For Whom the Bell Trolls

Well, when I originally dated this post, it was immediately following an uber-successful Tuesday night ZG run, where early and late shift Wonder-Twin-powers-activated Aspect Pwnage and took down all 5 bosses necessary to get to Hakkar in one evening. The sad thing is, everybody that was there had plans and other runs scheduled for Wednesday night, so the Blood God sat on his dais unharmed, again. (I'm really developing quite a chip on my shoulder regarding this dude).

Five Aspect priests cleared in roughly 4 hours (with all save Thekal the Tiger one-shot, mind you) will do wonders for your rep. All the way through Revered, as I see trash mobs fall by the wayside and "+4 Zandalar Tribe" pop up in Scrolling Combat Text, it just makes a person want to give Blizzard a big, metaphorical wet kiss. I'm certainly glad that they changed the boss-kill/turn-in as the only way to get rep on the newer factions. That was incredibly gimp. I've still got many miles to go before I sleep when it comes to Argent Dawn. As the ZG rep piled up, I began to edge closer and closer to Exalted. I think Mewgai had passed me, back when there were half a dozen of us trying to get Revered so we had the advantage on the rep-tied drops. I suppose it flies in the face of logic to wonder why we /roll on T1 drops and yet have a preference system to the Primals/Ancient Qiraji pieces, but there requires a lot of work to get to make the most of your efforts to those, and it hardly does any good to give the Revered Primal item to somebody that just dinged Friedly when somebody else could already put it to use.

When it was all said and done, that weekend following the awesome Tuesday clear, I was within distance of Exalted, and on Sunday morning, thanks to the extreme generosity of quite a few Pods who were more than happy to offer up coins to finish sets, and about half a dozen Bijous, I finally broke 21,000. Yub nub, mo fugga.

To be entirely honest, it feels like Revered went quicker than Honored did, but that's just not possible. The numbers don't lie when it comes down to the fact that with only one exception when I got stuck at Mel's one evening and had to miss a Thursday night run, helping her write a paper, I managed to attend every scheduled ZG run since dinging 60, the first week of June. Yeah. Holy crap. There was much denial of sleep, post-MC some evenings, just working up a Venoxis strike force. Tuesday nights, Sunday mornings. It adds up after a while. It also goes to show that our loot system or lack therof really does work. I mentioned in a previous column that I've probably won more ZG drops than anybody else in the guild. That said, I've also been more than anyone else, so the reward-to-effort has been in balance. The more a person shows up, the more they're exposed to particular drops. I didn't get Bloodlord's Defender the first time it dropped. (I'd gotten Thekal's Grasp the night before). I won it the second time. If you show up enough, you'll see it drop. Bottom line.

Zarjani was a direct benificiary of our rep-based roll requirement the other night in AQ20, as well. Being the robotic rep-cruncher that he is, he'd managed to get himself halfway to Revered having only gone into AQ10 about 3-4 times. Holy smokes, Batman! Kurinnaxx dropped his Drape that yields the Cloak of the Gathering Storm, and since Z was Honored and closest to Reverd, it was his. Enter the Machine. About half a dozen of us spent all day in Silithus with him Sunday, plowing through Combat and Tactical missions. (I think he got 9 out of the way Sunday itself. I know that I did 7, and one entire hive clear, I didn't have the dossier for that one, but was along for the cameraderie). This week, dude churned out everything he had to hit Revered, bought his idols from the AH and not only got his cloak, but also had enough badges to pick up his Earthcalm Orb, too. Well done, sir. It's always great to see effort like that rewarded. People look at the CC rep items and then curse Blizzard because they think that it's not possisble to get purple stuff like that without 20 man groups in AQ left and right, but I'm pleased to see firsthand that a dedicated 5 man group can, indeed knock that over the fence. Now I've got to get Exalted there and be able to Dual Wield the Sickle of Unyielding Strength and Bloodlord's Defender. +Def hotness, to be sure.

