Gearscore is not something that Memento generally puts any stock in.
Yes, gear is important but it's only a indicator as to what a character can do. A full T10 warlock can mop the dps floor with a lot of people. But if the player has no idea what they're doing, a T9 caster of any sort may do as well or better.
But, in perfect honesty, Memento doesn't really care about gear or skill so long as the boss gets dead. Noobraid has always been about having fun and seeing new shinies.
Before today I couldn't have told you what my gs is. I finally trooped over to wtfismygearscore and found out. It's 5190 at this precise moment in time. And I have to confess, I don't even know if that's considered "good" or not.
Slightly more concerning might be my lack of knowledge about my own DPS. Last week a couple guildies and I tried to hop a TOTGC/TOC-25. I told the guy I had three dps interested in going, if he had the spots open. He said 'sure, what's your GS and DPS?'. And, having been nicely sheltered by Memento, I went 'uh........... I have no idea what my GS is. My guild doesn't use it.' And the guy, despite being unable to type a full word correctly, said 'lol, whatev, what's your DPS numbers?'
And in my head I'm still going 'uh..............'. Because I don't honestly know. I'm used to happily traipsing through ICC and paying just enough attention to the meters to make sure I'm not at the bottom of the caster dps list. Or, at the very least, I'm not at the bottom by a very large margin.
Sometimes I look at the recount meter and just go 'oh melee, why must you crush my hopes and dreams?' Because they can lol-9k dps on Marrowgar while the casters sulk around 5k.
So on last night's ICC run I tried to pay a little bit more attention to actual numbers on the meters. On a good AoE pull, I can hit 16k. This totally blew my mind, it was awesome. Seed of Corruption ftw. On a single target pull, I fall somewhere between 4.1k and 5.1k. Although, I should try to find out what my single target is when I'm actually hitting my rotation right.
I frequently forget to hit Life Tap at the beginning of fights. And I frequently refresh Curse of Agony when I shouldn't. It's completely accidental, but that doesn't stop it from happening.
ICC last night had a few more pugs than usual. Es has dropped the late night runs completely; work being too much suck to stay up until 1 am. Takk has some sad computer issues and Dumm had something else to deal with.
Still. We pugged an excellent group that didn't wipe on stuff and didn't need the Saurfang fight explained and who are mostly willing to come back on Thursday and tackle Rotface. Batra got several decent upgrades out of the drops. Casters were left high and dry by the 3rd or 4th Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff in as many weeks. Ann already has it, I'm perfectly happy with my Frost Needle/Chalice combo, and Sen is rocking Quel'Delar.
We had an epic server crash which attacked during the Lady Deathwhisper fight. Put us out for about 20 minutes and accounted for our only death last night.
I love groups that work well together. We had to switch up some stuff after the server crash, but everything continued to go smoothly.
We're working our way up to adding an afternoon raid slot for the peeps that get up early for work. In all honestly, I think we're still too small to pull this off. But I hope to be proven wrong.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Tempest Keep: Flexibility
I convinced some of the guildies to do some of the level 70 dungeons with Aioka. Takk, Penguin, Sen, and Ann carted my little priesty through The Botanica, The Mechanar, and The Arcatraz. And I think we had a lot of fun doing it.
But then... I especially enjoy it because I can still get gear there that is beneficial for Aioka. Everyone else is there for achievements and because they love me. (I am the lootmaster, after all.)
I'd still like to finish up Steamvault and The Black Morass, but there's plenty of time yet. I'd also like to see Karazhan and the Black Temple, but these are places that even Mara hasn't defeated. Of course, we've only attempted Black Temple and that only with pug groups. I'm sure it would be much easier if we were to do a guild run of them.
The guildies have also been awesome about running the Wrath dungeons with Aioka. It's pretty hilarious to watch Takk roflstomp his way through Utgarde Keep. And it's cool that no ones been a jerk about it yet.
A lot of groups ask: "Are you here on purpose?"
They just have to point to me and everyone understands.
One of these days I will be brave enough to venture into a Wrath dungeon without a guildie. I think.
