Monday, March 9, 2015

Monday Random Thoughts

- Against my better judgement I played an alt this weekend.

- It made it to level 100.

- So another character that gets stuck in the garrison grind with nothing else I want to do.

- Oh joy.

- I really miss valor gear for gearing up alts.

- That was always a nice way to gear up alts and helped me enjoy doing so.

- As always as soon as I hit 100 I took a trip to the proving grounds.

- My paladin was 601 item level, so 14 item levels lower than the lowest the proving grounds scale to.

- I leveled as prot, so that means I took the tank challenge.

- Missed silver the first time because for some odd reason I could not get aggro off that damn healer.

- She got herself killed.

- Can only taunt so much and apparently it was not enough.

- Honestly can not believe I could not peal aggro off her with attacks only.

- I know she generates a fair deal of threat but I never had that problem on any of my other tanks.

- So I needed to work more on DPS on my paladin to get this down faster.

- I did it on the second try no problem of course.

- This is now the third tank I have done the proving grounds with and I had three completely different experiences with it.

- My druid had to concentrate of survival as the healer was not good enough to keep it up.

- My warrior had to concentrate on interrupts because the mobs seemed to always throw fire under the healers feet and she would die because, well, she is a really crappy healer and too stupid to move from the bad.

- My paladin needed to go full on DPS mode as a tank to get things down faster or I would get overwhelmed and the healer with the horrible healing and even worse raid awareness would grab aggro.

- Three tanks, three different challenges.

- I have to say after all my experiences with the proving grounds, the tank one seems to be the absolute best one.

- The damage dealer one is about as boring as boring can get.

- And it does absolutely nothing to see if people know how to deal damage in a timely manner.

- I switched to retribution and decided to do the damage dealer proving grounds.

- It was then I noticed two problems.

- One, none of my talents were taken.

- Did I really manage to go through all of mists without ever switching to my retribution spec even once?

- Sure seems so.

- Second problem was I did not have a two handed weapon.

- Oh well, I'll try it as protection, what is the worst that could happen, I fail?

- I one shot it as protection, never even coming close to missing any turn and even on the tightest ones I had at least 6 or 7 seconds left.

- Goes to show you the damage dealer proving grounds has nothing to do with dealing damage but raid awareness.

- So the next time you see someone having problems with the damage dealer proving grounds do not tell them to work on their rotation.

- Apparently you do not need "good DPS" to do the damage dealing one.

- You need good situational awareness.

- Good positioning.

- Good target selection.

- Good interrupting.

- But you do not need to do good DPS to do the damage dealer one.

- If I could do it on a protection paladin 14 item levels under the minimum it scales to in the wrong spec there is absolutely 100% no excuse for any person that actually calls themselves a damage dealer to not be able to do silver in the proving grounds.

- Nope, that is not an elitist attitude, that is a realistic attitude.

- Even if you fail, just pay attention and learn the patterns.

- Let the healer heal someone you were working on?  Don't next time.

- Interrupt him, CC him, or kill him first.

- Got caught in amber?  Don't next time.

- They always spawn in the same place and always throw it at you.

- Use that to your advantage and capture something else with it.

- The healer is a good target to get caught with it. ;)

- That is all the damage dealing one is about.

- It is not about dealing damage.

- So now was time to start gearing up.

- Did not have much time so did not do much.

- Tanked skyreach normal so I could get the legendary line started.

- Won two pieces, one a trinket, sweet right.

- Noticed I had bracers, shoulders and a chest piece I had received from follower missions that I could not make since they required level 100.

- So I made those three 615 pieces, one was warforged to 621.

- So now up to 607 item level.

- Got in a drov world boss group that was on auto accept.

- Thanks for that because no one wanted a 600 item level tank and I do not think I could have gotten into a group otherwise.

- Killed it and got gloves, bonus roll got nothing.

- 608 item level now.

- I'll make crafted pieces later, want to get the beginner stuff out of the way to see which pieces I should make first.

- Seems like the logical course of action to me.

- Tried to get into a Ruk group, and did.

- We pulled the boss and there are four tanks.

- Three decently geared tanks and little old me hoping and praying I am just on add duty because a life total of 214K health is not going to last very long against the boss.

- The warrior takes the lead on the boss.

- The other two tanks, god knows what they are doing.

- Things are going nice until around 50% when the warrior goes down and I get aggro.

- How the hell was I outpacing two much better geared tanks.

- I did not look at their gear but one was 388K and the other was over 450K.

- So they surely were better geared than I but somehow I had the boss.

- I am no rookie to tanking and did the best I could.

