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.
Showing posts with label scarlet assholes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scarlet assholes. Show all posts
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Friday, 12 February 2010
Outdated Models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.
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.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Found it.
Found what? Since I don't have car keys to lose, nor any dignity to speak of, I am naturally speaking of that insubstantial "challenge" I've chased since I realized Gnomeregan is ridiculously easy, falling damage aside.
No, tabbing back and forth between browser and WoW every sixth second does not constitute challenge.
I found a proper challenge in SM Library.
Naturally, this means I dinged 30, which was fantastic; Earthliving weapon is nice, a second glyph slot is very nice, and nature's swiftness is twice as wonderful as I thought it would be. That two minute cooldown really makes it a different spell than the druid version.
Oh, and grounding totem. God damn it is hot, and having access to something that can eat a spell without the potential of missing is great.
All in all, though, dinging didn't change too much. Despite these new toys and ranks, my healing toolkit is still rather limited, and the lack of chain heal and riptide* is quite well pronounced now. As ever, I lean on my healing stream totem to cover the splash - lil' thing's ticking for 25 now!
But yes. New Toes, the L30 edition, proper healing imbue on weapon, thus set out to fill her second glyph slot. Let's browse the potential candidates, discarding LHW, ES, CH, Mana Tide and Riptide, as I don't have the relevant spells for those yet.
That's a long list.
Earthliving, Healing Wave and Water Mastery.
That, however, is a short list. Color me unimpressed. I've no idea what color unimpressed most resembles, but I think it's something vaguely fuschia.
Being a manly man, I have no idea what a fuschia is, or how it tastes, by the way.
Lacking any proper active AoE healing, feeling that 4.5 mp5 wasn't terribly exciting, I opted for the healing wave glyph, and set out to conquer the Scarlet Monastery, now with new and improved Library taste.
If you're one of those people who read every line, you may already have received some hints as to whether or not I was challenged, but of course, the fun doesn't end there! We must analyze and overthink!
First, the dramatis personæ of these two Lib runs in rapid succession;
The Paladin Tank; An important character of the first part of the story, this handsome chaps buffs with a smile, does a smashing job of tanking, and occupies the dark, handsome silent type personality. He is a blood elf.
The Mage In The Background; Delivering fantastic dps, buffing, and never standing in the fire, this heroine is as competent as she is a feature of the scenery. In the hardcover book version of this story, she has a scene wherein she utters a word. This word did not make the cut to the blog adaption. She is also a blood elf.
The Druid DPS And Tank And Healer; Towards the second chapter of our story, this lovely female bovine becomes the main driving force of our likely** band of heroes as stellar dps, tank of the second half, and healing when our main character suffers under the curse of Oom. Being a tauren female means mad love, too.
The Warlock; At once occupying the realms of comedy and tragedy, this third blood elf takes the reins of comic relief, as well as sparking a devastating intra-party conflict between the two acts. He is naturally a blood elf as well.
The Second Warlock; After the Warlock's departure, this replacement, apparently the identical twin in all but color on Recount of The Mage In The Background, does actually know how to play.
Our Hero; On a quest to discover who she really is, and test out a really slick new glyph, this restoration-specialized shaman is terribly skilled and good looking to boot.
Act One
Party, except for Warlock: Hi, excellent looking and no doubt fantastic people***!
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Our heroes bravely vanquish the first dozen of soldiers in a monumentally big battle wherein grounding totem proves its worth numerous times. Toes discovers to her pleasure that the glyph of healing wave proves perfect for situations where there is heavy tank damage and some casters have aggro on her.
Toes: Mana break, please
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Party, except for increasingly disliked Warlock: please stop spam?
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
The party continues to smash apart the Library wing of the Monastery, destroying many thousands of gold coins worth' of books, something that would have saddened Toes if she could read. The eminent healer notices that the warlock, possessed of slightly more than half her hit points, has a penchant for hellfiring regardless of the number of enemies faced. This causes her much consternation.
Toes: Warlock, could you please cut down on the hellfiring when there's lots of damage going around?
Warlock: okay i dont do hellfire
This would turn out to be a lie. Faced with such skullduggery, Toes remained resolutely silent, noticing that the Druid was shifting out to assist healing far more often as a result, which, while appreciated, was making her wonder if they thought her a bad healer.
The warlock proved his mettle, or lack thereof, by judicious amounts of standing around afk as his companions yelled for help, and by helpfully running into new rooms and around corners to die. He was much appreciated by the party for this.
So much, in fact, that they decided that the warlock, after such an intense effort, could have a break, and let them do the rest.
Not, however, before the last remaining human in the Library was slain, where Toes learned to appreciate the newer expansions where 8-10 second silences are considered a little rude.