In other news, the BG bug has bitten Amperage. The reports that there'll be a 1.13 patch before the expansion, and it's going to be chock full o' non-Outland/BE/Draenei goodness were confirmed by Blizzard this week, and the 41 point talents are going to be available pre-TBC. This means that Echuta will be getting all of the hot Rage-reducing talents, and that uber sweet Devastate ability at the bottom of the Protection tree. The BG tie-in is that the rep/Honor system as we know it will be gone. Thank God. I don't mind the BG rep, except for the fact that AB and WSG take so damned long to slog through. AV goes quickly if Amp's rep bar with Frostwolf is any indication. I went for my first AV the moment I dinged 51, stuck around for a win to get my Wand of Biting Cold, and took advantage of last weekend's AV holiday to crank out enough honor to get out of Rank 1, 2, and 34% thru 3. I'm already 2k into Honored with FW, and would love to have Revered by this week. The direct benefit of going ahead and doing your homework and earning the rep before the patch is that you'll be accumulating honor like money in the new system. The BG rep items will still be available, but you've gotta cash in these points and Honor tokens to get them. With the PvP set items having been the most elusive, then it stands to reason that you can get that stuff faster if you save your points for those. Get the BG rep that you can, buy that stuff, and then be done with it, using your Honor points for the defunct rank rewards.

Claws and Effect

I was 100% remiss in not breaking the news that after only 3 takedowns of the panther boss in Zul'Gurub, Arlokk's Grasp is finally mine! Although the proc on the pair is sporadic, it's still hella impressive to see a 15ft. tiger appear in the midst of your group and continue wailing on things. Many thanks to the Tuesday night ZG Pod group who graciously awarded me this to complete the set.

On a somewhat related note, I happened to take inventory of the items that I use on a regular basis, and I was sort of shocked (I don't know why) to see that most is from ZG. 7 epics so far (3 armor pieces of Vindicator's Battlegear, soon to be 4 with the addition of the necklace. 6K rep to go!!!) from ZG, and I've nearly become the ZG poster child among The Pod People. Aegis of the Blood God and the Bloodsoaked Legplates are all I lack from having my wish list in ZG totally fulfilled. Alas, I must wait until we can begin downing Hakkar himself to have a shot at those.

This might be an excellent, if unintentional, segue into something which a number of us were discussing on Ventrillo the other afternoon. It's a concept which I jokingly refer to as "Darwinian DKP." The concept is simple: Even in a warm, fuzzy guild like The Pod People that eschews a traditional DKP system and embraces the "let it ride" random /roll mechanics that we do, there is a natural selection of sorts that works behind the scenes once the loot has been distributed. Take the Tier 1 headpieces off Garr, for example. If you have a wide distribution of raiders in a particular class where half have their T1 helm, then it stands to reason that once Onyxia goes down, and that class' T2 helm drops, then those that did not win the T1 are going to be in most need of the upgrade. This effectively halves the number of eligible people, thereby increasing their odds on that specific roll. Equivalent gear from another raid instance is another case where this comes into play. Let's use my ZG example from above. I hardly have a need for the Breastplate of Might as my primary tank chest, since I have the Zandalar Vindicator's Breastplate. Yes, I'd love to have an epic piece for my FR gear, but there's no way in hell I'm going to take that out of the hands of one of our other warriors when I already have a +10FR chest. As more TPPTanks get the ZG epic chest, then they are successfully eliminated from a true *need* roll on the Might piece. That improves everyone else's chances, and works for the betterment of the entire raid. The same holds true for the Medallion of Steadfast Might. You won't catch me rolling on that since the neckpiece from ZG is about to flip epic once I hit exalted with Zandalar. There's just no sense in it. Yeah, the stats might be a touch better, but all in all, they're equivalent in most senses of the word.

While in a larger sense, the system we have in place is sound, it does take a couple of assumptions into account that unfortunately leave it up to exploitation. I just gave 4 specific examples of things that by most standards I have no business rolling on if I have (or will have soon) equivalent gear. *Could* I roll on the Might chest if it drops this weekend? I suppose so. As one of the regulars in the MT rotation, I can't imagine that much of anyone would fault me for looking to pick up another piece of my T1 set, and yet I know that were I to make such a brazenly selfish move, it would be noticed by some of our senior raiding crew and I would thereby disappoint them. Here's the thing- and I really don't think that some Pods truly *GET* this, and it's unfortunate- just because you *can* roll on something, doesn't mean that you *should* roll on it.

