Is There Any Terminology In Game That Bugs You?

I was breezing over threads on MMO-C while at work and came across one where a person seemed to be upset with the use of the DPS abbreviation for damage per second being used when groups are looking for damage dealers and believed they should be refereed to as DD as in, LF 2 DDs.

I never had a problem with it, even if I know DPS stands for damage per second, when I see someone post it in trade when looking for players.  My mind reads it as damage dealers.  Simple as that.  Even when I first started the game when I was getting a handle on things seeing people seeking DPS never seemed odd to me.  Maybe I can understand how it irks some people.  I have my own issues with some of the terminology in game.  And I have had my own misunderstandings on some terms over the years as well.

When I first started playing getting a handle on all these things was not really hard, but I never actually asked, I figured them out for myself over time.  The first one I recall seeing and not quite understanding was the when someone said, Selling [Awesome Bracers of Awesomesause] pst.

What the hell does pst mean, I thought to myself.  Kind of sounded like what someone would say when they were trying to get your attention in a quiet sort of way in real life, making a pst sound.  Where they trying to get my attention with a pst? Did they notice that the pst attention getting sound does not translate well in a game?  I would not go as far as to say it confused me, but it sure did not make any sense.

If I were interested in the item I would whisper the person.  I would either ask them what they wanted or I would come right out and make an offer and see if we could negotiate.  It was not so long before I figured out that pst stood for please send tell.  I am sure in some game that made a lot of sense but in terms of warcraft wouldn't psw have been more accurate as in meaning please send whisper?  The odd fitting term not actually fitting does not bother me however.

There were a few other things I had wondered about over time and many of them I still get a chuckle out of up to this day because even if I know what they mean I can not help but read them wrongly.

Like the first time I saw someone post in trade, lf healer for mara.  Being I always capitalize the beginning of a sentence, yes even in game, I read that as an I and not a lower case l.  So to me it read, if healer for mara, and I could not help but think, if healer for mara what?  As if they never completed their question.  If healer for mara gets silenced what do you do?  If healer for mara can not be found can we do it without one?  If healer for mara some question or another.  Finish your thoughts person, ask your question already.  It is annoying.

I still read it as that when I see it.  I hate to make it sound like I am a dope, but when it comes to that, I was a dope.  Every time I read that for the first few weeks I always read it as If and not lf.  It was not until I noticed a few times someone posting it with caps, as in, LF healer for mara, then it started to click.  It is L F and not I F.  Ah, I got it now.  But my mind, when people don't capitalize the lf still sees it as if and not looking for.  This too never bothered me really, just a simple misunderstanding and a wish that people would capitalize things like that.

Then they are are some profession ones that can't help but be joked about when you see them.  Like LF BS.  Well, this is warcraft's trade chat and if you are looking for bull shit you have come to the right place.  Or how about LF JC.  It makes me want to ask them later if they ever managed to find Jesus Christ.  Again, neither of these bother me.

But there are some things that do bother me, some words that will instantly turn me away from even talking to that person.  Some terminology that bothers me.

Bads.  That is one of the terms that bugs me.  Using the group finder I see a lot of people with comments like "no bads" or "bads will be kicked" or things similar to that.  I actively applaud their efforts and that seems like the type of group that will get stuff done.  They will have no tolerance for bad players and will remove them right away.  However the use of the word "bads" means I will never apply to their group, even if I do believe their group might have a good chance at success.

I find the term rude and insulting and up to interpretation.  It is not something that can simply be judged by game play.  The leader could find you bad because you do not know the strategy they use as you usually down it a different way, thus making you a bad.  You could only be putting out 20K DPS and even if that is your maximum potential at your gear level and you are doing exceptional, they can kick you for being bad while you are in fact doing amazing.  You could be healing your heart out and using every trick in the book, but because the DPS are dying to avoidable damage you are some how the bad and must be kicked.

So outside of being a rude and insulting term it is such an open ended term.  If you want someone that can pull 30K HPS, ask for that.  If you want someone that can pull 25K DPS, ask for that.  If you want someone that normally does twins at the door, ask for it.  Do not call someone a bad for not doing or knowing what you want them to do or know when you never told them what was expected from them.  Hate to break it to people that use "bads" in their group finder description but if you use the term "bads" you are most likely the "bad" you are trying to keep out of your group.

Healz (with a z).  This one I can not really say why it bugs me.  Is healer really that many extra letters that it takes so long to type that you have to ditch one letter.  LF 2 heals (with an s).  I swear even typing it I feel dirty, and when I type it with a z I feel as if I lost a few brain cells doing so.  Healers, healers, healers.  They are not heals, they are healers.

This might be right up there with the guy getting upset over the use of usage of DPS instead of DD in terms of silly reasons to be irked by the use of a term but it does really ring a bell for me and it is a bell I do not like rung.  I am sure we all have some weird things that bug us but this one is my one real weird one.

Over the years I have become more accepting of the term heals (with an s).  There are times where heals fits.  Like I need heals for my threes team.  We could have downed that boss if we had some more heals.  So it is understandable why people use heals as an abbreviation and I have come to terms with accepting it, some.  However, when they spell it healz (with a z), all bets are off.  That really gets on my nerves.  Do you think it makes you look cool to use a z in place of an s?  News flash for you, it doesn't, it makes you look partially illiterate.

Are there any terms in game you once did not know what they meant and have a funny story about them?  Are there any terms in game that just annoy you, like DPS for that one guy and healz for me?

I'd Like to See Magic Users Use More Magic

Magic is a very powerful thing but in warcraft it never really seems that way.  Magic in warcraft is a very watered down and boring version of what magic could or should be.  From having to stand still to cast, which makes no sense, to having line of sight break a cast, which is illogical, to having the things cast have no impact on the surroundings, which is not realistic, magic just does not play out as I believe it should, or could, in the game.

Lets start with the whole standing still while casting.  Why?  It really makes no sense.  In any form of fantasy when someone casts a spell they are either concentrating on a target and casting their spell or speaking an incantation to get the spell to happen.  If a caster, at least of the stature that we as players as supposed to be, which is very highly skilled, can not continue to concentrate while moving or can not spit out a few words of an incantation while moving they probably would have died well before they reached max level.

For some spells, ones that require items, so to speak, it makes sense that someone would need to stand still while mixing the ingredients needed to call upon the spell.  So there is some sense to why certain things you need to stand still for.  A warlock calling a demon, calling a summoning portal, or a mage channeling a portal or conjuring a table all make sense to stand still doing.  Even if they do not need items to be done, they feel like spells that needs them.  So it makes sense that they should not be capable of doing them while moving.  But a chaos bolt for a warlock?  During their lives they must have called upon that ability a million times, if not more.  If they can not concentrate enough to summon a chaos bolt while moving after all that practice, they need to quit their day job of being a warlock because they really suck at it.  If you do anything in life a million times it is a pretty safe bet that you can do it with your eyes closed while sleeping so you sure as hell can do it while moving, awake, and motivated to do so while in the heat of battle.

So not being able to cast on the move really breaks the magic feel of casters.  Master casters as they should be at level 100.  They just do not feel very magic user like the way they are portrayed in game.

Lets move on to line of sight breaking a cast. It is illogical that line of sight should ever break a cast, or moving out of range should ever break a cast.  The logic of magic is that it does not need to see a target to target it.  It just needs to be in mind.  Magic is harnessing the power of the mind.

If I imagine myself hitting you with a fireball and then summon a fireball and send it your way I do not need to, now or ever, see you.  You breaking line of sight should not stop my cast.  You are still you even if you are out of line of sight.  So me releasing my power at you should not change based on where you are standing.

No matter how you believe magic works you should still be able to cast even without a target in line of sight, that is just common sense.  Heck, you should be able to summon a fireball even if you do not have a target at all.

This next part here is where we can break into different ideas of how magic works.  So while you should be able to summon a fireball regardless of line of sight issue, where the fireball goes can be left up to how you personally believe magic to work.

1) Would the fireball go after the target no matter where they go?  As if you focused on the target and then sent the summoned ball of fire their way.  It would be like a heat seeking missile and would follow the person around obstacles, at least until it went so long it fizzled out.

2) Would the fireball take the most direct route and hit the tree you are hiding behind?  This make a great deal of sense really as the fireball would be heading directly for you and if there was something in its way it would hit it.  Kind of the same as if I threw a baseball at you but you are on the other side of the fence, it would hit the fence and never make it to you, even if I threw it perfectly to you.  This is how magic should work.

Then that brings me to part three of what makes me wish that magic users actually used more magic.  Environmental effects.  Using the example I posted above if you ran behind a tree while I was throwing a fireball at you, it should not break my fireball cast but it should show my fireball hitting the tree and setting it on fire.  The spell should not break, it should not fizzle, it should set the tree on fire.

