Dear Loot Gods

Dear Loot Gods,

You’re not funny.  When I bring my hunter, dropping not one but BOTH of the major upgrades my paladin needs is cruel.

I hate you, please die in a fire.

No love,
-Always On The Wrong Toon

Murphy’s Law of Alting to Help the Guild

Murphy’s Law of Alting to Help the Guild:
The Inevitable Cycle of Guild Composition

Let’s say…you’re a priest.  You enjoy priesting, but you also like to have a well prepared alt to help the guild out in case of Wonky Composition Nights, so you start prepping one that you adore playing.  Alright, so secretly you relish the idea of raiding as another toon sometimes.  You REALLY hope that you’ll get to use your alt at least SOMETIMES.  Anyway.  So let’s say you’re readying a hutner, because your guild is actually really low on hunters.

Just about the time she’s ready, suddenly your guild has 5 hunters.

Oh, well, there’s pugs and stuff, right? Back in the back for now, hunter.  So you go along and soon it seems that your guild is always running short on tanks.  They mysteriously vanish during anything but raid times, and it would be cool to help with off night raids and stuff.  So you get your tank ready to go and…

…suddenly your guild has more tanks than they can shake a stick at.  Not only mains, but also alts, becuase it seems like everyone else in the guild had the same idea you did.  And they’re all paladins.

You keep on priesting.  Suddenly a lowbie alt of yours catches your fancy and next thing you know, you’re plugging away at a druid.  Your guild actually has a dearth of druids.  Oooh, could this be your new Cata main?  What a thought! 

Just as she hits that nearly Northrend home stretch…

…half of your newest recruits are druids, of the 2 specs you favored, and you don’t need any more.

…all this has actually happened to me.  How about YOU guys?  :P

I need a smaller sense of responsibility.

I am back from Disneyworld and expressing mild displeasure at the Chicago weather once more.  Twenty or so degrees colder here, blah!

Of course this also means I have to dive back into whatever guild messes have cropped up in my absence, and find myself facing down my own disgruntlement.

I love GMing.  I also hate GMing.  It comes down to this deep sense of responsibility I bear for…well, every god damned thing.  On one hand, it pushes me to be the best GM I can.  On the other hand, when other people don’t live up to my inner grandoise standards, I can get…resentful.  Even if said resentment is born of a situation I created my own damned self.

The guild culture in BoO is relaxed compared to some.  Can’t make some raids due to RL?  Okay, cool.  Whatever.  Shit happens.  Join us when you can.  We raid, but not everyone in the guild is a raider.  People sometimes bounce between Raiding and Not Raiding depending on what is going on.  Or by choice.

And you know, for the most part, that’s fine.  A problem crops up when several people say eh, I don’t like 25s as much, and I only want to do 10s.  All around the sane time.  A situation that is definitely brewing, if not already happening, in BoO.

*takes a deep breath*

I’m the GM.  The guild focus is currently 25s.  It will remain 25s until our heads are bloodied against that wall, if my reading of the officer core that runs the guild is correct.  This means that if we loose too many people to do 25s, it’s back to the recruitment/canceled raid grind I hate so much.  This also means that my limited raiding time is locked into those two 25 man days a week, no matter what happens.  I am not the only one who is probably locked into those days either, as people have had to tweak work and school schedules to make those days.  This means that there’s at least a handful of people that are affected every single time a 25 man raid is called due to numbers.  We can’t split into 10s–there’s already guild 10s going during other days of the week.  People are saved.  A canceled ICC 25 turns into a ToC 25 or…nothing.

A canceled ICC 25 means that I don’t get to raid, because I can’t make most of those 10s, or at best, only 1 day of 2.  I don’t really feel that it’s fair to the rest of that group to do that on a regular basis, though I’m glad to step in if they need and ask me to.

I will keep the 25s going as best I can because that is my job.  It is the responsibility that I willingly took on.

But I can’t help but be jealous of others ability to step back and do 10s.  I, too, love the cozier atmosphere of 10s (though I don’t love 25s any less).  I will miss the people that have decided that they are done with 25s becuase…well, now I won’t get to raid with them, and I consider some of them friends.  Meanwhile I’ll recruit and wheedle and beg and fill raids with people who…probably shouldn’t even be there until we’re in a good spot again.   Maybe I’ll make new friends!  But I’ll complain about it anyway.

