A Gnome and a Tauren Walk Into a Bar...

The Gnome turns the to Tauren and starts crying into his drink feeling sorry for himself, "Everything I build blows up.  Whenever I go out people are always trying to kick me.  I am the butt of every short joke you can imagine.  When out adventuring with friends I need mountain climbing gear to get over pebbles my mates step over, I almost drown in lakes they walk right through and I'm tired of never being taken serious like I am the comic relief."
"It could be worse." The Tauren says.

"Worse?  What could be worse then the hell I have to live with on a daily basis?"

The Tauren says, "You could have to go through life named Holy Cow."

The Gnome takes a second to think and says, "You win."

---

Wasn't exactly sure of a title for today's post so I figured I would make up a joke and start it that way.  Hope my joke wasn't too bad.  Just bad enough to be good. 

Sometimes wow can be downright silly and that is a good thing.  We all need a break from the serious, from the grinding, from the raiding, from the mundane.  Silly is good.

I've always been a fan of transformation toys.  My first transformation toy was Dartol's Rod of Transformation.  I loved that thing, still do.  It is no longer in game but I still have it.  I am quite glad that it was not one of the fun things that lost the battle of bag space over the years.  There are many things no longer in game I wish I still had but alas they are gone.

For anyone that wants that little toy there is at least something to replace it, even if it is not half as awesome as the rod being you can use the rod every minute and it lasts for three, meaning it is one of the very few transformations in game you can have 24/7.  It's replacement, Stave of Fur and Claw, lasts 3 minutes as well but with a one hour cooldown sadly.  Glad I have the original one.

There are many transformation items in the game and someone on wowhead posted a comment with many of them, you can see it on the link from the rod or stave.  I won't rehash what was already said and done but I will share some of my other favorites.

Ai-Li's Skymirror allow you to look like anyone for 10 minutes.  It has a one hour cooldown but healing as a bear or shooting arrows as a tree is pretty fun sometimes.  If the cooldown was shorter I would surely enjoy it more but as it, it is one of my favorite transformation toys currently

Potion of Illusion is another thing that has the same function as the skymirror and you can use it over and over to keep being someone else, but the 2 minute duration can mean you need to keep a crap load of them on you if you want to be someone else all the time.  At least this one you can keep being a different someone else every two minutes.

Leyara's Locket from the molten front quest line is another one of my favorites but its short 5 minute duration and long 1 hour cooldown made it works it way into my bank bags after we were no longer doing the fitting raid for the transformation, firelands.  But I do break it out from time to time.

The Vrykul drinking horn from archeology is one of those transformation things that has managed to stay in my bags for a very long time all thanks to its 1 second cooldown.  It is not really much of a transformation, you get a new Vrykul inspired helm and get a little bigger but it can be a lot of fun when used with other transformations to change from it making you a little bigger to making you freaking huge.

When used with Mr. Smite's brass compass, burgy blackheart's handsome hat and drinking some fras siabi's bigger beer and you can get downright huge when you mount up on your largest mount.   The first item comes from a mists rare, second item from a cata rare and the beer from ICC after the forth boss role play is done the guy that sells it will open shop there.

Lots of fun things to do, just to be a bit silly in game.  And if you are willing to let your inner role player hang out some, you can enjoy it a lot more than just being someone else.

All toys are not about transformations.  There are many different ones.  I like the trinket that gives me a super huge sword that follows me around for a bit that I got in ungoro.  Sadly I do not recall the name right now.  There are of course pets, but then there are the pets that are not exactly pets.  Nomi from this expansion is like that.  You can summon her (I think it is a her) and she will follow you around all day long like a pet.

There are more than a few items like that and if you wanted to you could get them all and have an entire entourage following you everywhere you go.  As a hunter, you can call your pet, your stampede, and your crows and walk around, at least for a short time, with 40+ things following you.  I know, I know, but I did say this was all about silly stuff right?

I often talk about what we consider "serious" things in game but that doesn't mean that I don't like to have a little fun from time to time and they do sure offer us a lot of toys and transformations and other gadgets that allow us to be silly.

What are some of your favorite toys?

I Want to Play With Bob

There is a thread over on MMO-Champion titled "How would you like to handle the gap between LFR and normal raiding?" Link. I've been enjoying reading both sides.  Seeing good points made on both sides and seeing clueless people on both sides.  But then just a short bit ago someone made a post that rang so true to me and I felt the real need to make a post about it because I know a few "bobs".

RickJamesLich Said:

Why is LFR a bad option if it perfectly fits Bobs needs? And who says that you *need* to kill the bosses in normal? On top of that, they got scenarios now for the slower guys that give better loot then even LFR, and challenge modes can reward gear as well. I think there's a sense of "failure is not an option right now" with some of the people on these boards when it's perfectly fine to not be able to kill a boss. And I've seen many of the guilds with Bobs go into ToT and at least be able to take down a few bosses.

Mad_Murdock Replied:

I believe you're looking at it all wrong. A Friends and family guild wants to do things together, they want to hang out with Bob because despite being terrible Bob is good people and everyone loves hanging out with Bob. Bob can run LFR with 24 strangers, but he's not paying to play with 24 strangers. Bob and friends can go into LFR and be grouped with 15 strangers, but there goes the whole playing with friends, which Blizzard has stated many times they believe is vital to the game.

So what you want to give is 2 options "Get better or quit" By the numbers we're seeing, people are taking the quit option. And you are in the group that believe this is a good thing. Blizzard and the other group doesn't agree.

I still haven't seen any real reason why a 10man LFR+ option is bad. All I see is "Normal is easy enough, if they can't do normal, they should quit" That's just a terrible mindset. The best way to ensure that Heroics stay heroic, is to ensure that the baddies and normal have something to do. You should be begging Blizzard for a 10man LFR plus option. Else you're really advocating that Blizzard go back to nerfing normal and heroics for all so that everyone has something to do with their friends and family. 

And now I want to thank Mad Murdock for putting it so perfectly.  For making me see that I know bob and I like bob and I would really enjoy playing with bob.

Actually when he mentioned bob it reminded me of a few people I know and I want to share my bob stories and explain why I like being able to play with bob.

Bob #1:  The PvP guy.

This bob is more of the PvP type of player in a PvE type of guild.  A military man that has served with people in our online family.  So even if we are not a PvP guild he is our PvP guy.  He is our family.  When I am in the mood to PvP he will gladly go with me and include me in his little crew that does them.  He will go out of his way to teach you everything you need to know about the battleground, he will play the leader, he will play any role needed.  He is well geared for PvP, well skilled for PvP and very knowledgeable and a good teacher for PvP.

How anyone can be that good at PvP and so bad at PvE I will always find astounding.  It escapes explanation.  He can go blow for blow with the best of them but telling him to move from the charge on horridon so that he is not facing the group when he gets to you is like I am speaking a foreign language to him. Usually PvPers make for amazing PvEers when they try but bob #1 is the exception to this rule.

He tries his best to keep at least one tank, one healer and one damage dealer at least close to current with their PvE gear.  When we are missing a person for our 10 man he is always the first to offer to help and also the first to offer to sit when someone better comes on.  He knows he is not a great PvEer but he still wants to help in every way he can, if we need him while at the same time being completely content if we never do.

Bob #1 is good people.  He will stop what he is doing to help you with a quest, give you an instant queue to a dungeon or the LFR on his tank or healer, make you anything you might need from his professions and he is always very upbeat and happy.  All in all a good presence in the clubhouse.

Sadly, bob can tend to be a problem sometimes.  Even on the first boss in ToT.  While we carried him as a healer in hopes he can get some gear and carried him as tank when I was the other tank and called out everything that needed to be done we can not carry him as a damage dealer.  At least not as we should.  We have 8 manned the first boss.  We do not need his damage.  But he just can not move when targeted.  Like I said, lightning reflexes in PvP and can't run out of a puddle when in PvE, I don't get it.  I finally told him, to NOT stack in the puddle with us.  That was the only way to get the boss down.