You should be able to target and effect your surroundings with magic.  I understand the huge amount of work that would need to be done to allow this to happen in the world in game, but it would make magic feel more like magic if it did so.

Could you imagine a hunter and mage chasing after a warrior and the warrior hiding behind a tree.  Instead of them needing to run around the tree to try to chase him the mage should just be able to freeze the tree into a giant block of ice and then the hunter would hit the frozen tree with an explosive arrow shattering it into a million pieces raining down the frozen wood shards on the unsuspecting warrior that was seeking cover.  Ladies and gentlemen, now that is freaking cool and that is exactly how magic should work in the game.

Some of these things you can not really change in game like the omg how awesome would it be to blow up a tree on top of your enemy, but there is one thing that blizzard could change to make magic users feel more magic like and that is addressing the cast on the move situation.

Over all I think blizzard has casters and casting on the move ass backwards.  They allow people to cast instants on the move but cast time spells they make them stand still for.  There really is no logic to that with how magic has been portrayed throughout the history of the genre.

If anything you should need to stand still for instants and be able to move for cast time spells.  The reason for this is with a cast time spell you are summoning something, speaking some special incantation, something of that sort.  All things that even a low skilled caster would be able to do while moving.  For instants however, they are powerful direct targeted spells that need a moments concentration, hence the reason they are instant.

So I would like to see them change casters to be more magic like.  Make them have to stutter step to cast an instant, it would still be instant, but they should not be allowed to use it while moving, they should need to stop a second to cast it, but at the same time let them summon their chaos blot or fireball while moving.  It would most definitely seem more caster like that way, in my opinion.

Then, in the future they can add the interaction between magic and the world in ways that would be very exciting.  Such as the frozen tree.  But that does not mean that only casters should be able to interact with objects in the world, physical characters should as well.  A warrior should be able to pick up a chair or table and throw it at someone from range.  A rogue should be able to sneak behind a bunch of barrels and push then toward someone knocking them down.

This post might be titled making magic users more magic like and it might push for casters to be able to cast on the move, but the main reason for it is I would like to see us be able to use the world we play in.  And no other type of class would be able to take such huge advantage of that like the magic users would.  If a caster, like a shaman, wants to make an earthquake and have it lift the spot of ground it is on 20 feet into the air, they should be able to.  Because that is how magic is supposed to work.  And that is a damn cool thing I would love to see in the game.  It would also really make magic users feel, for once, like they are using magic.

Monday Random Thoughts

- How come it takes longer to herb and mine on herbalists and miners than unskilled players at your garrison?

- The cast time for someone with the skill is 3.2 seconds and for someone without it is 3.0 seconds.

- I know 0.2 seconds is really nothing in the grand scheme of things but it makes no sense.

- Shouldn't someone that naturally has the skill be better at it than someone that doesn't?

- I managed to snag my SS vs TM win this weekend on my first attempt.

- Color me surprised with the alliance actually winning a battleground.

- But all the thanks goes to one person in there that knew what he was doing and took the lead.

- Thank you kind random stranger for making my SS vs TM experience fantastic.

- He said for no one to move, let the horde come to us.

- We, for the most part, listened.

- Horde took the early lead, he told everyone to be calm and stick to the plan.

- We, for the most part, listened.

- We fought the horde in SS and were losing, starting to lose by a fair margin even.

- Then he called out to start pushing the horde back.

- Told us not to lose faith, just push the horde back.

- And we did, we pushed them all the way back to TM with 3 minutes left but were still losing.

- At the two minute mark when we had completely decimated the horde and the score was near tied he called for us to pull back.

- We set down food, rebuffed, and all went in with hero and all our cooldowns blazing.

- With 30 seconds left horde was still up by a very small 9 point margin.

- Then, as if it was being read from prophecy, the score started to skyrocket for alliance and the battleground ended with us winning by nearly 100 points.

- Perfect timing, perfect leadership and people listened to an attack plan.

- I must have entered the twilight zone because this was not the alliance I remember doing battlegrounds with.

- It does fit what everyone that has done it has told me about it.

- Whoever is winning when it starts, always loses.

- And now that I see it in action I know why that is.

- Once the losing team pushes back it is only a matter of time before they overtake the team that was winning because the team that was winning is worth more points per kill.

- So it is a flip strategy.

- Let them build up numbers, become worth more, get a false sense of security, and then pick them off at the end when they are not expecting it.

- Funny thing is, how could anyone not expect it as long as it has been out now.

- I had never done it and I knew how to win it, so anyone doing it surely had to know how it was run.

- Made me wonder, what if both factions just sat at their bases waiting for the other to come.

- Would it be a tie?

- Nah, it would become a who flinches first thing.

- Or the horde would win because they would get 2 or 3 points just from the, at least, one person alliance side that would refuse to work with the battle plan.

- Either way, it was really fun.

- So once again I want to thank the unknown solider for his battlefield leadership, it was greatly appreciated and made the battleground fun.

- Must say I have to love barrage in battlegrounds.

- When we did that one last push with all the horde stacked together and multiple DKs with their army, a few hunters with stampede and other minions, players and NPCs all there, my barrage was massive.

- There were numbers everywhere, it was pure awesome slaughter as my barrage tore thru them.

- Fun fun fun I tell you.

- This weekend I was doing a normal run for some people and a person who was an issue a week before showing up drunk to raid and being a jerk over all asked for an invitation.

- Do I need to tell you that I said no?

- He asked why.

- I told him, last week you left the group because "we will never down it" so this week you can sit out and watch us down it again.

- I don't need drunks, negative people, people acting stupid and / or people saying stupid things.

- If you don't like it, leave.

- Speaking of leaving we had someone rage quit the guild this weekend because someone did not give him a 50K BoE piece they had.

- Seriously, someone got a world drop BoE and asked if there were any raiders that needed it in guild.

- He was not asking for gold, we do not work that way in guild, we help each other.

- So he decided to give it to someone on the regular raid team instead of someone else that said they wanted it that was not a raider.

- So that person rage quit because it was not given to him.

- Lets look at the facts here for a moment.

- The person that found the world drop was a raider.

- He gave it to a raider which helps them and in turn helps himself by making the raid team stronger.

- This other person has been in the guild roughly six months.

- He has never raided with us, he has never done PvP with us, he has never done dungeons with us, he has never offered to be helpful or make anyone gems or enchants when someone in guild asked if someone could make them, he has never offered to help anyone.

- He was basically just a social gamer, in the guild for the sake of being in a guild.

- We might know his name from logging in and out, but no one actually knew him because he never, or rarely, even talked in guild or joined in any content or conversations.

- Yet for some reason he felt he "deserved" the world drop someone else got more than someone on the raid team and rage quit the guild because the guy did not give it to him.

- Good riddance.

- How dare you have the balls to expect someone to give you something like that when they do not even know you.

- And then get upset because they didn't.

- Heck, even if one of the raiders needed it and he gave it to another raider they would have no reason to be upset, it is theirs to give to whomever they want to.

- They could have just sold it on the auction house and made 50K gold.

- They did not even need to offer it to anyone.

- The sense of entitlement from people is incredible.

- Just because you said you wanted it does not mean someone should give it to you.

- I told the person that got the world drop that next time he gets someone like that and he wants to see if anyone on the raid team needs it, to wait until raid night and ask on voice chat.

- Asking people in guild makes some people think it is meant for them, even if you did mention you wanted to know if any of the raiders need it.

- That would be like me being on my horde hunter and someone posting in guild if anyone wanted the lucky double sized coin.

- Would I want it?  Yes.

- Would I ever in a million years even ask for it knowing I rarely am on that character and when I do I am usually pugging and not raiding with the guild?  Hell no.

- I wonder about people sometimes.

- If you were in a guild that you never really did anything with or even talked with much in guild chat would you expect someone to give you a 50K item just because you said you could use it?

- I think not.

- The balls on that guy to expect it over a raider and then to rage quit over him not getting it are incredible.

- Funny part is, if none of the raiders needed the piece, the guy would have given it to him.

- Yeap, he would have given a 50K item to someone in the guild even if he did not know them just because they were a guild member.

- He is really cool that way.

- Maybe he just has not been around as long as I have.

- I've become jaded.

- So many times after all these years I have seen us gear someone up just to see them leave.

- Two expansion ago, new lock joins us saying he does not have much gear.

- I see what he can do on two test runs, and he has skill, just needs gear.

- So we funnel gear to him for the next two runs and people pass for him so he can catch up.

- Then he leaves guild so he can join a more progressed guild because now that he has better gear they want him.

- I've been used so many times in this game I really am distrustful of people.

- No one likes feeling used.  I sure as hell don't.

- Once you see that as often as I have you learn never to trust anyone.

