DPS Tracks 19: Everlasting

I just killed a cockroach the size of my big toe, while screaming "eat loafer mother bitch!" It was kinda cool.

At least, it was the highlight of my day since lately I've felt like rolling over and dying. I really don't know what's wrong with me, but it's getting a little old.

Moving on, the new influx of awesome bands included an interesting (and already broken up) band from Japan. Japanese heavy metal, you say? It's not a joke, I swear. These guys know how to use a double bass pedal, have a rockin' guitar soloist, and are bold enough to use an electric organ. Top that!

Issue 17 Goes Live Today

Coinciding with it's 6th anniversary, Paragon Studios is releasing the 17th free update to City of Heroes. It's amazing to me that they've stuck it out for so long, given that for the most part they fly under the mmo radar. But here's the thing: the fans that CoX does have, they're real fans. Not those "I'm gonna quit this shitty game when Warhammer comes out" WoW fans. Real, superhero-to-the-core fans. And that's something you have to admire.

Sticking it out for the long haul rewards those fans with added features and content that shows the development team tries to listen to it's fanbase without sacrificing the integrity of the game (see Star Trek Online). Also, they get neat veteran rewards and anniversary rewards.

Issue 17: Dark Mirror is fairly modest in size, content wise. After all, we're only getting four or so story arcs out of the deal. However, it lays the groundwork for their third paid expansion, Going Rogue. And that's something to be excited about. The Going Rogue system is innovative, and allows heroes and villains to walk the line between good and evil, and possibly cross it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

What Issue 17 does give us is the new graphical update (albeit a superficial one), as well as extra costume pieces and animated tails. We also get some neat "quality of life" updates, including the ability to send money to ourselves via the mail system (iknorite?).

All in all, I'm pretty excited about the changes coming to the game. I'm starting to think that I came back to the game at exactly the right time.

DPS Tracks 18: Beethoven's Nightmare

I wouldn't consider myself "cutting edge DPS" anymore, but I still find excuses to whack the metaphorical pinata until my hands and face are coated with... candy. And when I am giving mob bosses are bad day, I need tunes with a visceral, sometimes carnal feeling to them.

Everybody who's visited WWOD knows I have a thing for power metal, and Dragonland fits that bill pretty nicely. Some of their tracks are much more musically ambitious than the standard fare, and that might be why I like them so much. In Beethoven's Nightmare, from their most recent album Astronomy, Dragonland uses themes and motifs from Beethoven's work, and they sound equally timeless on guitar as they did on piano.

I actually found this band through a friend of a friend, who thought my taste in music could benefit from adding even more of the same thing to my library. They were right. xD

Xi's Guide to Not Sucking in City of Heroes Pt. 1

So I got to thinking, the other day. Just because I'm not playing WoW anymore doesn't mean I'm necessarily forced into refraining from belittling my fellow player for the sake of comedy and higher learning. I've still got other MMO's that could use my touch, and I'm more than willing to show people how to play.

So, without further ado...

Thoughts on Roger Ebert...

I took a few moments (and only a few moments) to browse over this journal entry that everybody is shitting their pants about, and I only really have one thing to say about it.

...Roger Ebert can suck it.

The big stink is over his (apparently) casual dismissal of video games as art. Now, I didn't think I really had to say it, but blog posts and their comments haven't really hit the mark. They're too busy trying to be right that they've missed two pretty obvious points. That's where I come in.

Wikipedia defines art as "...the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions." Whether it is or isn't interactive is completely beyond the point. Games are art. Check out a dictionary, Ebert.

The second major point is that Roger Ebert is a shitty movie critic. Films are considered a medium of art, and I'd be inclined to agree, but I wouldn't trust the final word to some chump who is paid by large studios to pull his thumb out of his ass to put it on display for poorly conceived movies.

Whew... that was a long sentence. If you doubt my findings, just remember Roger Ebert gave Titanic a positive review.

I'm just saying. You wouldn't ask someone to make you a five course meal if they're prone to lighting PB&J sandwiches on fucking fire.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm hiring myself out as a freelance obituary and eulogy writer. Leave a comment to ask for rates.

