Unreasonable downtime again.

So yesterday was patch day and as normal on every patch day things went wrong and it took longer then expected.  Not just longer but much longer.  In my one year of playing this has been the worst since passing the second worse by about an hour.  I am not one of those people that are going to QQ about wanting my money back or wanting a free day to make up for it.  What are we talking about there?  Pennies?  I am a reasonable person and I understand that the servers need to undergo updates and clean ups and the such once in a while to keep my game play running smoothly.

I love reading the forums and seeing people cry about it.  It is actually quite amusing how some people get so frustrated.  They all come to that "I pay to play" argument when complaining.  No one ever seems to point out that while they pay to "have access" to the servers there is no promise of your server, or any others for that matter, being up at any given time.

This will be a bad example but it is the basic concept.  You go into a coffee shop and order a coffee.  It takes them 2 hours to get your coffee to you.  That is horrible service for sure, that is way too long and it not something I would have ever even waiting around for.  But in the end, no matter how long it took, you ordered a hot coffee and got a hot coffee.  You might never go there to get your coffee again being it takes forever and the service sucks but that will be your decision.

Same goes for blizzard. You pay a fee to access their servers and play the game they made on those servers.  You pay for access over the course of a month.  You do not pay for a months service.  Those are two different things.  If over the course of the month you have access to their servers then they are holding up to their end of the deal.  Sure, the service might suck just like at the coffee shop but the same goes for blizzard as the coffee shop.  If you do not like their service you do not need to shop there any more.  Do not order another coffee at the coffee shop because it takes too long for it to some and do not pay for 30 days access because there is too much downtime for your liking.  It is your choice.  Don't complain because you made a bad choice.  It is not their fault you made a bad choice.

Now for my problem with all of this.  Five years Blizzard has been around doing these patches and they still have not figured out how to do it right.  Millions upon millions of paying customers and they still have not even taken the effort the test an upgrade before installing it?  That is just simple bad business practice.  The have a PTR to test the game and might even have another test upgrade server.  If they test it in game play and test it in uploading then how to they always manage to run into problems? 

I don't know about you but if I owned that company and had an upgrade set to install and my workers botched it that badly on a regular basis there would be a lot of unemployed people the next day.  As a business owner I would find it unacceptable for my workers to be working at that level of complete incompetence.

It basically comes down to this.  If you can not do the install then wait until you figured out how to do it before trying.  It is not that difficult.  Where is the company ownership on this matter?  Why are the people in charge of running the updating process still employed this morning?  I do not think of myself as a hard boss where I work but if one of my employees continued to work at that level of inefficiency they would not longer be working for me.  That simple.

A world without Sin.

Well, for my faction we are not quite there yet but we took to Sindragosa as a learning experience and it sure seems like we came away with a lot of learning.  One thing I noticed more then anything else is that it was not quite as hard as people kept talking it up to be.  I am not sure why that is. Either I am becoming better at picking things up or the mechanics for this one sounded a lot scarier when it was talked about as compared to when it was in function.

Either way, we did not down her.  He got her to 3rd phase 2 times, got her under 50% 5 times and all that out of only 8 tries I think.  Not bad for a crew of 10 that I was with that had never been to her before.  Heck, we needed to tell people to head over to tank spot because some of them never even saw the video for it before.  With that in mind and a less then ideal team set up I think we did fantastic.  We had 3 pallys and 2 death knights.  No druids, which would have been really nice.

The thing is, this is what progression is and I am proud of the 9 others I was with.  None of them cried to change bosses we were working on, none of them said they had to leave after a few wipes, all of them were in it to learn it and that is the number one thing you can ask from any good player.  A good player is someone that will take the time to learn it even if the learning hurts a little bit.  A good player, a team player, will wipe a few times if needed.

Over all I think we did fine.  The whole time I was thinking "we got this" and I really believed that.  Unlike Rot and Fester when we first got to them and where wiping over and over.  I did not feel like we were ready for those.  This one seemed a ton easier.  I wonder why everyone says that this is a killer and super hard.  It sure as hell did not seem it.  The times we got to the 3rd phase we did not even get the 5 minute berserk warning yet even.

