Monday Update

Here comes another collection of random, semi-connected thoughts... and then a bit on Skyrim.  It may get a bit other-gamey around here for a while, as I'm heavily into Skyrim right now (level 17), eagerly anticipating AC:Revelations, and have gotten into the SWTOR beta (though I can't talk about it right away).  Thus, WoW time is limited.  Still, we plan to raid once a week, and rBG once a week, and when 4.3 comes out, we'll be playing.  So, though I may get a bit diverse around here, I'm not planning to quit WoW.  I'll just keep my eye for things I think are important, and otherwise leave the minutia to others (and hopefully give entertaining glimpses into other worlds that you may or may not be experiencing as well).

So let's hit on each of those topics in reverse order:

• 4.3 - They've confirmed the current PvP season ends on the 29th of November.  Generally, this is done about a week before the patch drops.  So we're looking at a December 6th release here.  I don't have a whole lot of goals before the patch drops.  Outside of raiding, that is.  There's nothing I have left on my to-do list.  For raiding, this means we have exactly a month to try and finish Firelands.  I doubt it'll happen, but we are 4/7, so it could.  At worst, we're probably looking at polishing off the last few bosses after the patch and getting another late start.  We've been behind the "curve" for this entire expansion, so this doesn't surprise me.  It's just been really slow to get the gear I need.  I lodge my complaints with the loot table committee.  I've never gotten a chance to update my shoulders... but I get chest drops out the wazoo.  Which is just great since the chest is, you know, purchasable.  I can't get cataclysmically epic on my raid toon, solely due to shoulders.  There are a couple other finicky slots like that, but it's just frustrating to get 1% upgrade drops when you have huge needs elsewhere.
• The SWTOR beta is being opened up to anyone who signed up as a beta tester before Nov 11.  That includes me.  They won't let you talk about it a whole lot, other than that you're in it, and I've not gotten my invite yet.  They say "more information to follow," but that everyone is getting an invite in the near future.  They want to stress test their servers, which I think is a smart move.  Get as many people in as you can and see what happens.  We'll see how it goes and what I can actually talk about.
• AC:Revelations drops this week.  I'm excited.  Not sure how I'm going to balance it with Skyrim.  That's all here.
• Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim.  That's pretty much how my weekend went.  The game is awesome.  I can't say enough about what a good job they did.  I'll wax on about it more outside of this list...

So, I'll admit to being a bit of a fanboy, so I may be glossing over the downsides.  Also, I'm looking at it more in comparison to previous iterations in the series.  Like the scope of the Elder Scrolls games has always been huge, and that's something people may complain about: it can be hard to figure out where you fit in the world.  That's sort of what you expect going into an ES game though, right?  And in that regard, I think they've done some great things to improve typical ES gameplay. 

The fast travel is great, the interactive map is awesome.  The quest tracking is much improved.  I feel like I can pick up where I've left off without having to have a million post-it notes (like I did for Oblivion and Morrowind).  It'd be nice if they let you make notes, and the descriptions can be sort of sparse, but it's much improved, I think.

I love the clairvoyance spell.  Until I got the lay of the land, it was a must have.  Now that I've gotten some things discovered, fast travel is where it's at.

I've always loved the "use it to level" system.  You start off with certain predispositions, but really you can make your character into any "class" you want.  I'm currently playing sort of a ranger, battlemage hybrid.  I do a lot of sneaking and shooting with my bow, but if things get hairy I'll pull out a sword and a spell and mix it up.  Also, two handed fireballs are fun.  The physics ending makes you feel pretty power even early on, and I love the new killing animations.  A great touch, there.

Also, when any storyline revolves around slaying dragons, you know it's going to be win.  I joked with another WoW friend that I needed to get back to slaying non-Internet dragons.  It's a pretty neat twist on old tropes, I think, what with the voices, and absorbing powers, and "it's in your blood."  The werewolf side quest is pretty cool, too.  I won't spoil anything, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it, though it's not as blatantly OP as you might think.

