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That’s Noooo how you eat Porridge – umm Heal Dreamwalker

Published June 21, 2010 raid , World Of Warcraft 13 Comments
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Yes I had Porridge for breakfast & this comes from an ad for porridge where a little kid would declare ”  that’s noooo how you eat porridge” in an adorable Scottish accent.” so it’s kind of a catch phrase for you’re doing it wrong.

I have been in the portals once before in Dreamwalker on an achievement attempt as an offspec healer.  Pop green bubbles. Don’t lose your stacks – Heal the big green dragon.

incoming delivery of Cake.

You can do eeet!

I have been healing a 25 Gdkp ICC on my Healing Priest, and a 10 Icc  regularly for a few weeks now.  I usually get out going in the portals by asking for a ‘pro’ portal person. Stroking other peoples ego.  Of course everyone thinks they are pro – so I normally get to stay out.  Not this time. Icc 10.

“Ok the Two priests go in.” 

Oh crap.

I knew what to do in theory – and I was doing fine. ” Hey ma!  Look at me ” ( yes It’s corny catch phrase monday)  I would come up under the bubble and strafe up a little to pop it.  Was getting awesome stackage.   The advise I got was that lag means that sometimes you can not pop it – and I made sure my stacks didn’t drop

“Why isn’t Dreamwalker up yet?”

Heal Heal Heal Heal Heal.

Wipe.

Other priest mumbles something about losing focus or something and losing stacks.

We try again.

Wipe.

“Urhhhhhhh ” I say to the other priest who was holy for this fight .  “Why are you using “Prayer of Healing?” ( Heals all party members)  We are supposed to be healing Dream walker.  I was doing twice his healing on Dreamwalker as target.

“I don’t know – this is just how I do things –  I’m not doing too bad..   I’m not far off the other healer ( me)

“Um – but you’re not healing the dragon  – and a small discussion happens over why he isn’t flash flash flash greater healing instead. So after I clarified his understanding on serendipity – and the target we were healing.  I had to add – Could you also stick up renew on Her as well.  I noticed you didn’t cast it or a greater heal  it at all last fight.

I was telling another healer to suck eggs, and I hate that.  Even because now I am still not sure my way of doing it was the most effective. Renew up all the time. Reapply with new stacks. Flash Flash Flash Greater Heal.   Guardian Spirit where appropriate –  depending on if there is another Holy priest in raid and if her debuff is off),  I’ve seen it done before, so I have had lots of theory to work with. I also stuck a Divine Hymn in  because I noticed it was hitting Dream more than my raid as long as they weren’t taking damage.

I was doing Twice his healing,

I eventually convinced him over to my point of view.   I had to do this on vent,  and I also had to convince him with numbers – eg  the party heal your casting is only hitting a single target for….   yet if you used greaterheal with the your 3 stacks of serendipity  you will heal …    base amount.   Stick renew up as soon as you can out of the portal blah..  I was fully expecting him to blow up at me about doing it his way  

We did it my way – ( mostly.  7 ticks of  Renew on his part >< ) Dream walker:  ” I am renewed!”

Give him his due – whether it was because I was keeping my voice calm and reasonable, and not insulting his healing , and appealing to common sence,  he seemed to take the feedback ok. 

I find it difficult to instruct other people – especially strangers  – of which I have no idea how they will take it, on something I don’t feel confident about.  Even if I have numbers to show that what ever I was doing was working. 

Stuff I’ve been reading since puts priests in their best place outside the portals yet we sent the two in as holy  ( he was disc for some fights) and kept the Shammy outside,   It certainly was doable.   Would have been even better if he had put renew up! 

As for the rest of the raid.

We got Sin down  two shot, which is not bad for a  pug.  We would have had H Marrow if the mage hadn’t have been on the phone( ><  x 2)  On our way to boat. ” Oh Hai guys my dps should improve now that I am off the phone – like I have been the last 1/2 hour”

Several attempts at the LK – with the ‘best tank on the servers dps alt”  Yes that is how he was sold to us as a replacement when one of our dps had to go raid 25’s.  Best tank refused to get on vent because of his tendency to scream at fails apparently.   In vent ( where the  best tank was not)  I was told by his friend  not to mention that I disagreed with his self-declared title of  best tank on the server. Cause I know one that’s better.