There is one specific player that comes to mind when I think about this increasingly-ignored concept. Much like my "rape, pillage, murder, and rape (we like rape)" excoriation of the FRC hunters that show their disregard for group dynamics and harmony by continuing to bring their tendency to act like they are the only ones in the raid, and do as they damned-well please at the peril of the other 39 attendees, this is an indictment of an individual's consistent exhibition of selfishness and lack of consideration for what is truly best for the raid, and moreso, their fellow Pod classmates. Were this an isolated incident, I'd probably chalk it up to purple fever and it'd never cross my mind again. Sadly, the trilogy of me-first that I saw out of this person came within a week, and the first two were merely an hour apart. Here's how it went down.

Garr dies. Drillborer Disk is put up for Need rolls. "Can shaman roll on that?" is asked. Fuck no, shaman can't roll on that. And they won't. For a looooooong time. Shut up and rez yourself. Much like Striker's Mark or Mandokir's Sting for the warriors, which are specifically off-limits by all measures of good judgement until all of the hunters in the raid have it, equivalent, or better, so it is with Drillborer. Stupid comments notwithstanding, it's awarded to a deserving warrior, and the beat goes on. Sabatons of the Flamewalker are up for grabs now. We begin to have a thought-provoking discussion as to whether or not that is a toss-up between Needs for shaman and hunters both. Obviously, the +Int bonus would best serve the shaman, but the +Atk power would most readily benefit hunters. It's up for grabs between both classes and a shaman wins the roll. Well done. Grats, and all that jazz. Everybody grab your FR gear, and let's head for the lav- "Oh God, these things are UGLY."

WTF?

Was that just the shaman that won those boots? My keen ear for voices tells me that yes, indeed, it was. Instantly, all whom are of a similar mindset to myself begin to bristle with absolute righteous indignation at the audacity of somebody to have the sheer gall to do something so blatantly fucked up as to complain about the image model of an item that they just beat someone out for, OVER FUCKING VENTRILLO. Are your kidding me? That can't be. A flurry of incoming whispers seeking similar confirmation for what we just heard served as my own verification. You have got to be kidding me. What a grade-A, olympic-style, world-class yo-yo! How rude is that??? Ctrl+click next time, if you're that stuck on appearances, please. Better yet, how about you keep your [Pearl of Asinine Observation]to yourself, next time you choose to complain about something so petty as the appearance of an epic you just chose to roll on and to the group's misfortune that you won? I can think of half a dozen people that were more deserving of this drop than the one that won the roll. Oh well, at least they're limited to that one epic this week. MC drops are capped at one per person until all attending members of that class have won an item or passed to an open Need roll to all that could use it and are interested.

The earth has this silly habit of continuing to spin on its axis, no matter how ridiculous one mongoloid's behavior, and much like the planet we inhabit, the raid moved on. It was difficult to shake that bad taste in our mouths, though. Naive as we might be, it still shakes some of us whenever somebody willingly exhibits brazenly non-Pod behavior. Geddon dies, as does Shazzrah, and we wrap up another episode of Pod MC. A number of us continued our tradition of heading into ZG and decimating Venoxxis at the very least, and much to the chagrin of some, Windowlicker Royale with the "ugly" epic boots is in tow. Venoxxis is weighed by the might of the Pod and found wanting, and behold, Primal Hakkari Armsplint is left at his wake.

(For those not familiar with the way we do ZG Primal drops, the roll is initially open only to those attendees who currently have the requisite reputation with Zandalar Tribe to cash in the drop immediately. This equips another Pod with an epic ASAP. If no one in the Primal's class range has that rep, then we drop to the next tier. At this point, I prefer to have an open discussion as to who's where in their rep progression. Thanks to the trash mobs continuing to yield rep beyond Revered, ZG rep is really easy to come by. The actual count on the rep is largely for those Honored, working toward Revered, but it can make a difference in other cases, too. A single jaunt into ZG can yield 500-1000 rep, so it's not a big deal. We head into ZG at every available opportunity, so it adds up very quickly.)

