So, I pug-ged into ICC10 last night with my druid. Bhorgia is resto/boom, but his resto is significantly better (and I'm better at playing it). These days my priest is pretty OP, and since we had the priest shortage I've been playing him fulltime, but he's dedicated to our 10 man team, so the druid is my pug of choice.
Anyway, a few guildies in the pug, and a guildie was setting it up.
He sets up pretty successful pugs in general. He says, "Link 5k gs and achieve" and even though we don't get that result, asking for it seems to bring up better pugs. However, it also brings up some fairly obnoxious jackasses. In runs like this EVERYBODY is in charge. Not following directions is standard, because everybody is playing their own strat. Luckily last night we were good enough to get Saurfang down - Festergut was a healing/tank issue for the most part, so we stopped there.
Despite the success, I am looking forward to my TEAM ZOMBIE 10-man tonight. We might do the same as the pug, but it will certainly be more fun.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
So - what do we do now?
Blizzard has done an amazing job getting us to get back into heroics. The lfd system rocks. Also, BGs are better than ever in the pre-80 days, since exp gains make it productive to be in there too.
I actually kinda like leveling my alts and lowbie, since there is so much more to do than to just run the same quests over.
Until today - it all got broke! Damn. I have the whole day off and I can't get into an instance. I have been perfectly conditioned to instance all day and night - and then rolling restart = phailzor.
Crap. Time to quest with my 72 hunter I guess. Or level mining. Or take a nap.
I actually kinda like leveling my alts and lowbie, since there is so much more to do than to just run the same quests over.
Until today - it all got broke! Damn. I have the whole day off and I can't get into an instance. I have been perfectly conditioned to instance all day and night - and then rolling restart = phailzor.
Crap. Time to quest with my 72 hunter I guess. Or level mining. Or take a nap.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Long time no see
Hey kids,
It's been a minute since I've had a chance to write. I've been doing all kinds of warcrafting, as well as getting back to the gym in RL in a big way. Plus, I'm writing a blog about my experiences with fitness and stuff. Anyway, I r busy.
In Azeroth, frankly, we've been kicking serious arse. My MT buddy, Akaichisuru is afk for a few weeks with school, but we've filled in with a great new guildie, Junesong (also a pallie). So, pretty much without missing a beat we've cleared the first 4 bosses in ICC, as well as getting Festergut 2 weeks in a row.
We had our first night on Rotface last night. 12 pulls, some of them a horrible mess, some of them pretty productive. For the pulls that lasted longer than 2 minutes we really learned a lot about the encounter. This is the biggest fight yet where everybody needs to pull their weight 100% of the time. If somebody does not follow directions, it's pretty much going to kill at least one person, and for us that means wipage.
I love having my priest for a few of the bosses in ICC. On Rotface removing disease is especially important. Remove it too early and the mini-add does aoe raid damage, remove it too late and the diseased person takes too much damage. So, for me - MT healing, raid healing with shield spam (remember, I'm disc), avoiding slime sprays, removing disease, and running my OWN diseased ass over to the OT . . . yeah, hectic. It is an awesome encounter, and I love the way it's designed. Gluth on steroids. Hopefully we can get him this week.
In even better news, our 25 man is in ICC too. We fairly well cruised through the first 3 bosses last week. Hopefully we'll be able to do the same thing tomorrow (and maybe even get Saurfang). We have 3 teams in the guild that are past Saurfang on 10-man, so I think it is pretty legit that we can get him in 25 - since everybody knows the encounter.
No song parody today - too much to do, but I have been thinking of a few. Also - I would totally take requests if somebody can think of a song they'd like to see a WoW parody of.
It's been a minute since I've had a chance to write. I've been doing all kinds of warcrafting, as well as getting back to the gym in RL in a big way. Plus, I'm writing a blog about my experiences with fitness and stuff. Anyway, I r busy.
