Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

Gevlon, the Greedy Goblin, certainly knows how to push a point, often directly at odds with many an old, wizened head¹. But he’s essentially right, in a very limited way.

I’m not going to say that healing meters are “teh bomb”.  Not at all. But they are as useful as DPS meters. DPS meters are not reliable. DPS meters are lying clumps of rotten code that can’t report the same DPS between two runs, much less two players. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen our e-peen obsessed enhancement shammi crow about topping our GM’s mage, only to have three people post that he didn’t, and show different values between them, to boot².

So I don’t ‘get’ the noise about healing meters. Any experienced DPSer – or raider, for that matter – knows the value of DPS or healing meters, and that’s that. Any protestations to the contrary are, in my mind, simply being disingenuous. Especially long time bloggers, who should know better, and who weaken their arguments by pretending otherwise.

All this is simply to put it in perspective. Gevlon is no more out of line saying that one should maximize HPS than BRK is in saying that you should maximize DPS. HPS and DPS are not the whole story, and any experienced player knows this.

As an example, how does one account for a hunter’s CC duties in the Moroes fight pre-nerf? Well, if Moroes didn’t kill the healers, somebody was doing his or her job, that’s how.

How do you really measure that? You don’t. Your raid leader has to have his or her eyes open, and know what is going on. A raid leader that doesn’t know that a particular hunter is dropping the ball on CC, or that a particular healer is right on top of things despite the numbers – is a terrible raid leader. That’s all there is to it.

So the whole argument is a paper tiger – a thing that looks like a big deal, but has zero substance. At the end of the day, any competent raid leader will be using meter numbers merely as starting points in any meaningful evaluation. Really, sometimes it’s like people are just making noise to make noise.

Well, no such thing as bad traffic, eh?

1. I kid, I kid, I’m sure they both have a couple of decades left in them! [↩]
2. Programs like Recount suffer from the same thing across the board – events beyond a certain distance are not noted, and excessive traffic in the data channel will cause events to be dropped arbitrarilly. Only an idiot trusts these things once learning how they work. [↩]

No, no, not more guild drama.

I’m having problems with healing.

Composition: MT is Prot pally, well geared. DPS is frost mage (our GM), a rogue, and a warrior (originally prot, respecced to fury later).

Instance #1: Heroic Nexus.

My first. Got to 2nd boss – the blood elf mage – and hit a wall. I’d be OK for the first cycles, but then I’d get overrun as our tank and melee DPS started hemorrhaging, then someone would die and we’d all get plastered by AoE courtesy the frost wench.

OK, let’s admit that we’re not ready for that yet, and go on to something easier.

At least I got my very first badge there.

Instance #2: Heroic Gun’Drak, Moorabi.

We’re working on our GM’s achievements, which means getting the Elder in GD’s heroic instance. First, we tried Snake Guy, and after several tries managed to get him on a technicality. During the poison nova I’d be hard pressed to keep all the melee up – Elune help us if any of the ranged got hit as well.

Moorabi, though, has a vicious AoE that hits for increasing amounts of damage, stuns for 3 secs, and otherwise breaks the flow, and it doesn’t seem to have a max range to it. This is playing hob with my timing, and getting the tank back to moderate health after one of these seems to take all my time before the next one is cast, when everyone  – including me – dies.

While this fight is partly a DPS race, the healz have to be on time and good, or it won’t fly at all.

What have we learned?

Speculation from various quarters:

• It’s a gear issue.
• It’s a spec issue.
• Stick to DPS.

Gear and spec are the best candidates for any constructive fixes. That last one I just threw in there because it could be true.

What I have observed is that I am not too great healing on the run, and that I burn through mana like a dwarf through Stout. The constructive approaches here are as follows.