YES I MADE MY BED AND I WILL LIE IN IT BUT I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO BITCH THE ENTIRE GOD DAMNED TIME. 

But this post has been entirely too bitter.  For those of you who missed the OMG CAPS announcement on Twitter during my vacation, my dear Cranky Tank proposed just after the EPCOT fireworks, and because I’m just as crazy as he is, I said yes.  Everyone who also follows my personal blog is therefore OFFICIALLY WARNED as to future wedding related contents and may now flee before it is too late.

\o/

Oh, and the promised picture of a SMILING Bubbles will be posted as soon as a pry it off the lap top!

Altitis Rambles

This is where I ramble about my alts because I did nothing constructive over the weekend, WoW-wise. 

Aside from the occasional heroic, Lyrandre has settled into the role of “the main only played for raids”.  Ambrosine the Tankadin has found herself geared for ICC10 despite myself.  I had comfortably retired her, but we always seem short tanks for the Ulduar Hard Mode runs…

And then there’s the 80 I’m actively working on right now-Jamethera, my semi-infamous BM hunter.  I love her to death and mourn the fact that I don’t get to do much with her, when she was my main for most of BC.   I actually passed on DKP for my priest to run ToC25 with the hunter, instead.   With Ambrosine taking up my precious 3rd raiding day, I find myself resentfully chafing at my self inflicted Tank Bitch status.  Present me with a “someone needs to do X or the raid doesn’t happen” situation and I’ll be that someone every time.   I’ll just…whine about it.  Kind of like I’m doing now.  Ah, well.  My problem.

Jamethera is thiiiiiisclose to being ICC25 ready.  If the pole arm from H HoR ever drops again and actually goes to me, I think she’ll be good to go.  The other two important upgrades-a ring and a cloak-will come shortly thereafter from rep and frost badges.  I might even dual spec and take on MM, if it gives me a chance to beat our resident cocky hunter into the ground.  What I’ll do with her then, I don’t know, but it’s a goal none the less…

The ele/resto shaman is still level 47, as Josh hasn’t felt inclined to play his rogue.  I did spend some qualitiy time on my CatBearTree, though!  One of my guildies, Penitant, was kind enough run me through a few instances, so she went from 54 to 57 in short order.  Half a level to go and I’ll be in Outlands healing groups of 4 DKs.  Maybe I will…not be bored?

Raid from Hell

It was one of those nights.  Cranky Tank is recovering from the flu and Fearless Leader is coming down with it.  Some raiders seemed to have left their brains at home and stupid wipes were had.  The loot gods were not kind.  RL stress frayed tempers.  I, ever the emotion sponge, soaked it all up and expoloded it right back at everyone (my response to one tank’s “heal me!” was “TPS the boss!”).

Normally, I try to keep spirits up with Amber’s Patended Random Silly, but even that was shot down.  Steve has been refusing to give me assist, which means I can’t /rw spam.  Aside from making me a very sad panda, this also puts a crimp on my role as healing lead.  Vent can get chaotic, and even my healers with perfect hearing can’t always catch what I need them to, nevermind the one without.  Whisper and raid chat can be lost, too.  Let’s face it, /rw makes a noise and splashes red text on your screen for a reason.  There’s some logic behind my request beyond my desire to be a dork, like telling Tank Healer #3 to cover Tank #2 because Tank Healer #1 decided to stand in front of a worm (I’m fucking brilliant some days, let me tell you). 

I have my other gripes, as well.  I disagree with having seven healers for ToC.  How about we make our people learn to not hug opposite color orbs, and other such lazy dumbfuckery?  What about dispells?  Can you learn to do those?  We have some damned fine healers and it doesn’t take much for boredem to set in.  We did fine with 6 healers before when I decided to be a bitch and ignore Steve, and we’ll do fine with 6 again.  The most fun I’ve had in ToC was one ToC 10 with one of our more undergeared healers.  My mana bar was screaming!  It was work!  Holy shit!  I LOVED IT.  …you want us to have HOW MANY HEALERS in a 25 man?

One of our tanks also has aquired the Grate On Amber’s Nerves debuff.   This is…not cool.  It applies stacks, and after so many stacks I just want to scream.  In fact, he gets a post all on his own!…again.