Had a great raid last night!
I haven't become an amazing Warlock overnight so I was still a bit rubbish.
And we didn't kill anything, just banged our heads against Mythrax for a few hours.
Still had a great night!
Because I wasn't Raid Leading.
I had missed the first two nights of progress on Mythrax plus couldn't get my microphone to work, so there was actually no option for me to be RL. We've already set up my replacement to lead this boss anyway but it still added to my feeling of relaxation as we entered the raid.
For the first couple of pulls, the fight felt incredibly frantic as I tried to work things out and find my position in the arena. All Ranged have to be spread for the majority of the fight so you need to find your space, then guard it and shoo away anyway who encroaches.
Once I had found a spot, it all settled down. There are times when everything points your way and you spend more time running than fighting but usually the abilities are spread around the ranged team.
It's a recent nerf to the fight that has made one key ability only affect ranged which makes it more of a pain for me but thank god, because it would have been a nightmare if it affected the melee. We had visions of Argus all over again.
Anyway, once I had a feel for the fight and my positioning, it calmed down and I could actually work at improving. This is not something I feel like I have been able to do before now, leading took precedence over my own performance, I was just muddling through each fight trying to watch everyone else.
I realised that this is an aspect of raiding that I had really missed without even thinking about it, the gameplay min-maxing and the awesome sense of achievement as you improve until you eventually nail the fight... then cock it all up on the actual kill so you look like a moron on the kill vid but whatever.
Of course, that sense of achievement was replaced by the team nailing the fight and us getting the kill and, don't get me wrong, I loved that but I want the other feeling.
Am I just selfish?
Maybe I am, I certainly feel quite selfish at the moment. I'm not a selfish player though, I'll still be offering to do the dirty jobs in the raid that wreck your dps.
Hmmm... that's not helping, still feel selfish.
I don't care, maybe it's just my time to be selfish.
Wednesday 28 November 2018
Wednesday 14 November 2018
Over Before It Began...
The tanking dream almost actually happened!
It was agreed, I would take over for the next tier of raiding and I had started to prepare... actually levelling a tank class (female blood elf paladin)!
Got to 120, started to gear up and even ran a couple of LFRs. Tanking G'Huun, even on lfr, at 317ilvl is not recommended by the way. The other bosses were all fine although Fetid Devourer hurt a bit, but on G'Huun it was impossible to keep me alive despite me rotating mitigation and cooldowns.
(Personally I think the healers could have done more as I wasn't getting much in the way of direct healing but I knew I was undergeared so left them to find a better tank)
Meanwhile, repeat kills on our Mythic team are proving almost as difficult as the first. We even wiped on Taloc once, ok so our monk had forgotten to switch to tank spec but we still should have been able to kill it.
Some wipes on Mother that aren't easily explained, maybe too many people crossing at exactly the same moment so Spirit Link doesn't get chance to take effect? Not sure, it's only ever 1 or 2 wipes anyway so not worth bothering too much.
The next 3 though are erratic to say the least, some weeks they take 1-2 attempts and some weeks it takes 10 or more!
Except Fetid Devourer that is, which always takes 10+ but that's for another post.
With me falling out of love with the Warlock and the frustration of wiping to silly mistakes on bosses we have already killed multiple times, I've not been enjoying the raids very much.
Leading has been a real drag too, people know what to do on these fights but it is still a constant struggle to get them to do the right thing, to think about more than themselves in any given situation (Again Fetid, will have to do a Fetid post)
Our progress boss in now Zul but we barely get any time on him each week. It's not a difficult boss for most of the raid but a few people have specific tasks that need some practice to get right, or at least get the timing down.
For the rest of us, it is pure Patchwerk! Stand still and hit the boss as hard as you can to the exclusion of pretty much everything else, letting some rogues cheese you through the phase so you don't actually have to deal with any mechanics.
I hate it!
If Blizzard released the fight this way by design there would be uproar, yet we reduce it to this to make it easier. And the more rogues you have, the easier it becomes.
Anyway, again a rant for another day.
We only have 3 rogues (some guilds gather as many as 6 or 7!) and 1 of them is an alt who, by his own admission, is completely shit at it.
'Only' having 3 rogues (2.5 really) means the dps check for our cheese strat is incredibly tight.
My Warlock is the lowest geared char in the raid, poorly itemised gear too as I stopped doing all of the extra-curricular activities needed to keep him up to date quite some time ago.
Give me some mechanics to deal with and I back myself to bridge the gap to higher-geared players but in a straight stand-up dps check?
I was bottom of the pack quite consistently.
And in a bid to meet this tight dps check, I'm now riding the bench.
Sad times.
