Being bad

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Hell week is over! Finally

So indeed we accomplished something. Sadly it took us 3 continued raidIDs to do it. And now they want us on Lich King. I was dpsing on my priest, sadly, because I have to say I am not doing so hot with her. I’m much better on the shaman nowadays. After pugging before this with my priest and other people on my server, seeing 5k dps on that fight made me cry. And explained the difficulty level we faced.

Basically I don’t think we’re ready for Lich King. And I don’t want to spend 5 weeks wiping to get that through the raid’s head.

Now I feel horribly guilty about this. I am the one that hates on guildies that bail on farming raids for gear for new people. But it’s quite different to farm something then it is to wipe endlessly. I hate to say that, but it is. In my opinion at least. We need to be capable of killing Sindragosa the night we see here before we waste time wiping on Lich King.

Filed under: guild, raid, raiding

Speak da’ Truth

*The title for this post was inspired by the troll-lovers in my RP horde guild. An entire afternoon spent reading troll-flavored common has rotted my brain.

**The renaming of this blog was approved by Bossy Pally herself.

***I think I’ve worked the kinks out of the feed above with loot/achievement junk. LOOK FACEROLLER YESSSSSSS (I will never have that on my druid it seems).

If I were to pick words out of the ether to describe myself, I often use words that communicate a flash point. I am like an unstable mixture waiting for one movement, one change in temperature, one change in light to burst into reaction. It’s very strange, really. Mostly I try to be a calm and rational being, and most people consider me to be dull and or boring in the real world. But oh do I react to things, even when I hide those reactions. (I feel sorry for my vent companions in heroics, especially lately. I’m a ranting monster about people pulling off my tanks, healers healing too early, etc.)

I agonized the first time I broke my long-term guild contract in warcraft. It’s where I learned what DPS was, and became aware of this wider facet of the game than the single player aspect. Sure I chatted and socialized, but some over-reaching goals became clearer to me. I developed a sense of community, and really grew attached to people in the game.

Eventually I landed into a more relaxed atmosphere with really great players on the same server and even though only one of my toons was there, I made sure they knew if they ever needed me or any of on my toons, if I could I would be there. It’s worked out well for me and for them I think. We killed Putricide finally. We can 2 heal the entire first wing of ICC10. We have a blast.

But recently as my old home really broke up some have found their way into this haven of mine. Sure I still have my alt-bank guild. Sure I still pug raids with my other 80s and each of them seems to be gaining a solid rep. But I had grown to like the atmosphere of my new home. (Bank guilds are a tad boring!). However, many of the people I really cherished as people, but hated to raid with, have found their way in. I’m glad they’re having fun, I’m glad the guild is growing, I’m glad the leaders have bigger goals in mind and are moving in the right direction for them. But…

The push for progression two weeks ago led to a mini-spaz session of mine. And I had to reclaim my inner-understanding that I am not tied to a raid for any reason. It’s fun, and I like the people, or it’s not (and in that case why am I there?). The RL pushed hard, really really hard, on a progression kill, to the point where people that at the start of the raid had been promised 6 emblems had only gotten 5, the free emblem was still available, but raiders had to start leaving. And the RL wanted to pug new fillers in, which unfortunately would only have resulted in locking them to an unproductive raid, and given them no loot, not even one emblem, to show for it.

I objected. Pretty loudly (using the above language too). And after the fifth wipe, and the third replacement when it became obvious more people had to leave, I finally left myself. I let the raid leader know I didn’t want to be part of a raid locking people to the ID that didn’t get jack done.

I got over it pretty quick, though I’m pretty sure the raid leader has me on his unhappy list. I do like everyone in the guild, and while I may object to some things, I like to think my solid support outweighs it all. But I’m getting the feeling that my quiet support is taken for granted or just plain unappreciated. And after ditching a guild VOA raid full of whiny bad attitudes trying to get gear for alts (and being pissed if any other guildy dared suggest bringing the same class alt as competition for gear), I got a stern talking to. It ended when I pointed out “look, I’m not being difficult. I’m not being demanding. This is just me. I’m vocal and when I don’t like something I say it. I am not trying to instigate drama.” and I couldn’t resist adding “ask the ex-guildies that just joined us” and before I could continue he said yeah he had been hearing about it.

So now I want to rant and cry like a spoiled child. I was here first and yet ex-now-new-guildies are talking bad about me and my “attitude”.

There’s this aura hanging over me, and it finally led to a required renaming of the blog. I was inspired by Bossy Pally herself. I also spent freaking 45min searching every blog post I had read in the past month about paladins to share a specific link with a friend. Determination and stubbornness, I sometimes have it.

