Timing is Everything

Now you know how Grandma feels

Six months.  Half a year.  More or less, this is how long Wrath of the Lich King has been out.  This is how long the WoW community at large has gone without any brand new content.  Just the same continent, twelve dungeons, four raid zones and two battlegrounds to keep us company.  Personally I went through all of the stuff within about three months and I’m sure others were even faster about it.  And now we’re bored.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with the game itself or any of the actual content.  I thought that the Wrath content that did come with the expansion was great and certainly helped to expand the overall story line with great graphics and dungeons and all.  But I’m beginning to think that Blizzard has sort of screwed the pooch on timing when dealing with this particular expansion.  There are multiple reasons for this and trust me when I say that you’ll hear all of them (I do so love to go on), but it comes down to one major thing:  Six months is too long to wait for new content.

Think about it.  Yes, Blizzard released a larger continent than they did at the beginning of Burning Crusade.  They also gave us incentives to go back and do as many of the quests as humanly possible in order to garner extra rewards for professions.  Also involved were daily quests and a hundred little other things to keep us occupied and busy when we weren’t raiding or running dungeons.  All this is great and fantastic, but the problem is that the true draw of the game, raiding and dungeons, were just too few to keep us occupied this entire time.

One problem with this is Blizzard tried to “learn it’s lesson” so to speak by making the end game very accessible.  I will agree that the old end game content was intimidating with the idea that I had to spend hours and hours preparing and running dungeons and getting the right equipment or else I would be a craptacular failboat.  That idea actually kept me from the end game because I didn’t want to have to work so hard for it.  But now there’s no work needed at all to be able to do end game.  Run a few dungeons, get half blues and greens and you’re ready for Naxxramas.  Gone are the days of needing keys for dungeons or attuning yourself for raids.  We had a guild member who dinged 80 and literally two minutes later was in Naxx picking up purples.  The point here is that the occasional time sink can be good for the game and will serve to keep players occupied.

Another problem is the fact that there’s really only three new end game raids and all three of them are designed to take a half hour at the longest.  Although Naxx did have a “new to me” feel, what must some of my guildies who farmed this on 40 man be feeling when it comes to this?  They may be getting gear and that’s satisfying to them, but they’re also staring at the same bosses that they’ve done a hundred times before.  There’s no new challenge to this since even though they hit harder and have more health, they’re not anymore challenging than they were before.  In fact, Blizzard has already admitted they made Naxx too easy.  The idea of an introductory raid is great in order to get people geared out and ready to go, but when that’s your major end game dungeon for six months you’re going to have problems.

Guilds are already feeling the squeeze with players who just can’t handle doing the same thing over and over week in and week out.  Though achievements are out there with vanity items available to keep people busy, not everyone’s into that.  Not everyone will want to spend hours and hours trying to do or get something that’s optional and in the end of no benefit to them whatsoever other than to say “ooh, shiny.”  With the only options being to run the same raids or dungeons that have been available for six months, a lot of these players instead choose to just walk away from the computer for a while.  It’s too boring for them to log on and I even find that sometimes I log on and sit there staring at my character and wondering why I’m even on.

Of course, some people will say to level an alt, but that’s not anything new.  It’s the same content, just with a different perspective.  Not to mention that for me, there’s nothing more boring or frustrating than running content that I’ve run before only not being able to waltz through it like I know I can on my main.  Being a newb again sucks for some people and not everyone has the constitution to do it every few months when they’re bored with their mains.  I want to have a reason to log onto the character I’ve dedicated a huge majority of my time to already, not some other little wiener char I’m using as a way to waste time.

