Part two of the Goblins "Magical Skill" articles has come out and it seems I was dead on with what I was thinking it might be about. I was also completely wrong.
How could I be right and be wrong at the same time? I was right because it was about people doing what needed to be done in a raid situation. I was wrong because he seems to be claiming that some BS set of rules are the reason for that success.
While there might be some truth to the argument that having group of people that just want to get it done and are not "friends" but coworkers in their effort will succeed. That does make perfect sense. I am ranged DPS, I need other DPS around me, I need healers and tanks around me as well. I need them to be competent to do the job and I need them to not make the same stupid mistakes over and over. If you are "friends" with a person you will allow them to get away with things and hope they can adjust and catch up. To me, that is where the "Magical Skill" comes in. If they have that skill, they will adjust and catch up. If they don't they won't but as a "friend" you will let them keep running with you.
So he does have a point there. He made his group without anything but a common goal to connect these people. Each one of these people is using the others around them to help them to get to their ultimate goal. It is not as cold as it sounds. It works. It has worked in the past and it will work in the future. It is not because of his rules and it is not because of his PuG.
He went into some tangent that this PuG group, when following his rules, got to 11/12 on ICC just because of his rules for them joining. This is where I think he has fallen off of his rocker. He has lost it. Sometimes very smart people over look very small things. He overlooked his blog, the one I read, the one posting this stuff, the one many people read on a daily basis.
Being The PuG was started from his blog it was started from his readers. The same readers that know he is prone to rip apart bad players, stupid people and generally anyone that does not meet his own standards. Because of that those people, even if they are good, are not going to join The PuG because they know he is going to write about it.
Everything that happens in The PuG is happening so well because only people that are very good at what they do to begin with joined it. They are the people that had the "Magical Skill" long before The PuG was a dream that came to the Goblin one night.
So his idea, while nice, would never work in a real gaming setting. If I where to start a new guild with the same rules as his I am absolutely sure I would not have the success he has had. The reason being is that it would not be done in the public eye. There would not be any people reading about it. There would not be the draw for the great players to be part of something and the fear for the bad players to stay the hell away.
Do to his many great articles and events, like the undergeared group, he is well know and he draws the best of the best out to join him. I know in his undergeared group I would suck horribly. There is no way in hell I can ever see myself pulling 5K DPS in 187 gear. Sure, I might be able to with lots of luck but I don't think I would even try. Things like that bring out the people that can do that well to join him and join The PuG.
He would never have had the same results with his little test if no one had known about it. If it were just some random get together that some nobody put together it would crash and burn the same way I see guilds crash and burn left and right on any of the servers I play. They all have the same attitude as him. We are assembling for a single goal.
They all die off well before they achieve that goal because there are never enough good players or even average players to get it done. Those good players or average players go to hard core guilds or serious guilds or even friendly guilds. You get the left overs in a group like that. Maybe you will get some good players that are just flighty and that is why they never stuck with another guild.
I have been a part of PuGs that one shotted entire raids and I have been part of PuGs that wipe in Naxx when everyone had a GS over 5000.
I personally would love being in a guild like the one he described. Would be nice to do different types of raids. Would be nice to do old content for achievements. Would be nice to have that many competent people around that I could do it with at any given time. But the only reason it works is because of his net fame and that is what drew all those competent people to him.
Look at it this way. I am in a guild that is only 8/12 on ICC. We have the players to be finished with all hard modes. We have the gear, the skill and the desire. We have more then enough people to fill 3 10 mans. We just do not do it because most of the people are missing the "Magical Skill" the way I said it. Not the way he did. The only reason I am still there is because I like it there and having fun playing is more important to me then being the first on my server to down something. I'll down it sooner or later. I like working for something instead of just rolling over content to get it. There is no sense of accomplishment in that. Just like there should be no sense of accomplishment in what the Goblin has done.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
New Hunter Talent Calculator
I am sure there will be a lot of playing around with this one. I already figure out that I would be using a 3/31/7 or 2/31/8 set up to start with if I had to make my own decisions. Thing is, I am sure the theory crafters will do all the hard work for me and tell me what will work best.
Take a look at the calculator and see what you think.
Seems like 8 in survival is almost mandatory 5 in improved tracking and 3 in Hunter Vs. Wild. Increasing attack power based on stamina is just way to juicy to pass up, even more so when you realize that they are giving away stamina like candy come cataclysm. Green quest pieces have 500 stamina on it. That means getting a new piece with 500 stamina is a 150 attack power increase instantly for you and your pet. The more stamina you have the more attack power you have and in this brave new world it seems like stamina is what it is all about.
The one difference in my two specs is if I fill out One With Nature on the BM tree or fill out Hunter Vs. Wild on the Survival tree. If focus becomes an issue I might lean to BM, otherwise, the extra 10% AP is worth losing the little focus gain from One With Nature.
The MM tree seems basically unchanged. In a way I actually had a problem getting to 31 for it. Seems to have way to many PvP and trash mob skills there. All the dazing and more damage on daze stuff is completely useless for boss fights being bosses can not be dazed. That means that their value is near 0 for anyone concerned with end game stuff. Outside of that, the MM set up feels very much like ti always was. I did not need a theory crafter to tell me to put the points in things that help with damage. There weren't even 31 things that cause damage so it was not exactly rocket science. It really came down to I needed to waste one point and which one talent that was nearly useless would I put that one point in.
If anything, it is that lackluster selection of skills to put points into that would be my only issue with it so far. I hope it is tweaked some. Otherwise I might as well try BM or SV. I hate having to put points in useless talents just to get further into the tree. I might go BM if anything, it really looks like that will be the best spec to start out with. Nice to see some BM love. I always liked being BM and kind of miss it. Maybe I miss it because it was always so damn easy compared to MM and all those procs and timers I had to pay attention to. BM seemed more proactive. You do things. MM seemed more reactive, you do what you can while waiting for something to happen so you can do something else. MM seems more like work. BM seems more like play. I like to play.
