Our main tank just died tanking High King. Why? Because one of our Paladin’s had Alterac Valley on auto join who was assigned to our MT. Turn off your auto joiners when you raid, folks.
Matticus
Rant: Raid Selection
BC raids mostly consist of 25 players. Gone our the days when one or two guys could sit in MC afk and accumulate DKP by wanding and not doing anything (Alterac Valley is a shadow of what it was like then). Most Guilds either have under 25 players and struggle to fill raid spots, or have over 30 players and are placed in an unfortunate situation where they need to choose.
Hockey teams are no different. The NHL season is starting up soon and training camps are underway. The point of the camps is to determine who gets to suit up for the big leagues and who gets to sit in the press box watching or play in the minor leagues. Players who are too lazy on the backcheck get released from camp.
As a Guild, you want to bring the very best possible players to your raid. How do you determine that? You could base it on gear, skill, talent, personality, and so on. But consider another point: consistency.
Players should be fighting over raid spots. I’ve seen lack of dedication and consistency mean the difference between a guild invite and a guild boot. What, I ask, is the point of being in a raiding guild if you don’t raid? Bloggers blog, runners run, beer drinkers drink, analysts analyze. You obviously applied for a raiding Guild with one purpose in mind: to raid. Would you want these kinds of players in your 25 man raid?
The Druid tank who decides to show up 30 minutes late and hold up the whole raid to finish up a non-heroic Merchanar.
The Priest who decides not to raid one day for some stupid reason and comes back the next day whining why he’s not allowed to raid.
The Paladin who refuses to raid with a “weak†Kara team because they can’t clear it in 3 hours.
The Rogue who is frequently AFK for a ready check because he’s too busy occupied watching Naruto reruns.
Seriously, who the hell are you people and why are you here? A better question is what do they all have in common? What one trait do they all share? They want better loot without having to work for it.
Thankfully, life does not operate that way otherwise Communism would have succeeded a long time ago. You need to earn the right to play. You have to compete to win. I’m very glad Blizzard trimmed the raid instances from 40 to 25 because it truly separated the men from the boys.
There are 25 raid spots that are open. Most guilds have 30 active players. Do the math. Some players will get the call up, some players will get benched. It astounds me how people expect a free ride. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch as my dad always told me. WoW is no different. I find it hilarious when players don’t want to do something when a Guild leader asks them to do it, and then begin to whine about not getting a raid spot. Well no kidding, moron. The boss doesn’t have a reason to. You were asked to be more responsible and you turned it down. You are aware of when the raid time is yet you make a choice not to show up. Do not be surprised if the next time you show up, you don’t get the invite. If you can’t handle something so minor why in Zeus’ name should you be given more responsibility that you clearly are unable to handle?
Performance and attendance is the key here, people. If you want to raid, the first step is to show up. You can’t clear Kara with 3 players (yet). I don’t care how geared you are. I don’t care how good you think you are. I don’t care how much you pay me. If you don’t show up once, you don’t get another chance. No I’m not referring to excuses with medical emergencies or academic reasons or what have you. Those are understandable. Sometimes life deals you a pair of Aces and you get beat with a Flush. These things happen. The important part is that you’re not afraid to buy in and ante up. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.
Alain Vignault is the coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Last year he turned a struggling Canucks team at Christmas break into a Playoff contender. Why? Because he would start players that would perform and bring their A game. His philosophy is this: It doesn’t matter what name is on the back of your sweater, if you are there, you will see significant ice time. During games, he gave more ice time to players who he thought was performing. You see, he doesn’t play favourites. He plays whoever shows up.
Jeff Cowan, a 4th line grinder, got to play on the top line because he was contributed energy and his presence was felt.
Coach Vignault also won the Jack Adams award. That means he was widely considered as the Coach of the Year.
The next time you start your raid invite, pause for a sec and think to yourself if the names you want on your list are really the ones you want. If you’re a person whose sitting there scratching your head wondering why your Guild pulled someone outside into the raid of inviting you, it’s because you’ve proven to him that would not be useful in anyway.
Player Consumbles
What a nice break that was. If you haven’t figure out by now, I’ve set my blogging schedule to 6 out of the 7 days in a week. That day off is for me to brainstorm topics that are blogworthy. Yesterday was a nice break and I feel a little more refreshed. I didn’t have a lot of time either due to several hours of class immediately followed by a raid. I felt quite drained after that, and I do have some tips for you if you feel the same way. If you’ve noticed, I’ve developed a rhythm for my blogging. Nearly all of my posts will relate to World of Warcraft in one way or another. I’ll usually put out a large editorial during the beginning of the week that’s analytical in some aspect then follow it up wit a few shorter pieces. I don’t want to do a whole lot of number crunching as my numerous other colleagues are far more adept at it then I (Arts student, remember?). I’m also working on two side projects both related to worldofmatticus.com in some way.