So what are some things that Blizzard can do to help stave off the malaise that is brewing like a storm over Northrend?  Obviously it’s unrealistic to expect new content patches every month and I can certainly respect and agree with the idea that you don’t want to release content that is incomplete or buggy just to give the whiners what they want.  But there has to be a happy medium somewhere in between.  There has to be a reason to log on.  Personally, I think they should’ve focused on and released the Argent Tournament a couple of months ago.  That was when most guilds had run Naxx enough to pretty much be done with it and were really beginning to butt their heads against Sarth 3D and Maly.  A major content release like that would’ve served to keep people occupied again for at least a month and though boredom would’ve started to set in again by now, they would be that much closer to Ulduar.

Some people still will argue that more dungeons would’ve been the way to go and that could’ve been cool.  A new five man is always fun and great to play in.  But it would’ve had to be a level 80 dungeon and in order to entice end game players to keep them occupied.  It also would’ve had to be close to 10 man raids in difficulty to present a challenge.  Even then, it most likely would’ve only kept the 80′s busy and occupied for a few weeks before even that got pushed to the wayside.  I believe what could’ve worked is to have released maybe three dungeons in quick succession with each one needing to be cleared before you could move to the next.  Maybe a month apart or so.

Look, I don’t claim to know how long development of content takes and perhaps I’m being unfair, but I do think six months is an extremely long time to wait when you look at the utter lack of end game content available.  By making it so easy that a level 80 character could be ready for Ulduar within a month or so of dinging, Blizzard messed up.  They basically made a short path to a brick wall and now they’ve got millions of thirsty gamers howling at that wall.  They shouldn’t be rushing content, but they should have had some new content by now instead of having us just sitting on the same old crap for months.

So what do you think, gentle jerkwads?  What could blizzard have done to improve this concept of just not enough a lot of players are touting right now?  Do you think new dungeons are in order or perhaps you’d like to see some other sort of content similar to Argent Tournament or the Darkmoon Faire?  Maybe even some sort of mini raid?  Or maybe Blizzard could have long attunement quests or difficult to obtain keys again?  What could Blizzard have done to keep us busy?

-Dueg

Bring the Player, not the Discipline Priest

Yesterday I was surfing the interwebs like a good little WoW addict and went on over mmo-champion to check the latest on the blue tracker.  After scrolling down to the priest info (as if there was any other kind), I came across this juicy little tidbit here:

Will raids want Disc priests? We are honestly not too worried about that. We’d estimate about half of the healing priests we’ve watched in Ulduar are Disc, at least for the guilds that are making boss kills. Consider, that when you have a tank with 45,000 health and a boss is hitting for 25,000 health (which is not the kind of thing we did in Naxx, but is in Ulduar), none of the healing you can do will let that tank survive two hits in a row. But Power Word: Shield will.

But I don't WANNA go Disc!

Blizzard… what the hell?  You’ve been touting this “bring the player, not the class” attitude for a few months now, slowly homogenizing the holy priest to the point where we’re pretty much interchangeable with druids, and shamans are even slightly better than us at AoE heals.  I love my class and my spec, but I don’t hold any illusions about the idea that we’re indispensable in raids or better than any other class in certain aspects.  I’m fine with all of that.

However, on the flip side of the coin, Blizzard has been going to great lengths to make disc priests a viable and attractive component for any raid and 3.1 will see that increase even further.  Disc priests will now be able to cast crazy huge shields left and right and at the same time will be able to give not just one person, but the entire raid a 3% damage mitigation boost.  Blizzard says they don’t want any one type of healer to be more attractive than another, and certainly a disc priest is not mandatory, but with these changes, guilds are going to be actively seeking at least one regular disc priest for raids.  Holy?  Not so much.

Now don’t get me wrong, as a priest I like the idea that this statement is pretty much saying that Power Word: Shield is going to become an almost mandatory spell in raids, but it is a sort of hypocrisy on Blizzard’s part.  Here they’ve been stating that they don’t want you to have to look at what type of healers you have, but then one of the devs is pretty much saying that they’re designing content with a priest only spell specifically in mind.  But it goes even further when you look at the fact that PW:S really is more of a disc priest’s specialty.  Holy priests don’t have or want talents boosting this spell.  Hell’s bells, the only time I even cast this spell as a holy priest is when I’m on MT healing which happens maybe once a month.

