World of Warcraft

[Alex C]

DPS is stupidly important on hard mode. Too much healing in there can lead to a vicious cycle rather quickly thanks to leeching swarm. Overhealing lets Anub'arak last longer, which makes it easier to run out of mana, which further leads to the often false impression that you need to ease the healing load somehow. Overall, my guild has found that if at all possible it's better to veer on the side of doing more damage. It gets adds down faster, which makes it easier for the healers to concentrate on doing just enough healing to keep the raid alive.

[clockworkjames]

10 man HC faction champs is where my guild stops progressing, not enough good players for TotGC25 but we have TotC10 and 25 on farm, is quite depressing tbh because I feel next to useless in the fight, DR kicks in so damn fast it's not funny.

[Beren]

woo 3/5 bosses in ToGC25 down and I have long ago stopped caring about this instance oh god make it end.

[Covetous]

DR?

[clockworkjames]

Diminishing returns.

[Covetous]

Ah... Through good comunications we have got it to work. First time it took like 20 tryes to get them down but the second time was one wipe and then no problem. Everyone was doing their jobb with purge, CC and dispells. And somehow we manage to move around the CC so DR doesn't become a problem. But you have to have people ready to wipe a few times.

[Dazed]

It can be totally random depending on what comp you get, especially in 10. You can get rogue/dk/moonkin/warlock/paladin/priest and pretty much just play horribly and still win, then the next week get ret paladin/warrior/Rdruid/Rshaman/Hunter/Spriest, play amazingly and still get unmercifully RNGfucked.

[Alex C]

And somehow we manage to move around the CC so DR doesn't become a problem.

This is key. It's the very beginning of the fight that's the most viciously RNG prone, and not all classes have CC abilities that overlap with each other, so in some cases you can almost completely lock down a target until one of the other nasties is burned down. Once you've knocked down one or two of the most dangerous targets you can afford to be much less organized on the rest of the fight provided you haven't lost a key healer, so the communication and Diminishing Returns thing isn't really as big of a problem as you might think provided you've got a sound plan to begin with.

For example, if my raid gets a Holy Paladin and a Resto Druid, typically we'll burn the tree first since the hots are a pain to dispel and cannot be interrupted. Meanwhile I would team up with a druid to keep the Holy Paladin locked down at least until the tree is dead. Basically, the druid spams cyclone until immune at which point I peel off from the burn target and interrupt/stun/gouge them for the 15 seconds cyclone isn't a viable option. You don't have to be perfect on it; letting a few Flash of Lights through won't be the end of the world. You just need to have a partner whose CC you can't clip and keep the 15 second windows in mind.

[clockworkjames]

Our tactic goes somehting like...

"Mel you charge in and fearbomb, then lockdown the shaman while DPS tunnel the priest"

We kill the priest then wipe.

It is alot like arena, full penances through gagging order shield bashes, disarm not working before bladestorm, GCD's feeling like they are 8 minutes long...

[Dazed]

It is a lot like arena, in that your raid can't just stare at the boss until it dies. They actually have to be active in silencing/interrupting, ccing, and kiting. A lot of PvE players aren't used to it and can't do it.

[Alex C]

That's really something of a myth though. There's too much going on at once for it to be like the arena.

[Dazed]

Granted, my point is that you can't stand stationary and 123333413333342333334 your way to victory.

[Alex C]

Actually, I'd argue quite the opposite. There's so much going on that you pretty much can do nothing but a fairly narrow set of tasks and try not to die. It's basically any other encounter except without an aggro table. Odds are, you will be CCed or interrupted by one of the bazillion mobs, so trying to get too fancy just screws everything up.

[Leinad]

I find that encounter to be one of the less inventive ones done by Blizz. I didn't like it that much, to be honest. Not cause it was hard, it just didn't feel epic at all.

[clockworkjames]

Let's face it, it's because you can't flameshock/skillcoil/cheapshot global someone. They just have to much hp.

[Leinad]

Lol, don't get my started on skillcoil.

[clockworkjames]

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3483/lolcloak.png

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7996/unparalulskilljpeg.jpg

Shameless steal from AJ ms paint thread.

[Dazed]

By far the best thing from that thread.

well, that and



In response to the original 'Lock one.

[clockworkjames]

Eh, warrior skillstorm ones > *
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8996/brostorm.png
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/8908/bslol.png
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee141/Zalazour/qweweqweqweqweqweq-1.jpg

I only did the lava burst/skillcoil one because it reminded me of why you cannot global people in faction champs.