- There is no honor in the game.

- I've been feeling a little off about the game lately.

- I plan to make a post about it soon.

- It has nothing to do with content, game play, or in game design.

- Just something... off.

- I will try to explain some other day.

- Looking for groups the other day I noticed something I want to see added to the group finder which should be easy enough to add.

- Server type.

- Some servers I know if they are PvE or PvP servers, but why can't it just post what type of server it is next to it.

- So you know what you are zoning into.

- I do not mind zoning on to a PvP server, but it is nice to know that it will be a PvP server before hand.

- I put in a suggestion for it saying that instead of saying the group is being formed by Bob on servername it should say Bob on servername-pve.

- Should be easy to add.

- I put in another suggestion I doubt will ever happen.

- Go back to the way the group finder was before.

- I wasted over an hour of my life yesterday and never found a group I felt like joining.

- So many trash runs to weed my way through.

- So many runs listed by people with things like "don't suck" as a description, which is a turn off to joining that group because you already know the guy leading it is a complete douchebag.

- So many runs looking for me to do special duty like on braken when all I am looking for is a quick kill in a pug and not looking to do flamethrowers.

- Sure I can do them, I do them in guild, but there are days I want to do the grunt work and days I just want to sit back and pew pew, I was in a pew pew mood.

- So many runs that were past the bosses I wanted, but otherwise looked good.

- So many runs that looked like I might fit with them, but they only needed a tank or healer.

- Either way, I wasted so much time trying to find a group and gave up without ever even hitting the join group button once.

- I want the old way where I list my name, say what I want, and I can go about and do things on my own.

- Let the people come to me.

- After all, they need me, I don't need them.

- I wanted to run to do something because I was bored and I am always willing to practice my craft as a hunter to get better.

- So I do not need the kills, they need me.

- So why do I need to waste my time seeking them out.

- They should have to come to me.

- That is why I like the old way of doing it where I list what I am looking for and people can come to me.

- Not sure why we can not have it both ways.

- So people that want to look for a group and find a group and click join, while people like myself who would rather go out soloing or reputation grinding or what not can keep busy while someone finds me.

- I am sure that suggestion will not happen, but I can see the server type on being added.

- How hard could it be to add a -pve or -pvp after a server name?

- Not sure why it is not like that to begin with.

- Speaking of the group finder, it is completely broken.

- I swear people make groups just to troll people.

- My hunter is 660 and gets turned down for world bosses over and over.

- Seriously.

- But it goes to show you how badly people need tanks and healers.

- My tanks, regardless of item level and healers, regardless of item level, get instant invites to most stuff just because they are tanks or healers.

- I saw one posting asking for healers, any healers, item level does not matter.

- I joked many years back in a post saying if you want to play warcraft roll a healer, but it is not really a joke.

- It is the truth.

- I can not see me healing much this expansion, mana issues are insane.

- Was doing an LFR on my shaman and looking at the other healers I was wondering how the hell everyone is staying at full mana when I am always oom.

- Either I am doing someone horribly wrong or perhaps the reason I was always oom was because I was the only one really healing.

- Then looking at the healing list I see myself 3rd of 5 healers with two disc priests ahead of me.

- Both of them pulling more heals than I am, not buy much but still more, and at near full mana when I am oom after every single pull.

- This is not fun, not at all.

- So unless they fix mana regeneration a hell of a lot, or it gets much better once I have a few pieces with spirit on them that are not 602 item level, I wil not be healing this expansion at all.

- My bear feels better now that I have it up to 650 and it can take a hit or two before crumbling.

- But I still feel super squishy and very dependent on my healers.

- I don't like feeling that weak, it is not a good feeling as the tank.

- As a tank I should always feel as if "I got this" even if my healer is lacking but on my bear it feels like if my healer is lacking, I don't got this.

- So no healing for me this expansion, no tanking for me this expansion and while I am getting really comfortable with MM finally, I am not liking hunters much this expansion, at least not for raiding.

- So I am left, an elf without a class.

- I guess I will just stick to soloing content and achievement hunting that I can do solo.

- Maybe blizzard can fix healers, with a little more mana regeneration and fix tanks, with a little more self healing, and fix hunters so they feel more like hunters again.

- The fact the cast time on my hunter is longer than the cast times on my casters is insane and needs to be fixed.

- All other classes can jump off a bridge as far as I am concerned.

- I want to play a hunter, I don't want to play anything else.

- Looked at shadow priest DPS over an icy veins and was like WTF?

- This thing reads like stereo instructions.

- I feel like I am reading code, not reading a rotation.

- If this than that but only if this and this and then this instead of that but if this is over 3 and that is less than 2 do this instead.

- Excuse me, could you say that again in english.

- Sorry to whomever wrong the shadow priest article on ivy veins but I have to ask them one question, is this your first guide?

- It has to be, because no one can write a guide that good and that knowledgeable and that in depth and have it be all over the place and expect someone that is not already well versed in the class and how it works to ever pick it up.

- If the person had some guide writing experience they would know that for a guide intended to be used by everyone, including instant boost 90s that just started, it should be written in a simple format and not like advanced code with all the ifs.

- I'd like to consider myself a mildly knowledgeable player and it took me what felt like forever to even find what I should be doing in that jumble of instructions.

- The thing is, if you do not play a shadow priest, what you do depends on what talents you choose and it completely changes the priority of abilities.

- Some talents should not be used if other talents are being used.

- In the guide it seems to try to make one rotation with ifs for everything.

- I think it would have been better designed if they did three completely different rotation priorities instead of trying to bunch them all into one.

- Treat it as three different specs and list the talents needed for each spec.

- Then have the dot version, the dot-less, and the dot light version.

- As it is now they are all listed in the same place and I can easily see how someone that does not know a little about shadow priest to begin with being totally lost.

- Like I said, it took me a while and I knew exactly what I was looking for, the dot-less version.

- I hated that it was cluttered with giving me information I did not need because it was mixed with the other versions.

- I really think for everyone and even more so new players they should treat all three types of shadow priest DPS as individual specs.

- It would sure as hell be easier than trying to pick and choose what you need out of the nested collection of its and buts that the guide is now.

- As it is written I think it would be easier for someone to learn to theory crafting from the beginning and figure it out on their own than trying to read that and understand what is being talked about.

- Have to use the kiss method.

- Keep it simple, stupid.

- Just tell people what is best.

- All those ifs turn what should be a very simple priority into what sounds like an extremely complex one.

- Just my opinion at least.

- I prefer being told straight out what is best, and even why it is best.

- Then once I have an understanding of it I move into the ifs and try to maximize.

- But saying that cast spell A if you took talent C in row T and talent H in row X but if you took talent I in row X cast B but if you took talent D in row T and H then you do spell A2 instead but only if resource Z is over 3. But if you took talent B and Y in their respective rows just remove this step because it is no longer second in priority but seventh.

- See what I mean.

- If there were three different ways ways the rotation could work don't you think it would be better to just show three different rotations than each step looking like that?

- So why was I looking at shadow priest DPS you might ask?

- It was the first DPS proving grounds I had any problem with getting silver.

- So I looked it up afterwards in an effort to try to get better.

- Took me three ties to do it on my priest.

- I was 604 item level at the time, so a little under the 610 minimum it requires, but still should have one shot it.

- I was standing too close to someone I froze in amber and it froze me too.

- I ended up losing with the last mob having like 1% health left.

- If I had not got frozen I would have one shot it.

- Second try I have no clue what I screwed up, but I know I screwed up bad because I did not even make it to the 8th round.

- Got it on the third try.

- But after that was done and as easy as I had it on the other classes, I decided I needed to do a little research on shadow DPS because I suck at it.

- On a lark I decided to try the healing proving grounds even though I did not even have one piece of gear with spirit on it.

- I've always been a better healer on my priest than I was a damage dealer.

- Heck, I never even played shadow until mists and even then I only used it for leveling and questing.

- So without any healing gear I went after bronze and it was hard but I managed.

- Then I went after silver, monitoring my healing as insanely tight as possible.

- I let people sit low sometimes because I had to conserve.

- With some smart choices on what to heal, when to heal it, and basically keeping away from any over healing what so ever as I had no mana regen for that crap I found myself reaching the last round on fumes.

- I made it there and I wanted to finish it.

- My heart was pumping fast with adrenaline waiting on mana and then deciding to cast something as soon as I could or to wait until I could cast something that might be better for me when I had more mana.

- As it turns out I made all the right choices every step of the way.

- 604 item level, no spirit gear what so ever, and a silver healing on the first try.

- Yeah, as I said, I have always been a better healer than I was a damage dealer on my priest.

- It was exciting doing the proving grounds healing challenge with no spirit gear at all.

- But my next challenge would be even more exciting.

