A Few Words on Loot Assignment

Talking with a few guild mates last night on voice chat it occurred to me how different people really are when it comes time to talk about loot in general.

I was mentioning some pugging I did this week, laughing, about how some groups are looking to get people buy saying things like "All Monk loot reserved" or "Agility trinket reserved".  I said, it really limited the potential sign up, or could create problems from people that do not read, which is most, reserving loot like that.

Someone said they would never join a pug with reserved loot, even if they were a guaranteed one shot group, even if the loot that was reserved was for a class they were not on, never never never.  Another one said they have no problems joining a group with reserves as long as they are all mentioned beforehand.  Me, I lean more toward the second person, as long as I know about it before hand than I can make an informed decision on if I want to join or not.  Also with coins now at least I would have a chance to roll so even if something is reserved I can still win what I am looking for.  In theory anyway.

The comments ran the gambit from one end to the other, some even getting rather hostile over the idea that people would even reserve something.  The one logical comment made, and really one I agree with 100%, was "if I helped them down the boss then I have equal rights to all loot that drops from it".  I agree completely, unless you are a carry if you helped in the downing of the boss you should have the same right to loot that drops from it as any other person.

I mentioned that when looking for a raiding guild for my horde hunter last expansion I used that same line.  I got invited to join a few heroic (now mythic) guilds that offered to trial me.  All well and dandy, until they told me that I could not roll on loot for the first 4 to 6 weeks, depending on how the trial goes.  No thank you.  I do not care if you have downed something 20 times and it is my first time.  If I can not roll on loot there is absolutely no reason for me to help you kill the boss.

Needless to say I had a dreadfully hard time finding a guild, but I did end the expansion in nearly all heroic (now mythic) gear because I held out for groups where I would be allowed to roll on gear.  I believe, as I said, unless it is a pure carry, if you contribute to the downing of a boss you have the same rights to loot as anyone else there.

So we went back and forth about our opinions on pugs, laughing at some of the requirements they ask for, like the one normal archie group that wanted 740 item level only.  Or the one that wanted AotC for normal, not as bad as asking for 740 but lets get real.  One of my favorites was a reserve one where the guy put, random loot on reserve.  What exactly does that mean?  I have no problem joining a group I know there is something on reserve in, but I am not going to join a group that said random loot on reserve.  How do I know that what I want to roll on you won't say, "Oh, that is one of the things I reserved, sorry.".  Eh, no thanks, I'll pass.

Then we got to talking about our guild and one of the members that just left because being on the topic of loot someone got upset because a player left guild and switched servers after "we geared her up".  I told him not to think of it that way.

Sure we ran a few normal clears to get her gear when she came back to the game and then we carried her through some heroics until she started to get back into the swing of things, but she tried her best based on the gear she had and once geared she did contribute just as much as anyone else in the group.  She was a great player and she was starting to get back into the game.  Maybe she wanted more.

I do not know were she left to join.  Maybe to join a top progression guild again, as we did originally recruit her away from blood legion, and she came to us because she still wanted to be in a good guild but without the hardcore pressure any longer.  Or maybe she left to go play with her boyfriend again as she had mentioned she wanted to do for a while, who happens to be horde side, who knows, we did not talk before she left.

Either way, I do not look at it as "we geared her up".  I look at it as we helped her gear up as she helped us down bosses.  Sure we did run normal a couple of weeks were we could have spent the time getting more gear in heroic or working on progression, sure it sucks losing someone we invested time in, but it is all par for the course if you ask me.  It is not last expansion.  The raiding scene is dying a painful death as a whole, we are no longer the #1 25 man guild on the server and #3 10 man on the server where people are fighting to come to us, we are just another run of the mill casual raiding guild once more.  So people will leave, it is the way it is.

But he got so offended, took it personally, and I think if ever she decided to come back to the guild he would cause problems with it.  All because in his mind "we geared her up and she left".

It is amazing how possessive people get over gear, even if it is not gear for them. Be it in pugs, in guild, what have you, they have the idea that it is "my gear".  I'd think if anyone would be that jaded about it that person would be me with my piss poor luck.  Yet in the end I think I am one of the few people that have, what I believe, to be a healthy outlook on gear.

I wonder what other peoples opinion on the matter is, in respect to pugs reserving things if you would like it or not, join them or not, and in respect to having people gear up and then move along in your guild.  As it seems from my discussions last night, some people have very strong views on these loot assignment issues.  What are yours?

Lady Luck Hates Me

Did you ever get the feeling that luck in the game isn't really all that luck based?  Almost as if blizzard has some program going on in the background that dictates luck and it really isn't all a function of the random number generator.

It probably all boils down to being lucky or unlucky but sometimes it feels as if it is you against the world.  This week was one of those weeks, once again, were it felt like that.  Being I had not raided on my hunter much in the past few weeks I managed to save up a few coins for this weeks run.

I rolled on two trinket bosses and every tier boss we beat as well as one other boss, kind of by accident, and won nothing.  I've learned to expect that.  But luck did shine on me, in a sense.  The hunter tier token dropped off of two bosses.  We never see the warrior, hunter, shaman, monk tier tokens.  They are things of myth, they do not really exist, or so I was lead to believe.

So here I was all ready with my /roll on the first one and I get a 94.  I am excited, I might actually get a tier piece.  A 94 is a solid roll.  The two shaman, two warriors, one monk and three other hunters of course were all rolling as well.  I watch the rolls go by, a few 60s, an 80, but nothing even close until the last person rolls, the monk, with a 95.  Son of a...

Such is the story of my life, we move along and the second tier trinket from the warrior, hunter, shaman, monk tier drops. Seeing one boss drop one is a miracle of all miracles but seeing two different bosses drop a tier piece I can roll on in one night is unheard of.  That piece never drops.

I feel that after my 94, and loss that followed, that I wasted the only good roll I will see for a while.  I hit /roll anyway and see a 90 pop up.  Awesome, two good rolls in one night, this must be a banner day for me.  The only other thing that dropped that I could have rolled on was a trinket with a gem slot off the second boss, which would have been really nice, but I rolled like crap on that one.

Being I am writing this post I am sure you can guess what happened on that tier piece.  Yeap, someone rolled a 91.  Once again I was beat by one.  It has become the story of my life.  Even when I have a good roll, I lose.  Even if I see something drop I can use, I lose.  While it is true RNG is RNG sometimes you can't help but think they system has something against you.

There is a new player in the raid, the girlfriend of one of the regulars.  She has quickly become a very good player and is really working hard to get better and it is noticeable from week to week.  She is getting much faster at responding to mechanics, she is getting better at her numbers.  Heck it is rare to see someone with as little experience as she has (only 3rd week raiding) even approach 70% potential this quickly nevertheless getting to, and over, the 80% potential marker on some fights on the logs from last night.

