Good bye Area 52. I'm going old school.

So I was going to try to keep from writing about this, but writing is a good catharsis for me...

The first thing I will say is that I really believe now that 90% of people aren't who they seem to be. When you play this game, you form friendships with people... whether its intentional or not. It just happens because of the social aspect of this game. You spend hours each night with these people so that you can kill a douchelord who likes to spit up ooze on you, throw beach balls into your face, or bombs all over the room and blow you off the platform.

Maybe its a personality flaw of mine... I hate to think its a flaw, but maybe it really is... I have faith in people - regardless of all the shit I've been through in my life. I placed faith in a group of people and thought of them as friends. I did a lot for the guild and these people... yet a couple of them found it to be fun to pin something all on me and then portray me as the bad guy.

I found out that these people were saying that I did nothing at all for the guild - I only did what I did because I was told to do it which is the complete opposite of what actually happened. Everything I did was done on my own time at my own will. I also found out that they said they only kept me in the guild because I was just a "hot voice in vent".

Just to give you an idea of what I did for this guild - I created the banner for the guild website, I created the guild application, I kept tabs on the guild bank - I could recite to you from memory what was in that bank and who took out what or deposited what, not to mention I sank about 3k gold to help start that guild bank. I also talked to recruits because a couple of officers didn't want to saying that "they aren't a people person". Whenever someone had a problem they came to me. If someone got GKicked, that person messaged me and I had to play Public Relations. I've even had other officers/GMs of other guilds come to me with a complaint. Not to mention that if the GM/Raid leader wasn't online at raid time, I started the raid group and had to make the decision on who to take to raid and who to sit out... and I did my absolute best while in raid.

Thankfully, a few people stuck up for me and had my back - regardless of their personal feelings for me, they found it childish and ridiculous. To those few, I thank and will always be grateful.

Because of the drama and amount of hurt they caused me, I'm leaving Area 52. Now, I know that regardless of where you go, drama happens... It will always happen because of the number of people who come in contact with each other... but I just can't stay on Area 52 because of transpired... what this drama entailed (I didn't go into the "meat" of this drama), and the people involved... Unfortunately, I'll never be able to escape what happened because of these people.

I'm going to Tichondrius. I'm going old school. Tichondrius is a PVP server that has been around since the first day. I'll be joining my brother's guild, Blur. They are the #3 guild on the server and are currently working on killing Lich King Hardmode in 25man. Right now, I'm not geared to join in on their Hardmode runs, but I am able to run with their alts (who are nearly as geared as my priest) to get gear and clear content I have yet to see.

Well, anyway... I guess my only advice is to keep your eyes open... It doesn't matter how comfortable you get with a group of people or how good of friends they seem, there is always the possibility that they'll turn on you whenever they feel convenient or even funny.

To my friends staying on Area 52 - I wish you all good luck and I'll see you around.

To the people who talked shit about me - I hope you grow up and see the error of your ways. You lost a friend - the kind of friend that is rare. Its sad that you got your jollies off by listening to my voice in vent... its sad that you disregarded the fact that I'm a real person... a person who would have done anything for you as a friend and anything for the guild.

Mixing RP and Other Servers

Okay, before I get to the main topic, one thing needs to be said:

Me and my big mouth.

I'd written yesterday about how I only tank in emergencies when LFD spewed me into Violet Hold.  (What, you were expecting that I'd be watching Lost?  Nah, that's my wife's addiction, but it did allow me some play time.)  Well, it was a strange grouping, to say the least.  Two mages, a Tree, a DK tank, and Quint.  The first three looked like new 80's judging by their gear, while the tank and I were a bit more on the purple side.  The first bunch of pulls went okay if slow; I had to really dial back on my hits to keep from pulling aggro, and the mages didn't have a lot of firepower.  We got the Void Demon boss, and about 4-5 minutes later we knocked him out.

Then, a couple of pulls into the next phase, the DK tank stops moving.  "I'll BRB; have to go move clothes to the laundry room," he says.  "Pally, you tank."

While I was trying to formulate a response, the next portal opened.

"Use Righteous Fury," was his parting shot.

I know that, I thought.  I just want people to keep me upright.

Luckily, the trash mob was just a Portal Guardian, so that wasn't so bad.  I could see my health bouncing around like a ping-pong ball, and at one point I dumped Lay on Hands on myself, but I survived.

Then DBM announced "Boss Incoming."

Oh.

Crap.

About the only good thing I could say then was that it was the Water Elemental boss.  "Tank?" one of the mages called.  "You back?"

No reply.

"Joy," I said, and pulled aggro.  I almost immediately dropped to 1K, and had to do something to preserve myself.  Lay on Hands was on cooldown, so I had no choice but to bubble and then chase after the boss before she turned the Tree into so much splintered wood.

Finally, the tank returned from doing his laundry and pulled aggro.  Everything returned to normal, sort of.  "Hey, you did fine," he said.