Take a look at the calculator and see what you think.
Seems like 8 in survival is almost mandatory 5 in improved tracking and 3 in Hunter Vs. Wild. Increasing attack power based on stamina is just way to juicy to pass up, even more so when you realize that they are giving away stamina like candy come cataclysm. Green quest pieces have 500 stamina on it. That means getting a new piece with 500 stamina is a 150 attack power increase instantly for you and your pet. The more stamina you have the more attack power you have and in this brave new world it seems like stamina is what it is all about.
The one difference in my two specs is if I fill out One With Nature on the BM tree or fill out Hunter Vs. Wild on the Survival tree. If focus becomes an issue I might lean to BM, otherwise, the extra 10% AP is worth losing the little focus gain from One With Nature.
The MM tree seems basically unchanged. In a way I actually had a problem getting to 31 for it. Seems to have way to many PvP and trash mob skills there. All the dazing and more damage on daze stuff is completely useless for boss fights being bosses can not be dazed. That means that their value is near 0 for anyone concerned with end game stuff. Outside of that, the MM set up feels very much like ti always was. I did not need a theory crafter to tell me to put the points in things that help with damage. There weren't even 31 things that cause damage so it was not exactly rocket science. It really came down to I needed to waste one point and which one talent that was nearly useless would I put that one point in.
If anything, it is that lackluster selection of skills to put points into that would be my only issue with it so far. I hope it is tweaked some. Otherwise I might as well try BM or SV. I hate having to put points in useless talents just to get further into the tree. I might go BM if anything, it really looks like that will be the best spec to start out with. Nice to see some BM love. I always liked being BM and kind of miss it. Maybe I miss it because it was always so damn easy compared to MM and all those procs and timers I had to pay attention to. BM seemed more proactive. You do things. MM seemed more reactive, you do what you can while waiting for something to happen so you can do something else. MM seems more like work. BM seems more like play. I like to play.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Goblin's Magical Skill
The Greedy Goblin has a new post about "Magical Skill" on his blog and it made me think about something someone said the other day after a pretty bad 25 man ICC run that saw us wipe in places we had not wiped in months.
Now I will not pretend to say I know what "Magical Skill" he is going to talk about, but as soon as I read it I thought about the wipes the other night on Lady Deathwhisper. We had a group with three Mages, which is huge, usually we have one if any at all and whenever someone was mind controlled no one was sheeping. When LDW was about to throw her frostbolt no one was interrupting either. All that combined to mean a wipe. We almost pulled it off, got her to 2% and just did not finish when the last tank dropped.
That should not happen for a group that normal would down LDW in our sleep. And this is where I think the Goblin is going to lead us with his "Magical Skill" segment he is planning. The raid leader gave the group crap, rightfully so, for not controlling the mind controlled people and for not interrupting the frostbolts. The thing is, he should not have needed to.
This was not new content for any of us where we were still learning it. It was not old content either where we might have forgotten things. It was something we run every week and have been running every week.
For me, as I see the Goblins "Magical Skill", will be about the people that do what needs to be done without thinking. It is just something people picked up and they do it. Naturally. While it can be taught, to those people that do not have the skill it needs to be drilled into them and they need to be reminded. They learned tHE skill to do it but they do not have it happen naturally. Magically if you will.
I do not know when it happened, I did not plan it happening, but I throw a freezing arrow at the mind controlled person the second they get controlled. Sure, I miss sometimes or they run from it as it is in the air, but I do it. It is something I do not even think about. I've done it enough to not even think about it any more. I think that is what the Goblin might be getting at. Like he said children just magically pick up language I just magically picked up doing the freezing arrow. Either way I look forward to seeing what he has coming with the articles.
Now I will not pretend to say I know what "Magical Skill" he is going to talk about, but as soon as I read it I thought about the wipes the other night on Lady Deathwhisper. We had a group with three Mages, which is huge, usually we have one if any at all and whenever someone was mind controlled no one was sheeping. When LDW was about to throw her frostbolt no one was interrupting either. All that combined to mean a wipe. We almost pulled it off, got her to 2% and just did not finish when the last tank dropped.
That should not happen for a group that normal would down LDW in our sleep. And this is where I think the Goblin is going to lead us with his "Magical Skill" segment he is planning. The raid leader gave the group crap, rightfully so, for not controlling the mind controlled people and for not interrupting the frostbolts. The thing is, he should not have needed to.
This was not new content for any of us where we were still learning it. It was not old content either where we might have forgotten things. It was something we run every week and have been running every week.
For me, as I see the Goblins "Magical Skill", will be about the people that do what needs to be done without thinking. It is just something people picked up and they do it. Naturally. While it can be taught, to those people that do not have the skill it needs to be drilled into them and they need to be reminded. They learned tHE skill to do it but they do not have it happen naturally. Magically if you will.
I do not know when it happened, I did not plan it happening, but I throw a freezing arrow at the mind controlled person the second they get controlled. Sure, I miss sometimes or they run from it as it is in the air, but I do it. It is something I do not even think about. I've done it enough to not even think about it any more. I think that is what the Goblin might be getting at. Like he said children just magically pick up language I just magically picked up doing the freezing arrow. Either way I look forward to seeing what he has coming with the articles.
Leveling as Disc
I have a friend who leveled his Priest naked. I always thought that was about as cool as it gets and a true testimony to skill. I still think that having been working on my Priest but now I understand how it is capable a lot more then previous.
