Month: January 2012

When it Comes to Guild Apps, Pick Two

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pick2

Historically speaking, most of the players I’ve picked up in the past had two out of the three attributes. Rare is the player who manages to possess all three. Recruiting seems to be at an all time low according to a few GMs I’ve spoken to (10 man and 25 man, Horde and Alliance). It’s as if the majority of players just want to see the content, regardless of what difficulty level it is (meaning the path of least resistance gets selected the most or the LFR tool). It seems like the applicants I see seem to exhibit 2 out of the 3 traits.

Skilled

Manages to bring the pain (or the healing). We’re talking on a consistent basis. I often find myself wondering about the players who (over a 2 month period) go from the bottom to the top back to the bottom again.

Of course, no one wants the player who has a really hard time hitting that Hour of Twilight button and ends up burning all 3 Battle Res skills allotted. The ability to pick up what the rules and requirements for each encounter is a big plus (as is the ability to do it fast).

High attendance

Willingness to reschedule most events in their lives around raiding is an advantage. I’m not that much of a tyrant though.

Wedding? Sure.

Exam? Yeah, you better go study for it.

House on fire? Go.

But if you’re missing out on a raid to catch the series finale of American Idol, I can tell you’re just not into it. Or if a new game came out and you’re signing out of raid when I can see on Steam that you’re clearly playing Skyrim. That tells me where your priorities are and it’s clearly not with WoW.

Drama free

Perhaps drama free might not be the best choice of words to use. When I mean drama free, I’m not referring to guild splitting dramatic incidents. I’m talking about the little things that can get under people’s skins eventually leading to guild splitting incidents.

How difficult does a person need to be?

There’s been times I’ve tried to compromise on issues to reach the best approach for everyone involved. In other cases, a single course of action was settled upon because that’s what the leaders wanted to do, period. I really hate working with players who argue for the simple sake of arguing. I can tell you it takes away my efforts and focus on the next item I want to resolve. Pick your battles carefully. Otherwise the GM might exercise their right to throw you out because you keep causing problems and end up being more of a liability instead of an asset.

Now going back to the original question, if you were restricted to two selections, which two would you pick?

Admit It: You Get High From Being Clutch

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gs-save

Ever wonder what it’s like to feel “high” in this game?

This is one of those methods.

I’d wager that Holy Priests get a bigger kick out of it then the other healers. Unlike the other clutch healing abilities, Guardian Spirit has two key effects: It offers both increased healing received on the target and the ability to grant a second chance in case the target dies.

Usually, when Holy Priests burn Guardian Spirit, it’s meant for the extra healing because of some massive amount of incoming damage.

But if tank health, your global cooldown, your lag and your reflexes all line up, then you just made a great save. The rest of the raid might not be aware of your efforts. But who cares? Deep down inside, you are the one that made that save and salvaged a possible kill from a definitive wipe.

It’s one of the best feelings in the World of Warcraft. I’ve never been able to score that feeling of satisfaction playing other healers. Sadly, whenever you do pull off the save, it ends up being a wipe. Seems rare whenever such a tank save results in a kill.

In any case, a new year means new responsibilities for people. Players have new priorities in their lives (or other games). My guild’s looking for 2 healers. I’m not picky on any classes. Yes, we’ll even consider Priests even though we have 3 right now. I would genuinely like the services of a Holy Paladin and a Resto Druid.

Coffeecraft

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Guys, get this. I was in Starbucks the other day. Just ordered my coffee (I like mine mild) and as I’m adding non-fat milk, my eyes dart over to this guy in a suit next to me. Noticed he was adding sweetener to his coffee. Not only that, he put Soy in it.

And his stirring technique was way off.

He was using his stir stick going clockwise 3 times before going once counter clockwise. Everyone knows proper technique is to go 2 clockwise and 2 counterclockwise to really optimize distribution of cream to sugar. He wasn’t even mixing it the right way. No way did he deserve to be at Starbucks.

He also has to use exactly 2 cream and 2 sugar.

I mean what a total scrub, right? He should just quit coffee entirely. What a casual. That’s not real coffee. Him drinking coffee is ruining my caffeine ingesting experience. He should be using real cream and legit sugar. Oh not only that, there was no lid on his cup of coffee. Come to think of it, I don’t think the cup that coffee was in is even worthy of that coffee that he’s drinking.

Sometimes I think real coffee is only for the hardcore crowd.

All the noobs should stick to instant.

You know, speaking of coffee, many of friends give me sass for drinking that stuff. Someone brought up the point that coffee’s just getting too old and outdated. Energy drinks are the way to go now.

There’s more energy in them.

There’s different taste.

And it’s just a new, different experience altogether.

But come on, let’s be real.  When a new energy drink comes out, I’ll try it out for a bit. I might even give it a month or two. But after a while, I just end up losing interest and switch back to coffee. Yeah, I guess coffee can be boring. But you know, I go to different coffee shops. Every few months, they release new blends and brewing techniques. The experience is slightly different but at least you’ve surrounded with the warmth and familiarity coffee has to offer. You’ll always have that small group of people who’ll enjoy their energy drinks despite the fact that coffee continues to be one of the biggest on the planet.

