Firefighter !

I love that fight ! I love it so much ! It’s by far my favorite fight in every single raid I’ve seen.

Hard mode Mimiron !

You’ve got all the beautiful mechanics of the normal mode, but with fire everywhere, frost bombs, emergency robots and everyone just more stressed than usual… The fourth phase being the most fun, with the mines you can’t see under the fire, the boss moving across the room constantly, making sometimes difficult to avoid the laser barrage, without being blown up by a mine, avoiding the blast and the frost bomb… It’s just such an exciting fight !

My guild have been attempting it for a week now. In pain. It happens that people don’t seem interested in Ulduar hardmode anymore : no interesting loot you know, high repair bill for nothing… WTF ! Come on people, are your raiding just for loot ? Is it why you only sign up for raid on Wednesday and fake AFK the rest of the week ?

I raid for challenge. I raid for fun, and that fight is a hell of a fun fight. I love getting a few purplez sometimes, because it helps me getting higher on the damage meter, which is my second pleasure in the game. But my first love in raiding is challenge, and the reward is getting the boss down and the achievement spamming in guildchat.

It seems that many people in the guild do not think like me. We usually have 40 sign-ups on Wednesday, but when the end of the raiding week comes, people become scarce and on Tuesday, we had only 28 sign-ups, and 24 people actually present and ready to raid (dkp minus on the way for those missing…). And it was a hell of a night. As much as I love that fight, at the end I was just begging for its end. People here were the ones with the lower gear, the one not invited on ToGC25 nights, a bunch of never happy people, complaining after every wipe and of course, a bunch of sleepers in fires/mines/bombs/whatevers.

It was horrible. Each phase of the combat, we could see the same people failing, people dying by lack of heal when their healer were meters away (busy watching tv ? WTF are you doing ?), people running out of range of their healers… When the raid leader says “Frost bomb near the red button, melee people get away“, and half of them just die to that bomb a few seconds later, not having moved at all, you are in the right to question their ears hygiene or mind sanity…

And the more frustrating was just arriving in P4, with half the raid dead (natural selection of the less noobish people…), knowing that we would never beat the enrage timer by lack of dps…

Yesterday was Wednesday. And of course, all those well geared, well skilled players came back from hiding to loot their shinies, usual program of a Wednesday night being normal ToC 25 and Onyxia, followed by ToGC 25 farm of the 4 first bosses. And for once, I was in the schedule for ToGC and was happy. My first week in ToGC…

But the officers thought better…

I noticed the RL and the main tank officer being in Ulduar when everyone was waiting in front of ToC. And then it came : “Folks, tonight, Ulduar, we clear the way right up to Mimiron and we down him. No ToC until he’s down. If we have to change the schedule to make people sign up, we’ll do it.“

I was a little disappointed because I was really eager to do ToGC for once… But I love that fight. We cleaned the way quickly. This time, the raid was well designed, with balance in each class, nearly all the buffs you need. And dkp were removed for fails. It’s amazing the effect of dkp threat on people…

After 1:30 hours of good tries, we got this :

Firefighters !

And it felt good !

Please notice my pet is living, I’ve been struggling to keep him alive for 3 nights of wipes and there he is, all alive and happy… He didn’t do lots of damages, because I kept him with me most of the time but he survived, that’s the most important part.

You will also notice I’m not on Recount. I know. I feel like I can’t do as much dps as I should. I’m sure my damages could be higher. I haven’t have time to check the logs in details, but my DPS is correct, compared to the 2 other hunters and their gear, but my damages are low. I remember losing time on P1 because of people moving around me and I had to move too, to avoid getting in range of the napalm but it’s not the single cause. That fight is also very pet-unfriendly and I lose 1200 dps without my pet nomnoming bosses.

I’m very concerned with my output these days. I really don’t know how to improve. I feel really low on the damage meter compared to the others. I suppose my concerns about the guild and everything are not helping but I can’t imagine a way to hit my keys faster than I already do…

It seems that I may clip my steady Shot too. And I was the only hunter bothering to put the hunter’s mark… I will try to improve my cooldown timing too. I noticed I’m not scaling very well with Heroism. I can’t see any increased output under Heroism and that worries me. I also have some fights were I would top the meter and others where I will bottom it. It seems I’m not able to assure a “sustained amount of range DPS”… (BRK fan forever…).

I miss some fraternity between hunters in this guild. I miss my old accomplice Lelà I had at Gods of War. Hunter chat was so fun and helpful that time… And none of those hunters knows why the BRK-1000 smells faintly of raspberries… They don’t even know who BRK is… Sad times, stupid hunters…

Circle of DPSers

I wanted to put a brighter tone to this blog, which is quite depressing this day and then I will follow the trend and answer to the meme flowing over the blogs these past weeks.

Miss Medicina began this, with questions for healers.

There is even a ring of French healers !

Koriel followed with the tanks.

And Death Goddess did the DPS one !

Here is mine !

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?

Nefernet, Survival hunter.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

25-man raids, 10-mans too. Hardmodes if possible.

I’m barely doing 5-man anymore now. I discovered battlegrounds can be fun sometimes too. Never put foot in an arena (on ToDo list though, one day… maybe…).

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?

My pet is my favorite. Because being able to manage your pet properly is fun and challenging on some fights. I highly despise hunters not able to handle their pets properly. I hate warlock’s minions breaking my beloved icetrap…

I love the Lock&Load mechanics with my traps too. It’s just so fun : put down a frost trap and pof ! 3 Explosive shots in a row ! I got a yellow Power Aura for my Lock&Load proc, it’s just hunter love when it pops on the screen. Can’t play without it.

And I love Freezing traps. Poping enemies in ice blocks just warms up my hunter soul.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?

