So I did it. I bit the bullet, took the plunge, leaped off the cliff; call it what you will, but old Hesston has joined a new guild.

There was not any drama really with the old guild. And all told I was pretty proud that we took down the Four Horsemen and Patchwerk in the same night. However, it just didn’t feel right. So I said my goodbyes, explained to the few that asked the reason for my leaving and then gave a quick /gquit. A few minutes later I contacted my new guild leader and was met by that ominous drumroll.

So now, I am an official recruit of Satyricon.

My arrival was met with many a hearty “hello,” “welcome” and “congrats.” Along with the warm welcome, the officers and assistants gave me all of the contact information and channels to go to for guild inquiries. So far, I’m loving it. Right now I am only a recruit, but once I show that I’m not just going to cut and run, I move up in the ranks. It sounds serious, but they seem like good folks and more relaxed than most raiding guilds. Basically, serious when they need to be, cool otherwise.

I ran with some members of the group for the first time, in Drak’tharon Keep. I don’t have an accurate WowWebStats report because it was mixed with data from a run I did before, with a different group in the Halls of Lightning (which was pretty impressive I might add).

However, if you look at some of the numbers against the bosses in Drak’Tharon, I think I held my own DPS wise.

• Novos the Summoner – 2,321 DPS
• King Dred – 1,743 DPS
• Prophet Tharon’ja – 1,323 DPS (I think the transformation mucks up the DPS meters a little)

Not bad, considering the Boomkin was much better geared than I. All in all, I think I proved myself as being able to be a contributing member to the team.

Now I’m not one to be totally focused on the numbers game. “Contributing” means a lot more than just putting up big numbers. However, when your primary contribution to a team is DPS, you want to make sure you are headed in the right direction.

I still think there are some issues with my shot rotations and what not. And of course, more purply gear will be great.

Tags: guilds,ooc
Categories: guild, ooc
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Welcome to “Out of Character”, or OOC for short. This will be a regular feature where I, the puppet master that controls the mighty Hesston, will step from behind the curtain and talk about game aspects; be they dungeons, raiding, game mechanics or whatever. Basically, it’s my stage to bitch and rant. I promise they will be few and far between.

Today I’m going to talk about communication, or rather, lack thereof.

I was pretty much a WoW greenhorn all the way up to, and including, Outland. Didn’t run instances much and rarely grouped for quests unless absolutely necessary. My time constraint lent itself to solo play, as I couldn’t commit to a guild. Save for the company of my pet, I was always solo (no jokes please).

However, on the off chance I was allowed to or somehow squeezed into a dungeon or raiding group, I let it be known that I was unfamiliar with dungeon/raid X and that instructions, orders or whatever would be necessary and welcomed. Some would gladly offer and let me know to “trap square, kill skull, don’t stand in the gout of flame shooting from the floor ,” while others would give me a swift /kick and a “…get lost nub.” To those that were willing to teach and offer instruction though, I listened intently and was able to become a competent dungeon runner toward the end of my TBC days and just a few instances into Northrend.

Now I would be a liar if I said I was an experienced raider/dungeon master. I still have not gone through many of the tougher instances (for their level) that many seasoned players cut their teeth on in both vanilla and TBC days. However, I would call myself an experienced Northrend dungeon runner/raider. Since the release of Wrath I’ve leveled to 80, been to (but not through) Naxx, ran most of the heroics several times over, helped topple Archavon the Stone Watcher and have managed to gear myself quite well. I use macros and key bindings and know, for the most part, where I should stand to lay down my MQSRDPS*. I’m proud to say that I’ve got at least some chops.

Now, I’m finding myself in the position, which I don’t mind at all, of being the one giving the instructions at times. Several times in last two weeks I’ll ask the obvious question before a dungeon: “Who’s hasn’t been here before?”

I never assume, and never hold it against someone if they haven’t been to a dungeon. After all, I was that person not too long ago asking questions. What I’m noticing however, is that even when folks say, “what do we do?”, they rarely listen (or read) what you say. They ask, you tell and then the wheels fall off the wagon and the encounter goes belly up.

A recent example would be an attempt at the Oculus, an instance I am familiar with both by running it sucessfully and watching the guys from Project Lore run through it on beta. The final encounter with Ley-Guardian Eregos is a tricky one. There are several ways to play the encounter, but when asked, I ran through a scenario that I’ve had success with.

I explained timing the time stops (I choose during his enrage), decided on a rotation for them, explained his planar shift ability (heroic only), what to do with the adds and the temporal shift/rift thingie that I would be spamming on the back of the amber drake to increase damage to Eregos.

Ready check?

“KK”

“OK”

“KK”

Seems like we are a go. First attempt, time stop goes off as soon as the tank pulls, we come out of it, adds show up, enrage…wipe. Second try was very similar. Then third, then fourth.

Right before the fifth attempt, someone finally pipes up.

“Maybe we should time stop only during the enrage and kill the adds.”

Brilliant, I say. Why didn’t I think of that? I ask them what they were doing when I explained the whole deal, right after they asked.

“Bio”

“Drink”

“pewpewlolznub dragons FTW!!! ZOMG!!”

/facepalm

Right-click –> Leave party

Like I said, I don’t mind helping/tutoring/walking people through how to become a better player. I myself still ask that of the elite folks on my server when I see them, because I’m still learning. Again, some are cool about it and some are not. The ones that do talk I listen to their sagely advice and apply it to my own adventuring. Because of that, I’ve become a phenomenally better player than I was just a few short months ago.

Blizzard put the communications tools in WoW for a reason people, use them. If you ask a question about a dungeon, quest or raid, pay attention to the answer. It only serves to benefit you. There’s no reason not to and the answer is most likely forthcoming in that little scroll of text in the lower-left portion of the screen, right under the LFW notices and “guys, there are horde in Stormwind!!!1!1!”

Not listening, or being known as someone that ignores instructions and communications, is an easy way to get yourself uninvited to groups and raids. And unless you plan on doing most of the game solo (which is fine), it’s going to be very difficult to see all the great content and get the good loot.

*Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged Damage Per Second (H/T BigRedKitty)

Tags: chat,ooc
Categories: heroics, ooc
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