The world is breathtaking, too.  Sometimes I just stop and marvel.  It isn't the best graphics ever, even on the "ultra" setting, but they're pretty solid.  It retains the ES feel without going to far to "realism," I think.  And it's run smooth for me so far.

That's all I'll say for now.  I'm excited to get back to it tonight, but I'll have to squeeze it in before our raid.  I get to Starfox again in WoW tonight... which is fun too.  Do a barrel roll!

The Satisfaction of a Successful PuG

We see a lot of horrible, no-good, very bad PuG stories. They pretty much range from atrocious to mildly irritating. Yet, good PuG stories seem few and far between. After all, it's not all that gripping to write: "Pugged last night, tank held aggro, healer healed, CC did their thang, bosses all died." Wahoo, right?

I'll be the first to admit: I don't pug a whole lot. I wouldn't say I'm scared of it, I just put a premium on my own time. It's sort of an extension of the if-you-don't-have-anything-nice-to-say-don't-say-anything rule for me. Basically, I know I'm going to be impatient and unforgiving in a pug. I don't really want to show up and deal with people playing sub-optimally, wasting time, and wiping often. It drives me nuts when someone stands in the fire and dies, or when DPS don't drop aggro or properly use their abilities.

In short: On my toon, "the patient" title is a lie.

So I don't put myself in that situation. I don't pug unless I'm in a really good mood and prepared to be patient with people. Which means I don't pug often. In fairness to others, I can't be throwing myself into situations where I know I'll behave like an asshat. I'm not judging right or wrong here, when it comes to playstyle. To each his/her own. If you enjoy playing sub-optimally and floundering around, more power to you. It just drives me nuts. I'm an engineer. I prize efficiency and pulling your weight in a team. It's a personal thing.

However, this is something about a successful pug experience that, in my mind, makes it all worth it. It's not about gear for me. I'm skilled enough that I can hold my own on a DPS meter without the best gear out there, and gear will come eventually. We're not on the bleeding edge. Heck, at the rate we're going right now with RL intrusions, we'll be lucky to get any of the raid content down before the next major patch.

To me, those times when you zone in with completely low, rock-bottom expectations, and are pleasantly surprised... those are special moments.

Take last night. It wasn't a true pug, but we were short a healer. So four of us went in and pugged a healer. Normally my self-imposed rule is "no pugging of healers or tanks" for obvious reasons. But I said "chuck it" last night. I was in a good mood. Our tank wasn't my precious Fuu, it was our newb tank (former healer) who recently switched for the guild and is still learning the ropes. It was a less than ideal situation, but I was with four good people I knew, and I figured we could deal with a sub-par healer.

Turned out, the healer we drew was pretty solid. There wasn't a whole lot of chatter. We threw out quick strats for the bosses, and lined them up and knocked them down. We even lost the tank halfway through one fight, but recovered and finished off the boss by ping-ponging with the remaining DPS. The pulls were messy, but not one lost their head and we never wiped. Not once. The run was the picture of efficiency. We knocked out the entire thing in 45 minutes (it was the wind heroic).

When the last boss fell and the little pop-up appeared, letting us know that we'd been rewarded our VP, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction at a job well done. I remember the feeling from my days spent involved with organized team sports. It's that same feeling you get after a solid win against a good team, when you're high-fiving each other and giving the ubiquitous butt-slap. I love that feeling (Yes, even the butt slapping).

We did not win the championship. This was just a regular season win. A good one, but a win all the same. And that feeling is a large part of why I still play this game. You can't get that from a single player game. Say what you want about how the social aspects of MMOs are dying. As long as there's still a way to attain the feeling of a successful PuG, they're offering something special.

/crosses fingers: The Shattering This week!

Hey Gang!

First off! Happy Monday! For us in the United States, this will be a short week because of Thanksgiving on Thursday. Many of us will be gorging ourselves on our festive bird and then taking our turkey coma while watching Football and being with our friends and family.