1. Mitigate mana consumption through higher MP5, mana pool, talents, and glyphs. That last one will be specific to certain spells. I cast two spells above others, so they will get the highest scrutiny. The others are potentially gear issues and may or may not be resolved by running non-heroic instances.
2. Additional to the first: construct a gear plan, figure out where stuff needs to come from, execute.
3. Investigate spec options that will improve healing without sacrificing too much survivability. Mostly this means I need to hang on to Reflective Shield, but I also want to hold on to Divine Spirit, though Improved Divine Spirit may go away. I also need to understand why nobody takes Spirit Tap except for me. Is it only useful in grinding?
4. Run instances with friendly faces so as to get more practice. Practice.

Now, #3 may lead me to spec completely to Discipline. I don’t really want to do that because I lose a lot on the Holy side of the house, but it may be worth it. Either that, or find a way to have my Disc cake and eat Holy CoH too.

“Raiding guild”.

What constitutes a raiding guild? Does it welcome new players and help them come up to the level that they can raid? Or does it exclude all but those that are a certain level, and a certain spec, and have certain equipment already?

Over the past year I’ve seen our guild torn asunder by an alleged “raiding guild” and it’s starting to come home how much these people are … parasites … on the rest of the server.

Here’s an example.

Summertime, we had a new feral bear druid join the guild. He was sub-70 at the time. He quested with us, we helped him get his epic flight form, and when he made 70 we helped key him, and then put up with his inability to reliably tank anything in Karazhan because his gear was sub-par. We hung in there with him, and he grew into a major tanking terror. He asked if his wife could join the guild, and we started to gear her up.

Shortly after WotLK came out, when he saw that the mains in the guild were not playing night and day to get to 80 as fast as him, he went off and joined “a raiding guild”, and took his wife with him.

This scenario has played over and over again.  And it’s finally dawned on me that these people contribute nothing to the overall experience. They use other guilds as incubators from which they pull the most talented without any recompense or even thanks to the hapless rubes that just gave them their newest Arcane mage or what have you.

They are parasites.

They could not survive without us. And they leech our health away, every day they exist.

I’m sure there are exceptions. But I think this is the general rule.

So now you know. When you hear that extra contempt in my voice when I say “raiding guild”, know where that contempt comes from.

I think we need to find some way for “raiding guilds” to contribute back to the ecosystem that they are exploiting.  This is not a WoW issue, though it is raised in bold relief in WoW because of the number of players, number of raiding guilds, and the amount of endgame material there is to exploit. What’s really needed is some form of embedding of toons into the social groups they become part of that would apply real consequences for what, in the real world, would be a major upheaval if you did it yourself.

Right now, though, loyalty is not rewarded nearly as well as sheer disloyalty and underhandedness. If you play it right, you can get leveled up in no time, and then make a break to join one of your server’s “premier” guilds that care not a whit for loyalty or honesty, but merely that you show up at the appointed time with what you said you were bringing, and follow the instructions given to you without fail. That’s it.

Call that a “gaming experience” if you want. I call it “a second job.” Sorry, got one, and I play WoW partly to relax after all that. You want two jobs? You should get a second one that makes money.

No wonder our GM shows all the signs of burning out. She’s had to put up with this crap for four years. I’d eat my own soul under those circumstances.

If we get back into raiding, I’m gonna suggest that all raiders be required to put up a 500 gold “security deposit”, nonrefundable.  If we’re doomed to gear up raiding guilds, at least we can get repair costs out of it.

Think she’ll go for it?

From: Rivendare, Baron, Stratholm

To: Grimmtooth Wildhammer, Hunter, Ironforge

Subject: Damages

Mr. Wildhammer,

It has come to my attention that you have vandalized half of my city no less than fifteen (15) times in the past three weeks. Off the top of my head, this amounts to several hundred gold, a few dozen stacks of Runecloth, Various and Sundry bind-on-equip green, blue, and even purple items, and a few hundred scourgestones.

In addition, I have to tell you that the maintainers of my ziggurats are starting to get a little twitchy and are talking about raises or unionizing. The bosses, especially, have had to be disciplined severely on a number of occasions. You can imagine the effect on morale that that has. Ramstein has been especially troublesome, flinging bits of himself at me when he gets agitated.

