Friday, April 29, 2011

"Un"Justly "Not" Rewarded

I noticed when I logged in after the patch I got a ton of new achievements based on previous things I had done. 

However the achievement Justly Rewarded didn't seem to come along with all the other ones.

I've got The Bread Winner and I've had that one for years, I've got the newly added 2500 daily quest reward one when I logged in, my stats say I have made well over 50,000 from quest rewards and yet I did not get Justly Rewarded.

Bugs like this happen all the time, no big deal.  I put in a ticket to let them know like I am sure many others have.  I pointed out my 50K gold made from quests, I pointed out I have the 3000 quests achievement, all loremaster ones, have done every quest in the game, have the 2500 dailies achievement which alone would easily reward 30K on their own being they average 11-13 gold each.

You might be surprised with the reply I got from Blizzard or maybe you won't.

Paraphrasing as best I can remember this is why they said.

We are aware that the new achievement Justly Rewarded is not counting previous gold made from quests and it has been decided that it is working as intended.  If you wish to get the achievement you will need to make 30,000 gold after the achievement was released.

WHAT?

Okay, I will get it sooner or later anyway I am sure.  I asked for something to do, well, I got it.  Be careful what you wish for they say, you just might get it.  I'll just have to start doing dailies again and it should take no time but I've done every single quest in the game that I could do.  Don't you think it is a little unfair to me not to have such a wealth of quests to work with when trying to get this achievement?

I just do not understand this theory.

They added an achievement for Vial of Sands and I got it even if I had the vial before it was released.

They added new mount and pet achievements and I got them even if I had them before it was was released.

They added the new daily total achievement and I got that even if I had it before it was released.

If I did not need to go get 125 new pets for the new achievement, and do another 2500 dailies to get that achievement or use another vial of sand for that achievement then why do I need to get another 30,000 gold from quest rewards?

It is not like it is something new it is tracking.  The money made on quest rewards is a tracked stat.  If they just started counting it now I can see that there is no back record to give me credit for it.  There is a record in my personal stats, you can see, quite easily, that I made more then 30,000 gold on quest rewards.

If all the other achievement are retroactive then why not this one?

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the support staff that replied to me is wrong and quite possibly mildly retarded.  I do not think this is working as intended, I think this was just another idiot that uses the working as intended line for everything they answer.

Have to love the support staff Blizzard has some times.

I think they will fix it and I will get the achievement without having to make all that gold from quests again just like I did not need to go back and get another 125 pets.

I just can't believe I got the "working as intended" reply over something that is surely not working as intended.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Quick and Easy Guide to Zul 5 Mans

Some people say watch the videos.  Some say read the strats.  I say I hate them both.  90% of all fights in game can be summed up in three lines or less.  With that in mind I present my little guide on all Zul bosses.

Zul'Aman

Aki'Zon (Eagle Boss)
1) Switch to Amani Kidnapper when it picks someone up.
2) Stack under person lifted up during electrical storm.

Nalorakk (Bear Boss)
1) Have at least 2, preferably 3, people alternate at being furthest to get hit by the surge.
2) If you get hit by the surge make sure you run in after.

Jan'alai (Dragonhawk Boss)
1) Avoid Flame Breath.
2) Avoid Fire Bombs
3) Also kill one Hatcher when they spawn to keep from having to many hawks up.
4) AoE hawks.

Halazzi (Lynx Boss)
1) Move boss from Water Totem and ranged should stand in it.
2) Do not DPS lynx, stay on boss, they share a life pool and lynx has no threat meter.
3) Only switch off boss for the Corrupted Lightning Totem.

Hex Lord Malacrass
1) CC one add, down the second, burn the boss.
2) When he Shipon's Soul on sometimes make sure to interrupt any heals.

Daakara
1) Can be any of the four animals.  Handle them as before.
2) One exception, kill the lynx if the transforms and summons one of them.
3) Cyclones are a new thing from the eagle, just avoid them and kill the totem.

There you go, ZA done and for the most part all bosses explained in 3 lines or less.

Zul'Gurub

High Priest Venoxis
1) Run from the person you are linked to.
2) Avoid standing in the Venomous Effusion. (it is always in the same place, once you see it once or twice you will learn the safe places.)
3) Avoid Bloodvenom by running through the maze of Venomous Effusion.

Bloodlord Mandokir
1) Avoid Devastating Slam and the spikes they shoot out.
2) Always switch to Raptor / Reanimated Raptor.

Hazza'rah
1) Which ever 1 player is not in the nightmare, break someone else out.  That someone then breaks everyone else out.  The mobs are one shot kills, should be easy for anyone.

High Priestess Kilnara
1) Interrupt Tears of Blood whenever able.
2) Kill all panthers before 50% by having the tank drag the boss into one pen at a time.

Zanzil
1) When he casts the toxic cloud, click the green cauldron to survive.
2) When the large add comes, click the blue cauldron and free him. (Preferably a ranged) If he is targeting you, run.
3) When the many small adds come, melee click the red cauldron, it is like a locks hell fire, if you are at range do not click it.

Jin'do the Godbreaker
Phase 1:
1) Get in the bubble.
2) Get boss out of the bubble.
Phase 2:
1) Kill adds, kill order is exposed chain then spirits.
2) Tank grabs a Gurubashi Spirit and when it goes to Body Slam someone, that person must stand on a encased chain, this is to break the chain.
3) Avoid the circles on the ground.

And there you go, ZG bosses explained in basically 3 lines or less in most cases.

There is of course more to these but these are the main things that if you know them you should be able to make it through all fights easily or at least fake it like you know it.

In my opinion the ZA and ZG heroics are 100 times easier then the other Cataclysm heroic where when they first came out.

Now go enjoy looking like a pro without having to watch videos with commentary that is off topic or distracting or without needing the read long and drawn out details on the fight that is only information overload because most of it is not needed.

This is a KISS article, Keep It Simple Stupid.
Enjoy.

DCed in ZG

I finished the second new heroic (ZG) yesterday and much like ZA it was a learning experience but over all it was not as much so as ZA was.  All the fights in ZG seem to be easier, too had I had bad pug people to learn them with.

We went into both without reading guides at all.  It is a bit more fun to actually have to learn the fights.  We had a basic idea because a lot of these bosses are rehashed bosses and most concepts in game are simple. 

Not knowing what to do, so to speak, made for a wipe on each boss in ZA but only once each.  The trash was more brutal then any boss could me.  The one wipe on the boss showed us enough to know what we need to do without much of a problem.

The trash in ZA was harder then any of the bosses and after doing all the fights now I can tell you this is going to be one of the easy ones and is, even at its start.  With the exception of the dragon hawk one which gave us problems everything else was a one mistake and you learn thing so I can see it being easy for even the average player.

The last boss was one of those bosses that make me not want to pug it however.  We rotated who was furthest out and it was no problem.  Without vent this can be hell because you know that no one listens to chat on whos turn it is to stay out.

Now to ZG and the DCs that seem to happen every time I die. 

Again, no looking anything up, lets just have some fun.  Skipping to the end I see ZG as actually it is a lot easier then ZA was.  The trash is no issue in ZG at all like it was in ZA.  The bosses were way easier to figure out even without knowing anything about them and they all seemed to go down fast even with me being the only person over 10K DPS.  On to the nightmare of doing what was such an easy instance.  DCs, wipes and all.

Now back to the start.  We had a guild group of four and someone DCed before the first boss.  We waited for a few minutes and then kicked our own guild member because it seemed like they where not coming back.  They actually came back about 15 or so minutes later, so it was a good thing we moved on.

Tank, one DPS and me where the guild members, the other two where pugs.  We pull, we wipe.  I DC.

I tell my guild mates I am coming back in so they wait.  We go to make another attempt at the boss and we die again.  I am last to die.  I point out to everyone where the safe spot is.  Yeap, I found a safe spot where I barely need to ever move.  Tank says he noticed the pattern too.

Third attempt, wipe again.  Me and the tank are the last two up again when we finally give out and die proving that it really is just a simple pattern.  I DC again and tell my guild mates I am coming back.  We get back and the healer leaves.

We queue and get a new healer, we ask the healer if they know the fight, they say yes.  We go in, we pull, we wipe, me and the tank are the last two alive again.  Okay, we got two people that know the fight, now we need someone else that seems to know it.  BTW, I DC again.

We get back, and it looks like the other DPS DCs.  We wait a few minutes and after five minutes we kick the other DPS and get a new one.  We go in, we wipe, the healers says, I am sorry, I can not heal this and leaves.  Yes, I DC again.

We get back and get a new healer and we go in.  We all start dying almost instantly, the healer is doing nothing, not healing anyone.  Someone notices he fell off the cliff at the start of the fight.  They ask, did you fall off?  No response.  We all rez, I reconnect after DCing yet again, we get back to the boss, the healer drops group.  Never said anything about if he fell off the cliff or not.  Never said a word in chat but that fits, he never tossed out even one heal either.

We get another healer and are getting frustrated.  We where going to skip that boss for now and try another one but we ask the healer if they knew what to do first.  They said yes, they have healed this already three times.  Wonderful.

We pull, the other two DPS die, both melee, leaving me, the tank and the healer to do 80% of the boss just us three.  No problem, boss goes down finally.

The run is smooth from that point on.  Took us a while to find someone that knew how to heal and knew how to adapt.  We get all the way up to the panther boss with no issues but we wipe there.  I DC again of course and we come back in.  The healer just drops group.  Does not say a word.  Excuse me?  Since this healer has been here this was our first wipe and there are only 3 bosses left.

While running back someone made friends and they followed him all the way down the stairs.  My screen fills with name plates, there has to be over 20 mobs coming following him.  We start going crazy all out on them, we know it is going to be a wipe with that many mobs and it is but we downed eight of the twenty before we die.  Honestly, I was quite impressed with that.  Nice way for a new healer to join a group right?  Either way, he stayed and I didn't DC for the first time after a wipe.

