Monday Random Thoughts

- After taking off a couple of weeks from the LFR I decided to take advantage of the end of the buff and do a few with one of my characters.

- Don't worry this will not be a complete MRT about LFR, just a little bit at the start.

- I think people hate hearing about it as much as they hate doing it.

- But its my party and I'll cry if I want to.

- Works out that I hit a bout of LFR burnout at the wrong time, while the buff was active.

- I have a lot of characters that could have taken advantage of it but oh well.

- Ever have a tank be the person that is actively trying to wipe your group?

- I had a run like that.

- Zoned into the last boss of ToT 4 and the boss was pulled instantly by the tank.

- We wiped.

- Now I did not know what was going on but it was basically because we only had one tank.

- Figured I was new to the group so I can not really make any judgements.

- Second time he pulls, the other tank drops as he pulls, so it is only him.

- He tanks the boss in the center of the room.

- People yell, to the pillar.

- This goes on for a while until we die.

- Tank blames the noobs in the group for sucking.

- Someone points out we did not have a second tank.

- Someone points out he tanked the boss in the middle.

- Someone points out he was dying fast because of poor gear and even worse skills.

- He says, all you people are noobs.

- Remember the comment I always say?

- The worst players in your LFR are usually the most vocal.

- Even that one guy doing 800K DPS that keeps talking shit.

- Yes, he too is one of the worse players.

- Being bad is not all about playing bad.

- You can play good and still be a bad player.

- Either way, we wiped 3 more times before we finally got it down.

- Surprisingly, or more like not surprisingly, enough on the first pull we had with 2 tanks and him not being one of them.

- I was going to say screw it, now I remember why I took a 2 week break, and stopped doing them.

- But another LFR popped up and I said I'll give it one more shot.

- Get a group that has 13 people from the same guild.

- None are exceptional players, not even doing "good" by LFR standards, but they are all doing the right thing.

- We blow through the LFR even with lower numbers in what was one of the smoothest runs I have ever had.

- Even if not one of the fastest.

- Goes to show you that you do not need big numbers, you just need people working together as a team.

- I love seeing a guild group like that in an LFR.

- Most of the time, unless they are from the KT server, they are decent people just looking for a fast and easy run as a group.

- And having a group that works together like that really does make the whole run easier.

- It restored my faith that not every LFR is a nightmare.

- Thanks people from that guild.

- Wish I remember the server so I could give you a shout out.

- Thanks to you I went in to the week needing 13 secrets on my lock and leave the week having them all.

- Next step runestones.

- At the pace I play my lock and if they give us the buff another time or not, it could be months before I finish it, but it was nice to see such a huge amount collected in one week.

- Was not looking good at first.

- Did the first 14 bosses and got 8.

- Which means I needed to get 5 from the last 6.

- Odds seem unlikely.

- I got 5 in a row.

- If I really wanted I could have dropped group and then came back for the 1 boss for a chance at a runestone later.

- But I was not feeling that brave.

- I had some decent runs after that starting nightmare thankfully.

- I also have something amazing to report.

- I did a forgotten depths and you know that trash to Meg?

- No one pulled any of it.  Not even one single mobs.

- They did not even kill everything or extra stuff.

- They killed the absolute minimum you needed to kill and everyone walked by it without pulling anyhthing.

- People waited when they saw something walk close until they can walk past it without pulling.

- WHAT???

- No, stop calling me a liar.

- I am telling the truth, it was actually the first time I was ever there were no one pulled anything.

- It brought a tear to my eye.

- I finally finished the brawlers guild achievements.

- I did all the fights a long time ago.

- I got all the small achievements a very long time ago, when it first came out.

- I collected all the cards.

- But I never killed any of the cards.

- That was the only achievement I needed to finish off.

- At my current gear level of 573 on that hunter it was kind of sad how easy it was.

- But honestly I do not mind at all.

- Nothing wrong with some mindless killing from time to time.

- I like that you can over gear most of the bosses there.

- That is good design that allows everyone to do it.

- Sooner or later that is.

- I did die to mingus diggs however.

- I had not looked up any of the fights, I just went at it doing what a hunter does, so I made a mistake on that one and paid for it.

- I looked it up after I died and then did it no problem.

- Now I am happy, I have them all done before they take all of them away.

- Makes me wonder, why did I want to finish achievements I would not even have in a few months?

- Because that is who I am.

- And that is great content design.

- Achievements give you something to do when you are bored.

- It is like a suggestion, hey why don't you go do this.

- The quests from the cards all gave valor.

- That was nice even if I do not need the valor at the moment.

- They also all give a shirt.

- WTF am I going to do with 12 more shirts when I already have no freaking bag space?

- And they all give a winners satchel.

- I got from 500 - 900 gold in each.

- Awesome.

- I wish these things were weekly quests.

- I would go there and kill all of them every single week.

- Makes me wonder.

- I think I have an extra of bear and the fair in my bank.

- I will have to see if I can turn it in now that I did it.

- But I think I might have thrown it away a while ago because I needed bag space.

- Have to remember to check.

- I'll tie a string to my finger to remember.

