I'm still here

Hey guys,

Just letting you know that I'm still here, sorry to be neglecting the blog =( I added a new model link to the armory, you can see it on the right =)

A new video should be out sometime towards the end of the week. Thx for stickin around.

Nedle

Gearscore

Well i feel like World of Warcraft has reached a new low. And no, I'm not talking about the new celestial steed, which for all the haters out there...yeah I bought one so tough noogies.

Actually, I'm talking about gearscore. I'm a little bummed that I got my first boot from a group before it even began. No wait...thats my first boot ever! I did have one, which I mentioned a couple posts ago, but it was not a boot. We tried and some figured that it was gearscore that was the contributing factor to the wipe and I swapped out. While that scenario in particular was frustrating it seems an acceptable method. Try it, find out how it goes and determine how to do it better. If it is gearscore, than at least that person learned something about the instance/raid. At what point did wow become such a numbers crunch that you were excluded just because you don't have 24/7 to play.

Here's my proposal. Blizzard has already developed some system of exclusion based on gear. For a long time I could not do Heroic HoR, and according to the dungeon finder I needed to "obtain better gear". I assume that it was based on gearscore however it was a yes/no answer, and not based on Joe Blow's idea of where I should be. Eliminate this addon, and have a list (similar to raid lock out) under the raid tab that shows what instances/raids you can and cannot "attempt". Take this control out of the hands of players that only wish to guarantee that you can do it with no thought. Make it a game again, I used to die a lot in Mario...deaths are ok people.

What are your thoughts?

Why PUG groups fail - World of Warcraft

I seem to be all about revelations these days. This one occurred as I was fleeing the icy grasp of the Lich King in the Halls of Reflection. The gist of this revelation was..."we're going to die". It wasn't a lack of skill in the group, or at least I don't think so. It was something different, and I think it might be why pug groups fail.

The Sense
It's kinda like the sixth sense only you don't see dead people. We'll I suppose you do, everyone in HoR is dead. Anyway, thats beside the point. This is something different entirely. I generally play with a core group of people, and I would say thats typical of most. And out of that core group there are really only two healers that run with me. I know those healers well, I've been playing with them since about level 19. I know that when healing is going well my health hovers, it may not be constant but it hovers, dipping only occasionally. Because of this, I generally know when things aren't going well and can adjust my tanking by changing seals and judgments to accommodate. And when things are really going bad, I can burn cooldowns like divine protection or lay on hands, however, they are my last resort.

Here's where pug groups fail. I don't know the healer from Adam. My health may vary from 25% up to 90%, its not constant, and I can't tell if he/she is having a hard time or just prefers to pop big heals. So my sense fails at the second to last stop in HoR. Health is down to 5-10% I no longer trust that its just play style...and cooldowns and trinkets are popped. We live through this battle, but it may have cost us the war. We're now backed against the last barrier, the hardest barrier, and I can't save myself if needed. There is too much damage to bad had....wipe.

There is an unexplainable teamwork that goes with people you normally play with, a sense that when things go wrong you know how to help the other out.

How to find gear

Once you hit 80 everything slows down. Gone are the days when you have to run quests fast and furious style. Also, gone are the days when nearly every instance has a high probability for droppin an upgrade. So it's time to get efficient and pick our battles...literally. In these videos I'll show you the process I go through to find gear. Keep in mind I'm a casual, there maybe better ways to do it but heres what works for me.

Note: I didn't want to hold up the videos by waiting until I got the exact piece of gear (the epic cape) that I showed in the video. For example I did the exact same thing when finding the mace, sorted through wowhead found the mace, checked the drop rate (30%), then started finding groups. I said it too about 9 times I think it actually took 6. Considering a good group could run it in about 15-20min and the additional loot and rep you get it was pretty quick.

Lastly hit the subscribe feed over on the right if you want to be notified when a new post is up.

Thx Nedle

Tanks and Healers

I learned something yesterday. This revelation came after two unique experiences one right after the other. They went as follows...

Event One
The weekly this week was Naxx. I've actually never done Naxx (original or the new one) so I had no clue what was going to happen. The raid leader indicated that we needed two tanks. Unfortunately, there was not another tank to be had. So they decided that I should just solo tank it. I added that I had never been there and that I don't have the highest gearscore, however, they needed a tank so we went anyway. Right before the plaguebringer we had a converstaion that went like this

RL: Nedle you need to pick up aggro and hold it, dps take him down before he teleports if we dont...Nedle you need to pick up all the adds that spawn.

Nedle:Ummm..ok this should be fun.

The peanut gallery: You also need to heal, and have the highest dps.

I won't go through the whole thing, but he teleported, and I did what was asked (except heal and have the highest dps =P). It was fun and nearly flawless.

Event Two
5 Man ToTC. Part one goes fine. Dismount and go for the first three bosses. Wipe. Res and again...wipe. At this point the healer has decided that I am the worst tank, and indicates that I should leave because his repair bill is going to be too high. There were supporters in the group but I leave anyway. It was not fun and somewhat aggravating.


The Revelation
You might think that my revelation would be some profound discovery about team work, but on the contrary its the perception individuals have on the group.

If you are a tank and think that all, or the vast majority of healers are bad healers, then you are a bad tank.

reversed

If you are a healer and think that all, or the vast majority of tanks are bad tanks, than you are a bad healer.

Nedle Q&A

Hey all,

Getting to a couple questions that were asked. Feel free to say how wrong i am about the death knight tanks, cause like I said I really have no reference...but ya asked for the ol opinion.

Drops in this video:
I'm getting more and more lazy about this. If you guys want to know, send me a message and ill post otherwise i'll get to it when I can =P

Halls of Lightning

Hey guys, somewhat continued off the last video I said we'd be in Halls of Lightning so here it is. Perhaps you'll learn something you didn't learn before. Thx - Nedle

Drops in this video:
Currently being updated check back later.