Party, except Warlock who just got a one way ticket out of party: We like eachother, and we will do this again.
Party, still not including warlock: Yes we do!
Act 2
As Act 1, minus warlock, with druid tanking instead.
End.
On a more sincere and straightforward note, it is fantastic to heal, pulling every trick (and grenades) out of your bag, and realize at the end of a fight that if I had not been a troll, with my fantastic 20% haste panic button, the tank would have splatted.
The glyph did nearly 60% overheal, but I still consider it highly useful.
Nature's swiftness saved our arses more often than I thought, and was always off CD when I needed it.
If anything let me down, it was earthliving - I didn't really know what to expect, and 2-3% healing done isn't bad, but I suppose it's more a chain heal + blessing of the eternals thing than it is tank healing condusive.
Last, I've finally met a "bad" player of the kind you always talk about. I'm not pleased about it, nor displeased: He didn't hurt our run too much. If anything, I'm a little sad that he got kicked, all things said. I think that's for another post though. This is already ridiculously long, so I'm gonna end this riiiiight-
Here.
*Not that I have healed a lot on my 80 shaman, but I have tried it and I know the holes when I see them.
**We queued through the LFD. It doesn't get likelier than that.
***This may be a slightly liberal transcription.
Goddamn footnotes.
No, tabbing back and forth between browser and WoW every sixth second does not constitute challenge.
I found a proper challenge in SM Library.
Naturally, this means I dinged 30, which was fantastic; Earthliving weapon is nice, a second glyph slot is very nice, and nature's swiftness is twice as wonderful as I thought it would be. That two minute cooldown really makes it a different spell than the druid version.
Oh, and grounding totem. God damn it is hot, and having access to something that can eat a spell without the potential of missing is great.
All in all, though, dinging didn't change too much. Despite these new toys and ranks, my healing toolkit is still rather limited, and the lack of chain heal and riptide* is quite well pronounced now. As ever, I lean on my healing stream totem to cover the splash - lil' thing's ticking for 25 now!
But yes. New Toes, the L30 edition, proper healing imbue on weapon, thus set out to fill her second glyph slot. Let's browse the potential candidates, discarding LHW, ES, CH, Mana Tide and Riptide, as I don't have the relevant spells for those yet.
That's a long list.
Earthliving, Healing Wave and Water Mastery.
That, however, is a short list. Color me unimpressed. I've no idea what color unimpressed most resembles, but I think it's something vaguely fuschia.
Being a manly man, I have no idea what a fuschia is, or how it tastes, by the way.
Lacking any proper active AoE healing, feeling that 4.5 mp5 wasn't terribly exciting, I opted for the healing wave glyph, and set out to conquer the Scarlet Monastery, now with new and improved Library taste.
If you're one of those people who read every line, you may already have received some hints as to whether or not I was challenged, but of course, the fun doesn't end there! We must analyze and overthink!
First, the dramatis personæ of these two Lib runs in rapid succession;
The Paladin Tank; An important character of the first part of the story, this handsome chaps buffs with a smile, does a smashing job of tanking, and occupies the dark, handsome silent type personality. He is a blood elf.
The Mage In The Background; Delivering fantastic dps, buffing, and never standing in the fire, this heroine is as competent as she is a feature of the scenery. In the hardcover book version of this story, she has a scene wherein she utters a word. This word did not make the cut to the blog adaption. She is also a blood elf.
The Druid DPS And Tank And Healer; Towards the second chapter of our story, this lovely female bovine becomes the main driving force of our likely** band of heroes as stellar dps, tank of the second half, and healing when our main character suffers under the curse of Oom. Being a tauren female means mad love, too.
The Warlock; At once occupying the realms of comedy and tragedy, this third blood elf takes the reins of comic relief, as well as sparking a devastating intra-party conflict between the two acts. He is naturally a blood elf as well.
The Second Warlock; After the Warlock's departure, this replacement, apparently the identical twin in all but color on Recount of The Mage In The Background, does actually know how to play.
Our Hero; On a quest to discover who she really is, and test out a really slick new glyph, this restoration-specialized shaman is terribly skilled and good looking to boot.
Act One
Party, except for Warlock: Hi, excellent looking and no doubt fantastic people***!
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Our heroes bravely vanquish the first dozen of soldiers in a monumentally big battle wherein grounding totem proves its worth numerous times. Toes discovers to her pleasure that the glyph of healing wave proves perfect for situations where there is heavy tank damage and some casters have aggro on her.
Toes: Mana break, please
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Party, except for increasingly disliked Warlock: please stop spam?