Not knowing a great deal about the priest skills I was not aware how one could level naked and even have a chance. Now seeing what I can do with gear as I level I can see how it is possible to do it. I can see battles taking a lot longer for sure and you need to really pay attention to where you are because if you get some adds it could mean instant death.
A Priest has an amazing array of skills that seem to be ideal for leveling like this and in reality it has made my leveling with gear on a lot easier. I use the approach that my friend told me, the basic idea to try not to take any damage at all, and being I wear gear and he did not it makes it easier for me.
With all that being said it makes rethink everything I know about the game some. The first character I made, my beloved Hunter, it took me forever to level it. Took me a while to learn how to pick and choose my battles, how to pull small packs or one at a time, things like that. So of course it took a while to level. As I leveled and learned and knew how to do things better from leveling that character it helped me level others. I knew the concept of how to do things, now I just needed to learn how to do them with different skills.
That is part of growing with the game. Some things still seem to be eye opening for me. Such as leveling a Priest now. Sure, when I was doing it in PvP only it was different, that is a whole different world and nothing like leveling with questing. Sure, I tried some of the looking for dungeon as well when they took out the PvP daily quest for lower levels and that was just spamming healing everywhere it was needed. That is what I think of when I think of a healer. Nothing more. They are healers, they heal.
Getting into questing now I learned that everything I knew about healers, or at least a Discipline Priest, goes out the window when leveling. I figured that being I was leveling as a healer I would basically fall back on the idea that I heal myself whenever I need it, I would drop DoTs all over and run for the hills so to speak. In concept, that made sense, in application it doesn't really work that way.
I take less damage as a Disc Priest then I ever have in any other class I have played so far. Those shields are so OP that if I really wanted to you can be a melee Priest and kill everything and still never take any damage.
I had thought, originally, that having healing would be nice, but being I was a healer and not just a class with a healing spell, that I could not really do a bunch of damage. I figured it would go something like, offensive spell, shield, offensive spell, heal, shield, HoT, offensive spell, and so on. I figured it would be a back and forth with me healing myself often. Thing is, I never take any damage at all. I think I can go 5 or 6 levels without ever needing to heal myself once. On the very rare occasion that I do take any damage it is healed either by itself over time or from the next shield I throw on myself.
Basically for questing I do not even need any healing spells at all for the standard stuff. My typical battle now goes something like this.
1) Cast Holy Fire from Max distance.
2) Cast Shadow Word: Pain as they are coming.
3) Cast Devouring Plague as they are getting to me.
4) Cast Power Word: Shield. If they did happen to hit me PW:S healed me.
5) Either Melee or Wand the mob until Holy Fire is off cooldown. Usually about 2-3 seconds max.
6) Cast Holy Fire.
7) Melee or Wand until dead.
8) On the rare occasion it is needed Cast Shadow Word: Death to finish it off if all the DoTs are done and there is a little left.
That is all.
You might ask why I have those 2 Melee or Wand parts in there and I can answer that.
One, I am not taking any damage anyway so there is no rush to kill the creature.
Two, the DoT's I have rolling are going to kill it anyway so all I am doing now is wasting some time waiting for it to die.
Three, I could save 2 seconds and cast another spell to kill it faster but this way is much more mana efficient. I need to drink every 10 battles instead of every 5 or 6 this way. The having to drink twice as often would eat up more time then the extra 2 seconds each mob lives from doing a little melee on it.
Now if you look at that you will notice how my original idea of healing myself is never even required. Yeap, I am a healer killing mobs that never needs to cast a heal. Call me surprised. I would have never expected it to be this easy.
There are some times where healing myself is needed. While I surprisingly enough can do some group pulls with little problem I occasionally need to throw a Renew on myself before I can shield again. Also when soloing elites I seem to need to do some more healing. Even at that I was amazed how easily I was able to solo some mobs I had problems with on other characters. I chalk that up to knowing more about how things work from all perspectives now. Having leveled up a Ranged, a Melee, a Tank and now I Healer through some of the same quests I have a different outlook on how to do things.
One of my intentions when I started leveling other characters was to get a feel for how things where on the other side and that seems to have paid off. Each character I level becomes increasingly easier because I have more of a pool of experience to draw from. None of that prepared me for being a healer that never needs to heal however. I find that so amusing. I love being a Disc Priest right now. Almost as much as being a Hunter.
Not knowing a great deal about the priest skills I was not aware how one could level naked and even have a chance. Now seeing what I can do with gear as I level I can see how it is possible to do it. I can see battles taking a lot longer for sure and you need to really pay attention to where you are because if you get some adds it could mean instant death.
A Priest has an amazing array of skills that seem to be ideal for leveling like this and in reality it has made my leveling with gear on a lot easier. I use the approach that my friend told me, the basic idea to try not to take any damage at all, and being I wear gear and he did not it makes it easier for me.
With all that being said it makes rethink everything I know about the game some. The first character I made, my beloved Hunter, it took me forever to level it. Took me a while to learn how to pick and choose my battles, how to pull small packs or one at a time, things like that. So of course it took a while to level. As I leveled and learned and knew how to do things better from leveling that character it helped me level others. I knew the concept of how to do things, now I just needed to learn how to do them with different skills.
That is part of growing with the game. Some things still seem to be eye opening for me. Such as leveling a Priest now. Sure, when I was doing it in PvP only it was different, that is a whole different world and nothing like leveling with questing. Sure, I tried some of the looking for dungeon as well when they took out the PvP daily quest for lower levels and that was just spamming healing everywhere it was needed. That is what I think of when I think of a healer. Nothing more. They are healers, they heal.
Getting into questing now I learned that everything I knew about healers, or at least a Discipline Priest, goes out the window when leveling. I figured that being I was leveling as a healer I would basically fall back on the idea that I heal myself whenever I need it, I would drop DoTs all over and run for the hills so to speak. In concept, that made sense, in application it doesn't really work that way.
