Ghosts of the Past, Part 2

“Finally, that is the last of them.” The young paladin scooped up her helm and tucked it under an arm before turning to the newest arrival. His fighting skill had managed to turn the tide in their favor, and the group held out until an aerial strike force had arrived to finish the job. “Thank you, hunter, for jumping in when-” The much abused helm thudded into the snow once again as she leapt at the older Draenei with a squeal of glee.

“XANTHY!”

Xanthelei laughed and returned the hug one-handed. After a moment he pulled the girl back and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Hello, little sister. I suppose you’re well, if as crazy as ever.” She scowled at him and stuck out her tongue, making him laugh again. “Erikka, why are you in the north? I was told you were on patrol in Winterspring when last I was home.” She grinned impishly.

“I was, brother, but they finally let me onto a ship to Valiance Keep two months ago. And you!” She shoved him gently to emphasize her words. “I was told you were lost in that expedition into Ulduar!  And yet here you are, prowling about the wastelands of Dragonblight as if nothing happened. Not even a letter home to tell us you were safe!”

She paused in her tirade as Xanthelei looked away, instinctively to the north, and drew his sister closer. His face was darker than she’d ever seen it before, even during the war against the orcs on Draenor. “Ulduar was… far worse than any of us, even Brann, had expected. We delved deeper than we should have, Erikka. Whatever the Titans locked away down there, it’s awake, and free.” He shivered in the cold even as his cat Alvar pressed close. “I don’t think we can kill it. Rhonin thinks it’s an old god, and if it is…”

“And you, Xanthy? How did you escape?”

Xanthelei sighs and leans heavily against the rocky face of the ridge behind them. “Barely. And alone. Please, sister,” he adds, waving away her questions, “leave it at that. For me.”

Raid Goodies

Amber at I Like Bubbles posted a link to this one 5 days ago, but I’m just now catching up on reading. Yes, yes, bad me, should not stop reading blogs, etc. Enough chastising me, go read A Single Set of Rules On How To Raid ANYTHING. Yes, it really is a working set of rules on how to raid anything (at least up to Mimiron in Uld10).

I have not yet explored the rest of the blog, but I may have a new link on my list before the night is over.

—

Back in Burning Crusade, before I was part of FS, I raided with Roundtable Raiders. It essentially was what TTH is; a group of friends who raid together as an excuse to get together and bs with each other every few nights. It was fun, even though pretty much all we did was Karazhan (simply not enough people for 25s). During one of these runs, we had made it to Netherspite and decided to take a whack at learning the fight. Needless to say, we failed many, many times before everyone got their roles down pat, and I had a new favorite boss. Sorry Chess!

I can’t remember when exactly it happened, but on one fight we had managed to get him down to killable levels when both tanks died. No healers, no DPS dead, just the tanks, a warrior and a bear. “Wipe it, and we’ll try again,” says the raid leader. “Fuck no,” says I. We have me and a shammy healer and the boss is at 20% at the beginning of the beam phase – we can do this! So I jump into the red beam and call for heals from someone, anyone, and assume the role of huntank.

As a side note, I think this is what planted the idea of making a tank alt in my head.

Well, we didn’t kill the boss. People had started killing themselves in void zones and I wasn’t getting heals, so when a zone popped up under me I died in about 3 seconds. But this is a very good example of how I thought back then. To me, there was no such thing as “wiping it.” If the boss killed us all, fine, but damn if I’m not going down swinging! If I ever used Feign Death, it was to buy me time enough to pop back up and get a few more shots off. It just never really dawned on me that FD could save me some repair bills.

—

I told you that story to tell you this one.

About two weeks ago, we decided to run Naxx 10 to help gear up a few alts, and had just added a 10th person (our tree druid’s s-priest). Myself and Vic (on his priest) had run out to summon her, and the three of us headed into the Construct and whoops! Up pops a slime and I get that big-ass AGGRO warning across my screen.

