Pressing Pause

What follows is my raider resignation post from the Apotheosis forums. I wanted to share it here because not everybody can read the guild content. 

Apotheosis friends,

 

I don’t want to make this a big dramatic thing, because it’s not one; I’ve chosen to step down from raiding for the foreseeable future.  I still enjoy the game and I love the group of people I play with.  Life just has a funny way of asserting its self and lately I’ve found myself wishing I had more time to do things other than Warcraft.  I’ve been trying to focus on my fitness, my home, and my friendships lately and it feels good.

I don’t know how long I’m going to be out, but I’ll be around here and there.  My life’s priorities are shifting and there are only so many hours in the day.  This decision comes with a heavy heart, but it’s something I have thought on for long enough and I know it’s the right choice.

To the officers: if you need a DPS on any given raid night, feel free to ping me on Twitter.  If I’m available, I will always be happy to hulk-smash things for you.  If you have questions about anything pertaining to my resignation, please contact me.  Like I said, I’ll be around so this isn’t a goodbye post.

 

-Colin (Jack)

Progression

I decided to do a counter-post to a blog entry Jasyla, my guild's GM, posted yesterday.   The purpose of this isn't to attack her or point out how she’s wrong or anything negative like that.  What I hope to do with this is to get myself involved in the discussion in a constructive way.

Screenshots of MoP So Far

I've been doing a lot of blog posts without pictures since MoP came out.  The reason for that is because I've actually been blogging a lot at work.  What this means is that I actually just type up a thought, email it to my personal email, and I post it through the Blogger app on my phone.  I don't have access to any images, nor do I have the ability to link items when I post this way.  Hopefully I can produce some more fully formed posts soon.  Life has been busy lately.

Anyhow, here is a collection of some of the screenshots I've taken throughout MoP.  Some are guild first kill shots, some are just fun things I wanted to be able to remember.  I hope you enjoy.

That's all.  I hope you enjoyed :)

Silence isn't Golden

It’s been some time since I’ve done a blog post. I have quite a few reasons for that, most of which end up sounding lame. This blog is something I enjoy doing. I don’t believe I ever had a huge reader base, but I certainly have some level of guilt for just falling off the face of the earth. Generally speaking, putting out blog posts is (obviously) fairly low on my list of real and virtual priorities.

I’d like to take a few moments to wrap up Cataclysm and to make a few statements about my impression of MoP so far. I’m posting this from work, so there won’t be any fun pictures at first. I’ll make a note and add some things later tonight when I’m home. Personifying my characters is fun and I feel that including image content is a vital component to the entertainment value of a blog. For now though you’re just going to have to enjoy what I’m writing.

Cataclysm:
Cataclysm was an enormously fun expansion for me. I won’t rehash my chronicle too much, so if you’re a new reader just go skim some of my other posts. The bulk of my Cata time was enjoyed under the banner of my current guild, Apotheosis. As a member of the guild’s 25 man (and woman) raid team, I had a blast. We went 8/8 in heroic Dragon Soul, got the raid meta-achievement mount, and did so with style.

As a player, Cataclysm brought me a lot of really cool “firsts.” I got my first heroic boss kill, my first piece of heroic loot, my first raid mount, and lots of other stuff. I was able to get a full best in slot ret set and turn it into a couple of rankings (H Morchok and H Spine.) I consider myself so fortunate to have been brought on with Apotheosis. Cataclysm was a fantastic time because of the great members and officers I get to play this game with.

Now that Mists of Pandaria has been out for a few weeks, I feel like I have a decent idea of what the expansion has to offer. A lot of fuss is being made about the quantity of “required” tasks raiding folks have at hand. I’ll get into that as well as my initial impressions on raiding, and even a little bit of gold making.

Dailies:
The snarky pseudonym “World of Dailycraft” has popped up numerous times throughout Twitter and the bloggersphere. Mists did indeed bring forth a bounty of reputation factions and corresponding dailies. I’ve voiced my opinion on this topic a few times via Twitter. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. To start with the main positive, I think it’s great that Blizzard has given players such a wealth of content to enjoy. Most people, however, probably feel that is beside the point. Due to the fact that several of the factions are the sources of valor point gear, raiders are up in arms about issues of time investment. I won’t lie; I’ve felt a lot of that same frustration. Upon hitting 90, I immediately went to work on Golden Lotus rep. That’s probably a good first step because the GL dailies are right at your front door if you’re hearth is set at Shrine in Vale. Other rep factions aren’t so close, but none are particularly far either. Distance isn’t the issue anyway.

When you’re looking at the big picture of what you could potentially do, every day, the volume of work is staggering. Assuming you cleared the appropriate zones, once you hit 90 you can immediately start working on Golden Lotus and Klaxxi rep. Between those two, depending on your rep level, there’s probably 5-15 dailies available per faction. That may be an underestimation because I’m not currently working on Klaxxi rep. I’m revered with Golden Lotus, so I feel I have a decent feel there. Upon hitting Revered with GL, you can then go work on Shado-Pan and August Celestials rep (which I haven’t touched yet.) I don’t really think I need to hash out the numbers here. It’s a lot of dailies. Add to that the fact that you can do daily quests for The Tillers and Anglers, and you might never have time for dungeons, pvp, farming, eating, sleeping, etc.

