I Love Good Players + The Ultimate Heal

The Ultimate Heal

I was in a ZG run with a tank and DPS from my guild on my shaman when I pulled off one of the most amazing feats of healing ever seen in the game.  On the second boss, the one that likes to decapitate people, which is a one shot death, I healed through the decapitate and kept the person being decapitated alive.

I am so glad that there were two guild members with me because no one would have ever believed it if I told them that.  On vent the tank said, did you just heal through a decapitate and I said, sure as hell looks like I did.  The guy is still alive.  Low, but alive.

Decapitate hits for a huge number, the type of number that no one can out health.  Even a stamina stacking tank will still die from it.  There is not enough life in the game to be able to survive it.  It is the true definition of a one shot ability.

How I healed through it could only be what I consider a bug or one of those super weird rare occurrences.  The person that was decapitated was also being the target of blood letting at the same time so I was already spamming heals on them to keep them up when they got targeted and I believe that is the key to how I was able to keep them alive.

I am guessing this is what happened. 

When someone dies, it reduces their health below zero, then it settles it at 0, calculates they are dead and sets them to 1 so they can rez all within the time of a microsecond.  Being I was casting heals on them at the time I am going to guess that my heal landed at the time that was happening. 

Just before they where calculated as dead, which would have interrupted the heal, it landed.  From that point it must have been that exact moment they where calculated at 0 before they where set to 1 for revival that the heal finished being added.  It is the type of thing you can not time because it all happens in a fraction of a second.  So the heal landed on a person at 0 and gave them life so the system never set them to 1 so they could be revived because they where now alive and it was not needed. 

Either way, I healed through the unhealable.  That is a rare occurrence, the ultimate heal.  It was kind of cool.  I doubt I will ever see that one happen again.

I heal dead people.

I Love Good Players

It is not all about the numbers, it is about the skill.  Doing my standard ZA, ZG, ZA, ZG, etc runs this week on a few characters I came across a wide selection of groups as usual.  The previous week I was lucky enough to get in on last bosses a lot more then this week and get some seriously great groups but this week I did not have such luck.

However I did have some really good runs even if they where without overpowered people.

A tale of two ZA runs as we will call it.  I'll keep it short, for me at least.

Run one, as a healer, the DPS on the entry mobs was really low which had me worried to begin with.  Usually that first pull, same as that first mob in ZG, you will see some huge numbers on.  I once saw someone pull 52K on the opening ZA mobs but that is beside the point.  The top DPS of the three DPS was 11K, the other two where 8K and 6K.  Yeap.  On that opening fight where everyone usually pulls insane numbers that they never keep up with that was what this group presented with.

To be honest I was a little scared if they could not even pull 10K on the opening mobs but over all the run went perfectly.  No one ever rocked the charts.  On bosses usually one of them was sub 10K even but everything went down in a reasonable, if slightly slower, time.  On trash the focus fired, I never even saw a flamecaster get blazing haste which means they where on the ball there, they never took aggro or avoidable damage, they made the run easy peasy to heal. 

Sure, I needed to drink a little more often because everything took a while to go down but it was because I was using my mana to keep the tank up and not because I was using my mana in a near panic to try to save everyone.  I do not mind that at all.  I hate having to drink after every fight because I am healing 4 people like crazy.  That is a recipe for a wipe when they happens.  One mistake on my part by healing someone else at any given moment as the tank takes a damage spike and it means a wipe.

I never came close to having to make a decision like that with the group and we never came close to anyone ever being in danger of dying.  The only damage anyone every took was because it was unavoidable.  They interrupted everything that could be interrupted which again made healing a dream job.

The second group was nothing of the sort.  They never interrupted anything, they never considered CCing anything, they did not even bother with removing the blazing haste debuff even if everyone in the group had the ability to do so.  But if you where to ask them I am sure every single one of them would have told you how awesome they where.

All three DPS where easily over 25K DPS which meant things went down fast which is a good thing for a healer but it is a bad thing for a healer when there are four mobs and all four are attacking four different people.

It became an effort of wipe after wipe or at least it sure felt like.  On the rare occasion where they did target the same mobs it was nice and easy even without them interrupting or removing buffs.  How much damage can a mob really do in 6 seconds when that is all they live for.

It was when they did not focus fire that things lived longer and it required me to heal 4 tanks basically.  That was nearly every single pull.  If any of these people had even half a brain we would have made the bear timer with 10 minutes to spare.  Seriously, they where putting out that much DPS and if everyone was doing the right thing I would have really never needed a mana break.

Bosses where the same thing.  Everyone pulling off the tank causing me to go into panic healing to keep people up.  Not moving from dragon hawk fire.  Not moving for bear always thinking it would be the other persons job to move into their position and end up dying from it.  Not moving to the electrical storm because it was so far from them and it might hurt their DPS.  All things like that.  The run was hell.

I do not care if you did 35K on the boss if you are going to keep causing trouble by taking avoidable damage, pulling aggro, and ignoring one shot mechanics.

All in all we had seven wipes.  Four on trash and three on bosses.  I think I did about as well as my skill would allow me in keeping them up.  Most trash pulls I decided that I could only heal three tanks so one person, usually the first person to start taking sick damage, had to die each time.  It was their own fault really.

As a healer I hate to let anyone die but the more I heal the more I become bitter about people that cause their own deaths.  I just do not let it bother me any more.  I used to get really upset if anyone died, always felt like it was my fault if they did.  I don't any more, I know better now.  If someone accidentally gets aggro once in a while I will do anything in my power to keep them alive.  If someone keeps doing it I no longer take responsibility for it.  If they want to commit suicide then I say let them die.

Amazing how a sub par group, one that honestly based on numbers had no business being in a Zul, did fantasic and a super group with a tank in some heroic T12 gear and DPS that all did over 25K could not fight their way out of a paper bag.

It is not about gear.  It is not about DPS.  It is about doing the right thing.  No amount of gear or DPS will ever be able to compensate for good game play.

I love good players.

I Might Sex Change My Characters

A friend of mine says that he likes to play female characters because if he is going to play a game for hours on end he would rather look at a females ass.  It makes sense.  From a male standpoint at least.

That is not the reason for my statement that I might change the sex of all my characters to females however.  I rarely even look at my character enough to notice their ass.  Unless it is my bear, bears have asses you really can't miss even if you try.

It is just the sense that people are so much nicer to, and around, female characters.  They do not need to know if you are a female for real or not.  Just the avatar needs to be female and you get treated better for the most part.

Sure, I do rarely get a rude message on my female characters asking me if I have nude pictures or asking me to dance for them so they can... you know.  I just ignore those.  Some guys are pond scum and there is nothing you can do about that.  Just ignore them and move on.  Really, why do some guys whisper someone they never spoke to with the first words out of their mouth being something like that?

When using the random dungeon system being a female is almost like having a free pass to screw up, within reason of course.  A real screw up will get crap either way but if you make a mistake here and there as a female character I noticed that people are more willing to let it go.

On my male warrior if I screw up a pull there is a 50/50 chance that someone will call me a fail tank or something not as nice with lots of words that my filter will remove for me.  If I screw up on a pull with my female druid I have never, repeat, never had anyone insult me or be rude to me.  Perhaps a joke here or there like, I don't think that went how you expected to which I would reply, no, not exactly.

Mind you, that is just for one screw up here or there.  If I keep screwing up I am sure even my bear would get her giant butt kicked to the curb.

As a female healer it is really easy to take full control of a group.  On my shaman I was in a group that had three wipes in a row in ZA and someone blamed me each time. 

I hate when people yell healer.  If you are going to call me out use my name.  Just calling healer is for quick conversation, if you are calling me out, know who I am.  I stated what happened, did not point out who's fault it really was, and said don't worry, I can heal this, it was just a blip. 

He tried to vote kick me, it failed so he left, most likely in a nerd rage, we got a new DPS, we downed the boss.  See, the thing is the tank was not getting adds on the dragon hawk guy and they kept coming right for me and eating me.  Nothing I can do, we wipe when the healer dies, heck, I stood on the tank and he still did not take the adds off me.  It is not the healers fault they died in that case, it is the tanks fault they died. 

Perhaps the people in the group noticed that and that is why they did not kick me or perhaps it was the fact I was on a female character, either way, I did not get kicked, we got a hunter who MDed the adds that all came to me to the tank and the fight was no problem on the next try.  See, hunters rule even when I am not on mine.  All fights are 100 times easier with a hunter.

Now replace my male troll shaman in the same type of situation.  No matter what I say I am a fail healer and I get kicked.  Even if I sold the tank out and said the tank did not grab the adds and they killed me and that was the problem, not my healing (which has happened on a different boss).  While it would be true, I am gone.  Kicked because I am a male healer even if it was the tanks fault.

Same goes for DPS classes as well.  I've been called out for horrible DPS on my male rogue more times then I can remember.  Apparently 9K in a normal heroic is horrible.  Sure, I can do better but it is not horrible for a normal heroic where if everyone is doing 8K all bosses are easy.

While on my other characters I have seen female avatars pulling 4K and 5K in heroics.  Seen female avatars pulling 6K in zuls.  No one ever says a word.  It is on the rarest of rare occasions someone will mention a female avatars horrible DPS.

Over all the experiences are completely different running as a male or female.

When I enter a dungeon I say hello at the start and thanks for the run at the end.  If that is all that is ever said it is fine with me.  I am not much of a talker, I would rather play.  However, it is nice to see people reply.  When on a male character when I say hello I can usually hear crickets.  On a female character if I say hello more often then not everyone will say hello back.  Wow, people become civil just because there is a female avatar around.

