TankSpot - Blogs - PvtCaboose

Quitting and Taking breaks

PvtCaboose — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:53:23 GMT

So, I've not really been around tank spot the last few months. I've been trying to take a break from WoW and I thought the best way was to stay away from anything that reminded me of it or tempted me to play. I've been doing pretty good, before when I played it was because I felt I needed to now I play for a couple hours (usually the max) then turn it off and do something else.

The decision to quit really couldn't have come at a worse time, I had just server transferred and faction changed to find a better raiding scene. But, when I did transfer I found that it wasn't the guild I was in, it was the content we we're clearing. Raiding used to keep me interested, I never played in Vanilla WoW but I hear really good things. BC was my favorite time to play. I never had over 200 gold, I was in a guild of people I really liked, I was usually the only mage in the raid and that made me happy. BC had some very cool and some very frustrating encounters, some that I did very well at and some.... Not so much. Supremus was one of my favorite fights, due to how easy it was and how much dps I could put out when he was chasing somone else. Teron Gorefiend: This was our Achilles heal for my guild, there were only a handful of us who could do the ghost part and those who couldn't would always seemed to get chosen. We would spend hours wiping on it and one night it had two members (who were failing) gquit and we eventually downed him. Once 3.0 came out and we could one shot every boss in Black Temple we made our way into Sunwell (we shouldn't have been able to down any bosses), we downed the first boss and I was really excited that we did! I thought we had what it took now with the nerf to get at least to KJ. We had some trouble on Brutallus, healing troubles mostly but when we downed him and moved more into Sunwell to the Twins. We never downed them even after the nerf, we had most trouble getting people to stand on the ledge (I'm not going to lie, I did fall ONCE) we had multiple people fall over every night multiple times.

When WotLK came out I switched my main to my warrior and I was tanking for the same guild I was in in BC. I had started tanking before 3.0 with my warrior and I would always challenge myself to tank MgT with as little CC as possible, the best I could do was with 1 CC'er on the big packs. Once 3.0 came out I didn't need CC anymore, no one did, tanking had turned from being a little hard to being easy mode. When we finally got into Naxx, I was really excited to see the bosses that I missed at 60 but raided them at 70 and I could see where the problems could be. I was so disapointed when we walked in there in blues and some purples and cleared the first two wings of Naxx. The hardest thing we did was EoE and it was because people didn't know how to do it properly, we had people putting me on follow, it seemed like they only hit 1, never 2. Even though ever time we got ready I said 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2... WotLK destroyed WoW for me.

Ulduar came out and our very first night I was so happy. The last time I was happy to raid was back in BC, I enjoyed the challenge that was put infront of us. Everything wasn't easy (well Flame was a joke we had no idea what we were doing and downed him without anyone dying), we moved to Ignis and I couldn't imagine how we were going to down that boss. Then, I don't know what it was, fate maybe? Blizzard stepped in and after a week of me being pumped that we had hard content again, they nerfed it to where I could sleep and not worry about doing well. Ulduar got so eas that my warlock (fresh 80) and a few of our friends walked into Ulduar with greens/blues maybe one or two epics (our tank had the most epics but he had to be able to take a hit) we dominated that instance and that I think is when I decided that I wasn't going to raid to my full extent anymore. I felt defeated.

I started going to raid with no consumables, I was my PvP spec for all of my toons currently raiding, I would sit in different channels talking with friends in vent, I just stopped caring. It didn't help that I was still out dpsing all the other dps in our guild. It got to the point that I stopped showing up for raids, I thought I needed a change of scenery a new guild a new server a new faction to re-spark my interest in the game. It didn't work, shortly after spending $55, I told them I couldn't raid anymore and left the game.

I don't miss the game, I run heroics and pvp once in a while. I made a low level paladin and I just play a little every few days. I go out, I do things I never did when I played. I'm enjoying life way more now.

I think its time...

PvtCaboose — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:42:39 GMT

I've been not as happy as I was in the guild I am in as I was in BC. I've been in the guild since MH/BT through till now. We've cleared all current content but they are having problems following simple instructions. I've been working with them but it doesn't seem to be helping.

I haven't really thought about switing guilds till now. It gets really frustrating having people not having common sense when it comes to fights like Thaddius going left for positive and right for negitive is hard. We have the dps for 3min pactwerk... Except the tanks taking hatefuls IE: me doesnt get healed. The first time in 3 weeks I got healed was yesterday and that time I took hardly any damage and was kept alive. Malygos we still have people failing really badly. We have people doing no damage and dying to static shock on P3. Its very ugh.

So I was thinking about changing guilds, but I dun know if that's what I really want to do.

