The Treasure Of The Midnight Isles
6 days ago
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
As my friends and I were doing some table top gaming on Friday night, our newest WoW playing member mentioned that he was nervous about using the LFG tool, particularly once he hit level 80, because he has a great fear of walking into a group, and having the not a-typical "omg... WHAT are you WEARING?" response. I hated to say it... but his concern is valid - and I find it very frustrating.
A Year Ago...
Remember when Heroics were hard? I'm not even talking about TBC-Heroic hardness... I'm talking about when you leveled your first toon to 80, and you were gearing up to raid not long after Wrath was released. Back when Naxx, VoA, and OS were our only raiding options. Did you jump straight into Naxx in your quest blues and greens, with one or two crafted epics?
For most of us, in order to gear ourselves up for raiding, we ran heroics. We ground our way through an entire dungeon, picking up one or two blue upgrades along the way, mostly in the hopes of getting a nice shiny epic to drop at the end that might be what we want. Heroics didn't always give badges, if you recall.
Remember when Heroics were genuinely a challenge for you? In our guild, we fought amongst ourselves, arguing with each other over the specs we were using, or the spells, or who ought to be healing or tanking or whatever. It was draining, we got frustrated, and often felt like we couldn't do it. Utgarde Pinnacle and Culling of Stratholme brought us into several raging arguments, and for some time, we just stopped running Heroics altogether.
These Days...
It is a lot easier to gear yourself up now, and I think we can all agree on that - even before the new LFG tool, people could chain heroics in a pug, and pick up enough emblem gear to be ready for the latest tier of raiding content. This is intentional, and exactly what Blizzard wanted to happen. The entire point was so that people wouldn't have to spend weeks grinding through old raiding material that raiding guilds didn't want to touch in order to be ready for the current content. Love it or hate it, it is working as intended.
However, in order to get to that end game raiding content gear level, you still have to somehow bridge the divide between Fresh 80 In Quest Greens And Blues and End Game Gear Level. And the best way to do that has always been, and still is, running Heroics.
So why do end game raiders seem so shocked and appalled by the mere presence of people using Heroics to do exactly that... gear up?
In an LFG PuG earlier this weekend, I landed myself in a HCoS run. Everyone except for the elemental shammy was very well geared. In fact, the tank was in a recognizable raiding guild on my server... a guild that includes a few realm first type things, if I recall properly.
The tank whispered me and said "looks like were going 2b carrying this dam shammy lol". He then made a point to tell all the dps to pump out the damage in order to make up for the shammy who was in unenchanted and ungemmed blues and purples. Since healers and tanks usually have some sort of strange bond, and since I was fairly well geared, I guess he thought I would sympathize with his devastating woe.
My response?
"... So?"
The shammy stayed out of fires. She even did a healthy 2k dps in her gear. We finished the run with 10 minutes left to the timer, and she even passed on the drake to someone else who wanted it.
Despite the fact that the tank continued to send me tells bitching to me about the crap dps, we had absolutely no problems. Maybe the tank and I carried the others through. So what? No one died, they all did enough damage that we were successful, and I got the badges I wanted.
I can imagine it would be more frustrating if you are a very strong DPS with a weak tank and healer combo, but luckily, in all but the newest heroics, my heals are strong enough to where I can make up for a lot of errors others make, and get what I want from the heroic. As long as everyone is courteous and friendly, or at least honors the "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all" rule, I'm perfectly content - you can even stand in the fire on occasion, and I don't really care.
Before you jump into a pug, consider this: There are generally two types of people using the LFG pugging tool to gear up. Those who are gearing up solely via grinding heroics for the badges, and those who are gearing up via the items that actually drop from these heroics. Even for a lot of the raiders there are some good drops in the new IC 5 mans, but I'm not even talking about those. You may just end up with someone who still considers the epic that drops from the final boss in Heroic Utgarde Keep an upgrade.
(I'm not sure yet if the tool matches people of similar gear quality, as this has been up for some debate and anyone who can provide a source confirming the subject gets personal Power Infused thanks!)
If you want to chain grind heroics on high speed, that's fine. Blizz thinks that's okay, and so do I. But you should also respect the fact that for people who have just hit 80, they have a right to use the LFG tool in an effort to gear up as well. Don't be a jerk.
You could even follow the Tamarind Method of Wanker Prevention if you're feeling
especially generous. For the record, I read his post several times before I understood it properly. If you play alliance, don't forget that everytime Tam refers to the DPS with whom he partnered a "cow", I'm almost positive he's pointing out that she was a Tauren, and not some other less courteous descriptor. Unless my context reading udderly failed. (CWUTIDIDTHAR)
A Year Ago...
Remember when Heroics were hard? I'm not even talking about TBC-Heroic hardness... I'm talking about when you leveled your first toon to 80, and you were gearing up to raid not long after Wrath was released. Back when Naxx, VoA, and OS were our only raiding options. Did you jump straight into Naxx in your quest blues and greens, with one or two crafted epics?
For most of us, in order to gear ourselves up for raiding, we ran heroics. We ground our way through an entire dungeon, picking up one or two blue upgrades along the way, mostly in the hopes of getting a nice shiny epic to drop at the end that might be what we want. Heroics didn't always give badges, if you recall.
Remember when Heroics were genuinely a challenge for you? In our guild, we fought amongst ourselves, arguing with each other over the specs we were using, or the spells, or who ought to be healing or tanking or whatever. It was draining, we got frustrated, and often felt like we couldn't do it. Utgarde Pinnacle and Culling of Stratholme brought us into several raging arguments, and for some time, we just stopped running Heroics altogether.
These Days...
It is a lot easier to gear yourself up now, and I think we can all agree on that - even before the new LFG tool, people could chain heroics in a pug, and pick up enough emblem gear to be ready for the latest tier of raiding content. This is intentional, and exactly what Blizzard wanted to happen. The entire point was so that people wouldn't have to spend weeks grinding through old raiding material that raiding guilds didn't want to touch in order to be ready for the current content. Love it or hate it, it is working as intended.
However, in order to get to that end game raiding content gear level, you still have to somehow bridge the divide between Fresh 80 In Quest Greens And Blues and End Game Gear Level. And the best way to do that has always been, and still is, running Heroics.
So why do end game raiders seem so shocked and appalled by the mere presence of people using Heroics to do exactly that... gear up?
In an LFG PuG earlier this weekend, I landed myself in a HCoS run. Everyone except for the elemental shammy was very well geared. In fact, the tank was in a recognizable raiding guild on my server... a guild that includes a few realm first type things, if I recall properly.
The tank whispered me and said "looks like were going 2b carrying this dam shammy lol". He then made a point to tell all the dps to pump out the damage in order to make up for the shammy who was in unenchanted and ungemmed blues and purples. Since healers and tanks usually have some sort of strange bond, and since I was fairly well geared, I guess he thought I would sympathize with his devastating woe.