We try the boss deciding to activate and kill the panthers as we go so they do not all come all at once.  It works good for the most part but it seemed we burnt the boss too fast and still ended up with three panther pens at the same time and wiped again.  I DCed again.

We get back, the healer leaves, we get another healer, we explain we are going to slow burn the boss and kill all the panthers first.  We do that, we clear it, it was easy once we did it the right way.

Working our way to the next boss we pull the trash and it starts beating the crap out of everyone, with only two left I am the last one alive.  The tank on vent is yelling to feign death, I refuse to saying, I got this I got this and it takes a while but I get it.  Killed both the mobs and waited for everyone else to get back. 

The DPS that was with us DCs.  We wait five minutes and kick to get another one, the new one comes in, we clear the next trash pack and the healer DCs.  Being he did not die it is not the same DC issue I have been having, I only DC when I die and only in ZG it seems.  We wait and kick the healer that DCed after 5 minutes.

We pull boss and again, first pull was a bit of a learning experience.  We wipe, I notice that there is no reason for me to be clicking the fire one being I am not close enough to the mobs for it to mean anything and it is just added damage to me for nothing.  So I place myself between the other two on the next try after I come back from DCing again.

Next time around the third DPS dies nearly instantly.  I die shortly after, my own fault, they could not three man it, we wipe. I DC.

Next try the third DPS actually lasts 30 seconds before taking a face dive.  The tank goes down, not sure what the hell the healer was doing but it didn't look like he was healing the tank, we all where getting heals, just not the tank.  Me, the other DPS guild mate and the healer finished it off.  How the hell I kited the big guy and the boss and didn't die is beyond me, but being the boss was close to death to begin with it made it tons easier.

Healer leaves for some reason even though we downed the boss, we get another healer, pull the two guys at the steps to go up to the last boss, down them, healer leaves.  That one I have no clue about.  We cleared two trash mobs and the healer leaves?  Weird people I tell you.

We kill the troll dudes go up to the boss and the new healer explains the fight in basic terms.  Not hard, stand in bubble, let troll jump on chains, boss dead.  Got it.

We go in, third DPS drops group right on pull.  We get a feel for the fight and don't do all that bad for the first attempt minus one DPS.  We wiped, I didn't DC because I didn't die.  Once everyone was dead I jumped off the side and FDed.  We requeue for another DPS, he comes in, right under the bosses feet, gets owned, I FD again.  Fun huh?  I could not type fast enough to tell him to move, it was funny.

When they get there they rez him and we explained to him, get into the bubble.  Of course, we pull, he doesn't, he dies.  We wipe, I DC, this DCing thing is getting beyond annoying.

We get back, we explain again, get inside the bubble.  We pull, he doesn't get in the bubble, but now the healer decided that he didn't want to get inside the bubble either, they both die, we wipe, I save myself DCing by doing my FD thing again.

We get back, we rez, we tell the DPS once more.  Get in the bubble and tell him, if you do not get in the bubble we will kick you.  We where not even complaining about his amazing 5K DPS, just get in the bubble.  I was pulling over 20K on the start phase there, I could easily make up for his 5K, all he needed to do was get in the bubble.

We pull, he does not get in the bubble, he dies, the healer, at least, was smart enough to not try and heal him this time.  We get one troll up, the damn thing will not jump.  After a while he despawns, we get another one up, he jumps on one, we bust it, he despawns, we get another one up, he refuses to jump either and then despawns, we get a forth one up, he jumps, we down the chain, we get a fifth one up, the healer is now oom, we die.  I DC.

We come back, the DPS leaves on his own, we do not even need to kick him.  I wonder what was going through his mind.  Why am I not getting heals he was probably thinking.  Maybe he did not understand english, that is possible.  Even if that was the case there is no reason he should not get in the bubble when he sees the other four of us in the bubble all the time each attempt.

We get another DPS and we give it a go, we fail again, the healer drops.  We get a new healer, he has never done it, we explain it, we go in, we die again.  Healer apologizes saying he lost range and we started to drop, it is all good, we are all learning, the key is to learn from your mistakes.  Oh, I DCed again but I guess I do not need to say that any more do I?

We pull again, we wipe again, the healer says he thinks he has it now, the DPS drops group, we get a hunter replacement.  Crap, watch my bow drop now and this hunter win it.

We explain, we give it a go, the damn hunter keeps getting the body slam on him and keeps running away from the chains.  We are explaining in all caps so he can not miss it, get on the chains when you have the arrow.  No good, the guy just does not get it.  We wipe do to the healer running out of mana and the bad luck that it keeps targeting the hunter that has no clue.  At least his amazing DPS of 7K is a huge upgrade to the previous DPS.  I FDed so I did not DC, woohoo.

I take the time to explain the fight.  Phase one, get in the bubble.  Phase two, if you have the arrow, stand on a locked chain.  Burn chains when they are open, adds otherwise.  See, simple right?

We go, the thing keep targeting the hunter again, the hunter keeps running everywhere but the chains.  Damn it, on the chain you idiot.  We wipe, I DC, this is getting annoying.  I hate pugs, does anyone have even half a brain?

We go again, I say to my guild DPS, maybe we will get lucky and it will not target him this time.  He says, at least he is up to 8K DPS.  I said, no worries, as long as I am alive we got this.

We pull, everything is going well, the healer seems to have nearly mastered this, he is keeping everyone at full life.  Target on me, chain one broken, we down chain, target on other hunter, damn, no chain broken, next one targets the other DPS, chain broken, we down the chain, healer is starting to run low on mana.  Last one, targets me, I stand on chain, chain breaks, it kills the other DPS, the healer loses the tank, the healer then dies. The other hunter is on adds, I am doing everything I can to pump out DPS on this chain all alone, it would be easy if the other hunter would just help me.  I saved my cooldowns just for this and it pays off, The other hunter is at 3% life and me 8% life when I finally down the chain and we finish the instance.

Guess what?  The bow drops, the other hunter wins it, there is no justice in this world I tell you.  None at all.  he comes in at the end of a run, does everything wrong, has DPS lower then the tanks and wins the bow. 

Sometimes things are just so unfair you have to scream.  No biggie however, I will go with all guild at some point and get it.  I just hate when crap like that happens.

I don't know what it is with the DCing when in there but it was annoying as hell.

Goes to show you one thing however, if people did not drop group over and over life would be easy.  ZG was much easier then ZA was and ZA went smoother because we had the same group for the entire run.  This run, we changed people so often and each time there was a change a wipe fest seemed to follow.  If people would just learn to work together (and follow simple things) things would be so much easier.

I complained about low DPS before and I will do it again.  People need to stop looking at their gear score and start wondering what their skill score is.  If you do not have any skill playing your class you will fail horribly.  That is not meant as an insult, it is a fact.

Like the other hunter, like two of the healers that passed through that had all 359 and 372 gear, cool, you got into a guild that carries you in heroic raids, sorry to tell you, you still suck.  Skill is about what you can do, not what you've gotten lucky enough to get down.  So you got a 372 piece of gear or two from doing heroic raids, you still can not grasp the concept to move from the glowing stuff on the ground, despite what your gear says, you are a bad player.

More and more I am noticing that gear level is all that matters.  No one cares about execution any more.  These dungeons prove it.  All these people walk into them with their epeen swinging proudly how they are capable of being in here because they are awesome and in the entire night there I can honestly say I only saw one actual good player in there, it was a healer that lasted with us the longest and left after the first wipe.  He did not have amazing gear at all, in my range item level wise, but we did fantastic when he was there.  Proof that skill is better then gear any day.

The sad part is the DCs in ZG are going to keep me from doing it without guild even on my DPS character because I know I will DC every wipe and that means an instant kick from most pugs, they do not wait 5 minutes like we do and there is no way in hell pugs are going to be one shotting everything this soon after release, give it two weeks before pugs will begin to one shot everything.

I think that run would have been much smoother if the 4th guild member had not DCed at the start requiring us to get another person.

In a strange sort of why however I think of a run like that, for as much hell as it was, as a good thing.  You learn a lot more from failing on a fight then you ever will when you don't.

The people doing the dungeons now are actually learning the mechanics and doing them correctly because they are wiping and they have no choice but to learn it.  In a few weeks when those people know everything it will seem easy for them and someone else will come in and basically get carried and never actually learn the fight because they never wiped or never had the little bits explained because it was no longer needed.

There should be some sort or way to group people up based on experience.  So people that never done things only get grouped with people that never done things and people that did them a million times get grouped with people that did them a million times.

That would be better for the game, it would force others to actually learn and lower the chances of them getting carried and people that know it like the back of their hand will not be stuck having to carry people that do not know it or stuck explaining everything because someone in new. 

Let the new people group with the new people and the experienced people group with the experienced people.  It is not perfect but it is a lot better then it is now.  For last nights failure it is no biggie, we where all learning, I just wish the ability to adapt was a lot faster in some people.  Get in the bubble and stand on the chains when you have the arrow are just extremely hard concepts for some people even when explained 5 times. 

I'm sorry, if you can not do something like walk into a bubble how the hell are you doing heroic raids?

Just asking.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

How Big is Your Spellbook?

In the developer talk they have a nice article about their thoughts on how many spells is the right amount and for the most part I think they hit the nail on the head with their number of four.

Why four?

For DPS they need....
1) Standard damaging ability.
2) Medium damage ability with a short cooldown.
3) High damaging ability limited to 20% or less or a long cooldown.
4) AoE ability.

For Tanks they need...
1) High threat ability.
2) Damage and threat ability.
3) Taunt ability.
4) AoE ability.

For Healers they need...
1) Standard heal.
2) Big, long and cheap heal.
3) Big, short and expensive heal.
4) AoE heal.

