LFG: Wheel of Misfortune

If you've been keeping up with the new LFG system, you know that pretty soon we're getting a new "random dungeon" option, that pits us and 4 players in a dungeon of it's choosing.

The only issue I can think of (and it's a big one) is that, right now, pugging is kinda random anyway. I was picked up just yesterday by a group of people whose tank ditched out on them after wiping on Dred. They were really glad to see a tank with over 30k health, but even I died pretty badly to the hands of the large dinosaur, and was forced into wearing a raid suit.

Now I don't think that they were bads, necessarily. But they were definitely in the lower end of the gear pool. And I wonder (and fear) that such random placement can put me into pugs with mismatched talent... constantly. After all, when rolling for loot, I can't seem to roll over a 20. I think that applies to all WoW aspects that work on the random number generator.

In other news, I've posted my (soon-to-be-outdated) guide to tanking, as well as taken on a partner to contribute to the blog. He's around here somewhere... he's probably just a little shy. I just gotta figure out how to make a multiple author widget, and I can plaster it over the side bar...

Many Whelps! Handle It!

Server first achievement. I'm not sure if this one is really really relevant, but it was kinda fun. And yes, this is the size of the video posted on our forums, likely due to forum (and my blog) size constraints. Click the youtube logo to watch it in it's real size on youtube.

Warning: Video contains harsh language... remixed.

Devils!

Whee! Nothing says loving like copyright infringement!

Youtube has been cracking down on this kind of thing lately, giving you options of using their licensed (and also of poor audio quality) recordings for your videos. So you can choose to buy them. So they(youtube) can make money.

Hmm...

So yeah, I might have to find some other place to use when I embed music for my dps tracks.

DPS Tracks 12: I Am Hated

I AM HATED
By: Slipknot

The whole world is my enemy - and I'm a walking target
Two times the devil with all the significance
Dragged and raped for the love of a mob
I can't stay - because I can't be stopped
Eat motherfuckers alive who cross us
I know you're all tired of the same ol' bosses
Let me tell you how it's gonna be
I'm gonna kill anyone who steps up in front of me

Welcome to the same ol' fucking scam
Same ol' shit in a dead fad

Everybody wants to be so hard
Are you real or a second rate sports card?
They all lost their dad or their wife just died
They never got to go outside - SHUT UP
Nobody gives a fuck
it doesn't change the fact that you suck

(We are) The anti-cancer
(We are) The only answer
Stripped down, we want you dead
But what's inside of me, you'll never know
(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit
And I don't think I need this anymore

Now I'm not pretty and I'm not cool
But I'm fat and I'm ugly and proud - so fuck you
Standing out is the new pretension
Sreamline the (sic)ness, half-assed aggression
You gotta see it to believe it, we all got conned
All the mediocre sacred cows we spawned
Put your trust in the mission
We will not repent - this is our religion

(We are) The anti-cancer
(We are) The only answer
Stripped down, we want you dead
But waht's inside of me, you'll never know
(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit
And I don't think I need this anymore

I AM HATED
YOU ARE HATED
WE ARE HATED

Everything sucks and I can prove it
Everybody dies, shuffle on, remove it
Individuals, indispensable
I'm the paradox deity vessel
...the other side holds no secret
But this side is done, I don't need it
Before you go, you should know you're breaking down
You'll be rotten by the time you're underground

(We are) The anti-cancer
(We are) The only answer
Stripped down, we want you dead
But what's inside of me, you'll never know
(We are) Bipolar gods
(We are) You know what we are
My life was always shit
And I don't think I need this anymore

(We Are) The source of conscience
(We Are) Distorted sentients
There's only one thing left
And I can't leave until it's sated
(We Are) The absolute
(We Are) Controlling you
They're closing in, I can't escape
I AM HATED

Feeling sick...

2009-10-21: Blargh

Haven't been feeling that great lately. Having dizzy spells. Thinking it might be related to how freakin hot it is here, regardless of how cool it is outside. I hate this inbetween weather. Too cool for the AC (which is the only thing keeping my computer from heating my entire bedroom) but too warm for the weather to cool me down. Yeah, I have a window wide open, but with no breeze and an unusual lack of fans (someone threw them out when we got central heat and air...), it's hotter than dog shit in here.

Oh yeah, and if you're a ret paladin and your name begins with the letters RET you probably deserve to be slapped.

That is all.

Beasts of Northrend - 4919
Twin Val'kyr - 9486
Anub'arak - 6549

No moar yogg! :O

Huh..

Every once in a while, the guild will surprise me.

Actually, that's a lie. It wasn't a surprise. We really worked that sonuvabitch over, and took his obsolete loot. Guild firsts are never bad, no matter how late in the game we've hit it.

Moar Yogg

I know, it's odd to post before the raid. But I've got so much data on yogg already that I don't really plan on parsing it. Besides, it's more about gauging my own improvement than anything else, and it's hard to see the improvement in the stop-and-go environment of Yogg 25. Our DPS have really itchy trigger fingers, and the adds die in seconds, which is disastrous for the first phase.

I think we're getting to it, but we're having trouble learning the transitions and the things that come in the later stages of the fight. The issue, obviously, is that it is tiring to get to the 3rd phase, and people usually lose focus by the time we're getting there consistently. I hope we can just hop back into 3rd phase attempts tonight, and maybe even get Yogg, because it seems our raid leader isn't giving us the go for ToGC until we get him down.

Justicebringer

Finally.