I Don't Know If I Mentioned This...

I sorta quit WoW three months ago. Almost to the day, for that matter. And believe me, I've read every "I quit /wah" forum and blog post in the entire freakin' universe, so I thought I'd spare everyone the emo/angst trip and just leave quietly. Long story short: There was some... guild... management issues, and I just left. Gave all my primordial saronite to the guild leader and /gquit (Something like 28 pieces between me and Lexi).

After that, I signed up for Star Trek Online and bought a lifetime sub to Star Trek Online like the sucker I am, and the rest is history. Sort of...

What followed is the worst string of bad luck I've ever experienced in such a short period. Again, you get the short version: I've been through two monitors, a whole freakin' computer, and my car asploded. Combine that with the fact that Star Trek Online's design team waited until -after- the lifetime sub grace period ended to show us how stupid they were, and I'm actually starting to regret quitting.

Yeah, I know.

I wasn't one of those people who thought Warcraft kept my universe together.  On the contrary, I was looking forward to getting rid of something that my non-Warcraft friends considered an addiction.  So I quit, and I get mechanical (and in the case of NCSoft: brain) failures across the board, as if WoW was singlehandedly keeping my world from falling apart at the seams.

Doesn't make any sense to me, either.  If you ask me, the whole thing is kind of lame.  If the universe wants to beg me to go back to Warcraft, an email would suffice.  I really could do without replacing computer and fucking car.

The urge to spill my (not-so-)religious beliefs aside...  I've been struggling to blog lately.  The three months away from WWOD was intentional, since I had planned to just fork it over to Gincan.  But TeamDXL never became what I needed it to be.  I started it in hopes of collaborating with my good friends, Dayn and Lexi.  Who never post.  Oh, well..  so it's not a tank blog.  We all went to STO, and I thought... STO BLOG!!!  That didn't really happen either...  Chances diminished even further when we all pretty much pulled away from that game until they started making design decisions that made sense.


At least I still have my music...  Dream Evil put out a new album right about the time that I quit.  Go buy it.  Be a sheep.  Obey me! :3





Immortal

By Dream Evil

It's time to surrender, you know we feel no fear
Inferior contender, your men will not survive
You better tell your mortals to step aside
Or be the last man standing to watch them die

Immortal, forever we stand in line

Battlefield burning, arrows shadow the sky
I feel the yearning, longing to see their skin fry
Too late to beg for mercy, to step aside
This is your termination, just say goodbye

Immortal, forever, we just can't die

I am immortal, I cannot die, you better run and hide
We are immortal, we rule the slaughter, and side by side we ride

Immortal, forever, we stand in line
Immortal, forever, we just can't die
Immortal, forever, we stand in line

I am immortal, I cannot die, you better run and hide
We are immortal, we rule the slaughter, and side by side we ride
We are immortal, we show no fear, you better step aside
We are immortal, we rule the slaughter, and side by side we ride
We are immortal, we show no fear, you better step aside
I am immortal, I rule the slaughter, and side by side we ride

So many choices... so little... good choices...

I know I already bitched about the gear situation in Icecrown, so I'll keep it brief. Basically, because losing my 4 piece is a big deal (until I get another armor token), I'm looking at one of the cloaks. The ap cloak has all the right stats, but the strength cloak is actually really nice... only if I need the expertise. The real problem is I can't see far enough into the future to tell whether or not I could use it, or not. Upgrading my boots or belt would make the cape attractive instantly, but there are other things to consider.

Which brings me to my next bit: The upcoming Ashen Verdict Strength Ring. They've talked about implementing it, but they haven't shown us what kind of stats it'll have. Crit and ArP rating would be ideal, but what if it has haste and (fuckin' a) expertise on it? I'd be fucked. Actually, if the damn thing has haste on it, I can safely say that most players will stick with the ap ring. And that'll just set me off.