/Feign Death! Sorry Alvar, you’re a ded kitty, but I’ll rez you.

Suddenly Vent lights up with the voice of a very irate dwarven priest…

“OMG NOOB GET UP AND TANK IT! I’LL HEAL YOU!”

So I’m faced with a dilemma. I have raided with Vic since RTR, barring the short time in FS or off-server. I know the guy, I like the guy, and I don’t wish him ill. He’s a good healer and yeah, he probably could keep me up. At least long enough for me to resummon my cat, Disengage and begin pouring on the hate.

On the other hand, repairs are getting expensive. And really, he could just run out…

Turns out Vic is the same kind of raider I used to be: Stand there and do your job as best you can til everything’s dead, one way or the other. So right as I decide to jump back up Vic takes on his Failangel form (thank you to Amber for introducing me to that phrase) and Mid begins running for the door, shrieking about how horrible a friend I am in vent and omigodimgonnadie!

…Is it bad that I laughed? No, not chuckled, I laughed. My ass off. And I had no remorse whatsoever, because the reactions were just too freaking GOOD. Nevermind they have both sworn revenge, and nevermind they’re two of our three raid healers 90% of the time. I’d still do it again, just that once. I will strive to return to my Shoot Until Actually Dead ways from now on, but I still feel it was totally worth it.

And in my defense, I was about to jump back up when Vic died.

—

Erikka is now level 67, as I have said before, and fully Prot. I’m stoked (do people say that anymore? Or should I stick with excited?) at the thought of tanking, even if it’s just heroics, and even if I fail miserably at it. I think this is partly because our guild’s pally tank Ryan seems to think I can do it. He’s been more than willing to help me with my spec, answer my noobass questions, and generally being an awesome guy about it.

No, she hasn’t tanked anything since Zul’Farrak a year ago. No, she isn’t in blues and purples from Outlands. No, I will probably never main- or even off-tank in raids. But just the fact that Ryan hasn’t squashed my dreams of attempting to tank in raids is enough to keep me dreaming, and satellite connection be damned!

/Revive

After a much needed break from all things internet (blog, WoW, even just reading other blogs and webcomics), I’ve jumped back into the fray just in time for Halloween. Er, Hallow’s End.

Xanthelei continues to amass Jewelcrafting recipes and putter along in Tailoring. Yeah, I know, not exciting. Also not exciting is his utter lack of the Hallowed title. Come ON HH, just drop the helm so I can roll on it! It’s all I need to finish off this holiday! (The horse would be awesome too.)

Erikka is now level 67 and cleaning up Blades Edge Mountains. Almost to Northrend, how awesome is that? She is also once again leveling as prot. The requirements to be tankish seem to have decreased in the year or so that I didn’t have access to play her, because I grasped the basics of stats right away. Strength = more spell power = more threat. Stam is required. Defense is like hit: cap it and stack other stuffs once you hit 80.

Dwarfageddon is still waiting on his shoulders back from Erikka, and will likely get them now that he has enough gold to get flying at 60. Yes, he is still 58 – but he’s almost hit 59! That counts for something… right? Currently his bane is thorium. He needs 8 more levels in mining before I allow him to set foot in Outland again. Why? Because I’m anal retentive a perfectionist, that’s why!

Kyrem is apparently on permanent hiatus. It’s not that I don’t want to play him (or Thelen), it’s that I really just don’t have the time. And my guild chat on Suramar can’t follow me back to Wyrmrest Accord. And Erikka is looking like she’ll be a fun tank. And damnit, Xanth will at least START Engineering back up before Cataclysm!

I could continue listing reasons to not play Kyrem, but work called and requires my presence, so I better not.

Ghosts of the Past, Part 1

“Kar Argus! Kar lok Golad!” The battle cry rang out across the frozen wastes of Dragonblight, shattering the serenity of the predawn and waking a slumbering beast.