"Dude, if you look up 'tank' in the dictionary, you won't find my name there."

That's what I get for displeasing the WoW gods.

Now, on to other business.  I was perusing the Battlegroups listings yesterday when I noticed that the roleplaying realms were grouped in with the PvE and PvP realms.  Since both the Arenas and the LFG tools use those listings, I wondered why the RP servers were set up that way.  You'd think that the RP servers would be grouped together, so that there's not a lot of metagame talk going on, but I guess that's not the case.

For those of you who play on RP realms, do you simply suspend your RP for the duration of those instance and BG runs?  From the perspective of a long time PnP roleplayer, it would be very hard to remain in character while everybody else is talking about other stuff.  (Yes, I know, that assumes people are talking at all, but still...)  What do you do?  Do you try to remain in character?  Do you even bother?  Should the RP realms be grouped into their own separate Battlegroup to preserve their identity?

One last item (I swear) and then I'm done for the day.  The last couple of runs through Halls of Stone, I've noticed a couple of interesting things:  DBM no longer provides a countdown in the Protect Bran encounter, and there's an AoE that happens after the archive voice says that things are fine.  For the former, it's an add-on, so I'm not surprised too much about that.  As for the latter, at first I thought it was a debuff that someone had not paid any attention to, but during yesterday's run the healer exclaimed "WTH is that?!" and he immediately died.

"Did anyone see anything?" he demanded.  "I was at full health, the encounter was over, and then BAM!"

"I didn't," I replied while I rezzed him.

"I wasn't even close to the beam, either," he added.

Interesting.

Tanks and Tanks Once More

Who, me?

No thanks.  I only tank in emergencies.

However, I'm thinking about the tanking writer of this blog.  The one who loves his DK Tank and has some old fashioned love for his long suffering Warrior Tank.  The same one who isn't sure what to do with creating a toon to run through low level instances with.

Yeah, I know, he could do a Pally tank, but he has one of those, and he's not thrilled with him.

He already has a Warrior.

So why not be a Big Bear Butt tank?

Okay, I know one reason he'd have issues:  the Night Elf in general.  Aside from that, however, Druid Tanks hold their aggro quite well, thank you very much, and I have to admit I've got a lot of respect for the Druid Tanks I've pugged with.  No, I'm not suggesting he hang out as a Tree --that's not his style-- but a Bear?  Yeah, I can see that.

It Needed to be Said

93 Quests down, only 2907 to go.

Not sure if I'm going to bear listening to "Good Health, Long Life!" for the next several months, however.  (Obviously these Draenei quest givers have never set foot in an instance.)

Just in Case you Don't Read It

Go now.

Go to Achtung Panzercow and read Linedan's Top Ten Predictions for Cataclysm.

If You Can't Beat 'Em...

...join 'em.

I now have two toons loaded to the gills with Heirlooms.

However, I have one big issue:  just who the hell approved the design for [Mystical Pauldrons of Elements], anyway?  They make Tomakan look like he's got antennae sprouting out of his back.  He's a Paladin, not a TV repair guy.

Hardware Review

I have a new toy!

I just recently purchased a new mouse, as my old one was on the fritz.  I went all out this time, purchasing something that would enhance my game play and give me more readily available buttons for macros.

I just recently started getting into the rated arenas, and found out how nice it would be to set a focus target and have macros scripted to do things to my focus target, and not have to worry about manually swapping targets.

I asked some guild members what sort of mouse they use, and what they would recommend.  The answer came back:  Razer Naga.  So as per usual before dropping a chunk of money, I did some research to find out if it all 17 buttons will be worth the money.

I found a world of warcraft player that actually has become sponsored by Razer, and has started making videos about how it's increasing his game play and giving out free equipment to viewers.  It's kinda cool, and amazing that he actually got sponsored.  Talk about a dream job...



I have now had about a week of play time with the mouse, and adjusting to the feel of the very sensitive laser as well as the plethora of buttons has been fun.  My hand is very comfortable resting on this mouse, and I don't get cramps after long gaming sessions as I used to with my old mouse (Logitech G5).

I'm still trying to figure out how to best use all of the new buttons, but it's giving me something to toy with and in the long run, I feel will help out the gaming experience (and it has 17 buttons).  This thing has so many buttons, that in the little packet of papers included, are little rubber pads you can stick on to the keys to help train yourself and develop muscle memory...  How crazy is that!?

Ascetically, it's a very pleasing mouse.  It just looks nice... the symbol on the palm sorta pulses and the mouse wheel having it's own light is just well, it's gaudy. But it looks nice!  And I am very pleased, as I mentioned before, with the way my hand rests on the mouse.  The left and right click have sort of a channel where you fingers rest, and even the third finger has it's own spot to rest off to the right of the mouse (sorry pinky, you still get to dangle, but not uncomfortably so).