Yesterday, on the Grumpy Mage:
repgrind Says:
>.>
<.<Ok, fine. Strat tonight then. :p
Miracle of miracles, I managed to leave work at a decent hour, and upon arrival at the Cave, hopped on WoW. As related over on Reputation Grind, Kaly was being respecced, and then Karius and Lajos were going to go pillage Strat, spit in the Baron’s eye, and demand the Deathcharger’s Reins. If that didn’t work, Karius was going to try begging pitieously.
Ok, so this is going to be one of my non-WoW general state of humanity rants. I’ll try to make it less “rant-ish”.
I work doing phone support for a company that sells a timekeeping solution, aimed primarily at construction, agriculture, manufacturer, and service industries. There are two things that make my job really awesome.
First, the people I work with are incredible. I regularly walk into the CEOs office, with no appointment, and we discuss products, tech issues, or just the company in general. Over Christmas, one of the techs put up a giant (we’re talking 5+ feet) Christmas stocking, and we put a “ransom note” on it, saying “Fill it, or the fat guy in the red suit gets it.” We came in the first working day after Christmas, and it was full of peanuts, Cracker Jacks, Pringles, Bazooka Joe bubble gum, Corn Nuts, a huge jar of animal crackers, an electronic dartboard, Nerf weapons, etc., all courtesy of our CFO. We returned the favor by going to the farmer’s market, and filling her office with a couple dozen bouquets of flowers.
Secondly, by and large, our product works, and our customers generally love it. I’m in tech support, so I get to hear the problems, and it’s not uncommon for a customer who is frantic because they can’t run payroll, because they’re system hit a glitch, tell me how much they love the system. Let’s face it, labor costs are the biggest business expense, and even innocently rounding a timecard off 5 minutes every day can add up to a significant amount of money. An employee that intentionally fudges? Big, big ripoff. I had a customer who’d bought our system a month before tell me that in the first pay period alone, he discovered that he’d been losing on an average of an hour a week to employees. He had 50 employees, and when he bought the system, had been at the point of laying someone off. With what he saved, someone kept their job.
So yeah, I think it safe to say we’re better than average.
Friendships come in many different forms, in varying degrees, and manifest in a multitude of ways. In WoW terms, some friends are companions, fun to be around, run a raid with, or just be silly with. Other friends give you a lift when you need a hand getting those last few Emblems of Triumph for your next T9 piece. Others just cheer you up when your down, and help you take your mind off your troubles.
And then, there are those that, in addition to all the above, challenge you, as in this comment from RG, made after I’d told her I needed her to help me find the Jeeve’s schematic:
Help you how? Have you seen the drop rate on that thing??? Get me Deathcharger’s Reins and we’ll talk … til then, have fun farming :p
I woke up this morning, a bit out of sorts. It’s been a rough week, with a lot of ups and downs, extreme ups, extreme downs. Last night, I ended up getting stuck at work, got home late, and my first attempt at my random was a rough pug. Not rough in the sense of rude people, but the group just wasn’t quite up to H-HoL. RG was kind enough to let me tag along on Karius’ random, so I got my emblems, then I got my lock to 40, but all in all, the whole evening just felt off-kilter.
So, I scanned the auction house while I showered, then decided to see if I could get my random out of the way early. I did my fishing and cooking dailies, then fired up the old Wormhole Generator, and popped up to Storm Peaks. As I landed on the platform for the Library, the random popped, and we got HCoS. Decent run. We missed getting the drake by mere seconds, but other than that, it was good. Thanked everyone, and left the group, back to Storm Peaks.
And a mere few dozen Library Guardian’s later:
So, it looks like I need to get those last few points of Engineering. Folks on Winterhoof, stay tuned. I’m going to be having a clearance on Gnomish Army Knives real soon.
And, to my very good friend over at Reputation Grind, I return the favor: Get your ass down to Strat, and get to work. Last I saw, the Deathcharger’s Reins don’t drop in Icecrown Citadel, Trial of the Crusader, or any other place in Northrend.