Now, it’s really easy to just look at all this stuff and throw your hands up in exasperation. Daily quest farming isn’t very fun. In an expansion with gorgeous vistas, new dungeon and raid content (that is actually fun and engaging,) pet battles, and a new PVP season, you really just have to prioritize. Unless you’re unemployed, you probably don’t have time to do everything, every day. I obviously can’t speak for everybody out there, but I think that’s a fair statement. If you’re a raider, you’re probably going to have some desire to acquire the valor point gear that’s available. One limiting factor that I think ZOMG DAILYCRAFT haters overlook is the fact that VP isn’t exactly growing on trees. You can cap out and gain only 1,000 valor points a week. Since items cost between 1250 and 2200 (right?) VP each, I don’t think it would be very reasonable to just rush to get these reps ALL maxed out immediately. Keep that in mind and just work on the ones you want. Hopefully the gating enforced by the VP cap can help people smooth out the race to rep acquisition. Hardcore progression raiders probably have a different opinion on this topic, but they’re limited by VP just like the rest of us.

Raiding:
So far I’ve done a few raids in MoP. As you know, there are two world bosses. I’ve done both the Sha of Anger and Galleon. I have mixed feelings about world bosses because of griefing. I just think it’s annoying that PVP flagged horde can (and do) show up to my raid to try to get hit by AOE. It’s obnoxious and it’s probably why Sha and Galleon aren’t currently scheduled official raids for my guild.

Elsewhere, in the relative safety of Mogu’shan Vaults, Apotheosis has been deftly chipping away at encounters. As a retribution paladin, I’ve enjoyed all of the fights immensely so far. I feel they’re engaging without being gimmicky. My favorite is probably Spirit Kings. I enjoy the pace of the fight as well as the variety of mechanics to contend with. Apoth is currently 4/6 and has a lot of momentum toward getting our first Elegon kill.

Ret DPS feels strong at this point in the expansion. I like the changes made to holy power generation a lot. Not having a lot of open GCD’s makes the spec feel a lot more entertaining. I’ve mostly gotten over how stacking haste makes me feel dirty. I love our level 90 talents (although I haven’t really used holy prism.) Both Execution Sentence and Light’s hammer have bad ass spell effects AND great damage. I think they’re fun talents that have the perfect amount of paladin flavor.

Gold:
Finally, I just wanted to share some thoughts on gold making. I haven’t ever really been successful at making what I would consider “large” amounts of gold in Warcraft. Back in Wrath I remember I went through a phase where I successfully farmed and sold herbs. Unfortunately, that was somewhat short lived. I think I made around 10k when the market shifted and my stuff stopped selling. I had no income to speak of in Cataclysm. The only thing that really propelled me was a large sale I made to a guildie when I moved servers to raid with Apotheosis.

I’ve kind of gotten tired of this habit of acquiring gold and just sitting on it like I’m afraid of being broke. Mists has inspired an adventurous (sort of) spirit in me concerning gold making. So far I’ve had what I would consider a moderate level of success. I’m still sort of backward, from the point of view of *real* success, because I still farm most of my mats. However, there are always multiple ends for which it makes the means worth it. My adventure started when I decided to make myself a Darkmoon Card trinket. My scribe was on an alt I had been thinking about moving to Eldre’Thalas anyway, so I just went ahead and pulled the trigger. From there, I leveled from 525 to 600 (which Blizzard has made amazingly easy) with herbs farmed by another alt, my druid. Inspired by Team Brofist co-founder and ret paladin pal Ilumiqt, I decided to make a second scribe. My transferred alt had a bunch of low level inks that made the 1-600 process a breeze. In the end, I made myself a trinket and netted around 20k selling cards.

On top of that, during the process of farming herbs for my inscription, my druid leveled from 85 to almost 88. She also acquired an enormous amount of ghost iron, which my alchemist has had a grand time turning into trillium and living steel. Almost all of this stuff sells. One thing I learned along the way, with help from my friend/guildie/healer Serrinne is that persistence pays off. Posting, reposting, adjusting my approach, sitting on inventory, it doesn’t really matter what I do, as long as I’m doing something. Since MoP came out I’ve added about 50k to my coffers. I’ve set a personal goal of hitting 100k, which I should be able to do pretty soon. There’s something fun about the success of an auction. I’ve tried to flip a few things, which isn’t always successful, but that’s just part of the game. Since the market is so active right now, it’s a fun time to get involved. I don’t really have a plan for my 100k. I may just end up sitting on it, but who knows. I’d like to continue making gold so that I can enjoy stuff like that ridiculous yak or maybe even one of the engineering mounts. Who knows?

