Donnerstag, 12. März 2009

Random raid o How to burn some time....

I am on a european server and instances reset on wednesday. When I logged on on tuesday I saw someone forming a group for heroic Obsidian Sanctum which I joined with my shadowpriest. I was ready to respec but we found some healers and there was no need for another. Forming was quite fast but took half an hour which I was flying around and waiting (instead of questing for the Loremaster of Northrend archievment).

During this time it was evolved to try Sarth+1 which is fairly easy. At least in a groups with more smart people than ... other people. Trash was cleared quick but then some drama erupted. What is the strategy for Sarth+1? Well, it took another 25 minutes to work it out ... Apparently some people never did Sarth or Sarth+1 before but we lost the major part of this 25 minutes due to some T7.5 geared guys (with gloves and "of the nightfall") making silly remarks and confusing the unexperienced. Finally there was a pull and ...

... after a minute or two it was over. Well maybe it took longer but it was embarassing. First we tanked Sarth on the far side (the side Tenebron comes down) and had a hunter assigned to misdirect Tenebron to the tank on the near side. It didn't work out and the tank had some issues until he finally had aggro. But it didn't matter because DPS stayed at Sarth and only a few changed their target. When the whelps came everything went downhill fast with no AoE (one warlock, one shadowpriest) and we wiped.

The Tenebron-tank called out to kill Sarth which caused some drama but he engaged him anyway and had enough support to kill the little drake. Some harsh words came because he denied better loot. Well, at least there was something to loot because when we downed Tenebron the whelps from the first wave were still around and killing healers at their pleasure. After that, Sarth was a cakewalk ... nearly because the Adds were not tanked properly and I thin I was the only one who tried to kill them.

There were two tokens for Priest, paladin and warlock. Two chances to get the best-in-slot gloves. The masterlooter called for a roll, decided that the two highest will win. I rolled and ... came up with a 7 *sigh*

Dienstag, 10. März 2009

What made me start this blog or Pugging in the evening

The last week my (still) shadowpriest went into serveral Herocis, getting some nice gear and a lot of emblems. By now I have the Handbook of Obscure Remedies and 55ish emblems to spend. Guess Elegant Temple Gardens' Girdle will be the next item but I am still pending. After getting exhalted with the Sons of Hodir, I am free to re-spec to healing or discipline something I miss in instances but shadow is nice for questing outside ;-)

Anyway, it's story time!
After having played my druid with my wifes discipline priest, I decided to do the last dailies at the Sons of Hodir to get exhalted. I always monitor the Looking for Group channel and noticed a high demand on tanks for various instances, some people were looking for hours. When I finished the quests I saw a mage, looking for two DPS for Utgarde pinnacle. Well, I wanted to go to bed soon but this instance is fast, daily and the group is ready to go so I applied and get an invite. Drama was just to begin ....

The port was quick but only four of us showed up. The tank was still in Dalaraan and refused to move or to answer. We waited 15 minutes for him to show up (he already has been afk for a few minutes before without saying a word to anyone) but finally he accepted the port. His first question was "Are we going Pinnacle? I thought you wanted to go Nexus? I have ID for pinnacle.." Aew ... no tank, no replacement around. The instance was over before we killed the first mob and I dropped the group because I didn't want to spend hours looking for a tank. Maybe it wasn't nice (the mage told me it wasn't ;-) ) but a DPS is eaily replaced while there were at least two groups looking for a tank since hours.

Did this experience made me smarter? I guess no because the moment I dropped the group and entered the LFG channel again I saw someone looking for two DPS for The Nexus. Well, I have to cross the whole continent but Nexus is fast (last time we finished it in 20 minutes with tank and healer both in blues and greens) so I applied again and got an invite. Drama continued ...

There were only two people in the group but the healer told me, that the tank will be there soon. So I took the griffon from Valgarde to the Nexus and when I was at the airfield (just a minute away from the nexus after a really long flight ....) the tank and the last DPS showed up. Port was fast, the tank had GEAR (Naxx-10 with a few Naxx-25 items, sporting 30k life unbuffed) but the resto druid forgot something in dalaraan.... He hearthed back and got ported a few minutes later and we started the instance, even killing a mob! By now 45 minutes had passed since I saw the first offer and I was eager to finish the instance, maybe get the gloves and go to bed.
So on the second pull I used Mind Sear which proved to be fatal. Even the death knight died because the warrior lost aggro as he got frozen in a freezing trap. Alas ... a Naxx-geared warrior looses aggro so fast? Mo more AoE for me. :-) Killing things in single target mode we soon faced the frozen Boss without any further death.

The tank told the DPS "to take care of the clerics first". No biggie, this is what I used to do. But then he pulled by shooting at the boss and completly refused to tank the clerics! Our druid-healer (who had his HoTs rolling) was their first target and got beaten hard. We killed them but I have never seen such a tactic (and hope I never will). We pressed on and soon we faced the second boss, Grand Magus Telestra. We hit her hard and the first split was soon but before we could down all three images we died horrible in her blizzard. At least every image had less than 10% hp, talk about bad focus *sigh* We went in again, the tank reminded my fellow DPS to kill the blue girl first and pulled. First transition was good and soon entered the second. I was too fast away from the images and could not tell which one was the blue, so I assisted the warrior after he made his first Shockwave. Guess he had the wrong target and switched because out of the blue I had aggro from the time-stop lady and fade did not help. So I feared and tried to kill the image fast (was about 10%). I succeeded but somehow the healer got nuked and we wiped again.

Two wipes? At the second boss? Ok .. one last chance! We went in, the tank was a bit angry because of the fear and took some minutes to get to the boss again. I used the time and inspected my fellow mates. The druid was wearing .... the T2 helmet......... WTH? "It's just my second gear, I have none better by now" I guess, it is just the color and he has no other purple around because he had T7 chest and gloves and everything else was purple, too. *sigh* So we went in for a third time and in the first transition the images one-shotted the healer....

After this, I left the group. Guess the tank left, too because he made a remark just before I dropped. Took about one and a half hour, netted me 1 Emblem of heroism and some reputation with the wyrmcrest. I also did the daily at the nexus so I actually had no loss in gold.

And what are we going to do tonight? That's what we do every evening! Try to find a PuG without drama.. :-D

Welcome

Well, just another World of Warcraft blog. It is just for my entertainment and to free myself of some frustration when pugging around.

When I started in 2005, I got a lot of help from my brother and his guild. I thought "Wow, instances are so easy! They are just fast xp!". But a few weeks later I faced my first PuGfh (Pickup- group from hell) and since then I dread to go in an instance with unknown player (and some well known are dreaded, too). There are a few good pugs and this blog shall not only mention the bad ones. I hope I can fulfill this task :-)

My main character is a dwarven priest although he was the second to hit 80. My first was a paladin -also a dwarf- and has visited Naxxramas enough to have a nice heal, tanking and retribution gear. There are also numerous alts in the 70's so I can get various insights of the tanking, healing and damaging persepective.

Besides leveling the alts and pugging around, I have a developed a habit in making money in the AH. Nearly all my 70's have epic flyers, have their tradeskills maxed out and the best-in-slot-equipment-money-can-buy when they hit 80. Nearly all crafted items are made by my own charakters and Frostweavebags are a standard item (having two tailors produces a lot of frostweavebags to skill up). Maybe I will share a story or two about my buisness.

Hope you enjoy the show.
Cheers,
chaoskas