I finished the second new heroic (ZG) yesterday and much like ZA it was a learning experience but over all it was not as much so as ZA was. All the fights in ZG seem to be easier, too had I had bad pug people to learn them with.
We went into both without reading guides at all. It is a bit more fun to actually have to learn the fights. We had a basic idea because a lot of these bosses are rehashed bosses and most concepts in game are simple.
Not knowing what to do, so to speak, made for a wipe on each boss in ZA but only once each. The trash was more brutal then any boss could me. The one wipe on the boss showed us enough to know what we need to do without much of a problem.
The trash in ZA was harder then any of the bosses and after doing all the fights now I can tell you this is going to be one of the easy ones and is, even at its start. With the exception of the dragon hawk one which gave us problems everything else was a one mistake and you learn thing so I can see it being easy for even the average player.
The last boss was one of those bosses that make me not want to pug it however. We rotated who was furthest out and it was no problem. Without vent this can be hell because you know that no one listens to chat on whos turn it is to stay out.
Now to ZG and the DCs that seem to happen every time I die.
Again, no looking anything up, lets just have some fun. Skipping to the end I see ZG as actually it is a lot easier then ZA was. The trash is no issue in ZG at all like it was in ZA. The bosses were way easier to figure out even without knowing anything about them and they all seemed to go down fast even with me being the only person over 10K DPS. On to the nightmare of doing what was such an easy instance. DCs, wipes and all.
Now back to the start. We had a guild group of four and someone DCed before the first boss. We waited for a few minutes and then kicked our own guild member because it seemed like they where not coming back. They actually came back about 15 or so minutes later, so it was a good thing we moved on.
Tank, one DPS and me where the guild members, the other two where pugs. We pull, we wipe. I DC.
I tell my guild mates I am coming back in so they wait. We go to make another attempt at the boss and we die again. I am last to die. I point out to everyone where the safe spot is. Yeap, I found a safe spot where I barely need to ever move. Tank says he noticed the pattern too.
Third attempt, wipe again. Me and the tank are the last two up again when we finally give out and die proving that it really is just a simple pattern. I DC again and tell my guild mates I am coming back. We get back and the healer leaves.
We queue and get a new healer, we ask the healer if they know the fight, they say yes. We go in, we pull, we wipe, me and the tank are the last two alive again. Okay, we got two people that know the fight, now we need someone else that seems to know it. BTW, I DC again.
We get back, and it looks like the other DPS DCs. We wait a few minutes and after five minutes we kick the other DPS and get a new one. We go in, we wipe, the healers says, I am sorry, I can not heal this and leaves. Yes, I DC again.
We get back and get a new healer and we go in. We all start dying almost instantly, the healer is doing nothing, not healing anyone. Someone notices he fell off the cliff at the start of the fight. They ask, did you fall off? No response. We all rez, I reconnect after DCing yet again, we get back to the boss, the healer drops group. Never said anything about if he fell off the cliff or not. Never said a word in chat but that fits, he never tossed out even one heal either.
We get another healer and are getting frustrated. We where going to skip that boss for now and try another one but we ask the healer if they knew what to do first. They said yes, they have healed this already three times. Wonderful.
We pull, the other two DPS die, both melee, leaving me, the tank and the healer to do 80% of the boss just us three. No problem, boss goes down finally.
The run is smooth from that point on. Took us a while to find someone that knew how to heal and knew how to adapt. We get all the way up to the panther boss with no issues but we wipe there. I DC again of course and we come back in. The healer just drops group. Does not say a word. Excuse me? Since this healer has been here this was our first wipe and there are only 3 bosses left.
While running back someone made friends and they followed him all the way down the stairs. My screen fills with name plates, there has to be over 20 mobs coming following him. We start going crazy all out on them, we know it is going to be a wipe with that many mobs and it is but we downed eight of the twenty before we die. Honestly, I was quite impressed with that. Nice way for a new healer to join a group right? Either way, he stayed and I didn't DC for the first time after a wipe.
We try the boss deciding to activate and kill the panthers as we go so they do not all come all at once. It works good for the most part but it seemed we burnt the boss too fast and still ended up with three panther pens at the same time and wiped again. I DCed again.
We get back, the healer leaves, we get another healer, we explain we are going to slow burn the boss and kill all the panthers first. We do that, we clear it, it was easy once we did it the right way.