The Armsplint is the drop for shaman, rogues, and warriors, and you need Friendly with Zandalar to convert it it your bracers. As the numbers went, everyone that had the needed rep already got theirs previously, so it would go to a Need roll among those classes that were Neutral, working to Friendly. We had one shaman roll, and another. One had been on a few ZG runs, and was halfway to Friendly. It just so happens that Uglyboots (for forever shall he be deemed) was the second one. Just in case I've bored anyone to the point of dozing off, this is the same Uglyboots whose comments defaming the appearance of said Sabatons came no more than an HOUR BEFORE. Now, this jaunt into ZG was neither scheduled, nor "sanctioned" by the officers, but in accordance with our agreement with guild leadership, we keep the same loot rules in place for our other raid runs, Podraid gets the Souldarite/Bloodvine, etc. Fate would have it where Uglyboots won the Primal.

This is often the touchstone by which true Pods are made or broken. The losing shaman was closer to Friendly, and could likely equip the item sooner. Then again, we're only talking a maximum of 500 rep separating the two. One skipped ZG run by the loser, and the winner could conceivably pull ahead and get to Friendly faster, thereby validating their win. And yet the larger point is lost in the semantics. Just a scant number of minutes before, the winner of the Primal had won an epic in MC, and MC/ZG loot rules be damned, it's pretty fucked up and selfish to go on to grab as much for yourself as you can in a given night when it's not necessary.

It deeply saddens me to see someone have an opportunity to be a team player and back down from it. Simply rolling on a purple because you *could* use it, grabbing the loot, and slithering back under your rock is some of the most brazenly non-Pod behavior I can think of. In those situations, character flaws like that show up like a metaphysical blacklight on so many hotel bedspreads. Again, I go back to my "symptom of a larger problem" assessment, back when I discussed somebody not fessing up to making a mistake that leads to a wipe. Doing so doesn't make you any less dead. It doesn't issue forth gold to cover the cost of the repairs for the raid. What it does, though, is exhibit strength of character and maturity that shows that you feel remorse for what happened, and it likely means that you'll be more cogent of your surroundings in the future in an attempt to avoid a repeat. Yes, I know... "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." I just hate to be disappointed by people that you make the assumption are going to exhibit behavior that flies in the face of our typical human tendencies.

The third of the brazen gluttony of this individual comes in the form of another post-MC ZG run, the following week. The loot in question this time, again off Venoxxis, was the Band of Servitude. This time, this asshat rolls on it and loses, thank God, but let's break down their thought process for a second, if you don't mind. There's no doubt that that's a caster ring. Lord knows that I want all my healers to have it. Uglyboots is Enhancement, though. I know that shaman can pull double duty as healers when dramatically appropriate, and for this fact, I'm grateful. What galls me, though, is that on that same random boss loot table is the Seal of the Gurubashi Berzerker, which by every estimation is vastly superior to Servitude framed in Enhancement shaman context. After all, +40 attack power is teh hawtness. Let's add to the mix the fact that they heavily weighed the +Atk bonus into the decision making process when they won the Sabatons of the Flamewalker, as they would be benefitted greatly by that +Atk bonus, too. The pair would make a mighty combination. And yet they felt that with mages, priests, druids, and Elemental and Restoration shaman all rolling on that ring, they felt that they had every right to hop in there and take their chances, too. Not that they couldn't/wouldn't receive benefit from it. They would, and in a major way. It's just that they were willing (had they won) to take it out of the hands of someone that would've gotten a more immediate benefit from it.

I liken it to the other day when one of our DPS warriors whose attendance is sporadic thanks to school won the T1 Might Helm, when there were a set of +Atk plate gloves that would be rolled on next. One of the guys in our MT rotation lost the roll, and I know that it couldn't be easy for him. I'd just won the Might boots a half our before, so I was out of the running, anyway. I just wish that people would stop and think before they do things, is all. I understand that it's not going to be the only time that that item drops. I get that. I just find it unfortunate that the largest benefit is delayed. Even a significant improvement on a DPS warrior's survivability is going to help, but it's marginalized when that person is rarely in the raid.

