I am disappointed again.

You would think, with how I express my displeasure at certain game directions or designs, that I wouldn't be playing Warcraft anymore. I mean, why play something that makes you mad? Yes, I am still sad they are changing tree form to a cooldown. And the direction of healing. I have already told my friends that I may have another two years left in the game before my degree requirements take up more time than allowed to be a raider, at which point I will either be seriously casual or quit out of jealously.

With that looming in my mind, I do want to make the most of my gaming time with quality over quanity. Which is why I get angry over certain announcements. Recently, however, the Real ID changes raised a dangerous red flag for me and I have already posted on the official forums expressing my distaste for this direction.

What I am referring to is the move to make our real names visible on the forums in a thinly veiled effort to inhibit trolling and flame wars. The other half of this reason is to be a cutting edge, Facebook-like environment. There are many reasons why this is a horrible idea.

I refer to this great post by a respected community member:

This bears mentioning again:

A bully will continue to be a bully, a troll will continue to be a troll. There is no way any logical train of thought can result in the assumption that an undesirable poster will decrease their undesirable activity when they are still provided a certain degree of separation from their intended target.

Arguments against providing real life names aside (which are valid) - [Cairneey] still remains as anonymous to me as [Joe Schmo] - and [Joe Schmo] knows this and will continue to act accordingly.

In short - there are no more repercussions for undesirable posters with this new system than there are now, given the above.

In fact, just as much would be accomplished if all forum posters were relegated to posting on one and only one character, with the option to show (but not post on) other characters on their account with the click of a button on their avatar.

There is no need to use real-life names, even if creating a larger social network is what is intended. If someone sees me on the forums and wishes to talk with me in game, there is already an avenue for that. If things go well and we mutually decide to ramp up our relationship to exchange personal information - including real-life names - there's already an avenue for that.

So the challenge, I guess, is explaining to everyone just how having real-life names will offer any improvement at all to the system already in place. 'Lifting the veil of anonymity' is not an argument and is hollow at best. Providing a more social environment is also not an argument, seeing as how we have the ability to do so right now - at our own pace and at our own discretion.

¸..• '¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.•' .•'¨¨)) Frejya -:¦:-
((¸¸.•' ...•' -:¦:-

This is right on the nose. This change is not about accountability, as there are no real repercussions to the abusers. The idea to use psychology in an effort to modify abusive behavious is commedable but is a weak solution. It may just inhibit constructive dialoge instead.

(edit for clarity)

Social Networking and MMO's are similar on the surface but are two different creatures. Both use the internet to connect people together in avenues they would otherwise not normally be connected. Both can enhance one's experiences with the other person, or degrade it depending on the cirumstances. But, and this is a key thing for me, WoW is a separate world for me. Sure, I place Facebook games with my Facebook friends. In that, it is akin to playing Warcraft with my Warcraft friends. The realms are separate. Which is why I have not opted to allow my game annoucments to be broadcasted on Facebook. It's bad enough I have Zynga games spam and my friends don't need to see the other stuff.

With Starcraft II, they are merging the two styles in a bold and an agressive way. We are seeing reminantes of that in WoW.

This has been in the works since May, and shame on me for not catching this sooner. This is taken from a USA today article on May 5th:

I would assume that the Facebook relationship would be used to draw more casual game players to Blizzard's games.

Absolutely. Our goal and vision in this partnership is to really to cross-populate the social networks and to easily find and add your friends from Facebook onto the new Battle.net service as the first step and extending it to other features in the future. … Later on, of course, we have lots of things we are talking about with Facebook. We haven't announced anything specific, but we have lots of ideas about ways to cross-populate and share data between the two services.

The line has to be drawn somewhere, but I am afraid I can't be sure who is holding the chalk.

Ghostcrawler brings me out of the woodwork, again.

In a couple days, the druid Cataclysm announcments will be in, but there are a few tidbits of information that sheds light on what Blizz thinks of the healing role.

First up, spell spaming:

"Most healers spam one heal now. Druids for all of their spells can do very well with just Rejuv and Wild Growth. Disc priests spam PW:S and Holy priests spam CoH on cooldown. We want to carve off niches for other spells. Flash Heal can be awesome if it runs you out of mana to hit nothing but Flash Heal."

To some extent, I see why GC thinks healers spam one heal. When we think of each class, there is an iconic spell. But, I hope that Blizz isn't saying that the healers just rely on these iconic spells in order to be great players. If so, that is just insulting.

Thankfully, GC added this:

"Even a cursory glance of the forums should suggest that a lot of healers like managing their mana and like picking the right heal for the job. It makes them feel smart, which is rewarding."

So, with this comment, perhaps the spamming comment could be read that they understand there is an iconic spell, but that the players also understand there is a smart way to play and this because they understand their respective classes. And this, I feel is true. Even paladins, for all their Beaconing and Holy Light spam, have to pay attention to what is going on.

Perhaps my experiences are different than the general raid population, though. My guild prides itself on a balanced healing team. Every role is filled and we have at least one of every type of healer. Within these healers, we play on the strengths of the individual and match that to the needs of the encounter. I personally can't say if this is boring to the players, but consider that during a best case scenario, each healer knows they will be doing X on Y encounter. This eases the stress of raiding and puts more focus on execution.

This leads to the next GC comment:

"The FSR provides some interesting gameplay (but at a pretty high complexity cost). We think we can engineer similar gameplay where choosing spell A over spell B is a mana-based decision rather than casting vs. standing still doing nothing is a (less fun) mana-based decision."