And I am led to understand that I have you to thank for fifteen of the deaths I have personally experienced in the past three weeks. You should know that the fellow I work for is far more intimidating than yourself in this regard, so if you’re trying to frighten me, it’s not happening. Come to Naxx and we’ll talk.

I am  including for your perusal an itemized bill of goods for the items you have destroyed and/or stolen from my domain. I am not at this time billing you for counseling for my minions, but that is subject to change pending your response. Regardless, I expect you to cease and desist immediately, or I will levy the full amount for treatment as well.

Sincerely,

Baron Rivendare

Lord of Stratholme

From: Grimmtooth Wildhammer, Ironforge

To: Rivendare, Baron, Lord of Stratholme

Subject: RE: Damages

Mr. Rivendare,

You have my greatest sympathies over your mental anguish and property loss. However, it is my position that you and your minions are there for the very purpose of being slain and looted. As such, reclamation of spoils in this case is allowable under the General Articles of Roleplaying. In short, “finders keepers, losers weepers”.

I am willing, however, to compromise.

You have in your posession the reins to a magnificent undead steed. That’s all I’m looking for. For the past fifteen attempts, you have failed to give up the aformentioned reins, forcing me to return for another try.

It’s simple. Drop the reins, and you will rarely, if ever, see me again within the city limits of Stratholme.

Don’t make me come over to Naxx and spank your pallid butt.

All due respect to lackeys,

Grimmtooth Wildhammer

The other night I was asked to come along for OK. I really shouldn’t have. For all intents and purposes, we 4 1/2-manned that instance because of my level and  hit rating.

The report was clear: I missed a lot. Even the tank topped me in terms of DPS.

This is no surprise, really. I’ve been on the back burner for the most part. My gear is not the greatest. A lot of greens, no DS3 pieces, very few epics, not much from Kara (not many Kara runs). Going in, I’m undergeared.

The other reason? Well, even A-N is greyed out for me. I’m below level there.

Still, it outlines the complete and utter importance of HIT for DPS classes. No Pew Pew without HIT. Load up on RAP or Spell Power all you want, but they are useless if you don’t actually connect.

Well, it was fun doing something other than picking flowers for a change. It’s really strange … having to worry about dying and stuff.

I did manage to top the meters later on with three DKs and a priest in Ramparts. Sweet, sweet, e-peen.

Fashion related note: I really hate the idea of getting rid of these goggles. But the day will come. That’s it. No point. Just grumbling over my absynthe.

ORLY?

YA RLY.

Is that what you meant by “the Quality Assurance System”, Mike?

For some reason, Grimm thought I’d be the perfect person to write this article. I have no idea why, but I’m always willing to do my part, especially considering the lack of DPS Warlock love in the recent patch.

The unthinkable has happened. I totally agree with Tobold. A recent article published at WoWInsider is completely out of line. I could have posted my rebuttal there, and really wanted to, but one voice in thousands, as opposed to one voice with few readers, the latter is still the better deal. Hi.  /wave

I enjoy reading WoWInsider, especially Guild Watch – O teh drama! – but there are times that they rub me the wrong way. Mike Schramm has done so, in spades, this time around.

In short, patch 3.0.8 has been a disaster. If Blizzard feels that this patch lives up to the quality of content they released in Northrend (or if they, unbelievably, somehow though this was meant to be a bugfix patch for Northend, that ended up screwing up more things than it fixed), then they need to take a long, hard look at their quality assurance system again.

“Mike, you ignorant slut.”

Why is it, when people want to act like they know what goes on in software development, start trash talking QA? Whenever software crashes, “it’s always QA’s fault”, as far as they’re concerned, and they ponder – in a superior tone of voice – at how anyone could have possibly missed such an obvious bug.

It’s like watching a monkey, throwing poo at the wall, until one sticks, at which point the monkey gets excited.

