Hip to Be Pixelated

Krush Groove

2007-08-03T01:21:00.001-04:00

Last night, CCC hit up Karazhan with a new schedule in mind. Given that we were clearing Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Opera, and Curator in about 2:35 consistently, leaving some awkward downtime where there wasn't really time to push thru to Shade, or learn a new fight like Nightbane, a few of us proposed a new itinerary. First night, Moroes, Opera, Curator, and Shade, for maximum trash clearage. On Monday, we'd hit up Prince and took him out for the first time, but after 2 1% attempts (the second of which was 9 manned, thanks to jacked-up aggro mechanic on Blizzard's part. Come on, now, is Inner Fire REALLY that big of a threat???), we knew that if we didn't get the crappiest Infernal placement in the world, Malchezzar was dying soon. What struck me as far more impressive was that we one-shot the Shade of Aran for the first time.

We were right on schedule thru Curator, last night, if not a few minutes behind, but that looooong trash clear wasn't nearly as egregious as it recently seemed, thanks to a metric ton of rogue and general DPS gear dropping a lot recently. In an effort to get Bytes' rogue the Emerald Ripper from Moroes, we were down to 2 healers during Moroes, and Squeak and I were duly skeered, but it looks like we held up just fine, pally and holy priestage. /cheer

Not only did we clear everything we were set up to do, we also got Illhoof down on our 3rd ever attempt, and might've on the 2nd had Yours Truly not discoed halfway through the fight. Once I got back in, X-perl was totally jacked, and healing was a disaster, because Clique didn't reload properly either. We've had a nice long run of useful stuff dropping from midway thru the instance. Other than the boots off Moroes, I don't think there's much of anything that i can really use from the frontside of KZ. (I'm discounting the healing mace from Maiden, because the one off Prince trumps it. If we can ever get it to drop, then one of us is going to be sitting pretty till the other finally comes on Malchezzar). Maiden is going to suck once they bump Blessing of Sacrifice to a 1min cooldown. Yuck.

All things considered, however, it looks like CCC is the real deal, thankfully. A month of running together and we've cleared the whole place, save Nightbane and Netherspite, I believe. Hoof's presence is still sorely missed. :( I can totally understand his need for sleep, though. He's probably the only person in a long time that I've raided with that knows the pain of a similar schedule to mine. Of course, Mrs. Hoof and Hoofling complicate his picture for obvious and far more responsible reasons, but still...

Vanity Plate

2007-07-10T08:15:00.000-04:00

in the interest of disclosure, (but to keep the smoke down), I'm simply going to state that Chutes, Lucy, and Amp are no longer members of The Pod People. It was a difficult decision to make, but I arrived at the conclusion that my individual goals and the general direction I was heading wasn't one in the same with the guild.

That said, Echuta still hasn't settled into a guild and likely won't any time soon. Amp is right at home under the benevolent but strict reign of the Princess of Fire Mages in The Burn Clinic, and Lucy is mistress of her own domain. Before getting the tiger mount in ZG the other night, we've been joking that certain things we say on Vent just sound like they'd make perfect guild names. As a matter of fact, it's been a longstanding joke among all of us that we've had great guild names, but were always with TPP, so there was no interest in losing all of those benefits and community just for a clever guild name. All that said, though, you have to admit that there's some poetry and beauty to beating down somebody in the BGs and their friends tell everybody that dude got effed in the A by somebody from «Alcoholic Death Muppets»...

Circumstances are much different for many of us now, so given the chance to splurge on a boutique guild tag, I decided to go for it. Based on the unmitigated carnage that was handed out in that ZG run, the other night, I'd commented that Chad and Zach had pulled so many tigers that it was like "Siegfried and Roy's wet dream," when Thay looked at the broken tiger carcasses and asked, "What? Tiger porn snuff film?". That was a definite "Save That" name, but Ren astutely commented that there's little chance at getting away with "Porn" in your guild name. Dammit. The absence of numbers also means that you can't do «Tiger Pr0n Snuff Film» either, so we were thinking «Tiger Prawn Snuff Film». Only afterward did I think that that was a wonderful euphemism/reference to killing gnomes, too. But alas, it still didn't have that je ne sais oomph.

A few days later, we were discussing an upcoming Kara run for Team Fire Engine, and I was telling Zach that I wasn't sure if there was a conflict between running that evening between that and the CCC run for KZ where Lucy heals. "Don't make me take back the tiger...," he joked on vent. My response was "zomg, jungle cat repo!"

And so «Jungle Cat Repo» was born. Orange tabard. White kitty on it. Life is good. Some people leave their folks to start a raiding guild. I left mine to make a riding guild.

You've Got Mail!

2007-07-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

While I'd rarely kept many secrets about decrying the paladin class, in general, throughout my WoW career, it had always fascinated me to see to what "depths" Holy pallies would "descend" just to get +Healing gear. Pallies in cloth and leather weren't uncommon, and since they were unavailable to the Alliance, shaman weren't ever a factor, so when there'd be a random piece of +Heal chain mail dropped, it was as good as the paladin's that wanted it. But for someone that could wear all four armor classes, if they weren't wearing the highest, then that cloth or leather piece was obviously ill-gotten. Made me want to grab them by the metaphorical lapels and slam them up against a locker. You know, get all Jack Bauer on them: "Who was the poor druid or priest that was gypped out of their healing gear, just so you could feel adequate, Warrior of Light???" As I leveled Echuta through The Burning Crusade, I remember a litany of swear words whenever I'd go to turn in a long quest chain that culminated in a group quest where the reward was hidden from sight- (tucked neatly away into 3 more steps of the chain which were rarely more than standing right where you were and talking to the same guy again and again)- and finding that the reward for plate wearers was +dmg/healing, rather than strength, stamina, or defense. Once I began to level Lucy, and Outland became more and more of a realistic destination, I vowed never to become THAT pally- the one in the back with all the scavenged gear. I knew for a fact that there was more than enough +dmg plate out there that there'd never be a need to downrank my armor class.

And I was right. From a certain point of view.

It looks like Blizzard overcompensated for the fact that you don't really find any +spell dmg/healing plate until lvl 60 in WoW 1.0. What they neglected to do, however, is supplement that with straight +healing plate at level 70. I mention all of this because Lucy got her first two epics in Karazhan, the other night. They were both Restoration shaman drops- chain mail. I had to make the decision of whether or not I was going to violate my stern paladin principles (LOLZ) and become THAT paladin. We had 4 priests, so they certainly couldn't use them, and they were clear and present upgrades over the green "of Healing" pieces that I had. Maulgar, the other night, proved to me that AC hardly matters in the healing world, because I was still getting Pyroblast one-shot by one of the ogres, plate-be damned. Might as well take the upgrades any way I can get them, at that point.

It dawned on me, though, that while it was easy to hate on the pallies in a general, prejudicial sense, I never stopped to think about what you do when you're forced with the realization that just because you might love healing with this class, that doesn't mean that Blizzard is going to play nice with drops for your particular class. The more I've looked into it, the more I realize that the only specs that got shafted more than the Holy paladins in the pre-expansion world were the Retribution and Protection ones. All of the +dmg plate you see once you arrive in Outland is Blizz making amends to not giving the players of the class the tools they needed to succeed.

Put a tiger in your tank

2007-07-02T10:43:00.000-04:00

So we're working on some quests the other night, and I say to Zach, "You know, there's no reason why we don't go into Zul'Gurub every few days and farm the hell out of Tiger and G'hazranka to get the mount and the turtle book." He decides that that's precisely what we ought to do, so we take 16 people (all but 2 70s) in and raze the place. Bat goes down in a minute and a half, Snake's adds get AoE'd down while Thay tanks him in the corner. Spider's webs are resisted by most everyone, and we tear her a new one. Bloodlord was interestingly tough (comparably) but he got clobbered, too. Panther got the luxury of vanishing once, and then it was lights out. Ghaz'ranka had no turtle book, but he knows no pain, now.

Jin'do needed a second attempt, but everyone was cool with the fight once they saw the mechanic behind it all. It would've been nice to have done that back, before TBC, but the thumb-sucking set wouldn't hear of preparing for the fight and working up a targeting macro to hit the Shades, totems, and then Jin'do. (Granted, we didn't do that this time, either- but then again, superior firepower cures a multitude of sins). Even Hakkar only got through 2 life drains, and then that was all she wrote for ZG.

Oh.

Wait.

What about Tiger?

That's right. That one went a little sketchy, thanks to the fact that we let Lor'Khan get off a heal just as we were bringing everyone together to be dropped at once. Somehow we got her back down from 50%+ within the time limit, but Thekal got rocked, and when the smoke cleared, the Swift Zulian Tiger was left in the rubble. I've seen 2 on our server. The first was the one stolen from Cicle by Paradoxmage, and I just saw a gnome on one, not long ago. As with all drops, we passed then rolled. Alusara started the rolls with a 96. Hell yeah, Blood Elf on a tiger.

/bask

I am now the John Madden of Outland. I'm not flying anywhere I don't have to, and even then, you've gotta spike my milkshake like they did Mr. T on The A-Team. I'm going everywhere I can at sea level, now.

Think Pink

2007-05-29T20:17:00.001-04:00

Well, after quite a bit of a break from blogging, (and even a short one from the game), it's time to come back with another WoW update. Two and half weeks into TBC, Echuta hit 70. After that, the Trolls and I worked on getting our Karazhan keys, and thanks to what many in the game have dubbed "The Karazhan Effect," after fits and starts at getting a competent group together, many of us promptly stalled out in our interest in the game. Not totally, mind you. No, rather it was more of a misplacing of the drive that has been pushing to play Warcraft to the exclusion of every other game out there. In the interim, those of us in the Troll Patrol rolled alts. Blood Elves, specifically, and although I have no idea what possessed me to do it, in addition to Ysalamiri (warlock), and Sacrosanque (priest), I also decided I was going to force myself to find out what the fracking big deal was about playing a paladin. Thusly, Alusara was born.

The reason I say "force myself" is because if you are anything like me, you know how absolutely infuriating it can be to face a paladin in PvP. (This is assuming, of course, that you have the sense that God gave a goose, and play Horde. By now, even if you are one of those filthy heathens on the other side, you have run into a Blood Elf or two wearing plate, and know exactly how it feels to get hit with that goddamned hammer of justice. Suck it, Trebek). As I began to level Lucy, I came to the conclusion that it was not the class that I despised, but rather the way that people played it that made them the focus of my wrath. Dwarf paladins, specifically, I found are the most brazen cowards in the game. That's not to say that I haven't shielded myself when low on health in a BG, then healed myself up to full, but I've spent enough time as a warrior and a mage in the battlegrounds to know that dying is an inevitability, and it only means you get all your mana back. My expectations for myself were extremely low, given the fact that heretofore I'd never leveled a healing class higher than 23. (RIP Islero).

The intention in the back of my mind all this time has been to spec Lucy for healing. This is sort of a gimme, since Echuta is my tank and Amp is my DPS/PvP character. That said, though, I've always wondered what a paladin could do when they were spec'd for tanking and placed in the hands of a capable tank. I realized that I could sit around and play theorycraft all day, but wasn't ever going to get an answer to my liking until I did it myself. It's the very same question I've always had about a feral druid, but even I'm not masochistic enough to go through that massive suck-fest to try. Nexu lived to see bear form and level 11, but that 10 minute flight from Moonglade to TB has got to go!

Flash forward two months from the start of the characters, and Alusara, Lilsqueak, Icindra and Kroln are now 70. (The cow is an honorary Blood Elf, and Lollipopman is quickly en route to the level cap, athough Ythia is there now. Overachiever). Lucy's /played to 70 was 14 days, 16 hours on the nose, pretty much. I don't know Echuta and Amp's times exactly, but I do believe that that was about 2 days less than 'Chutes' ding 60 and only slightly longer than Amp's. But to 70. I know that it was just over 9 days to 60 with her. That was a new personal record. At any rate, we cruised straight to the top with them, only pausing briefly for a few instances and some of the must-have gear pieces, but other than that, never darkened an instance door after Zul'Farrak till Hellfire Ramparts. Knowing how unbelievable the gear was in Outland, it was in our best interest just to quest grind to 58, and hit the Portal running as soon as we dinged.