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
The party continues to smash apart the Library wing of the Monastery, destroying many thousands of gold coins worth' of books, something that would have saddened Toes if she could read. The eminent healer notices that the warlock, possessed of slightly more than half her hit points, has a penchant for hellfiring regardless of the number of enemies faced. This causes her much consternation.
Toes: Warlock, could you please cut down on the hellfiring when there's lots of damage going around?
Warlock: okay i dont do hellfire
This would turn out to be a lie. Faced with such skullduggery, Toes remained resolutely silent, noticing that the Druid was shifting out to assist healing far more often as a result, which, while appreciated, was making her wonder if they thought her a bad healer.
The warlock proved his mettle, or lack thereof, by judicious amounts of standing around afk as his companions yelled for help, and by helpfully running into new rooms and around corners to die. He was much appreciated by the party for this.
So much, in fact, that they decided that the warlock, after such an intense effort, could have a break, and let them do the rest.
Not, however, before the last remaining human in the Library was slain, where Toes learned to appreciate the newer expansions where 8-10 second silences are considered a little rude.
Party, except Warlock who just got a one way ticket out of party: We like eachother, and we will do this again.
Party, still not including warlock: Yes we do!
Act 2
As Act 1, minus warlock, with druid tanking instead.
End.
On a more sincere and straightforward note, it is fantastic to heal, pulling every trick (and grenades) out of your bag, and realize at the end of a fight that if I had not been a troll, with my fantastic 20% haste panic button, the tank would have splatted.
The glyph did nearly 60% overheal, but I still consider it highly useful.
Nature's swiftness saved our arses more often than I thought, and was always off CD when I needed it.
If anything let me down, it was earthliving - I didn't really know what to expect, and 2-3% healing done isn't bad, but I suppose it's more a chain heal + blessing of the eternals thing than it is tank healing condusive.
Last, I've finally met a "bad" player of the kind you always talk about. I'm not pleased about it, nor displeased: He didn't hurt our run too much. If anything, I'm a little sad that he got kicked, all things said. I think that's for another post though. This is already ridiculously long, so I'm gonna end this riiiiight-
Here.
*Not that I have healed a lot on my 80 shaman, but I have tried it and I know the holes when I see them.
**We queued through the LFD. It doesn't get likelier than that.
***This may be a slightly liberal transcription.
Goddamn footnotes.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Silence?
Not intentionally.
See, I haven't really explained to anyone, least of all myself, the rules of this little project. All the same, I ended up in a rhytm-like thing where I do one instance every day, possibly two. Even if I want to do more - something that pulling the Gnomeregan card out of the deck nowwadays completely ruins - I stop.
The goal isn't to ding 80 fast. The goal isn't even to ding 80 moderately fast by doing instances.
Come to think of it, there isn't any real goal.
Journey, destination, all that jazz. When Toesies dings 80, she has no purpose. I have a shaman on my main server, and since us poor alliance saps are stuck with one race for shamans only, well.*
So I'm taking it slow. The past two days have seen two SM Graveyard runs, one as normal as lowbie pugs can get sans for drama when a pally needed on BoE leather boots - quickly resolved by Toesies the Diplomat**, go me - and the second one containing 80% melee orcs who said absolutely nothing.
That latter run was actually kind of fun, watching a third of a dozen orcs cut their way through the instance.
Except for the part where I couldn't see anything, because when they stood shoulder to shoulder they formed a wall approximately two and a half kilometers wide.
*Plus, I'm using all my ten char slots.
**No. Slowly and painfully.
See, I haven't really explained to anyone, least of all myself, the rules of this little project. All the same, I ended up in a rhytm-like thing where I do one instance every day, possibly two. Even if I want to do more - something that pulling the Gnomeregan card out of the deck nowwadays completely ruins - I stop.
The goal isn't to ding 80 fast. The goal isn't even to ding 80 moderately fast by doing instances.
Come to think of it, there isn't any real goal.
Journey, destination, all that jazz. When Toesies dings 80, she has no purpose. I have a shaman on my main server, and since us poor alliance saps are stuck with one race for shamans only, well.*
So I'm taking it slow. The past two days have seen two SM Graveyard runs, one as normal as lowbie pugs can get sans for drama when a pally needed on BoE leather boots - quickly resolved by Toesies the Diplomat**, go me - and the second one containing 80% melee orcs who said absolutely nothing.
That latter run was actually kind of fun, watching a third of a dozen orcs cut their way through the instance.
Except for the part where I couldn't see anything, because when they stood shoulder to shoulder they formed a wall approximately two and a half kilometers wide.
*Plus, I'm using all my ten char slots.
**No. Slowly and painfully.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
