I Need Cataclysm

Man I need Cataclysm. I do. I caught myself double checking my account status just the other night. Apparently my six-month subscription terminates at the end of May. I found myself considering letting it expire.

So Cataclysm apparently is going to be released this year. Well, not to be pessimistic, but I’ll believe it when I see it. But I sure hope it does. I need it.

Why?

‘Cuz Cataclysm is gonna save the world by destroying the world!

Yeah OK, again I’ll believe it when I see it, but I do need some change.

I’m burned out. Recent guild drama drained me emotionally. It isn’t anyone’s fault, it’s just part of the job we do. I signed up for it when I agreed to be an officer. I knew this would happen at times. But unfortunately it is not helping the burnout I’m feeling with raiding.

For me right now, raiding is about signing up, showing up, and downing bosses or pounding my head against a brick wall. I don’t read strats. I don’t read up on the latest glyphs, specs, enchants, gear, etc. I haven’t done a gear plan since Naxx.

In Burning Crusade I was all about reading boss strats, gear strategies, stat priorities, talents, etc. That was fun! I remember looking at Atlasloot and WoWHead on a daily basis trying to figure out the best way to plan my gear progression. I analyzed my gear constantly on websites. It was fun!

Why can’t I plan gear now? Well, I can but there isn’t any point to do so.

First, you can farm heroics for gear in the matter of a couple of days. In BC it took me weeks to farm one piece. Three hour heroics for three badges didn’t allow for quick gearing.

Second, because of limited time buying a piece of gear was a real investment. Sort of like how Frost Emblems are now to a certain extent. You were nearly guaranteed to get the drop you wanted the day after you spent your badges. And when you just spent 2-3 weeks farming the badges you really had to think about your choices.

But there was the fun! At least for me. Maybe not for everyone.

You can argue whatever position you want about gear progression in Wrath. Emblems are great! Emblems suck! Most of you know my position. It doesn’t mean that I disagree with those on the other side, it just means this is how the current gear system has affected my game.

Working my ass off to get one piece of badge gear was a feat! And no one can argue that I didn’t earn it! I remember that people were upset with badge gear when it came out. Supposedly it was just as good as T5 or better, although based on my own experiences I really didn’t think most of it was and still had to farm Kara for stuff.

The point is I had to research my gear. Plan the best course. Was it better to buy that badge gear or wait for the boss to drop loot? So researching and planning was an important part of the process. But even more importantly it was half the fun!

Gear in my opinion is messed up in more ways than I can count. It occurred to me that although I can reconcile my issue with quick gearing, what I can’t reconcile is my lack of interest.

Wednesday night I was bored out of my mind. I had no mana issues whatsoever and for you GearScore fanatics, I think my GS is around 5200. I don’t even have the best gear available to me.

So why bother? Why bother to do all that research in gear, talents, glyphs, gems, etc. to eek out a couple more points in spellpower, mp5, intellect, etc. when I’m just gonna faceroll my way through the content anyway?

Oh sure, there’s the argument that on the progression fights it’s important to get every last bit out of everyone and it is. Problem is our progression is never really an issue about gear, talents, gems, enchants, buffs, etc. It’s always about skill, paying attention, and fighting the lag boss. So again, why bother?

I miss the need to research boss fights. I miss the need to research specs. I miss the need to research gear. Maybe you don’t feel the same and think the way things are in end-game right now are great! Everyone’s seeing the content! And I agree that it’s great. I just disagree with how it’s been handled.

For light’s sake this is Casual Hardcore! Casual in play, but a hardcore attitude towards raiding and the endgame. I lost the drive that pushed me towards the hardcore. The game got too easy. And that’s why I need Cataclysm.  If for no other reason to have a solid breaking point where I can say I’m done with the endgame and just play to hang out.

Healer Fail

Normally I edit fail players’ names, but this one doesn’t deserve that honor.

So I die on the beasts at Gortok Palehoof (Utgard Pinnacle) because you can’t be bothered to heal me and yet you have plenty of time to type all of that while the dot on me is ticking…

Actually it isn’t really fail because I don’t buy his explanation. I think it was retribution for being undergeared compared to the rest of the party and yet I still managed 2.6k dps and outdps’d the pally tank which just makes this guy an ass.

My GearScore Experiment; Or Ky’s An @$$

There’s a lot of complaints about GearScore lately. And I’m one of the many sounding off.

So the other day (apparently Tuesday per Amber’s post) I was talking to Amber…

Amber: Kyyyyyy. I need to learn to be mean to some of our guildies.
me: pretend they’re me
Amber: but I like you even if I’m mean to you
me: are you saying you don’t like them and you want to be mean to them?
Amber: …some of them, maybe
or that I like them LESS
me: anyway. elaborate. let uncle ky make it all better. (lmao i can’t even type that with a straight face)
Amber: [name #1 redacted]…
[name #2 redacted]…
…their attitudes…
[name #3 redacted] bitching about what we “allow” in raids without, you know, helping me form them
me: well i finally called out [name of one of the aforementioned redacted of course] in an offhand way.
Amber: oh?
me: gearscore!*
Amber: lol
see: my post today about fucking gearscore

…while I’m reading Amber’s post…

*Regarding the gearscore comment: what happened was we were in a raid with a pug the other night that kept bringing up gearscore. As you know whenever anyone starts discussing gearscore I start to get really annoyed. It isn’t because gearscore is a bad thing, it’s because PEOPLE ARE F%*&^ING IDIOTS!!!

