This is What Panic Looks Like

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no-frames

Hands up! Who can tell me what fundamentally important aspect of a UI is missing from this screenshot?

Hint: Compare it with the images from this post.

The Story

We initialized a pull on Freya and on the first wave of Detonators, my client crashed.

“I’m offline!”, I grunted.

Closed the WoW client and restarted it again. Managed to load back in and what did I see? No raid frames. Some of the officers utilize the oRA2 keyword invite option. I whispered the appropriate word and was told I couldn’t be invited due to combat. Duh, I forgot. My raid frames still hadn’t shown up. I panicked and did the only logical thing that made sense.

I activated friendly name plates.

Normally I have name plates disabled. I even unbound my hostile name plates so I could use that key for something else. Thank goodness I didn’t unbind name plates. It wasn’t exactly the ideal set up but the encounter became even more like whack a mole.

Except this is advanced whack a mole.

Where the moles will only appear within 15 yards.

And they’re moving all around.

So just a quick lesson. If your client is unable to load raid frames for whatever reason, name plates is the plan B followed by a quick prayer.

My Definition of a Good Priest Redux

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Focus

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post about the definition of a good Priest. It was one of the questions posed by Ego back then (to which I’ve lost the original link to).

The Priest class has evolved over the past two years. We’ve gained some and we’ve lost some. Has my stance on the subject changed?

Overall Awareness: This has not changed much. If anything, the amount of information needed to make the right choice at the right time has gone down slightly. With the removal of downranking, gauging the health of a player and then responding with the appropriate rank is no longer necessary. We’re still watching out for fires and health bars. I daresay the number one killer of Priests everywhere is getting out of dangerous stuff too slowly or not at all. We’ve moved from Nightbane’s fires to Sartharion’s Flame Walls to Kel’Thuzad’s Void Zones to Mimiron’s Rocket Strikes.

Perseverance: The bosses are different. The spells and tools have become increasingly diverse. I don’t like giving up. No one likes to lose. I may not express it, but I do chase after that “high” I get after taking down a boss. It’s a great feeling knowing that you played a key role. Good Priests know when to take risks to keep tanks alive. Most fights have one or two tanks that are involved with doing something. When the tanks are down, the game is over.

Clairvoyance: Can you predict incoming damage before it lands? Can you react to the little DBM mark that gets placed on a player which signifies the ensuing Shadow Crash? When Flash Freeze hits, do you know who is going to make it and who isn’t going to make it? These are the little things that separate great healers from okay healers. Your reaction time isn’t going to increase. But spotting these small details sooner will help you make your decisions quicker. One DoT tick is enough to kill a player. How many last second saves have you made on players? Ever received slaps on the back after a kill when a raid member thought they were done for only to be saved from the jaws of death with a last second shield, or instant heal to pull them out from the red health bar?

Preparation: One thing I am glad that has changed is the amount of preparation. I used to bring 20-40 potions every raid night. Brilliant Mana Oil was in my inventory. Flasks were supplied with Illidari Marks or were farmed for on my Elemental Shaman. The reduction of chain potting has dropped potion consumption drastically. I go through about one to two injectors a month instead of per raid. I lock myself in Howling Fjord and shoot enough fish to keep myself stockpiled (MP5 fish).

Openness: Always keep an open mind. Don’t shut down everything you hear. Feedback is feedback. It’s up to you to discern between valuable and useless. But outright rejection should come after you examine it. What are other people saying about you? Does it have merit? What information is missing from their perspective? What do they see when they watch you? I can’t emphasize critical thinking enough.

All in all, it seems my stance hasn’t changed much over the past two years. It’s been refined a little by the different class changes and from my forays into the different raids. When I wrote the original post, I had just finished wrapping up Gruul’s and Mag’s. Opening into SSC started a month after that post. Man how that time flies by, eh?

How about your class? Has your definition of a good <class> changed?

It Came From the PuG!

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Definition : PuG

Pickup Group; used commonly in WoW and other MMORPGs. Basically means a group that isn’t formed by people you know; instead, it’s formed up of random, possible noobs that can completely wreck whatever experience you are getting the group for.

Ex. “I was in a pug with Oversoul and that F#$*& ninjaed T7.5 glove what a dick !”