But yes we failed.  Defile. Running into orbs, disease not coming off quick enough. Shammy cleansing totems bouncing the disease – only half the raid had seen the LK before, but we were getting better.  We are probably locking it out, and spending next week working on him in the 10’s group.

Healing ICC is SO much easier than dpsing.  Can I just say that.

Random Reserve – Compensation for the GDKP Raid Leader.

Published June 18, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , raid 4 Comments
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On Horde side on my realm in GDKP’s  I have been told it’s not uncommon for there to be a loot rule of at least one random Reserve.  or 1RR.  This means that  at any time during the run,  the Raid leader & Organiser of the GDKP can say when a piece of loot drops ” Mine! – that’s my random reserve.”

Other are more specific – if” *blah* drops  It’s mine,  or I reserve one BOE .  Someone – probably a Horde to Alliance transfer tried to reserve two BOE’s in their GDKP ad the other week.  They were laughed out of trade chat.   At least they were being upfront about their loot rules though. Those sorts of loot rules do not sit well on Alliance side.

  Most GDKP’s go ahead without reward given to the raid leader.   Other rewards are subtle, and not declared.  The Goodie bag that was saved to the end of the run is forgotten about – the Primordials aren’t included as part of the auctions –  sometimes it’s not their intent  to forget, or the amount the primal might go for may not be consequential so it doesnt matter.   I worked out that was how one frequent GDKP leader was making so many of the ICC patterns and then selling them cheaper then the AH – he was keeping the primordials

Is it fair?

A GDKP is still mostly a Pug run.  We have at least one sponsored one on our side where last week the share each was 14.5 k gold.  It has a waiting list. Most however  you still need to sit in trade at the right time,  hope another one isn’t forming at the same time,  juggle your class and role needs,  screen the potential peoples,  balance your carrys and non carrys. Control bidding and looting and gold while in the run,  run the raid,  handle drama.  Know strats.  That’s not easy to do at the best of times.

A Guild master / Raid leader does it for free in their guild  – but that’s a guild – why shouldn’t an organiser of a GDKP get compensated for their efforts?

unfortunately that is a reason for a lot of ninjas. -Their feelings of entitlement override what is ‘fair’.    Fair – is making the rules upfront – and sticking to them.  That way I get an informed choice.

When looking for a  GDKP – a loot rule like 1RR would influence my decision to join.   If the organiser  – say does not have Deaths Verdict  – and it’s good for his class – and he declares  “1RR”  then if I was after that same loot item –  it means the opportunity to bid on that is gone for a week.

Reserving of much wanted items is also bad for the Pot.  Heroic DFO’s in the earlier days was going for 45k gold  – thats 1.8k gold each in the pot off one bid.  Boe’s always sell well in GDKP’s because of their resale value on the auction house.

What sort of compensation should they get?

I find it unfair that we would pay 1k for someone to unlock heroic mode once for lootship – yet the person who ran it – gets nothing but the pleasure of 24 other peoples company and the equal chance to bids. Maybe some of the carrys are their friends. 

However besides  a cut of the pot – the primordials – patterns, a choice of loot, or a BOE  – how do you be fair to the leader without being at least a little unfair – or depriving the remaining 24?

I would prefer that they get no reward = more things/gold for me,  but I don’t believe that it’s entirely ‘fair’ but it’s certainly a preference of mine.  No Funky loot rules.

What would I be ok with? – what’s ‘fair’ ?

Firstly.  I would need to be informed of these rules before I started.  Then I would weigh it up.

I might be ok with say a 1k payment.  40 gold each from the pot for a decent ICC run. Eg now 10/12 bosses.

Keeping the patterns from TOC/TOGC

One BOE

 That about covers it what I would be willing to give up to be involved in a GDKP.  I’m sure  a lot of people wouldn’t even agree to those.  But I think they are reasonable. If that was my only choice.