Luckily for the Draenei who uttered that phrase, said beast was a ghostly cat with a pet hunter.

Alvar twitched an ear, unsure if he knew the voice but certain he understood the accompanying sounds: battle. He thought hard, remembering his time as a living beast among the Draenei of Azuremyst, a time when his hunter was happy and surrounded by his pack. Though he cannot recall why the voice seems familiar, he knows his pet has an abiding love for his ‘people’, and would wish to know if one were in danger. The feline yawns and, with a low growl, begins to rouse his companion.

—

Once again Xanthelei was grateful for Alvar’s keen senses. He’d awakened to a wet nose in his left eye, a transgression forgiven when sounds of nearby battle reached his ears. They’d readied quickly, not bothering to break camp before setting out towards the commotion. Now the pair found themselves perched on a ridge, looking down on a minor battle.

Scourge had managed to back an Alliance contingent against the sheer face of the ridge, and was slowly but surely slaughtering the lot. A priest and a paladin were the rallying point for the group, but even their energy was flagging against the inexorable tide of undead, and the sight of their companions falling only to rise again as mindless puppets didn’t help their morale.

There was something about the paladin that drew Xanthelei’s attention. She was young for a Draenei, and fought with a passion he hadn’t felt in years. Her constant cries honoring their old home stirred a spark of pride in his people. He considered breaking his cover, just this once, and joining the fight against the scourge, but knew that doing so could mean doom for his mission. He was only just becoming a confidant of his new Horde allies. Were the lives of a few worth jeopardizing a chance at peace between the Horde and Alliance?

The lumbering blow of an undead vykrul answered his question for him.

The paladin took the blow to the head, knocking her dented helm off and sending her sprawling. From his vantage point, Xanthelei saw her face for the first time, and realized why she had seemed so familiar. Without thinking, he drew his gun and fired an explosive round into the head of her attacker; Alvar took his cue and leapt into the fray. The hunter pulled a small metal cylinder from his hip pouch, flipped a switch, and drove the needle home. Some alchemic concoction or another joined his bloodstream and did its work, the image of a Tauren slipping away, and Xanthelei, Hunter of the Hand, followed his ghostly cat into battle.

Rest Well, Grampa

Yesterday, my grandfather passed away. It was a rough day for the whole family, but I’m glad for him. Things were very, very tough for him the past two months or so, and it took everything he had to wait for one of his daughters to drive down from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, WA – the whole of Washington state, top to bottom. Everyone knew at the beginning of the day that it was a death watch, and somehow I think I knew that from the night my dad told me he was back in the hospital. Not a fun 3 days, all in all.

So last night, it was no minor blessing for me to be raiding.

I told one person in the guild about what had happened – the guild and raid leader, Babsy – and just let everyone else do their thing. I let myself get lost in the group and forget for 2 hours. All the corny jokes of questionable taste, the inside jokes, just the general energy of the group, was… healing for me. To them, it was just another raiding night, and it let me pretend that too.

Today, I fished for Feasts ’cause we’re getting low on them, and it seems Blizzard got the memo as well.

So thanks to Blizz too. Or maybe the RNG gods. Either way, it was a nice thing I wasn’t expecting.

I guess I don’t really know what the point of this particular post is. Maybe it’s just that writing is what I do, so I felt the need to write. Maybe it’s about how a game like WoW is helping me cope by reminding me that hey – life continues. It’s probably just more of me processing what happened and starting to heal.

Playing Over Satellite

I love when my daily blog reading sparks a new post. Rohan of Blessing of Kings commented on Spell Haste and how he feels it’s affected the game. Since I’ve never played a caster class (short of a few minor attempts at warlock and priest) I can’t and won’t touch on the Spell Haste stat itself. The flip side of the coin, however, I can talk about, as well as something else Rohan brought up: the Global Cooldown.