It was at approximately 68 that the doldrums hit. The 2.1 patch noted had been out for several weeks and it seemed that much of the malaise that had hit the game from the onset of version 2.0 until the release of The Burning Crusade was back, in microcosm. The forgiveness curve seemed a bit too steep for the heroics, and the issue of a 7 day lockout on Karazhan threw all manner of logistical nightmares into the usually fluid group formation within TPP. (Many of those woes are still being expressed, mind you, but after a healthy dose of the officers urging the less proactive members of the guild to be the answer to their own, fervent prayers, it seems to have died down now that everyone sees that the KZ keying process isn't rocket surgery. The BC keying chart is daunting, to be sure, but once you've experienced much of it, it's not nearly as bad as it looks).

Spurred on somewhat by my ravenous consumption of 1UP.com's stable of podcasts, (Legendary Thread, 1UP Yours, GamesThe Sc for Windows, and The Retronauts), I took on the challenge laid out between Luke (The Scarab Lord) Smith and one of the other casters and tossed in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to see how quickly I could defeat the first boss. Luke's time to beat was somewhere along the lines of 21 mins. 19:31 bitches. That scant 20 minutes was enough to whet my appetite for SotN once again, though, and by the time I had to pick up Luke from work, 7 hours later, I had cleared the first castle. The next few days saw me defeat the evil wizard Shaft and the reverse castle, and all was right with the world.

Still not quite ready to deal with the more morose part of endgame (HAHAHAHA), I decided that it was time to go back and check out San Andreas, given the fact that I hadn't ever played it much longer than about two hours. I realize that that admission is the geek equivalent of never having seen Star Wars, but it's hardly like I care. Here's the quick rundown: Halo 2 comes out, and Mel pitches a fit that I'm going to be home to play it the first day. Having a GameFly subscription, I go ahead and make sure that I get San Andreas and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal for the PS2, in the meantime. UYA is such a phenomenal game that I don't really want to play Halo that much, after all. The XBL interface was still buggy as hell, and there wasn't a lot of multiplayer going on. By the time I finished R&C, we were in the midst of buying the house, moving, etc, the holidays, ad nauseum. Mercenaries and Halo 2 were next on the list of stuff to play. Shortly after that, Jason introduced me to WoW, and there you have it.

Long story longer, two and a half years of consistent Warcraft is enough for much of anyone to reach their breaking point and need to come up for air. Now that Memorial Day is finished, and folks' schedules are going to be opening up more, it's easier for us to get a full run in KZ together. Over the holiday weekend, I made +1700g on the AH, and was able to get Echuta's Swift Red Windrider and lvl 300 riding skill. It took burning through every crafting mat I had stockpiled, but at least I'm done with it. So far, it's been worth every red cent. (280% mount speed is screaming). Now to get the money for Lucy's. I have no idea what I'm going to do with Amp for his mount, as his money will go towards her epic training. I'd love to think that the Netherwing mount is reasonably attainable, but these quests are a massive pain in the ass. Daily quests for the block, Chuck. At least it keeps the retards from just grinding it out. It's not a case of Turtle Wax, but as consolation prizes go, it's a nice one.

Hammer and Cycle

2007-05-10T19:24:00.000-04:00

Non-WoW Alert!!!

Cycling tip #314

When setting out to ride, turn around BEFORE you get tired. If you wait until you are ALREADY tired, then you are no more than halfway back.

Slash frown.

Victory!

2007-02-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

First video card RMAed and received back from eVGA. Here's the beauty- I sent them a 256 Mb GeForce 7900 GT CO (factory overclocked). They don't make that card any longer, so they send me the straight up 7900 GT, but in the 512 Mb variety. Hotness. One down, one to go. It'll just be nice playing WoW without having constantly to go into the Video Options menu and cycle thru turning Triple Buffering and Vertical Sync on and off like some disjointed superstitious ritual. The memory on those 7XXX cards were crap (an eVGA first, I might add), and they eventually would reach a point of total disrepair. Constant tearing, artifacting, crazy background pixelization on your desktop, etc. This new card hadn't come at a better time. It was bad last night, but when I got home this afternoon to start questing in Shadowmoon Valley, I launched WoW.

And the whole damned computer restarted.

I found this to be quite odd. So I launched WoW again. And it black screen restarted. Again. UPS dude got here at 7pm tonight with the new card. Put it in, fired up 3DMark06, ran it a few times to stress test the card, and proceeded to log into Carbonite and clear my mailbox. Warrior needs sleep, badly.

Queue, Queue N00b!

2007-01-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are. Nine hours away from the opening of the Dark Portal, and the launch of The Burning Crusade. It's weird to think that after all the hype, speculation, and stomach acid, it's finally here. (Not that my copy of the game will be, mind you. Mine ships tomorrow and for what I paid for shipping from Gamestop, it better fracking well be overnight. (A quick check on their website shows that yes, indeed, it will be overnighted. Bastards).

Over the weekend, many Pods foretold of gloom and doom, calling out the presence of login queues on a Sunday night, etc. (This isn't a rare occurrance). Christy was telling of strange people requesting water from her, in Orgrimmar. While that isn't unusual, they were *gasp* PAYING her for it. Formerly honorable players coming back to the fold after a long sabbatical, to be sure.

And so the wait is on, to see whether or not we have +1000 person queues, and whether or not the authentication servers curl up in the fetal position and softly sob to themselves in the corners. Blizzard ran afoul of the players yesterday by trying to edge out the 2.0.5 patch overnight Saturday and to be succinct about it, the servers flipped the fuck out. It will be interesting times, no doubt.

Because of the high population on Whisperwind, Blizz opened up free character moves to Ravencrest, a new PvE server. This invitation was to us and 4 other servers. Because I already had a few names reserved for TBC, I was maxed out at 10 chars, so I took this opportunity to move Gamorr, Elunatique, and Varice there. With Varice having been my very first character, and first 60, I couldn't bear to think of deleting him, whether I play him anymore, or not. I shared this idea of space saving with the Pods, and I believe that many are following suit. Renatta has even been kind enough to start a guild Hordeside over there, so our poor abandoned children don't feel so lonely.

As TBC strategy begins to become relevant, I finally settled on taking Echuta to 70 first. Given the sheer volume of experience that I have tanking, and the time investment on his gear, the guild as a whole will benefit the most that way. Let there be no doubt that we will likely be taking our alts thru the portal, too! I'm sure that once we get some of the HFC fights down, Amp will see some non-BG action VERY soon.

Damn You, Kenny Loggins!!!

2007-01-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

***Warning: No Warcraft content in this post. You can go about your business. Move along***

Dear God, I loved Top Gun back in the day, but this? This is comedic genius.

Blood God Damned

2007-01-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

So we go back into ZG, last Tuesday. Early shift suffered a bit from being over-warriored, an issue we've had before. We got Bat down, but had some issues, otherwise. We'd lead off on Panther, in an attempt to kick start a clear to Hakkar. Unfortunately, we weren't able to seal the deal on her. Late shift gave Spider and Venoxis their marching papers, and we left the two cats for Early shift Thursday to sort out.

The interesting thing about our new warlock "cage tank" approach to Panther, is that it really has proven to take a Destruction lock to wrap up the panthers that spawn from the cages. Unless you have a mage in lots of high AC, +Stam PvP gear. Where on earth would we find such a thing?

Hmmm...

Two attempts on Panther (one for learning that when AOE caster gets marked, somebody else needs to handle said Area of Effect) and she was toast. Despite our best efforts to prevent it, Mewgai was on his druid when the Will of Arlokk dropped. Crazy mad props to him for finally being able to land just the second one of those that have dropped! An additional attempt on Tiger, and the path to Hakkar was clear! And it hit right at the shift change. Late shift wanted to see about doing Bloodlord as a warmup. Mandokir crumpled like a limp dishrag.

Now, it's important to realize that there were less than half a dozen of us that were there for Sunday's takedown of Hakkar. The group was willing, and we had nothing to lose at that point. The clear of the pyramid was impeccable. As I told Zayd, in recap, when it came to clearing the Blood Priests and co., it was "a level of sheep veneration not seen since the Scottish Isle" :D

This was Hoof's run, but he'd requested that Zarjani and myself handle the explanation of the fight. Z gave the rundown of what to do with the Sons, and I dealt with Hakkar, himself. Luckily, some of the return Pods from Sunday, were myself, Zarjani, Hoof, and Yeovil. (Yeovil was responsible for the uber-hawt tanking and pulling of the Sons of Hakkar to position them for the kill).

I'd brought Amp for the clear of the whole instance, but again, I brought in Echuta to help do the heavy lifting on tanking Hakkar. Immaculata was kind enough to donate a Flask of the Titans to myself and Hoof, on Sunday. Since I logged off Echuta after downing Hakkar Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still had 1h 25m left on my +1200 hp buff. Hotness.

In the interest of keeping it brief- A totally different group of Pods took this bastard down. Having a few of us who'd just done it earlier on in the week was just the feather for Dumbo to clutch onto. Well done Pods. Another fine victory!

PS- I got my Bloodsoaked Legplates. Only the Aegis and Mandokir's Sting left for me from the ZG gift shop.

Cut to the Chase

2007-01-02T18:12:00.000-05:00

Dear Lord, this is so much faster!

Here, you can be clever too. Colbert Report On Notice Generator.

Auld Lang Sign Here, Please

2007-01-01T23:37:00.000-05:00

Hakkar.

Dead.

New Year's Eve 2006.

Finally.

Picked up new Panther strategy, too. HoTted warlock Hellfiring the Bejesus out of the panthers sans cage tanks FTW. It was a beautiful two days for the Pod.

Ho, ho, ho! Dot, dot, dot...

2006-12-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, everybody!

I hope it's been a good one. I know that I've been remiss in posting in forever, and the goal is to get back into the swing of things. I've got a number of drafts on some aspects of the game that have been written, just not gotten off my Blackberry and onto here. In my world, I've been writing on a semi-regular basis, but if it just doesn't make it here, then it hardly counts, now does it?

For those curious, here are some headlines:

Amperage Hits 60!
Pods Pwn Face in New BG System
Pods Defy Odds; Assemble Premade Defense in Alterac Valley
Burnin' Down the House: Amp Specs Fire
Lighting the Chip on Your Shoulder: Getting Your Warlord Shoulders in a Week
Sneaking Your HWL Spellblade Thru Airport Security

More as I try to decide whether or not I can live with this new version of Blogger.

Happy New Year!

For Whom the Bell Trolls

2006-10-18T01:20:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-17T16:58:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-17T16:16:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-10T14:53:00.000-04:00

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.

Treasured Chest

2006-09-30T13:34:00.000-04:00

Not that I entertain any illusions that anybody truly cares, but I did realize that I've been a bit lax in my account of my progression as a gear whore, throughout my career in WoW. Since our organized raid efforts have been focused on Molten Core, these last two months or so, we have picked up a Tuesday evening and Sunday morning set of jaunts into Zul'Gurub. A few weeks ago, we happened to tear Mandokir a new one, and I was fortunate enough to pick up Bloodlord's Defender, a longstanding aspiration of mine. For those of us who had been particularly jacked up on Mountain Dew, post-MC, we've also headed back into the jungle for a few quick kills on Venoxis. I prodded Eloysiar to come with us, one week, in spite of the fact that he really wanted to go to bed. Many, many times, he has gone to ZG and seen Fang of Venoxis drop, but has always been a bridesmaid when it came down to the rolls. Well, this one week, he came largely against his will, and lo and behold, not only did it drop but he got it. Well done, man! I was terribly pleased to see you finally end up with that.

Last night was no different. Bytes was foaming at the mouth to try to get Venoxis down, so we went back again, minus any other warriors and with zero priests in tow. We had more shaman than we had sense, and were still 4 people short by the time we got to Ol' Snakeskin himself, but after last Sunday's near takedown of him with only 11 people, we weren't scared in the least. As we cleared the trash mobs on our way to The Coil, we were discussing our respective reputations with Zandalar, and I'd mentioned that I was rapidly losing my advantage I had worked so hard to achieve when it came to Zandalar rep, as I was one of half a dozen Pods that were Revered with them. In theory, this rep preference meant that Infernalbill and/or Agnok would be the only competition for the Primal Hakkari Kossack, should it drop. That would mean that I would be immediately able to cash it in on Yojamba Isle upon leaving, and picking up Zandalar Vindicator's Breastplate for my troubles. That would also mean it has to drop. And drop it has. Twice. Once when I wasn't there. Both times has been off Bloodlord, I believe, and there again is another problem. Mandokir and Jin'do the Hexxer share about a 10-12% drop on this item. All other Aspects have less than a 2% drop off this. The continued complication of the issue is

We've never so much as looked at Jin'do yet.
Mandokir is getting far easier but we're not out of the woods yet.
When we *do* down Bloodlord, it's a very tank-heavy fight and there are always at least 2 other warriors there for competition, save rep requirements we impose for rolls.

