Touching All The Bases

Blogger had some issues that would not allow me to log in and waste some time being grumpy so instead I wasted some time at work playing games instead of writing about them.  I love GemCraft, it is a fantastic time waster.  Yes, work is that exciting at times that I have nothing better to do then write here.  Hey, it makes the day go faster.

This expansion needs more raid bosses like...
Chimaeron.  Come on, how easy does it get to describe it to people.  Spread out, group up, make sure everyone is over 10K, taunt double attacks.  Go go pug power.  I love bosses like this.  You can pull a group of trade trolls and get this boss down.  I love easy to explain bosses.  It also has the added factor that even if it is super easy it is also difficult enough that it can still put a bit of a challenge on everyone in a sense that they still need to perform well to get it done.

This expansion needs less raid bosses like...
Al'Akir.  360 degree fights go screw yourself.  It is not like the mechanics are hard or anything, it is because it is annoying.  It is like a vehicle fight without the vehicles.  Think Maly without drakes.  Horrible horrible design.  When will they stop thinking that people like this crap. 

Do they not remember the needed to bribe people to do the Oculus and they still would drop group the second they zoned in?  Do they remember they had the dragons scale to gear making it a joke and people would still drop when they zoned in?  Do they remember that when the weekly was Maly most people skipped it that week?  Give it up Blizzard, math does not lie, people do not like this concept, stop using it.

I want more random dungeons like...
This Lost City run I was in.  I walk in on my Shaman healer and the DK tank says to me, you look geared do you mind if we skip CC?  I say, I'll give it a try.  Without a second of notice the DK takes off and pulls the pack on the left side, the guys off to the side training and the big guy in the alley.  We burn them down and he is off to the second pack and the boss at the same time.  Oh crap, maybe I should have said no. 

I popped hero and we rocked it.  I was basically oom after chain pulling up to the boss and keeping everyone alive so I sat to drink and he continued ahead.  I got to him in time to save him and this was the pace of the group.  It was move move move and it never stopped.  By the time we downed the last boss I still had 4 minutes left on the heroism debuff.  That means 6 minutes from the first to last boss.  Maybe 2 minutes before the first boss.  So an 8 minute heroic.  I loved it.  It actually challenged me as a healer and it was exciting.  We need more 8 minute heroics.  It brings back the speed of wrath with an added bonus that if anyone sucked we would have died unlike wrath.  Now that is how heroics should be fast and challenging.  Let me add, the DPS was not amazing either, 12K, 10K and 9K, so it is not like you needed a super group to do this in 8 minutes.

I want fewer random dungeons like...
This ZG I got into.  Apparently the tank and healer dropped and a tank and me ended up joining them on the second boss.  The tank says, I always worry about coming in on an in progress run.  I felt his pain and agreed but I always stick things out.  We start the raptor boss.  No one is switching to the raptor, me and the tank are DPSing it down.  Yes, I am the healer mind you.  One DPS is pulling 9K, what I consider a bit low for a Zul but acceptable, the other two are pulling 4K and 5K.  How the hell did they even get in here?  The tank says, now I see why the previous tank left.  All three of the DPS where dead, we were out of spirits, I knew it was only a matter of time so I hit hero, went to DPS mode and we got the boss down to about 30% before it killed me and the tank shortly after.

They need to find another way to judge people besides item level before letting them into heroics or even more so Zul heroics.  4K or 5K DPS is not even acceptable in 329 item level gear for a standard heroic.  There is no way it is possible to be that bad in 346 item level unless you are trying to be that bad.  Sorry, not possible.  Unless you're the healer.  I pulled 3K and was quite happy with that considering it was not my freaking job to kill the raptor, it was the job of the DPS.

Some dungeons are just good for those...
WTF moments.  I joined a GB run seeing a mountain of bones on the second boss.  Oh joy.  Lets rock it.  two of the DPS, a mage and a hunter, decided to get at range, not really a bad thing, but then then walked down the stairs.  Hey people, don't LoS the healer if you want heals.  Either way, we make our way to the last boss after finishing that one and skipping the third and we wipe.

No biggie, that last one still seems to be a killer for most groups I end up with.  We get at it a second time and the tank says people need to really step up their DPS, the adds need to go down.  I add, for the hunter, that concussive and trap can slow the one on his side.  Just to be helpful of course.  A few seconds pass and the tank says, okay pulling, just as the hunter speaks up and says, I don't have those.

The tank stopped dead in his track in mid run in and turns and says.  What?

You could hear a pin drop.  I don't know, I found it amazingly funny that a hunter made it to 85 and never noticed his traps or concussive.  Apparently so did everyone else in group.  Oddly enough, we downed the boss anyway that try but just seeing the tank go "What?" made me laugh and made the whole run worthwhile.

It still annoys the hell out of me when...
People ask for at least a 355 item level to do a non heroic raid.  Excuse me?  I know you want it easy but it is easy if everyone knows what they are doing.  They are trying to have gear compensate for ability.  Correct me if my reasoning is wrong but I will go into any raid with everyone wearing 340 items that knows what they are doing before I would consider going into one with everyone in 355 items that doesn't.  Item level does not mean you know what to do or even how to play your class.   I've seen more then enough 346 item level people doing under 5K in Zul runs to prove that one.

It always makes me want to quit the game...
When I spend to much time reading trade chat.  I don't know why it is but if I spend to much time reading trade chat I am always left wanting to quit the game.  Something about everyone being retarded, people insulting everyone else, people thinking that they are elite and everyone else sucks, people berating anyone that might ask a question, people thinking 355 is needed for a raid and in some cases even a heroic dungeon. 

Trade people leave me feeling empty inside.  Not sure if it is because of the way they treat each other that bothers me or the fact that I play the same game as them and if I am playing it that means somehow I am as bad as they are.  Maybe having something in common, the game, as these people makes me want to quit.  I hate thinking that in some way I am exactly like them, we are both on this game looking for something to do.  Perhaps I will evolve into one of them if I play to long.  If there were ever a good reason to quit the game, that is it, quit to not become one of them.

It always makes me love them game when...
Something exciting happens and it makes someone happy.  We did a Maly run the other day for people that needed the achievement and for fun.  I decided that we might as well do it on 25 and take a chance at getting someone the Azure Drake.  As luck would have it, it dropped and made someone in the group extremely happy.  I like seeing people happy.  It makes me remember why I play the game.  There are still moments of joy to be had playing, even in older content. 

I wonder why I write here sometimes until...
I am not able to.  When I could not post a new post I found myself bored.  It seems like this has become a way to pass the time for me.  As much of a habit as the game itself has become writing about my thoughts, gripes, and general babble about nothing has become a fun part of the game in and of itself.  Without the ability to talk about the game here, even if only to myself, I think I would have lost interest in the game.

The blog community is basically...
The best part of the game itself.  I've come across blogs that have helped me play my class better, blogs that just talked about interesting ideas and concepts, blogs that talk about lore and blogs that just talk about their daily game play.  I have found them all to be interesting and in a strange way I feel as if I know some of the bloggers better then I know some of my own guild members.

Agree or disagree with them, over all the people in the blogging community are the best part of the game.  If only more people would spend their time blogging instead of trolling trade the game community would be so much better.  There are no forums I have found that did not always fall into hate filled venom after a few posts.  There is no server I have been on this did not seem to want to destroy anyone that was unfortunate enough to ask a question in trade.  The blog people seem to be a step above the curve when it comes to being people and not just players.

Now to go catch up on some reading.  Have a great day.

Personal Progression

My main is my Hunter.  I like raiding with him but for my guild I am sometimes needed in other roles.  Last week we got a new boss down and I was tanking.  This leaves my Hunter behind in progression.

Would I consider my personal progression to include all my characters, just the one I am currently on, or my main? 

I've done things on other characters I have not done on my main.  I've done stuff on my main I have not done on other characters.

For me, none of my characters will look very progressed on their own but when you add up their body of experience this expansion it looks much better.

So for me, is my personal progression everyone combined, or is it whomever I am on at the time?

20% Is Fine

A set of nerfs to the current raids is going to be coming when Firelands comes out and there are many people crying on the forums about it.

Why should people that get it after a nerf get the title?
Why should people that get it after get the mount?
Why do they get it easy when I had to work for it?


Lets say someone buys Cataclysm today and levels up and firelands is out when they reach 85.  These people would think that because they did not down T11 while it was current content they should not be allowed to get any rewards from it.

This new player, regardless of skill, never had the chance to raid in T11 so you are going to fault them and call them a bad player because they did not down the content while it was current content?  You are aware that makes you a total jackass if you do.

One of the main tanks in my guild all last expansion had some personal life issues that needed tending to so he took off before we started raiding this expansion.  He is a good tank, he was with us for everything else, he is not a baddie because he is not downing content now.  He is just not playing right now.  When he comes back we will knock out all the T11 raids for him so he can get the achievements.  Does he have any less right to those achievements or mounts because something in real life popped up that kept him from raiding during T11?

Why should people that get it after a nerf get the title?
Because the title is for beating it, not for beating it faster then someone else did. If you want to use that theory them I don't want you having the title either unless you where realm first to do it.  See how retarded the "I did it sooner" argument is.

Why should people that get it after get the mount? (guild one)
Because the mount comes from a guild achievement, you do not even need to raid to get the mount, you just need to be in a guild that raids you moron.

Why should people that get it after get the mount? (achievement one)
A 20% nerf to normals will not let someone get that mount easy.  That needs people to do heroic versions.  If someone was not capable of doing normals before the nerf I can assure you they will not be doing the heroics after the nerf because heroics are not getting nerfed.