I mean, why make a ring just for warriors/paladins/death knights, and not give us the stats we need? You'll see me all over the forums if it happens. I'll be the idiot getting banned from the forums for calling the development team fucktards.

Musings During Maintenance

It's been a pretty slow week. Festergut looks like he isn't budging for our little casual guild, so I've been concentrating on leveling an alt. Mage is my class of choice, and I've gotta say that questing and grinding is full of suck. At least, leveling a fire mage is full of suck: All the mages I know are sure to let me know exactly how retarded I am for not leveling frost. What can I say, I really like lighting things on fire.

Any class can look awesome on a harpoon-surfboard!

The thing I hated more than the fjord is having to arrange every pull so that I don't get gang stabbed and die. It feels like I'm in the Barrio. If I piss off the wrong local, fourteen mother fuckers come running, and I die horribly. It wasn't like that on my paladin/warrior. Just faceroll the aoe abilities and they're all dead before they have a chance to eat your face.

This isn't to say that all of my leveling experience has been bad. I'm actually really enjoying the lfg system (20 minute waits aside), in that I can actually do at level content, instead of just waiting to hit it up on heroic mode, which is sort of what happened with all of my other characters. I can just queue up as DPS, knock out a quest or 20, and temporarily pause my questing trend to do a random dungeon if it ever actually happens.

Although, even at my level, there are plenty of people who really should've stayed home. Just last night, a hunter and druid pair were picking on the lucky bastard that had queued up as a tank for not having full +def gear at level 77. It's level fucking 77! My gear looks like shit too. Be glad the LFG gods gave us a tank, and try not to scare him off by being an insufferable fuckwad.

I really hate myself sometimes.

DPS Tracks 17: War is the Answer

I've got a few things on my mind, today. First, is Saurfang. Well, it's not that I hate Saurfang (although, he isn't on my fucking Christmas list or anything). But I kinda hate that our guild has a tendency of... slipping back down the difficulty slope. We get a kill, we make it look clean, and then the next week it's /smack! back to progression style wiping.

I know we only killed the big stupid orc once, but I suppose I have a case of wishful thinking, and hoped that we could, y'know... get through him before he got to 10 FUCKING MARKS!

Obligatory rant about Guild/Raid night aside, I found out that FFDP put out a second album. Sure, it came out in September, but sue me, I've been busy. I don't know if I talked about how much I like Five Finger Death Punch...

I like it this much!

Before I get to that, I've been noticing a large amount of (additional) QQ in the blogosphere about dps in Heroics. And while I already threw in my two cents on the matter (I really don't give a shit), I thought I'd share an encounter that tickled me pink.

I actually was not a member of this pug, but experienced it vicariously through guild members. I suppose some of you remember huntards. There aren't nearly as many as there used to be, since most of them rerolled Deathtards, so it is really a sight to see when you catch a glimpse of them in the wild. And this one was no different.

Clad in spellpower gear (possibly even a few cloth pieces), this Hunter came in at a low 500 dps, and the entire guild was giggling at his gear and his performance. We didn't bother to tell him in party chat, mind you, that he was possibly the worst player we'd seen since Braylon Edwards. We just thought it was funny to see someone two entire expansions behind in class knowledge and damage output.

Which is what brought me to my next thought. The next time I am actually watching the meters in a pug heroic, and someone struggles to break 1k dps, I'm going to stop and calmly tell them:

Burning Crusade called: They want their DPS back.



War is the Answer
By Five Finger Death Punch

[Verse 1]
(GO!)
This aint a test, fuck the rest.
Time to set the record straight.
Talk your shit behind my back, let's hear you say it to my face?
I've heard the words roll out your lips.
You little trendy fuckin' bitch!
The time has come to get you some, cause I just do not give a shit.

[Chorus]
Do you take me for a fool!?
How's it feel to be a tool!?
See to me you're just a cancer!
Motherfucker!, War is the Answer!

[Verse 2]
As of now the end begins,I want to laugh but there's no joke.
To eat with the beast, and run with the wolves.
On the Ashes you must choke.
I know it's got to chap your ass, to think I just won't go away.
Forget me not, I'm writing you off.
I've got nothing more to say.

