Friday, February 29, 2008

Mistakes R Us

Ok lets have more of that good ol' Stunty screwed up posting.

The Setting


During my PvP week I logged on to join our guilds Karazhan raid as they were short dps, and I was specced to fill that spot. We had set ourselves the goal of doing the Maiden and the Opera Event in under 2 hours. This suited me fine as I had had no sleep the night before due to "too much WoW induced insomnia".


The Excuses



I'll get these out of the way so that they don't interrupt the main story.

1) As previously mentioned I had not slept in about 40 hours.

2) It has been quite a while since I raided as dps.

3) I had been doing a lot of PvP this week so my whole UI was set up for that. I had made some modifications back to a more raiding oriented UI, but it soon became apparent I had not done nearly enough. Also remember that my whole UI is composed of 3rd party addons.

4) I was distracted by a prominent guildie leaving the guild half way through the run. I suspect it was mainly because he was pissed at not being included in the Karazhan run (Probably the first time he was on line and hadn't been included), he has since rejoined the guild.


Mistake 1



We were tearing along to the Maiden when on one pull I make the mistake of clicking my "switch to battle stance /charge" macro while already in battle stance. "So what?" you say, " Thats what it's for, making you charge, right?" well yes ... but usually it's wise to wait until after the tanks have hit their targets before charging. Yep thats right I charged right out in front of the tanks hitting thats nasty mob with a nice big juicy crit. He didn't seem to like it much and promptly turned round and smushed me good before the tanks knew what was happening.

Ok my bad, but nobody else got hurt and we proceed to one shot the maiden, things are looking up.

On to the opera event!

Mistake 2

My next mistake happens on the first pull on the lead up to the opera event and I believe the technical term for it is "Lolz I make big numberz". Thats right folks I turned into the dreaded DPS junky.

There are those big guys guarding the seating area of the opera event, Skeletal Ushers I think. But anyway the point is that they freeze the highest threat target and start beating the hell out of the second highest threat target ... Which as it turned out was me. You see I was busy making "Big Numberz" and hadn't realized that I had exceeded the Off Tanks threat ... this might have something to do with the fact that I had turned my threat meter off. /facepalm. I truly am a disgrace to tanks everywhere ... I mean running in a raid without a threat meter ??? Anyway the end result was that the big guy freezes the bear and two shots me, not only that but he scores two 8k crits on me I only had 2k left after he did the first one but he went all out on my hiney. We go on to kill the Big Bad wolf (he got me while I was little red riding hood) and decided to take a shot at the Curator.

Ok lets review ... I have my stance bar back up and now have Omen threat meter covering half my screen. That should just about cover it right? Wrong!

Mistake 3 (and it's a doozy)

We move along at good speed and get to the Curator shortly before the raid duration runs out (we had shedualed this to be a two hour raid). We clear the room and set up to fight the curator, the tanks out front and everyones in their propper positions. Oh damn I forgot to put the Battle shout up, I guess I'd better do it now. My timing could not have been worse! We were using a feral druid MT and he had set himself up to body pull the curator which he did and the exact moment I cast Blood Rage and Battle Shout. Next thing I know there's what seems to be several tons of highly annoyed Curator bearing down on me. Whoops any spell at all causes more threat than a body pull, and I've just cast two, catching the poor MT flat footed as the last thing he expected was for the curator to ignore the big juicy bear in front of him and tear off at a tangent towards the inocent looking Dwarf with the big Axe.

Bad stunty BAD, go sit in the corner and think about what you've done!

No! Wait don't sit in the corner!

Run towards the tank, redeem some of that lost tanking pride by doing the right thing!

So I tear forward as fast as my little legs would carry me and jump between the curators legs. He still managed to hit me for about 6k and would have turned me into dwarven pancake if a nice pally hadn't given me a quick heal and a BoP (actualy it was two nice pallys one with the heal and one with the BoP). The tank managed to get the Curator back under control and we carry on as normal, we don't however manage to down the curator as our dps was just too low that day, and one of our healers had to go to work after that attempt (Damn you RL for interfeering in my gameing). The end result was that I head away feeling very shamefaced about the whole raid, and looking forward to going back to what I do best (i.e. stand in front of everyone and get hit alot, oh the glorious life of the tank).

Thank you for sitting through another "Don't do what I did" post.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Hell That Is AV

This Sunday I respecced dps for a PvP week. The reason for this is that I was starting to take the game too seriously and needed a little time to cool off, but I didn't want to stop playing all together.It being a PvP week I found it quite strange that in the first three days I did one heroic and six normal instances.

PvP Day 1

Anyway I digress, when I respecced the first thing I did was go and check out what daily PvP quest was, and it turned out to be AV. Ok I had never done much AV before so I thought I'd give it a go, plus I really want the PvP axe and I need 40 AV marks of honor for it ... 6 games later with no wins I was chewing on my keyboard in frustration. I decided to abandon the quest and call it a night.