Filed under: guild, rant

Caught between extremes

I’m a member of two guilds, one more active than the other, but I often raid with both. Maybe you’ve noticed the summer-time slump in Warcraft as many regular faces vanished to enjoy the sunshine and the good times available? I know I sure noticed it. Both guilds struggled to maintain support and direction for those left behind.

I don’t consider myself hardcore as a player. I try my best to play well. I read warcraft blogs. I do not have an awesome machine that means I get 60fps in Dalaran (I often dc in Dalaran actually..) I grow a little bit and learn a little bit every time I play the game, which frankly is a little bit each day.

So, as the guilds struggle, some of their weak spots become more obvious. Both had interesting loot issues. (I lost t7.5 on one of my dedicated raiding toons to the 4th alt of a piss-poor player. I also watched 2 mages lose out on upgrades to a priest that raids holy but wanted gear for shadow.) These things happened due to the culture that had developed in the guild, not due to lax guidelines on how things are supposed to be done. (Well okay, the 7.5 was due to lax guidelines too.)

Where am I going with this?

Both guilds are now suffering a lack of direction. Many of the players play to have fun, and I do too. But it seems we have fun in different ways. I don’t have fun wiping twenty times on something that at least half the raid has done before because no one is guiding new players on how to conquer the boss. I don’t like seeing really bad talent point arrangements, that are pure laziness as opposed to “I really like every single one of these talents and use them all!” I don’t like seeing dps that are clueless to the point a tank is doing higher damage than them. I don’t like carrying others to gear upgrades (especially taken away from me). At least if I respect your play I can deal with losing gear to you…

So I find myself stuck. I don’t think I’m hard core. But I’m not so casual that I joyfully tag along to overgear and overpower a run or a raid for people that haven’t put any time into learning their class or the fight they want to beat. Yet in both guilds the word “hardcore” is tossed around like an insult, a dirty nasty tag you don’t want applied to you. Maybe that’s because I play on an RP server? Regardless, I don’t like being viewed as dirtying these guilds by having high standards of conduct, or by desiring to work with others that have similar high standards to conquer more difficult content.

I lost my temper recently in the guild where the guild management’s attempt to guage players to prioritize invites to Ulduar 25 (yes.. ULDUAR 25) met with strong resistance, the word hardcore being tossed about “We don’t want to be hardcore!” and general guild uneasiness with any form of grade put on performance (let alone attendance for progression night raiding.)

Why am I “hardcore” if I play well and want to raid with others that play well? Why am I an elitist if I want my co healers to heal as well as I do, so I don’t have to sweat the entire raid that if I’m not on top of everything we’re gonna wipe? Why does a dps who tops the meters have to watch someone at the bottom of the performance meter, who isn’t really contributing, earn dkp and later take a piece of loot that I performed and worked hard for, while they were carried?

Are we hardcore because we use DKP?
Are we hardcore because we raid in the top level raids?
Are we hardcore because we raid 3 nights a week?
Are we hardcore because we expect raiders to know how to play their toons well if they want to raid with the toon?

A 25man raid allows for “carrying” or overlooking some bad performance by a few because of the good performance of the many. It’s easier in a 25man to make a mistake and have it be recoverable. Ten mans are MUCH less forgiving. Heroics even more so, though the content doesn’t hit as hard as 25man raids.

I do not support carrying low performance players. I don’t work this hard to carry others. I want those I raid with to work as hard as me in the raid, because I want to successfully kill bosses and I want to progress further into Ulduar.

This was after a couple mass exodus of the great raiders from the guild because of the horrible hold the piss poor raiders had on the management, and the craptastic invites that were being sent out.

I think it comes down to a confusion on the guild’s identity. It was an accidental raiding guild when a core of ten really awesome players got together and started accomplishing stuff back in TBC.

The other guild sells itself in recruitment as a raiding guild, but allows alts in blues and a green (or two) into Ulduar. So both are having trouble. And both feel it violates the codes of their guilds to have basic dps/stat requirements for the most difficult raids.

I find this frustrating as hell. And find that pulling my oldest toon out of her parking guild, where she was always willing to help out in a raid on an off night as whatever spec was needed, very difficult.

Filed under: guild, raiding

Why I’m a badass

Drama is as drama does. I don’t cause drama. I do however deal with issues that bug me head on. I don’t chat with others behind people’s backs. I treat raiding pretty damn professionally, and demand the same of my fellow raiders.

Proper looting is an integral part of a raid. At the start of a raid you should announce what spec you are rolling as, especially if it is not the spec of the role you are currently fulfilling.

Nasty shocks regarding loot do not go over very well.