In Azeroth, frankly, we've been kicking serious arse. My MT buddy, Akaichisuru is afk for a few weeks with school, but we've filled in with a great new guildie, Junesong (also a pallie). So, pretty much without missing a beat we've cleared the first 4 bosses in ICC, as well as getting Festergut 2 weeks in a row.
We had our first night on Rotface last night. 12 pulls, some of them a horrible mess, some of them pretty productive. For the pulls that lasted longer than 2 minutes we really learned a lot about the encounter. This is the biggest fight yet where everybody needs to pull their weight 100% of the time. If somebody does not follow directions, it's pretty much going to kill at least one person, and for us that means wipage.
I love having my priest for a few of the bosses in ICC. On Rotface removing disease is especially important. Remove it too early and the mini-add does aoe raid damage, remove it too late and the diseased person takes too much damage. So, for me - MT healing, raid healing with shield spam (remember, I'm disc), avoiding slime sprays, removing disease, and running my OWN diseased ass over to the OT . . . yeah, hectic. It is an awesome encounter, and I love the way it's designed. Gluth on steroids. Hopefully we can get him this week.
In even better news, our 25 man is in ICC too. We fairly well cruised through the first 3 bosses last week. Hopefully we'll be able to do the same thing tomorrow (and maybe even get Saurfang). We have 3 teams in the guild that are past Saurfang on 10-man, so I think it is pretty legit that we can get him in 25 - since everybody knows the encounter.
No song parody today - too much to do, but I have been thinking of a few. Also - I would totally take requests if somebody can think of a song they'd like to see a WoW parody of.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
My mage song parody
So, I have a 5 and a 7 year old. We happen to listen to a ton of Jack Johnson. I'm not sure if that's his target market, by my kids love him. Anyway, they heard Upside Down from the Curious George movie (which was horrible (except for Will Ferrell as the Man in the Yellow Hat)). I had the toon in my head as I sat down today. So mage - here ya' go:
What's a mage?
A glass cannon
Of the arcane.
A vending machine;
Biscuits they create.
They have frost and fire abilities,
But in vanilla WoW they sheeped some things.
Here in Wrath it's a different game:
Frost is useless 'cept in PVP,
DPS-ers use the arcane tree.
I want to change the way that mages pwn
I spec myself into Chilled to the Bone
So Winter's Chill crits all my AoE
Water Elemental does DPS for me
I think my damage is here to stay
Who's to say
Frost spec sucks, but
well, I can try
And as I grind mobs down, I begin to find
They die quickly and easily
I want to change the way that mages pwn
I spec myself into Chilled to the Bone
So Winter's Chill crits all my AoE
Water Elemental does DPS for me
The crits keep comin' and with plenty of haste
well damage keeps comin comin up and up and
Mages pwn
Every way we spec we grind mobs to the ground
I think my damage is here to stay
Please be here to stay
Please be here to stay
Please be here to stay
Until Blizzard decides to nerf me
Until Blizzard decides to nerf me
I don't play my lowbie mage very often - in fact it isn't even on my main server. Perhaps in Catacylsm I will roll one. I do think mages have suffered huge changes over the years. It's not a bad thing, all the classes have changed, and min/max specs have changed. I still love to see lower geared mages who know their class out dmg higher geared ones that don't. Mages are probably my favorite example of this. So - mages - whatever your spec: CHEERS!
What's a mage?
A glass cannon
Of the arcane.
A vending machine;
Biscuits they create.
They have frost and fire abilities,
But in vanilla WoW they sheeped some things.
Here in Wrath it's a different game:
Frost is useless 'cept in PVP,
DPS-ers use the arcane tree.
