Monday, October 28, 2013

Monday Random Thoughts

- Feast or Famine week continues for me.

- But not for my hunter.

- I was unable to find any decent groups to do a flex with on my server or on OQ or OR.

- Sure there were groups, but I am picky, and so are others.

- I got turned down for a flex 3 because my item level was too low.

- I am guessing there, they did not actually say that.

- I down the bosses from flex 3 on normal mode ever since week 3 so it can't be because I do not know the fights.

- So I am only guessing it must be my horrible item level of 554.

- Experience, item level and ability, can't really offer much more can I?

- They just said, sorry, we are looking for some better people for a quick run.

- As if "554, have done all bosses on normal" means I am not good enough for flex.

- I wonder what experience they wanted, or what item level they wanted.

- But just as they have the right to be selective, so do I.

- I joined one group, advertised as "geared and experienced people needed for quick Flex 1 and 2".

- I figured one and two are easy enough, even if everyone is only 520 we should be able to blow through it.

- I get there while they are still recruiting and start inspecting.

- Everyone in the group is covered in 496 gear from the island.

- I was hard pressed to find anyone in the group with gear over item level 500.

- A few 502 pieces here and they were all I found.

- Not sure how these people are "geared".

- Unless they are using the term "geared" in a different way then I am used to.

- I mean you can dress in all vendor gear and be geared.

- As in "not naked".

- I won't bail, maybe they are on alts.

- Experience goes a long way and even lesser geared players, if they know the fights and are decent at their class they can handle flex 1.

- Then they all started talking.

- "First time here", "Never done this before", "Just hit 90", etc.

- Most of these people never even did it in LFR.

- I whispered the person that invited me and thanked them for the invitation but I am looking for a quick clear for valor and drops and I do not see this being quick or easy with the gear and lack of experience most people here have.  Sorry.

- I bailed.

- I tried grabbing a few more groups and they were either bad groups or groups that did not want me.

- "Sorry, no hunters."

- I heard that one three times.

- Is there a reason why people do not want hunters that I am missing?

- The gear is not rolled on so it can't be because of gear competition.

- I can not think of any fight a hunter would hurt the team.

- Oh well, their group, their rules.

- One of my guild mates said on vent when I mentioned it, "The guy assembling it is probably a hunter and does not want any other hunters there to make him look bad."

- That is the only thing that makes sense.

- Joined one where I had more life than both the tanks.

- A Prot warrior with 429K life and a blood DK with 505K life.

- Okay, maybe, just maybe, I can see the DK doing this, but what the hell is up with that warrior.

- All quest gear, must have just hit 90 15 seconds ago would be my guess.

- At least he was trying, he enchanted some greens.

- Can't help but think he should have spent the money buying 476, 496 or other BoE items instead of enchants for greens.

- Maybe he was an enchanter so it lowered his costs.

- Either way, I do not think 400K health is good enough to tank SoO flex.

- Skill matters more that gear, but only to some extent, even if you are the most skilled player in the world if you do not have the gear for the content, you can not do the content.

- So after a few wasted hours, lots of groups I never even tried with, lots of people telling me they did not want hunters or turning me down for some other reason, I gave up trying to get a flex run on my hunter.

- I decided to gear up another character.

- I rolled the mental random number generator and came up with my 506 warlock.

- Okay, have not played it in ages, lets get rolling and see where I am legendary quest wise.

- Sigils?

- Wow I am so far behind.

- I queued up for SoO anyway instead of going back for them.

- At least the first 8 can drop them.

- After hours, and I do mean hours, lots of them, I finished all 4 SoO LFRs and the celestial and ordos world boss.

- All said and done, 8 new pieces including a 4 piece set.

- Feast or famine?

- Feast time for sure.

- Oddly enough my item level only went up 13 points.

- So a four piece set and still not even item level 520, what are the odds?

- I can easily see the increase in damage from the gear, but still not very comfortable on my lock.

- I know I can get more out of it, it is just not coming.

- It is not like locks have a difficult rotation or anything.

- Have to love those rotations with just 3 or 4 buttons and a few situational abilities or cool downs.

- But have to hate them when you are not putting out the numbers you believe you should be.

- When the main rotation is just a few buttons it is really hard to figure out what you are doing wrong.

- Based on my current gear I should be pulling around 136K according to the sims.

- I just can not break 110K on my best single target run.

- So lots of room to get better.

- I spent some time soloing the yungol cape side on the island.

- Not just for reputation, which would be nice so I can make some 535 bracers when I get honored so I can get another burden to replace 483 ones, but so I could learn a little.

- They live long enough to actually get some decent rotation time in on and doing more damage means my minion gets more shields, which means doing more damage helps in killing it and surviving.

- A perfect motivation to do the best I can do.

- With the island buffs up I could routinely break 140K.

- Wish I could do that without them.