Oh and this weeks wallpaper, http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2998/tunnelvision.jpg

[0bsessions]

So, some sound files of Professor Putricide of Icecrown Citadel have been dug up, here's a few examples:

"Good news, everyone! I think I perfected a plague that will destroy all life on Azeroth!" (Aggro)

"Just an ordinary gas cloud. But watch out, because that's no ordinary gas cloud!" (Gas Explosion)

"Bad news, everyone! I don't think I'm going to make it." (Death)

I'm tempted to try my hand at PvE just for this fight.

[Linds]

Oh man, I am questing out there right now. So going to have to find that.

[Yakob]

I think he's referring to a boss that's going to be in the upcoming Icecrown Citadel raid instance.

[0bsessions]

That I am.

[Beren]

Sindragosa testing today. woo

[Linds]

Meh. Well, that shit needs to hurry up. I'm glad they're adding more instances and all, but I kind of wish they'd stop doing them via patches. I mean, that zone pretty much was built around Icecrown Citadel, I kind of feel like that should have come out before things like ToC, etc. (Not that I'd be able to go there, but still.)

[Beren]

I don't mind patches, it staggers the content in a decent way to get most of the raid group geared up, but goddamn they are too far apart. ToC has 5 bosses of content. Yes, ten man, 25, heroic, blah blah blah, no. 5 bosses. That's all we get. This does not sustain for months on end.

[Alex C]

It really sucks since ToC is short as hell AND obsoletes a lot of gear. It's basically killing my guild because many people are tired of Ulduar while the new faces we recruit could still use stuff from there. We've also had terrible luck with trinket drops, but nobody really wants to keep doing 10 man Ulduar just for a 6% chance at the Mjolnir Runestone each week. It's been a real rough transition phase for us, to be honest. We went from being on the cusp of clearing Heroic Northrend Beasts the first week we tried them to not really raiding at all since many of us would just rather be done with doing Uld entirely. It's just murdered attendance.

[clockworkjames]

Yup, my guild reached a point where people signed up for wed raids cuz that is when we normally did ToC25/ony25 then there would be no more signups all week for ulduar etc.

Disbanded due to officer inactivity and the GM giving 110% but getting shit alol back in return which is bawls, all officers/class leaders got shit out the GB, I got 6k payoff :/

Would rather have my guild tbh.

[0bsessions]

Meh. Well, that shit needs to hurry up. I'm glad they're adding more instances and all, but I kind of wish they'd stop doing them via patches. I mean, that zone pretty much was built around Icecrown Citadel, I kind of feel like that should have come out before things like ToC, etc. (Not that I'd be able to go there, but still.)

Being able to fight the big bad of the expansion right from the get go seems kind of pointless to me. That's why they stagger raids across patches. If people could just access everything straight up, why would anyone stick around for the year and a half plus between expansions?

It's either that or Everquest II's style of releasing mini-expansions that cost you like $10 each time out. I much prefer Blizzard's way.

[Linds]

Good point, but I just feel like they went out of order a little bit. Mainly with ToC and even Hrothgar's Landing. Like, the Chamber of Aspects only has one instance out of five open and Icecrown isn't around yet, though then again, that is pretty much the raiding peak for this expansion. But then again, I'm really slow anyways, so I don't really care all that much, but people aren't really taking their time with this game anymore and it's tough to find people to do anything but the daily heroic or the new raids.

/whining

[20 jazz funk greats]

the cross-server lfg thing in 3.3 is going to solve all your problems. and mine as well.
i am so excited for the opportunity to run 70-ish dungeons that aren't nexus, you have no idea.

[clockworkjames]

ICC is the lich kings house, if they did that before argent tournament you would have killed the lich king already, what is the point in that since he is the main bad guy from wotlk?

[Linds]

That's why I said this:

though then again, that is pretty much the raiding peak for this expansion.

the cross-server lfg thing in 3.3 is going to solve all your problems.

Whut. Ohhhhh boy.

[jmrz]

Okay, so the guild I was complaining about earlier? The one I was an officer of and left?

Well I've joined another guild who suit me just perfectly and it's nice to be raiding again. They have raids on every night and if you make it you make it, if not, no big deal. It's awesome. I've not seen any of ToC10 yet or most of Uld10 but it's nice just to be raiding again and helping people out with the raids they've never been in before. I'm pretty much topping dps and am in the top three for damage done for everything we've done so far and I've managed to bring three other people from my old guild into the new one. I'm pretty sure the GM likes me, so I'm happy.