Raid Safe List

Published June 16, 2010 Gaming , Guild , MMORPG , raid , World Of Warcraft 10 Comments
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Matryoshka Nesting Ninjas Via Thinkgeek.com

Blackrock has its own Raid Safe list,  with names, and screenshots of known ninjas  at Straferight.com

“The people in this list are proven to steal or scam players out of items. Grouping, trading or any other type of interaction with them may result in being scammed. “

It’s a blacklist of sorts with guilds, and players, of known ninja’s – with a strict rule of  – must have screenshot evidence.  It seems mainly aimed at Horde Side,  because it seems to be more of a problem on that side of the fence,  but there are a few Alliance in there as well .  I can’t find however, the names of at least two people I was aware were confirmed ninja’s alliance side recently.

List is here and is 121 pages long to date of names,  screenshots, posts,

It’s moderated,  and as the moderators says

 ” I  have removed many people from the list. I update and research it often. Shit happens and sometimes people get shit mixed up. I am a realist.”

and as for its accuracy – and should you rely on  the information?

 “I know the time and effort it takes to keep a list accurate……  it is up to you to trust the link and to trust the content”

It’s quite a collection -a history of people who really do go out of their way to make things ‘unfair’  Keyword though is Scam.  They have scammed other players,  and that is what Blizzard does not like.

How useful is the information?

While using my google fu,  I found someone who app’d to a Alliance guild and the first response from the guild was the link to the post at straferight  which included multiple screenshots of that person ninjaing  something.  He was not accepted to that guild.

I also found reading back through the thread  someone who was implicated as being a ninja or being stupid for rolling on an item because the poster didn’t think it was an upgrade. The accused/implicated  had to defend themselves for gear choices,  and his explanation seems reasonable  – maybe this is the type of post that gets moderated eventually, especially when the posters link to image is broken.

It seems to be the most comprehensively organised list available.  It’s not defamation if it’s true,  and for the most  – the cases put forwarded are backed by screenshots.  Some realm forums try and keep a list,  but most end up degrading into mush.

I could keep a  separate list of people I have pugged with / raided with that have annoyed me and publish them here – they would become googleable.  My posts get google indexed, and I have a google rank of sorts – so if I named someone, and you google the right words, in theory you will find them here, which I why I do not want to post such things here   It’s one persons experience – mine-  even if they are true, , and unless someone is moderating me  and they have the opportunity to share their side. It wouldn’t seem fair.

*Disclaimer*I did name one person in an incident – and included screenshots which showed me telling him to read the blog – never heard from him, but he continued to be bad for other reasons, and got called out on the  realm forums,  so that google rank beats mine hands down. Still it was bad of me.

 I’ve been in some pugs that have made me angry – frustrated, but honestly without a permanent record of those I feel have ‘wronged’ me in some way  I’m going to forget your name in 2 weeks,  maybe 3  and I want to keep it that way.

I don’t want to feel obligated to check  a list, be it mine,  or somewhere on the web incase they are a bad. It would destroy the game a little for me each time I did.  I’ve never been ninja’d. ( Touch wood) –  but the choices I have made that turned out to be no so-good choices,   had signs that it wasn’t going to end well – but I went on the raid anyway. Weigh up the rewards v risk.   Set your standards, and for the sake of your stress levels. Keep them.

One thing I will offer advise on is,   read trade chat – people who ninja get talked about.  People who are idiots often trade spam stupid things.  Think upon it as your local gossip rag.   It’s good to keep your ear to the ground. 

I think a ninja list can be a dangerous thing – and I know by posting this – opening it up to discussion I am bringing it more attention.   I do think though it has it’s uses, as long as it’s moderated by people who do not have bias and the blackrock list seems to be done fairly. 

 If the behaviour – personality of a player is as easily discovered by a google search, or a report,  I am sure guilds would love to do that for all their apps.  I wrote a post some time ago “ How to use Warcraft Realms to investigate a Guild application”  as an example of armory crawlers that are already out there.

Even now,  any guild forum indexed by google becomes  a potential information source on players.   It’s amazing how easy it is to find guild applications, forum posts by, and to by any player name.  A raid safe list just makes it easier.

Weekend round up

Published June 6, 2010 Gaming , Guild , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 1 Comment
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1.   The Rug’s Topography 

Say hello to the rug’s topography
It holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it 

The Nurse who Loved me – A Perfect Circle

This is what happens when you run into Mallable goo.  

 

Mirror images will also not take diseases off you and   Dispersion is awesome for taking some extra ticks.  Heroic PP is Chaotic and the fight makes me think a lot about jelly. 