On a male character if there is a wipe in an all male group it always turns into an insult fest between people blaming each other.  If I am on a female character I rarely see that happen.  I've even seen people say, so what can we do different and what went wrong.  Oh my god.  People are working things out and learning from their experience.  This almost never happens on a male character in an all male group. 

On a male character I have lost a main spec role on an item I needed to someone that needed for offspec.  I mentioned I need that for my main spec and they said suck it up.  Rude for sure, but the rest of the group agreed.  Fine, I do not play that way but it seems others do.  On my shaman I lost a role on an item and someone immediately said that I had needed it for main spec.  I did not even say anything.  The others said they should give it to me.  The tank refused to go further until the person gave it to me.  He gave it to me and apologized because he did not notice I had needed it.  See, more civility.

I've been in groups with people rolling need on things they should not have because everyone else rolled greed and someone says something about it and it is always the same.  If it is a male that speaks up they usually get the suck it up comment and if it is a female that says it they say, sorry, it was a misclick we can reroll.  Amazing how the presence of even a female avatar changes the way people act isn't it?

It is not like I want a free pass, so to speak.  I do not want to get away with horrible tanking or healing or DPS.  I just want civility to me and to those around me.

As odd as it sounds, when someone insults someone else in my group I get offended.  I personally think there is no reason for rude talk and behavior just because you have the anonymity of the internet to hide behind.  Just having a female there seems to sooth the savage beast that is most teenage boys.

If spending a few dollars will limit most of the mindless dribble I have to deal with in randoms it would be money well spent.

I don't agree with people pretending to be female but there is a huge difference between pretending to be female (usually to get stuff from teenage boys or get carried in raids) and just having a female avatar.

My friend might do it because female characters have more attractive hind ends but I would do it because everyone around you seem to be more respectful on an average basis when you are on a female character.  I don't know about you, but I enjoy the game a lot more when people are not being rude to each other and insulting each other. 

From my experiences in this game, azeroth seems to be a more civil world when you run around as a female.  Perhaps others might have a different experience they know of, but for me I noticed it and it is not small, it is a huge difference.

I probably won't do it, it is a waste of money, but from now on I will only be rolling female characters when I start new.  Ignoring the rare jerk is easy.  Finding civil people in randoms is hard, if you are not a female (avatar) that is.

Like it or not being a female avatar changes the way people act around you.  That is not an opinion, that is a fact.  I will never try to pass myself off as a female, that is wrong, but I won't mind letting people think I am if it makes the game more civil for me and those around me.

Molten Front Achievement Guide

Being I am basically done with the Molten Front Achievements (just waiting on one last guy to spawn for the bombing runs which could be in two days or two months) I figured it is time to write a full guide for those that might just be starting or might need a hint or tip on some of the achievements.

Pro Tip: Before we start, if you want to know what is the best route to go to get all the achievements faster, do Druids first.  When the time comes to open Wardens, do it that day only, do the two things needed in the wardens area and then never go back to wardens.  You need to do Druid dailies for the achievements, not wardens ones.

Pro Tip 2: When it comes to shops, if you want to get all the achievements faster. Open calling the ancients first  The other two really do not matter.

- The Molten Front Offensive -

This is the achievement that will award you the Flameguard Hippogryph mount when finishing it.  It is also the easiest of the achievements to get.  All you need to do is quest.

What quests to do?

You will get a quest to protect Malfurion, protect him.
You will get a quest to enter the firelands portal, enter it.
You will then need to open both the druids and the wardens areas with 150 marks each.
You will then need to open all three shops with 125 marks each.
While doing druids, you will get an escort quest, escort him.
While doing the wardens, you will see an acorn drop with a quest, pick it up and turn it in.

Yeap, that is it.  Basically you did not even need a guide for this part.  If you just do all the quests you will get this one by osmosis.  Personally I do think the reward for just questing is too big, but have at it people, hippogryphs are the best mounts in the game and this one is a looker for sure.

- Death From Above - 

This is an achievement of luck, and persistence.  This is also the reason you are going to be doing Druids first and doing Druids every day.

You will get a quest titled Fire in the Skies from the druids and it will require you to mount up and do a bombing run.  During that run you will see these huge fire elementals all dressed up in their sunday best armor just hanging out.  Bomb them.  Only one will appear per run, per day.  This means that if you remount and try again it will still be the same one that day.  No cheesing this one.

If you get lucky it could take as few as 12 days to do this achievement.  Do not expect that type of luck.  This is the reason you want to unlock druids first and do druids every day, so you can get the bombing runs.

If there are 6 mobs why 12 days, you might ask.  The answer is simple.  You will never get the fire in the skies quest 2 days in a row.  You will always have one quest one day and fires the next day.

Can I just do druids every other day, you might follow up with.  No, that will not work.  You need to do the one quest to get fire in the skies the next day.  Example.  If you do fires today and skip tomorrow when you go back you will have another quest, not fires.  It goes on a per person basis, not a same rotation for everyone like most dailies, it is a rotation just for you alone meaning you will always get it the second day of doing druid dailies.

Note: You do not need to kill the mobs, you only need to hit them.

- King of the Spider-Hill - 

This achievement will be easier for some then others but is really not hard at all.  You need to go to the area where all the spiders are, if you are in the molten front you should know where this is.

One of the stacks of rocks is the highest, easily seen, your job is to make it to the top of the hill which at first look is going to be a hell of a lot harder then expected because there is no clear path to jump up and around to get there. 

Actually, it is completely impossible to jump your way up but fear not young padawan, I will show you the way.

The key here is to use the spiders that are there to your advantage.  If you attack them they will web you to them like a death grip.

Say, thank you very much for the lift to the spider and you can precede to beat it's head in until it explodes like a watermelon at a Gallagher concert.

Rinse and repeat to work your way up.  There are wrong turns you can make so think your path out before hand.  Before you aggro a spider think of where you will be landing and if there is another spider that is in line of sight to get you after you get there otherwise you are going to have to jump down and start over waiting for spiders to respawn.

There is a little bit of fun for you once you have it done.  After you claim your achievement and do your rocky impersonation pumping your fists in the air while dancing in a circle use a ranged attack at the lowest possible spider and they will bring you back down, no fall damage at all.  That is quite nice of them considering you are only going to kill them as a thank you for helping you get down.

- And the Meek Shall Inherit Kalimdor - 

and

- Infernal Ambassadors - 

and

- Ludicrous Speed -

I link these together because you can basically do them at the same time.

First, Ludicrous Speed.  When you get the quest that transforms you into a bird, transform, abandon the quest (or complete it but do not drop out of bird form), go to the birds and fly high and call the hawks, the biggest birds, they give 15 stacks each.  Get 5 of them and get the achievement.

Being you can only get two of the hawks while on the quest the best way to get this done is being off the quest.

Second, And the Meek Shall Inherit Kalimdor.  During the first part of the daily you will get quests to help animals.

For the bird part, you need to let the birds get the killing blow on Millagazor.  Not hard, it will fly away when it gets low on life.  Unless there are a lot of people attacking at the same time you are, this will happen naturally.

For the turtle part, kick one of them into the fire guys that where torching them instead of into the lake.

For the bear part, throw one of the bears at a sleeping core hound instead of the trampoline.

For the squirrel part, just run around the regrowth some and you will get it.  There are squirrels in trees throwing acorns at mobs.  If you are within 15 yards of one of them you will get credit for it.  Best place is the rock near the trampoline, there always seems to be a few squirrels there.  Just kill a hound near the rock and they will bonk him.

Third, Infernal Ambassadors.  This is the quest you get after helping out fine forest friends. You need to kill all the end of quests bosses while doing something special, so to speak, I got most without even thinking about it and you will too.

Note:  To get credit you need to be the one that summoned it.  Do not join in helping someone kill it.  You will get credit for finishing the quest, but not the achievement.  You need to summon it for the achievement.  This is important.

Nemesis - You need to not get hit by his flame.  Easy enough.  When the turtle puts up his shell, stand under it.  Easy peasy.

Millagazor - The one you are letting the birds kill remember?  He puts stuff on the ground, move from it.  Real hard huh?

Galenges - You need to kill him before a second spirit of malorne hits him.  If you are not a DPS class or do not think you have enough DPS to do it, ask a friend to help.  As long as you summon him you will get credit and he does take increased damage when a spirit hits him.  Just need to kill him before a second one does.

Pyrachnis -  You need to kill him without debuffing yourself of the poison.  No problem really if you burn.  The poison is not going to kill you any time quickly anyway so even if you are not the high DPS type it should still not be a problem.

Lylagar - He does a breath effect you can see coming.  Once he starts the cast he does not move, so when you see him starting to cast, move away from the front of him.  Nothing really new here either.

Nice and easy three more achievements closer to the meta for you now.

- Flawless Victory - 

To get this achievement you need to go out and get an old gaming system and buy a mortal kombat circa 1990s game and... oh wait.  That is not it.

This achievement requires you to solo a Molten Behemoth without getting hit by any of his special abilities.  Some classes might find this a little harder then others but it is not hard at all.  The hardest part is finding one that someone doesn't feel the need to help you kill.

Note:  I've heard reports of people being in a group and even if the person in the group was in stormwind they still did not get credit.  Might be a bug but just in case don't even be in a group while doing it.

The behemoth has two abilities to watch out for.  One melee and one ranged. 

