From a purely "and what did we achieve today, hmm?" standpoint, the answer is "not bloody much", which is the entire point of Classic. I tromped around Westfall killing some wildlife, bemoaning that maybe one out of four goretusks had livers and stumbled across a beach covered in crabs. These are my beloved loot crabs from days long past. They provide a couple of types of meat, which is useful for people leveling cooking and the occasional pearl, which I think is used in making rings? At any rate, they are safe and easy kills and although their meat doesn't fetch much now (because the demand isn't there yet and supply is high), I made a footnote to come back in a few weeks to clean up.
Between collecting assorted boar parts, shooting dozens of crabs for fun, and completing the westfall stew quest, I was able to reach level 12 and thus gained the ability to heal ScratchFever. He himself has made it to level 11 and level 4 loyalty so his appetite, while still unreasonable, is at least manageable. After collecting nearly half a gold, I blew all but a few silver on training and an underpriced 8-slot bag. I have everything trained except a melee movement debuff, but it was either that or a bag and honestly, I value inventory space so much more.
I also created an alt because YES, I AM THAT TYPE OF PERSON. Thus a new human priest was born. I played through the Northshire Abbey and had an insane amount of fun randomly buffing and healing people as we collectively murdered a billion kobolds and wolves. Upon reaching level 5, I made it down to Goldshire and called it a night. This will be a fun character to piddle around with and the knowledge that at some point people will laughingly tell their friends that they teamed up with "Somerando" to heal their Deadmines run gives me such a wicked grin.
Really enjoying Classic. There's no push for dailies/weeklies, no general sense of "OMG! I'm falling behind!" or FOMO, particularly if you mostly solo. It's a leisurely stroll that costs $15 a month.
From a business model standpoint, it's interesting to see two sides of the same coin from the same product over its lifespan, particularly running side-by-side.
Classic is your "gym membership". If you can get lots of people paying to play, but kind of half-assing it, you're winning! The social and exploration aspects are what keep people engaged moreso than a higher ilevel.
Retail is the casino-- you want to keep people present and pulling the slot machine levers for the dopamine fix. Everything must get done and it must get done quickly!
It relies heavily on "sunken cost fallacy" to keep people engaged.
Here I -almost- started writing a treatise on the contributing factors over the years that led to this shift in perspective, (phasing, cross-server grouping, warforging/titanforging, homogenization of loot, simplification of statistics, etc.) but it's enough for me to recognise it's a different draw and that draw is far beyond mere nostalgia.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Thursday, August 29, 2019
"I take off my robe and Wizard hat…"
I submitted my resignation from the Azeroth Inc. raid team earlier this morning. "It's not you, it's me." has never been more true. Arcane is simply not in a good spot right now and we're up against a tough DPS check. Flawless mechanical execution isn't enough: you also have to be tall enough to ride that ride. Even with really nice gear, I'm falling flat. No one had said anything directly, but we all can see logs. I'd much rather bow out gracefully and do something I enjoy than be a millstone. For the record, I did try out Fire for a few hours, but trying to retrain myself after (literally) thousands of hours as arcane-- that's just not happening. Net result: weekends now free.
Back on Bloodsail, Magrom continues puttering around. After long and careful thought, I dropped my money making professions and replaced them with mining and engineering. (Engineering gives me bullets, bombs, and better guns). I will probably live to regret this decision, but I've made it this far in life making consistently bad calls and I see no reason to stop.
Hunting for copper ore put me on the east side of Elwynn Forest when I hit level 10 and I had to choose between going to learn pet stuff or finish a few quests in the area. Given it was a long ass walk back to Stormwind, I opted to stay in the area, recovering insignias from dead guards, clearing a murloc infestation, and depopulating the woods of prowlers and bears. By the end of it I was about 10.7 and I decided to push eastward into Redridge Mountains for the flight point at Lakeshire. There's no FPs at all in Elwynn Forest proper. There's generally one point per zone and the Elwynn Forest one is in Stormwind itself. If nothing else, it would save me 20 minutes of jogging later running all the way there and then back.
Once in Redridge, I find a copper node and happily set to it. There's a few spider corpses nearby, so a few murder hobos are probably in the area. Then I notice the corpses are level 16 and were vanishing in preparation to respawn. Oh dear. Fortunately, I was able to hi-ho myself out of there in the nick of time and I was able to pick up the flight point unmolested. I was hoping to be able to score huge experience from a couple of easy quests in the area, but I wasn't quite buff enough to be trusted by a little girl to retrieve a necklace from the bottom on the lake. Such is life.
With a fast path back to the east secured, I returned to Stormwind to train my level 10 skills-- and find I need to go back to the Dwarven homelands to learn to tame animals. Ok! One tram ride later and a brisk jog to Kharanos later, I'm tasked with training a variety of pets to see how they feel. This provided an unexpected challenge. The roving packs of murder hobos weren't leaving ice bears, snow leopards, and wolves to some random hunter to stumble across-- just acre after acre of dead animals I could no longer skin. *facepalm*
Eventually I was able to run through the entire series and dinged level 11 in the process, before settling on a snow leopard I named "ScratchFever" in honor of "You Awaken in Razor Hill". The cat gets random cheers and applause wherever I go. It is also, however, clearing out all of the meat I'm able to stuff into my bags. I picked "cat" because it comes with a healthy DPS buff (10%) and doesn't sacrifice too much health as a trade-off, but it eats like nobody's business. There's 6 levels of "loyalty" and pets gain xp, levels, and skill points independently of the hunter. The lower the loyalty level, the faster they get hungry. Freshly tamed pets are at "teenage boy" levels, so I watched my "I'll use these when I learn cooking!" stockpile diminish steadily as I adventured.
I returned to Elwynn, but this time I headed in the opposite direction to Westfall. I poked around and progressed on a couple of random quests. There's some challenges here. ScratchFever is keeping the heat off me initially, but he's dropping like a sick beat in half of one. That means additional recovery time for re-summoning and re-feeding, since pets generally become unhappy at dying to Harvest Golems, vultures, coyotes, and everything else. The fact Scratch is also woefully underleveled (just dinged 9!) isn't helping a bit. Then there's the inventory factor. I have a grand total of 28 inventory slots (not counting the ammo pouch) and westfall is bad about everything being used in quests. Space is already tight between bombs, crafting mats, food for me and the bottomless cat, emergency healing potions, and such. I can realistically get another 6 slots by picking up a cheap(ish) linen bag now that I can afford it and I'll need to prioritize that.
Tonight is my eldest daughter's 18th birthday, but afterwards I shall dine on Westfall stew!