My response?
"... So?"
The shammy stayed out of fires. She even did a healthy 2k dps in her gear. We finished the run with 10 minutes left to the timer, and she even passed on the drake to someone else who wanted it.
Despite the fact that the tank continued to send me tells bitching to me about the crap dps, we had absolutely no problems. Maybe the tank and I carried the others through. So what? No one died, they all did enough damage that we were successful, and I got the badges I wanted.I can imagine it would be more frustrating if you are a very strong DPS with a weak tank and healer combo, but luckily, in all but the newest heroics, my heals are strong enough to where I can make up for a lot of errors others make, and get what I want from the heroic. As long as everyone is courteous and friendly, or at least honors the "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all" rule, I'm perfectly content - you can even stand in the fire on occasion, and I don't really care.
Before you jump into a pug, consider this: There are generally two types of people using the LFG pugging tool to gear up. Those who are gearing up solely via grinding heroics for the badges, and those who are gearing up via the items that actually drop from these heroics. Even for a lot of the raiders there are some good drops in the new IC 5 mans, but I'm not even talking about those. You may just end up with someone who still considers the epic that drops from the final boss in Heroic Utgarde Keep an upgrade.
(I'm not sure yet if the tool matches people of similar gear quality, as this has been up for some debate and anyone who can provide a source confirming the subject gets personal Power Infused thanks!)
If you want to chain grind heroics on high speed, that's fine. Blizz thinks that's okay, and so do I. But you should also respect the fact that for people who have just hit 80, they have a right to use the LFG tool in an effort to gear up as well. Don't be a jerk.
You could even follow the Tamarind Method of Wanker Prevention if you're feeling
especially generous. For the record, I read his post several times before I understood it properly. If you play alliance, don't forget that everytime Tam refers to the DPS with whom he partnered a "cow", I'm almost positive he's pointing out that she was a Tauren, and not some other less courteous descriptor. Unless my context reading udderly failed. (CWUTIDIDTHAR)
I was flying around Wintergrasp last night, farming a few eternals and trying half heartedly to get into a 25 man VoA group. Every now and then I'd remind those in /1 that I was a healer, lfg. There was a Death Knight following the same strategy, and I noted that both of us were in the LFG channel as well. This carried on for nearly an hour, as it appeared that no one wanted to make the effort to actually assemble the 25 man group, although there were plenty of people who wanted to run it.
Finally, I suppose the DK decided he would step forth, and he invited me to a group. Within 5 minutes he had a full 25 people heading into VoA. As we were clearing trash, we were having a conversation about dual boxing, and one of the other priests mentioned that it wasn't that hard to do: after all, Holy Priests only needed to use 2 spells to heal anyway.
Now, I'm not trying to be one of those people with nose in the air, claiming that MY class is extraordinairly difficult to play (I have a much more difficult time on my Pally, despite silly claims that Pallies are two-heal spammers), and if you find it so simple, you're obviously just doing it wrong. But... really? You feel Holy Priests ought to only use two spells?
"Wow. That's amazing. When I'm running holy, I'm using about 7 or 8 different spells," I comment. Another healer in the group seems to feel similarly, and mentions specific spells to figure out if this Obviously Superior Because I Only Need Two Spells To Heal Priest uses them. Renew? "Utterly useless, by the time it finishes healing the target, someone else has already healed them up." And so forth. This is the sort of thing I call Missing The Point. Miss Priesty Pants does not seem to understand the purpose of a HoT, I suppose. All you healing Druids, haven't you heard? You're utterly useless! That's why no one wants a Druid in their raid, after all, right?
I decided to just let it go. If she finds herself to be performing just fine with only two heals, well... more power to her. I don't really care how you heal, as long as you get your job done - and you don't give others crap for how they choose to get the very same job done. So go ahead and Flash Heal + Circle of Healing away. In a pugged VoA run it really doesn't matter much anyway.
But she really started to annoy me later.
After we finished off Koralon and began to make our way to Emalon, the same Priest made a comment in party chat (group 5, all healers!) along the lines of "Ugh, how pathetic. Our raid leader's dps is only 1500 lol". So I returned with "Well, this isn't exactly ToGC25." "Yeah but I mean, cmon. 1500? Really? The raid leader?" This is, of course, coming from the very same priest who insisted that her class only needs to use 2 spells to heal in a raid.
You ever have those moments when you wish that you'd been a bit ballisier, and said what you really want to say? Like...
"Well then you should kick him out. Oh wait. You can't. Because you weren't the one who took the time and made the effort to put together this run - he did. He sat around for an hour waiting for someone to do it, no one did it, so because he wanted to do VoA badly enough, most likely in order to improve his gear, experience, and therefore DPS, HE was the one who assembled the raid. He hasn't been bossing anyone around, or insulting anyone, or kicking anyone. All he's done is assembled enough people and taken on the PitA task of distributing the loot properly and fairly. In case you hadn't noticed, his weak DPS does not seem to have caused any problems for us. So, if you feel that any pugged raid assembled by someone with obviously inferior damage output is unworthy of your presence, don't let the door kick you on the way out."
But, I'm somewhat ashamed to say, I did not come forth and defend the DK raid leader. I went with the philosophy that arguing 7x4 is 28 against someone who insists it's 27 would instead make me the idiot.
Instead I did the following things:
Finally, I suppose the DK decided he would step forth, and he invited me to a group. Within 5 minutes he had a full 25 people heading into VoA. As we were clearing trash, we were having a conversation about dual boxing, and one of the other priests mentioned that it wasn't that hard to do: after all, Holy Priests only needed to use 2 spells to heal anyway.
Now, I'm not trying to be one of those people with nose in the air, claiming that MY class is extraordinairly difficult to play (I have a much more difficult time on my Pally, despite silly claims that Pallies are two-heal spammers), and if you find it so simple, you're obviously just doing it wrong. But... really? You feel Holy Priests ought to only use two spells?
"Wow. That's amazing. When I'm running holy, I'm using about 7 or 8 different spells," I comment. Another healer in the group seems to feel similarly, and mentions specific spells to figure out if this Obviously Superior Because I Only Need Two Spells To Heal Priest uses them. Renew? "Utterly useless, by the time it finishes healing the target, someone else has already healed them up." And so forth. This is the sort of thing I call Missing The Point. Miss Priesty Pants does not seem to understand the purpose of a HoT, I suppose. All you healing Druids, haven't you heard? You're utterly useless! That's why no one wants a Druid in their raid, after all, right?
I decided to just let it go. If she finds herself to be performing just fine with only two heals, well... more power to her. I don't really care how you heal, as long as you get your job done - and you don't give others crap for how they choose to get the very same job done. So go ahead and Flash Heal + Circle of Healing away. In a pugged VoA run it really doesn't matter much anyway.