Any melee ability. I don’t even know were they are on my bars.

Multishot too. I’m too afraid to break crowd control and be a huntard.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?

We are unique. We are not subject to interrupts like other casters, not are we affected by melee aoes. We can be quite mobile. We can even tank sometimes, helped with distracting shot. Not much to say actually. I’m never asked to CC, and now, rogues have a better misdirection than ours. I still have Feign Death but rarely need to use it actually…

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?

We are unique. As a hunter, you’re not a melee, but you are a physical dps. And you’re not a caster either because you’re not a magical dpser. You are a pain to fit in a raid. I have had several raid leader telling me that hunters are not optimized for this or this fight. I’ve lost many raid spots for this excuse. And on fights were everyone have to go melee range, you’re doomed, the RL and tank and healers will hate you for staying at range and you will hate them for that…

We bring nearly no utility to the raid. Why bother bring a hunter if a mage can do more dps and buff everyone, same with druids. We don’t even have any interractions with the other physical dpsers, no buff or debuff that no other class can bring.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?

Single target.

I hate switching because it mess up my rotation, especially my Black Arrow : if you put it on your current target, you risk to lose the benefits because it’s an add and it will die soon, and put it on the boss and you lose the benefits it gives on the adds… And you don’t put Hunter’s Mark when often switching.

And my aoe is crappy. Buff it Bliz ! I want to see heroic Anub too !

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?

Hunter. It’s fun. It’s just so fun !

Blood DK is nice too, but I’ve never done any raid or instancing with it. Fun for levelling. Now she’s in Northrend, she’s a tank…

Edit : I misunderstood the question I think… If there is a class I love dpsing alongside ? I don’t know… Actually, I don’t care, I love raiding with friends.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?

I haven’t tried that many classes. But I don’t feel like playing a caster nor a melee… I tried moonkin dps on my druid and wasn’t impressed. If you need some dps, I’ll bring the hunter.

Edit : Same thing…  I dislike warlocks because they don’t know how to manage their pets. Any tank is good enough as long as they hold aggro. I love tree druids as my healers.

What is your worst habit as a dps?

Trying to find excuses for not being at the top of the meter… I hate that. As a dpser, the “kevinmeter” is my motto. And I’m sad when I’m not in the top 5 in a 25-man (very common these days though, crappy gear… See ! I’m doing it again ! Gear is not an excuse for crappy dps…). I’m depressed then. I hate fights when I need to misdirect adds etc because I would lose dps.

I’m often lazy on aoe fights (including trash) : my aoe is crappy any way… >.>

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?

I had to check for that question… What is a pet peeve ? If I understand well I could translate it in : “What kind of behavior do you dislike in a group environment while dpsing ?”

I hate people that sleep in fire. Hard ! And those boasting about their uber dps when they didn’t followed the assist. And I really hate people trying to leech some slot on the kevinmeter, dpsing Freya between adds for example, taking a speed potion when a wipe is called, to top the meter while everyone is dead… (yeah I’ve seen that… did I tell you my guildies are nasty bastards ?)

I also hate when people come to raid unprepared, don’t know the strat, have no consumables. And they often are those who whine because we are wiping. I don’t like people complaining about wipes : you’re in a progressive raid you idiot ! Of course there will be wipes ! And get out of the fucking fire, for heaven sake !

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?

Not any more. We are the crappy grey duck at the back of the classroom. You know, the one no one wants in a group because we perform as well as the other without buffing anyone except ourselve…

These days, mages are good, followed by Ret Pal and feral druids. Rogues are good too. Hunters are there to fill on raid slots…

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps?

Recount and WoL. And EnsidiaFail. Toping one meter and bottoming the other is my pride.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

That Misdirect is magic threat and will solve all the RL’s and tank’s problems. That it will help that idiotic warlock to lose aggro, that if every hunter misdirect on the tank that will help him build aggro over the 13 other starving dpsers. I had a tank once who considered MD insulting to his tank skill and used to remove it (not on touchy pulls like Auriaya of course, he was not an idiot…). Since that day, I answer to any RL asking for MD on a simple pull to get a better tank if that one is not able to hold threat… I would misdirect only if necessary (Mimiron’s head is a good example : MD on the caster tanking it)

And you idiotic RL, stop thinking several hunters can misdirect at the same time on the same target… That mechanic will be changed with the patch 3.3. About time…

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?

Pet managing. Not dying in fires. Quick switching of targets and maintaining a good dps output. Moving and having a good dps output. I found it difficult. I’m still working on it now that my pet is alright and I’m not dying stupidly too often…

What dps class do you feel you understand least?

Rogues. And dpsing warriors. And warlocks. Any magical caster actually… >.> Every other class is a myst for me actually. I know healers better.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?

Power Aura is the most important, for my Lock&Load proc, and keeping my serpent sting and Hunter’s Mark on. Omen. Quartz. OmniCC.

Agility over other stats or balanced stat allocation, and why?

Agility all over. Because more agility is more agility in Survival spec. I know some hunter with Crit gems… Not for me.

The only no agility (or AP) itemisation I use is Tuskard Vitality on my boots. Because of running speed boost. The extra health isn’t bad either.

——————-

And now, the tagging part :

I’d love to hear what Euripides at OutDPS have to say about our class. Rilgon and Pike have already done it.

Mortigan is a warlock and is a recent discovery of my blogosphere, I’d love to read his version. His blog is so much fun.

And I think Shy still haven’t answered the healing circle nor the dpsing one (but I don’t know if she plays her priest as a dpser…) and I tag her because she is one of my first commentator ever.

Dealing with assholes in guild

You may have noticed very few update these days. I’m sorry, but the game has been quite depressing for me these days.