So Bob #1 is a bad PvEer.  I've proved that 100% haven't I?  But I like Bob.  I want to be able to play with him once in a while without having to change how we do things because he really isn't that great at PvE.

Bob #2:  The Healer vs. Mechanics

Bob #2 is actually an extremely good raider in most senses of the word.  She keeps up on her class, always knows the changes as soon as they happen and works tirelessly on getting gear when she is not raiding.  She comes to the raid with materials as she is a jewelcrafter and enchanter so if anyone wins something she can make what is needed so they can get it on right away.  She has not missed a raid in 3 years, she comes with her own food, flasks, and anything else you can imagine.  She is the ideal raider.

But some mechanics she just has issues with.  Not sure why but as I always say, some people are just better at things than others are and we all have something we have an issue with.

The first time we went to HoF she had an off night, as we rotate healers.  We were lucky enough to get the first boss down on that first night.  The week after she sat out so we could test a new healer and we one shot it that day.  The third week she came in and she was dying every single attempt.

She just could not get the circle thing.  Not sure why, but she died to it every single time.  We wiped 8 times that night, more than we wiped before the first time we beat it.  She knew it was all her fault too.  I did not say as much but when the healer dies so early in a fight every time, people know why you are wiping.  Like I said, she was a good raider, she knew it was her fault and offered to step out.

I told her she was not allowed too.  Not in a mean way of course.  We are a team, we win as a team and we wipe as a team and we all need to learn, today is just her day to learn.  We took a five minute break and I was told by a friend that she was crying.  She actually felt bad as if she was holding us back.  While to someone in a more progressed guild would surely say she was, I would say we are just experiencing her time to learn.  Just because we all learned it faster doesn't mean everyone learns at the same pace.

I whispered her some words of encouragement and let her know that we had not downed the second boss anyway, so it is not like we were losing loot because of the wipes, we will get this down before the night is over, she is getting better.

She did get better.  Took another 4 wipes but we got it down.  She kept apologizing over and over even if we all said it was no problem.  Some people just take a little longer to learn things that others.  That is something a Bob would do right?  Well this Bob #2 I like to raid with.  It just takes her a little longer to grasp some things.

On an interesting note, she made it through the tornado's on the second boss her first time.  I don't know a great deal of people that could say that.  Like I said, we all have our own learning curve.  Bob #2 just takes a little longer to learn some things.

Bob #3 : The Airhead.

Bob #3 is a girl.  I am not talking the type of girl that is horrible and gets taken along just because she is a girl or because she is dating someone.  I am talking the skilled, but sometimes common sense deprived person.  If you will excuse the expression, Bob #3 is a complete airhead.

If you have fallen off the bridge when there is no wind multiple times, you might be Bob #3 and not even realize it.  I just can not play with her in non raid content sometimes.  I find it infuriating.  She is an excellent raider, willing to sit out or level another character because we need that role filled.  She will learn that role and be ready to play it at our current level as fast as gear drops will allow.  She is dedicated, but she is also, as I said, is an airhead.

If there are mobs anywhere in the room, she will walk right into them.  If there is a pat that we say you need to avoid, she will surely AFK right where they pass.  If we take a 10 minute break it is not uncommon to come back to the entire raid being dead because she accidentally pulled the boss.  She dismounts herself mid fight at least 5 or 6 times a night if not more and no one has a clue how, not even her.

If there is a boss fight going on she is a beast.  Great at whatever you have her do.  When there is not anything going on, expect her to pull mobs to you even if you were one hundred percent sure there were no mobs within miles.

This type of behavior would clearly label her a Bob even if her ability might seem to say otherwise.  If you do not think this is Bob behavior, just trying doing a heroic scenario with her and saying, lets skip this pack only to her her say, okay, and still run right into them.

While I actually do not like playing with Bob #3 sometimes, I do like to raid with Bob #3.

Bob #4:  The Noob.

Back at the end of wrath a very quiet and very bad player joined our 25 man.  It was the 30% ICC buff days and we were blowing through everything so we had no issues bringing them.  Even after they got a lot of gear they still could not break 3K.  Think back if you can, 3K in ICC with the buff would be roughly the same as someone doing 15K in 500 gear now.  Horrible.

He got a little better as time when on.  He was always up for everything but really not that good at anything.  He was on vent all the time but he never said a word.  As rude as this might sound at first, it was like he was our mascot.  He tagged along with us everywhere we went and no matter what we did.  Honestly I could not tell you if Bob #4 was 13 or 30, I could not tell you if Bob #4 was male or female.  But Bob #4 still found a way to grow on you.

Somewhere between wrath ending and cataclysm beginning Bob #4 changed.  He became a vocal part of the guild and a great player.  Even earned an actual raid spot when we started raiding in cataclysm, not just a fill in spot because we needed a body role like he had always been either.

If you look now you will see his name littered in the top 50 on every world of logs fight since around firelands when he finally went from the getting better to the holy crap you are good phase.  Not only can he put out the numbers but he avoids the avoidable, never misses a raid, will tank for anyone that needs instant queue, will craft gear and even grind the materials to craft gear, if someone needed it.

He was once a Bob, Bob #4 if you will, and now he is indispensable as a raider.  We kept him around because he was our mascot, he became a part of the team never saying a word even if he was not great or even good.  It was that time we dragged him everywhere that made him want to get better.  He liked doing those raids and from listening on vent he knew that when we started the cataclysm raids he would not be a part of them.  So Bob #4 said, I need to get better, and he did.  If it were not for us playing with Bob #4 he would have just quit the game because he had nothing to do.  He even has said so himself.  Sometimes a Bob can be the best thing that ever happened to a raid team.  In time.

Bob #5:  Mr. & Mrs. Bob

All family and friends type guilds have these Bobs.  Most if not all casual guilds have these types of Bobs.  They are the "we only run together" crew.  One is usually good and one is usually bad.  Don't go assuming that it is the male that is good and the female that is bad however or you will have egg on your face.  I have seen it go either way myself.  Actually, more often than not, it seems the female is the better player.  Eat that one "girls don't play wow" crowd.

But they are good people and when we can squeeze them in we like to play with them.  They are fun to have around, knowledgeable about the game and in some ways even more knowledgeable about some things than anyone in the raid as raiding is not their focal point.

Sometimes you can get just one of them, usually the good one, but most times you have to take them both or get nothing.  Like those nights where you are down a tank he will tank, as long as there is an open space for her.  If there is, we would surely agree.  Although we all know she is bad, that doesn't mean we can't do content, or it shouldn't right.  Because Mr & Mrs Bob are nice people and sometimes it is nice to do something with them.

We actually have a joke this expansion or Mr & Mrs Bob thanks to MV.  They are two third players. We could do MVs first four bosses with them but could not down the fifth.  Kind of hard when they are both doing DPS in the 20s.  But hey, they were fun to play with and we were capable of doing a few bosses with them.  But even that only happened after we past MV and over geared it a little. 

The Mr & Mrs Bob I am thinking about at the moment have since quit the game as there is no place for them any more.  They get brutalized in the LFR because they are not good players and we have been focusing on new stuff so there were no older raids to invite them to that we would get some bosses down with them.  It is sad to see them go.  They were really nice people.

Bob #6 - 10,000+

There are so many bobs out there that fit so many stereotypes that I could not count or list them all even if I wanted to.  But what Mad Murdock said is so true.  Sometimes you just want to play with bob because you like bob.  No more, no less.  You just like bob and want to play a game with him.

So the answer to that question would be I think there should be a 10 man version of the LFR and/or a difficulty lower than normal but higher than LFR. 