Did it ever occur to you, Mike, that it wasn’t missed? Did it ever occur to you that maybe someone knew about it and decided that schedule trumped quality, once again?

I’m sure you are thinking by now, “well, Miss Smarty Pants, how do you explain this fine mess?”

Don’t mind if I do.

Purveyor of FAIL for over 25 years!

First, some bona fides: I have worked in the industry for over 25 years; 10 spent in the area of hardware reliability, a field that allows for very little in the way of error (you can’t patch a hardware failure). The next 10 have been spent in software quality, first at a mid-level position (planning etc) and later in a senior position.  Prior to those I spent 8 years as a technical supervisor in a high-pressure environment that tolerated very little down time, and did so with a great degree of success¹. In short, I know my way around the swamp.

This is what it sounds like when code cries

Having gotten that out of the way, here is my theory, based – in large part – on actual working knowledge of the process.

First, you need to understand something: QA is not the gatekeeper. QA rarely, if ever, has the means to prevent software from shipping.  This is acceptable to everyone because QA prefers to be testing software, not participating in launch planning meetings with upper management.

QA’s primary job in the software industry is to measure the quality of the software, and to inform the project manager as to that quality. They may also be required to “sign off” on the test results.

But if they don’t, and upper management wants to ship … it’ll ship. Somehow.

I’ve seen the big picture, and you’re not in it

Management is infamous for this sort of thing, both in my personal experience as well as by reputation.

We have seen Blizzard’s commitment to software quality in the past. Heck, the game itself was delayed so that they could get it right. Entire instances and features have been held back until they can be done right.  The software has been of consistently high quality and usability for years. And QA, once it finds a process that works, will hold on to it with both hands AND a full set of teeth. QA loathes change, especially when it comes to a working process².

On the other hand, this patch has all the hallmarks of Management on it.

Sudden, apparently unplanned deployment? Check.

Incomplete? Apparently.

Undocumented? Sorta.

Not staged as patches usually are³? True dat!

All hallmarks of a manager deciding that getting “something” out was more important than getting something GOOD out.

Professor Plum with the Monkey Wrench in the Library

So why might that happen? Well, look at how long 3.0.8 was in testing, and look at the continuing issues with lag that were laid at Wintergrasp’s feet. I can see some PR or marketing flak hitting up the project manager with a dozen emails a day over how imperative it was to get a fix for the “Wintergreen issue”. I can see the project manager pushing back, saying they hadn’t met testing requirements or something. I can see a more senior exec being drug into the dispute to “facilitate” this little misunderstanding⁴ . Not that I’ve seen it before or anything.

My conclusion, therefore, is that this patch was willingly rushed out before it was ready, and that management knew full well that it was not ready. However, management was getting beat up about something, pressed until the correct “key words” were spoken by someone, and then proceeded to push the software out the door.

And here we are.

In cyberspace, no one cares if you scream

There are many reasons why this could have happened. You can come up with a fantastic theory about how a system that is designed to prevent oversight of obvious stuff (QA), broke down and failed anyway (missed several obvious bugs). Or you can explain this away as plain human nature (bad managerial call).

In the end, it pays to remember one of the many Murphy’s laws, because the simplest explanation is almost always the right one.

To err is human.

To really screw things up, requires a manager.

1. Medals were involved. [↩]
2. Of course, a change to the process might have been made “to improve our time to market”. Yep, you smell it too, I bet. A manager. [↩]
3. You will usually see the patch in the downloader a good week ahead of release day. Not in this case. [↩]
4. ”Facilitate” being a euphamism for “explaining to the project manager who signs his paycheck.”" [↩]

All right. The bitter cries of warlocks is starting to reach a crescendo of FAIL.

Not fail on Blizzard’s part, though they rightly deserve our ire for rushing changes to production that shouldn’t have gone past beta.