At first glance, this idea made me want to /rage. Consider the fact that almost every encounter in ICC has some sort of running around mechanic and then think about the five second rule. Now take ICC's insane amount of raid damage littered through out the dungeon and I wonder if people are really just standing around to get mana. It is a choice though and always has been. Standing to get mana- no heals go out and risk wiping. No standing- force oneself to use a consumable, mana talent, beg for innervate (drink a pot, noob), whatever.

I feel we have already had this discussion with Blizzard before. Remember when WotLK came out (ok, maybe not Naxx, but Ulduar)? At first, the encounters are a little too rough for the majority of the healing population and mana management becomes a priority. Then, as gear improves and the encounters become easier, mana is less of an issue. They also changed Replenishment, Innervate, and Consumables all in effort to make the mana game more engaging. I always felt that blizz bases their changes on things that happen toward the end of a content expansion or dungeon, rather than focusing on the whole timeline of healer role, but that is just me, I think.

I believe the most bold move out of all was the General V fight. This is not to say I want ALL encounters to be like that, but such a simple removal of the mana regen added complexity and challenge to the role of the healer. I can see where they may build on that idea.

I think we all will be keeping a close eye on what this Spell A Spell B choice will eventually mean for us. I don't think sky is falling quite yet. We still have more announcements to watch out for.

I miss the days of keeping your head down.

There is a growing problem on our server, and maybe it's on yours, too. It's folks who don't keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

See, being a part of a guild should be a little like a job. You apply, get signed on, then have to go through a process before the rest of the group feels you can be a part of their team. The guild app process is no different.

We used to have initiate ranks, a trial period, and such when we invited new members. Without that, we just give folks time to prove themselves to us that they can do what is expected of them. We take comments from other raiders and perhaps even members of former guilds.

The problem is, more and more people are coming into guilds (not just ours) thinking they are the shit and know exactly what is going on.

What ever happened to just staying quiet? *que old man voice* Back in my day... impressing your new guild meant following instructions, listening to the raid leader, keeping your nose out of other's people's business. How are you expecting to see if the guild works for you if you keep badgering them about how they run their guild? If you don't like it, either choose to put up with it or gtfo.

Also, impressing your new guild does not always mean being the highest on whatever meter. You can be number one on dps, and the guild still can put you on ignore/mute. That's not a good sign.

Seems that my server is going through a huge rash of this: "I don't like this, let's gquit and form our own guild of asshats like us!". Another officer and I constantly check our bookmarked guilds, only to find out that they disbanded or server moved. Guilds splinter and die. It's amazing that we have prospered despite being a merger guild. Going on two years now (I need to start planing our anniversary party, come to think of it) while most don't make it past 6 months or less.

All of this is killing our server, in a way. I used to be able to sit in Org, scope the other druids, give them props on a piece of gear or congratulate them on a boss kill. Now, the main "celebrities" on the server are loudmouths in trade chat. Folks who stir up shit for attention.

Call me old school, but I miss the quiet.

I know it sucks, but whatcha gonna do?

Now that the early wave of pugging has subsided with many folks headed back to school soon, the quality of players using the LFG tool is starting to slide.

It's no secret that there are some DPS queing as tanks in order to move faster up the chain.

Usually this issue is not a problem on Kir, who is overgeared for just about anything. It becomes a liability on Ciras, who is still trying to shed the last remains of her Naxx gear through doing pugs.

So, Dhoom and Ciras are trying to gear up when we realized that our tank in UP is clearly not a tank. Yes, he was a DK but he was unholy. Now, before you start yelling at me that Unholies can be tanks, let me say that it is probably possible but more than likely doesn't happen.

So, Ciras is PoMin and Shielding like crazy, making use of her Glyph of Prayer of Mending like a mad woman because our group didn't get one but three tanks. Yes, the dps warrior and retadin are also tanking because the Unholy can't hold agro for jack.

The icing on the cake? You know that broken stairway before the boss? Not only did the pally fall down but the warrior as well. To the "tank"'s defense, he was trying to hold the mobs that we were supposed to be on, while the other bozos decided to fight the packs instead of dying like good morons.

After we wiped, the melee's blamed the tank for their failure. I quickly rushed to Unholy's defense and said that he was fine, they were the idiots. I surprised myself because just minutes before, I was cursing at this guy for being a fail-tank. Then, I realized that the rest of group was more stupid than he.

Moral of the story...

Yes, tanks are probably DPS who didn't want to wait for a que. But, if they are indeed trying, don't be afraid to exercise your healing powers and tell the idiots what's what. All it takes is a little push on your part, because frankly, they don't want to go back into another 15 min wait.

Just use your powers for good, not evil.

Rocket packs are not toys.

So, it's been another rousing week of raiding in Icecrown, doing both the 10 man and 25 man versions.

Looking back, there are a few things I would like to share.

Curses!
For goodness' sake, please stop yelling in vent you have the curse. By the time it reaches my ears, I have already taken it off you. STFU.

If you have the curse, and can remove it, try it. It just might work.

FFS Listen!

When the person giving instructions says "Ok, wait for Lum (our main tank) to go over to the other boat, then when he says to, follow." he means just that. Somehow, that was translated into something like "Hey, there's the boat, weeeeee!" followed by death, which ensued the comment akin to "I died from something horrible."

Or, after explaining the strat for the third time for the instructional impaired, the raid leader asks "Are there any questions?" we hear: "No, but I have a comment. I am on top of the boat!" /facepalm

But before all that...

"I have to stand right next to Lum or I die." Which led me to think to myself, Funny, you die next to Lum, so maybe there's a flaw with this strategy.

/rage

More Five Man Stuff

Despite having other alternatives, I have been farming HoR for the off hand with no luck. We brought a warlock who has been away from the game for some time and needed gear ups.

