl 200, and some that are 277. Simply put... there are a lot of variables in Wow.

Couple that with the fact that sometimes I'm a really lazy raid leader. I know that if there's a new encounter in VoA that I really should do some type of gear check. Ony 25, for example, can be a huge pain in the butt if you have a bunch of people that are still in quest greens. So, sometimes these "interesting" parts of Wow and my personality make for some "interesting" fights. (See "the best gear" link above for one of such examples.)

But sometimes these things are completely out of my control. Take, for example, the lfg tool. If I sign up for an instance with nobody else in my group, it's really just a roll of the dice if I'll get a good group or not. I know, at least, that I'll have a decent healer, but that's about it. (For those that haven't kept track, my mage is mostly retired, living with the other mages in Dalaran.) But other than that, I really don't know.

Like the other night that I got in a random instance of Heroic Old Kingdom. The entire group was obviously 80's. We certainly didn't have any problems downing any of the bosses. Heck, we could have 4-manned the entire instance. Come to think of it, we were. The hunter that was with us was so bad. His dps was in the range of about 200. Yes, I wrote that right: Two-Hundred. For a lvl 80. Heck, auto shot should do more than that. The guy was running in place a lot, and he'd blink from here to there every once and awhile, so I knew he was having problems. I'm not even sure what his gear looked like. I let it slide for a bit, but after no improvements, even after we downed the first boss, and he couldn't even walk with the rest of the group, I initiated a kick vote. It must have been unanimous, because he was almost instantly removed.

Now, don't think me heartless. We talked with the guy, or tried to at least. We waited and waited for him to get to the second boss. We addressed him multiple times in party chat. And then finally, it just wasn't worth it. Honestly, he really should have removed himself from the raid when he recognized his connection was that bad. What if Prince Taldaram did his vanish and accompanying Embrace of the Vampyr on him? And we'd have to run all the way over there... just didn't seem worth it to wait. We made the next hunter that came in through the random generator promise that he could do more that 200 dps before we attacked the boss, and we laughed about it the rest of the instance as it was easily cleared. (The new hunter was top dps IIRC.)

To expatiate further, last night, however, was mostly my fault. We've been trying to gear up for arenas, and so did WG last night. Thought we'd try our hand in Voa 25 for the better gear as well. The new boss is out, so why not go over there? After waiting for somebody else to start a group to no avail, the 4 or so guildies started our own group. And calls to "LFM 25-man Voa" were almost instantly answered with tells of "I'll go". The prudent raid leader would look at each of their gear scores on external web sites to verify that they're up to snuff. The lazy raid leader that I was last night, I invited anyone that whispered me. And after finally getting another 2 tanks and a few healers, we started the 25-man raid.

Don't get me wrong. This raid was probably destined to fail from the beginning. It's especially challenging when you have people standing in the sparks, or when ranged dps aren't killing said sparks. It's not a challenging fight as far as what needs to be done, but you still have to know the fight. It was typed out. We opened our Vent server. It was said on Vent. But still we failed the first time.

Now people start looking around at everyone's gear and damage meters and whatnot. One Paladin had a mix of spell power, attack power, and healing gear. I mean... he had a real mix. He had literally taken the meaning of hybrid and used it to a T. If I were a betting man, I'd say that his spec probably reflected the same, but I honestly didn't look. He had two green trinkets as well. I forget which, but again, one was spell power and one was attack power. And his numbers? 1200 dps and about 400 hps. Yep.. a hybrid.

So, after multiple requests for people to get on Vent, which he was not on, he was removed. When he asked me why he had been removed, I didn't want to take the time to explain gear to him, so I told him he wasn't on Vent. The sad part was, he asked me what Vent was. I told him to google it, and that it was a VoIP program so that we could talk to each other. *sigh*. I feel sorry for the guy, but really glad he didn't make a big deal about it. And yes, we were all noobs once... but he should have asked what Vent was way before the first boss fight.

To wrap up the story... we still had other fail dps (melee mostly), and we didn't get the boss down. Maybe I should really stop being the one to lazily invite people to raids. lol.