- I rolled cooldowns, I used every trick in the book.

- I lasted long enough for the warrior to come back and take aggro back off me.

- I survived, I was so happy, I did my job and I did it well.

- Well enough at least.

- Second time the warrior goes down I am not as lucky because not all my cooldowns are available.

- I did what I could and lasted a fair deal thanks to the little I had left and some great effort on the part of the healers I am sure.

- I went down and the bird started eating damage dealers and healers alike.

- The other two tanks?  Not exactly sure what they were doing but I know one thing they were not doing and that is tanking the boss.

- We ended up wiping at about 23%.

- As we are getting ready for the next pull one of the healers told me "great use of cooldowns, I did not think you would last 10 seconds".

- I said thank you, just hit 100 so trying to get some gear now.

- We are getting close to refilling and I am kicked.

- I am guessing because a tank with 214K health doesn't seem very useful.

- I know just looking at health and using that as a reason was good enough to kick me but really there were a lot of other issues that needed to be addressed before little old me.

- I just wish people would look before they leap.

- Me and the warrior tank 2 tanked that, the other two tanks did nothing.

- I was second in damage taken, which alone should show that I was the second tank.

- Not to mention if you think about rez timers, if I was second in damage taken that means I must have been alive a very long time and for this low of a health pool to take that much damage and still live it must mean I (and the healers) was doing something right.

- I was 11th in damage done, 12th if you looked at DPS, so maybe that is where your kicks should be aimed.

- When a freshly dinged tank with his whooping 11K DPS out damaged more than half the damage dealers maybe kicking them might have been better?

- When a freshly dinged tank with his amazing 7K HPS out healed two of the people that were there as healers you could have kicked them instead?

- While it is 100% true there are a million and one tanks they could have got that were better than me, more geared than me, or more useful than me, kicking me before you address more glaring issues like damage dealers that did not do damage and healers that did not heal makes little sense.

- Well, if there is one thing I can be happy about, it was that I had a couple of guild mates with me that when they kicked me they dropped too.

- So they lost their #1 healer that doubled the #2 one and their top three DPS that were actually killing adds.

- Sometimes kicking someone by looking at their health total only is the wrong thing.

- Look at the numbers next time before acting.

- In a group with four tanks I should have been just fine handling the adds alone.

- But I did adds and boss and still did fine.

- But apparently the fact I did fine means nothing when my health does not match some number they expect.

- Speaking of clueless people I joined a pug for heroic operator figuring I could take a shot at some tier shoulders.

- I figured I had some free time and it is an easy fight so even if we wipe a few times in a pug it is worth it.

- We had a few pulls, all close, but all wipes.

- 7%, 13%, 5%, 3%, 11%, all closs but no cigar.

- The raid leader is blaming the tanks, the healers, the DPS, everything.

- Not getting priority adds down fast enough, not having enough healing for those big moments, tanks not using their personal cool downs at the right time.

- Blame, blame, blame.

- And yet the raid leader never actually saw the real issue.

- Do you think any of this might have something to do with us always losing a few people early to trains?

- How about that one healer and one damage dealer that have died to the trains every single pull and early in the fight?

- Oh wait, they are your guild members.

- Sorry, but you have two options here.

- 1) Get the boss down by removing the dead weight or 2) keep going until you can find a group to carry your friends.

- I am not waiting, I dropped, my friend who was the tank dropped too.

- Someone else whispered us and said that after they lost the tank that everyone was following to avoid the trains and their top DPS the group fell apart.

- This is what happens when you refuse to look at the facts.

- If someone dies to trains, no big deal, but when the same two people die to the trains every time and early on, it is a kick.

- I would kick my own guild members for the same thing.

- Even more so in a pug than with a guild group.

- In a guild group I might be willing to spend time to teach them to get better but in a pug the bottom line is killing bosses, this is not a place to learn.

- Funny how I set the line higher in pug content than I do in guild content.

- There is a reason for that.

- I do not mind teaching my guild mates, it will only make my guild stronger in the long run.

- However I do not wish to teach people I do not know and will never see again.

- I'll give them all a chance, but 5 attempts, 5 death from the same mechanic, all 5 early on, sorry, you are no longer welcome here.

- Again, not elitist, realist.

- Elitist would be demanding perfection from the second you walk in, realist is asking that people learn from their mistakes.

- I am not an elitist but I am a realist.

- If I do not see improvement I will ask someone to leave for the general betterment of the group as a whole, no disrespect meant.

- Funny part is that at some point he will find someone to carry them, with enough persistence.