Perhaps that 25 man I mentioned in my last post would have not been so horrible if there were such a thing.  LFR, with that group filled with Bobs, would have been a joke but normal with them was impossible.  It shows there is a clear gap there.  And all those people, those Bobs, are the ones that gap leaves with nothing.  And sadly for me, if I ever want to run 25s again on my server, I am going to have to take a few Bobs along like it or not.

Feeling Defeated.

I've been hearing a lot about the death of normal modes and I agree, it seems to be happening.  My progress through ToT has been dismal at best, if you can say that.  Any other raid tier I would be at least 9/12 at this point and my group just can not manage that and while we have multiple people trying to recruit all day every day, on the forums, in trade, through word of mouth, even talking to people we meet in randoms or know from other servers, there are just no decent players out there any more to support a solid raid team on my server.

Odd thing is when taking about my core team, for the most, part these are the same people that did all of cataclysm no problem.  Sure, we never downed nef in normal and were only progressing on rag but those were the only 2 bosses we did not down when current.  As a normal mode casual guild that raids 2 hours that was fine with me.  I always said if we raided more we would have had no problems and I am sure that is the case.

It is all about what you desire in the game.  I only desire to do normals so doing normals is fine for me.  DS was another story, it was a bit too easy and even more so when they started going crazy with the debuff.  But in a way, that too was nice.  It allowed us, a normal mode group to go through heroics like we normally go through normals.  Best of both worlds maybe?

Either way, we are stuck this expansion and it is becoming harder and harder to recruit anyone that is even half way decent and even harder than that to keep anyone motivated.  I am not world beater, not in the slightest and I do not ask others to be so either.  I can do my 90K-170K, depending on the fight, and it is ample to get the job done. 

The idea is finding other people capable of doing that.  It is the not great but not bad either area, the area I would like to call average but sadly it is not the average.  I would be hard pressed to find more than 20 people on my entire server that can do those numbers as a damage dealer and they are all over in different guilds.  I guess in a way I am lucky my guild has five of them.

We tired to run 25 man last night, filled it with all guild members which is a start at least and it was horrible.  Not horrible as in no fun, we did have some fun, but horrible as when looking at it and you ask yourself are these the best available players our server has, it is horrible.

We hit the brick wall many guilds are hitting on our first attempt at 25 man.  Horridon door 2.  Heck, looking at the numbers I am amazed we made it that far.  I think even making it there was a result of the people that have been playing on normal being there.

We had a great balanced healing break down that should have made dispelling easy as cake.  People were dying left and right to magic or poison effects.  I could not figure out for the life of me what was going wrong.  I explained everything as best I could, even for the absolute beginner and people were still not getting it.  I gave assignments for who is on what, what should be tanked where, priority in kills and dispels and everything I could think of.  Maybe it was information over load, but we hit door 2 and we hit the floor. Over and over again.  Face, meet wall, full speed.

Looking at the damage done most of these people I would have not invited to DS after the 30% debuff.  There was a warrior doing 17K.  I know in that chaos doing melee is hard, it is for me too, but 17K is not acceptable in any way shape or form.  The last time doing 17K was good was in ICC.

And the rest of the new raid damage dealers were in the 30 and 40 range.  I know I should have never let a few come along but I wanted to give people a taste, something to help motivate them to do better, to get better, to work on their gear.  Show them that if everyone is capable of stepping it up, this is what we can do.

After the raid I gave my review.  As always I was not overly harsh of anyone.  I knew there were a lot of people here that had not stepped into a raid this expansion, and in a couple of cases, never had been in one.

I mentioned the healers need to be dispelling smarter.  I saw the add tank go down on a few attempts when there was a damage dealer at near full health that was getting their dispel.  Dispel smart.  I told everyone they need to do a little more to help themselves.  Move when there is something bad at your feet.  You can see sand traps falling, move before it starts.  See poison, move, don't just side step it and forget it, it can move back under you, keep an eye on where you are standing.

About the only issue I did not complain about was the tanking but that is because we had our normal tanks.  They have done this, they where not the issue.

We did a few attempts before I started to nit pick, because as anyone that has ever raided both 10 and 25 man will tell you, the feel of 25 man is a bit more organized chaos and for many it was their first experience doing it at that size that was not the LFR.  Then I started taking notes while we attempted to progress past that second door.

Each time I would say things like, we had a few too many people standing in the bad, have to watch yourself when stuff is on the group.  As a casual guild I do not ever single out unless there is a need for it, and at this moment, there is no need for it.  Let the people think for themselves.  Let them learn for themselves.  They should be able to.  That is how I learned, by making mistakes.  That is how any decent player learns, they learn from their mistakes.

Next time I said, I want everyone on the venom priest's when they land.  When that first single one lands it should be dead before the two come afterwards.  If it is not dead before the second two land we might as well give up because we will never make it past that door.  So switch.  Instantly.

A few more attempts equal a few more wipes and each was because of the same thing over again.  I call the raid for the night and in my speech afterwards I tell everyone why we did not do more attempts.

I said to start that for our first time assembling as a team and with many people that have never raided before we should be proud we even got as far as we did.  That as we work together more we will get better but heavy mechanic fights are always harder on new people and we will get it if we keep working on it.

Then I went into the work on it mode.  Besides what I previously mentioned there was the concept that people need to pick up their numbers.  Seriously.  If you can not down the first venom priest before the other two drop we are just going to be banging our head against the wall here.

As much as I stressed smart play, the mechanics, and all that other stuff, it once again came down to what it always seems to come down to.  The damage dealers.

If you do not down that mob fast enough you are extending the time we are at that door which makes it harder on the healers and harder on everyone else as well because we will quickly run out of space.  I mentioned the one attempt, and only attempt, we actually downed the mancer on the second door and closed it.  There were mobs all over the place and there was poison everywhere.  Some people could not make it to the third door because they were basically trapped by poison.  I pointed out that as the perfect example of even if we close the door, if we are not downing things fast enough it is a wipe.

Basic idea is I came out and told the damage dealers.  You need to get better.  You need to do more damage, you need to interrupt more and you need to watch where you stand.  The tanks did okay.  The healers are getting better working as a unit and they will continue to.  But if the damage dealers are not doing their job and getting the mobs down in a timely manner we are all just wasting our time.  Practice attempts will let us all get better at switching and be able to time things better for damage on the mob that needs to go down, but if people are not doing enough, it will be impossible.

I said, next week I expect to see everyone with some new gear.  Or upgraded gear.  I expect them to spend some time on the dummy to work their rotation and get better at it.  If they need gems, enchants or advice, come to me, I can give them everything they need.  But they need to return the favor and get better.

I did not call anyone out by name, I did not call anyone bad, I even said we did awesome for out first time in there as a 25 man.  I also told them how to fix the problem we had.

And when all was said and done, a series of /gquits came.  WTF?

Did asking you to do your job correctly offend you?  Did asking you to pull your weight offend you?

It is the LFR mentality.  Everything thinks they should just be able to walk in and things should fall over dead.  They don't think wiping in normals should ever happen.  Well guess what, I don't think wiping in normals should ever happen either, but if you play badly you will wipe.  Not hard to understand. 

Sad part is, the people that left were the ones I saw with potential.  Those middle of the pack ones.  The ones doing 70K-80K, the ones that had a few interrupts, the ones that would have made it happen.  They were the ones we could have built on and weeded up the 17K warrior and others with low numbers, low skill and low desire.  And...

Giving this its own line because it deserves it.

The ones that left were the ones who normal mode content was made for.  Some skill and some ability but not all that great.

Do you know why they left?  Because they did not want to be stuck wiping in normals, they should be in heroics.

See, that is the LFR mentality.  People only wipe in heroics.  If you wipe in a normal you suck and I am better than you.  Welcome to the new world where everyone is a heroic raider, even if they can only pull 70K in mostly 522 gear.  People.  You are a normal mode player.  That is it, nothing more.  If anything, you are not even good enough for most normal modes.  I wanted to say that, I really did.  But they wanted to move up to heroics because normals were beneath them.