Our first wipe was more of a case of everyone seeing everything for the first time.  We did amazingly well for a team that never saw it before.  Made it through the first set of ice blocks and the second set of ice blocks before it fell apart.  I can damn near bet you that 95% of the guilds did not do that well on their first ever try.  Oh, did I mention we were also doing this with only 9 people at first?  Make it seem a little better on how we did right?

I made a few stupid mistakes myself.  Twice I died super early do to my own fault.  Stupid line of sight is quite literal it seems.  I was behind the block just as I was supposed to be but I guess my big toe was sticking out a little bit and I got hit.  Oops.  That is how we learn.  I did not mind it happening once, that is learning, when it happened the second time, well, no sugar coating that, that was my own fault 100%.


As odd as this sound I think our biggest problem was DPS.  Not as you might think.  We did not have too little, we had to much.  With the exception of twice, once when we were clueless and one of those WTF moments, all of our wipes where from breaking down the ice blocks to fast.  One run we had going we were below 50% and everyone was alive and the two blocks come out.  As normal we took our time to start.  Blast one falls, blast two falls, we burn down the block on the left and break it just after blast three falls and everyone moves to the one on the right.  Barely tapping it waiting for blast four to fall and oops, it breaks just as blast four lands.  Oh crap!.  Nearly everyone dies.

That was the story of our wipes basically.  I think only 3 times did someone die from the deathgrip type thing, so everyone got that down pat once we knew it was coming.  I decided to play with it some being the hunter that I am and I ended up as one of the 3 death from it once because instead of doing the mouse turn and run I was going to try something different and by habit mouse turned and disenganged..... right back into her. ~LMAO~  Oops.

I noticed a few things from a hunter perspective.  Or any ranged really I guess.  I can out range that effect and keep dropping the pew pew while everyone else is running for their lives.  I will note, I do not have the hawk eye skill.  That is standard range attacks that I would range it with.  I also tried the keyboard turning thing.  Only because I am one of those people that get annoyed with everyone calling keyboard turners bads.

Needless to say I never died once even while keyboard turning.  You can keyboard turn and get out of range WAY ahead of time.  Actually, after trying the 4 ways I did it mouse turning is the last of the four options.  Option one, out range it.  Option two, Disengage from it.  Option three, keyboard turn. Option four, mouse turn.  Yeap, I just said that.  Mouse turning is the worst option for that.  Contrary to what everyone seems to say online whenever I read about it.  Mouse turning, unless you are prefect at it can sometimes leave you on a weird angle.  I ran into the wall once.  Was far enough away but I do not like running into walls even if it does not hinder my play.

There is a problem with all four of these options.  Sometimes out ranging it does not work.  Do not ask me why.  I have no clue.  Sometimes I was at the edge of my range and did not get pulled in, sometimes I was.  Disengage works nicely if you hit it fast enough.  If you do not plan right and a global just started you need to move to option three or four.  Four I mentioned already, sometimes you can go a little more or less with it.  Not a big deal, just annoying.  For me at least.  I pick my one spot and I always like to go back to that same spot.  Keyboard turning gives easier control of direction even if it does seem to cut it close if you are not quick enough. I think in future attempts I will try to out range and if I get caught keyboard turn.  I will not even worry about disengage or mouse turning.

I think with the experience we had last night if we can just learn to stop DPSing the ice blocks, then we will finish it no problem.  I never thought I would say something like this but with that fight we have to slow down our DPS big time.

All in all it was a nice attempt and much easier to grasp then I had expected.  I think the more I play I am also learning that most people that talk about fights really like to make it sound harder then it was so they can feel better about doing it themselves.  Never trust anyone that says something is amazingly hard.  Same as never trust anyone that says without mouse turning you will die on that fight.  Both those people are plan out morons.

Did some serious leveling this weekend.

I got my hunter alt that I rolled on the RP server up to 20.  The other 2 1s are still sitting in goldshire waiting for their day to come.  I just made them so they can build some rested experience.  Makes life a bit easier for when I decide to level them.  My DK on that server that will be mining and jewelcrafting is still sitting around.  Did not start working on that yet.