Now, I don't know about you but that would be about as simple as it gets and for all intent purposes it is already like that.  However, nothing is ever that simple and should it be?

For healers that is basically all there is but add an HoT there as well.  So it is really five buttons for most of the basic healing stuff.  Heck, for easier healing assignments it could be one.

My last heroic on my Shaman I used my earthshield and riptide on the tank of course because I had to but the only actual heal I used the entire dungeon was healing wave.  That was all that was required.  But wait, earth shield and riptide are not part of my four, so doesn't that mean six?  So even with healers, which would be easy to limit to four spells it will always take more.  My breeze of a heroic still required me to use three and two of those three were not even part of my four.

For DPS limiting to four would be easy as well.  Just four different damaging abilities.  Heck, I have seen hunters doing 14K DPS in heroics and all they ever did was put on a sting, use cobra shot, arcane shot and kill shot after putting on the hunters mark.  Wait, sting, arcane, and hunters mark are not even part of their four.  So even with the brain dead rotation three of the five used are not even part of the four.

Hell, I am not even going to try to think about tanks.  Between having to have entirely different single and multi target rotations they have to have threat abilities for all cases, damage abilities for all cases and taunt abilities for all cases as well as silencing capabilities to round up casters.  There is no way I could even imagine getting them down to four skills.

The concept of four skills however is ideal.  In design that is the perfect number.  I once read an article about how the human mind was best able to remember things if they are placed in groups of threes.  Four is not far off from three so it should be enough to separate the good players from the average players.  The average player would work on the theory of three and the good player would add a forth ability.

Would you really be interested in having all classes whittled down to just four skills for the most part?

Heck, if I had to choose only four for my hunter I would do no damage at all.  Even if I considered all 5 traps and the trap launcher as one thing it would be traps, misdirect, disengage, and feign death.  Darn, I would want to take concussive shot too.  They might all be situational, but that is why the whole four spell thing could never work.  Situational things are better then those four things basic ones, at least for the damage dealing classes.

WoW might never see the day of the super simple four skills but it can surely limit the situational needs if it wanted to but what fun would it be if you never needed to CC, to interrupt, to have mobility, to shine in a way only your class can.

If you where left with only four things to keep what would you keep?

I mentioned what I would keep and I can see the glaring weakness I would have.  I could never kill anything but boy oh boy could I CC and kite it forever and a day.

Hunter Bugs All Over in 4.1

Misdirect does not misdirect to pets.
Feign Death does not drop aggro if you are not in a group.
Targets are not auto selected.
Casting Hunter's Mark pulls some things. (like the first boss of ZG)
There seems to be a half second GCD addition after some abilities.

There were more but they do not seem to pop into mind at the moment.

One bug is something they are calling a feature, the targets are not auto selected thing.  Excuse me?  Because some bad hunters where accidentally pulling packs you have to completely disable our attacks and make us click everything.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick a target out of a pack in a battleground by manually clicking or by tab targeting?

The idea was to stop something like Cobra shot from firing on a different target should its target die while it is in mid cast.  Okay, I am completely fine with that. 

What I am not fine with is if I shoot I want it to automatically find my next target for me.  I'll take it from there on what I should do.  I am a good hunter, my accidental pulls can be counted on one hand per year at most.

Auto target for me and I can tab from there if need be, I just want it to target something, anything.  I do not want to spend the next 3 or 4 seconds, all a DPS loss, trying to find the damn target in a pack or playing with tab that seems to target everything in the room under me, the room over me, the pack on the other side of the wall to my left, the other side of the wall to my right and then decides to target the mob that is standing directly in front of me.

Why exactly was this change done?

There is no reason what so ever for it and in truth it is one of the few reasons that a Hunter is the only DPS character I play.  I like that auto targeting.  I hate casters because I have to do that tab target bull and I will never play a caster seriously because I hate trying to find mobs in the middle of a group.

Mind you, I use a bar addon that manages threat for me and displays things for easy targeting.  When kiting large packs it is fantastic for seeing which add might be about to get away.  I click the large bar (large because I am losing it so it makes it easy for me to get it back) and then shoot away.  So I can target in a pack.  I just choose not to when doing trivial content.  I like letting my auto target take over.

When questing I move with my mouse and click 5 over and over.  It is my arcane shot.  It auto selects the target, usually one shots it, and I keep rolling.  It makes questing extremely quick. 

It is also a nice way to make sure you hit a target while waiting for it to spawn.  Three or four others camping it?  No problem.  Spam arcane shot and the second it starts to spawn you have it tagged without even needing to be watching the screen.

In a busy battle ground auto targeting will usually get you the next target in range when you shoot. 

It is also a fantastic way to get a runner.  Spam concussive shot, the second the runner comes in range it is auto targeted and slowed for others to catch up to them.

There are dozens of reasons why auto target select was amazing.  I can not think of one reason it needed to be removed.

For this reason, it is a bug, not a feature.

Disabling Cobra from finding a new target mid cast is a feature, this is something completely different.

I hope they fix this soon, otherwise I have no intention of raiding on my Hunter again any time soon.  Some fights having it auto target are almost a requirement.

4.1 - The Good and The Bad

I should also say the ugly.

Having no addons to start meant it got really ugly right off the bat.  I popped on my JC first to do the daily and it was the goo.  I figure, no biggie, I'll just do it and then restart with load out of date addons.

Missing all my bars is one thing, if it was a big deal I could have restarted but it was no biggie.  I had enough skills to easily kill mobs on my main bar.  None of the numbers worked at all.  Now that is no fun.  I kept trying to hit numbers and nothing happened.  I had to click everything.  It took some getting used to.

I did both dailies and then restarted.  Now on my hunter with out of date addons enabled.  I was lagging like a mofo.  I rarely if ever lag, I have a solid connection with a good computer.  The game was near unplayable.  One of my guild mates said to disable recount and it would go away.  They where right, it worked.

Now to doing the troll quest line and the ugly continued.  My pet seemed to not be able to hold aggro for anything.  I was even sending the pet first and letting it attack for a couple of seconds.  One autoshot and I had aggro.

I am not used to needing to use MD on every pull, usually a pet can hold something for at least 3 seconds and I can kill nearly any normal mob before it gets to me with that.

Now for the really ugly.  I try using MD and I fire one shot and the mob comes straight for me.  WTF?  I normally would MD to my pet and go about my day, never having any issues because the mob was dead before I ever needed to worry.

I send pet first, wait 3 seconds, MD, fire an auto shot.  The mob comes flying at me again.  Damn, maybe I should switch to my tanking pet.  Might be something with these quest mobs for the troll quests.

After I switch, more of the same happens.  Even my tank pet can not hold a mob from 1 auto shot, with a MD and 3 seconds lead time.

So the mob is coming toward me and I FD and it does nothing.  The mob gets to me and starts beating on my body laying there faking it is dead.  Oh hell no.

I pop open omen, usually I do not keep it open when questing alone with my pet, and go to take a more detailed look at what is going on.

MD does absolutely nothing.  It does not send threat to my pet, it does not even reduce mine.  I get full threat from the first shot after.  MD does nothing what so ever.

I tried it a few times just to make sure and that is exactly what is happening.  MD is dead.  Even sending my pet in and hitting mend pet once was enough to grab aggro from my pet.

Tested FD as well and guess what?  You got it, it does not dump threat at all.  Not after one try, two tries, or three tries, it does nothing what so ever now.

The good part of that ugly news is that it only pertains to pets.  MD and FD seem to be working fine when I am in a group, just not when I am solo any more.  I hope they fix that.

I did my quests for the trolls the old way.  I had to kite every mob.  PvP in my PvE, oh joy.  At least I got some extra PvP style practice.

That was the ugly, the bad was not all that much.  There where annoying bugs like if you die not being able to come back in.  My first random was ZG and the tank pulled the first boss and dropped group, this is why tanks do not deserve any gift bags, to many are like that.  We died, we all DCed, we all took 10 minutes trying to get back into the game.

More bad was it seems my pet now dies every single pull almost.  Not sure why or how, it just always dies.

We got a guild tank and requeued and got ZA.

It worked out a bit better, I would even call it the good.  Over all I think that was a bit easier then the other Cataclysm heroics when I first got to them.  We wiped once on each boss but after seeing it we downed the boss easily the next time.  All but the firehawk guy.  We wiped on him 8 times.  No kidding.

The dungeon was fun and I can see it being pretty much a cake walk in time.  First time through is always a learning experience however.  One time we had killed both the adds on the firehawk guy both times he called them and all the dragonhawks came out at one time.

My recount did not work but someone else told me I was pulling 120K DPS before we wiped.  How awesome is that.  Can you tell I was running as survival?

The good was now I can buy PvP gear with all those previously useless justice points.  Have to love that.  I want to get into PvP more now that I am bored and looking for things to do but being I had so little PvP gear, only two pieces, I did not want to get to deep into it.  I will grind some gear and get going now.  Love that.

There are a lot of other little good things that I liked and lots and lots of undocumented changes I noticed by accident.  All get placed in the good area I would say.

I got a whole mess of achievements when I logged in which is always nice.  My next archeology find will be one of the new rares, which means I finally get my professor title.

Over all, the first day after a major patch like this was not as bad as we have seen in the past.  Some lag issues, some connection issues, but that was about it.  Minor frustration but nothing too bad.

I look forward to getting into ZG again and getting that one done.  Wonder if it will be as easy over all as ZA was.

Over all I would say I am mildly pleased with the patch even if it is not what the game needed to get back on track it was good over all.  Most of the stuff I liked was all undocumented stuff.  I should try making a list and posting them so people can check for themselves.  Trust me, if you look around, there are tons of cool little things done that we heard nothing about.  Cosmetic, sure, nice, yes.  I'll take my good where I can get it nowadays.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Time to Try Something Different.