No, I’m talking about the people that have taken it on themselves to quit, kill thier warlock, or otherwise react in a completely unreasonable  manner to issues that I am confident will be corrected in due time.  “If Warlock isn’t the best class, it’s not worth playing.”¹  WHAT? Are you kidding me? Am I being punked? Is anyone really capable of being that lame?

Wait. Scratch that. I forgot who I was dealing with here.

You know, I’m really sorry they aren’t the king or queen of the DPS roost now². I’m sorry that their e-peen is wilted. That their robes lack that starch they had in BC.

Pffft. I kid! I’m not sorry at all. I’m a warlock. I like seeing people suffer. QQ moar, basement dweller. I need your tears to brew a cup of Tea of Despair to wash down my Scones of Damnation.

Anyway.

There are plenty of warlocks out there getting things done. They are the proof that, even gimped, the Warlock can be viable. So it’s not EZ Mode any more. So you have to work, and research, and – Mammon forbid! – learn something about the dynamics of the new talents and spells. Right here, right now, it is not easy. But it can be done.

Will we end up on top of the charts? Hells no. We’re gimped, baby! But you can continue to pull your weight and be part of whatever team you’re in. Group effort, people.

If one busts one’s evil ass, one will be appreciated as a contributor³ .

At this point, my biggest concern is that the changes that are needed may force us to re-learn – and maybe re-gear – all over again after whatever patch it is that things get fixed in.

Meanwhile: suck it up and deal with it. Wait it out. All will be put aright in its time.

And Blizz? Get on this. Seriously. Somebody’s going to die if all those tears hits a high-voltage circuit. You want that on your conscience?⁴

You know what? I think this is a crucible. A crucible is used in smelting to rid a metal of impurities, of undesirable elements. This is what we are seeing. All the e-bayers and babies that can’t be bothered to apply themselves to the class, are leaving. For a while, we as a class will be better off because all the EZ Mode kids will be off on their DoucheKnights playing Yoink and Lawl.

Go ahead, boys. Yoink all you like. I think that sums it up pretty well, in fact.

Meanwhile, Auntie Flora says that Affliction and SL/Felguard are both excellent levelling specs. The hardest part of Affliction is keeping tabs on 5-10 DoT-ed mobs running around crying about the pain behind their eyes. The hardest part of Demon is not pulling aggro off your Felguard⁵. Both are viable and survivable, so go out there and kill things. As with anything that is not EZ Mode, you need to practice in order to excel.

1. In comments [↩]
2. To be honest, I don’t think they ever were. But I’ll assume all the hunters around them sucked. [↩]
3. And not to put too fine a point on it, but if you didn’t bust ass before The Nerf, you can count on one thing – everyone noticed. Thus now they’ll have no loyalty to you at all. I’d replace you, too, and maybe I wouldn’t wait for a nerf as an excuse. [↩]
4. Don’t look at me – I thought the sparks were pretty! [↩]
5. Some things never change. [↩]

I won’t go into details but, things with the guild are much less bleak now. What I heard, encourages me.

That the GM is interested in raiding still is also encouraging, but I’d be happy just doing 5-mans as long as our little guild isn’t tearing itself apart.

Our initial raiding attempts will be with me as a healer, so I’m pretty excited and pretty frightened at the same time¹.

An executive decision has come down from Grimmlabs management that we’re going to go through two full toon cycles, then alter the rotation so that I do two days for every one that the others do.  And, naturally, when there are raids or whatever going on, I will be available to run them unless DPS is needed instead.

Fingers crossed.

/gameface

1. ”That’s what makes it so intense!“ [↩]

You’re kidding me, right? OK, Grimm and most of the rest of the team have problems torturing mages to extract information. This is what separates mages from warlocks. My conscience is just fine, Mr. Grimmtooth Sir. I hang out with demons. Poking a mage with a stick is hardly going to make a pip on my freak-out-o-meter.

Oh, yes. I did it.

I’d do it again.

I gave him a few extra pokes just in case he was lying.