But she really started to annoy me later.
After we finished off Koralon and began to make our way to Emalon, the same Priest made a comment in party chat (group 5, all healers!) along the lines of "Ugh, how pathetic. Our raid leader's dps is only 1500 lol". So I returned with "Well, this isn't exactly ToGC25." "Yeah but I mean, cmon. 1500? Really? The raid leader?" This is, of course, coming from the very same priest who insisted that her class only needs to use 2 spells to heal in a raid.
You ever have those moments when you wish that you'd been a bit ballisier, and said what you really want to say? Like...
"Well then you should kick him out. Oh wait. You can't. Because you weren't the one who took the time and made the effort to put together this run - he did. He sat around for an hour waiting for someone to do it, no one did it, so because he wanted to do VoA badly enough, most likely in order to improve his gear, experience, and therefore DPS, HE was the one who assembled the raid. He hasn't been bossing anyone around, or insulting anyone, or kicking anyone. All he's done is assembled enough people and taken on the PitA task of distributing the loot properly and fairly. In case you hadn't noticed, his weak DPS does not seem to have caused any problems for us. So, if you feel that any pugged raid assembled by someone with obviously inferior damage output is unworthy of your presence, don't let the door kick you on the way out."
But, I'm somewhat ashamed to say, I did not come forth and defend the DK raid leader. I went with the philosophy that arguing 7x4 is 28 against someone who insists it's 27 would instead make me the idiot.
Instead I did the following things:
- Laughed rudely when afore mentioned priest spent most of the Emalon fight struggling to stay alive (I guess Binding Heal is not one of those 2 spells a Holy Priest needs?)
- Sent a tell to the DK after we finished the raid, thanking him for organizing the group for the rest of us lazy bums, and to feel free to send me a tell if he ever needs a healer for something
- Wrote up a post on my blog in pure passive-aggressive fashion.
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Do you remember the first time you met that weird kid that didn't like chocolate ice cream?
Maybe it happened to you while you were in Elementary School. Dessert for the day consisted of chocolate ice cream cups, and the freak was trying to trade you his chocolate ice cream for your strained peas. Perhaps you thought you were being tricked somehow.
Now, picture the face you gave to non-chocolate-loving-freak kid. That is your "WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO" face.
Fast forward to present day. You're sitting in Dalaran, scanning trade chat for, oh I don't know, something actually trade related (lol noob), and yet another argument breaks out about how people who don't like to PvP are wimps. Or people who don't think the ease with which new raiders can get gear is lame. Or one of yet another bajillion different arguments that all are based on the same thing - one person not understanding WHY or HOW someone can get enjoyment out of a game doing something different than they do themselves.
If we could actually see each other's faces in trade chat (and for the love of God thank everything holy that we cannot) there would be a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces.
Ever had a Tuesday where your server is down, so you figure what the hell and roll up a toon on an RP server? I like to do this on occasion. I'm not really an RPer, but I'm... well, RP-curious, so I like to sneak on their servers and see what people are doing. I confess to being somewhat fascinated... the same way I felt about D&D before I finally started playing. I try to be sneaky and quiet. Not everyone is like that. There is always that teenage kid who plays a rogue on a PvP server who comes to the non-PvP RP server while his is down to roll up a toon and type in all caps in the starter zone general chat various verbal translations of his WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO face. He doesn't get it. He never will, because he's too busy refusing to understand someone else's perspective.
I like to heal. I don't like to PvP. I like to level professions. I like to run dailies. Depending on how the stars align and my mood at any given minute, I like to raid. I get a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces about all those things (particularly the fact that I like to run dailies and level professions) and it leaves me wondering... why? Why do you care how I choose to play my game?
I mean, if it's something that you are genuinely trying to understand (Such as Fuubaar's comment on my post a day or so ago, sincerely asking what the interest is in having multiple players of the same role) then that's fine, and most of the time I am happy to explain. But if, like the PvP rogue who re-rolled on an RP server to ridicule, you have no interest in learning, and simply want to boggle and berate, just GTFO. I'm too busy doing things I genuinely enjoy to try and explain to someone who demands an explanation but has no intention of actually listening to it.
I don't understand why some people like guns, or NASCAR, or expensive makeup or French food that does not fall under the heading of Gumbo, but to each their own. I don't know why weird kid doesn't like chocolate ice cream... but I do know that since he doesn't value it, that makes it easier for ME to get.
But I DO understand why Mortigan made the difficult choice between a guild that will definitely get shit done... and a guild that might struggle to get it done, but will be a lot friendlier in the process.
Gevlon translates everything into opportunity cost - how much money you can make in an hour, for instance. While this makes sense to me, he places no value on the idea of "pleasure" which is in and of itself a perfect example of opportunity cost. I tried the AH game, and I was incredibly bored. I found I much preferred running dailies - no, I don't make nearly as much gold as Gevlon, but I imagine I have just as much fun running my dailies as he does playing the AH - and I place a lot of value on that concept of "pleasure".
Isn't it something of a moot point to debate how people are morons for not maximizing their gold making potential in a game that not only costs money to play, but is, in effect, an absolute waste of time and money? If you place no value on the idea of pleasure, then I must say, the complete hypocrisy with which you chastise someone who does not make as much gold in an activity that translates into absolutely no real world monetary value just boggles my mind. Not that it doesn't make for an interesting read.
I have nothing against hardcore raiders until they take up arms against raiders like me, who will occasionally run at Hodir instead of rezzing dead bodies shrieking "THE LIGHT WILL PROTECT ME" into vent a split second before I go splat. Or the Tree who is bouncing around on flames around Sartharion as everyone else is buffing up, gets thrown right into Sarth, wipes the whole raid, and whispers "Whoops." into vent. The times when I've wiped miserably or had catastrophic failures are so much more memorable to me than the successes, because, let's face it, they were fucking funny. As long as I'm not doing it in your hardcore raid, why do you CARE how I'm goofing around in my own?
I'm glad if you don't like dailies, because that means there is less lag in Icecrown. I'm pleased you hate leveling professions, because that translates into getting more use out of my own. And the fact that you find healing boring means there are more raid slots left for healers such as myself, who love it.
But in the end, all that really matters is that I get all the chocolate ice cream.
Maybe it happened to you while you were in Elementary School. Dessert for the day consisted of chocolate ice cream cups, and the freak was trying to trade you his chocolate ice cream for your strained peas. Perhaps you thought you were being tricked somehow.
Now, picture the face you gave to non-chocolate-loving-freak kid. That is your "WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO" face.