First, the Global Cooldown, since that’s what affects satellite players the most. As some may know, when your latency (lag) goes up it takes longer for your computer (the client) to talk to the server you’re playing on. If everything in WoW was hosted server-side, this wouldn’t be a problem, but of course it’s not. When you push a button, your client sends the signal to the server while it starts up the code that deals with that button. Hmm, maybe an example would make most sense.

Let’s say I’m shooting at a mob, and I hit my Arcane Shot button. My client thinks “Ok, Arcane Shot, not a problem. Send off a message and start this line of code up.” The problem with lag is that while my client is still running in real time and the GCD ends at 1.5 seconds on my screen, it might take .7 seconds for the server to even receive the message saying “Xanth casts Arcane Shot.” It then will have to start its GCD and send a reply back that tells my client “Ok, Arcane Shot hits Mob for 1337 Arcane Damage.” That gives me an effective GCD of (in this case) 2.2 seconds.

For instant casts, this isn’t really a problem. I hit the button, watch the GCD, and when it’s up I can hit another button. It works because of the travel time to the server. It’s when a cast time is involved, like when I use Steady Shot or even Multi Shot, that this lag becomes an issue.

Last night we took a few guildie alts through 2 wings of Naxx-10. It was a blast, and a bit nostalgic. It was also fairly laggy for me. Even though my computer icon on the menu said I was hovering at about 1700 ms (1.7 seconds) latency, I noticed Quartz quoting anywhere from 1500 ms to 2300+ ms on Steady Shots. Annoying, but nothing I can’t adjust to. I just wait for GCD then count “one” and I can hit my next shot.

However, lag seems to greatly dislike Multi Shot. I realized about half way through Grobby that my Multis were a crapshoot – sometimes they went off, but usually I found myself with an “Interrupted” message.

…Um?

Multi Shot has a .5 second cast time on it so that we Hunters can’t do limited AoE while running around. For me, this means I have to make sure I stand still just before and after I hit my Multi button to be sure it goes off. I have myself trained to a rhythm: Pause-Multi-Pause-run. Works quite well on an average night, but it can actually manage to interrupt your “cast” if latency gets high or spikey.

This brings me to my real issue with the GCD and what Rohan had to say about it. He feels that too many skills are no longer on the GCD. I feel that too many are still on the GCD. I think this is purely an issue of his internet not sucking, while mine kinda does. Nothing annoys me more than hitting Arcane, seeing my Rapid Fire is ready and hitting that, then seeing my trinket pop up and hitting that. Over satellite, these messages overlap, and almost always RF doesn’t go off. Sometimes neither RF nor the trinket will go off. This is because while the GCD is over for my client, it’s just started for the server.

“Xanthelei casts Arcane Shot!” Begin client cooldown

“Ok! Arcane Shot is off.” Begin server cooldown, client cooldown is done.

“Xanthelei casts Rapid Fire!” Begin client cooldown.

“Nope, sorry, GCD is still going, no haste goodness for you!” End server cooldown, end client cooldown.

“Xanthelei uses Trinket 1!” And so on. If Rapid Fire was off the GCD, I wouldn’t have this problem, so it’s kinda a secret desire of mine to see it go onto a separate GCD with Bestial Wrath or something.

Yay crappy art!

This brings us then to the Haste stat. I will admit, I’m a bit stuck in Burning Crusade. Back then, you pretty much stacked Attack Power over everything else (besides Hit), and took other stats as icing on the cake. It’s too bad I still think like this, because a certain amount of Haste probably would help me a great deal.

Why? Auto Shot is automatic, and so even while I’m sitting here waiting for the client-server communication it’s still going off and doing white damage both on my client and the server. Haste increases the speed of Auto Shot (I think there’s a cap on that increase, though), and so Haste = more white damage = more Deeps for me. Sadly, I don’t think it can make Multi instant. /sigh

This is why Cataclysm will become so interesting. Blizzard has already said they’re taking out everything but the “basic” stats – so stuff like Agility, Intellect, and Hit will be staying while stuff like Armor Pen and Haste will hit the road. Without that extra Haste that currently resides on all my gear, my white damage will drop significantly (unless they change Agility to have a minor Haste-like effect). This means it will take even more effort on my part to keep up with my guildies in terms of DPS. I’m still unsure if I will enjoy the challenge, or find it frustrating and just switch my raiding main over to a Paladin.