Me: "If you roll against me on [the heart] I will hunt you down and kill you."
Warlock: <--- Not afraid
Luminas: "I am going for coffee while the tree vents her murderous rage."

Sadly, the lock got a wand, and the Shriveled Heart didn't drop. Here's to hoping something comes out of ToC later.

Songs from Icecrown

Here are some tunes to infect your group mates with...

For Halls of Reflection, Gauntlet: I Ran by Flock of Seagulls
For the trash before Lord Marrowgar: Shout by Tears for Fears
(Works best if the raid calls "Shout!" and you respond with "Let it all out!")

And finally, courtesy of Anti and our gmotd: All my ex's live in Nexus

Are we there yet?

Part of is getting pumped for ICC, especially now that my vacation is coming up. Then a strange thing happened: I said to my boyfriend that I was worried the patch was coming this week. I didn't feel ready, in gear or in energy to tackle a new place. As an officer, a new place means new loot distribution and new headaches on our schedule. I haven't gone over all the gear and plotted my wish list. All in all, I am not ready for the new dungeon and I won't be until finals are over.

Ok, I am just one person, and that is why we have an officer team. There goes one worry.

My boyfriend says I shouldn't be worried about the gear. I am not in the top gear, but I am certainly not hurting. And it won't be hard to put together a wish list.

And really, I don't need any more stresses placed upon me than I already have.

With vacation coming soon, I can log back in the game now to do some fishing for mats. I also spent a ton on pets recently with no real time to gain the cash back and I can start gaining my "learning new fights" fund.

Nothing new, as I have been part of new additions to the game for several years now but the panic never really gets any better.

Overdue update

Ugh, it's been to long since I posted. Crap happened in game, Aion week-long beta came around, and projects at work/home all sucked up my time.

Drama Llama

The shake ups in the guild have been an interesting roller coaster. It seems like when one drama starts, everyone else feels like it's a good time to add to it. After the asshat move from some members mentioned previously, two other long time members left, which had us feeling disoriented and confused. Their reasons for leaving were mixed and not expressed well. In addition, they didn't say good bye to the guild, just a little note to the officers. It left us sad, but knowing a little bit about what is going on behind the screen, it is understandable to a point. We wish them well, and hope that things work out for them.


But we have some new folks who seem to be doing well and more on the way. I'd pimp my blog to say we are recruiting but then you would have to deal with me on a regular basis, and that will probably turn you off. :)

Around the Corner

So while poking around for some writing fodder this morning, I ran across a potentially new achievement: BB King. It says you have to pelt the enemy leaders, presumably with a BB gun.

This, made me laugh out loud for a good couple minutes. I'm sure the youngin's may not get the reference but I had flash backs of A Christmas Story. (Omg, it came out in 1983? I am getting old.)

And I am sure everyone has seen the Pandaren Video. A couple guildies are already rabid for it, and others guess it will be a Cataclysm CE pet. Not sure how it fits into Cataclysm, but since it's BoA it is the closest thing that makes sense since we will already be getting a broodling pet for the anniversary. If only the Kung Fu Fighting music plays a little when it's summoned...

And of course, let us not forget the Ony fight that is coming. From what I was able to see, via videos, not much about the mechanics were changed, which given that spells and abilities have changed drastically since she came out, I worry that it will be a snoozefest. But that's my limited armchair opinion which holds no weight.

And now, for something completely different

I have a scifi lit class this term and I got all giddy when I saw the booklist. Some I have already read which should make my work load a little easier, eh? Now, to pull a Hermione and crack open Snow Crash again. Should be able to get it read before the term starts.

Grow a Pair

People come and go in a guild. It's to be expected and happen over anything.

But it is how you leave the guild that is really telling.

Of course, for many, it is uncomfortable. There may be people in the guild that you connected to but outside of that it is no longer fun or possible to stay with the rest of the members.

I've left some guilds in a really bad way and others I have left in a quiet manner-in tells- to try to reduced the drama. I may not have been entirely honest at times, but I tried to not string people along.

Unlike some others.

This morning, one of the officers gets an in game mail that someone in the guild was hacked. The author of the letter was an RL friend of hacked person. The hacked person was an officer.

So, we thought it was strange that the hacked person didn't wipe our bank. And, server transfer two level 80s. Ok, it's happened before, but a hacker would be nuts to leave a guild bank alone.

As we are in officer vent discussing what happened, I search the Armory to find the characters. Turns out, they joined a guild of an ex member, and look! He's an officer in that guild now. He changed the name of his main, but left his alt intact.

What a coincidence.

To be hacked, join a guild filled with names I know, and be an officer of that guild is just amazing!

I'm bitter. As much as I want to give this person the benefit of the doubt, too many things click.

So, assuming the above is true, how spineless is it to leave without warning? To have a friend leave the lame ass message?

If you want to leave, just be honest and say something. Even if it's because you can't stand the people or how they do things. You don't have to be tactless; say something courteous and polite.

Don't be a spineless weasel.

New Ony

Blizz has announced they will introduce a leaner and more pissed off version of Ony for the 5th Anniversary of WoW.

Is this rehash or nostalgia?

Given that it is being released for the anniversary, I want to go with nostalgia. However, I would be more convinced of this if it was updated for a limited time. Maybe even attach some lore to it (which they still might do). Something like "Can't trust the help (Sartharion) to do the job right, I have to do it myself" kind of thing. And, since she's supposed to be dead, have one of the Aspects bring her back. I'm just grasping at straws, I know.

