Monday Random Thoughts

- Happy New Years everyone.

- I have had a lot of stuff I wanted to post about.

- Just have not had time.

- Been so busy I have not had time to post.

- Guess that is a good thing.

- But as odd as it might sound, I sometimes find playing the game more fun writing about it than actually playing it.

- So it is good to have a chance to post again.

- Due to the holidays we did not raid christmas week or new years week.

- And this last week we attempted a heroic run with some new recruits and me tanking on my 684 warrior and some alts.

- Between some under geared players and some new players there were a couple of wipes but we got 6 down.

- I was happy with that.

- Was just nice to be raiding again after 2 weeks of not raiding.

- As my hunter has been out of action in guild for a month now.

- Tanked this week on my warrior, the previous 2 weeks we did not raid, and my druid tanked the heroic and normal archie kills the week before.

- I figured I would look for some pugging this past weekend.

- I wanted a gorefiend kill because I am still looking for that tier piece.

- Joined a group at gorefiend, which is the best right?

- Waited around 20 minutes to fill, then just before the pull one tank drops.

- Not sure why.

- Wait another couple of minutes and others start to drop.

- We get a second tank again, refill those lost, and someone DCed.

- While waiting for them to come back two of the 4 healers leave.

- Not sure why.

- We start to refill, it has been near 40 minutes now.

- But the refill never happens.

- People get frustrated, nearly half the raid leaves, the raid leader says screw it, the group breaks up.

- Hot damn.

- This is one of the reasons I hate pugs.

- I just want to join a group and kill.

- I see a group on the third boss requiring 710+ for a quick bottom run.

- I figured 710+ should be a breeze so I will do the other bosses anyway just to get to gorefiend.

- 3rd boss goes down no problem and 6 people leave group.

- Seriously, they were just there for that boss?

- We continue on without getting anyone else, as we had a large group to begin with.

- We down the forth boss no problem.

- A couple drop again and the raid leader, seeing us now down to 10, decides to fill for killrog, as everyone knows that fights sucks with fewer people, even if all those fewer people are doing solid numbers.

- The raid leader refills and assigns vision groups.

- He puts me in group one.

- I don't mind being left out, but I love going into visions groups and blowing things up.

- Nothing better then telling people do not worry about adds when I have a vision buff.

- I think I can one shot adds up to an 18 member group, sometimes more.

- One DK really really wanted to be in a visions group.

- Said if he was not in the first visions group he was dropping group.

- I was about to offer up my spot when the raid leader said the groups stay as is.

- And he dropped group.

- Someone in group said, I thought he was joking.

- Are people really that obsessive over DPS that they would drop group over not getting into a visions group?

- I mean I love having the visions, I know I can do a lot with it and take the pressure off the entire group when it comes to adds, but if I was not in visions I would not complain.

- To each their own right.

- We downed that boss and the next, gorefiend, no problem, the tier does not drop, my roll gets me the gloves that I do not need.

- I find another group on killrog, asking 720+, I join it for the two easy kills.

- I can't loot, as I already killed it, but the tier did not drop anyway so it made no difference, but I roll.

- I win on my roll.

- Guess what?

- The same pair of gloves.

- Do you know what I got out of my timewalkers cache?

- The normal version of the gloves.

- Do you know what I already had in my bags before this started?

- A 720 version of the gloves.

- So I had an upgrade 720 pair I had sitting in my bags, a normal version I got in a cache, and 2 heroic versions I rolled and won.

- Is the game trying to tell me I should be wearing them?

- You know what the worst part is.

- I had not won anything on a coin in so so so long.

- When you see the spinning and the loot pop up you get excited, only to see you won nothing.

- And then to see it on the same boss twice, I would have thought it would not give me the same piece back to back.

- I will never get that tier piece will I?

- And being I just won two rolls I know it will be forever until I win another one again.

- They really should change winning on a roll.

- So if you win you choose what you want from the loot list, not random.

- It is rare enough to win something as is, but to keep winning junk on the few and far between times you win really sucks.

- I was going to try for another gorefiend but decided against it.

- It is a glove day, so maybe I should try for Soc tier right?

- While looking through groups I saw a heroic Archie group that seemed promising.

- It asked for 720+ and while it looked for AotC like all the others the way it was written seemed like I might have a chance.

- As I do not have AotC yet I usually do not get invited to such groups.

- But in in bags item level it 723 and that is what shows.

- It is also the reason I have upgrade pieces sitting in my bags, to help that item level.

- Dirty little cheat that I am. :P

- This is what I wrote.

- Do not have AotC (3% best attempt).  Know fight, know role, 774 ring.

- I got invited instantly.

- Holy cow.

- I usually get instantly declined when I put no AotC.

- It was a very solid group, we one shot it.

- I was the only person that had the achievement pop up, which means I am the only one he took a chance on.

- I appreciate the chance to do what I knew I was able to do.

- I did well, did not mess up any mechanics, switched to targets as needed, destroyed all the things that came from the banish, tanked the infernal dudes just right, and even rocked the charts while doing it.

- It goes to show you, sometimes taking a chance on someone is a good thing, I was most definitely a benefit to the group.

- But sadly more often than not you would find someone that screwed things up when pugging, even if they had AtoC.

- I guess that is why so many people are against taking people that do not already have the achievement.

- I think me saying 3% best and having a 774 ring is what sold him.

- With a 774 ring you know I have at least a boatload of kills under my belt on normal.

- Dating back to when normal had the 2 mechanics that were removed.

- I still say normal should have never removed those mechanics.

- It would make the heroic pugs so much better had they not.

- I had been in a few archie pugs here and there trying to get my kill and the number of people shooting the entire group was insane.

- In the group I got the kill in I do not think I saw one thing mishandled.

- It was not even an over powered group.

- While I was 5th in damage done at 79K, after me everyone was lower, in the 50-60 range at best.

- I was beat by a shaman, 110K, another class I do not recall at 98K and two other hunters at 85 and 81 respectively.

- I checked the other hunters out, of course as I always do.

- The 81 hunter bested me.

- He had similar gear and a slightly better weapon and trinket, but I had more gem slots.

- So I will give him a head to head win there, even if I had more add damage.

- The 85 however, I would say he should have done considerably more considering what myself and the other hunter did.

- The group was solid over all, there were a few player that seemed, off, like a 29K hunter and two 30 something players, but like I said, most of the numbers were solid.

- And most importantly, everyone followed mechanics.

- I can not stress that enough.

- Every fight is easier when everyone knows what they are doing.

- This fight is the prefect example of that.

- I was in pugs with better numbers and bad mechanics and we never got anywhere.

- Basics of raiding.

- Follow mechanics, do your job, do it well, collect loot.

- Having raided with many different people of many different skill types over the years I can say without a shadow of a doubt that doing mechanics makes a fight easier and doing well makes a fight easier.

- But doing mechanics and doing well make anything a push over.

- I wish more pugs were like that.

- I was just happy to finally get my AotC and that someone gave me the chance.

- I got my moose, learned it, did not even mount it.

- Looks more like a reindeer anyway, I will save it to next christmas to ride it.

- And people do not tell me I am the only one that thinks it looks more like a reindeer than a moose.

- Not to mention, a reindeer flies, a moose does not.

- So there you go, it is a reindeer.

- Have a great day.