Back on Bloodsail, Magrom continues puttering around. After long and careful thought, I dropped my money making professions and replaced them with mining and engineering. (Engineering gives me bullets, bombs, and better guns). I will probably live to regret this decision, but I've made it this far in life making consistently bad calls and I see no reason to stop.
Hunting for copper ore put me on the east side of Elwynn Forest when I hit level 10 and I had to choose between going to learn pet stuff or finish a few quests in the area. Given it was a long ass walk back to Stormwind, I opted to stay in the area, recovering insignias from dead guards, clearing a murloc infestation, and depopulating the woods of prowlers and bears. By the end of it I was about 10.7 and I decided to push eastward into Redridge Mountains for the flight point at Lakeshire. There's no FPs at all in Elwynn Forest proper. There's generally one point per zone and the Elwynn Forest one is in Stormwind itself. If nothing else, it would save me 20 minutes of jogging later running all the way there and then back.
Once in Redridge, I find a copper node and happily set to it. There's a few spider corpses nearby, so a few murder hobos are probably in the area. Then I notice the corpses are level 16 and were vanishing in preparation to respawn. Oh dear. Fortunately, I was able to hi-ho myself out of there in the nick of time and I was able to pick up the flight point unmolested. I was hoping to be able to score huge experience from a couple of easy quests in the area, but I wasn't quite buff enough to be trusted by a little girl to retrieve a necklace from the bottom on the lake. Such is life.
With a fast path back to the east secured, I returned to Stormwind to train my level 10 skills-- and find I need to go back to the Dwarven homelands to learn to tame animals. Ok! One tram ride later and a brisk jog to Kharanos later, I'm tasked with training a variety of pets to see how they feel. This provided an unexpected challenge. The roving packs of murder hobos weren't leaving ice bears, snow leopards, and wolves to some random hunter to stumble across-- just acre after acre of dead animals I could no longer skin. *facepalm*
Eventually I was able to run through the entire series and dinged level 11 in the process, before settling on a snow leopard I named "ScratchFever" in honor of "You Awaken in Razor Hill". The cat gets random cheers and applause wherever I go. It is also, however, clearing out all of the meat I'm able to stuff into my bags. I picked "cat" because it comes with a healthy DPS buff (10%) and doesn't sacrifice too much health as a trade-off, but it eats like nobody's business. There's 6 levels of "loyalty" and pets gain xp, levels, and skill points independently of the hunter. The lower the loyalty level, the faster they get hungry. Freshly tamed pets are at "teenage boy" levels, so I watched my "I'll use these when I learn cooking!" stockpile diminish steadily as I adventured.
I returned to Elwynn, but this time I headed in the opposite direction to Westfall. I poked around and progressed on a couple of random quests. There's some challenges here. ScratchFever is keeping the heat off me initially, but he's dropping like a sick beat in half of one. That means additional recovery time for re-summoning and re-feeding, since pets generally become unhappy at dying to Harvest Golems, vultures, coyotes, and everything else. The fact Scratch is also woefully underleveled (just dinged 9!) isn't helping a bit. Then there's the inventory factor. I have a grand total of 28 inventory slots (not counting the ammo pouch) and westfall is bad about everything being used in quests. Space is already tight between bombs, crafting mats, food for me and the bottomless cat, emergency healing potions, and such. I can realistically get another 6 slots by picking up a cheap(ish) linen bag now that I can afford it and I'll need to prioritize that.
Tonight is my eldest daughter's 18th birthday, but afterwards I shall dine on Westfall stew!
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Going Whole Hogger
Last night my adventures played out like a Lord of the Rings movie: brief bouts of intense action, but mostly hours of walking. This isn't a bad thing.
Because there are no quest markers of any kind on maps, I rely on my memories of where things might be, the quest text that says where things should be, and, when all else fails, an internet search for where things actually are. I try to save the last for the most dire of circumstances. I'm an Explorer at heart (at least according to Bartle), and if some quest chain wants to send me from Elwynn to Stormwind to Loch Modan, then by Magni's not-yet-diamond beard, I'm going to take a twenty minute detour.
Very little sold in the AH, netting me a single silver. This barely covered the listing fees for everything else. Auctions can only be for 2, 8, and 24 hours, so I was already getting a mailbox load of disappointment. Consequently, I've been vendoring all of my skins and plants and am waffling on trading herbalism for blacksmithing and skinning for mining. I may wear leather now, but I'll get mail at level 20, if I remember correctly… and it certainly wouldn't hurt to be able to craft my own ammo. Spent all of my hard-earned coin on weapon upgrades and I'm now only slightly behind the level curve.
Otherwise, I've been helping keep the peace in Elwynn Forest. The guards keep trying to send me to the border to go somewhere else, but they seem conflicted as to which border. I think the main goal is to keep me away from Goldshire's Inn long enough to turn it into Moon Guard 2.0. So I busied myself with the tasks at hand I was too weak for the previous day.
That's how I found myself standing in a pumpkin patch with several pigs bearing down on me. One on one, I could likely have taken Princess but the two "escorts" that come with her cleaned my clock. After recovering my corpse, I watched the pigs patrol for a couple of minutes. Nearby a couple of people were separately standing around, facing Princess and not attacking anything. I recognize this immediately for what it was. Everyone needs the same thing, but no one wants to shoulder the burden. I chide myself, "Be the group you want to be." I sent out invites and a minute later the three of us are makin' bacon. Another person runs up just as we're finishing and I stick around to help them finish as well. It's a good feeling to help.
A half-hour later, it took four of us to down Hogger. The first attempt was just a mage and myself and it went… poorly. The mage disconnected rather than run back. Fortunately, the area itself had numerous people hunting gnolls for a quest to collect armbands and "LFG Hogger" and "Hogger LF 2 more" was often heard. Still, a death to Hogger is a true Classic experience.
I think tonight I'll try my luck in Westfall.
Because there are no quest markers of any kind on maps, I rely on my memories of where things might be, the quest text that says where things should be, and, when all else fails, an internet search for where things actually are. I try to save the last for the most dire of circumstances. I'm an Explorer at heart (at least according to Bartle), and if some quest chain wants to send me from Elwynn to Stormwind to Loch Modan, then by Magni's not-yet-diamond beard, I'm going to take a twenty minute detour.
Very little sold in the AH, netting me a single silver. This barely covered the listing fees for everything else. Auctions can only be for 2, 8, and 24 hours, so I was already getting a mailbox load of disappointment. Consequently, I've been vendoring all of my skins and plants and am waffling on trading herbalism for blacksmithing and skinning for mining. I may wear leather now, but I'll get mail at level 20, if I remember correctly… and it certainly wouldn't hurt to be able to craft my own ammo. Spent all of my hard-earned coin on weapon upgrades and I'm now only slightly behind the level curve.