The melee one is a stomp.  Just step back, even backpeddling is fast enough to get out of range of it.  He does it often, so you will be moving a lot.  Be aware of where you are kiting him or you will end up fighting two of them.

The ranged one is a rock throw.  A black spot appears on the ground.  Move from it.

As a hunter myself this was super easy.  Pet tanks, I move, death behemoth.  Any hunter that can not get this on their first try deserves to have their hunting license revoked.

Note:  Do not try using the ones that are quest mobs.  Go into the open lava area.  The quests ones are guaranteed to have someone helping you, even if it is just an NPC you will not get the achievement.

- Legacy of Leyara - 

This is another super easy one.  Just follow the quest line and it will come on its own.  The last part of the quest line will only come after you have opened the moonwell.

- Gang War - 

and

- Have... Have We Met? - 

and

- The Fiery Lords of Sethria's Roost - 

These are all grouped together because you can do them all at the same time.  All can be done while on the protectors of hyjal quest.  Actually two must be done while one it, the last can be done at any time.

First, Gang War.  Find a friend, dual them, be aware that the helpers you have for the quest you are on will help, so burn your friend fast before they burn you.  Having them take armor off is the fastest way.  It is also good form to trade kills with someone else that needs the achievement.  If they let you kill them do the right thing and let them kill you.

Second, Have... Have We Met? While on the quest everyone gets a few helpers.  One is a named character, there seems to be dozens of them but only 6 matter to you.  You have to wave to them while at the roost.

Personally I just hung out there for a while and spammed my macro until I got them all.  Some are harder to find then others.  You can wait it out and try to get them all while hanging out there or you can do it every day looking for them.  Your choice.

This is the macro I used.  Once I found someone, and waved, I opened the macro and edited out their name so it would not look for them any longer.

/tar linken
/tar chromie
/tar thassarian
/tar nat pagle
/tar mankrik
/tar hemet nesingwary
/stopmacro [noexists]
/wave

Third, The Fiery Lords of Sethria's Roost.  Don't be a fool like me that wanted to get things done so fast that I actually did this one before I ever got the quest for protectors of hyjal.  If you wait until you have that quest you can use all the helpers you get from it to help you beat the four elite mobs you need to beat.  I soloed it, alone, and suffered many a death in the process.  At least when I did it I was the only person in the area being no one had the quest yet so it is not like I had any competition for tagging it.

Note: Even if the title does not turn gray, if you are not the first to hit it, or in a group with the first person to hit it, you will not get credit.

Note: None of the mobs are aggressive until you attack them.  So you can position yourself as you see fit without worry of pulling them before you are ready. Clearing the area first is a smart idea however.

Note: If you can group with even one person that is also on the quest these things become super easy with all the helpers you have combined.  Five people grouped while on the quest and they will go down faster then the US stock market on the day of the great crash.

Andrazor - He is a bird that flies around the roost, best to take him on a little mountain peak.  With your helpers it should be easy.  Even soloing this was the easiest fight.  Just move from the fire circles that he keeps throwing under you.

Fan Jarakk - He is a molten giant located on the second ledge where there is usually just one molten guy and has the same abilities as the normal ones.  Get away from the stomp, move from the black spot where he is throwing the boulder.  Be aware, your protectors are not all that smart.  They get knocked off the ledge really easily because they do not know how to position themselves.  So burn burn burn before you lose all your helpers to stupidity.

Searris - He is a fire elemental in bondage gear that spawns where you fought Sethria way back when.  He paths back and forth, best to wait to take him back at the spawn area however as every other place there is kind of crowded.  Handle all his minions and burn to avoid it going on to long and this is not a bad fight at all.

Kelbnar - He is a hell hound that appears on the first ledge.  I would say it is best to bring him up the hill as there are a lot of mobs that can join the fray if you take him at the bottom but doing that brings along its own problems.  He hits hard and has a knock back which will of course make you lose some of your helpers.  Again, they are not so great at positioning themselves.  If there was ever a need to group up, this is the guy you want to do it on.  Otherwise, burn burn burn and hope you kill him before he deposits all of your helpers off the ledge and into felwood.

- Master of the Molten Flow -

You need to do the druid quests to get access to this one.  I did this on the first day I could and was the only person there which was both good and bad and that information can help you decide on how you want to do it.

You need to defeat the three types of mobs in the lower druid questing area with some special requirements.

Doing it all alone there had the advantage of no one helping me thinking I needed help.  Doing it all alone also meant that the respawn timer was horrible.  Being not all the mobs will always do the special ability you need to avoid, waiting on new ones to spawn can take a while.  Took me two hours to get a hunter to even cast wild barrage.

If you want to do it alone, which I still suggest, try at off hours on your server.  If you hate waiting then try when lots are on, at least there is a quicker respawn timer.

A second good thing / bad thing about them is that they die fast, really fast.  Except for the sentinel the others die in 3 shots for me.  Good thing being if you need to kill them off because they are not doing their special they die nearly instantly, bad thing is you can accidentally kill them to fast which happened to me way to often for my liking.

The Hunter - I found this to be the hardest because the hunters do not like to cast wild barrage.  When they do however, they do it fast, really fast.  A tiny black dot will be on the ground and that is where the spear will land and he does that a lot when channeling it.  You will have to avoid the black dots on the ground to get that part of the achievement.  If you get hit by even one, kill him off and start again.

It is interesting to note that you do not need to kill him after you avoid the wild barrage, you just need to avoid it.  So if he starts to cast it and you start running and run into other mobs and silently scream oh crap to yourself don't worry to much.  As long as he finishes casting it and you never got hit by it you will get that part of the achievement and then the trail of mobs you picked up while running will slowly rip you limb from limb but at least that part is done.

Note: Stagger your running.  It seems it tries to anticipate your movements, so do not keep moving in the same direction.
Note: If the hunter does not do wild barrage in the first 5 seconds, kill him and find another.

The Shaman - This one is the easiest.  Just beat on the bum, get him low, let him do his special ability and then just stand in the fire with him.  It does not hit for much but if he is low he will die and you just need a bandage for your boo boo.  They also seem to use their special ability more often.

The Sentinel - You are going to need to be a pet class or have a friend for this one.  You need to kill the sentinel while he has someone in your group in his grips.  You see, the sentinel has a great sense of smell and you know what, there are no showers in azeroth so you freaking stink and he wants to give you a bath in lava to burn the stick off of you.

I used my dog and he really has that wet dog smell but the sentinel just did not want to give him a bath, maybe an animal lover?  Unlike the others he does not do his special ability at the beginning, so you need to beat on him and wait and then burn him as soon as he picks up your pet or group member.

It is best to aggro him and just let him beat on someone.  I helped a friend get it and sent my dog in waiting for him to be picked up and with only my dog attacking alone my dog kept killing him.  It seems he does not do it all that often either.

Note:  If the fight goes on for more then 45 seconds and he does not do it, kill him and find another.

- Fireside Chat - 

For this achievement you need to talk to people.  Below is the list of who you need to look for and when.  Talk to them using the chat bubble text option.

Matoclaw - At the sanctuary of marlone.  This should be the first one you talk to.
Dorda'en Nightweaver - Matoclaw will give you a quest to go talk to him at some point.  Talk to him when you talk to him.
Malfurion Stormrage - At Malfurion's Breach.
Taldris Moonfall - At Malfurion's Breach.
Jarod Shadowsong - At Malfurion's Breach.
Arthorn Windsong - In the Furnace after you open the druids.
Thisalee Crow - In the Molten Flow after you open the druids.
Deldren Ravenelm - At the Forlorn Spire are you open the wardens.

- Ready for Raiding II - 

Probably one of the worse named achievements in the game and also the only one that might give some people a problem.

You need to do the quest titled Calling the Ancients to open up the Strike at the Heart quest which is what requires you to fight these mobs.  There will be a random mob you need to fight each day.  If you get lucky you will get all 5 in 5 straight days, or if the random number generator does not love your server you could be stuck doing the same one for 12 straight days.  Best hope that your server sends the random number generator some candy and flowers.

Each of the five mobs have special abilities, the idea is that you do not take any damage from any special ability to get the achievement.  All of this stuff is extremely telling and easily avoidable. 

Note: If you fail you can just wait for it to respawn and talk to the tree again and it will start the quest again even though you already finished it, so try and try again until you do it.  No need to abandon the quest and get it again, that will just be a waste of your time.

Help will be supplied for you. A mob will tank and others will DPS.  Admittedly they are not the type of DPS you would even invite to a level 60 throwback raid at 85 because they are that bad, but any help is still help right?

Note:  Do damage while you can but remember, for the achievement the most important thing is that you do not get hit.  The NPC will do most of the work for you in the long run if you let them.  Just avoid the crap on the ground.

Cinderweb Queen - This one is really easy.  You can start moving while she is casting or you can just keep moving the entire fight like I did.  Either way, if you are moving you will never be hit by the web so avoiding it is really a non issue.  Move all the time or at least move when you see it start to be cast. 

Ancient Charscale - This one is really easy as well.  he throws a spear, do not get hit by it.  After the spear lands fire erupts from the area it landed.  Are you still near where the spear landed?  You best not be if you want this part of the achievement.  Little dots on the ground again show where the fire that erupted will be landing.

The other thing he does is send out a line of fire on the ground.  If he is facing you, move.  Simple as that, whenever he turns to you, you move away from being face to face with him.  The line of fire will always go the way he is facing.

