Stupid Awards of the Week

The Ninja Logger of the Week Award goes to…

/drumroll

The holy pally who let us know he was tired and logged out less than two minutes later in ICC 10. And we were doing well! At least give some notice so we can replace you…with a hunter.


The AFK Raider Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The priest who showed up for 1/3 of the25 man raids he was supposed to this week, 2 hours late for his ICC 10 and proceeded to pester me about when he could get in a raid for the next 30 minutes when he finally did log in. Seriously?


The “Did He Really Just Say That!?!” Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The pally tank who, when given his directions for Dreamwalker (again) after a wipe led to this conversation:

RL - “Kill order: Blazing skelies, mages, blight zombies, A-Bombs.”

Tank - “What’s an A-Bomb?”

Other Tank - “A-Bombs, Abominations…You know the things that look like Patchwerk and Meathook.”

Tank - “Huh?”

(Silence so whispers can fly)

Other Tank - “The stitched up, gross things…”

Tank - “What are they called?”

Other Tank - “A-Bombs! Abominations!”

Tank - “Oh. Is that what they are called?”

(Silence)

Tank - “So we kill those first?”


Please refer to the post regarding the Stupid Debuff now.

Fingers Crossed

Maybe, just maybe, one little whisper has (at least for the moment) solved my recruiting nightmare….

I saw a post on our server’s forum about a ret pally looking for a home. He was geared and spelled things correctly so I whispered him in game when I saw him on. Lo and behold, he comes with about 5-6 friends - all equally geared! The really odd part is that they are classes we need! A hunter to replace the one whose college grades were dropping, a holy priest to replace the one who is strangely absent for progression fights, and a few others to buff up our remaining Wed/Thurs holes.

Two of them have joined already and the rest say they will be over before reset on Tuesday. I fully expect some drama in the ranks when they are included in the 25 man run that night in place of those that have been flakey. Are there words to express how much I don’t care? I’ve been tracking attendance; I know who shows and who doesn’t. A little competition for raid spots isn’t a bad thing. We have a few who seem to have become a just a tad too comfortable and are showing up later and later or are always the last ones to arrive back after a wipe. We need to get back to having hungry raiders if we plan on moving forward with speedy progression!

So, fingers crossed it works out well…I’ll let you know!

Recruiting Sucks

Not much more to say than that. Don't want to, just might have to. Bleh.

Either Or...

It’s good or bad, high or low, boss dead or us dead - there seems to be little middle ground.

Tuesday, on 25, we blew through the first wing, Rotface, and Festerfuck and had time to put in one shot on Dreamwalker before the end of raid time. It was easy, it was fun and the Raid Bitch only came out in jest. Then the 10 man right after it was a complete cluster fuck - I could hear the circus music in my head. We wipe in trash, the drunk priest wiped us trying to be funny, the OT had trouble managing adds, and we barely crawled through Sarfang. And this was the “good” group.

Wednesday we got off to a very slow, rocky start in 25s due to late attendance, officer who refused to run due to his emo-ness, and a few folks who said they couldn’t make it. We gave Dreamwalker a few attempts but the heals weren’t there and the two OTs (different from the one the night before mind you) seemed to have left all threat outside the instance. We had a priest (not the drunk one) who broke his mouse (kind of funny in retrospect hearing him slamming the mouse on his desk and wondering why it wouldn’t work) and since we didn’t have a replacement for him it took forever for him to try to find a work around, multiple badly timed DCs, and attitude all the way around it was not going to happen. We moved to Blood Council instead, wiped on trash, and eventually got the BC down to about 26%. Not an awful attempt since we hadn’t spent any real time on them. Then we pulled together the 10 man again, one-shotted Dreamwalker, and got BC down for the first time after only (I think) three attempts. We called it early as two healers had to go but not a bad 10 man night at all.

So, feast or famine. Go figure.

Did You Say Something...?

Quit your whining.