Well, short story shorter, we burn down Venoxis with 16 Pods, and the Kossack drops. OMFG. We had zero warlocks, and none of our mages were Revered yet, so it is, at long last, mine. 2.16% drop, says Allakhazam. Wow.

"That's hot."

Stop Dragon My Heart Around

2006-09-30T11:24:00.000-04:00

This week saw the intrepid Pods face Onyxia for the first time. Holy cow, this beast is huge. Doing our usual routine, we had very low expectations for ourselves, and were promptly surprised by how well we did, considering. 50% on the very first attempt, with only about half a dozen of us having faced her before. Phase 2 proved to be a bit tricky, particularly when it seems that the Deep Breath she does is totally dependent on how much particular individuals clump up (or refrain from doing so). Subsequent attempts found that it's possible to get her out of the air without so much as a single deep breath. Napalm Death from above notwithstanding, I'm very pleased with our efforts. Virtually every guide you've ever read is correct: the transition from her being airborne in phase 2, to the MT getting control of her and bringing her back to 12 o'clock in the lair and having sufficient aggro so that the rest of the raid can commence pwnage is so far looking to be one of the most difficult gear shifts in the game.

Through the course of discussion pre-Ony, Thayala, Vespasian, myself, and a number of other high-mileage Pods had determined that our choice of MT was going to be crucial for our success. Much like our first half dozen trips into Molten Core, we were primarily concerned with stacking the odds in our favor. That being the case, there were a number of factors that were involved:

Although this heinous bitch has nothing but fire damage, it is not an exclusively FR-dependent fight. More than anything, it's a +Stam fight. While I have worked to limit the severity of the Stamina advantage that our Tauren warriors have over Yours Truly, for this fight 5% of 6K is still significant.
Familiarity with this encounter was paramount. With only a handful of us having seen the fight before in ANY capacity, (and I was not one of them), I was more than willing to play a support role if it came down to it and we needed somebody that has actually had eyeballs on this fight, again, in the interest of maximizing our chances.
Ves really, really wanted to be able to tank this fight. More than that, he spoke up and asked if he could. Chew on this:

Vespasian is a Tauren.
Vespasian is a warrior.
Vespasian has seen this fight a countless number of times on his human priest, and therefore has a superior familiarity with each phase, positioning, etc.
Much like the Thunderfury discussion in our Warrior forums, I knew how much he wanted to be able to tank this fight.
More than all this, he's a good friend, and a damned-fine warrior. We'd be in good hands.

Everyone else in the decision-making process had asked me to serve as OT, which I was more than willing to do. Truth be told, there was a bit of drama that was to be had when one of our tanks found out after the decision had been made on the MT/OT scenario, particularly for the fact that we didn't do our traditional /roll for MT out of those that were interested. I take full responsibility for the nature of this misunderstanding, because I could've handled the rationale explanation better than I did, and the gaffe is duly noted. In fairness, though, the individual that got up in arms about the fact that we didn't /roll was the same person that was asked to MT the first 3-4 trips into MC without a roll, as he was a Protection warrior, and much like that evening on Onyxia, we wanted to stack the odds in our favor, our first times in there. Those of us that were excluded from the MT scenario in MC at first were hardly put out by the decision. Many of us hadn't been there before, and we were all about maximizing the odds in our favor. So it hardly pays to cry hot, salty tears when the very same decision-making process that allows you to benefit from a largely unanimous concensus doesn't always work in your favor another time. Selective memory FTL.

The number of times that we've actually done this are very, very few. I imagine that headed into BWL for the first time, or for Ragnaros, that we will do the same thing. The results may be the same, or they might be different. I've a fairly confident notion that I'll be involved in tanking Rag, but you never know. I think that the MC boss fights are a bit less complicated than anything that came forward from the introduction of Onyxia. Should the opportunity arise to examine designating a MT for a particular fight, I think that I'll work to steer the group into a more open discussion in the forums in advance, that way everyone's on the same page and nobody gets all menstrual and has to /leave TPPTanks.

There can be much room for pain and anguish for someone that is of the mindset that we are a traditional raiding guild with traditional roles that are filled by a handful of people. We don't have a single MT that gets preference for tanking/FR/1H drops. More often than not, we've never given deference to someone on an item, purely based upon seniority in the guild, or their raid attendance alone. By and large, someone's status in the guild as an officer is totally irrelevant with the way that our classes manage themselves.

(Note that I said that the classes manage themselves. It has been our experience that we have gotten along nicely without resorting to the appointed figurehead of class leader, with there not being any room for discussion among the rank & file members of the class. Back in the ancient history of TPP, we have had a number of experiences where a single person has made unilateral decisions on MT and class leadership roles, and to say that it was unpopular is to throw your name in the hat for the Understatement of the Year award. That's just not how we roll).

Among TPPTanks, are there those of us who have worked to earn the trust and respect of the other class members? Absolutely. I will be right up front that I say that any time one of our own has come to me with a particular situation asking my advice, or requesting my assistance to speak for them or the tank column in general, I am terribly humbled by the fact that they trust me enough to do so. I've never gone to the officers on behalf of our warriors when I was not asked to do so. I suppose that makes me one of several "class leaders" among our warriors, but if that is so, it's never come without the support and endorsement of the group as a whole. If we have warriors that choose not to participate in the social network that we have established, then I suppose that their silence gives assent. (This is, of course, the exact opposite of what they might intend to have happen, but like they say every other November "If you don't vote, you can't complain." And more often than not, those individuals end up complaining still, but there's likely no stopping that, anyway). What must be said, though, is that collective decisions and such never come without the groundwork having been laid to earn the trust necessary to have input.

What folks don't always understand, though, is that whenever someone tries to inject themselves into a situation of "power" without the support of those alongside whom you must work, it invariably doesn't stick, because there is no relationships built among everyone else. At that point, if you happen to co-exist as an officer in the guild and play a particular class, that does not entitle you to a position of leadership within the class. It's like herding cats, at that point. No one is going to listen to you, and even when they do, they're going to be rolling their eyes behind their monitors, and they sure as hell aren't going to take you seriously.

Not unlike the designation of a lvl 2 UD RP character as our Guild Mistress, we try our best to ensure that people understand that titles often are meaningless, and that our grand experiment with handling many things differently than most guilds can go smoothly. As a bottom line, many people just can't handle that. They need to know that things ARE, and for better or worse, they will not change. Better you than me. Follow your bliss and dance if you dig that song.

/target Majordomo Executus
/chicken

Attacking the Darkness

2006-09-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

A metrosexual is a man that is very aware of his appearance, occupies himself with cosmopolitan culture and concerns, and is steeped in having dimunitive Asian women file down their manly rough edges.

There is a new animal out on our streets. They are steeped in the world of the internet, iPods, blogs, video games, scifi and fantasy.

I give you the technosexual.

Earliest Citation: "With metrosexuality, it's about style, fashion, culture, and grooming for the straight male. A metrosexual man may be seen at an NBA game one night and an art gallery opening the next," says Ricky Montalvo, the man who wants to take technosexuals mainstream. "We take it one step further by adding technology. A technosexual man may not need to go to the NBA game because he can get highlights and scores via SMS or by browsing the web on his PDA while at the art gallery."—Katharine Miller, "Enter the Technosexual," AlterNet, March 8, 2004

For the first time in our lives, it's hip to be square.

Those of us who are caught up by everything that technology has to offer are in an interesting position, these days. A position of honor, some times. A position of power, others. Respect and deference are given today when not long ago, it was preceded by contempt and ridicule. You see, possibly the greatest subtle transfer of power that we've seen in generations has occurred, and many people don't even realize it.

You may have been Mister Popularity in high school. Miss Thing in your college sorority. You may very well have that same teenage mojo working to this very day, and chances are if you do, you are currently or have recently been beholden to one of the geeks of high school. May not have been anyone that you went to school with, personally, but somebody in your Grand Brotherhood of Suave used to poke fun of the IT guy that just saved your ass by recovering that Powerpoint presentation you were scared to death you lost. He was *somebody's* geek, and he's your hero now. Yeah, your SysOp is awkward, and mousy compared to the bronze-skinned, six-pack abs, cheerleading standard you were taught to hold up. Yet there is a place in her universe where she is feared and respected, and that perspective is wholly dependent on which part of her sword is closest- the handle or the blade.

By and large, the geek community has won the cultural lottery. For ther first time in our lives, those of us that were once outcasts are now rapidly approaching mainstream at lightspeed. I'm sure that the dotcommer millionaires helped solidify this acceptance. More accurately, mainstream is coming to us. And we're loving every minute of it.

Some recent activity on the Pod People forums has gotten me back to brass tacks, when it comes to my personal philosophy of being true to one's self. It all started when I told the story of not too long ago when I referred to myself as "Echuta" in a meeting at work. "Ben wants to volunteer for that, I think," somebody said. "Oh, no he doesn't," I replied, "Echuta is tired."

"Who?"

"Echuta. Oh, hell. Me."

"Who's Echuta?"

"I am. I- Nevermind. I was up late."

Over the years, I'd just gotten sick and tired of yahoos that figured they cornered the market on "cool" thinking that whatever they happen to be interested in, be it the stock market, NASCAR, hockey, Oprah, People Magazine, etc. that it's inherently superior to those things that the typical "geek" says and does. The whole reason they can go back online and check their stocks' performance or find out what remote African hole Brangelina are trying to save from itself is because we're the ones that fixed their blasted computer. Or brought their internet connection back from the brink of oblivion. I'd decided that whatever I say and do was going to be my barometer of what is hip, and I'm not going to suffer anyone else's superiority complex just because I get a kick out of folks swinging lightsabers. In my own sphere of influence, I've gradually trained those around me to grant the whole of geekdom at least a second glance as approaching "normal." For their effort, they also know that I'm going to give them the same wide berth that they've been kind enough to afford me. It becomes a relationship of respect. I'm not going to judge what you do, because you know that I'm sure as hell not going to tolerate your judging my interests.

This is why I've gotten so brazen about emailing people in my company "Haha, ded fone," and such, because smug people smell fear. If you hesitate even for a second, when somebody at work asks you what you have planned for tonight- they win. Think about this for a second. If they go first, then they're headed to the movies, or likely going to be watching tv. So they tell you, and out of pseudo-courtesy, they ask you. You have a choice at this point. You could say, "Oh, I dunno. Maybe go do something, or maybe play on the computer." Whatever. You're doing the same thing they are. Now, rewind that exchange, and grab hold of the opportunity:

Co-worker: "I think I'm going to get caught up on Desperate Housewives this weekend. What are you doing tonight?"

You: "I'm getting together with about 40 folks in my Warcraft guild and we're going to continue marching through the underground lair of Ragnaros the Firelord, pwning everything that moves."

Your plans are inherently more exciting, just talking about it. Even if they have no clue what Warcraft is, they're left with the impression that you are going to be having far more fun. Granted, it's not a competition. The thing to keep in mind, is that everybody's a geek about something. Yes, by many standards, we have stereotypical geek interests, but there's no reason to go silently into the night with it.

Here's your homework for next week. Nope, start today. There's still plenty of time. Greet somebody at the coffee machine with "Zug zug" one morning. Toss in a "Dark lady watch over you" as you wrap up a chat with a co-worker at their cube. Give your best friend a "May your blades never dull" when they get ready to hang up the phone. There's no need to be obnoxious about it- just let it flavor your interactions with other folks. It's already part of who you are, now spread the love. If the stigma is ever going to end, then it starts here, and it starts now.

Pwn up to who you are.

_________________

Revenge of the Bloodninja

2006-09-14T14:50:00.000-04:00

Bloodninja is a fictional character made famous by his chat logs from the early days of teh intarweb. A total dork to the last, some of the more famous exchanges are from his lame-ass attempts at RPing his way through trying to cyber. I'll have my own shtick back up in no time. I just keep reading this and laughing my ass off.

WARNING: Non-Pod Language Follows

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?

BritneySpears14: Aight.

bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.

BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.

bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.

BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.

bloodninja: Me too baby.

BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.

bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.

BritneySpears14: Hey...

bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite.

BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.

bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty F*ck of the Beyondness.

BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.

bloodninja: Don't f*ck with me bitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.

BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece of ****.

bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?