2. Story from a Ninja’d GDKP – 

There has been an increase of GDKP ninj’as on the server,  This one actually happened the weekend before last,  but a friend was in it and has been talking to a Blizzard GM about the outcome of the ticket put in to report the ninja . Due to privacy rules the GM would not disclose to where the ninja transferred to   ( of course they server transferred) and the exact punishment – but he would at least receive at least the minimum 48 hour ban,  had the bike he purchased stripped, epic flying removed, and basically was not left with much.  As for the Pot  ( some 80k) worth, it was not split between the people who had been ninj’d off because most of that pot didn’t exist. 

Why?  Because the Ninja had been the one bidding on the loot.    Because I wasn’t there – I can’t say exactly what went down,  but from the sounds of it he outbidded everyone else on the things he wanted.  Of course he didn’t have any gold with him, I don’t know how much of the pot was him ‘ghost bidding” so the raid didn’t lose 80k of real gold, 

I’ve added that to my mental list of suss behaviours – when the person who is running the gdkp keeps making excessive bids.   No one ever questions the Raid leader.  They assume that a) he knows the fights b) has a working mod c)  can lead,d)  has the actual gold they are bidding with,  it’s not like we actually check,  and I’m sure questioning the leader would get you a Raid Kick.

This is why I like vent for GDKP’s.  You can tell more about a persons leadership style, abilities, and so on when you can hear them.   If they are not speaking or sound like a whiney teenage kid  (not all teenagers are whiney, some are quite mature and are capable raid leaders)  – it’s your gold,  your time – work out if its worth the stress.   

I’ve not been ninja’d once. Touch wood. Hower myNinja raydar works better then asshat raydar. 

3. I Got Space Invader wall stickers! 

My geekiness shall know no bounds when these make it to my pc room walls.  When I turned 30 I contemplated at what age Should I stop wearing Skulls and X Bone tshirts – or Zombie Ninja Pirate Tshirts   ( best non commercial link I could find.  ❤ Teefury Tshirts.   I haven’t quite worked out either  when I am supposed to stop get excited over things like space invader wall stickers either.    Or Cookie Monster Earings Or a Tardis Iphone Cover   

 

*sorry if you’ve already seen my Rugs Topography post.  I accidently deleted it using the WordPress Iphone app because I fail, so I chucked in my weekend round up thingy.

5 things for Friday

Published June 4, 2010 Battle Ground , Gaming , Guild , MMORPG , Shadow Priest 16 Comments
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1. I will write more on my Dedicated server stance.  I need to do some more reading  to back up my argument,  I want to  consider things like the effects of language, and region on progression in raids, and arena. 

If a dedicated real oceanic server did happen – than the player base becomes more concentrated – than language will affect who you play with – Eg just look at EU WOW. Servers and guilds have become ‘language – centric’.    I guess I’m letting the cat out of the bag on an unwritten post – but I want to spend some time on the issue,  and I think it’s big enough and important enough to present a well thought out case then just a random ‘ I don’t want….”  Like I did in my previous post.

  Do the majority of people who play in Oceanic actually need a server that will deliver more precise actions. Are we underrepresented in things like Arena, and progressive raiding,  and  would having less lag  encourage more people to get serious about those things?   

2.  I’ve had a few attempts on LK in 10’s,   but when the tank is tanking him in defile.  We have issues.  BUT!   I killed the King on 25’s with my new guild.  They are old hats at it.  No I wasn’t  noob enough to release when LK killed us all,  though my complete and utter shock  at the raid blowing up  probably made me look like I hadn’t even read about the encounter.   I did I promise!  But being there and dying unexpectedly is still a massive shock because my first thought was something had happened to wipe the raid.