Fast forward to present day. You're sitting in Dalaran, scanning trade chat for, oh I don't know, something actually trade related (lol noob), and yet another argument breaks out about how people who don't like to PvP are wimps. Or people who don't think the ease with which new raiders can get gear is lame. Or one of yet another bajillion different arguments that all are based on the same thing - one person not understanding WHY or HOW someone can get enjoyment out of a game doing something different than they do themselves.
If we could actually see each other's faces in trade chat (and for the love of God thank everything holy that we cannot) there would be a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces.
Ever had a Tuesday where your server is down, so you figure what the hell and roll up a toon on an RP server? I like to do this on occasion. I'm not really an RPer, but I'm... well, RP-curious, so I like to sneak on their servers and see what people are doing. I confess to being somewhat fascinated... the same way I felt about D&D before I finally started playing. I try to be sneaky and quiet. Not everyone is like that. There is always that teenage kid who plays a rogue on a PvP server who comes to the non-PvP RP server while his is down to roll up a toon and type in all caps in the starter zone general chat various verbal translations of his WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO face. He doesn't get it. He never will, because he's too busy refusing to understand someone else's perspective.
I like to heal. I don't like to PvP. I like to level professions. I like to run dailies. Depending on how the stars align and my mood at any given minute, I like to raid. I get a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces about all those things (particularly the fact that I like to run dailies and level professions) and it leaves me wondering... why? Why do you care how I choose to play my game?
I mean, if it's something that you are genuinely trying to understand (Such as Fuubaar's comment on my post a day or so ago, sincerely asking what the interest is in having multiple players of the same role) then that's fine, and most of the time I am happy to explain. But if, like the PvP rogue who re-rolled on an RP server to ridicule, you have no interest in learning, and simply want to boggle and berate, just GTFO. I'm too busy doing things I genuinely enjoy to try and explain to someone who demands an explanation but has no intention of actually listening to it.
I don't understand why some people like guns, or NASCAR, or expensive makeup or French food that does not fall under the heading of Gumbo, but to each their own. I don't know why weird kid doesn't like chocolate ice cream... but I do know that since he doesn't value it, that makes it easier for ME to get.
But I DO understand why Mortigan made the difficult choice between a guild that will definitely get shit done... and a guild that might struggle to get it done, but will be a lot friendlier in the process.
Gevlon translates everything into opportunity cost - how much money you can make in an hour, for instance. While this makes sense to me, he places no value on the idea of "pleasure" which is in and of itself a perfect example of opportunity cost. I tried the AH game, and I was incredibly bored. I found I much preferred running dailies - no, I don't make nearly as much gold as Gevlon, but I imagine I have just as much fun running my dailies as he does playing the AH - and I place a lot of value on that concept of "pleasure".
Isn't it something of a moot point to debate how people are morons for not maximizing their gold making potential in a game that not only costs money to play, but is, in effect, an absolute waste of time and money? If you place no value on the idea of pleasure, then I must say, the complete hypocrisy with which you chastise someone who does not make as much gold in an activity that translates into absolutely no real world monetary value just boggles my mind. Not that it doesn't make for an interesting read.
I have nothing against hardcore raiders until they take up arms against raiders like me, who will occasionally run at Hodir instead of rezzing dead bodies shrieking "THE LIGHT WILL PROTECT ME" into vent a split second before I go splat. Or the Tree who is bouncing around on flames around Sartharion as everyone else is buffing up, gets thrown right into Sarth, wipes the whole raid, and whispers "Whoops." into vent. The times when I've wiped miserably or had catastrophic failures are so much more memorable to me than the successes, because, let's face it, they were fucking funny. As long as I'm not doing it in your hardcore raid, why do you CARE how I'm goofing around in my own?
I'm glad if you don't like dailies, because that means there is less lag in Icecrown. I'm pleased you hate leveling professions, because that translates into getting more use out of my own. And the fact that you find healing boring means there are more raid slots left for healers such as myself, who love it.
But in the end, all that really matters is that I get all the chocolate ice cream.
Couple of random tidbits floating around in my head.
So many bloggers getting involved in NaNo! You are much more courageous than I. I'll try to hold down the fort so you can write your novels this month, and therefore I'll probably be posting a bit more frequently. My usual schedule is about once a day, but I'll probably be making shorter posts a couple of times a day for a few weeks.
Tier 10 preview is out. Rogues continue to leave me gasping for breath as I guffaw rudely. I think Blizz is trying to make Druids happy that their armor can't be seen while they are in form so that they will stop whining. Do you *really* want people to see your gear, Antler Head? Pallies in skirts just make my day. What about the Priest t10? Yawn. Completely and utterly booooooring.
Mongrr made a fabulous post at Save the Lightwell yesterday with all kinds of information refuting common complaints about the love-it-or-hate-it Holy Priest spell Lightwell. I added a link to it on my page discussing the merits of speccing into Lightwell, but the StL post is far superior to my own.
I had a very delightful surprise last night when a healer of the non-squishy variety (!) sent me a tell last night from a level 1 character, offering to help out with the Healer Survey data entry. I might actually take him up on this... I'm going to see how far I can get this weekend, and if progress is still painfully slow, then I may take him up on his offer. If anyone else is interested in helping out with this project, please leave me a comment - I haven't decided if I'm ready to relinquish control of mah baby yet, but I also do want to get it all taken care of.
The Christmas spirit is upon us! Between BBB's Raid for the Cure (which is an awesome event because BBB is not telling everyone they should donate to one organization - you are eligible for the drawing even if you choose a different organization to handle your donation), or blame Syrana for Twitter being so annoyingly popular. Or even better, split your donation to Make a Wish Foundation by giving half of it to Blizzard, and you get a free pet! Wait... did I say that backwards? Ah, well, Freud is a bitch.
More later on endangered talents. The title of this post is a reference to a statement Gordin made regarding the recently ousted mayor of Fifth-Third, Ohi... oops, sorry, Dayton, Ohio. Damn, there's that Freud again.
So many bloggers getting involved in NaNo! You are much more courageous than I. I'll try to hold down the fort so you can write your novels this month, and therefore I'll probably be posting a bit more frequently. My usual schedule is about once a day, but I'll probably be making shorter posts a couple of times a day for a few weeks.
Tier 10 preview is out. Rogues continue to leave me gasping for breath as I guffaw rudely. I think Blizz is trying to make Druids happy that their armor can't be seen while they are in form so that they will stop whining. Do you *really* want people to see your gear, Antler Head? Pallies in skirts just make my day. What about the Priest t10? Yawn. Completely and utterly booooooring.
Mongrr made a fabulous post at Save the Lightwell yesterday with all kinds of information refuting common complaints about the love-it-or-hate-it Holy Priest spell Lightwell. I added a link to it on my page discussing the merits of speccing into Lightwell, but the StL post is far superior to my own.
