Icicle DPS Tanking Toy

Lucky Lucky me. I picked this up this morning just doing a H HoR run. Just the luck of all things I was able to win it with no real melee in group and have it to use as a dps/threat weapon toy. At least another weapon to add to my collection for gear swapping as a dps/threat weapon. Can easily maintain above 540 defense as well with it equipped so all good.

Not if my Shaman can only be so Lucky to pick up a pair of those let alone just one. Anyway I can have fun with it when I need to do dps tanking with SoComm (Seal of Command). A Shaman probably get heartburn seeing someone dps tank with it lol.

Been thinking of what to put on it and did a bit of research over at Maintankadin boards. And I probably end up putting Berserking on it. DPS tanking fun times with a Icicle toy for awesome dps. Someone else probably get heartburn thats been trying to pick that up in Heroics.

LFG Decline & Stupidity in LFG

There is allot of stupidity I'm starting to see in LFG. And I'm going to go as far as to say while using the new LFG system is all fun right now and it is. The good times now won't last for long. That is just my gut feeling. Is LFG on the decline? Maybe.

The entire game of WoW is a funny community to me with players of so many different attitudes. They like stuff one day, then they hate it not too long after. They like you today and they hate you tomorrow. People beg and for new tools from Blizzard over and over and when Blizz deliver its great for a short period of time till the newness wears off and its back to the stupid reasons and playing stupid antics why a good majority of players that have skills don't enjoy and choose not to group with some more casual players and many random players that have hard time find groups themselves.

I've spend the better part of the weekend running my ass off in LFG randoms and the last few days. I ran enough Heroics that I got my Shadow Priest up to gear where I'm fairly satisfied to leave him there for now and just do one heroics if be on him daily maybe for now just to get the extra frost and if I feel like doing another maybe I may or wont. But he is decently geared from the LFG heroic randoms and often he is topping out on the damage meters if not at least second one or the other for dps. But now he wont be running as many randoms for gear and no need to unless I feel like it.

So then I decided to go down to the garage and dust off my Paladin. Felt like last time I really played him WoW was in a different era because its really been a long break from playing him to dpsing for some time. His gear just seem so outdated and at least 2 major patches have come and gone and haven't played him or tried out any the new changes. I'm just rusty playing him and even thinking to use a spell here and there is not as quick on the reflexes since haven't played for a while. But I've managed to rack up enough Emblems of Triumpt for a new Libram. T9 Chest, Helm, Shoulders and Gloves to update my gear and even picked up some nice heroic ICC heroics tanking boots for upgrade just from running allot of LFG. Sometime ran as Tank yet more often as Ret so he easily upgrade his gear as well on rolls as well. Even got the achievement for looking for multitudes for grouping with over 100 players in LFG and my new Puggie Pug pet.

One my realm LFG queues for dps are like 15-20mins long due to all the people in queues for dps and waiting on tanks and healers. But queue up as a tank and you in the queue faster than you can finish hitting that damn button. Its damn near instant. So I went to tank a few runs on my Paladin.

One thing for sure is I'm rusty like I never imagined but still tanked decently as if I did most the time. But in my mind I'm well aware of the things I'm rusty even if no one else really notices. But it was all ok and got a few runs in to remove some the rust of just not tanking in over 7 months. Most the queues I got were for the normal heroics so made it easier getting back into a bit of a tanking mode.

I switched to playing Ret for a quite a bit to get used to playing my Paladin off spec and to remember how to dps as a Paladin. OMG faceroll as dps and more than 95% the time #1 on the dps meter and my Ret gear is over 8 months old and many gear piece is just ilvl 200 gear and even got a blue piece in there somewhere. I was easily doing 3300k-3800k in LFG randoms depending on buff. A bit of the time had some decent dps groups. Then had a few groups with the occasional dpser in group around 1000 dps and even seen some lower. It was so easy to faceroll dpsing as Ret it wasn't even all that fun usually.

I remember in one H VH with a 31K HP DK dpser with average 226 ilvl gear on that could barely do 1100 dps. At first I was thinking he was the tank, then I realize he was dps and I was like wow. So had to inspect his gear and yeah full epic gear he had on and even some pvp gear. But I'm seeing a bit mix and match for dps and I'm topping the damn dps meters almost every run in my Ret off spec to get a few Ret gear from the new heroics.

