Since so many of you offered suggestions and advice on gearing my sons Death Knight, I feel I owe you an update.

I’d been saving Blood Spirits and Living Steel with the intention of having the 496 Blacksmithing crafted gear made for him someday.

Before worrying about that though, we asked him what he’d like to do last night. Watch a movie? Play some Minecraft? TV? Tablet games? Toys?

“Maybe if you and mommy aren’t busy, run some scenarios?”

Okay, plan. Sure, we can do that.

If we can find a couple more folks willing to join us, would you rather do scenarios, or heroics?

“Heroics.”

Okay, let the call go forth!

Gooseigaly, who was such a powerful healing presence on our ICC achievement runs volunteered to come along, so we’d only be looking for a pug tank. Shouldn’t be too bad, Cassie does very nice DPS on her Shaman and even on my Warlock I’m doing about 65k in Heroics. Alex won’t be doing so well, but he’s gearing up, what do you expect? We can take up the slack.

No problem. Right?

Sigh.

Scarlet Monastery. You’d think it would be a lot of fun. Alex never saw it while doing normal groups and leveling, so it will be fresh. And it has lots of fun stuff, like the hounds turning on the houndmaster, then tearing on down the path. And buckets of chow to throw for them. He should like that.

One minute into the run, the tank announces that my son should be ashamed for only doing 15k DPS in a heroic.

Just, fucking sigh, man.

I need to make an in-game /p facepalm macro. I swear to fucking Mylune and all the little bunny rabbits that I do.

I am actually getting grumpier as I get older (I know this comes as a shock to most of you) and so I told him that the DK was my son, and the rest of us were all in a group together to help him get some gear to improve, so we were there to pick up the slack. No need to worry.

It went downhill from there.

Really, I’m not going to dwell on it. The tank was a bully, and yet pulled the victim card at the same time. Oh yes, he was being a dick, but it was only because he knew we were going to kick him, so he got his retaliation in on us in advance.

So when a blue plate chest dropped on the first boss, and he already had it, the reason he rolled need and took it was because he knew we were going to kick him. And the reason his health plummeted in his ungemmed, unenchanted mixed blues and greens was because Goose wasn’t healing him out of vindictiveness, not because he was squishy as hell and standing in the middle of the bad with his back to hounds who didn’t have to deal with parries, blocks or dodges and could gnaw on his boxers without distraction.

You get where I’m going with this.

Cassie announced to me in vent that she was glad to be reminded so forcefully of why she’s just about quit WoW already, and said she was out of there. Fuck him. I wholeheartedly agreed.

I let Goose know we were dropping, and he stayed in a bit while Cassie, Alex and I waited out the 5 minutes left on our deserter timer.

Deserter. Talk about a name meant to shame. Allow me to suggest a better name is the “Prick Penalty“.

You weren’t willing to deal with the prick? You have to deal with the penalty.

Probably NSFW. (Not Safe For WoW).

No worries, you all know my position when it comes to dealing with abuse. Nobody has to take that shit, nobody should ever feel they SHOULD take that shit, ever. If you’re in an abusive situation, fuck them, let them live with their own nasty selves and stew, ain’t my responsibility to take it. Nor is it the responsibility of my wife or son.

And it sure as hell isn’t on our shoulders to feel guilty for leaving a group with someone that’s going to act that way.

Anyway. We sent the call out looking for a tank again, but it was friends on Horde side night, so instead of playing instance roulette, we decided to do scenarios instead, and waved a fond farewell to Goose.

The scenario was Monkey Island. It went great.

Cassie defended the beach while Alex manned the cannon (and I’m sure placed bombs) and I ran around using my boozehunter knowledge to grab all the beer and bring it back fast. Worked like a charm.

I know where the booze is to be found.

That was fast, fun and unrewarding. Still no loots for Alex.

Then Serendipity whispered me to see if we were still looking for a tank. She had one… but she was DPS, did we have a healer?

