By Any Other Name

I love coming up with nick names for various things in the game, and I can’t be the only one.  What are some of your personal (or guild) favorites?

ToC = One Room Raid
ICC = Ice Cream Social
Blood Princes = Sparkle Twilight Party
Warlocks = Whorelocks / Floor Smears / Floor Tanks
Rogues = also Floor Smears / Floor Tanks
BWL’s Suppression Room = The Depression Room (yes, that’s an oldie)
Princess/Stinky = Ugly Puppies
Felhound = Radioactive Puppy (or just Puppy)
Spirit Beasts = Pew Pew Moonfire Kitty
Devilsaur = Fucking Big Pet In The Fucking Way (oops, maybe that’s just Josh…)
Beastial Wrath = RAWR Red Pet
Ele Shaman = Lightning Turret (o hai Krikket)

…I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch.

If Cranky Tank Blogged

I often tell Cranky Tank that he should blog.  Of course, Cranky Tank hates even the word blog, and I recieve much mockery in my own home for my hobby.   Buuuut if Cranky Tank WERE to blog (I am now using the word blog just because I know he hates the word blog even though he never reads my blog) it would sound like this … only a wee bit angrier and with some mention of bodily harm inflicted upon the developers.

I can share in the frustration, somewhat, too.  There’s some tasty stuff in ToC25…

…and some tasty stuff in ToC10…

…so I kind of need to run both…

…and did I mention that I need trophys?  And that I never get trophys, ever, and at this rate never will because I swear the god the number of people rolling never goes down?  Ever? 

Thank god you can get plain ol’ t9 with badges.  God knows I have enough of those, now.

I hate bugs.

Last night’s ToC actually did…not go too badly.  We started an hour late because I had issues filling a larger-than-normal number of gaps, but it wasn’t without its benefits.  For one thing, I unknowingly ended up with the alt of a friend  in the raid. We almost didn’t take him due to gear-I wish he’d told me who his main was beforehand.  D’oh!  Thankfully I trust that guild tag in general, so I decided that a slightly undergeared Celestial Darkness person was better than a slightly undergeared Random Person.  You can only imagine my delight to find out it was my buddy Wyre.  Drood in warrior form!

Anyway, we may have picked up a new “regular pug” with the potential to turn into a guildie-and even better yet, they’re shaman flavored.  Yay, shamananans.

Despite the shortened raid time, we cleared up to Anub with minimal issues and got some attempts in on him, which was more than we’d done for the past couple of weeks.  I just want to know why we can handle everything up to that point and then all of a sudden it…falls apart.

Oh well, strat research time!

And now on to Things That Bug Me:

I appreciate opinions and strat suggestions.  I really, honestly, do.  However, once the fight starts?  If you’re not an officer, shut your mouth and don’t call out instructions.   We have seven bloody officers, do you think we any need any help cluttering up vent?  No!  :P  We run all over our own god damned selves just fine without outside assistance…

Dear Orb Huggers,

Just in case you thought it escaped my notice, we are watching you.

When you stand still DPSing whatevering as hard as you can and eat orb after orb on Twin Valks, we are watching you.

Why are we watching you?  Well because we are the dutiful healers players, skirting around Bad Orbs and nomming the Good Orbs so that they don’t come nom YOU, oh DPSer Player of the Other Color.   We’re paying attention.  I see you, Orb Huggers!

I see you, and I will find a way to reach through the screen some day and choke a bitch.

Amber’s Thoughts on ToC

But I don’t want to do the same FUCKING thing on the same FUCKING toon in the same FUCKING instance two FUCKING times a week!

The Life and Times of an Alt Whore

So I’m on my priest, wandering aimlessly around  “>Dalaran, in LFG for…some raid or other I don’t need to save for the guild.  I haven’t pugged a raid in aaaages.  Naturally they ask for my gear score-what the hell?  I don’t know what that is.  I settled for linking the achievement showing I’ve done it already.  I get invited and then…

…kicked for a guildie.

Kay.   They apologized, whatever, all good.

Next I see them asking for a pally tank.  I go, lol, I haz pally tank.  They say, okay!  So I switch toons and…

…oops they filled the spot.

>:|  >:|   >:|

…so then I flop over to my mage, and fart around trick or treating my way through 57.  Oasic asks me to tank the heroic daily.  Okay!  I flop over and…

…oops, nevermind, he has to do something else before raid time.

OMG WTF BBQ.

…I flop over to my hunter.   She still doesn’t have the rep for her helm enchant, fail!  la la la, Ebon Blade dailies, la la la, oh hey a heroic.  Let’s go do a he-

“Amber, can you do the ToC10 with us?”

Fffffsssssssss.  Originally they want a healer and a melee DPS-Lyrandre and Drake sound perfect, but I guess we’re doing ToC10 tomorrow?  Why the fuck are we doing 10s when we were just doing 25s?  What the hell is wrong with you, Steve?  …anyway, so Lyr is on reserve for tomorrow.  So that left the Most Fail Ret Paladin Ever, or my hunter.  Hunter it was, with Josh’s holy paladin. 