- But doing that, and getting gear, and spending some time on it, I saw myself get better with it.

- Sunday found me complaining how hard it is to find a pug for some things, even with things like open raid.

- I did not start the complaining, I just joined in.

- Someone had been looking for a heroic LS kill so they could get the heroic rune for a few weeks but have been unable to find a group.

- He said, everyone wants someone with experience, and we never got there, so he does not have experience.

- I said he is an extremely skilled player, watch the video and lie.

- With his natural ability to be a very good player, a fast learner, and great at adapting, he should have no problem faking it.

- Some people can do that, some people can't.

- I would not suggest that approach to most, but to him, he can do it.

- He said he did not want to.

- So I gave him another option to try.

- He has a healing offspec, switch to heals and be honest.

- Say that you have never done it on heroic, only normal, but you watched the video and know the fight.

- He said, that will never work.

- I said, at his item level of 540 for his heal set, he is well capable of it, and most of the time people do not care about healers if they have experience or not.

- He did not believe me, so I said I would prove it.

- I popped on my healer, 520 item level, 0 bosses in ToT normal, and the last time I watched the video was ages ago.

- I saw someone say they needed a healer.

- I whispered them, "I've never healed ToT but I've tanked and DPSed normal and a couple heroic bosses.  Only 520 item level but if you need me I am willing to do my best."

- I did not lie, I was about as truthful as you could be.

- I was told, "I'll get back to you.".

- 20 minutes later I get a whisper asking me to switch the my healer and get invited.

- We blow through the first 8 and get stuck on animus because they were trying to do the burn approach and did not quite have the DPS for it.

- After a dozen or so attempts they decided to call it.

- Proof that you do not even need experience, or gear, as a healer you just need to be willing.

- Heck, you do not even need to be capable.

- We two healed them all and did just fine for the most part.

- Think we had two wipes before animus and neither of them, or the ones on animus were healing issues.

- But for every bit the other healer was over gearing it, I was under gearing it, and it worked out well.

- Even if they were doing more heals than I, we kept everyone up as a team and that is how healers are judged.

- If everyone lives, you did well.

- I was actually pretty impressed with how well I did for my item level.

- I had a lot of fun, maybe I should do more healing.

- It is easier to find groups.

- You can bypass the need for experience most of the time.

- You are not judged by numbers, only survival, if everyone lives you did okay.

- If people die and you were honest, people are more accepting of the fact you are trying your best because they know you are helping them.

- As I said a long time ago, and it still seems to fit, if you want to "play" warcraft, roll a healer.

- You will always be able to find a group.

- People will treat you with more respect than any other role.

- Your success or failure usually has more to do with the group you are in than what you yourself do, as long as you are competent to begin with.

- And that person could have surely got into a LS kill for his rune if he went as a healer.

- I used coins on all the bosses we downed that had something that would be an upgrade, sadly feast week did not transfer over to my healer, so no loot for me.

- But when all was said and done, there was a new found confidence in my own ability as a healer, even if the other healer really did all the heavy lifting.

- You can not judge a healer by numbers alone, but to see myself doing over 100K HPS felt good.

- Sure, the other healer was doing 140-160 on most fights, but my 100-120 sure felt good being they had a good 45 item levels on me with their 565 item level.

- And that is why people would be willing to take a chance on a healer were they would not on a damage dealer.

- A healer is just judged on people living, if everyone lives and the bosses die, who cares what your healing was.

- I do not think I could have healed LS if we got that far however so maybe it was a good thing we didn't.

- But I would have loved the challenge.

- As much as I do not mind healing and I do like the challenge, I am still a hunter.

- Not sure why, but you seem to gravitate to a role and that is what you like to be.

- I see damage dealers and healers switch the classes they play all the time but it seems, from my observations, tanks seem to stick to what tank they like, no matter what.

- Some people switch their damage dealing role to the flavor of the month, same with healers.

- Some damage dealers have multiple characters to fill the role, but also might tank or heal.

- Some healers have multiple characters to fill the role, but also might DPS or tank.

- But most tanks just have tanks.  That is all they do.

- Is that just in my small area of the world, or do you notice that as well?

- That real dedicated tanks take being a tank so seriously that they really don't do anything else but tank.

- Makes you wonder if tanking really is in its own little world.

- And maybe that is why LFR has such a problem with tanks, that content does not mess with their world.

- All the tanks I know do not do LFR.

- I guess the only people that can truly tell you what is going through their head is them, perhaps I should seek out some information and ask a few questions of those, the dedicated tanks that are only tanks.

- Would make for an interesting post.

- At least I think so.

- Did you ever notice beer muscles in game?

- I was sitting around waiting for a rare spawn and drinking some junk I had in my bag, just to get rid of it, and have a little fun getting drunk.

- I watched as the mob I was focused on at the moment kept going down in level as I drank.

