Shared Topic: To Armory or Not to Armory

I know, it's been a while, but it's me. I actually found a job for... all of two weeks [and it was terrible -- commission, worked from 10AM to 1AM... basically, no pay. I think it's the first and probably last time I'll actually be glad I got let go...].

Anyway though. Out of lack of too much too post, I'll go with a shared topic again.

If you were given the option, would you post a link to your blog on your main's armory profile?

Why/why not?

Presented by Anea as a part of Blog Azeroth's Shared Topic for the fifteenth of March.

Would I post my blog on WoW Armory? I don't think so. Why? Well, quite honestly it's because I sort of post about people I play with. Not a whole lot, but it's still there. While I try not to openly say 'this person sucks' or 'I'll never group with this person again', it's still a better idea to not have half the world knowing that I have a blog. People who stumble upon my blog, great! I welcome them.

People from Feathermoon who I don't know but are about to group with? Not as awesome. I know that as a part time blogger, I like finding other bloggers. I also know other people who feel differently. They'd rather not become a story on a blog, or even a casual reference. I don't blame them, really, I can see how that might be a bit intimidating, or lead to bad feelings, even if names were not mentioned.

That, and we're Feathermoon. We don't roleplay. (So everyone says, anyway.) So to find a writer / roleplayer? I'd probably be mocked by half of the server.

I'll pass on that.

So, I guess, all together the answer is no.

Nothing bad has happened from people not getting a direct link to my blog (nor has anything good), and I'm okay with that. Me and my tiny reader base will be fine staying just as we are.

That, and I feel a bit less pressure to find something interesting for EG every so often. Interesting being a shared topic, apparently, or a bit of roleplay story.

Shared Topic: First Sign of Madness

If you gave your character a voice, how would a conversation between you and them go?

Here's my whirl at the the Shared Topic for February 8th.

Continue Reading...

[ RPJournal: Airelin ] :: An Agglomeration of Thoughts

It was with a relieved sigh that Airelin fell onto her bed. She was oh so exhausted... glowing eyes stared at the canopy of the large bed, unfocused. She hadn't even bothered to take off half of her armor before she collapsed, she was just that out of it. Every limb felt like lead, and it had simply been too much work to remove the leggings that had become so familiar to her, as well as the boots. At the very least she managed to take off her chestpiece, helm, and shoulders, for those would have ruined the wonderful feeling she was basking in from doing absolutely nothing.

It had been one hell of a few months, she decided, looking back. She wasn't quite sure what hit her, but all of the sudden, she had the strangest urge to pack up her bags and start over. It wasn't as if she had much to leave behind; Arie had been living alone with a crappy, yet decent paying, job and no social life outside of her interest in studying undead. Yes, undead. For some reason, the undead fascinated her, the way they moved, how they were put together, what animated them. It was for that they called her strange: they, being the village-folk. Not that she had openly shouted her feelings about the undead to the world (who in their right minds would?), but they knew all right.

Continue Reading...

Quick Shammy Notes and To-Dos

Haste is superior to attack power for Enhancement shamans right now.

I hate hunters. They're the reason why I have to gem for expertise.

Windfury glyph still trumps the Flame Shock glyph.

Q: Is Black Magic better than Berserking?
A: No. Using the January 14th BIS list Black Magic sims 51.18 dps below Berserking.

-Elitist Jerks, where everything else is coming from too.

Icewalker over Tuskarr's? I know DPS wise, but in a movement unfriendly situation...

Oh. ICC thus far have very few movement unfriendly fights and a lot of don't have to move too far fights. I guess, in that case, the question holds true. Icewalker would be better.

Lava Lash less, Magma more.

1) Spirit Wolves
2) Shamanistic Rage
3) Stormstrike if no SS debuff present
4) Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks - Lightning Bolt
5) Flame Shock
6) Earthshock
7) Stormstrike
8) Fire Elemental
9) Magma Totem
10) Lightning Shield
11) Lava Lash
12) Fire Nova

Is ideal once I get to T10 gear. Otherwise, something closer to this:

1) Spirit Wolves
2) Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks- Lighting Bolt
3) Earthshock if Storm Strike debuff is on target
4) Storm Strike
------->Flame Shock
5) Earthshock
6) Magma Totem
7) Lightning Shield
8) Lava Lash

-More Elitist Jerks, slightly modified.