-------------------

bloodninja: Ok baby, we got to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep it ready for you.

j_gurli3: thats ok. ok i'm a japanese schoolgirl, what r u.

bloodninja: A Rhinocerus. Well, hung like one, thats for sure.

j_gurli3: haha, ok lets go.

j_gurli3: i put my hand through ur hair, and kiss u on the neck.

bloodninja: I stomp the ground, and snort, to alert you that you are in my breeding territory.

j_gurli3: haha, ok, u know that turns me on.

j_gurli3: i start unbuttoning ur shirt.

bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't wear shirts.

j_gurli3: No, ur not really a Rhinocerus silly, it's just part of the game.

bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They f*cking charge your ass.

j_gurli3: stop, cmon be serious.

bloodninja: It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to charge your ass.
bloodninja: I stomp my feet, the dust stirs around my tough skinned feet.

j_gurli3: thats it.

bloodninja: Nostrils flaring, I lower my head. My horn, like some phallic symbol of my potent virility, is the last thing you see as skulls collide and mine remains the victor. You are now a bloody red ragdoll suspended in the air on my mighty horn.
bloodninja: Goddam am I hard now.

--------------

BritneySpears14: Ok, are you ready?

eminemBNJA: Aight, yeah I'm ready.

BritneySpears14: I like your music Em... Tee hee.

eminemBNJA: huh huh, yeah, I make it for the ladies.

BritneySpears14: Mmm, we like it a lot. Let me show you.

BritneySpears14: I take off your pants, slowly, and massage your muscular physique.

eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.

BritneySpears14: What the f*ck, I told you not to message me again.

eminemBNJA: Oh ****

BritneySpears14: I swear if you do it one more time I'm gonna report your ISP and say you were sending me kiddie porn you f*ck up.

eminemBNJA: Oh ****
eminemBNJA: damn I gotta write down your names or something.

Here's the whole bloodninja archive, if you thought that was funny.

Back in the saddle

2006-09-12T22:01:00.000-04:00

Urgh. Gotta find out what the hell is up with my computer, lately. Second Blue Screen of Death this evening. I may have to circle the wagons on my mp3s/pics, etc, and just reformat the bastage. Lord knows that it wouldn't hurt. The annoying thing is that I'd just begun to hammer out some of my very late commentary (my apologies to anyone who's checked with disappointment) when the BSD struck again. First column in a week and a half is gone like Alderaan. :(

As I speak, many of the Pods are gallavanting around on Undermine server, rather than Whisperwind, as our beloved home is getting moved to the new server hardware. I can only imagine what sort of mayhem they're unleashing on this poor, virgin soil. I need to check in with them tonight to find out the sordid details. As much as the hardware changeover sucks, this is an integral step in marching toward The Burning Crusade, and it's looking like those of us who were naysayers regarding a Thanksgiving-ish release may be eating crow rather than turkey. Blizzard is in the midst of what they are calling a "Friends and Family Alpha" of TBC. The thing is, you can go to their page and download the game client, right now. Yes, you read that correctly. Here, see? https://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/expansion/downloads/ The rub comes in that you can't actually activate the game without a special code given out by Blizz employees to their, (you guessed it) "friends and family). All in all, though, this is a terribly clever idea, and it is my personal, tin-foil hatted opinion that this is the beta and it's closed like a mofo. Here they make the client available for download, knowing full well that many of us are going to make sure we have it immediately, if not sooner. Then they announce a release date, let you crash their store server at 12:01 am, Day of Reckoning, get your activation key, and you're off and running through the Dark Portal like a TIE fighter with its ass on fire.

Don't kid yourself, btw. This is a massive file. It'll take a bit to download. That done, you can go get the character model viewer, http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/download-19481.html, and I think I installed it in the Interface>Addons folder of either TBC install or WoW proper. Can't remember. At any rate, once it got up and running, you can play with the character modeler. I spent about four hours the other day monkeying around with various Blood Elf characters. It's very cool. Here's a shot of Eloy's up and coming BE paladin, Eloysia. Given their propensity toward magic, I've been tempted to shelf Amperage and hold off till I can do a BE magey-mage, but I'm torn, as Amp is recently a convert to the Church of the Frozen Wrath, and Frost spec is doing him quite nicely, at the moment. Nexu, my druid cub, is finally my highest level druid EVER. Level 11, baby.

MC this week was interesting. I wasn't there Thursday evening, as I was on assignment in Dire Maul for an upcoming TC segment, but the rest of the group managed to pwn Lucifron and Magmadar with 2 deaths, I believe. Better than that, they did it all with 31-35 people. Impressive. Most impressive. It was largely the same with Friday and Saturday, with us doing Gehennas and Garr Friday; Geddon fer shure Sat, and somebody tied our shoelaces together on Shazzrah. We got sloppy on the Lava Packs after skipping Shazz, but we just ran out of time, and it's been a bit frustrating not having a full raid last weekend. We've got some new 60s this week, so here's hoping that we can get the full crew in and get back to business. We've thinned out just a touch since school is back in for many of our players, and other RL obligations have gotten the best of them, as well. Lots of Pods moving from here to there, and that can put a bite into your ISP situation.

In the eternal quest to jack up the FR gear, I was fortunate enough to drop a 100 on Flamewalker Legplates, this week, and all I have to do now is head back into BRD and make a few coffer runs to get the Burning Essence I need for another +20 FR Resilience Libram. That will make the total 263 unbuffed at that point, with my belt, bracers, and gloves being the weak points. I'm to the point, though, that there's virtually nothing I can farm outside of waiting for Dark Iron drops from the guild to get my FR much higher, save that belt from DM Tribute, and that's a crap shoot on the flavor, even when it's there. We'll be closing in on 100 MC epics in the guild, as of this weekend, I'd say. The thing that amazes me is the unbelievable lack of Earthfury gear that we're seeing. No shammy love, whatsoever, and that flat-out sucks.

I was excited to see that we're adding a noon Sunday ZG run, which is going to be the hawtness. Only once a month will it interfere with the Tuesday night jaunt into there. The march to Exalted with Zandalar continues. I'd be there right now if it weren't for the blasted server overhaul. Eventually that stupid chest piece is going to drop....

Beyond a shadow of Redoubt

2006-09-03T11:23:00.000-04:00

Through the course of playing World of Warcraft, most folks will find that there are a few pieces of equipment that catch your fancy, as they are the end-all, be-all item that your particular class needs to do its job. As I have said before, warriors are the most gear-dependent class in the game, so there are a number of drops that you happen to run across when you see someone of your same occupation in the Auction House, etc, and you inspect them. /Cast JawOnFloor (Rank 6). Growing up as a young warrior, the Draconian Deflector was one of these items. This shield eluded me for the longest time on Varice, somewhat out of a spate of bad luck, and otherwise as a function of trying to run Upper Blackrock Spire in Pickup Groups (PUGs), as my guild prospects were slim at the time. (The guildies I had were great, but there weren't enough of us to do our own 15-man runs to get ourselves geared up :( ).

I had the discernment to cast my lot with The Pod People, eleven months ago, and save 3-4 shaky weeks last spring, it has been the best career move I could've possibly made. Other than a run on Kazzak that was terribly successful, and getting snookered into helping some people that were "LF Tank for World Dragons," (Attn. folks- Test of Skulls are NOT "World Dragons." Just sayin'), I've been spared the indignity of having to endure PUGs since I rolled Echuta. The night Roxilox and I dinged 60, in June, we were in UBRS with the Pod, and I was fortunate enough to have the Draconian and my Breastplate of Valor drop on the same run. It was quite an evening. As I've eluded to in previous posts, however, you will be hard-pressed to find a single piece of tank gear that has the word "Valor" in it. That being said, the prudent warrior must tirelessly research his options, and chart a course through many of the dungeons in the attempt to have himself properly geared as to avoid giving his healers an aneurism.

In keeping with my habit of making sure I identify some of the more elusive pieces of armor, I have tirelessly ventured into Dire Maul North in an attempt to secure the Redoubt Cloak, considered by most to be the best blue tanking cape in the game. Here's the lowdown for those not familiar. As it were, if this drop eludes you after many Tribute runs, there is an excellent alternative in the meantime, but you'll have to chase down a tailor that's been doing that same Tribute run. Cloak of Warding can be crafted from a tailor pattern that is in a chest when you free the goblin that is chained up beside the freeze trap that captures Guard Slip'kik. (Alevica on Whisperwind made mine. She's the bomb). The item that frees him is the Gordok Shackle Key, and it is pretty much a random drop from any ogre in DM. Sadness. At any rate, the loot that comes from the Tribute chest at the end of the event is some of the best in the game that you will have access to, prior to heading into Molten Core. After about half a dozen aborted attempts at Tribute runs, and 4-5 successful ones, I finally landed that blasted cape. One more check off the list. Subsequent runs will likely be for the Fire Resistance flavor of Elemental Plate Girdle, but I was able to land the Shadow Resistance version yesterday. That'll still be handy in the fights against Lucifron and Gehennas.

Vive la resistance!

2006-09-03T11:21:00.000-04:00

The thing that I have been doing the most this week is working on getting my Fire Resistance through the stratosphere. I believe that in the last week, I've approximately doubled my unbuffed FR. The Tank Column had its best week ever in Molten Core. Just for those curious, here's a quick rundown, as best my addled brain can recall:

All in all, an excellent week as far as gear goes- for all classes. I just wish the shaman would get some love, now. The Earthfury pieces have been quite elusive. The real tale of the tape comes in, however, when it's told that Harin had actually won the DI Helm, and had ceded it to me because of the FR issue. This was intensely cool of him, and he has displayed some of the most exemplary Pod behavior. The funny thing about it is that any time he's done something selfless like that, he's usually been summarily rewarded through the serendipity of the game. Although I didn't post the drops in order, he didn't secure his Might Bracers till after he'd passed the DI helm on to me. Again, Harin, you are the bomb. (And I don't mean the Geddon kind). You're becoming a top shelf Pod player, and your efforts have not gone unnoticed. :D

Based on the number of Fiery and Lava Cores that we'd been accumulating over the last month, I'd suspected that we'd have our DI Armorsmiths and Flarecore tailors furiously at work to craft some of this crucial FR gear. The hysterical thing about it is that Kristyn orchestrates these crafted drops like a dad at Christmas who "finds" presents elsewhere around the tree that weren't visible otherwise. "Awwwwwwww! Druids! Look what I found!" All of us that have been able to obtain pieces of the FR stuff (crafted and otherwise) have definitely noticed a difference. Geddon and the Lava packs are the first place you can spot the effect. During the fight with Geddon, I was paying more attention to the resisted numbers in the parentheses than I was actual damage taken. Throughout the inital waves of his Hellfire, I was easily resisting 3/4 of the fire damage, and that is dead sexy.

Through the multiple runs of Dire Maul to get the Redoubt Cloak, I've ended up with 2 Librams of Resilience. The nutshell on these is that when you take them to either the library in DM North, or to the Blood Elf at Flame Crest in Burning Steppes, and gather the quest mats, they provide you with a gemstone that can be used to enchant a head or leg item with a particular quality. In my case, Resilience is the Fire Resist book. So the Lesser Arcanum of Resilience provides +20 FR to a head or leg item. Since the mats for that enchant are a bit of an investment, I believe that it bears to say that you need to consider the item which is going to receive this benefit VERY CAREFULLY. It's pretty much accepted that these books should only be used to enchant epic items. You don't have to, but like Chris Rock says, "Just cause you can do it, doesn't mean it's to be done." Now, for those playing along at home, you saw that the DI Helm is +35FR. Now, the lucky troll to receive this item happened to have the +20FR enchant in his bag. Not knowing how the roll on the helm was to go, he had it there in case Flamewalker Legplates dropped of any one of the bosses. Since the helm came into my possession first, and we were about to engage Baron Geddon, it became prudent to convert this +35FR helm into +55FR ASAP.

We went on to pwn Geddon in the face, Shazzrah, Golemagg, and even take down Sulfuron for the first time. It was a great night to be a Pod. We are continuing to rock and roll thru MC. This is Zarjani's breakdown of our 10 trips into MC so far:

Here's a small list of numbers I've compiled over our steps into Molten Core. Please feel free to add any other numerical information that you've collected about the Pod People in Molten Core to this thread.

1 month in Molten Core.

8 bosses downed.

71 epics distributed to Pod People.