Anyway, thanks to those who came back to this blog. I’ll do my best to keep it updated from time to time. I think I will work on a new banner as well. Stay tuned for some updates, guides, and hopefully just some good fun reading.

Conflicted

For those of you who follow this blog at all, it’s been made apparent that I place some value on the acquisition of gear.

Wait, Where Did That Other "n" Come From?

Oh my a lot has happened since my words last graced this blog.  My last post was my non-heroic BIS Ret list.  Lol.  Non-heroic.

Just a Picture

This.  Yes, this.  Very happy about the newness.  Posts will follow, but now it's bed time.

Rag, my mechanical squirrel is going to leave little metallic squirrel turds ALL OVER YOUR THRONE OF FLAME!

The Weekly Outlook

Greetings all, it's that magical time of the week where I cover my prospects for the upcoming reset.  With most of our guild being out for Thanksgiving festivities this week, we're planning on doing a full Firelands clear on Tuesday.  Last week's raid went so smoothly, I strongly believe we can knock out our first one-night clear.

Disappointments of a Casual

In WoW the term "casual" is typically pejorative.  Being an individual that plays the game in the fashion I do, I think some would apply it to me.  I'm an active raider, but only one day a week.  I'm not even exalted with Avengers of Hyjal yet.  To be fair, I'm not positive anybody in Cereal Killers is.  Don't quote me on that though.

Here's a poorly sized screenshot to prove it.  Casuals are treated as a blight upon this game.  We've been blamed with diluting it, making it too easy.  Epic quality gear, at one point in Warcraft history, was a mark of dedication.  A player could spot a hardcore raider in a crowded auction house.  These days Blizzard is scorned for how simple it is to get purples, for how easy raid content is.  I never played in vanilla, in the days where killing Ragnaros 1.0 required 40 people to have their shit together.  I started playing in BC and since I have been a casual in several senses of the term.

On Wednesday this week the guild I'm in, Cereal Killers on Kael'Thas (or Fail'Thas as it's lovingly referred to by many,) killed Rag on 10 man regular for the first time.  I was not present because I was with my girlfriend, living out parts of my life that have taken priority over Warcraft.  I found out late that night when I logged in to do my rogue's jewelcrafting daily (gotta be ready for epic cuts!)  Our GM's girlfriend, who raids on a resto druid, linked me her meta achievement for Firelands in guild chat.  Instead of feeling triumph for my friends, I was filled with disappointment.

For most of the time I've spent playing this game, I've filled a backup raider-type role.  In BC my hunter came into SSC to wipe on Tidewalker when people were sick of it.  I did that sort of thing a lot for Uprising.  My longest stretch of full time (3 days a week) raiding came when I started healing on my shaman in Wrath.  Being a casual among casuals (or bads, people we carried the whole way through progression,) I considered myself better than a lot of my guildmates.  Naxx wasn't a cakewalk for us.  I remember how we never really got around to having Kel'Thuzad on farm, or at least it felt that way.  I was with players who constantly stood in the fire, causing avoidable wipes.  I don't say this to reject them as contributors to our time, but to help explain that when we triumphed, even with things other players quickly found mundane, we fucking triumphed.


When t11 came around, I was still on my shaman, but I was playing mainly as elemental.  I was also in a new guild, one I saw as a step up from Uprising.  The Ebon School, interestingly enough, was where rogue Uprising members defected to.  TES was an improvement, but not by much.  I had taken a break from the game when Uprising was flailing around in Ulduar.  My first full clear of Uld was with TES, but we were in t9 gear, and we still wiped over and over and over on Yogg.  Later, ICC became a place I was intimately familiar with.  Ebon School hammered away at Arthas's stronghold until long after the 30% buff was released.

These experiences were fraught with frustration.  Almost all of my raiding has been to some degree.  Repeated wipes with these guilds never really felt like a learning experience.  I've always been mixed up with players who simply got carried.  There is something I always cherished with these guilds though: success.  I think there's a lot to be said for the sense of joy a group of casuals feel when they drop a particularly difficult boss.  When we killed Yogg in Ebon School we nerdscreamed like it was a world first.  Killing The Lich King, even though it was way past when even our crappy server should have had him on farm, was exhilarating.  I love first kill screenshots.  Sometimes I get all nostalgic and look though those I've saved, trying to pick out the names of the other players against the backdrop of the slain monster.

The pride felt when being part of a guild-first boss kill is something I've always valued.  Being denied such pleasures makes subsequent kills feel like sloppy seconds.  This is all wrapped up in the way I feel about Wednesday's Ragnaros kill.  Even though I'm a casual in an underachieving guild, my objective is to find success where I can.  Without it, my reasons for playing Warcraft all wither away.  Perhaps all this is selfish, but I can't help it.  I'm proud of my guildies, that much is true.  We've struggled with Ragnaros way too long.  I certainly wasn't present for every wipe.  Still, I wish I had been there to the kill.  Hopefully Deathwing will be different.