Kiss My Alas

Annnd, we're done here

2010-02-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

So if you like being inflicted with my BS, please to head over to

http://kissmyalas.com

There are still a few rough edges I need to take care of, but it's at least there and imported and readable, more or less.

Housekeeping

2010-02-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

Looks like I am going to be moving sites. Blogger just isn't really working with me in a lot of ways. Stay tuned for details.

Things your raid leader shouldn't have to say...

2010-02-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

...that you need to know anyway.

1. Do not sign up on multiple toons for a single raid. I know who your alts are and if I need them, I will bring them. You should read the fucking calendar invite and note where I spelled out "Accept on your main only."

2. Don't presume to dictate the raiding schedule for the night to me. Nearly everyone else has shied away from handling this job. If I get all the headaches, I also get final say on what we're doing and I don't give a shit if your alts want something from a particular fight. You might feel like a princess, but that doesn't make you one.

3. If you don't sign up for a raid more than once a month, you will not get preference for the one time you do happen to get around to doing that. Quite the contrary, I will consider you dead last.

4. If you always sign up as tentative you're sending me a message, and it's not a positive one. Want to know what tentative means to me? It means you're a lazy asswipe who thinks that he can sneak around the rules but no, I see what you're doing. And I am not impressed. Even if you're not trying to sneak around the rules, it tells me that you are unreliable and that's just really not who I need in my raids.

5. Our raid schedule isn't complicated. At all. It's also been on the calendar for a month. Don't get on and start asking clueless questions such as "Are we raiding tonight? Where are we going? Am I confirmed?" That information is as available to you as it is to me and I'm not here to hold your hand every step of the way.

6. Hanging around trying to snipe a raid spot doesn't impress me at all. I will always, always go to people I've put on standby first.

7. Sign up and show up, means just that. There are no hidden clauses or secret rules in there. My rules apply to everyone equally. Along with that, "be ready" means I don't want to wait for you to repair or make potions or buy a gem off the AH. Again, these raids are not surprises and no one is forcing you to come. You chose to come, you damn skippy better follow through.

8. If we have done a fight many times, don't pretend that you're in there for the first time. You know what your role should be and you know what the important targets ought to be. You also know our kill order. So don't focus on the unmarked mob when we have a skull right there.

9. Don't talk over me in vent. Ever. If I am explaining a fight to the new guy, wait until I ask if there is anything else that should be noted. If I am passing out loot, I don't care to hear over vent that you're passing or you like the looks of those particular pixels. Just, really, shut up and bid when I say to. Blather all you want on easy trash pulls or on boss fights that we can do with our eyes closed, but otherwise show some respect.

10. Don't stand in the fire/green crap/black holes/blue lines of doom/red circles/clouds of putrid/whatever else Blizz throws at us. If you can't make it through a raid without my barking at you to move outta the damn hurty stuff, you maybe shouldn't be raiding. Because it is not my job to watch my feet and those of nine other people, if I think I can get away with it, I will not say anything and let you die of your own dumb and hope that maybe next time you'll remember. More and more, that hope is frail and wasted and you are making me die inside.

Looking for a point

2010-02-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

Things are fuzzy over here today. Not bear fuzzy or kitteh fuzzy. Just a sort of looking through the bottom of an empty wine glass fuzzy, after that wine glass has been drained something like seven times. I've been trying all morning to think of what it was I was going to post about here, but instead have been flailing about from topic to topic in my head and failing to make any connections.

Patch day? Meh. Easy heroics are easier. Big whoop. Nothing happening to my class either, soooo.... yay?

I don't really have anyone or anything to yell about just now either. I mean, there is this guy and he is annoying me slightly, but it's too hard to work up a good rant through this blanketing fog.

The apathy is smothering my rage! I think I'll take a nap instead.

/wanders off to say happy birthday to the sister on FB

/peruses Twitter feed... lols at WoWTabloidNews

/stares at screen in puzzlement

/scratches head

So, here's an observation. Since I have declared myself to be the GM of WWAB, I find that people have also automatically started calling me the GM. Not, "co-GM," not just "Alas" hell, not even the GM's girlfriend (long story).

(Okay, not a long story. Some jerk face left our guild a long while back and his friend was still around. The friend logged on and started saying shit about the guild and said his friend left because the GM's girlfriend was allowed into Kara at level 69 and he didn't think that was right. I said, "First of all, I'm the GM's wife. Second of all, your friend left because he's a prick with no concept of commitment to anything other than his own selfish goals and thirdly, I had to take the druid in because I ran out of 70's who weren't saved and, my God man, it's Kara, not BT. Then Noxy gkicked him and the peasants rejoiced. Something like that anyway. It was a while ago, back when I thought my druid would be my tanky tank.)

Why, yes, this is how my mind works when I'm not really awake.

Right, I have an idea for tomorrow. I'm going to write it down and hope that it makes any sort of sense to me when I (hopefully) have a more clear mind.

Oh, and just wait for allergy season, guys. I really get circular and roughly 76.82% more pointless when I am jacked up on Benedryl.

In which my guildies bring teh funny

2010-02-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

Also, At helped me finally find something to appreciate Google Wave for. Namely, that you can just drag and drop any photos you want into a wave and it is much easier than dealing with emailing crap back and forth and attaching files the old-fashioned way and blah, blah, blah.

Hence, I have a lot of material. But I will attempt to pace myself. Click to embiggen if needed.

And by "tomorrow," I of course meant "whenever I manage to get the SS edited to size and sent to myself."

Later on that night. I am sure I don't want to know half of what goes on in the healing channel. (Holly and Hanse are married, so.... that's why that's funny.)

I think that conversation from the other morning speaks for itself...

Look! Over here! Not over there!

2010-01-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

This post brought to us from Holly, my favourite Canadian (see what I did thar?) and the most cheerful person I know, even more than At.

Let's talk about tanking... and PUG's. Let's talk about tanking and PUG's.

First I'd like to say, I'm not a great tank. I'm a good tank. I know how to do my job, but honestly? Some days I'm just mashing buttons and running around like a headless chicken. I have good gear; not stellar but some great gear.

I know good tanks when I see them... and there have been quite a few. I remember wanting to be Haneen for the longest time.

I recognize bad tanks when I see them... and that's because I've seen good tanks.

I'm a tank. It's all I ever wanted to be and I strive to improve, to get feedback and to accept constructive criticism. I have a mage and a rogue that I fool around with, but I'm a tank at heart. Don't ask Holly to DPS, you'll see a grown woman cuddling her blankee in the corner and whimpering.

That being said, I had the pleasure of experiencing and OMFG. WORST. PUG. EVER. dungeon last night.

Let me start at the beginning. I was late getting home. I log on, say hi to the guildies and they're all busy. This I can handle, I figure I'll herb some and grab someone later for my random heroic, bring on the frost badges, run. Then I get a little bored with my healer husband out of town. I can PUG it, I think, I'm a tank... everyone wants a tank. I get compliments when I PUG, I hear things like "thank heavens, a geared tank". It's good for my ego and it's just a random dungeon. Who hasn't run every dungeon in Northrend at least 20 times before this random dungeon finder thing changed our lives?? Don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.

We pulled The Nexus; a baby dungeon, even on heroic. 20 minutes and I'm outta here, I'm thinking. Even with brand spankin' new 80's, The Nexus should be a cake walk. First couple of pulls and I'm feeling even more confident, pretty good DPS, mage is a bit out of control, but we're handling it. We get through the Hall of Stasis without any casualties. We're heading up The Librarium and just outside the entrance to Grand Magus Telestra. Pull and down the first group at the top of the ramp. No pat (mage slayer with dogs, you know the ones) so we head across the way to the group on the other side. ALWAYS take out the mage ascendant first, that bitch polymorphs. Well I no more than turn my head when the Mage Slayer pats into my druid and my mage. Before I have a chance to finish off the first four (thank heavens for the rogue and warlock in our group) and charge my way over there, the druid and the mage are dead. So we finish off the patrol and wait for people to come back. I want to say here, we didn't wipe...we lost two people.

This is where things get a little weird. The druid, the healer, says... "Can we speed this up; I've got to go in 12 minutes". WTF? I'm not sure how to respond to this. First, who gets in a group when they can't stay? I know that shit happens, mom calls, the cat catches fire and people sometimes have to leave without warning but to only plan to be there for a limited time? Inconsiderate bewb. Second, I can roll with the punches as good as any, but her body is still laying there after 3 minutes and she's (her character was female so we'll go with that) not back in the instance yet. For someone with a time crunch they're sure taking their sweet time getting back in the game. So I say "Let me see if I understand this. You want us to go faster but you're laying there waiting to be rezzed?” This is where it gets fuzzy for me, I'll admit, because it got kind of surreal. She comes back with some comment about "who would rez her (right, she's the only one with the power but why else would she be taking so long?) and she was actually contemplating leaving and did I have any more snide comments to make?". Well ladies and gentleman, let me tell you, that got my back up. She's on a time crunch and just spent 3 of her 12 minutes contemplating leaving and I was the one being unreasonable? So I said, and I quote, "Go to hell, you try and find a geared tank who'll put up with your shit" and I left. As I left I noticed her last comment about how I couldn’t keep anything off her…

Hasty? Maybe, but it's a frackin' PUG and these are not people I care about one iota. I was prepared to put in my 20 minutes, get my badges, say my thanks and run. It's a game and I'm here for a good time, there are other PUG's out there. Moving away from a druid with an attitude seemed like common sense.

Here's where it got insane. She (still a female toon) whispers me on my server (I know she was on Shattered Halls) about how I’m not that geared and not that good a tank. Are you fucking kidding me? I whisper back “Says You” and “Leave me alone” and then I put her on ignore. It’s got to be the healer right? So I start telling officers about what just happened. These people are my friends and they’re going to tell me if I’m off in my own world or should have behaved differently. They’re vindicating my side when I get whispered by another female toon with a similar name to the one I just ignored.

OK. This is just psycho now. She’s going on about how badly I behaved and how pathetic I was. I remember responding with “I’m pathetic? I didn’t just create a new toon on a different server to give a stranger shit”. She effectively ignored this and accused me of being selfish. “Don’t you have to go yet?” I’m thinking her 12 minutes have to be up by now. My GM wants to know her name so that she can straighten her out. I’ve had enough and have put her on ignore again.

She then proceeds to talk to my GM for 30 minutes! No, you can’t make shit this ridiculous up. Alas, back me up here, honey. (It's true! -Alas) Alas is in a rebellious mood and spends the 30 minutes making fun of her. I still can’t get over that. THIRTY (30) MINUTES. Apparently I’m leading Alas around by the nose making her believe I’m a good tank. It’s true. I’ll say it here, please sit down ‘cause I want you all to know that I just faked beating the bosses in Ulduar and TOC and that I’m a phony. You all have carried me for the past 3 years.

I forgot to mention. The reason she took 3 minutes to get back in Nexus? She got lost. She couldn’t find the entrance.

Also, if I was such a good tank why was I running randoms and not running with my awesome guildies? Turns out there’s only room for one tank in FoS. If she’s so great, why was she running randoms? Huh? Nub?

Anyway. There’s a reason its midnight and I’m listening to Sugarland’s “It happens” over and over. I’ve got to write this down before I forget. I’ve got to get this out!

Tanking is a thankless job but I love it. If someone dies, it’s my fault. If someone pulls agro, I must not have been doing my job. My hunter husband knows I’ll let him die if he pulls agro (we give a whole new meaning to “wife agro” in my house). If the group succeeds it’s all thanks to the uber DPS. But WOW, there is nothing quite like the rush of being the first one to run into a fight with the rest of the guild behind you. Better than any drug, or sex, or party or organized cupboard I can tell you. If I die, but we get the boss down, I know I did my job. If I don’t die, it’s even better.

Tanking a PUG though? It’s work. Hard work. I want a pug puppy but I don’t know if I can do it. Not with people like that druid healer out there.

Thanks for letting me rant. I’m Hollybrynn and I just want a hug.

Leadership from three angles

2010-01-28T10:39:00.000-08:00

I know all of this has been covered elsewhere, likely by people far more clever than me. But recent events have made me stop and compile everything I know about leadership and from all the angles in which I have experienced leadership. I don't expect this to be groundbreaking by any means, but I wanted to organize my thoughts.