The last two weeks have been a raiding nightmare for my guild.  We are wiping in all new and interesting ways on things we had no problem with for weeks.  There has to be a reason, not sure what it is however.

Healers are doing better with mana management with more gear.  DPS is getting better over all as people are getting more comfortable with the fights we have been doing for weeks or months.  Tanks are geared better now making them easier to keep up.

All that means good things right?  Nope.

I can blame last Thursdays horror show on magmaw on me.  My camera angle was killing me and I had to play in first person on follow which I am not used to.  So it took me about 6 tries before I got it down to the point where I was not letting parasites get away.  Outside of that, I have no clue what our problem is.

It just adds to my recent hate for the game.  When you start wiping at something that is second nature by now it is no fun.

In an effort to do something different I am setting up a Throne run.  Throne is the only raid my guild has not done yet.  Basically because it does not seem like a fun fight and it is only two bosses which makes it more of a waste of time then a raid.  Add to that the fact that there is no real loot table and it is all random loot and it makes for a very unappealing raid.

Unappealing or not, I need to change something up and that means going there.

Sometimes you just need to change things up or they get stale, like this whole expansion feels, so I'll make use of the Throne raid just to change things up.

The last time we where having some issues I switched raids and we did fine for a while.  Maybe this will work to give us a kick in the butt again.

I am not sure what to do to motivate the people any more.  They all seem as frustrated with the game as I do and you can see it in the performance.  There is no way the same group of people can go into the same content they have been downing for months now and not be able to down anything two weeks in a row.

It is burn out completely.  Maybe it is me rubbing off on them.  I do not express my displeasure to them the way I do here.  My blog was made for me to vent.  I lead positively in game, I complain here.  I try to always stay upbeat and positive for the group, it is just getting really hard now.

It is definitely time to try something different.

Wish me luck, I really dread the idea of Throne.  It just does not seem like fun at all and the last thing I need in this game is more crap that is not fun.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Something to do... Tomorrow

Tomorrow is patch day and I am looking forward to it.  Lately I only log on out of habit, not because I want to.  I've logged on to raid and other such things and dreaded every minute of if.  I only do it because I am the raid leader and I have to.

You know things are bad in game when you are the raid leader and you start hoping that people do not show up so you can cancel the raid.

The patch is coming and it will give a little life for a few days at least I am sure and then things will be back to normal.  Nothing to do.  But here is to hoping that the new heroics will help some more people gear up so pugging becomes more of an option again.

I am going to get a handful of achievements the second I log in tomorrow so being I am an achievement hunter that is fun but is it really hunting when I am getting them after the fact?

The last few days have been hell for me not wanting to play but feeling forced to play.

Thursday night I was having issues with camera angle which made playing near hell.  I had to put the camera on follow and bring it super close in.  Being I do not normally play this way it made my life hell.  Now, try kiting parasites like that.  Not fun I tell you.

That was the icing on the cake for me.  I have not been having fun playing for a long time and now because of some odd issue I get sometimes where everything behind me obstructs my view it made the game near unplayable.  It usually goes away on its own.  I have no clue why it happens.

Friday I logged on to do rated battleground, no one showed, I logged off after sitting in stormwind for an hour doing nothing.  If you have read my blog you know that sitting in stormwind doing nothing is like death to me.  I hate doing that.  If I am online I am on to play, not to sit in stormwind.  I just did not want to do anything else.  I only logged on for the rated battlegrounds and no one showed.

Saturday I had a throwback raid set up for Black Temple so I logged in for that, we ran it, it was fun, we got a legendary for one of the guild members, then I logged off after making my Vial of Sand for my hunter.

Sunday, I logged in only to do my jewelcrafting dailies on my druid and my warrior and someone in my guild needed some enchants and caught me so I did them for him and then popped on to my hunter and flew around stormwind for about 10 minutes as my new drake self and then logged off.

Tonight is raid night.  So I will hope and pray that my camera angle is working or it will be another raid night from hell and it will have me hoping that no one shows so I can cancel the raid.

This was a weekend where everything that has been building up in the game came to a head for me.  If it weren't for a force of habit (jewelcrafting dailies) or sense of responsibility (raid leader) I would have quit playing this weekend. 

This patch is not going to fix the problem but at least it will give me something to do and hopefully help me find renewed interest in the game.

You see, the reason the game sucks so bad now is my own fault.  I made it suck for me.  I only have one DPS character I play at end game, my hunter.  The other 85s are just there for the sake of leveling them and their professions, I do not play them really. 

All the other characters I play often at end game, shaman (healer), druid (tank/healer), priest (healer/healer), and warrior (tank) are all either tanks or healers meaning I do not run randoms with them.  So I have to wait for a guild run that needs them to fill in, which is few and far between.

My main, the DPS character, has not needed valor points for the better part of three and a half months.  So no randoms for him as well.

This leaves me with no randoms I feel compelled to do and because of the "difficulty" level I won't drag other DPS characters along.  Unlike most people I will not random unless I know I am good at what I do and I know I suck at being a Rogue even if compared to some others I've seen I would be considered great.  At least back in wrath they where so stupid easy that if I were bored I would run my mage or rogue through them just for something to do.  Now, I will not bother with that.

At least back then I was willing to random with a tank or healer once in a while because they where so laughable I knew that the worst that could happen is a wipe or two but it would still only be 15 minutes of my life wasted.

There are no pugs on my server unless you want to count everyone and their mother pugging BoT trash for epics because everyone wants to run with guild only now for the most part and the content is not completely puggable for the average player.

I sometimes get an invite to some of the top guilds runs if their house hunter is not around but usually they seem to be doing the one my guild is doing that week which means I can not go.

Being most guilds are doing 10s now instead of 25s they have to worry about group make up so even if they wanted my 20K DPS I don't get an invite because they already have a guild hunter in and even if I am better than their guild hunter they have to take them first, which I agree with 110%, always take guild first.  That just leaves me with nothing to do raid wise.

I made my own bed and that is why the game is boring now.

I refuse to run heroics with my many tanks and healers, so I have nothing to do with them.

I do not run heroics with my hunter because I do not need anything, even if I could for fun if I wanted to.

I do not run with my other DPS characters because I am not as good on them and can not get fantastic DPS out of them, I could do heroics and let other people do all the work like everyone else does but that is not me.

I will not leave my guild because I like the people, which means my raid progress will always be middle of the pack at best.

I can not pug into heroic raids because I have not even finished the normal ones yet and no one is pugging normals but their are some people occasionally looking for someone for heroics that has full normal experience and that is not me sadly.

See, Cataclysm sucks for me.  While it is in part Cataclysm's fault it is also in part my fault.

I could do things to make the game fun again, I just do not want to.

Perhaps I need to change the way I play being the way the game is played changed.

I'll try when the patch comes out tomorrow.  Maybe it can help me find a way to enjoy the game again.  I doubt it however.

I am just going to have to open myself up to pugging with my tanks and healers.  I mean, in the end, all I have are a bunch of tanks and healers and I am not using them.

I'll have to change the way I play the game if there is any chance of me ever finding any joy in the game again.

One thing will not change however.

I will never sit around stormwind and do nothing.  That is the most retarded thing in the world to do.  If you pay to play a game play it.  Do not sit in stormwind all day long, go out and play it.

Darn, I'll have to do that if I want to pug.  Fuck, I'm screwed.

I guess it will just be going back to doing things out of habit.

Log on for JC dailies.
Log on for raids we should be doing better at but don't.
Log on for rated battleground no one shows up for.
Log on hoping someone needs a tank or healer for a random.

Log off disappointed that there is nothing for me to do in a game I used to enjoy passing the time playing and now feels more like a job then fun.

How I miss stupid easy heroics that I would have been willing to tank and heal for idiots or been willing to bring one of my sub par classes, like rogue, into one.  They gave me something to do.  I miss having something to do.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Aggro: A Love Story

Aggro is a fickle mistress.  A relationship with her is like a game of cat and mouse.  The more you try to keep her from noticing you the more she will chase you.  The more you try to get her attention, she will try and escape you.

Reese, a dwarf just trying to find his way, has been flirting with aggro since he was a wee one.  When he was just a boy his father took him out to teach him how to fire a rifle.  Most of his early years where spent trying to target critters on the mountain side from as far as he could.  He got good at it but never met aggro until later.

He did not meet aggro for the first time until he was older and his father had taken him out hunting a real target.  While hunting some boar he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, what seemed like something looking at him while his father wrestled the boar that he had shot.

His father explained to him that what he felt was aggro.  The feeling thrilled and frightened him at the same time.  Who was this aggro, why was she looking at him, why couldn't he see her but he could feel her. 

He continued to hunt with his father for a few years and became a very good shot.  Almost always hitting his target.  As time went on and he got better with his gun he felt as if aggro was looking at him more and more often.  As his skills increased her attention to him seemed to get higher.  Each time she would look at him he would feel a bit frightened and tried everything he could to redirect her attention from him to someone else, anyone else. 

As soon as her attention was gone he would feel a little empty, as if he had lost something he really wanted.  This game of flirting bewtween Reese and aggro went on for a few years until one day when he felt aggro with full force coming at him.  Still young and not understanding what to do he ran and hid.  His father found him some hours later cowering in the ram pen behind the feed bin.  Rifle still in hand, trembling hand that is.

As part of his training, perhaps a bit earlier then expected, his father sent him away to learn from the priests about the art of healing.  While there he would learn the arts of the preservation of life.  No matter what he would choose to do in life it is dwarven rule that all people understood all aspects of life from hunting, to farming, to medic, to battle, you name it.  No dwarf would ever enter the world not understanding, at least in part, every aspect of life.

Instructor Simmons began teaching the new recruits the simple spells that they would need in simple situations.  Reese thought the instructor seemed a little off but could not place it.  Perhaps it has something to do with the strange hand gestures he would make whenever he would cast a spell.  He would yell out, okay, everyone try a greater heal now and don't forget the jazz hands.  He was a strange man, someone unlike anyone Reese had ever met before.