So why do I bring her up?  Something her boyfriend said on voice chat and a tin foil hat theory he has. 

See, she has luck, luck beyond luck.  I mean insanely sick luck.  She goes to solo old stuff, the 1% mounts drop stuff, and she wins the darn mounts her first or second time in.  She has received all the mounts, and multiples of each, from the big four rares on T2.  She has won a piece off the world boss every single week since it came out.  She has managed to snag 18 medallions of the legion.  When she uses a coin she is rocking an over 50% win rate, even if it is not always something she needs.  When she gets a tier piece, it is always either warforged or with a gem slot when she clicks on it.  When the mythic dungeon week was around she got the best in slot trinket from the box, and during the dungeons every drop she got was a 705 piece.  She is already rocking a 708 item level, basically 15 item levels higher than me, and she has only been playing 3 months.  Three freaking months, do you believe that?

So his theory is this, because she is new to the game, the game is giving her a lot of stuff.  It is letting her win often, it is trying to get her hooked.  Just like the slot machines in las vegas, where you put in 20 bucks and it lets you win 40, but then sooner or later, after you have had a taste and are hooked, it stops letting you win and starts draining your money.

He says because I have been constantly subbed for such a long time and have remained active and I am always soloing old raids, there is no incentive for the game to give me anything to try and hook me.  I am already hooked.  So I am looking down the long road to getting things because they think I do not need to get things to keep me playing whereas she is still new so they are still feeding her all the lucky drops and luck with coin rolls and such.  But once the system feels she is hooked enough, she will be in for the same hell I am.  Okay, maybe not as bad, but not as good of luck as she has been having.

I must admit, it does make a little bit of sense.  Thinking of it as something that would want to get you hooked so the easiest way to do that is to give you a taste of what it can be like when you win stuff.  And quite honestly if I were coding the game I would do that exact thing, when someone was still new I would give them a luck buff, if you will, that is not is seen by anyone to try and get them hooked.  It is actually pretty damn smart coding if it is true.

So perhaps the RNG is not really all that random but completely and 100% by design.  The people it feels it needs to hook have more luck, the people it thinks are already hooked have less.

Or maybe random is just random and his theory means nothing.  But it does make one wonder.  When I am treated as if I pissed in lady luck's cheerios and she is treated as if she is best friends with lady luck, maybe there is a new player luck buff.

Do you think that is possible?

Is Too Much Choice a Bad Thing?

Choice is a good thing, I like choice, actually I love having choices, but sometimes choice can lead to confusion for people that are not reading all the websites out there.  For fun I decided to take a block of item levels and see how many chest pieces I could find for a hunter between the 690 and 700 item level block.  I counted all items that have a base item level between those numbers and did not count any PvP gear, which there were 13 possible options for on its own in that item level range. 

Guess how many different chest pieces fits into that category?

Would you believe me if I said 48? 

I know the level range I picked includes the empowered apexis pieces but it does not have the mythic dungeon pieces and the LFR pieces, so it evens out some.  I decided on this item level range because this is the range of items someone might be seeking if they want to begin doing hellfire citadel heroic.  That said someone might also try to get some of the mythic dungeon pieces or maybe even the LFR tier set, who knows, there could be even more options than just the 10 levels I decided to focus on.  But I am comfortable with saying that for someone looking to step into heroic HFC there are, at least, 48 options for a chest piece alone. 

This also does not even take into account the idea that some of these pieces can also have one random tertiary stat on them.  If I really wanted to push it and add them you could increase that number to have 112 additional possible outcomes bringing the total of non pvp pieces in the base 690-700 item level range to 160 different chest pieces.  But as they are not stats, I left them out and only focused on the 48.  Not to mention, the list would be way to long with 160, it is already too long with the 48.

1. Chestguard of the Siegemaker
2. Chestguard of the Siegemaker - WF
3. Chestguard of the Siegemaker - GS
4. Chestguard of the Siegemaker - WF/GS
5. Chestguard of Unending Roars
6. Chestguard of Unending Roars - WF
7. Chestguard of Unending Roars - GS
8. Chestguard of Unending Roars - WF/GS
9. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Aurora
10. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Deft
11. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Feverflare
12. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Flashfire
13. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Harmonious
14. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Merciless
15. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Peerless
16. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Quickblade
17. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Savage
18. Empowered Axeclaw Chestguard of the Strategist
19. Hauberk of the Savage Hunt
20. Hauberk of the Savage Hunt - WF
21. Hauberk of the Savage Hunt - GS
22. Hauberk of the Savage Hunt - WF/GS
23. Jungle Flayer's Chestguard
24. Jungle Flayer's Chestguard - WF
25. Jungle Flayer's Chestguard - GS
26. Jungle Flayer's Chestguard - WF/GS
27. Ringmail of Madness Accordan
28. Ringmail of Madness Accordan -WF
29. Ringmail of Madness Accordan - GS
30. Ringmail of Madness Accordan -  WF/GS
31. Rylakstalker's Tunic
32. Rylakstalker's Tunic - WF
33. Rylakstalker's Tunic - GS
34. Rylakstalker's Tunic - WF/GS
35. Vestment of Illusory Might
36. Vestment of Illusory Might - WF
37. Vestment of Illusory Might - GS
38. Vestment of Illusory Might - WF/GS
39. Wayfaring Tunic of the Aurora
40. Wayfaring Tunic of the Deft
41. Wayfaring Tunic of the Feverflare
42. Wayfaring Tunic of the Flashfire
43. Wayfaring Tunic of the Harmonious
44. Wayfaring Tunic of the Merciless
45. Wayfaring Tunic of the Peerless
46. Wayfaring Tunic of the Quickblade
47. Wayfaring Tunic of the Savage
48. Wayfaring Tunic of the Strategist

While the fact might be true that of all the options above, there is only 1 "best' piece and maybe a few other "good" ones, so it is not like we really have 160 options, we really do not even have 48 different options.  All that other stuff is filler, fluff, pieces added to make it seem as if there are more choices and all these additional choices do is make it harder for people that do not go out of their way to research which pieces are best for them.

Even for someone that knows what stats are best, like myself, I long for the simple days when there were just a few pieces of gear, the stats or gem slots that came on it were not randomized, and you knew exactly which was best for you without even thinking really.

Lets kook, in comparison, at a level range from wrath, I even tried to pull a cluttered level range from wrath, one that includes 4 raids and 4 dungeons that have gear that drops in that level range.  One that has 2 different tier sets, like the 690 to 700 did. So lets look at the item level 210 to 220 range and see what options we have that are not PvP based.