Cassie was glad to bow out to make room, she had her fill of groups with the tank from the first one. Goose was gone, so we went in, three DPS and a tank, taking a chance on a pug healer.

Turned out the tank, a Paladin, was just starting out, had gear even worse than Alex, and hadn’t done the Mogu’shan Palace heroic before so he didn’t know his way around yet.

I didn’t care, Alex and I aren’t looking to set any land speed records here, we’re just doing a heroic. And you have to start somewhere, and do an instance for the first time sometime.

The tank was refreshingly skilled. He had the classic, old school style. He used crowd control. He pulled mobs using line of sight and physically controlled the positioning and facing so as to let AoE effects go off without breaking the CC.

Basically, the tank was calm, considerate, and went at a measured pace using talent on loan from God.

A classic example of having all the skills, and just needing to get some more gear.

So, the big question.

How did our pug healer handle having one insane high-DPS Warlock (proportionately speaking, that is) that persisted in pulling aggro and acting like a nutjob, a Rogue that marked and sapped targets, a tank in blues and greens that took his time carefully making each pull the classic way, and a Death Knight doing, ahem 20k DPS?

healer was a fucking champion. Not a single word of complaint, not a SINGLE fucking word of complaint at the pace. No bitching, no sulky lack of heals, nothing like that at all.

He (or she) offered a few suggestions, healed like a pro, moved around with us like a member of the team in long standing, and only asked if we could maybe pull the last boss back to the doorway to help make their healing smoother, which we were happy to do.

Let me repeat that. The healer ASKED if we would, and gave a reason why they’d like us to do it that way. No pissy demands, or pouting like they were lowering themselves to deal with us idiots.

Now, I’m sure the healer would have liked a faster run, or higher DPS in the group overall, or a tank that didn’t require so much work to keep alive.

But they played the game with what they had, did an outstanding job of it, remained cheerful and really left me wishing they were on my server so I could add them to my casual realm friends list, just to give them the occasional “Hey, wanna do something?” shout.

You know, like we used to be able to do before the cross-realm choice became “Hey, can I add you to my Battletag list so I can see everything you do on every character you have on every server, and even on other games like Diablo and Starcraft?”

This too might surprise you, but I don’t actually ever say that in a run, no matter how great the other person was. Developing an in-game friendship is one thing, renting an apartment together is a bit much for a ‘next step’ after meeting them.

Anyway. The end result was the entire night was spent playing as a family, Alex had fun, Cassie got disgusted, I got irritated, Goose got a single boss kill, and we got to meet a great tank, play with Serendipity, and have fun with a rocking pug healer to take the foul taste of the earlier run off our palates.

Also, Alex didn’t win a goddamn thing to help his gear iLevel.

Kiss my ass.

There is this really handy feature on Ask Mr Robot that I use for my alts, now that LFR is gated behind average iLevels.

If you load your character, you’ll see on the right side panel a bunch of stats for your equipped gear. Including ilevel.

What is helpful is, you can change an item and save it, and the results will show up on that panel… including your new ilevel with that piece of gear equipped.

If you pay for a subscription with Ask Mr Robot you’ll be able to see what is in your bags as well, and compute best equipped gear based on all your combined stuffs, but I don’t have a subscription yet.

You don’t need a subscription to call up a character, choose a different chest piece from the list, save it and see how that would affect your average iLevel.

And that’s what I did late last night. I loaded Ask Mr Robot, and asked, “What would happen if I got the rest of the Blood Spirits and Living Steel and made Alex the 496 chest and gloves?”

Boom, 459.

“Okay, so where can I get the last point. Trinket is the worst item, but I can’t replace that without a Darkmoon Card, or a lucky drop. Fuck random pugs, what else.”

“He had a 446 ring. What if I made him a second 450?” No.

Hmmm. He’s got enough Justice Points for a 458 item. “What would, say, replacing the ring with a 458 do?”

iLevel 460 exactly.

Fine, done and done.