Leadership from the bottom

In my real life job, I unfortunately have been working in non-leadership roles for the past several years. So I know what it is like to feel like the under-appreciated, unknown, faceless and nameless cog in the business machine. From down here, it is certainly tempting to believe that everyone who is in a supervisory role has perks that I will never get.

In the position I held before this one, I was expected to keep the phone/desk covered at all times, along with another secretary in the department. This meant having to coordinate lunches with her and being as punctual as I could be. If either of us made it to work a little late, that was a problem. Leaving early was nearly out of the question. And God forbid we ever wanted the same day off or both happened to get sick at the same time! To see every other person in the department strolling in whenever they felt like it, taking long lunches, going to the gym mid-day, being able to go to the bathroom without having to clear it with someone else first (no wonder I hated that fucking job), yeah, they had perks that came from their position.

However, I made a lateral transfer to another department where the requirements are different, and suddenly the game has changed. I take long lunches. I can come in a little late and work over to make up for it. I don't have anyone making me dress up 5 days a week. I also get stuck with all the grunt work no one else wants to do and I see my supervisor abusing the living hell out of his "Exempt" status (no one has as much sick time as he takes). There still seem to be perks I will never have.

I have to assume that there are parts of these leadership positions that are less desirable. Perhaps dealing with the budget or attempting to steer an agenda through the turbulent waters of campus politics is more onerous than I imagine.

Still, it's difficult to respect most middle management here - the "officers" of the business world. There are some who clearly watch out for their teams, but there are just as clearly some who play favorites or seek only their own interests. Some seem to be completely checked out as far as interest in their jobs. Sometimes the person watching out for their team might also be the same person who then plays favorites among them.

So what are the bright spots for a lowly grunt? What are the positives I have seen from management here and how might I be able to take that and translate it into watching out for my guildies? What should I avoid because it'll make me look like a jerk? Here are things I would like to tell my boss (only without the WoW references, obviously).

Things to do

Greet people by name. I am blown away that the CIO knows my name. We don't work in the same building, let alone have nice heart to hearts. And when I don't even know who is who in a meeting I attend every week, it stands out that she knows me by sight and name.
Give praise for a job well done. Even if someone's part in getting something accomplished was small or behind-the-scenes, they want to know their efforts have been noticed. Did someone's DPS go up a few hundred from last week? Shouldn't that be noted?
Offer assistance. I appreciate it whenever someone takes the time to help me learn something or get out from under a looming deadline. Back when I was a nubby 40-something mage, an officer gave me a run through ZF. That was huge, that he would notice me and offer to help.
Find ways to give to people. Being generous with mats, gold, or items that are needed for a quest doesn't hurt someone with a raiding main. Don't make it about anything other than "I am happy you are on my team," and it will have all the more impact.
Plan fun activities/keep things light. No one likes to work all the time or for work to be 100% serious business. Even when staring at a wipefest in progression content, try to keep the laughs coming in between attempts. Treating the whole thing like a chore will make others feel that it is a chore and then it will actually become a chore.
Hang out. Learn about people's lives. Today I learned that a guy in my guild has nine kids and is a farmer. How cool is that?

Things to not do

Act self-important. Seriously, you're not the shit. No one is and no one likes the guy who acts like he is
Have obvious favorites. Nothing chaps my ass at work quite like having my boss say in a team meeting "X and Y are never allowed to retire! We'd be lost without them!" and ignore the fact that, oh hi, I contribute to the success of this team also.
Fail to follow your own rules. You're not above them. You are held to them more than anyone else.
Fail to enforce your own rules. Talk about a fast track to breeding discontent, both for people who have to deal with your policies and for yourself when people mysteriously stop taking you seriously.
Parade your ignorance. It makes sense that one person can't know everything about everything. But don't make it a bragging point that you have no idea how someone does their job or that you really don't know what they do. They'll wonder why they're following an incompetent.

Leadership from the middle

I see officers as being middle management, mostly because they do (or should) have power to handle enforcing whatever policies your guild has in place, but they aren't necessarily able to act completely autonomously the way the GM can. From what I have seen there are two basic types of officers, those that are motivated and want to see things happen and those who just let stuff happen around them.

I am swiftly growing to loathe the second type. (Note: type, not specific people, lest any of my officers who read this try to take that the wrong way.)

Unless the GM wants a bunch of sycophantic yes-men, the ones who take no interest in performing their duties are wasting everyone's time. They are the people who don't have a lot of assigned duties and barely do even those. They don't check the forums often, or if they do, they don't contribute to the conversations that are going on, let alone start a serious discussion of their own initiative. They are probably friendly, personable people that everyone likes, but when it gets down to it, they should be doing PR as regular guildies instead of stonewalling decisions that need to be made by taking forever to form an opinion about anything or vote on it.

Give me officers who, when they see a problem, not only point out that there's a problem but who also propose solutions to said problem.Even better, give me officers who are proactive enough to try to forecast a little and say things like, "You know, I noticed that our raid rules have a loophole here and guildie Z is known to try to exploit stuff like that. We might want to work on nailing that down to avoid trouble."

And what if they then added, "Here's some text you can look at. Let me know what you think."

I would personally eHump that officer.

Levels of effort aside, the other thing that has to be - and is! - watched carefully is how do these officers behave? Do they embody the rules that you try to operate under or do they believe their title grants them immunity from following them? If it's the latter, oh, there are problems. Guild members who are not officers and who believe that position of leadership = perks will notice and they will get disgruntled and there will be shit hitting your fan. It might take time to build up to that, true, but it will be all the more ugly when it happens.

Having been an officer of a guild for, oh, some time now, I can also say this with some certainty: If you're an officer, you should be feeling like you have important work to be doing in game. Is it a game? Absolutely. Should it be fun and not all work? Of course. But if you signed on as an officer, there's more to it than having a special channel to talk in for fuck's sake. It's on you to resolve problems, be available for people to talk to about concerns, organize events and raids, contribute to building a guild-wide community of people through initiating conversations in guild chat, make sure the bank is being used properly, help new people get started on whatever raiding path you have, monitor your guild chat to make sure nothing offensive is happening there, step in to help those in need as you have time and ability, keep track of who is who in alt-heavy guilds and make sure people are where they should be in terms of rank and on and on and on.

If this sounds nothing like anything you've ever experienced as an officer, you're doing it wrong.

Of course, that means that there's someone else in your guild leadership team who is trying to handle some or all of that, maybe with help and maybe without. Only a team effort from all officers can make being officer less like bloody, goddamn hard work and more like putting in some effort here and there to maintain a working structure and keep the wheels moving.

As a final thought about this position - if you're afraid to take a hard line on anything because people might not like you, you are in the wrong place and should volunteer to step down posthaste.

Leadership from the top

I don't have any brilliant - or even mediocre - observations about the top dog. I've held myself back for the past several years from truly seizing that power in the GM world. Co-GM has been fairly meaningless in terms of my just saying "this is what I think and I'mma grab the bull by the horns and just do it." I take pains to consult with the officers and I can't say that I've given a whole lot of directives.

That might be about to change. Because if there is one thing I believe about the top dog person, it is that they should work harder and longer than anyone else at making sure whatever it is they are leading is a success. Frankly, At has been checked out for some time and has become the type of "leader" that I bashed so heavily above.

Possibly I will screw up a lot and perhaps even fail. But I'm personally tired of holding myself back from saying and doing what I want to say and do on the basis that I'm not "really" in charge. It's been a disservice to both myself and the officers to have me calling the shots but acting coy about my authority when it is directly questioned or challenged.

And even if no one else makes it through this wall of text or does, and finds it all pointless and obvious, I have arrived at a worthy destination. I'm the GM of War Within a Breath, bitches, and I don't care if you don't like it.

Sentiments that amuse me

2010-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Because otherwise we'd be looking at a whole lot of my scratching my head and WTF-ing all over the place and I just don't think Yngwe needs another feeding quite yet.

In other words, here are some pics that make me lol:

Unless it's the weekend....

Visitors suck!

Fifty "fun" facts

2010-01-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

The first character I ever rolled was a druid
It took me five or six tries to finally stick with a warrior
I once thought my warlock would be my main
I've deleted a level 50 priest
And a level 30-something rogue
I have tried gender-bending many times but there's always something about the movement of a man toon that irritates me to where I can't keep it
I think that people who won't play a certain class or race because "it's too evil" are stupidlame
I also think that no one is going to get addicted to something in real life just because they played a belf who was addicted to magic
Speaking of addiction, the idea that WoW is harmfully addictive is a crock. It's fun and some people just have no self control
My baby huntard is still BM because I sort of like lol ez mode
I also deleted a 20-something mage back before they super accelerated 1-70 xp gain
I find the death knight class to be boring as hell but I'll get one leveled anyway
People who act like their time is more important than that of anyone else they are in party/raid with make me stabby
PvP is unhealthy for my desk/keyboard/mouse and At's ears, so I try not to deal with that aspect of the game
If someone leaves my guild on bad terms I will carry a pretty unreasonable actual hatred of them to the point where I have cheered to hear that someone's real life fell apart
And yeah, I know it's just a game
But that doesn't mean that people can't be real douches in a fake environment
I once had a GM tell me that my opinion as an officer wasn't worth his listening to it
That may have been the reason I cheered when I heard his real life fell apart. Maybe
I find that there are some struggles to being female and in a leadership position
But I will never ever use that as an excuse when I make a bad decision or am otherwise stupid
I don't think being female gets me any perks in WoW
Unless you count being told that being a bossy raid leader is hott
I have gotten a couple pervs before - that was interesting
Even though we sometimes struggle with content for a while I do think Blizz is making the game as a whole too easy
At scoffs at me whenever I start in on how no one should get ponies at 20 or flying at 60
I used to think I would never level fishing or cooking on any character
My main is max exalted with all WotLK factions except Ashen Verdict
Lately I change Alas' hair every few weeks because I would do it in real life if I could
I think Renaissance faires are an awesome excuse for dressing up
Alas was not supposed to be my main because of her name
I have a different name I use everywhere else online but that name ended up attached to a nelf huntard
That huntard got deleted at 44 to make way for my DK with the same name
I've met several of my guildies irl even if it did mean driving to the deep South (imo) to do so
Alastriona is the Gaelic form of my middle name
And I cringe every time someone pronounces it "Alas-tree-OH-nuh"
The first time I healed a raid it was in Kara and I didn't have any helpful addons, such as grid or healbot
Of course, that was the PUG raid that wiped on chess, trufax
I call At "At" in real life but I almost never call him by his real name
I'm ridiculously addicted to FarmVille, even though I see how brainless it is
Of course, I also deal with faculty and buying random crap for a living (me, every other day: "How the hell do I buy printer memory? Printers have memory?") so I try to avoid that as much as possible
Unless I plan on writing either the fanfic or the novel, then I'm all worky worky worky
I lol at people with naming conventions
I am super cheap, to the point where even though I have over 30k across my toons, I still won't buy anything off the AH unless I absolutely have to
The cheapness also means that many of my characters don't have epic flying
I will not play undead, trolls or orcs because they're ugly
I will not play gnomes or dwarves because they're short
I would totally do any draenai - male or female
I have some moderate OCD tendencies
I needed this list to have a random number and an alliterative title

This again?

2010-01-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

Once again, it seems like a good thing that I don't have anyone reading this post aside from fellow-guildies and the very occasional person who is bored enough to subject themselves to this rambling. Because there I went and randomly fell off the bloggy world for a while.

It wasn't that I had nothing to write about. Quite the opposite. I had too much going on and for a lot of it, the things that seemed the most pressing, I knew I needed to take those items up with the officers before I wrote about it here.

Which I did last night and I'm really glad it took so long to get most of us on at the same time because I was able to just say what I wanted to say without (I think) being all crazysauce again, like that one time I let game stress build up and then shot at all the leadership with both barrels and a whole lot of profanity. And yelling. And abuse of caps lock.

And in the aftermath of having divested myself of specific nights of having to be on, be the raid leader, answer all the stupid questions and blah blah BLAH, I really have to laugh at myself and shake my head and acknowledge that I bring this all on myself.