Why do they get it easy when I had to work for it?
Because you will be doing firelands, why should it matter to you that someone is one raid tier below you anyway?  Are you really that selfish?  You are not doing that content any more so why not let others use it so it doesn't go to waste as content no one plays any more.

People really need to get over themselves.  Everyone pays their 15 dollars, let the people that have nothing else to do raid one tier behind the rest of us and please do make it easier on them.  If it is easier on them they will enjoy it more.  If they enjoy it more they will continue to pay their 15 dollars per month.  If they continue to pay their 15 dollars a month then I keep getting new raids for me to do while they are one tier behind me.  I like that they are nerfing it so people can play catch up.  After all, it is just old content once a new raid comes out.

Are you going to cry that people are steamrolling wrath raids now too?  Old content is old content, it should be steamrolled.  Hell, nerf it even more, nerf it 50% for all I care.  The 359 gear it drops will be useless as soon as firelands comes out anyway.  Nerf if 80%, even better.

In the end, when you think about it, a 20% nerf is perfect.  It makes it a tiny bit easier, but not so much easier that it is like running thought wrath raids at 85.  It makes it just easy enough to allow a whole slew of players into it that where not capable of doing it before.

I like that more people get to enjoy the game.  Why are so many people against that?  Do they really think they are the only people allowed to enjoy the game?

It just amazes me that people would be so upset over allowing more people to play.  Isn't that really a good thing in the long run?

Healbot: Not just for healing

When it comes to healing I have always liked healbot.  I first downloaded it when my priest was in her 30s and I was looking for a faster way to heal in battlegrounds.  Yes, my priest leveled through PvP.  It was a god send for me and I immediately fell in love with it.

As time went on I tried to find other uses for it.  Like any good Hunter I had macros for certain things like my Misdirection macro that would misdirect to my focus (the tank) and if I had no focus it would misdirect to my pet. 

As I did more content in the game I found that sometimes I needed to misdirect to someone different on occasion.  Be it the offtank or my pet while my focus was still alive and well.  That is where I had come up with the idea that I could use healbot for misdirect as well.  Just set it up to left click on the name of the person I wanted to misdirect to.  It saved me a move of targeting the person.  Any second saved is a second you do something better by.

I also had a macro set up for masters call which I used for arena to get me out of things.  The beauty of masters call is that it can be used on anyone.  So right click became masters call.  Now I can use it on other people as well with just a simple click.

This was a great way to use healbot outside of the normal way most use it for.  Not many people think that a non healer would have use for a healing addon but I think they need to open their eyes a bit and see that not everything is as it seems sometimes.

I've set it up for my mage as its own version of decursive.  Why have another addon just for that when I already have healbot installed?  One click and it will have this curse removed.  I also set it up to show me when someone is missing my buff in the group so I can rebuff.  I also had it set to remind me when my armor is down so I can activate it again.  I have a habit of forgetting it sometimes because I do not play my mage often.

There are a lot of uses that DPS can use it for.  A rogue can set up tricks on it too.  A warlock for their dark intent, soulstone, etc.

So it has the obvious use for healers and of course a utility use for the DPS characters I mentioned but what about tanking?  Well I am glad you asked because it works for tanking as well.  A paladin can set up all their hands on it for easy access as well as lay on hands and there is no better place to have righteous defense because being it is healing addon it is automatically set up to show who is taking damage.

For my warrior I have my vigilance set up on it because I often forget to place it on someone but now with a click of the mouse I can put it on whomever I need to without even needing to target them and nothing is better for reapplying it to someone else should your target that had it die.  It is also pretty much the perfect place to put intervene.

Healbot had a lot of uses outside of healing and I think using it for those things that most people do not think about has helped me in many ways to become a better player.  Even if all you ever do is use it as a reason to not download decursive, it is saving you having one additional add on.

Healbot has taken targeting a party member out of the equation.  Set up to click on the person and save a step.  Think of how many times you need to use something in game where you need to target someone first and then realize how much faster it would be if you did not need to target the person before you did it.

It is either create mouse over macros or use healbot.  I prefer, for the most part, healbot.  The reason for that being there are a ton of things I would need to create mouse over macros for and I am lazy, healbot is not only for curing curses and diseases, it also cures laziness. 

One click to do something, no need to write a macro, save a keybind that can now be used on something else, it is all good.

Healbot is not just for healing.  Use your addons to their fullest potential.

Rating Your Raiders?

My guild is expanding, not so much because we were seeking to but because of the guild finder.  The officers talked over it and we decided that as a casual raiding guild that we would be more then happy to invite anyone that is interested as long as they understood that there are no set in stone raid teams.

We expect everyone to be willing to sit in as well as sit out and we would attempt to rotate.  As long as they agreed with that we have no problem with giving anyone a test run in a raid or two.  I will make my raid leader like judgments on them and handle whatever needs to be handled as well as I can in as polite a manner as I can.

If they do not like that, there is the door, don't let it hit you on the way out.  There are millions of people in this game, no matter how good you think you are and that you deserve a spot, you are replaceable, hell, so am I.

This leads me to where we are now.  We will be having three 10 mans, all for different raids going and a forth starting soon for late night raiders.  This way, if need be, some people can double up of they want to.  We also are attempting to add a 25 man in but so far it seems to be that we can not get that many people on at once.  Fair enough as I see it.  10 mans give me more ability to see individual actions better anyway and we are still having issues with two 10 mans being different people.  If it were not for doubling up we would be stuck at 1 and a half.

So now I am making a mental list on rating my raiders.  Progression might very well stop for a while as we try rotating people in and out and I have to explain the fights to new people every week.  Not exactly what I call fun but in a way it is as well.  It feels a hell of a lot better downing something with people that never downed it before then downing something with people that have been downing it for months.  Hey, I've said it before and I will say it again, we all get out joy out of the game in different ways.  I enjoy that.

Why criteria do you really need to weigh people on?

1) What people do when things happen to them.
2) What people do when things happen to people around them.
3) How well people remember their  position and return to it.
4) How well people remember the go to points.
5) How well they interact with other people.
6) How well they rotate cooldowns.
7) How well they know what to do without me having to tell them.
8) DPS/HPS/TPS

If you notice the damage, healing and threat are last on my list.  The reason being is all of that can be fixed easily.  The more attempts you make at a boss, DPS goes up naturally, heals respond more in an as needed mode and tanks learn when they need to build threat and when they need to save butt.

Oh what I would pay to have a group of the same 10 people every raid day.  For progression we really only run one (or two) nights a week for 2 hours.  Not exactly a world beater pace, but it would be moving along a lot smoother if we had people that actually wanted progression as much as I do.

Those fun raids where people are beating a boss for the first time I consider it me helping them or me on an alt.  On my main, I want more.  It seems I am the only person that reads strategy guides, that knows fights, that actively want to down a boss sometimes.

Thanks to guild finder however I might be able to get more without moving from a casual guild.  As I have been seeing we have gotten a lot of people with excellent instincts.  People that would be great for a progression group.  Now to be able to rotate in progression as well as rotate for fun.

Now that makes things a bit more fun but boy oh boy do I have a ton of new raiders to get into raids and watch what they can do.  I am just sick and tired of explaining every fight like it is the first time ever doing it.  That is why we are looking to do three 10s a week now.  To fit in all those people I need to look at.

I really wish I could get a group of the same 10 people to work with each week.  To bad I never see that happening.

iLevel Must Die

Item level, just like gear score before it, is a stupid idea that should be removed from the game.  It is not alone, it is also gear stat inflation but that is directly connected to item level so we will consider them the same for the purpose of this post.

Example #1

In trade I saw this post over the weekend.

/2 ilvl 354 Hunter looking for Cata Raid

Innocent enough right?  Poor guy got flamed to no end with comments from "that is a horrible item level" to "how are you that low this late in the expansion".

First off, 354 is enough to blow through all current content and maybe even step foot into a few of the heroic mode raids.  My first time into a Cataclysm raid was with a 338 healer and I did just fine.  Sure, I had some serious mana issues but that is due to bad design by blizzard coupled with me not being all that great of a healer.

Secondly, just because you started playing the day cata came out and had a 350+ item level one week into the game doesn't mean everyone else started then.  It also doesn't mean even if they did start the day it came out that they are as prolific in their gearing up process as you are.

Third, lets forget valor gear or BoE epics.  If not for the Zul instances you would never be able to get over a 346 item level to begin with in heroics and if you where not lucky your best bet would be getting to around 342 item level.  Even including the Zul instances the best you can hope for is a 351 or 352 item level.  This is with completely exhausting every option available to you.  If getting the best of everything available to you can only get you to around a 350 item level now, how exactly is a 354 item level bad?

This guy was getting brutalized in trade for looking for a raid with an item level of 354 which in truth is pretty damn good for anyone before they start to raid.  Actually, I would personally say 354 before you step into a raid is over gearing the content before you move into it.  I would say a 354 item level is fantastic.

By putting a number on things blizzard is making people judge people by a number and that is a horrible way to judge people.

Example # 2

There are currently a few items in the new Zul instances that are better then their 359 counterparts.  They are 353 however and that will hurt someones item level.  Admittedly we do not see it as badly as we did in wrath when I was still rocking my greatness card deep into ICC because it was one of the best trinkets even comparing 200 to 264.  Good players noticed that, bad player just thought your gear score sucked because you where still wearing a 200 trinket.

