We raid sometimes.
When we raid, we have to fight bosses. Bosses are really big things with nasty teeth 9 times out of 10.
That's not the problem.
We run with 3 healers and 2 tanks. These healers and tanks often have to scramble to be able to keep the fight from degrading into a bloodbath made of Dead Warlock.
That's not the problem.
The problem, you see, is that we have some people in the raid, who somehow. SOMEHOW. No matter how many times we do a fight, make the same mistake.
People who somehow don't think about what their abilities do when they use them.
If you have one tank for Adds, and one tank for the big boss, and some adds show up and go over to the boss tank, you do not use your "taunt 3 things to you" ability, mister add tank.
Our add tank did that. I hated him more than anything in the world. Not only did he let me have adds for a good 40 seconds during the fight, but when he taunted, he used an incredibly risky move that ended up getting him then all of us killed.
did that really HAPPEN!?
At the point in which you raid tank, you have to understand communication with your raid. you have to TELL them when you're going to do something like that. If he had said "using righteous defense" I could have taunted the boss back! Boom!
But no, he just silently used it, the boss went running over, and I just stood there bewildered for a good 15s wondering why I suddenly didn't have threat.
Stupid people aren't worth bringing.
It doesn't really matter how casual your guild is. Raids aren't casual. If you go into a raid and you say "eh, maybe we'll get a boss kill" that's very different than saying "Lets get these guys down and get loot!" The second is our Raid Leader's position, and that puts us very out of the casual box.
once you are out of the casual box, even by a little bit, you have to say "no, I cannot bring these people to raid, because the other 8 have the understanding that we will be getting this done right."
You just can't! bringing one or two people who have no clue what they're doing means the other 8 suffer. It's incredibly frustrating. It makes me want to say "I dont go unless X isn't tanking", which makes me sound like a dick.
Maybe I am a dick. But I can do my job.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Infinitrees
My desktop is back, and it brings with it the endlessly amusing and horrifying phenomenon of Infinitrees.
I don't understand quite how this works technically, but basically what happens is that certain World of Warcraft models become...unfastened. the vertex at the end of a night elf's ear will suddenly decide that it's not fastened to her ear, but the far side of Duskwood, creating this long, long triangle of night elf colored terror. The reason it's called Infinitrees is that Grizzly Hills in Northrend is the most spectacular incarnation of this terror.
So now that I dont have lappy to play on, Desky gets to bring me back to those days of splendor and nights of horror. By the way, "splendor" there is referring to "days of having all your settings on 'low' and still lagging to f*ck"
So I dont have my addons working to satisfaction and I have a 65% to 100% chance of Hard-freezing my machine when I launch it :/
Oh, and sooner or later it'll hard-freeze anyway.
Damnit.
Well at least I can level characters. If it freezes the worst that happens is a trip to Jagged Rock Junction when I log back in.
But this means I cannot raid or do instances, because a hard-freeze in there means everybody ELSE goes with me to Jagged Rock Junction.
And that'd make me feel bad.
Also I have a pretty good feeling that loading any of those instances will make Desky cry anyway.
Stupid particle Fx.
I don't understand quite how this works technically, but basically what happens is that certain World of Warcraft models become...unfastened. the vertex at the end of a night elf's ear will suddenly decide that it's not fastened to her ear, but the far side of Duskwood, creating this long, long triangle of night elf colored terror. The reason it's called Infinitrees is that Grizzly Hills in Northrend is the most spectacular incarnation of this terror.
So now that I dont have lappy to play on, Desky gets to bring me back to those days of splendor and nights of horror. By the way, "splendor" there is referring to "days of having all your settings on 'low' and still lagging to f*ck"
So I dont have my addons working to satisfaction and I have a 65% to 100% chance of Hard-freezing my machine when I launch it :/
Oh, and sooner or later it'll hard-freeze anyway.
Damnit.
Well at least I can level characters. If it freezes the worst that happens is a trip to Jagged Rock Junction when I log back in.
But this means I cannot raid or do instances, because a hard-freeze in there means everybody ELSE goes with me to Jagged Rock Junction.
And that'd make me feel bad.
Also I have a pretty good feeling that loading any of those instances will make Desky cry anyway.
Stupid particle Fx.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Old world professions
WoW's professions and secondary skills have seen many facelifts throughout the history of the game. Except some haven't.
Blacksmithing, long thought to be one of the most annoying professions to level, is now...relatively easy. The grindy bits requiring mithril and other nonsense now are easy thanks to the increase in mithril nodes. The new items that give multiple skill-ups have been a boon to many professions, such as engineering, which would need exponentially more ore towards the end if some items didn't give 5 or 3 skill-ups per craft.
But a lot of the old-world junk remains.
