Lethal Shots

Maintainence today, possibly even a patch even (conflicting sources, unable to verify either). Either way, another week has gone by. My thoughts on it:

• Not much raiding over the last week. Just the weekly three times and one venture into ICC as a healer, which did not end well. Two of the three healers on the run were alts (mine and another Hunter) and neither of us were really prepared for how healing intensive the Marrowgar encounter is.
• Randoms every day. Honestly I’m getting a little tired of them. It has gotten a little better since I cut back to one random a day per 80 (unless a guildie needs help of course).
• I jumped back into leveling my Paladin over the weekend. Decided to re-spec him to Prot, picked up a shield and one-hander off the AH, and jumped into the queue for low level randoms. So far it’s going pretty well. The XP is nice and I’ve already picked up several blues that are more suited to tanking.
• While my gear says I can heal in ICC, the above mentioned experience tells me otherwise. I need to work on my technique and maybe rework some gems and enchants. Some research will help with itemization problems, but the technique is going to be more difficult. Outside of raids, the best practice is going to be Heroic Halls of Reflection.
• I’ve been tanking heroics for about a month now and feel I have developed a pretty solid grasp on it. Now I want to move on to raids. I know it will be much more difficult, but I need to do it for the challenge.
• Back in real life, the wife and I took the kids out on a local Geocaching adventure yesterday. While the baby didn’t get much out of it (he slept the whole time), my four year old had the time of his life. It is definitely something we are going to have to do more often.
• Been playing with specs on my Hunter lately. Been specced Survival so long I can play it in my sleep. Now I’m trying to wrap my head around Marks.

That’s all I got, now give me yours.

A post by Larisa over at the Pink Pigtail Inn brought to my attention a debate floating around about whether or not tanks and healers should be given extra rewards as an incentive to try and solve the shortage of each. The whole discussion was spawned by a guest post by Gordon (of We Fly Spitfires) at World of Matticus and has been followed with articles from several blogs (check Larisa’s article, she linked them well so no need for me to do it again).

And you know what I think on the whole idea? Bullshit. Allow me to explain my reasoning though. Below is a direct quote of Gordon’s article with my thoughts, comments, and rebuttals between the paragraphs.

Tanks and healers are the most important classes for any group. Tanks set the pace of the group, the flow of experience and man the vanguard as they lead the team into battle. Healers mend the broken bones of their companions and keep the tanks a live – without the healers there could be no tanks and there could be no group. These are the two most important classes that exist in any MMORPG. But the DPS? They’re just meat in the room.

What Gordon forgets to take into account is that a group also requires DPS to progress. Simply because DPS are more plentiful does not make the job any less crucial and far more than just “meat in the room”. ¹

Look at it in terms of supply and demand and stress and responsibility. Tanks and healers are in consistent short supply whereas DPS are a dime a dozen. And there’s a reason for that. Tanking isn’t easy and it comes with a lot of pressure and responsibility. Do it right and the group will sing your praises for days to come yet do it badly and you’re on the receiving end of every criticism and jibe. Healing is much the same and also comes with it’s own set of stresses and strains. If the tank dies who gets the blame? Not the DPS classes that didn’t burn the mob down fast enough but the healer who didn’t heal well enough. They carry the heart and soul of the party on their shoulders and all of the difficulties that come with that.

It’s a known fact that tanks and healers are in high demand. And yes, DPS are plentiful. But you can’t gloss over the fact that many DPS can barely faceroll out 1000 on the meter. Good DPS are just as rare as tanks and healers. Also, as DPS I’ve carried my fair share of sub-par tanks and healers though runs. It is amazing how shitty of a tank and/or healer you can run with if you can kill things fast enough. And while I can’t speak for Gordon, I know I have no problem calling out a DPS if they are the source of the problem.

And raiding? That’s even more stressful. Not only do we even already acknowledge the importance of tanks and healers in this situation. We have Main Tanks and even Main Healers but who’s ever heard of a Main DPS before? There’s a huge amount of pressure to do these jobs right. Sub-par DPS can join a raid (even if it’s not desirable) but sub-par tanks cannot tank one and poor healers cannot heal one.

I’m sorry, but that whole paragraph is riddled with inaccuracies and assumptions. Progression raiding is stressful on the whole group, not just the tanks and healers. Everyone has a job, and if one person fails the whole group goes down. Rogue missed an interrupt? Wipe. Not enough DPS to beat the enrage timer? Wipe. A mob not CCed properly? Wipe. See where I’m going with this? And as to the titles of “Main Tank” and “Main Healer”, Gordon is giving way too much prestige to a simple way of saying who tanks the boss, who tanks the adds, and who heals who. And I have heard of a “Main DPS”, but it is more commonly referred to as a Main Assist and is actually a quite important role when it is needed.

