Monday, December 30, 2013

Monday Random Thoughts

- I hate pug people.

- Just thought I would start off with that one.

- Was doing a flex 4 pug and there was this one jerk who just kept making stupid comments.

- Not as part of conversation, just hitting the talk button, yelling something stupid like "moron", and then being quiet.

- Every pug I ever get in there is a person like that.

- I know why they act like that.

- Because it is the only place they can get away with it.

- They would never pull that stuff in real life or they would be eating pavement.

- Makes me wonder if they are the type that normally gets their ass kicked and that is why they act up in a situation were they know they can get away with it.

- Wish I could find the one article about it I read once.

- It concluded something like the more someone acts out where they know they are safe the more likely they are to be the picked on person in the actual world.

- So it leaves me torn, should I hate the dick for being a dick, or should I feel bad for hm knowing that most likely someone is beating the crap out of him regularly and this is his only outlet to get control.

- Screw it, he is on my time now and I do not give a shit about his personal short comings, kick the bastard, if I knew who he was I would beat on him too because he is an asshole.

- Whoever is shitting all over this person in real life which makes him act like this here most likely has a reason, and I can see that reason and agree with them.

- I dropped the group.

- I had no problem with the person, none what so ever.

- I just do not like disruptive forces.

- If he did it once or twice, no big deal, but doing it throughout the entire raid and not getting kicked for acting like a dick, and no one even saying anything to him about it?

- Yeah, I'd rather go watch TV, clip my toe nails, shovel snow, basically anything else.

- I was only doing it to help a friend anyway.

- And now I feel bad because I left him.

- Don't even know if they downed garrosh, I just dropped group and went off line.

- But being I was one of only 4 DPS in a 25 man over 200K I would not bet money on it unless he really trimmed the fat.

- The majority of the group was under 120K.

- We went into 3 visions, yes, 3 visions, I did not even know that was possible.

- You know the sad part, the person that was being a dick was probably one of the people doing better.

- Why do some people believe that being decent at a game gives them the right to be rude to everyone else?

- How about trying to help others if you are good so they can get good too.

- Nope, you would rather chase people off line.

- You know what I want?

- I want a panda mount.

- We have bears, we can mount bears, pandas are bears, you do the math.

- I don't think the pandaren would mind much if we were riding around on a panda.

- You don't hear the worgen bitching about people riding on worg do you?

- While trying to find reasons to log in I created a new DK.

- Sad part is all my plate BoA gear was on my other account which remains inactive and will stay that way.

- And being I have done so few dungeons this expansion I did not exactly have an abundance of justice sitting around.

- So I went justice farming soloing heroics.

- Once I did a couple I noticed I would be better waiting 15 minutes for a group, time wise at least.

- While it only took me roughly 30 minutes to solo a level 90 heroic and the time between waiting and doing would be around 30 minutes, at least while waiting I could do other things.

- Like grinding mogu in the vale to try and get skyshards while waiting.

- I am a big fan of killing two birds with one stone.

- And I get to have the good feeling of helping some people through some dungeons.

- I had some great groups that we ran through it like it was a fire drill and everyone was destroying things.

- I had ones where the second best DPS was a tank doing 17K.

- Even with misdirect and feign death I could not keep mobs off me.

- The healer said to just let me tank.

- Yes, on my hunter.

- So I did.

- Decided to switch things up and do some on my lock, being it still needs valor for that part of the legendary quest line.

- I had never done dungeons on my lock.

- Was funny getting achievements for everything.

- Goes to show you why people are not doing dungeons, blizzard made them obsolete to quickly.

- If with each new raid tier they increased the item level of drops from dungeons people would still do them often.

- But once you hit 90 there is no real reason to step into a dungeon, you can go right into the LFR.

- Unless your reason is to avoid the LFR, which would be a very good reason.

- Someone in guild said that dungeons should drop gear equal to the current LFR gear.

- I would love that.

- Sure, would not get tier, but can still gear alts and not do LFR, I would so love that.

- I would send gifts to the developer that added that.

- I would put him on my christmas card list for life.