Warrior 21.13% (15 )
Mage 14.08% (10 )
Warlock 14.08% (10 )
Druid 11.27% (8 )
Hunter 11.27% (8 )
Priest 9.86% (7 )
Rogue 9.86% (7 )
Shaman 8.45% (6 )

Percent Zarjani has died to Shazzrah when the Pod People beat Shazzrah 0%
Percent Zarjani has died to Shazzrah on any other non Pod People raid 100%

So, this week, I was able to obtain the DI Helm, Ocean's Breeze (from the Hands of the Enemy turnin to Hydraxis), Wildfire Cape (thanks to the Pods that helped me get this prior to MC last night. I'm going to try to make the Emberseer runs a regular fixture to get folks' FR up that are interested. Additional thanks to Agnok and Thundermaw for the +7 FR enchants for each of the capes I've gone through this weekend), Dark Iron Shoulders courtesy of Kristyn's "luck" of obtaining the plans. All in all, I've been able to jack my unbuffed FR up to 242 now. That's 302 with a shaman FR totem, and it's looking better and better that once we get to Ragnaros, that this fool will go down.

We interrupt this program...

2006-08-27T10:27:00.000-04:00

... to bring you a special news bulletin.

The Molten Core News Network has just received information that several key assets of Ragnaros' army have been murdered. This weekend, a terrorist organization known as The Pod People invaded and systematically assassinated seven of the Firelord's most trusted accomplices. Among the casualties in their reign of fear and destruction: Flamewalkers Lucifron, Gehennas, and Shazzrah. Also perishing in the assault: Members of Ragnaros' security detail. Magmadar, Garr, Baron Geddon, and Golemagg the Incinerator are counted among the dead. An untold number of Molten Giants, Lava Surgers, Core Hounds, and Lava Packs are unaccounted for. A late night attempt was made to include Sulfuron Harbinger in their campaign of destruction, but was thwarted by an inexplicable drowsiness that befell the invaders.

Witnesses at the scene report "shiny purple things" having been found amongst the rubble. Others near the location went on record as having witnessed acts of incredible barbarism displayed by the assault force, with one Lava Reaver who spoke on the condition of anonymity tells of the 40-man wrecking crew posing for pictures over the corpses of Molten Core's upper eschelon. A Lava Spawn who is a minor, and must remain unidentified, also told authorities that he saw several Pods severing the hands of the three Flamewalkers that were targeted for elimination. It is unknown at this time, the nature of their intent. A confidential source in Firelord Ragnaros' security detail says that although no charges are pending, Duke Hydraxis is considered to be "a person of interest."

Sulfuron has been notified that he is the last of the defenses before their swath of mayhem swings toward Majordomo Executus. Should they utilize their hideous strength to neutralize Majordomo's influence over the denizens of Molten Core, it is feared that he could be bent to their will and manipulated to summon Lord Ragnaros, himself. If this happens, even the Firelord may not be safe.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast....

Snap, Crackle, Pod

2006-08-25T18:32:00.000-04:00

I'd already begun to mull this column over in my head today at work. It was originally under the working title, "Grace Under Pressure." Having finally been able to sit at my computer and made the rounds of my websites that I usually peruse, I caught Vespasian's rundown of last night's MC run. This is an accurate account of what went down. What catches my interest, however, is the dynamic that happens behind the scenes whenever The Pod People hunker down and decide to make something happen. There are two distinct versions of TPP, and I don't know that everyone realizes this.

In the red corner is the "Love and beer- but mostly beer" Pod. We /chicken all the bosses before we fight them. We stage elaborate 100+ Pod raids on Alliance capitals and perish straightway as we do not consider the implications of zoning 100 players into a hostile environ while the best geared players on that faction are already zoned in and just sitting around doing nothing. When faced with abject defeat in a battleground, we stand at the graveyard and /dance till the 3rd flag cap makes the sting go away.

In the blue corner, however, is the "Eye of the Tiger" Pod. We are lean, mean, killing machines that have honed the craft of our respective classes to a razor sharp edge. We have instances going at virtually every hour of the day. We have a guild culture of generosity, inclusion, and flexibility that borders on legend. When you absolutely, positively have to have it blown up overnight- call the Pod. No, we aren't on the verge of having Naxx on farm status. But coming from where we have in the last year, I'd say that we're doing pretty damned good for ourselves not to have fallen prey to the ailments of guilds that manage to get themselves into Molten Core. The blue corner Pod is the guild that was so intimidated by MC based on its reputation alone. Nevermind the fact that the very first MC runs were done by guilds that didn't have anything going for them other than gear they were able to farm from UBRS/LBRS/Scholo/Strat/DM. Nevermind the fact that once the blue corner Pod set its collective foot in MC, they had successfully cleared ZG to Hakkar, and were picking up epics weekly from there. This is a guild whose combined love for the game is so far reaching that the entirety of the membership actively participates in a constant mental engagement of the game when AFK. They listen to podcasts about the game when at work and at play. They post on the forums in an effort to understand some of the nuances of WoW. They tirelessly research new strategies and plan gearing runs like generals fine-tuning maneuvers. And most of all, in spite of all these overwhelming odds-raping advantages, this is the same Pod that is genuinely surprised when they one-shot three of the first four bosses in Molten Core that they encounter. These Pods put on their pants like the rest of you- one leg at a time. Except once our pants are on, we make gold records.

I've spoken extensively with our officers and raid leaders about what it is like to watch the raid dynamic on our highest notes, and the most sour, as well. According to Thayala, it is a mighty and fearful thing to see us pull ourselves out of the ashes of a boss attempt gone awry and to feel the resolve of the party gel and begin to shift into our Pwnage mode. I'd liken it to the assembly of Voltron, or the like, because once you see the glint at the tip of of that massive, outstretched sword, pity the soul of the business end of the blade. Kristyn has said that there is a detectable energy among the raid when we have set our collective mind to accomplishing a certain goal. The intensity is measurable. When I see this, I hear the Ironside psycho-snap music from Kill Bill, whenever you realize that someone has pushed Beatrix Kiddo too damned far.

Riddle me this: Why is it that with largely the same group of core raiders do we have such a wide range on our raid dynamic? We're all there because we want to be. If so, though, then why the disparity between those that bring their A game and those who seem to need to be led to theirs?

There's nothing insidious going on, but I honestly think that there is an unmeasurable battle of wills that goes on between the red corner Pods and those in the blue. By and large, whomever wants it bad enough will wrest control from the other. Sometimes, the majority has a deathgrip on the momentum of the group and the others will have to pry it from their cold, dead hands. There are also times when the two "factions" have a common goal, and will work together, and God help anyone or any thing that gets in their way. August 4 in Molten Core was one of those joint strike force nights. Last week's Thursday and Friday nights in ZG were clear examples of the Pods that had the Eye of the Tiger, and nothing was stopping them from standing in front of Hakkar on Saturday night. The tragedy, though, is that those Pods that were just happy to be there crushed the spirits of those who had already written Hakkar's obit, but it wasn't an intentional sabatoge. We suffered setback after defeat, after embarrassment through lack of preparation.

Here's the thing. We've been going on about the importance of making sure that we each are at our absolute best, headed into these raids. The officers implored our new (and approaching) 60s to do themselves and the raid as a whole a massive service by seeking the guidance of our experienced raiders and learning the 5-10 man raids, gearing themselves in the process. Somewhere along the way, some of the less sharp of our ranks had taken the notion that we were shoving them out of the door, saying "Come back and play with us when you've done something significant," which isn't the case. I suppose I could see how that were possible to divine from the wishes that we expressed to those that want to see what all the fuss in the big raids is about, but rather than getting the hint to ask for help, many metaphorically crossed their arms, stuck out their bottom lip and sat in the aisle of the store and pitched a fit. They opined that many of us aren't willing to help them do the very things we helped ourselves do.

Stop and chew on that for a second.

Granted, I'm not talking about everybody. Hakkar and Luci have had a massive "come to Jesus" effect on those Pods that have potential to be able to put on their game face and go places. In time, they won't have time to stop and smell the roses, because they're under the heels of their epic boots. These recent converts understand that what has heretofore been assumed to be arrogant elitism is actually the handbook to staying vertical during a boss fight, and they should be commended for it. As for the misinterpretation of our admonitions to focus on gearing and the set pieces as a way to get the "kids" out of the way while we do something infinitely more interesting, one of the core tenets of this falsehood is that those of us who raid regularly have no interest in stooping so low as to bother with BRD or UBRS- that's just silly. We've established the habit of going on these runs, even if it's just to keep our individual group skills sharp.

Oh, that, and WE'RE STILL GOING ON SET PIECE RUNS!!!!!

I don't care who you are, you don't make eight dungeon runs and then you're finished. Thank God and Blizzard that it doesn't work like that. Besides, when we say "set piece runs," some folks don't understand that doesn't necessarily mean that you are looking for your Tier 0 pieces, and that that is going to solve all your woes. This is especially true for the warriors and healers. Depending on your play style, I'd venture to say that these classes are the most multi-faceted, and as a matter of consequence, have the most outrageous gear requirements. I've recently begun the additional burden of outfitting myself with my Fire Resist gear for MC. (Most of this will carry on to Blackwing Lair, thank God, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there). But as for tanking gear, I would like to dispel any misconception that any of that stuff has the word Valor in it. It doesn't. This is where the +Stam, high AC, +Def jazz kicks in. That is a whole other grind from the Tier 0 stuff.

So, new 60s, bear in mind. If you want to have what we have, you must be willing to do what we've done. We will never ask you do to anything that we haven't done ourselves. The good news is that 99% of that stuff- we still do. Hop on board, it'll be fun.

Spec, the Final Frontier

2006-08-22T17:35:00.000-04:00

Well, the cat was finally out of the bag, the other day, when Sehainne asked in Vent if I was still Fury spec. Historically, I have been known to tell as much of the truth as I can without venturing into "unmititaged frabrication," but there was certainly nothing to gain by not letting my guildies in on my deepest, darkest WoW secret: I finally respec'ed over to Protection.

/wrist

I kid about the drama involved, of course. Varice was Protection, from 58+, but bless his heart, he just didn't have the gear to be cool about it. The guild situation was so precarious on Magtheridon that there was no possible way to get him properly geared to make the most of everything that he had going on. All things considered, when I'd decided to roll a character on Whisperwind to play with this band of misfits known as The Pod People, I thought long and hard about which class to play. From the sound of that first podcast I listened to, I was just going to get eaten by a lvl 12 elite murloc, so it hardly mattered.

I considered resurrecting Ruckuss, my very first Horde character- a hunter from Skywall, then shaman on Shattered Hand, but the name wasn't available. There was the option of playing a caster, but to be entirely honest, that just didn't appeal to me in the least. Besides, Eloy and Kirn were casters, and Cromley was a shaman, so that didn't light any fires, either. I'd pretty much come to the decision to bring Kumite, my troll rogue on Shattered Hand, back from retirement, even getting so far as the character creation screen, reproducing him perfectly. I just wasn't jiving with the yellow facial tattoo set. At this point, I discovered that even bald, you could manipulate the face paint colors by changing hair color, though it not be present. I found a nice blue tint to the skin, and then I ran across a striking complementary navy for the face art, and I was digging it. With the default class for all races being warrior, when you're rolling a new character, something caused me to pause and look at this troll. Did I really want to see about going through this tanking nonsense all over again? Varice isn't even 60, at this point. I was torn as to what I wanted to do. Granted, I I'd just found out that Kumite was taken, name-wise, so there went that plan. I had to come up with a name for this bugger, and given the kindred spirits I'd heard on Taverncast, I figured I'd take a leap and put it all on the table, geek-wise. In this position, it took me about 7 seconds to dredge up a semi-obscure Star Wars reference that was suitable for this troll. Thus, Echuta was born.

As far as character class went, though, I liked what I heard from these guys on this crazy TC show. If I was going to play with these miscreants, I might as well make as good a showing as possible, and in the six months that I'd been playing the game, the only thing I knew to do was to tank. Oh well, here we go again. At least I knew what I was doing, this time, and where all the best drops for my class were. The one thing I promised myself, however, was that I wasn't necessarily going to sacrifice my own enjoyment of the game for stupid UBRS pugs, trying to get my Draconian Deflector. Protection spec was a miserable experience for me, and I wasn't going to get burned like that again. Not unless these folks were worth it. But this was going to be an alt guild, anyway, so it's not like I was even going to see Scarlet Monastery. Good, I won't ever really have to tank. That's gonna rock. I can stay Arms on this char, and everybody's happy.

/grin

The Grasp of Wrath

2006-08-22T14:43:00.000-04:00

Ugh.

