Thursday, March 26, 2009 And the Award goes to...

ME!

So there's some talk out on the blogger street that I am "teh awesome". And truth be told, who am I to say differently eh? Dueg from Holy Dueg is the man who showed me just how great I am, without such I would be just any other Deathknight. But it's true, the picture below is worth a million words - yes it's too good for just a measly thousand.

When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.

List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself.

1. I have always liked my fruits and vegetables even as a kid. One of my favorites (and still is today) is steamed cabbage.
2. I am an extremely stubborn individual - Which the term "extremely" doesn't even begin to cover it.
3. I have a passion for animals, I always try to take them in if I can. Which is how I ended up with 2 additional dogs and a cat.
4. I'm into fish! No - not eating them (I actually hate fish when it comes to eating them). But I'm into fish keeping, I get all giddy and excited like a kid waiting for Christmas when planning out a new tank.
5. I make some weird noises when I sleep - not just talking about snoring here!
6. I "should" actually wear glasses, but I don't, ever.
7. I lost my wallet over the weekend, found it several days later in the freezer.
8. I use lip balm from time to time over the winter cause it gets -60 Windchill up here.
9. I live in the midst of corn fields where as I'd love to live in the mountains - Alaska would be nice! (Even colder, woot!).
10. I don't ever go out on the lakes here in the winter even when there's 4 feet of ice on em.

Monday, March 16, 2009 3.1 DK Changes, Guild Changes, Me Changes?

So I haven't really written anything on my thoughts on all the upcoming changes Blizz making to Deathknights. If you haven't seen them all yet (and there are a lot) I'd head on over to MMO Champion and read over them, and while you're there look at the Tier 8 armor because it looks hot. My first thought about all of this is simply - So, obviously they didn't get DK's right the first swing. What I mean by that is that we aren't really seeing some minor tweaking to the class, we're getting a complete overhall. DPS, Tanking, PvP it's all changing and there is still more to come, so it just raises the question "Are Deathknight's almost finished?", of which nobody has the answer to.

From a PvE DPS standpoint I'm really not minding the changes too much, obvious some nerfs but I view it as a culling of the weak. As Blood I really like the new direction of our base FU ability - which is now starting to favor Death Strike over Obliterate. I will admit I did create and participate in threads over on the live forums pushing for this change. One more change I would like to see on it is DS (Death Strike) added to the Sigil of Awareness with the other two FU abilities as well as to the Tier 7 gear. I understand that we'll be getting new gear in Uldaur with new set bonuses, but we're going to be stepping into new content not in this new gear, but with our old Tier 7 gear, so I do see it as something that would greatly benefit Blood as Blood is the only 2H build that come 3.1 won't get any benefit from them. I am confused as to why they are nerfing some Blood and Frost abilities while making the Unholy tree more attractive when the goal was to have more DK's stray away from Unholy. I do get that Blood has too much burst for PvP right now so they're taking all that way...but hey, the reason why I like Blood for PvE DPS is the burst, and I don't PvP. The way I DPS is all through throttling my burst, I build up my RP and get my runes ready then pop Hysteria, DRW and go through a basic OB x2, HS x2 Rotation and then hit ERW (Empowered Rune Weapon) and do it again and see 10k DPS spike! Then 15 seconds later I will start to throttle down, down, down then once my CDs are back up I'll do it again. For me, it's a fun play style that I enjoy, I really don't care if the above can /faceroll their way to high Arena ratings (besides, isn't that what rogues have been doing for 4 seasons now?). But who knows what future changes will take place to make what I wrote above useless information. Things seem to change every week so I'm sure if there are any new patch notes today or tomorrow we'll see some more DK DPS nerfs.

As for guild changes, Khaeli and I left our previous guild after I was called Hitler and she was called a Nazi because we supported when our Guild Leader wanted to post WWS reports. We're now apart of a more dedicated raid guild and I really hope it works out as the people seem both nice and informed (I actually had good DK conversations about the future of the class and current PTR changes, this is vastely different from my previous guild where there wasn't any mutual sharing of information, I was just called upon to answer questions and go through gear/gems/enchants/specs/etc. and find where people could use some help). It's been awhile since I was apart of a raiding group that could actually perform, have it's members live up to standards while still having drunken Vent nights (I'm not sure how this guild would handle a drunken Kaleyen IRL - I think I'll wait to test them with that if I make it past recruit). I really hope that Khaeli and I can surpass their standards as they test us with Heroics. I know that Khaeli gets a tad upset because her class/spec (Disc Priest) really has a difficult time healing a group as it's more about single target damage absorption and she gets really hard on herself when someone dies. She has mentioned that when she goes to play on her Resto Druid just how extremely easy it is to keep a group up compared to her Priest.