- Tanking silver here I come.

- Bronze was a joke.

- Silver stopped me dead in my tracks however.

- Nope, not do to mana issues, I just could not heal past the damage in round 8.

- Too many mobs were up at one point and I started to fall behind healing.

- I only tried it twice, died in round 8 twice, both times with only two mobs left up.

- I know if I pushed it and kept trying I could have done it.

- But I feel it would be easier with some bigger heals, or at least some faster ones.

- It was fun to try however.

- I actually think the tank trial was easier on my healer than it was on my tanks.

- If my healer did damage like my tank did I am sure I would have been able to do tank gold on a healer at the rate it was going.

- Did molten core again for a shot at the pet, I really want the pet.

- Why did I do that?

- Really if you want to lose faith in humanity and learn to hate the game, run molten core.

- It has to be the single worst experience ever in the history of the game.

- I think I am going to go to one of those websites and just buy the thing with real cash.

- It is not worth wasting in game gold on, at least not at my servers prices.

- So if I end up getting banned in the new future you will know exactly what it was for.

- For buying tiny from one of those websites.

- And there is no one to blame for that but blizzard themselves.

- If they made the game, more so MC, enjoyable, I would not feel the need to go outside the game to get tiny.

- But because they made MC hell and the worst gaming experience of my entire life without a doubt, it is either subject myself to hell, way over pay for it on the auction house, or buy it with some real cash.

- So there is only one real option, buy it with cash.

- I just can not do MC again, ever, not with this player base.

- Thanks blizzard, you gave me a damn good reason to break the ToS.

- Congratulations?

- Have a great day.

Once Again Blizzard Fails at Winters Veil

With as many years as warcraft has been around and having seen countless holiday events, patch releases, expansion launches and other major events come and go it still amazes me how completely oblivious to the obvious the people that create this game can be.

Once more winter's veil is upon us, a day meant to represent and celebrate good will toward man (and orc too I guess) but we end up filled with frustration as we quest to see what greatfather winter has thought kind enough to give us this gear.

Setting out to the tree to see which gifts are under it with our name on them we are filled with excitement and joy only to find ourselves met with people on giant mounts using toys and gadgets to make themselves even bigger.  They stand, in packs, on top of the tree and all the presents below it.   You hope there will be a few with your name on it, because you have been a good little boy or girl, and you start playing with camera angles zooming all the way in trying to see that one with your name on it to collect your present.

Maybe you are able to get to it and have mastered the click on the item under the huge mount dance but many don't.  Either they have not mastered how to manage to still to click their gift among the gathering of huge mounts or they get too frustrated too quickly and give up and resort to anger or even rage.

People yelling at others, people being jerks and standing on their huge mounts having fun by the process of annoying others, people that just go in and get their stuff and leave having to be subjected to the ill feelings being thrown around by both the frustrated ones and the halfwits on mounts.  It makes for a good time for none, except for maybe the person who wants to watch the world burn.

You would think after all these years that blizzard would get it right, just once, and put the dismount aura around the winter veil tree so this would not happen.  So that this time that was meant to spread cheer and good will toward man would not turn into spreading hate toward your fellow gamer instead.  But no, once again blizzard has failed, as they always do, to make what is intended to be a fun event that grants happiness to those that participate into another thing that not only shows how toxic the community is sometimes but actively encourages the community to behave toxic.

It makes one wonder, when this has been going on for so many years and blizzard knows it goes on and does nothing to fix it, what are their true intentions.  Does blizzard actually want a toxic community?  Because when push comes to shove not putting in a dismount arua around the winters veil tree can only be for two reasons.  Blizzard either wants to create a toxic community, which if that is the case they are doing a wonderful job, or the failed once again.

Either way, what was once again meant to be a happy season of presents and joy turns into an unhappy one of anger and frustration for many.

Perhaps one day blizzard will open their eyes and stop being willfully blind and ignoring easily corrected problems, even if small, like this one.  That is my winter's veil wish for next season.  That blizzard reads this post and learns, for once, and never lets this happen again.

My advice to those that have not mastered the zoom and click would be to wait until later in the week to get your presents.  Greatfather winter will wait for you and they will still be there for a little while.  Do not let the jerks on large mounts and blizzard troll you.  Enjoy the season and the day and stay away from the winter's veil tree.

Merry winters veil all.

A Merry Winter's Veil's Wish

Winter's Veil is once again upon us and my characters have thoughts of presents in mind.  They are dreaming of things they never had that they wanted, things they never knew existed but they wish did, feelings of joy and happiness for no reason other than it is the season that makes everyone feel happy, even the grumpy one.

A few of my characters gave me mail to drop off at Azeroth Express addressed to Greatfather Winter with their winter veil letters filled with their wishes.   Now I know it might not be right of me to do so but ever since my dwarf shaman sent a death threat to thrall that almost caused an international incident I always read their mail before dropping it off.  For the safety of all mankind on azeroth.  I thought I would share some of the highlights from their letters with you.

My hunters all seem to have the same thing in mind when writing to Greatfather Winter.  Each one of them asked for gifts for their pets saying they did not need anything for themselves at all except for a happy adventuring companion. 

One of my hunters asked if there could be a new animation added to the pet emote so he could really pet his companion and I think that would be pretty cool if they added it.  Another hunter asked for the ever favorite of hunters, dual wielding pistols, but I do not believe Greatfather winter can ever deliver on that one.  Then of course there was the biggest of hunter wishes of them all.  For the ability to tame rabbits.  What hunter would not like a killer bunny?  I know mine want one.

My gnome warlock has asked Greatfather Winter for a new mount.  He said that while he really likes his dreadsteed he wanted a fel hound mount more than anything else.  I must say it is something I had never even considered myself but I would have to agree with that little guy, I think a fel hound mount would be pretty cool.

It seems most of my male night elves, after having been in some sort of accident they do not recall even being in, have issues running.  It seems as if they are in pain doing so.  They have asked if they could have corrective surgery so they are no longer living in constant pain while running.  It would be a multi purpose wish as well, because I have heard from some of my other characters that they wish they could not be subjected to the pain of watching them run.

My priest seems to be reading out of a script when she wrote Greatfather Winter asking for peace on Azeroth.  However I am not really sure if her intentions are as pure as her letter might seem to make them out to be.  At the end of the letter she asked for the entire world to have one day were no one had powers, except her.  Being she plans to spend her winter veil in ashran I am not sure if I should read too deep into that.  She in ashran as the only one with powers makes you wonder why she wants that.

My worgen mage, after seeing Khadgar turn into a bird and fly has asked for flight form to be added to her spell book and even rationalized it by saying she can already change from human to wolf and back again and she has mastered the ability to change others into rabbits, cats, pigs, sheep, turtles and other things, that it should not be out of the possibility that she too can turn into a bird as Khadgar did.

My gnome mage asked for a cheese cake.  Not sure exactly what that is about, but seems like a simple request.

My dwarf warrior has requested the ability to be able to leap where he wishes to and figured Greatfather Winter might be able to help.  He explained he can leap on to the side of buildings, up mountains, in places and areas where he knows he has no business being able to leap too but he can no leap straight in front of himself in the mine because there is no line of sight directly in front of him for some insanely odd reason.  Nor can he leap up a flight of stairs even if they are not half as step as mountains he can leap up.  He also asked for cushioned boots.  Because his says his feet hurt after all that jumping around.

My female pandaran monk has asked for dance lessons because she feels she is a death dealer and a life taker and it is just wrong that she is stuck dancing like an escaped mental patient that has over dosed on happy meds.

My male draenei monk has asked for a years worth of free visits to a chiropractor because, as he puts it, "my body was not meant to move that way."

My blood elf death knight has asked for a holiday to be named in his honor.  I really do hope that Greatfather Winter does not have the power to grant this wish because I can barely put up with his self obsessed banter as it is and if a holiday was named after him it would get ten times worse.

My troll shaman has asked Greatfather Winter to convince people to stop calling him a shaman and start calling him a witchdoctor so he can stop hearing his parents say "I can't believe you are a shaman, and all that money wasted on college, you should have been a doctor."

My gnome priest has asked Greatfather Winter that the people he is called on to heal be granted the gift of situational awareness.  Not because they are too hard to heal, not at all, but because he is tired of spending all his time healing himself because everyone keeps stepping on him.

So many letters, so many wishes.  Maybe some of my characters will get lucky and see their wishes granted, one can on dream during the winters veil, because this is the time of year that sometimes wishes really do come true.

Merry Winter's Veil.

Race and Gender, Do You Have a Preference?

There are many male players out there that only play female characters and there are many female players out there that only play male characters.  Probably not as many people as there are that play an in game gender the same as their own, but they are out there. 