But I've been in quite a few heroics where stuff just start getting stupid. I remember one run I was in as dps in H.UP I was in that in the middle of a trash pull the healer just quickly said "hey gtg guild need me for raid bye" poof and was gone. No one barely saw it and we only knew the healer was gone when the entire group wiped. Everyone was like wtf! Just like that healer bailed and didn't even wait till after trash was done so can get a replacement. Less than 10 secs later that LFG group was done for. I remember yesterday on another run in H.HoS a dps and a healer dropped out for reasons I have no idea and no warning in middle of a pull and wipe the group that was in pull I remember. That group was over before you could wonder what happened.

Been in a few the new ICC heroic where on a wipe the healer and another player couldn't find how to get back to the Instance or even the entrance and this one was just too funny because of the time it took. But it wasn't long that party fell apart as the healer just couldn't figure out how to get back to instance. I'm starting to see allot of LFG runs like that especially in the new ICC heroics.

I see some groups like to hurry or dps hurrying the tank for whatever and instead of waiting on the tank either pulling or running ahead and accidentally pulling trash which wipe a group. Immediately someone just quit group then or two people do and group falls apart. I've been in now a few groups like that. I remember in one run in heroic Pit of Saron we had a fairly new DK tanking. She was doing ok learning the pulls and doing her best in my opinion. After the first boss died at the forge. A few other people wanted the run to go faster so they decided to quickly mount up and run off to go to the next boss area. They immediately pulled a few trash and before you knew it the entire group wiped and barely anyone even knew what happened. Wasn't long group fell apart.

I was in another heroic run, one the new ICC heroics and the grouped wiped on trash for some reason. The healer immediately quit just like that. The funny thing was the healer never recovered their body which was still there later when the group wiped again on last boss. I thought that was funny seeing the players body still there face down. I mean all kind of stupid stuff I'm starting to see that ruin groups. As well I'm noticing players in LFG random have a low tolerance ratio for wiping, stupidity. I call it low resilience.

Then there was the totally classic heroic Nexus run with the 2 tanks a Warrior and a Paladin bot extremely well geared who couldn't decide between themselves which one of them was the real tank to tank the run. This one was just too funny. But apparently they seem somehow to know each other been from the same realm. Since they couldn't decide who was going to be tank the entire run one of them switched spec and started the run when backwards starting from the 3 boss at the rift then to the stone boss. Then the other tank decided he wants to tank while we then loop back around to the first boss in the ice and then to the mage boss then loop back to the last boss. Took forever it seemed. The entire time both tanks argued as well as kept vote spamming to vote each other out the run. No one did, everyone else just wanted to finish the run and get their emblems. I mean it was a comic show the entire run. As much as it was plain stupid it was just too funny.

The newness of the LFG system will be over eventually, when that is I can't say. People will get tired of random group stupidity, antics or people that act stupid in LFG or cant pull their weight and may be less likely to queue and rather run chain heroics with guildies or friends from their realm. The dps wait for LFG queues are much longer than queues for Tank/Healers by a long shot for people waiting to go as dps. Before in the old LFG it was the thing that many good tanks and raid tanks didn't run LFG all that much on their own realm where they knew the players from their own realm.

However for the moment many tanks will run LFG for now. But eventually I just don't see many good tanks putting up with random group stupidity in LFG for too long after they gotten all their emblems for their gear they need or the extra frost emblems once they get all their gear and the rest of ICC raids are open. Probably aren't really going to see many high hp tanks and the ones that do will likely be newer tanks. And I can only imagine how things will get in heroics with newer tanks with the random LFG cross realm system.

Its can be funny to think how players in WoW cause themselves undo problems in the long term with new unique group functions to make it much easier with allot of stupidity and stupid antics in LFG which causes good players to eventually at some point not want to use it eventually unless they really really have to. While LFG is still hot I'm using it to gear up as fast as possible while I can when I can. But LFG to me already seem to be on the decline and when tanks and healers are not in queue it will just take longer for dps to get into LFG and people will start complaining all over again how the LFG system don't work.

Edit: 12/25/09 - Corrected some grammar errors.

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.

Related Posts: Screenshots: The Patient One

Screenshoots: The Patient One

I got my little Puggy Pug. The texture on that pet is really nice and looks like one the best looking pets in the game. I'm still not much a game pet fanatic, but its minor enjoyment all the same. A though came to mind looking at the pet that had me wondering if Blizzard is experimenting with new game textures but doing it in not so obvious ways. I wonder?