Excuse me?  Heroics?  They were good enough for normals maybe, up and coming players, sure, but they would not even get a spot on a 10 man normal team unless there were just starting.  And that is exactly what this 25 man is doing, just starting.  Be happy with it.

The people doing sub 30K are all excited to do it again next week.  But they are not good, and I don't want them back until they can start getting better.  And not to be disrespectful but if you are rocking an item level over 480 and still only doing 30K, raiding is not for you.  That is not an insult at all, that is just stating a clear fact.

The people that seemed to always stand in the bad are all excited to do it again next week.  But they are not good.  The easiest part of that fight is moving from the bad and if you can not handle that you do not even deserve to be in a raid.  Yes, I understand that for some it is a computer issue and with your settings you can not see the bad on the ground.  Well that means one of two things if you want to be a raider.  Download an addon like GTFO that will yell are you, or get a new computer.  Otherwise, you are not a raider, sorry.

The one healer that kept saying that people should come to him if they need heals because he doesn't want to run around like a chicken with his head cut off can't wait until next week either because he wants to raid again.  Why couldn't he leave, I don't want or need anyone with that attitude in my raids.  If you can't do your job, get better, this is a casual guild, you have time to learn because we do not demand perfection from the start.  You don't tell people to come to you for a heal.  Position yourself better so you can heal and work with the other healers to make a grid.  Don't just find your happy place and stand there.

A 25 man has a lot of moving parts and it seems the only parts that want to stay are the people from the 10s on alts, and the bad players.  Some bad players can get better, but we need those middle of the road players, the ones that are decent and have the chance at getting better with time and gear and they are the ones that are leaving because they want heroic progression.

I know it is only one week, but I really can not play like this any more.  I can not play with the only people happy to raid and willing to wipe being the bad players.  The people that could be great wanting more than their abilities allow them and the few good players I have getting frustrated by doing the same thing over and over again.

It could just be that fight.  It is a bitch to say the least, but we did okay getting there our first day as a 25 and as far as I am concerned, it should be our last day as a 25, for now at least.

I feel defeated.  The fights are just too hard for the player base I have available to me.  I can not do it with the people that are on my server.  And I do not want to teach a whole crew of people all over again.  I am tired.  I am beaten.  I do not have the energy for that any more.

I would like to just find a group of people that, even if not great, all know how to play their class, all look up the fights on their own, and can all listen to instructions.  I can deal with wiping with a group like that.  I can't deal with wiping with a group like I had.  Not any more.  I am defeated.

And that is why normal modes are dying.  Yes, I agree, normal modes are dead.  If all the recruiting we could do resulted in this being the best our server had to offer that was available I might as well just quit.

I am feeling defeated and I definitely do not have the energy in me any more to be a raid leader and have to teach this new LFR generation of players how to raid after they have been tainted beyond my repair.

I've a decision to make if 25s are to be in my future.  Quit raiding all together.  Find another raid team on another server where I can just sit back and be a rank and file hunter doing my pew pew and collecting my loot and letting others worry about finding capable fill ins and letting someone else teach them.  Or just quit the game all together.

I am feeling defeated.  I just want to raid and I can't even do the thing I want to do to a level of reasonable success because the people are incapable of doing it.   It feels as if I am being held captive by the player base and the player base loves torturing me.  They win.  I have been defeated.

I think the content is fine as is. The problem is with the player base.  And I have been defeated by them.

Heroic Scenarios - Valor Capping ASAP

The new heroic scenarios came out and I'd be lying if I said they were not fun.  Like anything else however, time will show if they stand the test of time.  It was fun doing them all once and a couple a second time.  Will doing them over and over still be fun?  It was fun doing them with 2 capable people.  Will it still be fun doing them with someone a little lesser on the skill scale or on my alts that I am not as good or geared on?

All questions that can not be answered now.  Everything looks different when you have the passage of time added to it so I can only make any judgements I have now based on first impression and that first impression was good.

First I would like to give a little review of the scenarios from my runs yesterday before I get into the meat of the post.   So here goes.

If I had one gripe about them it would be as simple as "no loot, really?".  Admittedly I don't think I would stop and loot while going for a timed event.  There was only one event that I was capable of finishing with a decent amount of time left, a bit over 2 minutes to be exact.  So there would have been more than a enough time to bend over and pick up a few coins and some cloth but there was also the ones I missed, didn't even come close to and the one that I made but only barely made exactly on time.

Oddly enough when I say exactly on time I mean exactly on time.  The countdown was going, 5, 4, 3, 2, crap oh crap of crap so close, 1, kill it, 0.  Bonus objective achieved.  Literally as it hit 0 the mob went down.  That was freaking great.

I doubt that will happen often, it will usually be one of the two other styles I mentioned, make it by a long shot or miss it by a long shot.  The one we made by a long shot was actually simple and straight forward.  Kill stuff.  Okay, I am a hunter, easy as pie.  The one we missed by a long shot we needed to find and rescue people.  As if the finding and making it there was not enough, I feel off a mountain.  Oops.

Let me be the first to tell you, this wastes a shit load of time.  But if you ever do it I suggest falling off the mountain I did because even if it helped us miss the timer it was well worth the fall.  I landed near a bear that apparently had the same bad luck I did, but he landed head first.  So he was buried in the snow with just his feet sticking out kicking like crazy.  I found it quite humorous.  And at least I know I can not take the short cut I was trying to take.  Damn trees make it impossible to see sometimes.

So while that did put a crimp in our timed run it was when the other two people with me died that really sealed our fate.  Luckily I am a hunter, a hunter that loves to solo stuff, so instead of starting all over again I worked the two quest type elite mobs and the 8 or so trolls all by myself.  It was fun killing them all alone and gave me a chance to practice all those little things that really make hunters the best class in the game but it was also the nail in the timer coffin. 

Perhaps if I died and we could have come back, all three of us, we might have had a prayer.  But it took me so long to solo the pack of mobs that we ran out of time.  I would say we were well short.  All my fault too.  Falling for one and then soloing those mobs instead of dying.  It is one of those cases where dying would have been the better option.

Who would have ever thought that death instead of victory would have been the right thing to do.  And that is one of the little things that make the heroic scenarios fun.

They are much harder than any non raid content available outside of challenge modes and you do not need to find the perfect group to beat them like you would the challenge modes which makes them much more accessible.  I like that.  I have still not had the chance to run any challenge modes, never the less finish them.  I am quite upset about that personally.  That alone means that these scenarios have taken a place in my heart already as something that offers a small challenge that can be done easier thanks to the smaller group requirements.

With that said, I have actually not really seen the challenge of them yet. The two people with me were well over 500 item level as am I.  We are all closer to 520 and with that these were quite easy.  Only one boss fight caused us to wipe and we wiped three times on it.

Now for the interesting thing.  Talking to some guild mates that did them, they said they did not wipe at all on it.  They also said that what we had a problem with they never noticed.  So perhaps these fights are designed to work differently depending on the group that is there?  I can't wait to mix it up and find out.  They had 1 melee which was a tank and 2 ranged in the group.  My group had three ranged.  While we both did the same fight, it was different.  Perhaps someone being in melee range changed the fight.  If this is the case I have give blizzard a round of applause.  Congratulations on making flexible content that is designed for the people doing it so that every group gets their own unique challenge.  I really can not wait to try that one again in a different group with a different make up.

Over all, time will show if these are really as fun as the first day made them feel.  Playing them on my characters that are lesser geared will show how it feels to others that do not over gear it.  Playing them on characters I am not as good on as my hunter will also give me more to think about.  So good or bad I can not say for sure just yet.

But...

And this is the big but.  But one thing that stands out bigger than anything else for me is the valor gained from them, even after doing the first one.  They are quicker than heroic dungeons and the looking for raid, they are instant queue, and they offer more reward for your effort.  If you can meet the bonus task you are getting at least 100 valor per run after the first, more on the first of course.