I had a very delightful surprise last night when a healer of the non-squishy variety (!) sent me a tell last night from a level 1 character, offering to help out with the Healer Survey data entry. I might actually take him up on this... I'm going to see how far I can get this weekend, and if progress is still painfully slow, then I may take him up on his offer. If anyone else is interested in helping out with this project, please leave me a comment - I haven't decided if I'm ready to relinquish control of mah baby yet, but I also do want to get it all taken care of.
The Christmas spirit is upon us! Between BBB's Raid for the Cure (which is an awesome event because BBB is not telling everyone they should donate to one organization - you are eligible for the drawing even if you choose a different organization to handle your donation), or blame Syrana for Twitter being so annoyingly popular. Or even better, split your donation to Make a Wish Foundation by giving half of it to Blizzard, and you get a free pet! Wait... did I say that backwards? Ah, well, Freud is a bitch.
More later on endangered talents. The title of this post is a reference to a statement Gordin made regarding the recently ousted mayor of Fifth-Third, Ohi... oops, sorry, Dayton, Ohio. Damn, there's that Freud again.
Labels:
fail post,
non sequitur,
rant,
shout out,
wow thanks blizzard,
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I'm actually not one to spend a lot of time criticizing other priests, but I ran a VoA pug this weekend that really made me start thinking about all the wrong ways you can priest-heal. If I ever needed proof that it is completely possible to have a fully epic set of gear without knowing how to place your class and spec, this run provided the requisite evidence.
This run also provided me the perfect opportunity to use Recount to get an idea of what was going wrong with the healers. Since it was a pug, however, I didn't really feel it was my place to necessarily do assignments or criticisms.
So here was the initial healing set up - Two holy priests and one resto shaman. The resto shaman was somewhat new to 80, and while he'd been making plenty of heroic ToC 5 man runs, he explained right from the beginning that he wasn't sure how strong his heals were going to be. The two priests were myself, and another girl.
On the fire boss dude fight (Koralon, but you knew what I mean by fire boss dude, right?), there are certain times when the two tanks take a significant amount of damage... and you basically need to spam heal them. The raid really should not be taking much damage except when he does his fire breath thingy. Therefore, I suggested that the other holy priest focus on one tank, and i would focus on the other, and let the shammy do the raid heals, since we would need stronger healing on the tanks.
After three tries, we gave up - we couldnt seem to keep the tanks alive.
I knew it was a healing problem because I was watching the tanks' health. My tank stayed up, hers continually went down. When I looked at her top three spells, it was Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, and Renew. 20% of my heals were overheals, which, while not great, is not unexpected for single target spamming. 40% of her heals were overheals.
So what? I hear you say. Holy Priests excel at raid healing, it's their biggest strength! That's what they're supposed to do!
And I will have to disagree. Yes, Holy Priests DO excel at raid healing, and that is the optimal assignment for them. However, the biggest strength of a holy priest is not their raid heals, it is in their versatility - they can do everything well. That includes single target healing.
A really great holy priest who understands their spec knows how to roll with the punches and switch healing assignments quickly. If you are the person in charge of keeping one of the tanks alive, Flash Heal (Binding Heal as needed) should be used often, along with Greater Heal and/or Prayer of Healing. Greater Heal is useful for precisely this scenario. If Prayer of Healing is your most used spell, and Flash Heal or Binding Heal isn't even in your top 3, then you aren't utilizing Serendipity to its fullest extent.
To her credit, her main spec was shadow and she was only healing to help out. She likely would have been one of the first to admit that she did not know how to heal holy very well, so I don't mean to pick on her.
When another player offered to come on his Disc Priest, she jumped at the chance to return to dps. And now we come to the Disc Priest.
The Disc Priest that joined us was dual specced Holy/Disc. And he healed exactly like a Holy Priest with Penance, but sans CoH. He did not cast a single Power Word: Shield. However, it worked, and we were able to finish off VoA.
At the end, he was boasting about how he was number one on the healing meter. Observe as I gracefully and elegantly bash my head against my desk repeatedly.
Did it work? Yes. Did we finish the instance? Yes. Everyone survived, the epics flowed like manna from the heavens, and everyone left a few badges richer, and relatively happy. Myself, the disc priest, and the resto shammy all did our jobs, so does it really matter if the disc priest didn't take advantage of the strengths of his spec? No, most likely it did not. When most people are overgeared for something, then it really doesn't matter. But I did walk away learning a few things about what people may or may not understand about priest specs.
For Holy?
YES YOU CAN HEAL ONE PERSON. And when that is necessary, you should be casting a lot of Flash Heals to build up Serendipity stacks for hasted Greater Heals.
For Disc?
Yes, Penance is awesome. However, Disc Priesting is not all about Penance - it's also about those Bubbles, so don't stop bubbling!
This run also provided me the perfect opportunity to use Recount to get an idea of what was going wrong with the healers. Since it was a pug, however, I didn't really feel it was my place to necessarily do assignments or criticisms.
So here was the initial healing set up - Two holy priests and one resto shaman. The resto shaman was somewhat new to 80, and while he'd been making plenty of heroic ToC 5 man runs, he explained right from the beginning that he wasn't sure how strong his heals were going to be. The two priests were myself, and another girl.
On the fire boss dude fight (Koralon, but you knew what I mean by fire boss dude, right?), there are certain times when the two tanks take a significant amount of damage... and you basically need to spam heal them. The raid really should not be taking much damage except when he does his fire breath thingy. Therefore, I suggested that the other holy priest focus on one tank, and i would focus on the other, and let the shammy do the raid heals, since we would need stronger healing on the tanks.
After three tries, we gave up - we couldnt seem to keep the tanks alive.
I knew it was a healing problem because I was watching the tanks' health. My tank stayed up, hers continually went down. When I looked at her top three spells, it was Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, and Renew. 20% of my heals were overheals, which, while not great, is not unexpected for single target spamming. 40% of her heals were overheals.
So what? I hear you say. Holy Priests excel at raid healing, it's their biggest strength! That's what they're supposed to do!
And I will have to disagree. Yes, Holy Priests DO excel at raid healing, and that is the optimal assignment for them. However, the biggest strength of a holy priest is not their raid heals, it is in their versatility - they can do everything well. That includes single target healing.
A really great holy priest who understands their spec knows how to roll with the punches and switch healing assignments quickly. If you are the person in charge of keeping one of the tanks alive, Flash Heal (Binding Heal as needed) should be used often, along with Greater Heal and/or Prayer of Healing. Greater Heal is useful for precisely this scenario. If Prayer of Healing is your most used spell, and Flash Heal or Binding Heal isn't even in your top 3, then you aren't utilizing Serendipity to its fullest extent.
To her credit, her main spec was shadow and she was only healing to help out. She likely would have been one of the first to admit that she did not know how to heal holy very well, so I don't mean to pick on her.