So my Shadow Priest barely been at lvl 80 a week. The pixel character may be different whether on my Paladin or any other class, I'm still the same player that have always loved to Pug since ancient times. That has never changed. So I got the Title for The Patient one on the first day I ran him through Heroic on a marathon which was Wednesday. The thing was I didn't even notice I had and was wearing the title till when I logged in on Friday! Duhh. After getting off work Friday night I went on marathon random heroics run and ended up with the new Achievement for Multitudes on early Saturday morning running heroic UK. Almost fully Epic'd as well after that many runs.

Ever the Patient pugger at Ardent Defender. One of the little many things that gives me game enjoyment.

LFG Random Heroics are Fun!

I don't know what to tell you if you haven't as yet tried Patch 3.3 and some the new features. I haven't ventured into Icecrown Citadel for the new dungeons there as yet to do anything though I've picked up the quest on one or two alts. So far just been using the new LFG system and its damn fun.

After playing around updating more addons earlier this morning I finally got around to doing a few Heroics almost at noon. No one was on in the guild so I figure I try things out in LFG while on my Shadow Priest since I needed to get him some adequate gear since he recently hit lvl 80 and have barely started to do Heroics.

I entered LFG and in less than 5 secs I was whisked away to Heroic Nexus. Worked fine as momentarily appeared in the Instance with the cross server group. Some groups i heard was still having some instance problems and in ICC it seem to happen a bit there with some bugs in the new dungeons. But in Heroic the runs went fast as hell and with good groups so far! First group Tank had a whopping 55K HP. WoW! The instance was over before you knew it. Man was it fast.

After left the instance it sends you back right where you were before you entered the instance. So back in Dalaran sitting on my mount where I was before. Re-entered the new LFG system and up was Heroic HoL. Another cross server group and a Tank with some 49K HP. lol all the raid tanks are out in force I guess. If Nexus went fast before this one was hooked on speed!! Literally!! Form beginning to end the instance the tank did not stop pulling, he chain pulled the entire instance form pull to pull to pull. He didn't wait for you to mana up or whatever. And before you knew it the instance was over before it barely began. WoW. We got Heroic Occulus somewhere in between and it seen nerfed allot from what I remember.

I can't remember how many Instances I ran. But I saw Heroic Nexus like 2 times using the LFG random Heroic. I started the day with 7 Emblems of Triumph and when I logged off for something to eat I had 62 Emblems of Triumph. When you enter the LFG system it really don't take long before your group is ready. I mean not long at all, you barely have time to go do anything else before your group pop and is ready. I had to leave LFG and log off because it was like 8pm in the evening and I hadn't even eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner.

As for the new loot system in play in Heroics, it went along smoothly with all the groups I had. It worked just like the usual loot system. If you had a enchanter in group you could see the option to disenchant was actually lit up on the selection to disenchant. I pretty much selected to disenchant the blues if it was not usable. If you did not have a enchanter in group the option to disenchant was not a real option on the loot selection so you had to greed the item. But pretty much it worked as it suppose to and didn't notice any real problem.

I've never seen Dalaran so packed with people all standing around waiting for Instances to pop ready. Needless to say the place lagged allot as well. But the Heroics sure popped fast in the new LFG system and was fun trying things out. All the groups I had went well and fast and the instance was usually over before you knew it. So far really had a fun time in the new LFG system. Lots of Fun!

Heroics: Who's That Guy?

Was asked to come help out 3 guildies on a Pug run of Heroic UP. It wasn't the daily. Their last tank wasn't very good according to the healer and barely had enough defense as well keeping him up. The other dps it seem wasn't as good either according to them. All the things that gives Heroic Pug a bad name and all the reasons plus a thousand more why you don't pug. Yeah I know.

So group was on the third boss and had problems on Skadi. So we got Skadi squared away. But I noticed something about one the dps on recount and same dps kept dying as well. Yeah like in the pic. So though it was a fluke. So on last boss I reset my Recount log again. And yes about the same sub 600 dps. I can say more than often I see dps like this more often than rare in Heroics.

But the question is which I though was fun. Can you guess which class that dpser is? He also had on 5 pieces of Epics and rest Blue gear.

Screenshot of the Day: Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle

I miss doing my blog screenshots feature which has always being a long feature here, its been a while since I had one up.

A day at the office running Heroic UP in a snapshot. I just happen to remember to take a picture shot while I was there with my crew to try and convince the big boss King Ymiron that he really should give me that Red Sword of Courage he's hiding in there. So far he doesn't think that's a real good idea to let that blade go. So.... we will have to negotiate another day some more in a beatdown session.

Getting My Mojo Back...