PvP day 2

Ok it's a new day and a fresh start I pop down to see what the daily PvP quest is today and lo and behold it's AV again, damn I hate that place but it's the daily and I need those marks ... In I go, 4 games later I had progressed from my keyboard to giving my monitor a good mastication. Like I said before I haven't done much AV up until now and I'm still not completely sure whats going on. It doesn't help me any that 4 different people are giving out 4 different strategies at the same time, and arguing their strategy with such compelling cases as "STFU n00b" and "your all n00bs EVERYONE GO TO SWGY NOW". Then on the 5th game we won, I was so used to losing at this stage it came as a huge surprise and I entirely missed what went on. One minute I was beating on some npc who was running around b%tch slapping anyone who got in his way and the next it was over and to my amazement we had won.
WOW what was that?
Look at all the honor I got!
Maybe the alliance are finally getting good at AV.
No such luch as my next two games we get bottle necked in and lose by attrition as usual. At this point I'm considering the value of that PvP axe vs the cost of dental surgery and replacement PC parts. I call it a day on PvP and wonder off in a sore toothed daze to do my dailies and some dental friendly PvE.

PvP Day 3

From this point on I will be referring to specific points on the AV map so I have helpfully provided a labeled map with these positions marked for those of you who, like I did, don't do AV.



Ok here we are on day 3 I still need more mark from AV but I'm willing to preserve my sanity by going into whatever BG the daily PvP quest is for and grind honor on that for a while. I port into Stormwind and stroll down to the keep to check out the daily quest.
Nnnnooooooooooooo!!!
AV AGAIN!!
I'm starting to think that there is a conspiracy out there trying to drive me insane by weaponizeing Alterac Valley for the military and using me as a test subject (Day 3 the subject is showing sever homicidal and suicidal tendencies, and on a side note is showing sever dental degradation).
Anyway I break out the tinfoil hat I keep in the closet to stop them scanning my brain waves and x-raying my teeth and jump into AV. The first game goes as usual. We attack Glav, kill glav (I know where he is at this point), too many die and we get pushed back past the choke point ant the war of attrition starts, we lose. I see the pattern here, I enter AV, I waste half an hour of my life and come out with one AV mark. Now I only have to do this 22 more times and I'll have the marks I need for my axe, I'm resigned to it now and can deal with it without chewing on the hardware.
Oh so wrong.
I go on to win the next 6 games in a row, all useing the same tactic of everyone zerg down to FWGY capture that, half stay to defend it while the other half move on to capture the FWRH and the two towers up there. Once we have captured both graveyards we run in and beet the hell out of Drek. End result we win. YAY. Now I have nearly all the marks I need and about 3000 honor. Double YAY. Riding the PvP high I jump back in for another 5 games, 3 of which we lose, but that doesn't matter as I now know we can win and by what tactic. I call it a night again log off having netted myself all the marks i need and about 4000 honor.

PvP Day 4

I log on having logged off next to the daily PvP quest giver and check the quest.
What?!?
AV ... AGAIN?!?
Thats alright I can handle it now I know we can win ... But now I'm sure that the conspiracy is real.
(Day 4 the test subject shows signs of elation and a notable lack of hardware mastication ... suggest moving into phase 2)
I add another layer to my tinfoil hat, add a tinfoil face mask to block signals from the pressure sensors they have implanted in my teeth, and jump into AV with a vengeance. I play 5 games straight only wining one, sometimes using the tactic that worked yesterday sometimes not. I take a break and go do my dailies. I come back (this is PvP week after all) and do some more AV winning some and losing others. Suddenly I notice I'm back to chewing my keyboard everytime we lose, 2 straight loses later I've moved back up to putting bite marks in my monitor.

This then people is the hell that is AV.
First you go in with the attitude of we always lose better get used to it.
Then it shows you that you can win and look at all that juicy honor you got to boot.
Your feeling good now aren't you?
Now AV throws the sucker punch. It shows you that you can win and now it only lets you win very occasionally sending you into a fit of PC munchies with every loss. Yet it draws you back in with promises of massive quantities of honor if you win.

The Moral

Yes Alterac Valley can be great for grinding honor ... but for the sake of your sanity quit now before it's too late, it's already got me don't let it get you too ... I'm almost looking forward to respeccing back to prot at the end of the week.








(Operation AV a complete success. The subject has show a direct correlation of mental and dental degradation to the amount of Alterac Valley played ..... I suggest moving the project into mass production.)



P.S. I stayed up late just to find out what the daily PvP quest was and it was AB, I guess my days as a military test subject are over and the tinfoil hat can go back in the closet ... Now I just wish the transmitter in my teeth would stop broadcasting FM radio ... or at least that it would choose a better station.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Always Listen To Everything The Raid Leader Is Saying

Ok this is another one of those "I messed up so don't make my mistake" posts.

The Setting

We were running the first two bosses in Karazhan with a less than perfect group make up. We had one shackles for CC and only 2 healers, but it was only the Huntsman and Moroes so we were sure we could muddle through somehow. I get the MT spot as our usual MT had rerolled a priest and was busy putting it through the final couple of levels so we wouldn't have to look outside the guild for CC.