A guild member won an item in a Zul run and posted it in guild.  He then said, too bad I am already wearing this, and posted a 359.  I looked at both of them and explained that the 353 is actually better then the 359.  I did not say it in passing either, I explained how the 353 would be an upgrade to him.  His response?  But my item level will go down if I use it.

I had to go on one of my speeches yet again where I preach to the masses that it is not item level that matters and in the end, only bad players look at item level, good players look at item effectiveness.  I try to teach people but sometimes I have no patience for people so I let it slide.  The game is programming people to think in terms of item level.  They even judge entry by item level.  This makes teaching people harder.

Example #3

I was doing some randoms on my Shaman because it was finally a healer bag day again, as few and far between as they seem.  We got BRC and the DPS on the first boss was insane.  Love those rare groups where people actually know what they are doing.  So we walk up to the second boss and I say, I got the right and the tank says, don't worry about it, with this group we do no need anyone to stand in the beams.  The tank was right.  No one worried about beams and the boss went down before one of the zealots turned.

Good right?  You might think so, I don't.  It was good in the fact it made for a nice and easy run but it was also bad because it ignored mechanics.  Ignoring mechanics is what makes bad players.  It is also what makes people think others are bad players.

Lets play devils advocate here for a moment and break that group up.  Put those three excellent DPS in different groups with just average players, even good average players, ones that can do at least 10K DPS.  Now, with 2 10K DPS and their 20K DPS you are not going to burn her fast enough so you need to do beams, at least for the first turn.  Now those people see someone mess up and think they are bad because they do not need to worry about beams when they do it with their group.

Or lets say you are the healer like I was that happened to get lucky enough to be with good groups that did not need to block the beams each run in there and you get a group that is not insane in the DPS department like they where.  You never stood in the beams so you do not know what to do.  If you do not know what to do there it is normally a wipe and now you are told to stand in the beam.  Huh?  What?  I never had to do that before.  Ignoring mechanics makes bad players.

Avoiding mechanics is a bad thing.  Gear level, and by such stat inflation, is letting people out gear things so quickly that it is entirely possible that people get in groups that never need to do the mechanics and when they get a group that needs to they will not know what to do or immediately think the other players are just bad players.

Out gearing content, even more so this quickly, creates bad players.  This early in the expansion we should not be just ignoring mechanics on fights, even in heroics, and we can if the stats on gear increase so huge so quickly.  Slowing down stat inflation would mean that older content still remains relevant longer.  If you out gear something so greatly so soon then you ignore mechanics and create bad players.

More devils advocate here.  Lets say someone starts playing a year from now.  When we are all in 450 or so gear, if we are already ignoring most mechanics in heroics we will surely be laughing at them in a year while we are in our 450s and thinking, there where mechanics to this?

So that new player joins us in a heroic, we blow through everything, basically carrying them, they never get a chance to know the mechanics or even know that there are mechanics, they get themselves geared, they get their badge 450s, they walk into raid, they never had any experience in dealing with mechanics, they fail horribly and you know what?  It is not their fault at all.  They never had the chance to learn about mechanics.

This ruins the fun of the game for them, for us, for the community as a whole.  The item level going up so quickly and the stat inflation on the gear is bad for the game.  Very bad.

Blizzard should really look into removing item level.  It does nothing for the game, it only enforces the belief that the person with the highest number wins, and makes people think that the item level number means more then the stats that are in an item.  Item level brings nothing to the table.

They also need to stop the insane stat inflation.  It makes it so we out gear things so quickly.  That makes content obsolete faster.  They worked so long to create the content that they might as well make it remain a challenge to us.

Wouldn't it be amazing if when Cataclysm ended the heroics where still a tiny bit of a challenge instead of being steamrolled by people in all epics that never even stepped into a raid?  They could do that.  They are just number obsessed like everyone else is.  Bigger numbers are better. 

The way stat inflation is going this expansion so far it worse then wrath was.  People thought wrath was easy, well, they are going to need to brace themselves because the way Cataclysm is going we are going to be begging for it to be as hard as wrath was in about a year if they do not slow things down.

Because we, the over geared, will carry people through the heroics that where meant to teach them and they will learn nothing, then they will get their shiny new point gear to get them into raids and they will be those very same horrible players people complained about in wrath.

It will come down to this.

/2 ilvl 457 hunter looking for cata raid

That 457 won't mean anything.  It will have been assembled in steamrolled heroics and BH which is already a laughing stock if you get a group doing all over 20K DPS each.

Item level has no use in game.  Find another way to judge people because putting numbers on them means nothing.

If anything, let me add, Example #4

Another item level failure can be proved by needing certain item levels to get into heroics and zul instances.  People game the system because Blizzard made it seem like that is all that is needed to do that content.  If you have this magic number you can do this content.

Look around at all those 3K, 4K and 5K DPS in heroics.  Look at all those tanks that could not hold aggro on even a single target against people doing 5K.  Look at all those healers that if two people get hit at the same time they let both of them die because they do not know what to do.

All those people have the appropriate item level to get into those instances.  According to blizzard, they are capable of doing them.  Apparently, no one at Blizzard actually ever plays this game because if they did they would realize that item level does not equal success and is the perfect scapegoat for bad player.  But I have the required item level, I should be able to do this, it must mean you are a bad player.  Passing the blame because you have the item level.

First heroic I ever tanked I had a healer in all PvP and a few green pieces.  New tank, badly geared healer, no wipes.  Want to know why?  The healer was amazingly skilled and I knew how to use cooldowns and CC as needed.  It had nothing to do with me being barely geared for it or the healer gaming the system to get in.  Item level meant nothing then, it means nothing now. 

To anyone on the outside, because of this stupid item level system they would have seen a barely geared tank and a horribly geared healer and said, this is going to be a wipe fest.

I don't know what could replace it really but what they have now is not working.  Item level is a bad idea.  It makes bad players think they are good, because of their item level, and it makes good players that do not have as much time to get gear feel like they are being left out because they do not have the item level required.  Something needs to be done. 

Remove item level, block addons like gear score and let us go back to looking at the people we play with.  Inspect is there for a reason.  If we want to look at gear only we might as well actually look at it.

I wonder if that poor Hunter ever found a group.  I would have taken him along and given him a shot.  354 is more then raid ready.  If we are going to use the item level system, people need to at least grasp the concept of what is needed for what content and stop being asshats.  354 is over geared for raids.  End of story.

Services I Would Pay For

With all the hub bub going on about pay for services with the addition of cross server grouping coming up I tried to think of some services I would pay for.

Personally I would never pay for cross server grouping but that is only because I am not a social player for the most part so why would I want to be social with players on other servers when I don't even like being social with the ones on mine?

Vanity items I see no issue with either.  They can sell as many pets or mounts as they want and you will never hear me bark about it.  Heck, I will be one of the people that buys a pet I never call out or a mount I never use just for the sake of having it and there are many like me in that sense.

Without getting into the argument of the slippery slope of selling things I will leave it quick and simple.  I do not think anything that actively effects game play should ever be sold. Race changes, faction changes, etc, the stuff they already have I see no problem with but the second they start selling gear and + stat bonus stuff I will have issues with it.

Now to the list of services I would gladly pay for and are long over due.

Additional Character Slots:
I would gladly play 10, even 25 dollars for one additional slot on a server I want.  I've one server maxed out and another almost there.  It would be nice to be able to make more characters on those servers that I am most invested in.

Additional Characters:
Different from the previous one.  The previous one would just allow you to have more on a particular server and will not change the total amount allowed, this would change your max amount allowed by 5.  Even if they charged 50 bucks to extend it by 5 total I would not mind.  I am not to the point where I would need it but if I ever got there I would rather pay 50 bucks for an extra 5 spaces then buy all game packs again and a second monthly fee.  Heck, I would rather pay 100 bucks instead of buying all that and having another monthly fee.

Starting Bag Upgrade:
As long as this would be for all characters I would buy something that upgraded the size of the starting bag for all your characters.  They like to increase bags by numbers of two so lets say 20 bucks for each increase of 2.  Could you just imagine 40 slot starting bags for all your characters for just 140 bucks?  It would be the best 140 bucks I ever spent on a game in my opinion.

Character Clone:
This would have to be expensive.  Say something like 500 or even 1000 to do.  It would clone a character you already have on to another server, same gear, achievements, everything.  I would use it for sure.  Starting on a new server?  Why not spend a few bucks to start there with a fully geared ready to raid character that you are good at.  I think I would bite at 500, not so sure about 1000.

Old Mounts or Pets:
People complain about not being able to get some mounts or pets that where removed from the game.  Make versions of them with a slight reskin and the name of classic xxx and let people buy them.  I am sure they would go for 50 bucks each easily.

Personal Tabards:
You would get to design your own tabard with your own artwork.  Being this artwork would need to be added it would be more work so it would not be something that would be cheap.  Have two versions, a personal tabard with predesigned things in the system you choose from for 50 bucks and a personal one with your own image and coloring for 200 maybe.

Character Design Studio:
Create new skins for all classes, face, hair, body art, size, etc that can only be accessed from this special service.  While I can't really see myself using this many would and role players would die for it.  A $50 access to the change studio for a week seems good.  It would give people a week to play with it to find the new look they want that only they can get, well, only them and others that pay.

Fun Items:
Just like the archeology items or trading card items.  Stupid little things that are just for fun.  Like the riding pony and things like that, you spend 10 bucks and you get a stack of 50 that can be used.  People with some free cash would continue to buy these things just for fun, it would be a huge money maker for the company.  Don't believe me, check how many of these things sell on ebay for even more then 10 bucks.