With all of the preparations to be made for the guild's month-long foray into Molten Core, I've been farming the daylights out of what Fire Resist gear I can get my hands on. Progressing nicely, however, as I believe I'm at 92 FR, unbuffed. Since Blackrock Spire is home to lots of great drops of that ilk, I've been spending a lot of time there. In addition to the FR equipment, I've also been on the heretofore-fruitless search since level 55 for the Spaulders of Valor. At long last, on lucky UBRS run #13, they finally dropped off Rend Blackhand. Once I get the Helm from Darkmaster Gandling in Scholomance, I'll have completed the entire Battlegear of Valor set, and have successfully converted the first 3 pieces to Heroism, and am in position to start working on the 45 minute Baron Rivendare run, in Undead Stratholme to convert spaulders, boots and leggings. As a result of the tireless UBRS runs, of late, I was also fortunate enough to get together with some close friends in the guild and work on our Onyxia key quest, which I am pleased to report, I have finished on my first character.

Last week in Zul' Gurub was a collection of some of the highest points in Pod raid history, and arguably one of the lowest. I understand that our widely-inclusive nature, lack of DKP, and general, long-haired hippy "Love and beer- but mostly love" approach means that we're not a hardcore raiding guild. That said, that doesn't mean that when we do raid, that we don't want to win. And Thursday and Friday, win we did. We tackled Thekal and Arlokk Thursday night, in an effort to get them out of the way. In a moment of guild history, we one-shot Tiger. Like buttah. No resets, no wipes, no nothing but a dead cat in the middle of the jungle. And left in his wake was nothing less than Thekal's Grasp.

OMFG.

I'd rolled a 78, Sam passed, and Loch came up way short on his. (Afterward, when he found out that this set was the object of my heart's desire in ZG, Loch apologized for having rolled on it at all. I didn't blame him, because he and I don't play together outside of the large raids, so there's no way of his knowing what a big deal to me it was). With 3 of the 4 warriors present having rolled on the item, the last left was one of our junior tanks who has recently dinged 60, and is trying very hard to make a good showing of his participation in our raids, and for that he should be commended. He's a good kid, and puts a lot into his game. He happened to ask over Vent, "Echuta, would you mind if I rolled on that?," to which I responded quite tersely, "As a matter of fact, I would." His next statement was, "Okay. Fine. You know what? Take it." As I have publicly and privately mentioned, after the fact, this was a terribly noble thing for him to do, and I appreciate his forgoing a shot at what is, truly, an unbelievable item. With a 78, I was doing pretty well for myself, but he didn't roll, and I thanked him for it. We've since worked together in a number of instances, and things are fine. Short story shorter, I now have half of the Primal Blessing, and just need the off-hand drop from Arlokk to complete the set.

Nevermind that virtually no one in the guild even knew of this thing's existence, save my incessant pleadings to back the hell off of Bat, Snake, and Spider and please, please, please let's do Tiger and Panther. No one ever gives fist weapons a second glance, anyway. (Hunter weapon!) I had previously made mention among my circle of friends, since respec at 53 that as a Fury warrior, that pair was the only thing I truly wanted from ZG, save the two tank weapons, and anybody that has any desire to MT/OT should be gunning for those. (By the way, Lochzar got the Bloodlord's Defender, Saturday, when we one-shot Mandokir. It was my first time getting to MT Bloodlord, and was Loch right- is he ever slippery!). Here's where I get controverisal. The part of that exchange that I took offense to was the tone of voice and the impudence in his verbal statement, "Okay. Fine. You know what? Take it." Like it was his to bestow upon me. Yes, it was a marked improvement from the weapon he was using. Here's the rub- we're talking about upgrading a 1H from LBRS. There are lots of better weaps from other instances that drop on a regular basis- you have to go to see them, though. Scholo, Dire Maul, UBRS, either Strat. Run any of them, and you're going to find a more suitable 1H for tanking, so he's hardly hurting from lack of prospects. Like I said, things are more than fine now, and there's no harbored resentment on my part. There wasn't any then, either. It's just that I've been running Zul' Gurub since most of our new 60s were in Uldaman. I'm hardly going to consider myself at anyone's mercy for much of anything until I see significant evidence that it is earned.

And that is nothing less than I expect of anyone else, when it comes to dealing with me, either.

Besides, Hakkar taught our up and coming raiders- blinded by visions of 3-4 epic drops, and partaking in the glory of showing up for their first big raid or two and killing this bastard- everything they NEVER wanted to learn about set pieces and gearing runs, Saturday night. He's a rather convincing Set piece salesman, it seems....

Pwn, Pwn on the Ranged

2006-08-13T10:44:00.000-04:00

The steady march of PodPwnage through Molten Core continues at full speed. Friday night we went back and began anew, as Tuesday's server maintenance resets the instance, as always. Unlike Zul'Gurub, which has a 3 day timer, we have a full 7 days to clear this place out. Friday would be the big test as to whether or not the previous week was a fluke, and we just happened to get extremely lucky on 2 boss fights that maybe we shouldn't have. This was not the case. We had a "come to Jesus" meeting with Lucifron and Magmadar, instead of them being nail-biters the entire way through. Only a few people stumbled during Luci (three, maybe) and Magmadar was much easier to keep under control with three hunters on Tranquilizing Shot duty. (And they were rewarded well for their efforts, as Magmadar dropped the Striker's Mark and Giantstalker's Leggings).

We marched all the way down to Gehennas for our first encounter with him. Kristynn laid out the battle plan, and we began. (Note to other Pods: When Rain of Fire starts to fall... FRACKING MOVE!!!1! That's all I'm sayin'...). Because of the lack of familiarity with the fight, we sorta fell flat of our faces in that episode, but we wore this particular Flamewalker down to 31% thereabouts. We were going to make another go of it, but the groups assigned to the smaller adds accidentally aggroed the guards and Gehennas, and they mopped the floor with that group. Not accustomed to looking to see whether or not I was in combat (I was rezzed by someone in the center group, and headed back to my spot), I retreated to where I was rezzed and accidently drug the rest of the group in combat by being halfway in between the two. Whoops. Check out my book, Noob Mistakes, and the Noobs That Make Them. I apologized vociferously to the group, should the error have been mine, but we also realized that Blizzard had modified the boss encounters to bring the entire raid party into combat when any members enter a fight, as to keep priests, etc from hanging out in the backfield and rezzing folks since they were still out of combat. Maybe it wasn't me, after all. That made me feel better, but I still made sure to bring it up. It was late, and we were already over time, a bit; so we called it a night, and vowed to bring the fight right back to these guys Saturday night.

And bring the fight, we did. With Magmadar dead, there was no respawn of the Core Hounds, so that was nice. Made clearing down to where we left off much easier. Here we go, Gehennas, Take Two. Guards go down nicely. Free Action Potion, FTW. Engage the boss, avoid curse and Rain of Fire. Watch ranged group in then distance get oblitterated by a pair of Molten Giants and Destroyers. WTF? It seems that in the heat of battle, somebody managed to wander backward into the aggro radius of two Molten Giants standing at the entrance to Garr's room.

"But Echuta," you might say, should you know the layout of this section of MC, "how is that even possible?"

Oh, it isn't. Dives said it best when he noted, "It's not even remotely f*cking possible." And yet one of our distinguished ranks managed to, nevertheless. This might raise another question as to how on earth I can sound so derisive about someone bringing in adds, when I just said that I might have brought the other group into combat when Gehennas was accidently aggroed. Here's the difference: I spoke up. Whomever this error was attributed to, they decided to weasel out of the responsibility of fessing up to their mistake. The funny thing is that it wouldn't have mattered, had they said something. "No worries," we would have said; "just be more careful next time. In fact, let's clear those mobs once we get our stuff back together and we won't have to worry about it." Which we did. And we took down Gehennas almost flawlessly afterward. What bothers me, though, is the symptom of a larger problem in that individual to where they wouldn't own up to a mistake. Granted, it means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. The boss was killed, and it was only about a 10 minute setback. It wasn't a big deal, but whomever the offending party might have been, it was a big enough deal to where keeping their mistake to themselves and hiding behind the anonymity of the moment was a much more attractive option to soothe their ego rather than just being transparent about their gaffe. Saying something about being responsible wouldn't have rezzed anyone that was dead, and it wouldn't take the sting away from otherwise being able to down Gehennas in one take, but it would have made a world of difference in terms of their strength of character. They walked up to that line and didn't have the fortitude to cross it. I might be being silly for even having the thought occur to me, but that sort of behavior strikes me as being almost insidious in nature. Our guild's culture is one of transparency and authenticity. We love you no matter what, so there's very little someone could do to genuinely garner our collective ire. Looking back, it is pretty funny, but I still find myself taking note of little character flaws like that, even when it's done anonymously.

Possibly the funniest commentary on the incident came from a good friend in the guild who had PM'ed me and said "I don't mind losing when we deserve to lose, but -FUCK!" No lie. Now, all of this being said, that's not to say that I don't have a theory at least to the class that was responsible for it. Oh no, I do. It could be absolutely wrong, and that's fine. This is an op-ed piece, not a newscast, so I can theorize all damned day on it. There was far too much action going on to scroll back through the combat log and see who was first hit by the giants, and proximity aggro wouldn't show up on the log anyway. Even then, it would hardly matter, as anyone that drew damage aggro upon seeing the giants come into groups 3-8 might have been trying to save that group (what a futile effort that would've been :D). Even money says it was a hunter, just because that's what hunters end up doing, many times. I can say this because I've played one. I can't tell you how many times I've been in LBRS, and a hunter in the group has backed up into the orcs just before Smolderweb, trying to get ranged distance to maximize their effectiveness. Those end in wipes, more often than not, too. That's not to say that it was a hunter that did that last night, but I can't think of any one class that would blindly back up like that, otherwise. (We were already onto Gehennas, too, so I don't even know why anyone would be in reverse, either, but it's just another layer to the conspiracy, at this point...).

On positive notes, Sabatons of Might dropped off Gehennas. Lochzar won the roll with a resounding 97. Grats, man. It's about time you won something first :p I didn't even address the fact that we took down Garr in a largely effortless manner. Evidently the addition of the Lucky Charms to the raid interface makes life much easier in that fight. Our warlocks pwned those Flamesworns and we are now 4 bosses in, on MC. Noteworthy loot off him was the Drillborer Disk which Vespasian won. I thought the poor guy was going to have a heart attack. There's no lie, that's one of the best-looking shields in the game. I think it might be cursed, though. He died somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 times after winning the roll. Another 97, too. Well done, Ves. I know that you've had your heart set on that one for quite some time. Across the two evenings we had something like 3-4 BoE Tier 1 pieces drop off trash mobs, and a goodly number of them off each of the 4 bosses, so every little bit makes a difference. I'll be interested to see how we do on Hakkar, this coming week. We've got 3 days in ZG, coming up next weekend. I think we can do him by Friday night, and move on to Edge of Madness/ Jin'do for Saturday. I'd sooner skip EoM, just for now, as that is highly aggravating, and at least from the warrior's perspective, the trinket leaves a bit to be desired. For our casters, Jin'do the Hexxer drops loot equivalent to Bloodlord Mandokir for the melee classes.

Get set up for your attack run....

2006-08-11T19:02:00.000-04:00

Here we go again, kids. Back into MC. We've made "some special modifications" to our raiding calendar, beyond this month, and beginning with September are going to be headed to the 40man instances on our prime-time nights of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This is to maximize raid attendance for nearly everyone that wants to go. Worst case scenario, the inclusion of a Standby list on the signups page on the forums means that there can be an impromptu ZG run that forms from those that weren't able to make it into MC on a given night.

This brings me to an interesting thought, though, and it's one that I've mulled over quite often. RPG Outfitter says that we have 88 lvl 60s. Almost a solid dozen of those are alts of 60 mains. (Agnok, Kristyn, and Shendo being the chiefs of sinners :p) We'll go over the top and say that we have 70 mains. Not everyone can all be on at the same time, but we're looking at 40 signed up and 4-12 standbys. This obviously means that we're good to go for the main group, should someone need to bow out at the last second. In something so large of scope as MC (and upward) it is certainly the case that no one person, no matter how well geared they might be, is going to make or break a raid like this. My concern, however, comes from the question of what happens when our internal publicity becomes so contagious that we have 5, 10, 15 regular raiders that happen to be displaced by the enthusiastic ranks of the newly-minted 60s? Having watched the signup patterns following almost the entire Zul'Gurub progression, I caught on to an ebb and flow of interest based on what sort of success we were having with each boss, down the line. Venoxis' going down was pretty much a given, once I hit 60 and started raiding. Jek'lik was usually taking the entire evening after Snake was offed, and even in my experience, suffered many resets and numerous waves of bats before she fell to us. I was there for the first kills on Bloodlord, Spider, Panther, and Tiger, however, and once we'd take down a new boss, the signups would go quickly for the following week. Thay would have his badass panoramic trophy shot of us standing over the boss, and the interest would be renewed.