3.  Devouring Plague spamming in BG is awesome.  I can crit up to 4.5 K damage on a DP inital damage,  and it’s not dispelable if I am spamming it chasing you across the BG.  So shadow priest hot on your heals  Shadow Word deathing you on CD,  Doting you up with SWP, throwing a fiend at you, and spamming DP.  You better be a healing class with hots, and a lot of health. Cause your going down. MWHAHAHAHA

4. I got globally muted on a vent. When I was on my healing Alt in a GDKP.  It’s my fault. I told the player if he wasn’t going to stop saying a certain word  repetitively I would ignore him.  Imagine wiping on Rot Heroic, and all you can hear just over the raid leaders instructions is  Pen*s Pen*s Pen*s Pen*s Pen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*sPen*s Pen*s

It wasn’t even the word that annoyed me,  it was the timing  – and it’s repetitiveness.  I wasn’t the first, nor the last to tell him to quit it,  but I was the only girl who spoke.  He was a vent admin. Result = Me globally muted for the rest of the raid. 

That same raid,  when another female spoke for the very first time after some discussions on why we were wiping on Princes,  was told to “Shut up you W*ore” and some other choice words.

Yet regardless of what I think was undeserved treatment  me and her still stuck the raid out, and got our share of the GDKP pot.   It was a pug,  but it was run by someone who should have better control because of the guild tag he wore  – and he didn’t control not only the behaviour directed at us,  but let the raid rip each other apart on various things the entire time we were in there.

This is where I wish recording vent conversations didn’t breach our telecommunications survellience acts  ( topic for another day)

My principles are worth less than a pot of around 4800 gold each.  But I wasn’t going to leave and reward them with a greater share.  Then they would have won.

5.

Would you listen to me if it wasn’t about WOW?  I don’t really expect an answer,  just that I have been adding as many non wow blogs to my reader as I have wow blogs, and I have found so many interesting people talking about stuff!  I guess definitions of interesting vary between people. 

No No No..   I not quitting Wow blogging I am as addicted to blogging as I am gaming.

My epiphany has been that it’s a little sad that my gaming experiences  are  more relevant, and interesting to an audience then thoughts on more important things.  But I am sure those important things wouldn’t be half as entertaining.

Arachnophobia – Why more women don’t play Wow.

Published May 29, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 33 Comments
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Forgive the poor Gimpage skills.  But you get the Gist

Arachnophobia – the fear of spiders  apparently occurs in 50% of Women,  and 10% of men. The Phobia can be mild,   or quite severe, it seems rather high, that 50% of women have it.  It’s supposed to be the most common of all phobias.

We have a lot of spiders in WOW. you will see that spiders can be found at most of the stages of leveling in World of Warcraft,  and no matter the class, or race you play  – you will see spiders at some point. You craft with spiders, you cook with spiders

In Wow, they throw poison spit at you,   web, and trap you like prey stare at you with beady eyes.

Could you play Wow if you had Arachnophia?

I will admit they are creepy.  I’m a Woman. I’m not sure I would call my feeling towards them a  phobia,  In Australia we grow up being exposed  redback spiders in our backyards. We even make fun of them in a Song called “Red back on the Toilet seat.”  I think I have a healthy respect for them,  not a fear or a phobia.  But I will kill a redback and a white tail if I see them.

One of the  places in WOW  if I did have a phobia of spiders that I imagine I would not be able to endure is the Spider trash room,  clearing your way to Sindragosa In ICC,

If you haven’t seen the room I found a short Youtube Video  Rogues V Spiders that show the spiders creeping towards the centre,   hanging from webs and crawling down the walls.

The Gates close behind you, and you are trapped and face an onslaught of what seems an unending  flood of spiders.  Your party stands there chest deep ( or over your head if you’re a gnome or a dwarf)  in the bodies of the fallen spiders.  I’ve used a screen shot from the remains of that fight, overlayed with the Arachnophobia Title from the 1990 movie.

Do you know anyone with a fear of spiders that plays Wow? – How does it affect them while they are playing?  Or are the graphics far enough away from reality to disassociate?

The Spider Phobia is easily enough to relate back to Wow,  but I wonder if people can get affected by other phobias by gaming, and specifically our experiences in WOW

Ophidiophobia: Fear of snakes – we have snakes in game.

Acrophobia: Fear of Heights – we have lots of high places, and even a quest horde side in a Thousand Needles  that requires you to jump off a cliff for Test of Faith as well as the quest requiring you to jump off a cliff for the Tuskars : Conversing with the Depths

Pteromerhanophibia: Fear of flying – would make getting around  a lot harder

Even Emetophobia:  Fear of Vomiting.    Better hope you don’t get Vile Gas in the Plague wing

I’m sure we could find a lot of phobia triggers  within the game,  but is the person far enough removed from the reality of the phobia, that it doesnt affect them by gaming.