Heirlooms:
They refuse to give us cross server heirlooms but that doesn't mean they can not sell them to us.  Just like they have it set that you can create a 55 DK on any server once you have a level 55 they can make it that as soon as you have have a max level character on any server you open the heirloom store on other servers.  20 bucks or even 50 bucks per piece and I am sure they will sell like wild fire.  I know I would buy them.  Of course, I would prefer it to be a free service and really make the bind on account things bind on account but I would not be completely adverse to paying if I had to.


For now that's all I've got.

Well, I am sure there are many other good ideas and I am sure lots of people will pay for the cross server dungeon thing even if I won't.  We each have a line in the sand of what we would pay for and what we think it would be fine to pay for.  I am sure there is a segment of the player base that would love blizzard to just sell gold itself or gear or other things that directly effect game play whereas I see that as too much.

Above all else listed here, the bigger starting bag thing is the one I would jump on and buy at the price I mentioned or even more then that.  Some of the others I could see myself using as well but the bag one, oh how I want that.

Another Heroics Suck Collection.

I log on to do my normal thing first.  My JC dailes on my two character, both tanks.  Of course the CTA for tanks is on, I do not tank randoms so I don't even pay attention to it.

I decide to pop on my Shaman and check if I got a response to the ticket I put in about not getting my CTA baggie and get told that I can not get it because when someone dropped the group requeued for the dungeon they did not continue the dungeon.  There is a difference.

Warning to anyone in it for the baggies.  If someone drops group and you get the pop up saying would you like to continue, press yes.  If anyone presses no and then restarts it, then you will no longer get your baggie.

It makes sense in a way.  When someone restarts it, it gives you the option to select a role, whereas with the continue pop up it you are staying in the same role.  This is to prevent people from entering as a tank or healer and then when someone drops choosing a different role.

While it upsets me that I lost my baggie because of some idiot that joined as a tank wanting to now be a DPS, which is probably how that happened, it makes sense to have that rule.  If they did not have it then people would be more likely to cheese the system for free baggies.

At least now I know, so now I will not make the same mistake.  If someone does that and I am doing it just for the baggie, I will now drop group.

So the day of horrible heroics starts because I see the healers have the CTA.  What the heck, I queue up and get GB.

I zone in, one of the people seems to zone in but is away.  We wait about 5 minutes  We go ahead, tank pulls the non elite junk in the hallway, we kill them, he drops group.  What?

We wait another 5 minutes, get another tank and as soon as we get another tank one of the DPS says brb.  What do you mean BRB, you had 5 minutes while we waited to do whatever it was you had to do.  I hate people that do that.

They get back, we start going and healing becomes a world of hell.  The tank, the DK DPS and the Warrior DPS all seem to think they are tanks.  Each one of them takes their own dragonkin and they are all taking massive damage.  I am left to spam my fast expensive heals just to keep them up.  I do but it burns like 80% of my mana.

I say I need mana and sit to drink to watch the tank go running off into the next pack of mobs.  Me with no mana, nothing CCed, just a pull of those 5 or 6 mobs there.  I stay sitting as long as I can to get as much mana as I could and then wolf to them and start healing.  I start blowing cooldowns just to keep people up and manage to do it.  I am running on fumes when it is done.

I say, mana again and the tank pulls 2 seconds after I say that.  Thank god it is only three dragonkin and not another pack of 5 or 6, I would have never been able to do it if it were.  Of course, being all three plate wearers decided to play tank again it drained the little bit I had once more.

At least now going on the dragons I had a time to get some mana.  It would not have been an issue if everyone else wasn't taking such huge damage, even the mage at ranged was finding new and interesting ways to take tons of damage too.  I can see this is not going to go well.

If it were a fresh 329 healer, no matter how skilled they where, every pull in there so far would have been a wipe.  It is not possible to deal with the amount of incoming damage these people where taking.  I knew, if these people where half way decent at bombing, that at least the hard pulls are now done until the end of the dungeon so I would stick it out.

We basically walk up to the first boss, killing a few things here and there but almost everything is dead.  The pull right before the boss the tank pulls the packs there and the ones on the left, by taunt I assure, to come over all at once.  Here we go again, blowing all cooldown because the tank and the two plate DPS think they can eat the orges whirlwind.  Hey Warrior, you know you can take his weapon away, is the only thing that pops into my mind.  I keep them all up but again I am on fumes.

I say mana and sit down to take a taste of my refreshing south island iced tea and before I can even get a buzz from it the tank is charging in again.  I keep everyone alive but I am not sure how the hell I was able to do it.  No wipe, but so far the way it looks is that this group is lucky to have gotten me.  Most healers would have bailed on the first pull where the tank went in when they had no mana.

After the loot a DPS drops group and we get the pop up.  Someone cancels it and requeues, everyone chooses the same role, why did they cancel and restart, now I will not get my bag.  Screw it, I am out.  I am being bribed to heal for these morons and now I am not going to get paid because one of these morons did not just want to click yes, they had to restart it?  I'm out.

Still the healer CTA so I figure I will queue up again.  I get GB again.  Lets hope it is not the same group I think as I am on the loading screen.  Nope, it is a fresh fun.  Good.

We make our way to the first boss, no one has aggro except the tank, no one is taking damage except the tank, anyone that heals know that when you are with a good group healing is the easiest role in the game.  I am not just talking easy I am talking stupid easy.  Watch TV while playing if you want.  With a good group you don't even need to pay attention.  Even the boss fight was a joke, people actually moved from the charge which is rare to begin with.

I am all excited about this group.  This will be a 20 minute run max with these people, this is how all heroics should be.  I should not need to get a good group for them to be like this, they should be like this on their own even with idiots.  But now the bad news.

The tank must have been looking for a drop because as soon as we downed the first boss he dropped group.  It was not because of anyone in the group, no one said anything, everyone was doing at least 12K DPS and I never let him drop below 80% health.  So it had to be he was looking for something.

We wait and get another tank.  We start going again, this tank is good too, not as good, but it will still be a nice easy run.  One of the DPS disconnects while clearing the trash so after we are done, we wait a few minutes to see if they come back and then kick when they don't.  We get another DPS and go for the boss.

No problem what so ever.  The new DPS is not as good as the old one but not bad at all.  8K is fine and it is all I ask for personally.  As long as people can do that (and follow mechanics) then doing heroics is easy.  One of the other DPS drops however.  What?  Where they looking for something from him?

We get another DPS and continue along, I am paying close attention to the pop up when someone drops to make sure that I do not lose my baggie, after all, that is the only reason I am here.

The new DPS is another that is not as good as the one it replaced but that is no big deal, they are still over 8K so that is all that matters.  Third boss, no one is targeting the elementals and they eat the tank.  Sorry tank, they do 180K damage, I can not heal that when all you have is 154K to begin with unless you are fast enough to use a damage reduction cooldown.  We wipe.

I thought they said they changed it so it would not target the tank.  I am willing to bet actual money I read that in notes at one point about a month ago.  Oh well, crap happens, we give it another go.  No one attacks the elementals again, it goes straight for the tank again, it eats the tank.  We wipe.  I swear I read it would not target the tank, what is this crap.

Either way, do not blame mechanics, target the elementals when they pop up.  How hard is that people.  All that said to myself of course. I was much more polite in game.  I said, you need to get the elementals when they spawn before they reach someone because it will kill them and I linked the spell that shows they do 178K damage when they reach their target.

Tank drops and one of the DPS drops and just those two wipes.  Blame this one on stupid DPS.  At least the top DPS was still there, maybe we will get another good one when we get more people.

As soon as the replacements pop in the new tank says, can we skip this and I say, whatever people want to do is fine with me.  Personally I am one of those people that does not understand skipping because what does it take, 2 minutes?  If you are so tight on time that 2 minutes makes that much of a difference then maybe you should not be playing a game and should get off to do whatever it is that is so important that you can't play the game for 2 minutes more.  Enough of that, either way, shorter is still better, it means I can get more baggies.

The new tank with our new DPS head into those four mobs on the turn as if they are on a rampage.  There is no aggro anywhere, there is no rhyme or reason, there is no interrupting going on, there is no moving the mobs from the pools, this is a disaster in the making.  I manage to keep everyone up and we move to the next pack and it is more of the same.

If this where the first couple of pulls I might have considered leaving, but being the last two, it is no big deal.  The boss is stupid easy and from a healing standpoint as long as every gets into the eye of the storm and they stop the adds from getting the the eggs I could sleep and heal this fight.  Not really a lot of damage going around otherwise.  The boss should be easier then the trash, which seems to be the theme of all Cataclysm content.  Trash is hell, bosses are easy.

We go in, tank gives add assignments, we start the fight, all is going well, the adds come out, both make it to the eggs, one casts a heal, the other I interrupted, I also kept it slowed the whole way with frost shock hoping that would help, it didn't they still could not get it down in time.  There is a good and a bad side to this.  Now at least this becomes a healing challenge but it also means if they do not get the next adds down it will be a wipe.  I am just not skilled enough to heal through 4 packs of whelps being out.  I am not sure if anyone is, I am sure there is someone out there that might be able to.  I am not that someone however.  Next set of adds, both get to the eggs again.  One casts a heal again, I interrupted the other of course.  Four packs of whelps out and in was only maybe 20 seconds later where people started to drop.  Hell, as soon as the first person dropped I stopped healing.  It was a wipe and I knew it.  If we could not down the adds with a full crew we were not going to down them with 1 DPS down.

Next attempt the tank once again says what sides people are supposed to go to and I stress that I can not heal through more then 2 packs of whelps, that after that it gets overwhelming for me and they need to get them down before they get to the eggs.