Working our way to the next boss we pull the trash and it starts beating the crap out of everyone, with only two left I am the last one alive. The tank on vent is yelling to feign death, I refuse to saying, I got this I got this and it takes a while but I get it. Killed both the mobs and waited for everyone else to get back.
The DPS that was with us DCs. We wait five minutes and kick to get another one, the new one comes in, we clear the next trash pack and the healer DCs. Being he did not die it is not the same DC issue I have been having, I only DC when I die and only in ZG it seems. We wait and kick the healer that DCed after 5 minutes.
We pull boss and again, first pull was a bit of a learning experience. We wipe, I notice that there is no reason for me to be clicking the fire one being I am not close enough to the mobs for it to mean anything and it is just added damage to me for nothing. So I place myself between the other two on the next try after I come back from DCing again.
Next time around the third DPS dies nearly instantly. I die shortly after, my own fault, they could not three man it, we wipe. I DC.
Next try the third DPS actually lasts 30 seconds before taking a face dive. The tank goes down, not sure what the hell the healer was doing but it didn't look like he was healing the tank, we all where getting heals, just not the tank. Me, the other DPS guild mate and the healer finished it off. How the hell I kited the big guy and the boss and didn't die is beyond me, but being the boss was close to death to begin with it made it tons easier.
Healer leaves for some reason even though we downed the boss, we get another healer, pull the two guys at the steps to go up to the last boss, down them, healer leaves. That one I have no clue about. We cleared two trash mobs and the healer leaves? Weird people I tell you.
We kill the troll dudes go up to the boss and the new healer explains the fight in basic terms. Not hard, stand in bubble, let troll jump on chains, boss dead. Got it.
We go in, third DPS drops group right on pull. We get a feel for the fight and don't do all that bad for the first attempt minus one DPS. We wiped, I didn't DC because I didn't die. Once everyone was dead I jumped off the side and FDed. We requeue for another DPS, he comes in, right under the bosses feet, gets owned, I FD again. Fun huh? I could not type fast enough to tell him to move, it was funny.
When they get there they rez him and we explained to him, get into the bubble. Of course, we pull, he doesn't, he dies. We wipe, I DC, this DCing thing is getting beyond annoying.
We get back, we explain again, get inside the bubble. We pull, he doesn't get in the bubble, but now the healer decided that he didn't want to get inside the bubble either, they both die, we wipe, I save myself DCing by doing my FD thing again.
We get back, we rez, we tell the DPS once more. Get in the bubble and tell him, if you do not get in the bubble we will kick you. We where not even complaining about his amazing 5K DPS, just get in the bubble. I was pulling over 20K on the start phase there, I could easily make up for his 5K, all he needed to do was get in the bubble.
We pull, he does not get in the bubble, he dies, the healer, at least, was smart enough to not try and heal him this time. We get one troll up, the damn thing will not jump. After a while he despawns, we get another one up, he jumps on one, we bust it, he despawns, we get another one up, he refuses to jump either and then despawns, we get a forth one up, he jumps, we down the chain, we get a fifth one up, the healer is now oom, we die. I DC.
We come back, the DPS leaves on his own, we do not even need to kick him. I wonder what was going through his mind. Why am I not getting heals he was probably thinking. Maybe he did not understand english, that is possible. Even if that was the case there is no reason he should not get in the bubble when he sees the other four of us in the bubble all the time each attempt.
We get another DPS and we give it a go, we fail again, the healer drops. We get a new healer, he has never done it, we explain it, we go in, we die again. Healer apologizes saying he lost range and we started to drop, it is all good, we are all learning, the key is to learn from your mistakes. Oh, I DCed again but I guess I do not need to say that any more do I?
We pull again, we wipe again, the healer says he thinks he has it now, the DPS drops group, we get a hunter replacement. Crap, watch my bow drop now and this hunter win it.
We explain, we give it a go, the damn hunter keeps getting the body slam on him and keeps running away from the chains. We are explaining in all caps so he can not miss it, get on the chains when you have the arrow. No good, the guy just does not get it. We wipe do to the healer running out of mana and the bad luck that it keeps targeting the hunter that has no clue. At least his amazing DPS of 7K is a huge upgrade to the previous DPS. I FDed so I did not DC, woohoo.