Could then gaming be used to treat phobias?  Creating Virtual environments for people to explore their fears without threats.

Weekend Wrap up.

Published May 24, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 4 Comments
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1.  I am guilded again in a raiding guild. Pugs are becoming soul draining – peoples badness, and attitude, and all sorts of terribleness have got to an intolerable point.  I wanted something stable,  with better organisation = better experience and so on.  The guild I app’d to was after a Shadow priest, and after stalking  the recruitment forums for a couple of days,  I was competing against another Shadow Priest who ended up telling  the guild to go  “suck on a d*ck nerds” – so I think I was one up on attitude anyway from the start.  We see how we go.

2. I am going to start leaving pug raids that don’t use vent.  ” We know the fights – we don’t need to use vent.”  Says the dps not killing adds/spikes  – one run was pretty frustrating because there were several guild members from one guild in the pug who all refused to get on vent, and belittled in a quite asshatteristic  ( I made a new word)  way the raid for needing it. Of course none of them  did anything bar what was necessary.  My Healing Mod / I use also for raidframes –  VuhDo has the ability to read peoples ranks in a guild as  shown in in Hots & Dots Post Fun with VuhDo and some of then can be rather amusing.  What was interesting about this raid,  was the scrolling over revealed the GM,  and some officers of the guild in the pug.  It looked like they hadn’t managed to get a guild run this week.  The Irony in addition was that their GM  was on vent, and revealed with a slip of tongue that he was ‘on both vents”  so he had been relaying the instructions back to his raiders.   So much for not needing vent .

3. My Tank is leveling slowly.  My Leveling partner is US based, so weekends have really been the only time we get to run dungeons – she is 35 and a bit now – and got annoyed at losing, not one,  but two pieces of upgrades to a Pally who had queued as DPS.  ( Two different instances – luck  meant I got him twice)   You Yank it, You Tank it talks about similar frustrations in their recent  post Main Spec Veruses Off spec in Heroics.  I guess tanks  have to gear up somehow – and maybe the level 35 dungeons are a lot less significant  than the 80’s  – but my tanking set started with chosing quest rewards,  using greens,  my profession to craft upgrades, AH bargain shopping.  I’ve been queuing as a tank since level 20, I feel like my efforts in fulfilling my role has been shat upon a little because they are getting the gear the ‘easier way’  but if they had queued as tank,  they would also be competing against DPS rolling against them.  So I guess it’s a circle.

4. My 10’s Icc is now 11/12 we had to abandon some hardmodes to get there in the time we had,  and we had two attempts on the Lich King to see the fight.  That thing/man/demon  sitting on a throne, all casual like. Looking down upon the group of adventurers with disdain.  He is the reason for Wrath.   But I got there,  before the 20% buff,  and for our 3rd week as a regular 10’s we are doing ok.  Still needing to pug one or two people  due to other commitments.

5. Ah yes  – I told my GM I blogged in my interview – It’s up to them if they tell their officers, but I get the odd person  saying Hi to me now & than  on the realm from random places, and just in case it ever got mentioned. Oh  Hi  back!   /wave   it’s ok to say hello – I shall not bite,  and I wouldn’t feel quite honest if I didn’t give them an opportunity to be aware.  I don’t think I write anything that could be considered a  PR disaster.  I also mustn’t forget that some people don’t read blogs / are aware of the community, and so just don’t care, but it matters to me.

6. The website that was selling an interview on their site for gold – has not had a single post since.  I really hope no one was silly enough to pay for it.

Gear Score as a recognised universal measurement

Published May 21, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , raid , World Of Warcraft 21 Comments
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Image from Think Geek – Equal Measure Product page

I’m just going to say –  I get an little thrill when I see my GS getting higher
Come on – Don’t lie and say that you don’t.

You know you’ve made it when you break the GS mod  ( anyone over 6000 broke mine)  I’m not there yet.   Getting close.

People fervently hate Gear Score.  Why?  Because it gives  you a number and puts you in your place  – and a way to compare just how many people are better than you.   Or Because  It’s measurement is too easily  manipulated.