I switched Aioka's mining profession for jewelcrafting. This was always going to be the plan, but I had originally planned on farming a lot more ore of all kinds. But I got bored and impatient and I didn't want to wait to make the switch anymore. I have been stocking up on ore, bars, and gems for months.
Leveling Aioka's jewelcrafting to Northrend standards took a couple hours and several hundred gold. I think it will be worth it though. If Militia's paladin is going to be missing, that leaves Ann as the only jewelcrafter until Aioka's skill actually becomes useful.
In response to all the confusion with Militia's alts moving around willy-nilly, we've asked everyone in Memento to declare who they want to be their main raiding character and primary role. Apparently there was even some confusion with Aioka. I'm not planning on switching my main. Even though playing a priest is tons of fun, I revel in being an EVIL warlock.
I'm sure Aioka will see some raid action though. And all that's really important is being useful to the guild and making fun and awesome raids happen. Whether I can make that happen by draining the souls of my enemies or by dps'ing health bars in reverse, I'm totally up for it.
But then... I especially enjoy it because I can still get gear there that is beneficial for Aioka. Everyone else is there for achievements and because they love me. (I am the lootmaster, after all.)
I'd still like to finish up Steamvault and The Black Morass, but there's plenty of time yet. I'd also like to see Karazhan and the Black Temple, but these are places that even Mara hasn't defeated. Of course, we've only attempted Black Temple and that only with pug groups. I'm sure it would be much easier if we were to do a guild run of them.
The guildies have also been awesome about running the Wrath dungeons with Aioka. It's pretty hilarious to watch Takk roflstomp his way through Utgarde Keep. And it's cool that no ones been a jerk about it yet.
A lot of groups ask: "Are you here on purpose?"
They just have to point to me and everyone understands.
One of these days I will be brave enough to venture into a Wrath dungeon without a guildie. I think.
I switched Aioka's mining profession for jewelcrafting. This was always going to be the plan, but I had originally planned on farming a lot more ore of all kinds. But I got bored and impatient and I didn't want to wait to make the switch anymore. I have been stocking up on ore, bars, and gems for months.
Leveling Aioka's jewelcrafting to Northrend standards took a couple hours and several hundred gold. I think it will be worth it though. If Militia's paladin is going to be missing, that leaves Ann as the only jewelcrafter until Aioka's skill actually becomes useful.
In response to all the confusion with Militia's alts moving around willy-nilly, we've asked everyone in Memento to declare who they want to be their main raiding character and primary role. Apparently there was even some confusion with Aioka. I'm not planning on switching my main. Even though playing a priest is tons of fun, I revel in being an EVIL warlock.
I'm sure Aioka will see some raid action though. And all that's really important is being useful to the guild and making fun and awesome raids happen. Whether I can make that happen by draining the souls of my enemies or by dps'ing health bars in reverse, I'm totally up for it.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Farming ICC
This is an interesting position to be in. I don't think I ever thought I would be in a position to farm raid bosses (any of them), let alone those in the most recent raid. But that's essentially what Memento is doing right now. We skip off to ICC every Tuesday night, wipe out the Lower Spire, and then (usually) stop.
This has been good for loot. Not so good for progression.
Last night's ICC run went pretty well, all things considered. Batra opted not to come and Es bowed out early again... because they have real jobs and they... like... get tired and stuff.
But that's ok, because we got to play with a hunter friend that we also pugged last week and a shaman that was looking for a casual raiding guild. I think you can guess what happened. Memento gained a new member! Huzzah!
Red is a healy type Shaman and I would have had concerns about how this would affect our healing team - Time (druid) and Voltz (shaman) - except that Militia/Voltz decided to pull all of his characters out of the guild. Except a deathknight. And this done with no warning or discussion.
Ann and I are a little... perturbed... to say the least.
After a bit more investigation, however, I noticed that... while Militia changed guilds on all of his characters they're now in a guild with... themselves. I imagine guild chat is not particularly interesting. Regardless, the fact that he didn't tell us beforehand or come to raid last night tells that some role and/or leader rearranging may be in order.