What I like to do, is be in charge. Of everything! All the time! Because clearly, I am the person who cares the most and knows how to do things best! But then it gets to be too much for me to handle. And the game becomes a chore and I find myself making rude remarks about everyone no matter how much I like them or how little I actually know them. And then I go apeshit on the officers like it's their fault that I feel the need to be in control.

(Well, I only did that once but it was BAD and I was a jerk and I'm still sorry!)

So last night I said, "Guys, I am feeling really overwhelmed again with handling this all the time. It's making the game not fun for me and that's a bad thing."

One officer said, "Haven't we had this conversation before?"

Well, yes. Yes we had. But the problem was that I just said "I need help!" and the officers said, "We can help! Let us know what to do!" And I said here are some things. Then... eventually... because we never said this is always your responsibility all the time, I allowed them to help in general but no one ever really took anything on and I eventually was doing it all, all over again.

Last night, two officers took on half the raiding schedule between them. I have the other half still. I really think it will take some of the pressure off.

But, I have control issues.

So on the inside, I'm wondering if I can trust these other officers to do it "right." I wonder if they will have the follow-through. I wonder why I wanted to give up any precious, precious control.

I am a sick woman.

But I'm also the official "has all teh admin power" GM for at least the rest of this last semester of At's. So I guess that makes me a sick woman with power.

It'll be a lot of work to let go of my psycho enough to let others do their jobs. I hope it goes well.

And I really do think my fellow officers are awesome, so please ignore the crazy woman huddled in the corner biting her nails and tearing out her hair.

Half assed Tuesday

2010-01-19T07:51:00.000-08:00

I may have mentioned before that I am lame? Here's an example. Every damn time we go to Pit of Saron, I always, always think Tyrannus is talking to me. Every time. Despite the fact that my name is not simply "Alas." I have become too accustomed to being called that by my guild mates and even myself. So, if ever someone in game says, "Alas," and means "unfortunately," I still think it's all about me.

Does this mean I am unfortunate? Could be, could be.

In other news, we finally headed back to Ulduar after spending several weeks away from it working on ToC (with great success) and ICC (with less success). And, hey, what do you know? We plowed right through Thorim and Freya. I missed a shot of Freya, but here's me flexing in Thorim's crotchal region:

^^^^

Wow, dude's got this sort of like, aura around him, you know?

At (as his shaman) made me laugh because he is also lame:

And lastly, I thought that I saw a famous bloggery type person hanging out in Shattrath. On second thought, it might just be a fan as I am quite certain no one would roll a DK on another server for any reason whatsoever.

<--Very likely not Amber of Bubble Liking fame.

Will your pug fail hardcore?

2010-01-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else noticed that it's relatively easy to tell within about 5 seconds of getting in party whether or not your PUG group is going to fail hardcore? And that you could do so without the help of any add-on or knowledge of GS?

It's true, I tell you. True!

Here's how:

1. Peruse the names of the people you are grouped with.
2. That's it. You're done!

If the tank is named something like "Greattank" or "Iamawesome" - congrats, that guy won't hold aggro worth a damn.

If the healer is named something like "Retpally" or "Azzah" - congrats, they'll have no idea what the hell they're doing.

If two out of three dps are DK's, you don't even need to read for names like "Darkarthas" or "Vaderknight" to know that they'll just be facerolling the keyboard.

If you end up with my failtank (a pally named Alleluia), run towards the nearest exit as fast as your legs will carry you. I'll understand if your cat is on fire and you have to go. It happens a lot, apparently.

....

wow, that was pointless.

Extra special guest post edition

2010-01-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

As the Raid Turns, So do the DPS of our Lives

Hi My name is Jinx Deluna, luckily I know Alas in real life and spend many moments in front of her desk going over whatever raid we've been in or whatever is on my mind. She usually has a kind word to say, gives the pep talk and life is good for me. Well it has been Christmas break, days off sick, and I haven't gotten my Alas time in a few weeks. Then the cookie began to crumble for me and I was getting close to hanging up my raiding keyboard for a simple questing life somewhere else. I had the opportunity to talk to her today and well my mind has been put at ease, to a degree and here's what was going down.

So several nights ago, we are hitting new areas of Ulduar for our guild and I find myself eating pavement as 9 other people killed the boss with joy in their voices and a dead druid on the ground. Three times this happened, once ok, twice ugh, the third time, I see a pattern here. In order for the raid to kill the boss, Jinx must kiss the ground and watch as her buddies take down that boss that we've been struggling over. Dude, I'll take one for the team but my mind says, “You're not good enough, your dps sucks anyway and if someone else had died you couldn't use your battle res cuz your dead on the ground. What good are you?” Then that other quiet but reasonable voice says, Blame it on the healers! And how many times has Asmod died two nights before? And how many times did Noxy have his own macro by the healers because he died all the time? Ok maybe it's not so bad…maybe…

Then last night OMG everything hit like a brick. First Noxy is sick and I'm at his house trying to take care of a runny nose, fever running, sick boyfriend and his only wish, “Please go to the raid and have fun, it's ok, really.” I roll my eyes fine, I'll go.

I show up early as usual, do a few dailies, and notice from the FU that I'm not in a channel that Alas has, I join it through the FU and type: So, where are we headed tonight? It didn't show up. I typed it a second time and again, it didn't appear. Fine, I checked my settings and it doesn't show up that I'm a part of this channel WTF? Check it off and ask a third time, So, where are we going night? What I didn't realize was that Alas did see it post and answered and just because my chat window didn't show it, hers was. No one tried whispers or anything to clarify, so what's up with her snarky remark that I did see? “What about my post Jinxy” or something to that effect. What post? Oh the Kiss My Alas page, went back found the post, it reads something to the effect of things that piss me off: “when someone asks hours before raid where were going.” It wasn't hours, it was 30 minutes. I want to feel useful, like I'm contributing something, so, now I'm pissed and trying to figure out what I've done wrong to get a snarky remark.

(Note from Alas: I feel bad about about that, but it's also sort of funny in a comedy of errors sort of way)

Then from there it went downhill. Tanks pulled agro without a raid leader designating where ranged DPS is supposed to watch, a pally ran out of mana asking for innervate - what if I needed it, get your own damn mana, I don't care if you are the tank and are you using Divine Plea, oh wait, I'm almost full, fine, have the damn thing. (Remember, I'm already pissed and normally this doesn't bother me in the least). Then add almost wiping on a trash pull because people weren't gathered on the stairs and the biggest thing Star or X? Which one dies first? I don't want to ask on each pull which mob has to die first, why can't we use skull and X…EVERYONE else in the game does. So I watch the health bars and see our DPS is split. WTF can we have a little bit of freaking consistency here, is that too much to ask? Please?

(Note from Alas: Bad raid leader is bad. Since it was only the weekly [XT-002], I was being lax. Thought that surely people had a handle on what to kill, when. But Jinx is right. There is not a lot of consistency since the star mark is only for what a certain person is tanking and doesn't signal anything other than that. Sometimes we need to take down the starred mob first, sometimes it's the X. We're going to have to switch back to skull, X or simply say that star = skull so it has to go down first, I don't give a damn who is tanking the mob.)

So I vent this out at Alas's desk today with most of the day to cool off and I am actually finding the humor in it, I also found some truth. We need the consistency in raids, people need to know where they are supposed to stand or what is expected. I don't need the mechanics of the fight but tell me which adds to watch for, folks need to make sure the healers have mana, and for goodness sakes what is a damn ready check for? *smile* OH I get it, just for shits and grins? LOL…one last thing: WHO DIES FIRST?

We have an awesome team of folks that raid. I do enjoy the game and raiding. I fuss over my DPS like it is an only child and feel that everyone is watching Jinx and asking, Why does she get to come to raids, her DPS is the shit. In reality It's not horrible since I'm a hybrid but everyone else pulls 3500 to 6000 and I'm pulling 2700 to 4000. I feel so inadequate sometimes. I leaned over Alas's desk and said, “But my dick isn't big enough”. She leans in and says, “But it's a hybrid dick…it is ok.”

Fine, I'll take care of the sick boyfriend until he's recovered, then I'll belly back up to the raiding bar again and take my hybrid dick and kill what I can kill and not fret over the other stuff. …Well, I'll still fret because it is my OCD but hopefully I will not let the mind chatter muddy the waters.

Jinx

Note from Alas: And here we are, letting this site be a place to rant. For the record, other guildies who come here, you all can guest post any time. It makes me lol and helps me learn what's important to you and why.

I like to worry in advance

2010-01-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Because that's also how I roll.

There was some discussion in the officer's channel last night about people asking about raiding, saying they wanted to. Which, you know, great. But also, I feel as though we're looking down the barrel of a gun that's about to go off.

Between various websites and discussions, I've counted up several raiders potentially coming back soon. Several of them are excellent and I look forward to getting a chance to raid with them again. The others, meh, they've been at the center of some drama (of the mild, loot/raid spot variety) more than once. Or they've been really lazy about small requirements, like signing up at the guild forums and reading and agreeing to the raid rules. Also, they're mostly dps. DPS. We don't need more dps.

At the same time, Azzah is coming back. Which, yes, I told him to because I wanted some totems to make sweet, sweet love to, and he's an excellent healer. But along with him comes another dps. A warlock. It used to be that I would murder for ranged dps since we had about 3 billion DKs all wanting to raid like thisismynewmainlol! Now I have one rogue. And 3 billion ranged with more wanting to come back. And people running heroics to gear up and thinking gear = all I need and since they just pug the hell out of things I have never once run with them and I don't know that they have actual skill which is pretty damned important to me.

All of which is to say, yeah, woo, we have like 5-7 people back or threatening to start raiding or come back to the game and they're all going to want to get in on ICC raids and I can't blame them for that. But I don't see giving up my spot or asking anyone else to do the same when we have been the ones working at this for months and months and there every week learning the fight and gearing up before it was all badge purchasable.

I guess I wish Blizz would stop making gear so easy to get because gear doesn't say anything any more about skill. And no, I don't think I'm some elite awesome player. But I know my class and I pull down decent numbers and I have been consistent.

And I don't want to, in the coming weeks, have this perfect, delicate balance that we've finally achieved overthrown by a bunch of fair-weather raiders coming along, buying the gear and expecting to be able to go at the expense of someone who deserves it more. We are not, in all likelihood, going to end up with enough people to man even two full 10-man raiding teams, let alone one 25-man. So there is the very real possibility that within a month, I'm going to be sitting 5-6 people out every night and all I can tell them is:

Team balance first, the appropriate number of tanks, heals and dps and past that it's first come, first serve.

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing, but I don't like the way this is looming on the horizon.

No rants today

2010-01-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Not from this quarter anyway. Working on Emergent. Two versions of the first part of chapter one over there.

Monday magery (in which I try to actually be helpful)

2010-01-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

Last week, I saw a cry for help in Twitter for good mage resources. Since I love mages, my immediate thought was: Ooh, I could help! But as it turns out, the only things I've really written about mages were either senseless lists encouraging other people to be jerks or angst at Blizz for consistently giving us crappy changes in the patches and trivializing us to the point of being good for int, focus magic and food.

Anyhow, Miss Bubbles found something else and mentioned it and I Googled it to see what she had discovered. As I started reading through the guide, my instant response was no no no nonononononononono!

Wherefore doth every mage advice giver say "Level frost!"? That advice is shit, so I figured it was up to me to provide an alternate viewpoint in the sea of frost-loving tards to say, bravely and with great conviction, don't go frost. Go fire. Or arcane. But don't go frost.

And here's why - frost is lame. The only thing it is good for is survivability in PvP or PvP-esque encounters (looking at you faction champs!). Aside from that, it is painful and lame and I will mock you should I ever PUG an instance with you. Hard core and behind your back. Because that's how I roll.

So here, from 10-80, is the way I would spend those precious talent points and why.

Levels 1-9

Ha! You don't get talents! You do get the basics of your toolbox though.

Spells to watch for: You get all the bare basics here. Food, water, int, fireballs and frostbolts. You'll also get your first armor, Frost Armor, and sorry, you're stuck with it for a while. Polymorph also comes into play and both can be life savers so make sure they're very available.