Enchanting still takes a beast of a long time simply because of what you need and where it comes from, and Leatherworking is an absolute monster, requiring thousands of hides for items that in today's game are useless or in the best case scenario last a half hour. Engineering still carries some old nonsense in it, practice locks are one; since rogues no longer have to worry about leveling up lock-picking, those practice locks have next to no value. They even sell for next to nothing; 12 copper per vendor. Woo.
Blizzard needs to try to fix some of these old professions. Cut out some of the abysmally long cast times. Cut out the parts where you need 200 hides or 200 dust of a certain kind. Give us a little bit less grind please, and then people will start to like professions more.
Really, the best thing they could do would be to add multiple skill-up recipes for lower level crafts, to justify spending 10 silver bars for that breastplate. Give that thing 5 skill-ups and people will be lining up like crazy to make it.
it might even be fun to put in crafted gear that makes Bind on Account gear-heirlooms. Make THAT part grindy as hell, requiring items from every level that's a multiple of 5 or something, and mash 'em all up to make something for a low level character to wear. Make professions more of a part of life for characters, instead of something you just have and occasionally use once a month for a new hat.
Blacksmithing, long thought to be one of the most annoying professions to level, is now...relatively easy. The grindy bits requiring mithril and other nonsense now are easy thanks to the increase in mithril nodes. The new items that give multiple skill-ups have been a boon to many professions, such as engineering, which would need exponentially more ore towards the end if some items didn't give 5 or 3 skill-ups per craft.
But a lot of the old-world junk remains.
Enchanting still takes a beast of a long time simply because of what you need and where it comes from, and Leatherworking is an absolute monster, requiring thousands of hides for items that in today's game are useless or in the best case scenario last a half hour. Engineering still carries some old nonsense in it, practice locks are one; since rogues no longer have to worry about leveling up lock-picking, those practice locks have next to no value. They even sell for next to nothing; 12 copper per vendor. Woo.
Blizzard needs to try to fix some of these old professions. Cut out some of the abysmally long cast times. Cut out the parts where you need 200 hides or 200 dust of a certain kind. Give us a little bit less grind please, and then people will start to like professions more.
Really, the best thing they could do would be to add multiple skill-up recipes for lower level crafts, to justify spending 10 silver bars for that breastplate. Give that thing 5 skill-ups and people will be lining up like crazy to make it.
it might even be fun to put in crafted gear that makes Bind on Account gear-heirlooms. Make THAT part grindy as hell, requiring items from every level that's a multiple of 5 or something, and mash 'em all up to make something for a low level character to wear. Make professions more of a part of life for characters, instead of something you just have and occasionally use once a month for a new hat.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Delicious warrior change.
OH. MY. GOD.
Patch 4.1 has been around for a week, and patch notes for 4.2 are already creeping around the net like so many rogues at the stables.
There were some pretty major changes.
A raid
some quests n' shit
a legendary for DPS casters
CC no longer causing the pull to start
and
the Big 3 for warriors, Recklessness, Retaliation, and Shield Wall, will no longer have stance requirements.
Here, let me list them and their stances, as those who don't play warriors may not be the most familiar with them.
Retaliation.
Requirement: Battle Stance
5 minute Cooldown.
Instant.
Instantly counterattack any enemy that strikes you in melee for 12 sec. Melee attacks made from behind cannot be counterattacked. A maximum of 20 attacks will cause retaliation.
Thank you Wowhead.
This was a strange ability. Battle stance is most commonly used by Arms warriors, since it's the only stance that allows use of Overpower, one of Arms' main damage abilities. But as an Arms warrior, there are few circumstances outside of PvP to use retaliation. Sure you might once or twice while leveling, but in a group setting, if you're getting beat on, you're better off going into defensive stance and using Shield wall. I'm not going to talk about pvp here because...I don't want to.
What this means is a warrior tank can charge and use retaliation in defensive stance, so as to not gimp her threat and her rage, and still get the insane burst threat of countering every mob bashing on her. Sure it was possible before, but this is so much more streamlined. So lovely.
Recklessness
Requirement: Berserker Stance.
5 minute Cooldown.
Instant.
Grants your special attacks an additional 50% chance to critically hit, but increases all damage taken by 20%. Lasts 12 sec.
This one hearkens back to the days when Berserker stance increased the damage you took. It's a flavor thing that may or may not piss me off, but that's some serious burst damage right there.
It's requirement of berserker stance annoys arms warriors the hell out, as changing stances gets rid of a good chunk of your rage, and so when you pop it you may have trouble having the rage to use anything serious after. Oh well. 50% crit is pretty funny. Previously this ability was 100% crit on your next 3 abilities. This current incarnation feels heavier. Moar smashy.
Shield Wall
Requirement: Defensive Stance
5 minute Cooldown
Instant
Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds.
Bland as sh*t, but that's ALL damage
Physical, shadow, holy, arcane, frost, fire, nature
Shield mastery, a talent in the Protection tree, reduces its cooldown by 3 minutes.