We go in, same thing happens only this time worse.  I am the only person on one add.  How the hell is a healer supposed to take out an add by themselves?  I give it a try as best I can to keep healing but I knew we had no chance in hell.  We wipe.

Tank leaves and one of the DPS leaves.  We get new people explain we are doing the last boss, head back and go at it again.  New people, same problem, wipe.

I explain once more, all DPS need to switch to adds, if they get to the eggs there is no way I can heal through this.  One of the DPS says, you want me to DPS?  Someone else responds and says yes, you are a DPS I want you to DPS.  He said, I meant the adds.  I said, yes, everyone, I am even throwing frost shocks on them and I am the healer.  Oh, okay, I did not know.

So, all these wipes he was there for, all the time tanks gave assignments for which side people where on, all the times I complained I could not heal if they keep releasing whelps, all of that and this DPS never realized that he was supposed to be attacking these things?  Did he think they where just falling down dead on their own?

I guess my line about all DPS needing to be on it and that even I was DPSing them sunk in.  The next attempt we did awesome.  The first two packs never even made it 1/2 way to the eggs, the third pack got closer.  The forth pack made us miss the achievement because one of them started to channel the spell but died the second he did and we downed the boss no problem, I was even at almost full mana when it ended.  See, told you this was a stupid easy healing fight when people do things right.

I got my baggie and when on my way.  I notice it is CTA for healers still so I queue up for another one.

I get deadmines this time and zone in to yet another person saying brb the moment we get in.  Really people, if you do not have time to do dungeons do not queue for one.  We wait 5 minutes and they come back and we start off.  Another killer tank here.  This guy is taking almost no damage.  Why am I even here?

Deadmines is one of the easiest healing dungeons I think.  It was the first dungeon I ever healed and I was in 329 gear at the time and had no problems what so ever.  As long as people know what to do the healing in this dungeon is minimal.  The only guys in this dungeon that ever annoy me are the axe throwers, their DoT is insane, I wish I had a DoT that hit for 20K per second.

Either way, we get to the first boss and I figure I could throw my healing stream totem in the center and DPS this one.  As long as the crew knows what to do there is no damage in the fight to really speak of.  I throw a rain in the center for the end part, just in case and we down him with no issues.  I even end at full mana.

Tank drops.  What?  Another person looking for gear?  Then a DPS drops.  We wait for 2 more people, takes about 10 minutes, as soon as they get in the new tank says, brb, need to get my new helm.  Why did you not do that before you decided to queue up for a dungeon?  I hate stupid people.  12 minutes later he comes back and runs in.  He is okay, not as good as the other tank but he will be no problem to heal.

We get to the next boss, down him no problem, one of the DPS drops.  The pop up to continue comes up and before I can even click yes someone cancels it and requeues.  Seems the tank wanted to be DPS now.  It also means, no bag for me, I drop group.

There is no more healing CTA now so I figure I would head to my Rogue and try a heroic with him.  Healer CTA is few and far between.  This was only the forth day I had seen once since they added it.  I still refuse to tank one but if I ever want to get the bags I will have no choice.  To bad that there is nothing in the bags that would be enough to convince me to do that.  I only do it on my healer because healing is an easy job, at least when you get mildly competent people.

I pop on my Rogue and figure maybe I would have more luck there.  I enter the queue with 3 guild mates, two other DPS that just hit 85 this weekend and a raid geared healer.

We get into a dungeon and the tank is raid geared as well.  Raid geared tank, raid geared healer, VP, that means 20 minute run max.

We go through the trash and to the first boss and down it.  The tank says, this groups DPS sucks I'm leaving and I say, later.  No loss.  Truth be told, we are all fresh 85s but the DPS did not suck.  The Mage was first with 10K, I was second with 9K and the DK was third with 8K.  All three DPS over 8K is great for a heroic.  I am sure everyone out there would agree.  The tank just happened to be raid geared so he was also doing 9K so compared to him, we sucked.  Maybe he never noticed that we were all the actual gear level you are supposed to be when in a heroic.  336, 334 and 331 where our numbers and to say 10K, 9K and 8K are matched with those number is perfectly fine.

We get another tank and he goes and we are doing fine.  His DPS is 7K, he is still geared but at least we are all above him.  We get to the last boss and the healer has a huge lag spike and dies because she can not run into the triangle, this means a wipe of course but we almost get him even with her dead from nearly the beginning.

Tank leaves.  Excuse me?  One wipe because of a lag spike and she said she was sorry and you drop on the last boss?  Maybe it was another tank that didn't think everyone doing over 8K was good enough for a heroic.

We get another tank and we go in and the tank doesn't move in and the tank dies.  He apologizes, we say no problem, I think to myself that at least he did not blame our DPS for him dying like it seems everyone else does.

We go back and down it.  Over all, for my Rogue it was a good run.  I did 9K on the last boss, 16K on the dragon boss, have to love that buff, and pulled 8K over all average for the whole run.  Still suck at trash.  Anything I can stand still with I am good for at least 11K it seems in my 334ish gear.  Not great but not horrible by any measures.  Makes me wonder what that first tanks problem was.

Do you know how happy I am when I see a run where everyone is over 8K?  It is rare, very rare to see that.  Maybe he wanted all over 15K so the instance would have 15 minutes instead of 20.  That is the definition of an elitist jerk.  I see no problem complaining with 4K, 5K or 6K DPS in heroics.  I agree they have no business being there, but all 8K or more and all knowing all the mechanics and doing them right means a quick and easy run.  He is also the perfect example of why I would never go into a heroic unless I knew I could do 8K.  If I was really doing badly I might have taken it personally, knowing I was not doing badly I knew it was because he was an asshat and not because I was bad.

Over all, it was a horrible day for heroics.

Just think back to how good the normals where when I mentioned them.  Normals really are where it is at.  Seems the better players are all there.

If I could get my valor from them, even at 35 per instead of 70 per, I would do normals and normals only.  Just to avoid asshats like that one.  I'd rather play with the good players then the bad players trying to rush things (low DPS in heroics) or the elitists that think 8K in beginning heroic gear is bad.

Ability Meet Brick Wall

First, my Rogue.

I ran a few more normals last night and it seemed more of the same.  I am having no luck with trinket drops and no luck with a wrist or gun.  Outside of them, my other gear is starting to look heroic ready.  I'm up to a 334 items level now and (as long as the tank is not moving things all over the place) I am doing solid DPS on boss fights.

It might be time to move up to heroics even if I do feel I still have a lot to learn.  Had one run yesterday where I pulled over 9K on all bosses and 7.8K over all for the run.  My trash DPS sucks big time.  Maybe I will have some luck getting those 4 gear spots filled in heroics.  I am just so afraid of not being able to pull my own weight in them.

I even spent time on the dummy while waiting for the random working on timing.  I am almost to the point where I no longer even think when I do the rotation.  I've even gotten to the point where I am, mentally at least, redesigning my bar.  I want to move backstab to a more prominent place, even more so for normals being things die so quick I can never get two mutilates off on anything, doing a mutilate and then a backstab I think would be a trash increase.  Not that trash matters.

I am thinking that I might actually do better in heroics with things lasting longer.  I've noticed when I was on the dummy that my DPS would always start really low, I mean like 2K low and it would keep climbing fast until around 6K and then it would keep moving up slowly to about 7K.  Meaning that a Rogue is really one of those characters that needs a fight to go on for them to get the most out of the rotation. 

On my hunter, unless I open with cooldowns, the DPS I do right at the start will be the DPS I do over all.  It is the same all the time.  There is something to be said about always knowing where you are because your DPS is always stable.  My Rogue does not seem to have that benefit.  Maybe my heroic DPS will take a step up because things will last longer.

While I know a really skilled Rogue can pull more out of my item level I am not really skilled and I think based on my ability I have reached a brick wall in normals.  I might still do a few for the hell of it but I know it is time for me to move on. 

I am going to miss those fantastic normals I've gotten so used to do.  I pulled 12K on a boss yesterday and was last of the three DPS.  One was 18K and the other was 13K.  Do you know how rare it is to get 3 DPS that could do numbers like that and move from the bad at the same time in a heroic?  Really rare.  I'll miss normals where good players play.

Normals are where people that care about how they play learn.

Second, my Warrior.

My Warrior is sitting at item level 347 but it is really not 347 it is probably 344 or 345.  I crafted a bow to keep in my bag to get to 346 because I am still rocking a 318 bow.  All you warriors out there can probably name that bow I am sure.  Unless you get a drop in a heroic it is the best bow.

That coupled with my relatively limited skill as a tank means that I really need to step up my game when I try to do a Zul.  I only run with guild if they need a tank and then if I am having issues I bow out.  Nothing wrong with admitting you can't do something.  I've tanked many bosses in the Zuls but have yet to finish one.

I end at the cauldron boss in ZG because it always seems someone makes some sort of mistake and it all goes downhill from there.  I did the oops I stood in the fire thing a couple of times but once you do that 2 or 3 times you learn and never do it again.  Perhaps my gear and/or ability is what starts to make it harder on the healer.

Last night I got ZA, first time ever on this character.  I fear the dragonhawk guy as a tank.  I know the other fights I can do with ease but that guy was enough to give me fits on how I would do it.  So we did that guy last.  No problems up until there.  A few trash wipes but oddly enough the only trash wipes we had where wipes of over confidence.  We handled the harder of the pulls, the ones up to the bear, without any wipes or incidents at all really.  Even in a group that had no CC except for a poly.  I've healed and DPSed that and it is rare to see no wipes there.  I was impressed.

