Karma’s a Bitch

One time we were doing ToC25, and my little sister was killed by Icehowl’s charge.  I openly mocked her, as was my sisterly duty.  The very next time Icehowl charged, I died to it.

Did I learn from this karmic retribution? 

Aww HELL no.

Last night we were clearing our way to Rotface, and we pulled one of the puppies.  The puppies are always a bitch for reasosn unknown…no wait, I do know.  We’re the guild that wipes on Gunship while one shotting everything else in Lower Spire-of COURSE the mini bosses are hard.  Anyway.  I see a tell-tale fail angel and teasingly tell the priest in question, Oasic, to Desperate Prayer more.

You see where this is going, right?  Of course you do.

AS MY PTT BUTTON IS STILL DOWN, AND I AM STILL TALKING SMACK, I died.

\o/

Mad skills.  I have them.

The Art of Compromise

To compromise is to make a deal where someone gives up part of, or all of its demand.

In human relationships “compromise” is frequently said to be an agreement that no party is happy with, this is because the parties involved often feel that they either gave away too much or that they received too little.
-Ye Olde Wikipedia

Since this is really not a secret anymore and rumors suck, I’m going to go ahead and talk about it.  Perhaps having it out in the open will help-perhaps not.  If nothing else perhaps someone else can learn from the situation.  I’ll try to portray it in as neutral as a tone as I can.  In no way shape or form do I intend to villainize anyone involved.

GMing is hard work.  Many people eventually give up and move on-either disbanding the guild or handing it to a successor.  If I recall our history correctly, Steve isn’t even the Brotherhood of Oblivion’s first GM.

Anyway, sometime back in…November, I believe, Steve gave in to the stress of GMing and handed the guild to me.  I am not the best GM.  I try, but I have my weaknesses just like anyone else.  I hold things together through as much charm as skill.   But only a few months later Steve started to…regret his decision.  He’d had time to relax, let go, and step back and see things.  The guild meant a lot to him, and being a mere officer wasn’t satisfying the itch.

Enter Instant Sucky Situation.

You’ve handed someone-a RL friend, even-your guild.  They seem to somewhat relish leading it and aren’t doing a bad job but you want it back.  You know it.  They know it.   You know you should probably let it go but damn it, the guild means a lot to you.

What would you do?  As either party?

If it was anyone else asking for the guild back, I’d tell them to go to hell.  But it’s Steve.  Even though we sometimes don’t see eye to eye, he’s our friend and lives across the damn street.   The guild does mean a lot to him.

If he wants it back and I don’t want to step down, the “obvious” solution is co-GMing.  I’ve co-GMed before, and gotten backstabbed.  I’ve watched previous guilds be co-GM’d by two and even three people and those were…not rousing successes.  I’ll openly admit that I’m dubious about doing any such thing even with Steve.

But in the end…I care about people.  Often I care far more about other people than myself, to my own detriment.  I don’t want Steve unhappy.  Even though this compromise, this feeling out leadership together and figuring out if we can do it without wanting to shank each other, is not my favored solution…oh, well.

Compromise: where you get some of what you want, but not all of it.

Will it work in guild leadership?  Er…we’ll see.

ETA: For now, I retain the sole GM title.  This is more of a…behind the scenes co-GMship at the moment.  If I think it is in the best interests of the guild to not go through with this, then we won’t.  It’s just an…interesting situation all around.

Now I am going to use…a few more ellipses…just to annoy…Pixelated Executioner.

The Telephone Game

Does anyone remember the telephone game, or operator, or whatever the hell it was called?  One person whispered something in the ear of the person next to them, and so on, until by the time it got to the end it sounded nothing like the original?

That very much happens.   Person A says something to person B, who says something to person C (for Cranky Tank), who says something to person D (for…nothing, but it’s me) because well, he lives with person D and tells them everything sooner or later.  Person D flails and person A goes wait, what? 

…I was going somewhere with that, but I was interrupted by work and now have no idea.  Hmm.  Well, raiding with family is interesting, to be sure.  If you tell Josh something, it’ll get back to me sooner or later becuase…well, he’s my boyfriend, we just babble everything at each other.  We’ll keep things to ourselves if you tell us to, but if you don’t?  Pffft!  Now I’ve added my little sister to the mix, which is fun in and of itself.  She’s sweet, but definitely a loud, sometimes obnoxious teenager.  Oh, and a bit of a NubKnight still, to be sure.  She signs up for raids and shows up on time though-this puts her steps ahead of some people already!

