Tanks and Pink

This bloglike thing is becoming decidedly less Toes-y, I realize. There is just very little to say on the levels 32-40, I realize; me and comrade healing stream totem wage our silent battles, on some dungeons we get tanks, on other dungeons we tank with frost shock to get the remaining two dps groupmembers to get off their arses and nuke. I mean we in the sense of me and my totem, and me and the group in the latter examples.

I am neither British, nor a queen.

Liking the color pink is an entirely seperate matter.

Okay, I admit, that last bit was moderately entertaining, though. The tanking, not pink. Warrior-tank-orc left RFC after picking up some choice mail item, dead mage-san departed after receiving a nice cloth belt, leaving me, a kitty and a hunter. Go zookeeper me. The hunter had extremely.. experimental communication skills, but was competent. The druid had zero confidence in his bear skills initially, but was also competent.

Two competent but reluctant groupmembers? Good enough! Run in, totems, fire nova, frost shock, and start healing; the funny part being that I did not even have to heal every pull. It worked, though, and the cat got confidence to go bear (or was disgusted by my gross incompetency as shaman tank). Result was a slow, but extremely xp-licious run. 98% of a full level, making me 1.12 levels off 40 and chain heal.

I still dread getting Uldaman ever again, though.

Ninety-Four Percent

Strangest things happen. This post is actually not tagged as interlude, nor anything else silly!

This is a post about Toesies the resto shammy doing an instance.

I'm scared, too.


Well, in truth, it started with an unsuccessful run in RFD. Or, rather, it was an excellent run until the first fork in the road.
One minor (unconscious) disagreement later, we had neatly and half silently (I could not type as I had to spamheal the tank who was fighting a boss) split into two neat fighting parties, one without any dps, one with a strong absence of healing and tanking.

The Half Full Party(tm) might want to portray it as two vivacious parties, one given to great dps, and one with excellent tanking and healing abilities!

One wipe later, the remaining warlock and I agreed to simply requeue for another dungeon. I figured, hey, RFD will be deprioritized now, odds are I'll get something lighter. SM is nice and bite-sized!

Or Uldaman.

Level 37 snuck up on me, and to me this meant "SM Cath soon, right?".

Not so much.

Sadly, the astute and presumably gentle reader will have realized that little truly interesting came of it.

We did, however, have an asshat rogue who needed on everything, plate included*, and proceeded to helpfully pull as much of the instance for us as he could - before vanishing and leaving them on us.

I think he could smell the kick coming.

[SadWarrior]: Seriously, can I have those shoes and that shield? Please? You can't even use them!
[Rogue]: Care. 200g?
[Toes]: Don't worry about that asshat, the kick lock expires in 2 min.

I think someone tipped him off. Competent Tank handled it, though, and the party went on.


Beyond this? My opinion that They Just Don't Make Them This Way Any More - as a fact, not as sadfaced nostalgic /wristfodder - was reinforced. Proof that Blizzard design philosophy has changed:

15 second sleeps.

Mobs with high passive spell reflect.

This guy.

While, then and there, I bashed my head against the keyboard, (I didn't. Keyboards are highly unhygienic) in hindsight, it's a nice change of pace. Next time, I'm also doing a tremor totem before that infernal sleep.

Still think I prefer 6 second cast shadow blasts, lethal flame strikes and suchlikes, though.

Final verdict: 7/10 will (have to) do again.

*I thought the system prohibited this, but this dashing swashbuckler ran off with plate boots and a shield.

Realizations

You don't need a tank to run an appropriate-level instance. Two pallies with 1300 hp and RF on is sufficient for SM Armory.

IRL, liberal amounts of candles will enhance any experience.

Non-Norwegians should mourn the fact that they don't have a source of bamsemums, daily.

Healing Stream Totem is a fairweather friend who shrinks back the second real work needs to be done; see above example on zero tanks.

I still dread Uldaman. I felt relief when I had to decline going Uldaman with my competent Armory group, because of time constraints.

Proof of magic in the real world: Newly made bed + good food late in the evening = 12-14 hours of unconsciousness.

Trolls wear both dresses and goggles best.

Aymee draws hunter t10 better than the game proper.

I Am Sugar.

Worst run ever!

I ran out of beverages halfway.

