Notag

Did my 100th random PUG (pick-up group) and I got the achievement Looking for Multitudes and I got some email from WoW Dev team.

Thought that was kinda cool of the dev team.

Watch this little dog. The butt-drag/sniff animation is funny!

Perky Pug (direct link) or Youtube below:

After leaving my old guild I tried some PuG-raiding.

VoA 10/25 give opportunities to PuG some raid-like content and there’s always some sort of Naxx/ToC/Uld 10 PuG forming on Executus.

I did do some 10 man PuG stuff but all(!) of them failed. I’m sure that does not surprise anyone reading this. Still baffles me why! Maybe Gevlon is right that most servers are made up of M&S?

What I found out by doing a bunch of PuG-raiding is my old guild is made of very skilled people. In general the toon population on Executus are not skilled at raiding.

Your latest season arena gear gives amazing burst damage but what do you do the other 7 minutes of the fight when you are in viper or oom? Arena gear is not raiding gear. Trying to explain that and people get all defensive.

I don’t mind wiping while I raid. I even don’t mind the constant reminders from the raid leader not to step in the “fire” or the fight strategies typed over and over in /raid.

It frustrating when people don’t learn and/or do the same thing wipe after wipe. If a tank-n-spank didn’t work the first 2 times, why do people think it will work on the 3rd attempt?

I really dislike PuG-raid calls like “LF1M DPS 5K or higher” or “VoA 25 LF1M DPS, link achievement”. I point people to this and say skill > gear. But I don’t know how to check someones skill but there are a bunch of tools to check gear. Don’t know how to change this “check” of players, I think good gear represents time, not skill, but people constantly look at gear as measure of skill.

But I really hate the snide comments said in a PuG’s /raid chat.

In fact, the last VoA 10 I did was so virile I just stopped PuG-raiding.

I do not raid anymore at all. It will be a long time before I raid again.

If I could find a guild that would make snide comments in vent and /raid raid-kick offenses I might try raiding again. Maybe give the raid leader and raid assists the ability to mute people in /raid? Seems like a good idea

And yes, Mike and the other Mike, this is a WoW rant. Enjoy.

Avoiding my old raid leader was pretty easy. I just left the guild and won’t join any group or raid he is participating in. WoW allows you to easily avoid people (ironic isn’t it?)

Not being in a guild is a big part of not raiding. Raiding with a guild, even as good as my old guild, seems like an exercise in frustration.

People are late. First pull at 8pm doesn’t mean 8:15pm or 8:30pm. When you are going to be late a text or post to the forums would be nice! I really hated waiting for one more.

Dealing with a raid leaders idea of the Perfect Raid Composition. Sucks to be a survival hunter doesn’t it?

The worst thing to deal with was the crap that was said in vent and typed in /raid. Vent will get its own post.

The best guilds wipe. It happens. Constructive criticisms from the leaders are expected. And for me, expected and wanted. The “crap from the peanut gallery” only drops morale and isn’t necessary.

I don’t like my old raid leader but I was always respectful in /raid and vent and never questioned his strategy or motives. Being rude and cynical in /raid especially to the raid leader is just bad.

Last minute comments in /raid from non-leaders are just a distraction. It’s worse when the comments in /raid are contrary to the directions of the raid leader. It just adds to the confusion. People just need to shut-up and listen to the raid leader. Right or WRONG the raid leader’s strategy is the one that should be followed.

Openly mocking the raid leader or making personal attacks should be raid-kick offenses.

I think a guild should gear up tanks, healers, then everyone else. My old guild used to do that but somewhere along the way things all messed up and I think raiding suffered.

If DPS is “low” the fight will just take longer. If a tank(s) cannot take the beating or the healers cannot keep the tank(s) up it’s a wipe. Why would you gear up the DPS first?

I don’t have a solution to any of the above problems. I think they are just part of any MMO. I could bitch about it all day but I don’t like complaining without suggesting some sort of solution.

The solution that works for me today is not to raid.

In early September I /gquit my GLA and stopped raiding. Besides being treated poorly by the raid leader I also wasn’t finding WoW fun anymore.

Could be just simple burn out?

I wanted to know if I could find the fun in WoW again.

I did not play for a week and I made a list of the things I did not like about WoW and how to avoid those things.

Here is my list:

* Raider leader of my old guild
* Raiding
* The current state of the Hunter Class
* Damage meters
* DPS calculation spreadsheets, web sites, programs
* Grouping/Parties
* Loot allocation
* The PVE curse
* Ventrilo
* Guild Drama
* Find crafters/Getting things crafted

The list shouts “Stop playing WoW” (or any other MMORPG). I have a couple months left of my subscription. I’m going to see what I can do about the list.

GLA made it into some sort of research study. Full study is here.

I loved the BC days. Look, I even topped the damage meters!

Was asked to find the cool Addons used by Munken in Ensidia vs Val’kyr Twins video.

Here they are:

Addon you are looking for is called ForteXorcist and is available at http://bit.ly/dJJtk -and- it’s available in the curse client.