But in relation to my old guild. They've disbanded. Apparently one of the officers logged in and then the guild was disbanded. The GM is still currently guildless and I have no idea, nor do my other friends who are ex-members, have any idea why it happened.

[clockworkjames]

Mooooooooooooooo.

And  by that I mean I changed faction, I am a tauren now... wasn't being mean or anything 

[Alex C]

Jesus Christ. Val'kyr didn't drop Death's Verdic. Again. We have one in the guild despite clearing the Twins every week they've been available. I have literally every other piece of 25 man 245 gear that I could possibly want except for the one that is hands down a truly meaningful upgrade. God damn it.

[Beren]

Yeah. We've only had one as well, in the same amount of time.

Same with the scarab off FC. We've seen two drop ever. Fuck trinkets.

[Alex C]

I have 488 hit rating right now and I'm -still- bumping up against the crit cap with my Mutilates. Quit boning my class blizz.

[Beren]

IC is apparently staggered in an absurd fashion. Yay for 5 mans, I suppose.

[pen]

I hate that I'm considering coming  back.  My boss keeps asking me about stuff and how things work because he plays but isn't fully applied.  So much WoW talk between him and my boyfriend is kind of getting to me.  I'm starting to crack.  I deleted all of my characters (thank god) so I keep telling myself what a pain it will be to start over.  My boss says my return is inevitable.  I'm  hoping I'm stubborn enough to prove him wrong.

[Chesire Cat]

Meh, I found it pretty easy to walk away. Then again I never had ties like a guild or raids/instances. My sub runs out in a week but its been probably a month since I played.

I did appreciate a game I could play in a window and walk in and out of as I pleased though. Playing dedicated FS games on my lappy doesnt really happen.

[clockworkjames]

True true, missing a weeks lockout on "progress" can leave you a bit gimped, I pugged ToC 10 2 times, ToC 25 once and ony/VoA 10/25 2 times when I never had a guild.

When you change faction/server it wipes all your raid ID's which is neat.

[Alex C]

GUYS!


Look what I got.

[Alex C]

I know that was blatant e-peening.


But it still felt good.

[BeoPuppy]

If it makes you happy, go for it.

[jmrz]

So, I'm guild leader of the my new guild. I guess they liked me!

Backstory: the previous guild leader only wanted to raid lead, so she passed it over to me. I'm happy.

[Jimor]

Somebody gave me a guild. I was starting an alt character in Northsire when somebody msg'd "You want a free guild?"

Not quite as impressive as it first sounded, as it had failed to get a bank tab, and there was only a little more than 2 gold in the bank. Checking the membership roster, most hadn't been on in at least 2 weeks, all but one were low level. I checked the money log to make sure nobody gave anything that I should refund, then kicked everybody out. Bought a tab, and now my plethora of characters on that server have lots of extra storage. 

[pilsner]

Getting handed a guild is a little like getting handed a job as a kindergarten teacher except no pay, more crying, and infinitely less socially acceptable.  If someone really hates you they will try to give you two guilds.

[jmrz]

Well, this guild is pretty well run. I've guild leaded before and well, I kind of ended up being "Aunty Ayniah" because well, everyone came to me for advice. Basically, I've walked into a guild and am now leader - we have 80ish level 80 members, a bunch of which have lvl80 alts, we have 3000gold sitting in the guild bank and four bank tabs I think. I'll be looking at buying another one in the next week or so once there is some more money in the bank to back us up.

Our members donate to the guild bank and I sell things out of the guildbank for half the AH price.

Things are organised and we have raids set up on the calendar and people do actually respond to them.

So far, I've not had much whinging, I still think most whinging gets directed at the raid leaders.

Speaking of raids, I pugged a few people for a second uld10 run this week and we did really well on easy mode (mainly because most of us haven't finished the whole thing yet). We did FL, XT, Razor and Kolo all one shotted. We got Cat Lady on the second go and then moved on to Hodir, which only a couple of people had done before. We got him to 26% on the first go and tried twice more but didn't get him down. Doesn't bother me so much, because at least now we've seen how the fight works. It was actually pretty fun, as far as boss fights go.

[pilsner]

Sounds relaxed and fun.  Things deteriorate when you start pushing progression in 25 mans.  There's nothing like 25 adults (or semi-adults) lose their shit after 4 hours of wiping on hard mode Beasts.  Oh wait there is.  And Picasso did a painting of it.



How are you doing loot?