My guild Useless merged two weeks ago with another guild. I’m now in the guild Ascendance. We had too few tanks and healers because of some people who left as a group for another server. They were the best geared, they were active healers and tanks, it was a blow. We merged with a guild lacking in dps but now there are far too much people in the guild to do 25-mans.

We usually clean ToC25 in 1 hour, with two raids of around 20-25 people, including a few applicants and socials. And then, one heroic raid is made, and they head to ToGC, they oneshot the 4 bosses and the evening is done. The rest of the week is Anub and Ulduar hard modes. You noticed the use of “they” ? Because for two weeks (actually more but the guild is doing heroic again for two weeks) I haven’t put the foot in the heroic raid.

With the merging, the DKPs I was keeping for a token have been reset and the loot was a free roll. This wednesday, a moonkin won 2 tokens, the BiS caster’s neck and 2 heroic loots without any officer to notice he was the only one getting loot. A mage got his fifth T9 piece when some people still don’t have 4 pieces. A applicant got a token over members…

And as usual, I was left aside for the heroic raid. I’m the less geared of the hunters, because my applicant period put me behind in term of gear. And now that I could get some upgrades, I’m not in the raid…I’m only good for Ulduar nights, to clean up to Algalon and Keepers. At least i’m in the hardmode Ulduar raid, I tried Mimiron and Algalon this week, and downed Freya +3 Elders. I love Ulduar, and don’t care wiping on Mimiron HM. I just wish I wouldn’t spend half of my evenings watching the raid on Ron’s screen (because Ron being geared and a mage, he usually got a slot in every heroic raids).

The competition is hard, and some officiers only see the top of the dpsmeter. There is no solidarity between members. When looking to build a 10-man raid for heroic ToC yesterday, and not able to find decent tanks or healers, I was laught at ! Because I’m not availiable on Friday nights which is the 10-man night. They laught at me because I was left aside ! Can you believe that ! I felt so hurt.

And It’s not the first time I’ve been hurt that way. There is some sort of competition between the two guilds and people get really nasty… The new forum is not very well secure and last week I could read messages in the officer’s forum. The co-gm (from the other guild) was putting his hunts in front, saying they were much better than me and the other hunter from Useless. He was ready to “bet his balls”. Except I’m very undergeared compared to the others, and still pulling my weight in the top of the meter in 25-mans. He quoted some of his guildies from their old forum, who were quite insulting. I felt very hurt.

I never fail (staying in fire, shadow crash or others…), I know the strat and come on time and prepared to raids. My gear is usually behind in term of level but I manage to perform nearly as well as the others in term of dps. I’m active on the forums and on guild chat. I try to build groups for 10-mans. The other hunters log for the raid at 20:15, barely say hello, and I still haven’t seen any activity on their part on the forum (and even wisp me because they don’t know the strats and need advices…). And that asshole of a co-gm want to get rid of me !!!

My officer from Useless answered that the meters were not a proof because of the difference in gear, and I trust him to be more intelligent than the co-gm. At least that was comforting. I’m still trusted by my class officer.

I know I should change guild. Except I don’t know a single guild needing an undergeared hunter and a mage at this level. But more than anything else, I want to make the co-gm recognise he was wrong, I want “his balls” as a trophy ! And I will endure anything to get it. I’m very angry. I will get to the top of the kevinmeter whatever the cost ! I don’t allow me any mistake, no fail, never ! I will get to the top with my crapy gear without failling !

The only thing that could make me leave this guild now is another guild offering me and my mage a better situation. I’m quite desperate actually… But I don’t know if my nerves could afford another trial period…

I miss my friends from my old guild. I miss their trust. I miss their friendship and solidarity, their humour.

Grinding my LFG rep

I’m becoming a specialist of the LFG channel…

Yesterday night, the 25-man guild run was cancelled due to a lack of healers. I hadn’t have time to do 10-man ToC this week and asked in guild chat for volunteers, knowing that it would be easy to pug the rest. But it looked like most people were more interrested in the heroic version, most of them being linked in normal ToC, so I grouped people for an heroic run, asked the non-tagued applicant tank to join,  filled the group with good dps, and looked for healers : only one healer in guild…

Pugging healers for heroic raids is always a touchy topic. Like tanks. For me anyway.

I was confident with the tanks, one was a guildie and a really good bear, and the other was an applicant but his application on the forum looked quite interesting. Pugging tanks is the thing I dread more in pugging because when a tank fails, it’s usually an instant wipe. And some fights are very demanding in skill from the tanks. A good tank is a jewel that will end up in my friend list very quickly, this followed by an invitation to apply to the guild.

I don’t like pugging healers either but it’s easier than tanks. Despite playing a druid tree, I don’t exactly know what healers are doing during raids. All I know is that, if they are bad, people die, if they are good, people usually live even when they are swimming in aoe/cleave and other stupid things that hurt. Good healers can save a fight even when people are playing like a bunch of noobs. Not all fight but many fights.

So I had this group, with my 2 tanks, my 5 dps and my only tree healer. I hit the LFG channel. There wasn’t many choice in the LFG interface. Two paladins were there, and when I asked one if he had some experience on the fights, he never answered. The second was more informative, said he knew the fights in normal mode but had no achievement to show me in heroic mode. I asked if he felt like holding our tanks on heroic mode, he said he hoped so, I hired him.

Then I needed a priest or a shaman. I had no priest in the group, nor a chaman. That was a problem. No priest or chaman in LFG. Always this bunch of idiots wisping me with a “need a good rogue/dk doing 4k8 dps for your run ?” or “What do you need ?“(Chuck – gnome rogue 80 – Ice Crown, that one asked twice…) when I took the time to put a comment in LFG saying “Looking for a healer, priest or shaman“… Do you people happen to read comments ? Seriously !