I’ve told you all repeatedly that I’m bad at answering tells and don’t always read raid/guild/officer chat and to say something in vent if you want my attention. Unless you’ve been a GM and/or RL - or both at the same time like me - you have no freaking idea what my screen looks like most days. So let me help you out. Here are a few of the (MANY!!!) reasons I may not answer you thereby ensuring your feelings are hurt, you feel neglected, and you go all emo for the next four hours:

I’m tabbed out….

* Doing raid research

* Looking up potential recruits

* Checking to see if you enchanted/gemmed the gear you got since historically you’ve been a slacker when it comes to that

* Reading blogs so I can remember I’m not the only one being slowly driven mad by my guild

* Anything else that makes me happy and it’s none of your business


I have 13 other people whispering me at the time…

* “Can I buy _______ out of the gbank?”

* “Is your guild recruiting?”

* “Why didn’t I get X piece of loot when I’ve been here longer/show up more/am cuter and therefore more deserving?”

* “So-and-so is being mean/offensive/ignoring me.”

* “Why am I on standby when I’m the best DPS ever/best healer ever/only missed 3 days last week/feeling punished for no reason?”


I’m not reading…

* /Gchat because you all were talking about cars/sex/your epeen/nonsense and I don’t care

* /Officer chat because you were bickering/insulting me/bitching/talking nonsense/arguing

* /Raid chat because your emotes have pushed aside anything that may have been important/you’re bragging about your DPS or heals/you’re talking about nonsense that has nothing to do with the raid

* Anything at all because I’m buried in all of the above and just truly missed it


And you can fully expect me to truly be ignoring any of the following…

* “What time are we raiding?” - It never changes…are you really asking this?

* “Are we raiding?” - Is it a raid night?

* “What are we raiding?” - You know I don’t announce this ahead of time and, duh, it’s probably ICC 25 unless it’s Saturday and, Dumbass, it doesn’t matter as you should be here for anything we raid.

* “What are you wearing?” - ‘Nough said.

* Absolutely anything I choose that is not raid related when I have /DND Raid Time up. Seriously, did you think that didn’t mean you?


So stop complaining, grab my attention in vent, and get over it. Unless you’re a masochist and like feeling abused in which case keep doing what you’re doing. And I will keep not seeing your comments.

You Tell Me...

Is it a new low in bribery or a brilliant motivational tool?



Frankly, I’m just looking for a way to keep the team willing to show up on wipe-fest nights! It made sense to me until one of the officers responded to the mail with a LOL and “desperate, are we?”. Meh, at this point whatever works to get new bosses down with a minimum of whining and ninja dcs.

Stupid Awards of the Week

Emo /Gquit Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The warlock who was told it was against guild rules to pug ICC 10 before Sunday and went anyway! When called on it he said, and I quote, “You can’t tell me what to do” and left the guild.


Stupidest Waste of Flask Time Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The druid who left raid to hop on an alt to buy buff food for another druid who came to raid unprepared!


And the OMG I’m a Greedy Dumbass Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

Nomoremana, the level 38 warrior, who rolled Need on a +spirit cloak against my level 40 priest in Uldaman…because it was blue.

The Stupid Debuff

It’s been a recent challenge to figure out whether some of the raiders are slow learners, downright dumb, too stoned to care, watching a movie while they are standing in fire, or cursed with the Stupid Debuff.

The Stupid Debuff happens to everyone once in awhile….auto-running into a boss, realizing your fishing pole is still equipped on the first pull, forgetting you’re the shaman when the raid is calling for Heroism (yes, that happened but this time it wasn’t me), pushing PTT when you really, really shouldn’t have…that kind of thing. Hell, the whole raid seemed to be infected with it the past week or so. So, the challenge is determining whether it’s a temporary state with some raiders or the moments that they DON’T have it are few and far between.

One example is the warlock who, after having downed Festergut several times on both 10 and 25, still walks in to the encounter and fails. He gets the spore over his head and doesn’t move fast - despite most of vent yelling for him to run to the designated person - and when he does move goes the wrong way. This is not behavior that happened once, by the way, this is something we almost expect from him. This particular raider then doesn’t understand why he is placed on standby. On the other hand, once he gets the content down (think TOC) he does really, really well. It just seems to take him, well, weeks instead of attempts or even hours.