Bought what I didn’t have, Venoym volunteered to craft the items, I flew the Death Knight out and bought the JP ring, and bam. Fucking done.

It ain’t enchanted or gemmed yet, and he doesn’t have a Key to run the Trove for Elder Charms, but I’m sure that will be taken care of by this weekend, and the next time he wants to run something, the option will be to run Mogu’shan Vaults LFR with my Warlock along for the ride.

I could almost thank that pug tank from my first run. If he hadn’t shown just how MISERABLE a heroic run could be with an asshat in the group, I wouldn’t have been so inspired to just cut bait and get it done.

Almost. But, um, no. Fuck him.

Hey, I have a quick request if you’ve got a few minutes and some advice to share.

My son has reached max level on his Death Knight, his first newly max level character.

I got him decked out in crafted 450 plate PvP items, a crafted 463 double handed axe, 483 boots from Sha and a 480 necklace from the old Love is in the Air boss.

Even got a cloak and a 450 ring.

What I’d like are your words of advice on the easiest, fastest way to get him to the 460 line so he can get into Mogu’shan Vaults LFR with me.

I’m still running it on my Warlock, and he’s memorized the whole thing from the Dungeon Journal and tells ME what to do during the boss fights… he just can’t get in there himself.

He loved Dragon Soul LFR so much, and as a DPS was very good. But it’s all but impossible to get him geared through heroics. They just take SO LONG to pop for a DPS with limited playtime like he has, just for the off chance at a single drop, maybe.

So, any ideas, I’d really appreciate it. I would level my Blacksmith and try to make him the epic 476 items, but it’ll take weeks, maybe months, and from what I understand they take dozens of the Spirit of Harmony and the Golden Lotus rep for the patterns, so BS don’t make em so much anymore. Better things to do with Spirits, maybe?

Cassie and I haven’t leveled a single plate wearer this expansion, so we simply don’t know.

I thank you in advance for any suggestions you might have.

The Firelands raid scheduled for this Sunday evening is canceled due to a lack of sign ups.

We were short about 7 people at 5:30 PM CST, one half hour before the raid was supposed to begin.

For those that were ready to go and commented on the post, thank you. I’m sorry we won’t be running tonight.

I hope everyone has had a good weekend, and a great week in WoW.

 

 

I was stuck on the last stage of the Wrathion legendary questline for a week and a half.

I say stuck, what I mean was, I had no interest in doing it.

I had Warlock freshness enticing me to play, so I blew it off. Bah, a gem socket, who gives a shit? I’ll get it done sometime before the new quest stuff unlocks in Patch 5.2.

Not saying I don’t like the legendary quest. I am enjoying having an overall goal to continue to pursue over the life of the expansion. Each patch advances the quest storyline a little further, with mini-rewards and such, and I like it. Well, I like it because I’m only focusing on one character. If I were serious about two or more, I think I would cry. But with one main to advance… it’s all good.

Still.

Blizzard, how DARE you place a PvP requirement in my PvE questline!

What’s that? You’ve created some fresh new PvP battlegrounds, and you want to get people in to see them, maybe find out they are fun, get us to try something new, broaden our horizons?

Damnit Blizzard, if I want to be closed-minded and ignorant, that is my right as an American! It must be, I see so many people exercise that right every day of their fricken’ lives.

All good procrastination must come to an end sooner or later, and the Bear Gods decreed that yesterday the stars and Moon aligned, the wild hair alighted up my ass, and the white elk was spotted in the high pass.

That’s right. I was in the mood to PvP.

So, Wrathion wanted me to go kill some Hordies in two Battlegrounds, huh? I’m a true WoW player, let me just queue up without a clue what the hell I’m supposed to do.

The two battlegrounds you have to win, not just take part in but WIN, are the Temple of Kotmogu and the Silvershard Mines.

I queued for Temple of Katmogu first, and was told it was a 10 vs 10 battleground, ‘capture the ball’ style.