This is such a fun time of year not only in RL, but in game. The World of Warcraft will be celebrating, not only Pilgrims Bounty this week, but its sixth birthday tomorrow! How cool is that?! Six years ago, people got to experience Azeroth for the very first time. Sadly, I was not one of them. Fulguralis and I were very late to the party but we did come with a keg and a pie in 2008. In 2004, the world was new and end game was at level 60. Many got to experience the original game and fell in love with it.

During this time, we knew that dragons, good and bad, made up this world. Some were there to assist our kind and lead us into greatness.

Alexstrasza - The Lifebinder

Others were corrupt with magic and would seek to destroy all who used it!


Malygos - The Aspect of Magic

 Then there were entire dragonflights that sought to understand past events and assist us with being a part of it.



Chronormu aka"Chromie"- Ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight

Tomorrow, a new fear will sweep across Azeroth. One that many never knew lay in wait beneath our very feet. One that seeks death & destruction of all living things. To avenge his fallen kin, this Dragon will not show us mercy.

Deathwing - Aspect of Death... he's so vicious!

 PS: I found this graphic from BRK's site before he took it down. He is too adorable to ignore!

Happy Birthday Azeroth! I hope you enjoy your new facial reconstruction surgery via gift from Deathwing :-)

<3 Your Friendly Neighborhood Fuubaar

The Essence of Pure 10

One of the unexpected side effects of our rather unique raiding schedule is that we really never get into 25 mans. I mentioned the term "pure 10" the other day, and one of our raiders actually asked "what does that even mean?" Totally a good question.

Basically, Jessabelle, Queen of Esoteric Statistical Musings, Keeper of the Spreadsheets, Protector of Random Self-Searching, alerted me a while back that our guild, The Lothar Swinger's Club, happens to be ranked as the number 1 pure 10 guild for our realm on a site called Guild Ox.  Check it out.  How she stumbled across that little tidbit is beyond me, but she does tend to keep her finger on the pulse of Azeroth, even when she's insanely busy and has no time to write (sadly).

In any case, you can see they've defined quite rigorously on that site what a "pure 10" guild is.  It really is an artifact of Wrath, and I think we've maintained our status by pure luck.  It's not like we forbid the running of 25 mans or anything.  Most of us just didn't have time, and our guild is more of an ad hoc collection of friends than anything with rules and regulations.  I mean, we're all officers (provided you have an authenticator).

Finding out we were the top pure 10 man guild on our server was sort of like winning a competition you, and most other groups, didn't know was happening.  Yet there we are.  It's a little something to be proud of.

It's not like we were gaming the system either. None of us geared really via 25s, though a few may have  popped in once or twice. To me, that still makes you pure 10. Experiencing different parts of the game is fine, the point is we never really benefited from the lopsided gearing of Wrath.  Considering how little we ran and how much we just had to gear on our own (via daily heroics and the like), I think it's completely fair to say we maintained pure 10 status.

Obviously, this sort of ranking will likely become a relic of Wrath. The way it's figured will have to change come Cat. I mean, since gear levels won't be different, it shouldn't matter as much. Winning will be winning.  Additionally, locks don't double up so you can't run both 25 and 10 bosses in the same week. Ergo, there really isn't a "gearing" benefit to running the larger raids like there was in Wrath.  No double emblem (or justice points now) earnings. With that in mind, it'll be interesting to see how we stack up against full time "raiding guilds" when we're on it from the start. I know we won't be "top tier" anymore - probably won't even make top 25 - but I'll bet we'll still surprise ourselves. .

I wonder if they'll keep a "pure 10" list. I think the stat I would love to see is one where they calculate your time spent in PvE raid groups, and divide that by progression somehow. Sort of like an "efficiency per hour" stat or something. I'd bet we'd stack up pretty well on that.  How crazy would it be if something like that became the new "hardcore" focus?  Where the top guilds weren't judged merely by how quickly they get through the face bashing in RL time, but by how quickly they learn and adapt; how well they plan and prepare.