On my main server I did some work on my priest and mage.  I had not intended to work on the mage.  I was just going to walk him to an inn so he could start getting rest experience as well but being it was the gnome starting area I figured I might as well do the quests in the starting area first before going there to park him.  I was level 6 when I got there and decided, well let me go pick up my professions first and then park him.  Then notice there were so many herbs all over the place and said to myself, self, lets just do some quests while I grab all these herbs.  Low and behold before I knew it I was level 20 on him too.  All because I decided to make him a herbalist and that area was just covered in herbs. 

Needless to say, if you want to start a herbalist go to the ironforge area and start grabbing, you will be over 100 in no time.  The place is littered with herbs.  I'll have to try and remember that if I ever make another herbalist.

So here is how my current roll call on my main server looks at the moment.  One of each class of course.

Hunter - Night Elf - Male - Level 80 - Herbalism & Alchemy
Druid - Night Elf - Female - Level 80 - Mining & Jewelcrafting
Death Knight - Human - Female - Level 80 - Enchanting & Inscription
Rogue - Night Elf - Male - Level 48 - Skinning & Leatherworking
Priest - Human - Female - Level 40 - Tailoring & Enchating
Shaman - Draenei - Female - Level 38 - Mining & Blacksmith
Paladin - Draenei - Female - Level 23 - Undecided (ditched old ones)
Mage - Gnome - Male - Level 20 - Herbalism & Alchemy
Warrior - Dwarf - Male - Level 6 - None yet
Warlock - Human - Male - Level 1 - None yet

That leaves me with one of each and I plan to get them all to 80 some day.  I have several professions still not maxed but working on it and one that I have never even thought of touching, engineering.  I currently have 6 open slots for professions as I am going to be dropping the Paladins skinning and Leather-working.

At the moment this is what I am planning.  Either the Warrior or the Paladin will end up being the engineer and will have mining to go with it.  The other, which ever it may be, will end up being mining and jewelcrafting.  So that leaves the Warlock undecided.  I plan to do tailoring on that one being a warlock on a flying rug just seems too good to pass up.  As the locks secondary profession I am not sure yet.  It can be anything as I will have 1 skinner, 2 herbalists and 4 miners in my stable to work with.  Actually, if anything I might drop someone of those miners when I get to max level and just keep one as a miner for gathering.  I just like having gathering professions while leveling.

There is also another option for me.  When my Mage hits 80 and is a maxed herbalist then I might drop herbalism from my hunter and make that one engineering.  Being that is my main and engineer will give me lots of useful things for PvP that does seem to be a fantastic option so far.  It is the way I might go.  If that is the case, I might go something different on either the Paladin or Warrior.  Wow, so many characters and so little time.  I am sure it will be figured out.  As long as at the end of the day I have all classes at 80 and all professions maxed out.  I don't really care.

It might be time to jump into gearing up again.

Not for my hunter of course, for my bank alt DK and my Druid.  My hunter seems about as geared as I can get it out outside of getting 3 marks to upgrade my chest, shoulder and head.  Past that I need King kills for weapons and heroic ICC for others.  While the crew I run with is solid and getting better as we get more people geared I really do not ever see that happening in the near future.

So it is either run my hunter through the same content over and over every week even though I do not need anything or start gearing up some alts so I can run with my guild with the alts that can actually use the gear.  Sure, if we are short on DPS I am happy to bust out my hunter and kick some boss butt.  I never have a problem with helping guildies.  I just need to have something to aim for when I raid 3 nights a week.  I know my hunter will not be getting any gear so might as well get another one of my characters geared up.

So how do you gear up a new 80?

I hear people cry all the time about how hard it is to gear up a new 80.  It is not that I do not understand their plight but that I think they just refuse to put the effort into it.  So it is their fault, not everyone elses.  Gearing up now is as easy as it gets.  It's so easy a caveman can do it.

Unless you are a tank that is.

Gear up a tank is like pulling teeth but quick. 
Gearing up a healer is okay mostly and does not take long. 
Gearing up a DPS is long and boring but pretty easy.

Tank:
Instant query.  'Nuff said. 
If you are willing to spend the time doing randoms you can gear a tank up to a reasonable level in less then 3 days, maybe even one if you do not sleep much.  Not kidding at all.  Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying.  The LFD tool will assure that you are in a dungeon 24/7 if you wanted to be with no down time at all.  That makes gearing up quick.