I take less damage as a Disc Priest then I ever have in any other class I have played so far. Those shields are so OP that if I really wanted to you can be a melee Priest and kill everything and still never take any damage.
I had thought, originally, that having healing would be nice, but being I was a healer and not just a class with a healing spell, that I could not really do a bunch of damage. I figured it would go something like, offensive spell, shield, offensive spell, heal, shield, HoT, offensive spell, and so on. I figured it would be a back and forth with me healing myself often. Thing is, I never take any damage at all. I think I can go 5 or 6 levels without ever needing to heal myself once. On the very rare occasion that I do take any damage it is healed either by itself over time or from the next shield I throw on myself.
Basically for questing I do not even need any healing spells at all for the standard stuff. My typical battle now goes something like this.
1) Cast Holy Fire from Max distance.
2) Cast Shadow Word: Pain as they are coming.
3) Cast Devouring Plague as they are getting to me.
4) Cast Power Word: Shield. If they did happen to hit me PW:S healed me.
5) Either Melee or Wand the mob until Holy Fire is off cooldown. Usually about 2-3 seconds max.
6) Cast Holy Fire.
7) Melee or Wand until dead.
8) On the rare occasion it is needed Cast Shadow Word: Death to finish it off if all the DoTs are done and there is a little left.
That is all.
You might ask why I have those 2 Melee or Wand parts in there and I can answer that.
One, I am not taking any damage anyway so there is no rush to kill the creature.
Two, the DoT's I have rolling are going to kill it anyway so all I am doing now is wasting some time waiting for it to die.
Three, I could save 2 seconds and cast another spell to kill it faster but this way is much more mana efficient. I need to drink every 10 battles instead of every 5 or 6 this way. The having to drink twice as often would eat up more time then the extra 2 seconds each mob lives from doing a little melee on it.
Now if you look at that you will notice how my original idea of healing myself is never even required. Yeap, I am a healer killing mobs that never needs to cast a heal. Call me surprised. I would have never expected it to be this easy.
There are some times where healing myself is needed. While I surprisingly enough can do some group pulls with little problem I occasionally need to throw a Renew on myself before I can shield again. Also when soloing elites I seem to need to do some more healing. Even at that I was amazed how easily I was able to solo some mobs I had problems with on other characters. I chalk that up to knowing more about how things work from all perspectives now. Having leveled up a Ranged, a Melee, a Tank and now I Healer through some of the same quests I have a different outlook on how to do things.
One of my intentions when I started leveling other characters was to get a feel for how things where on the other side and that seems to have paid off. Each character I level becomes increasingly easier because I have more of a pool of experience to draw from. None of that prepared me for being a healer that never needs to heal however. I find that so amusing. I love being a Disc Priest right now. Almost as much as being a Hunter.
Monday, July 12, 2010
A huge leveling weekend for me.
When we last saw my stable of characters I had a Rogue at level 48, a Priest at level 40, a Shaman at level 38, a Mage at level 20 and a Warrior at level 6.
That was what they all where when I updated them two weeks ago. I did some serious leveling on my Mage last weekend getting my Mage up to level 52. So far I am still having fun with my Mage but I really hate those last few levels before entering BC content.
My Shaman is my Refer a Friend character, so when I do work with it I level at triple speed. I do not work on it as often as I would like to of course, but then again, I do not think what I want to do even I would do. I want things instantly. That triple experience has spoiled me. In a way that is why I was enjoying my Mage. Old school leveling the way it should be. You have more time to learn your character that way. I read a lot, that is my only saving grace for my Shaman really. Otherwise I would be lost. Enhancement Shamans are not exactly easy compared to most classes. If not for reading I would be lost.
As for this post, as an update, my Shaman has now reached the golden land of 60. Enough for BC with a little buffer to handle everything I run into. I need to step back some to get my mining up before I venture into BC. Do not want to go there and not be able to mine anything. With the refer a friend thing leveling becomes a joke. I was up to level 53 and my leveling partner was at level 52 when a friend came on and offered to give us a few dungeon runs. Of course we said yes.
So off to BRD we go and in one run through BRD I get to level 56 and my leveling partner gets to level 55. Yes, one run, only one run, you heard that right. Not only is BRD huge with lots of experience but at triple experience when you are being run through it is a leveling goldmine.
Off to BC content now. Yes, you can get into Ramparts at 55 no matter what all those guides online say. I know they say 57, but trust me, 55 gets you in. It is a short dungeon with lots of warn bodies which means short and quick and tons of experience. In a little over a hour we did 6 runs and we were both at 60. You might say, even at triple experience that is a little too quick don't you think? Maybe you remember the time wrong. Nope, I remember the time perfectly. I was 60 already and my leveling partner was 59 when we went to enter and could not get in. Too many instances in the last hour. Being you can do 5 per hour that means we had been playing less then an hour and had done 5. We only needed to wait like 5 minutes and we were in. That run made my refer a friend level 60 as well. That is when we stop getting triple bonus. So no use power leveling them together any more. I am sure we will still hook them up again at some point and do some level. Once I get my mining sorted out and he gets his herbalism sorted out. We both out paced them. Big time. I love refer a friend.
My little Rogue is still plugging along, mostly in Tanaris and Un'Goro trying to get leather to up my leather working before it gets too far behind. I figure I still get experience from the kills, so might as well get the leather I need and some experience at the same time instead of having to come back for it later. He has gone for 48 to 55 now. Rogues are stupid easy when killing things they have a few levels on. Sneak up from behind and ambush them and then 1 shot or 2 later, it is dead. Makes for quick leather gathering for sure. Hopefully I can get up to BC leather working by the time I get to BC level of 58. Needless to say, my skinning is doing just fine with all that skinning I am doing.