Otherwise, I've been helping keep the peace in Elwynn Forest. The guards keep trying to send me to the border to go somewhere else, but they seem conflicted as to which border. I think the main goal is to keep me away from Goldshire's Inn long enough to turn it into Moon Guard 2.0. So I busied myself with the tasks at hand I was too weak for the previous day.
That's how I found myself standing in a pumpkin patch with several pigs bearing down on me. One on one, I could likely have taken Princess but the two "escorts" that come with her cleaned my clock. After recovering my corpse, I watched the pigs patrol for a couple of minutes. Nearby a couple of people were separately standing around, facing Princess and not attacking anything. I recognize this immediately for what it was. Everyone needs the same thing, but no one wants to shoulder the burden. I chide myself, "Be the group you want to be." I sent out invites and a minute later the three of us are makin' bacon. Another person runs up just as we're finishing and I stick around to help them finish as well. It's a good feeling to help.
A half-hour later, it took four of us to down Hogger. The first attempt was just a mage and myself and it went… poorly. The mage disconnected rather than run back. Fortunately, the area itself had numerous people hunting gnolls for a quest to collect armbands and "LFG Hogger" and "Hogger LF 2 more" was often heard. Still, a death to Hogger is a true Classic experience.
I think tonight I'll try my luck in Westfall.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Take Me Home
(With apologies to John Denver)
It's almost seven, the server's queued
Deeprun Tram ride and Trade chat's rude,
Wife is nearby, rolling her eyes,
How can something so old bring me such delights?
Classic WoW, take me home
To the pla-a-a-a-a-ce I belong
Elywnn Forest… hunter's mana
Gankin' rogues, take me home….
All the memories, start flooding back
Questing without markers, and an ammo pack
Running from wolves, near kobold mines
Fifteen years washed away, and I'm feelin' fine
Classic WoW, take me home
To the pla-a-a-a-a-ce I belong
Elywnn Forest… hunter's mana
Gankin' rogues, take me home….
Anyway, it turns out you can go home again! The servers are choked with people checking out the novelty of it all and at one point Twitch reported 950k people watching other people playing Classic, so the hype is real.
For my own part, I created Magrom the Dwarven Hunter and set to it. He's named after "Magrom the Red", a bartender in Asheron's Call's town of Cragstone. I spent countless hours with my buddies at "our table" there and I always loved the name.
Over the course of the evening, I ran around like an idiot and finally escaped the dwarf/gnome starter area. Questing was expectedly slow in the beginning due to everything being over-camped. Boss kills and picking up things that respawned had fairly organized lines where everyone waited their turns to kill/loot. For bosses, people formed orderly groups of 5 to speed things along. It was like England Online with the queues. The occasional line-breaker was called out in chat for public humiliation. ("Poncho Linebreaker", your dark reputation grows) and since nothing is cross-server, reputations will stick as the community solidifies.
Honestly, that's the part I'm most excited about: having a server community mean something again and player reputation mattering.
I picked up herbalism and skinning for now, but since everyone is doing the same, plants are nigh-impossible to come by. Leather, however flows freely into my tiny, tiny pack. Inventory is tight. I have just 16 slots and no bags (who can afford them?). Skinning tools, food, and quest items eat up a considerable chunk of that limited real estate.
Money goes out as quickly as it comes in. With each kill netting 1-3 copper and skills costing a silver plus to learn, the fact I've socked away 6 silver towards eventual upgrades seems amazing. Gear remains a constant struggle. Now level 7, I'm wearing grays and white leather and cloth that have dropped off random kills. I'm still using the level 1 starting gun and I don't get a pet until level 10.
The struggle is real, but I'm having a level of fun I haven't experienced in a while.
It's almost seven, the server's queued
Deeprun Tram ride and Trade chat's rude,
Wife is nearby, rolling her eyes,
How can something so old bring me such delights?
Classic WoW, take me home
To the pla-a-a-a-a-ce I belong
Elywnn Forest… hunter's mana
Gankin' rogues, take me home….
All the memories, start flooding back
Questing without markers, and an ammo pack
Running from wolves, near kobold mines
Fifteen years washed away, and I'm feelin' fine
Classic WoW, take me home
To the pla-a-a-a-a-ce I belong
Elywnn Forest… hunter's mana
Gankin' rogues, take me home….
Anyway, it turns out you can go home again! The servers are choked with people checking out the novelty of it all and at one point Twitch reported 950k people watching other people playing Classic, so the hype is real.
For my own part, I created Magrom the Dwarven Hunter and set to it. He's named after "Magrom the Red", a bartender in Asheron's Call's town of Cragstone. I spent countless hours with my buddies at "our table" there and I always loved the name.
Over the course of the evening, I ran around like an idiot and finally escaped the dwarf/gnome starter area. Questing was expectedly slow in the beginning due to everything being over-camped. Boss kills and picking up things that respawned had fairly organized lines where everyone waited their turns to kill/loot. For bosses, people formed orderly groups of 5 to speed things along. It was like England Online with the queues. The occasional line-breaker was called out in chat for public humiliation. ("Poncho Linebreaker", your dark reputation grows) and since nothing is cross-server, reputations will stick as the community solidifies.
Honestly, that's the part I'm most excited about: having a server community mean something again and player reputation mattering.
I picked up herbalism and skinning for now, but since everyone is doing the same, plants are nigh-impossible to come by. Leather, however flows freely into my tiny, tiny pack. Inventory is tight. I have just 16 slots and no bags (who can afford them?). Skinning tools, food, and quest items eat up a considerable chunk of that limited real estate.
Money goes out as quickly as it comes in. With each kill netting 1-3 copper and skills costing a silver plus to learn, the fact I've socked away 6 silver towards eventual upgrades seems amazing. Gear remains a constant struggle. Now level 7, I'm wearing grays and white leather and cloth that have dropped off random kills. I'm still using the level 1 starting gun and I don't get a pet until level 10.
The struggle is real, but I'm having a level of fun I haven't experienced in a while.
Monday, August 26, 2019
"World of Warcraft"
8/27/04
Today World of Warcraft officially launches and I'm super pumped up. I played a good portion of the beta and although the cartoony graphics are taking a bit of getting used to, the sound design is top notch and the game play has much smoother combat than Dark Age of Camelot. Like DAoC, there's a heavy PvP element, but there's only two factions instead of three: "Horde" and "Alliance". I think PvP only applies when you're on certain servers or in certain "PvP-enabled zones", called "Contested Regions".