I just wish folks would stop and think.

Right Night for Might

It figures that the one time I try to take a brief nap before Molten Core, I manage to oversleep and catch the raid already in progress. By an hour. This is the night that we've nearly got a full 40 man raid, and we actually are on time. It also stands to reason, (I suppose) that it'd be the evening that I wasn't logged out right in front of the Core. Let's add insult to injury. Let's say that the Magmadar fight starts as I'm on a bat from Booty Bay. And the Legplates of Might drop. Finally. (Grats Ves!)

Alas, they'll drop again. It's no awful loss, as I already have the Flamewalker Legplates. The enchant from ZG would certainly bring those to Might equivalency if I didn't already have the +20 FR libram earmarked for them. Of course, that would also eliminate me (in a practical sense) from the running on the Bloodsoaked Legplates off Hakkar, or even the Legplates of Wrath from Ragnaros, but I digress...

I joined the intrepid band en route to Gehennas, and he was handily dispatched. I won the Sabatons of Might for my troubles (few as they were this evening), and we chugged on through to Garr, taking him down in an unprecedented first evening, and only going 30 mins into overtime for the scheduled raid. This established a new Pod speed record for the Thursday night clear. Tremos won the Helm of Might, Loch got the Flameguard Gauntlets, and we called it a night after 4 bosses in 2.5 hours. Saturday night, we made short work of both Geddon and Shazzrah, and since those two are always strikeouts for warrior Tier 1, we decided to catch Sulfuron sleeping while the rest of us were still awake. Killing him and his fanclub yielded the Pauldrons of Might, which Samakin happily liberated from his corpse. It was more of the same from Golemagg, as he left the Giantstalker chest and some other stuff as going away presents, but I'm not too torn up that the Might chestpiece didn't drop, as I'd be gunning for it on the FR alone, since I've got the Zandalar Vindicator's set. I'd love to round that out with the Might shoulders and helm, with the ZV pieces that I have, Bloodsoaked Legplates and Rage of Mugamba balancing it all out. That would yield 2 separate set piece bonuses, and that would be rather hot.

All in due time....

Free Ranged Chickens

Dear Hunters of WoW,

Please stop getting us killed.

Seriously. There seems to be some universal truths to the game that you guys aren't necessarily getting. (I'll be the first to admit that there are a few exceptions. Believe it or not, some conscientious hunters are out there that keep an eye on their surroundings and don't have some insidious, overarching tendency to wipe the party intermingled within their psyche, but they're few and far between). I'm going to offer up one troll's opinion, and it'll likely make some of you upset. I'm fine with this. The reason is, you've upset me first. Whereas I'm being deliberate, the injuries that you oft inflict on groups appears to come out of a sense of carelessness, disregard for group dynamics, and an overall sense of recklessness that borders on class malpractice. While I will say that there are some Pods that this razing pertains to, specifically, throughout the course of my WoW career, it often holds true, no matter what guild, faction, or server is in question. This isn't, of course, to say that I've never gotten a group killed. I have plenty of times. I will continue to do so, and in the east tomorrow morning, the sun will rise in spite of me. What I have noticed, though, is that whenver a hunter does something stupid and gets a group wiped, rarely will they say something about it, and adding insult to injury, they manage to avoid dying and the rest of the raid is made to pay for their transgressions.

Some thoughts:

• In raid scenarios, you are NOT necessarily a primary DPS class. It's an ugly truth, and I'm not disputing the fact that well-geared hunters can dish out insane amounts of damage. Lord knows that warriors certainly aren't there for those reasons. What I am concerning myself with at the moment is the notion that somebody brings hunters along in a party as their #1 source for damage. It ain't true. Nobody takes a hunter to UBRS to shell things. They do it to kite Drakkisath. Freeze traps. Pulling. Disengage/Feign Death. Viper Sting. These are the things that Blizzard gave you that enable you to stand out from a crowd and be unique. If you notice, these remarkable abilities aren't very high in your warped bag of tricks when it comes to nuking something. It's okay. It is this skillset that makes you desirable to a group. Maximize your advantages that you have over other classes.
  