People give new tanks no love. 'Nuff said.
Trust me, I tried gearing up my bear.  Didn't make it 5 randoms before I swore to never tank again.  Partly my fault.  While I did read every scrap of information about bear tanking and could quote you what is the best for each situation and how to gear and gem and enchant and nearly everything that needs to be known I did not ever actually do any tanking with it.  No matter how much you read or how many videos you watch you need to learn how to handle situations by doing them.  Not very hard if you run with reasonable people.  Very hard, beyond words hard, when you run with people that will not let you move at your own pace. 

Just one example.  I was looking to get The Black Heart drop from normal ToC5.  We all zone in and one of the DPS says immediately, you are wearing a green trinket, you shouldn't be trying to tank this.  I replied, that is why I am tanking the "normal" version, so I can get the trinket.  I had over a 3K gear score already, more then enough to be tanking heroics, but wanted to get a better trinket because I like to have the best things I can when I do my job, whatever it may be.  Idiots like that make working to gear up as a tank hard.  Those are the same assholes that open up on the packs before you even reach them.  Dude, I am a bear, let me get to them and swipe first before you start pew pewing.  Aggro problems happen all the time while you are learning to tank with people that can not give you a second to get going.  I hate it.

Healers:
3 to 5 minute query.  How can you not love that?
Nearly the same as a tank, if you are willing to take the effort and spend the time you can gear up in no time at all.

The run can go either way for you.
If you have some super tank it is not like you will really ever need to drop more then a DoT on him.  If you get an average tank with stupid DPS you just bitch to the group, let the tank get aggro first and most of the time they listen.  As long as he is geared enough to do the instance and you are geared enough to heal him through it and DPS does not do anything stupid it is easy.

Stupid DPS will still be your bane.  Making you spend time healing them because if they moved they might not be able to do their leet DPS in a heroic.  Dude, if you are doing over 1.5K in a heroic you are doing fine.  That is more then you really even need to do.  Do you think it really make a difference if you do 6K DPS or 7K DPS in a 5 man?  Nope.  And you can not even extend your epeen by doing it because I will probably never see you and your uber leet deeps again.

DPS:
15-25 minute query.  I hope you have a gathering profession to keep you busy and make you some money while waiting.  You will not be gearing yourself up in a day or two like a serious tank or healer could.  Not even three or four.  For even the most dedicated player it is going to take close to a week if only because you will get into a lot fewer dungeons which means less badges which means slower gearing up.  Personally, I suggest doing all the northrend quests and gathering while you wait.  By the time you have enough badges to gear up you will have enough money to buy yourself some ICC crafted gear too.

As a DPS you have the easiest of the jobs in a 5 man.  I say easy, but it seems 90% of the DPS can't do this.  Being you are just gearing up, it will be a lot easier for you.  The idea, say hello when you start, thanks for the run when you end and during it you should always watch your threat and always move when you are supposed to.  If you can do that, even if you have 1K DPS, you will not get much grief.  One of the best things to say if anyone questions your DPS is something polite along the lines of, this is just an alt I am gearing up and learning because I am tried of running ICC 10 and 25 every week on my main and wanted to try something different.  Most people will not question that being it means at the least you know what you are doing.  Remember, even if that is a lie, it will work.

Unless there is some elitist jerk in the group no one will even notice you did 1K and if they did, they will not say anything, they will just joke to their friends about it later.  In most runs I do I am over 50% of the DPS, even on more even runs I pull 40%.  I have never even once mentioned anything about another persons DPS in a dungeon, if anything I would be the one in the position to say something.  There have even been a few times where I ran with someone with such a low DPS that it made me wonder if they were AFK and when someone wanted to kick them I said, no need, we are almost done and we don't need them anyway, let them get their badges so they can gear up.

On the rare chance you do get kicked, which will happen because most people are jackasses online, you are screwed with another 20 minute wait.  Gearing up as a DPS will take time.  Lots and lots of time and just a bit of luck hoping you do not get grouped with jerks.