- I am really beginning to hate the group finder.

- Joined a run on butcher, yes still looking for the trinket, and as soon as the raid leader inspected me he said "sorry but I thought at your time level you had the trinket, I don't want anyone rolling against me so I have to remove you."

- Didn't even give me time to say I don't care, all I want to do is roll.

- At least he did not ninja it which would have really pissed me off.

- A friend of mine was in a pug looking for a weapon, was told it was open roll, his best in slot weapon dropped warforged with a gem slot and the indestructible stat.

- Cue drooling now.

- He rolled a 98 and he felt confident he would win it but the group leader gave it to someone else.

- Not by accident either, he even said he was giving it to him because he was here the whole run and you only came two bosses ago.

- He was raging and I agree he had all right to do so.

- I told him put in a ticket.

- If loot rules are clearly stated in chat, which he said they were, then you might get a nice GM that will help you.

- No word back yet, but just one more reason to hate pugs.

- Whenever I see a group not using personal loot now I think of things like that.

- If people choose to use master looter that usually means they are up to something.

- Heck, even when they are not up to something they could still be up to something.

- Like say a butcher run, I could get a group filled with hunters, all friends of mine because they either do not need it or would be willing to pass on it for me and we all roll and as long as someone wins it they pass it to me.

- Not like I would do that, but with master looter I could do that.

- There is nothing good that can come out of master looter in a pug.

- But loot drama aside, do you know what I hate most about master looter?

- The time it takes to assign loot after a boss is killed.

- With personal it is kill and keep moving, with master it is list loot, wait for rolls, wait for people to decide if they want to roll, wait for people to decide if they want to pass, wait wait wait wait wait.

- I am not a fan of wasting time.

- I think I might have mentioned that once or twice.

- So no pug group should ever use master looter.

- Simple as that.

- When I join a pug I join to get practice or to use a coin.

- If I win something, awesome, but I never expect too.

- I would rather get 6 bosses down in a pug than 5 down because we wasted time passing out loot.

- Yes, personal loot does save that much time.

- Did highmaul heroic on my warrior this week.

- Did kind of well, but I still can not figure out how to survive brakenspore when I get higher in stacks.

- I always need to call out for external cool downs.

- I can not survive on my own without them and I hate that feeling of being weak.

- Amazing I can do the rest on heroic, but that one boss destroys me.

- I was 650 when I went in, but thanks to two new trinkets I won, how freaking awesome is that, along with upgrading my crafted legs, I am up to 658.

- Maybe it was my 650 item level that was making heroic brakenspore harder on me?

- I think those two new trinkets I got will really help the next time around, that is for sure.

- How can I tank the rest of the place at 650 and have no real issues but one boss, an early one at that, gives me fits.

- Sometimes things are weird that way.

- Now to end this on a rant about RNG and how it hates me.

- Just so people feeling bad about their missions have a reason to feel better about themselves.

- My misfortune can be something to help you look at the brighter side.

- My highmaul caches, the last 6 of them resulted like this.

- Mythic gloves I don't need, mythic ring I don't need, same mythic ring a second time I don't need, same mythic ring a third time I don't need, mythic neck I don't need, same mythic neck I don't need.

- The last 6 highmaul missions I had all give me things I do not need.

- Feeling better about your missions now?

- Glad I could help.

- Have a great day.

14 comments:

  1. Ouch! I must be the worst destro warlock ever. I don't think it's raid awareness as I have the first 6 fights mapped out for best amber passing, but still can't manage to get all those darn vermin down or the one last lizard, or... sigh..

    You one-shot the dps proving grounds and I have yet to get passed it after many multiple times. Maybe it's destro spec? I've all but given up passing this on DPS (or ever seeing the legendary ring) and put a call out to Blizzard to remove this artificial barrier. Sigh... evidently it's just me.

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    1. If you are talking the AoE pack with all the little guys, that can be a problem for classes with little AoE or that are not used to using it. I barely managed it on my shadow priest and my rogue.

      For destro make sure you keep all your embers going, when they spawn drop rain on them and then fire and brimstone them down targeting the center one. If it is the one with the amber guy in the back make sure to havoc him before doing the incenrate spam with fire and brimstone. If you go into that with full embers you should have no problem.

      Now mind you my lock is still 90, so I can not say from experience, but based on what I did with all the others, and hoping they did not change too much, that should be ample to get it down in time.