When another player offered to come on his Disc Priest, she jumped at the chance to return to dps. And now we come to the Disc Priest.
The Disc Priest that joined us was dual specced Holy/Disc. And he healed exactly like a Holy Priest with Penance, but sans CoH. He did not cast a single Power Word: Shield. However, it worked, and we were able to finish off VoA.
At the end, he was boasting about how he was number one on the healing meter. Observe as I gracefully and elegantly bash my head against my desk repeatedly.
Did it work? Yes. Did we finish the instance? Yes. Everyone survived, the epics flowed like manna from the heavens, and everyone left a few badges richer, and relatively happy. Myself, the disc priest, and the resto shammy all did our jobs, so does it really matter if the disc priest didn't take advantage of the strengths of his spec? No, most likely it did not. When most people are overgeared for something, then it really doesn't matter. But I did walk away learning a few things about what people may or may not understand about priest specs.
For Holy?
YES YOU CAN HEAL ONE PERSON. And when that is necessary, you should be casting a lot of Flash Heals to build up Serendipity stacks for hasted Greater Heals.
For Disc?
Yes, Penance is awesome. However, Disc Priesting is not all about Penance - it's also about those Bubbles, so don't stop bubbling!
I'm in the sort of field where I spend a lot of time doing data entry. You know, that mind numbingly boring repetitive stuff that everyone hates doing? The reason why I'm actually quite good at it is that I *don't* find it mind numbingly boring.
Larisa over at the Pink Pigtail Inn has made it very clear multiple times that she hates grinding... whether it be reputation grinds, or daily grinds, and I can completely understand why so many people hate that. The thing is... I don't... and sometimes I'm actually somewhat embarrassed by it. After all, Larisa calls herself a moron for it... what does that say about ME? Eeek!
So why don't I get bored and hate it? Having always been the kind of person who enjoyed entertaining myself with whatever I happened to have in front of me, I turn those boring tasks into challenges.
I'm the speediest woman on a ten-key I've ever met due to all that boring data entry I've done in my life. I type faster than a speeding bullet. And I can clear 20 dailies in under an hour - 2 if I'm distracted.
I know most folks love to test out their dps numbers on a dummy, and I do realize that gives a much better indicator of boss dps... but to me, dpsing on a dummy seems like something of a waste of time (but then again, this is also because I'm always healing in raids). I would rather do it while doing my dailies. Why grind for cloth for tailoring when I can get it while doing dailies? Why buy eternals on the AH, when I can get them while working on dailies? Why buy things to DE if I get so many silly green items while running dailies? Herb farming? Dailies, again.
I challenge myself over and over. Just how quickly can I get these dailies done? How many mobs can I take and AoE grind at the same time? Can I do all my dailies without emptying my bags once until I'm done?
Why would I ever be embarrassed about this? It comes from that one adjective - mind-numbing. The fact that I enjoy doing dailies tends to suggest that I enjoy mind-numbing tasks that don't require me to think - or rather, that I do not enjoy doing things that DO require me to think.
Of course, I've already explained why that is not the case for me, but I'm sure there are others who are like me... right? It's certainly not that I'm not a creative person. Hell, I'm a writer, a sometimes-musician, a cartographer, and someone who enjoys painting and drawing more than most. I enjoy puzzles and challenges - I'm not brain dead!
I like to multi-task, and I can do that while running dailies. I can chat with others, or watch TV... or even play Civilization on another monitor. To be quite honest, most of the time I much prefer running dailies to grinding instances, unless there is something specific I want from the instance - which is rare. I don't need anymore Emblems of Conquest, I have the Culling of Stratholme mount, most people don't seem interested in doing the achievements... I'm just plain overgeared for them, and there are still plenty of things I want to buy with gold and Champion's Seals!
So stop judging me just because I like doing dailies, and I'll stop judging you simply because you don't want to make the effort to get exalted with Sons of Hodir!!! :P
Larisa over at the Pink Pigtail Inn has made it very clear multiple times that she hates grinding... whether it be reputation grinds, or daily grinds, and I can completely understand why so many people hate that. The thing is... I don't... and sometimes I'm actually somewhat embarrassed by it. After all, Larisa calls herself a moron for it... what does that say about ME? Eeek!
So why don't I get bored and hate it? Having always been the kind of person who enjoyed entertaining myself with whatever I happened to have in front of me, I turn those boring tasks into challenges.
I'm the speediest woman on a ten-key I've ever met due to all that boring data entry I've done in my life. I type faster than a speeding bullet. And I can clear 20 dailies in under an hour - 2 if I'm distracted.
I know most folks love to test out their dps numbers on a dummy, and I do realize that gives a much better indicator of boss dps... but to me, dpsing on a dummy seems like something of a waste of time (but then again, this is also because I'm always healing in raids). I would rather do it while doing my dailies. Why grind for cloth for tailoring when I can get it while doing dailies? Why buy eternals on the AH, when I can get them while working on dailies? Why buy things to DE if I get so many silly green items while running dailies? Herb farming? Dailies, again.
I challenge myself over and over. Just how quickly can I get these dailies done? How many mobs can I take and AoE grind at the same time? Can I do all my dailies without emptying my bags once until I'm done?
Why would I ever be embarrassed about this? It comes from that one adjective - mind-numbing. The fact that I enjoy doing dailies tends to suggest that I enjoy mind-numbing tasks that don't require me to think - or rather, that I do not enjoy doing things that DO require me to think.
Of course, I've already explained why that is not the case for me, but I'm sure there are others who are like me... right? It's certainly not that I'm not a creative person. Hell, I'm a writer, a sometimes-musician, a cartographer, and someone who enjoys painting and drawing more than most. I enjoy puzzles and challenges - I'm not brain dead!
I like to multi-task, and I can do that while running dailies. I can chat with others, or watch TV... or even play Civilization on another monitor. To be quite honest, most of the time I much prefer running dailies to grinding instances, unless there is something specific I want from the instance - which is rare. I don't need anymore Emblems of Conquest, I have the Culling of Stratholme mount, most people don't seem interested in doing the achievements... I'm just plain overgeared for them, and there are still plenty of things I want to buy with gold and Champion's Seals!
So stop judging me just because I like doing dailies, and I'll stop judging you simply because you don't want to make the effort to get exalted with Sons of Hodir!!! :P
Last night we didn't have enough people for 25 man, so our RL decided that we would do Ulduar on 10 man.
Gag me with a spoon. Ulduar is becoming the new Naxx, yo. I'm so sick of it, I'm so burnt out on it. I can't be the only one who feels this way... which is probably why we only had 10 folks around for our regular 25 man night.