- Anything that can make the gearing up process for alts not involve the LFR is a good thing in my opinion.

- Which brings me to... Bring valor gear back.

- For every single slot, weapon included.

- Make valor gear current LFR level.

- Again, no tier, but at least you can skip the LFR completely.

- That would be a good thing right?

- Well, I think so.

- I decided to do some achievement hunting this weekend.

- It is hard to get any real achievement hunting done solo when you are floating around 18K points.

- It basically means you have almost everything you can get solo.

- Except PvP, there are a lot of PvP ones I can get solo, but that is another story all together.

- I have almost no PvP achievements.

- So I asked 2 people from guild to join a group with me because I was going to knock out a few scenario achievements I had not gotten yet.

- I could have just gone in with random people but I did not want people to screw up my achievement I was going for, if they could that is.

- I learned that you do not even need the other 2 people to do anything.

- They can stand at the entrance and they still get valor for it.

- Even if they never moved.

- Made me think of something really interesting.

- If I reactivated my second account and leveled from 85 to 90 and made a 3rd account, I could effectively go into scenarios by myself with all three characters being me.

- And being I can solo them that means I get 3x the valor because I am getting it for three of my characters all at once.

- Nice.

- Oh, BTW, got all my heirloom gear for my new DK.

- Got side tracked and forgot to finish that train of thought.

- Got it out of the starting area, went to hellfire, quickly lost interest in playing it for now.

- But I did keep all the starter gear and transmoged into in.

- So it might be unplayed, but it sure looks good not being played.

- Now to do the peninsula until I get that one sword I love from a quest and the set, as I want it, will be complete.

- Now back to scenarios and getting some achievements.

- I got side tracked, like I often seem to, and decided to see if I can solo the heroic scenarios.

- I can, I did, I even got the timer on a few of them.

- Nice.

- I managed to knock out 4 more achievements I needed.

- Four might not seem like a lot, but where I am at in the game, four in one day is huge.

- I think I have lost my desire to raid.

- Having the time off these last few weeks due to the holidays and not running as often has made me realize I don't really like raiding as much as I used to.

- Have a changed or is this raid tier really that bland?

- I actually thought I liked this raid tier.

- If someone asked me I would say it is easily one of the top 5 raids ever.

- Maybe I just needed a break and will get back into it when we are doing it again.

- Or maybe I need to change how I play.

- But to what?

- I really do not feel like leveling at the moment.

- Or gearing up alts because that means LFR.

- And why even gear them up if I am not really in the mood to raid with them.

- Achievement hunting is getting to be slim pickings.

- Grinding, and I love grinding, for skyshards has all but worn out its welcome.

- I've spent easily 100 hours if not more killing mobs, and had countless characters level there and do the dailies back when they were there.

- All that time and I only have 7 still?

- Yeah, there is a difference between a grind and a waste of freaking time.

- But I do manage to get a butt load of greens and cloth from doing it so I will never be at a shortage of enchanting materials or bolts of cloth for bags.

- So basically all that is left for me is PvP.

- There is a huge skill cap ahead of me that I am way the hell behind.

- There are 100s of achievements, many actually easy once I know the battle grounds.

- It can be done solo or in a group.

- It has instant queue, not like waiting for an hour for LFR.

- And I still need gear for it so I get to go back to what I like the most, building things.

- Like building the best PvP set I can get.

- And then there is that arena mount I can get for winning 100 matches.

- I guess I might have found a new focus.

- If I end up wanting to do it.

- But if you thought I was a grumpy elf before just imagine how grumpy I am going to be after I was chain feared for an entire match.

- That is my biggest problem with PvP.

- My trap takes timing, skill, and ability to get someone into and it only last 6 seconds and is broken on damage.

- Yet a no skill fear which is target and forget it, someone can not side step it, have someone activate it for them, or otherwise avoid it, and you can beat on the person the entire time they are feared without breaking the fear, lasts for a year and a day.

- Then they can do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

- Diminishing returns my ass.

- So I get feared for 18 seconds, then 16 seconds, then 14 seconds, then 12 seconds, etc.