I’m sure that tells everyone else volumes, but it didn’t tell me shit… other than there will be balls, and we must capture them. Seeing as it’s people fighting each other on the internet, the idea any of the involved HAVE balls in the first place is indeed news to me.

Maybe that is why Blizzard has to supply them? And why the players are fighting over them?

Okay, that might have been a joke, as opposed to my usual sarcasm. It’s hard sometimes to tell the difference around here. Sarcasm; it’s the water we swim in and the air we breathe.

Come at me, bro.

Temple of Katmogu wins as the battleground I least want to play again, ever.

There are four balls, starting out on posts at the four corners of a multi-terraced arena, and you know what? I played it twice and I just don’t give enough of a shit about it to even try and recap it.

I played and lost, I played and won, and I ain’t going back.

I can see how, if your group is coordinated and communicative, like a pre-made, and you had certain people with extremely good survivability pre-selected to be ball carriers with other players selected as their point defense, and a core group as offense to focus on striking at the enemy carriers, it could be a great concept with lots of fun, tactical give-and-take, all good.

With ten random schlubs, none of whom (including me) knew what the goal was, not so much.

Ah well, we also serve who stand and give free HKs.

On the second game, as I say, we won because, yes, our group had more balls than the other.

Really? This is what we’re reduced to, designing BGs to give us an opportunity to make balls jokes? Sigh.

Still, a win by any other name is still half a quest done.

The second battleground, Silvershard Mine, I also zoned into blind.

But… hold on a minute here. This seems… different.

First, the area was new and fresh. We were in, and hold on tight this will come as a shock… a MINE.

Go figure, right? The whole place is inside actual, like, mineshafts.

Blizzard scores for fresh ambiance, I really liked it.

Second surprise, the concept here was immediately apparent to even the most ignorant of players, namely me.

Mine carts appear in the center, with a big circle around them. They start heading for ore collection points at the end of various tunnels.

The carts move slower than a normal walk.

Hey, maybe we need to… get in the circle of a cart, capture and hold the cart for our faction until it dumps it’s ore. Maybe?

Wow, that IS the goal!

Easily understood objectives for the win.

So, what I’m seeing here is, if I grab a cart, and shunt it to the far tunnel, and stay with it the whole way… in order to take it away from me, the other team has to come TO ME? And to make a difference they have to enter the circle?

Oh, this is going to be sweet.

I am a Hunter. I have ranged attacks, traps, angry dinosaurs, Stampede, oh yeah, go ahead, I dare you to come at me, bro.

You’ll get my ore when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Shit, that was fun. No, really, that was fun. I had the miraculous feeling that as a Hunter, I was fighting in a BG with goals that played directly to my strengths.

You want this ore? You come and take it. No climbing above me and jumping down, no line of sighting over edges to make my stupid Pet AI come running the long way around, just a tunnel, an ore cart, and a channeled avenue of approach.

People must HATE that BG.

I say that, because I was all by myself on one ore cart, and a Horde came to take it away, and I killed him long before he got to my circle of ore cart supremacy.

Then he rezzed, and brought a buddy. Um, no.

Then he brought two buddies. Yes, it takes the cart that long. Um, Stampede, traps, silence, pet. So, no.

My cart, bitches.

My cart finally dumped its ore into the resource bin, and I went and got another cart.

This time, I had a few more people come to give me a hand… and the same three came to contest my ownership of said cart.

I said MY cart, bitches. Go away. Have fun, wave hello to the spirit healer for me!

I was having so much fun the other players of my faction left me to it, and went off looking for some fun.

The Horde came down my tunnel, and they were looking for some ore to steal, they were in a bind and way behind and needing this Hunter to flee.

Um, what part of MY ORE CART BITCHES didn’t you understand? NO. /newspapersmack

I have finally found a BG I enjoyed. I understood the objective, understood what I had to do to complete the objective, and I had a class that had the tools to succeed.

Or, as Baddmojo said, “Must be nice to have a viable class in PvP.”