Probably somewhere in the middle, depending on how the whole Focus thing works out.

This Post Brought to You By…

…It’s 6:30 AM and I have had no sleep yet tonight. The following will be random and not entirely about WoW.

Ok. So most of it won’t be about WoW, even remotely. And after I post this I am likely to collapse into bed for a good 9 hours.

—

Parents are noobs. Well ok, MY parents are noobs; I’ll let you decide if yours are or aren’t. My parents seem to think that white bread and lunch meat is all anyone ever needs to survive. I kid you not, that is all there is to eat in the house. Except for canned pears, which are good, but no where near filling. So I went into town and got Chinese food, natch.

And almost drove off the road at the sight of two large, healthy stalks of corn growing in the ditch on the way there.

—

Vic Mignogna is amazing. Not only is he the best voice actor I have heard of (see: Ed of Fullmetal Alchemist, Baldy-watsisface from Bleach, Dark from DNAngel, and more), but he is all about his fans, even if they’re asking for THAT line again.

On top of that, he’s a dork that can sing amazingly well. Proof of being a dork: he wanted a ring tone from a TV show and when he couldn’t find it anywhere, he drug a microphone from his home recording studio to the TV and recorded it for himself. Proof he can sing: well. Go listen. Just be warned, there are some spoilers for the FMA show in this vid. The remix is just as awesome and has more spoilers.

Also. YOUTUBE. STOP TAKING ALL THE F***ING AWESOME AMVS OFFLINE! I tried to find the “original” video for Nothing I Won’t Give, but it got taken down. The vid that Vic SHOWS AT CONS got taken OFF YOUTUBE. For gods know what reasons.

AAAARRRRRGGGGH!!

…ok, I’m done ranting now.

—

I am now convinced I can bring my Ghost Saber Alvar to Ulduar raids and leave my wolf Maizee in the stables. Here’s the DPS Maizee helped me pull on an XT fight without pet food (yes, I am a Huntard).And here’s the DPS Alvar helped me pull on Ignis with pet food (wooo one-shotted, even if there were only 3 of us left standing!).The difference I see is minimal. I’m also quite stoked that I can pull these numbers down through my latency. A second’s lag can really mess with a shot rotation, and the spikes demolish any thoughts of one. Anyone who says one can’t play an MMO over satellite, or even through more lag than 200 ms, is wrong.

—

Apparently, the Southsea Freebooters have NO taste in decoration. If you care to see this creepy picture for yourself, head down to Tanaris. After you enter the compound past the fence, hang an immediate right and go into that first building. Oddly enough, there were a lot of paladin paintings there too.

TL;DR: Should Xanthelei Return to the Alliance?

Just for curiosity’s sake I made a throw-away toon on Feathermoon, the home of WTT:RP’s Wildfire Riders. Honestly, I think it’d be a blast to play Xanth with that group, but that’s beside the point. I wanted to know if Feathermoon was like WrA, with open roleplaying and people randomly poking at NPCs ICly (in character), walking through cities, etc. A very nice person told me that no, any RP on Feathermoon was in a semi-closed, hardcore group. And that trade is notorious for making fun of RP.

He then went on to suggest WrA – my RP home! – for both Alliance and Horde play. I held to my story and pretended I didn’t know about WrA (which when it comes to Alliance, I really don’t), and let him tell me about how it’s open for RP of all levels and griefing is relatively rare.