I haven't as yet decided to go raiding so just doing whatever and slowly working on my gear to make it better. As well just working on my Reps with Sons of Hodir mostly so just about Revered just doing the daily quests and making the rounds in the caves killing the Vrykuls/Exhausted Vrykuls in the quest area in the cave their in Storm Peaks for the Relics for Reps.

Weapon Skilling

I decided to just go work on my other weapon skills to level them all up just because I've always done it and usually just like to maintain my weapon skills all leveled up so did that and in the process earned the Achievement for having 4 weapons skills at 400. Maybe Blizz should also give one for having all 7 weapon skills maxed out maybe. But I just went ahead and leveled up all my 2H weapon skills as well even though of course a Protect Paladin only mainly use a 1H weapon. But who knows if your duel spec as a Ret Paladin wouldn't a 2H weapon skill come in handy for using a 2H weapon as a reason to level the skills?

I found it easily to just go down to the Crystalsong Forest and pull a few small tree druid looking elementals that walk around. Remove Ret Aura to not dmg the mobs and just level up on the elementals usually have 2 at a time for the most part just using SoL/JoL. They don't hit for much and they self heal as well. When one elemental gets low on HP I just tab switch to the other which allows you to whack away for quite a while or take a kitchen break for a few mins and come back with higher weapon skills. I once remembered that having a high Intellect makes learning weapon skills faster and not sure if Blizz had changed in some patch I'm not aware of. So I just buffed my Intellect during the process with 2 elixirs in case it still made a difference time wise.

Heroics

Usually for Heroics so far I just join random Pugs for Instance groups and Heroics. Its what I've always been used to and despite all the headaches most people have in Pugs I'm fine with it. I just tend to exercise more patience than most people will. I also Pug because its how I keep my friends list outside of my guild long with other good players (mostly healers) not in my guild and with other players that are on my gear level gearing up as well. If you can find a a few good healers that like to run Instances at your gear level your close to being set for LFG in a Pug.

Anyway ran H.HoL for the second time Puging it with a melee/leather group and a young druid healer. The run went pretty much smooth. On Loken this time vs my first time here I had a AoE healer and it was much easier than the first time. The group just dps him fast and we got the Achievement for the fast kill of Loken which was cool. Average dps was over 1400 at least from looking at Recount. Compared to my first Heroic run of HoL which was more fun with my raiding guildies as most were guild friends I've known a while even though they were on their alt characters and had a few problems with Loken at the end. Their dps play was just different and felt more target focused tanking the run. So far Loken hasn't dropped the Trinket I've been looking to pick up there as yet.

While I was just out killing time leveling up my weapon skills found a group needed a tank for Heroic UK so ran off and did that for the first time and didn't notice anything that much different on Heroics vs regular except stuff hit harder of course. But the run went fairly fast and smooth so was fun as well. Heroic UK was fairly easy in my book for a few badges.

Found another Pug group and got to do Heroic DTK for a first and went fairly smooth as well. Most the bosses seem to just work pretty much the same on regular. As well some the trash at the first part of the instance did some void area spawn on ground have to get out of and the Aboms spewing their goo stuff before the first boss so just have to keep them facing their back to group. Other than that it was a fun run. We killed the bone boss at the end and for some reason even though most the group hadn't done it before we never got an achievement for the run at all which seemed bugged. I call that instance fun as well and not too hard either.

Horde had the control of Wintergasp so a guildie asked me to OT the run for with the group made up mostly of guildies for the Vault of Archavon. I've never really been to Wintergasp so never seen the instance either. I got their right as the run was about to start to the big boss at the end. I had no real explanation of the boss so I couldn't say I understand any of it as far as boss mechanics. I just remember once during the boss I had taunted and I went flying across the room and wasn't sure why. But after the guildie explained it a bit. So was a bit more clear on it. However usually I do my own research on something so that I'm usually real clear on something. At least got 2 badges for the fun.

Got into another Pug group yesterday for Heroic UP which having being to UP seems like would be a bit of fun. None had done Heroic UP before in the group. We cleared first 2 bosses no problem. On the gauntlet the group couldn't seem to get Skadis down and wiped due not enough harpoons. We wiped again on group getting caught in Skadis drake Icy breath. We tried one more time with group and couldn't complete the event and rest of the group just quit for any of 999 different reasons you all heard before. I called it a day at that point, headed back to Dalaran and added up my repair bills for community service and a bit of badges.

As well l haven't though about what to first buy with those Emblem of Heroism as yet either.