So basically what this tells me is that priests will be mandatory as raiders in 3.1 for at least one fight.  Win.  However, it also says that disc priests will be the optimal version of priests as they are specifically planning encounters based wholly on damage mitigation or else your raid will wipe.  Lose.  They’ve also stated in the past that they will not be planning encounters with the idea that players can freely switch specs in between boss fights.  I guess that idea only applies to disc priests.  Fact is, almost no holy priest is going to want MT duties over raid duties.  It’s a job we can do, but not one we’re going to excel at over a disc priest thanks to our lack of mitigation talents.  If a priest wants to heal the MT, he’s most likely to go disc for that job.

So here’s my problem with this statement:  It’s assuming that healing priests don’t care what kind of healer they are.  I care, buddy, I care big time.  As I’ve stated before, disc spec is fun, it’s interesting and Penance is, hands down, one of the coolest spells I’ve ever cast before, but I don’t want to be a discipline priest for raiding.  I’ll take it as my second spec because I don’t really care much for dpsing, but I’m hoping to use it as little as possible, really.  I like CoH and seeing 6 little blobs of numbers pop up from a group of people.  I enjoy seeing little wings pop up from someone when I cast Guardian Spirit on them.  I enjoy being holy while raiding.

Now perhaps this was just a throw-away statement by a dev that he wasn’t really thinking about when he made, but it serves to highlight what I feel is an alarming trend concerning priest heals.  In BC, disc priests were considered the PvP healing version of the class, which was kind of lame, but whatever.  However, with WotLK, Blizzard has gone such great lengths to make disc priests a raiding class that they have made them more of a necessity in certain situation than holy priests.  If Blizzard wants the idea to be that people are bringing the player, then why would they make a situation where I’m pretty much forced to switch specs in order to effectively heal for my raid?  That statement tells me that in 3.1, disc priests will actually be better than holy priests in some situations, thus relegating holy as a lesser tree since it isn’t any more or less attractive than other healers.

Look, maybe I’m overreacting and reading too much into this one statement and I will say that it’s not like I’m going to have disc as my main spec from now on to make sure I get into raids.  But my point is that if disc and holy priests are separate classes (and believe me when I say that I truly think they are), then creating these types of encounters will force one of two things:  Guilds actively passing up a holy priest in favor of a disc priest or forcing a holy or even shadow priest to switch to disc for those particular encounters.  Blizzard has stated that they’re actively trying to avoid these situations when it comes to other classes, but that seems to be forgotten when it comes to the priest class as if we don’t care what spec we are.  Blizzrd, I’m a Holy Priest and I want my Circle of Healing, is that so wrong?

-Dueg

Parity Problems, A Priest’s Lament

Pictured: A run of the mill healing priest

So lately there’s been some mumbling and grumbling going on concerning the new tier 8 healing priest set.  The problem is not the look of it (though some people aren’t too happy about the rogue look), but more to do with the new bonuses we get from having multiple pieces.  I’ll review them real quick:

2P Bonus — Increases the critical heal chance of your Prayer of Healing by 10%.

4P Bonus — Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 250 spell power for 5 sec.

Both of these are somewhat “meh” to begin with, but when viewed through the eyes of holy spec, even more so.  The PoH bonus is weak because as a holy priest, you’re more likely to use CoH with PoH being a back up.  Even with the changes to Serendipity, this will only give an extra incentive to cast PoH if you have it glyphed and even then I’d choose my spots to cast it carefully.  This is more of a “shrug” sort of bonus for both specs, something that’s nice to have, but you wouldn’t exactly miss it if it was gone.