Ancient Firelord - He has two abilities that are simple to avoid.  He puts a flame circle on the ground, move from it and he does a spinning fire spew.   Stay attached to his right arm.  He spins counterclockwise when he is doing it.  If you are beating the crap out of his right arm the whole time you will never even get close to being touched by it.

Note: For the directionally impaired.  His right arm means his right arm, not the arm that is on your right while looking at him, that is his left arm, got it? ;)

Ancient Smoldering Behemoth - Oh joy, didn't we just solo his little brother for the flawless victory achievement and his other little brother as part of the achievement at the roost?  This fight is basically the same as those two with one change. 

Instead of just doing a bolder at ranged he does a rain of fire at ranged.  It has a huge range.  Interrupt it if you are able or run your butt as fast as you can to avoid being hit by it.  Not going to just side step this one like you did with the bolder throw.

Devout Harbinger -  I saved this one for last being it seems as if this one is currently bugged.  I attempted it four or five times before I figured out how to do it and how I did it was surely not as intended.

The devout will throw a fire pillar on the ground.  Move from it.  Then he will throw a creeping inferno on you that will follow you.  Keep moving and never get hit by it.  If you never get the debuff from the creeping inferno you get the achievement.

Really easy in theory but as I said, it seems bugged right now.  I did it a few times and never got the debuff on me and still did not get the achievement.  When patched, you can skip ahead if you like, for now I'll share how I did it.

Note: Your pet getting the debuff will make the achievement fail, dismiss your pets.

How I did it:
After a few tries I got it because I decided to do some old style hunter skills that I use while soloing.  When things get bad, FD and let them finish off your pet.  I did not have a pet but I had a huge tree tanking for me.  I walked in, took a few shots, FDed, and watched as the tree took 4 minutes to beat the guy.  I was targeted by the flames but being I was not in combat the debuff never hit my faking dead body and I got the achievement.
I do hope the bug is fixed soon that counts pets as you and counts you as getting hit even if you never got the debuff.

- Veteran of the Molten Front - 

After you do all that stuff you will get this meta achievement that comes with the title the flamebreaker which sounds kind of decent. 

Congratulations on your new meta achievement and your new title.

Monday's Random Thoughts

Time for a bunch of random rambling.  Sometimes I think that is what I do best, ramble on about nothing.

- I downloaded clcret to check it out and see what it can do to help me with my retribution spec on my paladin.

- Being my paladin hit 85 and then just sat there I never really got the chance to convert it to protection and holy so I figured I would roll as retribution for a while.

- It is a paladin, how hard could it really be?

- Harder then it was in wrath, that's for sure.

- So I'll roll as retribution while I build gear for my other two specs and then I will switch.

- Tri spec is needed.  We have three specs, while not allow us to be all three?

- It might also give people more reason to try a tank or healing spec.

- Who am I kidding, they will just have different DPS versions.

- Just like my priest is disc/disc

- And my warrior is prot/prot

- I would probably add holy as my third priest set and still be left with no real third spec.

- I would most likely add another prot spec to my warrior.  A threat one, A damage one, and a utility one for offtank kiting and such.

- Back to clcret.  It put the holy power bar dead center of my screen.

- Who the hell makes an addon that is intrusive like that?

- I tried to figure out how to move it, I failed.

- Spent almost an hour on the dummy playing with it.

- The idea was to get a feel for what spells I would be using most and the connection between each other so it would better set me up to know where to bind things.

- The first time through something popped up and I looked at it wondering what spell is this?

- It was suggesting things I did not recognize, I did not even have on my bar.

- Nope, I did, I just never looked at the icon that close.

- My bars are so tiny on my screen.  I like having them there to see them, but they are so small I never really notice what the icons actually look like.

- It showed me some interesting things for sure.

- I used to always use my art of war proc the moment it popped up.

- It is actually ranked lower according to that and there are a few things that rank higher then it.

- Cool.  This is why I wanted to test it out.  It will help me learn my rotation better.

-  I still wonder how some paladins could only do 5K DPS in zuls.

- I was doing 7K the second I hit 85 in all crap gear.

- Was up to 9K after using clcret on the dummy and one dungeon.  It really taught me a lot about the rotation.

- Why the hell is my holy power bar in the middle of the screen?  Sorry, just had to ask again.

- I had to turn clcret off because of that.  Well, that and it teaches you a very bad habit.

- I was spending more time staring at the addon to see what I should do next and not enough time looking at the battle and ground effects.

- Bad DPS if you ask me.  I would be better off doing 7K and avoiding all that avoidable damage then doing 9K and making the healers life hell to keep me up.

- Great addon to learn the rotation.  Turn it off after you leave the dummy.  Only use it to learn the rotation, nothing more.

- Tried another addon for my shamans enhancement spec too.

- Shock and Awe rocks are far as addons go.

- It let me move everything around so nothing was cluttering my screen at all.  That gets a thumbs up to begin with.

- Any addon that does not allow you to move it sucks in my opinion.

- Yes I am looking at you mr holy power bar in clcret.

- It suffers from the same problem that clcret does however.  You end up staring at what to do next and not the ground effects like a good DPS should.

- My enhancement skills are lacking this expansion, I rocked enhancement in wrath and I did it well, very well.

- I wonder why reading on the forums everyone says that enhancement was so hard in wrath.  I never found that to be the case.

- To each their own I guess.

- My enhancement gear leaves a lot of be desired.  Not gemmed, not enchanted, not reforged.

- Heck, I am a healer only now.  I just keep the enhancement out of memory of fun I had with it maybe.  That and the rare occasion where I actually decide to do a few quests.

- I was going to use it to see what it suggested as a rotation, to see if I can adjust to the new way of things.

- Last time I played around with it I was doing 9K on the dummy.

- With shock and awe after a 5 minute set I was at 7K.

- Okay, something is seriously wrong here.  I did 9K on the dummy using the old style as I remembered it and only 7K with the new, and believed, easier rotation.

- Oops, I did not have my weapons buffed.

- Shock and awe does a great job with rotations, timers, display, usability, etc.

- What it does not do is tell you when your forgot to buff your weapons.

- Either that or I just missed it telling me.  If that is the case, a hey idiot, buff your weapons, popping up in the middle of the screen would have helped.

- At least a shaman without their weapon buffs is not as bad as a rogue without their poisons.

- It is still bad however.

- So I guess I did not do worse with the addon than I did without it.

- I just forgot my buffs.  Which is one reason addons are a bad thing.

- I was just following what it said to do, it did not tell me I was an idiot that forgot to buff my weapons, so I didn't.

- Addons are only good to help.  You still need to think for yourself.

- Next time I will remember myself.

- I need bigger bags on my shaman.

- To much gear and not enough space.

- Restro gear, enhancement gear, resto PvP gear and god forbid I ever decide to make an enhancement PvP set.

- I guess I have to make a decision on what carry with me and what not to.

- I would love if the gear sets thing actually held the gear for the sets you are not using.

- So if I made a healer set, pvp healer set, enhance set, and pvp enhance set, all that gear would actually be on my character and switching gear sets would just switch it.

- Now that is an amazing idea.  Wish blizzard would do it.  It would free up lots of space in my bags.

- You know what else would be a great idea.

- Having a way to save talent trees when you respec you can just choose to respec to a pre saved talent tree instead of having to reenter everything.

- Going to do some PvP on my hunter, ditch my MM spec and pick up my MM PvP spec from a drop down menu of my saved specs.  Pay my fee, move along.

- When done, drop my MM PvP spec and pick up my MM spec and go back to things their way they where.

- Say the MM spec gets changed.  I delete that as one of my quick saves at the trainer and make a new one to save as one of my preset specs I can switch to.

- Even if they charged you an extra 100 gold per slot to make presets to switch to I would pay it.

- I would have specs for everything.

- So often I would like to respec but just do not do it because it is wasted time to respec for PvP when I am only planning on doing my daily battle ground for conquest or something.

-  This way, I would be more likely to switch on a whim here or there.

- My second spec for my warrior was originally made for kiting adds on Maloriak, was great to never have to worry about interrupting because I could easily kite them all no matter what with that spec.

- Thing is, that spec has very few uses.  There are not a great deal of add fights like that.  So it is not a spec I would keep around.

- The only reason I still have it is because I don't feel like having to respec everything and then maybe I need it again when we go do BWD one night.

- Having an ability to save it so I can switch back to it instantly later would be awesome.  Even if I had to still visit the trainer to do it.  Even if I still have to pay for the respec.  Even if I had to pay 100 gold to make a save slot for a talent tree at the trainer.

- Call me lazy if you want but I just do not feel like clicking all the talents again when it would just be easier to switch to it.

- I don't change specs that often or just for one fight, for that very reason.

- It is not a gold factor, it is an annoyance factor.

- Switch to something for one fight then having to switch back.  Oh joy.  What other ways can you figure to make me waste my time blizzard.

- Do you think they will ever add anything like that?  Or another talent tree?  Or a battleground/arena only spec?

- The battleground/arena spec would make the most sense.

- When you join up for one it will automatically use that spec.  If you have not filled in that spec it will tell you that you need a PvP spec in order to PvP.

- Even if you make it the same it becomes your choice to be the same.

- Makes life a million times easier for people that only occasionally PvP but still care enough to at least use a PvP spec.

- There is no reason for someone like myself that might PvP once a month to have to waste a spec on PvP when I am only allowed to have two to begin with.  My options are so limited I am not going to waste one of my specs on a PvP spec.

- Popped on to my lock a little yesterday and did a few quests and remembered why it is still only 83.

- I hate being squishy.

- I hate pets that can not hold aggro against a critter.