After two content patches, Lexi and I both have a 25 man weapon drop. The sword dropped off Onyxia too, and the long time we waited to get them finally paid off.

Go team DXL.

DPS Tracks 11: Crush'em

Blah blah competitive spirit blah blah.

It might have something to do with my work in the arena. I don't know.

And yes, this is from what is likely Megadeth's worst album (although it and Cryptic Writings are pretty close in that respect). Also of note, is that you'll notice (somewhat) famous film and t.v. personalities Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bill Goldberg. This may be the last Van Damme movie that anybody actually cared about. And by care about I mean... it was in theatres.

Edit: The hyphen was in the wrong place -_-



Crush 'em
By Megadeth

Enter the arena and hit the lights
Step up now you're in for a ride
this is war, ain't no fun and games
we get it up, you go down in flames

Party time, going down
you better not mess us around
the stakes are rich, take a hit or stay
the price is high, someone's gonna pay

Heads I win, tails you lose
out of my way I'm coming through
roll the dice don't think twice
and we crush, crush 'em

Looking for trouble, now you've found it
you're a drum and we're gonna pound it

Last one standing wins the fight
hear us scream and shout all night
down on the floor and eat the grit
this is gonna hurt a little bit

Heads I win, tails you lose
out of my way I'm coming through
roll the dice don't think twice
and we crush, crush 'em

Now we lay you down to rest
you'll never be more than second best
step inside you're in for a ride
and we crush, crush 'em

Don't need reason, don't want names
just a John Doe to put to shame
step aside let me explain
the name of the game is pain

Now we've found you
We're gonna pound you
We're gonna beat you
Gonna defeat you
We're gonna bust you
We're gonna crush you
We're gonna crush 'em

Rules of Raiding: Never Blame the Healer

I figure this was a pretty unspoken rule. At the very least, it's something that I've always lived by, and something that our guild upholds to a fairly high standard. And it makes sense: Piss off the healer, and you might not get heals anymore. Do you have a replacement? Then it's time to put something in that cake hole.

Here's my story: I'm on my little paladin, and get recruited for a 10 man ToC pug. Now, these usually end pretty badly. The tanks aren't usually well-geared enough for the encounter, and the healers usually follow suit. But, this is good practice, I figure, for when my healer has to do the real thing for the guild.

So there's this tank that decides to take over as raid leader. And to his credit, he does a decent job at explaining the boss fight in detail. His problem? Not only is he really undergeared (and inappropriately geared, with a 2.6 speed agility weapon and a lot of block rating and block value), but he absolutely has to tell you how -you- wiped the group and how you just need to fucking do better.

First he was all over the melee for not killing the kobolds. Then the ranged for not avoiding the fires. Wipe #6 comes around and he eats a huge spike of damage while he's got 4 or 5 stacks of the bleed debuff on him and I can't keep him up. Next thing you know, in whisper and over vent, he's letting me know that my healing ratios are off, that he knows healing and that I fail.

Hmm...

Now, I'm not the best healer in the world by my own admission. But if someone wants to tell me how to play my class, they better be playing that class at the very least. This guy could barely play his own class.

It didn't help that he was playing a warrior, a class that I know like the back of my hand.

This comes back to my original thought. Never blame the healer. I don't even care if it's their fault. In a guild setting, you have the opportunity to correct any healer issues through other channels, through suggestions from the main healer and other members of the healing ensemble, or through assigned readings from the wealth of articles online. In a pug? Just replace them if you think they're that bad. But don't fucking waste everyone's time trying to micro manage every aspect of a fight. It makes you look like an asshole. That warrior was an asshole.

Why don't you blame the healer? Because you won't get any more heals, which is what happened to this guy. I just left. And ran it later when my guild leader's 10 man had an open spot. Guess what crappy healer got to clear 10 man ToC for the first time?

I really hate...

Yogg-Saron!

Seriously. I'm not even parsing this crap, since it's the equivalent of handing someone a stack of food, 4 flasks, and 200g to slap me in the virtual (or actual) face for a few hours.

I can only imagine we're after the achievement, because the loot pinata that is ToC has been relatively good to us.

Relatively...

I hate adds. I hate them.

Hate.

Adds.

Back to the fight. >.<

Hmm...

So I've been kinda speechless lately. I've been working (very little) on a guide to raiding, which I'm sure nobody actually needs... but every other thing out of my mouth sounds like "don't be an idiot," or "don't be a douche bag." I've just had nothing to report. Just like those few weeks that we were stuck on Thorim. Nothing new is happening.

In raiding, anyway. I've been playing my paladin a lot lately. I've joined our guild leader's Monday Night 10 man roster, and now have more access to Badges of Triumph and the possibility of loot (you know how me and loot don't get along). When I'm not raiding, I pvp my ass off. My paladin has a full Deadly set (with the exception of gloves), and we're working our way past the 1200 arena barrier in a 3v3 team. Doing the holy pally thing is pretty fun, since we have a lot of tools to get through the high burst that a lot of teams and specs have.

I see a lot of people covering the next "great" update already, and the thing that always sticks out in my mind is... what's the rush? Why is there such a huge urge to move forward the -moment- something has just changed? It's not like the ToC content is old. It just came out! The very day that 3.2.2 dropped they were talking about 3.3. I wonder if it's just a sign of the times; The masses suffer from a form of commercially induced ADD and are unable to sit still for more than 2 seconds.

That's just my thought, anyway.