Level 10-20

This is going to sound a little 'backards,' but I strongly advise putting the first 11 points into the frost tree. This is because Blizz is making an obvious attempt to steer people into the frost tree and gives mostly frost-based spells for the first several levels. Like many other classes, mages aren't actually any fun until about level 20 or so. Thank God they've tweaked the mana regen issues too, because the water they let you make is crap. Anyhow, you can't go wrong with Precision and Icy Veins is an absolute must. So the first three points should go into Ice Floes to reduce that CD for when you get Icy Veins. As soon as you do, abandon the frost tree with all haste. Unless you want to go frostfire at end game, there's never any good reason to put another point in there. Also as soon as you get Icy Veins, macro that sucker to whatever spell it is you choose to spam.

Spells to watch for: You get a few AoE abilities through here - Flamestrike and Arcane Explosion. Slow Fall is nice, especially when you glyph for it. Blink is your friend in sticky situations, use it with Frost Nova for a quick escape before following up with a Blizzard AoE. Evocation can cut down on drink time so use it whenever you can between pulls.

Level 21-30 Fire

I switched between arcane and fire while leveling Alas, and loved each one fairly equally. In this guide, I will focus on fire only since I do tend to recommend to guild-mates that they go fire just because it's so damn much fun. There's a lot of nice stuff to be had, even at the bottom of the tree (or top depending on how you like to look at it. I call it the bottom because it's the first stuff you get...). In fact, there is so much nice stuff that I often have problems advising people on what to pick up first. I try to lean more towards what I feel would be useful for leveling, rather than what you'll absolutely want to have for the raiding scene. Since the lower levels are pretty spammy with with the same spell over and over, I am recommending Improved Fireball, followed by Ignite for the DoT effect.

Spells to watch for: You get Scorch, Counterspell and Ice Block here. Use Scorch with wild abandon in your rotation and counterspell is great for bringing casters into melee range when running with a tank. Ice Block is another life saver if you overpull and there's someone around to help you out. If you're alone, you're just postponing squishy, squishy death. Mana gems also start here and they are delightful to use during pulls so you don't have to stop mid-fight for Evocation.

Level 31-40 Fire

This is about the level range you get to start picking up some more interesting stuff. Although I have filled out a few more things in the second tier, you'll want to go ahead and pick up Pyroblast first. This is a terrific (long cast) spell to start a fight with, especially when it crits. World of Flames will improve that crit chance and then Flame Throwing will increase the distance the mob has to run to reach you. Improved Scorch is handy for having a nice quick spell to toss on a mob that will add an extra DoT. About this point, you should be able to effectively kill most single targets before they reach you.

Spells to watch for: You get Mage Armor! Yay! Start using it immediately. That's it, unless you think portals are an exciting spell to watch for.

Level 41-50 Fire

If you're having any sort of mana problems, you'll want to drop your next few points immediately into Master of Elements to finish filling that out. Otherwise, I would start with Critical Mass and Blast Wave before going back and filling MoE in. You then have several options, all of them good, for where to drop the last four. I would pick up Improved Fire Blast from the bottom of the tree and then grab a few points in Incineration.

Spells to watch for: You get jack diddly through here. No really. More upranks of stuff you have but nothing new to speak of.

Level 51-60 Fire

As soon as you hit level 51, grab Combustion and then add that sucker to your macro with Icy Veins. Then fill out Pyromaniac before darting back up to fill out Incineration and then grab all 5 points in Fire Power. In many ways, this is where the points get harder to place because there is so much lovely stuff and so few points to actually spend.

Spells to watch for: You get jack diddly through here. Except that Arcane Brilliance is nice for having to mass buff parties/raids.

Level 61-70 Fire

There are lots of leveling goodies to pick up here. Start with filling up Hot Streak because there is nothing more wonderful than an instant cast Pyroblast after a pair of crits. Dragons Breath, Firestarter and Empowered Fire are all well worth the points, particularly if you are running a lot of dungeons with mass AoE pulls. Dragon's Breath is a point I have a love/hate relationship with, because I strongly feel that mobs shouldn't be close enough to have to use that. However, I have been known to pretend to be a melee mage so I could combine that with Firestarter and instant Flamestrike goodness. If you are doing a lot of AoE/close-to-the-mobs-damage, it is probably worth it to glyph to get rid of the knockback on on Blast Wave to keep everything in your flamestrikes. You'll also want to backtrack again to pick up a point in Molten Shields. Molten Armor becomes available at very long last at level 62 and you will want to rock that like there's no tomorrow as soon as you get it.

Spells to watch for: Molten Armor! Invisibility! Tables of food! Spellsteal can also be tons of fun - you'll soon learn which mobs have nice things to take for your own.

Level 71-80 Fire (leveling)

There are two paths to take at this point. One is to keep the fun leveling talents that you'll kiss goodbye come raiding because again, all of this has been a leveling spec and won't net you much but anger from tanks come raid time (I myself nearly got killed back in TK: The Eye for using Blast Wave with the knockback because an irate tank thought he needed to have mobs close to hit them and get aggro). Anyhow, round out the rest of the tree by getting Burnout, Living Bomb (more AoE fun and happiness) and that last point in Molten Shields. After that, you have three points left. I've seen many mages put them into Arcane Focus for the +hit. But you might also consider dropping them in Playing with Fire.

Spells to watch for: You get to ditch making food and water separately through here, as well as pick up frostfire bolt at long last (that would be the time to switch to the raid spec, btw). At 80 you get Larry, Curly and Moe, your very own three stooges, who are pretty stupid but are a nice way to drop threat when some big ugly comes after you.

Level 71-80 (prep for raiding)

If you're looking to raid, you'll want to respec right around 75, although it could certainly be held off longer. However, you will likely want to give yourself a few levels to adjust to the different play style, because it is different. If you want the cookie-cutter spec, go hit up talentchic.com or something. If you want the Alas frostfire raiding spec, click the link above. Mine is basically the cookie cutter version with a tweak that I personally refuse to live without; namely, ditching Molten Fury in order to keep the two points in Molten Shields. I think I understand the mindset behind putting points into something that boosts damage against targets with less than 35% health given the many, many bosses that enrage or get really difficult towards the end of their life spans. However, increasing overall crit all the time makes more sense to me for a build that relies so heavily upon crit.

This is all turning out to be much longer than I anticipated, so I'll add something else later about glyphs, stats and rotations in another post. In the meantime, enjoy and stay away from frost.

The fine line of douchebaggery: A How To

2010-01-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

We had someone quit the guild the other day, taking his main to go heal for a family's members guild. "No hard feelings," he said.

And I don't have hard feelings, per se. But I do find myself rather frustrated with him because this is something like the third or fourth time he's quit. And I find myself frustrated with us as guild leadership because we're the ones who kept allowing him to come back. Granted, the first few times he cycled out the door, it was during times of high stress and drama. I often want to quit the guild during those times too, so I can understand it to a point. Still, he's burned his last bridge with us and here's why:

I hate giving loot to people who prove to me over and over again that all they're going to do is walk away later.

At this point, I wouldn't invite him to a raid if we were a dps short and it was a choice between his skills and a new 80 who thinks that it's a great idea to be a fire specced mage and only cast frost spells (saw that in a pug, trufax).

But rather than focusing on our own stupid for allowing him to use us over and over again, I present a short list of easy ways to ensure a guild will never want you back, not ever, but still have to say, "It's not that he was a douche, really, but..."

1. Never shut up. Ever

The trick to this one, of course, is to make sure that you keep everything light and friendly and clean. That way no one can actually complain that you're rude or crass, but your constant stream of chatter will make people want to put you on ignore at the very least. To carry this beyond a simple stream of chatter, consider carrying your chat over to vent, particularly when people are trying to raid or make it visually unappealing if you're working only with text, like so:

hey gais!
so i waz wondrin
?
hav u evr liek
thot about bein liek
relly ur caracter
?

End result: When you move on, people will say "It's not that he was a douche, really, but he wouldn't ever shut up."

2. Be just a little dim-witted

I don't know about anyone else, but I personally despise that one person who asks the same questions over and over. Not because they're not getting a response or a real answer, but because they can't remember from one week to another what exactly they have to look out for on a certain encounter or just how to get from IF to SW without bugging a mage about it (yeah, that tram is so difficult to remember and even harder to find since you have push through a magic barrier to find Platform 9 and 3/4).

End result: When you move on, people will say "It's not that he was a douche, really, but he was just so stupid."

3. Offer unsolicited critiques on your guild-mates' builds, rotations, glyphs and enchants

After all, your mage is a level one bank toon, surely you know more about to play that class then the level 80 who has been playing it for years, because you're fairly certain that they're not really literate and couldn't possibly be smart enough to look at sites like Elitist Jerks on their own initiative. Even if they say they have, chances are they were overwhelmed by the math and big words and still don't really know what's going on. You've heard them button mashing often enough over vent to have a pretty good notion that all they do is slam their face against the keyboard. Give everyone your ideas on how they might improve and then talk loftily about fictitious alts of yours (on other servers and they're maxed out on everything so you're bored with them, lol ) and how much better DPS you're able to pull using your ideas.

Caution: You have to make sure your tone comes across as friendly and helpful. Any hint of condescension will result in people thinking you're a douche.

End result: When you move on, people will say "It's not that he was a douche, really, but he was such a know-it-all."

4. Be that guy above and still constantly be the first to die in raids because you're too fucking stupid to get outta the fire!

'Nuff said.

End result: When you move on, people will say "It's not that he was a douche, really, but he thought he knew everything and was such a noob he couldn't stay alive in raids for more than a minute."

5. Give off the faint impression that you believe the rest of the guild is there to serve you

This one is perhaps the most tricky of all to master. As with the rest of these, the key is tone, but equally important is frequency. If you're constantly spamming for help, hints, run-throughs or invitations to parties, your guild will clue in pretty quickly. There are a few ways to handle this. One is to just never say anything much, but whenever you do type in guild chat make it a request. Don't be rude but don't be too gracious either. You can get away with more frequent requests if you make sure to watch who is online and who is off and try to catch different segments of guild at different times.

The other way to finesse this is to offer help about once for every five to ten times you get a run through. Honestly, not many people will keep a running tally or anything, so just as long as you appear to be helpful they won't notice that you're really just sponging off the guild and have been for months. Times to offer help are right around when you know people are going to be logging off for the night or just before most of the guild is heading into a raid. Sure you might occasionally get burned by employing this method and end up having to actually give someone's alt a run through SM, but you can also manufacture emergencies if this happens and get out of it early.

End result: When you move on, people will say "It's not that he was a douche, really, but he was just so needy."

Weekly raid and me

2010-01-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

I love me some weekly raid, generally speaking. So far, everything that has come up has been excessively easy to get to and to pwn.

Then yesterday, the thing I had dreaded more than anything else happened.

The weekly raid was Malygos. Eee. Oh. Eee. Our nemesis.

I've mentioned before that it should be an easy fight but that people tend to want to give Malygos hugs while they're on their dragon mounts or not give the tank time to grab aggro on the mobs at the start of phase two or assume that it's everyone else's responsibility to kill those nasty sparks o' doom.

So when I heard from Noxy that the weekly raid was Maly, I started mentally drinking then and there. Had I been not at work, I might have started actually drinking.

Raid time rolled around and I sent out invites and we got everyone summoned out to Colderra. Then I kicked everyone out of the raid, yelled "psyche!" over vent and gquit.

Okay, not really. I did tell everyone to split into two teams though, and that we were going to practice our dragon skills while doing the daily quest Aces High! The healers practiced their healing and the dps practiced their button mashing and every now and again I would bark out "move!" and people would practice strafing to the right. It was delightful, sort of like being in Kindergarten and practicing drawing circles when you know you and all the people with you should be at least at a college equivalent level.

Once both teams had completed the daily we reformed into a raid group and headed in.

The first phase went well enough. Although we didn't manage to actually stack any sparks and in fact killed one before it even reached the platform so that it fell uselessly into the abyss, at least we managed to kill them rather than let them reach Maly. The second phase also went well enough. The two hunter's pets decided to kill the mob that the tank wasn't working on but that was sorted out and no actual raiders were harmed in the process. We also saw our melee dps get up on the discs first, rather than some random healer.

We hit the third phase with just under 4 minutes before enrage and...

