Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Some Ramblings

So Patch has been out for a bit now. Most guilds have now taken down the first four accessible bosses of the Lich King’s Citadel and I’m pleased to see that at least three of those are Alliance guilds! I’ve felt kinda like rousing folks a bit on the forums and cheering the guilds along. Its cheesy and I’m sure I get eye rolled, but if horde can have a sense of ‘nationality’ so can Alliance!

SO Icecrown Citadel. With much eagerness and excitement we entered into the Lich King’s domain and with much surprise found at how easily we progressed. By the end of the first week, we had downed all the available new content! Granted it was fun to work around the bugs that were naturally showing their heads but we worked around it without much trouble.

Unfortunately after our fourth boss we realized that we had 28 days till the next ‘gate’ would be opened to us and we could see more. We’re clearing the current content in about an hour! Which is really excellent but leaves me figuring out what we can do. Most of the guild is hating TotGC. But we’re also one shotting all three bosses we have on farm. Its those stinky twins. Well its more, people are struggling with self awareness and playing dodgeball.

We’re trying yet another strategy that hopefully will work for us however, and I’m looking forward to coming back from holiday breaks to see how the guild does with it. The guild itself is doing very well! We have decided to take the step to invite a little beyond our current raid team to avoid the traps we hit before. For me this makes things more difficult because I have to switch people in and out who I like and know what to ALWAYS raid. And making those calls leaves me feeling a little stressed. But so far I’ve been met with nothing but kind understanding and willingness. I am hoping this continues as we continue to delve into the new content.

Something that has really brought a lot of activity to the guild is my much anticipated “Cross server Looking For Group” which I predicted could breath new life into people. Indeed, I’ve seen people flooding back to the Alliance who’d stopped playing. When you have the chance to get full tier nine and see the Lich King content so easily, it’s a great drawer. And if you’re a healer of tank, you are looking at possibly being in full tier 9 in 2-3 days depending on your playtime. DPS could probably be in it in a week.

I point to my own characters as examples. After the first days I had my paladin’s ret set upgraded from t8 to full t9. The following days I’d gotten enough badges to epic gem them and pay for enchants for the gear. I’ve since gotten a full t9 boomkin set for my druid and 4 piece of t9 for my disc priest as well as rings and neck pieces. For my bad fury warrior, its given me a chance to get to work on some new gear for her as well.

My only complaint is how long I’m sometimes waiting as dps. With my paladin it was easy to build the ret set because I was almost instantly in queues when I’d put myself in as a healer. Healers and Tanks in general have almost instant queues and to me kinda points out that truth the Blizz Dev Team has refuted – that one about how there aren’t really less. I think the queues kinda prove there is a great imbalance.

I think in part because players just don’t enjoy it as much. Though I do think it takes special people to play a healer and have the patience and willingness to have that kind of duty on their shoulders. Tanks too can be hard to pick up and play well. I’ve seen all sorts of tanks so far. Some are monsters who run in and take almost nill damage and are of chuck Norris status. Others run in and kinda beat their chest and the mobs laugh and run around them to decimate the poor dps or healers.

But is been entertaining for the most part and even if a group is horrid, sometimes I stay in just for the stories to share with the guildies. Such as the ass who pulled Ionius in HoL and when we had it at 20% health, hearthed and then left group. Or such as the group who pulled the first two mobs in FoS while the healer was drinking and then died when the healer wasn’t with them when they got to the second trash set and began to talk about crystal meth as we flew back.

Also, with the chance to play so many alts and gear them. And all these alts being of different types. (caster dps, melee dps, hots healer, etc) I’ve begun to consider if any of them would be a toon I’d consider making my new main in Cataclysm. Its odd considered it when I think about how long I’ve been a Paladin. I’ve basically been healing since leveling up. Its what I’m most comfortable as and what I know best.

However, the chance to do something different has made the game feel a bit newer. More interesting. Dpsing as a boomkin is fun because I can see how well I chain my eclipses, maintain my dots and meanwhile keep myself alive. And now I’m even working on incorporating mouse-overs into my dpsing to try to heighten reaction times. I am trying to develop better keybinding habits as well and more intelligent rotations. Asking internal questions as to why I’m doing things and not just accepting the status quo’s response on how it should be played.

Overall, I am VERY happy with the LFG-Cross-Server System and Its been great experiencing it.

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