There’s been numerous posts made by my fellow bloggers regarding the use of consumables in raids. I’ll summarize them really quickly (the Priest ones anyway).
* Blackened Sporefish (8 MP5, food) – Golden Fishsticks are nice, but the cost at acquiring them makes them not worth the effort as I place a huge emphasis on MP5.
* Brilliant Mana Oil (12 MP5, Weapon)
* Flask of Mighty Restoration (25 MP5)
* Super Mana Potion (Restores X mana)
But you know, our characters aren’t the only ones that need pick me ups from time to time. When I come home from a 7 hour day at University enduring monotonic lectures, I have an incredible urge to nap… until I realize it’s 30 minutes until raid invites. As a healer, there’s not a whole lot of healing that needs to be applied during trash pulls. There’s no sense in us wasting mana over healing when that mana could be put to better use in the case of an emergency (IE, extra trash accidentally pulled). I let the assigned MT healers heal, while I throw around Shields, Renews, and PoM’s. I flash heal if I sense extra support is needed.
Anyways, the point of today’s post is not trash healing techniques. I have my own personal consumables during raid time to help keep that much needed energy going during our raids. As a law student, I also need to cover my bases, therefore:
DISCLAIMER: Matt, his friends, family, affiliates (anyone who I link to or linked me), sponsors, organizers, and owners (henceforth known as Matticus) take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to you from utilizing the beverages listed. By consuming them, you do so at your own risk and Matticus cannot be held liable. If you are unsure about health hazards in regards to trying the following, consult your physician.
Coffee: This is the staple of any person in the workforce today. It is also the fastest growing choice of drink for today’s student. The potency can be customized to meet your needs, it’s quick to make, and the sweetness is entirely up to you. Personally, I’ve developed a taste for Starbucks coffee (Tall, Dark, no cream, no sugar, $1.75 in Canada). The main reason though is the convenience. There’s a Starbucks on almost everywhere. I’ve got one about 3 blocks away from home and I know if I have a long day ahead of me, I’ll make a quick detour.
Tea: If you don’t like the taste of coffee, there’s always this alternative. Japanese restaurants I frequent serve Green Tea. Aside from it’s various health benefits, it’s often helped me stay alert. You can also take a page from Captain Picard and try Earl Gray (add a bit of milk). Other avid users have included Bruce Wayne, Frasier Crane, James Bond, and Sir Leigh Teabing (DaVinci Code)
Red Bull: More commonly found in Jagrbombs, Red Bull has founded a counterpart within World of Warcraft: Crimson Steer. Too bad only Rogues benefit from it. I’ve never personally tried it because I always thought that it wasn’t strong enough for me. But now you can be like a rogue and spring that extra kick just when you think you couldn’t muster the energy (in our case, that extra heal).
Bawls: If you’re into the gaming scene, then chances are you’ve heard of this. It has a similar effect as all energy drinks (supposed to keep you awake for a long time). First time I tried this was when I was 16. I wanted to finish out that one game of DoTA at 1 AM so I popped it. Big mistake. Didn’t sleep until about 10 AM. Tastes fantastic though! If you need some energy, consider grabbing yourself a six pack of blue Bawls from your local 7-11 (Couldn’t resist).
Rock Star: This is what I consider the holy grail of all energy drinks. A few semesters ago, I committed a freshman mistake: leaving a paper until the last minute. I had to write a 1500 word paper regarding Canadian National Security and and it into my Political Science teacher. I didn’t start until 10 PM. This paper represented 50% of my grade and it was time to break open the glass because it was an emergency. So I reached in, blew the 24 hour cool down and took my first sip. Boy did it work or what? My mental state reached a peak of clarity that I never thought I’d feel again when I got my first shutout playing hockey. I pulled an all nighter going from 10 PM all the way next day to about 10:30 AM when it was due. After that, I went home and crashed. To my surprise and delight, I managed to get an A on it.
But don’t ever, ever, ever, do that. Ever. I mean it. Don’t do it.
Seriously.
Bags!
It’s a common phrase that Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, the First Wizard in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, uses when he curses. It is also something that helps us Priests acquire some form of income (at least, us Tailors anyway). As first seen on Curse, there is a strong hint that our bag space will increase in size yet again. That means we don’t have to wait for all the Imbued Netherweave Bags to sell. It means we don’t need to spent countless of hours marketing our Primal Mooncloth bags only to have it replaced in a patch before WotLK. Check out the following statements made by Drysc on WoW’s US Forums.
Drsyc says:
We’re mindful of space concerns, and increasing the base backpack size is certainly a possibility for the future. We have other space and storage increases currently in the works for release before Wrath though, and we’ll be talking about those soonâ„¢.