The problem is that because she can be loud and obnoxious, she can be…well, annoying, and people won’t complain to me about it.  No, they complain to someone else.  By the time it filters back to me, though (which…it will!) it’s gone from “Damn, she talks too much sometimes” to “So-and-so hates your sister.” 

/facepalm

And people wonder why I’d rather just have them tell me this shit directly…

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.

The Healers Will Take Over the World

…or at least, the guild.

Historically, the officers in Brotherhood of Oblivion have been tanks.    Sidearm, Zlord, Atropus, Macharious, Zoja-all tanks at one point or other.  Even I was a tank when I first transferred over to the guild, though I’d gone healer again by the time I was promoted.

Last night, we had a little officer chit-chat and decided to replace our two departed officers with people who will actually do stuff.  While little miss tree-bear doesn’t ENTIRELY break the pattern, Ky is Mr. Heals With Everything That Can Heal.

It would be easy to draw parallels between healer/tank types and leadership positions-so easy, I won’t bother.  But I will congratulate Kyr and Mikata on their new shiny titles, and publicly LOL at the bloggers taking over!

I will also thank them for two healing Freya last night so that I could go shadow and make up for the fact that several of our DPS seem oblivious to trees.   :P 

Recruitment is kicking into high drive, so it’s my time for…

SHAMELESS GUILD PLUG O’ RECRUITMENT

BoO is looking for DPS and healers primarily.  Shadow priests, hunters, and elemental shamans would be especially welcome, but any solid DPS who knows what “Kill the mother fucking trees!” means will be considered.  We do have room for sets of friends/couples/etc, though due to raid composition we can’t promise you’ll get to do every run together, especially as we transition back up from 10s to 25s.  Good tanks will also be considered, as we currently have only 3 on the active roster.  Healer-wise I’d like to add both raid healers and another tank healer.

We’re up to Mimiron in Ulduar10, and Crazy Cat Lady in 25s (with only two weeks in, at that).  ToC 10 is something we’re just starting on off-nights, and we still run the periodic Naxx25 for gear/badges.   Main raid nights are M-W, 7-10 PM  CST.  Thursday is our primary off night (lol?) and keeps the same hours, roughly.   We’re on Azgalor, and yes it’s a PvP server, but if this RP-server scrub can hack it, I promise you it’s not so bad.

Oh, and we’re crazy.  I’ve mentioned that, right? 

 

…Seph, did we scare you off?  We’re fine, I swear!  XD  I mean look, we promoted useful officers and everything.  Mikata didn’t even get promoted because she’s Steve’s GF, but because I wanted a secretary!  She keeps being nosy and doing my HR bitch job anyway, so she might as well stop making me look bad and do it officially, right?

Be afraid! Muhahahaha.

Our dear Macharious is taking a temporary break from GMing, leaving the guild in the hands of his…intrepid officers.

Excuse me while I sit here and giggle like a madwoman.

The first thing I did upon learning this was take a collective look at “the boys” as I call them.  Then I rolled my eyes and decided that if I didn’t take over, we wouldn’t get anything done.  Obviously.  Not that I’m declaring myself acting GM or anything I’m just…looking around for my pointy stick, to make best use of my passive nagging bonus.

Between myself, Andy, and Josh (sorry Hunt, you don’t count), we’ll chug along nicely.  We’ll probably see a return to 10 man content, just because having two of our tanks on hiatus is…well, having half of our tanks on hiatus.  Of course I do have other outside tanks to tap so…we shall see, we shall see.  I’d like to continue with 25s but then we’d need more DPS and healers to actually…sign up. 

The shift in guild ranks and the bank will still occur as planned, and BoO will buckle down.  We’re still a “casual progression raid” but we’ll be a casual progression raid that won’t tolerate people being being lazy dumb fucks.  This shall please me greatly.

One of our recruits, bless her transferring heart, was speaking to me the other night.   She keeps tabs on the blogs (hi!) and the forums and was a wee bit concerned.

The tide of stress has been running high amongst the officers of late.  It’s an unfortunate fact that, with so many of us being RL pals, and two of the officers being co-workers, that the RL burden on one is often shared at least in part by the others.  But I’ve seen this guild chug through drama that would have seriously rocked others.  In fact, I bet that large portions of the guild remain mostly unaware of some of the waves that the officers have been wading through over the past few months, aside from a slight roister shift.  This is nothing!  The man needs a damn break but the guild isn’t go anywhere.