Wow…. this post has has gone through the wringer, as things keep changing – since October. It started at level 75, when I got Firefrost Bolt, and tried a Frost based Elementalist spec that I found quite fun to play. However, due to scheduling/playtime, I wound up a couple levels in front of the other three in our group, so I started dabbling in PvP. Meh, who am I kidding? Dabbling, hell. We’re talking full immersion therapy. That was where I built the gear set that I carried into 80, a combination of PvP gear from the Champion’s Hall, and Wintergrasp, and rep items.
That has led to a lot of spec experiments. My specs ran the gamut from the Frost/TTW, into Fire, and again into Fire, back to Frost, and back to a Fire based FFB spec. I resisted going Arcane, since it seemed to be the flavor of the month, but finally succumbed to the lure of the Arcane Shatter spec. It combined many of the things I loved about Frost, with the pop of Arcane. I tried Fire again briefly after 3.3, and liked it, but ultimately went back to the arcane spec because I was having problems getting “finishing” pop out of Fire. And finally, RG seduced me into speccing arcane for PvE, and I have to admit, I like it. Unlike Fire, there’s a rotation. I was having a real problem with the priorities of Fire, clashing GCDs, and my gear has been moving more and more towards haste. Frankly, I don’t feel I’m good enough to handle the “thinking on your feet” that Fire requires, especially in a PvP environment. Hell, I’m not good enough to handle the thinking on your feet that PvP requires, at this point. I read Euripedes blog, and see the things he talks about as a matter of course in PvP, and just shake my head. When I’m trying to drive a pack of Horde from Westpark, I don’t have the leisure to identify a ret pally from a holy pally from a prot pally, or an arms warrior from a fury warrior. I can usually identify a frost, fire, or arcane mage on the fly, but even that’s a stretch at times. 
I really need to get back to spending more time in the battlegrounds, other than just Wintergrasp, but the randoms have been cutting into it. My next heroic will net me enough EoTs for my next set piece, but after that, I think I’ll start filling the time with BGs again. At the point I stopped living in Warsong and Eye, I was getting better, but I still have the tendency to go tearing across the playfield to support a teammate, only to look up, find the teammate already dead, and myself in a pack of Horde, going “Oops”. I’ve tried to be more cautious. Hey, there are four of my teammates defending Mage Tower in Eye. I’m not going to be alone! So I go diving in…. only to look up and find myself alone in a pack of Horde. Oops.
My tendency in most situations is to blame myself. After all, even if my teammates are “to blame”, I can’t control that, and it’s part of the environment; therefore, I need to adapt. To whit, simple fundamental rules:
It all boils down to situational awareness, and that’s something I lack at this time; that, and a sense of self-preservation, even when I’m not playing a Fire Mage. But I’ll keep trying.
P.S. Warsong Gulch drunk is a blast.
So, a few days ago, Repgrind related our run through heroic UK with the bearer of Val’ Anyr. I was going through some screenshots, and came across the one I popped off during the final fight against Ingvar, where not only was the party bubbled, but my Mirror Images were similarly protected. I figured this called for a post.
Sorry for all the extraneous garbage in the shot, however, I had to work fast.
Oh, and since my son seems to have some doubts about his tanking ability, here’s another portion of the same screenshot:
Gee, Nick… doesn’t look like you’re having any problem holding threat there.
So, Euripedes has posted on Fire PvP, showing his usual amazing flair. It tempts me to go over and try Fire again, but at the moment, I’m trying to put a decent PvE gear set together, and it’s built around haste. Wait until next season, and I’ll start updating my PvP set.
After getting a couple nice trinkets, my hit rating is much more where it should be. I’m debating whether to go for shoulders at 45, go for the Conquest stuff at 50, or wait until 75 Emblems of Triumph to get either the Hood of Fiery Aftermath. Decisions, decisions.