Can you give us those Super Backpacks from the PTR the 36 slotters i still has space issues even using those XD.
Probably not. But don’t worry, there’s better stuff in the works.
Now, if you’ve been able to read between the lines, then you’ll be able to deduce the two messages that were subtly said. First, there are things better then 36 slot bags being worked on. There’s a good chance now that means we will be producing a lot of bags en masse. That also means we will have to pair up with a sharpshooter to help us farm the necessary materials required for them. That also means more tailoring skills that need to be leveled. Am I the only one that ever sits here once in a while and asks “Geeze, does this game ever END?”
Second, notice how Drysc, a representative of Blizzard, has trademarked the word “soon”. Even Blizzard will now acknowledge that they no longer set final concrete release dates on their projects. But that’s okay, because I’ve always loved Blizzard ever since I started playing Warcrat 2 when I was 9 years old. That was the first game where I first discovered a cheat code (show me the money)! I’ll end off this post with a WoWWiki definition of Soon.
- Soon
- Copyright 2004-2007 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. “Soon” does not imply any particular date, time, decade, century, or millennia in the past, present, and certainly not the future. “Soon” shall make no contract or warranty between Blizzard Entertainment and the end user. “Soon” will arrive some day, Blizzard does guarantee that “soon” will be here before the end of time. Maybe. Do not make plans based on “soon” as Blizzard will not be liable for any misuse, use, or even casual glancing at “soon.”
Guess I’ll cross my fingers and wait for Duke Nukem’ Forever.
Stamina, an overlooked stat for Priests?
This one’s going to be a short and quick post because I daresay the point that I’m trying to drive home will not take long to figure out. Several days ago, a prominent Guild on Ner’Zhul disbanded due to lack of attendance and other factors that kill Guilds (hmm, a good blogging topic). Needless to say, we signed several of their players in the hopes that it might solve a few of our attendance problems. Summer’s now over, everyone should be back to a fairly stable schedule right?
Wrong. One of our Feral druid gets hit with an evening shift. Our Paladin suddenly has a life. One of our Rogues mysteriously vanishes (Go figure). Getting those extra players helped a lot. By the way, in other Guild news, Dinosaur disbands and joins Dissonance (both top 20 Guilds on NZ, I think).
Tonight was Serpentshrine Cavern. Since we were shorthanded a player, we opted for Lurker first. Two wipes later, we trekked back to Hydross. A colleague over at Priestly Endeavors published his own suggested requirements for raiding in terms of individual player stats. At first I disagreed with him at the amount of gear and such that was required. But something happened in our attempts against Hydross that made me think twice. For those who are unfamiliar with the fight, Hydross has an attack called Water Tomb in which he encases a player in a bubble of water which does approximately 4500 damage over 5 seconds. Furthermore, players within a certain radius around him will also get entombed but thankfully that spell does not chain past the second player. In addition, Hydross applies a stacking debuff where all players within the raid will periodically take increasingly more punishing frost damage (Water tomb hurts more). One of the new Priests we picked up today just died within the first minute or so of the encounter. His health was approximately 7400ish fully raid buffed. It looks as if he had 5800 base health.
Back to Kirk, it appears as if he is correct to a certain extent. The amount of HP he recommends for his level of raiding is a little more generous. There’s no possible way to sacrifice healing and MP5 gear for a little more stamina. You really don’t need over 7000ish base health in Kara. It’s true there are certain encounters where you will take a lot of damage (For instance, Aran’s Poly-Pyro, or Illhoof’s sacrifice). But for the most part, you just need above 7.2k using whatever buffs you can slap on yourself. You also need to pray your tanks are able to do their job and hold their aggro. That’s not a problem in a 10 man instance like Karazhan because there isn’t a whole lot of pressure or damage being applied to you (the priest) or to your raid. But once you get to an instance like SSC, it definitely is a whole new ball game. Maybe the only person who might’ve been able to save our poor Priest was a player with reflexes equal to that of Martin Brodeur. But I applied my method of raid healing and was not able to restore his health quick enough.
A lot of Priests emphasize the importance of +healing and MP5. Don’t get me wrong, I do too. After that incident today, the second stat I would take a long hard look at is stamina. It’s one of the reasons why I spent DKP on my [item]Crystalheart Pulse-Staff[/item]. Strangely enough, that item dropped again last week and no healer took it so it became sharded. How unfortunate. I guess players really want to go after their Light’s Justice/Aran’s Sapphire combination instead of spending their DKP to get loot that will help them.
It’s midnight, but before I go to bed, just think about this:
What’s the point of having all that healing and all that MP5 if you’re not alive to utilize it? I know I would get more healing if I stayed with an LJ/Aran’s Sapphire duo, but I would not be of any use to my Guild if I was dead half the encounter.