As for my self changes...in my interview for my new guild they were very interested in me and tanking as I mentioned in my application that I don't mind changing specs to suit the guild's needs and that I do know how to tank as a DK. Now, this does have me nervous as I really haven't tanked anything in 25 man content nor do I have a decent tank set or even a spec in mind. When I joined my previous guild as a tank and was asked to go DPS, I pretty much stopped reading all my DK tank forums as I had to be a quick learner on DK DPS. So now I might find myself in the opposite position and need to freshen up on Tank specs and gemming. As a DPS DK I am confident in my ability to DPS as I have done so in the 25 man raid environment and it's just what I do. But as for Tanking, I'm slightly nervous as I don't want to be judged so much on an aspect of game play I have set aside for the better half of three months to focus on DPS. I know I can be a great tank as it's all about awareness, of which I do have, it's the whole "Join a raiding guild and be judged on role that I haven't previously done in a raid environment" bit that has me nervous. We'll see...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 DK & Priest LF a Home!

No, we're not guildless...but we're getting close. 2 people left the guild last night, 2 others I know are transferring servers and two others are on the verge of leaving, which doesn't include Khaeli and myself. The thing is, the 6 people above are frustrated for exactly the same reasons we are yet the officers don't care because their alts are getting purples. I don't want to leave LT, I want people to want to give a damn and actually try to play their class correctly.

So, I have decided to make a post describing the perfect guild for Khaeli and I.

Raiding Guild: Raids 3-5 times a week starting at 7 or 8 PM CST.

The guild member's and officers have the same agenda - to kill shit. Not to gear up alts or make sure that there are enough people to run a second 25 man raid for their alts. We want to be around people like ourselves - people who are never satisfied with their raiding performance and are always striving to do better the next raid yet have to get up at 6am to get to work the next morning. We don't need a guild that is top on a server clearing everything in one attempt, we do need a guild that it's members know how to play their class (aka no healers casting lesser heal please!). We want to be apart of a core group of people like this that we can help the guild progress through content, we want to be around compentant people...

Is this too much to ask?

Apparently it is...I made a post on our guild forums asking what direction is LT going to be taking in the new expansion because our core raiders are tired of spending 4+ hours clearing Construct and Spider wing in Naxx25 because half the raid is alts who don't know how to play their main class, let alone an alt class. Two officers responded (1) We're going to continue to gear out alts (2) Leave the guild then if you're frustrated.

The first officer (1) who responded dinged his level 80 Shaman this past weekend and brought him into a Naxx 25 wearing greens and did 1k DPS but changed the looting rules after the raid started so he could get gear on his alt for less DKP.

The second officer (2) who said that those feeling frustrated should leave has been bringing his mage alt to all the raids the past 3 weeks and has gotten a nice little collection of tier gear and still can't break 2k DPS and can't see where there's a problem.

Meanwhile the core raiders who carry these people through are getting more and more frustrated and are starting to leave. Khaeli and I don't want to leave the guild...we the officers to realize how selfish they are, we want the members to realize that doing 1.5k DPS in full 25 man gear is unexceptable, we want members who are on raid heals who are healing the MT/OT and themselves that they are not doing their jobs properly and need to fix it.

But I guess we want too much for this guild...

Monday, March 2, 2009 Weekend Observations & Thoughts

I have a lot of thoughts about the 3.1 patch notes in general and even more about the proposed changes to the class. Most of which is me looking at the changes as a whole and worrying that spec diversity will soon be a thing of the past. But what this post is going to be about is this past weekend's happenings.

Khaeli and I were awarded the status of "Raider" in the guild, it was a long over due promotion as we were told 2 weeks earlier by the guild leader "LOL! You two still aren't promoted yet? That's an oversight by your Class Leaders, I'll get it sorted out". And there are people with the Veteran Raider tag that only raid Vanilla WoW raid zones at 80.

So I'm going to start off with the idea of Class Leaders. I actually like the idea and it would be a great way to pass off some administrative duties of the guild leader and officers. However, the Deathknight Class Leader is a Paladin (His BC main was a Paladin, went DK for the WoTLK expansion but when he finally started to raid in LK he went on a 25 man Naxx run on his Paladin and used his BC DKP on the Betrayer of Humanity and decided that now his main is going to be the Paladin yet he still is the DK CL) who logs in about twice a week and raids once every other week. His knowledge of the class is lacking but overall he's a nice guy, certainly not what I would consider worthy of the CL position. He actually told me that he's going to pass me the DK CL so he can be the Paladin CL - Well there's only 1 raiding DK in my guild and it's me, so it's not that hard of a job. However 3 seperate incidences popped up that have left me just dumb founded and have shown me that I am really not appreciated as a person who knows their class.