There's been some discussion about changing some raid times or adding a raid night and some stuff. Ann is heading that project up at the moment, which is just fine with me.
I have been spending a great deal of free time with my priest. Aioka has moved on to the Wrath dungeons - she has emblems of Triumph! I'm so proud.
I still want to go back and do the level 70 BC dungeons. I've never done them and they look so interesting. I tried to queue for one with Aioka and ended up waiting for a tank for an hour and a half. It was quite ridiculous. I'll try and get the guildies to go.
So far all I have gotten is Utgarde Keep, even though it, Nexus, and Azjol-Nerub are all open to Aioka. This "random" thing really gets me. At least they're not pretending to give me satchels of "helpful" goods anymore.
This has been good for loot. Not so good for progression.
Last night's ICC run went pretty well, all things considered. Batra opted not to come and Es bowed out early again... because they have real jobs and they... like... get tired and stuff.
But that's ok, because we got to play with a hunter friend that we also pugged last week and a shaman that was looking for a casual raiding guild. I think you can guess what happened. Memento gained a new member! Huzzah!
Red is a healy type Shaman and I would have had concerns about how this would affect our healing team - Time (druid) and Voltz (shaman) - except that Militia/Voltz decided to pull all of his characters out of the guild. Except a deathknight. And this done with no warning or discussion.
Ann and I are a little... perturbed... to say the least.
After a bit more investigation, however, I noticed that... while Militia changed guilds on all of his characters they're now in a guild with... themselves. I imagine guild chat is not particularly interesting. Regardless, the fact that he didn't tell us beforehand or come to raid last night tells that some role and/or leader rearranging may be in order.
There's been some discussion about changing some raid times or adding a raid night and some stuff. Ann is heading that project up at the moment, which is just fine with me.
I have been spending a great deal of free time with my priest. Aioka has moved on to the Wrath dungeons - she has emblems of Triumph! I'm so proud.
I still want to go back and do the level 70 BC dungeons. I've never done them and they look so interesting. I tried to queue for one with Aioka and ended up waiting for a tank for an hour and a half. It was quite ridiculous. I'll try and get the guildies to go.
So far all I have gotten is Utgarde Keep, even though it, Nexus, and Azjol-Nerub are all open to Aioka. This "random" thing really gets me. At least they're not pretending to give me satchels of "helpful" goods anymore.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Raiding in Slow Motion
As I mentioned, a good portion of Memento is part of the college set and we're all finished with classes for the moment. So, we're trying to build on the rhythm we've established over the past several weeks with one Progression Night and one Yay-Guild Night. Tuesday nights will be our ICC 10-man runs and Thursdays will be Vault and Weekly and more ICC if we feel so inclined.
This is to (hopefully) benefit the members of Memento who can't guarantee that they will be available two nights a week. Tuesday night is the one to show up for if you want to see new content (as new a content as Memento can see - which I suppose may not be all that new anymore) and Thursday night is the one to show up for if you want frosties and a chance at T10 drops. But if you want warlock cookies, summons, and soulstones you have to show up for both.
Kidding, of course.
Last night's run was, as stated, an ICC 10-man run. It had it's ups and downs, of course, though it had NEW ups and downs that we hadn't experienced before.
UPS
* We managed an ALL GUILD raid. That's right. All 10 raid-ready players were available and eager to beat up on some scourge.
* We ventured beyond the first four bosses! And I say "ventured" because that sums it up nicely.
* Fat caster loot dropped in the form of Midnight Sun for me and the Mag'hari Chieftan's Staff for Ann. And yes, yes, I know the dagger is a healer weapon. The lack of hit could be a problem for me. But it has 107 more spell power on it. I can't ignore that.
* We can pug just about any class and spec we want. Enough members of the guild have high level alts that they can switch to cover any gap left by a (lack of) pug.
* We did not wipe on Saurfang. We have officially killed each of the four bosses in one try, if not necessarily all on the same night.
