The Approahcing Train Wreck

There's one coming. It's called Cataclysm 5-Man Dungeons. And we are all going to die. A lot.

The other night in Guild Chat we were discussing what we were going to do first when Cataclysm launches. Pretty basic stuff.  "Imma start a Worgan!" "I'm going to make a Human Hunter!" "I'm going blast to 85 and check out the new zones!" and so on. 

Me? I'm gonna barge, bully, bash and bone run my way to the dungeon entrances and start running the 5-mans.

I love them.

Solo'ing VC at 38 for Mount money!

Ever since Friday and I spent three hours in Deadmines at level 16 and didn't even get half way through. I'm not even sure we had a "tank."  It was the brute force approach to dungeon running. Attack (not pull) one thing at a time and kill it, then go on to the next.  Which of course didn't work.  We'd get a multi-mob pull and all hell would break loose. Someone would yell "pat!" and the rest of us would look around going "who the hell is Pat?!?"  We'd die, but we took two of the bastards with us!  Run back and try again!

And yes, that was fun! By 20 Friday had tanked VC as DW Arms by stacking Agility. I didn't know what avoidance was, but not getting hit sounded like a great plan.  She solo'd the instance at 30. In fact, that's how I made enough gold to buy my first mount!

So it doesn't matter how hard the dungeon is, it's just fun to run them.  I don't mind wiping as long as everyone is getting along and having a good time.  Who cares, right?

For the Pony!

I've been leveling up Rowen the Rogue a bit and enjoying the random dungeon finder. Old world instances need a LOT of love.  Rowen basically tanked VC at 18. Most of the rest are a breeze with an even half-way competent crew. With the plethora of Wrath Babies running through them, they were pretty much like Northrend Dungeons. Pull, faceroll, pull, faceroll, stop for loot, repeat. 

It's kind of funny to watch some newer players that are use to free T10 gear and small AoE pulls go all nerd rage when they suddenly pull 20 mobs in BRD and wipe.  I LOL'd a lot. I didn't LOL so much when that tactic actually worked! Wha?!?

Then Rowen started this weekend on Outland Dungeons.  Even nerfed as they are, they aren't easy to faceroll unless everybody does their job properly. You can't AoE the room full of mobs in Shattered Hells. You do and you die. Nerd rage ensues. It's not pretty.

On one run through Ramps we went through 4 dps and 2 healers and 2 tanks.  On Ramps!  SRS?!?

These people would quit the group after one wipe!  I'm sorry but I don't have time to re-queue for 30 minutes just because some twit doesn't understand basic concepts of threat and aggro.  Gah!  Luckily, the groups tend to fill fast, but really.

I don't even have a problem with them not understand basic play mechanics.  I love noobs.  What I can't stand is the people that get all shitty about a wipe and then quit the group with no desire to understand why it happened in the first place!  There's a difference between being ignorant and being an idiot.  One is curable.


Enter Cataclysm. The devs have said that 5-mans in Cat will be between BC and Wrath in difficulty. If that works out, there's going to be quite a few players that are in for a rude shock.  Commence the train wreck.

Wrath Babies I get. They might have picked up some basic dungeon group concepts if they ran heroics in greens and blues. They probably had a few experienced players to guide them through that.  For the most part though, they quickly get to a place where they can slap on decent gear and run through Wrath dungeons with barely a breath. (Does anyone remember having to call for a bio in 5-mans?)

Learning about threat the hard way in SM Cath.

Don't get me wrong, I liked most of Wrath's 5-mans. But at a certain, early point, they just became badge runs. Nothing terribly wrong with that, I suppose, but at some point all you're doing is the same dailies and the same badge runs over and over again.  That's less entertainment and more like a task.  Blah.

I don't get the experienced players that have just gotten lazy. I see the Warrior tank that doesn't know what an LOS pull is and has no idea what I mean when I offer to cc the bomb dropping Technician. I get that. I see the Pally tank that DOES know what an LOS pull is and then charges in anyway, rounds up the whole room, and then stands there in the ooze and dies, all the while screaming "WHY IS NO ONE ATTACKING?!?" 

Sorry, I don't want to get green ooze on my pretty new purple boots.  Maybe you could scooch them over just a bit? Please? Thanks.

I just have a bad feeling that when (if?) they up the difficulty factor a notch or two in Cataclysm, there's going to be a lot more of this.  The Outland dungeons have been nerfed to hell and in about two dozen runs I have yet to see a group make it all the way through intact, or I've come into the group as a filler.