...everything worked like a dream. The healers healed and absolutely no one crashed and burned. When I told people to group back up, they did. When I told them to move, there was not a 5 second delay before they did. We one shot Maly with time to spare. Some people even managed to obtain the heart thinger they needed for the quest from the key from when they got that a year or so ago killing Saph. Other people finally obtained their "Champion of the Frozen Wastes" title.

Then we went and kicked Ony's ass and it was very good.

It gives me hope that we'll maybe someday manage to find the time to go finish out the back half of Ulduar. I know we're all capable raiders. The trick is getting everyone to pay attention and understand what exactly they should be doing and when.

Low level PUGs can kiss my ass!

2009-12-31T16:04:00.000-08:00

At and I have been ignoring our horde side lowbies for a while but decided to put them through their paces today. We decided to run a few instances, swapping out on toons so I could pally tank with his priest heals and he could druid tank with my shaman heals. We ran two different dungeons on each pair, making for a total of four less than awesome experiences.

On the first run, where we were in SFK and I was tanking, I pretty much right off the bat had to tell the hunter with us that he better let me pull because I would, by God, let him die. Just to prove it, I calmly sipped my water and told At not to heal the douche and oh, what do you know, he died. As soon as the 15 minute timer was up, he left before I could vote to kick. The other person from his guild followed. We managed to pick up one more DPS and 4-manned it the rest of the way through.

Next it was off to BFD, where I had yet another huntard pull without myself or the healer being there. I chastised him as well and, wow, as soon as the timer was up he was gone. Nothing else major happened as soon as our fresh mage caught up with us.

Swapping over to other pair, we ran Deadmines. The run was actually pretty smooth, right up until the end. We pulled Cookie and the healer bailed, along with one dps. I swapped over to healing and fortunately the good dps was still with us and we got Cookie down, plus the 5 or so mobs that got pulled by runners.

Then came WC, and a duo from Ysondre who in turn, insisted on trying to tank even though one was a huntard and one was a balance druid... pulled everything in sight whether I had mana or no... bitched at At if he switched into kitty form for single pulls... rolled need on everything... and eventually both left mid-pull.

Is it just horde that do this? Or is it the low levels? Or was it just bad luck? I've had a jerk or two running on my 40ish hunter and there has been the very occasional retard in the 75-80 range. I took my 60 warrior out for my first ever tanking experience just yesterday and received nothing but kindness from the others in my party.

But there has been nothing like what I experienced today from the randomly assorted dps in the 18-22 range. As much as I hate horde quests at that level, I just might slog though it rather than subject myself to pugging again. Or trade run-throughs with our DK's. That might work, too.

Further incoherence

2009-12-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

Random crap from a tired, hurty mage.

I'm not really into Role Playing. Every time I have logged onto a RP server, I have felt distinctly squicky. There are always far too many people in Goldshire and far too many of those people are wandering around with perfectly matching outfits. They also wander around at a walking speed and I am left wondering how that could be enjoyable in any way, shape or form.

However, if I ever were to take up the RP game, I would do so while at my folks' house during the winter months. I would huddle next to whatever wan scraps of sunshine I could find, my laptop in front of me and putting off a small bit of heat and a lot of smoke, like a fire made from wet wood. I would shiver in the chilly air (the house is kept right around 30 degrees, honest) and pretend to be in Northrend. My character would spend all her time sitting in a snow drift and bitching about how cold it is all the time and damn, she should have just stayed in Goldshire for the holidays, even if it is a backwater little town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. At night, I would park her in a coffin somewhere to get some sleep so she, too, could complain about how horrible it is to be away from one's bed and how much it makes one's back hurt.

Gah. I think I am getting old.

In other news, I created a place to post excerpts of the aforementioned book. However, nothing is there yet because I keep erasing the first paragraph and mumbling incoherent words of rage at the keyboard and monitor, as though either of those things were responsible for the fact that I just can't seem to get going.

And I am ignoring work, wondering why the clock seems to have stopped moving, and contemplating the idea of calling in "sick" tomorrow.

Anyone else bored yet? Yes? Welcome to my life.

Hi, my name is Alas

2009-12-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

...and I am a WoW addict.

It's been five days since the last time I logged in.

I miss my guildies and the game. Gotta get another fix here soon.

AFK for the holidays

2009-12-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! Here is my gift to you:

More actual google talk conversations that I was not in

2009-12-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Azzy: Not raiding

Oh that reminds me
They were talking about a boobie run to naxx tonight
Er
Noobie run

Elfy: lol, nice

Azzy: N and b are the same key on this keyboard

Elfy: right, or it was a Freudian slip

Azzy: I would top honestly
Lol
Topless naxx woooooooo

Elfy: i don't want to go if it's a noobie run, was interested in the boobie run
i have no noobies that can go

____________________________________

Me: Hahahaha

boobie run

Epic

Observation

2009-12-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

It's ridiculously difficult to start a novel that begins with a stormy night and not come across completely cliche all "It was a dark and stormy night."

So, um... "It had been a long day, made longer by a heavy and persistent drizzle that trailed through [] Valley."

Err, hum... buh?

Random stuff

2009-12-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

Today's post brought to you by a combination of a poor night's sleep and the fact that I often can't focus on anything for more than a minute.

Open letter to guildies who read this blog

Hai guys:

I rant here. I blow off steam. It's what I do to say a little more sane. Don't take anything here too seriously or personally, mkay? If I have a specific problem with a specific person, I'll put on my big girl panties and come talk to you directly. If I'm able to get the crazy out here in advance, well, that just means that it won't be so bad for you if I should ever have to have that one-on-one talk. There's a reason I didn't just put an open link to here when I mentioned I was writing about y'all. This isn't a formal place for me to talk like the forums are and should not be taken as omg srs bzns.

Love,

Alas

=====

On the flip side of that, if you want some tips on things to not do so you don't irritate me into a rant, here's a small list:

Alas gets irritated if you:

Freak out over vent because you're dying
Attempt to call out instructions when you're not the damned raid leader
Point out the bloody obvious like I'm too damn stupid to know that tanks need healing

I mean, seriously, no shit? I thought healers were there for looks

Decide to blow your special abilities or call for someone else to do so (see prior post)
Think you're somehow more special than anyone else in the guild and can bring whatever alt you choose to a raid (see prior posts)
Don't laugh at my stupid jokes
Talk over me when I am trying to distribute loot
Ask me hours before the raid starts what we're doing on a quickie night. How would I know? There are factors that can throw the best laid plans into utter disarray
Settle. Guess what? No one ever reaches a point with their main character where they can shrug and stop trying to be better
Don't sign up and then act offended when you don't get to go
Sign up at the last minute and then act offended when you don't get to go
Pretend to not understand the basic building blocks of raid composition and act offended if you don't get to go
Tell me over and over that we need to get an alt run together for the weekly raid. What prevents you from organizing that?
Give me ultimatums. I piss on your ultimatums

I could go on, but I did say it would be a small list.

=====

I saw Avatar this weekend. It was awesome and you should go see it also. They have Nagrand! That is all.

=====

I'mma start work on Emergent, which will be a full length fantasy novel. I'll prolly want readers for constructive feedback and I am considering making a whole other area on the interwebs to post excerpts. Thoughts?

Open letter to raiders

2009-12-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Dear, dear raiders.

What the hell?

I am not the raid leader because I love to hear myself talk all night long. Nor do I take it on just to abuse raid warnings and other specially colored text. I also don't get any perks from being the raid leader. If you think being loot master is fun, try doing it sometime when people won't shut. up. in vent while you're trying to talk about what's on the block.

I am the raid leader because I'm practiced at being aware of what is going on throughout the raid and not just in my own little bubble. You think that's easy? Try it sometime. I dare you. Try to call the twins sometime and say everything you have to say at the right time in the right way so that no one else gets confused and takes out the rest of the goddamn raid. Just make sure you try it when I'm not there, because frankly, I see a lot of death.

On top of being able to call out what's about to happen and what people should be avoiding/dispelling/targeting/controlling/hitting/buffing/whatever-the-fuck-else-everying, I am also keeping an eye on such factors as, oh, I dunno, how many people are still up. How far the boss has been burned. Who is kissing the floor, if anyone is. Whether or not we're about to hit a phase where we're going to need big DPS or heals or both. And on and on and on.

Do I get it perfect all the time? Hell no.

But here's the rub for me, after the last few nights: I certainly can't do my job if you all won't stop making decisions on your own. Did I call for a battle rez? No? Then don't do it. How about that heroism? I don't remember saying hey, let's blow heroism right now instead of saving it for later when that other guy over there is going to gain additional abilities. Did I determine the attempt was a wipe? No? Then why the fuck did you DI the tank and take yourself, as a healer, out of action?

If you think you can do a better job of raid leading, by all means, let me know and I'll step back and let you try it. But if you just think that your toolbox is your own and how you use your abilities is a decision that affects only you, think again, dammit. And then shut the hell up so I can communicate what I need to without wading through static and calling for something that isn't available because you decided to waste it two minutes ago.

I would really, really fucking appreciate that.

Love,

Alas

Further thoughts on fire magery

2009-12-17T20:34:00.001-08:00

Fuck you. I'm going back to arcane.

Thoughts on fire magery

2009-12-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

I got to looking a little bit more long and hard at my gear, gems and stats last week. I'm not sure what triggered that, other than suddenly obtaining something like five new upgrades all at once and subsequently realizing that - Sweet Fancy Moses - I have a lot of hit. No really. Tons. More than anyone needs.

Without bothering to put a whole lot of thought into it initially, I respecced fire. The next day, it occurred to me that I might want to put a little more research into the whole spec changing thing. It's been some time since I was fire - like about a year - and there had been a lot of changes I only half-heartedly kept up with since my focus was on wringing everything I could out of arcane. So I cruised by EJ, talentchic and a random smattering of articles turned up by a Google search. I hadn't misplaced too many points, but there were a few that I thought I should change over. Naturally, I went to respec again and farked up one point so a third outlay of gold later, I was finally happy with my build.

Of course, now that I am writing this, I am contemplating the virtues of dumping Precision and putting some points elsewhere, since I do not at all need the hit. Good thing I have money to burn.

Anyhow, I ran some 5 mans to try to get used to the rotation again and ended up doing a lot of stupid stuff in the process. Hell, I was blinking when I meant to be casting a pyro last night - still! - so it's not like I've really got it all down just yet. (What kills me is that it's not like I've moved blink from its keybinding, so there's no real reason for me to make that mistake as often as I do.)

But last night was meant to be the real test of my dps output since last night was the first time I would get to raid since my respec.

So, naturally, the weekly raid was Flame Leviathan. On the plus side, I suggested we leave Freya's tower up, along with Thorim's, thinking that we had downed that stupid piece of metal with two towers still up. Turns out we hadn't, so there were achievements all around, plus a nice epic tailoring pattern that went to me.

With enough time left to run Ony, we put up a portal to Theramore, swapped some people around to get three heals, and headed down.

It was a very sloppy run, and thanks to me being a dumbass, I died on the second deep breath. Still, while I was alive, I wasn't completely displeased with my output.

There do seem to be a few bugs to work out there. Despite the fact that I had something like 50 iterations of on my screen, I didn't actually get the instant pyro and kept getting hung up on the cast timer, jumping out of it and trying again. But Living Bomb on as many whelps as I could tab to before the bombs all started exploding? Yes, please! I'll have some more! I am looking forward to further experiments with dps output next raid night.

In the meantime, I'm on an addons hunt. Hoping there's something out there like "Shock and Awe" for mages. Anyone know of anything that's specific to fire mages that is a must have?

Actual gtalk conversation

2009-12-15T14:03:00.000-08:00

Noxy: ok.. i'll do that tomorrow. for now i have an epic raid on the Sinkfullodishes

Alas: Good luck with that one

I hear it's a bitch and there's no good loots

Noxy: yeah

and to make it interesting, the dishwasher gquit

Alas: Oh, man, what a jerk

Noxy: well.. no. not true. he didn't server xfer with the rest of us

Alas: Think he might be convinced? Will you have to throw money at him?

Noxy: idk.. maybe. been eying one in lfg for a while

Alas: Might be best to get a new one - those former quitters have no loyalty

Noxy: true story. on that note.. imma go see if i can down that boos :)

Alas: booze?

