Insidious wants you (recruitment post)

The mighty and awesome guild Insidious on Nagrand-US (of which I happen to be an officer) are looking for a few warm bodies with computers and wow accounts attached for progression raiding 3x nights a week.

The guild is 15/16 in the current content (it was 11/16, then 13/16 – BOOYA!), and typically aspires to get well into hard modes for each content release. With wow patch 5.2 now in the works, we’re darn keen to clean-up the Empress and get through Terrace in a hasty fashion.

What can we offer:

• Some of the most sane and kind hearted players in Oceanic realms,
• who love progression kills, achievements, titles, and are not afraid to keep at it until we seen the great stuff drop.
• a darn fair loot system (EPGP) which is supported by most of our players arguing for who else should get the gear instead of themselves. Rare stuff!
• A social collective of players who indulge overly in all aspects of the game.
• Players who are in the game for the long haul.

What we need:

• Great players who know their class/roles;
• Particularly a Mage, Hunter, or Elemental Shaman is highly desired, with a Holy Paladin or Rogue also being bloody useful.

You’ll need to be:

• An adult who wishes to enjoy your time online, and have a thick-ish skin and appreciation for off-colour Aussie humour,
• be happy with progression raiding, and all the corpse running that usually involves,
• able to raid (vent, addons, etc) 3x nights a week from 8:30 to 11:30 server time,
• be willing and able to bring your own mats,
• and generally a good sane person.

For those who are interested message Genowen, Mortigen, Kalsor, or Rhamiel in game, or visit the Insidious on Nagrand-US website for details. Apps through the website. Or ask me questions here too.

So come join us for some happy killing.

A weekend without WoW

I had the pleasure this past long weekend of going for a trip to the beach. There is a majestic holiday spot along the western coast of Victoria called Lorne, and a mate’s family has a house there. A modest five bedroom place that is hard to resist… So we packed up the 6 month old, a small mountain of her bags, and the odd package of civilized rations (wine, chocolate, bagels, salami, olives, etc), and drove out into the non-Internet.

Being offline in this manner was great and it was insane how much of a decompression you can fit into a few short days.

As those days passed I started to contemplate the impact that 4-5 days away from WoW might have on my lifestyle, and it was pleasing to think that the game will be waiting. Initially I felt the tug of the login screen. I did not want to miss out on my dailies, instances, and scenario runs. I have a drive to participate in LFR each lockout so to get the small drop chance of upgrades from some bosses – especially a weapon drop from Elegon.

Then as time passed I accepted that I could not get online. My gaming machine was a 2.5 hour drive away, and I didn’t really wish to stop relaxing to ramp up into a run. The friends and family were entertaining and except for the poor sleep a person gets when their child does not know the new place much, we had a great time. The break was excellent.

Upon returning late last night I could probably have logged in for some dailies or a quick scenario, but it seemed I would be somehow cheating on the holiday experience (or perhaps shortening it) by getting into a typical night of gaming.

Instead I read my book, and let the anticipation build. A side affect too was the positive reaction from my family in not spending a  night in front of the glow of the screen.

Tonight is a gaming night, and I’m really looking forward to it. I can almost taste the queue timer for LFR as I type, the sting of the wipe, the glory of gold in the loot-bag.

Got flasks and mats? LFR zerg, just DPS you tard (just kidding).

My thoughts on gear from the recent post proved true too, as the Insidious regular raiders have boomed ahead in gear levels, and are now consistently above 6666 score on WoW Heroes. I think this is fantastic as it means that they’re seeing the successful encounters to lead progression along. More gear means more capacity to win through the earlier bosses in good time, and also should allow the later/harder bosses to be attempted more successfully each lockout. It might not occur in one or two cycles, but it should happen.

With the new Heart of Fear open for investigation there may also be a new source for some early boss kills. At the very least that means Valor and chance of loot.

Great times ahead.

Raiding like a noob

The fine folks in Insidious Nagrand-US (my guild) needed a 10th man for the end of some Dragon Soul hard modes, and I was lucky enough to be online at the same time.

Dragon Soul hard modes are just that, hard. Timing, patience, and a little luck are needed – and all the team needs to be pulling their weight. Like the previous tier a single screw-up can be very harsh, although I get the impression that the GunShip encounter has more tolerance for mistakes than the gimmick fights (…use magic button now…wheee…). Unfortunately due to not playing regularly for almost six months my character’s raid gear is far from the level needed for hard modes, and I didn’t know the fights well at all. I was under performing completely, and it frustrated me.

Nefarian is dead

I am very pleased to brag that the fine folks of Insidious have finally killed Nefarian. It took over 60 attempts to kill him, over many nights of switching, burning, and altogether just flying back in to the instance for one more attempt.

Easiest part of the fight: the jump in at the start is great, just don’t miss that first platform. Actually maybe the lift on the way back in, that killed a few folks.

Hardest part of the fight: the interrupts in the dragonite spawns have to be done within 1.5 seconds, which makes Australian latency somewhat a limiting factor. Sometimes I’d be fine, others it would wipe the raid to miss one. This is bloody frustrating, and changing that cast time to 2 seconds would make a world of difference.

Getting into the Pillars, whilst also interrupting the dragonite thing – sheesh. Honestly the “pillar” boss was the thing that I screwed up overand over. Remembering to kite the adds in a small area which is also not on Ony’s flank is tricksy too.

A rare Monday

It is a rare Monday night when I can get home on time, cook diner, eat it without an inhaler, and then login. So with only a slight delay (which I apologise to my guildies for) I was not only well fed, but also logging into Warcraft.

