Saturday, April 3, 2010

Leaving a guild with class

If you've been in a guild for any period of time you've most likely encountered the person that needs to spill their life story when they decide it's time for them to move in WoW. These people think they're entitled to the right to speak their piece on whatever things have bothered them within the guild.

I can say safely having watched a fair amount of these and heard of even more, don't let this happen.

A person listing all the reasons why they don't feel this guild is worth it isn't going to help anyone. The person who might actually be trying to make a vaild complaint will either be mocked or ignored. Or the players staying with the guild are made often to feel bad about their decision.

Leave the guild with class, say "I don't feel this is the place I want be anymore." and leave. Don't make excuses with flowery language. Be concise but vague, find a time that alot of people aren't on if preferable. Gquitting right before a raid isn't fair to the leadership or the players.

Just because a guild isn't the right fit for you doesn't mean you'll never see them again. Leaving with class allows the opportunity for PuGed spots later on and the ability to keep friends you've made.

Acting like a fool might come back and bite you with the next guild you apply to as well. It's not uncommon for GLs and Raid leaders to chat with each other about applicants and raiders. So don't burn future bridges by torching a past one.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Everyone needs this alt

Everyone needs that alt. While that line is incredibly vague you'll understand what I'm talking about in a moment. I have that alt. Hell it's what this blog is named after. I love playing my mage. It's a change of pace from healing on my druid, different role, different abilities and different style. It's also insanely fun. There has never been a time where I didn't living bomb everything in a trash pack an not giggle like an insane person. It's fun watching all those explosions.

Traestus helps me keep my sanity. There's only so many times a player can hit the same spells in the same fights in raids. Having that alt that you just mesh with is super important to keeping your game fresh. I suggest find a class you just think is cool that you don't normally play. Find the tree you love the most and stick with it regardless of what is considered "best". I do it with my hunter and the fearsome Devilsaur "Omnomnomsaur". It's fun as hell watching that thing stomp around chomping stuff. Same with Trae and his living bomb. Sure the class you pick or even the tree might not be it the first time.

Trae was rolled to be arcane....then I found fire and all its pyrotechnic glory. I implore people to go out and find that class that spec that they just love outside of the one they normally play. So go out and warlock it up with Seed of Corruption, break out your own personal hammer of justice and smack some scourge around. You'll look at the game in a different way and maybe you'll just start burning them with fire.

-- This post brought to you by Living Bomb and its incredible awesomeness. Seriously don't roll a mage unless you want to tab dot everything with this spell and laugh like a madman as everything ever explodes in brilliant fire.

Friday, March 26, 2010

How to deal with that guy.

We've all ran into that guy. You know the one in your heroic that drives everyone up the wall or the guy that shows up and you're not even sure knows what game he's playing. How do you deal when you just want to get in and out of Heroic Halls of Stone as fast as possible and every DPS in your group is bashing their heads against the unsmashable wall of 1k DPS?

It's simple, find an outlet. Yeah, all my characters are overgeared for heroics, I go in for frost or for offset pieces. My druid can't use triumph for anything other than epic gems and buying hodir rep things since I like having exalted factions.

If you've got a group filled with bad DPS, instead of berating them in chat which in turn will make the run take longer. Instead if you're in a guild link the meters in Gchat and play guess the tank. Are you laughing at their expense? Yes. Are you actively making their time worse? No. You're run won't take any longer and you'll save some sanity.

And yes some people will say that it's important that we try and teach people how to improve their DPS. I've tried, I've made recommendations on specs, websites to visit, simple things such as "You're a DK why in the holy hells are you gemming spirit!?!?".1 in 10 I'll get someone that will listen however most of the time I get blind rage for suggesting this because "It's their 15 dollars and they'll play how they want to." So I rag on them in guild chat.

For those that say heroics are for these people, well they are but until Blizzard stops giving out 2 frost for doing a random dungeon each day I'll keep heading in there.

And frankly me linking meters in guild chat and giggling is a heck of a lot better than taking that bile to party.

So find an outlet, realize that in the end it is just a game, that yelling at any random DPS to "improve" will not cause any noticeable shift in the next ten minutes and just do what you can control.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Entitlement the disease we really need healthcare for

Entitlement, it's a word that is tossed around on the WoW forums a lot. That players feel entitled to certain things from Blizzard and even from their guild. That they are owed something for simply logging on.

Obviously this idea is somewhat silly when taken to extremes however at its base levels I can somewhat understand the line of thinking concerning the difficulty of raiding especially if you're limited by time.

What irks me endlessly is the idea that a player is entitled to something from their guild. That because they've been in the guild for x amount of time they're owed y things.

That's stupid, in fact it's a lot more than that but it's late and I feel like keeping it classy.

To draw reference from my own experience, I had a DK quit the guild because he felt this way. He felt that because at one point roughly about 7 months in the past he had been a reliable raider. He then vanished for about 5 before coming back. Yet somehow he was surprised and even angry that he wasn't getting instant raid invites based upon his merits from back then. WoW is constantly moving forward, efforts from a previous tier are lessened very quickly and relying on those efforts for getting preferential treatment is stupid.