- I do love the potential.

- If I could have my hunters turtle on my warlock I could probably pull all of uldum at the same time and have no problems.

- With my VW I get more then 2 mobs and we are both dead.

- I can not even heal my VW without getting aggro on both mobs.

- I can not even heal my VW on a single target without getting aggro.

- I'll chalk it up to I'm doing something wrong.

- I do find a little joy in the concept of DoT up the world and let them all burn.

- It is truly evil.

- Evil can be fun some times.

- That is why being a lock is more fun in PvP.

- DoT up the world works so much better there.

- Even more for me as affliction.

- A friend told me my problem is that I am affliction.

- Usually DPS roles are considered the leveling spec.

- Being a lock is a pure DPS class shouldn't all specs be viable for leveling easily?

- I think I am going to play with demonology for a bit just for fun.

- And then test out destro some more.  I played it for a whole one day while leveling.  It needs more testing if you ask me.

- Either way, it will most likely get to 85 and just sit there, the way most of my 85s do.

- Until I get bored and look for something to do.

- Gearing up can be fun.

- It is nice being able to run a dungeon and have a reason to look at what drops and actually need something once in a while.

- I did my first two zuls, one each, on my mage this weekend.

- Of course not one piece dropped that he could use.

- I did not do horrible.  12K-17K on bosses.  But not even close to what I feel I should be able to do in 346 gear.

- Two runs, no drops, so still 346.

- It is amazing how I do 12K-17K on bosses and think it is only okay then I see others pulling 4K on bosses in zul and them being surprised when someone questions their bad DPS.

- I am doing fine, is what they say.

- While I do not really support recount as a way to prove if someone is doing well or not some times there is a good reason for it.

- Posting a recount that shows the tank doing 9K and the two other DPS doing 14K and 13K and them sitting at 4K you can ask them, how exactly do you think you are doing fine?

- Some people, like that, actually need recount.

- Recount might never be a good way to prove you are good but it can be a good way to prove someone is bad.

- Outside of standing in the bad and not doing the utility things that matter which basically can all go unnoticed sometimes the one thing that all DPS always have hanging over their head is a tangible number to hang things on.

- So the rogue asks, I don't know why it is so low, I never had any problems before.

- I inspect and say, maybe putting on some poisons might help.

- It didn't, but at least he got up to 7K on the boss.

- Still a joke in a zul.

- How come I do 14K on a zul boss and think I did horrible and someone else does 7K and think they are doing fine?

- Do these people have any self respect?

- I would be embarrassed, even under the anonymity of the internet, to let people see me do that bad.

- The least I would do is say I am sorry for not doing so well and explain I am still learning the class.

- Say something that does not resemble "7K is fine" because it is not.

- On my hunter the other day I apologized for not being on the top of my game.

- I said, sorry for not giving my best, I am just not into it today.

- I broke 20K on one boss, did not come close on any others doing 14K-17K on the others.

- Someone said, you are doing top damage by a lot, no need to apologize.

- I said, thanks, but I just feel I did not give you my best.

- Over all 18K and I apologize for my bad numbers and some rogue thinks that 4K is fine.

- What is wrong with this game?

- The more there is gear inflation the larger the gap between good and bad gets making it easier to notice who is just having a bad day or learning and who actually sucks.

- My paladin in mostly greens is learning doing 7K.

- A rogue in 346 gear is bad doing 4K.

- See, there is a difference.

- A rogue in all greens doing 4K would be learning.  Hopefully.  So he does not become a rogue in 346 doing 4K.

- I did finish my first heroic on my paladin now that I am high enough to get into one.

- I sucked it up big time.  It was a guild group, otherwise I would have never joined in on a heroic yet.  I am not ready.

- Of course, nothing dropped for me.

- I will roll on all three specs because I plan on being all three and just respecing as needed.

- So three specs of gear I could roll on.

- Basically everything that is plate is mine in a guild group that doesn't need anything there.

- Not one piece of plate drops.

- Looks like another one of those gearing up adventures.

- At least I find it fun.

- Would be nice to go from 329-346 in 3 heroics like my warrior did however.

- Rare case indeed, where everything that you need drops.

- Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever done as low on my tanks as that the rogue did.

- Sometimes poison can help on your weapons.

- There is bad because you are not good yet and there bad because you are not trying at all.

- Some people really try, just they try the wrong way.

- Like the one tank I ran into in a zul.

- Had great gear.

- Prot gear, ret gear, holy gear.

- He was gemmed correctly.

- Prot gems in his prot gear, ret gems in his ret gear, holy gems in his holy gear.

- He was enchanted correctly.

- Prot enchants on his prot gear, ret enchants on his ret gear, holy enchants on his holy gear.

- This person surely did his research.

- He just didn't quite grasp that because you can play all three roles, you do not wear all three roles worth of gear at the same time.

- If the talent pools where like they used to be I bet you he would have had even talent points in each tree.

- You have to wonder how it is possible to research enough to get the right gear, gems and enchants all matched up yet not know which ones of those you are supposed to be wearing to tank.

- Funny part is, I noticed this and said nothing.

- I wanted to see how this guy did in action and was hoping no one else would notice and kick him before I had a chance to see.

- Color me surprised, the guy was fantastic.

- Apparently he read up on rotations and spec too because he did everything right in that aspect.

- I doubt anyone would have ever noticed he was wearing a technicolor dream coat at all.  He left after two bosses, said he needed to go somewhere.

- First impression was this guy is a jackass.  I am glad I stayed around to watch and did not say anything.  He was quite impressive.

- If only he could get one type of gear and stick to it he might just become one of the best tanks I've ever seen.

- I can see the reason some ret gear would be used, for extra damage, but why the holy gear?

- Maybe he had a reason, maybe it was not just being stupid about one aspect when apparently he was knowledgeable about others.

- Warcraft is a weird world made up of all types and we all feed off each other.

- Good or bad, we need those people around us, they give us something to think about sometimes.

- Something to laugh about sometimes.

- Something to rant about sometimes.

- To you and them, have a great day.

The Little Differences

I healed two ZA runs yesterday on my shaman.  Both got done with little incident and only one wipe between them.  It was the little differences however that made one run a real effort which tested everything I ever learned as a healer and the other run a standard heal as you go run.

First run, as we will call it, consisted of a tank that was geared and gemmed correctly.  That is important because a stamina stacking tank in a Zul is going to die a horrible death every move they make.  The three DPS where 17K, 13K and 8K.  There were two forms of easy CC to use.

Second run, because after naming one first run the other only makes sense to be called that, consisted of a tank geared and gemmed correctly as well.  The three DPS where 15K, 14K and 12K with two forms of CC that could be used as well.

As you will notice the two groups where basically the same based on appearance.  Both had tanks geared for it.  Both had roughly the same DPS.  Both groups had CC that could be used.  Both groups had me healing.  Lets just assume for a moment that I remained me for both runs meaning the healer had the same skills and abilities in each run.

The first run was exciting.  I needed to use my whole tool box.  Once in a while it is nice to test yourself as a healer and this surely tested me.  The second run was one of those average runs where there were few moments that got iffy.

Now lets look at the little differences and see what made one group hard and one easy even if they basically seemed like the same groups on paper.

The walk up to the eagle boss:

The first group, even with decent if not over powering DPS, somehow found a way to turn this into an adventure.  Everyone was taking damage from everywhere. Three times adds came up from behind.  I almost lost the tank once and the one melee DPS in the group another.  I didn't but there were moments of panic there for sure. 

I had to use all my mana cooldowns and natures swiftness which is a rarity for 98% of trash pulls because there is usually never a moment where the tank is going to go down and needs that huge heal now and not in 2.33 seconds.

The last pull with the big guy on the stairs came just as birds and adds came in before the two guys in front of him where down.  This left us with him, the two mobs, the two adds and all the birds and me at effectively 0 mana.  No cooldowns left for anything, mana pot used, I even crossed my fingers and prayed hoping that might help because I was sure as hell not going to do much.

At this moment, as any healer will tell you, it is a keep the tank up moment.  That is about all you can do.  If and when you regen enough you can throw out one of the least costly heals to which ever one of the DPS seems to taking the least damage.  The reason being is that it will most likely mean that it is going to end with just you, the tank and one DPS up and you would rather the one DPS that will be taking the least damage to make your life easier.

All said and done the run up the hill took all my mana and a lot of praying along with 7 minutes off the timer.  It tested everything I ever learned as a healer and even seemed to invent a few new ones.  As all miracles would have it, no one died but when we finished the other 2 DPS where so low if I sneezed on them they would be dead.

The second group, basically same DPS, had no issues.  We moved through there super fast.  Only one set of adds ever came from behind, only two sets of bird where ever released.  I was using what seemed like no mana what so ever and actually started to help DPS some.  Riptide, heal, shock, nova, riptide, heal, shock, nova, etc.  We got to the boss in no time at all, everything died cleanly, none of the DPS took any substantial damage and I had 90% mana still when we got to the top.

The little differences.  Second group might have had a more capable tank in rounding them up.  The second group had the DPS that knew to target the same target instead of all choosing different targets which in effect make everything take longer to go down.  The DPS played aggro magnet by only attacking ones the tank had little or no aggro built up on.  It was indeed a group failure.  The tank or the DPS could have stepped it up and did things better and it would have been easier.  The little things made the difference.

The eagle boss:

The first group did a reasonable job at this, even if it took longer then it should have.  The reason being is that they always took to long to switch to the add.  I have a habit of throwing a frost shock on the bird the second it comes down.  Helps out some.  The first few times I did that and it looked like I was the only damage on it.  The last few times, I was so busy catching up on healing I could not shock it.  We did it, no wipe, but it was really work.