However, it’s the 4 piece bonus that really highlights one of the issues a lot of priests are beginning to have concerning Blizzard’s recent major changes to the priest class.  The problem here is that this tier bonus is obviously aimed at Discipline spec priests.  Even though it’s kind of lame (I mean, c’mon, 5 seconds, Blizzard?  That’s like kissing your cousin), it’s something a disc priest wouldn’t mind having in their arsenal for the occasional boost.  However, as almost every holy spec priest I’ve read over the last few days has pointed out, if you’re running with a disc priest in your raid, you’re probably not casting power word: shield because you don’t want to cut part of what makes a disc priest so damn discy.

But here’s the problem: The stats on the gear are very very nice for holy spec.  Not BiS (tier armor almost never is) but damn close in all cases and something that anyone wearing only Naxx gear will jump at the chance to pick up.  However, the stats are only mildly interesting for disc priests, who are not looking to stack the spirit heavy pieces that are part of the tier 8 armor set.  This essentially means that both specs have a reason to find these attractive and a reason to turn their nose up at them.

Look, Blizz… can I call you Blizz?  Blizz, you’ve done a fantastic job turning the discipline priest into a true PvE healing class.  You did such a good job, in fact, that you’ve actually made it into a wholly different type of healer, pretty much a completely different class.  The style, mindset, major spells, important stats, hell, even the importance of secondary stats are completely different than that of a holy healer.  They cast different heals at different times, basing their job performance on what buffs are up when and how much damage they help the tank avoid.  They chortle condescendingly when we suggest spirit is fantastic and reach for that extra helping of int instead, and that’s actually pretty awesome.  It’s also your fault, Blizz.

You created a system that rewards the disc priest by how much mana they have and how fast they can cast their spells, turning them into haste hungry int mutants terrorizing the countryside.  Though you’re set to change their major form of mana regen with the rapture nerf, it’s still based on a percentage of total mana, meaning any smart disc priest will forgo spirit in favor of extra int and straight mp5 where they can get it.

Holy priests on the other hand love them some spirit.  When you’re pushing 1,000 spirit (and top geared priests will), you don’t really give a crap about mp5 because you don’t need to.  You have enough mana regen that your i5sr amount should be equivalent to someone stacking mp5 instead of spirit.  The only difference is that your spirit also adds a straight sp bonus, making it one hella sexy stats for us.  I’m talking stilettos here, people.

So we come to the crux of my argument: Why are you trying to please both sides, Blizz?  Why do you have to make a single healing set for the priest class?  I understand that we’re the only class that has two specific healing specs, but you’ve changed them to the point where they might as well be a dps and healing spec because they’re so wildly different.  Classes with three distinct specs such as shamans and paladins get three distinct tier sets, but we’re forced to put up with tier bonuses optimal for disc and disc is forced to put up with stats optimal for holy.

Back in BC this argument would not have been really necessary because it could be argued that the PvP set was the disc set.  But with a switch in priorities for the spec and the rise of Blizz’s “bring the player, not the class” philosophy, that idea’s gone right out the window.  There are also changes in the mix to make disc into an even more attractive raiding class which will ensure more than a few holy priests picking it up as a secondary spec instead of dps.  Because of this, you’re going to see a lot of priests passing up tier gear in favor of items that don’t have spirit slathered all over them.  Holy priests will still take them, but the idea of losing the tier bonus won’t really give them pause.  This idea of forcing the needs of two fundamentally different specs into a single set devalues the gear for both specs.

Let me close with this.  Blizzard, you have turned the priest into three different classes, two of which are healing classes.  However, they’re not the same type of healing classes.  They’re like Resto Shamans and Druids when it comes to what they want in stats.  They do a lot of the same things and have the same end result, but what they value when they’re looking for gear is wildly different.  You wouldn’t expect them to seek out the same type of gear stats-wise, yet you seem to think that priests will quietly do just that because we’re united under a common class name.  You divided us, and we’re happy for it, but the time has come to finish the job.  Acknowledge that we’re just too different to be happy with the same gear for both specs.  Otherwise, you probably won’t get much healing in the next Naxx run.