Other bosses, no problem.  A few wild pulls, no problem.  A scout that snuck up behind us and called help, no problem.  Three mobs that we just rushed into, wipe.  You know, it made for some fun laughing on vent.  How is it we can do all the pulls I see wipes on in pugs as if they where no problem at all yet something simple we wipe on?  It is not an original event just meant for us.  I hear a lot of stories from people that end up wiping on easy stuff when the hard stuff is no problem.  I'll blame over confidence so mistakes are made.

When we get to the dragonhawk guy I say I want to tank it by where the hawks will be coming from, the same way every tank I ever saw doing it has done it.  After they are released I start grabbing them up and then a few start squeezing through.  We have no hunter or rogue to send them my way so it is on the DPS to either kill them or the person they are on to come to me so I can drag them off.  Neither happens and we wipe.

Two more attempts later and I tell everyone that this standing by the gate is not working. I need more room to bounce around and if something gets past me and I am in the middle I can get it off of the person a lot easier then if I am by the gate and it is now across the entire platform.

We go with me pulling him dead center and it goes so much better. I am grabbing them as they come out because they need to pass me to get to anyone.  A few get away here and there, but a quick move over, clap, move back, and I have them back.  Sure, there is one or two here or there but things are going much better.  We have almost all the first side down when the second side comes and I do the same thing, grab them up, try to pick up the ones that snuck by, and people start going down.  Wipe.

Again, wipe, once more, wipe.  I could place the blame on the DPS, one pull one of the DPS that usually is good for 15K is doing 5K, but it is not all that.  I could blame the healer for not keeping me up but when I died I still had 2 cooldown left (a life and a dodge trinket on use) and that makes it as much my fault as his.  I could blame people for not moving from the fire ball thing but I got caught by one in our first attempts to and it is hard to fault someone else for something you did yourself once if it is something that only happened once for them too.

Maybe it was a series of unfortunate things that happened.  Everyone only got caught once, but everyone seemed to get caught in different attempts causing us to be undermanned in a few attempts.  Before we moved to the center tanking position I was not doing as well picking up the hawks so that was all on me.  The first guild healer, that had to leave, would always run away when he had the hawks on him instead of running to me, which made it impossible to get the damn hawks back. 

There are a lot of things that went wrong but in the end it was all on me.  I could have done better picking up the hawks.  I got hit by the fire only once in all the attempts but once is too many.  I got hit by the fire ball only once in all the attempts but once is too many.  I could feel down on myself about it, we tried for an hour, about eight attempts and we got him down to less then 30% in five of them.  The healer said I should not feel bad, he has done this 18 times since it was released and said he has yet to see any warrior tank that has been capable of doing this boss.

Challenge accepted.  I know I can do it. 

By the last attempt I was snagging 90% of the hawks right away and the other 10% could have easily been dragged over to me.  I had worked on the timing for when to use my AoEs to grab them, even used some engineering tricks to help out.  Those few that got away and are on the healer on the bone pile, well, here, have a saronite bomb.  They all came to me.  Ah, the joys of using all your tools when you play, some people forget they even have those.

I know I can do it.  Better DPS would have made it easier.  A rogue or hunter to help send strays my way would have helped.  Having all the first pack of hawks down before the second pack started to come out would have helped.  Hell, having better gear on my own would have helped.

Be it gear, be it ability, be it the people I was with, one of which had never been in there, I hit a brick wall.  Sometimes you have to wonder, it is not the perceived difficulty of a battle, it is the battle itself.  I tanked Chimaeron the other day filling in for someone yet I can't tank some stupid heroic boss with annoying pets.  Difficultly has nothing to do with tier of the content, it is all about your ability to handle the content.

I know I can do it.  Each attempt I got better at my timing and picked up a greater amount of hawks.  That is a case of my ability was getting better.  For the moment at least, after those attempts, my ability hit a brick wall.  I do not think there is much more I can do.  By the last attempt I was picking up nearly everything, not getting hit by anything and using my cooldowns when I knew the healer needed to tend to other wounds that where not my own.

A warrior can do this, just not this warrior, yet.  Give me a few more tries and maybe a group with 2 ranged and one melee instead of 2 melee and one ranged or a group with better DPS so all the adds are down before the second batch comes and I got this baby.  I could tell my DPS where getting tired of trying.  They all started out in the 13s and 14s and by the last attempt only one was in the 10s.  Maybe if I where better at the start when they where doing better it would have went down on the first try.  For now, I sit back and plan my revenge.

I am going to look over my engineering stuff and see what else I can use like those saronite bombs, they really did wonders to pull packs off the healer.  One bomb and he healer was all alone again.  Almost makes me think that a warrior tank has to be an engineer and not just for those dead sexy goggles.

I'm All Over The Place

I did a few more normals on my Rogue while trying to polish my rotation and reaction speed and I can tell I am getting better but I am also all over the place.

Lets take the four bosses at the end of HoO. 

The chick I did 4K on, yes, that low.  Hence the reason I am in a normal.  Why so low?  I do not know.

The plant guy I did 12K on.  Yeap, still in mostly all greens and did 12K.  Being he does not have a damage bossing phase that means I am capable of that and should be getting closer to that normally.

Then the portal guy and I did 6K.  No real target switching but lots of running around and a few times of moving from the bubbles, still should not have effected my damage that much.

The the last guy, I did 10K, we never made it to the bonus damage phase.  We downed him before he could make it.  He never cast anything either, lots of interrupts in that group.

If you average it out I did 8K over all on those four bosses, that is a lot better then most of the people I run into in heroics can do yet I still only consider that normal ability.  For me however, that is still an amazing failure and proof I do not know how to play a Rogue all that well yet.

I can deal with that one 6K fight.  That is something I can understand.  It was a lot of running around him and I need to get used to fighting on the move like that and there is a phase where I can not do any damage because of the bubbles.

What bothers me is the 4K on the female one.  First off, there is no moving involved for the most part.  I only needed to turn for the radiance and that was no problem, timing it I made sure I was at low energy when I did so I could be regenerating energy while my back was to her.  Switching to the other versions of her should not have hindered me either as they are right there and I really did not need to move much to get to them.

I can blame it on the shield, that absorb does lower your damage.  I think I do less on that fight on my hunter too and I know damn well I am doing it right with that character.  I am questioning myself with this character however because I am just learning.

I did pick up a new thrown weapon, justice pants and the BoE 353 hands from the new Zuls that a guild mate got for me for 200 gold.  Now I have no excuse.  I have two good pieces, and another decent piece.  Only half my gear is green any more. 

Even without gems and enchants (I will put them on the gloves and pants, anything 346+ I start gemming and enchanting) I should be pulling 8K easy at item level 329.  At least now I am an honest 329, an honest 331 now actually. 

If you can not pull 8K+ at 329 without gems and enchants, you are doing it wrong.  I will keep running normals until I can do 8K in my sleep.  I feel as if I am getting closer to that but I still do not see myself as being heroic ready yet.

You know, sucking as badly as I do on my Rogue has helped breath a little life into the game for me.  It is a challenge for me and I enjoy it at the moment.  I am sure it will pass, but for now, the challenge of getting better on my Rogue is kind of fun.

One thing I think I need to look up is AoE stuff.  I know Rogues lack there, but on AoE battles it sometimes feels like I should just sit back and let everyone else do the work.  Why even try when my DPS, no matter how good I do, will be half the tanks. 

My AoE does no damage, and everything dies so fast I can't get any combo points up to make anything count.  I am sure there are good Rogues out there that might be able to give some tips there, please, feel free too.  I've done okay figuring out the rest but I am lost on AoE fights and unlike a lot of people you run into in pugs I am not insulted by people giving me advice.

Either way, now I am getting better gear, I am getting more comfortable playing it and I've even stopped getting the need more energy message as often as I had.  My DPS is all over the place, now is the time to tighten it up.  I'd say a second week of normals and I should be done with that.

I am thinking of making myself the leatherworking 359 belt because I have all the items for it but it would feel weird having a 359 belt when most of my gear is still 318 or lower.  I'll do it anyway.  From what I read it is the best in slot pre raid for a Rogue and being I do not plan to raid with this character it is basically best in slot for me over all.

I think part of the reason my DPS is all over the place is the lack of hit.  Perhaps in time as I get some more gear I will not be subjected to the random number generator which could be influencing my DPS some.  Only time will tell.  I'll knock out a few more normals today as week two of learning to play a Rogue begins

Gemming as DPS in 4.1

Here is a small guide that will give a kick start out to people that are not sure how to gem.  This will almost always be the case of how you will gem.  In rare cases there might be a reason to gem differently, but in most cases just follow this guide and you will be fine.

Main Gem:
From this point on when I say main stat I mean the main gem for your class/spec.

Warrior, Paladin, Death Knight = Main Gem +40 Strength.

Hunter, Rogue, Enhancement Shaman, Feral Druid = Main Gem +40 Agility.

Elemental Shaman, Balance Druid, Priest, Warlock, Mage = Main Gem +40 Intellect.

Figuring Out Yellow:

This is one thing that might differ from class to class, yellow.  You will use them so rarely but when you do you will have a choice of +20 Critical, +20 Haste or +20 Mastery.  I will always suggest Critical and you would be fine if you follow that for all classes but haste or mastery might be better for yours.  Using critical for the limited amount you might ever use it won't hurt you however.

How to Meta:

If your main gem in +40 Strength, your meta is Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond.

If your main gem is +40 Agility, your meta is Agile Shadowspirit Diamond.

If your main gem is +40 Intellect, your meta is Burning Shadowspirit Diamond.