The second group, again doing roughly the same damage over all, had one small blip.  The boomkin stole aggro from the tank the second the bird was being called meaning the tank got picked up.  One huge difference was, by the time I threw a frost shock on the bird it was almost dead.  This group switched instantly.  The tank landed, took aggro back, everything was fine.  This group always switched to the bird quickly, lightning quick even.  So much so, it was not even worth me changing targets to frost shock it, it was not needed.

The little differences here where that the DPS knew to switch to the add and did it in a timely manner.

The packs on the way to bear:

The first group played this as if they where great.  They were not.  They used no CC and tried to grab everything at once at the bottom of the stairs and on the platform.  I kept everyone alive but it was not pretty.  Death was knocking on everyone's door the whole time.  Of course, everyone was on different targets so it took forever for things to go down and they where all taking damage they shouldn't be.

I was out of mana on that pull, the next pull, the platform pull, even the boss which is a joke to heal normally and I still ran out of mana on it somehow.

The second group did it right.  They CCed on the fly, the targeted the same targets, they did not take unnecessary damage.  We moved from that pack to the bears to the platform mobs and to the boss one after the other in an effort of constant motion, I never fell below 70% mana even with the chain pulling.

The little differences here was the use of CC turning what might be slightly difficult pulls into mundane kill order kills.  Over all it made for a much faster run.

I wonder why some people think CC slows things down?  If anything the use of CC made this much faster because their was a more obvious kill order. Not to mention, I did not need to go hog wild on my spells trying to save everyone meaning no need for me to mana up after every pull like with group one.  CC makes things faster when you are not in a group with everyone focus firing and doing 18K+.

Long story short: (too late)

The first group continued their run the way they were.  No CC, ever.  I started to hex for my own sanity and it seemed as if it offended the tank when I did so.   He went after the hexed target even if it were in a safe place where it would have not bothered anyone until everything else was down.  It was as if CCing something was a way of me telling him, target that next.

The entire run I ended up using 20 mage cakes and 6 waters I had.  I burned more cooldowns then I could have imagined I would ever need in a 5 man.  I was even using everything I had on trash pulls.  I got to the point I was using mana tide totem on every cooldown even if I was at 90% mana because I knew I would be burning mana like there was no tomorrow and some trash pulls where taking so long it might be off cooldown for a second use.

The second group continued their way of CCing, focus firing, positioning, etc to make things a rather smooth run.  Oddly enough, this group was the one that had the one wipe.  Perhaps because they were doing everything by the book so when something went wrong it took them by surprise and wiped us.  I kept up with the hell the other group put me through but I could not keep this one up.  Oh well, it happens.  With this group I only needed to drink three times and all three of them where might as well fill up drinks and not because I was in desperate need of drinking.

The little differences where in the DPS for the most part in my opinion.  They did not target as a group.  Even if the tank does not mark the DPS have to be smart enough to target the one the tank is on or at least the one everyone else is on so it goes down faster. 

The problem with CC is a combined failure in my opinion.  The tank could have marked.  The DPS could have asked for which one they needed to CC.  The DPS could have CCed on the fly like I did.  Anyone could have noticed that I was OOM every pull or that I was CCing to try and help me keep them up.  I could have spoken up myself and refused to heal until they started using CC.  We where all at fault there.

I think the reason I did not say anything is because it was not unhealable.  It was a crap ton of work for sure.  It was stressful at moments.  It was not unhealable however.  If it where, I would have demanded CC.  I like the wake up call once in a while to show me that healing can actually be work.  The sad part is, if the people knew how to play, healing is never actually work.  It is bad play that makes healing hard, not healing in and of itself.

The little differences between these two groups could not be seen on paper.  On paper the two groups where nearly identical yet the runs where two completely different journeys.  While both where finished without any wipefests the first group was indeed an adventure in every sense of the word and the second was a walk in the park.

Little things, very little things, could have turned group one into group two.  One mage sheep here.  One skull marker there.  One target for everyone at the same time.  One second waiting before attacking.  That, and simple things like that, is all they needed.  A few little things and the first group becomes the second group.

Sometimes it is not a huge adjustment that is needed.  Sometimes it is just a collection of the little things that can change the entire flow of a dungeon.

Next time you are in a dungeon and it is going like group one did do not automatically chalk it up to them being a bad group.  Chalk it up to them not noticing that something as small as one sheep can turn hard into easy.  It was not because someone was doing only 8K that there was a problem.  It was because they did not do the little things that there was a problem. 

Many people seem to forget about the little things because they are so little.  They seem to forget that little things matter sometimes more then the big things.  One little adjustment can sometimes turn a wipe into an easy fight.  If only someone noticed it.

Should I PvE in my PvP gear?

I am not talking about all PvP gear here.  I am talking about PvP gear to cover from my lack of ability to get other gear.  Be it the limited chances I've had to roll on certain items, the bad drop rate of some items or my amazing ability to roll a 1 whenever I really want something.

Either way, my head piece and my shoulder are my bane.  I am stuck with 353s and see no relief in sight.  My guild has not been raiding at all except for some trash runs for rep.  So even if knocking out T11 raids would be easy enough it is not going to happen unless I pug and being we are not raiding I do not see T12 in my immediate future.  Maybe once September rolls around and we start getting everyone back online it might happen.  I need something to cover until then.

So I was thinking about PvP gear for those two slots for the time being.  While I am usually against people PvEing in PvP gear in some cases it is actually better.  I've read a few posts from fellow bloggers that compare the PvP vs PvE gear based on numbers.  I love numbers.  It is a clear way to prove things and in my opinion at least, I trust numbers a lot more then someone saying, it is a much higher item level so it must be better even if it is PvP gear.

To decide if it is indeed better you need to actually break things down by the numbers.

Lets take a look at the comparisons for what I have now for PvE, PvP and what is easily available with conquest points and a small grind

I will use the stat weights from Mr. Robot being it is an easily accessible tool. Even if it WAY overvalues hit rating.  Hit for hunters is so easy to get to, I do not think it should be valued that high.  You could have no gear with hit on it what so ever and still be able to make cap by reforging.

Head Slot:

Headdress of the Sharpened Vision
Agility - 263 x 3.82 = 1004.66
Hit - 164 x 2.72 = 446.08
Mastery - 198 x 1.24 = 245.52
Total = 1696.26

Vicious Gladiator's Chain Helm
Agility - 322 x 3.82 = 1230.04
Mastery - 195 x 1.24 = 241.8
Resilience - 255 x 0 = 0
Total = 1471.84

Ruthless Gladiator's Chain Helm
Agility - 371 x 3.82 = 1417.22
Mastery - 227 x 1.24 = 281.48
Resilience - 287 x 0 = 0
Total = 1698.7

Shoulder Slot:

Pauldrons of Nalorakk
Agility - 220 x 3.82 = 840.4
Hit - 152 x 2. 72 = 413.44
Critical - 148 x 1.84 = 272.32
Total = 1526.16

Vicious Gladiator's Chain Spaulders
Agility - 248 x 3.82 = 947.36
Haste - 159 x 1.5 = 238.5
Resilience - 179 x 0 = 0
Total = 1185.86

Ruthless Gladiator's Chain Spaulders
Agility - 300 x 3.82 = 1146
Haste - 194 x 1.5 = 291
Resilience - 214 x 0 = 0
Total  = 1437

Looking at the numbers all by themselves we see that the 384 PvP helm is actually statistically better then the 353 helm while the 384 PvP shoulders fall a little short of the 353 ones.  The 371s are not even in the same ball park so to speak.

There is another factor to look into here and that is the fact both the helm and the shoulder have hit which is extremely overvalued by Mr. Robot and when you include into the fact that I do not need the hit at all from either of those items to get to hit cap it means it is really not worth 2.72 for the current gear I have.

Either way, it seems as if the 371 PvP items are a no go if I wanted to replace the helm and shoulder with them.  Or are they?

Lets compare the totals of the helm and shoulder combo with the added +70 agility bonus (267.4) I would get from having the 2 piece PvP set.

353 PvE Pieces - 3222.42
371 PvP Pieces - 2925.1
384 PvP Pieces - 3403.1

Okay, so we have assured that the 371 set is really out of the question.  If it were perhaps even 3100 then it might be worth considering as I mentioned the hit on the PvE items really over values them some but there seems to be to much of a difference.

What is interesting to see if that the 384 PvP pieces beat the 353 PvE pieces by a decent number as a set.  If we once again consider that the PvE items are over valued by a large amount because of the large number hit on them then the 384 PvP items not only beat it naturally but beat it even more then it appears by numbers alone.

I guess I have to go grind some conquest points.  At least to tide me over until I can get into a group for some T11 content and get lucky.  Hopefully by now everyone has the items they need and I won't be forced to win a roll.  1's do not win rolls all that often, unless you are the only person that needs it. 

You never know, maybe when we get back to raiding I might get lucky and have the helm drop off the first boss in firelands.  Not like there are any others in my main raid that would need it.  Even our three shaman heals that rotate in are heals main spec.  So it would go to me first anyway.

For now however, it looks like I have a little grind ahead for me.  I will get the helm first, as that in itself beats the helm I have on and then the shoulders for the set.  If ever I upgrade my helm I will go back to my old PvE shoulders as the PvP one is not better on its own.