-Dueg

The Straw that Broke Dueg’s Back

Let me start this post by saying that I like to consider myself a nice guy.  I try to see things from other people’s point of view and generally don’t let jackassery get to me.  If you’re being an a-hole, you’re more likely to see me walking away then you are to see me getting upset because, quite frankly, I don’t want to be upset.  The last time I got truly screaming and shouting red in the face angry with someone was about five or six years ago and I had to go lay down afterwards because I got a stomach ache from it.

I also try to be somewhat loyal in the sense that if I give you a commitment I’m going to try my hardest to fulfill it.  This facet of my personality fits in the game in the sense that if I join a group, I’m probably not going to be the first to leave it if things get frustrating.  I will stay in shitty groups because in general, people don’t join groups to dick around and if we’re not accomplishing our goal, it’s not through lack of trying.  Some people will drop after a couple of wipes assuming that the rest of the group are morons and can’t get it done, so they just give up.  Others have a specific goal and once it’s accomplished, or they see that they may not get it accomplished, they’re gone.  These people are what I commonly refer to as “jack offs,” but, to each their own.

But this doesn’t mean that I never get mad or frustrated with the game or people in it.  Quite the opposite, little annoyances pop up on a daily basis, constantly trying my fraying patience.  I just do my best to take them in stride and enjoy the game as best I can without letting that sort of thing get to me.  However, it’s not always so easy to ignore the little things when they start to become bigger things.  So let me relate you the story of the one time that a group truly broke me.

I leveled Dueg with an eye for healing instances.  I wanted to do all the old world instances up until level 58 when I abandoned them for Outland.  This was a few months after BC came out and was before they adjusted the exp totals for 20 to 60, so dungeons were still the quickest way to level at that point.  As a healer, I pretty much had no problems whatsoever finding a group for instances.  Times were good, I danced the Charleston on top of flag poles and flappers smoked cigarettes out of long thin tubes.  Then came Uldaman.

Now anyone who’s ever been to Uldaman probably nodded to themselves with a knowing smile just know.  For anyone who’s never been there, I offer you two words of advice:  don’t go.  It’s honestly one of the worst plotted out dungeons in the whole of the game.  Originally designed that the front half would be done in the late thirties/early forties levels and the back half late forties/early fifties, the dungeon itself is just a mess of caverns and dead ends.  Even when they readjusted the levels so that it evened out, the place was still a maze and generally considered the worst instance in the game.  I had gone on Proto Dueg once and the only reason I wanted to go this time was to be able to say that i had done all the instances up to Outlands.

So I find a group composed of a warrior tank, two mages, a rogue and myself and we make the run through the iron dwarves till we get to the entrance.  Once inside, things go smoothly for a while till we come to the first boss.  One of the mages has the staff so we can summon the maiden and he does so.  During the fight the rogue pulls aggro three times, finally dying the third time when I just couldn’t keep him up.  Turns out the tank is new to Prot spec, previously being arms/fury for leveling and had just switched.  He wasn’t aware that you had to continuously taunt and thought one at the beginning of the fight was good enough.  I begin to have my doubts.

However, we got through the first boss a-ok except for the death and we get the loot, a tank ring or something like that.  One of the mages, however, ninjas the item and DCs at this point.  We’re all confused as to why he would ninja some crap blue ring that he can’t even use.  Whatever though, no one int he group really wanted it, so we figured he’s more than welcome to it.  So we move further in, looking for someone else, but not holding our breath as Uldamanwas very unpopular.  The group is just awful, damage is all over the place, no one seems able to focus on single mobs, pandemonium reigns supreme and we wipe a couple of times before finally the rogue asks us to help summon the enchanting teacher mob hidden in the instance.