~Brief Backgound~
I was a tank until level 80, tanked all heroics in all 3 specs and did some MT/OT work in Naxx and OS 10. Upon joining the guild I was asked to go DPS and since doing so I am a top 2 DPS, the one other person we go back and forth per encounter on who's #1. While him and I are doing 4500 DPS on a boss encounter the #3 guy is usually around 3k...meaning there is a large gap between us and the rest of the raid. Also I have a tank set as I am asked in 25 mans to help with tanking when needed.

Incident #1: We have a new Warrior tank and we're running through Naxx 25, the new guy is asked to tank Khel while the other tanks grab the adds. The convo went something like this in raid chat...

New Tank "Who's on the Frost Bolt interupts?"
Raid Leader "Nobody is, we don't do that and we down him just fine"
Me "I interupt Frost Bolts"
Raid Leader "It's not really an issue, we can heal through them np"
Me "I have always interupted the Frost Bolts from Khel"
Raid Leader "Just tank him at the thone, Khaeli will keep you healed"
Me "<--------------------interupts Frost Bolts"
Raid Leader "Oh, good work Kale"

At the time it was nothing, shrugged it off because it was just whatever. Didn't really get to me that even the raid leader didn't know what I was doing to help the raid but that's ok, not everyone goes through the WWS like Khaeli and I do.

Incident #2: Doing a quick and easy OS 25 with all drakes down, had some people get on their DK alts for the achievement because it's loleasymode. The convo went like this in raid chat...

DK Alt "Is there a point to having more then 540 defense?"
Mage "Nope, it's useless"
Me "Yes there is, IBF for example scales with defense"
Mage "Getting anything over won't help with anything"
DK Alt "Cool, I'm almost to cap then"

What do I know right? The mage had a DK alt who's in their mid 70s and who is Frost because Frost is the tank spec, amirite?

Incident #3: I'm getting my Priest PL'd in SM while this conversation took place. The convo went something like this in guild chat...

Non-Raider DK "Is the class lead on by chance?"
Me "Nope, but if you have a DK question ask away"
DK Alt "Yup, we have some very good DK's in the guild - like me" (yes he was being serious)
Non-Raider DK "Well, I'm new to 80 and I wanted to try to tank and wanted to know what would be a good tank spec to try"
Me "Well, all three specs have the ability to tank as long as you take 5/5/5 in each tree, from there I would suggest Frost because you can rotate 3 of your tanking CD's to have one up all the time and you get a nice increase in your IBF, this is not to say Unholy isn't a great tank spec even after the nerf to BS as you can glyph for two extra bones and has superior passive mitigation then the other two specs, I wouldn't suggest Blood at your gear level and compared to Frost and Unholy it lacks the abilities to really smooth out the incoming damage"
DK Alt "LOL! Vampiric Blood is better then anything in Frost and Unholy"
Warlock Alt "Yeah, I was in Heroic HoL and a Blood DK tank solo'd Loken because the self heals are amazing" (The Blood DK had a healer with him - it was Khaeli - and this DK is geared in 25 man gear)
DK Alt "Ya, you'll be just fine as Blood"
Warlock Alt "It really doesn't matter how you spec to tank as a DK"
Me "Guys, I never said that Blood couldn't tank - I tank as Blood DPS when needed because I have the gear. He's not in raid gear and will have an easier time rotating his CDs with Frost or Bone Shield with Unholy. It's not about what's the best tank spec but what's the best tank spec for him at his gear level."
DK Alt "Whatever dude, Blood is insane for tanking because of the self heals"
Warlock Alt "Yup, the self heals really smooth out the damage for the healers"

The DK Alt thinks he's the best DK in the guild, he will argue his point just to get the last word in, he's 15 and thinks he knows it all. I am not going to argue with a 15 year old as there is no point, especially with this kid who thinks he's so clever because he picked his name out of a Latin dictionary. The Warlock Alt was the guild's former MT and is an officer of the guild.

So have the 3 above combined together and I just feel that I am not appreciated for what I do at all. I don't need countless praise or a fancy guild title or anything like that, what I do expect is that when there's a question regarding DK's and I respond that others might actually take what I have to say with some consideration. The fact is I could start to do 2k DPS and I would still be brought to every single raid, instead I'm busting my ass to be the best DPS DK that I can be and there is really no point in doing so.

The guild still has other issues but hey, whatever right? We are still killing Patchwork in 6+ minutes with all of our DPS being decked out in 25 man gear. We have 10+ DPS that can't break 3k that we bring to every raid. The raid healers don't heal the raid, they heal the MT/OT and themselves which causes serious issues when we try 2D OS. But it doesn't matter, casual guild is casual.

Just going to keep my mouth shut and pay my repair builds from now on.