Calling World of Warcraft playing kilties.

[Dixiecat]

I guess I can come out of the closet.

Been playing since before BC. I've got a couple of 80's, a BE priest on The Forgotten Coast, a gnome mage on The Venture Co. Working on a dwarf rogue (a bub away from 74) on The Underbog.

Got a bunch of alts of various levels, most notable are a 70 warlock and a 70 priest. Also, trying out a pally.

Used to raid with the BE priest, but all my co-workers (who got me into the game) left wow and I started traveling a fair bit so it was tough to be a 'core' raider and I got focussed on the rogue. She's got some Ulduar epics. I'd play her more if I could find a good guild that didn't mind me coming and going like I do.

Playing wow helped through the hardest bits of my dissolving marriage and it's an enjoyable pastime when managed well. It's also lots of fun when players find out I'm a girl, and over 40. My daughter shares my account and was the one who leveled the mage to 80 after WOTLK came out. She loves grouping with ppl and has a number of characters of various levels that she uses to group with her guildies for fun.

I'm sure you all are following The Guild on youtube?

[Arlen]

Wow, I feel like even more of a newbie than I did before.
I'm a level 9 Dwarf warrior. I play on Norgannon and the demo I have is wrath of the Lich king. I'm probably going to go ahead an buy the game when I have the money and just pay month to month. We'll see.

[Coinneach]

I'm not a WoW player, but I so LOVE this thread! I recognize all the words, but I have no idea what you're talking about!

[Erisianmonkey]

There are still 32,000 DKs lurking about in Fizzcrank. I became self-loathing due to "fail by association" even though my DPS is pretty ok. Yes, I am in a raiding guild with some good people (both good players and just good all around people.) I really hate PuG'ing. I have had far too many fail groups (could just be a server thing.) I have a mixture of T7.5, T9, Triumph (lvl 245) and Conquest (lvl 226.) My two trinkets are both lvl 200. But, being that I've re-rolled I'm not really worrying about them anymore. I hop on him each day for the H Daily. When I get 15 triumph I buy a crusader orb and sell for 1K~. The gold goes to the Lock for those expensive necessities (defrosted flying and artisan flying.)

I'm dual spec'd on the Lock (and the DK for that matter.) Atm I have the affliction spec as my main and demonology as my off. I've already been seeing my VW having a heck of a time keeping alive while the DoTs do their work, so i've been researching deep destro. My plan at 80 is to have a destro raid spec and an affliction or possibly an affliction/demon spec for PvP.

My biggest problem with raiding guilds is they get gear score blinded. I got bumped from a VoA run the other day because I've got a lot of PvP gear on. I was smoking the raid leader in the damage charts, and she still replaced me saying that my DPS was too low because of my gear. I'll grant that the raid had just wiped on Koralon, but that was pure *healer* fail. I wasn't the only one who was kicked either. A hunter in the raid got kicked too, and he was pulling 3k and #2 on the damage chart. It was a pure e-peen thing.

Demon is the best leveling spec for Outland. Three dots and a few bolts will suffice for most of the mobs within about 2 levels of you when you have your Felguard out. It'll work for a lot of Northrend too. Once you hit the late 70's though, then Destro is the way to go. My best advice when you do spec destro though is to sit on a dummy for a bit and tune your rotation. And don't forget that we don't have to farm shards from mobs anymore. I hit the dummies and drain soul on them for shards. It saves so much time when you need to fill up your soul shard bag.

Locks may be one of the most difficult classes to master, but as you already know, they are so much fun to play. So many different ways to kill a mob. My alt is a pally, and I've got him specced ret for leveling, and it is easy mode compared to playing a lock. The fights don't even get that hard if your rotation gets screwed up. I hear that pallys are a lot more fun once you hit 80 and can switch to playing holy for healing and prot for tanking.

[Dixiecat]

I find it funny to get kicked from a VoA run for wearing pvp gear when that instance drops the most pvp epic gear available ingame.

One of the reasons you can get kicked for high dps is not managing your aggro. I know your RL said you had too low dps, but did you die during the fight?

I am not pointing a finger at you when I say this, but, too many times the dps is concerned with how high their dps is and not concerned with the threat they build while doing the high dps. I find the healing saying pretty much true (but not always):
if the tank dies, it's the priest's fault
if the priest dies, it's the tanks's fault
if the dps dies, it's their own fault

[Tattoo Bradley]

I've not zero problem with Gear Score weighing in. As far as my guild, it's a non-issue within limits. If you have a Pally with 2300gs (greens and blues) the are not going to be able to hang in raid. I mention it as it's a good indicator of the type of gear I'm using. Fact is, gear (or the lack there of) will limit your abilities.

Ersian, how much DPS were you pulling in VoA? Which damage meter are you using? Recount?

if the tank dies, it's the priest's fault
if the priest dies, it's the tanks's fault
if the dps dies, it's their own fault

Dixie says true.