So we clear to the mob, summon her out, the rogue takes care of some training and then promptly disconnects.  My urge to kill at this point begins to rise.  Whatever, we figure we’ll just keep going and if we can’t get someone new for the final boss we’ll just drop out.  At this point the final mage decides we’re going too slow for his tastes and begins to starts pulling mobs for the tank without informing us that they’re incoming.  After a couple of these, I tell him to please let the tank pull because it’s putting an unnecessary strain on me and my mana when I have to heal him up from almost dead on every pull.  “Quit being a pussy, I’m trying to get us through this,” comes his oh so classy answer.

This is when I turn into the most rarest of beasts, the Mad Panda:

DUEG SMASH!

So I send a whisper to the tank saying sorry for what’s about to happen, which he responds to with a “?”.  On the next mage pull I immediately drop group and hearth out, placing the mage on ignore.  The tank doesn’t respond after that and I go on my merry way, feeling vindicated that I totally let the mage die, but feeling a little bad for the tank.  Either way, glad to be done with the group.

So I ask you, gentle jerkwads, what’s the worst crap you’ve had to put up with dungeons?  Do you even put up with that sort of stuff or is your tolerance for morons so low that you would’ve been out of there a lot sooner?  Drop me a comment and let me know!

-Dueg

I’d say my biggest problem is that I’m too awesome

Pictured: Perfection

So last night the guild once more made a foray into Naxx 25.  For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been on a pretty intense recruitment blitz and have been foregoing our usual plan of Naxx till 25 log on, then Sarth 3D.  We’re in somewhat of a transition phase, trying to get to the point where we regularly have 25 raiders on.  So last night we brought about 5 or 6 apps with us, mainly from a smaller guild that we’re looking to absorb.

Things got off on somewhat of a bad foot.  We started with Military wing because we weren’t sure how long the second priest would be able to stay on (her connection can be somewhat whonky).  We put Raz down eazy peazy and moved on to Gothik, but then began to have problems from there.  We have recently restructured and had some officer promotions and demotions based solely on raid availability.  No feelings were hurt or guild drama or anything, but the end result is new officers who need to learn how to use our DKP system.

Apparently the moderator version of our DKP mod is a little difficult to figure out from the officer end.  As a result we had to wait about 20 minutes to pull Gothik after we arrived in his room.  Yeah, not pleasant.  With no more issues we were able to move through Military Wing with no more issues and went to Construct next.  And here’s where I almost lost my shit.

Anyone who’s been in in Naxx is aware of the slimes in Construct and how you’re not supposed to stand in melee.  Another good idea is to not body pull the row of abominations right outside the room if you can avoid it.  For some reason a few people decided to do both at the same time.  Things got quite interesting, oh yes.  After about 10 to 15 minutes we were able to pull it out, rez the dead and get back on track, no wipe.  We then settled down, put our noses to the grindstone and still finished a full clear in about 3 and a half hours, picking up the Arachnophobia achievement for those who still needed it.

But the whole debacle at the beginning of the raid got me thinking.  It reminded me very much of my own personal journey on my way to becoming the uber awesome raider that I am today.  When I first entered Naxx I was completely and totally clueless, a total newblett.  My first time through I had just barely specced to holy and was not familiar with the nuances of the spec.  I used flash heal almost exclusively, ran out of mana constantly and basically did a whole lot of sucking and dieing.

I’ll give you a rundown of my first time in Naxx.  As I’ve said before, I had run a few heroics and had decent gear for starting Naxx when I was invited to the guild and summoned in pretty much right away.  I was so very extremely nervous for it all.  I was only able to stay for Plague and part of Military wing and it was quite the experience.  In Plague I managed to fail at dancing on the first splash by standing to far in the middle even though everyone else was behind me.  I failed at the gauntlet by getting stuck next to one of those pots and somehow forgetting how to use my jump button.  I killed myself at Loatheb because I didn’t realize that PoM and Renew will still tick for damage after you’ve cast them and not just initially.  I couldn’t do Raz to save my life, resulting in five wipes in a row.  And finally I got killed on the way to Gothik and then when I came back, I actually got lost like a moron, going down the wrong wing twice before just giving up and begging the warlock for a summon.  I was extremely surprised they didn’t kick me right away as it must have appeared I couldn’t tell my ass from left.