Extra Extra fun

PvtCaboose — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:00:19 GMT

Usually I try to post everyone two or three days but this I couldnt wait for... We FINALLY tried to do 10man OS 3D - No one on our server has got it yet and truth be told... Its FRAKING HARD! 2 tanks Pally and Warrior (me), 3 healers Pally, druid and resto shaman the dps last night comprised of rouge, dps fury warrior, hunter, boomkin and a warlock.

We did meh for an hour of work after Malygos. Hopefullly we'll have more luck this weekend. We hadn't been able to pump out enough dps to kill the first dragon before the 2nd dragon landed and I was getting my stuffing pushed in. I was sitting at 25k hp (No stam enchant on my shield) I've been busy to do that and I get reminded every raid. Also, I need to get the 40 stam enchant to my bracers. But besides those few upgrades to my gear I'm sitting pretty nice atm and I've been working on my shaman which IMO is much more fun atm.

My shaman is level 71 and I'm leveling it enhancment so I kill things really quick. At 80 I'll be switching to healing and taking my guild though regular instances to get my healing up there. I hope that I will be able to go heal some raids soon after I hit 80 because I'm tired of DPS with my mage it doesnt seem as fun as it was in BC. BC I was killing the meters on brutallus putting out 3k deeps I was so far ahead of the regular dps we have. Now it seems I have to work hard as hell to get to 2k dps, mind you I'm in quest bules and greens so I should know that its not that good. I think that I'll enjoy the healing aspect over the dps aspect of the game anyways.

Any healers out there (shamans even) have any tips or hints that makes the healing experience easier? I'm still a little nervous about it.

Heroic Pugs

PvtCaboose — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:11:57 GMT

The words are kinda ill fated in my mouth. I'll be quite honest with you... I despise pugs in their entirety. The dps who cant dps. The healers who cant heal. The tanks that should not be tanking. Call me an elitist. Call me prejudice against pugs. But I cant stand them and the less time I have to do anything with them the better, IMO.

I was reading old tankingtips provided by Vene when I read: Do pugs. Now, one as myself who cant stand spending more than an hour doing a heroic that takes pugs 3... ponder: If it's going to help my tanking then so be it I'll do it! I settle in LFG and set myself some ground rules: 1. NO OCCULUS! That place is the devil and there is no way I'm going to go in there with a pug. 2. Healer has to have some raiding experience. Yes, not all healers are good from raiding (But its a start). 3. DPS should be able to do well under any surcemstances (sp) Now the way I do this is I send a tell to someone in LFG. If they respond to me like "U need moar 4 H. " they wont be going. If they respond to me "I would like to go to H " They pass my first test. I then ask them what kinda dps they do and their spec they tell me and if its up to my standards (16-2k dps works well for me). Now I've got people who lie to me and tell me that they are good and such and just arent. This happend to me this past week when I took Vene's "advice" (quotes because it was like stabbing my hands with nails) and hopped into H. UK.

I got my group - it was the daily - and I was off. I tell the healer that I am a fast puller I will look at your mana before I pull if your above half we're going to keep pulling and he was fine with it. First few pulls were great. I usually mark a skull but everyone aoe's anyways so it doesnt matter. We got to the first boss and I didnt have recount showing and got to the first boss and told them we aren't going for the achivement and they were all fine with that, healer was at full and we were off to the races. The healer was standing behind me as per my request and the first person got iceblocked. I looked not a heal... health was still going down and everyone was still on the boss... I ran to the person IB'd and I had to do my best using CB and SW to help me. But I was too late they died. With the rest of the group shortly behind them. A couple more wipes and we downed him... Finally.

I dont like leaving groups there are some groups I do because we cant get something down after 4 hours of trying. But, that might be 3 keyboards later :P

We make it to the 2nd boss... I shoot up a star and say "Focus on the skull then burn down the unmarked" We do it and I was really surprised when I looked up recount and saw I was 2nd on damage. :x QQ x: The hunter in our group was well geared he could do what he was told. The rouge I kept BS up for was going 1350 dps on that boss and the mage was not much better at 1440. My jaw dropped no wonder it was taking so long. My shaman at level 70 is currently doing 1300 dps and these guys at level 80 are barely doing that. Oh well. I kept my mouth shut because I haven't had TOO much of a big deal about it. BUt I had specifically asked for a specific number and they havent been meeting it. It is frustrating.

We finally made it to the last boss and wiped on it for an hour before we finally killed him. I kinda felt bad for them it was mostly the dps but the healer was getting frustrated and started to do damage as well.. which well with me sitting at 30k hp unbuffed isnt that big of a deal but it makes it very frustrating for them and they miss key heals on me.

Overall my pug experience was bad and now I'm trying to avoid them like the plauge... Again! Thanks Vene (just kidding).