I know of at least one male player in my guild that only plays female characters because, as he puts it, if he is going to be stuck looking at a butt for all those gaming hours, it might as well be a female one.  The one female player in my guild that only plays male characters says she does so to stop random people from thinking she is a female.

They have their reasons for playing a gender opposite of their own gender and both make perfect sense, for them at least.  I am sure others would agree.  But there will always be those that question that choice if forum topics over the years prove anything.

I've seen a few that blasted male players for playing female characters.  I am not sure why a persons choice of what gender a person plays in game bothers them, but it does for some.  I am one of those players that really has no rhyme or reason to gender, at least not when looking at it from a gender standpoint.  I do not play a male because it is male and I do not play a female because it is female.  I prefer to play the characters I believe have the best animated movement, or are the size closest to what I like on my screen.

When thinking about this the other day it occurred to me that there really is a pattern, somewhat, to which races I play which gender with and I thought it was interesting.  Not sure of it means anything really, but while I play both male and female characters there are certain races which I only play the male version and others where I only play the female version.

I've noticed that the large races, Tauren, Draenei, and Pandaren I do not play the male version of.  I tend to like the female models of those races better.  When it comes to the small races, Dwarf, Gnome and Goblin I end up playing only the male versions of them.  All other races I have both male and females versions of them and play them.  But those races seem to be ones I play a specific gender of.

While it is true I do have a male tauren paladin and a male draenei monk, both those characters remain mostly unplayed.  I also have a female goblin priest, but she too has not been played since she was made after goblins were introduced.  All those characters where made, leveled a little bit and then basically left to rot.  One day they will find their way to deletion as I look to make more characters, being I am at my 50 limit.

I can understand why on the large races I choose to play the female version, because they are smaller.  I do not like the movement of the larger body frames nor do I like the large bodies in general.  I don't really understand why all the smaller races I usually roll a male however.  Never even noticed it until I thought about the topic a little bit.

Do you have a preference to which gender it you?  Does it change based on race?  Do you always play the gender that matches your own?  Do you always play the opposite gender?  Do you pick and choose them or do you have certain "rules" to races and gender like I do?

Monday Random Thoughts

- I was thinking about blizzards possible introduction of the game time that can be sold in game, presumably as an item.

- It occurred to me blizzard would just create a brand new market for gold farmers.

- It would work like this.

- Someone with more money than time buys game time tokens to sell in game for gold.

- Someone with more time than money and the ability to make gold will buy it from him.

- The more time than money person will then sell game time for 10 dollars per month instead of 15.

- The guy with more money than time will see he can by game time tokens cheaper and buy from the guy selling for 10 dollars.

- One buys for 10 dollars, one buys for gold, and they just sell back and forth.

- The more money than time person gets tons of gold, the more time than money person gets tons of cash.

- With a nice set up like this and a lot of people working on it, say with one of those gold farmer web sites, and they can make a fortune.

- Basically just buying and selling the same game tokens over and over.

- Kind of messed up in a way right?

- But it gets both parties what they wanted.

- Gets the person that wanted gold the gold and the person that wanted money the money.

- I see no problem with this, but it could raise a red flag with blizzard.

- My biggest concern is duping.

- On my server duping is still insane, people selling every super rare item item in the game and they always have them in stock.

- Spectral tigers?  Sure there is a guy on my server that could probably provide every single person on the server with one.

- For 450K gold each that is.

- Don't know if you know about that mount, but trust me, there is no way in hell one person legally has 100s of them.

- Heck, there is no way one person legally has 10 of them.

- Unless that are insane and spent several thousands of dollars on them.

- I am a free spending person and I would never even buy one of them.

- Not at a thousand dollars real money and not at 450K in game gold.

- Amazing how blizzard never admits there is a problem with duping.

- Last blue remark I heard was that it was not possible.

- Yeah, you keep believing that if you makes you feel happy.

- I think I'll believe the truth instead because that makes me happy.

- Speaking of believing something that makes you feel happy it reminds me of an argument I had with someone in my guild about PvP.

- Mind you I am not a PvPer, but I do know simple logic.

- He said that gear is all that matters in PvP.

- I said gear helps, but if someone sucks gear will not make them better.

- He said I do not know what I am talking about, that even if someone sucks if they were in full PvP gear they would win because gear is all that matters.

- I said, keep believing that if it makes you feel better.

- I can't help but think that people that say those things are just really bad players that refuse to admit they suck so they have to blame it on something else, like gear.

- I admit I suck and as such I know if I am decked out in full top PvP gear that if I ran into someone with less gear that was actually skilled, they would own me.

- Because you can give me all the gear in the world, if I don't know how to use it I will still suck.

- Skill does matter.

- Gear just increases the potential.

- So yes, I will live longer, which could in turn help me learn and help me get better, but I would still need to actually get better to get the most out of that gear.

- I am not going to just win because I have gear.

- I really hate the gear excuse.

- Yes, if you had more gear you can do better, but the gear does not make you better.

- You still need to do well.

- And that is what got me about the guy with the PvP argument.

- He said, it is all about gear, skill does not matter.

- And when exactly did you start playing this game?  6 minutes ago?

- People amaze me.

- I would love to see what he would have to say if he lost to that rogue that always battles people with the warglaives on and wins.

- Wonder if he would say the guy out geared him.

- Now on to other things, like another level 100.

- That is number 6, a priest.

- My priest is going to go back to her roots, how she originally leveled to 60.

- Through PvP only.

- My priest is going to be my PvP character this expansion.

- At least that is the current intention so I am going to put the gladiator sanctum in her garrison.

- I did not intend to level another character, it just happened.

- I went out to do some questing, just for something to do and hit a grove.

- Before I knew it, I was 100.

- I have leveled in a few expansion and I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that warlords leveling has to be the fastest leveling I have ever experienced.

- Warlords leveling is like the leveling in other expansions, after it was nerfed twice.

- You know how a few months in, maybe after the first patch, they always lower the experience needed.

- Then when the new expansion comes they nerf it again.

- Well that is what it feels like.

- I guess it feels that fast because I have rested.

- Could you imagine if I had used to experienced gain things they sell in the garrison too.

- I know they want to make a smooth and nicely paced ride to max level, but on a rested character it moves way too fast if you ask me.

- Oh well, so be it, I do hope that others are enjoying it.

- Because I know many hate questing.

- I like it, and I do not mind it being faster, I can deal with it.

- But for the people that hate leveling I bet they would say it still takes too long.

- I am just NOT buying those experience potions personally because it it too fast as is.

- And I really do not want any more 100s.

- This expansion is dreadfully alt unfriendly.

- I'll get more to 100 for sure, just like I did this weekend, without even trying.

- When I want a change of pace and feel like questing for a few hours and boom, I am suddenly 100.

- But I am not going to stress it.

- As long as I have my tank, healer and damage dealer I can fill any role.

- And outside of mythic, which I do not see myself raiding at all being it is tied to one server and there are no mythic skilled players on my server, which are all one time kill bosses, you can kill bosses over and over on normal and heroic.

- So I do not need lots of characters any longer.

- I tanked for the first time this expansion.

- Well, tanked a raid for the first time this expansion.

- Went to, and downed, the 6th boss on normal.

- Not so bad for my first time tanking this expansion I guess.

- Considering we still have not downed the 7th boss yet on either difficulty anyway.

- We will probably get that this week.

- As I get more gear my bear seems less squishy.

- Still feel like a sponge however.

- I won one piece that run, guess what it was?

- A ring.

- I have the legendary quest line ring and had crafted myself a ring with bonus armor on it just a few hours before raid.

- Is that a kick in the gut or what?

- And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I despise professions now.

- It takes forever to get enough material to craft an item.

- Then it takes even more time, and a lot of materials to get it to normal raid level.

- Then it takes way more time and many many more materials to get it to heroic raid level.

- And any of those can easily be replaced by a drop.

- Sorry, but thinking of the investment in making these things that really sucks.

- Fully upgrading it, the time involved, the materials involved, and the luck of getting the stats you want on it which if you don't just require more materials and more time and more luck.

- Sorry, but the base item level for the materials needed should give you normal mode, upgraded to stage two should be heroic level and upgraded to level three should be mythic level.

- And I would still say it was a risk, because a drop can replace it.

- For something so easily replaced, it should be easier to make.

- I could have upgraded my hunters ring to the third level but decided to use the materials to make my druid a ring because I had no luck getting one.

- Now winning a ring makes me feel like I wasted all those materials.

- I hate wasting things.

- I hate wasting time, wasting materials, wasting anything really.

- I do not like these new crafted items.

- And I will say once again, if they are going to keep these low item levels on them, they need to remove the crafted 3 rule.

- If you could wear as many as you wanted, then the levels are fine.

- But being you can only wear three, they really should be better than they are.

