Sunday, May 16, 2010

Blame Game

http://holyshockbyruhtra.blogspot.com/2010/05/tanks-tanks-tanks.html

There is just so much wrong with this that it isnt even funny.

Who is playing the blame game?

The fact is, Tanks Learn Through Group Play How To Tank Effectively, a tank can read all the strats in the world but is likely to fall on his face at LEAST once during a group run. A dps can learn how to play in a group very effectively in a bg. And a smart dps of a tanking class will actually read what their spells are doing and NOT USE A THREAT GENERATING ABILITY IF THEY AREN'T TANKING. There are things we can all point out in each others performance that are not suitable for group play in most circumstances, and this even includes the tank and healing roles.

Don't Fear Mobs
Don't Use High Threat Abilities
Don't Taunt Unless Asked
Don't Berate Fellow Group Members

This all really comes down to two things... Read up on your class and be open to suggestions from other players. You don't have to take those suggestions but remember if people are complaining about  it then it is likely a deterrent to the group. The only thing the lfd has done is put those people with short fuses in the drivers seat, and I aint talking about the tank. Tanks are getting hurried and put out of the position where they can just sit back and look at a situation as a new tank. It isn't the heals or the dungeons that keep me from tanking on any of my characters, it is the short tempered, cant read skills, gottagogottagogottago, pulls for you dps. So, yes, it is the fault of the dps that there is a shortage.

And yes, I am looking at it from the dps and healer perspective. If I go tank, it will be for friends only.

As for the whole turn the mob around, if it is a dragon, turn it, if not, I am usually on my way around already and if you are there tanking I get confused.

For the complainers in my groups, the tend to be dps characters, rarely a healer or tank complains about the preformance of another member.


Just face it now... People are rude and the ruder you are in dungeons to group members the less likely they will be to continue in what ever capacity they are trying to fill. If you are rude to a tank or a healer then have to suffer through long wait times... You might just be on everyones ignore list.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Heals classes, overview

Yeah, if you stumbled across this site somehow (which would be pretty hard considering I barely even advertise it anywhere) you may like to know a little bit about my thoughts (obviously).

So, an overview of the different healing classes at level 80

Druid: my first level 80 healer, level feral to 78 grinding on mobs and then switched to balance for picking up spell gear. After a bit of farming, switched to resto/feral. Druid heals is what i have done in raiding most and we excel at steady damage raid wide. I actually would recommend a druid healer above almost all other specs for any kind of group play.

Priest: My second level 80 healer and leveled as holy to 70 and then went disc. Did a bit of a stint early 80 career as a shadow priest to gain the spell gear via dungeons (you know, without dying or killing everyone else, yeah, a little sly of me but still.) Pre 70 holy absolutely rocks for group damage as well. Disc is really nice as well. I recommend either spec for a beginner healer as my first choice, especially for someone who is new to the game of healing. Remember that Disc focuses on preventing damage and holy focuses on healing through it.

Shaman: My third level 80 healer (giggles) and I have yet to heal a heroic with her. I found a love of enhancement play and have been playing in dungeons as enhancement most of the time. As for ease of healing, of the classes, third choice. Mail gear is hard to come by pre 80 and itemization is just wonky.

Paladin: My fourth heals at 80, and my most recent addition to the team of heroic healers, I put aside my heals set to focus on my dps set after hitting 70. I always had a cobbled together heals set but nothing up to the level of my dps set, now though, they are getting closer to average ilevel and I am confident that I can keep up most groups lacking any kamikaze stratagies. The Paladin is probably the class that is hardest to get used to for me. The lack of group heals really hurts in todays group wide damage days. I still do not look foward to doing anything above the original wrath heroics (no toc, icecrown) because of the lack of mana regen. Yes, i need to stack mucho more intellect.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Healing spells across classes

EDIT 2011 April, 30: This is likley outdated now with the changes to healing in 4.X so totally disregard this post :) .


 I decided to go through my spells on all my character (by copy/pasting the spells from the wiki) and singling out the spells that may be of benefit for a heals to use so that I can more easily sort out how my clique bindings will work for each of my classes of heals (yes, I play them all, I collected them all too until HeartGold/SoulSilver but that is another thing)

Some notes: Multi heals are more fluid, affecting who ever they feel like. Party heals are for only you and up to four others in your numbered party, and group or raid heals are for anyone. I decided to not split the paladin hands and put them all up there. I did not remove spells that are trumped by other spells (the non-hot cures, that bastard priest heal, Paladin purify) or add spells that are the result of glyphing.

I noticed a bit of a problem with the increase effectiveness portion as I went through the more support oriented paladin and disc priest specs where the spells cover more than just +something but still do not actually heal a target.

My initial goal with this was to cut apart the spells and place them on a model 5 button mouse for placement, our printer is broken so this is the closest I can get now. I still will probably end up doing the above just for the thrill of possible paper cuts :D . 

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Best & Worst: Cities/Towns: Blog Azeroth Shared topic

After a long day of adventuring, where's your favorite town to hang up your weapon, take off your boots or slippers and curl up with a glass of wine? (Or a skin of whatever swill you undead people drink.. how does that work anyway? I wouldn't think you'd need food and water, but I see you nomming as much as the rest of us.)

What town makes you want to turn your charger around and race for the next outpost? Where you know the bedbugs WILL bite, and the slop on your plate will likely leave you with indigestion?

Be as flexible as you like! Capital cities, towns or outposts--even that little wayside moonwell in on the edge of Ferelas is fair game!
Well, Dal is where my hearth is set for all my characters who are currently equal to or greater than level 74. I usually dont take the time to have someone port me to Dal before that.

As for where I WOULD like to set my hearth if the place had the convenience of the city portals of Dal, it would have to be somewhere pretty, and likely wooded. Ashenvale perhaps? Oh, Astraanar for Alliance characters and Camp  Mojache for horde characters. I love the look of Feralas but I dislike that the Alliance don't have nearly as pretty of an establishment there.

As for towns I dislike... I would have to say the entire zones of Descolace and Shadowmoon Valley. Descolace has bad memories for me and Shadowmoon was just way too fel firey.

I just realized I totally forgot about Nagrand. I love the zone a lot but I still think I would prefer the slightly darker but much more wooded Feralas and Ashenvale.