DOWNS
* Es had to bail right before Lady Deathwhisper, leaving us one short. We had to pug the last spot. Sad.
* Said puggee/situation led to us WIPING on Lady Deathwhisper. Even more sad. Then, tank assignments went out again because it might have been simply a miscommunication error. But, puggee didn't respond... ever. So we kicked him. Then he responded. In true pug/drama-queen fashion.
* Raid was slow as hell. Waiting for a decent pug after Es left took forever. We start at 10 pm (well, we try to start at 10, but this rarely works out) and it was easily 11:30 before Deathwhisper went down.
* We wiped spectacularly on Festergut.
Now, this last bullet maybe shouldn't necessarily be considered a down. Because, getting to see Festergut is quite an achievement for noobraid, I think. Getting Festergut down below half his HP is an even bigger achievement. We also only made two attempts because it was then 1:00 am and some of us (by which I mean me) have to work early in the morning.
Batra was back on last night with his shiny new DPS spec. He's been missing out on gear for awhile, but hopefully he will be working on that. I don't think he did terribly, overall. His DPS sat around 3k and he didn't do anything monumentally stupid until Festergut. And since none of us know that fight, that's to be expected. He did, however, annoy the crap out of me with those Mohawk things.
Speaking of monumentally stupid and Festergut, I'm pretty sure I wiped our first attempt. I took out all three of us that were standing at range with the Vomit debuff nonsense. This fight is gross.
This is to (hopefully) benefit the members of Memento who can't guarantee that they will be available two nights a week. Tuesday night is the one to show up for if you want to see new content (as new a content as Memento can see - which I suppose may not be all that new anymore) and Thursday night is the one to show up for if you want frosties and a chance at T10 drops. But if you want warlock cookies, summons, and soulstones you have to show up for both.
Kidding, of course.
Last night's run was, as stated, an ICC 10-man run. It had it's ups and downs, of course, though it had NEW ups and downs that we hadn't experienced before.
UPS
* We managed an ALL GUILD raid. That's right. All 10 raid-ready players were available and eager to beat up on some scourge.
* We ventured beyond the first four bosses! And I say "ventured" because that sums it up nicely.
* Fat caster loot dropped in the form of Midnight Sun for me and the Mag'hari Chieftan's Staff for Ann. And yes, yes, I know the dagger is a healer weapon. The lack of hit could be a problem for me. But it has 107 more spell power on it. I can't ignore that.
* We can pug just about any class and spec we want. Enough members of the guild have high level alts that they can switch to cover any gap left by a (lack of) pug.
* We did not wipe on Saurfang. We have officially killed each of the four bosses in one try, if not necessarily all on the same night.
DOWNS
* Es had to bail right before Lady Deathwhisper, leaving us one short. We had to pug the last spot. Sad.
* Said puggee/situation led to us WIPING on Lady Deathwhisper. Even more sad. Then, tank assignments went out again because it might have been simply a miscommunication error. But, puggee didn't respond... ever. So we kicked him. Then he responded. In true pug/drama-queen fashion.
* Raid was slow as hell. Waiting for a decent pug after Es left took forever. We start at 10 pm (well, we try to start at 10, but this rarely works out) and it was easily 11:30 before Deathwhisper went down.
* We wiped spectacularly on Festergut.
Now, this last bullet maybe shouldn't necessarily be considered a down. Because, getting to see Festergut is quite an achievement for noobraid, I think. Getting Festergut down below half his HP is an even bigger achievement. We also only made two attempts because it was then 1:00 am and some of us (by which I mean me) have to work early in the morning.
Batra was back on last night with his shiny new DPS spec. He's been missing out on gear for awhile, but hopefully he will be working on that. I don't think he did terribly, overall. His DPS sat around 3k and he didn't do anything monumentally stupid until Festergut. And since none of us know that fight, that's to be expected. He did, however, annoy the crap out of me with those Mohawk things.
Speaking of monumentally stupid and Festergut, I'm pretty sure I wiped our first attempt. I took out all three of us that were standing at range with the Vomit debuff nonsense. This fight is gross.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)