Like DAoC, classes are locked to races and not every class can be played by every faction. Alliance, for example, have paladins (which are exactly what they sound like) and the Horde have "shaman", which are OP casters they do animal-totem stuff, I think. (I played an Alliance paladin exclusively in the beta). Alliance races are your standard D&D PC races: elves, dwarves, gnomes, and humans. Horde gets monster races: orcs, trolls, undead, and minotaurs.
The only thing I'm not too keen on (aside from the fact they stole the mini-map in the corner from Asheron's Call), is that there's a lot of forced grouping. You can't solo dungeons AT ALL. The terrain mobs are your usual "don't try to fight more than one at a time" and if you pull more than that, or if they are higher level, you'd better run or have some sort of skill that lets you feign death or something. If you die, you don't lose items or xp, which is weird, but I can see how they are probably trying to appeal to casual gamers. Your equipment does get damaged over time or when you die, so having to find a blacksmith to repair every so often is necessary and a little expensive.
Skills themselves are plentiful and really diverse. Like most other MMOs, skills are bought at trainers and level up the more you use them. Once you reach a certain level you start getting "Talent Points", which can be used to diversify your character. Sort of. A lot of the talents are a little underwhelming, like "+1% chance to hit", but others let you use new types of weapons or give you skills/spells to put on your limited power bar.
I haven't made up my mind on what class to play, but I'm leaning to either "mage" (which is a total glass cannon) or "hunter", which is like a mage, but with a pet. Hunters can use any weapon, although most use guns (!) or bows and let the pet handle melee. A dwarf with a gun appeals on a primal level, plus it looked really cool in the trailer video. Otherwise, it's a bit fiddly with inventory management. Mages require some spell components (but a LOT less than Asheron's Call), but hunters need to carry ammo (no shock there) to the point where they have to give up one bag slot for carrying it. Plus, you have to carry food for your pet to keep them happy (and effective). Each pet you can tame has its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own selective diet.
Overall, it's really fun, even if there are tons of bugs. Highly recommend.
Today World of Warcraft officially launches and I'm super pumped up. I played a good portion of the beta and although the cartoony graphics are taking a bit of getting used to, the sound design is top notch and the game play has much smoother combat than Dark Age of Camelot. Like DAoC, there's a heavy PvP element, but there's only two factions instead of three: "Horde" and "Alliance". I think PvP only applies when you're on certain servers or in certain "PvP-enabled zones", called "Contested Regions".
Like DAoC, classes are locked to races and not every class can be played by every faction. Alliance, for example, have paladins (which are exactly what they sound like) and the Horde have "shaman", which are OP casters they do animal-totem stuff, I think. (I played an Alliance paladin exclusively in the beta). Alliance races are your standard D&D PC races: elves, dwarves, gnomes, and humans. Horde gets monster races: orcs, trolls, undead, and minotaurs.
The only thing I'm not too keen on (aside from the fact they stole the mini-map in the corner from Asheron's Call), is that there's a lot of forced grouping. You can't solo dungeons AT ALL. The terrain mobs are your usual "don't try to fight more than one at a time" and if you pull more than that, or if they are higher level, you'd better run or have some sort of skill that lets you feign death or something. If you die, you don't lose items or xp, which is weird, but I can see how they are probably trying to appeal to casual gamers. Your equipment does get damaged over time or when you die, so having to find a blacksmith to repair every so often is necessary and a little expensive.
Skills themselves are plentiful and really diverse. Like most other MMOs, skills are bought at trainers and level up the more you use them. Once you reach a certain level you start getting "Talent Points", which can be used to diversify your character. Sort of. A lot of the talents are a little underwhelming, like "+1% chance to hit", but others let you use new types of weapons or give you skills/spells to put on your limited power bar.
I haven't made up my mind on what class to play, but I'm leaning to either "mage" (which is a total glass cannon) or "hunter", which is like a mage, but with a pet. Hunters can use any weapon, although most use guns (!) or bows and let the pet handle melee. A dwarf with a gun appeals on a primal level, plus it looked really cool in the trailer video. Otherwise, it's a bit fiddly with inventory management. Mages require some spell components (but a LOT less than Asheron's Call), but hunters need to carry ammo (no shock there) to the point where they have to give up one bag slot for carrying it. Plus, you have to carry food for your pet to keep them happy (and effective). Each pet you can tame has its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own selective diet.
Overall, it's really fun, even if there are tons of bugs. Highly recommend.
Monday, August 19, 2019
An Offhand Weekend Wrap-up
Friday night came and went with a short trip into heroic Eternal Palace. We downed two bosses and luck finally found fortune by granting me a 430 dagger-- a nice uplift over my current 415 staff. Unfortunately, I didn't have an offhand, so equipping it would drop my effectiveness level by approximately one Strev. Weapons and offhands are difficult this patch. Basically, we can't craft anything higher than 370 and pvp rewards are on a schedule. You can't just farm conquest/valor or whatever and buy what you want. Terrible design, but it keeps people poking at the Skinner box.
Saturday night I had a work affair to attend, so I wouldn't have an opportunity to continue the push (they downed the 3rd boss for the first time without me then wiped 7 times on Lady Ashvane before calling it quits), so I pugged normal raids.
I want you to picture this. An undergeared warlock who had never been through LFR organizing 30 people who had signed up to "normal EP-- all are welcome". There's no voice chat and he has given assist to literally everyone so they can mark what they need to. We wiped 4 times on the trash leading up to the first boss. On the boss itself only half the people understood the fight and people were randomly placing and removing markers. It was, and I make no exaggeration to the claim, as if the Trade Channel and Barrens Chat had an unholy love child and led it through a dungeon. After the third wipe with 0 progress, one DK said "screw this. I'm going to form my OWN raid. I know what I'm doing. Drop and join." So I did.
Long story short: without voice and with competent leadership and some selectivity of the applicants, the Rando Brigade downed 5 bosses with no more than 3 wipes total. I didn't get an offhand, but I was able to funnel a couple of my drops to people who needed them.
I then ran the raid again through LFR because even a crappy version is better than nothing and hey, it might titanforge or something. No love there either.
That left mythics. Mythics have particularly bad affixes this week-- when things die they "burst" giving players stacking DoTs doing a % of their health per stack, bosses are buffer, and there was some other nasty at the upper levels that made bursting a nightmare. A scan through the dungeon journal showed 4 dungeons have the potential of rewarding an offhand. I picked one (A troll jungle themed one with dinosaurs and suffering) and spammed it. I figured that even if I wasn't great at the beginning, if I kept running the same bosses, I'd get GOOD at it. (For the record, this strat worked.) If it was a level +5 or below, I applied for it and got so. many. rejections. Either beefier people were applying or they knew I was secretly terrible at first. All total I ran this 5 times before my offhand dropped from the end chest. Happy day!