I take the time to explain the fight. Phase one, get in the bubble. Phase two, if you have the arrow, stand on a locked chain. Burn chains when they are open, adds otherwise. See, simple right?
We go, the thing keep targeting the hunter again, the hunter keeps running everywhere but the chains. Damn it, on the chain you idiot. We wipe, I DC, this is getting annoying. I hate pugs, does anyone have even half a brain?
We go again, I say to my guild DPS, maybe we will get lucky and it will not target him this time. He says, at least he is up to 8K DPS. I said, no worries, as long as I am alive we got this.
We pull, everything is going well, the healer seems to have nearly mastered this, he is keeping everyone at full life. Target on me, chain one broken, we down chain, target on other hunter, damn, no chain broken, next one targets the other DPS, chain broken, we down the chain, healer is starting to run low on mana. Last one, targets me, I stand on chain, chain breaks, it kills the other DPS, the healer loses the tank, the healer then dies. The other hunter is on adds, I am doing everything I can to pump out DPS on this chain all alone, it would be easy if the other hunter would just help me. I saved my cooldowns just for this and it pays off, The other hunter is at 3% life and me 8% life when I finally down the chain and we finish the instance.
Guess what? The bow drops, the other hunter wins it, there is no justice in this world I tell you. None at all. he comes in at the end of a run, does everything wrong, has DPS lower then the tanks and wins the bow.
Sometimes things are just so unfair you have to scream. No biggie however, I will go with all guild at some point and get it. I just hate when crap like that happens.
I don't know what it is with the DCing when in there but it was annoying as hell.
Goes to show you one thing however, if people did not drop group over and over life would be easy. ZG was much easier then ZA was and ZA went smoother because we had the same group for the entire run. This run, we changed people so often and each time there was a change a wipe fest seemed to follow. If people would just learn to work together (and follow simple things) things would be so much easier.
I complained about low DPS before and I will do it again. People need to stop looking at their gear score and start wondering what their skill score is. If you do not have any skill playing your class you will fail horribly. That is not meant as an insult, it is a fact.
Like the other hunter, like two of the healers that passed through that had all 359 and 372 gear, cool, you got into a guild that carries you in heroic raids, sorry to tell you, you still suck. Skill is about what you can do, not what you've gotten lucky enough to get down. So you got a 372 piece of gear or two from doing heroic raids, you still can not grasp the concept to move from the glowing stuff on the ground, despite what your gear says, you are a bad player.
More and more I am noticing that gear level is all that matters. No one cares about execution any more. These dungeons prove it. All these people walk into them with their epeen swinging proudly how they are capable of being in here because they are awesome and in the entire night there I can honestly say I only saw one actual good player in there, it was a healer that lasted with us the longest and left after the first wipe. He did not have amazing gear at all, in my range item level wise, but we did fantastic when he was there. Proof that skill is better then gear any day.
The sad part is the DCs in ZG are going to keep me from doing it without guild even on my DPS character because I know I will DC every wipe and that means an instant kick from most pugs, they do not wait 5 minutes like we do and there is no way in hell pugs are going to be one shotting everything this soon after release, give it two weeks before pugs will begin to one shot everything.
I think that run would have been much smoother if the 4th guild member had not DCed at the start requiring us to get another person.
In a strange sort of why however I think of a run like that, for as much hell as it was, as a good thing. You learn a lot more from failing on a fight then you ever will when you don't.
The people doing the dungeons now are actually learning the mechanics and doing them correctly because they are wiping and they have no choice but to learn it. In a few weeks when those people know everything it will seem easy for them and someone else will come in and basically get carried and never actually learn the fight because they never wiped or never had the little bits explained because it was no longer needed.
There should be some sort or way to group people up based on experience. So people that never done things only get grouped with people that never done things and people that did them a million times get grouped with people that did them a million times.
That would be better for the game, it would force others to actually learn and lower the chances of them getting carried and people that know it like the back of their hand will not be stuck having to carry people that do not know it or stuck explaining everything because someone in new.
Let the new people group with the new people and the experienced people group with the experienced people. It is not perfect but it is a lot better then it is now. For last nights failure it is no biggie, we where all learning, I just wish the ability to adapt was a lot faster in some people. Get in the bubble and stand on the chains when you have the arrow are just extremely hard concepts for some people even when explained 5 times.
I'm sorry, if you can not do something like walk into a bubble how the hell are you doing heroic raids?
Just asking.