Look if you want to avoid that trap the easiest way is to just drop the ego. We're all here to play the game, maybe for different reasons or with different goals. But I think for the most part everyone plays to have fun. So stop whining to your GMs about not getting that raid invite, or how it's unfair you didn't get x piece of loot.

We don't like having to sit people any more than you, and it's almost as little fun telling someone that they can't play as being the one who can't.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Who is this? You don't even...

An introduction is a goofy thing. Especially on a blog, it's a lot easier to simply start rambling on about what ever has particularly captured my interest that day while subsequently sticking my fingers in my ears yelling "Lalalala they don't need to check your credibility you're just that damn awesome."

However, that of course is the case as attempting to blog without people having a clue you are is probably not the best way to feed one's ego. So in the effort of making this as simple and ramble free as possible I'm stealing something from The Physician's Log who I believe used it as part of her own introduction.

What are the names, races, class and spec that I play: To condense space I'll keep it to 80s.

Lefin the Tauren Restoration Druid. He's my gameplay main, I raid on him only except for the occasional pug on my other's he's the character I hold the GM position on in and he's been my "main" since the end of BC.

Traestus the Blood Elf Fire/Arcane Mage: Probably my favorite character, I use him mostly for RP and general dicking around. Even with arcane being the "dominant raid spec" I still love fire spec. Hell it's what I named this blog after. I mean I certainly don't yell that after putting Living Bomb on everything in sight in heroics.

Anira the Blood Elf Beast Mastery / Survival Hunter: She started as a Draenei, the character that brought me to The Scryers. I do love playing her still, huntering is insanely fun and Omnomnomsaur the devilsaur is the greatest pet in existence. I do miss being a Draenei and having an alliance toon so that lead me to faction xfer my paladin to create

Taèlan the Draenei Retribution / Holy Paladin: Originally a Blood Elf I faction xferred her so that I could have an alliance toon and enjoy what's on the other side of the fence. I also like how while on her I'm more of an unknown quantity instead of having the reputation attached to my guild and my name that follows me horde side. It's a very different experience.

What server do I play on?: The Scryers, PST, RP server. Very laid back, called the "Florida" of WoW servers because of it's very casual almost retirement home esque speed.

What guild do I run?: <Dust>, considered by some to be the scourge of the Scryers it is one of the most if not the most known guild on the Scryers. Whether it be Saint Patty's Day AH and Bank massacres in Stormwind. Or finding people in horde trade chat having arguements about us in which we have people defending us and attacking us without any guildies being on to start the fight. It's rather interesting watching the rather...visceral reaction the name can provoke in some people.

Worst nickname I have: Yes. My guildmates call me Tiffany, I am male. I respond to this. I do not know why. Even when Traestus was being called muffin for a bit in RP it is not as bad as the fact that I respond to Tiffany without thinking now. Pavlov you're a bastard.

What I plan to do with this blog: I have no idea. Yes this question was cheating to increase word count. Because I measure my worth as a human being by that.

Well last question as I'm running out of relevant things...how did I get into WoW:

Sophomore year in high school I had a group of friends, that were really getting hyped about this game called WoW. I had played the Warcraft RTS's so I didn't really "get" what WoW was. Of course I was also a sheep and bought it because they were mostly. And then...well basically there was life as normal for a bit after that. Then there was the night I was leveling my first character a troll Rogue named Therason. I was in the Barrens, it was night. I had just killed a Savannah Prowler and it dropped a green cloak. I looted the item and looked up. The sky had shifted to night and the stars were out twinkling. I looked around watching the animals mill about the Barrens night and like that...I was hooked. Five years later, endless amounts of time invested into this game I can say safely one thing.

It has all been worth it.

What is this I don't even....

What is this, is perhaps the most apt way to describe this blog here. I can't even define it, I lack the patience and more importantly time to devote into making this some sort of informative blog dedicated to Mageing, and Treeing? Resto Druiding? Is there a term for that? Anyway, I find myself undertaking the task of writing a blog quite often often stopping before I reach a second or third post. Perhaps it lies in the grandiose plans I hold for them while at the same time not wishing to devote the energy to achieving those plans. So that leaves me with commentary which while vastly easier to achieve in terms of time needed it also leaves you as one of millions of voices screaming at the top of their lungs that everyone else needs to shut up listen to them.

I think this time I'll succeed, though I can imagine how often that has been said and not been true, I'm not approaching this as a blog to change the world...of warcraft. I don't have that kind of time, or even interest.

Blogging is like sleep for the most part, it is general a very selfish activity. While good things for others may come of it, i.e not being an irritable asshole the next day or spreading the knowledge of certain wow areas, it is generally a way for people,, who I suppose like me just like knowing that people can hear them babble.

I also greatly enjoy using commas ad nasuem and writing more often does allow me to do such a thing