- I always wondered about that.

- If I forget, what is the string going to do.

- Now I'll wonder why there is a string on my finger.

- Which can easily be answered by the fact I am just weird.

- BRB

- Back

- Did you miss me?

- I bet you did not even notice I was gone.

- Have you seen the new druid cat forms?

- Oh my, oh my god, oh my god.

- They are awesome.

- Have to roll another druid.

- Pick a server, go through all the setting to get it to look exactly how I like it, pick my name, create my character.

- I can not make any more characters.

- :(

- When did I make my 50th.

- Oh, I remember, the hunter I recently got to 80 and locked so maybe I can pick up a herald group.

- I look through my characters and find a DK barely leveled on bronzebeard.

- Say good bye mr troll DK.

- Say hello mr troll druid.

- Troll cat form looks best.

- Just like it looks best now too.

- And just like it has the best flight form.

- Worgen cat forum looks really nice too.

- Night elf one is okay.

- Tauren one is... ~falls asleep~

- Sorry about that, it is just that boring.

- Even with as cool as they look the tauren one still looks really that blah.

- My leather BoA gear is on my other account and I am not going to active it.

- My second set of leather BoA gear is on a monk.

- So, switch it over from the monk or buy a third set.

- I'll buy a third set.

- Decided to do Yogg +0 25 for the mount on my hunter.

- Killed Yogg 4 times.

- 4 times as he died I got turned.

- 4 times it ended up not counting as a kill.

- What am I doing wrong?

- I even looked on the last attempt as I killed him to double check my sanity.

- I was a 68 sanity when he died and I still turned as he died.

- Advice anyone?

- I have to have done something wrong that I am not noticing.

- Something I forgot about maybe?

- I stopped trying for the time being.

- Otherwise I will actually go insane.

- Did the entire run and actually managed to snag a few achievements I did not have yet.

- Mostly because every time I am there I am with someone that wants to do the hard modes so I do them instead.

- Still love that ulduar has so many achievements you can get.

- I still need a bunch and I have run it tons.

- That is how you create content that lasts.

- Why has blizzard gone so far away from the ulduar design for raiding when that was clearly the best design they ever had?

- At the rate I am going I should be able to make the healing mace on my hunter.

- How sad is that?

- Doubt I would be allowed to make it.

- Maces:  The only weapons that are not a hunter weapon.

- One good thing is I have gotten to the point I go through the brain phase without losing any sanity at all.

- It took me all these years before I ever made it through losing 0 sanity

- I had done it only losing 2 before, but never 0.

- They say practice makes perfect, just amazed it took me this long to do it right.

- A friend of mine said let me come with you, then when you kill him there will be someone else there.

- I explained it is easier to solo Yogg +0 than it is to 2 man it.

- Seriously, have you ever tried 2 manning it?

- It is so much harder.

- Near impossible harder I think.

- I have no issues solo.

- Well, except for the recent ones.

- Did some onyxia runs for the mount.

- Nothing.

- 4 hunters and one lock.

- Did some runs through stonecore again for that mount.

- Had not done that in forever.

- Did my full 10 and nothing.

- Seems like it has not changed since when I was doing it all the time.

- I was doing it daily back in cataclysm.

- I had forgot the mounts dropped in normal so I was doing SC and VP on heroic once per day back then.

- I used to call the VP mount the hunter mount.

- Because I was able to solo it as soon as I hit 85.

- Camo past the trash right up to the first boss.

- If you are good at patterns you know the "sweet spot" where you never need to move.

- When tornadoes go in you switch to aspect of the wild and take no damage almost.

- Just stand in one space and kill the boss.

- Love it.

- Absolutely a hunter boss.

- Camo past the second series of trash to the mount boss.

- Avoid crap, use wind, keep boss on pet, rotate FD and deterrence when he tries to hit you, kill boss.

- Not nearly as easy as first boss but not really dreadfully hard either if you do not get hit by breath.

- I got that mount in less than 2 months.

- Stonecore one I was not nearly as lucky with.

- And that one I sure as crap could not solo on heroic as soon as I hit 85.

- Later in the expansion yes, but not at the start like VP.

- I can't believe I went for months doing heroic before I realized they dropped on normal too.

- Someone in guild got one and was not even 85.

- When he mentioned something in guild is when I did that head slap thing.

- I am an idiot, I could have been doing this on normal.

- Stonecore normal was still much harder than VP heroic, but at least I could do it 5 times in a row back then.

- I did it 5 times a day for months and months.

- I gave up a long time ago and occasionally go back and do it.

- On weekends like this when I am just doing things for the hell of doing them.

- Trying to find something interesting to do.

- Killed garrosh twice this week on 2 characters, still none have ever got an heirloom.

- I am completely convinced they do not exist.

- The entire game playing world is working together against me for the longest joke in history.

- How are you guys keeping it a secret from me?

- You probably all have a code that makes it look like you looted one or look like you are wearing one.

- Okay, jokes over, ha ha, you can all stop doing that.

- One guy in my guild says a friend of his has 14 already.

- I can not repeat what I wanted him to tell his friend but I am sure you can guess.