This means that they are the absolute best way to cap fast right now.  As long as you can get a group that can blow through them.  And that brings me to a nice point 2.

You can not queue for these without a full group.  Welcome back community.  Welcome back getting to know the people you play with.  Welcome back making people want to be social.  Welcome back pugging.  Yes, pugging. 

LF2M to cap with scenarios.

With a good crew and some bonus stages met, not even all, you can valor cap in less than 3 hours.  Some LFR runs take more than 3 hours... for 90 valor. 

Cap valor vs 90 valor.

How do you want to spend your time playing?

Is the valor reward too much for the content you are doing?  Like I said, on my lesser geared characters and the characters I am not as skilled on these could prove to be a bit of a challenge and I will not be blowing through them like I did on my hunter with a like skilled group.  But even if I have to take it slow on alts, these would still prove to be a much more time appropriate investment to capping valor.  If that is your intent at least.

If these new heroic scenarios are going to be the major focal point of valor capping for the people that want to get the maximum out of their game time there needs to be some adjustment to other random content. 

Like the LFR, lets get back to the 250 valor per run for them.  Seriously.  Unless you need gear, or rep, or quest items, from them there is no reason to run them and we all know the gear drop rate is pretty much horrible.  So, long waits, bad groups, massive repair bills, and everything else you can say that is wrong with the game for 90 valor no longer seems acceptable.  Not when you can get 100 valor in 15 minutes AND a chance at a 516 piece of gear which is better than the LFR drops anyway.  If anything people should get more valor for hazard pay for having to do the LFR.

Will the heroic scenarios continue to be added to the game, will they continue to be the best way to get valor, will they continue to have enough interest in them after they have been out for a while to make getting groups easy for them?

Are they the future for the time obsessed player that just wants to valor cap as soon as possible?

At least for now, heroic scenarios are awesome if you want to valor cap ASAP.  No doubt about that and the fact that more than a few people in my guild are already capped for the week, even ones that have not capped in months, shows that.

All About The Tank Issue in the LFR.

The recent change to tanks being the most in demand role for the LFR from its original tanks having longer queue time than damage dealers has really made the LFR hell lately. 

I queued up as a healer the other day and waited in queue for an hour and twenty minutes before I said "fuck it" and just quit.  Logged off the game, did not even switch to another character because I had no desire to play any more.

The thing is that I was left feeling like I wasted an hour and twenty minutes of my life.  I could have done the island dailies on three characters in that time.  I could have done the 80 valor heroics on four or five characters in that time.  I could have done the first scenario on every single 90 I have in that time.  I could have leveled one of my alts.  I could have went on my horde hunter to play the auction house some because he needs a little cash flow.  I could have quested on my healer instead of sitting there in healing spec while waiting doing absolutely nothing.  Okay, that last one is my own fault, but I blame blizzard for all the others.

See, the thing is that after wasting that time in queue I felt like I was screwed over by the game.  I lost all that time playing in an attempt to play.  I even put in a ticket about my previous two hour wait on a DPS and believe it or not have a GM respond quickly, while I was in this 1 hour healer queue.  I spent a good 15 minutes with them complaining about the LFR issues and all they could say was, I agree with you, go post it in suggestions and maybe something can be changed.

I have no desire to post something in suggestions.  I have no desire to post anything on the official forums.  Who would ever post anything on them?  They are horrible and I told the GM as such.  I said, perhaps if your moderators did their job and banned all the trolls so when people posted stuff it gets discussed instead of being derailed off topic near instantly.  But until this game starts to give a shit about their customers, I have no desire to waste my time making suggestions that will not be read or end up locked and closed because it went off topic thanks to trolls the game does nothing to control.

Needless to say it was an interesting conversation.  The GM was polite and as such while I did complain I was polite in doing so.  When all was said and done I thanked them for their time and letting me vent a little bit.  They said, any time, my ideas were good and I really should consider posting them.  They assured me it will be read.  But as polite as the GM was, how understanding they were with me being upset, a much as they agreed with nearly everything I said, I can not and will not believe them when they say my post would be read.  Sorry, once bitten twice shy.  I hate talking to a wall.  Posting a suggestion on the blizzard forums is effectively talking to a wall.

But part of what we discussed was the tank issue in the LFR.  I mentioned that making them so one tank can do them might help with a few of the issues.  I also mentioned that making them a little less damage intensive on that one tank could help as well.  They should be designed so a tank at 480, the minimum for the ToT ones, can easily solo tank them even if they are not a master of using their cooldowns.

My theory behind this was four fold.

Fold one.  You can do the LFR with only 10 decent damage dealers.  I am not even talking good, just decent.  You can do the LFR with only 4 decent healers.  I am not even talking good, just decent.  But you can not do the LFR without two good tanks.  Yes, good tanks.  If a tank that was only decent walked in they would be street pizza in a matter of seconds leaving one tank left to tank it.  And even if the healers were able to keep that one tank up it would drain the healers so the rest of the raid might take the short end of the stick by dying because a tank that was only decent was demanding all the healers time.

Fold two.  480 healers can go in there and have a bit of a challenge.  If all 6 healers are at 480 and none of them are at exceptional skill levels the LFR can be extremely challenging.  But it would be doable.  Same goes for DPS.  If all the damage dealers were at 480 and none of them were exactly what you would consider good, as long as they knew how to stand away from avoidable damage, which in and of itself is asking a lot, you could get it down.  It would be pushing it, but it could get done.

But a tank in 480 gear with limited skills will get destroyed.  If both tanks are in 480 gear and both tanks are lower on the skill ladder, it is wipe city.  Even if the tanks do have some skills, when placed with all 480 healers those healers would not be able to keep them up.  When placed with all 480 damage dealers, the fights would go on longer than their cooldowns could last.  So while 480 healers and damage dealers can do it, 480 tanks really can't if they do not have better people backing them up unless they were exceptional tanks and lets face it, seeing exceptional in the LFR is rare.

Fold 3.  Back to the you can do it with 10 DPS and 4 healers.  You can't do it with 1 tank.  People in other roles can slack off but people in the tank role, there is no room for error.  You both need to be good and there is no where to hide.  All fights should be capable of being one tanked for this very reason.  If you have two good tanks, awesome.  If you don't, at least with one you can still get it done.  One tank fights in LFR are not a suggestion.  They are a requirement.  There is a difference.

Durumu is the perfect example of this fold.  If many of the damage dealers fail at the maze you can still down it.  Even if a few of the healers die you can do it but it is a bit harder.  If both tanks die it is a wipe if they are not picked up ASAP.  It can not be done without them and even if one survives if that one is not a paladin that knows how to solo tank it, it is a wipe.  How come everyone else gets a free pass but the tanks don't?

Fold 4.  Knowing the fights.  You can go in as a damage dealer and wing it.  Kill the thing the tank is tanking, avoid stuff that hurts, and follow any friendly, or no so friendly, instructions that someone will yell out like kill the adds first.  As a healer your job is the same it is on 99.9% of the fights you will run into.  Heal people.  Dispel what you can.  Avoid the avoidable.  But tanks, they need to know what they are doing.  If they don't the fights can be hard or downright impossible.  Don't know when to taunt, wipe.  Don't know how to position a mob, wipe.  Don't know when to use your cooldowns, wipe.  So many chances in the fight for a tank to make a mistake that can wipe the raid if they do not know what they are doing.  Once again putting the weight of the world on their shoulders.  The least they could do it let these be one tanked with the second serving as a back up.

Could this all be the reason we see so few tanks?  I think so. In part at least.  I know I will not tank them without another tank with me.  If I do not have someone to work taunts out with I do not bother or even consider entering the queue.