Gemming Rules:

Head Slot:
If Red, +40 Main Stat Gem
If Yellow, +20 Main Stat/+20 Critical.
If Blue, +20 Main Stat/+20 Hit Rating.


Gear With One Slot: (not head)
+40 Main Stat, No Exceptions.

Gear With Two Slots:
If no slots are red, +40 Main Stat in both slots.
If both slots are red, +40 Main Stat in both slots.  Duh.
If one slot is red and the other yellow, +40 Main Stat and +20 Main Stat/+20 Critical.
If one slot is red and the other is blue, +40 Main Stat and +20 Main Stat/+20 Hit.

Belt Buckle from Blacksmith or Blacksmith Sockets:
+ 40 Main Stat, No Exceptions.

Jewelcrafting:
Use three +67 Main Stat gems in place of regular ones.

There you go, nice and simple.  All the mystery taken out of gemming, so easy an Orc could do it.

Don't forget to reforge and enchant too, but this gemming is a step in the right direction.

What is Non Raiding Content?

Someone pointed out that the comment about consuming content too quickly had to do with non raiding content and thinking about it I am left to believe they are absolutely right.  When it came to non raiding content this expansion, it was all done way to quickly.

By quickly I do not means it took a few weeks I mean it took a few days.  No matter what Blizzard likes to tell us, like the 70-80 leveling experience is roughly the same as the 80 to 85 experience, they are full of shit, for lack of a better word.

The 70-80 experience is still twice as long even with the reduced experience needed to level and rested and more heirloom gear than the 80-85 experience.  This is coming from a person that had leveled three characters through northrend and then to 85 since the expansion.  So I speak from first hand knowledge. 80-85 takes roughly the same amount of time as 76-80 and if you read my old posts, I always called 76-80 the easiest leveling point in the game.

So their new content is lacking in time investment and also lacking in areas to do so.  This leaves us with the feeling that there is less to do.  That feeling is completely justified.

Questing is the number one non raiding content.

One way or another most non raiding content is connected to questing.  For any player that likes to quest and is effective at it once you are done with your 80-85 leveling you can go back and do all the other quests in two days or less and by two days I do not mean 48 hours I mean two 3 or 4 hour play days.

This went by way to quickly.

Add to the fact that questing is now linear it means that there is little to no exploration needed to find where your next quests might come from.  This makes questing much more efficient which is nice but it also means you finish it a lot faster by not having to look around for quests to finish an area.

The second way questing is the number one non raiding content is in the style of dailies.

For the most part the only dailies one might need to do are the cooking dailies, to get tokens for recipes, the fishing dailies, for achievement or skill points or items that come in the bags, and the TB dailies if you want to get that rep.

No other dailies in the game are needed.  The tabards cover the rep you will need and if you even do as little as run one dungeon per day with a tabard on you will be exalted with every faction so fast it is crazy.

This means that the dailies lose their attraction really fast.  Even the one grind you need to do for rep being it does not have the tabard to make it even easier, TB, goes fast.  If you happen to get lucky enough to get a server that has TB during your play time every day, getting to exalted is super quick.  On my server we never have it more then twice a week during my play time and I still got exalted in no time at all.  If we had it every day it would have been faster.

So quests where indeed consumed to quickly because there were too few of them, there was no need to seek them out and their was no need to do dailies when a tabard got the job done faster.

This is why the content was consumed so fast.

What they need to do is bring back grinding if you want to limit the time needed for consumption of content.  Grinding is the key to keeping people addicted and it is the key to keeping content from being consumed to fast.

The Ogri'la faction is a perfect example of a long grind that did not get consumed to quickly.  With three (or two if you did not do the color one, like I did not) dailies with small rep gains meant that there was a need to do this for a very long time before you felt as if you had consumed all there was from it.

The tabards have also made it useless, unless someone wanted to rush it, to do rep grind dailies.  Why do the two Ramkahen dailies to get rep when you can jump into a dungeon and get more rep then they give combined just from the trash before the first boss.  Okay, I'll admit it, I have been exalted since the first week and I still smash those pygmy guys every time I am there just for the fun of it, but I do not need to.

They need to go back to the BC way of things.  Tabards are a thank you from a faction for becoming exalted with them, they are not a means to an end to get there.  Tabards are part of the reason that content is being consumed to quickly.

If they really want to let you get rep from a tabard, lower the gain to 1 or 2 per trash kill and 25-50 per boss, so you do not get exalted so quickly.

Now lets look at another grind.  Standard rep and where it leaves you.  Doing Hyjal quest line will leave you at almost exalted if you happen to be a human and have the guild bonuses and even if you do not meet those requirements you will be well into revered.  This is way to much to start off.  They would have been better served making you be honored at best when done and making the bear toss and maybe two of three other of the quests people found fun into dailies that give 100 rep each.

This would mean that if you did all of hyjal you would still need to do dailies for a while without the tabard.  Even if they removed the tabard and did the daily thing content would still be consumed to quickly because you would get exalted so quickly based on the fact you where half into revered just after questing.

To much rep straight out from quest lines helped make content get consumed to quickly.

I think that covers the questing standpoint of why content got consumed so quickly.

Some people do dailies for gold, more people do dailies to attain something else.  Some like to grind it for the rep.  Some like to grind it for the items.  Some like to grind it for the enchants.  All will do it if there is something they want from it.  Making it take time would be a way to make content not be consumed so quickly.

Lets just use the argent tournament as the perfect example, I still do it, three people I know of in my guild still do it, one of my commentators yesterday mentioned they did it, that is the perfect example of content not getting consumed to quickly.

It is outdated from a previous expansion and many people still do it.  Design things this way blizzard.  There will always be pets to buy from there that you can then sell or send to alts.  This is enough to keep some people interested even after they got everything they wanted and are exalted.  Someone on the design team was really thinking with their head here, where did he go?  Hire him back please.

What else is there that is non raid content?

PvP?  I don't think so.  PvP is the same now that it was a 60, at 70 and at 80.  Maybe different skills, maybe different effects, maybe different life totals, maybe different battlegrounds, maybe different arenas, yet it is always the same.  Player vs player.

We can not blame Blizzard for this one being stale.  It is not possible for them to breath life into something that they have no impact over.

Whereas a new raid encounter can be build that people need to learn, the only way a PvP player gets new content is my facing a different player.  If there are no different players with different play styles then PvP gets stale.  Blame for fellow player for that one, do not blame blizzard. (not even touching on balance here, lets pretend everything is balanced)

Blizzard can however make PvP more interesting by making more achievements for world PvP.  Example.  Kill 1 person of equal level in xxx, Kill 10 people of equal level in xxx, kill 100 people of equal level in xxx, 250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, etc.  xxx could be every opposing faction town.

This would encourage PvP players to hang out in non city towns looking for world PvP.  Achievement hunters will do it for achievements, PvPers will do it for the fighting, everyone benefits. And the requirement of same level means it will not encourage lowbie ganking, even if that will happen.

Kill 10,000 guards, kill 25,000 guards, kill 50,000 guards, kill 100,000 guard, etc.  Guards offer no honor.  Most people try to avoid them being they are a waste of time.  Lets at least make an achievement for killing them.  You can keep increasing the number needed for the next level of achievement, this keeps extending the content that can be consumed is as easy as adding a 250,000 kill achievement once most people have 100,000.

PvP world events  Arenas around the globe would be considered sanctuary until battle time.  Everyone that enters will be flagged but can not attack.  Once the hour marker hits the doors are locked.  No one can get in, no one can get out.  If you die you can not release until the battle royal is over.

Last one standing, wins.  Give them an achievement, Win battle royal at xxx arena.  Win 10 battle royals at xxx arena.  So forth and so on.  This creates more PvP and even if just for achievement sake, and/or the 100 conquest points it awards each time you win one, it will encourage people to participate in them.

While Blizzard can not do anything about the content of PvP, so to speak, it will always be you fighting someone else, they can not create content for that, they can create content that gives you a place to do it and a reason to do it in that place.  I am not much of a PvP player but I would love some of these and would join battle royal battles even if I know I am not even close to good enough to win one because it sure as hell sounds fun.

Okay, we covered how to make questing and rep grinding consumed slower and PvP more involved meaning it is more interesting for more people and the achievement added it to to make it more time consuming so what is next for the non raid content?

Gold making.

Nothing for me to say here.  Gold making will take care of itself.  There is always a way to make gold, people will always find a way to make gold, people will never have too much gold.  Hoarders will be hoarders.  That content is the only content that did not get consumed quickly because there is no end to that content.

Questing has a end, once you got everything you want from it or did them all it ends.  PvP has an end unless you continue to make attainable achievements so people have something to aim for and brag about.  Woohoo, I just got my 10,000 trolls killed achievement. Gold has no end, you can always make more and more is always good.

What else for non raid content?

Not much you can do for exploration, once it is done it is done.  All that is left for non raid content is dungeons.  Once they are done and you got everything you want from them all that is left is grinding for points, whichever you want.  Unless there is a complete overhaul there then there is nothing that can be done for them either.

I think the answer to content getting consumed to quickly is not to make more content and release it faster even if I like that idea, I think the answer is to make the content last longer.  There is no reason that you should be done with all quests and all rep grinds in a week of hitting 85.  Content wore out so fast because they let it.  It is their fault.  To late to fix it now but they can learn from it and not let it happen again.

Last but not least... do not underestimate the power of achievements as a means to make content.  Just as I mentioned with adding PvP achievement to give PvP players more reason to PvP and to get out in the world to do it you can use achievements as a way to make content and it is probably the easiest of things to add to the game to create content.