One night thinking back to hunting with his father he remembered the feeling he had when aggro was chasing him.  Full of fear but also exhilarated at the same time.  It seemed to him that while learning here he would never get that feeling again.  From his standpoint aggro would never find him doing jazz hands interesting enough to focus on him.  He was not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing but based on his last experience with aggro and remembering the fear, a good thing it would be.

A few years had passed and Reese had become quite good with his studies, he was even an honor student.  Professor Simmons even told him to start calling him Richard.  That is how well he became as the art of healing.  He had not felt the aura of aggro in a long time, so long that he had almost forgotten what it felt like.

Aggro however had just been hiding for a while.  One day while out and about with some people from the school they where ambused by some Troggs and while fighting them he had the feeling of aggro wash over him again.  But I am doing jazz hands, I am not hurting anyone, why is aggro watching me.  Why does she still want me, he asked himself.

The feeling was not the same as it was the last time he felt aggro bearing down on him however.  It was almost thrilling and not quite as frightening as it was before. 

Some months later, after a few adventures, he had flirted on and off with aggro again and liked it.  She would chase him, he would hide, she would leave.  The cat and mouse game went on and on for a while when he made the decision that he had learned enough here and was going to return home.

He started to do some work on the farm for his father when he arrived home. Soon after returning he met a sweet, by dwarven terms at least, girl.  Her father was a well known warrior in the area, she worked the store back home where she sold some of the good he collected while out adventuring.

As a few years past they became closer and fell in love but Reese never stopped flirting with aggro.  He would often see aggro while chasing the wolves from the livestock but it was always a slight feeling, as if aggro was only peeking at him from behind a tree.  It had gotten to the point where if a day would go by without seeing aggro he would look for her.  Of course, as soon as he found her he would try to lose her again but the day did not feel complete without a date with aggro.

One day while visiting his girlfriend at her shop she told him that if they where ever to be together that he would need to learn the ways of the warrior.  No man would ever be allowed to take her hand without learning how to be a warrior, her father would not allow that.

The next weekend he set out on an adventure with her father and watched.  He did not participate at all but her father was an amazing fighter.  Even if he was in a group with four others he would tackle all the beasts himself and let the others take them down while he held them.

When they got home Reese asked him about why he would put himself in such a position where he could so easily die.  He explained that there was something exhilarating about it that he could not explain but he tried.  Listening to him explain he thought to himself that what he was describing sounded a great deal like aggro and the feeling aggro would give him.

He started to train with his girlfriends father the very next day and his world changed instantly.  He spent his whole life trying to escape the attention of aggro and now he was seeking it.  When he was trying to get away from it he never could, it would always find him.  Now that he was chasing it, it was always trying to leave him.

Aggro was indeed a fickle mistress.  When you do not want her their, she will find you.  When you want to hold her and keep her, she will try to get away.  It was a dance, a dance he had decided he liked.  It was more fun chasing aggro then running from it.

He decided, this was his destiny, he would be a warrior and he would embrace aggro.  He would hold aggro close and soak up every minute he got to have with her.  The fear from when he was just a wee one would once in a while come back but it was filled with excitement now, even if it were a state of fear.  It had changed because now he wanted aggro's attention.

He noticed that his true love, the one he always wanted to be with, was aggro.  Because of this, he never proposed to his girlfriend, they just dated, and dated, and dated, for years.

Her father when to his father one day to ask why Reese had not asked for his daughters hand in marriage yet.  Reese's father did not know but assured him that he would find out and make sure that his son would do the right thing by his daughter.

That night when Reese came home his father asked him about her.  Reese explained his whole story.  How he had been flirting with aggro for such a long time, since he was a kid and they were hunting.  How aggro followed him to school, how aggro would always follow him and how he fell in love with aggro while learning to be a warrior with her father.

He explained to his father that he is in love with aggro.  That is all he can ever think about.  How now that he is seeking aggro it always seems like aggro is trying to get away from him.  He was afraid that there was no place in his life for marriage if he was going to be spending so much time chasing aggro.

Reese watched his father stare into the flames as he sat in front of the fireplace.  He told Reese to sit down and wait for him while he went to get some refreshments.  His father got up and picked up two steins, filled with to the top with brew and came back handing one to Reese and sitting back down with the other.

"Do you lover her?" he asked Reese. 
"Of course I do." he responded. 

Reese did love her, she was the only woman he had ever felt connected to. It was his love of aggro that kept him from proposing to her.

His father thought for a moment and smiled looking at his son with a twinkle in his aged eyes as if he were remembering something from his very own youth.

"So you say you love aggro and you love her, am I getting this right son?"
"Yes pappy."

His father laughed loudly, finished his brew, got up and slapped his son on the back.

"If you love aggro son, marry a dwarf woman, you'll have more aggro then you know what to do with."

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Opinion vs. Fact

I won't pretend to say I know everything about smite healing, I read a lot and have read some things for and against it.  I do know however how I feel about it and where I consider it useful.

In a PuG raid I was in over the weekend on my hunter one of the healers, who thought he was gods gift to the game, don't you love those people, was talking about how great smite healing was.  I mentioned that I was glad that more spells where being added to it and he agreed.

Later he went on to say, while others where asking him about it, that smite healing is the best way to heal five man dungeons.

I immediately disagreed.  I said, I believe in a group with all ranged DPS is it great otherwise it is not very effective. 

I said that not based on only opinion mind you but based on fact.  Apparently he did not like being disagreed with.

Being I disagreed he of course said "apparently you know nothing about smite healing" to which I had to put him in his place. 

I pointed out my very own disc priest with a disc(smite)/disc spec.  Proving I knew both of them.

You have to love people that when you disagree with them their first line of defense is that you know nothing.  They never say any facts to back up their belief that you do not know what they are talking about, they just say you don't and hope it will fly. 

Most people in game do not fight back with facts and they get away with it.  That is how people like this get the idea that they are great and know everything because no one has ever put them in their place before.  This guy had never met me.

So I started a simple fact.that smite healed the closest, neediest target which can sometimes be a pet, a blood worm, another melee, you name it.  In a group with three ranged and no melee pets smite healing is perfect for a heroic as it will always hit the tank.

He said, you (meaning me) really don't understand how it works.  It is better if everyone is melee.

I said, again, the fact that you can not target your heal from the smite, so having so many targets means the tank might not get the heal.  If I have a melee and a tank that are both low on health my priority will always be the tank, smites priority might not agree with me which means it becomes an ineffective heal.

Melee takes too much incidental damage that they will always be a possible target for the heal when you really want the tank to be getting the heal.  If you have any melee you are better off throwing a direct heal on the tank just to make sure it gets to them.

He said I was wrong and that the smite heal would always get the tank and be enough to keep the tank up even if the group is all melee.  Did something change that I do not know about because that sure as hell is not how mine ever works.

I went on to say that ranged routinely take less damage to begin with so with all ranged the smite healing always hitting the tank it is the best situation for smite healing.

Of course he went back to the good old standby.  Not the range I have met, they all suck and take more damage.  I said, then run with guild and stop running with bad players.

Hey, one good cliche deserves another and I was getting tired of dealing with someone that was trying to force his opinion down peoples throat as a fact.

I am not even sure what he said would count as opinion.  It is a fact that the smite heal will not always hit the tank.  Me saying I like to use it with all ranged is my opinion on when it is best used.  There might be better places for it or other useful places for it.  Him saying it always hits the tank in a melee group is wrong.  It is not even an opinion, it is flat out wrong.

Normally when I am in a PuG I keep my mouth shut, stay on top of the damage done meter and on bottom of the damage taken meter and basically just do my job.  This just seemed to get under my skin.

Why is it that people do not actually know how an ability works before trying to give advice on it and trying to pass it off as fact?  Even if I am sure my opinion was fact I still prefaced what I said with "I believe".  I did not pretend to know everything.

If it had just been a conversation about the ability I would have never jumped in but the questions where coming from another priest that was interested in trying it and I could not let this person keep filling them with the delusions that smite and smite only can keep up a tank and three melee in a heroic.  It can't, that is a fact.  When we over gear it like we over geared heroics at the end of wrath it might be fine but not now.

My opinion is that smite healing is fun and I will use it every chance I get.  If I heal a normal for guild I smite heal.  It is usually enough to keep everyone up, even in a melee group, and if the tank needs a little direct loving I hit them with a penance or greater heal after I hit atonement and all is well.

The fact is that bad players can still be dressed in all 359 and 372 epics.  This guy proved that.

How can someone get that far in game playing a role and still having no clue how their abilities work?

I won the argument.  They stopped arguing their opinion because I presented the facts that disproved what they where trying to state as fact.  I did it respectfully, no name calling, no cursing, no insulting them for their opinion even if I knew it was wrong.  Heck, I never even called them out saying they where wrong.  I only said I disagreed.

Either way, I did not change them.  They where still elitist pricks that don't know what they are doing and think that because they are wearing epic gear they know more then everyone else around them.  They will go on thinking what they think and I will go on thinking what I think. 

At least at the end of the game play day I know that I made my point and never had to result to using a line like "apparently you know nothing about smite healing."

I'm sorry, but if you have to start the defense of your opinion with a line like that, you lost before you even got started no matter what your gear score might tell you.

Word of acvice, if you are ever going to go toe to toe with someone like that, make sure you did do not have anything for them to pick on because then no matter what facts you have, they will never get over the fact that there is something they can pick on you for.

I got away with it because I had the right gear, spec, gems, enchants, lead in damage done, was last in damage received, and was the only person that had not messed up even one mechanic.  If anything was wrong with any of that, I would have lost that conversation because everything I said would have been replied to with, well at least I don't have a hit gem, or something like that.