My little Level 6 Warrior met up with a larger level 6 Mage and they are now leveling as the second refer a friend grouping I am doing. My short Dwarf following a large Draenei is rather humorous. I did a ton of reading on warriors. I am going to be leveling Prot. I figure it will help us with dungeon query time and with triple experience Dungeons are a win/win to get through those annoying areas. Being we are getting triple experience even the best quest hubs end up being tons of useless quests super fast because we out leveled them. And the way questing areas are designed some times you have to go from one end of the world to the next while questing. It is not very itemized. With the dungeons we can pass complete quest zones in no time at all if we really wanted to.
Leveling with a complete aggro hog like a Mage will sure as hell teach me how to tank better I am sure. I am looking forward to that. I only have one level 80 tank, my bear. I do not count my DK, while I do have a tank spec and a set of tank gear for it I have never actually tanked with it. It is there more for "if" I need it and not "when" I need it. I am sure when I level a tank from 1 up I will have a more complete understanding of it so that way I can just jump into a dungeon with my DK and tank a hell of a lot better then if I do it now. While the characters are different the concept is the same. Once you get skilled at handling the concept doing it with other types is more about getting used to their skills instead of the ones you are used to. It will be a lot easier then learning how to tank and what the skills are at the same time.
My little warrior is already level 17, we did not play too long, but I can not wait until I get to 40 so I can charge in defensive stance. That will make my life a ton easier. Before I got thunderclap I could not hold aggro against a bunny rabbit with a Mage shooting at it. That helped some. Now, in defensive I am doing much better. Already going around and picking up a tons of mobs for the Mage to mow down. Leveling with this pair has the potential to be a sick combo. As long as I do not die and they go for the Mage.
Last but not least is my favorite class to play outside of my hunter. My Priest. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I started my priest as a PvP only character. Blizzard decided to make PvP leveling suck by taking away the daily PvP quest for the lower levels. Bastards. I leveled a little without it but it was harder to do that. Took longer and query time is not really all that fast. It is not like you are getting battle ground after battle ground and always moving so always earning. I started to do some dungeons with the priest, I figured that being a priest my query time would be better. Needless to say after waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes once for a dungeon before giving up and going to bed I figured I had no choice but to quest.
At level 60 I started questing again, the first time since I was a high enough level to get into a battle ground. Wow, that is a lot of levels without ever questing. At least once you hit BC leveling is stupid easy. The real question here is can it still be stupid easy for a PvP speced healer? I was almost sure I would be in need of buying an offspec just for leveling but I was willing to give it a try.
Up to level 65 now and with the exception of soloing a few 3 man quests I do not think my priest has even taken damage at all. Sure, I need to stop and drink often but my priest, a healer, is a killing machine in her PvP spec. A few quests I did, more on a lark, where me soloing an elite two levels higher then me. Each time when I came through, usually with less then 20% mana left over, I saw there in awe. A healer just soloed 3 man elites, with PvP spec, some PvP gear and built for healing.
So all in all it was a productive weekend for leveling. 107 levels in one weekends worth of time. (a little less because the Mage numbers are for 2 weekends) All that, and I still raided this weekend too.
That basically means, if I could have done this on one character I could have went from level 1 to level 80 in one weekend. Okay, it doesn't actually work like that, but that is still an impressive gain for levels this week.
Now I have a slight problem. Only 2 characters left not worked on. A Pally in the 20s and a level 1 lock. What am I to do now? Once I am done with them I can not make any more characters on this server. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.
I love leveling and love the prospect of having one of each class at max level. Not to mention the most important thing. One of every profession. This whole alt thing started because I wanted the other professions really. I just came to love making them. I didn't start that way.
That was what they all where when I updated them two weeks ago. I did some serious leveling on my Mage last weekend getting my Mage up to level 52. So far I am still having fun with my Mage but I really hate those last few levels before entering BC content.
My Shaman is my Refer a Friend character, so when I do work with it I level at triple speed. I do not work on it as often as I would like to of course, but then again, I do not think what I want to do even I would do. I want things instantly. That triple experience has spoiled me. In a way that is why I was enjoying my Mage. Old school leveling the way it should be. You have more time to learn your character that way. I read a lot, that is my only saving grace for my Shaman really. Otherwise I would be lost. Enhancement Shamans are not exactly easy compared to most classes. If not for reading I would be lost.
As for this post, as an update, my Shaman has now reached the golden land of 60. Enough for BC with a little buffer to handle everything I run into. I need to step back some to get my mining up before I venture into BC. Do not want to go there and not be able to mine anything. With the refer a friend thing leveling becomes a joke. I was up to level 53 and my leveling partner was at level 52 when a friend came on and offered to give us a few dungeon runs. Of course we said yes.
So off to BRD we go and in one run through BRD I get to level 56 and my leveling partner gets to level 55. Yes, one run, only one run, you heard that right. Not only is BRD huge with lots of experience but at triple experience when you are being run through it is a leveling goldmine.
Off to BC content now. Yes, you can get into Ramparts at 55 no matter what all those guides online say. I know they say 57, but trust me, 55 gets you in. It is a short dungeon with lots of warn bodies which means short and quick and tons of experience. In a little over a hour we did 6 runs and we were both at 60. You might say, even at triple experience that is a little too quick don't you think? Maybe you remember the time wrong. Nope, I remember the time perfectly. I was 60 already and my leveling partner was 59 when we went to enter and could not get in. Too many instances in the last hour. Being you can do 5 per hour that means we had been playing less then an hour and had done 5. We only needed to wait like 5 minutes and we were in. That run made my refer a friend level 60 as well. That is when we stop getting triple bonus. So no use power leveling them together any more. I am sure we will still hook them up again at some point and do some level. Once I get my mining sorted out and he gets his herbalism sorted out. We both out paced them. Big time. I love refer a friend.