I flew to Dalaran and began hitting the Trade and General chats. I even promised a Leper Gnome Costume… I found a priest. With good experience. Group full, let’s go.

The run was really good. We wiped but not that much. We got the Beasts in two tries. The second time, the bear thought he was clever going kitty form for the second jormungar, forgetting that aggro doesn’t reset when morphing… Dead kitty/bear. Oops. But we killed the worm, and Icehowl was solotanked by the paladin, no fail on the charge and we /lolled the kitty at the end… We needed 2 tries for Jarraxxus too, and 2 tries for the Champions. The Twins gave us a harder time. I think our strat were not really good and we killed them after 3-4 shameful wipes, with all the soakers dead (2 dps and the tree), them rest of the crew had luck getting the right shield and the right vortex. There we were with our group in front of Anub with 43 tries left. Anub is  a bitch. People were tired. We wiped a lot and called it at 0:30 in the morning.

Here are the thoughts and questions I got from pugging for heroic raids.

Here is my Guide to the LFG rep…

When looking for people :

1- Be very clear about your expectations when hitting LFG.

Write a comment in the interface. Be very specific when advertising on the channel that you are going for a “heroic” or a “hardmode” run. Warn people they will be checked for xp and gear. You always got idiots expecting free runs. A heroic run is never free. Everyone need to know the strat and give his best game. Do not hesitate to ask people what their experience is on the fights and to say politely but firmly “no” to people not reaching your minimum expected.

2- Take the time needed to check on people. Or your raid will be a fail.

Despite your guildies being impatient, and the time ticking, take your time. Ask people, speak with them about their experience. Don’t take the first one who answered but rather the one being more informative. He will be a good team mate. If you choose badly, you may begin your run earlier but end up wiping again and again, with huge repair costs and high frustration. You will get nasty suggestions on your guildchat (or in /w) : “Let’s get rid of the priest he sucks !” or “That rogue is always dying in aoe/killing the raid with his bomb, fire him !“. When taking more time to choose, you will have less chance to come up with an idiot, and your guildchat will be nicer : “That priest seems quite ok“, “Oh yes, he’s doing his job nicely“, officer : “Is he looking for a guild ?“.

I really hate when people begin to /w me about pugged players. Or doing that on guildchat. Firstly, it’s rude. And secondly, it’s enlightening my own failure at choosing people. And I don’t need anyone to remember that : my repair bill is more than enough willing to do so… They didn’t say “You failed !” but it’s more or less the same.

3- Remember you will never get the perfect raider, having done all the fights at least 20 times.

When asking people for their experience, don’t expect them to give you full xp with achievements, being in full T9-258… Those people don’t pug… When doing heroic or hardmode runs, I always ask for at least the normal mode. So people send me a link to their achievement spontaneously, sometimes, I don’t even ask for it, when people are polite and honest : “I don’t have heroic achievement to show you I’m sorry, but I have done the fights in normal mode many times.” Someone, telling me that he have never even try the hardmode, but the player being honest about that is generally a better choice than the one pointing to his uber gear but never answering about his xp, or with someone reluctant to show his achievements, pretending he’s done everything with his main character.

When looking for a group :

1- Don’t freak out when asked for some xp or achievement.

If you are in LFG for a heroic raid, expect to be inspected and xp checked. Heroic raids are not a garden party. Be confident but never lie. When in doubt, I will often use PugChecker, or check the Armory. Just tell the truth. People asking for this generally know why they ask, they know the fight and its expectations. If they ask for a proof you’ve already done the fight in normal at least, that’s for a reason. On the contrary, a RL expecting full xp in heroic mode from a pug player is an idiot. Don’t raid with him, he will often be the noob of the group, waiting to be carried through the instance.

2- Never accept an invitation to raid without talking to the RL before.

I hate when I hit LFG with my druid for any heroic and get an invite right away, without anyone telling me a simple “Hi ! You ready for a HCoS ?”. What does that cost to ask ? But for a simple heroic dungeon, that’s not a big deal. Though for a raid, and moreover an heroic raid, that’s pretty important. Someone inviting you without warning is a careless RL. He must have randomly invited all the LFG channel. Don’t be afraid to ask what boss they want to do, which are already dead, if it is a progression run for the guild pugging. You will be linked with this group the whole week, don’t be careless yourself.

3- Bring a game matching your tells or you will be removed middle run.

Nothing is more frustrating as a RL than to have that one pug in your group that told you he would be doing fine and spends his time screwing up. He wasted the RL time finding and interviewing him, and now, everyone is wasting time wiping. You will never be asked to be top dps, or best healer, or less squishie tank of the run. But you are expected to pull your weight, to not die in various fires and to not kill your team mates by being an idiot. Be ready to be summoned immediatly, bring your consumables, and I love pugs who bring Fish Feasts… Be nice on Team Speak and don’t be afraid to give feedback. If you are not matching our expectations and wasting our time, you will be removed.

Shopping list for next time :

1- Find an addon to manage loot.

I have a very bad memory. And master looting is a chore but I’d rather do it myself than letting someone else dealing with it, if I was the one who invited people. I always specify, when I have pugs in my group, what the loot rules are : /rand if needed, 2nd spec allowed if no one in 1st spec, one loot per person unless no one wants that item, orbs randomed at the end by people without loot, recipes randomed but not counted as an item, shards to guild bank. I need to find an addon that will remember who got which item. Does anyone know about an addon easy to use, that would do that, and maybe manage randoms and loot distribution… And I know, I’m lazy, I could take note of that on a paper…

2- Find an addon to manage my contact list and invites.