Why does this epeen metre mean SO much  – why does it get you so worked up?

It’s not like Gear Score = Skill.  Everyone knows that.  But it’s still used.

Why?

It’s a Universally recognised measurement tool – and no other in WOW has become so legitimised by use, and popularity.

This post here is legimising it.   Me boasting about my gearscore legitimises it,  linking a gear score measurement website  www.wtfismygearscore.com  ,  your comments legitimise it  Your downloads  legitimise it.

 Using it as a measurement tool. Talking about it,  downloading the mod.   We are acknowledging it as a universally recognised gear measurement system.  Perpetuating it’s use  – making it part of our experience, and expectations.

Much like we measure I levels, and Blues, and Plum.  We recognise the value it stands for.

Remember the days when Rum  was a currency – it was given a recognised value and used. ( early colonial Australia)  – or even consider the our own  RL Measurement systems,  regardless off the conflicts between  Metric and Imperial.  You say Inch, I say centimetre.  The values of that measurement is drummed in to us by, our times, our country our laws, and cultural expectations bred into us via society,  the family we grow up in,  religion,  schooling – all these things. 

 We perpetuate it.

Perpetuate.

And again.

And again.

OH LOOK  – Blizzard has now put it as a feature available to all users.  We don’t need a mod anymore  ( Future possibility This is not currently true.)

Your not going to change culture by complaining about it.  We have grasped this need to measure Epeen,  We now have an identity.  I am Shadow Priest 5.9 Gear score.

Complaining about Gearscore is not going to make it go away  ( unless Blizzard doesn’t like it)  A hole,  a need has been filled.

I feel so much better that I know my place in the world.  Don’t you?

In order to change it – we need to replace it with a better system.

I am Shadow Priest AIL 260.24

I am … WH – A  22

I am … BEI 725.42

I am… WCGS 2124

I am … NE F P S 4t10 10/12 10icc 10/1225icc HM 10-2 10-3 10-6 25-1 25-3 25-6  ( Better stick that in a Macro)

I am …  Frack this.  This isn’t working.   Look me up on the damn armory.

Oh? You want me to link you my  armory link.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackrock&cn=Zahraah

Url too long?

I could  make you a Tiny URL   http://tinyurl.com/2d5rp7p

What?  You don’t have a Chat mod to use links in chat.  You’re going to have to type my name in and look it up then and every other noob that Pst you.

Q Whats your GS?

A 5.9

Easy. Simple.  Done.

Find something as simple as using GS has become,  and you have a winner.  You will change culture.  You will change how we measure each other,  but untill you find that new something,  or blizzard takes it away.  You are stuck with it.

Running a GDKP still requires a Leader to lead.

Published May 21, 2010 raid , World Of Warcraft Closed
Tags: , ,

I’ve said  that – while anyone can run a GDKP – not everyone should, and if you want some more basic information on them  Looking for More has a post ” GDKP: Get your Moneys Worth” with some information for people new to GDKP’s  and  Elitist Jerks has a very detailed  explanation / comentary on the subject here

In Another TOC GDKP on Wednesday night we pull Beasts.  Raid Leader dies in 1st min.  Several other people die in fire.  We survive Acid and Dread.  On Icehowl we survived 2 crashes,  on the 3rd  someone got hit,  we killed Beasts it with 2/3 of the raid dead.

We get to loot, and Raid leader  has forgotten to set loot master – loot didn’t go through the Loot mod.  10 min later every who needed/greeded/DE’d ( Yes some of them did.)  the loot handed it over to the loot master.  Raid Leader asks for help with mod.

Mod is working by the time we killed Jarax – and surprisingly  after one wipe on him and no one leaving we kill him.

There was no leadership – we may have killed things because we had some awesome people who knew their roles but every fight was messy  as there  were plenty who didn’t.   It takes confidence to Raid lead,  and this guy had 4 assists.  I am assuming friends, and guildies,  but not one  tried to lead.  In between other people in the raid joking about shoving pieces of anatomy in various places  ( 2 more to add to my ignore list)  I was trying to remind people to kill the adds. – Don’t run legion flame through Melee.  On Twins me and another healer  took up soaking duty because the raid leader said ”   Just take  any colour”  There was no strats explanations/ refocusing.  Just –  lets kill  sh*it

 I heckled the RL once with a ” Don’t Run GDKP’s if you don’t know what you’re doing”  but  it should have included don’t try and raid lead if you can’t at least pretend to know what you’re doing”  and some people in the raid just wouldn’t let up on the heckling – pointing out all his failures,  and instead of helping solve his loot issues  they  complained non stop.  He looted all the loot to himself on Jarax, and 4 people started shouting in raid chat ” He’s ninjaing.”    ( he wasn’t)

He lost control,  he lost respect.