Another is the tank that still can’t quite seem to grasp when he needs to taunt Saurfang back from the other tank. He lets fanatics eat the healers’ faces. He also never has flasks, ran out of reagents at the end of one run and never got them before the next one an hour later, and after all assignments are given generally asks, “What am I doing?”. And, frankly, he sounds heavily medicated pretty much all the time.

Yet one more is the shammie who stupidly admitted he really didn’t listen to vent because his music was on and therefore misses healing assignments, ready checks, calls for breaks (and how long the break is) and strategy.

Admittedly, I am procrastinating having the conversations with them that need to happen. Why, you ask, do I not just boot them from the guild or, at the very least, not let them raid?

Let’s see, in the locks case it’s because part of me truly doesn’t want to lose a player whose heart and interest are right where they should be and I’m afraid if I place him strictly on farm content (where I think he belongs to give him the time he needs to learn the fights) he will be hurt and/or bored and leave. He has potential to be a really solid (if not ever exceptional) raider once we get past the raid-wide learning curve that is progression.

For the tank, mostly, it’s because we are short tanks every week for the third 10 man and, until I can get someone else geared to do it on an alt, we’re stuck. He’s also been around since the early days of the guild and has been a very casual player up until recently. Part of me is still trying to figure out if he’s just one of those people who doesn’t sound that bright or if he has a permanent Stupid Debuff.

Lastly, the shaman when he’s on his game is amazing! Key word though is “when”. I want him to focus! But, unfortunately, like most of our healers (seriously, WTF is up with healers?!?!) he is emo much of the time and I have to catch him at just the right moment.

Let me be clear, I am the most patient person in the world with true noobs who just want to learn how to play the game. You need someone to teach you how to dive or the best way to get through Redridge I’m your gal. I’ve taught more people than I care to remember the best way to pull the mobs in Scarlet Monestary. If it’s your first time tanking a raid I will walk you through the bosses, teach you the aggro tricks and offer suggestions on how to handle weak healers or overzealous DPS. I used to run the Saturday Night Kara Raid every week long after I was in T6 back in BC and taught and geared countless mains and alts.

Basically if you have done the research on your class and spec, homework on the content, and are open to feedback I will help you in any way I can.

However, and this is a BIG however, I don’t have the time or desire to do this in 25 man progression content.

Our server is smaller and not known for progression so recruiting the A-game, exceptional players I’d love to have is extremely hard…so I have to train some of them to be remarkable instead of coasting on their built in, ready-made uberness. I keep telling myself, I only need about five more really solid people and we will have what we need to progress faster. Truly, those five would make all the difference in the world. Its finding those without the Stupid Debuff and keeping it off of them that is the challenge. Until then, I will keep working with what I have and sacrificing Dranei to the WoW gods in the hopes that Putricide and Council go down this week.

What do you know....

Huh. Next time we went into ICC we got Rotface down on the first attempt.

And then wiped on Festergut once. Which killed our 25 raid quest for the week.

/facepalm

Raid Bitch

Yes, today I let my inner raid bitch loose….

There was yelling. There was swearing. There was calling stupid people out by name in raid.

And it was well deserved.

We have been battling Rotface for two fucking weeks after downing him twice before. Due to stupid. There is no reason this boss is still alive other than the stupid debuff. People running into each other with little oozes on them when there’s a big ooze up. People staying in the middle of the raid group with little oozes on them. Healers too defensive about their heals to actually heal. DPS too focused on who may or may not have healed them (or not) and their own personal numbers to actually do damage (I don't give a flying fuck what your numbers are if the boss doesn't die!) Officers too wrapped up in battles over Recount to pay attention. Bullshit left and right basically.

So, tonight, I said what normally is reserved for not pressing push-to-talk and let it loose.

Rotface is still alive. But I feel better.

