TankSpot - Blogs - Niian

Hybrid Hate

Niian — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:46:16 GMT

Lately I've seen a fair few threads and posts hating on hybrid classes.
Having played multiple "pure" classes, and currently playing a hybrid class, I really don't get why people are so angsty against them.

Why roll a "Hybrid" class?
Enjoyment, diversity and functionality. I've got a paladin, hunter, rogue, priest, shaman and warlock all at or over level 70. Out of all of these I find the paladin the most enjoyable class to play. It's funner than all the others, not because it can heal, dps and tank but because it's different.

You shouldn't be able to as well as <"pure" class>
Why not?
Yes I can run off to Orgrimmar and respec holy or ret, but that isn't why I chose to play a paladin. I rolled this class to tank, and that is my primary function. I really don't see why I should be penalised because you chose a different tanking class.
All 4 of the current tanking classes can DPS so in my mind there is no "pure" tanking class. Warriors had their day in the spotlight pre-BC, but seriously where is the fun in the game if you are forced into one set class to do a specific task.

If I'm specced correctly then yes I can do all 3 roles, with the right gear to boot. But without the right spec and gear, just like those scrubs that hit 80 and instantly go into heroic (hey, my priest did that!) theres no way a hybrid class can put out the same heals/dps/tank as your so called pure classes.

We all play this game to have fun.
Being forced into a classisn't fun.
Having people say that your class shouldn't be able to do the same as their class just because you can do 3 other roles is obnoxious.

Don't get shitty because a prot paladin can tank as well as a warrior. As prot we can't heal worth a damn and can't put out much DPS (without gear), just like you can't.

We may be able to spec another role, doesn't mean we want to.

Gift giving and guilt!

Niian — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:32:59 GMT

Huzzah my priest finally hit 80.
Most of Saturday was spent levelling with a friend, melting faces and dinging. We managed to both go from 75 to 79 in the one day, skipping a few zones along the way.
I woke up Sunday looking forward to hitting the big 8 0, but my friend could not be found! With nothing else to do I decided to put on Eddie Murphy Delirious and get to about 50% of the way through 79, almost equal to what my mate was at.

And then I put on Eddie Murphy Raw. Before I knew it I had dinged! Completely phased out in quest farming mode I hadn't noticed how fast the last level went, and now have a brand new shadow priest to gear up. Within 5 minutes of the ding I was asked to come kill KT in 10man Naxx. The 2nd best mace dropped, unfortunately I lost the roll to an alt shaman, but with only 79 hit rating I managed to put out (its sad) 1400 dps.

A few minutes after getting out of Naxx my friend logs in, sees I'm 80 and proceeds to level. Whispering his other half I find out he's a little bit annoyed, but wants to plow ahead and hit 80 ASAP.
Feeling guilty I swap characters and go raid the AH for some gear to give him. Purchase the mats, badger a guildie into making some stuff, wrap it all up with wrapping paper and fly out to give it to him.

He dinged 80 with free Trollwoven Spaulders, Trollwoven Girdle and a shiny Titansteel Shanker.
Apparently he made gurgling sounds when he opened the presents up ;)

The Twilight Vanquisher

Niian — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:31:33 GMT

After a mere 2 hours of dying to the bastard Sarth we finally got him down!

For a lot of us it was a first, and thankfully we didn't resort to calling it and clearing with 2 drakes up instead.
Let me just say, so far from what I've tanked nothing's been nearly as stressful as tanking adds in that fight. Glad it's over.

You can dance if you want to!

Niian — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:26:34 GMT

Unless it's your first time healing Naxx 25 as a Holy-specced-Prot Paladin.
On the plus side, someone died before me on a different boss so we lost the immortals achievement, but being the only person to die during the Safety Dance made me facepalm IRL.

Every time I've done it on 10mans, and the last time I did it 25man, I've danced perfectly.
Not so this time. Too much time spent focusing on Grid bars I forgot to move once, and saved myself with a bubble. Forgot to move a second time and got hit down to about 5k hp. Then due to lag, both network and video, I got hit again even though from my POV I was standing in the middle of the group :(

First mistake of the night, and probably the most annoying.
People seemed to forget it after the warlock pulled 4 Horseman twice by accident when his pet was on aggressive tho.

/Facepalm.

When nubs attack!

Niian — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:00:58 GMT

Picture this: It�s a bright, clear morning in the Storm Peaks. The birds are chirping, frost wyrms are slaughtering mammoth by the hundreds, and you�re happily beating away on multiple Brittle Revenants to complete your Sons of Hodir dailies.

Down flies a sissy member of the opposing faction, a warlock to be exact. As a blood elf paladin I have a firm belief that no one wants to kill me because I will pay to have a sex change then dance on their corpse as a male belf until they rip their eyes out. Apparently this warlock didn�t get the memo.
Forgetting the 5 or so mobs beating on my face I turned my attention to my dot happy assailant and proceeded to pretend to know how to PvP on a PvE specced prot paladin until he fell over, at which point I thanked my Brittle Revenant friends for giving me an unlimited supply of mana and promptly killed them too.