Now you might make fun of me for this, but I like to add a little non-fat milk to my coffee. Helps cool it down a little quicker which means I can consume it earlier without risking my mouth being incinerated. Even I get made fun of by the real hardcore crowd. We’re talking the 1% here. They tend to be the first people in their regions to try out new coffee.

They drink theirs black and look down on everyone else that adds cream or sugar. Something about altering the secondary stats of coffee and it being the complete wrong setup?

And then you’ve got the crazy folk who add honey.

You know, there’s more coffee shops around then before. Here we’ve got Starbucks, Waves and Tim Hortons (I hate Tim Hortons). It’s really increased accessibility. I’m seeing more and more people drinking coffee now than before. I guess that’s okay though. I mean, why shouldn’t people get to experience coffee regularly? I can understand the fact that not everyone has the ability to set aside time in their week to really sit down and enjoy their coffee. At least they’ll still get that chance.

What’s really annoying is the people who like to make snide remarks about your coffee preferences months and months after you change them.

Seriously. Get a life.

All I want to do is to enjoy my coffee in peace. Maybe I can’t drink as much of it as the best coffee drinkers in the world, but I’d like to think I can hold my own. I know some people out there have questioned my choice in blend, size, roast and milk usage. Some are even appalled that I don’t add sugar! But honestly, coffee can be enjoyed in a variety of different ways. There’s no one ultimate way to brew coffee. So why the remarks, huh? How am I harming you?

The way I drink my coffee has no impact on the way you enjoy yours.

Hmm, maybe that’s the way it should be approached. Of course I might randomly make fun of people I know based on how they drink their coffee. But as long as they’re enjoying it, why give them too hard of a time? Coffee should just be enjoyed best by however people choose.

And all you coffee haters out there?

Go back to drinking tea.

The Worst Thing a Guild Leader can do to a Player

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GM-sup

I think I’ve found my guild prank for April Fools!

I know of other guild leaders who joke about doing it (and some who actually have done it because they couldn’t do it anymore). So to all the guild leaders out there, I salute you. Doesn’t matter if the game is Rift, Guild Wars, SWTOR, WoW or what have you. It’s often a thankless job and you’re the butt of every joke but without you, your guild would be non-existent.

Although, I learned last night from Lodur that changing guild leaders can result in a bugged guild bank.

It’s okay, Logan. Your job is still safe. No plans for retirement yet. Sometimes I’ve always wondered about holding mock guild elections and what platforms people would run on. Fiscal guild responsibility?

P.S. I just noticed this. Which one of you clowns set my guild note?

Actual Cross Realm Raiding Soon? Nice!

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Picked this up on the news wire this morning before I went to bed (late nights and early mornings a plenty).

We previously introduced the ability to form cross-realm parties with Real ID friends, and now with Patch 4.3.2, we’re adding the ability for players to use that same functionality to form raids to run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds!
This will allow you to join up with your Real ID friends from other realms and:

  • Form a cross-realm raid and use Raid Finder
  • Jump in to any classic dungeon or raid and be automatically placed in the same instance
  • Join forces and dominate the Battlegrounds

Please note, you will not yet be able to run normal or Heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm Real ID raids.
As we look forward to the BattleTag system, it’s a very exciting time for World of Warcraft. No matter what realm you and your friends are on you’ll be able to team up and take on group content throughout the game.

I’ll bet you my Benediction that everyone is thinking this question right now. “When will we able to run normal mode or hard mode instances over cross-realm Real ID raids?”

I doubt it’ll be anytime soon. If anything, not until way later when the launch of Mists of Pandaria becomes imminent. I suspect players who are looking to join guilds for progression content will still be asked to play the requisite transfer and faction fees.

And no, I don’t think this feature is going to kill guilds anytime soon. I think we’ll eventually get to a point where raid globalization becomes a possibility for progression. Guild levels are tracked on a server by server basis. Conquest on Ner’zhul would be different then Conquest on another server. There might even come a day where I can ginvite a player from Proudmoore into my guild on Ner’zhul. They can see Gchat from across servers, participate in raids, and kill Horde players in battlegrounds. But they’d have access to a different economy and wouldn’t be able to help us kill Hogger.

Overall, I’m a fan of this feature. It’s hard to find people who want to do old world raids sometimes on the same server. At least with the benefit of cross realm raid groups, we can set up some transmog runs on a Friday night. Completing Legendary staves would be easier because you can draw on the pool of expertise from players outside your realm.

Here are some other questions for you.

“What’s the point of having separate realms then?”

That’s an easy question to answer. They need multiple servers to help with population distribution. Can you imagine what a globally centralized auction house would look like? Good luck trying to load into any major city. Or navigate through thousands pages and pages of Embersilk Cloth single listings?

“What is the point of server transferring to join a guild?”

For now, so that any activities can be conducted on the same realm. You can level up and quest together on alts for example. If you’re being attacked out in the world on a PvP server, you can breathe easier knowing that reinforcements are minutes away from exacting revenge.

Anyway, who is up for some cross realm 25 man Sinestra?