Our RL valiantly tried to push us forward, tried to pump us up in his usual way. Instead, I felt I had been tricked. I signed up for a 25 man, with the hope that is that didn't work out, we could do 10 man Onyxia, to be honest. Hell I made the damn sign up, since no one else could be bothered. "After we clear Ulduar tonight," our RL said.
Whaaahahaaat?
You know, I'm all about positive thinking. In general I've got a pretty cheery outlook on life. But you can't be serious. With half the people in the raid being new, or at least playing new roles, and having only ever seen up to Hodir on 25 man and wiping there repeatedly, you think we're going to do a full clear on even a 10 man Ulduar in three hours or less? Are you DELUSIONAL?
I felt I'd been coerced into going into 10 man Ulduar (in which I held absolutely no interest) and had no reasonable way to get out of it. I'm angry. The night was absolutely awful. No surprises here, but no, we did not full clear Ulduar. Yet again, we got hung up on Hodir (and we skipped Iron Council, Ignis, and Razorscale). The only good thing I can say about the whole night, is that I got a little more practice on Hodir. To be honest, I would have liked several more attempts on Hodir. How are we ever going to progress past this guy if we can't handle wiping to him over and over and over again? That's raiding. THAT'S progression.
After all, progression is all about wipe wipe wipe rinse repeat ZOMG loot. Oh and beer.
But after wiping to Hodir 3 or 4 times (not to mention the handful of wipes to his TRASH mind you), it was decided that we needed to feel better about ourselves, so hows about we go kill us some Razorscale!!! yeehaw!
We wiped to Razorscale too. Miserably.
After that I announced I was done for the evening. It was decided after wiping to Razorscale, that we should go do Onyxia 10, of course. But after the misery that had been the entire night, I didn't even want to bother. I spent 2 hours on Sunday wiping to Onyxia in a PuG, so I've had my fill for one week.
So, what is my point? If you were looking for something productive and positive in this post, I am sorry to disappoint.
"severus snape panties"
I will now leave you to ponder.
-brought to you by lack of coffee
Gag me with a spoon. Ulduar is becoming the new Naxx, yo. I'm so sick of it, I'm so burnt out on it. I can't be the only one who feels this way... which is probably why we only had 10 folks around for our regular 25 man night.
Our RL valiantly tried to push us forward, tried to pump us up in his usual way. Instead, I felt I had been tricked. I signed up for a 25 man, with the hope that is that didn't work out, we could do 10 man Onyxia, to be honest. Hell I made the damn sign up, since no one else could be bothered. "After we clear Ulduar tonight," our RL said.
Whaaahahaaat?
You know, I'm all about positive thinking. In general I've got a pretty cheery outlook on life. But you can't be serious. With half the people in the raid being new, or at least playing new roles, and having only ever seen up to Hodir on 25 man and wiping there repeatedly, you think we're going to do a full clear on even a 10 man Ulduar in three hours or less? Are you DELUSIONAL?
I felt I'd been coerced into going into 10 man Ulduar (in which I held absolutely no interest) and had no reasonable way to get out of it. I'm angry. The night was absolutely awful. No surprises here, but no, we did not full clear Ulduar. Yet again, we got hung up on Hodir (and we skipped Iron Council, Ignis, and Razorscale). The only good thing I can say about the whole night, is that I got a little more practice on Hodir. To be honest, I would have liked several more attempts on Hodir. How are we ever going to progress past this guy if we can't handle wiping to him over and over and over again? That's raiding. THAT'S progression.
After all, progression is all about wipe wipe wipe rinse repeat ZOMG loot. Oh and beer.
But after wiping to Hodir 3 or 4 times (not to mention the handful of wipes to his TRASH mind you), it was decided that we needed to feel better about ourselves, so hows about we go kill us some Razorscale!!! yeehaw!
We wiped to Razorscale too. Miserably.
After that I announced I was done for the evening. It was decided after wiping to Razorscale, that we should go do Onyxia 10, of course. But after the misery that had been the entire night, I didn't even want to bother. I spent 2 hours on Sunday wiping to Onyxia in a PuG, so I've had my fill for one week.
So, what is my point? If you were looking for something productive and positive in this post, I am sorry to disappoint.
- I am completely sick of Ulduar. Last night just sealed it for me.
- I do not like signing up for one thing, and then feeling obligated to stick around and do something else in which I have absolutely no interest.
- I'm sick of doing the same bosses over and over, and never getting to see some new content. If anything, I would like to pummel Hodir into the frozen ground, even if it means that's all I do for 3 weeks. This whole "after wiping 3 times let's move to something else" is not working. I was only just starting to get my groove on last night and actually learn the damn fight.
"severus snape panties"
I will now leave you to ponder.
-brought to you by lack of coffee
I've actually always been a fan of Greg Street, aka Ghostcrawler. I do not possess the kind of personality that enables me to go out on forums and allow people to rip me apart - but he does it every day.
So I was really sad when yet another forum thread turned into "let's rip GC apart and talk about what a failjob he does" and this time, GC seemed to actually get frustrated enough about it to want to back off. I could link you all the relevant WoW Forums posts, but instead, just check out the article at wow.com.
When did offering suggestions and creative ideas to developers morph into constant QQing? Why all the negativity? I've made my own posts before giving my own thoughts about where I think the developers have it wrong, but in spite of all that, I never took it down to the level where I declared that Greg Street should be fired, he does a terrible job, blah blah blah. So instead of all the negative mumbo jumbo so prevalent in the WoW community, let's try something different.
The Opposite of QQ: Dear Ghostcrawler, Priests are Awesome.
It can't be easy. Personally, when I look at class balance, I think of a few particular things:
This brings us to raiding balance. For healing, we have two very different, very solid options. Disc still needs considerable tweaking, but that is not a surprise - Disc is very different from any other type of healing offered by healing classes in this game, so it's bound to have different kinds of difficulties in development. Holy is FINE. Of course I'd love little changes here in there, but overall? Holy is well rounded and solid. So what about Shadow? QQ we don't do enough damage, wanh.
Now, I will put in the disclaimer that I am certainly no expert on s-priesting, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. But Shadow does a helluva lot more damage than it did back in BC. There was a tradeoff involved there - Shadow Priests had to sacrifice a lot of their support role strength (i.e. mana battery ftw) in order to gain those increases in DPS. But even with those changes, Shadow Priests are STILL strong support roles. We need the Replenishment. We can be a lot more flexible with our allotment of raid healers if we have a couple of shadow priests and their Vampiric Embrace. Misery makes sure everyone really IS hit capped. With all those bonuses that make you a fantastic addition to any raid, you cannot expect to top the damage meter. That is the meaning of BALANCE.
I'll completely avoid the whole PvP discussion, because I'm a noob at PvP, but I just want to say that the other day, on my Forsaken priest, I MCed someone off of a cliff in Arathi Basin for the first time ever. And DAMN it felt good.