And guess who’s coming back to raid tomorrow….

PTT and Rotface

/bonk

Yes, you, Hunter, who repeatedly stands in the path of the Big Ooze even though you don’t HAVE to be that far away from Rotgut.

/thwack

Keep the little oozes apart!

/THWACK

Quit running them together and making more Big Oozes!

Big Oozes are BAD!

/SLAP

QUIT RUNNING THEM TOGETHER YOU MORONS!!!!!!

Wipe #8.

*Head to keyboard*

As I’ve mentioned, the guild has a rule that we do not insult, demean, or otherwise bring over the top nerd rage to the raids. This is why there is push-to-talk.

I’ve scared the dogs....again. God only knows what the neighbors think.

What the neighbors hear: “You freaking idiots! Why are you standing there! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! Oh for fuck’s sake...you died there last time you pathetic excuse for a mage! No, don’t run that way...oh hell, why did you do that? How many damn times do I have to explain this?!?! Get out of the fucking green slime you idiot...oh never mind, you killed us again.”

What the raid hears: “Guys, you really need to make sure the oozes aren’t making multiple big ones or we wipe.”

I swear that vent must make me sound like the adults in the old Peanuts cartoons. There is no other reason that they don’t understand the strategy after this many wipes. Unless I’m actually speaking in tongues and don’t know it.

Lucky Arthas...he will live to a ripe old age at this rate.

Seeing Red

It’s been a week filled with a wide range of emotions about my little guild but the biggest ones right now are fury and disappointment.

We have added some new people I have high hopes for and some veterans have shown some remarkable improvement over which I’m thrilled. At the same time we “lost” three members - two of which were healers and one was an OT - and while losing raiders always causes some concern it was the way we lost them that makes it weird, aggravating and, frankly has me angry as hell at one of them.

We have chat filled with innuendo, blue humor, and wild flirtations in guild. We are a guild of adults after all and don’t choose to censor language or content unless it goes way beyond what could even remotely be considered acceptable. We lost one healer because he was told he needed to behave less like a pervert - particularly in front of new people who don’t have the history with him to know if he’s joking or not - and he responded that he is a normal, mild-mannered man in RL and he plays this game to be “who he wants to be”...which made him 1000x more creepy.

The other healer (who took with her a very whipped OT husband) decided I was “mean” and refused to run an ICC 10 unless the group was exactly how she wanted it. I’m sorry but:

A. The officers and I strongly feel we need to make a temporary change to the 10s to further progression for the benefit of the guild and 25 man progression

B. If you have already made it known that you are available and want to run a 10 man don’t refuse to run with the other 8 people unless you get your way - ultimatums don’t work in your favor with me

C. Whatever you do, if you are one of the best geared people in the guild who has received a significant amount of 25 man loot, don’t tell me you don’t want to run with new people in “your” group because they might take “your” loot - I have very little tolerance for loot whores

To top it all off the psycho bitch then decided to slam my character, skills and personality on the server forums - using the guild’s recruitment post no less! - and, because we don’t do public drama, I am limited in how I can respond. You want to leave the guild then good luck to you and have fun but there’s no reason to slander anyone in the process. I’m floored that my “friends” in game aren’t more upset about what she said and are trying to “not take sides”. Maybe that’s unfair but it stings that they would still socialize with someone who behaved like such am evil lying bitch publically.

However, because I’m not the unprincipled bitch she is, what we will do is kill a new boss tonight. We have a new healer to break in that joined last night! I’m completely confident that if we have largely the same group as last night we will down the Blood Princes and have a fun night. Lots of tension is gone without creepy guy and very few people will miss the other two due to their arrogance and elitism (and delusional belief that they are as good as they think they are).

On a side note, I was reading I Like Bubbles post about rage on February 4 and felt better I wasn’t the only one struggling with fine line between having a backbone and letting the raiders run rampant!

The Joys of LFG Noobs

Seriously? You're questioning my defense cap in T10 gear because my HP is......too high?

/facepalm