Healing Through: The PvP Edition

In my attempt to gear up Zanderfin, my resto druid, a bit faster, I've resorted to looking at some PvP gear choices. The thing is: it's not going so well. I find that I feel like the Black Knight after his arms have been cut off. I still try to do something, but it feels rather ineffective. With Earth Shield still up and Riptide cast every chance I get, I'm still just prolonging the inevitable when I'm the only one left guarding a point in AB.

Honestly, I really don't know what to do as Resto besides heal. As a mage, pvp was so much easier when I had a pocket healer. It certainly makes sense that I need to have the same as a healer. But I'm finding that Pug pvp is probably as frustrating as Pug groups. People running all over the place and no organization... It's just frustrating. I guess the only thing that makes it slightly less annyoing that running instances with a Pug is that it usually doesn't last as long.

So, I'm really looking for suggestions here. If I can't get anyone to stick by me, what do I do? I'm thinking the best thing may be simply to start Resto ('cause that's what I want to do), but if nobody will stick by me or leaves me in the dust, whatever... I should use my dual spec and go back to Enhancement. Sure the gear's not quite as good, but may seem to make more sense.

Thoughts?

City Defenses

With the new Black War Bear mount from the achievement of killing the opposite side's Faction Leaders, I started thinking about the cities themselves. Why is it that the Horde have such horrible lay outs for city defenses?

I mean... take the old world cities first. Stormwind, Iron Forge, and Darnassus all have exactly 1 entrance from which the Horde can attack. Sure, you can argue that Stormwind and Iron Forge have a tram that runs between them which is technically another entrance, but since you'd still have to run through an enemy city to get into that, it's not really the same. And you could also argue that you can get into Darnassus from Teldrassil. But how do you get to Teldrassil unless you go through Darnassus, so that doesn't really count either.

And Iron Forge has to be one of the best strongholds in the game. Especially since there's now spells that will knock you back, a frontal assault to Iron Forge would never be successful with a mage or two (and appropriate healers) that have Blast Wave.

In contrast, there's two ways to get into Thunder Bluff, Orgimmar, and the Undercity. Now, granted that the elevators in Thunder Bluff are a bit more predictable as far as when you'll get attackers, but there's still two choke points for direct attacks. Again, the mage and healer thing could apply here, but you'd still have to have double the defenders.

The two cities that were added in the expansion may have been the attempt to even this up. Exodar has two entrances, while Silvermoon actually has 1. (I don't remember being able to get in another way. Please correct me if I'm wrong.) But one pair of cities doesn't really add up to the 3 pairs.

I guess I was really just trying to figure out why the imbalance. Is it because the Horde racials are generally better than Alliance for PvP, and therefore they should have an easier time killing Alliance attackers? That certainly can't be the case or else the battlegrounds would need to be always more favored towards the Alliance as well, and I know they've gone to great lenghts to make sure things are equal.

Nothing game breaking here, I suppose. Just one of those things that make you think a bit. If you've never entertained the idea of getting a Black War Bear or doing World PvP type of things like this, then just move along... I'll have another post on Monday. But can anyone think of any other reasons?

Orb of the Sin'dorei

I spent a lot of the weekend working on my honor so I can get an upgrade to my neck of the Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation. I started with about 2,000 honor, and fell asleep on Saturday night without even playing. Woke up wide awake at about 3, and played for a couple hours before heading back to bed. So, I'm now sitting at about 13,000 honor, so hopefully I can get the rest (with daily and mark turn-ins) before our raid tonight. It's just Gruul and Mag, so not like it's going to make or break the raid, but still... just something I want to accomplish.

I did take a break to run Heroic MrT with guildies. I really enjoy that instance. It's still kind of challenging, but the fights are also kinda fun. Not sure why... but to me, it seems that you have to think in them a little bit more than some of the other instances. I don't think I'm really looking for upgrades in gear there, but I enjoy being there. And the Badges of Justice are nice as well.