- From 92 elite, to 91, to 90, to 89, to 88 when I got completely smashed.

- Now I know the mob was not going down in level, but as I went up in the level of intoxication it seemed to.

- In effect, beer muscles, making you think you are stronger than you are you will go after that seemingly unimposing level 88 that is really a level 92 elite.

- Have to love the little things in game like that.

- I wonder who else notices stuff like that.

- Have a great day.

16 comments:

  1. Ahead of the Curve Garrosh is my guess, not iLvl. Do you have it yet?

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    1. Nope, we are moving faster each week but can only get 11 max in the time we play. We might extend soon so we can finish it off or add another night. We are in no rush.

      I am 100% certain that if we extended in week 3 we would have finished it. The raid over all seems to be the easiest raid since DS. If we are as far as we are, it must be easy. lol

      But why would you need to finish normal to do flex? It makes no sense. Isn't the fact I do the bosses that are the ones we are doing in flex matter more than doing bosses we won't be doing?

      Hey, their raid, their rules.

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    2. Ppl on my realm do that. Ask for norm so they know you weren't carried in flex. I know it makes little sense.

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    3. A lot of people, like myself, will use flex for alts. So my alts have no normal progressions. Usually saying "my main did it" is enough.

      As for server stuff, once you get a rep as knowing what you are doing there is usually no issue with even bringing an alt. Problem is nothing ever happens on my server as it is dead 24/7 mostly.

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  2. Wow clearing wing 3 since week 3, and your ilevel is way high. I don't know why I thought you were similiar in progress or slightly less than my guild but obviously not. Your hunter ilevel is more than anyone has in my guild, mind you for some reason our guild ilevel is much lower than it should be. We're #5 on the server for progress (12/14) but we're #8 or #9 on ilevel, there's only 12 guilds ranked on my server too, little bit odd.

    I don't know why they wouldn't take you either. Especially not with that gear. It can't be hunters though as they are awesome on so much in Siege. The easiest raids we've had have been nights when we've brought 2 hunters.

    Heh if you want to ask a tank questions go right ahead. I might not qualify though. I do have an alt of every class but I just can't get into playing them. I tried briefly with my kitty Druid for one solitary flex run, but I just don't like playing dps and I don't heal anymore either. Once I started tanking that was it. I had far more success with an alt in T14 tanking with my monk. My problem though is I miss the gear and experience of my pally if I switch to an alt. I tried a different role but I'm a tank. If I'm ever not the tank I have to repeat "I'm not the tank" as a mantra the whole way through. I don't ever run LFR though.

    However, my co-tank wouldn't fit that mould. He was a prot pally in cata but swapped mains to blood DK in Mists. However, he has an alt of every class but like you he plays them. He's healed raids for us on his shaman, he's dps'd on his warlock. He can fit any role and would switch permanently if asked. He likes tanking best but he likes his alts too. He's fallen for his Mage lately and it's starting to surpass his lock.

    You are right that healers get to play. My real id gets announcement spam sometimes for people looking to fill flex runs and it's always for healers.

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    1. We got there week 3, did not clear until after. Always ran out of time, but we are getting more done faster each week as we get more gear and experience. Now we can do 11 in the time we raid, I think we might be able to stretch it to 12 but think we will need to extend to get the last ones.

      You are a little ahead. Not sure why my gear is higher, not really winning anything. We disenchant most everything that drops because of bad luck.

      We are #1 25 and #4 10 but our server has really bad progress over all. On a decent server we would not even be top 30.

      You fit my "tanks tank" idea. You might try other things, but you only tank and would rather only tank. Seems many real dedicated tanks are like that.

      I wish I could get more into healing. I do not mind doing it, but just do not like the design of it this expansion. But if you want to play, playing a healer is the way to go.

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  3. Ah drunken might. When I was levelling cooking at the beginning of the xpac, I recall seeing "May induce delusions of grandeur", and then going out and trying to fight higher level mobs, thinking they would be easier. :-P

    Those little bits are great in games.

    ~Del

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    1. Warcraft is awesome for those little inside jokes. I am sure many go completely unnoticed.

      Like the lovers cove I found on the timeless island. I showed some friends it and they said, I never even noticed it was there.

      It is 4 seats with little dirt piles around it in the shape of a heart and one on the top right and bottom left to signify an arrow thru the heart.

      I found it when the island was first released and being I read a lot and have never seen anyone else mention it, I am guessing I am one of very few that have.

      I wonder how many hidden areas like that there are in the game that were never found.

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  4. If you're talking swapping mains - I actually don't see many people doing that or maintaining multiple "mains" with which they could step in and deliver a performance suitable to the raid [ie - stuff dies and we don't]. There are probably a handful in my guild. Most of those do tend to be main spec healers or dps.