I like to raid. I raid as often as I can.

I am not afraid to pug. If you do not raid right I will not raid with you again. There is no sick desperation here of “oh noes if I don’t raid with my guild I won’t get to raid at all”.

I NEVER lack for raiding opportunities, and I’m often torn trying to decide which healer (or even a tank or 2 dps) to bring to a raid based on guild ties and the best option for that particular raid.

This works for me. It gives me a lot of freedom to exercise choice as a carrot to those I raid with. I bring pretty decent playing and performance. If the raid leadership can’t handle my expectations of raiding/looting, I move on.

Filed under: drama, guild, loot, raiding

Loot. Sucks.

I am very happy that I am not an officer in both the raiding guilds I am a member of. I like it. Being an officer is stressful. You can’t make everyone happy. I get it.

But I simply do not get this guild’s looting excuses.

“I wasn’t there, but my guess would be that XXXX was rolling for his main (shadow) spec. The run wasn’t going to happen without a third healer, so he signed up to heal.”

W. T. F.

In that case gtfo of my raids. If you can’t get a legitimate dps slot, bugger off and stop robbing the legitimate dps of their loot.

Filed under: drama, guild, loot, raiding

The first hint of loot drama

And to show that this loot drama is not a new thing..

Setting: OS 8 man run. June 17th this year.

The run was smooth as silk. Then loot happened. Warlock got a ring, awesome. Mage didn’t roll, though they could have used it. But gloves were mage/druid/dk/whatever. When that item was announced, mage rolled instantly.

Then there was a long pause.

I was not on vent so I don’t know what happened. All I know is what I saw in raid.

After the pause, Treedruid rolled a high number and looted the t7 gloves. I was incredulous and wow armoried him, and yes he’s in all Valorous 7.5 stuff for his resto/main set.

In any raiding situation, it is common decency, I believe, that main spec upgrades come before off spec upgrades, regardless of who you are, or where you’re raiding.

I don’t know why Treedruid rolled. I don’t know why “acting” raid leader (though Treedruid had master loot), or anyone else didn’t dispute the roll.

Treedruid said in guild chat, where I mentioned the most basic loot rule of main spec before offspec, that he offered to the mage to send the token to him and the mage passed. I’m sorry but the mage rolled, and Treedruid should be expected to send that token to them via a GM ticket, regardless. Treedruid shouldn’t have rolled for any reason, since that mage did roll.

What do I want done?
1. those gloves sent to the mage
2. clarify main spec before off spec looting wherever AMP raid looting

I am extremely saddened that a player I respected acted so badly in such a simple situation over, of all things, tier 7 gloves that are buyable with emblems of heroism, when he’s raiding Ulduar on his tree spec when we have two teams going.

I have 3 80s, and all of them raid. I pug a lot. So maybe that means I’m more in tune with how to treat people that don’t share my guild tag, how to treat alts that are working just as hard to gear up as mains that earn DKP and emblems of valor and honor. I also have a very strong sense of right and wrong, and I have tanked with my face for most of my wow career, both in raid situations and in guild dramas.

Why is there a problem in this otherwise awesome guild about main spec before off spec? I think I just have a serious problem with sensibilities of entitlement. I leveled my shadowpriest originally outside of guild, and geared her for raiding with pugs, 100%. I do not insert my undergeared toons into runs they aren’t ready for.

Filed under: drama, guild, loot, raiding

Open letter to the management #1

Just in case I get booted from the guild for causing trouble I’m posting these letters here.

I love our AMP loot system in 25man raids. I find it incredibly fair, and it is by far my favorite loot system that I’ve run across in all my raiding on this server. But I do pug alot, so I take it for granted that BOP or BOE would go to main spec before off spec, regardless of status as a main or an alt.

Tonight’s loot issue was XXXXX, filling a healer slot on the raid signup and healing for most of the raid night, rolling on BOP purple caster bracers with spell-hit, when the raid had a shadowpriest and 2 mages present. Not only rolling but taking the loot.

As I read the loot rules now, under BOE it says

Quote
Starting with WotLK, many bosses will drop BoE epics. Priority for rolling on these will be as follows:
Raid member for main spec
Raid member for off spec
Raid member’s alt
Greed roll (winner may do with it what they wish)

Since our ten mans aren’t running AMP, I’m not sure why these same guidelines aren’t applied to BOP items. I understand that ideally, for main spec, in order to pass loot around and offer the best overall improvement to the raids, items as a mian spec upgrade are one per person until every main spec of a certain type (melee/caster/heals/tank/armor limits) has gotten an upgrade or passes, then is permitted as a 2nd main spec upgrade unless no one wants it, then is opened up to offspec.