My little Rogue is still plugging along, mostly in Tanaris and Un'Goro trying to get leather to up my leather working before it gets too far behind. I figure I still get experience from the kills, so might as well get the leather I need and some experience at the same time instead of having to come back for it later. He has gone for 48 to 55 now. Rogues are stupid easy when killing things they have a few levels on. Sneak up from behind and ambush them and then 1 shot or 2 later, it is dead. Makes for quick leather gathering for sure. Hopefully I can get up to BC leather working by the time I get to BC level of 58. Needless to say, my skinning is doing just fine with all that skinning I am doing.
My little Level 6 Warrior met up with a larger level 6 Mage and they are now leveling as the second refer a friend grouping I am doing. My short Dwarf following a large Draenei is rather humorous. I did a ton of reading on warriors. I am going to be leveling Prot. I figure it will help us with dungeon query time and with triple experience Dungeons are a win/win to get through those annoying areas. Being we are getting triple experience even the best quest hubs end up being tons of useless quests super fast because we out leveled them. And the way questing areas are designed some times you have to go from one end of the world to the next while questing. It is not very itemized. With the dungeons we can pass complete quest zones in no time at all if we really wanted to.
Leveling with a complete aggro hog like a Mage will sure as hell teach me how to tank better I am sure. I am looking forward to that. I only have one level 80 tank, my bear. I do not count my DK, while I do have a tank spec and a set of tank gear for it I have never actually tanked with it. It is there more for "if" I need it and not "when" I need it. I am sure when I level a tank from 1 up I will have a more complete understanding of it so that way I can just jump into a dungeon with my DK and tank a hell of a lot better then if I do it now. While the characters are different the concept is the same. Once you get skilled at handling the concept doing it with other types is more about getting used to their skills instead of the ones you are used to. It will be a lot easier then learning how to tank and what the skills are at the same time.
My little warrior is already level 17, we did not play too long, but I can not wait until I get to 40 so I can charge in defensive stance. That will make my life a ton easier. Before I got thunderclap I could not hold aggro against a bunny rabbit with a Mage shooting at it. That helped some. Now, in defensive I am doing much better. Already going around and picking up a tons of mobs for the Mage to mow down. Leveling with this pair has the potential to be a sick combo. As long as I do not die and they go for the Mage.
Last but not least is my favorite class to play outside of my hunter. My Priest. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I started my priest as a PvP only character. Blizzard decided to make PvP leveling suck by taking away the daily PvP quest for the lower levels. Bastards. I leveled a little without it but it was harder to do that. Took longer and query time is not really all that fast. It is not like you are getting battle ground after battle ground and always moving so always earning. I started to do some dungeons with the priest, I figured that being a priest my query time would be better. Needless to say after waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes once for a dungeon before giving up and going to bed I figured I had no choice but to quest.
At level 60 I started questing again, the first time since I was a high enough level to get into a battle ground. Wow, that is a lot of levels without ever questing. At least once you hit BC leveling is stupid easy. The real question here is can it still be stupid easy for a PvP speced healer? I was almost sure I would be in need of buying an offspec just for leveling but I was willing to give it a try.
Up to level 65 now and with the exception of soloing a few 3 man quests I do not think my priest has even taken damage at all. Sure, I need to stop and drink often but my priest, a healer, is a killing machine in her PvP spec. A few quests I did, more on a lark, where me soloing an elite two levels higher then me. Each time when I came through, usually with less then 20% mana left over, I saw there in awe. A healer just soloed 3 man elites, with PvP spec, some PvP gear and built for healing.
So all in all it was a productive weekend for leveling. 107 levels in one weekends worth of time. (a little less because the Mage numbers are for 2 weekends) All that, and I still raided this weekend too.
That basically means, if I could have done this on one character I could have went from level 1 to level 80 in one weekend. Okay, it doesn't actually work like that, but that is still an impressive gain for levels this week.
Now I have a slight problem. Only 2 characters left not worked on. A Pally in the 20s and a level 1 lock. What am I to do now? Once I am done with them I can not make any more characters on this server. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.
I love leveling and love the prospect of having one of each class at max level. Not to mention the most important thing. One of every profession. This whole alt thing started because I wanted the other professions really. I just came to love making them. I didn't start that way.
Finally got Professor P down.
On Firday night we got a group together with the intent to get Professor P down no matter how long it too. It took a while but it was only one or two wipes to our own fault. The rest of the wipes where completely bad luck. One of the guys was the living example of the phrase, if it weren't for bad luck I would have no luck. Everything happened to him.
It was actually quite humorous a few times for us even if not for him. He got anchored in place as we all ran to him to split damage like we are supposed to. As soon as we collapsed on him a slime puddle landed right under him. So melee had to run away being they could not stand in it and the ranged just stepped back so we could try and kill the slime and still be able to step forward the moment it was to hit him, thus limiting damage. Smart move on our part right? Nope, just as we where about to step in to share the damage Professor P threw a goo at him and we all had to scatter. He was anchored in the puddle, hit by goo and died when the slime got to him. Bad luck just does not explain that one any better.
Thing is, that did not happen to him once. It happened twice. And that was not even the end of the days bad news for him. While burning down the first ooze he was attacking, in melee as he is melee, and we enter phase two. You know it resets a target after that right? Guess who it decided it liked? Yeap. And none of us where anywhere near him. So instant death.