In the end on  4/5  because he called it after one wipe on Anub  and 800 gold each  and arguments over the value of the loot from the 1st boss that hadn’t been added to the pot. The RL hadto give the gold to someone else to distribute because they couldn’t handle the stress of people tapping their foot, telling him to hurry.  He told the raid to never speak to him again and logged off.

At the end,  if I had been the one running the GDKP  I would have burst into tears and not logged on for a week. But then I would have been somewhat more organised.

They could have saved themselves so much stress – so here’s my advise  if you want to run a GDKP

  • Test the mod before you use it live.  Grab some friends and guildies, and run a dungeon,  or a lobie raid. ANYTHING.  It will save stress and time, and make it a smoother run for everyone.
  • Check that you are loot master. TRIPLE CHECK before pull.
  • Work out what you’re going to do with Orbs/trophies / Patterns.   Do you save it for a goodie bag at the end of the run – or Auction them off as you go. Communicate what you are doing.
  • Learn how to Manually add an item  ( chances are something will screw up once)
  • Learn how to Pause bidding,  relist an item,  change the starting price  
  • Don’t offer freerolls on items not bidded on.  ( yes he did)
  • Work out if you are going to Raid lead or not.  If your not  – give it to a friend – handling gold, bids & leading is not an easy task especially if you are only new – trying to lead,  or pseudo lead with a ‘ Of course everyone knows what they are doing  – and will do it.’  doesn’t work. Ever.
  • If your the raid leader.  LEAD.  Don’t let other people do it for you.

One thing I will add – as an optional.

  •  No Vent no Gold.  You Shouldn’t need it for easy things – TOC,  ICC 4/12   I know. But I think that success is more likely  if you can get your communication right.    Even the best dps may need prodding – or their focused changed.  A raid leader is  also more aware of more than things ( or should be)  then the average raid pleb and vent allows that to be communicated.   A Dps doesn’t really care that a tank is frozen in place with a debuff, a healer notices, and  a good off tank would know, and when they got the fire debuff already be moving over to the other tank.  But what happens if healers can’t see that specific debuff on that tank because of their raid frames, and think he is just taking normal damage,  if the other tank is not aware,  then one of your tanks is now frozen,  on a wall, on the other side of the room.  A ‘give me fire’ by that tank,  or a ‘get fire to the tank’ on vent will get you a better response then a raid warning/raid comment.

But in regards to vent – if you don’t want to use vent.   I would suggest that you either have no one in vent,  or everyone in vent.  Because I’ll lay bets that the person your telling to do something  is one of the 5 people who is not there. If people are on vent,  they won’t read chat,  of they are relying on chat,  then they aren’t on vent ect .  Get your communication consistent.

Why Cats are not Good Raid Leaders

Published May 20, 2010 MMORPG , raid , World Of Warcraft 6 Comments
Tags: , ,

Inspired/ idea nicked from  Why Cats Are not Employed as Doctors

  • Valuable time is lost as the Raid Leader plays with the critters through out the instance 
  •  While explaining raid strats to the raid the Raid leader ” suddenly loses interest and walks off” 
  • Raid leader refuses to respond to own name during ready check. 
  • Raid Members grow  concerned as Raid leader runs up and down hallway for no apparent reason.
  • Sensing fellow raid members’ growing frustration with wiping raid leader curls up in a corner and goes to sleep
  • Raid Leader raises hackles and bares teeth when someone rolls on loot they want
  • Raid leader – removes all armor and sits with legs and arms in awkward positions cleaning themselves during random intervals of a boss pull
  • Raid Leader’s bell on their  flea collar warns nearby bosses  that a raid is comming.
  • Furball missels become part of the raid leaders DPS

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