Outside of the above guidelines for purple BOE items in WotLK all I see as guidelines for ten man raids is

Quote
1. Pass on Purple BoP items, then discuss in party chat. Follow the same procedure as with Blue BoP items.
2. Pass on Blue BoP items unless they are a significant upgrade for you. If it is an upgrade for you and you would use it immediately, say so in party chat. Roll for it only if the party leader tells you to.

I don’t like loot confusion and I do like clearly set rules. I was also under the impression that main spec before off spec was a universally applied loot theory. These bracers were not immediately equipped by XXXXXX, nor were they the rest of the night. So I’m honestly just very confused why an item with spellhit was rolled on by a healer when there were casting dps, and plenty of it, present. Offspec was never announced during the looting.

Any help explaining the loot of 10 mans would be appreciated before I sign up for more.

Filed under: drama, guild, loot, raiding

bring on the loot drama, 3.2

Yesterday I was sitting in vent chatting with some friendly guildies. Want to know what we began discussing?

Patch 3.2 BOP Items Trade
A very nice feature was added to the game with the latest PTR patch, according to the interface files and a few in-game tests you can now trade BOP items with members of your raid who participated in the kill. This change will probably considerably lower the amount of GM petitions each day.

Just, wow. The more I thought about this, the more I boggled.

So first, what do you think Loot is? Is it a reward to each raider for their performance? Or is it a tool to be used for further progression, making it guild/raid property assigned to people to further progression? I happen to think it’s the latter, when you’re talking about non-pug progression. A raider is granted loot assuming they will continue to raid with that team, and the loot will give them more to support the raid, whether that’s dps, tank survivability or healing power.

Second, what would this BOP change mean for dkp? Is one raider that doesn’t raid all that often going to spend their dkp on an item and sell it to another guildy that wanted it just as bad, but had already used up their dkp? Are there going to be backroom deals on who spends their dkp which night, small little cabals who’s purpose is to make gold at the expense of their fellow raiders?

And third, how the heck will raid management deal with this change? Both my guilds work a modified loot system (quite different from each other) that attempts to assure that the most number of people each night get at least a piece of loot. Suddenly with this change, at the end of a raid night the leadership has no freaking clue who is keeping the gear they were assigned, or how its moving about the raid. Suddenly there is less knowledge about what gear your tank is going to have for the next raid, your healers, your dps that you awarded loot hoping their numbers would improve.

A few weeks ago a few raiders rolled on a BOE drop in 25man Ulduar, for the life of me I can’t remember if it was a mainspec roll or an offspec roll. One of them won it. Turns out a few days later he sold it to a guildie for that guildie’s alt. The second I heard about this I flipped out, and I’m going to make damn sure that the loot rules are modified so if that happens again, the one that sold the loot gets benched for at least a week. In that case the loot totally left the raid makeup for an alt not even in the guild. This BOP rule does keep it within the raidid, but for larger guilds with a rotating team, that is going to prove interesting.

If you’ve seen any other blog posts on this topic, please share them! I honestly haven’t and I’ve got a pretty decent blogroll on my google reader. But I’m really curious how the bigger guilds will manage. Hopefully Matticus will tackle this subject soon too.

That’s a BOE example, no raid id limitation.

Filed under: drama, guild, loot, raiding

the break up

I love my druid’s guild, or I should say I am profoundly grateful to have met such great people, in game and out (since the Guild Leaders is in my town too) but breaking with them right before wrath was a much needed change. There’s such history between me and many there that it weighs me down. I raid with them on my druid when I can, and it’s as eye opening as pugging, only better since I do know the great players there.

But, I’m terrified the GM is going to ask more of me.

/sigh

Filed under: guild

A new home for me

I’ll be changing my link soon, as I am no longer part of Unbound on Sentinels.  It had changed too much, and I really was exhausted at the prospect of being the lynchpin keeping the few raiders there happy and focused.  I wanted to be happy myself.

So I’ve joined some great people in a guild I stumbled upon in my forays as a pug-fanatic (I do it a lot.. and I only have 3 80s).  They’re a guild well established and older than my druid’s guild!  Wow!  But I just love the personalities and the philosophies.  AMP > DKP, imo.  Great raiders and no DKP system = win.

So, yeah. There’s that.  I didn’t fix my UI, thus no shnazzy screen shots.  My 4day weekend will most likely be spent away from the computer, at least half of it, so I’m not sure if I’ll do UI stuff or clean or what not.  The end of the year is fast approaching and I’m panicking about a summer job.  Positive thoughts, positive thoughts…

Filed under: guild, raid, shaman