Wipes like those we can not blame ourselves on. He got the worst of it but there were lots of bad luck things. As if the RNG told us that it did not want us to get this done. We finally did get it done and it felt great. I often feel horrible thinking how everyone else in WoW is already a kingslayer and I can't even get to him. If anything that has more to do with leadership then anything else. Not bad leadership really, but the lack of willing to go with what you have.
We have a solid group. Many skilled players. I am sure if we practiced we would one shot it on 25. We have enough players with the skill and the gear. Not to mention a 25% buff that should be making this whole thing a total joke.
The problem is getting people to show up. No matter how skilled you are or how geared you are if you can not make it every week for the raid and the follow up night you will never make progress. That is where the issue came in. We would down 6 bosses on day one, not enough would show for day two and we either pug or do not run and either way it is bad. So with that said, none of us have experience past the first six, or limited experience at least. This means when we do get to them so we can learn, it is always a few tries and then we run out of time.
The average player, if they are skilled and if they have the gear, they can master any fight in 10 wipes max. However, if you are always switching people in and out each time you come to that fight is it one or two new people that have to earn their 10 wipes. It is not like a boss you did a million times yet where if you lose one or two people you can still down it no problem. It is newer content that most of us either never saw or saw limited times.
I think that is where we faltered a little on the leadership part. That though comes from something I just recently learned. Mind you, I am still a total noob on most things in game. I am learning. The leader, or a least a good leader, should have known this and used this little thing to our advantage. If they had we would be clearing 25 man heroic already.
What is that you ask? Extending lock outs. Each person extends their own lock out. I did not know that. Like if I am in a run and the leader of that run extends the lock out I am not stuck. On Tuesday when lock outs reset I am free to do what I want and the leader can continue the old run. I can join him on the old run or decide to take another run and start at the beginning again.
I never knew this. I am such a noob. If we had done this from the start we would be having no problems what so ever. We would have had more time to practice on the other bosses and we would all know how to do them by now. We are so behind the curve here. Pugs on my server are getting 8/12 now in less then 3 hours on 10 man. It is sad that pugs are doing better then we are. It is sad that peoples bank characters have better gear then I do when they only run once in a rare while.
Either way, we got Professor P down and I feel good about that. We are extending the lock out this week. About FUCKING time. We will be getting this finished soon now. Better late then never they say.
It was actually quite humorous a few times for us even if not for him. He got anchored in place as we all ran to him to split damage like we are supposed to. As soon as we collapsed on him a slime puddle landed right under him. So melee had to run away being they could not stand in it and the ranged just stepped back so we could try and kill the slime and still be able to step forward the moment it was to hit him, thus limiting damage. Smart move on our part right? Nope, just as we where about to step in to share the damage Professor P threw a goo at him and we all had to scatter. He was anchored in the puddle, hit by goo and died when the slime got to him. Bad luck just does not explain that one any better.
Thing is, that did not happen to him once. It happened twice. And that was not even the end of the days bad news for him. While burning down the first ooze he was attacking, in melee as he is melee, and we enter phase two. You know it resets a target after that right? Guess who it decided it liked? Yeap. And none of us where anywhere near him. So instant death.
Wipes like those we can not blame ourselves on. He got the worst of it but there were lots of bad luck things. As if the RNG told us that it did not want us to get this done. We finally did get it done and it felt great. I often feel horrible thinking how everyone else in WoW is already a kingslayer and I can't even get to him. If anything that has more to do with leadership then anything else. Not bad leadership really, but the lack of willing to go with what you have.
We have a solid group. Many skilled players. I am sure if we practiced we would one shot it on 25. We have enough players with the skill and the gear. Not to mention a 25% buff that should be making this whole thing a total joke.
The problem is getting people to show up. No matter how skilled you are or how geared you are if you can not make it every week for the raid and the follow up night you will never make progress. That is where the issue came in. We would down 6 bosses on day one, not enough would show for day two and we either pug or do not run and either way it is bad. So with that said, none of us have experience past the first six, or limited experience at least. This means when we do get to them so we can learn, it is always a few tries and then we run out of time.
The average player, if they are skilled and if they have the gear, they can master any fight in 10 wipes max. However, if you are always switching people in and out each time you come to that fight is it one or two new people that have to earn their 10 wipes. It is not like a boss you did a million times yet where if you lose one or two people you can still down it no problem. It is newer content that most of us either never saw or saw limited times.
I think that is where we faltered a little on the leadership part. That though comes from something I just recently learned. Mind you, I am still a total noob on most things in game. I am learning. The leader, or a least a good leader, should have known this and used this little thing to our advantage. If they had we would be clearing 25 man heroic already.
What is that you ask? Extending lock outs. Each person extends their own lock out. I did not know that. Like if I am in a run and the leader of that run extends the lock out I am not stuck. On Tuesday when lock outs reset I am free to do what I want and the leader can continue the old run. I can join him on the old run or decide to take another run and start at the beginning again.
I never knew this. I am such a noob. If we had done this from the start we would be having no problems what so ever. We would have had more time to practice on the other bosses and we would all know how to do them by now. We are so behind the curve here. Pugs on my server are getting 8/12 now in less then 3 hours on 10 man. It is sad that pugs are doing better then we are. It is sad that peoples bank characters have better gear then I do when they only run once in a rare while.
Either way, we got Professor P down and I feel good about that. We are extending the lock out this week. About FUCKING time. We will be getting this finished soon now. Better late then never they say.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Some hunters just don't get it.
Last night some of the guildies had a ICC run and pugged the last few spots out. In doing so they grabbed a hunter. I knew the hunters name, had seen her around before. She does good DPS for sure but was never really in the same league as me. Being I do not have the gearscore add on, being I hate it, I just chalked it up to not having as good of gear to accomplish the same as me.