Glyph of Shield wall INCREASES its cooldown by 2 minutes.
To sum it up, this can have a 60% reduction for 12 secs once per 4 minutes.
There are arguments about this, I'm sure. But my thoughts are thus:
Shield wall is not a "use on cooldown" button. this is a button that they gave us for things like tanking Illidan Stormrage in Black Temple during TBC. you used it for Shear so you wouldn't die.
(Shear was Illidan hitting for 50k with a 2 second cast time. it would kill the tank or anyone else except for a warrior with shield wall)
So reducing the cooldown isn't a big priority here. But increasing the protection it gives you? Pshah! yes please! 60% of ALL damage reduced...regardless of if that's before armor and blocking and other nonsense or after, it's Hefty.
So. That's why I'm excited.
Patch 4.1 has been around for a week, and patch notes for 4.2 are already creeping around the net like so many rogues at the stables.
There were some pretty major changes.
A raid
some quests n' shit
a legendary for DPS casters
CC no longer causing the pull to start
and
the Big 3 for warriors, Recklessness, Retaliation, and Shield Wall, will no longer have stance requirements.
Here, let me list them and their stances, as those who don't play warriors may not be the most familiar with them.
Retaliation.
Requirement: Battle Stance
5 minute Cooldown.
Instant.
Instantly counterattack any enemy that strikes you in melee for 12 sec. Melee attacks made from behind cannot be counterattacked. A maximum of 20 attacks will cause retaliation.
Thank you Wowhead.
This was a strange ability. Battle stance is most commonly used by Arms warriors, since it's the only stance that allows use of Overpower, one of Arms' main damage abilities. But as an Arms warrior, there are few circumstances outside of PvP to use retaliation. Sure you might once or twice while leveling, but in a group setting, if you're getting beat on, you're better off going into defensive stance and using Shield wall. I'm not going to talk about pvp here because...I don't want to.
What this means is a warrior tank can charge and use retaliation in defensive stance, so as to not gimp her threat and her rage, and still get the insane burst threat of countering every mob bashing on her. Sure it was possible before, but this is so much more streamlined. So lovely.
Recklessness
Requirement: Berserker Stance.
5 minute Cooldown.
Instant.
Grants your special attacks an additional 50% chance to critically hit, but increases all damage taken by 20%. Lasts 12 sec.
This one hearkens back to the days when Berserker stance increased the damage you took. It's a flavor thing that may or may not piss me off, but that's some serious burst damage right there.
It's requirement of berserker stance annoys arms warriors the hell out, as changing stances gets rid of a good chunk of your rage, and so when you pop it you may have trouble having the rage to use anything serious after. Oh well. 50% crit is pretty funny. Previously this ability was 100% crit on your next 3 abilities. This current incarnation feels heavier. Moar smashy.
Shield Wall
Requirement: Defensive Stance
5 minute Cooldown
Instant
Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds.
Bland as sh*t, but that's ALL damage
Physical, shadow, holy, arcane, frost, fire, nature
Shield mastery, a talent in the Protection tree, reduces its cooldown by 3 minutes.
Glyph of Shield wall INCREASES its cooldown by 2 minutes.
To sum it up, this can have a 60% reduction for 12 secs once per 4 minutes.
There are arguments about this, I'm sure. But my thoughts are thus:
Shield wall is not a "use on cooldown" button. this is a button that they gave us for things like tanking Illidan Stormrage in Black Temple during TBC. you used it for Shear so you wouldn't die.
(Shear was Illidan hitting for 50k with a 2 second cast time. it would kill the tank or anyone else except for a warrior with shield wall)
So reducing the cooldown isn't a big priority here. But increasing the protection it gives you? Pshah! yes please! 60% of ALL damage reduced...regardless of if that's before armor and blocking and other nonsense or after, it's Hefty.
So. That's why I'm excited.
Tech Support
A long time ago-say-two years ago or something like that, 3 panel soul had a comic in which loot from Naxxramas was being made fun of. a 1 handed mace called "Maexxna's Femur" was looted by a female human paladin named Texaporte. I thought this name was a gas.
So when I went to reroll on Ursin and leave the passive, deadened world of Eredar behind me, I decided on a female human with the same haircut named Texaporte. But this was Wrath of the Lich King days, and damned if I'd roll a paladin. So she was a warrior.
She was a damned good warrior at that, and I sped-leveled her up to 80 in give-or-take record time without heirloom gear, and for the entirety of wrath she was my flagship.
She doesn't have a whole lot of real "story" to her, but there are some facts.
She is incredibly, INCREDIBLY xenophobic.
She loathes Orcs more than....more than dwarves love ale.
She loathes the horde only *slightly* less than she loathes orcs.