As my son is fond of saying every time he comes across a mount, pet, achievement, etc. that is no longer available, “Ok, Blizzard officially hates me.” Meh, that’s a bit overstated. But I think Blizzard has opened up a can of worms with the cross-battlegroup LFG. What happens when you find a group that just meshes? And then the cruel distance of different realms dictates that only by sheer lucky chance will the group ever be connected again?
Woe is me. Last night, Kalyon and I did a random heroic, and drew Old Kingdom. We zoned in, and found ourselves with a pally tank, and a warlock and a priest from Echo Isles. It seemed like the latter two knew each other, though they were in different guilds. I laid out the usual fish feast, kicked off the Drums of the Wild, and we headed out.
It was anything but smooth sailing. Not that anyone was undergeared, or played badly, or anything like that. It was little things. I’ll use myself as an example. On Elder Nadox, Kaly had to prompt me to get up under him. Moving on, Bellalove, our priest, jigged left instead of right, and aggroed some adds, and yours truly went down like a squishy mage, instead of the awesome mank that I am. What can I say? I’ve been hanging around with Karius, my manking skills are atrophied.
And if the above paragraph sounds like I’m in any way complaining, you’re jumping to conclusions. Because it was a friggin’ blast, one of the funner pug heroics I’ve run.
Our tank was unremarkable, in that he did his job as well as I, a non-tank, could ask for. He didn’t say much, if anything. He moved a bit faster than was completely comfortable for me… but that was because I was typing. The “girls”, Shaphira and Bellalove, were both *gasp* talking in a pug!!! Is that allowed??? After I did the face plant, Bella’ sang out something to the effect of “that was totally my bad”. We responded something like “meh, happens”, and we moved along.
We had a wipe, we downed the Herald – I died again – and then agreed to do the rest of the bosses. We go through whats-her-name, Jedoga, finish her with yours truly pulling a stupendous blink-iceblock evasion, saving me from being taken down with her, and then the pally left. Frankly, I didn’t even notice he was gone. Again, I can’t say anything against the guy… he was competent. But like most RLFG groups, just… blah.
Kaly said “Screw it, I have my tanking gear, there’s only trash and the optional encounter left, let’s do this!” So we 4 manned it… although I of course didn’t even notice we were four manning until later. We went down through the web covered tunnel, and the girls (as I think of them, regardless of whether the players are female or not) stepped out a bit far, aggroed stuff, and died before I reached the bottom. There I was, with the perfect chance to make it the ultimate “by the seat of our pants” run, and my Gnomish Army Knife failed to defib Bella. I was distraught! She laughed, and put the tone of the whole run was put into words: “We’re dying, but I’m having a blast!”
I could go on with a blow-by-blow, but that’s not the point. We weren’t worried about wiping, gear, or any thing else. We were just having fun, we laughed, we bantered. I got the chance to relax and be my usual wiseass self. What more could one ask for from a run???
So now, I’m left wanting more. I will pine for what will probably never be… another epicly fun pug with Kaly, Shaphira, and Bellalove. Blizzard officially hates me.
I didn’t want to dilute yesterday’s post with more trivial things… like Kalyon tanking my way to a bronze drake in Heroic CoS. I decided to take some promo shots on Krasus’ Landing, and Karius decided to join me.
As you can see, Karius likes to be on top.
Last night, a couple of my guildies and I were graciously invited to Crits and Giggles Classic Raid Night, a trip through AQ20 AND AQ40.
Needless to say, it was a truly mammoth undertaking.
The last two boss fights in AQ40 were just AMAZING. In the end, we prevailed, and just about everyone got the “use only in AQ40 mounts”. I heard a comment on Vent saying we need to run it 19 more times so everyone can get the red one.
Gives a whole new twist to the phrase “I went out for a drive on my buggy.”