So my Druid, the Bear/Tree will have to query as a Tree and my DK which is blood DPS/Blood Tank will have to query as a DPS.  You might ask, why do I have two tanks if I don't want to tank.  Thing is, I do want to tank.  I just do not want to tank with the type of people I tend to run into when I use the LFD tool.  Learning how to tank is hard when no one gives you the time to learn.  Also, with them geared up, I can help my guildies when they need instant queries.  If I go with all guildies I do not mind tanking.  Heck, once I am raid ready I can tank raids no problem.  Raids are easier then heroics any day.  In a raid you are basically there to hold threat and get beat on.  Single target most of the time and with people you know and that know you.  No stress in raids as compared to running with the morons that use the LRD tool.

After I am done with my refer a friend stuff I might have to start gearing up my alts.  Of course that will come while I get my other 7 characters up to 80 as well.  One of each class.  Did I really want to do that?  Nope.  I am doing it so I can learn better what each class can do.  Once I know that better I will become a better hunter and that is my goal.  Remember what I said, I read about everything but reading and doing are two different things.  Reading about a priest I never though I would like it and I love it.

I love idiots... I hate idiots.

Okay, it is more of a love and hate at the same time thing.  Mouse Turning vs. Keyboard Turning arguments are at it again on one of the forums I read.  I never post there but I read it all the time.  I should say something because some people are not only stupid, but they are beyond stupid.  There is just no real word to describe it really.

I am not talking about taking a side here.  I have done both and continue to do both.  I personally believe that both have their time and place.  Since I downloaded heal bot for my priest I have been doing more keyboard turning personally.  More so out of functionality then anything else.  I might just be a complete spaz but I find it 1000 times easier to keyboard turn when using heal bot.

I will quote a few comments that just got me thinking that some people should really keep their mouths shut sometimes.

Here is one of the lines from some half wit's comment.  Again, not siding with him or against him, just pointing out that he really made himself look like a fool because apparently he did not think before he wrote.

"But don't think just because you can play a certain way it's the most efficient. It isn't, acknowledge it and acknowledge that you don't use it and move on. The best players mouse turn and keybind. Accept it and move on."

Now lets move those words around a little bit here.  "The best players mouse turn and keybind." and follow it up with his very own logic "don't think just because you can play a certain way it's the most efficient."

You can't tell people that their opinion doesn't not mean they are right and then give your opinion as proof they are wrong.  If you are going to try and prove someone wrong at least give a reason.

And not a bad reason please... like this example.

"Tell me you can keyboard turn out of blistering cold and defile effectively and I will call you a liar."

This guys just invited himself to the world of "Here's your sign".  Just because you can't do it does not mean someone else can't do it.  So how is someone a liar if they say they did it?  Because they were skilled enough to do it and you where not?

I read an article not so long ago where one of the first groups to down the king was interviewed and someone said that mouse turning was required to get out of blistering cold and another of the members said that if you know when it is coming you really don't need to but it makes it a hell of a lot easier.

That part, "you really don't need to but it makes it a hell of a lot easier" proves that previous comment maker is a total moron, not to mention a complete asshole for calling someone a liar because of his inability to do something.  It also, in effect, shows how to make an argument, something the first quote needs to learn how to do.

The turning argument on the forums is always one I find enjoyable. It seems like people come out of the woodwork to comment on it.  I sometimes read them and think that half of the people posting insulting keyboard turners are most likely keyboard turners themselves and just doing it so they look "leet" to everyone else that reads the forums.

You can almost always tell who is really a mouse turner and who is trying to pretend they are a mouse turner.  A mouse turner will almost always say that mouse turning is more effective.  A keyboard turner will not be that forgiving while he is pretending to be a mouse turner.  It is usually, mouse turning is all win and you are all fail if you don't mouse turn.  Then of course they will justify it with some sort of bull crap like, because I can kick any keyboard turners ass in PvP.

I would love to see what the actual numbers are of keyboard to mouse turners are.  It would not surprise me if 90% or more of the people that play WoW are keyboard turners.  I would say there are a lot of players that keyboard turn and are just afraid to say they do because they do not want to be insulted.

I freely admit that on most fights that I would rarely need to move I do all movement with my keyboard.  If all I need to do is side step one way or another to avoid the fire there is really no reason to ever be "turning" to begin with.  There are (outside of PvP) maybe 2 or 3 times per raid that "turning" is ever an issue.

Now kiting or heavy movement.  I find mouse turning helps me.  Jump shots with keyboard turning I screw up 80% of the time.  So I don't do it.  I do not mouse turn when doing it because it makes me "leet".  I mouse turn when I do it because it is easier... for me.  Those last 2 words are the key.  FOR ME!