PS Yes my spelling isn't excellent but I dont type in the "leet speak" like lots of 12 year olds do.

Dead Beat Raiders

PvtCaboose — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:02:27 GMT

I've been raiding with the same guild for about 6months to a year now. In that time I've seen alot go down to people being kicked outta raids and people going on tantrums from lack of loot. It wasnt till I became an officer a little while ago that I saw what really we had to deal with.

I now look at WWS constantly and see who is doing what they are supposed to do and what they aren't. We've got healers who DPS durning boss fights like 2D OS. DPS who have very nice gear but do less than 3k dps. DPS who open up with AOE then bitch about dying when I only get 1 thunderclap in.

We have cleared all current content at the moment except for 3D OS which hopefully we'll be doing this week coming. In this time of looking at everything that goes on I've got to the idea that some of our raiders are "dead beats" or just there to fill a spot and screw around. Dont get me wrong I like alot of our raiders. They are great nice people that just dont get the job done. But being nice or not we're not getting stuff down we should be one shotting. Or maybe a couple shots. Malygos is the best example of it. When we get him down we have 5-8 people at a high number of dots (20+) we have the rest anywhere in the range of 1-10. And I've finally got recount working so where I can see who's "pet" is doing what damage. I assume 4k dps on the pet is good - We did 25 maly and myself (being chose 5 times) was 3rd and the two above me were chose once each.

Its frustrating when people aren't pulling their weight and I want to see this guild succeed but for it to do that I need to talk to the guild leader and tell him that I think its time to start sitting people for not preforming up to snuff. Someone in full t7.5 gear should be doing at least above 3k dps and thats being very lienant. I dont want to do it, it makes me feel bad but I feel its the only way to get through to them tell them if they aren't going to do what they are supposed to do. Give them one more week worth of raids and then start doing it.

What do you guys think is a good way to handle this?

25 Mans and you.

PvtCaboose — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:25:04 GMT

Having posted a bit on tankspot but nothing major I've learned alot in what goes into tanking. That being said I find it ... lets say difficult to look at the 10 people who clearly haven't looked up anything about their class, haven't taken any advice I've given (an officer of my guild) or anyone else for that matter and just handing them loot. It pisses me off that people think that you show up for raid and you get loot. That is not how it goes.
We dont use DKP its for the most part a "free roll" system with tanking gear (tier peices) going to tanks first then everyone else. I literally tell them not to give people loot because they aren't fulfiling their role to the guild - Pallies push your heal key once in a while to make it look like you've healed... But when our pally tank out heals them there has to be things done.
But right now the biggest problem we have is people dont like to show up. We are a raiding guild we raid five days (nothing drastic) but it takes us those 5 days to clear all the current content. We should be raiding 3 days tops. One day for Naxx. One day for OS 3D. One day for Maly 5min achivement. But no. We have useless wipes in which we get people dying to shocks on thaddius, running though grobulus posion novas (they are green look at the ground!) Sapharion has a blizzard and is a dragon... dont stand behind him or infront... Why do our healers want to be beside the tank to heal?! KT we get melee Ice Blocking the main tank. On the naxx front though I've seen an improvment by most people who were messing up in the beginning and I'm hoping for full clear this reset this week. maybe the immortal achivement? Doubtful.. But baby steps. Rome wasnt built in a day.

Malygos was another one of those "Teron Gorefiend" fights where you had to depend on people to do their job properly. Our first kill was messy about 10 people survived and we were 10 seconds into his enrage when he died. People died to the static shock, no one knew how to stand on the triangle it was a learning curve to say the least. We've come along way on that fight too - Our people are moving with the group and we are getting closer to getting the 5 min achviemnt.

OS is by far the worst though. We have people who CONSTANTLY get hit by that big orange wall of fire... MOVE! Oh, and void zones? Look around! I have just recently moved from the easy job of tanking sath to picking up adds one of the drakes... Its a big difference on the front of the commotion and stuff but I didnt get hit by flame wall or void zones once. There is not reason for it IMO. We've been doing 2D for the last two weeks and starting 3D next week - I hope it all goes well - Last time we went in with 2D no one died so thats a positive off the top. The new tank since I moved to add control did really well its a DK and he for his first time tanking it got hit by flame wall twice. It was hard to judge when I first did it too. Not many people got hit by flame walls and our dps was in over drive burning down tenebron way faster than usual. Usually we have Vesperon down before tenebron dies - we killed him in 45-1 min. I was throughly impressed.
I may bitch about my guild and some people who need to be more observant but overall I like the guild I'm in they do what needs to be done with a few people who are a little slower on the uptake. But all in all they are a great group of people a little too loot oriented but thats what your going to get anywhere... I hope.

/endrant