- My hunter is doing nicely gear wise still this expansion.

- Won a heroic helm and heroic shoulders this week.

- So moving up slowly but surely to 658.

- Every expansion you always have one slot that gives you hell.

- This expansion it seems to be my legs.

- I am still wearing 630s.

- Not even 636, not even with a gem slot, not even with a third stat.

- Nothing.

- Just plain and simple and boring 630 legs.

- I am just having a horrible time with pants.

- Then I looked at my warrior and said, it could be worse.

- Poor guy is still wearing 588 pants.

- I guess 630s are not so bad after all.

- I did some cleaning up this weekend and noticed I might have lost a few items.

- You know, the mail ate them.

- My own fault, I will not blame anyone but myself.

- I logged into a bunch of 90s I sent timeless gear to on servers where I did not have much of a gold stash.

- Figured if someone was going to convert them and sell them, might as be someone that needs to gold.

- Funny how even after selling well over 1000 sha crystals I still had hundreds of these pieces.

- And so many 90s that never opened the chest on timeless island because I did not want to have more I needed to bounce between characters.

- I was not disenchanting them now, sha crystals are worthless, I was just vendoring them.

- I converted a bunch of them and sold them to the tune of almost 4000 gold.

- And I still have more.

- I wonder what the one guild I am in on my paladin on another server thought when looking at the guild news and seeing me convert like 80 of these things.

- That paladin, and the hunter and mage at 90 with him on that server will suffer from warlords.

- I do not see myself getting them to 100.

- Too much micromanaging of the garrison for me to want so many alts.

- I would feel compelled to keep their garrisons up to date and I won't want to make more busy work for alts.

- Really wish there was a way to level professions without needing to do some stupid daily cooldown for materials.

- Blizzard, really WTF, who came up with this retarded idea?

- Whomever it was deserves a kick in the nuts.

- Mean I know, but what was he thinking, he deserves it.

- Did he not understand some altaholics like me like to level professions but do not want to be on that character every single day to do so.

- And not just altaholics like me, but many casual players.

- I guess that is where the garrisons came in, you can get a lot more materials with the right buildings and then make stuff with that to level.

- But once again, it goes to the busy work idea.

- I really do not want busy work on alts.

- I really do not want to feel like I have to log on to alts daily to do a cooldown.

- They are called alt for a reason, I might log into them once a month, at most, and I can not level professions that way.

- And if I can not level my professions with my characters, I do not level my characters.

- I am thinking that the only character I will end up leveling that is not on my main server this expansion will be my horde hunter.

- Just because I want to see how the other side lives.

- Otherwise it is not worth leveling alts on other servers any longer.

- At least for me.

- At least until I learn some self control and not feel compelled to log into them every day to do my garrison.

- But as long as their professions are not maxed, I will feel compelled to do so.

- I am weird that way.

- Seriously, why are there no green tailoring, leather working, and blacksmith items to make just to level your profession?

- I would love to hear blizzards answer.

- But I must admit, 640 items you can equip at level 91 are kind of nice.

- So maybe, just maybe, if I do decide to level those characters, that is exactly what I will do.

- I will level up the professions, slow as they are now of course, by making myself some gear, and then I will level past 91 once I have the three pieces and hopefully max skill.

- As alts, they can use the 3 pieces I am sure.

- Except for the hunters.

- Some of my alts hunters were in near full mythic gear, while 640s would be nice, they are not needed.

- But for a few, like my priest and mage and paladin whom never got much playing time, they can sure use a couple of 640s to make life easier.

- I sent a full set of timeless gear over to one of my druids.

- In case I ever level it, I wanted to level as guardian and all I had was boomkin gear.

- So while I now have a lower item level, at least I am in a more leveling friendly spec for it.

- I also dropped a profession, maxed one at that, on one of my DKs.

- If I ever level that one I will need to do a new profession from scratch.

- The reason for that?

- With the change to professions, having duplicates of some professions were useless.

- Like enchanting.

- Many of my DKs and hunters had enchanting, because they solo a lot and do a lot of current content and it was a nice thing to have.

- But with enchanting being near useless now, as long as I have one enchanter on a server, I do not need more.

- I hate wasting materials and dropping a profession to level another feels like a waste to me.

- But no less of a waste than having another plate enchanter when I already had one.

- So that DK is now blacksmith and engineering.

- Blacksmith is what I picked up.

- Figured I could use another one of those and it is a plate wearer.

- So if I level it, slowly of course, I can craft some gear while leveling.

- Also there was a second reason for me choosing blacksmith.

- There is always a method to my madness.

- I have 10,000 true iron ore and half as many blackrock ore.

- Now you understand why I only mine on the weekends right?

- So I have enough to power level it somewhat and that, in turn, can be disenchanted, to help me keep up on all those enchanting studies all over the place.

- Make sense?

- Not like the true iron sells for anything anyway, but the draenic dust sells for a small fortune.

- So I am going to turn my iron into dust and level another blacksmith.

- All the leveling patterns only need the iron, not the special stuff, up until 600.

- Hey, it makes sense to me.

- Have a great day.

Sorry, That Wipe Was My Fault

So here I am sitting in my garrison bouncing from character to character doing my mines.  I only do them on the weekend because that is the only time I really have the extra time to do so.  While doing this I read trade chat which can, at times, be quite entertaining but most of the time I can actually feel my brain cells dying off a painful death reading it.

Between the number of trolls and twelve year old children that think anal jokes and chuck norris jokes are funny it could be real painful reading trade.  Not to mention that sometimes some of the arguments in trade get down right nasty.  We have a rule in my guild that I would love to see blizzard add to the game and enforce.  But they do not enforce any rules so it would not make a difference anyway.  The rule is no talk about religion or politics.  Because even civilized people, and not just the bottom dwelling trolls and twelve year olds of trade, can get downright nasty when talking about those two subjects.

But I digress, the reason I am here is to talk about raid wiping and what someone said in trade that actually got me to speak up.  I normally do not say anything in trade, or very rarely do.  But every so often something so completely ridiculous is said that I can not help but put my two cents in on it.

Someone said "Sorry, that wipe was my fault is something no wow player has ever said".  My immediate response, to myself only of course, was yeah, no bad player has ever said that.  Good players would admit their error.  I did not say it right away in trade because I was going to let it slide, until other people started talking about it.  A few saying "I've said that" and others saying things like "Only people that want to get kicked admit they screwed up".  After a few minutes I decided to chime in.

"Good players admit their errors because that is what makes them good players.  They recognize what they did wrong and make sure they do not do it again. "  I then added "Any half competent raid leader would know who wiped the group anyway if it is something that one person did to kill everyone.  I'd sooner kick you for not admitting it than I would for you owning up to your mistake."

I was ready for some back lash, because of course people would take what I said as elitist, even if I do not believe it to be so.  Oddly, to my surprise, it seemed like it enticed a lot of people to stand up and speak that I do not normally see posting in trade.  All of them completely backing me.

Of course, there were a few that immediately called me names, said "apparently you have never raided before" and said "what does a level 92 know about raiding" because I was on an alt at the time I said that, and of course, it is impossible for someone on a level 92 to have 100s that are raiding, or have raided last expansion right?  So I have no frame of reference apparently because a level 92 can't know anything about raiding.  Or at least that was what a few of the attackers said.

I am glad to say that I won, hands down.  A few trolls took shots at me because of my level, saying I must have never raided, or called me an elitist.  Isn't that kind of cool?  I am an elitist raider that never raided.  I wonder how that works exactly, maybe someone can explain it to me.

Most people however agreed with me.  We beat down the attackers, or should I say, they did.  I did not say too much, but boy oh boy did the people that I normally do not see talking in chat go to my defense the first time someone called my statement false.

When it ended I left one more post before I switched characters which was simple.  "I guess after that conversation we know who the good raiders are."  And I actually meant it.  You can tell just from that one line who the good raiders are, or at least the raiders that try to be good.  Because in the end I really do believe that good raiders will admit their failures because they noticed what they did wrong and want to correct it.  So they either say they know what they did and will not do it again or ask what they did wrong so they can try not to do it again.  I personally love when my raiders do that.  It means they are learning or at the very least, they are trying to.

The other week we were on a boss and had a new raider with us.  He was all types of trouble from the get go.  I think he was high or drunk or something.  We downed the first three bosses no problem even if it seemed like he had no clue what he was doing.  He was annoying on voice chat, he was questioning everything I said, but not in a good way, in a stupid way like "let the monk do that" when we did not even have a monk in the group.  He was just a waste of space.  I was going to kick him, he was really pushing every button.  But we are a casual raid team and I give a little bit of a leash before I show someone the door.  Not to mention, this was normal night.  This is the place to gear up alts, mains looking for that one piece, and to see what potential raiders we can find when we do it.  It was not like it was progression or anything, so I had a long leash on people so to speak.