At some point during her career as a Fury warrior, she was pulled aside by Highlord Mograine, who told her about a weapon being designed to defeat the Lich King. Well damn it all, she had to have it.
She gathered together a bunch of the volatile Primordial Saronite, and confronted the lich king in the cave where he first found Frostmourne. There she stole his old paladin hammer for use in the creation of the new weapon......after fighting through 5,000 ghouls to get to it.
The weapon attracted much more attention from the Lich King than most incursions into his territory had, and he began to speak to her through the hilt of the incomplete weapon, which the highlord called Shadow's Edge. This drove her a little bit more crazy than she was. Before embarking on this task, she would think tactically about whom she charged and attacked. After even getting her hands on this unfinished form, she was filled with the blind blood frenzy type of rage. The kind where she didn't think "there are 10 Orcs there" before attacking.
When finally the lich king was vanquished, the weapon was still incomplete, and that was probably better for her health. While wielding it she found herself unable to speak most of the time. Her only remaining language was very simple and any words at all were hard to say.
So with the slaying of the lich king she could carefully put the incomplete Shadow's Edge on a shelf in the back of her bank vault and never pick it up again.
For the most part I haven't done much in cataclysm with ol' tex. She....warriors are not....
Warriors are having some pvp trouble, and as far as tanking goes, Death Knights are much. Much more broken.
So when I went to reroll on Ursin and leave the passive, deadened world of Eredar behind me, I decided on a female human with the same haircut named Texaporte. But this was Wrath of the Lich King days, and damned if I'd roll a paladin. So she was a warrior.
She was a damned good warrior at that, and I sped-leveled her up to 80 in give-or-take record time without heirloom gear, and for the entirety of wrath she was my flagship.
She doesn't have a whole lot of real "story" to her, but there are some facts.
She is incredibly, INCREDIBLY xenophobic.
She loathes Orcs more than....more than dwarves love ale.
She loathes the horde only *slightly* less than she loathes orcs.
At some point during her career as a Fury warrior, she was pulled aside by Highlord Mograine, who told her about a weapon being designed to defeat the Lich King. Well damn it all, she had to have it.
She gathered together a bunch of the volatile Primordial Saronite, and confronted the lich king in the cave where he first found Frostmourne. There she stole his old paladin hammer for use in the creation of the new weapon......after fighting through 5,000 ghouls to get to it.
The weapon attracted much more attention from the Lich King than most incursions into his territory had, and he began to speak to her through the hilt of the incomplete weapon, which the highlord called Shadow's Edge. This drove her a little bit more crazy than she was. Before embarking on this task, she would think tactically about whom she charged and attacked. After even getting her hands on this unfinished form, she was filled with the blind blood frenzy type of rage. The kind where she didn't think "there are 10 Orcs there" before attacking.
When finally the lich king was vanquished, the weapon was still incomplete, and that was probably better for her health. While wielding it she found herself unable to speak most of the time. Her only remaining language was very simple and any words at all were hard to say.
So with the slaying of the lich king she could carefully put the incomplete Shadow's Edge on a shelf in the back of her bank vault and never pick it up again.
For the most part I haven't done much in cataclysm with ol' tex. She....warriors are not....
Warriors are having some pvp trouble, and as far as tanking goes, Death Knights are much. Much more broken.
SALVE
Hi. I'm Tex.
I play a lot of WoW. If for some reason you *don't* play WoW, there's not a whole lot of reasons why you would read this. So...Scram. Yeah.
Are they gone?
I play on Us-Ursin. I don't claim to be the best player evarrr, but usually I can hold my own. My death knight tanks for the guild The Oasis Contingent in our raids, and I have other characters approaching raid ready or that are. Whether or not I ever get to use them in that setting is anyone's guess.
I'm not quite sure what I had in mind for this place, but mostly my old blog is...old and full of high school. So we left.
The only idea I did have was to post all my various role-play things here. I have developed partial or complete backstories for all my WoW characters. Some may not be "Canon" and some may be pretty silly, but WoW is pretty silly. you can vanquish a dragon and it'll be back next week.
There may also be rants. Sometimes.
I play a lot of WoW. If for some reason you *don't* play WoW, there's not a whole lot of reasons why you would read this. So...Scram. Yeah.
Are they gone?
I play on Us-Ursin. I don't claim to be the best player evarrr, but usually I can hold my own. My death knight tanks for the guild The Oasis Contingent in our raids, and I have other characters approaching raid ready or that are. Whether or not I ever get to use them in that setting is anyone's guess.
I'm not quite sure what I had in mind for this place, but mostly my old blog is...old and full of high school. So we left.
The only idea I did have was to post all my various role-play things here. I have developed partial or complete backstories for all my WoW characters. Some may not be "Canon" and some may be pretty silly, but WoW is pretty silly. you can vanquish a dragon and it'll be back next week.
There may also be rants. Sometimes.
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