Which is good, because even with the stories and development I’ve put into my toons, I am still a roleplay nooblet. /cough

I will admit, it wasn’t just curiosity that drove me to Feathermoon. I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t make Thelen his own character and bring Xanth back into play as Xanth. The more I think of the whole “draenei pretending to be tauren to garner info about the horde with Thrall’s approval” thing… the less I like it. Perhaps it’s because I’m playing the original Xanthelei again. Maybe I see too much Mary Sue in that plot. Maybe it’s just plain ol’ writer’s block in regards to what to do with Thelen.

Thel’s story is at a standstill right now. Pride, the shaman who was supposed to be his link to the world of the Horde, has disappeared into thin air; Thelen and Kyrem are on shaky ground still in my mind, so Ky isn’t to be trusted entirely; and I personally have learned a metric ton of stuff about the Horde in general since starting Xanth’s little journey, which was part of the reason I sent him in the first place.

To come back to WTT:RP, Falconesse made a wonderful post recently about how to deal with writer’s block. She (I think?) talks about how to get a story flowing again; take bits out, shuffle them around, and don’t force anything. And the more I examine what I’m working with, the more forced I realize it’s become.

I still think Xanth would agree to the mission, given the losses I had him endure. He trusts Velen with his life; the prophet has managed to keep him alive so far, after all. And Xanth had nothing left to lose. Right?

Well, what if. What if someone else DID survive that expedition. What if some family member who had also survived the crash of the Exodar turned up again? What if Xanth were found out? (Now that would be a fun one to write.) What if I ret-con the whole damn thing and say he never set foot into Ulduar before joining back up with TTH?

Well, ok. That last one is too boring, even for me.

Then there’s the question of what to do with Thelen’s actual pixels on WrA. He’s almost level 50, has everything but fishing and cooking maxed at 300, and is poised to jump right into Outlands. There is no WAY I’m abandoning the guy! So, that means he’d need a totally new story as far as Wyrmrest Accord goes. As I’m broke, a simple faction change or even name change is impossible. I have to work with what I have if I want to RP Thel – and I do. Just like Xanth did to me when I leveled him, in this time of playing as someone else, Thel’s beginning to develop a character of his own.

For the time being the simplest and cleanest answer is to take Xanth back to the Alliance ICly and pull Thelen from RP altogether. The up side is then I have a for-fun character I can dink around with whenever I feel like it and can focus on developing Kyrem’s story. Whatever I end up doing, though, I’m going to think about it for a while longer. I hate ret-conning things (’cause there’s no save button on real life), so I try not to make huge decisions right away.

Wait… does that make me an RP nerd? o.O

Dude, Where’s My Choppa?

“‘Ey! Jus’ wat do ye think yer doin’ over there? Git away, a’fore I knock yer blocks off!”

The group of friends turn away from the large beer kegs they had been inspecting to give the Dark Iron an odd look. The dwarf peers at them suspiciously as they whisper among themselves.

“So he doesn’t remember?” an elven warrior called Vic asks. His companions shrug.

“Guess not. Who wants the honors this time? Mids?” A female druid grins wickedly and steps forward.

“Hey, Direbrew! Your father was a wine taster!” She quickly finds a corner of shadow and disappears from sight while the dwarf sputters.

“Duh… Buh… WHAAAAT!?” Direbrew turns on the nearest person, who just so happens to be the warrior Vic, and charges with a bellow that brings a number of his crew running from the bar. They, too, begin wailing on the “unfortunate” Vic, and soon the large storage room has become a small war zone. Again.

It’s a short fight; Direbrew and his lackeys are no match for a team of adventurers, and soon he lies unconscious on the cold stone floor. While the others pat themselves on the back, a warlock approaches the body and begins rifling through the pockets.

“No, wait, we checked there… Xanth, are you sure this guy has a Choppa?” The draenei nods and rests a hand absently on his ghost saber’s head.

“There’s one parked outside with ‘D-BREW’ as the license plate. Who else could it belong to?” The warlock laughs.

