Noblegarden should be renamed to….

…”Nobody Likes Garden!”  Blizz’s new anticipated holiday, Noblegarden, has come and past and I’ve got two words… Thank God!  This holiday is the biggest waste of time known to WoW-man.  Just about everyone I’ve talked to (actually it’s everyone, but I don’t want to get stupid comments saying “I liked it blah blah blah”) hated this event, and if you actually did the achievements, you would agree.

First, lets talk about the egg hunt, or as I like to call it “The Frustrating N00b Egg Ninja Wars!!”  So you go to a beginners area and look around for eggs, pretty simple, right?  WRONG!  The correct answer is you go to the beginners area and you YELL/SCREAM/PUNCH PUPPIES/FLAME/GO INSANE AND PUNT YOUR CAT ACROSS THE ROOM while trying to frantically right click stupidly colored eggs that spawn throughout that small area.  I mean come on!  Most people would fight and I’ve even seen people try to bribe their way to good spawning spots so they can camp and get eggs.  Since the spawns are not random and running around in circles is about as mind-numbing as camping, I can see their point.  Besides the point that sitting and waiting for these things is more boring and stupid than watching episodes of the Wiggles; it got even worse when someone /gasp IS CAMPING THE SAME SPOT AS YOU!  OMG!  All heck breaks loose then.  Between the “shoo!”s and the “get away n00bcake”s, its enough to drive anyone insane.  Wow is a cesspool of different types of people.  Unfortunately that includes rude and stupid people.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard yells of things trying to get the mean people trying to “steal” eggs from people.  The funny thing is that people try to actually reason with them only to be met with a “Hahaha” or a “Shut up n00b”.

Now the eggs are gathered for achievements and rewards.  Do do all this, you need at least over 100 eggs minimum.  This is the equivalent to being waterboarded for 30 secs the way I look at it.  It’s complete torture!  And you endure this for what?!  A stupid robe, other stupid clothes, and some flowers that puts bunny ears on people?!  So lame Blizz, so lame.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of actually good rewards.  For all you pet junkies you could get a pretty little bunny to follow you around; and for our Mage friends out there, you got a new polymorph; like you all need another choice out there.  (I have images of ADHD going nuts trying to figure out which animal to turn people into, its another rant for another post)

Blizzard could have done a few simple adjustments to help with all this waste of a holiday.  Having the egg hunt in the beginners areas only…. big mistake!  First off you are limiting the amount of spawn points, so then you get the campers and hence the madness of people stealing eggs.  You also got the n00bs that are like lvl 10 begging for money and help.  They should have done it by starting zones.  A vast area will actually cause people to hunt them rather than camp them.  Another thing is if they were going to put people through all this, at least give them some cool rewards.  Why does Brewfest get nice trinkets (well they were nice at the time).  Why can’t we kill a giant bunny for a nice “Rabbit’s Foot” trinket or something.  Oh well, Blizz didn’t really think this through.

Well, this is already a book, so I’ll continue with the rest of Noblegarden in my next post.  Until then, don’t go near the bunnies!  They are the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodents you’ll ever set your eyes on!  They also have huge, sharp, pointy teeth!

Double the fun!

This past raiding week was a great one.  Both of my alliance and horde guilds successfully downed KT and cleared Nax.

Though the first raiding day was slow and painful, the cleanup session was anything but that.  Everyone was on target with one goal in mind…. clear Nax ASAP!  We blew through the rest of the wings with some amazing DPS.  No boss had a chance against us.  With that amount of firepower we were carrying, we should have raised the terrorist alert level up at least one level.  After clearing the wings, Saph was next.  Saph tried putting up a fight, but it was no use.  On our second attempt, we showed him who’s boss!  We were!  Last, but not least, was good ol’ KT.  After our first couple of wipes, I started to think that we would have to regroup on our last raid night to down him, but no!  Then, it seemed we got a second wind and finally took him down.  It was a grueling fight with many deaths, but victory was ours.  In turn, my wife was rewarded with a great new one handed sword.