All of this stands to reason that tanks and healers should get bigger rewards than anyone else. I mean, it’s in our culture to reward those that do the most and work the hardest, right? Call it a Tank or Healer Bonus, and a well deserved one at that. They are more important and necessary than anyone else, rarer to find, and they’re jobs are a lot tougher and far more stressful. They’re like the mommas and papas of any group, bringing the necessary order and structure. Without a tank there is no group, without a healer there is no group. DPS can just be picked up randomly as required.

I’ve got nothing against DPS. It’s fun and there’s nothing wrong with that but they simply don’t deserve the equality of rewards. Tanks and healer should get a little something extra on the side (maybe a nice ‘Thank You Drop’ from the boss mobs they fell) because they have the hardest and most demanding jobs and are traditionally the slowest to level up (unless you turn them into DPS). They require the most effort and who can argue that as a result they should get the biggest rewards?

Again, full of inaccuracies and assumptions. Just because DPS are more plentiful does not mean they deserve less of a reward than tanks and healers. They are a key part of the group dynamic, the third node of the Holy Trinity if you will. Tanks and Healers with no DPS get nowhere. Gordon claims that healing and tanking are more difficult and stressful. Well, I’ll let you in a little secret: they’re not. I have three end game characters, a Hunter, Resto Shaman, and Death Knight tank. I have filled all three roles in both heroics and raids, and they all carry the same level of difficulty. Anyone can faceroll a DPS class, but you have to be good to earn your raid spot over the rest, paying attention to aggro management, crowd control, etc. Tanking and healing might have a steeper learning curve, but neither are too difficult once you have a little practice and a solid group of players.

Any class that can tank or heal can also DPS. It is a choice made by the player. No one is twisting their arm or holding them at gun point to play that role, they have freely chosen it for their own reasons. There is absolutely no reason to reward that choice other than to try and convince more players to tank or heal. But, while extra rewards may bribe players into filling those roles, it would only create more sub-par tanks and healers hoping to be carried by good DPS.

Another week, another raid reset. What’s on my mind?

• Icecrown Citadel raid over the weekend. I am now 4/? in ICC-10 on my Hunter.
• Got lucky in ICC and scored two upgrades: the Njordnar Bone Bow from Lady Deathwhisper and the Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts from Deathbringer Saurfang. And if everything goes well tonight and I can get a run for the weekly raid I will have just enough Frost Emblems to pick up two pieces of Tier 10 (the gloves and shoulders).
• Also on the gear front, my Death Knight now has four pieces of Tier 9 which rounds out his tanking set quite well (his DPS set is a whole other story) and I’ve managed everything I can get outside of raids for my Shaman’s Resto set and have started to pick up emblem gear for his Enhance set.
• I’ve all but dropped out of the glyph business. There has been so much competition and undercutting on my server right now that it isn’t even worth my time to post glyphs. I still have my inventory of glyphs sitting on bank alts, so there is a chance I may get back in that particular game at a later date once the market thins out some. Until then I’ll just keep raking in the gold other ways.
• Now that my toon’s main sets are pretty squared away I’ve began trying to put together their off-sets. The Shaman’s Enhance set mostly just needs gems and enchants, but I still need to farm some stuff for the Death Knight’s DPS set.
• The guild has started to run regular ToC-25 runs on Saturdays. While fun, it has also helped remind me why I like 10-man raids better. If only 25-man loot wasn’t so tempting…

Well, that’s all I got on my mind. What’s on yours?

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.

Yes, apparently 3.2 is going live today. And about damn time at that. Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Mount changes FTW! I have several low level alts that will benefit from this greatly, and I can’t wait to get my level 72 Death Knight a flying mount to speed up his grind through Northrend.
• I can finally prospect all that Titanium Ore I have been collecting over the last month or so. Now I just hope that I can get a decent return on investment.
• I broke down and started doing some of the Argent Tournament dailies. I don’t fly all over Northrend, I have just been doing the one’s in Icecrown. I don’t do them every day, but I figure spending some time there will help me out in the new raid.
• Business has been booming lately. I have slowly been expanding into new markets and profits have went up accordingly.
• To be honest, my alts are screwed. Between farming up the Jeeves schematic and farming 5-mans for Conquest badges (so I can get geared up for the new raid ASAP) I will be spending a lot of time on my Hunter. Well, I’ll probably spend a fair amount of time farming badges on my Shaman also since I really want to get him geared up also. But the rest are going to be parked for a while.

Well, that’s all from me for now. Time to get through the daily grind at work.