1. Chestguard of Flagrant Prowess
2. Chestguard of the Lasher
3. Chestguard of the Ravenous Fiend
4. Cult's Chestguard
5. Tunic of Masked Suffering
6. Valorous Cryptstalker Tunic
7. Valorous Scourgestalker Tunic

As you see we only had 7 choices back in the day.  The choices were simple, each one had different stats (they don't now due to how stats have changed but they did) and you sought the one that had your best stats for you but were happy to get anything else while you were waiting for the drop you wanted.

There was no RNG to tell you which stats were on the gear.  There was no RNG to decide if it had a gem slot or not.  There was no RNG to see if it would be warforged.  There was no RNG to tell you if you had a speed boost, or an avoidance boost, or if your gear would be indestructible or give you the leech ability.   There was no RNG other than the RNG of the item dropping at all to begin with.

To me I do not see gearing today to be any "harder" than it used to be.  It is still the same, you seek the gear that is best for you and keep killing that boss until he coughs it up.  But to many a new players, with choices cluttering their screen, find themselves overwhelmed by all the options which leads me to ask, is too much choice a bad thing?

Or maybe a better way to phrase it would be, is the game better now because we have all this RNG and all these other options?

Personally, I do not think so.  I am suffering from major RNG burnout.  The number of choices do not matter to me, best is best and will always be best whether I am choosing between 7 pieces or 160 of them, but I would really like to see the RNG factor removed from loot.  Isn't the RNG of having it drop enough RNG to begin with?

I would welcome the removal of random stats.  I would welcome the removal of warforged.  I would welcome the removal of random gem slot.  And if they removed all that RNG guess how many choices we would have in the 690-700 item level range?  9.  Yeah, now that is more like it.

So yes, sometimes too much choice is a bad thing in my opinion.  It doesn't add anything to the game except RNG and I can live without that thank you very much.

Do You Like Seeing What Other People Win?

Blizzard recently added a new feature where when you are doing any content and someone wins something good it pops up on the middle of the screen showing you who won what.   This is used in dungeons, in LFR, in raids with personal loot and with bonus rolls.  So now whenever someone wins something you too can share in their excitement of their win.

Many people really seem to like this update, at least that I have seen, but it should come as no surprised that me, the grumpy one, with his life long streak of having no luck really hates this feature and wants to see the person who came up with this idea kicked in the nuggets.  Really really hard.

I'd like to hear if you like this new addition and why of course, I try to keep an open mind, maybe there is something good that comes out of it that I am just missing because I have had such horrible luck for such a long time.  It is easy for me to look at the dark side of the loot issue when all I ever see is failure in getting it.  But in an effort to ease my pain I will share why this feature makes grumpy even grumpier.

When doing the LFR on an alt that can really use gear it sucks to bend over to loot boss after boss and see nothing but an augment rune each and every time.  All while I watch, what seems to be, every single person in the entire raid win something but me.  Yes, I know it is probably only 5 or 6 people winning and maybe a few others winning something on a coin, but when you go for the 6th and 7th and 8th boss of the week with nothing those 5 or 6 wins after each boss starts to feel like everyone is winning except you.

I don't want to see what other people won.  I don't want to see that someone that performed so poorly seems to win off every boss while I bust my ass trying to do the best I can, yes even in LFR, and consistently win nothing week after week.  Even if I did not need anything winning something once in a while would be a nice feeling.

Seeing other people win something does not ease my pain.  It does not put my mind at ease.  It does not give me the warm fuzzy feeling that at least someone won something.  It does not make me feel like the loot system is not broken because I see other people winning something.  Nope, if anything all it does is reinforce my feeling that I am one of the unluckiest people that plays this game.

It makes me begin to hate the people that win something.  Even when I do not need anything, each time I see someone win something I start hoping that when they get up from their desk they stub their pinky toe and it really hurts.  Ha, they deserve it.

I'd go so far as to extend it to seeing the notification listed in chat saying so and so won something on their bonus roll.  Even without a pop up that too can be annoying when you have been running on a three month dry spell for upgrades.

Even in a real raid I hate seeing it.  Sure you might think it is cool seeing the tank get that shield he needed because him gearing up makes him a better tank and makes our guild group stronger as a whole.  Yes, this is true. Yes, I am happy he got it.  Yes, him getting it helps me.  But no, I do not need to see that he keeps getting lucky while I keep getting spit on by the random number generator with some stupid pop up in the middle of my screen.  Him saying, "woohoo I won my shield", is more than ample to let me know.  I do not need some pop up flashing in the middle of my screen reading, in my mind, "Look what he won, you get nothing you unlucky bastard, ha ha, sucks to be you."

And then there is nothing more annoying than finishing a fight and seeing the hunter with the a full 685 tier set while I am still sitting in all 670s because I never won one single piece of heroic tier win the new tier helm on a bonus roll.  A tier helm he does not need because he won the tier helm last week already.  Son of a bitch.  Yet he, who doesn't need it, gets it and I get shafted again.  Did I really need to see that blizzard?  Is this supposed to make me feel better?  Am I supposed to just say, well at least he won something he doesn't need and I have another 23 gold?

Sorry if I sound bitter but I am, I really am.  I do not want to see what other people won.  I more so do not care to see what other people won when they do not even need it yet I could have used it.  I just want to win something I need once in a while.  Getting an upgrade once or twice a month feel nice.  I do not want to go through another tier like I did last tier and win nothing of conciquence.

I am sure people with decent luck, people that sometimes win a roll, people that sometimes win something on their coin, don't mind seeing others win things.  It could make them happy everyone is getting something.  But when you go so long getting nothing, losing rolls, getting gold on coins, somehow it just doesn't make me feel any better to know that someone else won something they don't need because they already won it last week when I would love to have something, anything, that I could use.  If there were ever another reason I want to avoid the LFR, that is it.  Even if I need nothing from there, I really hate seeing other people win something while I continue to collect a giant pile of pocket lint.

Do I like seeing what other people win?  Absolutely not.  I would rather not.  It is bad enough dealing with winning nothing, I don't need to see that everyone else always seems to win things while I am not.  How about you, do you like it?

Don't Judge A Character by Their Item Level

I was going to name this post "Don't judge a book by its cover" but I did not believe enough people would understand it was a post about gear and item level.  Well, at least until they started to read it.

I did the new LFR last night because I wanted to see what they changed with the bosses.  I also might need to tank this week so figured I would get it out of the way on the first night.  I like doing them all at least once so I can see the fights from the perspective of LFR.  It helps me explain the fights to people that might have only done it in the LFR.  But that is an all together different post, lets get to the topic at hand.

As fewer and fewer actual raiders do the LFR when I go in I am usually the LFR hero, a phrase most people use for its derogatory meaning, but lets face it, for a smooth group to happen there needs to be an LFR hero.  Our group found that said hero was not me.  Nope, not even close.