…my hunter, bless her undergeared BM heart, ended up #2 on Damage Done.  lolwaitwhat?  All of our DPS was sub 3k.  Since I’ve seen all of us, myself included, do more than that…so I can only tilt my head and figure that group synergy just wasn’t there.  It was definitely a pulled together group thanks to Steve forgetting it was his mother’s birthday (FAIL) and we ended up giving up on FC.  I had fun, though.  I wish I had the time and luck to give my hunter some more attention.  My pet didn’t die even once! \o/ 

It was actually hilarious when our beartank summoned me and then said something along the lines of, “Wait, what the hell?” at the sight of my trusty devilsaur, Omnomnom.  “Please tell me you’ll be using another pet.”
“NOPE.  That’s it.  All dino all the time.”
“But he’s huge!”
Josh, resignedly: “You get used to it.”
Andy: “But it’s funny because when he dies she’s all, Noooooooo, Omnomnom!” 
Which I totally do.  But anyway.  Good times.  Poor, unwitting bear…

In good news, we’ll be assembling an off night Ulduar10 to complete the instance.  Fuck gear, this is for those of us who want to say “I did Yoggy.”   We will extend the lock out into eternity until he dies.  Amber Approves.

I’ll be looking at tweaking my disc spec tonight, and perhaps I’ll post a report on how that whole heavy sp/crit thing is going, for those of you interested in the nuances of disc stats.  Not that I’ll really discuss nuances, mind.  I’ll just be like “here is what I do and look, I’m not failing yet.”

Random note: by the end of the night, I had spent time on 4 different characters.  :P

ToC 10: Northrend Beasts

Basic Theories:

• DONT STAND IN THE FIRE
• OMG HEAL THE TANK
• OMG DEBUFFS
• OMG GET OUT OF THE WAY

Phase One  – Gormok the Impaler

Tanks: Two tanks are required.  One should taunt off the other when 3-4 impale stacks are reached.  The boss can be disarmed.

DPS: The priority of the ranged DPS is to kill snobolds when they are thrown onto a player.  They chuck fire and can stun the poor sap they’re attached to.  Get out of the fire, blah blah.  There’s no time to drink between phases so if you’re a mana user, plan accordingly.

Healers: Your typical fill-green-bars fight except for the snobolds OMNOMNOMing your head and the impale stacks on the tanks.  I typically ask one of the raid healers (a tree, if I have one) to keep an eye on the OT as the tank healer switches.  Keep some heals up on the tanks as you transition to the next phase…

All casters: don’t hug the boss…his stomp is also a spell interrupt inside 15 yards.

Phase Two – Worms of Suck and Fail

I seriously hate this phase.

There’s a  couple of ways to do it-you can pick a spot and have the poison debuffed people stand there for the fire debuffed people to cuddle with, or leave it up to the fire people to pay attention, or…  *waves her hands*  Whatever.  With us, it’s general chaos.

People should spread out for this phase so that the burning bile debuff doesn’t hit too many people.

Usually, Acidmaw dies first, because without burning bile the other debuff is, well, impossible to get rid of. 

Tanks: Ooookay.  So.  To start with, Acidmaw will be rooted and Dreadscale will be mobile.  Acidmaw will spit paralytic poison at people, which will need to be cleansed by burning bile.   Since the paralytic poison slowly immobilizes you, it’s generally easier for the burning bile person to go give them a hug. 

The mobile worm will periodically drop a slime pool and need to be moved.

The second worm will enrage when the first dies, but it’s not a OMG OMG OMG type of enrage.

DPS:  The rooted worm will sweep, so melee don’t want to go play with him.  You’ll want to be careful on the mobile worm as well, however, because he drops slime pools. 

 If you get the burning bile debuff, see if anyone with poison needs a hug.

Healers:  Same deal with you and the burning bile debuff.  Otherwise, standard fill green bars whilst not standing in ouchy.

Phase 3 – Icehowl

Zzzzz.

Tanks: Tank and spank, for the most part.  One tank fight, so one of you gets to loltankdps.

Everyone: Spread out, because he’ll do a freezy breathy thingy and you don’t exactly want all of your healers chillin’ out together, you know? 

Periodically he’ll jump into the middle of the room, throwing everyone back and stunning them.  If he targets you or anyone near you-in other words, if you can see his ugly mug pointing in his direction-GTFO!  Strafe to one side or risk almost certain death and being lol’d at.  If everyone succeeds at paying attention, he’ll hit the wall and stun himself.  DPS, gogogo! 

Melee – he has a knock back.

If someone does fail at GTFO, a hunter can tranq the resulting rage. 

3 minute enrage timer.

ETA:  Tags.  :P