Still Lava Lash less.

Pick up and try out EnhSim.

That's all for now.

More LFG Ramblings

There's something I forgot to mention in my ramblings last time about LFG. Some things that have really hit me in the face [or bite me from behind, depending on how you look at it] recently. Recently, meaning yesterday.

Random group on Dae, my tank/dps DK. I almost always sign up for tank, but yesterday, I figured, "oh, hey, why not sign up for both?" Apparently, the idea wasn't so hot with Blizzard. A queue pops up, and Bali, my warrior friend, and I accept...

Continue Reading...

"They're More Like Guidelines Anyway."

Ah, LFG. It's gone over a great many changes over the last few years. It was once a channel that you could spam day and night anywhere. Then they introduced the LFG interface; put yourself in, state what roles you are willing to fill, go do whatever you want, wait for people to ask you to go to x. People mourned the loss of the world wide LFG channel, and custom channel popularity soared. Other than that complaint, however, most people enjoyed it. It was convenient with little fuss involved. Except for the time factor as one is sitting in LFG just looking for people to pick them up. Or them asking every other group they saw if they needed [tank/healer/dps]. Time that some people didn't have. Blizzard noticed the flaw with their plan, and decided to, once again, change it. They returned the missed LFG channel to the cities, and put in a new system. You still state your willing role [no more days of asking “what spec are you?”], queue up for a random heroic, normal, or even a specific one of either, and just wait... a fraction of the time that it took in the past.

As a tank, a queue will appear almost immediately.

As a healer, a queue will appear in a minute or two.

As a DPS... well. Good luck. Queue will probably pop sometime after that set of Sons of Hodir dailies as well as a round of mining around Sholazar Basin.

Unless you tag along with a tank. Then you get the benefit of the fast tank queue. If you tag along with a healer, the following scenario happens:

Group: “We need a healer!”
Blizzard: “Here's on—Oh, no, wait, there's a DPS attached. Sorry.”
-a minute later-
Group: “We need a healer!”
Blizzard: “You know that healer we wanted to pass off last time? They're still grouped with that DPS. Try this one instead!”
-another minute-
Group: “We need a healer and a DPS!”
Blizzard: “OH THANK GOD we couldn't get rid of that darned DPS, here you go, TAKE THEM!”

On your end:
DPS: “QUEUE! A QUEUE THAT DIDN'T TAKE TEN TO TWENTY MINUTES! -FAINT-”
Healer: “That took a long time. Lets go.”
-Enter Dungeon-
Healer and DPS: “... I hate Blizzard. Freaking Halls of Stone. Again.”
And the instance starts.

That's, as far as we can tell, about what happens. Healers have it easy, tanks have it even easier, and DPS are mostly out of luck. The reasoning is easy enough: there are a small number of healers out there, but there is an even smaller number of people willing to tank. If you're one of those people who don't mind tanking, 98% of the time, you'll get assigned to tank. Even if you said you could DPS. Even if you said you could heal. You're tanking. Better enjoy it.

Continue Reading...

Patch Day! 3.3 Headaches!

Well. As everyone knows, the long awaited patch 3.3 has landed! Having pre-patched, I only had to wait forty minutes for my WoW to patch.

Upon getting in, I got asked to go do the three new instances on Normal. They're interesting, to say the least. A bit more challenging than what we're used to, I want to say, as there's not so much as real damage as there is the mobs casting a reflecting shield, and your party members killing themselves on accident if they don't pay attention. Still, though, rather interesting.

Afterward, my regular twenty-five man group decided to test the waters of ICC.

That was painful. A few wipes to trash, a few to Lord Marrowgar, and too many wipes to want to think about to Lady Deathwhisper. We managed to get the Lord down, but the Lady... she conquered us. It's not a real friendly fight, we discovered, and even worse on classes that use both melee and spells [such as my Enhancement shaman, the only character that raids 25s]. We ended up recalling that, on new boss fights, our raid leader likes to talk. A lot. A few points during the explanations our group [consisting of melee] all came to the consensus of the fact that none of us have comprehended a word said in the last two out of three hours of raid. And that Lady Deathwhisper's fight went to the effect of "blah blah blah mana shield, blah blah blah adds" and something about killing things. Basically, kill things, avoid other things, and kill more things (adds). That's all the DPS had to know about both of the boss fights we encountered. Of course, it's the same on every other fight, but still. Our attention spans could have been likened to that of an ADD six year old. At best.