At any rate, last night when I ran it, the Orb of the Sin'dorei dropped off of Vexallus, and I won. Now, I never picked up the Orb of Deception, but I think I was mistaken about the Deception one. My understanding of it was that you could stay in that form for as long as you like... which isn't the case. Come to find out, they're both pretty much the same thing. 30-minute cooldown. You stay in the form for 5 minutes. I like that the Sin'dorei is not a trinket... can cast it at any time.

Will it help me in PvP? Will I now be able to take down Illidan simply because I have it? Of course not. It's just one of the little, fun things that make the game enjoyable. Personally, I've gotten pretty sick of the non-combat pets (went through my bags and threw them all out), but this is kinda fun for me. I think the pet thing comes from seeing 10 of them in a 25-man raid. Just put them away, people. They're annoying.

Back on topic... it's kinda fun to be a Blood Elf. I get to jump funny. I get to tell different /sillys and /flirts. And I get a dance that isn't lame. Oh wait... not sure which is worse: Human female or Blood Elf female. The Macarena or Britney Spears. Wow... tough call.

Snake Trap

Yes, I know full well that this has never been or will never be a hunter blog. I'm not a hunter. It doesn't fit my play style. That said, I'm going to complain about a hunter ability for a bit.

For those that don't know, I'm a Carebear. I play on a PVE server. Often times I thought it would have been fun to have my toons on a PVP server, but I didn't roll that. When I first started playing, my friend was on this server, so all of my substantial toons (read above level 20) are on Bronzebeard, where almost all of my friends are.

That said, I enjoy PVP. I'm not particularly good at it, but I enjoy it nonetheless. But because I'm on a PVE server, I would like to keep the two separate. I'll PVE most of the time, and I'll PVP when I go into Battlegrounds/Arena or when I intentionally turn on the /pvp flag. Even when I buff somebody that's flagged PVP, because of SmartBuff, I generally do so knowingly. I expect the Horde to pretty much leave me alone, and I do the same to them.

Blizzard seemed to have missed some of these memos though. I'm 90% sure this was corrected, but I can't find it in any patch notes. Rogues used to be able to sap people of the opposite faction, and it wouldn't flag them as PVP. Oh, that was great. A Rogue could use their CC ability and not get flagged. What an annoyance that was. So, if that's true, as a mage, I should be able to sheep somebody and it not flag me either, correct? Like I said, I believe this was fixed, so I'm not crying over this now.

This past weekend though, I happen to go afk while I was in Ratchet. I was at the flight master, but had tabbed out trying to decide which zone I was going to level in. When I came back, I was dead, and saw dead snakes all over the ground. I wasn't flagged PVP. I hadn't moved. The Horde hunter who I had seen before I went afk was flagged PVP, but that should have no impact on me. I didn't hit him. At any rate, I'm not sure what triggered the Snake Trap, but it's not exactly "fair" that it could hit me. I'm sure he did it knowingly. He obviously had to be at least level 68, and I was only 30-something.

Yes, I know I'm crying. Not a big deal most of the time. And the graveyard wasn't even that far, but still... Please fix this in 2.4, Blizzard.

Edit: I know I had nothing to do with this, but it supposedly has been changed in 2.4.

Start of PVP Gear

A little while ago I used all but 500 of the arena points I've been hoarding for months to buy a [Merciless Gladiator's Spellblade]. Overall, it seemed better than the [Nathrezim Mindblade], and it gave some + hit and even some resilience. Last night, I spent almost all of the honor I've ever acquired to get [Gladiator's Silk Raiment]. I figured that since I have been enjoying battlegrounds more, that I should probably start spending some of my marks and honor to be a bit more prepared for it. It's a pretty big upgrade as far as pvp gear goes since it's almost 50 stamina more than my "normal" chest piece. And it adds a little bit more of resilience as well.

I'm still such a noob when it comes to pvp gear. I really should do more research on it. I guess for gemming, I should look at the +9 spell damage for the red gem slot, and probably the crit and spell penetration for the yellow slots. I could always sacrifice some of the red slot to get the damage and stamina one. /shrug

I guess I have to go out and find a mage/pvp blog now. Or better yet... can somebody just tell me how to gem? Man! I've gotten lazy.