News and Opinion

General news and opinion about WoW.

No Kara Key? No Worries!

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Several of my colleagues have already reported this. But players no longer need a key to get into Karazhan. What you do need is 1 player with a key to let everyone in. The concept is similar to that of Arcatraz.

As Eyonix said:

It’s not a matter of difficulty, really. We wanted to make it more alt friendly at this point. I’ve gotten my kara key on four characters, and have helped a dozen others. I’m really quite content with never having to work on the attunement quest for kara again. Also, you should note that at least one person in the raid will need the Master’s Key, as the gate will function much like Arcatraz or Shattered Halls.

What about them noobs?

My stance on this is that you’re responsible for the raid group you’re joining. If you’re leading it and don’t agree with having an undergeared player with the group, then you can just remove them from the raid. Karazhan isn’t as hard as it used to be when TBC first came out. A lot of the trash in the instance got removed. A lot of players understand how the fights work now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see players on their 5th alt running Karazhan (I’m on my 3rd).

I suppose the argument here is similar to that of noobs going into Black Temple. So what if they can get into Karazhan and BT and such? It doesn’t mean they’re going to succeed most of the time. And if they happen to be holding back your raid group, you have the right to remove them. If I get pickups who are interested in joining my group, I typically screen their gear and their spec first before saying yes or no. A simple check before hand can save many  heartaches later.

It seems to me that there are some players out there who are too darn nice and don’t know how to uninvite someone from a party or a group. All that needs to happen is for the raid leader to right click their name and uninvite. Voila!

Problem solved.

Who is “That Guy” and How Do You Deal With Them?

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Several weeks ago I received an interesting link to a forum post titled “So you’re off to BT/Hyjal (A Guide for bads)” (Update: Link has since expired, but has been preserved for posterity on WoWWiki). It’s a HUMOROUS read for anyone who understands the raid encounters in that area. There’s an interesting bit during the part 2 segment for Black Temple especially in regards to Teron Gorefiend.

Here’s a quick snippet:

Teron Gorefiend:

The key to this fight is prayer. Before attempting this boss, everyone in the raid take a 15 minute break to address their deity of choice. Their request is simple: Please don’t let THAT GUY get Marked for Death. if everyone prayed hard, this fight should be extremely easy, everyone goes about their merry way hitting things, healing things, killing ghosts, and collecting loots. However if your raid didn’t pray hard enough THAT GUY will get marked for death, possibly followed by THAT OTHER GUY, causing a whole bunch of skeletons to run into the raid and 23 people to groan loudly on vent, this simply means you didn’t try hard enough with your prayer, human sacrifice is also an option. Once your bloodthirsty gods have had their fill of human hearts, you can collect your elemental shaman totem and thrown weapon (YOU DESERVE IT!).

Every Guild Has one

That’s the cold reality of the situation. A good glimpse at determining whether or not your Guild has THAT GUY is the Big Bad Wolf encounter in Karazhan. He’s the person that you dread getting the debuff because he’s not very good at handling it or just downright… fails. Their attitude and spirit may be in the right place. But that doesn’t amount to anything if they’re not able to battle through.

There are technical encounters in the game where the success of a raid rides on the ability of one player.

So what do you do about THAT GUY?

Educate him

Have someone sit down with him 1 on 1 and figure out what the problem is. Teach THAT GUY as much as possible. Show THAT GUY a few “training” videos on how to get past that phase that he has trouble with. Give them a few links to excellent sites that might help him get a big picture idea of what to do.

Remember that a lot of people learn differently. Some absorb information better when they “see” it. Some are great at processing a ton of stuff that’s said to them or on a screen (such students make me jealous). I’m more of a hands on learner.

But if that doesn’t seem to be working…

Bench him

As a raid leader and GM, you will have to make a few touch choices throughout your WoW raiding career. One of them involves making THAT GUY sit out for a fight in the interests of progression. You may not like it. THAT GUY may not like it. But don’t forget you’ve got the pressure of 23 other people in the raid looking to you to make the call or fix the problems somehow.

Obviously, no GM envies having to tell a player that they suck and must bring in someone more competent (in a nice way).

Two reactions

Expect 1 of 2 reactions when you break the news to them and be prepared for it:

Tantrum: The worse case (or best case) scenario is a gquit. They get so heated up that you question their ability to play. There is a feeling of disbelief and betrayal that anyone especially the GM could think such a thing. After all, their image as an “awesome” WoW player has been shattered and reality has set in. So they end up attempting to cause huge drama and rouse the Guild against the GM. Such coups usually fail.

Acceptance: The mark of a good Guildie is one who accepts their short comings. He understands that he’s not quite there yet in terms of performance. He’s willing to sit out this boss for the next one in the interests of progression. Hopefully, you’ll find one of these types of players instead of the one above.