      For the one with two ambers put you personal port down to the side of one of them, at little behind it, like at its 2 oclock or 10 oclock depending on which one you are doing. Start DPSing the healing one and keep an eye out for the interrupt. Walk up to the one in front leaning front left or front right, depending where you put your port, when the one amber hits it, port instantly and the other amber will hit the other shaper. Finish the healer, then kill the other amber buy who will keep the one you are standing by froze, then kill the last amber guy. As long as you kept your dots on the main guy in front you used as bait he will die when the second amber one dies.

      I would be very glad to write you out a more detailed version. But I do not kno1 100% what has changed and what has not as I have not leveled mine yet. But desto should make quick work of it. Better than the other specs in my opinion.

      It is just about using your toolbox. On my paladin I have absolutely sick AoE so I used that to my advantage to cover for much lower DPS and positioned myself so my AoE was always hitting as much as possible.

      It is all about the little things in the proving grounds.

      Stop worrying about doing "top" DPS and just work on your tricks, like ones I mentioned, and it will fall without you even thinking about it.

      You are like a lot of other people out there. You are better than you think you are, but you are just concentrating on the wrong thing which is holding you back, thats all. I know you can do it.

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    2. Elkagorasa, we had a thread on the forums with a Destro lock having problems with Silver, http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13123844457 who eventually got through, and this video may have helped a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxjPibiGPuc

      The thing with PG - it's all about knowing the rounds, having the right plan for the right time (and occasionally panicking when you miss a cue :)

      And since this is a random Monday, it seems appropriate that I browsed your blog and see that you, like Grumpy, have some colorblindness, and today on the Dilbert blog I noticed him mentioning a new type of glasses that can compensate for some cases of colorblindness. I have no idea, but apparently they give a test and a 30 day trial. http://scottadams-tttt.tumblr.com/post/113120520505/top-tech-ten-fusion-color-commuting-robots

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    3. Those would be some interesting glasses. Could really help with a lot of the games I play. Wow is not that bad really,but some games I just can not play because of being color blind.

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  2. Proving grounds was a disaster for my Affliction Warlock.
    First, it's AoE of course which is pretty ridiculous.
    Second, I found myself with NO interrupts in my pocket - like at all and had to invent a piece of tactics. I heavily DoT some other guy (cause DoTs do their job by themselves), then when healer heals it - burst and finish the healer itself while he's on CD.

    Damn proud with myself, only after passing the test I remembered that I have a demon with interruption spell. Still, some extra brain work doesn't cause any harm, right?

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    1. That is an insanely smart move to get around the heal. Bait him to heal someone else, but make sure you are damaging him as well, then after he heals them, kill him. It shows smart game play, big plus to you.

      Was going to say you have pets with interrupts, and not sure if you have the same interrupt as aff as I do in desto, but I have a ground effect stun that works as an interrupt. Either way, you adapted to the situation and found a suitable solution.

      That is what I love about soloing content. I have a few hunter firsts under my belt for doing things "odd" ways like that. Hey, just because it isn't normal, doesn't mean it is not right. ;)

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    2. The interruption demon (with Talent upgrade) is the floating blob with many eyes and who shoots interruption laser beams from these eyes on command. I passed the test with four-arms demon girl.

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    3. Congrats on doing it without an interrupt. I always used one so I never tried without it, but that was smart thinking.

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  3. - You need good situational awareness.
    - Good positioning.
    - Good target selection.
    - Good interrupting.

    I'll take someone with those skills ahead of someone with 'good dps' in my groups any day of the week.

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    1. As would I, but funny part is, the people that fail the proving grounds are failing because they are trying to DPS only and not doing those things.

      Interesting how the damage dealing challenge isn't really about damage dealing at all.

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  4. Warrior tanks are really bad at mitigating magic damage, so your choices are a full SBar (doesnt do much) and using your cds/calling for externals. Also 650 is a tad low for HM HC imho.

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    1. I think 660 would be better too. I think now that I added two better trinkets that run that I could probably do it next time. One had 666 stamina and I think that extra health cushion could be the difference.

      Looks like externals or over gearing it are the only options for me sadly. Thanks for letting me know it was not some simple ability I somehow over looked.

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    2. Also, from what I remember, you could rotate cds and it would mostly suffice, and only on breaths that conincide with high stacks of rot (>2), like using shield wall/demo shout for one and last stand/demo for the next time it happens, and on the third time shield wall should be off cd again.

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    3. I tried doubling up a few times. Sometimes it worked, sometimes my timing might have been off just by a second or tow. But I could not effectively do it. I think it was a combination of skill factor, as I do not tank on it often and can sometimes be a bit slow to react or prepare, and gear, for even when I did roll what was needed I did not have enough health to take the hit.

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