Heroic Musings: Six One Way…

I have, so far, been okay with the “5 man raids for blues” as Josh puts it.  Sure, they’re harder to fit into my schedule, but sticking strictly with guild runs I’ve not run wanted to slit my wrists yet.  Well, except that one time in Stonecore, but I try not to think about that.

Cranky Tank’s experiences have been quite another matter, however, and he’s quitting the game in displeasure again.  What’s the difference?

Group comp is again important.  Every now and again I get terrible flashbacks to BC where I spent half an hour (or longer) in the LFG channel looking for a mage or hunter.  Thankfully more classes have CC these days (frog!  repentence!) but this doesn’t change the fact that there still multiple classes without any CC at all. 

It’s not hard to be the victim of The Group Comp From Hell and suddenly have heroics go from a challenging hour to a three hour tour ending in alcoholic consolation (see: that time in Stonecore).  And you know what, it sucks that if you are a frost DK and your buddies are a boomkin (whose “CC” is only slightly more effective than my ice cubes) and an arms warrior, you’re probably going to get boned pretty hard in heroics while you’re trying to get gear.

And you know what?  I can see why that would suck.  I know some people rail against making all classes the same, but which is worse: nerfing the heroics, or throwing more classes a CC-shaped bone so that you can get back to “bring the player not the class”?  BTPNTC was not a bad idea.  WoW is, for many people, a social game.  I want to play it with my friends, even if they all decided to be melee for some damn reason.  Harder is okay, impossible is not–and I have been in a 3 melee heroic and it was well-night impossible.  It sucks that I can’t run with that group of people becuase of the classes that we play.

I had the blessing of a larger guild with a variety of classes and Cranky Tank did not.  I can’t help but be a little bit upset that it seems to have ruined most of his fun and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. : \

Hyjal Highlights

I would write a useful post but my brain is fried on benedryl, you don’t want me thinking that hard.  Or well, I don’t know if I can think that hard.  So, have some random (trying not to be spoilery?) comments on leveling in Hyjal.

So far, Hyjal isn’t bad.  The scene that plays out as you fly in is really cool–even Josh expressed some enjoyment of its awesomeness.

I love Draenei but I am jealous of human rep hax.  Hrmph.

Watching laggy blood elves chase down rabbits is kind of funny.  Sad, but funny.

Josh: Your threat is insane.
Me: AOE ICY DICKPUNCH and proc of OH HELLO TANKING!
Josh:  >:|

I know the plural of deer is deer.  But I’m going to squeal about the BABY DEERS anyway. 

OMG BABY TURTLES.  (Pst: you don’t need the turtle companions to kill Nemesis, btw.  Not in a pair with mostly epics, anyway.  We lost ours and we were too lazy to go back and get them, but it only half healthed us.)

Fuck you horde camping Cinderwhoever.  I may have been the only spawn I saw you being a dick at, but fuck you anyway.

I spent a lot of time getting hit by stray Captain America shields.  I’m sure I clipped more than a few hordies with Howling Blast, though when guards were around I tried REALLY REALLY HARD.  I also ended up with no few hunter and warlock pets attacking me after I clipped them with something.  Oops.  For the most part though, people were leaving each other alone.

Mining nodes are serious business.  If you beat me to it, cool.  If you beat me to it but then aggro something, MINE.  Beat me to it and you’re horde?  MINE.  Or I’m dead, one or the other.  We snagged nodes from under the noses of everyone from guildies (poor Solt) to blog readers that I belatedly recognized (O HAI).   Not nessicarily on purpose, mind (I’d have let Solt have the one if I’d only seen it was him and well…if it hadn’t been Zoja’s turn) but those yellow dots on our maps cause some sort of mindless frenzy.  MINE MINE MINE MINE.

We found a mining spot that seemed good but I can’t remember the name of it. Doesn’t that suck for you?

Also I don’t care how awkward getting around was THE JOUSTING QUEST WAS AWESOME.  You know why it was awesome?

THIS. THIS IS WHY IT WAS AWESOME.

/faceplants in a benedryl haze

The World Really Is Ending

I had a conversation with Josh on the way home where he confessed that for one brief, sliver of a second, he considered resubbing.  Steve has been talking a lot of about WoW lately at work, I guess. 

He spent the rest of the trip bitching about WoW and what he hated about it (other people, mostly) and telling me that he’d never resub ever oh my god no fuck that noise.

At some point last night while I was doing laps of Sholozar trying to get my mining up to Cata-ready levels (fuck you Engineering), he asked me a few questions about JP and how stuff worked now.  I answered distractedly…

…and then I turned around and saw him logged in game.

LOL.