    I consider myself a dedicated tank. I tank on my dk in normal and in flex. I don't maintain the alts well enough to do that, nor do I really have an interest in it. That said, my alts are well enough geared to do LFR and I occasionally do as dps or heals... depending on what I feel like.

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    1. I try to have one tank, one healer and my hunter geared at all times. Just so I have someone to fill in. I am behind this tier however. I should make an effort to play some catch up. Maybe in time as my main does not need anything from flex.

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  5. And no idea why they wouldn't want a hunter... I've done a flex raid with 5 hunters before... seemed to work out just fine.

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    1. There are a lot of things hunters are great for in SoO. I agree. Not sure why they wanted no hunters. What my guild mate said is the only thing that makes sense. The person must have been a hunter and did not want anyone else to come in and do better than him. To some people ego is more important than downing bosses I guess.

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    2. Maybe.

      Either way, their raid, their rules, I can live with it even if I don't quite understand it.

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  6. -Did the first 3 wings of LFR on Thursday last week instead of during the weekend. (I had jury duty so I got home earlier than usual). They were much better runs than on the weekend.

    -Tend to have tank issues on Spoils for some reason. I end up throwing out directions, opening crates for the tank and misdirecting, swapping sides to keep the progress balanced, etc. It's actually a fun fight but I'm not really doing what I'm supposed to do...

    -Got to do Malkorok in LFR for the first time finally. Super easy after wiping a dozen times on it in flex... One of the tanks and I explained it like it was flex/normal, people generally followed directions, and we one shot it. Really seems like most of the mechanics don't matter in LFR.

    -Did Celestials and Ordos as well that night. It was a busy night.

    -So I had a head start and valor capped easily on Saturday. Usually, I'm trying to cap on Monday nights at the last minute.

    -Queued for the last wing on Saturday. It said 45 minutes or something... so I figured I'd be a good son and return my mom's call from earlier in the day.

    -Queue popped after like 10 minutes... straight to Garrosh.

    -First time there. I had read the strat but... So anyway, they sort of explained what they were doing and put down markers, but most people were there for the first time.

    -I was just blowing things up, focusing on adds and the weapons. Trying to stay out of bad.

    -All while having the game muted and listening to my mom talk about her churches' trick-or-treating event and other random things.

    -We got Garrosh on the 3rd attempt.

    -I felt bad since I wasn't really focused on the fight.

    -However, I was top DPS. I didn't die. Almost half of my damage done was on adds (40/60 or something). But I really had no clue wtf was going on. I just kept killing anything that moved.

    -Uploaded to WoL. Ranked 38th with 201K DPS(e)! Blew through the ranking limit by 200% Go ME! LOL! Like LFR logs even matter...

    -Finished the Wrathion quests and stuff.

    -Still need to do the first two bosses, but I'll get them next week...

    -Been checking out the Gamebreaker Nation guild. They're on Turalyon-US (don't know the EU server).

    -I rolled a monk on the server but don't really want to level it all the way.

    -So I'm leveling my mage to potentially transfer her over once she hits 85 or so. Leveled her from 68-75 so far. I think I spent the same amount of time leveling from 68-70 as I did from 70-75... At least it felt that way.

    -I really have no idea how to play a frost mage. Mostly just Frost Bolt things to death... She's got 9 heirloom items, so pretty much everything dies after a couple of hits.

    -I came across Grocklar in Grizzly Hills while questing (Frostbitten rare). I figured wtf, I'll give it a shot.

    -It was an 'epic' battle... I was blowing all my CDs and smashing all my buttons and running away to try and keep him from squishing me. Our health pools were neck and neck percentage wise. I kept thinking damn, where's my misdirect, how do I drop threat, that stupid elemental is useless!!! LOL!

    -Got him down to the last few percent and I died... NOOOOOO!!!!!

    -But then the achievement popped up a moment later! I think that stupid elemental got in the killing blow or something just before it despawned.

    -It was fun.

    -It's been said many times, but Northrend is so much more fun for leveling than Outlands.

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    1. Doing things during the week in the earlier hours is always better. I hear people in guild that are home during the day always tell me about smooth runs and get jealous because I have to do it later when I get home from work and get all the kiddies from school that want carries or to troll and it ruins it.

      I LFR adds do not matter for ranged, just let the melee cleave them and the iron star kill them. At least all the ones I did were like that.

      Hey, even if it was LFR, still feel good to see high numbers. I was #1 on LFR sha of fear, nothing special about it of course, but I loved being #1. Not like I would ever be #1 on a real fight. I think my best ever was 25 on a real fight. Most of the time I between 90-150 if anything.

      That is how you play a mage. lol. Not really, there is a little more to it, but for the most part while questing, that is how you play a mage.

      I always scream at my elemental too, do something to popsicle. Take aggro for me.

      Great win after death, that is awesome.

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