[Chorus]
Do you take me for a fool!?
How's it feel to be a tool!?
To me you're just a cancer!
Motherfucker!, War is the Answer!

[Bridge]
(Get some!)
You wanna disrespect me, you little fuckin' punk?
Everything I've done?, And who I am? As far as I've fuckin' come?
I'll slap you so fuckin' hard, It'll feel like you kissed a freight train.
Fuck you!

[Guitar Solo]

(Rawr!)

[Chorus]
(Bam!)
Do you take me for a fool!?
How's it feel to be a tool!?
Talking shit behind my back...
See to me you're just a cancer!
The time has come to get you some.
Motherfucker!, War is the Answer!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

One mob at a time please...

If anyone knows me even a little bit, they would tell you I'm an incredibly laid back guy. And if you know me even better, you'd know that it takes quite a bit to get me pissed off. But when people say and do things that are so far away from intelligent that it makes you wince, I tend to get pretty annoyed. Especially when said offender repeats these offenses several times. Now when I'm puging the new heroics I know what kind of gamble I'm taking. But there is a limit that even the patient dwarf has.

Since I don't like waiting around in a queue for fifteen minutes, I tend to tank most heroics. So it's common practice of mine to inspect my healers gear to know how fast I can pull mobs. I knew it was going to be a painfully slow Forge of Souls when saw some gear so bad he'd have a hard time healing ten man Naxx. Since I'm a nice guy I didn't want to vote kick him, but my mouse was hovering over the option for a moment. Little did I know, the healer wasn't the problem.

So things get started, I pulled the first two mobs and the amazing happens. The mage in our group dies. I laugh it off to the fact that he probably killed himself to the spell reflects. Healer tosses a rez and we get moving. Next pull, I laugh a little bit more when our little mage friend dies again, almost instantly this time. I was a little confused why he died so fast that time, that is until I checked the combat logs. The little fucker started casting before I had pulled the mobs. And what does he say while lying on his back counting the tiles? "WTF? Again?" I delicately pointed out that if he felt like pulling the mobs it was bound to happen. He denied the fact that he pulled the mobs, but it's hard to ague against combat logs. I had thought the worst was behind us, but the fun was only getting started.

What my little mage buddy said next was perhaps the dumbest thing I've heard uttered in game. "Hey tank, stop pulling so many mobs!" Slightly confused I responded, "Uhh, what?" Certainly he didn't think I was pulling too many mobs? I was pulling them one group at a time, like any tank would if his healer wasn't that geared. "Pull them one mob at a time please!" Now here is where I started to get pissed. "And how do you propose I do that assclown? I pull one mob and the whole group comes with." The other members of the group backed me up and we slowly continued through the dungeon. "ONE MOB AT A TIME PLEASE!" Did he really just say that? Did he not see four people just tell him it is physically impossible to pull only one mob when my dps seem to lack the mental capacity to understand how cc works. "Listen jackass, I already told you, we can't pull ONE MOB AT A TIME. So just shut the fuck up and stop dying." Luckily he got the hint and shut up, he even managed to stay alive for one pull, but only one.

Just when I think his stupidity can't get any worse he proves me wrong, again. We've made it to the first boss. Not a hard fight at all. Before pulling the boss I do a quick glance over the party and notice my healer's mana is under 50%. The dps wasn't stellar so I gave him a chance to fill his mana pool back up. Oh but what's this? Our mage thought that since he was ready it was totally cool to pull the boss. This was right after face pulling a group of mobs, and succeeding in wiping the group. So I did what every smart tank would do in that situation. Let the boss kill the dumb ass then taunt him. He pissed and moaned the rest of the fight while taking a dirt nap.

The rest of the run was pretty much the same too. He'd face pull and die, or attack a mob before I charged in and die. I think my only bit of revenge the group got as a whole was during the Devourer of Souls fight. No one stopped damage when he cast Mirrored Soul on him. And the healer stopped wasting mana on him after the first boss. I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't vote kick the bastard was I got too much enjoyment out of watching a gnome mage die over and over. So please, anyone reading this, if you're a douche bag don't expect the tank or the healer to save your life. No one cares if a douche bag dies.