Remember, bad players will always pick on you if you make even one mistake.  Never let them get the chance. 

If you are DPS, do not let lack of gear scare you.  As long as you can beat them on the damage charts no bad players with great gear will ever mention your gear out of fear that you will respond, if my gear is so bad how come I am beating you by 4K DPS.  They will never open themselves to getting hit with a line like that.

Sometimes the bad players at the top of the game are worse then the bad players at the bottom.  The bad players at the top of the game think that smite can keep a tank and three melee at full health in a heroic.

God I hate PuGs.

Monday, April 18, 2011

What Class Is Best?

I hear it all the time, what class is the best to solo with.  What class is the best to tank with.  What class is the best to heal with. What class is the best for DPS.

Want me to let you in on a little secret here?
Any class is the best for anything providing you are good at it.

Sure, some classes and combos are not as ideal for some things such as soloing.  I am not about to go soloing heroics on my Disc Priest but I can do it on my Hunter.  Outside of that, all classes are basically created equal when it comes to anything that is not soloing.

If you put the time and effort into learning your class and get good at it and I do not just mean a rotation and the such but knowing everything your class can do then you can get the maximum potential out of it.

So whatever the flavor of the month DPS class is I can go and play it and read everything and gem and enchant and gear appropriately and I will still never pull the numbers I do with my Hunter.

Does that mean my hunter is that much better?  Absolutely not.

But it does mean that I would be better playing my Hunter then I would be playing a flavor of the month class.

In the end, the best class for you is the one you know the best.  Every person has the ability to be good at what they do if they put the effort into it.

I've seen so many ret paladins complaining about how they are messed up bad in PvE now.  I would love to see them try and explain why I've had groups with ret paladins doing 15K single target DPS if they are so messed up.  That seems like a pretty solid number to me.

The thing is they are just better at playing that class.  Sure, if they could apply that same level of skill to a hunter they could perhaps do 18K instead of 15K but there is factor in there that most people that ask that question never consider.  How long did it take that person to get that good?

I've played with a few people that are really good at picking up on things and can switch classes and in a week be ruling the game on their new flavor of the month class.  Most people need more time then that.

I can do that on my Hunter because I have probably spent more time playing Hunters then any other class in the game, most likely more then every other class combined to be more accurate.

When asking what is easiest to level people love to say hunter and I would be hard pressed not to agree.  However, that is because I play a hunter.  If you where a first time player I don't actually think a hunter is a very good starting class.

Pet control for one, you will get yourself killed so often from a pet that decides to bring friends if you are not careful.  No healing is another bad part of hunters.  Hunters are not really a starting class.  Easy to level if you know what you are doing?  Yes.  Easy to level otherwise?  Not as much as other classes.

All things being equal, the class you take the time to learn is always going to be the easiest one.

Even the much maligned mage is misunderstood.  One button wonder right?  Not exactly.  Sure you can throw out some decent numbers doing that but does that mean mages are easier then other classes?  No way.

There is a big difference from spamming one button and doing 8K DPS, fine for a heroic, and doing the right thing with the same gear and pulling 16K.  That one button can get you by for some content, but there are a lot more to do then just that.

So that brings us to the root question, what class is best?

The answer is actually simpler then you would imagine.

The class you like to play is the best class in the game.

If you like playing a class you will always be better at it.  If you like playing a class you will make efforts to learn to get better.  If you like playing a class you will do anything you can to make that class shine when you play it. 

Whatever class you like to play, that is the best class in the game.  For you.

If you think warrior tanking is hard it is not because it is hard, it is just because you have not taken the time to learn it.  Once you do, it is as easy as any other type of tanking. 

Personally I suck at my Rogue.  I read the guides, I know the rotation, I know what to do, how to do it, how to gear, enchant, gem, you name it.  I just suck. 

The reason I suck is not because I am not capable of being good, it is just because I do not like the class.  Maybe I could get past that by trying harder but I will never in a million years reach my maximum potential if I do not like the class. 

The key to success in any class is enjoying it.

So while you might roll a priest to help your guild out healing you might get good enough to get by but you will never be half as good at it as you are on whatever your main is unless you like doing it.

Enjoying what you are doing is the most important thing.

I do not enjoy Rogues so mine sits at 85 and sometimes I bring him out to join in on a random as a 5th or to do some skinning.  He just sits and rots otherwise.  Even if something changed in game where Rogues where the #1 over all DPS by a buttload I would not play it.  I would never reach those numbers, not because I do not have the skill but because I do not like playing it.  Trust me, it shows when you do not like playing a class.

Whenever someone answers a best class question they are answering based on their own personal opinions.  There is no real best class.

If I Made An MMORPG - Part 3

Now for Part 3 in a series of things I would like to do if I made an MMORPG.
You can check out part 1 and part 2 if you would like.

I touched on the classes in an earlier part but I did not touch on the roles.  My MMORPG would break the mold of the holy trinity.  No more do you enter a dungeon like in WoW with your Tank, Healer and DPS.  Some games have added a 4th class to the mix calling it a support class.  Either way, I think both designs are flawed.

All classes can do all roles.  To an extent that is.  Good group make up will still be needed and some classes will be better than others at some things of course but every class would be capable of doing all roles effectively.

The concept of that is controlled by the players usage of their abilities.  Each ability would have multiple uses depending on what your stance is

For example, extremely simplified that is.

Lets say you have an ability called Power Strike, depending on the stance you are in it will react differently.  Everything would be based off attack power, even spells.

Main Tank Stance: Generate aggro based on attack power and add a shield based on aggro generated.
DPS Tank Stance: Attack based on attack power and add to tanks aggro based on damage done.
Healer Tank Stance: Attack based on attack power and heal tank based on damage done.
Tank Support Stance: Attack based on attack power and add to the tanks shield based on damage done.
DPS Support Stance: Attack based on attack power and debuff the mob based on damage done.
Healer Support Stance: Attack based on attack power and AoE heal based on damage done.
Main DPS Stance: Attack based on attack power.
Healer DPS Stance: Attack based on attack power and a percentage of damage done heals lowest life party member.
Healer Stance: Attacks based on attack power and all damage done to target is reassigned to heal those in group by a percentage of the damage done.

Of course that is not saying any numbers or anything but the idea is everyone is actually DPSing.  Tanks DPSing do aggro, Healers DPSing heal for what would have been the damage they would have done and support classes assist in various ways based on the damage they do.

This allows the most popular style of play, DPS, to be the same way you play all roles.  Sure, healers, support and tanks will not have the numbers of DPS, but each fight will require different things.

Some fights you might want to assign the people with the highest attack power to tank being it converts to aggro and the mob is a hard mob to control.  Some fights you might want the highest attack power to heal because you know there is a lot of damage coming in.  Some fights you might want the highest attack power to run support so they can do both damage and healing and buffing and redirecting agrro all at a good rate.

It would make group makeup both easier and harder.  Maybe you have to run some fights with all support set for AoE heals.  Maybe you have to run some fights with all healers doing small damage.  You get the idea.

It leaves a huge amount open for game design because you do not need to design raids around the 2 tank, 2 healer, 6 DPS idea.  You can have fights where 8 healers and 2 tanks are needed.  You can have some fights where you just need DPS and some support AoE heals.

Your gear would be the same for all specs.  All spells you know would have a version of itself for all stances.  If the tank goes down for some reason anyone else can pick up tanking.  If heals are needed anyone else can switch to healing.  All by switching stances.  It would make raiding so much more dynamic.

It would also mean that unlike all other games, heals can miss.  Which I think is an exciting difference.  Being you need to attack to generate the heal, if the attack misses there is no heal.  I love that idea.

People will still fall into the roles they like but they would all be able to fit any role if need be.  So if a looking for dungeon system was designed it would never run into the problem that WoW has.  If someone did not like the query as DPS then they could choose tank or healer or support to get a group faster.

While, at first, this might seem that this would make all classes basically the same it will not.  Some classes will generally be better at some things then others.  But all classes will be capable of anything.

Also, how things are done would be differently.  While a warriors tanking might up their armor rate so they get hit for less a Rogue tanking will dodge more to avoid damage and a priest tanking would shield themselves to absorb damage.  So for one role, three different classes go about it three different ways.

It would still come down to how good the player is, even more so with this sort of balance.

While tanking do I do an ability that will triple my threat for the next 20 seconds or am I about to get hit and need to do an ability that does threat while upping my armor some.  If it is going to be a huge hit maybe I should do my armor only ability because I have a solid enough threat lead.

While DPSing do I do something to up my attack speed now or wait until later.  Do I need to help the tank with threat, the healer with heals.

While healing can I get away with some DPS.  Do I need to throw heavy single heals or small targeted ones.  Maybe AoE is the way to go with some damage at the same time.

For support.  Should I keep the debuff on the boss, the buff on us, the healer help, the tank help or just DPS outright while building up a bigger buff.

If anything, this would surely be a bring the player type of design.  There would be no 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, occasional 1 and 5 rotations.  Nothing would be that simple.

Not even a wipe would be simple.  Healer went down, everyone switch to AoE healing while doing damage.  Maybe one person go to dedicated healing.  Tank is having issues, redirect all the help you can to them now.  It is an amazing idea that should be adopted by some MMORPG out there but I doubt it ever will.  It is just too good for them.

Part 4 coming soon...

ICC - Better at 85

This is the tale of two runs.  One was a guild run with 8 people that had never done ICC, or at least never finished it.  The other was a PuG into an ICC 25 heroic, which I was biting at the bit to do being I never did ICC 25 heroic.

First the facts.

Like it or not ICC was the most successful raid ever.  More people saw the content while it was current then any other raid content before.  This meant that it was easy enough for most people to feel a part of the game.  That is a good thing, accessibility is the key to success for a game.