Shit, it is, isn’t it? Go figure!

For just a few short minutes… I had fun in a BG.

I feel so cheap.

That must be how Gnomeaggeddon feels ALL THE TIME.

I’m going to have to do that again some time.

I cannot believe I just said that.

Well played, Blizzard. Well played.

My Hunter is now my main, and as I’ve played him consistently since shortly after Pandaria launched, I’ve found myself at the great position where I’ve got everything I could want from LFR and from Valor vendors… so I don’t have to do a damn thing if I don’t want to and still be good to go in raids.

I even finally maxed my 6000 Valor for Wrathion the idjit punk kid last week, and I’m in no rush to do the PvP battlegrounds. Sooner or later, sometime this week, I’ll do it. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m sure eventually I’ll get the wins I need. Even a blind bear gets the honey sooner or later.

As you may or may not know, I spent many weeks frustrated at the lack of a weapon drop.

I’m not going to belabor the point. It sucked. I had a Legendary gem and desired a weapon with a Sha-touched gem slot, and didn’t get diddly. Not for lack of trying, but random is random, you rolls the dice and you takes your chances.

Which would be fine, except other players on other classes had no problems at all. “Oh yeah, I’m duel wielding ‘em. No worries.”

Many, MANY Hunters feel that pain. Some of them have been trying even longer than I did, and all I can say is, I know, I understand, and I hope and pray you get your Taoren too. I know the Godmother is about ready to take an axe to her monitor, and I don’t blame her one bit.

So, on behalf of Hunters everywhere, I’m going to send out this little note to Blizzard.

Blizzard, I like your new LFR loot system.

I know many people whine about large sacks of gold, but I’m not here to whine about your large sack.

I like the lack of loot drama, and am glad to wave farewell to the bitching about who deserved the drop more that used to break out in Dragon Soul.

Also, thank you for the bonus rolls. It’s a nice extra reward for doing daily quests. I appreciate it.

The problem I have is NOT with the loot system.

My problem is with the loot distribution.

Your loot system offers me loot based on the class and spec I am on. When a boss dies, the only loot I might win is what the boss has that I could actually use.

Great idea. Love it.

The problem comes in when the boss has multiple things that could be used by my class and spec.

In the future, please do not place THREE items that a single class and spec could use on ONE BOSS.

Placing three items on a boss that a single class and spec can use means that even if you only need ONE of those items as an upgrade, using your bonus roll could get you any one of those three, or nothing at all.

This is annoying enough in normal circumstances, but bearable, even kind of fun when there are other options.

Like with trinkets, even if you’d really like that one drop, there are alternatives from Valor gear vendors and from BoE Inscription items. You have multiple options, and sure one item might theorycraft out to being the best, or be a Tier piece, but even so you’ve still got choices.

When you place a classes only possible Sha-touched weapon on a boss that has two other usable drops for you, it’s horrible.

If you’ve already got a low chance at winning ANYTHING, and then finally you get lucky and do get something, now you have to hope like hell it’s the one thing out of three you actually need.

I’ve been there, frustrated as heck.

In my case, after enough weeks of failure I took the step of running Terrace of Endless Spring THREE TIMES each week, saving my bonus roll for each of the three Lei Shi kills to maximize my chance of winning the weapon.

All to get four chances at one piece of loot from a boss every week. And it still took more than three weeks after implementing that plan to see the gun drop. Not from a lack of drops, I won gear. Just, not the one piece I wanted from the three possibilities.

For Hunters, Lei Shi has the Ranger’s Chain of Unending Summer (Mail Agi belt), Terror in the Mists (Agi/Crit trinket) and Taoren the Soul Burner, our Sha-touched weapon.

Three different drops useable by Hunters, and very nice items, too.

Just… don’t do that again. Please, don’t do that again.

One usable drop yes, two maybe, three OH HELL NO.

I know distributing all this stuff for so many slots is a pain in the ass. I understand.

But please, please don’t do that to us again.