The hardest part of doing 10-mans in my guild is that people are rarely online outside of raid times. And it’s difficult to get your friendlist connected when you need it… This addon would be something that could help me to build a more regular raid, with a core of guildies and some pugs I kept in my friend list, pugging the rest on the fly if needed. That’s an advice from our usual RL to build a good 10-man : keep inviting good pugs (and make them apply to the guild…), and just stop inviting the bad apple. But for that I would need something were I could store some infos about the toons : “good disc priest“, “good warlock not standing in fires and doing insane amount of damages…“, “nice paladin, quite good raider, a little undergeared for ToGC but ok for normal mode“… And also, when wisped by an already spotted idiot, some warning : “squishie tank“, “druid always dying first because he sleeps in fires“, “priest never dispelling anything, doesn’t even have the ability on his bars“, “liar about his xp last time“, “crappy dps despite his uber gear score“, yadayada…

I heard about DoIKnowYou, as an addon to do that. Do any of you have a feedback on that one ? Or another addon I could test ? I may give it a try.

Some addon to manage invites would be nice too. But I have no idea of how I want to manage that. It will depend of how the raid building goes within the guild…

3- Find some good strat for the Twins and Anub.

Our raids lack some lead. I’m not confident enough to lead a fight. I usually ask Ron to lead when I’m building the team and masterlooting, but he doesn’t like it more than I do. Guild runs are usually very quick and smooth in 25-man, everyone knows the fights, everyone knows what he’s supposed to do, and everyone does it. With pugs though, you have to explain the tactics, assign roles, and sometimes check if the assignments are respected. We’re not good at it. And it showed a lot yesterday night, on the Twins and Anub. We are not confident enough with those fights to lead, and you cannot leave the raiders to themselve, people need some direction, giving all the different way to do this fight, in the case of the Twins. And Anub is quite hard to figure when doing the hard mode the first time. I need to find extremly clear and complete strats for those bosses. I know the strat for all hardmodes in Ulduar, but not ToGC… On the ToDo list…

Epic Pug

I love Pug stories. Fail pug stories are a plenty on the blogs and are sometimes so funny, and sometimes quite scary…

Today, I got a win pug story for you ! Here is the long version (there’s no short one).

Everything begins with the disband of my guild on Krasus. For those who didn’t followed, the officers were fed up and transfered server. Ron and I followed. And here we were on Elune-EU, knowing no one, applicants in one of the best guild of the server. There was that achievement, that special achievement we failed to do before the transfer : Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 players). With only Yogg Saron +1 Watcher missing… And the guild do not go back to Ulduar in 10-man, except for Algalon, and anyway, 10-mans are a closed world to applicants… And the guild is going though a bad period these days, and times are tough.

My ex-GM, Yalleb, felt very sorry for the both of us. He thought we deserved this achievement, after all the efforts we made in his guild. He will stop playing on Wednesday, and last Thursday, he told me “I’ll lead and tank for you this week-end if you find a group for your protodrake.“. I asked in guild but got only one answer, a rogue, an applicant too.

Yalleb asked some of his contacts on the server and found a few good players willing to help. And Saturday morning, I began to look for people on Trade chat and Dalaran’s General.

Man, the number of people who whisped me expecting a free run… Every single one of them had a great stuff, so they said. But when asking for some achievement, it became quite vague and elusive… After an hour, my message on /2 became something like “Looking for experienced people for Ulduar 10-man hardmode, objectif Yogg+1w. I don’t damn care about your stuff, send me some XP at least in normal mode !“. And still it went on, speaking about their stuff before their experience :

Me : Do you know Yogg ? Have you try him ?
Rogue number 50 :  I got a good stuff, go see on the Armory !
Me : Of course your stuff is great, everyone is in T9 these days… Have you ever try Yogg ?
Rn50 : Errr, I learn very quickly I swear, I know the tacts, I saw videos…
Me : You can’t learn that fast… Yogg is not exactly a boss you learn on videos, you need practice…
Rn50 : But please ! Take me !
Yalleb : No xp, no go !
Me : Next…

I got a nice shaman.

Chaman : Are you still looking for people for your Ulduar 10 ? I’m a resto shaman.
Me : I looove resto shamans ! Err, do you have some xp on Yogg ?
Chaman : You want to do Yogg ?
Me : Yes, with 1 Watcher. And maybe Algalon if we have time.
Chaman : I got xp in 10 and 25. I have the +3w achievement in 25-man and many other achievements in Ulduar 10-man.
Me : You’re in !

We realised she had Valanyr when the bubbles popped on XT’s trash mobs…

I also got the incredule one :

Random Dalaran Wanderer : You’re doing an Ulduar hardmode with a PUG ? oO
Me : Err, yes. Want to join ? Do you have xp on Yogg ?
RDW : You really  expect to go to Yogg with a pug, you’re kidding !
Me : We want Yogg+1 and Algalon if we got time.
RDW : You’ll never go to Yogg with a pug…
ME : Yes we will.
RDW : Good luck !
Me : Thanks !

I don’t think he believed me. He asked back during the Saturday evening though.

RDW : Then ? How was your Ulduar ?
Me : Oh, very well, we cleaned up to Yogg and did a few tries.
RDW : Really ? oO
Me : Oh yes.

My guildies were quite bewildered too I must say.

On Sunday, I went back to my /g and /2 to find people to replace the ones that couldn’t be there. No guildie except the rogue from Saturday was available. I found my 2 pickups to fill the group and off we were to Yogg+1 again. Most people were experienced players on this fight. Some of them had tried him but never downed (my guildie was in this case, but I know how he plays), the enhancement shaman used to down him in resto but we needed an enhancement shaman.