Unfortunately the Revenants turned out to be scheming bastards, and conspired to only drop 1 of the quest items out of the 5 that I killed. Again I start gathering up some friends, hoping to get this daily done as fast as possible so I can get onto some serious Spear Thrustage!� then go polish some guys horn (sweet!).
Turns out the warlock doesn�t like me much, so now I�m running around all over the place with a big scary skull on my head. Luckily for me this warlock sucked more than me at PvP and forgot the basics of How to play a Warlock, aka fear-dot-dot. After cleansing a single debuff on me I made short work of my squishy fear-happy alliance friend and finished my quest.

Now I�m off to go get the oil for sexy fun time. Happy fun cave turns out to be void of any fun, but apparently had a group of pro alliance who had been going around the zone hunting down lone Horde players and ganking them until the cows came home, or until their mothers called them downstairs to brush their teeth.
5v1 is a fair fight, yes? Apparently so. Lucky for me I have the 4pc T7 bonus, and can bubble for an extra 3 seconds! Unluckily they had two priests, I think to cover how much they sucked they needed the extra heals. But all was well, my trusty Green Proto-Drake saved me from the clutches of the pansies and flew me to safety, and a lot of Hodir rep!

I don�t know about everyone else, but I�ve seen maybe 3 or 4 of the opposing faction who actually know what a fair fight is. It annoys me to no end when people camp you just for the hell of camping you, but it�s the ones who go around in groups and then gloat/flex and express how awesome they are that make me want to stab them through the internet.

Are you a "that guy"?

Niian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:45:15 GMT

I've recently joined an awesome guild and in my first few days trying to fit in/sus people out there was one guy who instantly struck me as a That Guy who deserves everything.

I asked a relatively simple question in guild chat and instantly got a rude reply from him. Ignored it completely, found out his alts and made a mental not to ignore them too (and i don't mean /ignore ingame because I believe you shouldn't have guildies on ignore incase you really need to read what they say in a raid).
When the aforementioned That Guy is after things, such as a raid invite or help running instances, he doesn't ask he demands. If he doesn't get what he wants then he has a massive whinge.

For instance, a Naxx10 alt raid started. We were melee heavy, having only 2 ranged. When the leader asked in guild for DPS this guy, I shall call him Steve, started spamming guild chat saying how much he wanted to come. Being undergeared Steve didn't get an invite, but another DK did. Steve found out and had a hissy fit, swearing and complaining.
The call went out for another DPS and again Steve started spamming guild saying he's the man for the job.
2 or 3 hours later we're finishing up a successful 10man clear. I've passed on a fair few pieces of gear for another paladin or for the offtank warrior, because it would only be for offspec for me. Steve managed to nab some gear as well, but had a massive whinge because he didn't get any of the 3 weapons that dropped. The first was the Wraith Spear (Thanks Rev ;)) from Maxxena that went to a hunter. Second and third I can't remember what they were but they went to a paladin who had a BoA weapon and one of the other 3 DKs.

Later on Steve was asking guild for a tank for an instance run. Normally I'm up for running guildies through whatever, unless I'm planning on running heroics with friends or busy. At the time he was asking I was in the process of getting ready to go out to the shops to buy food for the house.

Steve: Niian youre not doing anything
Niian: I'm about to go out and buy food
Steve: Yeh right

Now that may not seem like much, but having been rude to me the first few days in the guild, then constantly rude whenever he's talking in guild chat and being a whinging little bitch when stuff doesn't go his way, but that really ticked me off.

So, any time Steve asks for assistance I ignore him. If he's getting beaten of for attacking the wrong mob in a 10/25 man that I'm tanking or healing I won't be helping him.
Is this being too much of an asshole? Probably. But the number one tip for a Multiplayer game is: Don't piss off That Other Guy who keeps your ass alive.

... atleast it's not pink!

Niian — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:01:03 GMT

So, Wrath has been out for ~2 months now.
A lot of people have downed all there is to down, and have everything on farm. Not so much for me.

When Wrath came out some close friends of mine started chatting with me about forming a small 10 man raiding guild, with some old guildies and his friends. This seemed like an awesome idea, and worked well for a while.

Now we've hit a snag: Our OT gquit, our healers don't want to heal, and our DPS is lacking (on a good day).
Theres a few people in another guild that I personally would like to talk to and hopefully get them in on some runs, or jump ship and join them. The dilemma I face is that I'm the guilds "main tank". Actually to be more accurate I'm the guilds only tank, unless the DK respecs. Theres that plus the other guild has only just started Naxx, and while it's not uber hard to do it would be taking a step back. AND they are short healers (who isn't).

So I sit in the same gear I've had for a while, passing on Naxx10 loot because it's not an upgrade and getting tank envy every time my friend tells me how much hp his druid tank has (5/5 25man T7).
Then I just link parry and block and all is well.

On the bright side, atleast pally gear isn't pink any more...