Considering that most Alliance and many Horde already know she had her claws in more than a few pots in Vanilla WoW, bringing her back into the story line would be helpful in leading me to believe this is more than a gimmick.

Without knowing when it will be released, it is hard to say at this point where it falls in the dungeon time line. However, we are looking at a possible two or three months of ToC before this new dungeon is released. Will be interesting to see if this is enough time for players to fully enjoy the new instance we have now before we are bombarded with somewhere else to go.

Meaner, but also harder?
Since they had announced that the upgrade would be here to stay, many are hoping it won't be dumbed down. Given it's supposed to be "fun" I have a feeling it won't be too much of a challenge to many guilds.

Deep Breaths are back, but they have also said they will update it to be more in line with what raiders are used to now (paraphrasing).

Wonder what they will do with all the old quests that were attached to her? Will the classic raider achievement be altered to compensate for the changes?

Blue has posted that the old level 60 version will no longer be available. This may be the start of a trend to phase out older content in favor of a longer end game.

Oh goodie, the helms are back!
That was sarcasm. I do NOT want moose antlers. Thank goodness for tree form and the Off Option. I suppose if I was a lock or a rogue, I would be excited.

New toys... for me?
It wouldn't be a dragon encounter without the chance of being able to get a new mount. This is one I will actually be trying for, since the new change to our flight :)

And, of course, I would be insane to not get the pet. On all characters. Even my bank alt.

Insert the classic humor
I can't really argue with the popularity of the announcement, though. Already, I'm seeing classic quotes from the infamous Onyixa video, and references to the patch notes regarding deep breaths. People are excited for many reason about this up coming release. I am not, but will still go because my friends will.

All in all, there are many good and bad things attached to this change, and I expect to be seeing more revamps in the future.

Does Gear determine who is a good player anymore?

Is the game too easy mode?

Some how I had forgotten that Emblems of Triumph were the new tokens to get until I did the heroic daily to finish off my Proof of Demise achievement. Then I was like "Sweet, I wonder how many it will take to get a new helm?" A lot. As in, some heroic dailies won't quite get me there. I will still have to raid, and that is totally fine with me.

But it got me thinking, after looking at the rash of applications we got recently, that just looking for purples don't cover our needs anymore. VoA, emblems, the new dungeon offering item level gear similar to Naxx means that folks who are up and coming now are getting geared faster.

This is great news for our newly invited folks. We take the approach of Low Maintenance, meaning as long as you keep your head down and do what needs to be done, we are willing to over look some lack luster dps and carry you. With the changes to how gear is acquired, we expect to see those guys start to catch up in some areas.

Double Edged Sword

One thing about some other MMO's is once the population is out of your level bracket, it becomes difficult to get anything done. Without a guild or some friends, it is like pulling teeth to even get a group going. WoW is not immune to this problem, but they tackle it with Recruit a Friend. The normal on my server at least is running noobies through dungeons they have no real right to be in. Quests are easier, traveling is easier, acquiring gear is all much easier than when I first started playing. This is not saying a whole lot since it was pretty easy compared to my EQ days of leveling off rats for a week.

Many players don't even set foot in dungeons at the lower levels. Some of it is because of the community and some of it because it's slower and the gear that is there will just be out leveled in a few days. Many folks don't see a dungeon until they hit 80. I don't know how many VoA's I've seen with people in greens. Some who have done dungeons are hitting VoA in T4 or T5, which boggles my mind.

This leads to a severe lack of understanding of the game and one's role in it. I recall a blue poster (and I believe it was GC) who said that players are getting smarter. Really? Which players was he referring to, because as I see it, the general population is not. It does not help that Blizz rehashes some mechanics, but I see more and more people choosing to ignore their surroundings or even take a moment to think critically about an encounter. It is a pet peeve of mine to hear over vent "OW, what killed me?" Sigh. Do me a favor and look through your logs or recount before spewing that. Even the question "What happened?" is starting to annoy me. But I will stop there before I start to digress.

Many PuG leaders are stepping up and trying to tackle this problem. Setting requirements like "If you are not pulling 2 or 3k dps by the time we get to the boss, you will be booted." Then folks QQ. But is is a start, even if it's a rather blanket requirement. If you can pull those numbers in your greens, then props to you. I met a druid who did as much healing as I in blues which made me step up my game. It was healthy competition.

Instant Gratification

I had opened trade channel to get some pug time in (yes, on my server, trade is the LFG channel), and after the patch I had to shut it down. The amount of lame ass questions was large. So many people didn't either look at the patch notes or research any of the information that has been out for a month. Why bother when you just ask in open channels what you need to do. Hell, don't know how to update your addons? Ask the channel (true story).

Playing in Aion Beta did make me miss WoWhead. After running around for 20 mins looking for a quest item, my boyfriend said "I bet it will be right under our noses" and sure enough, after asking, we realized we walked right past it. Some things in various games are pretty vague, and for that some help is appreciated and given out willingly. Simple things are not.

Taking the good with the bad

The many minor improvements the game has made since launch I wouldn't ask to be taken away (Remember when we didn't have marks and people had assist macros? How did we kill anything?). With the game being as old as it is, and some servers just as old (mine is one of the early ones) you need something in place in order to allow the new folks or rerollers a way to catch up to their friends. But the downside to that is the dumbing down of the game on many levels which I feel is a slippery slope.

Balancing Morale and Fun

Not sure if other guilds have to deal with this sort of thing, but Ulduar, strangely, has been a chore in keeping folks happy.

Naxx was a little bit easier in this regard. The only way to get to KT was to clear the whole damned place. Sure, we could mix it up by starting in different wings but eventually the place had to be cleared. Further mixing up could be done by chosing to start the night with OS or Malygos instead of Naxx or any combination of the three. Despite how tedious that got, I look back on this and realize it had some merit.