On horde, things went so smooth, I felt like I was chillin’ listening to some good ol’ blues music.  We finished the Construct with little to no problem.  We had some new people with us, and let me tell you, they definitely stepped up to the plate.  After making the Construct wing look like Deadmines, we changed our sites to Saph.  It was a joke!  At no point were we close to wiping.  Everyone did exactly what they were suppose to do, even the new people.  We had some excellent heals and dps, and Saph folded like a cheap lawn chair.  Then, we all charge on to KT on a great high.  Last time we fought him, he got the best of us with people going down left and right because of the ice blocks.  Not this time!  After one learning attempt, we took it serious and took him down for the guild’s first Nax clear!  The healers were on point!  Nobody died because of ice blocks.  We had one death, but after they got the battle rez, we were good for the rest of the fight.  I credit this kill to the excellent heals we got, great job to those who know who they are.

Well, there you have it.  I wish all raid weeks could go this well.  Don’t you?!

Go Speedracer Go!

On the Horde side of things, I normally run the Nax runs on progressive nights.  Progressive nights are nights when we try to bring in the big guns and push that final couple of feet.  Now, when I lead, I push full force.  I’m a huge fan of kill first, rejoice later.  I love chain pulling, short explanations, and one shooting bosses.  I strive for this in all my raids I run.  Fortunately I have a group of great people I lead.  They understand my philosophies for raiding and they all understand and comply.  What more can a raid leader want?

One important key to my speed runs is that my OT needs to know when and where to pull.  Normally I and the OT alternate chain pulling and the OT needs to know when to pull and where to.  So far, I’ve been very fortunate to have some smart OTs.  No, they aren’t perfect, but neither am I.  I’m trying to teach them the ropes and telling them that mistakes happen.  The ones in my guild are quick learners.

Another key is having great healers.  To have two tanks constantly pulling, healers need to be on target, and know how to manage their mana well.  I’ve been in a lot of guilds, Horde and Alliance, and I will tell you that the healers we have in this guild are some of the best I’ve had the honor of grouping with.  They know how to play their class, their instincts are sharp, and they know their class well.

Lastly, DPS… oh my dps.  DPS is the biggest piece of the puzzle.  This is because different class compositions, different dps ranges, etc. can make the difference from a slow, turtle run, and a quick smooth one.  However, no matter what, your DPS has to be able to follow directions, focus, and play their class well.  For the most part, most of our DPS is doing quite well.  They all follow directions really well.  Most of them have good enough instincts to make moves without me saying so.  That makes me so happy.   They are improving on their focus and class, getting better gear, learning their specs and rotations.

We seem to be improving from week to week and hopefully soon we will be clearing Nax in no time.  With the current people we got, I have no doubt we will.  Keep up the good work.

Quick Nax Run? Not On My Watch!

My alliance guild is full of great people and great players.  Everyone knows what they are doing.  DPS is great, tanks can hold monstrous amounts of aggro, and healers are top notch.  We, however, have one fatal flaw…. we have a bad tendency to go slower than our potential.  Last night was a great example.  We got down 3 wings in about 2.5 hours.  Now I know some of you are probably thinking to themselves “That is great time”.  Well, for some yes, but for us…. not so.  I know how good the people we have are.  We should be knocking out all 4 wings in 2.5 hours.  I don’t know why but it seems like when the raid starts, people start having issues.  An AFK here, a DC there, a lets die on the gauntlet in the plague wing.  I mean it’s not like it happens once, but it’s like a plague of them.  When a person has to leave it seems like forever to get a replacement and get them there.  I might be exaggerating just a tad, but I’m a git-r-done kinda raider.  When I lead my raids on horde, my goal is to go as fast as possible and my peeps understand that.  Is that so wrong?  I can still have fun and focus to get down content quick.  Oh well, I still have fun, but it’s just frustrating when you have to wait for what seems like forever to get going.  Am I the only one who feels this way?