The point of all this is to QQ about the QQers. You cannot have everything in one spec. Ideally, you would have a little bit of everything in one class, mixed up between various specs, but even that is not always an option. LoLSmite priests actually do a TON of damage, for the record - raiding included. But they aren't tweaked for raiding viability (such as hit rating, etc), and it's something that I hope Blizz puts some more thought into for the future.
So I was really sad when yet another forum thread turned into "let's rip GC apart and talk about what a failjob he does" and this time, GC seemed to actually get frustrated enough about it to want to back off. I could link you all the relevant WoW Forums posts, but instead, just check out the article at wow.com.
When did offering suggestions and creative ideas to developers morph into constant QQing? Why all the negativity? I've made my own posts before giving my own thoughts about where I think the developers have it wrong, but in spite of all that, I never took it down to the level where I declared that Greg Street should be fired, he does a terrible job, blah blah blah. So instead of all the negative mumbo jumbo so prevalent in the WoW community, let's try something different.
The Opposite of QQ: Dear Ghostcrawler, Priests are Awesome.
- Remember back when you guys nerfed Circle of Healing and gave us a cooldown? We grumbled, but we all knew that it was necessary, because CoH was just too awesome. And it's STILL uber-awesome. I'll even forgive you for the Prayer of Healing nerf - because it was OP as well.
- What other class gets two significantly different healing specs?
- I'm sure it's happened before, but aside from a few VoA runs where you really want to diversify your raid mix of classes due to gear drops, I've never been turned down from joining a raid simply due to my class. Everyone wants a priest.
- When I tell people of other guilds I have a level 80 raiding priest, they drool, and try to recruit me.
- I know everyone whines about the priest leveling process. Yes, it's rough. But after leveling several priests, I've figured out that the first 10-20 levels are a nightmare - and 20-40 is a blast.
- Lightwell IS awesome. Developers keep making it awesomer. It's not their fault everyone else sucks.
- We are the original healer, the ultimate in healing. We are well-rounded, with a little bit of everything. Is there room for improvement in certain details? Of course - we could all use tweaks. But don't ever misunderstand me. My class is absolutely awesome.
- I realize I can't really speak to Shadow Priest viability in a raid... maybe all the complaints are well warranted. But from my experiences, everyone is happy to have a Shadow Priest (or several!) in the raid as well.
It can't be easy. Personally, when I look at class balance, I think of a few particular things:
- Option for strong solo DPS
- Good Raiding balance (DPS or Heals)
- PvP Viability (DPS or Heals)
This brings us to raiding balance. For healing, we have two very different, very solid options. Disc still needs considerable tweaking, but that is not a surprise - Disc is very different from any other type of healing offered by healing classes in this game, so it's bound to have different kinds of difficulties in development. Holy is FINE. Of course I'd love little changes here in there, but overall? Holy is well rounded and solid. So what about Shadow? QQ we don't do enough damage, wanh.
Now, I will put in the disclaimer that I am certainly no expert on s-priesting, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. But Shadow does a helluva lot more damage than it did back in BC. There was a tradeoff involved there - Shadow Priests had to sacrifice a lot of their support role strength (i.e. mana battery ftw) in order to gain those increases in DPS. But even with those changes, Shadow Priests are STILL strong support roles. We need the Replenishment. We can be a lot more flexible with our allotment of raid healers if we have a couple of shadow priests and their Vampiric Embrace. Misery makes sure everyone really IS hit capped. With all those bonuses that make you a fantastic addition to any raid, you cannot expect to top the damage meter. That is the meaning of BALANCE.
I'll completely avoid the whole PvP discussion, because I'm a noob at PvP, but I just want to say that the other day, on my Forsaken priest, I MCed someone off of a cliff in Arathi Basin for the first time ever. And DAMN it felt good.
The point of all this is to QQ about the QQers. You cannot have everything in one spec. Ideally, you would have a little bit of everything in one class, mixed up between various specs, but even that is not always an option. LoLSmite priests actually do a TON of damage, for the record - raiding included. But they aren't tweaked for raiding viability (such as hit rating, etc), and it's something that I hope Blizz puts some more thought into for the future.
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Last night, I snapped mid-raid. I slammed my keyboard. I shrieked to high heaven and bawled like a baby. In fact, it was so terrible, that when I went to sleep, I had nightmares, woke up still a mess, and couldn't fall back asleep. And today I'm confessing it on my blog, because I have no shame.What upset me so much that I reacted this way?
It was multiple factors, but what really set me off was whispered tells from someone nagging me about my healing assignments. And then pointing out that I always make the same mistakes with healing assignments. It's not that I can't take the criticism (which I normally can to a point) - it's the way in which it was delivered, the attitude behind it. It come to the point where I actually had to mute someone on vent, and was seriously considering putting them on my ignore list. This is a big problem when that person is someone with whom i actually DO need to communicate.
Look. I know you are just trying to help. I realize that when you explain, in great detail, over vent, repeatedly, every chance you get, exactly how, why, when, where, and WHO did everything wrong, you really are just trying to help us improve. I also realize that when you tell every single class how to play their class and ask why the &*%^ they don't just use such and such spell, and call them out for every mistake they make, you are just trying to be helpful. I know you are experienced and therefore you feel you have a right to talk non-stop OVER the raid leader. I know that when we mess up and you shriek into vent "SEE! I TOLD YOU SO!" that you are just.... well yeah i can't excuse that. You're just being a dick, sorry.
I will make another post about healer micromanagement, but right now I just need to vent. Why is it a problem when someone acts this way in a raid?
- You may think you are trying to help the raid, but what you are actually doing is trying to show your vast superior knowledge and experience. This is NOT for the good of the raid - it drags down the morale of the group as a whole, in order to raise your own individual self-opinion.
- The worst thing of all is that this RUINS focus. We couldn't get "in the zone" last night. I was a mess, and could not heal properly. People should have been topped off who weren't. There is no excuse for having 7 healers, and not having DPS topped off if they aren't doing anything wrong. Even Fulguralis noticed it, and normally he has both eyes staring greedily at the recount meter. (I'm just poking at you Ful!)
- If I were just another DPS, I could put the person in question on my ignore list, and mute them in vent. It's extreme, but if it's ruining my focus, and that person is not a raid leader, it may be the best thing to do. Unfortunately, as a healing lead, I really should not be doing that. I can't ignore you because if something DOES go wrong, I need to be able to hear what you may communicate.
If it's not a problem for anyone but me, then it is my responsibility to step down, to step out. This is my problem, and I should address it. And maybe the only way to address it is just to not come to the raid. It's not from some fit of pique, but more because I can't do my job, I cannot focus, and it upsets me far too much to be able to function properly.
Labels:
headbashing,
officer skillz,
raid makeup,
raiding,
rant,
relationships,
zomg social theory
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