RG and I were reminiscing last night while waiting for a random Heroic, talking about all that’s happened over the less-than-two-weeks since she first graciously invited my guildies and I to accompany her guild on occasion, and since Kalyon stepped in to tank Heroic Violet Hold for us. She and her guild-mates have been helpful, gracious, and patient with me and mine, just awesome examples of the type of people we like to play with. Here’s to the last couple weeks, and many more.
I’ll say it again… I’m loving the new Random LFG. So far, I’ve had plenty of “meh” non-remarkable experiences (which for a random pug is good!!!), some good experiences, one – count it, ONE!!! – encounter with an asshat, a “oh, how friggin’ cool is that!” experience, and and absolutely the most jaw-dropping display of healing I’ve ever seen.
So, RG told of our run through UK and the not only well-geared but incredibly classy Dazarize of Cenarius. Let me add some quick background. The tank in question is my 14 year old son, who made 80 over the Christmas break, and has been pugging his butt off as DPS to try and build a decent tank set. To date, he’s probably been primary tank… hmm, let’s see… a couple in Violet Hold, at level 75… once two-manning with me in Sethekk Halls to get my Pilgrim title, at about 72… ummm three, maybe four times in normal ToC, this weekend… and maybe twice last weekend. So, when we went into UK, he’d been primary tank less than ten times, and never in a heroic. He off-tanked the adds for the weekly raid boss, Anub’Rekhan in Naxx on Saturday.
So yeah, he’s still learning.
Last night, Karius, Nickolas and myself queued up for a random heroic, and got Azj0l-Nerub. The first couple pulls went off well, but as we went running down that narrow causeway, Nick’s camera zoomed in and went wonky, and he veered off the edge. So… the rest of us followed. Let’s just say things didn’t go off well. Wipe #1.
Run back, same encounter. Nick’s a bit irritated at himself, to put it mildly. Instead of pulling one Anub’ar Crusher, he gets too close, and pulls three. Wipe #2. Our healer and third DPS remark that he needs to pull one, not three, then leave party. No complaints here. They weren’t rude, they just didn’t feel like playing out what was looking like a fail situation. So, we get back in queue for a healer and another DPS. We get a pally, and a resto druid, one Nihgthealer of Misha. (yes, I spelled it right.)
By this time, Nick’s about two steps from deleting his DK, i.e. logging out, and hitting delete. I kid you not. He can be as light-hearted and goofy as a kindergardener, but he takes tanking very seriously, and when he gets down on himself, it tends to snowball. That’s when Dad has to yank him up short, and remind him to breath.
So, back again. This time, Nick pulls one. Down it goes. The next two go down no problem. Now we’re at Hadranox. Nick reminds us to let all the adds die first, and we almost did. We got a bit close, with one add left, and the boss aggroed. Not a problem. Down he went, and off we go to the last boss, Anub’arak. Not sure what went awry that first time, but the pally went down like… well, like a dead Dranaei. A few seconds later, us squishies followed. I think there was a battle rez in there somewhere, but all the DPS ended up out of it.
Ok… so it’s a short instance. We could have released, and ran back. I couldn’t. I was just plain too engrossed in the show. Oh. My. God!!!
Nick’s going off on Skype, blaming himself for not holding aggro off the pally and us, and bemoaning that he doesn’t have enough DPS. to take the boss down. Karius and I are first calling encouragement, then instructions, then back to encouragement going “Go!!! Your healer’s got you! Go!!! Halfway down!!! Stick with it!!!”
“Got him” just fails as a description. Nihgthealer is all over the platform, healing himself and Nick through leeching swarms, pounds, dodging carrion beetles, and then the boss goes underground. The elites come charging down, Nick’s doing his best to pick them up, and not getting them all. The druid’s being chased around the platform, dodging spikes, doing the frantic tree-dance.