See, that's a semi-humorous poke, which makes you, gentle reader, assume that I actually had a successful run, and that the worst thing that happened was a drinks-related emergency.

Well, that's a lie.

I still have plenty of liquid sugar joy left.

No really, competent warrior tank, two lifetap-spamming hellfire warlocks, and I actually beat my healing stream totem. Fantastic run.

Since this does not make for good material, like any other of my many, many runs so far, let me hit you with a theory.


Now. Other people, i.e. friends and Internet Strangers(tm) will bemoan that their pugs suck, their loot never drops, their 0.34% miss chance always shows on their haunts/kill shots, they always disconnect during the important bits, they're always getting ganked, etc.

I'm not saying I never whine, but when I hear complaints that involve exaggeration (my loot never drops) or other statistical anomalies that are probably not true, I get plain mean. I've liked to think that this is because I am realistic, and that average stuff averagely happens.

I'm moving away from this theory in favor of a new one; Shit Doesn't Happen.

My roomie continually gets ganked whenever she sets her hapless feet outside Dalaran - this is a mild exaggeration on my part, but it gets the point across. Me? I just about never get ganked. I exchange emotes with hordies, or simply never see them.

Horror stories about pugs are easy to come by in my circle of friends. I can sit on the sofa with Payce or Ayms or Trix or Geg or Ayms' boyfriend - anyone - and say "pugs". Stories will commence.
Personally, as this blog may indicate, I'm having a hard time locating these "bads", and certainly never of severity or numbers to crash a run. Alt or mains, this holds true.

Loot? I don't know what to say here. I had a mediocre cloak, and then it got better. I don't find myself stuck with ilvl 200 Naxx10 gear on a "main" like some. Or, on Toes; I have a mixture of mail and cloth, as is expected for someone levelling as a caster shammy, I suppose.

Seperately, you could surmise that people are more wary of trying to gank a hunter in full pvp gear than a squishy clothie, or that they're reluctant to attack one of the three female dwarves on the server, perhaps? Perhaps I simply set the treshold for a catastrophical pug higher than others, or that I am so singularly awesome that a pug containing me cannot help but succeed?

No, truly, I believe that Shit Doesn't Happen. Occam's razor has spoken.

Sidenote: I dinged 34 and can now wear my pretty red dress.

Now excuse me, another doubtless perfect run awaits!

Outdated Models

I realize that the Scarlet Monastery is old.

I realize that the revamp of instance loot (Back in TBC was it?) was about shuffling stat points around, not about re-doing whole instances and changing the original intent of a boss's drops.

I realize that Library hardly holds the greatest collection of mail physical loot.

Herod is still an ass.


This also means I've access to SM Armory at last, and despite the little whinge there, the xp from the mobs is great. It's also pleasant in the sense that a decent tank will take nearly all the damage there is to tank - very little random damage in my experience.

Perhaps I finally have a chance of beating the sixth partymember. At the moment we usually fight for first place on healing done, I'm not even joking; last Lib it was 45% done by the totem.

Maxed out healing way and a new rank of healing wave equals ~1k heals. Sadly, this also means that trying to use it efficiently, meaning with no overheal, is the same as begging the tank to start crying "omg heal!" when they frequently have 1.5-2k hp.

Also realized the derivative glyph heal can crit. I am dreaming of double crits, but with my 7%ish crit chance, it's not likely to happen soon. And even less likely to happen when I need that 300 heal.

But when it happens, I will notice, and I will go into the kitchen and grab a soda to celebrate.

Because I never drink sugary beverages unless I've deserved them.

Now if you're done haranguing me about my sugar-ethics, I'll postpone the discussion on how a 0.49% chance occurence is a celebrationable occurrence on my part, and instead go grab a drink. I woke up over an hour ago and there's no sugar in my system.

Branching Out

Due to much activity on my mains - I know plural is a crime to many, when it comes to usage of that word - and some other distractions, both the pleasant kind (Mass Effect 2) and the unpleasant kind (actual work needing to be done), Toes has been collecting dust recently.

Dust on my sexy tusks, combined with it taking a bit of effort to get out of the Graveyard-and-Library pit I am in, means very little postables on topic. Toes. Toespic. Topicoes.

Thus, you get unrelated news, congratulations, you're a winner!

I do love commas.