When we got to the forth boss, Tectus in this case.  As we were clearing trash I said everyone out of the center.  He did not listen.  He stood there and when the boss spawned we were engaged in battle instantly and of course wiped because no one was ready for it and a few people were AFK while we were clearing the trash anyway. Did he say he was sorry? No, he did not.  Did he admit it was his fault?  No, he did not.  He even went so far as saying it was not his fault.

I had my hand on the kick button, but figured I would give him one more try, one real attempt.  We had not wiped on any fight yet and wipes happen, sometimes to stupidity on our parts, we are all human right?  I've done the same thing before in the past accidentally.  I admitted it of course, but we all have done it.

We get ready for a real pull and the fight started and he gets the barrage on him and precedes to run through the group with it either killing or greatly injuring half the raid.  Needless to say we wiped.

When we came back I asked him if he understood the mechanic as I explained it before the fight.  He said yes.  I then asked him, why did you not run right like was the plan, away from people, instead of running through the group and killing us all.  He said, I didn't do that.  I kicked him instantly.  Did not even ask another question.

He whispered me saying, that is fine, you are never going to get it down any way.  I replied, if I let you stay in the group you would be right, we would never get it down with you running the barrage through the raid.  That is why you are not in the group, so we can get it down.  When you learn how to listen to instructions, follow mechanics, own up to your mistakes, and not show up to raid high off your ass maybe I will invite you to another raid again.  But until then, you are on my never invite again list.

Moral of the story here is that I was willing to put up with a lot.  Had been doing or acting horrible all night.  I wanted to kick him many times and I let it go.  As a casual guild we know there will always be a few lesser skilled people around, it is par for the course.  I accept that.  But just because we are a causal guild, just because some of us might be lesser skilled, it does not mean we can not be good raiders, or at least try to be.  And owning up to your mistakes and then learning from them is very important.  If someone is lesser skilled and does that, as long as it is not hindering progression, I will continue to invite them but once you say, I didn't do it, when you obviously wiped the raid you will be shown the door because if you are not willing to own up to it and learn, I am not willing to wipe with you.  Rather simple actually.

With the patience I had shown it goes to prove that it is important to admit when you made a mistake, at least when raiding with me.  If even I would kick someone who doesn't admit errors and try to learn from it, that is big.  So as I said, only bad players won't admit their error.  This person was a bad player.  It was funny when he kept whispering me and got the DBM auto response that we downed it on the first attempt without him.  He said congrats.  Wonder how he felt now.  Was it worth not admitting his mistake?  He could have been there for that boss and the bosses after.  All he needed to do was say, sorry, this is new to me, I will try better next time.

The Undercover Hunter

I had a couple of interesting interactions this past week while on characters other than my hunter.  It made me wonder if other people that play any class as a main really, have found themselves helping someone that play the same class as their main, without actually being on their main.

Make me feel like I was working undercover.  Not letting the people know I was really just a hunter dressed up like a shaman or a priest or a warrior.  The funny part is that in the three times this happened only one of the people even noticed that I was helping them with their hunter questions without actually being a hunter.

The first time was when I was roaming around shadowmoon valley on my priest.  I do not recall why I was there as I am past the level, but might have just been collecting some items or picking up a follower I missed, but that is another story entirely.

I see someone ask in general how many berries does he need to feed gara.  Now, admittedly, I have not gotten gara yet myself but I do know the quest line quite well.  I read all I could about it so when the time came I would know what to do and I was watching closely and even looked around on the beta while the hunter community was uncovering how to do it to begin with.  So even if I had not done it, I knew some of the basics.

I explained the whole needing to be beast mastery and berries and the fact it was a little bit of a quest and not just some quick thing to get the spirit beast that would be over in five minutes or so.  He thanked me and I moved along doing whatever it was that I was doing. 

A few minutes later I get another whisper asking me another question, in general about hunters, which I answered.  Then he followed up with another question about gara, which I would have been more than happy to help him out with but I was about to switch characters so I took the easy way out.  I gave him the link to the post over at eyes of the beast that explains how to get gara.  I told him it is an excellent post and will explain everything he needs to do in detail.  I waited until he responded that he got the whisper and then I wished him well and headed off.  A priest helping the hunter.

The second undercover hunter moment came on my shaman while doing things around my garrison.  It was a case of the "never ask a question in trade" suggestion I often state here and I say everyone should live by.  While it is true there are some decent people in the game I have found that the decent people are usually the quiet ones as well and most of the responses you get in trade will be from trolls and / or misleading.  Even when there is a good answer in all that garbage picking it out is sometimes very hard.  Go look it up online, ivy veins is a decent place to look and there are many forums out there that can help you.  Even noxxic which seems completely out of date or sometimes off with their suggestions is still a better option than asking in trade.  Heck, hitting random keys might even be better than asking in trade, but I digress.

Either way I clicked on his name and answered his question.  He then asked if I minded if he asked a few more questions.  I said I am mining my mine and switching soon, but would be glad to help.  For the next 10 minutes he fired questions at me and I gave him the best answers I could.  Between each ore I mined it seemed like there was another question.  I didn't mind, it broke the monotony of doing the mine.  Even more so being I really did not need to.  I was only doing it because he said he had a few more questions and I figured if I was going to be on this character for a few minutes I might as well put that time to good use.

When he was done asking questions he thanked me and even sent me a battle pet in the mail.  It was really nice of him.  The cool thing is that it actually was a battle pet I did not have yet and I have nearly all of them, so what are the odds of that?  If I recall it is one of the reputation ones that cost something like 2000 gold and 2000 apexis crystals or something like that.  I told him he did not need to send anything, I was glad to help.  He said, keep it, you were the only one that was willing to help, you deserve it.  I told him to look me up again should he ever have any more questions and I went on my way.

The third experience was just last night.  I was on my warrior catching some elite beasties in nagrand for my barn when I ran across a level 99 hunter that had somehow managed to get himself involved with an elite clefthoof, two smaller clefthooves, and roughly 6 talbuks that didn't seem all too happy to see him.  I saw his dead pet there and him running for his life.

I switched from gladiator to protection and went to work, I jumped on to some talbuks, charged into some others and then taunted the elite clefthoof.  It took some wrangling and all my cooldowns but I managed to get all of them off of him and on to me and survive.  He did not run away, almost like I was expecting he might, he stayed and helped kill them all.  Heck, they were his tags, I was just helping, the least he could do is help kill them.

He said in say after they were dead, thanks, you saved my life.  I said, you're welcome, you looked like you could use some help there.  He said, yeah, I accidentally pulled two of the talbuks while running by and then hit barrage and all hell broke loose.  I laughed.

We continued on in whispers.  I told him I know all about barrage pulls.  He said, as a tank I bet you do.  I said, as a hunter I have done it.  I am no tank, I am a hunter in disguise.  He laughed.  I gave him some pointers on the things I learned about barrage from how to turn just the right way to hit what you want it to only and on how to turn just the right way to get more when you want it to.  Also about learning the distance and how important that was. 

He then asked me a couple of other questions, because as he said, I seemed rather knowledgeable about hunters for a warrior.  We had a few laughs, I helped him with a few quests, he helped me trap a few beasties faster for my barn.  I then wished him well and went on my way.

It is kind of funny, or at least for me it feels that way, giving out hunter advice while not being on a hunter.   It felt good helping where I could, I always do.  I even got a gift for doing so which was quite unexpected.  I always help and would never ask anything for it and I think that is one of the things that I find so wonderful about the hunter community, it seems like many of us are like that.  We are willing to give with expecting nothing in return.

So the next time you run into someone that is offering advice and they don't happen to be the class you are, don't take for granted it is some troll.  It could be an undercover hunter.

Too Soon Blizzard, Too Soon

There was some information released on what we can expect with the release of 6.1 but I believe it is way to soon for blizzard to be talking about that.  I know that none of us want a repeat of last expansion's fourteen month with no content experience, but we do not even have all the content intended for 6.0 release out yet.  It would have been like them announcing the new expansion at blizzcon before warlords was even out. 

How can they be even considering leaving teasers for 6.1 when we are still waiting for the foundry raid to be released, which is 6.0 content we are still waiting for.  It is not even scheduled to be released until February some time.  They have not even attached a concrete date to it yet. 

So here was sit playing 6.0 and still waiting for the rest of 6.0's content to actually be released and they start wanting to tease us with what to expect in 6.1.  Am I the only one that finds this to be an odd business move?  How about getting us excited about the new raid that is part of this patch but has not even come out yet?  That sounds like it would be a much better idea if you ask me.