And one because it makes me giggle.

And I tried real hard to poke that pompous, smug git of a Kirin Tor mage with the thing, too.

After I extracted the information we needed, I handed the thing back to him and informed him that some day, it would be his turn.

I can see why so many Warlocks turn to PvP. Other people can be so annoying. You just want to … remove them. I mean, seriously – too good to get his hands dirty? “Glad you came along Miz Warlock, I need one of you lesser types to get some work done around here while I dust off book covers.” Getting someone else to kick arse is what they call “desperate measures” in the Kirin Tor. No wonder they hid in that bubble. Go back! We’ll manage!

… sputter …  grrr …

Anyway.

In other news: Switched to Affliction once again. I’m not feeling the love there, either, although I can take on phenomenal numbers of mobs now.

I’m wondering if there’s such a thing as a “SL/Destro” build. I <3 SL, but I also <3 DPS.

I also completed the Nexus. Well, kind of. I was missing two shards for the one quest, so I’ll have to go back in for those.  Did not make the next level, thank you. Just too much going on, and the team is still feeling the aftershocks of the Great Jasra Uplift. I imagine things will settle down by next time I come up in rotation.

Filed under: “You didn’t see this coming, did you?”: Meta finally pried a crowbar into his wallet and sprang for a face lift. Finally after all that time I got rid of the addled cheerleader on meth face.  Personally, since Blizz pulled that face change thing without warning, I think they owe me a freebie, but good luck with that , Meta.

Still, it could have been worse. The two faces in the rotation after my old one are … just … well, they don’t even use those for the bad guys. When Botox Goes Wrong. Mammon’s smoking balls, those are ugly with a capital UG.

Just proof that no matter how scatterbrained your current face looks, it could be a whole lot worse.

It gives an extra 10 HPS: Is it just me, or have female Dwarf priest pigtails gotten … twirlier? Our GM’s priest was healing in OK the other night and I swear it looked like she was about to go airborne.

See you in a few days.

I committed to getting to 80 as fast as possible so that our guild would be able to field a viable force for 10-man raids.

For several weeks, the team has all pitched in. Grimm hunted down items to DE. Amus organized and sorted various elemental bits. Illume actually retrained to learn how to inscribe. Flora contributed all her tailoring and enchanting items. And they all gave up cycles so that I could have as much time per day as possible, to achieve that level 80 achievement and be ready to heal the guild.

I consider my commitment fulfilled. Now it is the guild’s turn. It is the guild’s turn to produce a group to be healed. To produce leadership that is ready to go in and start a months-long slog like we’ve seen in Kara. To be there.

I – and the rest of Team Grimmtooth – did what was necessary to bring a healer to the playing field.Now, the team takes its rightful place until the rest of the contract is fulfilled. From now on, we return to our normal rotation. Everybody now gets a chance to be more than a support system for a priest. Everybody gets a chance to live instead of serve some obscure goal.

Now, it’s not so much about getting there, but about how to best tweak my spec to meet further requirements down the road.

But for now … I consider my commitment fulfilled. The next step is up to our guild. I’ll be there for them. If we never raid again, so be it. If we do, I have teh healz. We’re ready.

On a hunch last night, I went through all the arms and armor I had stocked up for the future (gifts Grimm, etc.). As I feared, what I found was that at least half my gear had lost its value due to stat creep.

Here’s what happened: at the 3.0 patch, a new stats system kicked in. +Heal became +Spell Power, +Spell Hit became +Hit, and so on. In the process, the equations all drifted a bit, and some gear that I had no longer had the stats I needed.

For example, a chest piece that was a complete upgrade for me turned into one that had no health boost, and was in fact a downgrade for me in that regard.

Yarley checked hers out too and found a few (but fortunately, not as many) items  as well.

So … check your bags and make sure all the stuff you were hanging on to is still worth hanging on to.