Otherwise, I bought a small chest upgrade from the azurite vendor, hit level 62 with my necklace (we have people with 64 in the guild…yeesh), and got a new trinket from my raiding exploits. My arbitrary strength level is now "426", so yay!
Finally, I clawed my way past 570k gold, then spent 100 of it on more pets. (ALL! THE! PETS!) My menagerie shall be glorious!
Saturday night I had a work affair to attend, so I wouldn't have an opportunity to continue the push (they downed the 3rd boss for the first time without me then wiped 7 times on Lady Ashvane before calling it quits), so I pugged normal raids.
I want you to picture this. An undergeared warlock who had never been through LFR organizing 30 people who had signed up to "normal EP-- all are welcome". There's no voice chat and he has given assist to literally everyone so they can mark what they need to. We wiped 4 times on the trash leading up to the first boss. On the boss itself only half the people understood the fight and people were randomly placing and removing markers. It was, and I make no exaggeration to the claim, as if the Trade Channel and Barrens Chat had an unholy love child and led it through a dungeon. After the third wipe with 0 progress, one DK said "screw this. I'm going to form my OWN raid. I know what I'm doing. Drop and join." So I did.
Long story short: without voice and with competent leadership and some selectivity of the applicants, the Rando Brigade downed 5 bosses with no more than 3 wipes total. I didn't get an offhand, but I was able to funnel a couple of my drops to people who needed them.
I then ran the raid again through LFR because even a crappy version is better than nothing and hey, it might titanforge or something. No love there either.
That left mythics. Mythics have particularly bad affixes this week-- when things die they "burst" giving players stacking DoTs doing a % of their health per stack, bosses are buffer, and there was some other nasty at the upper levels that made bursting a nightmare. A scan through the dungeon journal showed 4 dungeons have the potential of rewarding an offhand. I picked one (A troll jungle themed one with dinosaurs and suffering) and spammed it. I figured that even if I wasn't great at the beginning, if I kept running the same bosses, I'd get GOOD at it. (For the record, this strat worked.) If it was a level +5 or below, I applied for it and got so. many. rejections. Either beefier people were applying or they knew I was secretly terrible at first. All total I ran this 5 times before my offhand dropped from the end chest. Happy day!
Otherwise, I bought a small chest upgrade from the azurite vendor, hit level 62 with my necklace (we have people with 64 in the guild…yeesh), and got a new trinket from my raiding exploits. My arbitrary strength level is now "426", so yay!
Finally, I clawed my way past 570k gold, then spent 100 of it on more pets. (ALL! THE! PETS!) My menagerie shall be glorious!
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Ghost Moose
Every now then (read: routinely) I get sidetracked. I start off with a perfectly reasonable plan for an evening such as "after running a few pet battles, make and disenchant a couple thousand bracers in between epic battlegrounds" and then wind up spending several hours running around the Broken Isles with a pickaxe in hand.
Why? Ghost Moose. I found out about this spectral flying mount, properly called "Spirit of Eche'ro" from guild mates a week ago and had. to. have. it. It is awarded by completing a Legion Archaeology quest that's only available for a couple of weeks twice a year. Basically, you run around Highmountain getting bonus "moose bones" from dig sites and witness a ritual when turning them in. So why doesn't everyone have ghost moose?
First, in true MMO capacity, it takes 600 bones to turn in the quest and you only get 0-2 per successful dig. You have a random chance of spawning an angered spirit than may drop an extra dozen, but those are infrequent at best. Second, very few people actually enjoy Archaeology. I myself am not a huge fan. I don't find the hunt and seek particularly interesting nor rewarding and so haven't poked around with it in many years. Finally, it's old content in a previous expansion. Put it all together and you have very few people going back to check out the Legion archaeology weekly quests that require hours of painful grinding. You'd have to be some weird, obsessive nut to do something like that. *cough*
The next question is, of course: how long did it take you? Surprisingly, only about an hour forty five total of absolutely non-stop running sites. Having access to flying, short range teleportation, and the ability to kill all wildlife in a 10 yard radius with a single keystroke cut down on the grinding time immensely. Every now and then I ran across another hunter and we'd yell out our current "to go" counts and give each other words of encouragement. Wound up chatting with a similarly single-minded priestess who refused to go to bed no matter how long it took her. (She ran out of time on the quest a couple of years ago and didn't trust the 13 day timer she saw on her UI) She also has an early day job, so I hope she got some sleep-- she had earned maybe 50 bones to my 200. I 'll send her a mail tonight to see how that went.
So, how does the mount itself look? Beautiful. I have a toy that makes me appear ghostlike as well. If I can ever put together a Mountie-type mog, I'll look like the ghost of Canadian pride itself.
For now though…
GHOOOOOOOOOOST MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE...
Figure 1: Low-res Archival Stock Footage courtesy of the BBC
Why? Ghost Moose. I found out about this spectral flying mount, properly called "Spirit of Eche'ro" from guild mates a week ago and had. to. have. it. It is awarded by completing a Legion Archaeology quest that's only available for a couple of weeks twice a year. Basically, you run around Highmountain getting bonus "moose bones" from dig sites and witness a ritual when turning them in. So why doesn't everyone have ghost moose?
First, in true MMO capacity, it takes 600 bones to turn in the quest and you only get 0-2 per successful dig. You have a random chance of spawning an angered spirit than may drop an extra dozen, but those are infrequent at best. Second, very few people actually enjoy Archaeology. I myself am not a huge fan. I don't find the hunt and seek particularly interesting nor rewarding and so haven't poked around with it in many years. Finally, it's old content in a previous expansion. Put it all together and you have very few people going back to check out the Legion archaeology weekly quests that require hours of painful grinding. You'd have to be some weird, obsessive nut to do something like that. *cough*
The next question is, of course: how long did it take you? Surprisingly, only about an hour forty five total of absolutely non-stop running sites. Having access to flying, short range teleportation, and the ability to kill all wildlife in a 10 yard radius with a single keystroke cut down on the grinding time immensely. Every now and then I ran across another hunter and we'd yell out our current "to go" counts and give each other words of encouragement. Wound up chatting with a similarly single-minded priestess who refused to go to bed no matter how long it took her. (She ran out of time on the quest a couple of years ago and didn't trust the 13 day timer she saw on her UI) She also has an early day job, so I hope she got some sleep-- she had earned maybe 50 bones to my 200. I 'll send her a mail tonight to see how that went.