There was a mage in the group that was destroying me.  We one shot the first boss, two shot the second and one shot the third.  He owned me every step of the way.  The closest I came to him was 12K.  He was rocking it.  I'd get to 150K on the pull, he would do 175K, I could not beat him and I actually was trying.

As normal I take a look at the gear of people that beat me, or people of the same class so I can use it as a means to compare how I am doing to them.  If they are doing better I will view over their logs to see what they did that I did not so I could learn.  I am a geek that way, excuse me.  But when I looked at the mage it was not to learn, it was to see how he was geared and maybe glean into things a little as to why and how he was doing so well.

He had one piece of 695 gear, one piece of 701 gear and then everything else was 710 or higher.  It would be very easy for me to just chalk it up to that was why he was beating me.  His item level was 715 while mine is a pitiful 687.  With a nearly 30 item level advantage he is supposed to be beating me right?

But I don't just take item levels word for it.  I looked at what he did, how he did it, and I saw that he was not beating me "just" because of his item level.  He was a damn decent player to say the least.  As I said, it would be easy to just write it off and think he was doing good because his gear was carrying him but that was most definitely not the case.  He knew how to use the gear he had.

There could have been others in there with the same item level as him and they could have done poorly because they did not know how to get the most out of the gear.  I see that all the time.

But the big reason for this post was not to point out that it is the person that makes the gear work for them and not the gear itself doing all the work, but that with the T2 gear and 695 upgrades, people need to start to realize that is it not all about item level.

I mentioned my 687 item level, which for a raider is pretty poor, but once again that does not mean I would do poorly.  For my gear I do okay and oft times do better than those with much better gear.  I could easily get to a higher item level using some baleful upgrades, might even push 700 if I did that, but that would not be the best gear for me.  What gear you use matters.

Does the fact I was beating everyone else outside of him mean that I am that much better of a player than them?  Absolutely not.

I just made better choices.  Sure I had bad luck never winning a heroic tier piece in BRF but I do have the normal 4 piece which means I am stuck with four 670 pieces.  It also means I have four very effective, when used together, pieces of gear even if they are of a lower item level.

Put me along side someone that just did the T2 grind, upgraded anything they could get, and purchased a few BoEs off the auction house and you will see someone with an item level over 700 but someone that is not even remotely capable of matching my hunters numbers.  Why is that?

Because the stats on gear matters, the bonuses on gear matters, almost just as much as hitting the right keys in the right order.  There are those of us that pay such close attention to our rotation that we try to delay a shot if chimaera has less than 0.3 seconds to come off cooldown to try to get maximum damage and while perhaps that is a little more skill based, choosing to wear the best gear you have and not be sucked into thinking item level is no less of a skill.

Choosing a mastery haste baleful belt to upgrade as marksman is like delaying your shot by a full 2 seconds so you do not miss it.  It is a DPS loss.  All because you made the wrong choice of upgrading the mastery haste belt instead of a critical multistrike one for example.

Two people wearing the exact same gear and at the exact same item level could see greatly different results.  One guy upgraded whatever baleful gear he came along and the other picked and chose to get the best stats he could for his spec.  One will surely do better than the other, in a large amount, even if equally skilled, because one is wearing the "right' gear for him and the other is not.

What gear you choose matters, it matters a lot.  Sometimes choosing a lower item level piece of gear is the correct choice.  You can not just judge someone by their item level.  It would be like me saying that mage only beat me because he had a lot more gear than I did when that is just not true.  Sure it helped him create the large margin he did, but he beat me because he was skilled enough to use that gear to the best of his ability. 

You can not say he did well just because of his gear just the same as you can not tell me I will do poorly just because of mine.  I applied to a pug that was asking people to be capable of pulling 40K.  The guys asked me why I signed up, he wanted 40K and there was no way I could pull that at my item level.  He, of course, was wrong.  He judged just on item level, which means he judged wrong.  Sadly all people have to go on is item level when looking at a glance, but if you want a successful group, taking a look at the gear that comprises that item level matters a lot more than the item level itself sometimes. 

You can't judge a book by its cover and you sure as hell can not judge a character by their item level.

Who has the right to roll?

We had some serious drama in our raid last night all do to someone losing a roll on an item.  Bloodvenom Blade dropped off Deathbringer Saurfang and someone that wanted it lost the roll.  Now I know well enough about losing rolls.  Never once have a went into a rage, more so in public view.  Sure I have lost so many rolls in a row that I wanted to quit.  I even joked about it in game saying at the rate I was going I would not get an upgrade until everyone else already had it and they had no option but to give it to me.

This was a totally different case.  The guy that lost said it was wrong that he lost because... get this.
1) Hunters should not be rolling on Rogue weapons.
2) It is only a stat stick for him.
3) He had a better gear score and could do more with it.
4) He had better DPS and deserved it more then the other guy.

Addressing #1:
Okay, let me get this right.  The hunter could not roll on it because it is a rogue weapon?  Have you ever even played a hunter?  Have you ever even looked at hunter gear in your life?  How about inspected a hunter?  Pick one, any one that is standing around Dalaran and inspect them and you will see that all hunters have a weapon that has agility and stamina.  That sword had agility and stamina.  All hunters need Attack Power.  It has attack power.  Armor Penetration is good for a hunter, even more so if they are MM.  It has that too.  Then as it's last stat it has Hit Rating.  Everyone needs hit.  What about a weapon that has all perfect hunter stats means that it is not a hunter weapon?  What makes that a Rogue weapon more so then a hunter weapon?  Rogues, Hunters, and Druids as well as Enhancement Shaman all have a right to say that is their weapon.

Addressing #2:
I want to write an entire article on the concept of a stat stick.  Sure, it is only a stat stick for a hunter because he shoots with arrows or bullets but it does increase his damage done correct?  What does it do for a rogue?  It increases his damage done.  So increased damage vs increased damage.  Seems rather equal to me.  It is as much a stat stick for a rogue as it is for a hunter.  The only difference is the rogue swings it and the hunter has it looking pretty on his back.

Addressing #3:
The rogue thinks that because he has better gear he deserves it more.  Where does this backwards thinking coming from?  Because you need it less you need it more?  I have no argument against this one.  It is just way too stupid of a comment to even consider bitching about.