There is another thing I would like to question about some blizzard employees talking about 6.1.  Why are they not addressing the queue issue many servers still have?  Why are they not addressing the garrison server crashes which happen on a near daily basis?  Why are they not talking about the dozens if not hundreds of bugs that are left not only unfixed but completely ignored?  Why are they not talking about the fact some people can wait for 6 hours in queue to get into ashran when it was supposed to use phasing technology to balance it on a faction by faction basis so no one would ever have to wait?

With so much broken in the game, so much that needs fixing, so much that needs addressing, and even when content that is part of this patch is not even out yet, why are they talking about the next patch.  They should be talking about fixing what we currently have.

Don't get me wrong, I am as excited as the next elf to hear about what they have coming for us.  We all like new stuff, we all like stuff we have wanted to be added even more, and we all like being teased a little with information like that.  But it is just too soon, there are other things they should be talking about.

I just think it is extremely out of line and way too soon for them to be teasing 6.1 when I could not log on last night or this morning because the garrison servers were down once again.  Sure I eventually got in last night, but it annoyed the hell out of me that they are wasting time working on 6.1 and talking about 6.1 when 6.0 is still broken.  Fix the game, then expand it, in that order.

As for the teases, the heirloom one interests me, can't wait to see what that is like.

The game time for gold is really fucked up, excuse the language but there is no other word that can be used for it.  I know someone that bought a game time card from someone in trade that was selling it for gold.  Blizzard removed the game time from his account and did not give him the gold back.  Yet they let the guy selling game time for gold continue to sell it, and get suckers to buy it, for months on end.  I told my friend to put in a ticket demanding his game time back or his gold back because apparently it is not against the rules as blizzard is doing it themselves.  I said it was wrong for blizzard to do what they did back then and now I think it is even wrong even more so.  See, fucked up, like I said, no other word for it.

Over all I think that is a great change and something blizzard should have done 10 years ago when the game first started.  Seriously, why was this never done.  No more reaching into my pocket to play wow ever, if I don't want to.  Just buy my game time with gold.  There will always be someone out there that is spending their cash to sell the time because they can't make gold easily and someone else can.  Makes both people both happy.  It could also mean more subscribers as people that do not have the cash for a subscription game can make gold in game and buy the time from someone else with some disposable cash but not time or skill to make gold themselves.  Win win and an idea long over due.

In game tweets?  Any game that connects itself to twitter or facebook or anything like that is on the bottom of my list of games to play.  I hate when everything I buy on amazon pops up with something like "you have just purchased the 6 pack of haynes socks, would you like to share this on twitter.  No, I do not want to share this on twitter, who is their right mind would want to share this on twitter.  No one gives a crap if I just bought new socks and no one will give a crap if I just finished a mission that got my follower 800 experience and me 50 gold.  Did they really waste development time for this crap?

But as long as there is an option to make sure that I never see or hear any sort of connection to twitter or facebook or whatever else they decide to connect to, I am fine with it.  But the first time I do something and the "would you like to share this with your friends" pops up and there is no way for me to disable that from happening, blizzard can say goodbye to me paying for a subscription.  If I wanted to play a facebook game I would go play a game on facebook.  Simple to understand blizzard.

How about blizzard starts telling us important things, like when the loading issues with garrisons will be fixed, when will the queue time for logging in be addressed, when will ashran be playable by people instead of some place where some people have still never gotten to see it even if they have been trying.  How about telling us about blackrock foundry and hyping that.

Settle the current stuff blizzard, hype the future stuff in the future when you have the current stuff working.  That is what I am getting at.  Hyping a new patch before the current one has even been completely released is by definition, too soon.

I Am a Crate-A-Holic

Before the expansion even came out I was making suggestions to people on which buildings to have in their garrison and one of those suggestions was to make sure you got the salvage yard in your garrison as soon as possible.  And then further to get it upgraded to level three.  It was solid advice then and it is solid advice now.  But something happened, something that I am not actually surprised about, I now find myself addicted to opening those big crates of salvage.

When blizzard changed it so level 90 - 94 missions no longer dropped big crates I was upset, as were many others.  We were purposely keeping a few low level followers on our team so we would have lots of low level quests which were short.  Short quests are good for when you are going to be online for any extended period of time because you can do more missions which in turn meant more chances for big crates.

Big crates not only got you follower upgrade items which could be used to gear up your followers so your followers in turn could get better missions and do better at them but those crates could also contain world drops.  665 world drops to be more precise.  Who would not want some 665 bind on equip world drops really?  I bet you would be hard pressed to find anyone that would say, nah, I don't want them.

But that is not all.  Those crates had a lot of grey items that were worth some gold, not the standard few silver type of greys either, 5 and 10 gold greys.  They also had some classic items that you do not see around very often and for people that are into transmog that has been a little slice of heaven.  And if you are lucky enough like me you have also run across a few pieces of gear that have otherwise been removed from the game.  It makes me wonder, how far does this go, what type of removed from the game gear can I find in there.

Even when I open a crate that has complete junk, meaning nothing decent for trasnmog, no follower upgrades, no crafting materials and no 665 items, I am still happy to open it.  Sure I might not be all that happy that I did not get something good but even a crate filled with junk can be a good crate.

One of my characters has made over 3K while sitting in the garrison the last three weeks.  She has not stepped outside of it at all.  I just do missions and pop back from time to time to refresh them.  That means she is making 1000 a week just opening salvage crates and selling the junk I get from it, from 48 gold greens to 7 gold greys.  If it is not something I think I can sell, which it usually isn't, and it is not something I can use, which it usually isn't, it is just vendor trash.  And at the rate of 1000 a week on an alt that does not even leave the garrison, it is pretty good vendor trash.

So while I am not getting nearly as many big crates of salvage as I could if it were not for the change from blizzard I am still doing quite well with it.  It has become more about me getting them than what it is in them.  Opening them is like gambling, getting them when doing 95 - 99 missions is like gambling.  You never know when you will get them and then never know what you will get in them.  It is kind of addictive trying to get more and then to open more hoping for that huge surprise when you get something you needed or wanted.

The first thing I do when I log in is cycle through all my characters to collect my crates and then send all the followers back out on missions to try and get me even more crates.  I then open them all with the excitement of a gambling addict watching a horse race and screaming "go 7, go 7, go 7" as their horse is pulling close after the last turn.  They know having a ticket does not mean winning, but the excitement of watching the race sometimes is enough and then the exuberance of victory or the anguish of defeat makes them just want to try again.

If you win, you want to win again.  If you lose, you want to try again so you can win.  The big crates of salvage really work on that hook and that is what keeps you coming back for more.  You just want to win.

I am not a gambler but I can't help but feeling like one each time I open a crate.  It is like buying a scratch off lottery ticket.  You know you can scratch off hundreds of them and win nothing, but it is knowing that you could win something that keeps you buying them.

The crates are taking over my life.  Bouncing from character to character to get as many missions done as possible so I have as many chances to win as possible is making it hard for me to actually progress in doing anything else because "if I join a pug on my druid that means there will be 2 hours I can not cycle through my characters to send them out on more missions".

I am addicted to getting the crates and opening the crates.  It is an addiction that is keeping me from doing other things I know I should be doing. 

Some might say that is why blizzard limited how often people could get them, they were trying to save us from ourselves, but I feel it is quite the opposite.  Now that I get crates less often it has become even more important I keep those missions running to drive my addiction.  If crates flowed fast and furious and I could get a bunch quick and easy whenever I wanted them to feed my crate addiction and get my fix.  I might not feel so pressed to get every single one I can, like I am now that they are limited, to some extent.

I got hooked in such a simple way and very early on.  The first day I got my salvage yard up to level three and turned in my missions and I heard that, what has become glorious, thunk when the box went into my bags.  I collected a few boxes from a few quests and ran over to my salvage yard with the excitement of a young boy on christmas morning looking to see what santa has got him, and I opened up the boxes like unwrapping presents.

That first day I got myself a 665 bind on equip item.  Sure my hunter could not use it, but I was hooked instantly.  I saw what could come from it and from that point on I was an addict. Nothing could change it now.  Running to the mission table hoping to hear that wonderful thunk of a big box of salvage landing in my bags and then running to the salvage yard is what keeps me logging in.  That has been all this expansion has been about.

I got achievements, factions to exalted, leveled followers, bodyguards, killed raid bosses, world bosses, got loot from them too even, I have done so much, yet the only thing that matters to me when I log in are my missions and if I got some big crates of salvage.

It is no longer about getting something good, it is about getting the box and opening it.  That act alone is a reward in a way, feeding my addiction.  I think I need help.  Is there a crate-a-holics anonymous in game?  Because if there is, I really should join.  I need a crate intervention.  I need crate rehab.  I need it because all I can think about is how many crates my characters have gotten me while I was writing this.