At first I wasn't really bothered. I wasn't enjoying the raids anyway and I knew my dps was the lowest so it made sense.
The more I thought about it, the more bothered I was though.
It was actually poor execution of those few specific tasks that had slowed our progress, not my fractionally lower dps.
At the end of the day though, I just didn't like that I had let myself get into a position where I was the one being benched.
What to do about it?
Well, after a rant in our officer channel about identifying the real issues in a fight and cheese strats in general, I started thinking about what I wanted from the game these days.
Not normally one for introspection, it took me a while to sort through my thoughts...
I still want the challenge and thrill of Mythic raiding.
I also want to be relaxed and enjoy it.
I want to enjoy the extra stuff outside raids.
The answer was obvious and I should have known it from the start... Elemental Shaman!
Why did I ever doubt it?
It was agreed, I would take over for the next tier of raiding and I had started to prepare... actually levelling a tank class (female blood elf paladin)!
Got to 120, started to gear up and even ran a couple of LFRs. Tanking G'Huun, even on lfr, at 317ilvl is not recommended by the way. The other bosses were all fine although Fetid Devourer hurt a bit, but on G'Huun it was impossible to keep me alive despite me rotating mitigation and cooldowns.
(Personally I think the healers could have done more as I wasn't getting much in the way of direct healing but I knew I was undergeared so left them to find a better tank)
Meanwhile, repeat kills on our Mythic team are proving almost as difficult as the first. We even wiped on Taloc once, ok so our monk had forgotten to switch to tank spec but we still should have been able to kill it.
Some wipes on Mother that aren't easily explained, maybe too many people crossing at exactly the same moment so Spirit Link doesn't get chance to take effect? Not sure, it's only ever 1 or 2 wipes anyway so not worth bothering too much.
The next 3 though are erratic to say the least, some weeks they take 1-2 attempts and some weeks it takes 10 or more!
Except Fetid Devourer that is, which always takes 10+ but that's for another post.
With me falling out of love with the Warlock and the frustration of wiping to silly mistakes on bosses we have already killed multiple times, I've not been enjoying the raids very much.
Leading has been a real drag too, people know what to do on these fights but it is still a constant struggle to get them to do the right thing, to think about more than themselves in any given situation (Again Fetid, will have to do a Fetid post)
Our progress boss in now Zul but we barely get any time on him each week. It's not a difficult boss for most of the raid but a few people have specific tasks that need some practice to get right, or at least get the timing down.
For the rest of us, it is pure Patchwerk! Stand still and hit the boss as hard as you can to the exclusion of pretty much everything else, letting some rogues cheese you through the phase so you don't actually have to deal with any mechanics.
I hate it!
If Blizzard released the fight this way by design there would be uproar, yet we reduce it to this to make it easier. And the more rogues you have, the easier it becomes.
Anyway, again a rant for another day.
We only have 3 rogues (some guilds gather as many as 6 or 7!) and 1 of them is an alt who, by his own admission, is completely shit at it.
'Only' having 3 rogues (2.5 really) means the dps check for our cheese strat is incredibly tight.
My Warlock is the lowest geared char in the raid, poorly itemised gear too as I stopped doing all of the extra-curricular activities needed to keep him up to date quite some time ago.
Give me some mechanics to deal with and I back myself to bridge the gap to higher-geared players but in a straight stand-up dps check?
I was bottom of the pack quite consistently.
And in a bid to meet this tight dps check, I'm now riding the bench.
Sad times.
At first I wasn't really bothered. I wasn't enjoying the raids anyway and I knew my dps was the lowest so it made sense.
The more I thought about it, the more bothered I was though.
It was actually poor execution of those few specific tasks that had slowed our progress, not my fractionally lower dps.
At the end of the day though, I just didn't like that I had let myself get into a position where I was the one being benched.
What to do about it?
Well, after a rant in our officer channel about identifying the real issues in a fight and cheese strats in general, I started thinking about what I wanted from the game these days.
Not normally one for introspection, it took me a while to sort through my thoughts...
I still want the challenge and thrill of Mythic raiding.
I also want to be relaxed and enjoy it.
I want to enjoy the extra stuff outside raids.
The answer was obvious and I should have known it from the start... Elemental Shaman!
Why did I ever doubt it?
Friday 2 November 2018
Is It My Year?
Tap Tap. Is this thing still on?
After my brief dalliance with the Arcane as Mage, I thought I had returned to my Shaman for good. But no, this time I went even further and completely betrayed my Shamanistic roots by switching to Warlock for the new expansion!
Even worse... an Orc Warlock!
After such a betrayal, how could I come to post on this Shaman blog?
It just wouldn't be right.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, let's move on :)
So why post now?