Addressing #4:
Wow, I wish it worked that way.  I have seen hunters win marks left and right that I have out DPSed by 4-5K.  I should have gotten the marks then being I had better DPS.  You know what, it does not work that way.  Sure, I could have done more with the marks but guess what?  They won the roll.  The guild is not filled with elitist assholes.  We have a roll rule, whoever can actually use the item that wins the roll gets the item.  Congrats on doing 10K DPS Mr. Rogue.  Guess what, I, as a hunter as well have as much right to that weapon as you do and as the other hunter does.  So being I toasted you on DPS my 3K I guess that means I should get it using your logic right?  Fine, then give the thing to me (so we can follow your rules) and I will trade it to the hunter that actually won the roll.  Hell, I am only using a 251 weapon and I did not roll on it.  I could have claimed I needed it more then either of you.  I passed because I do not need any hit.  I also passed because the hunter needed it a hell of a lot more then I did.

So the rogue kept calling out the other hunter after that.  In chat, on vent, making fun of his 7K DPS and telling him he had not rights rolling on a rogue weapon.  Things like that.  Finally the raid leader told him to shut the hell up.  A few more comments later he finally stopped.  In the middle of the trash on the way to Rotface the hunter says on vent.  Stop harassing me in tells.  The raid leader once again tells the guy to give it up and move on.  After rot, when on fester he started all over again with his crap.  So he got kicked from the raid instantly and decided to pull fester which in turn got him kicked from the guild as well.

This is why no one should be allowed to play the game unless they take a maturity test first.  That was just immature to the fullest extent and I am glad to see the raid leader did the right thing and kicked him.  Him pulling the boss before he left was uncalled for and that is more of a reason why he deserved a guild kick as well.

Have to love how people that are always talking about how great the guild is turn around instantly to say how much it sucks as soon as they get kicked.  Of course you think it sucks, they kicked you.  But if you think about it honestly, you kicked yourself by acting like a complete ass.

Let me end this by stating what could have summed this up instantly without all this writing if the rogue had even half a brain.  A person that could use the item won the roll.  The person that won the roll got the item.  Shut the hell up and move along.

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.

Deathbringers Will

After 9 weeks of rolling 2s and 4s and 10s with the occasional 25 or 30 and losing everything I rolled on I finally won a piece of loot and I did it in style, with a 100.  In the last 9 weeks I've rolled on maybe a dozen or so items and never came close to winning any of them.  After about 5 or 6 weeks I started joking about my dice being broken.  I would say, I've been saving my 100 for this, where it comes, and then a 2 would show up.  It became a running joke.  I said the same thing this time and the 100 actually did come.

I am glad I finally won something and it worked out the way I had once said I would be willing for it to work.  I once said, I would give up 2 months of rolling privileges if I could just have that trinket.  As it works out, that is exactly what happened.  For 2 months I lost every single roll.  After the 2 months, my hundred finally came.

I guess I will gladly wait for us to down the King now before I get something else new.  Hopefully that will not be another two months away.  There is not a great deal of stuff that I need, just a few items here and there that are small, but nice, upgrades.  All I really want now are weapons from the king and the achievement for downing him.

Tips and Tricks: More money making hints

I've been a little off lately when it comes to playing.  Not wanting to do much of anything which means alt time for me.  I have my bank alt character, just like every good money maker should, or any good hoarder like me should.  When leveling I send everything to that character.  While getting my rogue from 26 to 46 a couple of weeks ago I sent everything I could to my bank alt.  Nothing extremely good really.  Just tons of junk.  Most of it that usually would end up vendored by most people.

This weekend, in another bout of boredom I decided it was time to clear out the mail box.  I broke things up into categories of sorts.  After doing that I went to work.  While doing the listing I do I learned a little bit more about money making.  It is always a learning experience.  I'll share what I learned with you.

I disenchanted everything except 1 rare world drop.  The drop was no where on the auction house so I did not really know what to charge for it.  Looking it up on wowhead suggested 50 gold.  I played it greedy and listed it for 200 gold.  It sold nearly instantly. 
Tip: If you are the only person listing a rare or epic world drop, even more so if it is a low level one.  Over price it.  Someone will buy it.

All the disenchanting gave low level stuff as you might guess, it all went on the market and sold quickly with only a 1 silver undercut on stacks of 20.  The things like great mystic essence I broke down into lesser mystic essence and sold like that, which increased the money made by a third. 
Tip: Remember to always check the prices of the essence and the prices of the broken down essence first.  Sometimes it is better to sell them broken up.
Tip: If the broken down essence are selling really fast.  Go buy some of the full ones that are cheap and break them up to sell.  People that are too lazy to check for themselves are your asset.  Use them to make money.

I took all the cloth I did not need and checked the prices on the market for both cloth and bolts.  In some cases the bolts were selling for three times what the cloth to make them cost.  Needless to say, for that cloth I sent it to my tailor to make bolts and listed the bolts instead of the cloth.
Tip: Always check both bolt and cloth costs.  Sometimes the bolts sell for so much more that it is worth buying up the cloth to make into bolts.

One of the other items I came across was a golden pearl.  That was worth enough on its own to be worth selling.  96 gold on my local auction house.  After seeing that I decided to do a scan of gems for some reason when something appeared to me.  Many BC gems that vendor for 3 gold get put on auction for 2 gold.  Yeah, I know, why would someone do that.  But our job is not to question, it is to profit.
Tip: Check for outdated items.  Many items that are not end game seem to get forgotten about and put on auction for less then they are worth.

All said and done, just from the junk I collected from one alt leveling for 2 days and sending everything to my bank character I was able to make 3200 gold.  Yes, that is 3200, I did not accidentally add a zero.  With only drops that a level 26 through level 46 I auctioned off everything and made 3200 gold.  Not to mention, I still have a lot of stuff that did not sell.

Needless to say I had an enchanter and a tailor to help with this.  While I only mentioned the greens and the cloth in here really you always need to make sure to never throw away any uncooked food.  You would be amazed at how much food sells for sometimes.  Stacks of some foods go for around 40 gold.  Not bad for what a level twenty-something that is probably throwing it away or vendoring it most of the time.

Gear, Refer a Friend and Off Topic

I finally got my first piece of Sanctified Gear last night.  Once again it was as a hand me down of course, I still can not win a roll for the life of me.  It was in a VoA 25 run and there was only one other hunter there.  Right off the bat my odds where better.  The 264 gloves dropped and I rolled a huge 32.  For me that is a big roll.  I then get a whisper from the other hunter.  Usually this is where I always get the "I really need it can you let me just have it" message.  I get that all the time, even from people with better gear then me.  He just said Congrats and he did not even roll.  I asked him why he did not roll.  He said, I have it already.  So once again I get my upgrade only because someone else did not need it.

Kind of interesting that the hunter that did not even need the piece of gear I had did about half the DPS that I did.  Makes me really wonder how he ended up getting better gear then me when he is not even competent at what he does.

