Utgarde Keep Brings Out the Worst in People

I’ve noticed that for some reason if I get a random Utgarde Keep when I do my random heroics, for some reason it seems to end up a struggle, and not because the dungeon is hard. I think people get complacent and think its just UK, I can eff around and do whatever I want and roflstomp this dungeon. Last night was no exception.

The second pull in the dungeon often tanks pull a group of like 8 instead of cautiously pulling one group then the other, because there is one guy that pats across. With the changes to consecration, it has been taking paladin tanks an extra second to get full aggro on these larger groups.

Last night, the pugger in question was a random DK. He ran in immediately and Blood Boiled before the tank had threat on a majority of the mobs. Squishy DPS DK got the attention of all of the mobs, and the following is what happened:

For some reason I didn’t manage to get a screenshot of me telling him he probably shouldn’t Blood Boil before the tank has aggro. What followed was this gem:

Seriously, what kind of DK’s rotation involves running in and Blood Boiling to start before even applying diseases? If he was tanking it would have made some sense if he was trying to rush and get some quick AoE aggro, I do the same thing on my DK tank sometimes (particularly if I have a gogogo in the group). This makes zero sense if you are in a dps role, your blood boil will do more damage if you use it after applying diseases.

We ended up kicking him because he was obviously being a jerk.

The funniest part was after we kicked him, the pally tank chimed in and said, “I had no idea what was going on. I had that guy on ignore from the start.”

As much as I hate getting blamed for things that aren’t my fault and being chewed out when I speak reason, I kinda liked being called a “bitch ass healer.” I know he didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it did kind of tickle me.

Viva – The Bitch Ass Healer

Gender Issues at Blizzcon, Hawt PCs and NPCs, Who Cares?

The infamous Victoria’s Secret catalogue question has been making its rounds on the blogosphere, and I am jumping on the bandwagon. The entire Open Q&A session text can be found here.

I love what you guys have done with WoW, I love that there’s a lot of strong female chars, though I wonder if we can have some that didnt look like they came out of a Victoria’s Secrets catalogue?

Which catalogue would you like them step out of then? We feel ya, we want to vary our female chars more in the future. So yeah we’ll pick different catalogues.

NPCs

This got me thinking about the female role models in WoW, and what they are wearing. The following are only those currently appearing in game.

Alexstrasza – yep, skimplily clad

Sylvanas Windrunner – also skimpily clad

Jaina Proudmoore – belly showing, but well covered

Vareesa Windrunner – suitable armor, not skimpy at all

Tyrande – tasteful robes suitable to a priestess

Greatmother Geyah – tasteful robes suitable to an elder

Shandris Feathermoon – armor suitable to a Sentinel

Magatha Grimtotem – very low cut

Lady Liadrin – armor suitable to a paladin

High Priestess Ishanah – belly showing, but well covered

Moira Thaurissan (aka Bronzebeard) – very scantily clad

The Black Bride – suitable armor

Of these twelve, I consider four of them to be unreasonably skimpy, 2 of them show belly but are otherwise acceptable, and 6 of them are well armored or geared for their class/race. Really, women are outraged over 1/3 of the NPCs in the world dressing a little naughty?

Players

Now, let’s take a look at what we are wearing as players.

Tier 7 (Naxxramas):

DK, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

Tier 8 (Ulduar):

DK, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

Tier 9 (Trial of the Crusader):

DK, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

Tier 10 (Ice Crown Citadel):

DK, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

Although I did struggle to find screenshots of every set on female models I did find a majority of them. The trend this expansion has been very covered up. If anything is showing, it’s a little bit of belly. I haven’t seen anything low cut this expansion at all.

My Thoughts

I am a woman, and I like my characters in a fantasy game to be scantily clad. I give my characters naughty roleplay or city walking outfits because I think it looks cool and I like it (see here). I like looking at it. I don’t know what that says about me or my own self image or whatever, and I don’t care. I like to look good, and I wasn’t impressed by the tier gear this expansion.

I find it frustrating that the questioner at Blizzcon (who I assume was female) did not do thorough research before asking such an inane question of the panel. I’d be more interested to hear they are putting Jaina in a more proud position lore-wise and making her less of a spineless, sniveling crybaby, than that they cover her belly up.

After hearing this questioner and the outcry from many women throughout the blogosphere, my fear is that the gear in Cataclysm is going to have us wearing boxes. Afterall, how much more covered up can we get?

Public Service Announcement

Ignore this mage!

As soon as we entered Heroic Nexus this mage hearthed back to Shattrath. We got through the first boss with only the rogue dying to whirlwind, and this was through pulling the entire area due to fears. At which point someone mentioned that the mage wasn’t even with us and that we should kick him. And here is what happened:

Ok… Viva’s Gearscore using the addon is currently right around 4k. Ama’s Gearscore using the addon is right around 5.7k.  So unless this mage is coming from some magic world where Gearscores can be magically up to 10k, I don’t think so.