I might threaten to rename it the Sisterhood of Oblivion though.  Just sayin’.

And the wheel of life-and guild rosters-rolls on

I have, if unofficially, become the healing lead.  This means I get the special pleasure of herding our healer cats, handing out healing assignments, and naming ourhealer channel LetHuntDie. 

We had until just recently a holy paladin named Yarp.  I’m not ashamed to say that Yarp’s skill kicked the shit out of mine, and he was on near-perpetual MT duty because of his sheer awesome.  Hell, he did an amazing healing job for awhile with two broken wrists.  I could make some jokes about pally two button healing there, but never mind that.

I had no issues taking the OT/flex duty myself.  In fact I rather relish that position and all of it’s variations. 

Well, Yarp was burning out and left the game.  I’ll miss him!   I missed him ton and tons when we walked into Ulduar and proceeded to wipe on Ignis over and over and over.  Naturally many people were thinking: was Yarp THAT good?  Can we really not do this without him?

The thing about a healer core is that it’s a complex assembly of pieces.  Yes, losing an excellent healer sucks, especially when you don’t have a near-identical piece to slide in.  Our other holy paladins are Zy, an alt, and Kyr, who is more often raiding on his holy priest.  Our only other holy priest is only available in two week blocks due to work, so I’d kind of rather keep him there.  That means I step up into the MT role, which is fine, but…

…now we’re losing people to the pot.  People that I, as OT/flex healer, often personally took care of along with the raid healers.  We can do this without Yarp, I just have to beat the other healers into multitasking, that’s all.  But see what I mean about it being complex?  Merely shuffling one person into another role can change more than expected.

Healing assignments are rather like stat juggling-a complicated, confusing, sometimes frustrating game within a game. 

If I put this here, then I need someone here, but this person can’t do this job well so he has to go over here, but now I…oh, fuck.  God damn it people just heal whoever is dying, okay?

Why My Guild Is Awesome

Someone-I think it was Ashley/Mikata, our intrepid KittyTree-decided to dub me the guild HR lady.   Someone then established a Complaint Box thread on our guild forums, and Ron submitted this lovely gem:

I could totally see Amber as the HR lady so long as the below is met.

Requirements:

A “bleep” buzzer to cover up the swear words when the stupids ask questions. The buzzer must be able to sound for at minimum 20 consecutive seconds.

OSHA will officially stand for ‘Oh Shit, Hide it’s Amber’.

Personal space may be breached only by the ‘Stupid Stick’.

Complaints can be logged and will be promptly answered by her middle finger. If the middle finger is out ill or on vacation, the back of her hand will assume all responsibilities.

For those who would like to see their name in red on ‘the list’, please place the palm of your hand near your nose. Place the list in the open space between your nose and palm. Close your eyes… < whack > … see red? … we’re done here.

I put the fun in raiding…wait.

So I was poking through my reader and spotted this post by Kyr.

Ha!

I really do love /rw.

I’d like to say that there’s some reasoning behind the way I explain boss fights. For one thing, nothing drives me battier than explaining a fight normally and then having to tell everyone what they need to do after the fact, individually, because they didn’t pay a lick of attention.  Admittedly even I have to force myself to pay attention when Steve explains something, and half the time I tab out and read about the fight elsewhere if I haven’t already. 

There’s also the fact that sometimes the “official” descriptions can be…lacking.  What’s going to give you the clearer idea: kill Gift of Eonar when they spawn on Freya?  Or kill the green trees? 

I don’t know about you, but I would walk into that fight going “What the hell does a Gift of Eonar look like and OH GOD WHY AREN’T THE ADDS DYING”, which seems to be exactly what happened on our Freya attempts, come to think of it….

Then, of course, there’s the simple fact that…you REMEMBER the funny shit.  You don’t remember your GM droning on and on and on, and it also lightens the mood for the learning wipes to come. 

I also like poking fun at Blizzard.  That’s why I made comments on Hodir like, “Snow is bad, mmmkay, except when it is good.”  Think about it: “Run away from falling snow!  Get away from circles on the ground!  ….unless there’s about to be flash freeze, and then you run ONTO the snow, okay?  Only not too early, ’cause then it throws you across the room.  But not too late, either, ’cause then you freeze.  Oh and the edges?  Don’t count.” 

The only fucking difference between the good snow and the bad snow is the size of the gods be damned circles!  So there I am, strafing, looking at my raid frames,  looking for raid warnings, AND trying to decipher if that’s a big circle or a little circle?  ajhdasjhdajhd. 