A friend of mine is going to join me in a Refer-a-Friend so I can get the cool rocket mount.  I really wanted that.  Also wanted to be able to level a couple more characters for profession purposes and the triple leveling speed with the ability to summon each other will really make leveling a snap.  Not to mention, once you hit 60 they might as well just award you 80 because 60 to 80 is a joke anyway.  It takes longer to get from 48-58 so you can move along to outlands then it takes to get from 60 to 80.  We are going to roll characters on my main server and also roll ones on a RP server.  I am looking forward to the RP server one.  It is something I have not dabbled into in a long time.

Now for a moment of Off Topic:
I am from New York so I am of course excited that the Super Bowl will be at Giants stadium.  I already told my boss I will not be here the monday after that Super Bowl.  I am going, there is no way to stop that from happening.  I do not care if the ticket costs me 10,000.  I am so there. 

All the morning papers say things like New York wins Super Bowl or Greatest City gets Greatest Game.  That is nice and all, but I should send these people a map and ask them to circle where Giants Stadium is.  If these dimwits can find it they will realize that Giants Stadium is in New Jersey.  So with that said, New York did not get the Super Bowl, New Jersey did.  I really wish the newspapers would have added one word to all their articles to make it more accurate.  New York Area wins Super Bowl.  Now that is correct.

I finally got some loot.

It was only a matter of time before I got something.  Now all I need to do is win something.  One of the raid members won the roll after I had rolled my highest number to date.  I was second and he was kind enough to pass to me being I was second.  I was not expecting it.  If I were not second I would not have taken it.  It if were something huge I would have not taken it.  I want to actually win to get something.  The guy who passed to me won two items last week and one item this week already when that happened.  He was just being nice.  I appreciate it.

It made my week to finally get something even if it was from rolling second.  I told him so too and thanked him for his kindness.  I guess what they say is true.  Sometimes being nice is a good thing and comes back to you.  Earlier in the week he was trying to get the things together to get the crafted 264 boots.  I gave him the 12 eternal earths for free.  Not to mention a flask for free during the raid.  One good turn deserves another.  It restores my faith in humanity.

I would still like to actually win a roll one of these days.  In a way it is almost getting fun losing.  Not fun fun but funny fun.  Every time something drops that I can roll on I joke it is my time and I roll like crap.  Rolled a 24 on the bow last night.  One of the other hunters said I am getting closer.  Only 2 more people need to get it before I can have one.  When the one guy passed to me and I got the wrists I joked that my luck had been so bad that I would have taken a hand me down tanking piece if it would mean I got something.

Like I mentioned before I am still new to the game compared to most that I run with.  So this dry spell is really wearing on me some.  Seven weeks running so far without one decent roll.  Well, decent enough this time around to be the second highest so I could get something passed to me.

With my luck the way it has been, taking a pity piece of gear was my only chance of getting something.  The time will come when my luck returns and I will most likely be on fire for a while.  That is the way it works.  Maybe if I get lucky that will happen the the lich kings crossbow drops on 25.  Being I do not see that happening for a while it gives me time to get a new pair of dice.

Old Time Hunter Loot

I finally got a chance to run Serpentshrine Cavern for the first time and I was glad for that.  It had two of three possible T5 drops I was looking for and ending up getting both of them.  Next week on throwback night we are going to run Tempest Keep.  I had gotten one of the T5 tokens last time I ran it so only need one more from there.  Maybe I will get lucky with that.  Once I get that one and the one from the cavern that did not drop this run I will have all five of the T5 pieces.

You might ask why I want the T5 set.  If you are a hunter you might know, if you ever looked into serious soloing then you sure know why I want it. Just check out the Pet Healing from the two piece bonus.  That is 15% of all the damage I do that heals my pet.  That is insane.  Now think of it in terms of the damage I can put out now based on the damage things used to hit for back then.  If I can keep up a solid flow of damage while my turtle holds aggrro I can effectively heal it through anything old school.  I am loving it for my soloing.

I want to get all 5 pieces of the T5 set even if I do not need more then two and there is a very solid reason for that.  I never know what my gear will look like and which two pieces I should use.  At the moment with all T10 (and crafted legs) it is not much of an issue which 2 I put on when I go soloing.  However, when the time comes where I get some marks and upgrade a few of the pieces I will pick and choose which two T5s I will be using.  Having all 5 of them gives me options.  I like options.

A friend of mine said that my bad luck is over being I got the two T5 tokens.  I told him, it does not count being they were given to me.  If I had to roll for them I probably would have either lost, or wasted my good roll I had been saving up.

Now I am thinking of looking around for some more classic hunter loot.  Must have hunter loot.  For use or just to have.  I have the bow, quiver and the 3 pieces of T5 so far.  So what is next?

What is Deserving?

In my last post I mentioned the word "Deserving" in reference to being deserving of gear.  It got me wondering what exactly makes someone deserving of anything.  All 25 people worked to get that boss killed so aren't all 25 people equally deserving?

All in all, on an even playing field the answer to that question would be a resounding yes.  But there is never really an even playing field.  We all have our skills and weaknesses.  We all have our good days and bad days.  We all have our own idiosyncrasies.   Like me, I am grumpy.  I fake it and most don't really know it but in the end I can usually find something to be grumpy about even if there should not be anything.  It is like a thrive off of being grumpy.

In a team effort you have to look at things in the points of a whole team and not the single pieces of the team.  Looking at single pieces should be secondary.  A team should work like a machine, each member of the team is another piece that makes that machine run smoothly.  When upgrading your machine you look at the pieces that need improvement and the options available to you.

In the case of our team we are going to use the "all things being equal" idea and work from there.  The tanks all have enough life and avoidance that they can live without fear of possible spike damage.  The healers make sure everyone lives without running out of mana.  The DPS are doing more then enough damage that it never even gets close to the enrage timer.

From what I just described there really is no need what so ever to upgrade any of the parts of this machine.  It is working perfectly, as it should really.  If something that would upgrade any part of the machine drops it is really not needed.  It is wanted.  Everyone that can use it wants it but by getting to it they proved they did not need it.  There is no NEED there, only WANT.

That is where we get to who is deserving of it.  The ultimate fair way to decide who gets it is with the luck of the roll.  The roll however does not address who deserves it.  Remember what I said, no one needs it.  So using the standard "whoever needs it most" is bullshit.  If they downed the boss they really did not need it.  The might need it to down the next boss, but at the stage you are currently at, loot for that boss, they do not need it.

What do you use to decide who needs it?

Person A: Shows up late.
Person B: Shows up on time.

Person A: Shows up without flasks.
Person B: Shows up with flasks.

Person A: Never brings any supplies.
Person B: Brings enough for him/herself and enough for others.

Person A: Always needs a summon even though they knew a week in advance where they were going to need to be.
Person B: Is waiting there 10 minutes before start time to summon those people to lazy to make their own way there.

Person A: Needs fight tactics explained.  Every time.
Person B: Knows the tactics of the fight.