We’ve all had those moments where we’re really bored, or we have an alt that we want to run through an instance that that rest of the guild is done with or just isn’t in the mood to run. Others of us are professionals at this and stick exclusively to doing raids this way. The item I’m talking about is the PuG. or Pick Up Group. This is a random assortment of players taken from either Looking For Group or sometimes trade chat. The power of a PuG is quite amazing honestly. You’re taking players that most likely have never met, never played together before and you are taking them in one direction together.PuGs also have some amazing stories attached to them. They are terrible, awesome and often times hilarious.

Personally I’ll admit I’m a glutton for punishment. I love PuGs because they give me a certain amount of freedom I don’t have when we’re running a raid or when it’s an all guildies group. I can do and try zany and weird things I couldn’t otherwise get away with  and see if they work. I’ve had amazing PuGs and I’ve had ones so terrible you can’t help but laugh hysterically

Let me share a couple gems from my recent PuG experience

I often miss my guilds 10 man runs on Lodur due to real life popping up. Sometimes late night I’ll log in and park myself in Dalaran, grab a beer and sit around trade chat waiting for a Uld / VoA  10 group to need a healer. I dutifully send my tell and when they ask my gear level get to gleefully tell them “working on rounding out my T8.5”. Needless to say it is not long before the invite comes in.

A little over a week ago I found myself looking for an Emalon 10 group. I hadn’t killed him that week and badges with a chance at free pvp / pve loot is always welcomed. I get in the group and find my way down to the vault as the group is being filled up. They were looking for a second healer when someone noticed my name.

“wait… Lodur… Lodur from world of matticus Lodur? Guys stop looking for another healer just let this guy solo heal it!”

Obviously he was just yanking around and we all had a good laugh at that and found a nice restoration Druid to come along with us. The group went really well despite a couple wipes and things came together after everyone figured out where to stand. We had a warlock that kept cracking jokes about going healing spec and helping out. It was a good PuG, we all had a good time and a couple upgrades were found for members of the group. Everyone was even tempered and were having a blast making crude comments and bashing a few mobs in the face.

Before that on a late night for me a guildie asked if I wanted to come heal Iron Council for a PuG Uld10. I said sure and hopped a bird. Got there and got in, popped a couple elixirs and got ready for the pull. There was a green Resto Shaman and a paladin healing with me. This time I did step up and organized who was healing who and doing what and we began. About 45 seconds into the pull a tank goes down. I’m laughing because I immediately get 4 tells saying “sorry we’re normally better then this”  we dust ourselves off and go back in and at it. The druid tank was making all sorts of bad jokes in between and even though we never downed IC, it was fun and I made a couple new friends. I also helped a new resto shaman out with ideas and tips to help him become competitive for raids.

A little time before that I was on my Death Knight and I got a tell asking if I was DPS or Tanking spec. I replied with “both” and I got an invite right off. The group was for a Naxx 10 run so I figured why the hell not I’ll go along with it. 3 DKs, 1 Boomkin trying to heal, one Holy Priest and one Resto Druid with a couple hunters and rogues. We make our way in and do pretty good. The group had already cleared most of the wings and only had military and then Saph and Kel. 4 Horsemen took a while to get but we eventually did it, but that’s when things went south. We get to Saphiron and the guy tanking it starts explaining the fight… but he’s doing it wrong. I pipe up and correct him on some of the things. (like the fact you DO NOT want to stand behind big angry skeletal dragon…). He immediately gets pissy and throws a bit of a tantrum. Five minutes later he calms down and we do the pull… only to have him turn her towards the raid. Two dead healers later we wipe. Not only did this happen once, but two more times after. I asked him nicely to turn the dragon away but he kept doing it. So, I hop into my tank gear, switch to frost presence and sit where the dragon should be facing. I see the dragon start to turn, and I taunt keeping it where it should be. He taunts to get it to face him, I taunt back. Eventually I get kicked from the group and get a nasty tell. I personally thought it was hilarious.

Lately though I haven’t had to pug much. I’ve been spending more time doing guild only runs and even on my new DK over on Icecrown, Rhyane, Nytesong, Ezrii and the rest of the Black Powder Foundry crew make sure I don’t have to PuG. (thanks again guys!) But truth be told I feel the itch again. I think I might have to find my way to a couple late night PuGs to get my fix.

So how about you? Have any PuG stories to share? Do you love PuGs or hate them?