I do love the fight though, and once you get the hang of it it’s not difficult.  Unless you’re our rogue, apparently.  Damn floor eaters!

Last but not least, I just enjoy being funny.  Considering the “state of things” for some of us, the financially strained, the worried, the jobless…a little laughter goes a long way.

Now if I could just get Steve to not explain things the boring way right after I explain the fun way, we’d be good!  Though…if they didn’t explain things the boring way, I wouldn’t have an excuse for my silly /rw interjections.  Hmmmm.

Kyr and I seriously discuss upcoming paladin changes.

I also joined a Naxx25 put on Lyr to test out Holy.  First off, it’s weird.  Second off, I miss my bubbles.  Third off, the first time I died I totally forgot all about, you know, doing something other than stare at my Fail Angel is dismay. 

Her name is Sue, by the way.

I don’t think that a Naxx pug is the BEST way to test the spec for how I’ll be using it in Ulduar, but it gave me time to feel it out a little.  I have some UI tweaks to make, I think.  We’ll see how it goes tonight in Ulduar, and I do still have my disc spec to fall back on.  I hope that we do really well tonight, so that we have plenty of time to get Hodir down and poke some other keepers on Monday!

 

That Naxx pug was also sad.  So I’ll leave you with a couple of open letters!

Dear Fellow Priest,

Please learn the difference between Mind Blast and Mind Control.  Really.  Please.  Lrn2tooltip.

-Dismayed,
The Other Priest

Dear Men Boys in Pugs,

Let’s say there’s a GIRL in your pug.  Holy shit!!!!  If she happens to mention in passing that it’s really warm in the room she’s in (“brb, need to see wtf is wrong with the AC, it’s too damn hot in here”), that is NOT your cue to /whisper something about how she should take her clothes off!  For one thing, it’s kind of rude, if not creepy, for you to say to a complete stranger.  For another…dude, I’ve already thought of that, mmkay?  Go back to stealing porn.

No love,
OMG A GIRL

Letters from Ulduar

Dear ___: Open Letters To My Guild Mates, or Why Amber Goes Insane

Dear DPS on Iron Council,

Don’t stand over there.  I can’t heal you.  I kind of need to stand near my tank, and my tank kind of needs to stand over here.

Okay, so you’re now standing in such a way that my green box is lit up.  I can heal you and you can stop bitching about not getting heals.  Cool!  …do you wanna come closer for Power Infusion? 

Sometimes we’re kinda busy, and when dickhead over there refuses to move out of the blue circle and starts shitting lightning everywhere, it’s…well…ouchy.  But our holy priest has this nifty thing called a lightwell!  It’s sitting right there!  …why is the holy pally the only one near it?

…I still can’t reach you with PI, you know.  Oh well, your DPS loss.  I’ll keep it for myself.

…why the fuck are you all the way on the opposite side of the room again?

Weeping silently, on the inside,
-your healer

 

Dear DK Tank,

I’m standing on the left.  You keep running away from Overload (or whatever)…to the right.  WHY?
I have a heart attack every time your box goes gray.

Weeping less silently on the inside now,
-your healer

 

Dear Josh,

My beloved.  You have tanked for me for years.  I am comfortable with your ways.  I know you are a clever, clever tank-one who will use his cooldowns, not run out of range, wait for my mana, and gather up all the adds that love to come give me hugs.

…WHY DID YOU QUIT AND LEAVE ME TO DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE ALONE?

Is well past weeping and now sobbing,
-your healer*
*this is a post in and of itself

 

Dear GM,

No, I don’t want to heal without replen on Iron Council.
No, I really don’t.
Yes, my mana bar does get kicked in the nuts.
Yes, it is kind of important. 
No, I don’t think that having the Surv hunter go MM to help the DK tank kick that damn boss out of the blue runes will make up for the lack of replen. 
The whole instance is designed ar-
I JUST DON’T WANT TO.
/tantrum

Angrily,
-your healer

 

Dear fellow priest,

Thank you, Ron, for displaying mana regen meters and explaining to Mach why no replen is Bad.  I will refrain from killing people for yet another day.

Love and butterflies,
-the bubble dispenser

 

And last but not least, a tidbit from the Hodir attempts:
“Why the hell did you die like that, Atropus?”
“…oh!  I wasn’t jumping!”
“…”
“I’M BLOGGING THAT.”