Simply amazing. This goes on through not one, but two of the underground phases. With Nick’s tank DPS, the above ground phases last, and last. Through it all, Nihgthealer doesn’t stop moving. The tree branches are going up into the air as fast as GCDs will allow it. He’s got green stuff all over him, his health dips, then goes back up, Nick’s goes down to a quarter, then bang-bang, back up to full.
Yes. I should have released, and run back. As long as the encounter lasted, I may well have made it back, and I’ve been kicking myself for not at least trying. I might have made the difference. But I’ve got to say, I’m not really sorry. It’s not often, especially in heroics these days, that you get to witness something like that, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. As epic as anything I’ve ever seen in WoW.
After the wipe, we ran back, and I whispered Nihgthealer, telling him he rocked, and thanking him for his patience, the tank was just learning. He just replied with a wry “I’d noticed.”
We went back, and this time, took the boss down fairly easily. Nihgthealer left before we could really thank him. So here it is: Thanks for you patience, and an incredible display of keeping your tank alive!
Phew… Tuesday. The weekend flew by, in large part due to my landlord getting a wild hair, and wanting to remodel the room I rent. So, I had to up and move into the other room, that he’d just finished remodeling. Which is cool, the new room is larger, but it was like “Move now”. Try moving the better part of 4 years worth of stuff, plus the stuff I inherited from the last roomate, in a few hours. Geez.
But it’s done, and I still managed to get some WoW in. It’s been kinda a Blackrock Mountain theme. We got Karius the Jenkins title, as reported over at Reputation Grind, explored a few um… little-visited locales, and did a couple runs through various LBRS, and BRD, with Rep’s toons, and some of our lower level guildies, getting the worg pup and Smolderweb spiderling. Last night, Karius invited me to their classic raid session… Black Wing Lair. My first time through, and truth be told, I’ve only been in on a few full blown raids. It’s rather overwhelming, but an awesome instance. Thanks again to Karius for the invite.
Following that, it was back to BRD to help a guildie, and then back to LBRS for more questing stuff. The “Mother’s Milk” quest had the potential to be an ordeal. I won’t pimp it, but if you ever do it, be patient, and just go with it. There’s plenty of opportunity for hilarity.
And I can see I need to get more organized with the screenshots!
So, with all the flap about DPS in heroics, I spent this early AM tweaking my spec, and trying some alternate gear. For all that I take shit about it, my PvP epics serve me well. Of course, I won’t be sentimental about it when I find upgrades. The problem is, finding upgrades.
Yeah, it’s easy to say “You need gear with more Int and more Hit”. And yes, if I could magically swap out several pieces at the same time, yes, I’d be jumping all over that.
But as I discovered this morning, little changes to one stat can have a ripple effect. I did some target dummy tests. I’d switched back to the Flameheart Spell Scalpel / Iron Bound Tome combo I’d shelved for my Staff of Sinister Claws, which I’d promptly thrown a Black Magic enchant on. I put the same enchant on the dagger, and then started doing some tests. My expectation was that the hit on the dagger would up the DPS over the haste on the staff.
Boy, was I wrong.
Now, it’s a small result set, and I didn’t check for specific procs, etc., but with multiple tries, on the Heroic target dummy (where my hit/lack of hit should have been a big factor), I pulled 2.2k DPS with the dagger/tome combo, and 2.4k+ with the staff. I’m not capped on anything, and everything I’ve ever read says hit > haste, at least until the hit cap.
I want to do some more testing, with better logging, etc., but my guess is that the extra haste is allowing my spell prioritizing/rotation to be more forgiving of the loss of GCD from reapplying Living Bomb, Hot Streak procs, Scorch applications, etc. and the spirit on the staff if upping my crit rating. It most definitely felt like I was getting a lot more Hot Streak procs with the staff. I suspect that Black Magic was proccing more often too. Like I said, I want to do more tests with better tools.
If my guess is right, I need to look into trinkets that proc, as opposed to having “On Equip” or “On Use” stuff. Lots of stuff to test and play with!