LOLOLOLOLOL.

We are no longer the tank/healer powerhouse, but damn, it’s good to have my cranky bastard tank back.  It was also hilarious to listen to him run around and WTF at all the changes when he’s been gone a solid 8 months.

But now we’re going to compete over mining nodes.  Ffffffffffffffffuuuuu–

Keeping the Peace

My XP bar said 90% through level 79.  There was plenty of time to reach 80 before bedtime and even sneak a heroic in.  I would just continue this quest line–

Josh gets up.  “I’m tired of being on the computer.  Let’s go watch TV.”

I die a little inside.  And whine.  And twitch.

90%

90!!!!

He leaves for the living room and I turn in my quest.  After staring at my screen sadly for a moment I trail after him.

“I HOPE YOU REALIZE JUST HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU.”

The things I do for love.  Sheesh.

Success in the Face of Failure

Brotherhood of Oblivion: failing where we should succeed, and suceeding where we should fail!

On Thursday night we had two potential recruits listening on vent.  This meant one thing for sure: the night was going to go to hell.

I hummed to myself and made some flower wreaths for the handbasket.

First of all, Tim, one of our intrepid DPSers, had himself a non-working OS because he’s just clever like that.  Cranky Tank mosied over across the street to fix it before raid time…and bricked the mother board.

Slick, my love.

So we’re down a tank, a DPS, and…our other tank, as Steve’s computer is drafted while they try to fix Tim’s.  This leaves us our tank with strength gems in his gear and Andy, who’s been retired from tanking for awhile.

Right, so, no continuing ICC25 for us!  14 manning Naxx25 for the weekly raid quest seems like a splendi…

…Hunt just pulled an extra spider pack and we wiped.  Okay.  Well, let’s recover from that and go on to Anub, shall we?

Anub is easy sauce, it should just be a matter of-

…did we all just die?  We all just fucking died!

Fail.

Well, Steve’s here now, let’s 15 man it, then.  We magically succeed this time, and reform into an ICC 10.  Steve wants to bring his warlock and the warlock wants to bring his shaman.  For some reason I say what the hell, and off we go.

To wipe on Marrowgar.

Well, fuck.  Okay.  So we regroup and stomp him into the ground, and then proceed to…wipe on Lady Deathwhisper after one of the tanks unexpectedly goes down to a Hulk.

(Me, mid raid: are those big green things wearing purple shorts?  Raid: Yes.  Me: …)

So we regroup again, down the Lich Bitch, and head to Gunship!  One of the tanks dies on the way because I paused to eat chocolate.  Mm, chocolate.  Okay, so, we get to gunship and…

…the warlock smears himself on the deck, because that’s what warlocks do.  The DPS left loses control of the adds on that ship, the tank goes down, and we…wipe on Gunship.

We wipe on the mother fucking boat!

This does lead to the amusing discovery that you don’t die if you’re in a cannon.  This comes in handy for when we make our-by this point required-wipe on Saurfang (at something like 4% even).  Yes, I ran the fuck away from the boss to hide in a cannon.  This was after yelling at the rogue and hunter for hiding in the cannons when they can get out of death some other way.  Bitches!  MY WAY TO CHEAT DEATH GTFO.

So after dying our way through farm content, will all sorts of insanity on vent, you’d think the recruits would be smart and run away, right?

…no, they went ahead and transferred.

I invited them in the middle of our third wipe in an all guild Heroic CoS.

Yes, we even failed at H CoS (did you know that if you do the gaunlet without talking to Arthas, talking to him makes more elites spawn?  Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah don’t send your healer). 

I love my guild.  I don’t always know why, but I love them.

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…

How To Express An Opinion Without Being A Dick II

Dear Children Masquerading As Raiders And Even Officers In My Guild,

Can you grow the fuck up?  Look, I realize that So and So has an opinion you don’t agree with.  I realize that he has all the tact of a 16 year old in the middle of an emo fit with his parents sometimes.  But that doesn’t mean that you have carte blanche to turn around and act 5, instead. You can damn well put your epeens away and cut out the snide remarks.  It doesn’t help, and it doesn’t make you look better, nevermind right.  And when two of you are officers and in the middle of a raid, you really have no fucking excuse.

God damn, people.

Maybe said person needs to be removed from the guild, maybe he just causes too much strife because we’re not a good fit for him but, damn.  Again, not permission to act like children yourselves.   You can take your dodge/parry/stam stacking bloodshed somewhere else, and not during raid time.

RAWR.

-Angry Healer with the GM Hat

Raiding With Your SO and Not Killing Them

…can be really hard.