Secondly, if you have no desire to run an instance, why the hell did you queue and probably wait 20-30 minutes for the dungeon to pop, just to behave like this?

I recognize that this guy has some amazing gear and achievements, but that does not mean he has a right to just trounce all over some fairly fresh 80s and hijack their heroic run. Heroics are easy and they can be done with 2k gearscore, the way we did it when Wrath was brand new.

Everyone in the group was decently geared and was doing decently. The tank was holding aggro, the hunter and rogue were holding their own. There is no reason to make an immediate call like this based purely upon Gearscore. Give people a chance.

It’s unfortunate to see these kind of people running around ruining other people’s mornings. For the most part I feel that RP realms have more nice people per capita than other realms. This guy isn’t it, and he freely admitted that he also role-plays. I don’t know if he was role-playing an asshole or if he really is one, and I don’t care. It’s just not right and I don’t have to put up with it.

So, if you see Indarys from Moonguard, run far, far away.

When Blizzard Makes Mistakes

Larisa at The Pink Pigtail Inn has made an intriguing commentary about the Direbrew event and how it is broken here. And she is absolutely right.

Do you want to know how I know this?

Because my computer is slightly less than uber for gaming, I sometimes run into very long load screens when I enter instances. It doesn’t happen every time, but it happens often enough that I am aware of the issue (guildies will sometimes ask what took me so long).

Most people will wait for all members to be there before beginning an instance. Not so with the Direbrew event. I actually entered the Direbrew event after a long load screen (20 seconds seems like an eternity sometimes) and found everyone dropping group, and me left with no chance at loot, no receiving frosty badgers in a keg, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

What did I get? A chance to re-queue for a “dungeon” I should have just completed.

I guess I should be happy they didn’t kick me.

I appreciate that Blizzard is busy working hard to make Cataclysm the best that it can be, but shouldn’t they make what is currently being played playable? I would have rather foregone the entire event than have it play out like this. It makes the simple act of choosing a role for the event absurd. It turns the whole event into a joke, and not the good kind.

I know what you’re all thinking. You don’t have to do the Direbrew event. And you’d be right. I’m a firm believer in doing what is fun and not doing what is not fun, regardless of the consequences (Frost Mage here I come!). I have weighed the pros and cons, and free frosty badgers wins every time. So despite my grumpiness at a broken event, I am not boycotting, even though I should be.

Hopefully this is not a farce that is destined to be repeated with future holiday events. Please, Blizz, I’m begging you.

Discipline Healing in 25 Mans (A Rant)

My main is a Discipline Priest, and I don’t think I’m a horrible one, but I seem to always run into trouble when I’m asked to Main Tank heal anything that is not with my guild.

This morning I ran an ICC 25 half-pug with my friend’s guild, and I ended up rage quitting. This was just about the worst thing I could have done, but I did it. Emotional priest is emotional and erratic. Sorry.

Here’s the thing, I am a Discipline Priest. While we are designed as Single Target healers, we are not designed to solo Main Tank heal. At least this is my understanding of my class. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong and call me a baddie.

Since I started raiding as Disc during this expansion I have tried desperately to be a Main Tank healer, and I always fail (unless I overpower the raid dungeon through gear). Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Maybe my rotation is wrong. Maybe my gear is wrong. I don’t know. I do tend to be OCD about getting my slot bonus for gems even when I don’t really need it, so my gemming is probably a bit wonky. I’m fairly confident that my spec is good.

I can’t solo heal a single tank through the Festergut fight on 25 man regular. Is this wrong? Should I be able to do this? I don’t know.

This is not a new issue for me. This is part of the reason I left Resolution and quit raiding so long ago. This is the main reason I rarely do 25 man raids. This is the reason I am always hesitant to 2 heal a 10 man dungeon. This is THE reason I don’t do VoA EVER. I’m a fail tank healer that needs back up. You’re better off bringing a Holy Paladin than bringing me into your raid. I will only disappoint you, and in turn end up disappointing myself.

I’m awesome at being a support healer. I can balance any group by helping with tanks or with raid healing. I am awesome on fights with AoE damage because I can mitigate this with bubble spam. Put me as the Main Tank healer on any fight and expect me to be able to pull it off without any help from other healers, you’re asking for a dead tank.

I know there’s a ton of Discipline Priests out there in the Blogosphere. Help me out here. What am I doing wrong? How do you tank heal? Am I really as fail as I’m feeling? Time to roll a Paladin?

TLDR: Disc Priest fails to keep tank alive in ICC 25.

Random Misadventures

Three randoms attempted yesterday. Two completed.