Goes to show you, the next time you see someone wearing PvP gear do not take for granted that they are an idiot.  While the fact might be true most are and they just get PvP gear for the item level and because PvP gear is so much easier to get there will be some cases, like mine, where someone actually thought it out and realized that to some extent a piece of PvP gear might be better then what you are currently wearing.

Not saying you should not try to upgrade as soon as you can to real PvE gear.  Sometimes it is just not an option and in the end, it will be easier for me to grind the 384 helm and shoulder then to get a pug on my server that will actually beat the last bosses of the T11 raids.  Yeap, even nerfed my server can still not pug them.

Sometimes PvP gear can be better then what you are wearing.  It is true.  The numbers prove that.  I will still laugh at people in all PvP gear tying to PvE.  They are not living up to their maximum potential. 

I would not PvP in my PvE gear so don't PvE in your PvP gear.  A few pieces to fill slots is fine.  I can accept that, if they are actually better based on numbers, but full PvP gear?  That just means they are lazy and took the easy route to gear up.  371 items in every slot in 1 day grinding battlegrounds.  Good for PvP, bad for PvE.

I wonder what everyone would be wearing if they made PvE gear that easy to get.  Grind dungeons all day long and have a 378 in every slot.   I don't mind grinds but something seems wrong about gear being that easy to get.  At least make the grind an actual grind.  Not just run battlegrounds for 1 day.  Sad really.

You Might be a Bad Damage Dealer...

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you think being first on recount means you are good.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you brag about being first on the meters when you are 4th on damage done.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you always think pulling off the tank means the tank is bad.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you think the healer sucks because you wouldn't move from avoidable damage.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you can't tell the difference between group failure and personal failure.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If someone asks you to interrupt and you tell them it will lower your DPS.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If it is never your fault.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you are taking almost as much damage as the tank.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you let adds eat the healer.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you think the ONLY reason someone does more DPS is because of gear.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you think you have reached the cap on the damage you can do, even if simulators say otherwise.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you blame someone else for something you caused.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you expect the tank (raid leader) to explain everything to you.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you do not notice that you have plenty of other useful abilities that could make a fight easier.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you do know you have them but refuse to use them because it means a DPS loss.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If you do not realize that you being better makes everyone around you better.

You might be a bad damage dealer...
... If think that you being better refers to DPS only.

Wired Trackballs For Me.

I am always looking for ways to upgrade my game play.  Not necessarily to play better so to speak but to play more comfortably.

I would love the get something like a Razer Naga but I can not play with a laser mouse and quite honestly I can not see how anyone could play with one.  They are, at least for me, inefficient.  Flying alone becomes an adventure where I would need to take sea sickness pills to be able to handle it.  You go flying up and down at a tiny twitch in your hand.  I just want to fly straight. 

With a standard trackball mouse I maintain full control of all movements and can go up or down as I please and not at the whim of a possible twitch of my hand.

I tried using a laser mouse once for healing figuring I can use my keyboard for movement instead.  I thought that being my biggest issue with a laser mouse was movement so if I was not moving with my mouse then I would be fine.  It did not work well at all.  It just felt uncomfortable.  I tried adjusting sensitivity on the mouse but I could never get it to the way I wanted it.

With a track ball I can cover all the raid frames for healing and my mouse overs with just the slightest of movement of my thumb.  I was never left to scramble to move my mouse because everything was within a thumbs movement as opposed to having to slide the damn mouse all over the place to get to the frame I needed to cast a heal on.

I attempted to give it a little bit of a try but it was not going to work for me.  I'm a old dog and I can't be taught new tricks.  Trackball mice are just 110 times better for movement than any laser mouse could ever be and I've gotten so used to the minimum movement needed to do the maximum amount of things that I can't get into the sliding a mouse all over the place again.  That approach just seems so last century to me.

The biggest problem for me is the fact that there are not many trackball mice out there to begin with.  This means there are none with extra buttons.  This kills me.  I want some extra buttons on my mouse but I can not find a mouse that has them that is also a trackball mouse.

I found this trackball mouse a few months back and I almost started to drool.  It has two extra buttons.  A whole two extra.  I already knew what I would be binding to them.  Shift and Control.  Alt and space seem to fit easy into my normal keystrokes but shift and control always seemed to be a little odd and limited my use of my full keyboard.

Sure, I would want a lot of buttons like the naga has but being I will not use a laser mouse I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Get more utility and lose ease of mobility or keep my mobility and rely on my keyboard for everything else.  With this I could rely on my keyboard a little easier with two modifiers on my mouse.  Oh the joy filled the air in my grumpy world when I saw they finally released a trackball with some buttons.

Until I got it that is.  Oh hell.  In my excitement to see that there was a new trackball in the world I neglected to notice that it was wireless.

I hate wireless.  Again, it is a performance issue.  Wireless can lag.  Wired can not.  Lag is not good which means wireless is not good.  When I do something I want it done now.  Not even 0.1 second after I do it.  Now.  Anything less then now is a failure.

I decided I would give it a try anyway.  I know a lot of people that use wireless and do just fine.  I tried it for all of 3 seconds before I screamed this is not going to work.

No no, it was not a performance issue.  It was a sound issues.  The feedback through my headphones made me nearly deaf the second I plugged the damn thing in.

Another reason wireless sucks.  Lots of feedback issues when playing with wireless.

So I plugged my old one back in and went merrily on my way.

One day I might try to start over so to speak and learn to deal with the horrible movement that a laser mouse offers.  Perhaps as I get more used to it I can almost catch up to the ability the trackball offered. 

The biggest thing for me is the movement in life and not in game.  I put my mouse somewhere and it never moves.  Never needs to.  With a laser mouse I will have to start acting like a spastic monkey moving the mouse all over the place to do things that could be done easier and without movement with a trackball.  I'm not exactly sure why people think more movement and less accuracy means better. 

Maybe they just had as much practice with a laser mouse as I did with a trackball.  So they are an expert at laser just as much as I am an expert with trackball.  Perhaps given enough time I could get as good with the laser as I am with my trackball and if that is indeed the case it might be well worth it to try.  I want all those buttons for my game play.  I can imagine how many things it would make so much easier on me in game.

All I want are the buttons.  Why can't they make a trackball with buttons?  Why can't they make a trackball with even just those two buttons that is wired?

Someone once told me that there was a place you can have a mouse custom made.  Would any of you happen to know where that might be?

I have over 3,000 dollars worth of mice in my draw right now.  All going to waste, all purchased with the desire to try to use them, all given up on in time.  Some faster then others.

For now I've decided to try and work on the feedback from my wireless trackball and ordered a few ferrite beads in an effort to see if it will limit or remove (hopefully) the feedback I got while trying to use the wireless trackball I got a few months back.

In truth, just those two buttons would be enough for me, for now at least, to make things easier.  I hope it works.

I might have to give in and take the time to teach this old dog some new tricks however.  If I ever want a mouse with a reasonable amount of buttons I will have to go the way of using a laser mouse.

I wonder what it is with society that makes laser so popular when trackball is better.  Then again, we are the same society that made VHS the dominate format back when BETA and VHS where both out.  BETA was much better in every way and we decided to go with the lesser quality VHS. 

The human race.  Give them two choices and they will always choose the worst of the two.  Proven over and over again.

Monday Random Thoughts

It's that time again to throw together a whole bunch of... stuff.

- I did a lot of bouncing around on a few characters this weekend and noticed some interesting trends in my characters no matter what role they fill.

- The 2 key seems to be where I put my go to spell on all my characters.

- Chimera Shot on my Hunter, Penance on my Priest, Shield Slam on my Warrior, Mutilate on my Rogue, Arcane Blast on my Mage, you get the idea.

- I swear I did not set that up on purpose.

- Then again, I do tend to put things in what I consider to be logical places so that mean I put them there on purpose I guess.

- Speaking of bindings.  I really need to bind some things I had not had bound because I did not run that character in group play often.

- Lets be honest here.  When playing solo binding are not really needed on utility things.  Heck, they probably are not needed on anything.

- So when I started to play my mage I figured, let me bind poly.

- One thing about binding stuff.  You also have to remember where the hell you bound it.

- Why the hell is that mob not turning into a sheep? Click, click, click.  Oh, I did not bind it to that key.  That makes sense.  Oops.

- After a few really slow to the draw sheepings I got the hang of it.  Throne of Tides needs CC in randoms.

- I've said it before and will say it again, any time you can remove a step in game play you are doing yourself a favor binding it.

- Even if you only use poly once every 10 dungeons targeting mob and hitting a key is 100 times faster then targeting a mob and then moving your mouse to the bar to click it.

- Trust me.  The first three pulls I did that.

- It made me feel... dirty.

- Keybinding is not just for you, it is for everyone else around you.

- Enough preaching about keybinding and more thoughts about figuring out my mage.

- How the hell do people pull 15K DPS in all greens as a mage?

- I do the whole burn, conserve, burn thing and started my weekend at 10K max on non gimmick bosses.

- I ended my weekend with considerably better gear and still only do 12K.

- Had a random with a similarly geared mage when I was healing.  He pulled 23K DPS on the same boss I topped out at 14K at.

- How the hell do I mess up pressing the 2 button?

- I know there is a lot more to it then that.  Maybe I am just not lucky with my 2 button.

- Based on my current gear on my hunter with every possible raid buff, debuff, food and flasks I should be able to reach 25600 DPS.

- I've only did that once.  I did 26200 once and that was without all the perfect buffs, no food, no flask.

- Must have got lucky with crits.

- To only happen once it had to be luck.