“Just about anyone in Blackrock, huntard. They’re ALL dwarves!”

“Senel, have you even found anything yet? I give him another two minutes before he wakes up, and there’s no way I’m healing your ass if it’s still digging through his pockets,” Midian pipes up.

“Eh, just this old egg. You want it?” He tosses it to Midian who begins to ooh and aah over the find for some obscure, healer-y reason. “Damn! Not even a padlock key,” he continues. Direbrew moans and twitches, sending Senel jumping back behind a gnomish rogue to mock cower. “Babsy, protect me!” Babsy chuckles.

“Xanthelei been teaching you how to Disengage? And how am I supposed to protect you when I barely come up to your knee?” With that she vanishes into the shadows of the room leaving a put out warlock to fend for himself. The round of laughter is enough to rouse the dark iron brewmaster from his forced nap, and he looks around. To his disgust he finds his men also lying around the room passed out.

“Ach, drunk outta their minds agin. Dor! Git in ‘ere and ‘elp me drag their sorry arses outta my keg room!” He turns on the group again and squints, as if there’s something he should remember… but doesn’t. “An’ as fer ye lot, ye best be clearin’ out too, afore I take my headache out on ye.” The five exchange glances and nod somberly as a few patrons of the bar drag the unconscious dwarves from the room.

“Ok, so who’s next?”

—

Happy Brewfest!

It’s Like Herding Cats

Only sometimes the DPS is lower. Have you ever seen an angry cat? /shudder

I’m talking about raid leading, of course. I’ve done it, back in the days of Karazhan, but I decided I didn’t like doing it. I will if I have to, but I won’t take back-seat driving anymore, and that seems to make me a Bad Raid Leader.

However, I have noticed lately what makes a GOOD Raid Leader. When we dropped a few of our core raiders due to them liking drama and the rest of us ignoring said drama, we actually started making cleaner boss kills. I attribute this primarily to a shift in raid leaders. We have about three these days, working as a council: Babsy does the technical stuff, like making sure everyone is buffed, at the instance, inviting, etc; Vic figures out who should do what for each encounter and plays Encyclopedia of Mostly Useless Information that sometimes can save us from a wipe; and Shad picks up anything the other two don’t as a general manager type.

It works for us. Elune only knows why, but it does, and I hope it doesn’t change. For some groups though, especially for PuGs, there has to be a singular raid leader and an assistant or two. Take the Naxx-10 I just ran with a friend of mine. While it was a “guild run” there were plenty of pug players, myself included. Unfortunately, while my friend is good at getting people to agree “Hey! Let’s go clear out Naxx!” she doesn’t have a very forceful personality. This is fine… if you aren’t a raid leader.

Two of the pugged people were constantly “suggesting” things, which in turn would lead to confusion on who was tanking what, who was healing who, etc. Another was being an asshat and refusing to click ok on the ready checks until he got Levitate. And through all of this my friend is worrying at me in whispers that I’ll dislike her because she’s gotten me saved to a “fail Naxx group.”

I won’t though. Raid leading is HARD. It’s STRESSFUL. Not everyone is cut out to be a raid leader. And no matter how strong your personality is, you can’t control the crazies short of /kicking them. I don’t mind being saved to Naxx 10 because the only time TTH will do those is on a badge run, and I can sit those out if it means I get a chance to help her progress. Especially since she always asks me right before we head into Ulduar.

Perhaps our trio of raid leaders works because they are forceful personalities that have agreed to work together to get us through Ulduar. I don’t see any of them allowing a raider to walk over their decision. And they can back each other up. As for me, well… I can raid lead if asked, or if I need to so we can get into raids each week. I just probably wouldn’t be overly well liked, because I will hold you to my standards: Be early for raids, have your flasks and food (if you don’t use fish feasts), be fully repaired, and know the strats for the bosses we know we will get to. I never thought that was asking a whole lot but hey, I’m an odd duck anyway.