Progression
Ulduar has optional bosses. This is not unlike some other instances seen before (Kara was a good example of this) but it seems a little harder to deal with in Ulduar. This is because some BiS items are off those optional bosses in either hard mode or regular mode. Throw in different raid compositions from week to week ( or even day to day) and things get a little muddled.

For a while there, every week I had some folks ask me why we were spending time on optional things when we could spend our time on bosses we haven't cleared yet. Other people asked me why we were skipping these easier optional bosses when their upgrades were on them. Sometimes I had the people ask me the same questions within the same raiding week which made my head spin. Seriously? You ask me why we aren't doing the "gear up" bosses then ask me why we aren't working on harder stuff? Shoot me now, please.

Then factor in the definition of "progression". Is progression downing the hard modes or clearing the whole zone? Is progression gearing up every member of the raid with BiS or making sure they all have t8? Ask 5 raiders and I think you might get 5 different answers or all of the above at the same time.

This makes it very challenging when deciding how to plan our raid nights. We go in with a general idea of what we would like to see accomplished but we also have to be flexible. Last minute back outs or sign ups throws things off a little. Some nights we have too many healers sign up and some nights we lose our MT. Other nights has our core dps lacking so we give our new recruits a shot.

New Raiders
We got really lucky and had some new raiders join our guild. I always cringe on those nights they join us not becuase of their performance but ours. I am always concerned about making a good impression and showing how we really roll. Catch us on a night where things just don't click and I start to sweat a little. I am learning to get over that but it's still a concern for me.

What has been slowing us down a tad lately is having to explain the fights to these new guys. Yes, it's needed, but tends to make people fall asleep. During these explanations folks seem to want to take this time to ask random crap over vent that could be said in tells (and by folks I mean officers who should know better). Just because you understand what's going on, doesn't mean that random interjections aren't screwing up the new folks from absorbing the information they are trying to get.

But I have to admit, our new guys are awesome. The strats are watered down or filled with holes (Oh yea, did we forget to mention how Phase 3 of Thorim worked? Sorry you died to lightning), but they plug along and do their best. Low maintenance recruits ftw.

Fun?
Again, everyone has their own definition of fun. Most folks agree that banging our heads against the wall on bosses tends to suck the fun out of a raid night. I personally like wiping in catastrophic ways. I don't know how many times I have laughed my ass off after dying to random ability no. 104 because either it was unexpected or just play from my own stupidity. Granted, I am not so fond this when it happens more than once or other die to it after I just said "Don't be dumb like me."

But Fun and Progression tends to cross into the same territory which brings me back to the same evil cycle. Keeping raiders happy is always a careful thing to handle and sadly it doesn't always work or happen the way it was intended to go.

Next week we plan to cull some of the crap and go for serious work on the General. We have a large chunk of our raiders going on an annual trip which puts a little pressure on us to get some work done. Maybe folks will have fun. Who knows?

Things that make me sad...

Pugs who don't move from Flame Wave. Still.

Druids who still spam Healing Touch then wonder why my Disc Priest out heals them.

Mages who's tables have come and gone before any buffing has started.

Skinners who insist that each worm in Hodir's tunnel is precious and reminds us over vent to loot them. Every time.

Those who ask "where do we go?" after we said what the next boss is only to then ask "which teleport is it?"

People who move out during light bombs or gravity bombs when they didn't need to but now are out of range for heals.

Finding out that I didn't have to spend points on my off spec Idol, when it will be on the vendor in 3.2.

Getting all excited that my alt hit 75, only to forget that Cold Weather Flying is at 77.

People who like to blow up others with the bomb bots before Mimiron.

People who would rather go without consumables for a boss fight even though the guild bank provides them.

hardcore, casualcore, softcore, whatever.

It's not your fault.
Being casual is not killing WoW. Being hardcore is not either. Neither is being a pvper beast, habitual farmer, 5 man junkie, or alt fanatic. How you play the game has about the same impact on how Blizz designs and treats the game as much as the next guy.

See, the debate was posed on a more than a few blogs, notably Tree Bark Jacket and Jacemora between casuals and hardcore.

Being in a guild that's somewhat in between, I find it hard to choose a side (not between them, but in the debate as a whole). I have never really cared too much. I have only been in a top guild once and the schedule was too demanding. I have been in a "casual" guild and there wasn't enough action. Hence, my participation in a casual-core guild (my brother's term, not mine) where I can have that balance of both. If I need to step away for a few days because of classes, my guild will let me. If I want to raid every night of the week, someone in the guild has posted a raid or I can form my own.

However, what makes someone a casual, at least for our guild, is someone who would prefer to not raid at all or raids so occasionally it ends up being more headache and work for them to try to fit into our rotation. Taking this definition further, let's look at the state of the raider right now.

Because Blizzard has put in parallel progression, being in a 10 man guild is not long considered casual. Period. Done. 10 man guilds all over are busting out progression just like 25 man guilds. So, what makes them casual? The fact that they are happiest as a smaller guild? That they choose to not merge with another guild or leave for a larger guild entirely? Their gear ilevel is not the same as others--which I argue hard mode 10 man is higher ilevel that regular 25 man and the item levels and itemization are very similar in many cases--or they don't have legendaries?

Casual:
1. Occurring by chance.
2. a. Occurring at irregular or infrequent intervals; occasional
b. Unpremeditated; offhand

This is not to say those who play casually don't care what they do inside the game. Raiding casually does not have to mean flippant or ambivalent raiding and playing.