- I just want one weapon.

- I can use it while leveling, go into a dungeon and get a new one when I reach max, and pass it to my next hunter to level.

- Oh well, when 6.0 comes they will be a guaranteed drop if you have never received one.

- So I guess I will be pugging a lot in 6.0.

- Sadly when 6.0 comes I do not know if I will be able to pug mythic, which is currently heroic.

- I like being able to pug heroic and wish we would be able to pug mythic cross server as well.

- I understand why they are making it that you can not pug cross server for mythic.

- I just do not agree with it.

- I would never had gotten anything down in heroic without people from other servers.

- Even with the merge my server is just not that advanced.

- And the few really good guilds there are that are capable of doing heroic are only 8/14 and 10/14.

- And the people in them are complete jack asses to the people that pug.

- One of my guild mates went to a heroic pug this weekend and he said it was a nightmare.

- The raid leader was screaming, not decisive, insulting, and over all a train wreck.

- He said he never appreciated what I do more.

- He said I make raiding easy, I make people feel like they can do anything even when they fail.

- This guy was leading a group of 25 people all with heroic experience and he made every fight sound as if they would be climbing everest and it would be a major achievement.

- He made everything seem harder than it needed to be.

- I like when he compared how I explain a fight to how he did.

- I make even the most difficult fight, one we have never done, sound easy and he said that helps him.

- I explained, different people respond to different things and believe it or not his style might be great for some people.

- One of my two kills this week I was pugged into it.

- The raid leader said what he wanted to do, we wiped 3 times.

- I saw the numbers, offered some suggestions based on the group make up we had, and it took another 3 tries while people got used to the different way and we downed it.

- Not every group is the same, so you can not do the same strategy for every group.

- Might work for easy bosses but from my experience garrosh is still way to hard for most players.

- Funny thing is I would still say that garrosh is easier than LK even with the 30% buff.

- Way the hell easier than LK with the 30% buff.

- You could give LK a 50% buff and garrosh would still be easier.

- I would have preferred the design if they made the bosses harder and added the buffs then making the bosses easier with no buffs.

- Reason being is that I would never bring my lesser characters in on garrosh because I feel everyone needs to be up to snuff whereas if garrosh was a little harder my main still would have downed it, but the buff would have helped me bring my lesser characters later.

- As always, my own opinion, but I support giving the last raid a buff.

- Even more so when we are going to be sitting on the same raid for 6 or 8 or 10 or more months.

- Buffs just makes sense so you can include more people, more alts, and just make it easier over all.

- People like to feel as if they are plowing through things they have done before.

- I've killed garrosh a bunch now on many difficulties and I have never one shot it.

- Okay, I lie, once, but that is it.

- Even with a skilled group that has done it 10 times each at worst someone always makes some mistake and bam you are done.

- So a buff would really be nice.

- So while playing on my lock again I was trying to get back into it.

- Took me a while to find my grove.

- I guess that is the problem with not playing a character often and not being all that well versed in it to begin with.

- I am sitting at 539 on the lock now, was doing around 120K single target at the start and was up to doing 160K single target by the time I was done.

- Just goes to show you that practice really makes a difference.

- I increased my damage by a third just in one day of practice.

- I guess 160K single target is not horrible for a 539 item level.

- Don't know enough about them to comment however.

- But it does make me wonder what the hell this lock I had in a group last week was doing.

- 565 item level with legendary cloak was capping out at 130K and more like 90K on most fights.

- Makes you wonder what the hell they are doing.

- And he is a semi regular raider.

- He is actually what I could call a true casual player.

- He logs in once or twice a week, does a little stuff, get a pug here and there or fills in for the guild run and that is about it.

- Goes to show you that normal mode is not meant for casual players, or better said, normal players because that is what he is, the normal player.

- His numbers are more like flex numbers.

- And even a little low for that too.

- I guess that is why flex will now be normal and normal will now be heroic.

- I have been saying for a long time that normal mode seems more like heroic mode.

- Not because of difficulty so to speak, but because of who I need to bring with me.

- It seems like normal mode is designed to need people that know how to raid.

- I guess that is how it should be, but I never minded bringing others along so they can learn.

- So I am happy they are making flex the new normal.

- Funny part is, even when I do a flex 4 run I am still picky on who I bring.

- Nothing can kill a flex 4 on garrosh faster than only having 2 really high damage dealers and they both get mind contorted.

- I can not tell you the number of wipes I said to myself if only those 2 people do not get MCed we win.

- All because a few poor damage dealers that do not interrupt can really kill a group fast, even on flex.

- Makes you wonder, if that lock I mentioned is the true casual, the model that they want to make normal for, then normal (current flex) is really still too hard for them.

- It is like being between a rock and a hard place.

- Make it much easier and there is nothing to learn from it and make it much harder and you basically push 90% of the people that want to raid out of the raid.

- I do not envy blizzard trying to find the balance so that is it both easy enough and hard enough.

- On that note I am going to get a coffee.

- I need a lot of coffee on mondays.

- Actually, I need a lot of coffee every day.

- Instant human, just add coffee.

- Have a great day.