Number One

The first was a heroic on Ama. I got H Old Kingdom. I feel like I always get Old Kingdom. But that’s ok. As we enter, the shaman asks if we can do all the bosses because she needs emblems. The tanks says it’s up to the group. As we approach the first boss, I suggest that we compromise and skip the mushroom boss. The shaman bails halfway through the first boss saying that she needs the emblems too much.

Seriously? Now she’s going to have to wait out her half hour deserter debuff before she can get any badges. Isn’t some better than none? Besides, I was just making the suggestion. If she had insisted, I would have backed down. She insisted and then instantly left. Didn’t even give us the chance to change our minds. I only made the suggestion because the mushroom boss is kind of out of the way and annoying.

I wish she had stayed because her replacement was a rather obnoxious GOGOGO mage. We completed this dungeon fairly smoothly anyway and did all but the mushroom boss.

Number Two

The second was a random regular WotLK dungeon on Viva with Totally (new and improved for your enhancement! Hehe!) We get an Utgarde Keep already in progress. The group is just past the first boss. The DK tank starts chain pulling. I’m having enough trouble keeping him alive as it is. We wipe. I’m sorry, but there is no reason to chain pull at level 70. The tank can’t handle it, the DPS can’t handle it, and I can’t handle it as a healer. Maybe that makes me a fail healer, but I can’t do it yet. We ended up bailing on that dungeon. Probably the same reason the previous healer/dps had bailed.

Number Three

The third was another Utgarde Keep with Viva and Totally. We were doing fine with a warrior tank until we got to the dragon room. He tried to bypass the dragons on the side, and managed to pull three dragons on accident. We wiped and the hunter bailed. The tank asked us to give him lead so he could bring an 80 in to run us through. Neither me nor Totally wanted that, so we declined and queued again. Apparently this upset Mr. Tank, because he ran into the dragon room aggroing everything and left the dungeon group.

We queue again, and wait about 15 minutes for a new tank. Meanwhile the Ret Pally tries his hand at tanking, in all ret gear, no BOAs, and often forgetting Righteous Fury. Totally ended up tanking most of that room as best he could. Somehow my Enhance Shaman partner is less squishy than a Ret Pally. Some of us die, and this hilarity ensues.

Level 70 Paladin without his rez spell. /facepalm

Tonnto was a remarkably apt name for him.

Shortly after this we got a real Pally tank in the group and completed the dungeon.

There was much hilarity from Tonnto throughout. He kept yelling about needing Ingvar’s head, until one of us explained that Ingvar was at the end of the dungeon.

At some point he told us we were mean for saying /facepalm when he said less than brilliant things. I dunno, I’ve seen much meaner things. Maybe we weren’t exactly super friendly and helpful, but I wouldn’t say we were mean. If we were mean we would have kicked him.

We had a little chat about our mains, to which Tonnto responded that this was his first character. No surprise there. I’ll give him this much, he did ok damage for his level, despite obviously being a little clueless. I’m guessing he’s just a kid, and I mean no offense in my mocking. It made for an interesting run and a little bit of fodder for my blog. Thank you, Tonnto.

Feminism —> Menism —> Head Assplode!

Seriously….

Can we stop talking about the role of women in WoW, which then leads to discussing the role of men in WoW, which then leads to tons of bickering about -isms and -archies and ughh…?!

There’s been so much talk about how poorly women are treated in WoW lately that I almost want to get back in he kitchen and make a damned sandwich.

Girl stuff

A post by The Bossy Pally made about Women and WoW.

I tend to avoid discussing gender issues. I try not to flaunt the fact that I’m female. I try very hard to make it a non-issue. I do this, not because I’m ashamed or fearful, but because I don’t think it should be a concern.

Growing up my parents taught me to disregard race, and I think they did a very good job of this. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I have no prejudices. I don’t think that’s humanly possible. We are judgemental creatures. But I can say that I treat every person I meet with respect and kindness unless they show me some reason not to, and I do so regardless of race, gender, age, etc.

I’m also not going to sit here and claim that I’ve never felt like I’ve been crapped on just because I’m female in WoW. It happens. People will discriminate. But just as I get crapped on for being female, that same jerkface is likely to find some fault with anyone over anything. The world of Azeroth is full of trolls. The trick is learning to ignore them.

It still bothers me when I hear the trolls talk garbage about how girls don’t play WoW, and if they do then they probably weight 1000 pounds, either that or they can’t play well. There may be some truth to the statement. I am overweight, but I certainly don’t weigh 1000 pounds. More and more, I find myself turning trade chat off when I’m in the city.

The irony for me is that I truly feel like I’ve had more social difficulty relating to other women in WoW than to other men. I can’t stand the cutesy girls who constantly flirt. I’ve seen such drama destroy guilds. I am beyond thankful that the other 4 women in my guild are very down to earth.

In fact, I’m almost worried they think I’m the cutesy flirty type. A little flirting is bound to happen, right? I’m very dedicated to the one I love, so it’s all just teasing and I’m fairly certain everyone understands that.