Whatever the case, there is no denying that THAT GUY is a part of every Guild. It’s up to you and your Guild to figure out the best way to deal with THAT GUY or else sooner or later, you will have some very frustrated players.

Step by step: Dishing out Pain as a Priest

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Last week I plugged dwarfpriest.com in my weekly digest. Yesterday, she published an excellent flowchart detailing actions for both shadow priests and holy priests concerned with dealing damage.

Players who play with me know I’m utterly hopeless in dealing damage in any kind of environment PvP or PvE. I just might actually have a prayer of a chance in levelling once WotLK is released.

“Playing as a shadow priest in a raid or group environment largely depends on keeping your damage over time (DoT) spells up on mobs while minding the cooldowns of some of your direct damage spells. This is called spell juggling.”

If you’re a shadow priest who wants to perfect your game a little bit or a holy priest who wants to at least deliver a bloody nose to that player that’s ganking you, give this lengthy piece a read. It goes to show that you learn something new everyday.

Healers Spill: White Lies we Tell Tanks All the Time

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Wiping sucks. It’s going to happen to any Guild of any size at any point. But there are good wipes and then there are bad wipes. I’ve caused my share of bad wipes (but not in my current Guild, obviously, because I know some of them read my blog). Tanks are delicate creatures and have to be treated in a certain way. Even though some tanks might be shall we say aggro challenged, it is better if we merely nod and admit fault even though it isn’t really ours so that the run can be finished. I’ve seen tanks get emo when their ability is questioned and leave the group hanging. Then the group spends a good hour in LFG trying to find a tank to finish out Heroic Slave Pens. Sheesh!

Anyways, I know I’m safe because I don’t think a lot of tanks read my blog (I think).

“Sorry, lag”

It happens sometimes. Our connections do hiccup and we go offline. As healers, we often blame our ISP. Every so often, it isn’t the ISPs fault. You see, there’s this new file sharing technology called bittorrent that we as healers might have forgotten to turn off…

“It’s not you, it’s me”

The tank happens to take about 18000 damage within a space of 2 seconds. There’s nothing we can do about it. 2 seconds is enough time for 1 spell. Sometimes we just can’t keep up with the damage with 1 healer. You just absorb so much punishment that you NEED 2 extra bodies to keep you alive and going. There’s no way around it. On the other hand, maybe I forgot to use my max rank heals.

“It happens to a lot of tanks”

Tanks are used to dying you say? Well, yeah. All tanks are used to it. They’ve died many times and they’ve got the durability loss to prove it. So what if you died? It’s no big deal. Nos Staminitus is a common affliction that affects many tanks. But don’t worry, there’s a special cure. There’s tons of consumables in the markets designed to help get you up. Er, your health that that is.

“Oh your gear is fine”

You look great! Honest! Even though you can’t seem to withstand several crits or crushings in a row, at least your armor is all shiny and stuff! I guess I’ll have to actually work up a sweat to keep you alive.

“You’re the best tank ever!”

I’ve had to say this on more then one occasion. I swear, some tanks seem to have the largest egos in the world. I guess it’s because they’re needed so often. There are some players in the world who have top end gear and top end weapons. But holy cow they just can’t seem to deliver! And I’m not talking about Taurens, either!

Have you ever lied to your tank? Or even your raid/party? Why and what was the situation?

Special thanks to Trackhoof and others who requested to remain anonymous for their input

PTR Report: Mixing Healing and DPS Items

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PTR Report

In the past, I’ve always preached and encouraged players to take loot that’s a minor upgrade for them if no one’s needed it. It appears Blizzard has listened. After checking out the changes on MMO Champion again, something struck me as odd. The best items in the game now appear to be from vendors instead of just as boss drops. The only way to acquire them is to upgrade pieces from boss kills with a Sun Mote.

Confusing? Let me try again.

Old School

You can skimp out on gear from Karazhan and then pick it up at Gruul’s. I’ve long often thought about different ways I could get the best loot faster. For example, in SSC, I would skip out on the T5 legs for 30+ DKP and save it for the T5 helm on Vashj. I’d let the competing classes around me get their leg tokens first because I figured once they all get it, sooner or later I’d get mine at an inexpensive rate. It makes sense because our Guild would kill Fathom Lord more often then they would Kill Vashj.

New School

There’s a bunch of awesome phat loot from Sunwell. However, not all of it’s immediately accessible. There’s an awesome leggings called Pantaloons of Calming Strife. As you can see, it’s meant for Priests. There’s also another pair of leggings called Pantaloons of Growing Strife. That pair is catered towards DPS.

But here’s the catch.

For DPS casters, you have to get a sunmote AND Pantaloons of Calming Strife first before you can go to a vendor and “upgrade” it. Surely those aren’t the only DPS caster pants in Sunwell. But as a player in a Guild using DKP, I can no longer enjoy my monopoly on healing cloth.

Oh well. C’est La Vie!