So, how does the mount itself look? Beautiful. I have a toy that makes me appear ghostlike as well. If I can ever put together a Mountie-type mog, I'll look like the ghost of Canadian pride itself.
For now though…
GHOOOOOOOOOOST MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE...
Figure 1: Low-res Archival Stock Footage courtesy of the BBC
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle
On Tuesdays, the guild hosts 1-2 hour RP/social gatherings/character building workshops for interested people and hosted by our RP-enthusiast officer, Ellendar. This week's took the form of a beachside luau along the sandy shores of tropical Stranglethorn Vale, just north of Booty Bay. I rather enjoy these as they provide a nice change of pace from my usual somewhat obsessively maniacal "must get all the pets, power, and gold" mentality. I also like seeing how well I can dress to fit a theme. I think I nailed the Jungle Explorer-ready-to-party vibe fairly well. [insert discord pic here]
Between tropical drinks and roasted meat, we danced around the bonfires and had a grand ol' time. Fishing and trivia contests rounded out the festivities and we delved into the rich lore behind STV, combining both fact and fancy as it came to the native troll and pirate populace. I think all total we had 12-14 people show up, which is a pretty typical turnout for a niche event. It's definitely a shift from my previous guild when we'd be lucky to have half that number online at any given time.
For my birthday I picked up Volumes 1-3 of Chronicles, which is an absolutely lovely hardbound series that codifies and explores every aspect of the history and lore behind Warcraft's universe, written by Chris Metzen, the former SVP of Story and Franchise Development, with quite delightful illustrations throughout. It is my sincere hope I'll be able to stop pet battling long enough to read them.
Between tropical drinks and roasted meat, we danced around the bonfires and had a grand ol' time. Fishing and trivia contests rounded out the festivities and we delved into the rich lore behind STV, combining both fact and fancy as it came to the native troll and pirate populace. I think all total we had 12-14 people show up, which is a pretty typical turnout for a niche event. It's definitely a shift from my previous guild when we'd be lucky to have half that number online at any given time.
For my birthday I picked up Volumes 1-3 of Chronicles, which is an absolutely lovely hardbound series that codifies and explores every aspect of the history and lore behind Warcraft's universe, written by Chris Metzen, the former SVP of Story and Franchise Development, with quite delightful illustrations throughout. It is my sincere hope I'll be able to stop pet battling long enough to read them.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Good Mythical Morning (and Evening and Weekend)
Over the weekend, we downed the first raid boss on Heroic on the third attempt, then the GM chickened out of the rest, opting instead to clear the whole place on Normal… which we did handily. We even did Azshara with a full guild group, earning the guild some achievement, which was nice. Unfortunately, while it's great we can clear normal, it does absolutely jack for bolstering my personal gear. Unless an item drop randomly titanforges, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a serious downgrade.
So what's an up-and-coming arcane mage to do? Why, run mythical dungeons!
I've mostly avoided mythic+ for several reasons. One, the "job interview" trap. Unless you're leading the group itself (something I'm loathe to do), you have to have the experience in order to be invited to groups. Mythics are races against the clock with 5 second time penalties for every death your team takes (plus the time it takes to recover and regroup), and mechanic screw-ups are usually rewarded with insta-kills. As a result, sane people want to make sure you're capable before you're allowed in. I can't fault them for that. Second, you can't queue for them. That's just a lazy factor on my part. Flying to the dungeon, summoning party members. Finally, they're expensive. You're going to be buffing yourself with flasks and food like it's a raid. You HAVE to be operating at peak if you're "pushing keys".
(Apologies if any of the following is repeated in other posts.) A keystone placed in a receptacle by the dungeon entrance turns a dungeon into a mythic plus. A helpfully intimidating UI element shows a stopwatch and the number of deaths your group has accrued. Nothing drops loot until a chest at the end of the dungeon. Beating the dungeon in the time limit replaces your key with a higher level key for a randomly-chosen new dungeon, plus you get bonus loot. Beating the dungeon outside of time replaces your key with another key of the same level for a randomly-chosen dungeon. Bailing on a dungeon = no rewards and the key gets dropped in level. As dungeons get harder, they get "affixes" which makes your life hell in special ways. For example, "bolstering" gives all enemies a stacking +20% health and damage boost when a non-boss critter dies near them. Others do things like give you constant damage when you're wounded less than 90% or have extra mobs, etc. There's a LOT of variety in the pain you can suffer.
So, long story short, one of the guildies says "Hey, anyone interested in running [some dungeon I've been in once 9 months ago]? Mythic 2." He's one of our raiders and I reply "If you'd like a slightly drunk mage with moderate dps, shoot me an invite. If you're sane, grab someone else." In seconds I had an invite and a few minutes later, my intoxicated ass was delving into the Underrot. It went REALLY well and at the end, his key advanced by 2 levels, and I got a nice gear downgrade for my own part. (Like with most other things, harder stuff has higher rewards and this was a pretty low-level mythic. I think I'd need level 7s and higher to have a chance at upgrades.)
But most importantly, this gave me experience and a shot of confidence and began a long, strange trip for me over the weekend. My mythic buddy invited me back again and again and with a rotating cast of other guildies and pugged tanks, we ran another 5 dungeons along the way (sober), ending the game week with a couple of mythic 8s. We didn't meet clock time on the 8s (the "bolstering" makes pushing keys nearly impossible this week), but otherwise they are mostly smooth runs. There's never a time to pause, as one fight almost immediately leads to another. This poses a challenge for arcane, since it means virtually zero time to regain mana outside of combat. I've started treating them as single 30-35 minute fights, frantic and challenging, but fun.
Along the way I experienced at least one totally new (to me) dungeon and often it had been so long since I ran others, I had to read the dungeon journal on the fly to remind myself of basic fight mechanics. For me, it was a relief when we ran the otherwise universally-hated Siege of Boralus, simply because I knew those fights so well. As a nice touch, each dungeon makes me more "invitable" to pugs. "Gearscore" has long since gone by the wayside. Now it is all about your Raider.io score. Feel free to check it out. It's terrifyingly detailed information about how bad you suck and checked by the people who want to be successful.
Otherwise, I somehow I found the time to cap my pvp Conquest rewards, hit 850 unique pets, make another 100k on the AH through cornering the gloom dust market, and utterly failed to get Invincible from the Lich King for the 30th time.