Well... I'M BACK!!
Yes, the Shaman is now a troll but he's back ready to take over in 8.1
Dismayed by the constantly poor position of the Shaman and the proposed changes for BfA, I was determined to play something which would be decent no matter what was thrown at it so chose the Warlock.
Demonology was the spec that really interested me so that's how I prepared and levelled, typically it was brokenly poor when the raids opened up (and before) so not really viable.
Affliction was the go-to spec for pretty much every situation so I reluctantly switched over.
The thing with Affliction is that it's all about those DoTs, and keeping those DoTs up takes a fair amount of concentration with all the other stuff going on.
This did not fit very well with me being raid leader...
Learning a new spec/class is one thing
Learning to raid with that spec is another
Learning to raid with that spec in new fights is another
Learning to raid with that spec while raid leading new fights is a whole other thing altogether!
I couldn't do it.
After every raid, I felt disappointed with my performance as both a Warlock and a Raid Leader.
I'm just not good enough to do that, I thought doing it from the start of the expansion might give me the time to become comfortable enough on the Warlock to allow it but it didn't.
I even had to ask for a night off raid-leading on one Heroic clear so I could do some half-decent dps and show the newer people in the guild that I could actually play the game.
It's a shame as I really thought I could do good things with the Warlock but don't really feel like I had the opportunity.
It was similar to the Mage, and a similar reason for switching back. To be a decent RL, I need to be playing my Shaman!
Thankfully, the 8.1 changes are looking good for Elemental. As long as the damage balancing is done properly (hahahaha), we should be fine.
That is the really sad part of this... my Shaman is only a few ilvls behind my Warlock now as I prepare for the change but even if I played it perfectly, I would still do more damage playing the Warlock as poorly as I do.
Ah well, I feel like the Warlock ship has sailed now. It's Shaman time once more, which at least allows me to feel good about my play (and a bit better about my raid leading).
Or is it Shaman time?
The latest rumblings around the guild are that our main tank wants to switch back to his hunter!
Maybe it's time for me to step up!
I've boosted a paladin, sent her to Zuldazar and set her spec to Prot.
Ok, she's still 110 and I have no xp but...
Is it finally my year?
After my brief dalliance with the Arcane as Mage, I thought I had returned to my Shaman for good. But no, this time I went even further and completely betrayed my Shamanistic roots by switching to Warlock for the new expansion!
Even worse... an Orc Warlock!
After such a betrayal, how could I come to post on this Shaman blog?
It just wouldn't be right.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, let's move on :)
So why post now?
Well... I'M BACK!!
Yes, the Shaman is now a troll but he's back ready to take over in 8.1
Dismayed by the constantly poor position of the Shaman and the proposed changes for BfA, I was determined to play something which would be decent no matter what was thrown at it so chose the Warlock.
Demonology was the spec that really interested me so that's how I prepared and levelled, typically it was brokenly poor when the raids opened up (and before) so not really viable.
Affliction was the go-to spec for pretty much every situation so I reluctantly switched over.
The thing with Affliction is that it's all about those DoTs, and keeping those DoTs up takes a fair amount of concentration with all the other stuff going on.
This did not fit very well with me being raid leader...
Learning a new spec/class is one thing
Learning to raid with that spec is another
Learning to raid with that spec in new fights is another
Learning to raid with that spec while raid leading new fights is a whole other thing altogether!
I couldn't do it.
After every raid, I felt disappointed with my performance as both a Warlock and a Raid Leader.
I'm just not good enough to do that, I thought doing it from the start of the expansion might give me the time to become comfortable enough on the Warlock to allow it but it didn't.
I even had to ask for a night off raid-leading on one Heroic clear so I could do some half-decent dps and show the newer people in the guild that I could actually play the game.
It's a shame as I really thought I could do good things with the Warlock but don't really feel like I had the opportunity.
It was similar to the Mage, and a similar reason for switching back. To be a decent RL, I need to be playing my Shaman!
Thankfully, the 8.1 changes are looking good for Elemental. As long as the damage balancing is done properly (hahahaha), we should be fine.
That is the really sad part of this... my Shaman is only a few ilvls behind my Warlock now as I prepare for the change but even if I played it perfectly, I would still do more damage playing the Warlock as poorly as I do.
Ah well, I feel like the Warlock ship has sailed now. It's Shaman time once more, which at least allows me to feel good about my play (and a bit better about my raid leading).
Or is it Shaman time?
The latest rumblings around the guild are that our main tank wants to switch back to his hunter!
Maybe it's time for me to step up!
I've boosted a paladin, sent her to Zuldazar and set her spec to Prot.
Ok, she's still 110 and I have no xp but...
Is it finally my year?
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