No matter what goes wrong it is the tanks fault.  Tank dies three times in one fight.  Tanks fault.  Okay, it sure as hell could be, but it isn't always.  The problem is that the other players can not tell the difference between a tank dying because he is a bad player or a tank dying because the other tank is a bad player or the tank dying because the healing core is bad.  Most people see a dead tank and it is the tanks fault.  Sometimes it will be called the healers fault and rarely, as in I have never seen it except for when I had to point it out, it is the other tanks fault.

Last boss in HoF when the tank got controlled.  Bad tank everyone screamed.  I said, he did fine, but if the other tank does not taunt he gets controlled.  At least when I tank on my druid, a night elf, I have a trick that I use for situations like that.  Its called shadowmeld.  Yes, it works actually.  Sometimes.  But if the other tank is not second on threat the melee start to die a horrible death.  Sorry.  It is me getting controlled and a sure wipe or me doing this and hoping the other tank gets a clue and we have a chance to still win.  Either way, I will do anything in my power to force the other tank to do their job.  Most people do not have that luxury.

Now lets change the tone of this gripe post from on tanking end of the spectrum where I sympathize with them to one where I bitch at them.

And this is another issue.  People are always yelling at the tanks.  Who wants to play under those conditions?  I sure don't.  And while I am about to bitch right here be assured I have never once said any of these in raid, the tanks have enough asshats to deal with, why add my two cents to their already full plate.  But I will complain to my guild mates on vent.  And boy oh boy can I complain when it comes to bad tanks.

I never noticed it as much until I started to melee more when it comes to the damage dealer aspect of dealing with tanks.  As range I oft times never even notice if the tank is tanking a mob in a bad place or facing a bad direction because it does not effect me as much as it would a melee, if at all.

As a healer I always knew some of the bad tank issues.  Have you ever wasted nearly your entire mana bar trying to keep a tank up on the pull?  I have.  Have you ever needed to always heal every bit of a big move that is easily noticeable and they could have hit a cooldown for it?  I have.  Have you ever had to heal a tank that just stood in the bad because he thinks he is the tank and he doesn't need to move?  I have.  Healers can pick out a bad tank in one pull most of the times.  But their issues are not the same issues melee have, poor poor melee.  At the mercy of the tank.

It seems like the break down is something like this.  10% of random tanks are good or great.  60% are decent as in there are some issues but most you can deal with.  And that last 30% make you want to reach through the monitor and strangle them to death.  Don't tell me you never felt that way.  I know you have.  Admit it.

As a melee a lot recently I have been experiencing that more and more.  The biggest issue in the LFR with the bad tank issue is Lei Shi in terrace.  Tanks spin her around like a top.  What are we playing?  Spin the bottle.  I don't want her to kiss me, she hurts when she kisses.  Then you get the healers yelling at the melee for taking avoidable damage.  I have yet to die from it, but I have taken a fair deal of damage from it that I shouldn't have and none of it was my fault.  It seems like they do not realize that it is not only them that takes that damage when she splashes.  Anyone in front does.  So they just spin her around like crazy.  Stop it.

Or how about the tanks that like to kite Primordius as if he catches them he will kill them so they move at 100 MPH making it nearly impossible to keep up.  It is not the moving that makes it hard to keep up.  If you can not DPS while moving it is a "learn to keybind and move with your mouse" issue.  But it is the fact that they do not move in a circle, they move all over the freaking place.  If they moved in a set motion it is nice and easy to keep up with them but when they are all over the place like a drunk driver I just want to go to the middle of the room and sit down.  Why even try when half the time I am out of range because I can never tell where the hell they are going to zig or zag next.  With a good tank that moves in a set pattern and motion I consider Primordius basically a patchwork fight when you are transformed and because of that I love it as melee, I can really work my rotation.  When they are bad tanks however it goes to the other end of the spectrum pretty damn fast.

Or how about those lovely bosses like Stone Guard or Lei Shen that love to drop their puddles in melee all the time and the tanks decide it is not worth moving them.  Maybe, just maybe, they will move it so they can stand in a safe place which I am sure the healers are thankful for but what about us melee that need the mobs back?  Sure we can attack from the front if there is no cleave effect from the boss.  But it is not ideal.  And we are trained by the nature of our role to attack from behind.  Are all tanks clueless in the game today?  Even the seemingly great tanks I have seen in the LFR otherwise all seem to love to park the bosses ass in the bad.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Do they get a manual that reads "how to fuck with melee" or something because my tanks apparently missed that book.

Tanking is like real estate.  It is all about location, location, location.  How come every single tank that runs in the LFR has no clue how to position a mob?

So sometimes when people yell at these tanks they deserve it.  Many times however, they do not.  I just DPS from the side, or front if the boss mechanics will allow, but it does bother me too.  I just do not yell at the tanks in raid.  I might whisper them nicely, but never call them out in public.

Maybe that is because me, unlike most that play the game, understands that for everyone else the LFR can be fun but for a tank it is always work.  I think that is a huge key to why they are not entering the LFR as tanks.  They want to play too, not work.

Maybe blizzard needs to look at that a little bit when they try to address the issue with the long queue times.  Make the LFR more tank friendly and maybe more tanks will tank.  Making it a little more idiot proof can't hurt either.  Making all fights designed to be one tanked would be a start.

I bitched, I complained, I moaned, I feel better now.

So patch day is here, do you think we will see more tanks because of the off spec rolling or fewer?  It could go either way.

Monday Random Thoughts

- Lots of LFR random thoughts again being I did it a few times this weekend.  Something I had not done in a few weeks.

- One of those thoughts is that I would have done it a lot more if it were not for the fact I ran into a 2 hour queue once and over an hour queue multiple times.

- Not so long ago it was fun to see tanks waiting longer than DPS.

- Now, we are back to the bad old days of waiting for tanks.

- No one wants to tank them.

- Can't blame them, neither do I.

- Good thing the three current characters I like to tank with can get away with DPS gear.

- Two actually use DPS gear, the monk and the druid.

- And the death knight can tank in DPS gear.

- At least the content the DK does, LFR only.

- Don't think my DK has ever stepped into a real raid when it was current content.

- Speaking of monk tanking, I just started to read up a lot on it.

- I had tons of extra time while waiting this weekend.

- Have to love that the gear is the exact same as the DPS version.

- A few reforges aside and I can tank and DPS in the same gear.

- Oh, that monk that hit 90 last sunday is sitting pretty with a 490 item level this sunday.

- From ding to 490 in a week.

- Could have been faster but I only did a few LFRs each day with it.

- Do not take the fact that I went from 90 to a 490 item level in basically one run through the LFRs to mean it is easy.

- It took my rogue months and his luck still has him sitting at just a 500 item level.

- My death knight has been doing them for months as well since they increased the drop rates in the old LFRs and is still sitting at 472.

- How is it possible that you can run 16 boss and use 16 coins and win nothing every week?

- I will tell you how it is possible, because my monk and people like it really screw up the law of averages.

- So my monks journey began like all do, in the MV LFRs.

- 6 bosses, 6 coins.  Won something on 5 out of the 6 bosses, bonus rolls won 1 thing.

- HoF, 6 bosses, 6 coins.  Won something 4 out of 6 bosses, coins won 4 out of 6 used.

- Terrace, 4 bosses, 4 coins.  Won 2 pieces on coins, nothing from drops.

- Hey, luck can't last forever.  But I was one item level away from the LFR so guess what a person that is dedicated to get it done does?

- Yeap, you got it, I ran terrace again because it has drops for 2 of my weakest spots.

- I won the weapon, it was all I won from my 4 coins but it was all I needed, and was a nice and tight 480 item level thank you very much.

- Won nothing off sha, nothing off galleon, nothing off Oon, nothing of Nalak.

- Guess my monks luck does not leave the LFR, but can it follow me into the ToT LFRs?

- First leg of ToT, 3 bosses, 2 drops, 1 coin used 1 drop.  3 pieces total.

- Second leg of ToT, 3 bosses, 2 drops, no coins used.