I want to change the way that mages pwn
I spec myself into Chilled to the Bone
So Winter's Chill crits all my AoE
Water Elemental does DPS for me
I think my damage is here to stay
Who's to say
Frost spec sucks, but
well, I can try
And as I grind mobs down, I begin to find
They die quickly and easily
I want to change the way that mages pwn
I spec myself into Chilled to the Bone
So Winter's Chill crits all my AoE
Water Elemental does DPS for me
The crits keep comin' and with plenty of haste
well damage keeps comin comin up and up and
Mages pwn
Every way we spec we grind mobs to the ground
I think my damage is here to stay
Please be here to stay
Please be here to stay
Please be here to stay
Until Blizzard decides to nerf me
Until Blizzard decides to nerf me
I don't play my lowbie mage very often - in fact it isn't even on my main server. Perhaps in Catacylsm I will roll one. I do think mages have suffered huge changes over the years. It's not a bad thing, all the classes have changed, and min/max specs have changed. I still love to see lower geared mages who know their class out dmg higher geared ones that don't. Mages are probably my favorite example of this. So - mages - whatever your spec: CHEERS!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Learning Curve
So we have had 2 days (one full day, and one day with only a token pull) fighting Saurfang. We have issues with our raid composition, specifically, our two best healers are Druid and Shaman (and the fight works better with Disc and Pallie). Anyway, we spent 2 hours pulling him yesterday. And although it is frustrating to run into a slight wall (more of a speed bump, really), I felt pretty good about our progression. Everybody is learning their role in the fight, and I feel pretty confident that without any changes we will down him soon.
That is the great thing about my 10-man. I really feel that everybody is ok with a night of wipes while learning a new boss. In 25s, I never feel that way. If we aren't passing out loot, we are failing in 25s, it seems. In the 10-man, everybody was learning from the wipes and we were progressing even without downing him. I don't think we will have the same positive attitude if we had 4 weeks of wipes, but a few nights of learning is totally acceptable. We had very few bad pulls. I would love to see us reset quicker after a wipe. I would love to see errors NEVER repeated. Still . . . it feels good. I know we are at the very right level of content. This is where our team SHOULD hit the speed bump. A few more weeks of farming Frost, a few more weeks of passing out loot from the first 3 bosses . . . then Saurfang, and Fester, Rot, etc are all within reach.
By the way, I'm writing from work, so no song parody today. Sorry kids.
That is the great thing about my 10-man. I really feel that everybody is ok with a night of wipes while learning a new boss. In 25s, I never feel that way. If we aren't passing out loot, we are failing in 25s, it seems. In the 10-man, everybody was learning from the wipes and we were progressing even without downing him. I don't think we will have the same positive attitude if we had 4 weeks of wipes, but a few nights of learning is totally acceptable. We had very few bad pulls. I would love to see us reset quicker after a wipe. I would love to see errors NEVER repeated. Still . . . it feels good. I know we are at the very right level of content. This is where our team SHOULD hit the speed bump. A few more weeks of farming Frost, a few more weeks of passing out loot from the first 3 bosses . . . then Saurfang, and Fester, Rot, etc are all within reach.
By the way, I'm writing from work, so no song parody today. Sorry kids.
Friday, January 8, 2010
One of these zones is doing its own thing
So - all of the zones in Northrend are pretty distinct. When you are in any given zone, the graphics and mobs let you know where you are. It's awesome. Most of the zones in Northrend are either tundra or alpine forest, or, y'know. . . semi-tropical jungle. Errr. Huh? Well, now that we are in RL mid-winter, a little tropical paradise sounds like a really nice thing. When I think tropical paradise I think . . . Jimmy Buffet.
Sholazar Basin
Those aren't the murlocs
They're really called gorlocs
They give you an egg that may spawn a mount
Warm by the Titans
Wolvar's you're fightin
Oracle rep is so easy to count
Grindin away again in Sholazar Basin
Almost through the level grind
Some people say that lore is way too lame
But I love. . . all the story I find
Just one verse for today. I have loads of RL stuff to do, and the weather is adding about an hour to my day, so that hour either means that I slack off on this blog a little, or I don't do my daily heroics.