Retribution Paladins...

I found a new blog that I really enjoy, although it is about the life and times of a couple of ret pallies. I'm gonna send Martana that way so they can go all Discovery Channel on each other's asses. I suppose I can't be too snarky. I imagine they don't like us nearly as much as we don't like them. That, and one of our best players is a ret pally.

Oh, shit, I said it. Yeah, I can respect my guildies when I'm not in the middle of a rant. But apparently, I rip on our resident retnoob a little too much. Why? Because I want him to get better.

That's why I started this blog (That and to bitch about Christian Fundamentalists). I've been improving since I started raiding, and I don't ever want to stop. It's been said that I take raiding a little too seriously, and that might be true for the casual raiding guild I chose to stay with. But I don't think that our "casual" tag should be an excuse to be unsuccessful. And I firmly believe that, with our 6-9 hour/week schedule, we are capable of quite more still.

And that's why I piss and moan when people backpedal out of doing simple things like bringing their own strength food, or flasking for every boss fight, or not installing Pally Power.

Little things, and... fuck it, I'm spent.  Watch a movie or something and leave me alone.

Xi's Guide to Raiding

When coming up with a "commandment-style" list of things that every raider should adhere to, I noticed the first two applied to everything else. Really, it all boils down to two very brief principles.

A. Don't be a douchebag
B. Use some common sense

The first of which is actually pretty easy. It's in the bible, even. Now, I don't know the book word for word, but I'm pretty sure the lesson could be paraphrased into "Thou shalt not be a large sack of douche."

The second is a little bit more complicated. What members of the generation before me have considered to be "common sense" doesn't seem to be very common these days. I suppose a less "PC" way of saying it is: Don't be a complete idiot.

Obviously, given that the above statements are at the very core of this post, a monkey with a grease pencil could construct a guide to raiding. Well fuck that monkey. I got here first.

#1: Don't stand in the fire

This applies to fire patches, poisonous or otherwise "ominous" clouds, lightning lines, etc. Don't stand in the dangerous shit.

Seriously.

If it hurts you, the raid, or even just turns on some dude's porch light in China, don't fucking touch it unless your raid leader tells you to.

#2: 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.

#3: Bring your goddamn raid mats 

Seriously. Get some flasks. Your own goddamn food (spellcasters only are excluded if a fish feast is present).  Shut up, sit down and eat.  Every minute, of every hour, of every raid.  Use them.  You know what happens if you do more dps during trash?  You get done faster.  Which means you get more attempts on the boss.  Just do it.

And if I hear one more ret paladin tell me that the fish feast is "just as good" as a piece of strength food, I will explode and take out an entire time zone in the process.

I don't even play your class and I know strength food is better.   /backhand

#4: L2P

I'm sure I'll get shit for this one. See that shit in the side bar? That's for Fury warriors. And there are about a billion other people, just like me, with websites and blogs dedicated to discussing the mechanics which are specific to your role and class. Go there. Learn from them. And stop doing 3k dps in full 245 gear.

#5: Obey your raid leader

Raid leading is a pretty stressful job. I know, I used to do it on the weekends. Nothing like trying to lead a bunch of casuals (some of which don't like to show up on time/at all) to lower your life expectancy. The last thing they need is some ungrateful little pissant to start spewing their filth about how much we need to do better. If we're wiping, i.e. not killing a boss, then yes, we need to do better. Thanks for the tip, asshole.

Do what your raid leader tells you, and shut the fuck up. I don't care if he tells you to go across your street IRL and slap someone's mom in the face. Either do it or leave, because you are fucking up the program by sitting around and arguing. They're leading the raid for a reason. Respect them or get replaced.

And yes, my raid leader did tell me to slap some kid's mom. I've never felt so satisfied.

