Sunday, December 13, 2009

A Week In Screenshots Pugging LFG

Just a week in review on the Pug beat running random heroics on my Shadow Priest and so far my experience with it is overall Fun! Whats not fun is the Dalaran Lag! And all the people sitting around Dalaran twiddling their thumb while waiting for a group to pop and causing all that lag too and whatever else is causing it. Otherwise most the instance groups has been really fun and overall jerk free......... so far. That was one the fastest H HoL I can remember so far though it didn't beat that 4 man one I was in one time but that's another Pug tale.

Most of my addons have been updated, yet some of the ones I would like thats apart of my UI are not updated as yet but thats less annoying than Dalaran lag waiting for them to get updated.

Heroics since Patch 3.3 is All Business! Really? Yeap! No small talk, no one wants to chat. No one wants to hear you chat. Sometime people barely say Hello. And if they ever say Hello, that's as much as you'll ever hear the rest of the run. Get in, get it going, get on with it and get out as fast as you got in. All Business I guess.

I was in a heroic OK group. It was going fine. The Tank went afk before the second boss. Ok. He was afk at least 5 mins. One dps dropped out, then the other dps dropped out. Not long after I told the healer we should call it wth afk Tank, she agreed. Was about 9 mins by then and tank was still afk. I'm not bothered by having a degree of patience, It has served me well in other areas like tanking when I do. But many players don't and in this case the afk tank as way long on afking. If your prone to going afk, you probably wont have a group left or be in one the time you get back afking in the new grouping.

Most people I observe have been real courteous on entering groups and in groups. In my 100+ players I've pugged with no one has ever been kicked from a group. Most people have some decent form on dps.......so far. In ever group I've dropped a Gigantic Feast or one in one form or the other. Most people appreciate it for the buff even if it matters less if you over gear the instance. Some people do drop them or ask, but few people do. All good.

When the last boss dies and the last loot is rolled and resolved. People rarely say good by or appreciate the group, but some do. Many just drop the group as fast as they got in it and off to the nether. But some do say "hey good group", "fun run" or something. But for the vast majority I've seen its poof gone to the nether or back to their server. All Business and no small talk.

I did notice this when we ran a few heroics as our guild that with the group as it is when the lass boss was dead the leader can put the group back in the LFG que and instantly with a full ready group immediately was in another heroic. That worked for quite a few runs we did. So I can only presume if your in a good group and at the end people can elect to stay in group if they like or choose to and be quickly more ready to do a next random heroic. Could be much faster than dropping a group, leaving instance, porting and then re-entering the LFG que if you already have a good group for more heroic random runs. Worth trying if your there.

I have not had the chance to do the new heroic for ICC on regular since well, I've been to busy running random heroic in the new LFG system. But doing the random heroics with the guild we got heroic Forge of Souls. I got goose bumps because i had not seen any of the new 3 heroic yet on regular mode. Later on had really good group in random LFG since i ended up seeing heroic Forge of Souls like 3 times at least later. The new Instance just felt really Epic and was just too much fun. Even the trash felt Epic and fun. We wiped once on each boss but we got it down the second time. Those bosses are just fun and awesome fun it was!

Later on as I was rolling along in random Heroics I got heroic Pit of Saron. Oh no! I haven't seen this place on regular mode either. I had no idea what to expect or what to do. Well dps. Oh yeah. I just dpsed and try to stay out of anything below me. No one explained anything and I didn't really ask either to be that noob dps guy that don't already know the new Instance back to front and know everything already about every boss and boss ability like some people want to expect you to already know when you barely have had the chance to do it yet. No hadn't a clue what to expect. Seems like the ultimate fun in well not knowing what to expect.

We didn't wipe on any boss! And that was a bit of the highlight for me. And I really didn't understand the boss tactics or mechanics either. Even after the fight I kept wondering exactly what they did. I just ran out of stuff and away from stuff and tried to stay alive and keep dpsing. We did wipe on trash the only wipe in the instance Pit of Saron. We wiped once on the waves of trash right before the ice cave tunnel. Sound advice is kill the casters first. What really helps is the the mobs being marked as well to people know which ones to kill. But some the best instance I've ever seen in 5 man heroics period.

I have to say some the best groups Instance wise I've been in. And for doing 2 the new dungeon on heroics and never seen them on regular mode or know what to expect it was all a rush and awesome fun not knowing what to expect. As well the healer was damn impressive as we didn't wipe on any boss in Pit of Saron. Was so much fun.

DPSing as Shadow Priest
I'm still really refining dpsing as Shadow Priest but I guess more so in a party setting/instance/raid. DPSing as a Shadow Priest is really fun aside from any other class issue most people have of the class. Its kinda reminds me of a bullet train. I once lived in Japan for a few years when back in the military and got to rode a bullet train a few times very expensive ride but damn fast. The trains take a little while going along to ramp up to full speed, but once they do they moving ultra fast. So far been able to gear him up quite a bit, he even got 2 pieces of Teir 8.

To me comparing dps as Shadow to most other dps that start at full speed on hits it seems out the door it takes a little while to catch up dpsing moving along with other class. Shadow Priests don't have much burst with a bang like mages or any the fast burst high dps classes, they just have a bit of ramp up time to doing fairly good dps rolling with allot of dots and more dots on duration fights. And its the ramp up time that takes allot of the work to drop all them dots and the one you need up. And I guess that's how dps to me is as a Shadow Priest if I ever had to somewhat explain.

That ramp up time can seem to frustrate many with a spec with so little real burst, just lots of dots. Instancing on trash, burst classes can dish out the burst so fast that as Shadow stuff dies before you can really even drop any good meaningful dots and without much tick duration since well trash dies fast before dots have time to really tick. I guess with Patch 3.3 the haste change will help allot here but still the dpsing part of the class that can frustrate some where stuff dies so fast your dots have not much tick time and your dps output can loot low on trash and especially if there is allot of it. But overall I love the class spec as Shadow for what it is and the playstyle it is despite the short comings the class spec may have.

With that its the thing I been working at hard the most in any party setting. It takes allot of good effort to do really good dps as Shadow while having fun. I enjoy the spec and its very fun to me and its what i somehow wanted in something very different. I find it takes a bit of though to decide what you want to cast at times vs some class just hit button X and Y over and over. So its something different I enjoy and how the class plays which is much different to allot of the other classes or caster classes.

But trying to do good solid dps as Shadow takes work for a person that's dpsing as one as well. And to me if they are even close to topping the dps meter they are working their ass off to do it with allot of effort. And so far I been working my ass off to come close to topping them meters while keeping myself alive. And I guess thats some the fun I enjoy in Shadowing. Not just to play a class and dps, but learning to play a class well. And if i'm not topping the meter, im fine with that as i enjoy the class for what it is. But im going to do my best and work my ass off to out do the other dps that may be slacking at playing theirs.


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