I want it all!
I disagree that WoW should be accessible to everyone if the reason is entitlement. Just because I pay for the game does not mean I am entitled to everything for that reason. Blizzard has chosen, from the start, to make the game more user friendly that its predecessors and continues to stay competitive in the market because of this choice.

Reminds me of a learning curve chart a friend posted on our guild website last year.

Some games just prefer to have a sharper learning curve than others and that works for them. Other games like to have complicated combat systems, while others have tried other "hooks" to make their games stand out. All of these are choices and those who play the games can either accept or reject those choices. I am not sure I could say because I played a certain game I should expect to see everything the game had to offer. Maybe that's just how I look at things. But that goes back to my oldschool days. Sure, I may have beat the game, but did I get that damned Golden Chocobo? No. Did I try? Yes, but I didn't and does that mean the game was somehow less enjoyable because of it? Not for me and I am ok with that.



Not an island.
What we might want to look at is how we all fit into the larger picture. Putting on my sociologist hat, I can't help but to see our game as a large social system. I mean, I already feel that as gamers we are part of a subculture.

There are over 10 million subscribers all over the world who play this game. And through out this large game, subsections of the social structure play their parts. Blizzard is now not just a developer but also a government managing everything in order to keep where we play fun and enjoyable. They have chosen to pay a nod to each group of folks.

This also means managing a lot more in terms of game mechanics and game design. Holy Dueg! mentioned that WoW is special from other MMO's because it actually takes in a lot of feedback from it's player base. Again, this may be due to the accessibility of its forums and the money they is willing to spend on hiring people who look at forums all day. The fact remains, it does want to listen to the players. Downside to this is when one group gets more attention over another group, tempers flare and jealousy abounds.

"Well, its my 16 bucks a month! I am paying for this service!" I am sorry, but this has grown to be much bigger than you. Yes, Blizzard is providing a service, but each one of us represents a separate section of a population.

All of these changes: mounts, traveling, leveling, gear acquisition, raid access, are all things the designers are doing to enhance the way each player interacts with the game, and ultimately, each other. I am not saying I am on board with all the changes every time. Please believe, the mount change makes me sad as does the ease of which getting gear will be. But looking at it in a different light, I can at least understand why the changes get done.

(Small rant: Don't ever complain about traveling until you have played EVE Online. Seriously. Getting from Minmitar space to Gallante the "safe" way beats anything I have done in WoW.)


In short.
Whether or not you are here for the social aspects of the game, chances are what you do in here affects others around you, thus making you part of the social structure. What Blizzard does also affects not only the game play, but how we feel about as a collective group of people. While you may have the right to get all hot and bothered over something, how you deal with it ripples far wider than you might think.

I don't want a pony

So, I've always been one to keep a good stock of gems on hand. I never know if the mood will strike me to be generous to those who are looking for a gem badly or when I get a few heroics in for Icy Prisms. When I heard the announcement of epic gems, I cried for a new gem bag. When I saw the mats for said new epic gems, I stared at my lonely bag and wished for something more. I even made posts in the tradeskill forums and the suggestion forums. Yes, it's a QQ but it's difficult to see the other professions get new bags. Please, GC, no need to bring me a pony, but a shiny new bag would be awesome!

Ok, this is the last tradeskill-y comment I should be making for a while *crosses fingers*.

I lied. I should also mentioned a PLd an alchemist alt. After the depressing testing done on the PTR regarding prospecting, I decided to make myself a little more self-sufficient. With the cooldown on the transmute, I know many guildies will be badgering our alchemists like they did when the expansion first came out. With my boyfriend not an alchemist anymore, I felt it was time to take matters into my own hands.

Of course, things will settle down after the first few weeks and it won't be such a big deal but what's the point of an army of alts if they can't work like a dog for you?

(How many times can I type the word "bag" in a post? sigh)

Blue speaks, I drop my jaw.

There are so many things in the PTR patch notes that all I will do is link the MMO champ site, instead of copying the whole thing here.

There is a lot of things going on that don't make sense to me, some things that look great and the rest, well, are the rest. Of course, all is subject to change and so these changes warrant further watching in the weeks to come.

Of note:

Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
Talents

* Balance
o Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
o Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30 second. cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
o Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
* Restoration
o Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
o Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

I'm scared of the idea that innervate needs to be casted more often, considering they are changing the mana regen on Replenishment. This says to me they are planing some real mana sucking encounters in the months to come.

With the changes to Empowered Touch, a possible Nourish/MT healing spec could look like this which drops GoEM in favor of Nature's Grace and Empowered Touch. Very interesting. I'm sure some resto's out there will be excited but since I've been rocking it on raid heals, I will not be moving my precious points yet. In addition, it seems rather odd to implement this when the T8 focuses on Rejuv based ablities, but would be nice for T7 and who knows what T9 has.

Lastly, I suppose Blizz didn't like the 20k crits on lifebloom. Shame. It's not like it procd Living Seed or anything and usually was overheal. /shake fist.

Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%

Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

Kinda ok. The rest of the changes make me feel like Shamans are still under appreciated by blizz. Interesting way to deal with the Shaman's mana regen issues, but perhaps changing the mechanic of Elemental Focus to proc off Damaging and Healing spells. Cuz, you know, it reduces mana cost of both. Sadly, though, the trees are bloated a bit anyway and finding a way for a resto to fit it in seems damn near impossible. However, since Druids and Priests are able to Clearcast, I don't see why shaman can't either. At least the silly little orbs of water don't pop anymore.

Yet another overhaul for DK's with a talent refund to boot. I'd QQ about having to respec my alt every time I play her, but I don't think my DK friends would find it funny.