• Tyler Durden was right. I've said it a million times in Molten Core. It bears repeating, evidently, because of some people not listening. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. "DPS OFF" means exactly that. How effing hard is that to wrap your mind around??? Pop quiz: If the tank engages a target, and the raid leader immediately flashes the "DPS OFF" Raid Warning, what *might* that mean? If you answered "Don't fracking touch your auto-shot until 'DPS ON,' you are absolutely correct. If your default response was anything but that, thanks for playing and call back. We're looking for caller #15. Honestly. I don't get it. I don't care if it IS white damage. It's still DAMAGE. All you do is prolong the DPS call, at that point. You're not speeding anything up. You want to help? Wanna do your part to keep the pace up? Do what the frack your raid leader tells you to do, when they tell you to do it. The market for wheel reinvention is dead. You want to develop something unique? How about a coping mechanism? Deal.
  

• Quality time. This is the spiritual sibling to the DPS on call at the start of a fight, but this is in the heat of battle. One of your tanks at some point might die. This is a universal truth, and by and large cannot be avoided. It's an unfortunate reality. The good news is that you probably have more, ready and willing to fill the void left by their fallen brethern. They're at a bit of a disadvantage to the dearly departed, though. They haven't had the luxury of building up aggro like the Main Tank did. This being the case, they've got to claw their way to the top of the aggro list. It hardly does any good to try to accomplish this while the rogues, mages, warlocks, and yes you, hunters, are blasting the everliving hell out of this particular mob. The raid leader again will carry on with the DPS OFF. Please pay attention to this one, too. As soon as the new tank has sufficient aggro, you are more than welcome to continue shooting whatever it may be. Until then, however, the new warrior has some work to do with the target.
  

• Live by the sword. Occasionally, things will get hairy. That's okay. Chances are, the group of folks you're raiding with is pro enough to handle it and make lemonade out of the lemons handed to it from a bad pull. Here's the thing I rarely see hunters do, though. There are times when it's not only okay to use your melee weapons, but you really ought to. I want the mob dead as much, if not more than you. I'm the one getting beaten on. The thing is, this fight might be in such close quarters that there might not necessarily be safe room enough for you to get into ranged position. Blizzard gave you the enviable ability to dual wield, just like 2 other classes. Maybe you like a 2H weapon. In the name of all that's dear, just USE it.
  

• Stand in the place where you live. Here's the danger when things get ugly and in an admirable effort to help the situation as much as possible, you try to get in position to do your best damage: ranged. I've seen it over and over again, you stop paying attention to your surroundings. There is this inexplicable hunter tendency to go running off to the sides to get ranged distance, and the darnest thing is out there: DEATH. This is the one thing that pisses me off more than any other. WTF is so unique about you that you can't run back where the healers, mages and warlocks are? There are only 2 safe locations in a fight where you aren't going to accidently wander into the aggro radius of another mob and bring them into a fight. One is right on top of where the tank is. (See above). The other is with the ranged DPS casters. "Mother of God, what heresy is THIS"??? It's what we politely like to refer to as the truth. Blizzard is not going to issue a GM into your instance looking for the perfect hunter action shot. Don't hold your breath. I wouldn't even bitch if it weren't for the fact that I've seen an infinite number of hunters back up into an infinite number of mobs an infinite number of times, bringing in certain death to the rest of the party from when they were off on their own, trying to get far enough away to use their gun/bow. Cut that shit out. If you want distance, the "S" key is your best friend. Back that thang up. Don't go all maverick off on your own. If you do, I hope your healers are smart enough to let you die and think about what stupidity you wrought upon yourself, rather than healing you and bringing them into the group for sure.

I hate that all of this comes as harshly as it does, but I've had my fill of mongoloid hunters that drag certain doom upon the raid because of some avoidable thing that they did. I've had it.