- Third leg of ToT, 3 bosses, 2 drops, 1 coin used 1 drop.  3 pieces total.

- Last leg of ToT, 3 bosses, 1 drop, guess my luck ran out, but there is no reason to complain.

- No trinkets, weapons or tier and a few were for the same slot, but when all was said and done I had a 490 item level.

- And still have not purchased even one piece of valor gear.

- How could I get any valor gear, I just hit 90, but this week I can get me a 522 and see if my luck continues.

- 9 ToT drops in one week, 2 coins and 2 wins from coins, the odds are insane, this is why other characters can go months without getting anything.

- They need to get nothing to even out the averages to be lower.

- 9 Drops in one week.  My priest and shaman combined, that have been running them since they came out and do not have 9 drops combined between them.

- My hunter does not have 9 drops either and I have run every week, all of them, and used coins.

- My rogue, which until my monk went in, was my ToT lucky character getting at least 1 piece a week, still has not gotten a total of 9 pieces like my monk has.

- I always say I have bad luck.  I also always say there is such a thing as a lucky character.

- My monk seems to be my lucky character this expansion.

- At least after one week.

- Now to learn how to play it better.

- I can currently pull around 50-55K in movement fights and 60-65K when I get to stand still for the most part.

- Not exactly good.  Sure, it is good enough for the LFR, but not what I expect from myself.

- At a 490 item level I should be in the 70K range while in movement fights and 80K range when standing still.

- At least that is my aim.  I really could not find anything about what to expect from monks so I really do not know what to aim for.

- All I know is I can be doing better.

- But for having only played it for a week, I am not doing so bad.

- I want to get as good as this one rogue I saw in the LFR doing 200K+.

- Not burst, over the course of the entire fight, on all bosses.

- I guess heroic gear really does make a difference.

- I was on my rogue in the group with him and I was finishing consistently second.

- One fight I did 118K and was so happy with myself until I saw he did 237K doubling my damage done.

- Well, I thought I was doing good.  Until I saw him.

- Am I really that bad at my rogue or is the difference between a 495 item level and a 530 item level really that HUGE in what you can do?

- I thought 118K on a non damage boosting fight was fantastic and it was my best performance ever.

- The guy made me feel horrible, like I really suck.

- Then again, I can suck it up, I do kind of suck on my rogue.

- But I am oddly enough getting much better with it.

- Recently I have noticed more and more I like the agility based classes more than intellect or strength based ones.

- I wonder why that is?

- Monk tanking looks involved, but not too complex really.

- I can see how they are the new DKs however.

- Meaning that there is no in between for them.

- They are either good or bad.

- It is like having to follow three rotations at the same time, and manage your cooldowns.

- Good thing they only have one cooldown or it would get really confusing.

- But their defensive rotation could be called a cooldown of sorts, a consistent one.

- And that is where the good from the bad can be found.

- I kind of like the dropping damage part with stagger.

- But the key will be to manage buffs and clearing stagger damage.

- Kind of nice that the damage part of it closely resembles the DPS rotation.

- One less thing to learn.

- I have a topic for my next post in mind that came to mind after doing the LFR a lot lately in melee range.

- Something I had never really done much before, but with my rogue and monk both running them all this week and my druid and DK getting their turns in a little less recently but still in melee, it has be thinking about melee a lot.

- Not doing it, but doing it in relation to the people tanking.

- LFR tanks SUCK!

- And I mean that in every way possible.

- They suck because I wait 2 hours in queue for two of them just so they can both drop as soon as I zone in.

- They suck because they have no clue that if you tank mr nasty pants in the bad your little melee buddies become spectators.

- They suck because when they need to move a boss they move them as if they are trying to win the indy 500 and it makes it impossible to keep up.

- They suck because when tank switching they spin the boss around like crazy.

- They suck because they like to dance all over the place when there is no reason too.

- They suck because they seem to want to take the mobs back away from you at every chance they get.

- They suck because they do not realize that there is more to being a tank then just getting your face smashed in.

- Positioning people.  Positioning.

- Back to that wait in queue for 2 hours thing, yes I did.

- Got in, both tanks dropped.

- 15 minutes later, we get one tank.

- Clear trash, tank leaves.

- Excuse me?

- 30 minutes later, 2 tanks, kill boss one shot, one tank drops.

- We do trash to second boss, sit and wait another 20 minutes.

- Tank comes in, tank drops out.  Tank comes in, tank drops out.  Tank comes in, tank drops out.

- This goes on and on for 6 tanks coming and going before we finally get one to stay and one shot the boss.

- This was the last ToT, we just one shot 2 bosses, it is not a bad group, why are tanking not willing to stay.

- Lets face it, see above, they are most likely horrible tanks, but we still need them.

- Clear trash to the last boss.

- Waiting another 30 minutes now, a tank comes in, talks to the tank for a few seconds, drops group.

- The tank that had been there for the first two bosses says, he is sorry but he doesn't have any more time, it has been an hour and a half in here already and leaves.  So we need two tanks now.

- Yeap, an hour and a half in there and I waited 2 hours to get into it.  I am not leaving.  No F'N way.

- I tab out and read up more on monk tanking.

- Might as well put my down time to good use right?

- Another 30 minutes pass and we get two tanks.

- Woohoo, we buff everyone up, drop food, I go over the assignments, 1 red, 2 blue, 3 green, 4 purple, that should be standard by now right?

- We run a ready check, everyone is ready.  Except the tanks.

- Both drop group.

- Holy F'N shit.

- The group starts to fall apart.

- On the last boss, in a run we have never wiped in.

- Come on people stay.

- Been over 2 hours in here, people just do not have that type of time.

- Down to 18, down to no healers, down to 12, down to 10, 8, 7, 6, 5.

- Me and two people sit there, the other two of our 5 man DPS crew port out to do some pet battles and farming or whatever they want to do.

- I get more monk reading in.

- We finally get the group filled some time later.  I've lost track of time.  I started this adventure shortly after 10 AM and it is 3 PM now.

- I drop food, I call for buffs, I give assignments, 1 red, 2 blue, 3 green, 4 purple, and run a ready check.

- I point to the boss and yell charge.

- There was a lot of talk in raid before we started, saying we are going to wipe and will need a few stacks, and they have never seen this go well, even more so after this much of a wait.

- I just said, remember 1 red, 2 blue, 3 green, 4 purple and it is a nice and easy fight.

- People listened to me, people remembered, we one shot it.

- The raid burst out with WTF, impossible, etc.

- No one there has ever seen it one shot before.

- I did not win any loot but I did not care, I was done.

- And so was my desire to run the LFR again for a while.

- There is no reason that a run that there were no wipes on should ever take 5 F'N hours.

- This is the LFR, this is not raiding.

- The LFR should not take over 40 minutes, wait time included.  Ever.

- They need to find a way to fix this before they lose another 1.3 million players.

- I know a possible way to fix it.

- It is short and sweet, so hear me out please.

- You can do the LFR with 10 of the 17 damage dealers being capable.

- You can do the LFR with 4 of the 6 healers being capable.

- Why do both tanks not only need to be capable but at least decent to get it done?

- Make it so all fights can be one tanked.

- Might get more tanks willing to sign up that way.

- I know that is part of the reason I do not tank it.

- You can not ease through there as a tank.

- And no matter how good of a tank you might be if the other tank sucks they make you look bad too.

- You could have all 6 healers be half wits, all 17 damage dealers be half wits, and still get it done as long as all the half wits actually play and don't AFK.

- But if you have even one tank that is a half wit, it is wipe city.

- Make all LFR fights for 1 tank.

- Then I would queue as a tank.

- I would not have to worry about communicating when you taunt and then ending up dying because the other tank doesn't quite grasp taunt when I have the debuff and then I get yelled at because I am bad because I died.

- People are stupid.  They always blame the tank that died.  They never realize that the reason the tank died is because the other tank was not doing their job.

- It is easier to blame the tank for being a bad tank.