The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison.

This seems too good to be true. The poor guy has been sitting in the jungle for several years, watching the allies ride by on their Saber Mounts wishing his boss would give the go ahead to offer the Horde their own special time sink. Of course, I am willing to help the guy out but I fear with all the other things getting pushed to live by Blizz that I won't have time to spend for this. Sad, really.

Chef's Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster

Faster? Really? Was it that slow to begin with? Sure, I'm cool with it being a blue hat now and I am happy blizz is realizing it needed to have a special ability to go with it, but I would have liked to have seen maybe a chance to proc extra food or something. We spend all that time on the daily, the least they could do is reward us with having to use less mats on our final products. Blizz obviously needs to watch the Food Network more often.

Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina

I snicker at this. I already have more Hit points than some of our melee dps, and while the Enhance shaman is looking forward to having more health, I can't wait to for his reaction when he sees that I am still more beefy than he is.

# The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity

* Vehicles (drakes) used in these instances now scale with item level.

Maybe I will finally finish the Achievements that go with these.

Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

Why do I get the feeling they are going to add the 100 pet achievement? I have over 80 at this point, and I don't even have the special TCG, Blizzcon, or Collector's Edition pets.

# Emblem System Changes

* Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
* Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
* The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
* The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
* New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.

So much of this hurts my head and confuses me. I don't understand why they continue to have us purchase items with these emblems, then reduce the ways to get the emblems, make the achievements Feats of Strength, but add a new achievement that rewards you for Collecting combos of said emblems.

OK, back to work before my head assplodes.

QQ

I swear to the gods that there is more QQ going on than usual.

Some folks don't like our strats for bosses. They either mention this in a tell, separate channel or out openly for all the raid to see.

After a while I just got so sick and tired of the complaining, I made a post on our forums in an effort to make the communication more civil and constructive.

I really need to stop doing that though. Every time I make a post to the guild to remind them of things or inform them of how the officers feel about certain subjects, raiders get the "shoot the messenger" syndrome and I am the target.

Example? A conversation involving one of our smart players saying they will "just shut up." That is entirely what we DON'T want people to do. Instead, how about channeling your ideas and energy back to the forums so you aren't feeling frustrated that you aren't being heard, huh?

Another more recent example: in a separate, private channel, a couple people keeping mentioning that they thought of strats weeks before the raid leaders decided to go with them. I didn't know half their ideas and the other half are in this closed channel that no one else can see. Do they expect me to relay the information for them, especially before a pull when I have several other things going? I have no idea, but I certainly can see why they are frustrated. My response? "POST IT!" What folks say either get lost or ignored on a raid but if it's posted, people have time to look, digest, make informed opinions on others ideas.

This guild is not just Officers at the top and everyone else are the minions. I feel a little bad that our raiders are so full of smart ideas but would rather keep it to themselves. I know they probably feel like we don't listen to a damned thing they say, but actually we do! But, if they were trying to keep a raid flowing in a small window of time, I doubt they would be willing to listen to 5 different ideas on a strat right before a pull.

So please, don't ever shut up. Find avenues that your officers are most receptive to, unless of course you raid with assholes and retards or megalomaniacs.

The tank died...

A strange thing happens on our raids. Our main tank dies a lot. Sometimes, he's dead on trash, other times it on the boss. No matter what, he tends to go down.

Believe me, it was kinda funny in Naxx for the last boss in the spider wing. But lately, it's been on several pulls through out the night.

If it's not the main tank, its an OT.

So, here are my theories:

The tanks tend to pull without saying they are pulling. They can not blame the raid for this. They have been known to jabber on vent, presumably while waiting for a pat to come back around, then all of a sudden they run off. If they aren't running off, they are moving to odd places away from the group. I don't just mean for the good reasons like WW or chain lightning, but really, really odd places like around the corner or whatever.

If the tanks aren't running off, the healers are going afk assuming that the other healers will pick up the slack. This becomes a problem when three healers try to rez folks, and three go do whatever leaving one or so left to try to keep up with said running tanks. This leaves more people dieing the cycle repeats itself.

We have long and stressful raids. Thankfully, we don't have anyone who says they have to tinkle or feed their dogs or ask questions over vent that could be done in tells. Those were our SSC days, but something similar is happening here in Ulduar and it's getting to be a chore. Folks tend to lose focus during the trash, which slows our game down which leads to more tired folks by the time we get to our bosses.

I told one of our tanks that I rarely bitched about the kind of job they are doing, as I used to be a tank, but this is a growing trend so I will just propose my solutions (now that I have finished ranting) and see what comes of it.

Tanks need to say something! Anything! "Inc" "Pulling" and preferably a few seconds before they run off so the healers can run WITH them. They know when they are going to pull, as it doesn't take that long to get a sense of when a pat is due to return. If it's a quick pull, add a little urgency to that battlecry. It's not doing anyone any favors if the pull is made without the healers.

Healers need to communicate a little more. Use that healing channel to say you are afk. And, since I am a culprit of this as well, we don't need half our healers to rez people. Keep one person back and the rest can catch up. If it's a major screw up then we can yell at the tanks to slow down in order to get enough people back up and running. One or two dead does not warrant that much attention.

Since I never really got to do Sunwell trash (aside from the entrance) I can only be reminded of The Eye trash as we clear to things like Freya. It was a bitch, had to keep focus or the whole thing started over. Ulduar is not quite that painful, but it is evil and will only get worse (Mimiron, shudder).

Insomnia

Finally, we are feeling like we are making some progress in Ulduar. On 10 man, we killed Hodir which was awesome (I actually was in Moonkin form since we had extra healers) and for 25 man we tried Cat lady (Honestly, some of these names are hard for me to spell so they get nicknames).