I was partly wrong there. While she did have gear near mine it was not the gear that held her DPS back, it was her choice of gems. One of my guildmates posted the chest she was wearing. It had a +8 all stats on it. I can forgive that, some people do not have money for the top enchants and maybe they knew they would be upgrading it. But with what really? It was a 264 chest piece. It is something you will most likely keep for a bit, so enchanting it with +10 would be a worthy investment.
That was not the only problem and even so, that was only a tiny problem. +2 extra is not really all that much, it is not make or break. Heck, I have a 251 chest because of my guilds retarded loot rules not allowing me to get a mark to upgrade it but I spent the cash on the better enchant. The real issue here was her choice of gems.
It had 3 spots for gems and she had 3 lesser gems in it. Again, not spending the money to get the top gems is a mistake on an item like that. There was another problem with it. Not only where they lesser gems but she gemmed to get the bonus. When you have 3 slots you do not bother gemming for the bonus when only one of those slots is a red slot. You drop all +20 agility in them and move along. Or all +20 armor penetration if you are up to that point.
She had, get ready for this one, a +16 crit gem (not horrible but really agility would be better) a +24 stamina gem (what the hell does a hunter need stamina for unless they are tanking something which in that case would have had 3 +32 gems in there instead) and the worlds greatest gem type for a hunter, a +16 spell power gem (excuse me? there is never a need for a hunter to have spell power. never ever.)
How does someone that enchants like this and gems like this even get into runs to win 264 gear? It is sad and it is the reason hunters get a bad name. Spell power? I am totally taken by that. The only thing a hunter and the word spell should ever be connected is when you are talking about adding 75 spell penetration on to your PvP gear. Outside of that I do not think you will ever find any guide that will have the word spell in it anywhere when it comes to gemming.
How can you get that level gear and get into end game content without ever noticing that hunters should be all agility (or ArP) if they are MM? I swear, each time I see things like that, and see people with better gear then me in some slots yet still being that bad at what they do I wonder what am I doing wrong?
I do the best I can, I am always evolving and getting better, even broke 13K on fester the other day after I tweaked how I did things a little. I am learning and still consider myself a noob yet these people walk around with awesome gear thinking they are gods gift and they do not even know how to gem.
I don't know what I am doing wrong but I sure as hell am doing something wrong when morons that gem for spell power are well known for being a "good hunter" on the server. Maybe it is because I am a grumpy elf and have no issues telling people they are wrong. Just like I would have told this hunter they were wrong if I were in that group. Either way, it was not my group, but it was still a sad turn of events.
There should be a zone in check for raids. If you are missing a gem or enchant you are not allowed to zone in. If you are gemmed with something your class has no use for you are not allowed to zone in. That would help a bunch. Maybe it would help too much. My server would lose 80% of its player base then because I think my server is where they send all the stupid people to play. I guess that is why I am there, because apparently I am an idiot too. I don't have any spell power gems.
I was partly wrong there. While she did have gear near mine it was not the gear that held her DPS back, it was her choice of gems. One of my guildmates posted the chest she was wearing. It had a +8 all stats on it. I can forgive that, some people do not have money for the top enchants and maybe they knew they would be upgrading it. But with what really? It was a 264 chest piece. It is something you will most likely keep for a bit, so enchanting it with +10 would be a worthy investment.
That was not the only problem and even so, that was only a tiny problem. +2 extra is not really all that much, it is not make or break. Heck, I have a 251 chest because of my guilds retarded loot rules not allowing me to get a mark to upgrade it but I spent the cash on the better enchant. The real issue here was her choice of gems.
It had 3 spots for gems and she had 3 lesser gems in it. Again, not spending the money to get the top gems is a mistake on an item like that. There was another problem with it. Not only where they lesser gems but she gemmed to get the bonus. When you have 3 slots you do not bother gemming for the bonus when only one of those slots is a red slot. You drop all +20 agility in them and move along. Or all +20 armor penetration if you are up to that point.
She had, get ready for this one, a +16 crit gem (not horrible but really agility would be better) a +24 stamina gem (what the hell does a hunter need stamina for unless they are tanking something which in that case would have had 3 +32 gems in there instead) and the worlds greatest gem type for a hunter, a +16 spell power gem (excuse me? there is never a need for a hunter to have spell power. never ever.)
How does someone that enchants like this and gems like this even get into runs to win 264 gear? It is sad and it is the reason hunters get a bad name. Spell power? I am totally taken by that. The only thing a hunter and the word spell should ever be connected is when you are talking about adding 75 spell penetration on to your PvP gear. Outside of that I do not think you will ever find any guide that will have the word spell in it anywhere when it comes to gemming.
How can you get that level gear and get into end game content without ever noticing that hunters should be all agility (or ArP) if they are MM? I swear, each time I see things like that, and see people with better gear then me in some slots yet still being that bad at what they do I wonder what am I doing wrong?
I do the best I can, I am always evolving and getting better, even broke 13K on fester the other day after I tweaked how I did things a little. I am learning and still consider myself a noob yet these people walk around with awesome gear thinking they are gods gift and they do not even know how to gem.
I don't know what I am doing wrong but I sure as hell am doing something wrong when morons that gem for spell power are well known for being a "good hunter" on the server. Maybe it is because I am a grumpy elf and have no issues telling people they are wrong. Just like I would have told this hunter they were wrong if I were in that group. Either way, it was not my group, but it was still a sad turn of events.
There should be a zone in check for raids. If you are missing a gem or enchant you are not allowed to zone in. If you are gemmed with something your class has no use for you are not allowed to zone in. That would help a bunch. Maybe it would help too much. My server would lose 80% of its player base then because I think my server is where they send all the stupid people to play. I guess that is why I am there, because apparently I am an idiot too. I don't have any spell power gems.
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