Today, however is Tuesday. A new week of raid lockouts (31st failure incoming!) and for the first time I'll get to loot both a weekly mythic rewards chest and conquest chest that potentially hold upgrades.
So what's an up-and-coming arcane mage to do? Why, run mythical dungeons!
I've mostly avoided mythic+ for several reasons. One, the "job interview" trap. Unless you're leading the group itself (something I'm loathe to do), you have to have the experience in order to be invited to groups. Mythics are races against the clock with 5 second time penalties for every death your team takes (plus the time it takes to recover and regroup), and mechanic screw-ups are usually rewarded with insta-kills. As a result, sane people want to make sure you're capable before you're allowed in. I can't fault them for that. Second, you can't queue for them. That's just a lazy factor on my part. Flying to the dungeon, summoning party members. Finally, they're expensive. You're going to be buffing yourself with flasks and food like it's a raid. You HAVE to be operating at peak if you're "pushing keys".
(Apologies if any of the following is repeated in other posts.) A keystone placed in a receptacle by the dungeon entrance turns a dungeon into a mythic plus. A helpfully intimidating UI element shows a stopwatch and the number of deaths your group has accrued. Nothing drops loot until a chest at the end of the dungeon. Beating the dungeon in the time limit replaces your key with a higher level key for a randomly-chosen new dungeon, plus you get bonus loot. Beating the dungeon outside of time replaces your key with another key of the same level for a randomly-chosen dungeon. Bailing on a dungeon = no rewards and the key gets dropped in level. As dungeons get harder, they get "affixes" which makes your life hell in special ways. For example, "bolstering" gives all enemies a stacking +20% health and damage boost when a non-boss critter dies near them. Others do things like give you constant damage when you're wounded less than 90% or have extra mobs, etc. There's a LOT of variety in the pain you can suffer.
So, long story short, one of the guildies says "Hey, anyone interested in running [some dungeon I've been in once 9 months ago]? Mythic 2." He's one of our raiders and I reply "If you'd like a slightly drunk mage with moderate dps, shoot me an invite. If you're sane, grab someone else." In seconds I had an invite and a few minutes later, my intoxicated ass was delving into the Underrot. It went REALLY well and at the end, his key advanced by 2 levels, and I got a nice gear downgrade for my own part. (Like with most other things, harder stuff has higher rewards and this was a pretty low-level mythic. I think I'd need level 7s and higher to have a chance at upgrades.)
But most importantly, this gave me experience and a shot of confidence and began a long, strange trip for me over the weekend. My mythic buddy invited me back again and again and with a rotating cast of other guildies and pugged tanks, we ran another 5 dungeons along the way (sober), ending the game week with a couple of mythic 8s. We didn't meet clock time on the 8s (the "bolstering" makes pushing keys nearly impossible this week), but otherwise they are mostly smooth runs. There's never a time to pause, as one fight almost immediately leads to another. This poses a challenge for arcane, since it means virtually zero time to regain mana outside of combat. I've started treating them as single 30-35 minute fights, frantic and challenging, but fun.
Along the way I experienced at least one totally new (to me) dungeon and often it had been so long since I ran others, I had to read the dungeon journal on the fly to remind myself of basic fight mechanics. For me, it was a relief when we ran the otherwise universally-hated Siege of Boralus, simply because I knew those fights so well. As a nice touch, each dungeon makes me more "invitable" to pugs. "Gearscore" has long since gone by the wayside. Now it is all about your Raider.io score. Feel free to check it out. It's terrifyingly detailed information about how bad you suck and checked by the people who want to be successful.
Otherwise, I somehow I found the time to cap my pvp Conquest rewards, hit 850 unique pets, make another 100k on the AH through cornering the gloom dust market, and utterly failed to get Invincible from the Lich King for the 30th time.
Today, however is Tuesday. A new week of raid lockouts (31st failure incoming!) and for the first time I'll get to loot both a weekly mythic rewards chest and conquest chest that potentially hold upgrades.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
It's a me, Strevnor!
To say Azeroth Inc is an active guild doesn’t quite do it justice. Due to very aggressive churn, we stay at around 950-1000 members, with 25 or so being replaced every day. At any given time we’ll have between 45 and 100 online. Everyone does their own thing, but we have guild event of various flavors to cater to the masses. Tuesdays are RP events and Social Gatherings. I had nothing pressing after clearing out my daily pet battles, no I signed up for the event: a costume party.
No other criteria was mentioned. So, I figured “what the hell”. I’d treat it like a Halloween costume party and decided to make myself a Mario mog. A half hour and 2k gold later, I have a look I like that’s ‘good enough’. Just in case someone didn’t get it, I named a baby raptor Yoshì because OF COURSE the proper “Yoshi” was a reserved name. I had a few pet biscuits in the bank that doubled the size of the pet “as long as it remains by your side”, so I was all set for a party.
[So, sorry-- blog readers. This is a placeholder for now!]
Long story short, about 15 of us chilled out in voice chat and played around drinking and admiring each other’s mogs. I was the only one who went ‘full theme’, with most attendees dressing up in various fancy dress attire.
Apparently my Mario was a hit. I was declared “winner”—and was showered with a ridiculous amount of prizes: 10k in gold, 40k worth of mounts, 200k worth of transmog gear, and a few pieces of assorted clothing.
Definitely worth shaving the beard for.
No other criteria was mentioned. So, I figured “what the hell”. I’d treat it like a Halloween costume party and decided to make myself a Mario mog. A half hour and 2k gold later, I have a look I like that’s ‘good enough’. Just in case someone didn’t get it, I named a baby raptor Yoshì because OF COURSE the proper “Yoshi” was a reserved name. I had a few pet biscuits in the bank that doubled the size of the pet “as long as it remains by your side”, so I was all set for a party.
[So, sorry-- blog readers. This is a placeholder for now!]
Long story short, about 15 of us chilled out in voice chat and played around drinking and admiring each other’s mogs. I was the only one who went ‘full theme’, with most attendees dressing up in various fancy dress attire.
Apparently my Mario was a hit. I was declared “winner”—and was showered with a ridiculous amount of prizes: 10k in gold, 40k worth of mounts, 200k worth of transmog gear, and a few pieces of assorted clothing.
Definitely worth shaving the beard for.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Sew what?
One of the things I neglected to mention was that I went "99% Zyrial" late last week (Never, ever go 'full Zyrial') and dropped Skinning for Tailoring. This is simply so I can conveniently turn the vast quantities of cheap AH linen into Tidestone Bracers (Kul Tiran Tailoring level 1).