I personally don't give a rats ass if you mouse turn or you keyboard turn.  Is the boss dead?  Did everyone live through it?  Are we rolling on awesome loot?  If the answer to all three of those questions are yes then how you did your job doesn't mean anything to me.  What means something to me is that you did the job.

Dreamwalker Down

Finally got Dreamwalker down in ICC.  It was my first dreamwalker kill.  I think a couple of the people in my 10 man had downed it before but I had never downed it in a 10 man I was in.  It was nice to make some progression but kind of sucks that no one could use anything that dropped from it.

The guild leader is having some work issues that are going to keep him from being online for a while and the co-GM didn't feel like running last night being we did not have enough for two groups.  That meant that I had to play raid leader again.  I do not mind it so much but always feel a little nervous doing it.  Kind of like all decisions are on me and if I make the wrong choice and we fail it is all my fault.  Contrary to popular belief, even though I am a hunter I do not end up with the, it was all your fault, thing often.  I keep my huntard moments to a minimum if I can.

I was a little off at the beginning, trying to keep an eye more so on what was going on and not as much of an eye on my cooldowns for DPS.  I guess it is a skill to be the one that announces everything and still crank out the DPS.  I was still number one on the DPS charts but did not play to my maximum potential.

The few times that I needed to make a decision it seems I made the right one.  I choose to have a normal DPSer do the add tanking in the weekly on Deathwhisper.  It worked out well.  I choose to not collapse after the first blight on uncle fester which lead to a record time downing him. And I figured soloing healing dreamwalker would work.  That was more of a guess, I knew the other two would work.  I was pretty confident in those.  This one... well, not as confident.

We wiped the first time around but that was fine.  Second time around I put one person on suppressor duty.  They where to kill them and them only.  That seemed to be the difference.  It was a hectic fight but with no, or few suppressors on dreamwalker and the pally healer using my pet as a healing amplifier it went well.  The entire time I kept thinking, this is it, we are about to wipe and it never happened.  Everyone did an amazing job.  Everyone was low on life, bam, a timely heal came out.  Lay waste was about to rip us apart, bam, sucker was dead nearly instantly.  Everyone did everything they had to do and they did it well.  I was impressed.  7 bosses in 2 and 1/2 hours of raiding was not a bad night at all.

Tips and Tricks : Making your new character a minor mogul.

Okay, I am not talking getting rich at level 5 here.  I am talking about making enough money to train all of your professions and get all your new skills when you level up while not having to worry about not having enough.  Sure, you can extend it and do it more, but this is just enough to get you rolling on a new server with no more then 30 minutes of your time invested.

As soon as you pick up fishing you can make enough money to get rolling.  Go to the docks in Auberdine and walk up and down the docks looking for fishing pools.  The docks are the perfect place to fish for a lowbie.  No creatures sneaking up on you while you try to fish and lots of quickly respawning pools to fish from.

Take all the oily blackmouth you get and list them on auction (check listings to see what price to sell for).  Hopefully you will end up with a few trunks as well.  Open them up and sell the bolts of cloth, the leather and whatever goodies they give you on auction as well.  In about 30 minutes you should easily have enough stuff that you can make 8-20 gold, depending on the server.

Whenever you are in a city check the trade chat.  Anyone that says they are paying for guild sigs, sign up and take their gold.  If they are willing to give it out then you should be glad that you are able to assist them in taking it from them.  Again, without any time spent, just passing through a major city and sending a whisper, you made some more gold.

A few of those with your 30 minute fishing trip and keeping a hold to any white item you get to try and sell on auction, you can easily have at least 20 gold, if not 50, by the time you are level 10.  All greens that you do not need (and are not spellbound) should always be auctioned off.  Check your local market and look for items of the same item level.  On many servers you can get 1 gold each for level 8 green items.  Enchanters with lots of money and no free time are always buying from the auction market to disenchant. From here on, quest as normal and sell everything that you can and you will never have to worry about money for training again.

Now you will not be rich but you sure as hell will not be saying "I wish I had enough" when you hit level 20 and it is time to buy your mount.  That alone makes playing that much more fun.