I won’t even go into how scary stupid I was for our first few Malygos and Sarth kills, but needless to say, it was scary.  Since then, however, I’ve managed to stop being a drooling imbecile and have worked myself into what I can only hope is a competant raider.  But it took time and a few weeks of failing.  No one ever starts out being the shit, there’s always going to be newb moments and all you can do is put your head to the wall and push, otherwise you’ll just stand in the same spot.

So I ask you, gentle jerkwads, what was your biggest “dur” moment when starting out raiding?  Don’t be afraid to post in the comments no matter how dumb you may think it was, cause public ridicule is just fun.  And at least it can’t be as bad as running all the way through Plague Wing then halfway through Construct while the other priest is Mind Visioning you and you’re being described as “on another fucking planet” before having to ask for a summon.  And if it is, hey, at least you’ll make me feel better and in the end, isn’t that what it’s really all about?

-Dueg

An Open Letter to Blizzard

Hi, Blizzard, do you know me?  You might, you take 15 dollars from my bank account every month, so I might seem interesting to you.  In exchange you provide me with this game, one that I enjoy immensely, please don’t doubt, and provide excellent support and customer service.  I’m certainly not here to complain about that, no sir-e-bob.  However…

Well, let me roll back a little, I’m a priest, one of the healing classes in the game.  You see, I’m a giver: health, my time, buffs, gold even, if I can afford it, and I certainly do enjoy giving.  It’s for this reason that I’m somewhat hesitant to write you this letter, but a breaking point has been reached!  I can no longer sit idly by while myself and my holy brethren are forced to endure the shame and ridicule that you so regularly heap upon us.  No, Blizzard, I ask… no, I demand that something be done and that this travesty against all priest-kind be addressed forthwith!

I am, of course, talking about Spirit of Redemption.  Now don’t get me wrong, the talent itself is fantastic.  The mechanics work great and it’s prevented a wipe more often than I like to admit.  The subtle Star Wars reference in the buff description (You have become more powerful than anyone can possibly imagine) makes for grade A humor and allows for jokes amongst the guild.  Also, people with their infinite creativity have come up with humorous new names for it: Improved Death, Priest PvP Form, LoLAngel.  All that stuff is fantastic.  No, Blizzard, I am writing to you to make one request, and a small one at that:  

Stop making me look like an asshole during raids.

FAIL

Let me just say, I’m alright with dyeing during raids.  It’s gonna happen and I’ve consigned myself to regular 40 to 50 gold repair bills (at least I’m not a tank, right?).  I’m just not sure why you have decided to place the equivalent of the Vegas strip over my lifeless corpse.  I pay my monthly subscription just like everyone else and yet I am forced to endure the shame of raid wide, immediate knowledge of my demise.  Each time I die in the raid, I also die, just a little, right in my heart as well.  ”Dueg down!” they all cry, because they all know!

So perhaps you can look into this and make it just slightly less obvious is all I’m saying.  Perhaps I can turn into a nice, unassuming, invisible wisp that shushes people when they call out my death? Or maybe I just grow a set of wings with the option to mute Chatty Cathies on vent?  Either way, Blizzard, the time has come to let myself, and all priests everywhere, have their dignity back.  Is it really so much to ask?

-Dueg

Lies and Slander

Ah, Monday evenings.  I enjoy Monday evenings and I’ll tell you why.  On those nights, Mrs. Dueg has a class until about 9:30.  I come home, make myself something that she certainly would never let me eat, fart around for about an hour then do a little guild raiding.  Yes, Monday nights are Dueg nights, and really, those are the best kind of nights.

So I log on and skip my way merrily on down to Obsidian Sanctum for a run at Sartharion before the reset.  We all gather, talking excitedly about whether we’ll have enough people to do three drakes, but certain that no matter how many drakes were up, Sarth was going down tonight.  And thus I zone in, brimming with confidence and ready to take on the world.  The screen switches over and I look up to see… nothing.  No Sarth, no drakes, no guildies, just trash mobs eyeing me hungrily and tumbleweeds blowing by.