Boy, wouldn't that be a whole new ballgame.  I'm not sure it would make anything more positive though.  If anything, it might make raiding more stressful, since people would inevitably be screaming "gogogo" more loudly.  Perhaps the best competition among WoW players is one in which the true criteria of judgment is unknown.  I suppose that could lead to it's own frustrations, but as gamers, aren't we just going to try to game any known system?  Is there honor enough amongst thieves and MMO-ers for a "fair fight"?  Or does it defeat the very foundation of gamer culture to be held to a standard where you're not expected to think outside the box?

For me anyways, I'm still experiencing a bit dragasmic from our Monday night kill.  I guess it takes a few days for the glow to wear off.  At least, that's what she said.

Plenty of Time To Spare - or - Internet Dragasm

I try not to toot my "we cleared this" horn too much. Partially that's because we're normally far behind everyone else, and the other part is that it's not something that is usually generally entertaining. Sometimes, it's completely called for though.  This is one of those times.

If you've been reading here for a while, you probably know that the raid group I belong to is rather unique.  First of all, we're a straight up 10 man group.  Not one of us has a lick of any 25 man gear.  Right about when ToC first came out, our 25-man raiding alliance was dying, and we struck out on our own.  A ragtag group of probably 8 friends to start that grew to a perfect and healthy 12.  All with what most might call "subpar" gear.

We also only raid for 2 hours each week.  That's it.  We're lucky to get that some times with summer travel and the like.  We've definitely had to miss a few days.  Never more than 2 hours a week though.  We do all our strat work outside of the game, via emails, and then get together on Monday nights to preform.  It's diet raiding.  It's raiding lite.  It's perhaps the very definition of super casual, 10-man raiding.

And last night, the goal we set out to hit 12 months ago was finally achieved: We downed the Lich King.  When we started ICC, I think most of us had our doubts that we'd ever get there.  It's hard enough to keep a steady group together for 12 months (especially in a casual environment), much less maintain a focus and learning enough to make progress.  But we steadily did.  The phrase "against all odds" comes to mind.

Maybe I'm over-glorifying a rather simple event.  After all, we're probably the among the last groups to down the LK.  A kingslayer title is no longer particularly special or unique.  Still, we all popped on our new titles, put down a keg, and danced proudly in front of the Dalaran fountain.  It was special to us, and that's all that matters. On our sever, I don't think there is another "true 10" group that's downed the LK.  Sure 10 man groups have done it, but without a shred of the higher, 25-man gear?  Without raiding PuGs or anything more than 2 hours a week?  It can be done.  To call our feat unique is merely a victory of probability, but a victory nonetheless.

I know a lot of folks have a lot of different opinions on the accessibility of the game and the "dumbing it down" and stuff like that.  I can't really argue... as long as you're running 25 mans and spending more than 2 hours a week raiding.  For us, it was a challenge.  It was a well designed, perfectly challenging fight, and the presentation and pacing from Blizzard was spot on for group like us.  Buff and all, it was perfect.  It was dangled just far enough that we could grasp the final prize a month before it becomes completely obsolete.  Nothing anyone can claim will take that feeling of accomplishment from our group.  To us, it was epic.

So I guess I wanted to go on record saying: Kudos to Blizzard for a well designed fight, raid, instance, and expansion.  It had it's ups and downs, but really represents the pinnacle of the MMO experience for players like us.  Perhaps we don't belong in MMOs with our time commitments and lack of putting priority on killing internet dragons, but I appreciate the fact that we can.

And finally, thanks to my guild mates, for sticking it out through the good times and bad.  It hasn't been a smooth ride, but we did it.  We did it.  I look forward to Cataclysm in my new home, with the group that has grown to be expected housemates on Monday nights.  The game is still alive for this TBC-kid.  Deathwing, we're coming for you.

As they say: Screenshot or it didn't happen...

We gave the LK a swirly.

Then got the ubiquitous kill shot.

And, of course, danced on the the Frozen Throne with the "new" LK.  Check out that ass, that ass tanked the LK.

(Aside: As I told my wife... of course we all feel drained today, we had an internet dragasm last night.  I had to make a dragasm post.  stfu XD less three).