We've had evenings where we've taken nearly half of a new group into ZG, and I'm thinking that even then, we were fine. We did Snake and Bat, but managed to stumble on Spider, if my memory serves me correctly. There reaches a point when gearing and experience with the instance surpasses seeing the dungeon with "new eyes' and being armed with a willingness to learn. That's just the way the game works, and there' s nothing wrong with finding yourself on either side of that equation. We've all been there and will find ourselves there again and again with each boss on our progression through MC and beyond.

To be sure, they have every right to sign up for a particular raid, should the signup sheet go up when they're on the forums, but I'm just curious as to the cumulative effect of players en masse that haven't braved the gauntlet of the nightly set piece runs, ZG progression, etc. Would it stand to encourage newer players to follow the path that we have in our gearing discipline? Does it really even matter, given that any boss you take down with 25-40% new players means that the group is going to be better geared one way or the other, coming out of that evening's encounter? I don't believe that this really has everything to do with gear, to be honest, but with warriors being the most gear-dependent class in the game, you might imagine that it's going to flavor my outlook a bit. It's more a function of the team-building and cameraderie that develops when you put your heads together collectively and overcome something sinister and malevolent that wants to eat you, than the drops themselves, but I daresay that the loot doesn't help.

I'm just wondering would it help if we toyed with the idea of setting up some sort of minor league circuit that we encourage the new 60s to be running while they're a new 60? What about an "attunement to 60" phase that lasts for your first month after dinging where you work on the endgame quest chains, do 20 man raids, etc, exclusively before jumping into MC/Ony with both feet? We already have a class-based reservation system in our forum signups. Would a cap on one first-timer per class per run serve dual duty of getting the newer raiders acclimated to our endgame insanity, while keeping a veteran corps largely intact, providing for much smoother sailing for the group as a whole?

I ask about this from looking back at what those of us who have been raiding the UBRS/ZG/AQ circuit for months have done, ourselves. This isn't to buy the existing raiding group time to have our way with MC, or be spared the indignity of explaining a particular boss fight again. It's quite to the contrary. The only reason I would hope that our newest 60s would follow the progression regimen that we have endured is for the simple fact that we've submitted ourselves to it, and admittedly, we've done all right.

I'm likely being paranoid/ overly concerned for the experience of those new to the endgame. At the same time, I'm also very protective of the dynamic that we have going on in our fairly static raid party. Rather than being xenophobic about monkeying with our existing chemistry that we have, I'm far more focused on what we can do to make what we have done so far as duplicatable as possible, allowing us to multiply our successes among our newest members at the top of the food chain.

/Cast EndConcernedBigBrotherRoutine (Rank 7)

Purple Rain

2006-08-05T02:16:00.000-04:00

Wow.

Just wow.

If last night in ZG was an evening when we were off our game, then tonight was the polar opposite. The A game was certainly brought by the PodPwnage crew tonight. To a point, Vespasian and Eloy had mentioned in whispers that NO one handles the trash mobs like we did. Not their first time in, at any rate. Perhaps the beautiful thing is that we didn't know any better. The Pod Tank Column knows what our job is. Our healers are as pro as they come, and the DPS is furious. I heard it said once that people that say that things cannot be done are often interrupted by the people actually doing it. That certainly seems to be the case. We downed Lucifron on the first attempt. Nevermind the fact that we've never encountered him before. Let's not even get into the issue of most of us never having even been to Molten Core, either. Add to all of the inadmissable evidence the tiny detail that we lost 5 of our 6 tanks and a solid half of the raid before Luci got to 50% health, and you have some righteous pwnage to talk about. Ves was the last tank standing, and the healing on him was unbelievable. Don't ask me how, but we did it. The deaths during that encounter were the only ones we'd suffered, save one sporadic bad pull from one of our hunters. (We entirely expected him to pop back up, but alas, it wasn't to be. He was really, most sincerly dead). :(

There had been a bit of "drama" on the guild boards about the fact that Thayala, (in spite of months of running ZG, and even having won a few rolls, but deferring the gear to some other team member who came in 2nd, usually) has yet to leave ZG with one of his Hakkari epics, or any of the epics that drop there, otherwise. We had come to the conclusion that we aren't going to roll on anything else till he wins something. Words fall short of describing how on the money his raid leadership has been, all this time, and it would be nice to see him come away with something for himself, for the simple fact that he's earned it. Well, first off Lucifron dropped the Cenarion Boots. These are the first Tier 1 epics in the guild. Everyone insisted that Thay take them, but he got legitimately upset at this notion, and flatly refused to roll until all the other Druids did. And so they obeyed, and then Thay /rolled. And sucker hit a 100. Vent exploded. More than when we were standing around, giddy with nerves, waiting to get started. And because of the folks in this guild, there was more of an outpouring of legitmate excitement that one of the most deserving members of our officer corps, and someone that has been our fearless leader for many, many incursions into the ruins and temples across Azeroth had at long last been rewarded for his unflagging devotion. Thay's 100 goes down as one of punctuation marks of what makes our guild so awesome. Every guild fights over loot in MC, but only our guild fights over who really should take it.

We burned through the Core Hound packs, since Magmadar was 3 pulls away. We were pretty much riding on a high from clobbering Lucifron, so a good, old-fashioned Pod wipe wasn't about to dampen our spirits, at this point. There was a false start when we got ready to do Maggie, and I don't think our hunters and healers were all on the same page. (Maybe there was a flag on the play; if there was, I didn't see it. It was likely underneath one of the 40 bodies that littered Magmadar's nook of the Core). There's something in this fight that has to do with hitting him with Tranquilizing Shot when he enrages. At any rate, you're supposed to do him with at least 3 Marksman spec hunters who set up a rotation so that somebody's always ready out of the cooldown for it. We had 2. And we took him down, as well. What an amazing evening. 3 epics off Magmadar. It was a great night to be a Pod.

Our priest arm of the pro healing team was rewarded with the Pants of Prophecy, their Tier 1 leggings. Immaculata got those, and as a measure of commentary, she is coming along to be quite nicely geared. Ironically enough, probably the only roll in the history of the guild that will forevermore be as famous as Thay's roll tonight was when we took down the Spider priestess in ZG for the first time, and Flowing Ritual Robes dropped. Imma and her husband Zayd were relatively new 60s, having just dinged together (fitting- as they leveled together the entire time on this server), and when the casters rolled, she was first up. And rolled a 6. There was a flurry of activity from the other casters as they all passed. She was floored, and rightfully so. Tonight's Tier 1 legs were the 3rd piece of epic armor that I've been present to her winning, and it's great to see one of my healers rewarded for being so leet. As a warrior, I've got a very special affinity for our healers, particularly our priests. We have a very special symbiotic relationship. If I don't do my job, they can't do theirs. And if they don't do theirs, I don't live long enough to have one. :D

Ves got an uber-sweet tanking necklace, Medallion of Steadfast Might, and Akando took home a sweet 2H mace Earthshaker. In the interest of full disclosure, I am pleased to say that I also left MC with a goodie of my own. It is my obligation to report that the Gauntlets of Might are now in my possession. This is my first piece of Tier 1 armor, and rounds out the 3 that are now in the guild. Given the fact that we hope to be dropping these 2 punks on a regular basis, I might not necessarily be reporting MC/ZG/AQ20 drop-by-drop, because I hope that we begin to see much, much more of this. So much, in fact, that I anticipate that it will become problematic to chronicle it all. That's a good problem to have, by the way.

We carved a path across Kalimdor afterward, razing in turn, Astranaar, Auberdine, and Darnassus for those of us who were too excited to do anything else with our time, afterward. (Well, maybe not so much Darnassus).
Thay has all the gory details and the ultra smoove PS skills with our boss trophy shots, too. Do it. Do it now.

The Plan-net CORE

2006-08-04T19:59:00.000-04:00

Wow, the eve of the first Pod Molten Core run. I'm extremely excited, and I assure you that the rest of the Pods are, too. After last night's lackluster ZG performance, it'll be nice to see some new scenery. Hopefully, we'll down Lucifron, and begin to see what the big deal here is. It's taken us quite a while to get to this point, but at long last, we're here. Ragnaros is hardly in danger, just yet, but we're good mammals, we'll adapt.

If it weren't for the numbers issue that I discussed in an earlier post (i.e. 20 < 40), I'm sure that we't have been doing MC long ago, but the massive schism that the guild suffered about 3 months ago took about a 1/3 of our 60s, so we were starting from scratch, in essence. Rebuild we did, and are far better for it, now. We've picked up some nice loot from ZG, and that'll definitely help in the Core. I'm sure that there was considerable frustration from those that have been there before, that were stating over and over again that MC isn't harder than ZG in many respects. I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I know that when it comes to the general Pod raiding crew, we have a great chemistry and group dynamic, so we tend to be a bit more resilient to things that might go wrong. As to the ones that preferred ZG to taking a stab at MC based on gearing of the group, it's always important to remember that the very first MC raids went in with UBRS gear and nothing else. That's all there was at the time. Looking at the roster for tonight, I'm only seeing about half a dozen people that aren't in our regular raid rotation- if that. Even gold farmers get to 60, but Pods got skillz.

At any rate, it'll be interesting. Get to see what Core dirt tastes like. New menu items rock.

PS- The final seal has been broken. The moon will turn to blood, and the sky as black as sackcloth as all the stars fall from the heavens. The Horsemen are unleashed on their infernal ride. Grats on 60 Siobhanne!

That man's just a crazy old wizard....

2006-08-02T19:44:00.000-04:00

So far, I've really been enjoying playing Amperage. At long last, I've been able to get the rhythm of rooting mobs, and then nuking the ever-loving hell out of them from a distance, as I am wearing what looks to be a bridesmaid's dress, lately. /sigh Dear God, please let lvl 39 come quickly so I can run Razorfen Downs and get the Robes of the Lich....

Just for grins the other day, Shendo and I were going to run each other's 30-something mages through the Library in Scarlet Monastery to see about getting the Illusionary Rod for each of us. Agnok was kind enough to overhear this, and offered to drag both of us through while he dual-boxed his warrior and priest. Ythia was on Vent and asked what we were doing, and if we needed any firepower to do it. He had Julya, his 51 mage. This was shaping up to be fun. It made for a fast run, and at some point before; I'd used Echuta to do the same thing for Narcissia and Plageuis repeatedly (but to no avail on any of those runs). I'd mentioned to Shendo that when I was the only 60 taking them thru, we'd made it to Doan in about 16 minutes. At that point, the gauntlet was down in his mind, and he wondered how we would measure up. First run was just over 10 mins. Illusionary dropped first time, and since I was half a level from using it, I got the first one. With Amp being out of the race for the staff, it was game on, now. I hearthed back to Grom'gol, and brought the pain with Echuta. Our fastest time ended up being 9 mins, 15 some odd seconds, and that was just blinding. It took a total of 3 more runs to get Shindi's staff, but by the time it was all said and done, we'd done it. The best thing about that one is that virtually every other staff in the game until about lvl 50-ish pales in comparison. Ask a caster friend. I know that they have it.

Commence Primary Ignition

2006-07-31T17:46:00.000-04:00

With my mage Amperage being the first caster I'd ever played, it didn't take me long to learn that Blizzard gives magi many, many crowd control and slowing options for a reason. Abstain from using them at your own peril. Now, coming from a background of a 60 warrior and 40-something rogue, wearing cloth proved to be my undoing over and over. Right from the start in Deathknell, my technique was sound. Frostbolt, Fireball slowed mob, Fire Blast, die.

Wait. That's not supposed to happen. He only hit me a dozen times. I don't understand. Then I look down at the robe I'm wearing and it dawns on me. Slowly. See, in my head, I'm in plate. In many respects, my entire WoW experience has been flavored by hiding behind 6500 AC. At the moment, that couldn't be further from the truth. Dress = dying with teh quickness.

I've dabbled in leveling Amp over the course of nearly a year, taking a bit of a break from Echuta whenever dramatically-appropriate, but for quite some time, I hit patches of mage-malaise. I couldn't get motivated to play him for love nor money. I've had other characters: Missmayhem (46 NE rogue and where I developed my love for the quick takedown), Elunatique (24 NE Priestess and the other half of my bustalicious NE mantraps fondly referred to as The Brass Pole Patrol), 2 x Gamorr (one on WW, and again on Cho'gall- now unified and lvl 32 back on WW), and I've toyed with the highly inaccurate fantasy that I'd be able to make an adequate shaman (Islero, I hardly knew ye). Over the 15 months that I've played Warcraft, I've had many alts, and if she knew the extent of it, I'm certain that Renata would give me no quarter as I tease her about her myriad ones rivaling that of the cast of extras in Ben Hur.