Uh... no?

You see, gentle jerkwads, it turns out that it’s so easy to get saved to raids these days that apparently 10 mans will save you to their 25 man counterparts.  The previous night some guildies and I had gathered to do Sarth 10 man and zoned in only to discover one of us was already saved to a Raid ID.  He swore up and down that he hadn’t done a 10 man OS in weeks and didn’t know how it happened, so we all shrugged it off, marked it up to bad luck and dispersed for the night.  It never even occurred to me that this travesty to Duegkind could happen.

I did a cursory search on the bug forums and surfed around to other game sites, but couldn’t find anything quite like the problem I was having.  Some people had reported similar bugs such as being saved to the 25 man version with the same ident as the 10 man and were able to actually exploit it and run the 25 man version multiple times in the same week.  Of course, I don’t condone such action and should you get caught, you’ll most likely be banned, but why can’t that be the kind of bug I get? 

So here’s how I see it: Blizzard has cost me a title and a new epic flyer with their blasseiz-fare attitude and reckless non fixing of my problems in advance.  Quite frankly I’d prefer not to have to punish them by forcing them to hand all this over, but if I don’t then they’ll never learn.  I’m sure it will arrive presently and will keep all of you updated on my status.  Till then, I’m forced to wonder if anyone else has had these problems or if this is karma for all those allies I tossed in the lava outside of LBRS with my Mind Control spell earlier this week.  I really hope not, cause that shit is hilarious every time.

-Dueg

My Love is Srs Bsns

Pictured: The one that got away

So Love is in the Air has officialy wrapped up and all I have to show for it is some crumpled chocolate wrappers, a broken heart, and a bucketful of tears from crying all night.  From what I’m reading at various blogs and postings, however, this holiday may have also left a bit of a sour taste in people’s mouths.

First complaint on the list is the gifts of adoration.  More specifically, the hour long cooldown between each receiving of said gift.  This meant that people serious about the achievement were tied to the old world and had to burn hearth cooldowns or log on at least once an hour.  With the shortened time frame compared to other Blizzard holidays, every hour counted thanks to the randomness of about half the achievements necessary for the meta.

Annoying as the cooldown issue was, though, what upset people even more was the randomness of it all.  when you got a gift you usually received a pledge of loyalty for the city you grabbed it from, some friendship bracelets and had a random chance of picking up an item necessary for the achievement.  Whether it was the freaky-deaky vanity pet, that lovely black dress that I swear I only wear for the comfort or maybe the pic-a-nic basket so you and some other loner boners could enjoy themselves for a few minutes. 

But the biggest problem apparently was the Bag of Candiesthat everyone was complaining would never ever drop for them and then you usually had to get at least two to get the achievement because of the randomness of the candies themselves.  Dueg did not have this problem though, oh no, Dueg actually had quite the opposite of this problem.  Before the “fix” I picked up 2 bags in a row on Dueg then managed to get 2 more after it, then got two dresses in a  row. 

However, I had one goal, and one goal only.  All I wanted was a pic-a-nic basket (yes, I am a loner boner), just one so that maybe I could assuage my crippling loneliness after being rejected by Alfred P. Exposedguts III.  Instead I got a pantload of candy hearts (you can find the formula for pantload here) and chocolate and gained about 5 lbs.  One of my alts managed to pick up two baskets though… hooray?  No, gentle jerkwads, a fool for love I am not.

So we come around to the end of my holiday QQ.  Bitter though I may be, I would still like to hear from others about how they spent their holiday in game.  Did you get the title?  Did you even try?  Or will next year be the year of the love fool in your household?

Oh, and a quick congratulations to Anea on getting her title.  See?  You comment on my blog, you get a shoutout.

-Dueg