That one annoyed me a lot, whispering to me while I was in ToGC-10 Saturday evening… But on Sunday, he harassed Yalleb so much that we took him. He behaved very well, even if he needed a few wipes to get in the fight, you know, not swimming in green clouds while meleeing the gardians, not getting mind controlled in the brain’s room… Saturday, the retribution paladin got lost down there, not finding the portal to go out… We had taken him because of the buffs he brings, and because I had no other RetPal solution. He discovered some fights… Council hard mode : died on the aoe, Mimiron : died on the aoe, Yogg Saron : got lost and mind controlled. Common mistakes for a first time… He got lots of loot though… He needed it…

It was a win Pug ! We did the Council Hardmode, Hodir, Thorim, had no time for Freya or Mimiron but took some time (and wipes) for Vezax Hardmode that people needed. And sunday afternoon, after 14 tries, we got Yogg+1 !

My Rusted Protodrake at last !

We got the ugly mollusc down, and got our achievement, and I got my own meta, I own a Rusted Protodrake ! She’s so beautiful !!! (Of course it’s a “she” ! Don’t ask !) !

And gratz to Ron, and the warlock who needed just Vezax and Yogg. And big thanks to Yalleb !

Now I owe an Algalon run to those great people. I want to see him too anyway, but I will give priority to them over guildies. They were great !

This run gave me an idea for a project. I may began to organize more 10-man Ulduar hardmode runs in the future, with pugs, around a core of experienced people willing to go back there for fun, for people like me : in a guild where they are not going back in Ulduar but who miss a few achievements for the Protodrake, or who would like to see Algalon but never got in the right run… People able to do it, but not able to find a group to go there.

The principle would be easy. One of the raider need one specific achievement, we make a group with guildies, friends and pickups and if we got the achievement that week, we bring the pickups to Algalon. And next week, we pick one of the achievements that one of the pug miss, and go there. The person we helped will try to be there for the next time. It would be a kind of : “you helped me, I’ll help you, or help someone else” principle, and the reward would be 1 hour with Algalon… I got a name for it : the Ielof Pickup Raid Project. (“Ielof” is reversed “Folie”, meaning madness in French)

I don’t know if that would work. But anyway, it was a great way to meet people on my new server, to make friend with some of them, and maybe a good way of recruiting good people… (I tried to recruit the shaman, he was a nice guy, played damn well and was guildless, but he had put his application somewhere else already… Pity…) It is a good way to learn how to lead a raid too.

The future will tell me if it works… Or if I end up with such a good group that I won’t need to find pickups anymore because those people will came back every week… Or if people will come just for the loot and the achievement and never come back… I’m sure there will be people like that, but I’m sure some people will be willing to play the Ielof game…

I haven’t had so much fun raiding for a long time

The guild I’m in with my hunter is getting through a tough period. Many people feel bored with current content, and now they’ve got their protodrake and the best gear for ToC, they decided that Aion would be great to try out. The rest of the guild can go look for strawberries…

(French expression : sending someone collecting strawberries means get rid of them with a useless activity, or just dismiss them by telling them they can GTFO… Or something like that… I’m not good at translating insults… The funniest example for Strawberries collecting is in this book : Asterix the Gaul, just thinking about it makes me laugh…)

So ! Raids cancelled. Dramas. Many officers quited, many other were kicked, to put it simple, there was around 7 officers a few weeks ago, and now only 2 left : the GM and the Hunter master… Many people followed the officers, they were originally from the same guild and melted with <Useless> a few months ago, and now the guild is bloodless.

Now you are wondering were I got this title for my post. Here we are ! Raids are cancelled, and the guild ambiance is bleeeeh… So I have time to connect my baby tree druid, and play with my old friends on Krasus. And that feels so good ! She changed guild and joined <Joker>, where our friends from <les anciens> are now, especially Sherydan. Their guild have been struck hard by Aion too. They were doing very well, getting access to Algalon with their 10-man group when most of the 25-man guilds on the server don’t. And half of the staff stopped to play Aion… Sherydan called back his old friends and is now raiding more casually, or rather, with less skilled players, but at least, they are still raiding. That guy is just… I can’t find words to explain how nice he is. All his friends came back to play with him, he’s just so great !

That said, last week I had time to heal XT-002 with some friends from my first ever raiding guild (the one I created and leaded, until I burned out and joined <les anciens>) and another guild where I’ve got friends, and they happen to know each other and do some 25-mans together, great ! It was my first 25-man ever with my druid (Emalon doesn’t count). I love Ulduar. Did I ever told you how much I love Ulduar ? Well I love it, it’s beautiful, it’s fun, it’s big, it’s diversified… And being there with all those friends was excellent ! I know those fights, so well that I could do them with my eyes closed on my hunter (seeing my UI, it’s nearly the case… ;P ). But there we were, with Ron on his warlock, explaining the strats that worked instead of their messy strat which was a good one in 10-man Ulduar, but crappy in 25-man… Second try, the big robot died ! Happy druid ! My first boss as a healer in 25-man !

And yesterday, my baby druid put foot in ToC25, with the Joker team. Some of those folks are really good at what they do. They have the best accessible gear they can have and so on. My druid is in emblems gear, with a single T8.5 piece I bought 2 days ago, and crappy enchants, because I have no time to farm or do dailies for her and for my hunter at the same time. ToC was frightening… I’m happy I got Vuhdo ready for raiding, it was a huge help. But actually, the fight was so cool ! I don’t like ToC, boring and ugly. But yesterday night, it was cool ! I discovered another view of the encounter and had a ton of fun playing with friends. More than I have had in the past month for sure… That is an understatement : the last month on Elune have been a nightmare, getting worse every week…

What is the point of this post ? First, I had fun, and it was like a sweet after the doctor made the vaccine you know, like a hot bath after walking under some winter rain. But I don’t want to go back there with my hunter, and I don’t want to stop doing high-end raiding content either. But I need to find a true community of nice players who enjoy playing together. I don’t know if I will stay in the guild Useless for now. They are in a bad period, and maybe with some people leaving and new recruits, it will get better. That’s why I’m looking for guilds on other servers, even if I’m not sure that I will quit my guild. Actually, I may make the jump to an English server. I’m fluent enough in English not to be afraid of the language, and confident enough in my gameplay to apply in any guild.