- Maybe it would happen more if my Chimera shot was not 2.

- I really think I need to rethink everything being 2.

- Seriously.  I am perplexed at how my mage is pulling such crap DPS.

- Took some time out to read some guides online and check up on things at EJ.  I am doing everything to the letter and nothing.

- I should be getting an extra 10% damage boost just for being a gnome.

- Lets face it, gnome mages rock.

- I got the balloon for my mage and he carries it everywhere he goes now.

- It looks perfect on a gnome.

- How come it disappears when you mount?

- Speaking of pets, my priest was in a dungeon yesterday and I always have my giant sewer rat out. Someone gave it a pet biscuit and hot dam that is one giant giant sewer rat.

- It was the biggest thing in the dungeon.

- Almost as big as the mammoth that follows my warlock around.

- Check that, almost as big as the mammoth that used to follow my warlock around.

- I popped on to my lock for the first time in a couple of weeks and did a few quests for fun and my mammoth was no where to be found.

- Looks like blizzard fixed it and killed off my mammoth.

- Lets all have a moment of silence for the loss of my mammoth.

- He will be missed.

- Was he a he or was he a she?

- How do you tell on mammoths in video games?

- Now to my priest who I can tell is obviously female.

- Do you know how I can tell she is female even without looking?

- Because she has the most horrible jokes in the game.

- Guess that also proves she is a human female.

- Seriously, does anyone think human female jokes are funny.

- Do you know what the best female human joke is?

- Their dance, now that is a joke.

- I figured it was time to relearn how to play my priest.  I needed something to do and having another geared healer can not be a bad thing right?

- There was a guild member just learning to tank so I figure it would be a good time to bang out some randoms.  He and I teamed up and off we went.

-  Oh, the horror.

- A tank that never really tanked before and a healer that has not felt comfortable healing since wrath.  This was not going to go well if we got three DPS that sucked.

- We got three DPS that sucked.

- My biggest mistake is that I kept hitting prayer of healing instead of flash heal when I went to cast one of those oh shit the DPS think they are a tank heals.

- It seems like all melee DPS like to tank.

- Why don't they just roll tanks if they love to take aggro and have the mobs on them?

- This is a case of bad DPS.  Part of your job as a DPS is to manage your threat.

- If you keep pulling off the tank, you suck.

- Sure, the tank might suck too but you have to work within the tanks limits.

- The runs where we had players I might normally say sucked if I looked at DPS only where fantastic.  They did not grab aggro from the tank.  They hit the skull first.  They assisted the tank whenever able.  If they got aggro they ran to the tank or stopped attacking.  They just did 6K DPS.

- Who would have thought I would be saying right now that the runs I had with all 9K or less DPS players where better groups then the ones with people doing 15K.

- With a learning tank it is better to have lower DPS.  Less chance of grabbing aggro.

- When two melee and the tank where all taking huge damage spikes there was nothing I could do.

- I am just not that comfortable on my priest yet.

- I don't think I could ever get that comfortable on my priest.

- I don't think it is really a factor of skill and comfort.

- 50K per second on a tank I can manage because you know sooner or later they will avoid one and I will play catch up healing. 50K per second on three targets, two that do not have an mitigation, I can not handle.  Don't think any healer can.

- I started to just let the leading aggro getter die.  After two tries to save them and losing the tank in the process I figured it was not worth saving them.

- Those wipes where my fault completely. 

- I was in error in trying to heal the DPS.  If I had not tried to heal the DPS I would have never lost the tank.  So as much as it was the fault of the DPS for pulling aggro, I could have fixed the problem by not trying to save them and just keeping the tank up.

- I adjusted, I stopped healing them in situations like that.

- They did not adjust.  They kept dying.

- Do people ever learn?

- I noticed my mana seems to last a lot longer on my priest.

- Maybe that is because it seems like it take a year and a day to cast a heal.

- It might not be lasting longer, it just takes me longer to use it because all the casts are so dreadfully slow.

- I want all heals to be 2 second or less cast times.

- Now that would be comfortable.

- What is the worst feeling for you as a healer?

- For me it is seeing a DPS start to take damage. 

- The second you see the DPS starting to get hit you throw a shield on and then start putting your big heal on them and before it is even done casting they went from 100-0.

- I really miss the days when a shield would actually, you know, do something.

- At least our big heals are now actually big heals.

- While tanking a random I had a paladin healer throw a 112K heal on me.

- Now that is awesome.

- But I can imagine seeing the overhealing now on meters with heals like that.

- Overhealing is not going to mean as much as it used to when considering things any more.

- Say I needed 60K, it makes sense to hit me with your big heal.  You get a 112K crit and now have 52K over heals on one heal.

- Looks bad on the meters. 

- You can say, why didn't you use a smaller heal.  But you can not take a crit for granted.  If you throw a smaller heal out and it only heals for 15K instead of 30K you are now behind the eight ball and the tank can fall dreadfully low and maybe even die.

- You are better over healing the 52K from a crit then underhealing the tank and losing them because you where afraid to over heal.

- The whole over healing thing can now be thrown out the window for the most part now with 200% crits.

- My priest is still not really geared so her crit heals are only around 60K.

- More then ample for a heroic.

- As long as I don't have to heal three tanks at the same time in a heroic.

- By the end of the weekend I was feeling a lot more comfortable again healing.

- To the point where I am back to spending my time jumping around and dancing while healing because I am not afriad of everything any more.  I know what I need to do and when I need to do it.

- Stella got her grove back.

- Now if only I could stop hitting prayer of healing by accident.  I swear it is a mental block.  I can not get it out of my system.  I am almost tempted to move flash heal back to its old place and say I lost the battle of learning new bindings.

- But I will not give up.  I'll get used to it even if a few DPS have to die because of me learning.

- My feelings as a healer have changed this expansion.

- I used to think anyone that died was my fault.

- Now I think anyone that dies, it is their fault for making me choose between them and the tank.

- One pull I played tank on.  While healing.

- The four dragons before the last boss in GB.  Ice trapped one.  Pulled three.  DK DPS and my friend the newbie port pally die because they are both playing tank.  Oops, my bad.

- Don't worry, I will tank it, my feminine priest in all her girly girl glory says flexing her healing muscles.

- Not like I had a choice in the matter, when they died the mobs came straight for me.  One was dead but two where still up and the third was still trapped.

- I spammed heals on myself like crazy.

- They kept me in their sights and the hunter and mage burned them down.

- I held aggro the whole time spam healing myself.

- Go go priest tanking.

- Oh yeah, that grove is back.

- My mana seems to last so much longer on my priest.

- That is odd being the last I played her this expansion I was oom after casting 4 or 5 heals.  Seems they fixed that since I played her.

- One day of randoms, 8 in total, 351 item level now.

- Have to love 359 JP gear for gearing up alts.

- One more weekend like that and I will be up to at least 357 which is firelands ready.

- Not bad for a character I basically abandoned 2 weeks into the expansion in one days work.

- Being she is my original PvP character I might actually get back into PvP with her.

- People are always looking for disc heals for PvP.

- I wonder why, shields suck now.

- As a healer I will easily be able to max out JP and convert to honor for 371 gear.  I might have to consider that.

- Only have three 333 pieces to replace on her now.

- At least I replaced my 318 wand with the one from the second boss in GB.

- I thought I would never replace that.

- Speaking of PvP, how come on my server the only time I ever see people advertising for rated battle grounds in about 30 minutes before I am heading off?

- Seriously, I would love to get into them but every day of the week there are people spamming to do them just as I am logging off.

- Did the server change time zones on me and I had not noticed it?

- Even raids, always looking for people to pug stuff as I am logging off.

- How did the times that  people runs things change on my server so quickly?

- Even if I could go I am always one step behind.

- Two weeks ago it was /2 LF more RBG 2500 resilience required.

- I had 2200.

- I hit 2500 resilience and it became /2 LF more RBG 2800 resilience required.

- I swear someone up there hates me.

- I hit 2800 resilience and it became 2/ LF more RBG 3K resilience required.

- I finally hit 3K and start looking for some runs and guess what?

- /2 LF more RBG 3.3K resilience required and don't suck.

- Oh well, not even worth getting to 3.3K resilience now because I suck.

- I suck because I could not get into any because I was always behind the curve.

- I'd suck a lot less if there were still some /2 LF 2500 people out there.

- It seems like my whole server moves at once pace and that pace is always three days ahead of me when it comes to PvP.  I am always three days behind.

- Wish there were some RBGs going on around 7 PM or 8 P M instead of 10 PM or 11 PM.

- Perhaps it is a summer thing. 

- When the kiddies need to go to bed at a reasonable hour again they will not be doing stuff so late at night any more.

- All in all, it is a good thing for me, I hate playing with the kiddies either way.  Most of them seem to be lacking in social graces.

- Did some arena and got slaughtered this weekend too.

- It was horrible, there was blood and gore everywhere, most belonged to the priest in our group.

- 10 matches, 2 wins.

- Not bad considering I am not very good and the priest was brand spanking new to PvP.

- At least it was fun.

- Dying isn't a big deal, as long as you have fun doing it.

- You do not need to be great at the game to have fun with it.  The priest sucked, he knew it, he admitted it, he had a great time and so did we.

- He will get better.  Sometimes people just need a place to learn.

- Wish more people remembered that they where new once too.

- For some people like that priest, it makes their game leaps and bounds more fun being included and given a chance to learn.

- I guess that was my good dead for the week.

- Now it is your turn to go out and do a good dead.

- Have a great day.