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

So I made a comment about gearscore in guild chat to which one member not in raid said he’s only said it a couple of times. My response was that he does it all the time, said I was talking about a pug, and casually changed the conversation elsewhere.

…after reading Amber’s post…

I laughed (albeit in a frustrated way) and agreed along with the rest of you, but an evil plan began to hatch in my twisted little mind.

…back to my conversation with Amber…

me: you know. that gives me an idea…
me: i should gear up my dk in spellpower plate and attempt to join pugs demanding gear score requirements
Amber: XD

So begins my new experiment, but I’m gonna need some help…

So I posted this little drawn-out ditty on our guild forums.

I’d like to conduct an experiment, although it’ll take some time to set up.

We all know what GearScore is, or at least we’ve all seen it spammed in Trade Chat. It’s a horrible, horrible tool because of the way it is used.

GearScore doesn’t mean crap if you can’t hold aggro, keep smart players (i.e. ones that run out of the fire) alive, or do appropriate dps for your gear level. Sorry 3k dps isn’t going to cut it in ICC. So if you can’t break that you either don’t have the gear or you need to practice your class. (Actually you probably need to break that by a lot more than 3000.)

GearScore annoys me. A lot. There are those in this guild that constantly e-peen their score (among other things like crit, spellpower, stam, health, etc.) and it annoys me. No offense. I am sincerely happy for you, but I don’t care. Really. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if your gear score is 6000 any more than I care if it’s 2. I’m a hell of a lot more interested in the new rare pet you found than your gear.

I am really happy that you got that upgrade, but when you link it in guild and I have no idea what you currently have, it doesn’t mean jack shit to me (this includes healers). I’m happy for you, but again I don’t care.

What I do care about is can you pull your weight in whatever raid we’re currently doing and if not is there a way I can help? (Probably not as I barely know my own healing classes.) Also as a healer, can I keep you alive? No offense, but some of you tanks take massive spike damage at the weirdest ass times and I don’t know why as I’ve seen your stats and they’re no better or worse than Mach’s or Zoja’s. So it’s either you or me and I’m working on figuring out how to compensate for whatever the difference is.

That said, I’m not saying to stop linking your gear as that’s your own deal and I’ll just ignore it. But I am saying if you’re looking for a pat on the back, gratz, or praise don’t expect it from me. And please don’t take offense if I don’t respond. Just realize that I am happy for you.

The Experiment

So now that I’ve offended all of you, I’d like to ask a favor.

I have 5 level 80s, but only one of which can make this experiment work because of gear itemization. Paladins, Priests, Shaman, and Druids all have a spec that makes all gear itemizations of their appropriate armor types viable based on spec. My DK however does not. It is my intent to gear up my DK with a high gear score in spellpower plate and then attempt to get into PuG raids where the idiot raid leaders are spamming the glories of gearscore.

The problem with emblems is I don’t think I’ll be able to get spellpower plate on my DK. Maybe a belt, but not the main items. So I’d like to farm heroics to gear up enough to be able to do the new 5-mans and maybe ToC on my DK to get spellpower plate gear and I don’t think PuGs will be too happy with me rolling Need on spellpower plate that they want disenchanted and that’s where I’d like to recruit willing guildies that will allow me to ninja the spellpower plate.

Because we raid during the week, this will probably have to occur on weekends. If you’d be willing to help out, leave a note and I’ll know to approach you guys. Again, I still need to do some research to find where the drops are and I need to gear up before I can do the new 5-mans anyway.

And if this turns out to be too hard, or I can’t get my gearscore up high enough in 5-mans, etc. then I may just scrap the idea.

A few of my guildies responded and are fully on board with this plan. So it looks like I’ll have enough help to get this done. I just need to figure out a gear plan in order to maximize my time because in reality this experiment is…well to put it bluntly…completely asinine! I admit it, it’s a dick thing to do! But I’m only trying to get invited to a raid. I have no intention of staying. I’ll just finish being a jerk by spamming congratulations to the RL for inviting a DK in spellpower gear just to prove a point.

Let’s take a moment as I bask in the glory of my original idea…

Oh wait. Unfortunately on Wednesday I found this excellent post by Beruthiel where apparently…

…one of our officers was telling me that he was in a group the other day with a DK in full epic healing plate. But…his gearcore ROCKED!

I guess I’m not that original. But I’m still going to do it!

LF…Common Courtesy

I geared up my druid.

Started to do this with my priest, but it seems that at least three of the pieces I could get are craftable and so I don’t feel motivated to spend a lot of time grinding.

Although the new LFG tool is still amazing, the novelty has worn off and so has common courtesy.

Originally the tool was so new that people were gearing up their mains which are for the most part overgeared for the 5-man instances. But now groups are obviously filled with alts given the gear that most of them are wearing.  And wipe after wipe, insult after insult, I find myself once again starting to dread logging in.

I wouldn’t play a board game with people I didn’t like. So why do I subject myself to douchebag strangers?