Lethal Shots

Honestly, I never thought I would find PUGs enjoyable, but lately that seems to be all I am doing. And I’m enjoying it. Sure there have been a few asshats I’ve had to deal with, but only one person that actually warranted a Vote Kick.¹ For the most part though I’ve had really great experiences.

Prior to 3.3 I tried my best to not PuG. Anytime I had to it was an unpleasant experience at best. Healers the spent more time typing than healing, DPS that performed worse than the tank, tanks that didn’t know how to hold AoE aggro, etc. But now with the cross server dungeon finder it’s like these kind of players don’t exist. Party chat is generally quiet, with only a few things said regarding boss strategy or AFK announcements. I’ve had runs where the only thing ever entered in party chat was a quick hello before the first pull and a quick thanks before people dropped group. People show up, do their job, and leave. And in the rare event of some one not knowing their job or being under-geared they are honest about it, and perfectly willing to follow directions given to them.

So where are all the morons and asshats that we’re used to dealing with? Well, I have a theory on that. Even with the new dungeon finder there is still a considerable number of people spamming trade for heroic runs. What I’m thinking is that this is where all the asshats have gone too. The new Vote Kick feature has had the added effect of discouraging them from letting the dungeon finder form groups for them. My guess is that due to their nature they have gotten kicked from most random groups they have joined. This has forced them to either change their ways or stop using the dungeon finder. I really don’t care which they choose because in the end the rest of us end up with a better quality pool of players to group with.

Anyway, enough of the bad and back to the good.

The best PuG I’ve had was actually just a few nights ago. Me and three guildies PuGed a healer for Heroic Forge of Souls. This guy was great. Sure he was a little under geared, but he admitted it and was trying his best. And that’s what made him great: his effort. Halfway through the run he even joined us in our vent channel to make things a little easier. Everything went fine until the last boss, where we wiped several times (maybe because of my non-uber geared tank, maybe because of heals, who knows), but we stuck with it and finished. This guys attitude is what made it a great PuG. He was polite and willing to stick with instead of dropping group after the first wipe.

So how about you? Have any horror stories or dream runs with the new dungeon finder? If so, leave them in the comments.

So far I’m thoroughly impressed with 3.3. I’ve yet to set foot into Icecrown yet (scheduled for Friday night with the guild), but so far I really like what I see. Like every other patch day, it was pretty rocky, slow loading while trying to zone in, lag, intermittent DCs, and pretty much everything else we’ve learned to expect. My initial thoughts:

• Forge of Souls – Short, fun instance. Two quick emblems.
• Pit of Saron – Fucking awesome. What’s better than a shit talking gnome riding a zombie? A gauntlet in an ice tunnel that is literally falling down around you. And the Pit features both.
• Hall of Reflection – Lore wise this one rocks, though it will become rather boring once you have farmed it a while.
• New Dungeon Finder system – Overall it seems to work pretty good. I like being able to teleport to and from instances (huge timesaver). It seemed a little buggy last night, but that may have been due to general server instability.
• Emblem of Frost gear – Have you seen the stats on this stuff? It’s completely insane. I’m decked out in the best ToC-10 had to offer with a smattering of stuff from ToC-25. This stuff blows my current gear out of the water.
• Misdirect – Amazing. This is a huge change. How huge you ask? In a heroic 5-man I was dumping almost 50k threat on my tank with one Misdirect. Now imagine multiple Hunters in a raid all doing it at the same time. Can you say goodbye to aggro problems forever?

That is all I was able to test out last night. Tonight I plan to hit up the Frozen Halls instances some more along with a few random PuGs for fun. So what do you think of 3.3 so far?

Wow, 3.3 drops on the same day I return to blogging. Coincidence? Why yes, yes it is. Here’s my thoughts on the last week of 3.2:

• 3.3 couldn’t come at a better time for me. Just this past weekend I finally managed to complete 25-man Trial of the Crusader. It may have been a PuG, but the group was mostly made up of one guild and there were five from my guild (including me). Granted I didn’t get anywhere in the heroic versions of ToC, but I’m not a hardcore raider either.
• Also received a compliment last night (at least I’m taking it as one). Said guild who ran the ToC PuG whispered me saying they were “impressed with my performance ToC-25” and offered me a slot on their raid roster for Icecrown. I thanked them, but declined the offer. I’ve made too many friends in Soulbound and like running with them too much.
• My little Death Knight tank is coming along real well. According to WoW-Heroes he could step into 10-Ulduar and hold his own. I plan to hit the random PuG feature in 3.3 pretty heavy with him to get him geared up to raid ToC and Icecrown with.
• Even after clearing ToC-10 week after week and trying my hardest to do ToC-25 PuGs I have yet to get a trinket to drop for my Hunter. He is still using a Mirror of Truth and Greatness deck. (Yes I could buy the Trinket from the Triumph vendor, but quite frankly, it’s a piece of crap). Hopefully Icecrown will hold better luck for me.
• My little Rogue alt has stalled out at 18. That grind through the 20s just plain sucks, so I am going to do my best to do it all with rested XP. My paladin on the other hand is coming along rather nicely. He’s made it to 34 so far and after a sketchy start has turned out to be quite fun to play.

Well, that’s all I’m thinking right now. What’s on your mind?

I know it’s been about two months since I last posted anything here, but I’m still around. Some of you might have thought I threw in the towel and left this to become yet another defunct WoW blog. Well believe me when I say that is not nor has never been my intention. Between being slammed at work, my wife having a baby (7 weeks old at the time of this writing), and actually spending time playing WoW, I just haven’t taken the time to write. I just haven’t had anything to say really. Call it a huge case of writer’s block, but I think I have found a way around it.

Previously I tried to keep the blog focused on the Hunter class, which mimics how I used to play in game. But over the last few months I have went from raiding on a Hunter with a few casual alts I fool around with to raiding on a Hunter, Shaman, and shortly a Death Knight. So with that in mind, I have decided to take the blog in the same direction. After all, I started this blog to write about what I do and the things I learn in game, so When my focus in game changes, it only makes sense that the focus of the blog should change to reflect it.

When I play a class, I want to understand the class and be proficient at it. I want to be able to play that character in a group without being a liability. (That may be the anal retentive perfectionist in me coming out.) A side effect of this is that I spend a considerable amount of time researching all of the classes I play.  Needless to say that because of this I’ve developed many opinions and insights about more than just Hunters, and I plan to start sharing these here. You can expect to see posts covering Hunters (naturally), Shamans (both resto and enhance), Death Knights (mostly from a tanking perspective), along with anything I feel like sharing about any other alts I am leveling.

To go along with my new approach to the blog I am completely updating the look and layout. I’ve switched to a new theme named Pixel (with some modifications by me). So far I really like it, but if you have a sec let me know what you think in the comments. Another thing that I plan to go back and redo is my categories and tags. I’ve learned a lot since I started this, so now is about time to go back and apply that knowledge to my previous work. Also on the list to redo is my blog roll. It is sorely outdated, housing several dead blogs, some I don’t read anymore, and missing a ton that need to be there.

That’s really all I have to say for now. I’m looking forward to writing again. It’s something that I’ve missed doing the past few months, and I’m ready to jump back into it. Don’t expect something daily, but there should be at least a few posts a week.

As always, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.