#6: Wipe and recover quickly

A wise man once told me that the key to progression raiding was quick wipe recovery. Fast recovery means more attempts on a boss, and more attempts etc. etc. If -one- assbag decides to go check his livejournal between attempts, it effectively slows down the whole thing. It only takes one per attempt to make a night of 15 attempts end up being more like 5.

Stop screwing around and stay at your keyboard. Emergencies happen, but if your bladder is that weak, get a goddamned bucket.

I actually started writing this damned thing months ago, and at the time, I thought I had lots more to pour into it.  I am so full of anger and ramen that I thought I could keep it going forever.  But a lot of pieces of advice not on the list are somewhat useless. I could talk about loot, and how to behave during distribution, but if you're talking about loot, you already beat the boss, so there really isn't a problem with the raid.

I'll likely add to this over time, or maybe Gincan will come along and drop in his two cents.  But I'll have to edit it.  I don't think he uses enough four letter words.

Itemization Woes

I swear, it's as if the Blizzard Developers took a vacation during Trial of the Crusader. Because when they came back, they completely forgot how to itemize plate. Hit and haste? Paladin, please. The entire zone is littered with an overabundance of items with these stats. Don't believe me? Let's look at the 2 hander situation in Icecrown.

What two handers, you ask? There's a mace with an obscene amount of hit rating on it, and that stupid Bryntroll that all those paladins are shitting the bed about. Yes, it's high (compared to TOC counterparts) top end damage and decent proc make it more than suitable as a main hand weapon. However, it's fast speed and relatively small top end (when compared with Shadow's Edge and the Cryptmaker), not to mention it's lack of stats make it absolutely horrible for an off hand. Which means, once you upgrade it (and you will), you might as well go back to a Justicebringer in your off hand. It's stats are just that much better than that proc'ing piece of crap.

I'm a little pissed off at the set bonus situation, too. The ilvl 251 gear just doesn't size up to ilvl 245 ToC gear, when the set bonuses are taken into account. I'm talking about -all- the set bonuses. I exchanged every last piece on Landsoul's spreadsheet, regemmed, and the difference is marginal. It certainly isn't worth the 300+ badges you need to gear yourself out. I think it's Blizzard's way of saying 1) Fuck you, and 2) Go get 25 man tokens, and 3) Fuck you warriors, suck your shitty tier bonuses.

/rant

DPS Tracks 16: Won't Back Down

That'll Do Pig, That'll Do...

Ever since the Random Dungeon finder tool was introduced, I've done more tanking than ever before. But I find tanking gets increasingly boring. It's also a bit of a thankless job too. Now I don't run these dungeons looking for praise or respect, but it's nice to hear a good job, or even a thanks when a dps is acting retarded and I save their life. Not once has a dps said one thing to me for keeping them alive. I've had a healer or two thank me for the easy run, but that's about it. This is why I often find myself sucking it up, unchecking the Tank box and waiting 10 - 20 minutes for a spot as dps.

Here is where being a good tank and a good dps differs. About every other run someone will speak up and say something to the effect of "Jebus, sick DPS Gin!". As a matter of fact, that is a direct quote from the Warlock in my Forge of Souls run last night. It's something everyone likes to hear. Even if it comes from the mouth of a Gnome Warlock. It validates the fact that all your hard work is something praiseworthy. I put a lot of effort into learning the ins and outs of my class, and getting a tiny bit of praise makes me want to work even harder. And more importantly, it keeps the game fun for me.

The same is true for every job, in and out of game. You can be the best at what you do, but if no one goes out of their way to give you a small bit of praise it all feels worthless. It's simple thing to do but it's something the majority of us fail at. Maybe it's the fact that we've been conditioned to only point out the negative and not the positive in people. Perhaps it's our own insecurities that keep us from speaking up. Or maybe most of us don't run recount. Whatever it may be, I've made it a habit to say good job to anyone who has done an outstanding job. It's not often that I tank for a dps that really knows what he is doing, but when I do I say something.

How did I L2P?