So this is a call : do you know a raiding guild, on a EU server, Alliance side, English speaking, raiding from 3 to 5 nights a week, doing hardmodes in 25-mans, recruiting hunter and mage, and with nice and sociable people ? Yes… I know… Actually, I found out a few guilds on Emerald Dream EU that are approximately at our level of experience.

Secondly, I loved those fights because I could bring more to the raid than just my heals. I know the strats, and the tricks of them too. What works, what doesn’t… I remember the raid leader from XT, who is an old friend. He always show us (Ron and me) much respect because we are doing endgame raiding, etc… Tamarind wrote a post this week about a crappy Naxx run, where an more advanced/geared player spoiled his fun. I don’t want to be that player ever. That’s just the most arrogant behavior I can imagine. Even with my experience in raiding in Ulduar and ToC, I try to always be humble with less experienced players, because I still learn every day and I know that everyone has his own rhythm to learn things. And if I can help them to better know the fight, I will. Shy reacted to the article by a rambling, and gave a few options about how the RL should have reacted to the arrogant raider. When in a raid I know very well with less experienced raiders, I would follow the raid leader until we wipe, and them /w him tips if I find they would be useful. But I will never try to make the other raiders uncomfortable. That’s rude. That’s pure asshattitude… I’m here to have fun, and not to spoil the fun from others.

I have been the less experienced raider. I have been the applicant discovering some fights for the first time when the rest of the guild knows it for weeks. I’ve been lucky. I’ve always been with people understanding that, even if they told me to pay more attention to the fight, to do more dps, etc… they never took me down, but helped me to improve. That makes great players. I went from a wannabe raider to a true raider in a few weeks and know, I’m confident with my skill.

But the best part of those few hours raiding with my druid is that I’ve no more doubts about my abilities to heal with her. Since the last patch, I was losing confidence. The new heroic 5-man is a nightmare for a druid and I’ve been running (and wiping it) a lot… It’s so hard that I don’t want to go there anymore. And I was thinking I was a crappy druid. But today, I feel good playing my druid my own way. It was great !

Shadowed UF + Vuhdo FTW !

There it is ! My new UI post !

I spent last week-end re-doing my UI, on the hunter first, and then on the druid. I listed all the addons I wanted to keep, the ones I wanted to get rid of, the ones that needed to be replaced by something better, or easier to set up, I spent hours on Curse and Wow Interface to find THE addon… I fully used Vranx’s site too, very, hugely useful site if you’re looking for some specific addon. I’m quite happy with the new look I must say. Let’s begin and do the list of the addons I choose.

The general addons of my UI :

• Castbar : Quartz forever !

I love Quartz. It’s one of the first addons I ever installed, maybe the first. It’s just not possible to play without it… It shows your latency, and I know if I can incant another spell even if the game tells me I’m not finished yet. And you can set it up so that it shows the buffs/debuffs you put on your target, so handy to time your explosive shot when Loak&Load procs. On the druid, I can keep an eye on my hots on the tank I’m almost always targetting. With my baby DK, I see the deseases I put on my target. In short, Quartz,  a must have…

NB on L&L : Actually, I don’t usually time my explosive shot with Quartz when L&L procs. Let me explain : when L&L procs, you have 3 explosive shots free of mana and cooldown. ES ticks 3 times every second : one on impact, then one second later, then one second later. That makes a mini dot of 2 seconds with 6 seconds cooldown. When L&L procs, you can fire 3 ES in a row but if you do that, seeing the GCD is 1.5sec, you will lose damage from your ES, not letting the 3rd tick out. One solution is to fire another instant shot (not Steady shot, that a loss in dps) between two ES, but if your other shots are on cooldown, you have only ES left. There is two way to deal with it : check your target and fire the next ES went the first one fade out, but with lag, and the time it takes for your shot to reach your target, you wait too much and lose dps. The second way is the way I use : fire ES, count the seconds in your head “1, 2″, fire second ES, count “1, 2″, fire third ES, go on with rotation… It’s not easy for everyone, but being a musician helps me a lot to do that. When I’m too lazy or too focused on something else to count, I still use Quartz, except I never wait until ES disappears, I fire the next one when there is only approximately 1/4 of the time remaining. End of hunterish lesson… How many people did I lose ?…

• Unit frames : Shadowed Unit Frame (SUF)

I used to have STUF for a while. But the config panels are a pain if you want to modify it, but if you don’t need to, you can just use it out of the box. It’s a nice UF. I tried Pitbull4 too, but you have to set up every single thing. You have to spend 4 hours to set it up before doing any group activity, even if the config panel is relatively easy to use (seeing the number of options). SUF is something like the combo of those two : you can use it out of the box, it’s pretty and functionnal. But if you want to change a few things, it’s easy to set up. And if you want to change every little thing, you can enable the advanced setting. The basic config panel is really easy to use. I didn’t try the advanced one at the moment… Big up for Shadowed, really great addon !

• Raid frame : Vuhdo

Like for the UF, I used STUF Raid which comes with STUF and loved it : simple, not too ugly, I didn’t need much more to raid with my hunter. However, when dealing with healing with my druid, I had to find something else. I used Grid for a while and loved it. I added Clique a few weeks ago and still need some training for clic-healing… But the horde of mods you need for Grid is just overwhelming… And Clique is buggy these days… And Grid’s a little bit laggy. So I decided to give Vuhdo a second chance (I tried it once and wiped my group for 30 minutes until I got Grid back… But it was because I was discovering clic-healing…). And this time, it was good. I will keep it I think, even if it still need a little bit of set up. And I installed it on my hunter too, to be able to misdirect by clicking. It’s oRa2 compatible, you can assist people by right-clincking them, it’s just excellent. So Vuhdo adopted.