Still, writing about Sholazar makes me think about all the non-instance stuff that is in the game. 90% of my gameplay is in dungeons and raids. I know there are a lot of people for whom that is true. When that gets old, I will pick up a lower level alt and move that toon up for a few days. However, even when I am doing that I tend to think 'wow, when this guy is 80, this is going to be a fun class to tank with . . . '. I tend to ignore my cooking and JC dailies, my alchemy transmutes, farming for gold on my DK, all that stuff. It's more these days since lfg is so good. I am LIVING in the new dungeons. I wonder what would have to be in the game to get me to want to spend more time outside of instances?
Sholazar Basin
Those aren't the murlocs
They're really called gorlocs
They give you an egg that may spawn a mount
Warm by the Titans
Wolvar's you're fightin
Oracle rep is so easy to count
Grindin away again in Sholazar Basin
Almost through the level grind
Some people say that lore is way too lame
But I love. . . all the story I find
Just one verse for today. I have loads of RL stuff to do, and the weather is adding about an hour to my day, so that hour either means that I slack off on this blog a little, or I don't do my daily heroics.
Still, writing about Sholazar makes me think about all the non-instance stuff that is in the game. 90% of my gameplay is in dungeons and raids. I know there are a lot of people for whom that is true. When that gets old, I will pick up a lower level alt and move that toon up for a few days. However, even when I am doing that I tend to think 'wow, when this guy is 80, this is going to be a fun class to tank with . . . '. I tend to ignore my cooking and JC dailies, my alchemy transmutes, farming for gold on my DK, all that stuff. It's more these days since lfg is so good. I am LIVING in the new dungeons. I wonder what would have to be in the game to get me to want to spend more time outside of instances?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Icecrown boss rollouts
It was bound to happen at some time, please, forgive me.
Ice, Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice:
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
All right stop, Get a raid and listen
Ice's here with some lore from a Lich King
Mar'gar, puts me on a bone spike
I get a cold flame, and its good night
Will it ever stop? No, that's bone storm
Stop your dps, reset aggro
Back to the boss the tanks are picking up threat now
Get out the fire, yo dps - hit your cooldowns
Death, her Fanatics 'round the room
I'm killing her shield making her go OOM
Deadly, when they get a buff from her
Mages and druids gettin rid of Curse of Turpor
Green all around, better get away
Whisper's Aoe, it'll end your raid
If there was a problem, Yo, its phase one
Just get to phase two, and you'll be done
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas
Now that the bosses are dyin
With a raid locked in and the loot is flyin
Quick to the portal, to rampart you'll take her
Clear up the trash to Orgrim's Hammer
Burnin' 'em, heat up your cannon
The mage cools 'em, then you're tankin
Adds on your boat, boss on the other one
Burn the mage down, come back and get some
Jet Pack, damn thats fun
With rocket on, I'm in Bear son
The guners goin down, Range is just burnin
Did you stop? No -- I hit Bloodlust
Face melt, dps that just cant stop
Cannon's going nuts until the mages hit ice block
The mage is dead? Yo
So I continued to DPS and then get my loot.
Saurfang Jr died at wrathgate
Deathbringer, the one that daddy hates
Magic, Nah, it's all physical
Range stay away, or else you're mental
Cause those Blood Beast, they need roots
Keep 'em of the tanks, if you want loot
Shields, all around like a wall
Grab a bubble - no Marks will fall
He's not that bad, until twenty five
Boss is there than you wanna hide
He enrages something wicked
Get him dead fast, or you'll kick it
That was the first wing, it aint on big thing
The loot is phat, the best we ever seen
It shouldn't be a problem, got a month to clear it
Then another wings here, if you can beat it
Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
That is a much longer song than I recall.
Anyway, we tried ICC 25 last night. Something needs to be remembered in our raid group. Wiping is not a bad thing. One a new boss the group should expect to wipe for a while before we move on. I think a lot of people were expecting to get 3 bosses dead last night (because that's what we do in 10 mans). I knew that was not realistic, but to see so little interest in the raid was pretty disappointing. However, we're just now getting back into the 25-man groove, so it will take a while for folks to get their schedules back in order. Next week I know I'll see a lot more commitment. Maybe I'll give a big Braveheart-style speech to start. Would that work?