Noxy: maybe that too

Alas: Woot

See ya later

Noxy: see ya

Alas: ps- this is going on the blog like right now

Le sigh

2009-12-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

No sooner do I get done enumerating some of the good qualities of my guildies and then I have to be the bad guy. In truth, I might have acted a bit precipitously, but I think the end result was going to be the same and so perhaps I have only saved myself some headache down the road. Not much point in speculating, I suppose, as there will never be a way to know.

Without going into specifics, I ended up stripping someone of their raider rank. So far as I know, they have not logged on since. The conversation we'll have whenever that does happen is one of those talks I mentioned that I do not like having.

Ugh.

On the heels of that, I was minding my own business, fiddling with the calendar and I noticed that there was suddenly a person missing from every scheduled raid. I combed through the calendar and then the guild roster and then poked at the officers to double check and make sure I hadn't missed something.

And, sure enough, another one of my snowflakes was just... gone. There were no /gquits in the log (which has suddenly filled with "Alas has demoted" messages, most of them playful demotions because an officer was making fun of me) and so I went to Armory and.... nothing.

All we can do is speculate on what happened. Did she delete her character? Change names and servers? Was she hacked? All her alts were demoted for safety's sake and it gave me one more thing to sigh about, because she was a healer, even if not the most reliable person in the world.

Between those two aforementioned things and the fact that one of my husband/wife healing teams may not be able to afford their subscription fees until he can find work, we are looking very, very slim. I don't particularly want to pug and I hate recruiting and most of the healers we have currently are... not raiding. Or playing.

I am trying not to stress over it too much and might need to just gracefully accept that raiding is going to be spotty at best as we head into the holiday season. Once I make it to the new year, I'll be sure to reevaluate where we seem to stand and then do whatever needs to be done. Even if that means clubbing my real life friends over their heads come New Years and tell them that I have resolved that they get back to the game and their mains and not flake out on me within three weeks like they've done the last few times. Or, you know, recruiting.

A step away from QQ

2009-12-12T06:25:00.000-08:00

Looking over my past several posts, I am realizing that I've spent quite a bit of time talking about problems and hardships that come along with the whole leadership thing, whether that's on the guild front or the raid front.

Part of the reason is that I do tend to put my problems out there "on paper" to keep them from taking up too much of my mental processes. A purge, if you will, of emotions and thoughts so that they don't become my main focus. I love this game and my guild mates too much to want a repeat of last August, which is when I took a break from WoW for a month, cold turkey, and in the midst of quite the emo hissy fit - one that had been building for months and me with no outlet for it as the pressure increased.

So, yes, this is a place for me to blow off steam and that's valuable and good.

But it should also be a place for me to catalog all the good and wonderful and fantastic times I have nearly every day with this group of people who has become a second family to me. Sure, there's the occasional bratty cousin that needs to have his nose punched in, but by and large, these are great people and I wouldn't trade most of them for all the shiny gold and titles and achievement points in the game. Here are some reasons they are so great:

They're generous. With their time, with their assistance, with their listening ears and sympathy. I've even seen many of them be generous with their gold.

They're funny. I seriously need to get better at capturing screenshots of some of the hilarious crap they come up with in chat. And perhaps start recording them in Vent?

They're genuine. There's really not a whole lot of tip-toeing around the bush with these people. If they think I am acting like a snob, they'll ask me what I've got stuck up my butt. I've returned the favor a few times. There's no pretense in their concern that our relationship is intact and they've been honest when I've approached them over similar issues.

They're smart. Really smart. Many of them work in IT or IT-related fields. Since I fell into the same area by some stupid fluke (I honestly don't know much about computers and their mysterious inner workings), they have patiently put up with my "Hey, stupid question..." pokes in the middle of our workdays. I have also learned a lot about managing people and being more effective in my communication from folks who do those things for a living.

They care. We've talked about everything from bad dates to family issues to jobs we hate and people who have insulted us. These conversations will often get referenced back to at some point or another, proving that they remember and they care enough to ask how a specific situation is going.

They make sure we all stay humble. Honestly, I sometimes think they have done more to keep my massive ego in check than what is really needful. There is a daily exchange of good-natured jabs and pokes that we can all laugh about. I'll go out of my way to share 'nub moments' with them just because it's so much more fun to laugh at myself with someone else.

They are patient. Duuuude, are they patient. They let me talk, lead raids, boss people around, fail tank, fail heal, and occasionally fail dps (I like to think I don't normally fail at dps, but I'm sure I've had my moments). They wade through the mountains of crap I post to the forums and several of them even wade through this and comment here and in gchat and in game. I fail and flail a lot - more so when I've had a bit to drink, which may or may not happen often - and they put up with it all and even, sometimes, tell me I'm doing a good job.

Those are just a few reasons I love them. I might have to do this again after another string of "But leadering is haaaaaard work! Why doesn't anyone get that?" self-indulgent crap. Because I'm pretty sure that they do get it and will continue to be awesome about it.

In which I show my gooey center

2009-12-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

I really dislike confrontation.

Oh, I'll rage at other people on the road all day long (I have to, living here) and will occasionally get so worked up that I might shoot someone the bird and/or honk and them and gesture as wildly as though I, like At, were three parts Italian. I'll also keep up a running commentary out of Vent while raiding. So far, I don't think I've tripped up and hit that PPT key while doing so (unlike certain other people). We haven't yet begun to scratch the surface of the scathing venting I might pour out here, depending on whether or not I get pushed into it.

But when it comes to putting on my Co-GM hat and actually having to sit down with someone to discuss issues? Oh, I loath it. I will put it off as long as I possibly can, all the while knowing that it probably won't be so bad and I should just do it. Usually, I am correct, and it's not that bad.

I do end up with a bad taste in my mouth though, nearly every time. Because when it comes to that sit down, I aim for firm but not mean and end up waffling right on over to soft. I am so eager to not be a jerk that I will often say my piece half-apologetically. And honestly, why? The person I am talking to screwed up and should be able to take a correction. If they can't and get huffy about it - well, why should I want that person in my guild to begin with?

This is all stuff I know and understand from a logical standpoint but the follow-through is decidedly lacking. I am sure I will have plenty of opportunities to practice delivering my piece without coming across as forcefully as a snowflake though.

And in the meantime, dear guildies who read this: If I ever have to sit down and talk to you and I end up sounding like I am sorry for calling you on your shit, please know that somewhere even deeper inside my gooey center, I really mean to shape the fuck up or go DIAF. And if you don't, I will kick you out of my guild and tell every GM of every guild you subsequently join that you are a douche bag who cannot be trusted to follow even the simplest of instructions and they will rue the day they ever picked you up, etc. etc.

Okay, maybe not that exactly, but I really do want everyone to shape the fuck up. Or go die in a fire made up of my burning rage.

Open letter to rule breakers

2009-12-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's me. I am pretty anal. But, seriously, guys, c'mon... is it that hard?

You know what I'm talking about. I mean, I'm going to have to work my way around ranks and spend another how many minutes of my life pissing around with moving people up and down and why? Because you're either too damn stupid to have comprehended the raiding rules (rules that YOU signed and agreed to) that said, "only sign up on your main and we'll bring alts in if we need them," or you are so stupid you already forgot about that or, and most likely in my opinion as far as a few of you go, you think that if you sign up on your alt and decline on your main I'll just somehow forget that I wrote those damn rules and have those rules in place for a reason and won't enforce them.

Well, you're wrong. And I'm pissed off because I can't help but see this as pure selfishness on your part. Oh, your one character already got all the loot you can get off this fight? So what? I'm supposed to agree that it's fair for nine other people to have to carry you? Or rearrange what other people can bring based off your different role you think you can just assume? I'm supposed to pat you on the head and give you gear at the expense of someone else's main just because you think, in your mind, that you can have two mains? Or three? Or four?

I don't think so. I really do not.

So now you don't even get the option. Enjoy that.

Patch 3.3

2009-12-08T07:22:00.000-08:00

So, here are some highlights and lowlights -

Icecrown Citadel
All three wings of the 5-player dungeon are currently available for testing.
Select encounters in the 10- and 25-player raid dungeon are available for limited testing.
Quel’Delar Quest Chain: The Battered Hilt, the item needed to start this quest line, can now be purchased from all glyph vendors on the public test realms.

Well, yay. I'm so tired of all the old dungeons and I am not even a hardcore badge farmer by any stretch of any imagination. Also, since we made it through ToC at least the one time, that means we're totally ready for Icecrown, right? RIGHT?

Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

IT'S ABOUT TIME.

Area-of-Effect Damage Caps: We’ve redesigned the way area damage is capped when hitting many targets. Instead of a hard cap on total damage done, the game now caps the total damage done at a value equal to the damage the spell would do if it hit 10 targets. In other words, if a spell does 1000 damage to each target, it would hit up to 10 targets for 1000 each, but with more than 10 targets, each target would take 1000 damage divided by the number of targets. 20 targets would be hit for 500 damage each in that example.

NOES. How will I artificially inflate my dps now? Dammit.

Players no longer need to kill the final bosses in all four wings of this dungeon in order to teleport to Sapphiron. Teleportation orbs have been added to allow players access back and forth from Sapphiron's lair.

Oh, like it was that hard. Geeze. I'm a casual and this is too damn easy for my liking.

Arcane changes for Mages
Arcane Empowerment: This talent now also grants 1/2/3% increased damage done by the mage’s party or raid for 10 seconds after the mage gets a critical strike with Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, or Arcane Blast. This effect is exclusive with Ferocious Inspiration and Sanctified Retribution.

....wtf? This is what I get? I get to help the rest of the raid do damage? Do you think that's going to encourage anyone to give me all the pretty +crit loots? Because it is not. So there is no profit for arcane mages in 3.3. Eff you, Blizz. When are you going to give mages something they can sink their teeth into?

Tentative status added for calendar responses.

Well, glory-glory, hallelujah! That wasn't so hard now, was it? When did I suggest that? Oh right, forever ago.

Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.

Oh, Blizz - that's adorable! Seriously, make it more like 500 people to ignore. There are so many idiots and I really don't have any patience for them. At all. Ever.

The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
Argent Crusade
Alliance Vanguard
Horde Expedition
Kirin Tor
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Sons of Hodir
Wyrmrest Accord

Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.

...I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. FUCK YOU TOO.

Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

Never mind. All is forgiven. Are we cool?

I am not even going to touch on the changes to the heroics and looking for raids and all of that. It has been discussed unto death and my only thought about it currently is that it's going to make for some terribad server stability tonight.

Pwned a noob!

2009-12-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

We just one-shot Anub'Arak and it was most of the guild's first time seeing him. It took a little more to work through the faction champions (three tries) and the twins (like, 6 or 7 tries?). I walked away with two upgrades and then went a bit nuts spending badges. So, that's four things to get enchanted and gemmed tomorrow. For now, I am tired and euphoric and hoping I can get some sleep.

Grats to everyone who was there!

How to properly gkick someone

2009-12-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

I got to gkick a douche bag last night, always a fun event. In all actuality, I'm sort of grateful to the guy because it coincided so nicely with the fact that I wanted to talk about gkicking and how to properly do so.

Here's the lead-up to the events of last night. Everyone is hanging about, minding their own business. There's talk about 3.3 and what people plan on doing as soon as it hits and, honestly, I'm not paying too much attention to guild chat because I somehow got suckered into helping out some priest in Nagrand with all their group quests when all I was trying to do was get exalted with the Kurenai. (See prior post re: Whoring, Me)

But then this one guy leaps into the conversation, which is odd in and of itself since he never really says anything to anyone, and hasn't for something like a year. He's been one of those people you wonder why is even in the guild because he gains nothing and contributes nothing, but since he also harms nothing you don't boot him. So to have him suddenly asking whether the next patch was when we were going to get goblins and worgen was... odd, but just brushed it off as him being stupid.

Then real stupid happened. He started to talk about how his account had been 'haked' and he was naked. Several people who had also been hacked before started to give him advice on what to do. His response?

"u all need to give me ur ore so I can make stuff 2nite."

No one hesitated to jump all over that and tell him no. Then someone in officer chat said that he had taken stuff from the guild bank - random crap that no warrior would ever want. I demoted him and sent him a tell, basically telling him that his attitude was not going to fly and he better shape up if he ever wanted to have privileges in the guild again.

"sry" he said.