Community in the game is falling like a rock and the ease of ICC for its pugability meant that there were always community groups being made.  This was the last bastion of community and I would like to see it return.  On my server now the only thing they pug is trash runs for epic drops in BoT.  How sad is that?

As much as most people will never admit it, ICC was a lot harder then anyone gives it credit for.  On my server, which sucks I admit, no guild ever downed 25 heroic until everyone was 85.  It was like that on many servers.  Heck, I remember reading about some servers that did not get a 10 man normal clear until after everyone was 85.  Finally a server that makes me feel good about mine.

As a matter of fact I would be willing to bet that less then 1% of players in the game would have been able to do ICC 25 heroic, or 10 strict heroic, without the buff.  1% is probably too high even, more like 0.1% would have been able to do it.  People love to say that ICC was a cake walk but it wasn't a cake walk.  It was extremely challenging content if you didn't use the buff. 

Take away the buff and I bet you that even at 85 a huge percentage of players, probably upwards of 85%, would not be able to do ICC 25 man heroic even now with ease.  It would still be a challenge.  More challenging then any content current considered end game, normal mode at least. 

This isn't about difficulty however, this is about ICC as a training tool for new raiders.  Giving the background and showing the actual difficultly for most was important to my rambling that I have coming up, if you managed to say with me that long that is.

I joined in on a ICC 25 man heroic on my main, the hunter, being I had never gotten the chance to do heroic 25 with my hunter.  We stopped at 9/12 in 25 man when we did not have enough to do 25s any more and just moved to 10 man because it was easier to assemble.

I join up and notice it is not a fresh run.  No big deal, all I need is the King for my Light of Dawn title.  They are up to Sindy and after a horrible wipe on heroic where the iced people decided it would be smarter to stand in the middle of the group, and then run with them while they where trying to get away, caused nearly 90% of the raid to get frozen.  I did not get frozen.  I ended up dying from the blast because I could not get behind the giant wall of ice.

They switch to normal.  We barely down it.  By barely I mean there was one fantastic tank, 2 healers, me and 2 other DPS, that did the last 20% by ourselves.  Go go 30% buff and amazing DPS.  I wish I could do that all the time.

We switch to heroic and go after the King.  It is a horrible wipe fest.  No one does anything right.  One of the raid leaders asks everyone if they have any experience.  Most all do.  Just 2 people that never faced him at any point.  Most say, and we all know how honest people are, that they just never did it on this character.

They ask if everyone has DBMs.  They ask over all experience in raids.  Seems 4 of the people are 12/12 current 4 more are at least 9/12 current. Everyone is at least 1/12 in current content.  So, from the raid leaders standpoint, that means that this should be easy.  If people can down even one boss at current content then doing a boss we outlevel and outgear should be easy.

Apparently they do not subscribe to my school of thought.  ICC 25 heroic is still, even with this level and gear, more of a challenge for a pug then current normal content.

We wipe, wipe and wipe again before the raid leader says he is getting tired.  They just want to get it done so they are going to switch to normal and bang it out easy.  All this time we take 15 minutes between each pull.  Each time we need to hear how super awesome everyone that assembled this is and every one else in the game sucks because they can not do simple content.  Meanwhile, they are all failing too, but of course they would never realize that.

The most satisfying thing was that we wiped on normal.  Not once, not twice, but three time before they called it quits.  Why exactly would I say that is satisfying?  Because seeing people with that attitude fail is the greatest feeling in the game. poetic justice if you will.

Of course, they will always blame everyone else but themselves, but so be it.  Everyone there knows the truth and it proved one thing for sure.  Just because people can down current content does not mean they can down LK.  It is harder then people give it credit for.  Sure, it is just a matter of simple mechanics but isn't every fight like that?

Now to my guild run.  A totally different experience from the 25 man.  My guild run was made for the sole purpose to get people achievements and get some people that never had a chance to get into ICC and down the King.

When the group started we had 2 people that had done it all before, both on different characters, one being me tanking on my warrior, his first time ever in there.  Four people that had never been past 6/12 and last but not least four people that never stepped foot into ICC.

Mind you, we did not do heroics, we did normal, with the buff.  I explained all the fights in a lot more detail than I needed to for sure.  I even explained mechanics that we could actually ignore, but ignoring them was not my agenda.  That you will find out later.

We one shot everything up to the King.  People that had never been there reacted like pros.  Like they had done it 100 times before.  This was because of the "grace" of the extra health and extra gear and of course, explaining everything and calling everything out.

Anyone that remembers their first time on the King will remember that by the time you actually got to him gear was not an issue any more.  You could blow him away.  It was always about execution. That is all that mattered.

I explained, we pulled, we wiped, we laughed.  We had a fun time, we explained what went wrong, we refined tactics, we went at it again a few times and wiped a few times more.

I called it a night and told everyone we would come back and down him the next night.  We did exactly that.  Missing a few people so we call someone else in with some experience in the fight but basically it was still all people that where new or in a different role.

Someone else had to drop and we pulled in a friend from one of the top guilds on the server.  After two wipes he said to me in whisper, just ignore the valks, you will lose someone but you will get it done.

I replied.  I would rather wipe 10 more times then do that.  I am trying to teach these people mechanics and by ignoring mechanics they will never learn.  Switch to Valks.

We ended up downing it two tries after that.  8 of the 10 people there got their achievement.  We all had a good time.  We laughed about the wipes, remember running into the orb, I was like OMG.  To which I replied, Hence the reason I said avoid the orbs, well now we all know.  We laughed about it.  Things like that are what made this run great.

We got some experience for a few people that never had a chance to do it before and introduced a few people to the basic concept of raids as a whole.  Move away when you have this, move to this place when you have that, switch to adds, you know, the same exact thing we experience in every raid ever.

The difference is, the margin for error in a lot wider in ICC and as a training tool it is fantastic for people new to raiding.  It is still hard enough that if you do something really stupid you will pay but it is easy enough that if you make a mistake you can recover from it.

ICC became boring as sin at 80.  At 85, it becomes a tool for raid leaders to break in new players.  It becomes fun again because for you it is not really a challenge.  Explaining it has become second nature.  The few can make up for the ones just learning.

For a fresh tank it is an excellent idea of where to learn raid tanking.  For a healer it is a great way to understand raid healing without as much of a panic mode people die in a couple of seconds like current raids are.

You know the biggest thing this taught me?  That it is better to wipe a few times on LK training new people that are willing to learn then it is to wipe with a group of people that call each other names because they can't do content they where doing at 80.

Proof positive that ICC can be a training tool.  A group of 25 people that where heroic minded and with tons of experience spent 3 hours wiping and could not even down the boss on normal whereas a group of 10 people, mostly brand new to the instance or raiding in general, wiped, learned, and downed it in less then 1/2 that time.

Maybe those 25 elite raiders, just ask them, they will tell you how awesome they are, should all come along on one of my ICC training runs because I do not care if you can down 12/12 current content, apparently they still have lots of room to learn and get better.

I'm liking ICC better at 85 then I ever did at 80.  It is the ultimate raid leaders tool.  To teach players, to test out new applicants, the learn playing a new class better, to just have some fun and believe it or not, a challenge, just click off the buff and have fun.

I never thought I would say it, but I really like ICC now.  Doesn't change the fact I wish there were more Ulduar like raids out there.  I hope we have one like that this expansion.  That was the best raid ever.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Intellect Plate Makes Me Cry - A New Hero?

We have no, raid ready, holy paladins in my guild.  Yes, I know it sucks.  Every time we down a raid boss and some sort of plate drops with intellect on it we have to almost cry.  To make matters worse, we had no enchanters in our raid last week.  So there was me saying, okay everyone roll for 24 gold.

As speculation would have it the next expansion would be the hero expansion if they decide to go that way again.  If they do decide to do that I would love to see something made that helps fill the holes in the game, gear wise at least.

A plate class that wears only intellect plate would be a fantastic addition for many reasons.

1) There would be someone to use the least used armor in the game.
2) An intellect plate class would mean another healer.
3) It could mean a new type of tank.
4) If it where just a tank and heal hero class it would solve the LFD drama.

What I am thinking would be something like what a paladin should have been.  A caster with plate.  Honestly someone with strength gear on throwing a heal while in prot or ret seems about as out of place, if not more, than a Hunter shooting volley.

If they really wanted to remove a Hunters use of mana, and volley, because it felt unnatural they should have removed the Paladins use of strength because it, as well, feels unnatural.  Being that is not going to happen the new hero class could easily fill that space.

I would figure the talent tree could be something along the line of design like a Priest.  Two healing spec and a Tanking spec, as opposed the the shadow spec.

The first healing spec would be single target centric, the other would be multi target centric.  Being there are so many healers that people are saying feel the same now something new would need to be done to make them more unique however and how would we go about that?

Well, first we would need to step back and find out who is this healer / healer / tank that will be wearing intellect plate in our groups.

There are many possible candidates in the game already but being the next expansion should bring us to a new world (I hope, instead of giving us more of the same) we can introduce a new type of class.  Remember, we need to have a reason for this being a hero class just like there was a reason there were death knights running all over northrend.

I am going to call our new class Shadow Walkers because I am not sure what else they could be.  They will be some sort of bastard child of a priest and a paladin reborn.  They are the natural inhabitants of this world.

As we where coming the help beat back the forces of evil in this new place they decided to help us in the best way they can while we use our sizable power (DPS) to kill the ones they have not been able to.  They offer us support in the best way they could think to.  They hold the bad guys back (tank) while we kill them and heal us as needed.

This would give us some background as to who they are and why they act in the rolls they act.

When they tank they will tank in a shadow state like the shadow priest does when DPSing.  Unlike all other tank specs they will not be about smacking things around with a huge sword, or paw, they will be able casting and heavy DoT damage to generate threat.