The Story

We buff up, take a deep breath and then it's mark, pull, mark, pull, mark, pull all the way to the Huntsman with only one death. The Huntsman goes down without hardly putting up a fight. YAY we must be in for an easy night ... wrong. Distribute the loot have a five minute coffee/cigarette/toilet break and then we move on. Again mark, pull, mark, pull, mark, pull, the OT goes down at one point because he can seem to grasp when he's supposed to disarm the Ghostly Stewards to stop them putting the debuff on him. Fortunately I'm way up on threat on my target and he's about to die so I turn my back to him and let him tag along as I go to pick up the OT's target. I get him back under control with only one squishy casualty (I refer to anyone not decked out in plate as a squishy). Boyd by my success and the heady feeling you only get when you haven't slept properly in days I move on to mark the next mob and finish clearing the room.

We stop take a breath and look at the adds that that moroes has hanging around him. Hmmm .... Pally, Priest, Priest, Prot Warrior ... The raid leader give us the plan. The prot warrior will be shackled as he's too much of a pain to nuke down the MT will tank the pally and Moroes the two feral druids we had dpsing will break out their tanking gear and tank the two priests, the kill order will be Holy Priest, Shadow Priest, Pally then Moreos. Sounds good Right? WRONG. The pull goes great, shackles go on the druids pick up their marks I pick up mine and everyone is happy.... then all hell breaks loose squishies are dieing left right and center and the warrior is loose and running amok. One of the feral druids tries to pick him up but his gear wasnt great and with only two healers he went down hard. /wipe

Ok take two. What went wrong that time? Well shackles got dispelled faster the the shadow priest could put them on the the priest goes splat and a wipe happens. Ok now we know what happened what do we do about it. New plan MT and OT will pick up one of the melee adds each and the two feral druids will tank the other two. The kill orfer is the same but we leave the warrior till last and shackle him when the others are dead. Sounds good right? Well yes except for one thing. The conversation went like this from my perspective.

RL: "Stunty you will be tanking Moroes and Red" (ok cool I have my marks and my characters name is Stuntyone in case you wondered)
ME: "Ok boss, will do."
RL: "OT you will be tanking Moroes and Star." (All names but mine have been omitted)
OT: "Right"
RL: "Druid 1 you will tank........Bla bla bla"
*at this point the heady feeling I mentioned earlier made the rest of the conversation just an annoying buzz in the background*
*Ready check pops up snapping me back from my waking dream land*
RL: "Ok stunty you have a green to pull."
ME: "Ok boss"
*I maneuver into position and pull*
ME: "We got Incoming"

The pull goes according to plan with everything tied up in combat with the tanks (all four of them). Thing are chaotic but alright ... then suddenly someone close to me pulls red, at the same time as Star peals off after our main healer ... I get Red back and no sooner than I get him back than hes pulled again there I am struggling to keep red and moroes while Star is beating on my healer ... this is bad ... healer goes down, I go down, raid goes down, in that order.

RL: "Stunty why the hell was your mob killing me?" (Bold because he was speaking very loudly)
ME: "But I had Red next to me the whole time."
RL: "No Stunty you were supposed to tank Star!"
ME: "No you told me to tank red."
RL: "We changed your marks remember?"

I turns out that after the conversation became an annoying buzz in the background the OT had made a point about it being easier for me to pull star than red and so they had been switched... all while I was away with the fairies. So while my mark was killing our healer I was fighting my OT for aggro on his mob. /facepalm

The Moral

Like it says in the title always listen to everything your raid leader is saying ... just in case.

On A Lighter Note

The next shot we got Moroes down even though our seccond healer DC'd for about a minute in the middle of the fight (one of the freed up druids went back up healing until he came back).

So the only real things to come out of this are that I now always listen to everything thats being said and I'm now know by the guild to be Red Yellow colour blind.

Should Have Posted

Wow I'm one sorry excuse for a blogger ... start a new blog then dont post for a couple of weeks ... even if I'm not sure anyone reads this it's still not kosher.

BUT ... I have my list of excuses all prepared
*Eh hem* 1. RL stuff has been getting in the way, in this case having to spend days on end in the middle of nowhere pruning trees with no Internet connection for miles around /cry
2. Every time I log on to do my dailies and check the AH i seem to get a wisp from a friend or a request from a guildie asking me to tank something for them and I invariably say yes as I spent too long as an arms warrior not getting invited anywhere. This cuts into my non-wow PC time and unfortunately this is the first thing to get left out as running wws reports for the guild and watching anime come first.
3. Work has been pilled on me to an unusual amount (meaning I actually have too do some)

There we go all the excuses out of my system and I just hope you will forgive me ... I there is anyone out there.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Yay T4 Gloves are mine!

The title really says it all but for the slower of you this means my kara team finally downed the Curator and I won the T4 glove token :)

Here is a vid of our very sloppy kill.




By the way I used a bunch of free software to make the vid so no complaints about the crappy quality and editing ... what can I say I'm cheap.