Spent a ton of points on a new staff Rapture. Sure, a main hand and off hand are a better combo, but it had leaves and stuff... obviously a druid weapon. Sadly, all the haste I worked hard on got shot to hell, but I regemmed some haste gems.

We got our first pattern to drop- a blacksmithy one that went to our dps warrior. And my friend got two upgrades (a weapon which he can now stop bitching about, and a sigil)

All in all a good couple nights, with tonight on the way as well.


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I have decided to stop being so grumpy at folks. Some of it had to do with a manipulation of vent (cryptic I know, but that's all I have to say), and a small chat with one of our healers. Turns out the healer is using the old click to target then heal method, which is what I used to do before the beauty of mods. This explains the low healing per second. Also explains why this person is better for single target or low impact raid healing. And the massive use of WG before it got nerfed. Basically, I understand a lot more what this person is up against as far as reaction times. I'm not so grumpy anymore.

Ugh, I lied. One small rant. If you get invited to the raid, start heading to the zone. If you have to afk, try to afk INSIDE the zone so that way when you are back, you are more ready to go than if you were dinking around in Dalaran. When you do get back, and the raid has started, don't say over vent with an incredulous voice "You guys already started?!" Yes, we started. It's 5:01 and the raids start at 5:00. Sometimes the raid is late, but not because we are waiting on you.

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Off topic- I have a small case of insomnia. Actually, I got up this morning to deal with the cats and when I tried to go back to bed, had a small pain that nagged me to stay awake. Sucks more when we stayed up way too late and I have work today. Just when I'm trying to get more sleep lately, today it's about 6 hours.

Need... more... rage

Ok, maybe not rage. I've been pretty frustrated the last couple days just fine on my own.

See, Ulduar has been exposing some wonderfully glaring errors in everyone's performance. Not even the healers or tanks are immune to the scrutiny the officers are placing folks under.

It's easy to see problems in DPS. Low hit rating, bad rotation, dieing to fire all show up when you look at the stat meters later that night. When we placed a 3k min dps requirement (so to speak, we aren't evil but we make very strong suggestions), some of our dpser's started to get the attitude of "Well, I can't change things, so I won't sign up for raids period."

This is hurting us, actually, because now instead of being able to cycle in one or two spots, folks aren't signing up for raids at all. Sigh. Bang Head. Little do they know that 2.5dps is being replaced by someone even more casual then they are because we need to fill spots.

Over on the other side of things, we have a unique problem: our tank and healer team is made up of mostly the officer core so when one of them has a bad day (week, month, one is loathe to tell them to step it up. Healers are prima donnas, tanks have fragile egos. I'm a prima donna with a fragile ego left over from my bear days, so imagine trying to tell me anything!

Seriously though, I have found that being respectful and more or less honest when the person is enough to get the ball rolling. Instead of saying "Hey, you sucked last night" doesn't help and yet, people do that all the time across many guilds.

I need to remind myself over and over why I left the guilds who treated me like crap or second rate. What I have learned is:

Get to know the person beyond the game. We have more than one player who is in a wheelchair for various reasons. I remember calling out a player for not moving during the flame wave in Sartharion. I grumbled, battlerez'd them and told them if they did it again I would not battle rez them, like, ever again. Later, someone else told me that the player uses a special device to play WoW and that movements are not as reactive as they would be with a keyboard/mouse set up. Man, did I feel like a chump and went back to the player and apologized for being an ass. This goes way beyond the dumbass dps need to get that last spell off and pray shit doesn't kill them. I didn't bring up my newfound knowledge, but I did, inwardly, have enormous respect for this player and what he has been able to do with his 16 bucks a month. Does he need to get out of fire? Yes, and he knows that and each raid gets better and better.

Of course, not everyone who plays has a physical disability but it is good to find out a little more about people you work with. Some have kids and have to stop the game in order to attend the little ones (I prefer duct tape, but maybe that's why I just have cats), others are naturally slow learners, others have low social skills which draws them to the game in the first place and don't think before they spew out what's in their heads, while others are insanely fantastic people who never say a word in vent or raid chat and won't tell you what's bothering them.

Everyone has a bad day or two, as a leader of anything it is important to take care of your people so they in turn can take care of you.

So, ya...

my connection sucks. But only at 6pm server time, which lasts for about an hour. We are trying to do Uldar but my boyfriend and I can't seem to stay online for a length of time.

At one point, last night, I said in officer chat "If there were replacements, I'd say kick us. This connection crap is pissing me off." But, we are a little irreplaceable. He plays a tank and I play a healer, and all available players for those roles were already in the raid. At this point, I feel like shit because we already dumped some dps who couldn't stay online, yet the raid has to put up with us. Never mind the typical lag crap from everyone being in the same zone, our issues compounded the problem.

Which got me thinking, why is it always at 6pm? It makes me want to go door to door and ask all my neighbors if they play WoW. Then, if they do, I want to calmly tell them to get offline because I am more important than they are. Somehow, I don't think that would fly.

Needless to say, I got grumpy. And, I have an exam which I'm stressing over. And, silly me, I'm trying to quit smoking. Add all of those up and you get me over vent all snippy.

GL: "Have we gone over healing assignments?"
Me: "Are you in the healing channel?"
GL: "No." (He's a healer)
(pause)
Me: "Well, I can't ya bro." (Read: I want to smack you cuz I'm freaking out over moronic things so just do me a favor and join the Fing channel)

So, moral of the story, it's never a good idea to point out a flaw in your guild leader in front of the whole raid.