Complete(!) Munken UI is at http://bit.ly/t0kgV

Here is the list of the .rar file for Munken’s UI

(more…)

After years in same guild I /gquit and said good-bye.

A series of events lead to the decision and I feel part bad and part relieved.

It all started when a GM promoted me to “core raider”.

I said I’d only be able to raid 2 nights a week (guild raids 3 nights a week) and I was told that be fine. Just show up on-time and prepared (flasks, stat food, etc).

Several raids passed. I thought everything was fine. Logged in on raid night to see I was demoted. Didn’t get a warning. Did not even get a “pink slip” stating why I got demoted.

I talked to both GMs and was told the Raid Leader (RL) demoted me neither GM knew why I was demoted. Huh? Aren’t GM the leaders of a guild? Shouldn’t they know about the internal things happening in the guild?

After several PM, in-game /whipers, and some discussion in vent, I finally found out that the raid leader demoted me because, “… performance has never been at the level I expect it to be of a hunter.” Honest and brutal!

Didn’t like the response, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn from it. And I did get my response. I guess you need to be careful on what you wish for, you might get it!

Further I was told that, “The Core Raider rank has been called in life to make a clear view of what we can raid with and rely on…”. Really? Is anyones call in life to be a WoW Raider?

Demotion to raider meant I lost the privilege to use guild bank funds for repairs. Few more dailies covered my repair costs. Lost the privilege of getting a great price break on flask from the gbank. Glad I know an alchemist that sells them to me at cost (or even below cost!).

The above is the first in my series of events on why I left. Promoted by GM, silently demoted by the raid leader, and effectively told my the raid leader that I suck at playing a hunter.

What constructive criticism can I take away from the poorly worded raid leader response to my demotion? I posed that question to my class officer and he was far more helpful.

Summary from my class officier was “knowledge of the fights” and “gear”. Ok! I can read more strats, watch more movies, do more research, do more 10-man stuff. The gear that will come with time.

The next series of raids and I’m put on stand-by. I’m not core raider anymore so I know core raider > raider when it comes to confirmations for raiding. Don’t like it, but that’s the rule.

Sure, I get in on a couple boss fights, but they were nornally “normal” mode fights, usually the same bosses, and the bosses don’t drop any hunter loot.

So this is the PVE conundrum. I need more knowledge and better gear to be considered for raiding =but= you only get that knowledge and gear =from= raiding. Chicken and the egg? Catch-22? Is there a solution?

I tried to counter the PVE conundrum by stepping up my 10-man PUG attempts, spending my triumph badged on slight upgrades, and investing a significant amount of time with the dps spreadsheets and RAWR.

After several respecs and changes to my shot rotation I increased my dps by almost 300 (recount and the dummies).

Next series of raids and I’m put on stand-by. To my dismay a “raiding recruit” was confirmed. Supposedly the confirmation order is core raider, raider (me), raiding recruit.

I sent a PM to the raid leader asking why recruit over raider. His explanation was the recruit is really a core raider who switched his main. Umm, OK, but his guild tag is still recruit! Seems like favoritism!

To add more evidence to the favoritism accusation the raid leader has made his opinion clear that hunters are “meh” in wrath and brining multiple hunters is a disadvantage to the raid. Yet the recruit that is getting confirmed over me is a hunter!

Even more evidence. Here is the raid leaders perfect raid composition. Only 1 hunter. A marksmen hunter. I’m a marksmen hunter. The recruit is a survival hunter.

The above is the second in my series of events on why I left. Buddies of the raid leader get preferential treatment.

I almost /gquit here. But I have friends in the guild and I felt I’d be loosing out on playing the game with them, the social aspect, and outside of raiding, I still enjoy the game, etc.

Next series of raids. Again I’m on stand-by. Again recruit confirmed. All expected. But this time I see only 24/25 people. It’s 10m past the start of the raid. I hear in vent and see in /guild that 25th is running late. I send a /whisper to the raid leader and tell him I’ll burn my raid-id and leave the raid once 25th shows up.

The raid leads response? No thanks, I’ve got things under control. I know the first boss was pulled 24/25 people.

The above is the third and last in my series of events on why I left. I’m standing outside the instance, there is 1 slot open in the raid, I promise I’ll leave the raid when the 25th member shows up, and I still don’t get invited into the raid.

I logged out. Took some time to calm down. When I was calm I asked myself, “still wanna quit the guild?” Answer was yes. There isn’t any one thing that caused me to leave. It’s a series of things.

I cannot see any way to change things so that I could routinely raid. So, I said good-bye with as little drama as I could.

I’m going to remain outside of a guild for awhile and see if I can re-find the fun that is WoW. My subscription expires in November. If I cannot find the fun in the next 2 months I’m going to let the subscription lapse.

Some say this is WoW burn-out. Others raiding burn-out. Could be one or the other or both or neither. Only time will tell.

I post this to my blog so if I app to another guild and the inevitable question of “past guilds … why did you leave” is asked, I can just send them this link.

Marksmen (7/57/7)