Person A: Need a bathroom break, a cig break and then a phone break between every boss.
Person B: Might ask for 2 minutes once every hour or two.

Person A: Has a high gear score and does well.
Person B: Has the same gear score and does exceptional.

Player A: Does not stop what they are doing to assist elsewhere.
Player B: Will do whatever needs to get done if help is needed elsewhere.

Player A: Never even notices that something is happening around them.
Player B: Is completely aware of their surroundings.

While looking at those things you will notice that Player B sure as hell seems more deserving of it.  However we revert to need once again.  Neither need it.  Both want it.  Just because Player A is not deserving of it does not mean he wants it any less.  Their want levels are effectively even.  Even with all that you can make an argument that Player B deserves it more.  But it would be only a slight argument.  If anything and there is one spot left to invite to the raid, looking at that, Player B gets the raid spot.  That is what that example shows. Sure Player B put in more effort and is more of the team type of player you want to see but is that enough?

If judging who deserves it, I say yes.  I would like to move on further however.  Looking at things from a purely DPS perspective now.

If giving a piece to Player A will up his/her maximum DPS potential by 500 and giving it to Player B will up his/her maximum potential DPS by 300 would that make Player A more deserving?

Only if you look at the DPS output based on potential.

Lets say Player A has a maximum DPS potential of 8500 and is currently doing 4500 he/she is only doing a little more then 1/2 of his potential.  So giving him/her something that ups their DPS potential by 500 you would have to figure would mean they are roughly going to gain a little more then 1/2 from it based on performance.

Lets say Player B has a maximum DPS potential of 8000 and is currently doing 7000, that would mean they are working at near 90% of their potential DPS increase based on past performance.

So, while Player A has a higher maximum potential then Player B and Player A would gain more potential using the item then Player B it is not that black and white.  The item, when giving to the most deserving person, would be given to the person that will do the most with it.  Which in turn would mean they are the person that brings more to the team. The person that brings more to the team is the person that is doing the best percentage based on their maximum potential.

Now this is where I sit and think about it. 
Am I really the more deserving person for things sometimes?  Ab-so-fucking-lutely.
Would I ever take something that was just given to me because I was the most deserving?  Nope, never.

So if I would not take it if it were given to me why would I waste all this time being grumpy about it?  Well, being grumpy is what I do.  That and the fact that when I sit back and call another person undeserving I would not do that just because I am upset I lost a roll.  Losing a roll I can deal with.  It happens.  I just feel it is a kick in the ass to lose something to somebody that does not deserve it.  Being I explained what deserving it means I am being factual and not just plan old grumpy with my bad rolling.

So when I actually call someone undeserving I would not be like the jerks that got geared up and left saying they did not want to help gear up people that were undeserving.  When it comes to deserving, the one true way to make yourself undeserving is to not need it.  How is someone else getting something bad when you did not need it anyway?  You were undeserving of it.  Not them.

Funny thing is this.  I forever run other people through things I need nothing from to help them get items.  I have no issues gearing people up.  Deserving or not does not make a difference if I don't need it anyway.  Never once have a ran something that I needed nothing from and it got me to the point I could consider quitting.

Yet I sit around now considering quitting because I did not get something I deserved.  The exact opposite of the reason they left.  They left because they had everything they wanted and did not want to help others gear up.  Helping people gear up is fun, not a reason to quit.  I help other gear up even if I do not have what I need.  I wonder something about all these people that won these things.  When they get to the point they need nothing from there are they going to keep going so I can finally get it?  I doubt it.  They will have what they want.  Why should they help gear me.  Yeah, it pisses me off.  If I got it, I would run it with them until they did.  But when they get what they want they leave me out in the cold.

I might be a grumpy elf, but I have damn good reason to be one.  In general I really hate people.

The Game has Offically Lost it's Fun

It is getting crazy now with raiding.  It has gotten to the point that I am not having fun.  I am wasting 3 hours of my life for absolutely nothing.  My streak of bad luck can not go on much further. I keep saying I will wait it out, I will be a team player, I will do what needs to be done and I do keep doing that. 

Finally had a night where some hunter loot actually dropped and what is more amazing, there were two things I really needed.  Like best in slot needed.  There was one other thing I might have liked, but those two things were what I have been hoping I was being punished with all my other rolls so I could get them.  You know, like karma.  I always roll like crap or straight out pass to others that can use it but when the time comes when something drops that I really need I will get it.  Nope, still rolled like crap.  At least I got double digits this time.  Still lost.

As much as I try to be the nice guy there is only so much the nice guy can get shit on before he says fuck it and just gives up.  Now the guild wants to make sure all the tanks and healers get marks first before the DPS.  So lets see, my luck with rolling is shit, I never win anything.  Hunter loot rarely drops to begin with. Now add to the fact that the warrior, hunter, shaman mark is going to be given to tanks and healers before DPS. 

Lets see, we have 2 warrior tanks and 1 shaman healer.  That means, best case, 12 weeks before I can get a mark.  But wait, 12 weeks would mean at least one drops every week and I have only seen 3 in the last 6 weeks, so that means 24 weeks.  In 24 weeks I won't want the fucking mark.  I'll be wearing Cataclysm greens that are better most likely.

It is just not worth the effort any more.  I show up on time and ready.  I wait for an hour for everyone else to show and to fill up because many people apparently can't tell time.  I come prepared, with flasks and end up giving other people flasks because they forgot to get them.  How is it that I give flasks to the same people every fucking week because they always forget to bring them?  They know they are raiding that night.  Buy a few flasks before you come damn it.  At least pretend like you are being a team player.  Stop relying on others all the time.

The biggest kicker is the two pieces I really needed went to some timers.  The people that are late for raids or just do not show sometimes.  Sure they say they are sorry, but they are still not dedicated raiders in any way, shape or form.  Now I am starting to feel the way the people that left felt.  I fell like I am just running to gear people up.  People that don't deserve it.  Thing is, I have an argument.  I still lead the DPS charts and I have not gotten one piece of gear, at all, whereas they where getting geared up. 

If anything, there is an argument that giving me the gear will put it to better use being apparently I know what I am doing and they don't if they can not beat me even if they are all in better gear then I am.  Think of it as we are all one big machine.  Oiling one part of the machine ups productiveness by 2% and oiling another part of the machine ups productivity by 5%.  Now think of it as you can only oil one part, which part do you oil?  The part that gives the most productivity right?  Well lets see, say one piece of gear is a 300 DPS upgrade.  Who should you give it to, the person that will make the total team DPS go up 30 DPS using it or the person that will make the total team DPS go up 300 DPS using it.  You give it to the one that will get the most from it because it makes for a better team over all.

