Weekend Games
So my time spent at work over the weekend was, thankfully, minimal. I did have to deal with a call Sunday afternoon, too, but that wasn't too bad and could be handled remotely.
GW: So we wrapped up the War in Kryta chain Sunday evening. It's good to finally get through that even, though it doesn't feel greatly monumental for me. Certainly it involved many waves of various mobs in the defense of Lion's Arch and wraps up some character stories (though there remains one really big "missing in action"), but I still didn't really feel much affected by it. Maybe that's me. I haven't really been able to get into the story so much while being rushed around from one accomplishment to the next.
WoW: The guild is... not quite diving into Cataclysm with the momentum it had several months ago in Wrath. Not as a whole, anyway. As a group we're roughly at the point of being geared to start raiding, but the pieces aren't quite in place. We lack enough of a reliable healing corps, having lost one regular to another guild and seen a second become scarce partly due to technical problems while also showing less interest. One of our top DPS players is spending a lot of time tanking. Forum communication has dwindled. I think we're still ahead of the curve compared to this early back in the last expansion, but I'm genuinely not sure if we're going to be successfully raiding entry-tier content before the next tier is released.
We are getting in a fair number of heroic runs. I can't manage to do them daily, but some other are. I still appreciate the difficulty, I just wish that didn't translate to time. A few points of comment:
- I have yet to see heroic Shadowfang Keep
- Favorite heroic dungeon design: Deadmines. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I find the variety and encounter design neat. The cannons and reaper bot fit well without skewing the playability of the place (just the Recount numbers). The nightmare elixir gauntlet is a rush and swinging off the ship to avoid blasts is flavorful and unique.
The sad part is that it's got a lot of encounters, including several that almost guarantee a wipe until people learn them (the Harvester you have to see, Ripsnarl hits like a truck, Cookie takes coordination and is especially rough on melee). All that means seeing the Deadmines loading screen is an indication you're going to be in there a looong time. That's the hate part - it's a major time commitment.
- Hardest Boss to tank: Orzuk, in the Stonecore. On normal, I could suck up his shatters, making the encounter trivial. On heroic, they nail me for somewhere around 95 percent health - barely survivable sometimes. The ground slam that follows means I have to run out, then back in, and try to keep him from facing the ranged group. Once isn't too bad, but going through this cycle repeatedly is rough. The fact that screwing one up will likely insta-gib someone, leading to an even longer fight and/or a wipe is what makes it haaard. At this stage, there's just no room for error and that's why it's taken me several attempts to succeed the last two times through there.
- Most despised boss ability: Force Grip. I don't like being interrupted and rendered helpless, thus I've long disliked fear effects. Force Grip takes the cake, though, by making me unable to act (even with my normal "free myself!" abilities), dealing damage, and simultaneously running a high risk of putting me where I don't want to be - such as in a void zone that deals more damage. Azil launches into the first one early in the fight, too, which means if no one else interrupts it, I'm going to be struggling with aggro for a while.
GW: So we wrapped up the War in Kryta chain Sunday evening. It's good to finally get through that even, though it doesn't feel greatly monumental for me. Certainly it involved many waves of various mobs in the defense of Lion's Arch and wraps up some character stories (though there remains one really big "missing in action"), but I still didn't really feel much affected by it. Maybe that's me. I haven't really been able to get into the story so much while being rushed around from one accomplishment to the next.
WoW: The guild is... not quite diving into Cataclysm with the momentum it had several months ago in Wrath. Not as a whole, anyway. As a group we're roughly at the point of being geared to start raiding, but the pieces aren't quite in place. We lack enough of a reliable healing corps, having lost one regular to another guild and seen a second become scarce partly due to technical problems while also showing less interest. One of our top DPS players is spending a lot of time tanking. Forum communication has dwindled. I think we're still ahead of the curve compared to this early back in the last expansion, but I'm genuinely not sure if we're going to be successfully raiding entry-tier content before the next tier is released.
We are getting in a fair number of heroic runs. I can't manage to do them daily, but some other are. I still appreciate the difficulty, I just wish that didn't translate to time. A few points of comment:
- I have yet to see heroic Shadowfang Keep
- Favorite heroic dungeon design: Deadmines. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I find the variety and encounter design neat. The cannons and reaper bot fit well without skewing the playability of the place (just the Recount numbers). The nightmare elixir gauntlet is a rush and swinging off the ship to avoid blasts is flavorful and unique.
The sad part is that it's got a lot of encounters, including several that almost guarantee a wipe until people learn them (the Harvester you have to see, Ripsnarl hits like a truck, Cookie takes coordination and is especially rough on melee). All that means seeing the Deadmines loading screen is an indication you're going to be in there a looong time. That's the hate part - it's a major time commitment.
- Hardest Boss to tank: Orzuk, in the Stonecore. On normal, I could suck up his shatters, making the encounter trivial. On heroic, they nail me for somewhere around 95 percent health - barely survivable sometimes. The ground slam that follows means I have to run out, then back in, and try to keep him from facing the ranged group. Once isn't too bad, but going through this cycle repeatedly is rough. The fact that screwing one up will likely insta-gib someone, leading to an even longer fight and/or a wipe is what makes it haaard. At this stage, there's just no room for error and that's why it's taken me several attempts to succeed the last two times through there.
- Most despised boss ability: Force Grip. I don't like being interrupted and rendered helpless, thus I've long disliked fear effects. Force Grip takes the cake, though, by making me unable to act (even with my normal "free myself!" abilities), dealing damage, and simultaneously running a high risk of putting me where I don't want to be - such as in a void zone that deals more damage. Azil launches into the first one early in the fight, too, which means if no one else interrupts it, I'm going to be struggling with aggro for a while.
Heroics are hard? No, I feel you there, having mainly been DPS, but also healing, it can be very, very rough when things aren't clicking. I worry about the state of the guild, maybe there's too much pressure, but I also don't know if maybe sitting back for a week or two while other people "gear up" will work out either.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm sort of afraid to get into healing these days. >.> I've been pondering the Orzuk encounter and reading a bit. I think I may start running the other way/across the hall. It means I'll probably end up out of the healer's range temporarily, but there's less risk to the ranged from the following ground slam and if I screw up, the healer's probably not going to be able to save me anyway.
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