A few moments later, he sent me another tell, "it wouldn't make me made if you kicked me frm the guild"

I typed out, "It wouldn't make me sad to kick you, either." Then deleted it. No need to be a jerk.

Then one of the other officers had a good idea. It took a few tries but he finally snagged this guy's meandering attention and asked him which character was his main.

"This is," he said.

Which was not true. So, figuring he had been hacked or sold, and not liking his attitude and theft, no matter if it was petty, I kicked him. (names fuzzed because no one in the guild has really given me overt permission to write about them, ha)

(Clicky to embiggen, but the gist of it is there.)

No one exactly cried to see him go.

And for me, I had to contain myself just a little because gkicking is such a fun and heady experience. In fact, it was so fun I had to ask if there was anyone else on who wanted to say something stupid. Everyone jumped at that chance and bam, we were off on politics and Climategate.

How many other people employ the SPARTA method for kicking?

And how many weeks will I have guildies logging in and instantly demanding everyone give them all "ur ore"? Since we still have one officer spamming "anyone wanna run SM" about three months after THAT beggar annoyed the piss outta us, I have the feeling it could be a while.

He crapped his thong, I'm pretty sure

2009-12-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

My husband and I have been dabbling with "the dark side" in recent months. It came from a desire of wanting to see how the other side lives, I guess. Having been Alliance for the whole of our WoW careers, the lure of easier-than-anything transportation coupled with the knowledge that leveling horde side can be like playing a whole new game, we started a handful of alts on another server.

One of the pairs we've started is a Shaman/Druid team. I'm the Shaman, he's the Druid. After ever so slowly trying to make it through what I affectionately refer to as the "shitty levels between 15 and 20," (not to be confused with the "shitty levels between 50-58") we took a break from them for the day, out of rested XP and out of patience (at least on my side) with the crummy dps and the utter laughingstock that Druid "tanking" is at that level.

Faced with a another hour or so of play time before we would have to call it for the night, I asked At what he would like to do. He suggested either our Horde side Death Knights, who are currently slogging their way through Hellfire, or our Alliance side Death Knight and Shaman combo. I am also the Shaman in that combo. Not being much of a fan of playing the Death Knight class, I opted for playing the Shaman.

We're both around level 75 on that pair and running around Grizzly Hills, despite my opinion that it has some of the most painful of any Northrend quests. Of course, a lot of that has been mitigated by having the ability to fly so I'm trying not to whine too much. While out questing, we ended up slaughtering the hell out of some furbolgs (don't get twitchy on me now, Noxy) and in my warped mind (I may have compared LotR to a pug raid once) that ended up translating into something like this:

Random Furlbog: It's a lovely day for a stroll, out here in the snow and the cold mountain air, while I wear nothing other than my handy loincloth/thong. Wait - what's going on just up the hill?

At and Alas: Slaughter! Death grip! Earth shock! Die furlbogs, die! Why is this drop rate so crappy?

Random Furlbog: Oh crap. This again.

At and Alas: *Target the furlbog*

Furlbog vainly attempts to defend himself and the sanctity of his thong. Dies within seconds. Begins the corpse run back from the nearest furlbog graveyard.

Random Furlbog: Stupid Blizz, putting me in this place where I am constantly murdered although I do nothing more than go about my own business. All these stupid elites coming through all the time and tearing through me like I'm no more than a level 25 stuck out in Ashenvale! And then there's my stupid NPC mates. They're all here, they can all see the slaughter whenever it happens. But instead of banding together and giving us a fighting chance, they just pretend they can't see what's happening no more than 10 yards away from them. Unless some level 70 rolls through. Then all of a sudden they're hiding balls under those loincloths! Then all of a sudden you can get a Shaman to throw a heal! Ah, here's my body. No one seems to be around...

At: Death grips the furlbog through a narrow hole in the rickety fence, nearly breaking the furlbog's neck in the process.

Random Furlbog: Aw, shit.

Hello December

2009-12-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's likely a good thing that I don't have an audience to speak of, aside from (I think?) some guildies who know how much I love the comments and yet do not leave them (/eyes Noxy). Still. Bad blogger for leaving a lame ass picture post and then disappearing for a week. I know.

In my defense, it was the holiday and I did have my family over and when I wasn't busy trying not to commit murder I was very busy trying to kill some turkeys. And shoot rogues.

Aside from holiday festivities both in and out of Azeroth, I managed to see New Moon with two dudes, both of whom went willingly. Hell, it wasn't even my idea. Apparently, my friend forgot that the book is pretty much all about Bella hurting and moping and hurting some more and there's not really just a whole lot in the way of action sequences. He spent most of the movie bitching about that and then we all went out to dinner and bitched about the crappy makeup jobs and whatshisname's inability to convey any emotion other than constipated. "I love you, Bella." [/looks constipated] "You're not good for me." [/looks constipated] "You're really alive. I'm so happy." [/looks constipated]

I so did not mean to get off on that tangent.

I meant to talk about my baby toons and what progress they've made. But I find that it bores me to even think about it and surely no one gives a crap that I made it to 10, 20, 33, 40 and 55, plus some headway into 75. Surely no one cares about how my baby huntard made it through three levels before I realized that the heirloom gear was on my shaman and I was running around essentially half-naked except for the useless shirt. And I was out of rested so it was quitting time on that toon anyway.

/looks around

/realizes it's true - no one cares

/quietly leaves

Lazy Wednesday

2009-11-25T08:32:00.001-08:00

Yep, it's Wednesday and the day before Thanksgiving. I stayed up a bit later than I meant to last night, competing with half the damn server for turkeys so I could level cooking on my priesty, who went from 0-320 in about half an hour. Maybe someday she'll be able to help contribute fish feasts at raids!
Anyway, in the spirit of "I am somewhat tired and not feeling at all creative," here are some random screen shots for your viewing pleasure.

When I die, which I am grateful to say is less often these days, I tend to take pictures of whoever is nearby, which is often the healers. I love me some splash AoE healing. What's sad about this picture is it's from when the exploit still existed for Mr. Unclean and I still died anyway.

I am easily amused, which is why I snapped this shot of Thorim drumming his fingertips in midair. You're not on your chair anymore, silly! Oh, and just so you know, we will kill you soon, you big jerk.

I love cool GMs! And yes, my husband really did catch his turtle mount on his first cast. I sort of hate him. A little. Maybe more than that. Look, I'm still working through it, okay?

I have no idea what's going on here, but it looked pretty cool.

This is me being a dork, a not uncommon event. I may have started singing "I can shoooow you the wooorld! Shiiining, shimmmmering, splendid!" My husband may or may not have rolled his eyes at me and started praying furiously that I wouldn't launch into the "Gaston" song from Beauty and the Beast. He really hates that song.

In other news, blogger + pics stinketh greatly and I don't really feel that this ended up being lazy in terms of fiddling with layout efforts. Still totally lazy in the coming up with words department though.

How to mage

2009-11-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

I am one of a very few people in my guild who have a mage as their main. In fact, I have noticed a disturbing trend among my guild mates where the mage class is abused as a bank/ah alt. There might be 50 mages in our guild; most of them are about level 2. My campaign for SHaME (Stop Hating Mages Everyone) will have to wait for another day, though. I am still waiting on 9 other people signing the charter and anyone who has ever been through that particular brand of hell knows exactly how long that could take.

In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to give a few helpful hints on how to properly mage.

Be surly. Everyone seems to think that mages are all about rainbows and unicorns and smiles. Disabuse everyone you can of this notion. We are not around for everyone to lean on for food and drinks, no sir. We are around to kick some ass and take some names.
Stand waaaaaay in the back. This is not because we are afraid of getting hit by the mobs. We just don't want all those idiotic huntards who are supposed to be helping us out instead sticking us with arrows and then doing a /lol /friendlyfire /lol routine.
Make several macros. Unless you're short on space if you have a crappy bar mod. Then simply putting together a one-shot response to all the inane questions you get should go something like this: "/r No, I will not give you food/water/a portal/Focus Magic. I might, however, let you pay me 10g for it." If you have the space, I recommend getting a bit more specific. Make replies such as: "If you're going to ask for a portal it would really be super helpful to tell me both where the hell you are and how much you're willing to pay." Or: "I am not a goddamn vending machine." Note that this will also help you be more surly.
Avoid ever speccing frost. Your dps will blow, people will make fun of you and, honestly, the warlocks and hunters should be taking care of mana replenishment in raids. You have better stuff to do, like own the damage meters.
Assure people that you'll give them ~~levitate~~ slow fall (holy crap, I'm a nub!) before taking a falling shortcut off a cliff or building. Fail to do so and then blame it on the fact that you don't have any light feathers. If they ask you about the minor glyph that takes away the need to use a reagent tell them you have better things to do with your minor glyphs. You don't, of course. But they won't know that because their mage is probably a level 2 bank toon.
If you're raiding and your tank and healers are holding up the show, give things a gentle nudge in the right direction. I like to do this by going invisible, walking into a pack of trash and doing a frost nova/blink combo back towards the raid party. If no one reacts quickly enough to pull the mobs off you, you always have ice block! Everyone you play with, especially other clothies, will be amused at your antics.
Other players will sometimes get a little cranky about their health and mana bars, especially in scenarios like the one I described above. A good thing to keep ready to come back with is reminding them that you have provided them with all the health and mana refills they could possibly need. After all, it's not your fault they run out every other fight.
Get good at sheeping. Get even better at chain sheeping. A fun way to practice is to duel a warrior. You might also want to make a macro for when you sheep since 9 out of every 10 players are too stupid to pay attention to the fact that one of the mobs just got all white and woolly. I suggest threats be used for this macro. I have found "Break my sheep and I'll break your face," to be fairly effective. You might also threaten to withhold buffs, food and portals. Have fun! Be creative!

Those are just some helpful tips to get you started. I'll be back later with some thoughts on the best builds for leveling and some delightful recipes for roasted lamb.

The way I whore

2009-11-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

I am one the hugest dorks I know in real life or otherwise. One of the (many, many) ways in which this dorkdom expresses itself in game is by my racking up achievement points. They are so shiny and worthless, but I love them dearly and will go out of my way to earn them.

Fortunately, I have been able to confine this insanity to my main. The very thought of trying to do it all on all my toons - or even just my 80's - makes me all twitchy. But the insanity has driven me to do lots of things I normally would not do. Like PvP. And Mauradon. And farming those goddamn seasonal bosses for their drops. And fishing. And cooking. And coughing up roughly a bajillion pieces of cloth (even though I have three tailors) to someday finishing cranking out 500 heavy bandaids.

Let's not even get started in on why I have three tailors.

Anyhow, I do have a lot of achievement points. I am closing in on 6000 as of this writing (I like to round up, yo). And there's this tiny little part of me - the part that really stinking loves titles - that wants to get the Insane achievement done. So far, I am resisting mightily, helped in part by my OCD and the fact that I have an even 20 titles right now and a hard enough time trying to pick which one to display.

Which title is your favorite? And wouldn't it be ridiculous if I could display all of mine?

Ambassador, Brewmaster, Chef, Elder, Flame Warden, Loremaster, Matron, Merrymaker Alas, Champion of the Frozen Wastes, Champion of the Naaru, Guardian of Cenarius, Jenkins, the Explorer, the Hallowed, the Love Fool, the Noble, the Seeker, of the Exodar, of Stormwind.

Sarth +1

2009-11-20T09:10:00.000-08:00

Last night's 'quickie' turned into more of a 'longie.' (longy? long-y? Look, I know it's not a damn word but still...) We headed out to EoE right away, after some initial shuffling wherein I left my poor mage at the stone and brought in my priest for heals because one of our other priesty heals had real life familial sickness come up and had to care for them. He did send me a note about it, which of course he should have because hi! He's an officer! But damn all if I'm not seriously happy that he is one of the few responsible ones. I think I owe him a cookie.

Um, anyway, dropped my mage, grabbed my priest and picked up a dps. It was a quasi-pug, because the guy I picked up is a former guildy. Indeed, his wife is still in the guild, although not an active raider, and he has come and gone so many times it makes me crazy. Still, he has nice gear and decent dps and totems, so we brought him.

And proceeded to wipe a few times on Maly. Again. This time, errors included several people trying to go give Maly a big old hug instead of strafing to the right.

...

I have no idea how that even happens, but a few people managed to do it.