I still have Decursive on my druid, even if I could probably use Vuhdo instead, but I like this mod, very handy.

• Bars : Bartender + ButtonFacade Dek2 + OPie + OmniCC

Blizzard bars are just big and ugly. ButtonFacade make them pretty, Bartender make them movable, sizable, well, not much to say on this one actually. I have to many spells and abilities on my hunter, I try to get rid of some of them but it’s an every day battle…

And OPie came and saved my life : just have a look at it. I mostly use it for my aspects, I can change them by middle-clicking, a ring appears with my aspects and mounts, I just have to choose. It’s a great addon ! And pretty. And ButtonFacade compatible. And there is a lot of pre-set rings you can use. It’s just an awesome addon.

OmniCC adds a timer on my abilities when they are on cooldown.

• The buffs and debuffs : Power Auras and Satrina’s Buff Frame

I used Bison a few weeks, very easy to use. I installed SBF to try it out… Not much to say yet.

Power aura is much more interesting. I use it to tell me when no Hunter’s mark is up, or if my Serpent Sting isn’t up. I have an aura if I’m in Viper, Cheetah or Pack aspect, wild or beast too but smaller or if I have no aspect at all. I have a warning if low mana or full mana and still in viper… And of course, I have my Loak&Load aura, like the one BRK showed us a while ago… (the video isn’t working anymore…) I use it on my druid too when I’m Balance specced to follow my dots. Power Aura is great !

• Raiding addons : Omen, Deadly Boss Mod and oRa2.

Let’s go on with the list of “don’t raid without that one”. Omen : to check your aggro. A must have as a dpser.

DBM is a classic boss mod. The other ones I know are Bigwigs and Deus Vox Encounter (DXE). Bigwigs is buggy. DXE is good and pretty, but I’m used to DBM even if it’s ugly. Actually, I miss the big blue warning “Shadow crash on you !” “Move !”… Well DXE do it too but not as visible and not with the same sounds… It’s disturbing… But DXE is really great, I think I will intall both of them actually… DXE does not work for 5-mans though if I’m not mistaken, nor for old instances : WotLK raids only.

oRa2 is for raid managing, so that you could track people cooldowns, and set tanks and main assists. Very useful, quite pretty in my opinion. Vuhdo is compatible with it so I may not even have to show the MT frame. My only concern is that Vuhdo doesn’t show target of target of the tank unlike the oRa2 frame. But actually, not a big deal…

Those 3 addons are mandatory in my guilde, like in many other raiding guildes.

Various combat addons :

• Hunter addon : SimpleMD

That is one of my favorite addons. Simply shows every Misdirect in the area with a cooldown bar, in red when MD is active, and in green when the 3 charges have been used but MD is still on cooldown. One of the most useful addons I’ve found. I love that one.

• Battle text : Mik Scrolling Battle Text (MSBT)

This replace the usual messy battletext in a clean roll, and add many other indications. Quite spammy though… I didn’t take the time to filter what it shows and it’s still the standard config… I will have to check that one day… A classic

• Range indicator : RangeDisplay

Like it says : Give me the range of my target, my focus, and my mouse-over target… So handy.

• Loggerhead and World of Logs, Recount

Loggerhead automatically enable the combatlog recording when I enter a raid instance and stop it when I’m out. I can then post it on World of logs and analyse it at will. Recount records everything you do in combat. An ingame World of Logs. A little bit resources consuming though.

• Nameplates : Aloft

Still in beta, changes the look of the nameplates (the one you can turn on/off with “V”). Not bad. I’m still not used to it and haven’t look at the set up panel.

Utilities :

• Chatter : Not much to say, a chat addon, that’s all…
• Fubar and a few of its many mods :the Fubar is great to show many informations. Just choose the one you want.
• Altoholic : Altoholic is just awesome : there is everything you need to know about your alts, their gold, their bank, their guildbank, their professions, their skills, etc… Everything. And if other people in your guild have it too, you got infos from them too.
• AtlasLoot : Atlasloot enable you to check the loot possible on any boss, but also to check recipes and item from every profession. You can of course link them on the chat.
• QuestHelper, Gathermate and Cartographer : Questhelper and Cartographer are great for levelling, and Gatherer for farming ore and herbs.
• TipTac : Change the appareance of your tooltips adding many useful informations, like guild, target,  spec, buffs…
• Minimap : Sexymap and MinimapButtonFrame (MBF) : Nice addons to clean your minimap and move it where you want, squale it, and store all your addons’ buttons in a movable frame with MBF.
• Auction House : Auctioneer and Postal : Auctioneer is a must to hope make some money from auction house. And I just don’t like the basic window. Postal makes your life easier with your mail.
• Bugsack and !BugGrabber : with so many addons, I often have lua errors. These two addons prevent those error to show on the screen and keep them in a “bag” and you can check them later.
• Addon Control Panel : with this addon, you can enable/disable your addons without having to log off your character.

Here is a screenshot of my current UI in raid. Still a work in process but much better than it has ever been.

I’m still not exactly happy with it. Two MT frames, one of them will have to disappear… MSBT and the Blizzard error text (you know the red one saying “this abilitie is not availiable yet”) and DBM are spamming at the top of the screen. I don’t have anything monitoring my traps (how long they stay put and when they trigger, how long it last…) and that’s bad…

I may write more articles about addons, describing how I set them up. Feel free to ask for some specific addon settings in the comments.