Sometimes I’m too dense to notice that things are happening around me that are happening around me. Such is the case with this post. There was a bit more interest in this post than I have seen in the past, but didn’t think much of it until I looked at the trackback logs and saw that Mr. Bartle had linked to it as an example of one of the few voices of agreement (it’s the final bullet point) in his post¹ .

There are a couple of reactions here.

First of course is a mild Dwarfish squee sound (kinda like I imagine was uttered by Saruman the first time Sauron said howdy). I keep forgetting these trackback thingys help one note quickly who’s saying what about one’s own posts. Well, you can never have too much Dwarfish Squee ^(tm), can you?

Second, the amount of bile and vitriol hurled at the man is astounding. Gabe is right. As usual. It makes me sad.

Housekeeping

As Shalkis and others pointed out, this quest does not block you from getting to the Nexus. You can always ask Big Red for a ride and you’ll get it. So I was in error on that detail. I don’t think it makes a big difference in the central premise here, but it does at least remove the potential resentment at blocking off a whole quest hub, although the resentment at blocking off the end of a major questline remains.

Conclusion, still

I remain unconvinced.

At issue – always – has been the fact that you are being asked to do immoral things to advance the story line. Turning a blind eye to it is, quite simply, the mortar that holds together the bricks of the road to Hell. You can make any argument to justify it that you want, but I don’t buy it for a second. Saying that you can sidestep the issue and make it somebody else’s problem does not remove that there is this elephant sitting in your living room.

As I said, replace “torture” with “rape” and see how many people jump to defend it. Other than Warlocks, everyone else in the game seems to identify themselves as the Good Guys. The Good Guys don’t do that kind of crap, nor do they tolerate it in their allies.

Not without consequences.

As with the Scourge Invasion event, there is a subset of our population that revels in this sort of thing, and does so because they know they won’t suffer any real consequence.

Blizz could have helped out by making it impact faction in both cases. For the invasion, you lose faction with all Alliance when you are “scourged”. Sure, it will happen, but you would work real hard to avoid it, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t go try to get infected just for jollies.

With the torture (and the killing mommie and kidnapping babies, etc.) quest, maybe have it impact Argent Dawn faction or something. Just make it have consequences.

As I said before, I’d never tolerate players in my AD&D campaigns getting away with that sort of crap. They’d pay for it.

All I’m asking for … is justice² .

1. I am treading a fine line here, on the one side is petty self-congratulation, and on the other is citation. I am shooting for the latter. [↩]
2. … and yes, true Justice would have far harsher and widespread consequences than just these two small bits. But I think that it would make the game far more interesting in the long run. [↩]

As much as I hate making obligatory “still alive” posts, I probably should since I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been jotting down random stuff but not posting it.

My main job has been to stock Jasra with enchantment materials. As of yesterday, she officially broke 350, so my services in this capacity are no longer required. I managed to even solo a few Outland instances with my trusty Gorilladin. Ramps and BF both fell before me. Underbog fell other than the final boss, and I probably just need to tweak my strategy for him. Slave Pens, no problem. Steam Vaults … maybe later.

Of all the Classic instances, Strat and Scholo seem to be the best sources of items that DE to Eternal Essences. I decided to camp out at Light’s Hope Chapel and do the Dead side of strat over and over again in the hopes of also getting Rivendare’s mount. Alas, it was not to be. After ten tries, it didn’t drop. I did get the Dwarven Hand Cannon, and passed it on to my sweetie.

One thing that is important to remember on Baroness Anastari is that she will Mind Control you and heal back up if you are in a group, but will not if you are solo. What this means to Huntards, Dork Kinnigets, and Locks is: put yer pet away and pew pew.

I also managed to pop Exalted with the Argent Dawn. Yay.