[Fish 100 fish up from open waters in Ashenvale]
[Fish 250 fish up from open waters in Ashenvale]
[Fish 500 fish up from open waters in Ashenvale]
[Fish 100 fish up from pools in Ashenvale]
[Fish 250 fish up from pools in Ashenvale]
[Fish 500 fish up from pools in Ashenvale]

Make one for each area, make a 1000 achievement and 1500 achievement when you need to add more content.

Make a meta for when someone that gets all of both types of 500s achievements from every area in game that awards a 525 fishing pole.  Next expansion, just continue along with a meta for getting the 1500 achievement in all for a 600 fishing pole.  See, content created easy by means of achievement.

Other ideas... [Kill xxx Humanoid in xxx], [Kill xxx Beasts in xxx], same idea, for all types in all zones.  Content created, easily.

It might be lame content, but it is content none the less and many players, people like me that blew through the things to do, would be the idiots out there fishing up useless fish in Ashenvale because I want the meta to get my 525 fishing pole.  It would take me longer to consume this meta alone then it did for me to consume all non raid content released this expansion.

Never underestimate the power of achievements for a way to make content.  Something to do it something to do even if it is a lame something to do.

Losing A Step or Two

Lately I feel as if I am losing a step or two when raiding.  I've been concentrating on others so much that I am starting to make some simple mistakes that I never made before.  Nothing game breaking.  I still move when I need to, where I need to and how I need to but my DPS is seeming to suffer more and more each week.

Some examples of things I noticed myself doing.

I am sometimes losing the Improved Steady Shot buff even in situations where I do not need to move.  Or hitting three in a row when I only need two.

I am occasionally not doing the quick switch to fox when moving whereas I used to always do it and now I sometimes just don't and it is not like I forgot, I remembered, I just don't do it.

I am also falling into the habit of waiting on shots when I know an interrupt will be needed even if the job to interrupt is not up to me, but because I am afraid it is going to be missed or the person might die and I will need to be ready to do it.

All of these things and other little factors have meant that my performance is not even close to what I know I can do.  For arguments sake, if I were just another player in a more hardcore group, I could see me being dropped.

It is so bad that I did less DPS on Al'Akir (13K) then I do on the target dummy, with no buffs.  Those numbers are just not acceptable for me.

I wonder what is the reasoning for this.

It could be burnout.  I've been burnt out on the game for a long time now.  I only play because I feel I have to for the sake of the raid team.

It could be I am stressed with trying to down new bosses so I am over analyzing everyone else which might not be a good thing for me as a player even if it is sometimes needed as a raid leader.

It could be that my disappointment with other things in the game has started to flow into raiding, which has been the best thing this expansion.

It could be our lack of progress is pecking away at me knowing we could do more but we are not getting it done only raiding 4 hours a week, if that much.

It could be because I am frustrated that there is a guild on my server that is 12/12 and 2/13 and when looking at their world of logs their top DPS would barely be 5th in our raid group meaning it is all my fault as a raid leader that we are not ahead of them in progression.

It could be it is our extremely limited raid schedule making me feel like others are not doing all they can so why should I.

It could be many things but there is one thing for sure I know it is.  It is not good for me as a player.  If I know I can do better I am not happy with myself.  Even if we down the bosses, I did not do my best which means I did not do good.

You don't need to do good to down a boss and you don't need to be bad to not down one.  Never assume either.  You can down a boss and still do badly.  Lately I feel as if I am doing badly.

The worst part of it all is that I am getting to the point where I don't care any more and that is what worries me.  I would not want a raider on my team that didn't care so that means I would not want me on my team.

This only seems to exist in raids however, so that is why I tie it to what is going on in raids.

Yesterday I was in a heroic ZG and we had the lightning archeology boss and everyone died on it and I soloed it from 40% to dead.  I am still on my game there.  If something like that happened in a raid, I would have died at 39%.

I want to get my groove back in raids, but I am not even sure how I lost it.

State of Dungeon DPS

My Rogue was my second character to 85 and then I never really touched him.  He basically just sat there in the shadows, fitting, but serving no purpose otherwise.

Being all my characters are either healers or tanks with the exception of my hunter which is my main I decided that I wanted to start gearing up a second DPS character (Not big into casters so mage and lock are sitting out the gearing up stage for now).  The Rogue ended up getting the nod being he is also a skinner / leatherworker so having him geared is not a bad thing when I am bored and feel like farming some skins.

The thing with the Rogue for me is, I like playing it to an extent, but I suck at it, so playing it with others makes me feel as if I am making them do all the work.  If I can not do my part I do not join in on a random, it is as simple as that.

So first things first, I basically just threw points where they looked good while leveling, I needed to get myself an actual spec.  I look up some of the top assassination specs at all the usual places and to my surprise, my assassination spec, the one where I just threw anything where it looked good was 100% the same as the top assassination DPS spec, at least in the assassination part of the tree.  The other points I needed to move around.

Being I just mentioned I suck at being a Rogue this goes to prove one thing I said early on, these smaller specs leave you with no choice but to choose the top spec.  As long as you read the skills you will never have much of an option.  And they changed it to this so it would not be cookie cutter.  It does not get more cookie cutter when someone that knows nothing about being a Rogue picks up the perfect spec without even thinking.

Back to the story however.  So I fixed those points in the extra things and read over my rotation, which seems to be what it has always been and I set out to do some normals.

I did a few normals and did decently.  Even reached a high of almost 12K DPS in the last fight of HoO, well, it is a gimmick fight so that was not all me.  I was pulling 5.5K-7K on trash and 8K+ on bosses.  Not all that bad but still not heroic ready.

But enough about me.  Everyone else in the normals was rocking it.  Even when I pulled out all the stops and had some nice crit streaks and reached 9K+ on some fights I was still dead last.  Yeap, 9K and dead last.

This was not in only one normal, this was in five of them.  I was always dead last in DPS, often behind the tank even.  Personally I do not want to try a heroic until I can pull at least 8K over all and 10K+ on bosses for a dungeon.  I believe that should be the minimum any one does, at least if they have any self respect.

Lets flash forward to another character, me helping a friend start to gear up.  We queue for heroics, me as a healer, him as a DPS.  We spam a few of them, four actually.  Outside of my friend who was only doing around 7K over all himself but at least 9K-10K on bosses, there were no other players in any of the dungeons we did that could pull that much.

He was top DPS in heroics doing roughly what I was doing in normals, as bottom DPS, below even tanks.

I was seeing a better selection of DPS in normals then I was in heroics.  Something seems a little off here if you ask me.  Heroic dungeons means you usually have more gear, which in turn should mean you have more skill.  How come the over all that I have seen in the normals and heroics I have run in the recent weeks seem to always have the DPS in normals, on average, doing more DPS then the people in heroics?

Perhaps there is a telling factor here.

People that care about doing their part, like me on my Rogue, shine their skills up in normals.  Hence the reason for so many good players in normals.  Whereas people in heroics are rushing it just to get more gear because they are under the false assumption that gear = DPS.

The few and far between, those people that are learning and honing their skills in normals, will enter heroics and enter the mix of half wits, no wits and dim wits, that think they can pull 4K in a Zul heroic and they are doing their job well.

Perhaps blizzard should introduce other ways to determine how and when you can get into a heroic besides item level.  It is giving the false impression to those morons that if they have the item level that means they can do the job.  This is wrong 100 times over.  Gear is a means to an end, skill gets you to the end.

At the moment the state of DPS in dungeons, to me it seems at least, is that there are a great deal of very good players coming the way of heroics soon.  They are just working out the kinks in normals.  Like everyone should.  Maybe this is a good sign.

There are a lot of bad players out there, they all seem to be in heroics, but you should be happy to know that there is a group of people coming up that are much better then the people we see in dungeons now.

The end question is, with my Rogue, I could easily do better DPS then I see from most people in heroics, should I start doing them?  Nah, until I can do 8K over all with out even thinking about it I won't.  I do not want to be another person that is part of the problem.  I want to be part of the solution.  A good DPS that waits until they can actually do the job.  Maybe when I finally hit item level 329 (I can cheat my way in now) I will be doing at least 8K easily.

How can I manage almost 8K on a character I suck on yet that boomkin that says he has been playing since the family and friends beta still can only pull 5K in item level 356 and he thinks he is good?

The game isn't the problem, it is the people that play it.

The state of DPS is, people will always try to skate through in doing bad DPS because there are two other DPS in the group they are hoping will make up for their short comings.

They will not get better, unless we as players, start kicking, or at least least mentioning it to them, respectfully, no need to insult people.  Blizzard is not going to do anything to fix the problem, only we can.

Every time you run a heroic and there is someone doing 5K DPS but the other two are doing fine you let it side, well, that makes you part of the problem.  Mention something, kick them, do not let them do 5K.  Who cares if the other DPS are 22K and 18K and they are not really needed.  They will never get better until they know they are not doing good to begin with.

This is the mentality that wrath gave us all and I am guilty of it as well.  I would do a random and did not care if the other two DPS sat at the entrance picking their nose.  I did not need them, at 80 I could solo almost all the heroics.  I only needed other people to get my points for a random.  I let it slide when the DK did 800 DPS or the hunter did 500 DPS because in the end I did not even need them to do anything.

That DK is now the DK doing 5K in Zul, that hunter is now the hunter wiping the group because he is screwing up every step he makes.

Maybe if I said something back then they would not be as bad as they are now.  Lets all hope those people that I see in the normals are going to be joining us in heroics soon.  Heroics need them.