- It is still too long and you can still effectively chain CC someone with that one ability for an entire match.

- I've had it happen before.

- It is not fun, and that is why PvP is not fun.

- Remove CC, remove healing, lets just fight.

- Let the best fighter win based on using their abilities, the environment and  teamwork.

- Now that would be fun.

- Have a great day.

11 comments:

  1. I wrote exactly that in a recent blog post. I all but begged for blizz to bring back choice. I haven't played alts at all really in Mists as I loathe LFR. I only did it on my main when I absolutely had to, no way I was going in voluntarily. I put in my post that dungeons and LFR should be on the same gear level. That valor and justice points should be worth something again. I know they said it was too easy but I really liked how it used to be.

    I'd feel like playing an alt so I'd log in and queue for a dungeon. Depending on what role it was I might have to wait up to 20 minutes but certainly nowhere near LFR levels. The dungeon wouldn't last that long, even with a terrible group it'd probably go ok, sometimes they didn't but nowhere near LFR levels.

    Depending on the alts gear level the bosses in the dungeon might drop upgrades. If they didn't well justice points dropped per boss and could be used for the previous tier gear level. Valor points would drop at the end and could be used for current tier level.

    If I wanted to play that alt a bit maybe I'd queue for a couple of dungeons in a row, if I had time. I'd get the same amount of valor for all of them. Hell if I had a lot of time maybe I'd get the weekly cap done. I could do this at any point during the week, I could spend a weekend or an evening, no daily diminishing returns.

    Progress would be incremental and measurable. I'd enjoy playing the alt in the dungeon. Every now and then I'd get a piece of gear so that my dps would go up, my spirit regen, survivability etc. so I did better at it. I'd get familiar with the dungeons which would mean I could spend more time perfecting my rotation than worrying about mechanics. So having fun playing the alt - check. Getting gear progress - check. Ability to play what I wanted, when I wanted - check.

    I understand people blew through this sometimes and geared up in a day. Hell I did it myself once but that's the thing - choice. You could grind till your eyes bled, or you could dip in very casually. It suited both people. I never fully geared my alts but I always enjoyed the process and played most everything. Now I play my main, I login to raid and then I log off and play other games.

    In other news I soloed over half of Ulduar 25 man this morning. Just normal mode but I was a little shocked at how easy it was though I suppose it was a couple of expansions ago now. If I can blow up Dragon Soul then yeah Ulduar is no challenge. My friend wanted Herald gear so I got him as far as Thorim where you need more people as it wipes you if no-ones in the arena. I mean part of me is sad that one level 90 in their OS (I was ret) can do that. The rest of me hopes like hell that I can still do that after the item squish on warlords. I want the same power jump tbh. I want to be able to start trying to solo Mists raids for the vanity drops.

    I miss vanity drops in dungeons. I don't think there are any in Mists? It takes away a reason to solo them.

    Hope you had a nice festive season and happy new year :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, there needs to be an option to LFR and there needs to be a better use for justice and valor. Blizzard has just lost touch.

      Was going to ask you how you managed Thorim but it seems you didn't. I have an idea on how I can do it my next time there on my new baby hunter who is an engineer. I am going to place some engineer junk on the ground and see if that will keep them distracted long enough for me to make it through.

      I have tried running it and hoping to be fast enough. The closest I've ever made it was making the turn up the stairs down the hall before it one shot me. So running for it won't work.

      Outside of that fight you should be able to solo anything in there.

      There is the one "toy" in shcolo but that is about it. But really there is not much to go back to them for. I soloed them just to see if I could, not because I wanted to do it for something.

      It was nice, hope yours was the same. Have a happy new years.

      Delete
  2. Here's how I look at the PvP thing... unless you're a PvP elite, if they choose to lock you down rather than someone else, that's a net positive for the team. So either they viewed you as a high risk target or they erred and left someone better free. Either way is kind of a win/win for ego/team purposes.

    Is it possible you just aren't particularly happy with your raid group? For me the other raiders and various performance factors are the main reasons to stay with or leave a raid group, the raid itself isn't often an issue.