Like melee classes that have no cast timers they will not either as it would impair tanking, while casting you can not block, dodge and parry.  We do not really want a tank that does not block, dodge or parry. So their magic would have to be all instant or they will need to have an ability to limit push back.  Neither should really be a great deal of a design issue.

Being their gear would not inherently have block, parry or dodge on it there would need to be a mechanic like bears have where agility converts to dodge.  Their intellect could do the same. 

For the healing specs we would want a heavy HoT sort of thing going as well.  To give us another HoT class being there is only one heavy HoT class at the moment this would fill that role as well.

The single target healing spec would be about front loaded HoTs where there is a big burst heal followed by a steadily decreasing HoT as it ticks.  If you recast before the previous one has ended it will increase the initial heal and the subsequent HoTs applied by it or if you let it expire it would leave a bubble effect for 25% of the initial heal.. 

This means that spamming would be a good thing, but it would get costly if it is spammed too soon and timing it as to when to let it bubble or when to let it build would be an interesting play design in my opinion.  That would be the central idea of the style of healing it would have.  Of course there would be more variety, but this is what came to mind to start as their big deal of a heal.

The multi target healing would be based on the same thing with a little twist.  Whomever you target with the main heal will get healed and everyone around that person, within a 10 yard area will get an HoT applied to them for 50% of the base heal given to the target.  The target would not benefit of the HoT as it got the main, larger, heal.

Both healing specs will have a similar shielding concept to disc but not the same.  Each time someone is healed there is a shadow of the heal left over for a small number based on the amount what was healed.  The next time the person is hit, it will use the shadow shield first.  So the shadow shield leaves itself after damage is healed instead of preventing damage incoming and being put on as preventive to start.  Healing someone at max, or over healing, does not count toward the shadow shield.

This would create two different concepts of healing as well as a different concept of tanking bringing something new to the game.

Being it would be two healing classes and a tank class and it is a hero class you know everyone and their mother will make one.  This will help ease the pressure on the LFD system and some of those people that never wanted to try healing or tanking might realize they like it.

Of course I know nothing like this will ever happen.  We will most likely not even start getting leaks of what the next expansion will be until BlizzCon starts to get close.

But I can dream, I can dream that the day will come where every week when we raid we don't have to disenchant every piece of plate with intellect that drops, or on those bad days, roll for 24 gold.

Not to mention, I love this idea personally.  It sounds like it would be a fun class to play.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

What the Hell Does This Button Do?

My Warrior now has himself his first two 359 pieces and will be getting his third today.  I could get more but I am not going to craft, or pay to craft, gear I can get something better than as a raid drop.  Sorry, it is just not my way.

I crafted the waist because there is no better waist for me outside of current heroic raid content (based on an article I read at least) and I am in a casual guild so the only time I will see heroic raiding is on my main after we are over gearing it, so I doubt my 7th 85 alt, 2nd in terms of tanks, is going to be getting into heroic raids any time soon.  That means the waist is a fantastic investment in gear that will last until 4.2 comes out for sure and might even last a bit longer depending how much play time this character gets. 

That is neither here nor there however.  This is about me deciding that it is about time I redesigned my bar because, as I get more gear I am going to want to pug into a raid at some point when I am bored and looking for something to do and while my set up was effective, it was not optimum at all.

See, when leveling I just throw things on my bar where they feel comfortable.  The way I think of things is, everything before 85 is temporary and quite honestly while leveling you will never make full use of all the tools available to you like you do at 85.  Even in lower level dungeons, nothing last long enough to give a crap about anything but killing it.

Now it is time to set things up so they work best for me.

I removed all my skills from my bars.  Set the layout with my bartender to be how I liked it, small and neat and not obstructing anything, sort of out of the way.  I hate a cluttered screen.  I set up all my hot keys and then I went to start and drop my skills back into the positions I figured would work best for me.

2, 3, 4, should be my most used things.  Shift for those numbers should be the things closest associated with them but for multiple targets. Alts for those numbers are utility skills I use most often.  Then I fill them out at 1 and 5 with the second most used things.   Additional things go in further numbers and some letters.  Either way, I laid everything out nicely putting everything where it is supposed to go and put my two biggest defensive cooldowns on C and Z as I do on all my characters.  I try to keep things somewhat uniform like that.

Now to test it out.  Lets do a normal and get some guild mates to abuse, I mean run with, while I start to learn where I put everything.  While waiting we are talking and someone mentions spell reflect.  Oh crap, I forgot spell reflect.  Where to put it.  Screw it, I'll just throw it as an Alt for now, I have a group ready.

One pull comes and there is this caster that just won't come.  Heroic throw will get his butt here.  WTF?  He is not moving and still casting.  I'll taunt him.  There, he is on me now, still not coming but at least not hitting anyone else.  Quick look down, heroic throw is not on cooldown, I hit it, the mob comes, about freaking time.  What the hell did I hit then?  Ahh, Shockwave but it did not go off because it was already on cooldown.  That makes sense.

Another pull, heroic throw caster, charge, rend, thunderclap, shockwave, cleave.  Aggro is mine baby, no way I am losing anyone here.  Huh? Excuse me mr dragonkin, where do you think you are going?  Taunt.   Hey, why are you not coming to me.  Taunt.  F it.  Intervene, challenging shout, charge back, shield slam that stinking dragonkin.  Why wasn't he coming?  Oh, I moved my taunt and forgot where it was.  I remembered every pull up to here, why did I forget now?

Cruise control.  That is why I forgot.  When I play I play on cruise control.  I just know where everything is.  The thing with this is, my cruise control still had my old keybinds in mind.  I have to keep thinking where everything is until I get used to the new set up.

Okay, for the time being I am going to watch my bars and see what I am hitting.  Next few pulls go fine and I start to fall into the comfort zone again.  I am staring at the bars as much as the mobs.  While that is not a good habit it is helping me get used to the new places I have everything.  This is why I am in a normal.  Less chance of messing up so bad because I have my eyes on my bar instead of the mobs all the time that it will cause a wipe.

Next pull.  Wipe.  No kidding.  I had just mentioned on vent that this is so much better for me because it is giving me a chance to get used to my new keybinds and we are less likely to wipe here if I screw up.  Thing is, this wasn't my fault.  Well, not completely.  The healer was D/Cing.  Her vent was lagging so bad that by the time her saying, I just DCed, actually came over vent I had already pulled. 

While the other three classes DPSing where all classes that could heal, I was at 10% left in no time and before I could even move my fingers fast enough to start blowing cooldowns or before they could throw a heal I was dead.  I swear, I never saw my life go from 100 to 10.  It was like, charge, 10%, death in a matter of 2 seconds.  Or at least it felt like that.

Another pull the casters are ripping me apart.  Spell reflect, nothing.  Shield bash, nothing.  Heroic throw, nothing.  I couldn't seem to do a damn thing.  Normally, when questing, I love facing casters, it is a free kill.  There is no way a caster ever gets a cast off on me.  Now, I am missing every interrupt.  Thank god for having a pally DPS that just fell in love with rebuke and was having fun interrupting everything he could.

Reaction speed was doing it to me.  My interrupts where in easy to reach places but each one of them took a second for me to recall from memory where the bind was now, by that time, it was too late.  As for shield bash.  That was just forgetting where it was to begin with.  It was in the same place on my bar it has been since the day I trained it.  One small problem with that.  That spot was not shift 3 any more, it was now shift 1.  Oops.

The rest of the run went on like that.  Small mistakes here and there.  By the end of the run I was pretty much used to a lot of the new positions.  Taunt was no longer 4 it was now shift 4.  Shield bash was no longer Shift 3 it was shift 1.  I can name a few just thinking about them now while not even on the game.  Only a few however.  When I can name them all I will consider myself ready again.  I sense a lot of normal runs in my future.  I'll get used to where everything is again, in time, but it is a case of what does this button do sometimes now.

You might ask, if I knew where everything was so easily before why am I changing everything now.  Why did I just not keep it the way it was.

Effectiveness.  While I did know where everything was before and it was smooth, some of the things where not in really good places.  A few where not even bound at all because I used them so infrequently.

Binding even the infrequently used ones to something, even if off bat, means when the time comes that I need them they do not become click me when you need me things, they are easily accessible like everything else.

While at the moment it seems as if everything is worse I know, from experience, that in the end everything will be better.  I will have more things keybound, I will have them in a better set up to where the things I use the most are in the most comfortable places for me to reach.

Have you ever asked yourself why your keyboard has the letters all over the place instead of in order as if they where thrown in there with no rhyme or reason?  Well, there is a reason.  The letters are set up that the ones you will use most often are in the most comfortable places for the human hand to move.  The lesser used letters are in the places that the human hand is not as comfortable flowing.

Not sure how they figured this all out but that is the reasoning behind it.  That is the reasoning I am redesigning the keybinds I use.  While the other ones where fine, I could use them and use them well, changing their layout will make them more effective, just like the keyboard is designed to be more effective.

Why didn't I just put them in the places I wanted them at originally?  Well, this is my first 85 warrior.  I did not know how I wanted everything until I got here and played here a little bit.  On my other warriors, I have 2, I will be sure to level them with this new set up now so when they reach end game they are used to it.

I am sure, while it might not have looked like it in that run, I will be a better warrior over all when I get used to this set up because everything will be in a more comfortable place to click meaning my reaction and use of them will be faster.  I missed so many interrupts because I had to think, even for a fraction of a second, where it was.  If I had just known and done, if I had just been running on cruise control, I would have never missed an interrupt.

I figure 6-10 normal runs, guild only of course, I do not tank for randoms and even more so will not tank when still learning something, and I will be ready again with some confidence.  My gear might be heroic, my skill set is not right now.  Missing a shield bash in a normal is nothing.  Missing it in a heroic could mean a wipe.

Revenge, revenge, revenge.
Why the hell is revenge not going off?
Oh, revenge is now 1.
So what the hell does this button do?