Until next time, Happy Healing

sig

Image courtesy of www.pugslife.org

Disappointment for Paladins

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Actually, I daresay that disappointment is being shared by many players in the healing community as well. Ferarro, one of the main pillars for Paladin resources has been discovered for not being truthful.

It’s not my place to discuss blog politics. But I’ve seen a lot of discussion and questions about what’s going on. I don’t know all the facts, but I can definitely start with putting some pieces together.

Timeline over the past week

Here’s a quick list of events over the past week that have led to this. I suggest reading everything listed below first.

So what exactly went wrong here? What’s the offense? Here we’ve got a great Paladin blog that’s helped many new and veteran Paladins of all specs become better.

A good portion of the WoW blogging community writes under a pseudonym or a pen name (false name). I’m one of the rare WoW bloggers who write with their real name (technically Matt is my name and Matticus is what I sign off with). In this case, another person’s identity was assumed and used without their knowledge. Pictures and various videos were lifted to add further authenticity. It’s a good thing this wasn’t being used maliciously. Some serious damage could have been done.

It was an extremely elaborate operation. Seven different people all writing under one name at various stages in the blog’s life. A Blizzard employee? CIA agent? It doesn’t make sense to me. Why claim to be a Blizzard employee and write about stuff that can’t legally be written about? Doesn’t that break an NDA of some sort?

I’m actually quite impressed that someone’s been able to carry on this charade for a long time. We’re talking on the scale of years.

Do I buy what happened?

I’m not quite sure what to believe now. This is the internet. You have your beliefs, I have my beliefs. It just seems amazingly far fetched. Some people are going to believe and trust what was said because they want to believe and maintain the illusion. Skeptics out there will continue to point out various flaws.

Personally, it just looks too easy. It sounds too easy.

Anyway I’ll stop here for now. Read through the posts above and come to your own conclusions. The thing about the blogging community here is that if something seems or smells off, someone’s bound to keep digging and digging until they get something. So for all the new bloggers out there, when you hear the advice to blog as yourself we literally mean it. Don’t try to assume anyone elses identity.

When you read anything, always look at it from a critical point of view. Use your head, use your reasoning and figure out if what you’re reading makes sense. Too many people these days read something and just automatically assume it’s true since the source seems authoritative. Be critical about everything you read (especially here since I probably write more mistakes than I do correct stuff).

Don’t believe everything you read.

Weekend Reads

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It’s Friday. There’s nothing like the feeling of sitting on a patio with a cold beer on a hot sunny day with a cool breeze. I’ll relive that feeling later after I finish my banana, cherry, coke flavoured Slurpee (I hate spoon straws).

This upcoming weekend, we’ll be engaging the boss that is Iron Council normal hard mode. Will see if I can create a movie of it. I’ve been able to record via Fraps before but I lack the know-how to resize the video entirely.

Speaking of news, I’m busy moving blogs this weekend. Plus Heal and No Stock UI will be moving servers in addition to this blog. By the way, not sure if anyone noticed, but I inserted a Google Reader widget for additional stuff to read. I’ll share stuff that I’ve written elsewhere in addition to cool stuff I come across in my Google reader.

So what’s new this week?

World of Warcraft

New blog: Defeat Dragons – This is a hybrid WoW and leadership blog. Reminds me of Chick GM when that was young.

Wordy Warrior’s back and is now self hosted. I was starting to wonder what had happened.

Lenelie’s Voice voices her WoW pet peeves. One of which includes countermanding raid leader instructions by a non-leader. It’s rather frustrating when I see it during various pickup raids. Let the leaders do their job. If you’re not satisfied with it, leave and form your own. The way I see it, when I join a pickup raid, I place myself at the mercy of their leaders and trust that they will do the right thing. Nothing’s going to stop me from leaving if I’m not satisfied with the way things are being handled.

Amber’s got a nifty Bubble flowchart.

Blogging and writing

Write to Done: Five Tips on Writing a Fantastic About Page – Solid post. I stumble across new blogs all the time. I’m loving what I’m reading. But I don’t know who is writing it. Doesn’t hurt to toss in your email or a contact page so readers can send in some fan mail to boot.

Psychology

Psyblog: When Groups are Bad for Productivity – Social loafing. The idea that the more people there are involved in a group, the less effort being exerted by individuals within the group. Does it sound like your raid? Give it a read!