Our other significant problem was on phase one. Our only Death Knight had serious lag issues and most of the other dps seemed to think he was the only person who should be concerned about getting the sparks to drop in the right place. At least, that's how it seemed from the little I could make out in between frantically spamming heals and yelling at the tank to "OMG Noxy! Point his face away from the raid! Away! Everyone else move!" I am sure all would have been much uglier had we not had our helpful druid rooting those damn sparks to the ground.

After a few tries, my impatience and the aforementioned DK saying he was going to step out so we could get someone without lag issues and my overall unwillingness to subject some random person to a fail pug of repairs, led me to suggest we go try Sarth with a drake up.

Everyone agreed and we went (after swapping out the other mage for a warrior tank) and had some truly epic trash pulls (one tank, all the trash from the front of the room, lolwut) which we weathered beautifully. Pew pew! went the lasers on the first drake. Pew pew! went the lasers on the second drake plus the big guys who pat that far and seriously, I thought everyone knew that, wheee! But no one died and we won and it was very awesome.

We left Tenebron up, of course, because she's supposed to be the easiest one to handle. Our first attempt was somewhat sloppy and we lost half the raid by the time Tenebron was down and still struggled with add roundup and destruction, to the point where my husband and I were alternately calling out: "Healer has adds - get em off!" I was fading every chance I got and bubbling in between and chanting at the tanks: "Don't die, don't die, stop dying!"

It was delightful.

We got him to 4% and he enraged and we all died.

The second attempt was beautiful. I was the only person to go down (adds!) and within a few minutes there was a battle rez available. While I was kissing the floor I made sure to call out such helpful advice as "Um, flame wall. Move - uhh, crack!" and "Watch your feet!"

The loot was a damn joke. No one wanted anything except the bag and badges. I suppose there was also a tanking something or other that got picked up. But really, the overall experience was that it wasn't that bad and I don't see a need to ever do Sarth +0. On the flip side, it was enough of a circus that I can't even contemplate the notion of Sarth +2, let alone +3. At least, not on 10-man.

And through all of that I kept futzing with a new addon since we are going to try the Suicide Kings loot system and see how it goes. As a side note on that, least intuitive opening control panel ever. I must have spent the better part of an hour switching between WoW and the documentation for the addon at the site. And perhaps I missed it in the general frustration and trying to keep up with multiple conversations in game, and goddamn lua errors spamming the hell out of my UI, and everything else that was going on, but no where did I see anything that told me to click the icon in the top left that totally looks like it's just there for decoration to flip through menus.

On the plus side, I was the GM for about 45 minutes. Or, as we like to call it in WWAB, the Co-Queso Grande.

Seriously?

2009-11-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

So Tuesday and Thursday are 'quickie' nights in my guild. This is mostly because I manage the calendar and I am lame and sometimes think I am funny. The reason for these 'quickie' nights is the fact that our raider base is spread all the way the hell across America and up into Canada a bit. Most of us are Central time people, but there are a fair few of us on either coast as well. As a guild of mostly (really, all) adults, with jobs and kids and other Responsible Things To Do in the Morning, we have to work pretty hard at finding times that we can all overlap enough to have at least 10 people on and able to raid.

Hence, quickies. The balance is found somewhere among two West Coasters, two Midwesterners and one East Coaster. And there's about an hour in all that overlap that we can head into one of the fast raids, maybe two if we do well.

Last night started off great. We headed out and murdered Ony in one shot, no deaths, no stupid, and a shiny new achievement because for once no one got hit with the deep breath flamey thing. Loot went quickly as always and I looked at the time and then my map. It appeared that we were in possession of Wintergrasp so I proposed that we all hustle our asses out to Vault. Only thing is that when we stepped through my portal to Dalaran there was no "Yay, you have Wintergrasp" buff in my buff bar. Looking again at the map, the dirty rotten horde had control. And we had two options.

"It's EoE or Sarth with a drake up," said I. "And if it's EoE, we're gonna have to lose a tank."

So we voted and shuffled and one of our tanks grabbed her mage and we asked another mage to grab her shaman and headed out to EoE.

Now, in case the two paragraphs above did not make it really clear, we're sort of a casual group with a lot of alts and we still struggle with stupid fights, like EoE and Sarth with a drake up. I think this is mostly because we haven't really tried to master these fights until just recently, and were giving most of our raiding attention to the long raids, like Naxx and Ulduar. But I know if we practice we can usually get something down and on farm status swiftly. Or swiftly for a casual guild. I mean, we went from many wipes a night on Ony to about three to walking in and one-shotting within about a month.

Anyway, I was riding the high and thought that surely we would be able to make some progress on Malygos. We did okay on the first try. DPS was a little slow on the first phase and we failed to get all our melee up on the discs before ranged/healers started hopping on in the second phase. The third phase was an unmitigated disaster.

There must be something hard to comprehend about stay together, omg, I mean right fucking on top of each other and why the hell is someone way off on their own? If you can't see dozens of other flapping wings overlapping you, you're doing it wrong. Also, "Move!" meaning "strafe to the right for a few seconds!" seems to require some additional processing time. About 30 seconds before the enrage, I was alone in the sky. And then I was blasted out of it.

Before we tried again, I made everyone stack on top of me and pretend to be on their dragons in the air. I started babbling the way I do so well when I am tipsy and then interrupted myself by barking out: "Move!" I strafed to the right. There was a pause. And then about half the raid started off and were followed a second later by those who hadn't gotten there yet.

"I think," said I, "that I know why we're dying up there."

We practiced a little longer on the ground and I still wasn't happy with reaction time but it was getting a bit better and we were running out of time. We went into it again and managed a fairly quick burn on the first phase. Second phase was really sloppy and we ended up with a few people dead on the floor because the tank suffered a massive lag spike and couldn't pick up aggro or, indeed, even tell what the hell was going on for a few seconds. As a result, the burn was slow and we had maybe 1.5 minutes before the enrage by the time we hit phase three. It was obviously a wipe but I knew the practice would be good so we hung in there. Not too much later, I was alone in the sky again, facing one pissed off magical dragon aspect. Needless to say, I was quickly dispatched and, God save me, we better have Wintergrasp on Thursday because I don't know if I can grin my way through a whole night's worth of wiping on EoE, no matter how drunk I am.

What tips and tricks does anyone else have for keeping the raid together and reacting well on phase three?

Open letter to anyone with a PhD

2009-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

Dear person with a PhD:

The fact that you went to school for a long time and wrote some sort of thesis on something that almost no one else in the world cares about does not impress me. You are not glorified in my eyes. Have and use some common sense. Act like a human being. Pay attention to the details of life and appreciate those who end up stuck trying to help you and then we'll talk. Until then, the god-complex only irritates me and makes me want to stab you with a pencil; not help you find the best deal on the most perfect piece of technology to go in your office/lab/whatever.

Love,

Alas

My time in the court

2009-11-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

Reasons why I should not be allowed to play racquetball:

I have terrible eye-hand coordination
I tend to get in the way of the other player(s)
My head might still be bruised from that one time I took a racket to the head about three years ago
I may or may not have pulled a muscle whilst flailing wildly at the ball
I definitely managed to hit my own arm and skin my wrist
I fell down for no discernible reason
It's only a matter of time before I face-plant into the wall and/or floor
I'd much rather sing in those large, echo-y rooms (despite my inability to carry a tune)
I am terribly competitive with a need to win and I can't do that when I fail so badly at nearly all aspects of the game, thus:
It makes me cranky

Reasons why I should play racquetball:

All that flailing and running and getting back up after falling down will probably help me find my waistline.

My dream

2009-11-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think that I should strike out on my own as a guild leader.

Don't get me wrong, being co-GM is nice. Nicer still is that I share the title with my husband and he freely admits he is a figurehead so I am pretty much free to do what I want. My biggest problem is actually that I have been an officer, a raid leader, a simple raider with no responsibilities, thank you very much and good day, Sir, and then an officer again. This was all within a period of about six months, which makes it worse.

But the truth is, despite the last half year of dramatic ups and downs with regard to what role I wanted to fill in the guild, I pretty much want the same thing I have always wanted. And that is for people to understand that I am always right and they should just shut up and do what I say.

I don't want to be mired down in this committee activity of rewriting our raiding rules yet again and finding myself having to defend my points to the officers and the figurehead GM. I would much prefer to be able to say, "These are the rules and if you don't like them you can leave."

I feel this way despite knowing that the feedback I am getting is important as it helps me to shape my ideas and explain exactly why I think what I think. And for every victory I get in carrying through my points I also get immense satisfaction.

But my impatience often gets the best of me and I don't want to wait for the refined and finished product. I want to go in like the mage I am, silencing my opponents by turning them into barnyard animals and then roasting the hell out of them.

Is that so wrong?

Before I croak

2009-10-29T07:38:00.001-07:00

One of the things I want to do some time before I die is to write and publish a novel (or, you know, many wildly successful novels). I've actually finished a few but aside from one query letter, I made no moves to try to get either of them published.

The first was something I wrote back when I was about 15-16 years old. It was terrible. Terribly formulaic. I am ashamed to this day that I let anyone else read it.

The second book was written more recently, something like three years ago. It was one part an experiment to see whether I could, in fact, finish something on the scale of a full-sized novel. It was also terribly arrogant of me to write it. Why? Well, I went into it with the thought that surely I would have no problem getting something published if I wrote for the Christian market. I arrived at this conclusion after a lifetime of reading bad Christian novels. The cherry on that Sunday was a book by a more successful Christian author that was set during the Revolutionary War. Within the first chapter I walked away in disgust. Who greenlighted a period novel and then let whole paragraphs about dating and being happy to see one's boyfriend slip by? I'm still appalled.

"I could write any old piece of crap," thought I. "If only I dress it up a bit in Christian colors, it'll still be better than 90% of what is already out there."

Ugh. I was such a jackass.

Since that, I've started and stopped a half dozen projects. I more or less abandoned the first blog I had and went from posting nearly every day to posting about once a month. Another series of blogs centering around WoW (something I played heavily while not writing) were started and stopped within a few weeks. I did manage to write a decent amount of a WoW-centric fanfiction during that time, but that's about it.

Maybe it's because my interest in WoW is waning. Maybe it's because of recent personal events that have re-awoken areas of my life that had been dead. Maybe it's because I've recently had the experience of reading stuffchristianslike.net from start to finish and was challenged and humbled and inspired nearly every post of the way. Maybe it's because I recently discovered Brandon Sanderson and was blown away by his books. Maybe it's a combination of everything I just mentioned. Whatever the reasons, I find myself wanting to write again.

Unfortunately, all my ideas are very rough. I have no idea what to write. But I'm working on it and that's a pretty good feeling.

Obligatory 'why I done started this here blog' post

2009-10-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

It's funny.

Not me so much. But the fact that I have created this place for me to come and write about whatever occurs to me with some degree of anonymity and yet I have already spent all this time and effort in trying to make sure that if anyone does come this way it's nice and easy for them to get my updates. Because, clearly, there are going to be tens of tens of people wanting to hear whatever random crap I write down here.

And yet, if this was meant to be solely for me and my own edification, why put it out where anyone, even my mom who has no idea how to find these blog thingies that all the kids are talking about, could come across it? First of all, I don't think that will happen. My mom, your mom, my husband's mom. No one would have any reason to come here, unless I tag myself up with certain keywords. You know the ones I am talking about. And then I hope no one's mom is the one coming here because that would just be awkward.

I have come to learn the value of the wonderful communities that can be had online. And that's really the only reason to put anything out here to be seen by anyone who might stumble upon it and think, wow, this person, this Alas, is pretty lame/weird/interesting/jerky (pick one). The whole beauty is that no one here will have pre-conceived notions of who I am and what I am about. It won't shock a single person if I should come out and say I love kicking puppies. I don't, by the way. But in this space, this blank canvas, it would not matter if I did. I also won't have my in-laws all crawling down my virtual throat because they know where my blog is. That alone is awesome enough to make me want to just come and toss my thoughts out here, whatever they might be.

Anyway, that is why I am here. Who knows what will come next? I don't, but for my own sake and for the purpose of my own being able to look backwards and remember where I have been, I'm probably going to keep talking like I do have an audience and will likely attempt to entertain that imaginary body of people.