- It is easier to blame the healers for being bad healers.

- God forbid people actually blame the tank that was supposed to taunt but didn't.

- Like I said, people are stupid and it seems even more so in the LFR.

- If you want to blame a tank, blame the one that did not taunt when he was supposed to.

- As a tank there is absolutely no room for error.

- We all bitch about 30K DPS damage dealers, but the boss still goes down unless everyone is that bad.  You can carry slackers in the damage dealer department.

- We all bitch about the healers that DPS, but the boss still goes down as long as the other healers are not completely inept and can cover for it..

- Why is there no safety net for tanks?

- I might not be able to answer why there is no safety net for them but I can answer why I do not tank.

- I do not tank because I will only do it when I have another tank to queue with so I know I have someone capable of communicating.

- I do not tank because the other tank can easily screw things up by not knowing what to do.

- Tanks, even in the LFR, do not have the luxury that damage dealers and healers do.

- Tanks need to know the fights.

- Remove that need to know for tanks, make them one tank fights, and let the tanks get the easy route the damage dealers and healers can have sometimes and you will see more tanks.

- Maybe.

- Or maybe when the new patch comes out tomorrow you will see even less.

- Could go either way.

- People might tank to get DPS or healing gear.

- But people like me now have less reason to tank.

- If my warrior or paladin want tank gear I had no choice but to tank.

- Now I can DPS and win tank gear.

- Yeah, absolutely, I will never tank now, thank you blizzard.

- Fix the problem with fights needing 2 tanks and I might tank.

- But give me the option to get tank gear without tanking and I will always take it.

- Will this be a good change or a bad one?

- Will it help me not have a 5 hour adventure again?

- Either way, if the LFR system is going to keep being this bad, either with wait times, community, or bad groups, then it just need to be removed until they can find a better way to do it.

- I still say, make 10 man LFRs, please, I will pay you blizzard.

- Actually, I already pay you, so if you want me to keep paying, make 10 man LFRs.

- Have a great day all.

Should There Ever Be Paid Class Changes?

I believe the paid class change question is a very interesting question.  Someone asked the queue on wow insider if there would ever be paid class changes and Anne gave the perfect answer that I 100% agree with.  But I feel I must play devils advocate here for a moment and argue why it should be an option.

Devils advocate time, here goes.

Three reason why there should be a paid class change.

1) Leveling doesn't teach you anything.

In theory is should but it really doesn't.  Sure, some people might learn some stuff but most will just power through it not learning much of anything and if you look at it, it is designed that way on purpose.

In my personal assessment I would say leveling is 80% just press through it with any buttons that do damage, 15% minor challenge where you might need a minute to think about it, 4.8% I am definitely going to need to use some of these other abilities and 0.2% holy crap I wish I knew how to play my class better because this seems impossible.

You can level from 1-90 without ever leaving the comfort zone of the 80% type quests where you can just power your way through it.  If a quest comes along that you have an issue with, abandon it and move along to something else that is easier.  Which is exactly what most players do.  They will say, I will come back to that later when I am stronger and then out level it so they never do. 

Admit it, we all did that when we leveled too.  It is nothing new.  I passed on many a quest back when I leveled my first character or waited to see if I could get a group to do it.  But leveling is not like that any more for the most part.  So where I was running into that all the time, new levelers might run into it once in a rare while.

This faster leveling, easier level, leaves people with less opportunities to learn how to play their class.   It might very well not be that they do not want to learn, it could be a case of they never have the chance to learn.  Giving people the easy route with fast leveling also gives them the ability to skip zones when the quests start to get harder at the end of the quest line because they are basically out leveling the zone anyway.

2) Blizzard wants you at the end game.

Everything is designed for the end game.  Even PvP which is the only part of the game that has the potential to be awesome at every level gets pushed to the side for reasons of balance at 90.  That is why the leveling is faster.  That is why it is harder to learn while leveling.  They do not want to put a bunch of roadblocks in the way.

The design theory at work here is that leveling is something you want to do.  End game is the rat on the wheel moment.  They feel as if they can keep you coming back day after day and paying month after month if you are on the wheel at max leveling doing the gearing grind over and over for whatever it might be.  Gear, rep, you name it. 

So the faster they can get you there the more likely they are to keep you. They figure it is easier to keep a 90 interested than it is to keep a 25 interested and it is better to spend their time trying to keep everyone interested if they can design content for one part of the game and make sure everyone is there.  That is why they push everyone to 90, so everyone is in one neat pile and they can design for that pile and that pile alone.

3) Learning a class at 90 is easier than learning a class while leveling.

Yes, I just said that.  Flame on.

When leveling took longer you really got to know your abilities because you spent a lot of time with them.  When leveling was harder you really got to know your abilities because there were more times you actually needed to use all of them.  Now, not so much. 

They can give you an interrupt at level 32 but by that point, unless there is a real reason to need one, you have already learned to just kill things before they cast the spell that will hurt you.  They give a hunter misdirect after they have spent countless levels without it.  So they might just over look the ability because if it was really that important they would have had it already and they made it this far without it so they do not really need it.  Why not give it to them when they are young so "if" they are going to learn how to use it they can get used to it instead of waiting until they learned how to play without it so they ignore it?

Quick & easy leveling means you really do not get the chance of learning how to use abilities.  You can miss a hell of a lot while leveling.  Trust me, as someone that brings people that never raided before into raids, I often need to hold their hands and explain what 90% of their abilities are because "I didn't even know I could do that".

Hop over to icy veins, noxxic, or countless other resources and look up a rotation.  It will tell you all the goodies a damage dealer will need to use, all the cooldowns a tank has, all the types of heal a healer has, and it will tell them the order they need to use them in, tell them what proc to look out for, when to hold off or to let go, which abilities are situational, which are things you should use when called for in a raid.

Everything you need to know about your class can be learned in 10 quick minutes of reading.  Practicing it and getting better at it is on your hands.  But you will learn more in 10 minutes of reading than you did your entire time leveling.

I've seen learning while leveling confuse people.  I've also seen learning at 90 be a great success.

I never healed on my shaman once in my life when I decided to do it at 85.  I looked up some shaman resources online, read some guides, looked at my abilities, made some mouse over macros and I was healing that same day.  Not very well in my crap gear and having never even attempted it before but well enough to make sure everyone in a 5 man could live.  And that was when the 5 mans in cataclysm were still pretty brutal on most players.

I had never done the shadow rotation in my life but needed it to level to 90 as disc just wasn't cutting it and it was taking to long for things to die.  I looked it up, read the guide, powered through 85-90 like it was nothing.  Same for switching to elemental on my shaman.  Got tired of collecting so many sets of gear I figured I would go elemental with my shaman and just quest in my healing gear as it would be decent enough for it.  Looked it up and even though I never played one before that I have absolutely zero issues with being elemental.

If you are the type of player willing to look things up, learning at max level is not an issue at all.  It is super easy to learn how to play a class at max level.  So that should never be considered an issue as to why they would not allow class changes.  If someone is bad at one thing and changes their class, they will be bad at the other thing too. It will not create more bad players, it will just turn a lot of bad hunters into bad warriors and a lot of bad paladins into bad monks.  If anything, it might actually make some people better.  Some people might just naturally be better at another class or maybe, just maybe, they read up on the class before deciding to switch to it.  Class changes might actually mean more people knowing how to play, not less.

In closing, while I do agree with Anne as to why it will never happen and actually think it should never happen it was fun to play devils advocate a bit right there.  What do you think about it?

However...

In that same vein I would love to see a character copy offered.

If you have a max level hunter on one server, you can make a copy (of level only) on another server for a fee.  None of their items will be copied and they will only have a basic set of blue gear appropriate for their level when created, but they will be at the same level.

Now that is a service I would not mind seeing come to the game and surely would rather that over a class change any day.  I already have every class, what do I need that for anyway. ;)