In other news, has anybody else noticed the editorial changes at WoW.com? I guess I never fully appreciated how awesome Mike Schramm is. I have definitely noticed the shift. I've noticed the change in the WoW Insider Podcast too. It's not worse, per se. The difference is more in attitude and focus, but, to me, it seems more like SRS BZNS and less fun.'
Also in the news is UI lag. In ICC-25 I noticed some hefty lag. After disabling mods that store combat log data it pretty much went away. I will be reintegrating these mods in raids, one at a time, to see if it's a mod issue.
OK, I hope everybody is enjoying the song parodies. They do sound better than they read, but recording them is not in the immediate future for me at the moment.
Ice, Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice:
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
All right stop, Get a raid and listen
Ice's here with some lore from a Lich King
Mar'gar, puts me on a bone spike
I get a cold flame, and its good night
Will it ever stop? No, that's bone storm
Stop your dps, reset aggro
Back to the boss the tanks are picking up threat now
Get out the fire, yo dps - hit your cooldowns
Death, her Fanatics 'round the room
I'm killing her shield making her go OOM
Deadly, when they get a buff from her
Mages and druids gettin rid of Curse of Turpor
Green all around, better get away
Whisper's Aoe, it'll end your raid
If there was a problem, Yo, its phase one
Just get to phase two, and you'll be done
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas
Now that the bosses are dyin
With a raid locked in and the loot is flyin
Quick to the portal, to rampart you'll take her
Clear up the trash to Orgrim's Hammer
Burnin' 'em, heat up your cannon
The mage cools 'em, then you're tankin
Adds on your boat, boss on the other one
Burn the mage down, come back and get some
Jet Pack, damn thats fun
With rocket on, I'm in Bear son
The guners goin down, Range is just burnin
Did you stop? No -- I hit Bloodlust
Face melt, dps that just cant stop
Cannon's going nuts until the mages hit ice block
The mage is dead? Yo
So I continued to DPS and then get my loot.
Saurfang Jr died at wrathgate
Deathbringer, the one that daddy hates
Magic, Nah, it's all physical
Range stay away, or else you're mental
Cause those Blood Beast, they need roots
Keep 'em of the tanks, if you want loot
Shields, all around like a wall
Grab a bubble - no Marks will fall
He's not that bad, until twenty five
Boss is there than you wanna hide
He enrages something wicked
Get him dead fast, or you'll kick it
That was the first wing, it aint on big thing
The loot is phat, the best we ever seen
It shouldn't be a problem, got a month to clear it
Then another wings here, if you can beat it
Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown, Arthas in Ice Ice Icecrown
That is a much longer song than I recall.
Anyway, we tried ICC 25 last night. Something needs to be remembered in our raid group. Wiping is not a bad thing. One a new boss the group should expect to wipe for a while before we move on. I think a lot of people were expecting to get 3 bosses dead last night (because that's what we do in 10 mans). I knew that was not realistic, but to see so little interest in the raid was pretty disappointing. However, we're just now getting back into the 25-man groove, so it will take a while for folks to get their schedules back in order. Next week I know I'll see a lot more commitment. Maybe I'll give a big Braveheart-style speech to start. Would that work?
In other news, has anybody else noticed the editorial changes at WoW.com? I guess I never fully appreciated how awesome Mike Schramm is. I have definitely noticed the shift. I've noticed the change in the WoW Insider Podcast too. It's not worse, per se. The difference is more in attitude and focus, but, to me, it seems more like SRS BZNS and less fun.'
Also in the news is UI lag. In ICC-25 I noticed some hefty lag. After disabling mods that store combat log data it pretty much went away. I will be reintegrating these mods in raids, one at a time, to see if it's a mod issue.
OK, I hope everybody is enjoying the song parodies. They do sound better than they read, but recording them is not in the immediate future for me at the moment.
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