L2P Fri! Be prepared! No Outland in your underwear!

I'm guilty of it, too. For the first time in years I got called to task by a tank in PoS for pulling aggro! Wha?!? He even had the gall to suggest I use the target of target feature!!! My first reaction was "Quit being such a lame ass tank, bitch!"

But he was right. We were never in any danger and I took a few shots to the melon and an heal or two. Yes, the tank was way below my gear level.  I should have been adjusting my DPS to match his threat output. He was doing fine.  (Controlling your DPS when spec'd Fury is not easy, but that's another post entirely.)

Guys, if you can't handle a wipe or two (or five), you need to get into some of the Outland dungeons and L2P. Serious. If you don't understand threat, aggro, when to use cc, when not to use AoE, what LOS is, etc. you're gonna be hurting come Cataclysm.

I know I'm taking Rowen's adventures as refresher course.

I suspect, though, that with the right group, Cat dungeons are gonna be monster fun, wipes and all. Bring on the train! :)

-Fri

For the.... Horde?!?

I have a confession to make.

I'm leveling a toon Horde-side.

I know, right?!?

Let me 'splain. . .

I've always liked PvP.  Maybe more like a love/hate relationship would be a better description than "like." Playing a Warrior in PvP is tough. It takes patience and a lot of dying over and over to gear up before you're even remotely effective. It also takes a lot of calm, cool, methodical planning and maneuvering to be good at it.

Yah, that's not really me.

Neveron, Violet, and Shortbella pay a visit.

I can do it, but sometimes in PvP ya just wanna mash some  heads and create mayhem in a "kill 'em all" induced frenzy.

So when I started leveling a Rogue, I naturally slipped into PvP with her. Hey, there's some good leveling gear available from honor that works well with the BoA stuff too!  And OMG, a rogue is WAY more fun to play in PvP. Way! I use to hate rogues, but now I realize why.  It's 'cause they have so much damn fun in Battlegrounds!  Jealous!

The whole rogue thing was great.  Then they turned on XP gains for Battlegrounds and I figured I'd heal my way to 80 on the Priest.  Which was even MOAR fun than playing a rogue.  Here we have the calm, cool of a Warrior combined with the HaHa-Gotcha of a Rogue and the intense challenge of keeping everyone around you upright and breathing while being focused 99.9% of the time.

New Title: Spike-killer Fridaymacfay.

So, some people at work started up the office guild again and I agreed to play.  Unfortunately, they all play Horde. Gah!  I mean, nothing wrong with the Horde, except you know... they're Horde!

I picked a Tauren cause they seemed the less Horde-like, to me. (Wow, they move slow. Feels like it, anywho.) And since I never tried one before, and I liked healing so much on the priest, I decided to try a Resto Druid.

The verdict:  Fun. Way fun. Huge, mondo, Tauren-sized fun!

K, I still don't care for the whole Horde-experience thing. Nothing wrong with it, just not my bag of doughnuts. Playing through some areas from the other side, though, is very interesting.  Now that leveling is fairly easy, I can pick and choose what quest lines to follow and then just random dungeon or PvP my way past those I don't care for.

In the face!

In the BGs, though, a druid is just four different kinds of WICKED!  Literally.  Focused? Bear! Not focused? Heal!  Need to tear some ass? Kittah!  Need to haul ass? Lil' Kittah! Druid in PvP is like a Swiss Army Knife with teeth!

In WSG, for example, I've flag carried as Prot before. That's like being an armored truck. Grab the flag and keep trudging along with Shield Wall and Shield Block and hope to hell you get heal or two as you trundle your way all the way home.

FC as a druid is just grins. Room full of defenders?  HoT, HoT, HoT, Bear, grab the flag, get outside, little kitty all the way home, cap!  There's a very good reason why you hate Druid FCs. :)

On D, just root the FC in place and you'll have "Not in My House" on your first battle!

I know that all this is something Druids have known for years.  But if you've never even considered playing a Druid, give it a shot.  Even if it's only for the fun in BGs. Definitely a quintessential WoW experience!

The proper attire for herbing.

If you switch factions, though, just remember which side you're playing for. Running along-side the human pally FC trying to figure out why you can't attack that stinkin' undead mage can be a bit embarrassing. Not that I've done that, of course, I'm just saying . . .

-Fri