Raid time ended after what seemed like eternity, and everyone was pumped to leave and go do something else. Something else being the new instances, that was... except, Blizzard had other ideas. Three minutes looking at a load screen, get kicked out, rinse and repeat. For an hour or so. Until boredom and that good ol' ADD kicked in and alt tabbing just wasn't cutting it, and tiredness was starting to creep upon people.

The expectation of things not being broken on patch days has never been met. It's understandable, naturally, but still a source of frustration to the player base that had been waiting with baited breath for new content to play with. Instead, they're faced with headaches as instance servers crash, shiny new features broken, and incredible lag. I did, however, notice that the effects on the character selection screen -- the backgrounds -- were brighter and were a touch more active. Cheers, Blizzard. Our greatly anticipated day became a day of frustration and realization that the patience was rewarded by a prettier character screen. Until things are fixed, anyway.

Guess there's always tomorrow.

And the next day.

It's not going anywhere, and it can only get better.

So one can hope, anyway.

Try Two!

After seven months off from writing, I think I'm ready to come back. I've been restless as of late -- can't stay in WoW too long, can't be happy with just reading. Answering questions on forums just didn't seem enough anymore... and I realized. It was one of the reasons why I first started Elune's Guidance. Because I wanted my opinions out there. I wanted people to know what I thought, what I do, why I do it, and how much I enjoy doing what I do. Another sign was when I got in a heated discussion about mages, and I ended up pulling up ten tabs to try to aid me for my argument. And I felt no satisfaction from doing it, because only one person would know the results of my findings.

I've missed writing. Sometimes it felt like a duty to find something interesting I wanted to write about, and other times, the words just couldn't wait to flow from my fingers.

I realize it's been seven months since I've made a post, and a lot has happened since then, both in real life and in the game. I realize that the blogging community has grown so much in those months, and that I have a lot of catching up to do, friends to reacquaint myself with, a reputation to grow. I considered restarting completely, but EG is my home. I made it as a hobby, and while I did lose interest in writing for a while -- and everyone can relate, I am sure -- I'm back. I want to write, I want to explore ideas, and I want my ideas to be known. I need a place to reference my research, so I don't waste time looking stuff up again. I would like a place for other people to view my research and leave their own thoughts and opinions, striking up, perhaps, a good discussion to research deeper in.

So here goes!

Welcome back, EG.

Who will come with me through this journey of renewal?

"The Noble"

Ah, Noblegarden is over, but there were a lot of memories accumulated during the past week for many people, I am sure. Despite the controversy over a certain achievement, I had a blast. I found that egg picking was ridiculously addictive -- over the course of the week [although it was more centered on a few days rather than spread out], I picked over eight hundred of those pretty eggs, got six shirts, six pants, and six elegant dresses, along with more than enough chocolate to make me a diabetic, as well as three titles of "the Noble".

That's right, Lossemenel, Nirkanta, and Meliensa all have that title stored away, to use whenever I feel like it.

Why the obsession? I can't quite explain it. It was just "one more egg", as well as the fact that I could do many things while egg picking, such as catch up with friends and guildies -- something I tend to rather fail at while instancing or raiding. Also, by the end of picking a hundred and fifty eggs, I had down pat a route that had nine egg spawns as long as there were few people around, and, therefore, the egg hunting was rather like a game than a long chore.

While the rest of the event -- the running around, the "running-around-Dalaran-looking-for-breasts" were... interesting, to say the least, it was far less running around than many of the previous holiday events, which was probably my biggest draw.

The best memory of this holiday, however, was how it seemed to draw people together. I saw Alliance openly helping each other, even pointing others toward egg spawns [but, on the same token, I saw name calling go on between people for camping the same three-egg spawn].

A friend and I noted how it brought the two factions together one day, when a female or few of every race stood on the steps of the north bank of Dalaran, all wearing their Elegant Dresses and dancing. It was a lovely scene, and despite it being against our character's personalities [as we both roleplay], we too had to join in the dance, for it was a sign of unity, how a holiday event could bring allies and enemies together.

Images from the "party"!