My warlock, who is L72 and almost as alty - and thus irregularly played - as possible, just created a runed eternium rod. It's immensely satisfying, the kind of thing that makes me sigh with relief every time I think about it.

Well, the first four times.

I've had the mats for it for quite a while, I've had the recipe for longer, and aquiring both was a very roundabout task as I got bad info, gave away all TBC mats (back in TBC, even). The final stretch, 350-375, was about six times more dust-intensive than I thought. Today I scraped together the last two stacks needed. I am at peace.


My priest and my paladin, two other alty creatures, sit on vast amounts of frost. This is my version of the pre-expansion blues: I can't decide whether to buy t10/other gear, or buy saro to sell.

In the end, the gold will be devalued by time, the gear will be obsolete eventually but enjoyed to some degree, though they are not played often.

Well okay, so it's about vanity. I like some of the cloth non-tier frost loot.

Damn that's a mouthful.

Also: That's what she said.


I've never played a single "main" for this long without switching before. Usually, boredom or guild situations makes me change which character I bring to raids as my first option with semiregularity. I'm still trucking on my hunter at the moment, the tank/healer/dps makeup of my current guild is stable, and I'm neither bored nor anxious to switch for any other reason.

That's not to say I'm decided to keep this character for Cataclysm, and level it first.

I'm severely addicted to ginger-haired female dwarves though.

Told You

Told me. Now we've seen the first multi-day pause, because I broke it by posting something unrelated-ish, serious and boring.

Sorry.

Since I make it my point to mention every single run I go to, let the scribes note that I have gone to SM GY, yet again. It netted me a horrendously insignificant un-chunk of xp, and served no purpose except to give me cause to post.
A warrior may or may not have asked a hunter to turn pet growl off.
A hunter may or may not have done so without further drama.

It's just how the mechanism that operates this blog works: I instance, then I post. Post about the instance? Not necessarily.

It's very opaque to me too.

Uneventfulness aside, I did notice one thing. Or, rather, I thought of one thing, but nothing made me wake up and "notice" it. I guess you could say it was remembered? Is it still noticed if nothing brings it to mind except its continued presence?

I still have the pleasant bright blue text. That's the thing I noticed. Or didn't.
It doesn't matter who I am on, and what I queue for; I have 2-4 roles*. Healer and/or tank and/or dps. Plus leader.

Well, "Guide", as they so diplomatically rename it in 3.2.2.

I never imagined myself wearing a tour guide cap or badge. But standing atop the mountains yelling "For Darnassus/Stormwind/Mulgore/Da Echo Isles, Mon!"? Definately!

No, not that, either. That was a joke.

I don't particularily like mountains, either. It's not that I dislike them, but it's the same with the sea; I appreciate the aesthetical and artistical quality, but they do not appeal to me on a personal level.

Whup, that was irrelevant. Curse my decision not to use backspace.

Why, then, do I always queue as leader?

Do I love tossing orders around?
As much as I love the sound of my own voice, I often shy away from responsibility.

Faster queue times?
I doubt it does as much, and research is still inconclusive**, but as I delight in the wait time farming minutes as dps, and always get instaqueue when I heal or tank, so no.

Am I trying to seperate myself from the others, pretend to be a cut above the rest?
Were I that deluded, it would still collide with me generally being quiet until provoked.

Faith in encyclopaedic knowledge of all instances?
"Yes", except as above, I don't really speak up unless someone asks or obviously doesn't know what they're doing.


I notice, but never care if the shiny bright blue text - new theory, vanity? Aha! - is mine or not, but I realize that if it actually worked; if the average player was more clueless and less afraid of asking questions for fear of being ostrachized, I would queue as "Guide" in a heartbeat.

Now, I do it because the color is pretty, apparently.

Moral of the 4am post***, beyond that I seriously need to stop using multiple stars to denote ridiculously unecessary footnotes; Guide/Leader system gives shiny text, is not being used as the name suggests because of passive hostile PuG environment.

And I truly wonder if the namechange will actually do anything. It's not so much critique and /"omg blizz" as it is
curiosity.

*1d3+1, the PnP Rp'er in me insists.
**I make a point of learning how the LFD system works, and I'm actually making good progress. May make a post on this?
***Had I a remotely normal sleep pattern, this would act as an excuse.