I just finished reading an article over at World of Matticus and it got me thinking. How did I learn to play a Fury Warrior? There was no quest somewhere in the game that taught me the ins and outs of this class. It wasn't anything that I just learned overtime either. Most of what I learned was actually the result of talking with Xirella and reading copious amounts of information out there on the web. I'll even admit that I got a lot of info from this very blog before I started writing here.

So that got me thinking. Is there anyway Blizzard could teach a young player to crush mobs with the best of them? I honestly don't think there is. I totally understand where Matticus is coming from and how that quest taught him a lot when it comes to healing, but I don't see anything like that working for a melee dps class. So here are some of the problems I can see Blizzard would run into if they ever tried to tackle this issue.

Threat

One of the biggest issues any melee dps class has, and especially Warriors, is learning to manage your threat. When you're out on your own questing away threat means absolutely nothing to you. My first few dungeons this was never a problem because, to be perfectly honest, I was terrible. I had no concept of what a rotation was and my rage bar was this magical thing that I didn't really understand. But as soon as I started putting up some decent numbers mobs started paying more attention to me, and shortly after I would be dead. It never really occurred to me that maybe I should back off a little bit on the dps, and maybe I should actually focus on the correct mob. I swear, if a tank didn't mark targets I would die nearly every pull.

Gear Scaling

This issue is primarily directed at us Warriors, Fury and Arms alike. I've seen over and over again people talk about how Warriors are one of the most gear dependent classes, because of one reason and one reason only: Rage. At the early stages of a Warrior's life he doesn't generate much rage. And why is that you might ask? It's because you can't do very much damage. To break it down real easy, the more white damage you do the more rage you will generate. So if you don't have any decent gear you're rage bar won't fill up very fast. And without rage, you can't do anything but wait.

This "issue" is actually an important stage in a young Warrior's life. When you don't generate much rage you're forced to pay very close attention to how much you have. You can't spam Heroic Strike if you ever want to be effective. Managing rage is something that no Warrior is perfect at doing and should always try to do better. I still get into rage issues every now once in a while.

Every Warrior is a Tank right?

When Blizzard's quest development team is designing quests I don't think they have any method of letting some random quest giver to know what you're spec is, and if there is, I've never seen it before. It is a fact that there are more Prot Warriors out there than there are dps, so if the quest giver doesn't know what your spec is it's a pretty good guess that he would assume you're a tank. So if this idea of making a quest to learn your role ever does get put into place a warrior would most likely get lumped in with the tanks.

So in conclusion, I would like to just say there already is a valuable tool in place that will teach you how to do your job. Dungeons. There is simply no better way to learn how to dps properly. Dying is annoying and each time it happens you should find out what went wrong. Did you pull aggro off the tank and the mob smacked you in the face? Were you not paying attention and stand in some poop that killed you? Once you learn to stop dying you are moving in the right direction. Cause how much dps can you really do when lying face first in the dirt?

Been away for a while...

Xi is busy with the new content. Specifically, I've become obsessed with farming badges for money. Gems, Crusader Orbs, anything that will fetch a price on the auction house, and I've got my head stuffed in the corner of some five man, while 4 idiot pugs try to make me drop an F-bomb on them.

Which is sort of where this next bit is coming from. I still assert that playing different roles and classes can make you a better player. Well, let's just say I've met a few people with only one 80.

I don't get to melee dps in pugs very often. But for those of you that do, I have one lesson I'd like to pass on:

STOP BEING A SHIT HEAD!

I met a death knight last night whose only claim to fame was a Heroic JB. The rest of his gear was mostly 232 and 245 (no other 258, curious..), but his trinkets and rings were atrocious, and his belt and boots were from the ToC 5 man. An unusual combination, like he was an alt of a cutting edge guild, or someone who got really lucky in a pug.

Vital statistics out of the way, we'll call this guy Idiot Douche Knight (IDK for short). Mr. IDK just had to link his dps after every boss, and let us know that he was the baddest dude on the planet. I made sure to let him know that, at the end of the dungeon, I saw him turn his presence on after the 3rd boss.