I would be more effective on these solo expeditions if Saiph, my Gorilladin, was higher level (currently 76, but was 75 for the bulk of this adventure).  At the same time, I need to gather Northsea Pearls for Jasra’s tailoring. Unfortunately, I only have two choices: go after the murlocs and gorlocs in The starter areas, which give Saiph no XP, or go after the gorlocs in Sholazar, which are, you know, Oracles. Unfortunately, since I am of Oracle faction, option #2 is out of the question. So I’ve been also going after Jormungar Tunnelers in Dragonblight, which is good for my leather skilling too.

In the process of getting Jas some more Arcane Dust, I managed to ding Exalted with Cenarion Expedition, and am now the proud owner of a Cenarion War Hippogryph. Jas is not amused since the 1600 gp required came out of her Epic Mount fund. Sorry, Jas. I’m pulling rank.

Aside from that, it’s been quiet. Jas has been hogging the limelight and may have big news soon. I’ll give you a hint: she’s 79 now.

Our guild has pretty much fallen apart. We had a couple of high-end defections, including one officer’s alt, to the usual suspect’s guild, and I think that broke the GM, or initiated events behind the scenes that accomplished that – though the ennui itself is cleverly disguised as “burnout”.  But one can draw lines between cause and effect pretty easily if one keeps one’s eyes open.

So – we are back to pure casual, not “casual raiding” as we were before. Things have panned out pretty much in a predictable fashion. We’re right back where we were when Grimmtooth Mk I quit the game in disgust. I think I might “heal through” the drama right now to see what is on the other side. I suspect, however, that there are at least five other people that will leave before it is all over.

My main profession is Leather-working, which has its ups and downs. I initially took it up in the hopes of providing armor for myself, but I found that that was pretty much not happening in Classic or BC. We shall see if Wrath corrects this or not.

One thing that Leather-working had in Classic that nothing else had was the means to upgrade lower level leather to a higher level, such as Light Leather -> Medium Leather -> Heavy -> Thick -> Rugged. But with the advent of BC and Wrath, this has not carried forward. Rugged cannot be upconverted to Knothide, and Heavy Knothide cannot be upconverted to Borean. Yes, you have Borean -> Heavy Borean, but that’s it.

What annoys me about this is that this further disconnects Classic from the rest of the game. All the leather you gathered in Classic was rendered immediately irrelevant as soon as BC came out, and I imagine that nobody ever hunts Clefthoofs anymore other than for quest-based advances.

Another profession that likely has similar issues is Engineering. As annoying as it might be, Classic Engineering uses components from the start throughout its levels – copper for copper screws, for example. Yet, once you hit BC, I am willing to bet that that gets thrown aside¹ . While I can imagine many an engineer gleefully dumping that last stack of copper bars² to make room for Fel Iron bolts, I can’t help but notice the solid barrier of irrelevancy between Classic and BC. And while I haven’t researched this, I bet that there is a similar barrier between BC and Wrath.

What this does, for those professions that have continuity, is turn them into three different professions, sequential to each other. Once I hit BC, all that Dragonscale training seems pretty worthless, for an example.

It puzzles me that Blizz has put so much thought into making the three different games³ so alien to each other, instead of integrating more continuity and involvement between them. It seems to me that it would make it easier to balance the carrot and stick approach to keeping people playing, for example.

It’s so bad that you can’t even go to a Grand Master trainer in Dalaran and learn something that a Master, Artisan, or earlier, could train you. Enchanters especially love this since they have to fly out to Hellfire to train until they hit GM status.

I do not understand why a company would invest so much time and money into something and then just cut it loose like that⁴ .

One last thing. Engineers have planes and choppers. Now Tailors have flying carpets. I’ve been thinking on it for a while and have finally determined what the Leather-worker’s mount analog should be⁵ .  1,000 League Boots. All the advantages of a mount, without actually being astride a mount. What’s not to like?

1. I haven’t confirmed. [↩]
2. … or cursing that he didn’t keep it in ore form for the new Jewelers. [↩]
3. … and they do play as three different games. [↩]
4. But that’s another post. [↩]
5. Especially now that riding crops are nerfed to the ground. [↩]