This is the equivalent of taking 22g worth of materials and (assuming it doesn’t crit) turning it into a 21g trash vendor item. Naturally, I then bought 20k worth of linen, because the solution here is to make up for it in volume.
So what does one do with literally a thousand bracers? Why, disenchant them of course for that sweet, sweet dust. Having ground out the Enchantment Rod that gives bonus mats, each green bracer yields between 8 and 13 dust, averaging about 10. With dust selling reliably between 4.8-7g each, this becomes a windfall in and of itself. The rare and epic shards from the blue disenchants are pure gravy.
So how much dust we talkin' here? It really comes down to "how much time am I willing to spend pushing my 'disenchant' macro. (read: 1.5 hours) …yielding in the neighborhood of 40k gold profit for minimal work while I watch youtube videos.
Read: between 40-60 kilodust.
While this could have been a third of another month's game time, I instead plowed the ill-gotten wealth back into feeding the pet addiction, which has now finally broken the 800 mark.
This is the equivalent of taking 22g worth of materials and (assuming it doesn’t crit) turning it into a 21g trash vendor item. Naturally, I then bought 20k worth of linen, because the solution here is to make up for it in volume.
So what does one do with literally a thousand bracers? Why, disenchant them of course for that sweet, sweet dust. Having ground out the Enchantment Rod that gives bonus mats, each green bracer yields between 8 and 13 dust, averaging about 10. With dust selling reliably between 4.8-7g each, this becomes a windfall in and of itself. The rare and epic shards from the blue disenchants are pure gravy.
So how much dust we talkin' here? It really comes down to "how much time am I willing to spend pushing my 'disenchant' macro. (read: 1.5 hours) …yielding in the neighborhood of 40k gold profit for minimal work while I watch youtube videos.
Read: between 40-60 kilodust.
While this could have been a third of another month's game time, I instead plowed the ill-gotten wealth back into feeding the pet addiction, which has now finally broken the 800 mark.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Naga! Hide!
I'm delighted to say after 11 wipes total, our guild downed the final raid boss, Queen Azshara. It seems disingenuous to say "killed", since she was rescued at the last moment by the N'zoth, the Elder God we accidentally freed in the process, but, you know, you take your victories where you can. The fact it was on my birthday was just gravy.
I mentioned earlier the fight had a ridiculous number of mechanics. Trying to list them all won't give the fight justice, but I'll try to link the video of the kill later to give a sense of the controlled chaos. It begins with a pair of minibosses that must be tanked separately or together (depending on their current mood) and killed together, before the REAL fight begins. The main highlights are wards around the room that have to be empowered and one that gives a damage boost to the boss that has to be depowered. Everyone has to manage these (Doing so gives a 2 minute debuff reducing your max health by 10% a stack) and there are many adds and things happening that drain energy from the first and boost the latter. Each person must follow decrees to stand apart, soak damaging orbs, stack on other people, and the like. A number of different types of adds have to be burned down, including a couple of mini-bosses that shield themselves from all damage. The shield can be broken by a spear thrown by a different add at a player, who must position themselves to have the spear (which passes through the player) pop the shield, but not any of the pillars in the room or a control console. The control console has to be periodically depowered during the last phase of the fight, and each depowering will kill a DPS (after giving them a 40 second damage buff) or drain wards by 30% or something else horrible. It's totally nuts.
We're going to try heroics next week and they'll be DPS auditions on Thursday. I may not make the cut, but that's ok-- I've now been part of successful boss kills well before they hit LFR. Speaking of, I wound up leading a LFR raid over the weekend, because it was painfully clear most people had no idea what was going on. I think there's usually 1/3rd of the players who have a clue or at least watched a video or read the dungeon journal and 2/3rds that will just try to 'wing it', trusting to be carried. When it was painfully clear we weren't going to survive the fights with 2/3rds dead, I stepped up, summarized mechanics, and called out during the fights. By god, it worked. We wiped once on one boss, but otherwise it was a smooth, smooth run that wound up with only 2 people dead on the same boss we wiped on the first time.
Otherwise, I've been feeding my pet addiction. I've caught just about every pet I can in the wilds (there's a couple left in Pandaria I just haven't gotten to yet) and have been steadily adding from the Auction House when I see them drop well below the average prices. Currently at 792 unique pets (which is a ridiculous number), with the next achievement at 800. The final (!) achieve is at 1000 pets, but I don't see myself getting to that point. The last 50 or so have been challenging and it is just getting more and more expensive at 2k+ each.
I mentioned earlier the fight had a ridiculous number of mechanics. Trying to list them all won't give the fight justice, but I'll try to link the video of the kill later to give a sense of the controlled chaos. It begins with a pair of minibosses that must be tanked separately or together (depending on their current mood) and killed together, before the REAL fight begins. The main highlights are wards around the room that have to be empowered and one that gives a damage boost to the boss that has to be depowered. Everyone has to manage these (Doing so gives a 2 minute debuff reducing your max health by 10% a stack) and there are many adds and things happening that drain energy from the first and boost the latter. Each person must follow decrees to stand apart, soak damaging orbs, stack on other people, and the like. A number of different types of adds have to be burned down, including a couple of mini-bosses that shield themselves from all damage. The shield can be broken by a spear thrown by a different add at a player, who must position themselves to have the spear (which passes through the player) pop the shield, but not any of the pillars in the room or a control console. The control console has to be periodically depowered during the last phase of the fight, and each depowering will kill a DPS (after giving them a 40 second damage buff) or drain wards by 30% or something else horrible. It's totally nuts.
We're going to try heroics next week and they'll be DPS auditions on Thursday. I may not make the cut, but that's ok-- I've now been part of successful boss kills well before they hit LFR. Speaking of, I wound up leading a LFR raid over the weekend, because it was painfully clear most people had no idea what was going on. I think there's usually 1/3rd of the players who have a clue or at least watched a video or read the dungeon journal and 2/3rds that will just try to 'wing it', trusting to be carried. When it was painfully clear we weren't going to survive the fights with 2/3rds dead, I stepped up, summarized mechanics, and called out during the fights. By god, it worked. We wiped once on one boss, but otherwise it was a smooth, smooth run that wound up with only 2 people dead on the same boss we wiped on the first time.
Otherwise, I've been feeding my pet addiction. I've caught just about every pet I can in the wilds (there's a couple left in Pandaria I just haven't gotten to yet) and have been steadily adding from the Auction House when I see them drop well below the average prices. Currently at 792 unique pets (which is a ridiculous number), with the next achievement at 800. The final (!) achieve is at 1000 pets, but I don't see myself getting to that point. The last 50 or so have been challenging and it is just getting more and more expensive at 2k+ each.
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