I really wanted to punt Josh last night, which is a hilarious image if you consider the fact that I’m 5’9 and 125 lbs at most and he’s 6’10 and 280.  I could maybe get him to move a couple of inches if I ran into him going full tilt, but I don’t think I can punt him.

Anyway.

Look, kidlets, if you raid with your significant other you have to remember that what you do in a raid isn’t just affecting 9 or 24 strangers.  It’s affecting 8 or 23 people and the person you have the warm fuzzies for.  This means that if you’re aggravating people by standing far down the hall because you tabbed out to read something else and everyone is waiting on you to buff, your other half may very well be thinking of slapping you and unlike everyone else they can actually do it.

In any case, why the hell is it a-ok to aggravate said strangers, anyway?  If you’re in a raid then FOR FUCK’S SAKE RAID OR LEAVE. 

I won’t even touch the “officers should set an example” aspect of it.

Besides, if people know that you’re a couple and you’re not responding, guess who people are going to pester?  Yep!  Your SO!  Who the hell doesn’t want to act like your mother?  …yup, same answer!

Ashdajshdajshdjas.

…this is why Josh should not be allowed to bring home new toys on raid nights.  He wants to play with the toy, rather than raid. 

PAY ATTENTION OMG.

Derp derp.

Sulking Amber Is Sulking

I need a few items from normal ToC to help round out not only Ambrosine’s tanking set, but also her DPS set.  Things like trinkets, which have hated me for years.  You’d figure, as a tank, that I could find groups, yes?  I mean everyone needs a tank, right?

Yeah, not so much.  My fellow disc priest helped me for one run before she drew boyfriend aggro, and then after that I…couldn’t find another healer.  There was enough DPS in LFG to choke a dragon, but heals were scarce.

“But Amber,” you say, “Doesn’t Josh have a holy paladin?”

Why yes he DOES!  But see, he wanted to bring his DK, who wanted some of the same fucking gear I was after!  I mean that totes makes sense, right?

“What about the other heals in the guild?!  You have tons!”

Until I need them, sure.

I finally found a level 78 shaman who hadn’t played in awhile and we then proceeded to wipe on Paletress, twice.  On normal.  After that I pitched a small, angry “WHY ARE YOU ALL SELFISH PRICKS” tantrum and decided I was done for the day.

Really, people, I can play the “but I don’t need loot so I’m not going QQ” game, too.   I directed a large part of my tantrum in Josh’s direction, because my guildies can be twits but surely my own boyfriend should be willing to get on his god damned paladin to help me fix my gear?

Yeah.

/sulks

/goes to play Champions Online

Did you know that healing people in CO will result in HALF THE  ZONE TRYING TO EAT YOUR FACE?  It does.   Or maybe that’s just me-I have this bad habit of aggroing EVERY DAMN THING AROUND, even in WoW.  I’m already becoming infamous for flying too low, then landing to 3/4 of the zone gnawing my squishy face.   Oops.

By the way, you want to cure someone of keyboard turning?  Make them fly in CO.  You trying maneuvering with any finesse during full-speed flight with your keyboard.  Yeah.  It’s not happening. 

I’m not sure what it says about me that I sat down in front of CO and said, okay, what can heal?  I was really torn between Telepathy and Sorcery, and then I read the word pets and was so sold on Sorcery.  I CAN SUMMON A WOLF AND HEAL, GUYS.  FUCK YEAH.  And I have wings.  In fact, I accidentally created one of the most emo-looking characters ever just because I was like oh hey, I want wings and lets put some blue streaks in her hair!  And then I thought the trench coat looked cool and…um…yeah.  So fallen-angel emo.

I love my guildies.

This post brought to you by hardly playing WoW at all this weekend.

I posted my Mim strat on the guild forums-it was, after all, intended to be a refresher for tonight’s raid. 

Harryotter: but but but what about my strat? I feel left out :(

Darkened: Sorry Harry, but your strat doesn’t have a single curse word in it nor any mention of “Pirate Robots”. It’s good, but Amber should obviously be hired by Blizz to write a book on all the boss strats in the game, you just can’t compete with that.

…  XD

Of course guildies will also use our forums to tell me I have a big ego, but I guess they’re entitled to do that too.  Even if they’re wrong.  I mean, obviously, why would I have a big ego?

Wait, I think I hear Josh saying something in the background…what’s he saying?  “Look I’m a blogger!  I’m important on the internet!”*  

…aww, man, I just get it from all sides! 

That’s okay, we all know how my heal and rez priorities work now, right?  Right.  Only it’s really hard to threaten other healers with no heals…

 

*He actually mocks me with this a lot.  He’s lucky he’s a tank, or he’d get no heals, either.  Twit.