All the folks were already on their way to the raid, so I trundled along and found my way to the instance through a little guesswork and some luck, and we got rolling. There were many pulls, some pulling of legs, and not just one but many inappropriate and darn entertaining comments through Vent. As the night progressed I got the hunch that as a collective we were a little off our game, but for me I was just happy to be inside the instance actually doing something – so I did not care in the slightest.

It was also a night playing again on my Death Knight rather than the Hunter which I’ve been leveling to raid with. It is an ironic twist of fate that all the while we’ve been trying to get players, now my DK is a viable raid toon again, with only a standard amount of competition for raid role-slot. I just laughed and said yes … the DK was always where the fun is. How could somebody not love charging into death wearing boiler plate and a grim smile? I love the fact that DKs have no threat wipe, it speaks plainly to how they are meant to be played: up front and at full speed. Mortigen is back baby!

Last night was a reminder of why I play. The rewards (see below) were nice, but the sensation of playing in a raid again was the real buzz. I think I’m still buzzing.

It was a good night.

First thoughts on the Ruby Sanctum

The Insidious regulars charged at the Ruby Sanctum last night, and by golly it showed us who is boss. The patrolling trash is to be respected, and the need for cc and stun/interrupts makes this content a true pug wiper, at least for a while.

I loved it!

Wiping on new content is so much better than doing old 5 mans, and a great way to start our raid night. New tactics, really nasty trash, and the fact that it is not technically mandatory for progression mean that I can be keen to do this content, and so will so many others that we have a chance of folks actually learning what to do.

A conversation started around the topic of how hard the instance is meant to be, and we generally agreed that it will be darn hard while we learn and there are no boss warning, but get pugable as time passes. I think this is true to a point, but think it wil still be one of those places where a screen-licker will fail, and potentially make others fail.

A description of the trash: “This is technically the trash’s trash…”

Which makes me think that it is totally unacceptable for somebody to not move the third time they are targeted by something bad. I mean come on, how hard is it? (rhetorical question)

If you need more than a very large Red Arrow pointing at the top of your character that something bad is about to happen, then you are a bloody idiot. Plain and simple. It could not be made more obvious, and we had just spent a few minutes talking about how people need to move away from each other.

So we didn’t win at all. We did kill one of the mini-bosses, but the patrolling trash with the Commander kicked us enough times to make the first five bosses in ICC seem like more fun and better use for time, so the crew will return at a later time. I’m sure some guilds went in and one shot it, and sure others fought hard and got through.

That isn’t us, we wiped, but I still enjoyed.

Patch 3.3.2 Speed-ups and Rings

The WoW 3.3.2 patch that many have been waiting for has arrived, and there are a good range of new things for us to ponder. Go read if you’re keen, else absorb my somewhat brief rant here. We can kill Arthas now.

Firstly we have a new Ashen Verdict Ring, designed for Strength DPS classes (like my Death Knight). I have to ask what the hell anyone needs Hit Rating for on 251 level gear as dps? But then I remember that dual-wield plate dps like Hit Rating, and two hander dps probably don’t need it as much. Doubly bad for me as a Draeni, and I am already about 3% over the cap without this ring.

So while the ring is ok, the Rep: Friendly version is not world changing. And as you can change the choice for 200 gp, I took the Tanking ring for now, as I needed the upgrade there more. Later I’ll consider a switch if the higher Rep items are better, and I snaffle a good Tank ring elsewhere.

Secondly there have been a number of adjustments to the speed of regular dungeons. A lot f places got adjusted, so that random dungeon runs should be quicker, as the NPCs move faster. Violet Hold, Culling of Stratholme, and Halls of Lightning to name a few.

By way of example the Violet Hold portals now spawn a lot faster, they were not kidding! My irregular morning run to get 2x Frost emblems was a tank ‘n’ run rather than tank ‘n’ spank. Seriously huge increase in the speed between portals, and I think its a good change, but I pity teams who are struggling, as your Tank will miss many initial pick-ups unless they really keep active. As tank I was sometimes pulling away from the last mobs to get back to a good position for the next set. It is a good change for VH, where the fights are a tad static sometimes.

I can feel the fun times coming. I like this patch.

General Vezax Downed

Unhinged are no rag tag bunch of raiders, no sir. We killed General Vezax for the first time last night, and there was much rejoicing and a few screen shots. Now we kill Yogg!

Be a casual. Kill Vash.

Jez at DPS We Deliver has a good post about what level of dedication is needed for steady progression. The contention is that you can raid seriously once per week and still make progress through the end-game content (her guild is almost through SSC and TK). Thats certainly making good progress, and she coined the phrase “relaxed raiders”, which I like to call “softcore”. Bravo guys.

casuals – not for hire

This post started as a sidetrack to a forum posted question from a guild-mate about the types of players our guild should be looking for to participate in 25 mans for progression, and what loot system is best for the guild.

We were talking about changing the loot system so that it was better for the regulars, but still usable for casuals and PuG players, who are currently needed for 25-man content. Its a bit random but you’ll get the gist.

The post got me thinking, and seriously considering two points, (a) what can casual players reasonable expect from end-game progression?, and (b) is the 25 man raid really a long term goal for me? But first the back-story…

Me: lastly why would a casual or a player who can only rarely raid be bothered in this system? The rewards are very highly skewed [edit: while talking about dkp vs other loot systems].

Guildie: Do you wish to have these players in a 25 man raid guild that is progressing strongly?

My answer was yes.