    It's also entirely possible you just need a break. I've pretty much taken the last month off any sort of organized raiding and I'm starting to get the itch again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm leaning toward needing a break more than anything else. The people are fine but because of the holidays we have not had our main people in a month, always with fill ins, and that is never as fun.

      I understand where you are coming from. If they lock me and I am the weak link it doesn't really hurt my team. Or if they lock me they fear what I might be able to do, which of course could make some feel better. The thing is, being locked, for whatever reason, is NOT fun. Even if my team won 100 out of 100 times and always won, it would not be fun. I play to play, not to sit there with no control over my character. I can not see how anyone considers that fun.

      Delete
  3. -I've only done a couple of partial pugs. I did do one mixed pug of flex 3. It was a bad experience overall... Haven't raided since actually.

    -Haven't done a dungeon in a while. Been at 3000vp for weeks, so no point.

    -I have full plate, leather, and cloth heirlooms for my toons already, so don't need the jp either. No other mail wearing toon...

    -I would love to get epics from dungeons. I'd actually tank them on my DK, whereas I won't tank LFR. Even if it just dropped 502s or something, it'd be better than nothing. Hell, you get 496s for free from Timeless Isle...

    -Timeless Isle let's you skip LFR for the most part as well. My hunter is 553 using legendary cloak, world bosses, upgraded Timeless items, and an LFR weapon and trinket.

    -Looking back, I haven't gotten an actual upgrade in 6 weeks... Been doing Ordos/Celestials every week using a coin on both. Got a couple PvP items, but that's it.

    -14 Ordos kills, so that's 28 loot rolls -> 4 items. That's about 14% I guess.

    -Same # for Celestials -> 2 PvE items (won the tier legs twice...) and 4 or so PvP items.

    -I wish we could solo scenarios like we can solo dungeons. It's annoying that we have to queue.

    -Been doing the Greench daily on 3 90s every day... no pet... stupid RNG...

    -Played on my mage a bit today. Got her from 473 to 484 iLvL.

    -Undergeared mage on Timeless Isle does not equal fun...

    -I couldn't really kill anything, so had to constantly try to escape things while going after chests. I spent a lot of time as a corpse...

    -Got all the chests though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Undergeared mage in anything is not fun, even leveling. A mage can be either brutally powerful or completely fragile at the same time. The true glass cannon. Even with gear some of the bigger guys give me a bit of a problem on my mage whereas none of my other characters have that issue.

      They need to give us some additional valor options when we get to that point. Maybe let us buy pets that can only be purchased with valor, or mounts, or BoE stuff we can sell, or crafting materials. Something.

      Delete
  4. I am ornery with players in-game. I have been known to call out "mammoth on the mailbox guy" in general chat and force him to talk. I told him he migfht be playing a role in a stupid game but that he was kidding himself if he thought the actions of his avatar did not reflect on him as a human being. That in real life people would drag him off his mammoth and kick his ass for being rude and that hiding behind his character really hid nothing. A person's true personality always breaks through the avatar in the end. I ask them if nop one pays attention to them in real life so they demand it in games. I offer my friendship to them. I remind them that being hated in the game bleeds through - they dont hate your lvl 90 gnome with full epic gear - they hate the sad little person on the other side of the monitor. They either log or run or break. I AM TROLLSLAYER!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if they're a true troll, they will be just standing there and laugh at your comments, being overly excited they managed to bother you
      that's the problem with trolls, they have no common sense and feel no shame

      Delete
    2. I do believe the actions of people in game reflect on them as a real person. And people that act badly are probably bad people in real life as well.

      Keep up your troll killing, I just ignore them.

      As james said, a true troll will love the attention, because that is what they want.

      Delete
  5. http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/02/warlords-of-draenor-flex-group-finder-and-raid-finders-roles/

    I don't think that new general mindset is going to get much argument from anyone regardless of what they think of LFR as it is today. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They need to realize that if they want to make the LFR "fun" like he says that is needs to be watered down a great deal more to accommodate the people that are in it for the most part.

      Delete