I know the Drama Mamas at WoW.com have covered the bad pugs and told the "power gamers" how they should act. But here's my advice for the "hardcore": Just shut the fuck up. Nobody cares about your DPS, especially in a heroic. So stop bitching that someone in blues can't break 1k, and stop boasting that you can break 4. I don't care so long as it gets done. And you shouldn't either.

Stop being a shit head.

Christmas Eve

Its Christmas eve and I'm here with my family trying not to act like a total ass. But as I wait to eat I thought I would give my thoughts on the random dungeon system.

Overall I think it's a great adition to the game. The only flaws I have found with the system has nothing to do with the system at all, but some of the wonderful people I've come across. I still haven't come across the loot ninjas but there are plenty of ass hats to go around.

Now I'm not one to complain usually since I'm the king of pulling aggro off tanks these day, but since I queue as both dps and tank I -always- end up tanking. Most groups I tank for are fine, but every so often I will find the turd that pisses me off. Most the time it's a hunter but I've seen a number of just about every other dps class too. These wonderful people like to talk about how great they are and complain when they pull aggro and I let them die.

The last thing I'd like to point out is my favorite group. The silent and deadly force that rushes through a dungeon in no time at all. There is nothing I love more than seeing a well oiled machine of murder kill everything in sight without speaking a word.

Home again.

I've been out for a week while spending some time with my family. While away I managed to pick up some exotic sickness so my raiding last night was a bit lazy. Now I don't mean I did crap for dps. Actually I was beating the crap out of most people, but I blame that on the fact that I was just hitting the boss and mostly ignoring the spikes during the Lord Marrowgar fight. Lady Deathwhisper is a little different though. I was getting myself in trouble with aggro all the time.

I didn't like the fact that the first day of my vacation was on patch day, but it may have been a blessing in disguise. Most patch days I get home from work and the game is either still down or hardly working. By waiting a week the headache of a patch was completely removed. All but about two addons were updated and the crazy rush was over. I may be a week behind in badges and Ashen Verdict rep but over all I think the break was worth it.

- Gincan

Thoughts on 3.3

I can see that everyone has survived patch day, and more than a few people have rather positive things to say about the new level of content and the brand new features. Well, I suppose it's my responsibility to bring the negativity.

While the Dungeon Finder system looks quite nice, the execution on patch day was rather sloppy. The "one more hour... wait, another hour... wait... how do we install this stuff again?" of Blizzard's patch days aside, the new instance servers were far from stable once everything was online, and they remained unstable until about 6am the next day. Some people say "patch day blues" or something like that, but I've always been of the frame of mind that a company that has that many resources should have the capability of testing their systems and software before bringing it online for the public.

Now that everything finally seems to be evening out, there are some issues with the matchmaker that I just don't like. I select two out of the three possible roles when I pug, because I can do two, but it seems as though I always tank (on my warrior) or heal (on my paladin) without absolutely zero variation. Perhaps this is just something that reflects the way the population is divided between roles, but it is a little iritating. I mean, who wants to do the same thing -every- single 5 man dungeon run?

My last gripe (new dungeon difficulty isn't really a gripe at Blizzard) has to do with the people I've come across in my quest for random dungeon rewards. I know that Frozen Orbs haven't been a big deal since Naxx, but they're worth at least 30g on my server, which is equivalent to 2-3 wipes worth of repair bills. Not exactly negligible. And yet, in every group -but one- someone has waited until everyone else has greed rolled on an orb and then pressed the 'oh-so-convenient' need button to scoop it up at the last minute. I thought, at first, that it might have been some kind of server only thing... or maybe 'everywhere but my server.' But people were doing it despite their server of origin, ninja looting against people from their own servers, as well. At least one per group. 20% of WoW players are ninja-looting, asshats. Can that be right?

I know it's just a little, near worthless crafting item. But what do you think? Is it right for someone to just take something like that, without bothering to ask? I don't think so... and without a way to compile and an enforce a "do not group with" list, there's just nothing I can do about it.