The moment of truth came, however, when I had leveled Gamorr up to within striking distance of Amp's current progress. I had a decision to make. In spite of the fact that I don't know anyone that truly enjoys taking 2 characters through the same area, Blizz makes a point to give players the opportunity to take their toons through radically different, yet equally-scaled areas of the world at the same point in their careers. This effectively allows you to bypass an entire zone, if you truly despise it. For both Horde and Alliance on Player vs Player servers, this desire is often fostered right about the time that one discovers Stranglethorn Vale. That's not to say that Player vs Environment adventurers don't have a hard time with STV, too. The difference is, if a PvE person has a bitch of a time in STV, it's because of the quests, not because of the other faction. PvP servers make it a bit difficult to kill 10 Stranglethorn Tigers while being repeatedly sheeped by some 60 troll mage who is farming herbs, or stunlocked by an NE rogue who decides that they want to hear the sound you make when you die. At the time when ZG came out, I was Varice on the Alliance side of Magtheridon, and the first thing I remember thinking was, "Wonderful. That's the last thing that STV needs, is 19 lvl 60 Horde standing around Grom'Gol looking for action as they wait for the last guy to show up for their ZG run. This will not end well."

As a matter of form, when bringing Echuta through the ranks, I made a point to try this level-around-STV-and-join-the-show-already-in-progess-in-Tanaris method and am pleased to report that it works swimmingly. For the curious, it goes Thousand Needles/Desolace-> Swamp of Sorrows-> Feralas, or your own approximation therein. (Caveat: the downside to taking this approach is that you don't get the numerous quests that net you good rep with the 4 goblin towns of the Steamwheedle Cartel, and I can report from experience that having better rep when standing around the goblin Bruisers when somebody gets froggy and feels like jumping your shiat while they're killing time around Booty Bay or Gadgetzan can pay off bigtime in the long run. Granted, that was on a PvP server, but there is some danger on PvE. The difference is, if somebody manages to get flagged for combat on a PvE server, then they did something to deserve it).

What I needed was a determining factor in choosing which character to progress next, and it hardly came down to a matter of equal enjoyment of the classes (although sodium pentothol would likely reveal a bias toward the hunter, given that I had no rogue in that level range). All things considered, I decided to give Amperage the green light and bench Gamorr for the immediate time being. I would love to level them both equally, but I don't hate myself that much at the end of the day. The guild has been woefully lacking in a wide variety of DPS, in that 90% of it has come in the form of Warlocks and Hunters. Although I love playing my hunter, I also acknowledge that I would be standing in a considerable shadow of the pro critter-killers that we have in the Pod already- not the least of which are (alphabetically) Cimmerius, Guinsoo, and Tuscansalami. My best friend Dagobah has one, too, and with all that competition, it just makes for difficult assembly of groups.

I've been rather vocal in my lamentations that historically, I haven't been a very good mage. As a matter of fact, I'm really bad about breaking my own sheep. I forget that I have Fire and Ice AOE spells. I don't spam Arcane Explosion. It's hardly encouraging as an aspiring nuker. That being the case, I decided to respec. Even after the free respec after 1.11, I was hardly thrilled with the choices I had made. I was all across the board, with enough points in Arcane to get Clearcasting, and was Fire, otherwise. This wasn't cutting it for me, and I figured that I would forgo the 6 tier 2 and 3 points in Arcane and just stick with Improved Arcane Missles. I know that many folks wax poetic about Frost spec, but that usually comes from 60s that raid and don't have to worry about leveling any more. Didn't have that luxury, so I decided to go Fire/Frost. I had heard that it was possible to achieve much satisfaction from what was essentially an elemental build, specializing in either Fire or Frost and eschewing Arcane nearly completely. (I say nearly, because while I'm foolhardy enough to skip Clearcasting, I'm not getting interrupted during Arcane Missles. Screw that).

The oft agreed-upon downside to Fire spec is that it is seen to be largely mana inefficient when compared to Frost. I'm fine with that. I took a long hard look at the AH while I was there and invested in a few pieces that had improved INT and Spirit compared to what I was sporting at the time. In my reasoning, the increased SPI will help reduce downtime in between fights, and the recently acquired skill of Mage Armor will assist in keeping some of the mana regen going through the fight. I headed straight to Arathi Highlands after doing my respec, and Lord have mercy, does this build rock. I might change my mind later, but for the immediate time being, I have chosen wisely.

Evacuate? In our moment of triumph?

2006-07-30T15:34:00.000-04:00

Well, the bell has rung for Round 1 of The Pod People vs Hakkar. We're bloody, exhausted, and somewhat dismayed by the complexity of this fight, but these were merely the opening shots in what will prove to be an ongoing war. The frustration kicks in when we look at the fact that we are going to be splitting our attentions between Zul'Gurub, Molten Core, and the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, depending on the way the raid calendars break down. Our primary concern will continue to be ZG, with scheduled field trips elsewhere to complete Perfect Poison, etc for folks. (All things considered, however, it's a great problem to have, as we have enough people to do this stuff). Bat, Snake and Spider are officially farm status now, so I'm hoping that our upcoming Rumble in the Jungle evenings will be spent taking Tiger and Panther to the cleaners, that way we can potentially wax all five Aspects and Bloodlord across 2 evenings, and free another dedicated night to Hakkar on a regular basis.

In a technical sense, it could be said that we got pwned by that serpentine bastage, but the tale of the tape has more to do with the learning curve and what we were able to discern about the fight. Were this fight to have gone easily, I have to be honest and say that part of me would have likely been disappointed. (There's another part of me that would've rolled on the loot and grin like the cat the ate the canary, but that's a whole other issue). The emotional journey of systematically executing the five Aspect bosses and then clawing our way to the top of that pyramid has been unbelievably fulfilling, though taxing at times. Having spent a significant amount of time on the fight itself, and watching the rhythm develop among the raid leaders, it was encouraging to see more and more of his health drop in the process. There's a wealth of resources out on the web by the various "experts" but there's little in the world like being able to visualize what's actually going on in the battle as you read some pundit's account: "OMG this fight is so e-z. Get poisoned, and let it kill him, kk?"

/wrist

The other thing to keep in mind is that the bulk of things written about any/all ZG encounters is that they were written by folks in hardcore raiding guilds that have already run the Molten Core gauntlet and have the place on farm status. As you might imagine, this is a considerable advantage, as most folks that have been there-done that in MC wear more purple than Prince. Never ones to make excuses, TPP understand collectively that we have chosen the road less traveled in our endgame raid progression. Yes, folks are usually getting in front of Hakkar wearing mostly Tier 1 armor, but when it comes down to a simple issue of numbers and age of the guild, I hate to tell people, but 20 comes before 40. We had arrived at a place in the history of the guild where a number of us were willing to flip the switch on making our Pods our mains, and had decided that if we were going to see MC then it would be in this guild, or not at all. It's that level of dedication that keeps me coming back. Arithmetically, we were able to get together 20 people for a raid far faster than we were on a 40 man, so that's what we did.

In many respects, I have heard tell that some of the boss fights in ZG are tougher and more complicated than a number of MC encounters. (This is the impetus for many of the Pods that have experienced MC on Whisperwind and elsewhere to beg for us to take the fiery plunge and at least dabble in there, which we will be doing for the first time on Aug. 4 :D) Should this be true, then that tells us 2 things:

We will be that better geared for future incursions into ZG as we are able to begin the process of chewing up and spitting out Lucifron and Magmadar on our MC nights.
If it is true that MC is easier than ZG, and also that most of the guilds that get Hakkar on farm status have already had their pick of the MC gift shop's offerings, the the fact that The Pod People were standing in front of Hakkar and wore that bastard down to 21% without those same gearing advantages means that we are OMGWTF 1337.

Our kung fu is strong. And it only gets stronger.

Sir, we've analyzed their attack...

2006-07-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

Hakkar, get out while you still can.

As of last night, the Pod People took down Arlokk, the last Aspect priest that stands in between us and the big, snakey, winged-thing that is Hakkar the Soul Flayer. Best of all, this wasn't just our first panther boss kill. Oh no. This was the culmination of two nights of focused efforts in Zul'Gurub (and about a week of frenzied planning and considerable mental efforts on the forums) where we had already decided that we WERE getting to Hakkar this weekend. Thursday evening we started with Thekal the tiger.

I'll admit, having only taken him down once before, I was pleased with our level of ambition that was developing, but I won't lie when I say that that one kill was simultaneously one of the most exciting, and one of the ugliest that we've ever pulled off. (If I remember correctly, Vespasian and Zayd were the last two standing, and it was a final Frostbolt from Zayd that took Thekal down before a few errant tigers bent both of them over and broke it off). It was the Mexican standoff scene from Reservoir Dogs. Because of this, I was rather concerned, but emboldened, nonetheless.

Getting to Thekal was interesting, because we decided that we weren't going to bother with that whole crowd-control nonsense thru the trash mobs. AOE was the word of the day, and we burned through those snakes and trolls like a Katrina evacuee with a FEMA charge card. This put us in front of Thekal in 30 mins, and we were much richer for the experience.

What we did, however, once we got there, was get the farker down to about 16% when he inexplicably began to evade our attacks, and regened up to 60-ish%. The tigers that spawn were giving us quite a time, but we were good mammals and adapted our strategery. Since Thekal loves to charge the group with their backs against the wall in Phase 2, then we figured that we'd treat him like the Spider boss, and whichever tank could grab him (since he wipes aggro when he does the Thunder Clap/knockback) would call that they had the aggro and pull him out of the squishies. Other tanks engage the tigers while they get AOE'ed. Done.

One cool thing is that I picked up my first rolled epic: Seal of the Gurubashi Berzerker. It has a 6-8% drop off all 5 aspects, so chances are, you're gonna see it numerous times if you clear to Hakkar. And that we did. It dropped off Panther and Bat, last night as well. It's certainly not one of those situations where I was secretly hoping to be unique for a long time, being the only Pod to have it. Screw that. I'd much sooner save that for Thekal's Grasp and Arlokk's Grasp. Yeah, they're fist weapons, but I'm a Fury warrior, so shut it. Here's a terribly cool video of what this pair can do when it procs: Additional Pod joke, FTW.

With Arlokk having been on the menu for last night, we got over to her and had her down within about 3 or 4 tries. We have more warlocks than we have sense, so there's always a soulstone up. Pair that with a handful of pro shaman to pop when there's no SS up (has that ever happened with us?), and the scope of our wipes is only limited to our durability, baby :D.

As an aside, that is what I love about this guild more than anything else. I already have a full time job. I spend as much if not more time in WoW as I do there to balance this. I'm here to have fun, and were I to be in a guild where the 50 DKP MINUS style reigned supreme, then that'd last about seven seconds, and I'd be logging in to a blank ta-bard. (There, Bill). Bad things are going to happen in this game. Don't make everyone else's experience suck because you can't be flexible and deal. Develop a coping mechanism and move along. When the game doesn't get fun for you, it often doesn't become fun for others, too.

/Cast BackOnTrack (rank 4)

As a note for those that haven't done the Panther boss, I highly advise you bring 3 competent tanks with you. Here's why: There are 2 pens along the side of the room that happen to face the gong. MT engages Arlokk in the center of the room. OTs get in the pens, with a dedicated healer for each. Ranged DPS (i.e. rest of raid) gets their backs to the wall against the shield by the door down in. In the pens, panthers will begin to spawn every few seconds. This is where the OTs spam Demoralizing Shout. Since the panthers haven't engaged anyone, the debuff on the Demo Shout is enough to keep them on the OTs, and they stay in the pens. There gets to be about 20 panthers that hit you for about 30 each, and the Rage generation flows like milk and honey. Any healer that is worth their salt can keep you up while you handle this. The only thing is that it's really hard at the start of the fight to keep rage generated to spam Demo Shout. There are a few cats that escape at the beginning of the fight, but so long as everyone knows that they're going to be getting out, then hunter pets can engage them. The fight gets much easier as the number of panthers increases. Arlokk drops, and then you just DPS down the remaining panthers. (Note: I'm completely marginalizing her Vanish and Cleave but I didn't have any experience with that part, as I was in relative safety with the kitties),

On to the Blood God tonight.