The basic point is the game is supposed to be fun.  Sure, we all lose rolls but at some point it becomes to much to deal with.  Each week seeing people get upgrades I need when I still destroy them on the DPS charts, I still need to give them a flask because they forgot it and I still have to sit around waiting for them, it is just to much.  They do not deserve the gear.  Yeap, I said it and I never have before, but they do not deserve it.  Never have I considered gear as something that someone would deserve but that was basically because I was new, I never experienced this for an extended point like I have.  Now I am beginning to understand why some guild have the hard ass rules.  Thing with me is I am still morally against those rules.

The game has just lost all fun for me.  It is about the point where I just give up.  If I am going to keep running I am not going to give a crap about trying to do the best I can because apparently that is not required, there are people that warp me in gear doing over 3K less and they get gear all the time too.  I am going to stop bringing flasks and expect others to bring them for me.  I am going to start showing up late just so I can make everyone wait. (okay, I am just being grumpy there, I would not do anything of that you know)

Maybe once I start acting like the people that win the rolls I will start winning some rolls.  They say nice guys finish last.  That has been my case.  Been too nice.  From now on, fuck everyone else.  I am going to start being a jerk when raiding.  Rolling on things I do not need just to deny others from getting it.  But that will never happen, I won't win the roles anyway.

All I want to do is have fun with the game and that has not been happening.  I am a strict 10 raider.  Not one piece of gear from 25 man.  Problem is, I've been doing 25 man forever.  No one can roll this bad for this long.  The game has lost its fun.

If it were not for the fact I was tired, and in some pain from dental work I had done earlier that afternoon I might have pulled one of those internet rage moments and quit the guild.  I am glad I didn't.  It is not my style, I really just post it here to vent it and then I fell better and move along.  I am just really not having any fun at all in the game lately.  One win per month at least would be nice.

Disheartening

It is getting really disheartening lately for me.  Every week we roll through ICC 25 and down bosses.  Every week something decent drops that I could really use which is rare enough being I do not need a great deal from the early bosses that we are running through.  Every week I lose the rolls.

Yeap, every fucking week something decent drops and I lose the roll.  The bow I need from there that rarely drops finally dropped again.  It only drops like once every month.  So I roll, not even close.  It goes to another hunter.  There are 5 fucking hunters in the group.  Now 2 have it, so the way I see it, dropping once a month, I will need to wait another 3 months before I get it.  I can not wait 5 months between upgrades.

Another mark dropped for me to roll on and I lose that roll again as well.  Just like I lost the roll for every other mark that dropped before that I could use.  Of course I would not win the roll.  Why would I win the roll?

A hunter helm dropped I could have used.  I did not roll, I want the marks more so, I want the bow more so, I want other things more so.  An axe dropped I could have used.  I did not roll, let another hunter get the huge upgrade.  I am a team player.  Unless it is a big upgrade for me I do not roll for it.  Every time one of the few things I need falls.  I lose the roll and it usually goes to some other hunter that has already won something else that I passed on to let them have.

Why can't they give me the same courtesy?  I only roll on things I really need.  Let me have one of them once in a while.  I am a team player, how come no one else is?

In the last month I have not won one fucking roll (except for winning two saronites) and it is starting to get really disheartening.  Every person in the raid is building up.  Every person in the raid is blowing past me in gear score.  Every person in the raid is still behind me in DPS.  I do the best I can with the gear I have but it is getting to the point where my skill with my gear will not matter any more.  I will get passed up.

The hunter that was closest to me got 2 marks, got the helm, the bow, the boots, the pants... got everything he could need in the last month.  I assure you he will pass me in DPS soon.  I do not mind that.  But come on now.  Don't you think I should have gotten any of those fucking things?

I am sick and tired of running ICC 25 every week to gear everyone else while I get nothing, ever.  Sure, I am a team player but once in a while I would like to have something new too.  I do my job, I do it well, I show up every raid, I show up on time, I show up prepared, I show up knowing the fights and I show up kicking ass yet I continue to lose rolls to people I have to supply with flasks because they "forgot" to bring them.  I have to sit around waiting with the rest of the raid because they show up 20 minutes late.  I have to wait and listen to fight mechanics that we have all heard 20 times already because they "forgot" since last week what to do.  And I lose the rolls to these people.

I swear, I am so close to quitting raiding.  I play to have fun just like everyone else and it is no fun when you do all the work and never get anything to show for it.  I supply arrows at no charge to all the hunters, I supply the flasks for all the hunters (and anyone else that uses endless and selfishly forgets to buy them), I never once used the guild to pay for my repairs, I pay on my own.  I do everything that a "good" raider should do and I always end up on the short end of the stick.

One more week, one more 25 man, one last try.  If I do not win something next week I quit.  It is not worth it if you are not having fun doing it.  I am not having fun doing everything and being a team player and letting the drops go to people that do not even show up when we continue so we can keep going. Why should they show up, they got their loot already.

I am not saying I should just be given things because I was unlucky enough to never win anything, what I am saying is I am sick of always losing the rolls on the very few things I ever roll for to people that really do not deserve it.  I most likely would not be upset if it were not the same people that win every fucking roll every week.

I hate that one or two people end up with all the wins every week and every week I get nothing.  These people need to learn to pass for the team once in a while like I do.  Either that, or I should start being a douchebag like everyone else and roll for things even if they are not a big upgrade just to deny someone else instead of passing and let the person that needs it most get it.

Whispering Fanged Skull

Since ICC was released I wanted to get the Whispering Fanged Skull for my hunter.  I've been rocking a Darkmoon Card: Greatness and a Needle-Encrusted Scorpion for some time now.  It has dropped a few times and I always seemed to lose the roll.  Finally I got it last night because nearly everyone that needed one already had it.  So my odds were getting better.  Only one person to roll against and I was lucky enough to win.

I was one of the lucky ones that got the Needle-Encrusted Scorpion on the day the 5 mans where released, going to show that sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.  I've read some horror stories of people doing it daily since it came out and still never having seen it drop.  I guess I was lucky that time around.  In about 15 runs I have seen it dropped 5 times.  Three of those five times it just ended up disenchanted.  The Darkmoon Card: Greatness basically did not cost me a thing being I have an inscription alt maxed and made it myself.  So being I gathered the materials in the process of questing and did not set out to gather them for that purpose all it cost me was the time to press create/mill/etc to make the cards. Even at that I still think of it as a 5000G item and still say it is one of the absolute best hunter trinkets.  If I did not already have the mats anyway I would have gladly paid 5000G for it.

Now I find myself a little perplexed. What should I do?  I want to keep using the NES being I am working on an armor penetration build and when it procs I am not far from the cap.  I also feel a connection to my Greatness Card that makes me not want to let go of it.  And it sure does rock even still.