What was the point of this post?

Meh… I forget…

Puggle Trouble

Sometime last week a few guildies and I got pugged into another guild’s ICC 25 run. Loot rules were very simple, MS roll first, then OS, then DE. Once you have won something for MS, you may not roll on another item for MS (trying to spread the loot around). Simple right?

An item dropped and it was a decent upgrade for our rogue. He rolled for MS and won it. As soon as he got the item the warrior tank began crying. Apparently he’d been trying to get that item for his PvP set for a long time. He whispered our rogue and asked if he would sell it to him. The rogue gave him a price of 7k gold, which I think is quite reasonable for an ilvl 264. The warrior countered, offering one Primordial Saronite. This offer was kind of a slap in the face to the rogue, so he said no. At which point the warrior began berating him and calling him a fail rogue, etc.

The rogue eventually had to take it to the RL who ended up taking said tank aside. I have no idea what was said,  but he stopped bothering our rogue anyway.

Here’s the thing. Said warrior tank was not doing that great of a job as it is and was admittedly playing an Xbox game while he raided. Who is the fail in this situation? Besides, why should you be more entitled to an item that is for PvP for you, than the person who it is a real MS upgrade for? (The rogue did admit it was a very small upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless)

When we took down Rotface we killed him right at the enrage timer. The top DPS for the fight was from the PuG guild, but 2nd, 3rd and 4th were all from my guild. #3 was our rogue.  Don’t go calling people fail when they are carrying your raid. Without us or some dps of equal value there they never would have made that enrage timer.

Needless to say, we’ve decided not to join that guild’s 25 mans anymore.

RP Hate

There is a member of my guild who is very vocal about disliking Roleplay, I’ll call him Mack. To be fair Mack is also very vocal about just about everything.

Mack has told me over and over again how horrible the players from Moonguard and Nesingwary are when he runs into them in random heroics, ending his comments by spitting, “Fucking Roleplayers!” I find it amusing because Nesingwary isn’t an RP realm, and he never mentions Wyrmrest Accord or Farstriders which are RP realms. My guess is he doesn’t really realize which are RP realms and which aren’t. If they’re bad they must be RP. I’ve done my share of pugging, and personally, I’ve had more trouble with players from the PvP servers on our Battlegroup than the RPers.

Are we talking about Tirion?

With the plethora of newbies invading the realm, I guess Mack has run into some roleplayers. Mack is very against the invasion of newbs, and it gets even worse if he thinks they are RPing at him.

So I found it incredibly amusing when someone said in trade, “If you don’t know who the leader of the Argent Crusade is then get off our server.” Mack said, “Yeah! If they don’t know that shit they need to gtfo!”

Last I checked, knowledge of the primary faction leaders and storyline is what we call Lore. Knowledge of Lore would be a primary criteria for Roleplaying. I called him out on it, and he had no response.

This one time at the Aldor bank…

It reminds me of this one time back in BC, a friend and I were outside of the Aldor bank chatting in /say. Some random person came up to us and told us to go find an RP server to RP on, because no one wants to hear us. The funny thing is that I was talking to her about taking my cat to the vet IRL.

I recognize that I’m not on an RP realm anymore, but it still makes me a little butthurt when I hear people trashing Roleplayers. I think a lot of times most mainstream players have no concept of what RP really is. It’s human nature to fear and lash out at that which you don’t understand, I suppose.

Guild Concerns

Mack’s viewpoint is infectious. The entire guild has taken to making fun of the Moonguard players whenever they appear in a group, even if they are playing well enough. “Oh the Moonguard Mage is doing 100 dps less than me. Stupid Moonguard.”

Even more frustrating, they start talking in Old English, as if that is how real RPers talk. “The Moonguard people are too busy saying, ‘My lord, perhaps we might visit the lumbermill this day, for they hath the finest oak in the realm.’ to perform well in a BG.” I’ve actually threatened to gquit. I know I should just let the jokes go, but I know I am a Roleplayer at heart, and it hurts.

/2 WTB a little tolerance, paying with kindness, pst.

My GM and I spoke about the issue a few days later, and all is well. They have had nothing but abysmal experiences with Moonguard. It has nothing to do with RP, although, since they know it is an RP server, the jokes tend to turn that way. At the time I didn’t feel like I had any means of standing up for RP. He gave me a few suggestions that he thought could diffuse the situation if it came up again. He apologized and explained that he meant no offense to me.

Special Project Time?

Personally, I have had nothing but good experiences with the players from the 3 RP realms on our battlegroup. I think it may be time for a new pet project in which I document what realm different players in randoms are from and grade them on skill and behavior, just to get a test of where the scrubs really lie (at least in my opinion).

The irony is that Cairne has a reputation for being the shitty server on the Battlegroup.