There's nothing worse than a DPS drawing threat. My favorite is when there's another DK DPS in a 5 man throwing D&D or Death Grip. It's like breaking wind and pointing at your neighbor. My old guild

Thanks for the pointers on the Demon spec in Outlands. Since I've already made a Demon spec, I'm gonna have a go with that. I just got started on the Honor Hold quests (30%ish into anyway.)

[Erisianmonkey]

I find it funny to get kicked from a VoA run for wearing pvp gear when that instance drops the most pvp epic gear available ingame.

One of the reasons you can get kicked for high dps is not managing your aggro. I know your RL said you had too low dps, but did you die during the fight?

I am not pointing a finger at you when I say this, but, too many times the dps is concerned with how high their dps is and not concerned with the threat they build while doing the high dps. I find the healing saying pretty much true (but not always):
if the tank dies, it's the priest's fault
if the priest dies, it's the tanks's fault
if the dps dies, it's their own fault

Yes, we wiped on Koralon. the tank couldn't hold aggro at all. And if the raid wide healer can't handle healing, they should reroll and play something else. If I had been the only one who died, then I would say that dying was my fault. but according to recount, the guy who was supposed to be doing the healing was trying to be a damage dealer himself. Last to die was the raid leader, the main tank, because she had decided that the best healer was to focus on her, and she wasn't bothering to hold aggro. The fact that we had multiple healers means there is absolutely no excuse to not do any raid healing. And it is absolutely unforgivable for the healers to try and get up the damage charts.

As far as aggro management is concerned, I use IceHUD and have the threat meter on so that I can watch my aggro. But with nobody in the raid doing more than 3.5k, if the tank can't hold aggro, they need some serious help. I know my role, and I know that DPS is low on the healing priority. That's why I drop a soulwell at the beginning of the instance, and I have a macro to use my healthstone or healing pots, from best to worst. I also have mana pots on another macro in case I can't life tap because the healer is busy. I also turn on the green warlock locator beam when necessary. (drain life) But in a properly run instance with a good healer, I should never have to drain life as a destro lock.

While I'm not an experienced raider, I have run lots of dungeons. I've also run HoL 10-man (bailed on that one because the raid leader didn't know the fight and got sick of wiping because he kept insisting we run rather than stand on the healer.) and got called in to VoA to replace a DPSer that had to leave so I've actually downed Archavon once.

And yeah, it's either funny or sad to get kicked out of VoA for PvP gear. I'm leaning more toward sad considering that you have to PvP to get to run it in the first place, all drops in the instance aside. My point was that the whole gear snob thing is why I'm not raiding. Properly buffed in a heroic I do 1.8k to 2.1k-plenty to run 10-man VoA, Naxx, OS, or even HoL, when you consider the boost from buffs in a 10-man. I'm interested in raiding, but more for the content rather than the bragging rights. I'd like to see Onyxia's Lair (never got the chance in vanilla since I started after TBC came out), and I want to down Arthas when the chance comes along. I know I'm gonna need gear for that, but the catch-22 of having to have the gear and achievements done before you can get an invite is driving me nuts.

Edit to add:
That saying is true, within limits. In a normal raid or dungeon run, yeah, it stands. But in a fubar idiot run like the VoA I got kicked from, then no. As a lock who is in a position to sit back and help keep aggro off the healer when the tank screws up, I do know whereof I speak. There's nothing like having to pull off a boss and shake adds off a healer in a heroic because the tank isn't paying attention to keep you on your toes. Especially when the healer has to let you die because they have to heal themselves as well as the tank to keep the group from wiping.

@TattooBradley: I was in purples and blues for that ridiculous run. I was still pulling 1.3 to 1.5. Low even for a lower level raid like VoA. However, I was still #4 on the DPS chart. I had to soulshatter once to get aggro off me. Even with that and using my demonic circle, I still got toasted. Under normal circumstances, if I need to be replaced for someone better geared, I have no problem. My problem is the fact that I got replaced solely for gear score by a raid leader who couldn't handle their own job. And yes, I use recount.

[Tattoo Bradley]

Sorry to hear all the troubles Ersian.

Some people are just jerks no matter what unfortunately.

There's always server (or even faction o.O hops) to think about if the pool of players swims in circles.

[CDNSushi]

Hey, if anyone wants to join me, I'll be rolling a new alt on Ravenholdt (RPPVP). Horde side. Other details unknown as of yet. Buddy of mine just rolled an undead rogue and I think I'll join him...

[Tattoo Bradley]

Hey, if anyone wants to join me, I'll be rolling a new alt on Ravenholdt (RPPVP). Horde side. Other details unknown as of yet. Buddy of mine just rolled an undead rogue and I think I'll join him...

As a matter of fact I have a lvl 1 alt on that server Orc Shammy (Shampowpow.) My cousin plays a Belf Priest there.