Good times, good times...

Analogies

PARTY : RAID : : HOSTESS : RAID LEADER

In other words, "Party is to raid as a hostess is to raid leader".

Not a party as in a group of five people coming together for an instance or even quests. A party analogy to the real world. Perhaps pot luck would do better. Either way, however, my point stands. As a hostess, you plan the event. You send out the invitations, prepare your house and perhaps an itinerary for the meet. You expect people to be there, [in the case of a pot luck] you expect them to bring something.

In that way, a raid leader is like a hostess. A raid leader plans out the expedition, finds the people, arrange a time, expects those who said they could come to come on time, and if not on time, call ahead. In return, everyone else expects the raid leader to be there, have everything figured out, and lead the raid.

But what if that silent contract was broken? As many raiders -- and raid leaders -- know, some raiders can't show up all the time due to family, work, or other business. That is understandable. They notify and sometimes even find a replacement. However, there are also other raiders who simply fail to show. They may have promised up to five minutes before invites to show, but as the raid time comes, there is no sign of them. No word with anyone in or out of the raid, or anyone in game, they're just not there.

Those are the raiders a raid can not afford to keep around. Most raids need someone dependable, most raids need their people that say "yes, I will come" to actually come. The waiting around without any certainty wears on the raid, and the best thing to do is to ask them to kindly step out for someone more reliable.

Another situation.

What if it was the raid leader him -- or her -- self? What if it was they that failed to show? What if they did not send invites and all that they could say to the question of "is there a raid this weekend?" was "don't know" or "too busy right now, ask later"? What if, on the raid night, the raid leader isn't around, hasn't told anyone, hasn't appointed a substitute raid leader in her absence? What then?

It was the situation one of my Naxx10, was to move to Ulduar10 raids found themselves in. She had lead us well for six weeks, then started fading away and leaving the group uncertain. A few weeks later, we were still getting the "I don't know"s and "too busy"s. During this time, I had taken up leadership and made an alts raid for those of the raid members that had wanted to continue and bring alts, and moved it to a different day so that, when she returned, we both could run a raid and keep everyone happy. Sure, it was not as smooth as the mains -- some people had no alts, and, therefore, dropped out, but we did manage to get through it and had fun despite the length.

However, it was this past weekend that we found out the truth. The week before, she had taken her only eighty to an impromptu Naxx, and come the weekend, said eighty was saved and her other character was level seventy-six. That was the week when she said that the vote was "Naxx or nothing" -- we had meant to start Ulduar that week. Naxx it was, and leadership was handed off to me that week, and it took me an hour to find substitutes for the raid leader, her significant other, and two others who wouldn't go if she wouldn't. Last weekend, we asked about Ulduar again, and she said something to the effect of "not this week -- can [Lin] lead it?" She was going to shove raid leadership of a brand new raid instance off to me, with three hours of prep. It was established by the interest the week before that some of the people refuse to go unless she lead the raid, for they were her friends.

I refused.

One of the raid members sent her a tell in query, and found out that she "had little interest in raiding tens", and, in essence, probably won't come back to us. That was frustrating, for, in our channel she was still acting indecisive with her "I don't know"s and "I'm busy"s.

In relation, I thought it fitting of a hostess. A party can not proceed if the hostess is unavailable. If the planner does not plan, how are people to know when and were to be?

For a raid leader to act quite unlike a raid leader without a good reason, it is unacceptable. They have nine [or, in a twenty-five, twenty-four] people looking to them for guidance, and they signed that silent contract to give said guidance when they decided to put together the raid.

So what is to be done? Do we move on without them? Do we let the raid fall apart?

There was enough interest in our group that I am going to attempt to start Ulduar without her, with both the people from the original raid, as well as friends of those from the group.

My worry is that the raid leader's alt is near eighty. What then? Will she have a sudden renewal of interest in raiding so that her alt can be geared up? Are we then obliged to let her join the raid again and take over leadership, for it was once her raid, or do we have a right to say "no, you ditched us when you say no profit for you, why should we gear your alt up"?

In that, I need advice. What is to be done? Have I taken the right steps by moving on, creating another raid out of the ashes of hers? Can I even let her back into the raids and take leadership again? What happens then when she gets bored/out geared for the content again? We will land up right where we are now...

Thoughts?