Category: Uncategorised

Naxx 10

Tanque pulled together a pugged naxx10 run, it was made clear as things warmed up that, “No, not everyone has been in here”. As we progressed through it became clear that at least two of the team either ignored that message or have the mindset “but everyone has run naxx”. Oh well.

Multiple wipes as I learnt the boss fights, this was not to be unexpected.

There was a particularly “interesting” moment when the (fortunately) weaker of the healers managed to drop into auto-run just outside the room containing Grand Widow Faerlina. Before we had start to pull any of the trash. Naturally this event resulted in us pulling the entire room except the boss. We survived, two healers, tank (me) and a warlock I think. It was frantic.

In the plague quarter things start to go pear shaped. Apparently “target skull” means “target something randomly” which is a problem with the gargoyles. A ready check + “Pulling” as a raid warning isn’t apparently enough information to get people rolling into Noth’s room (two left outside including the OT).

The safety dance is a swine, by which point I was tired and unfortunately Tanque got some of that. Anyway that’s where it fell apart, I mostly got the function of the dance right (that’s simple enough) however I stressed the healers by running him too close to the platform (there’s a spell affecting debuff).

We will be back, we won’t be back with a couple of the team under any conditions because they’ve got a massively high opinion of themselves while being bottom of their respective stats.

A tale of three PUGs

#1 A tank dusts off his holy gear
After a morning spent testing out the holy spec in AV (875k healing in one battle *woot*) I decided that a UK heroic would be a good starting point for his holy heroic career. A pug was looking for a healer, I’m guessing teens from the chat and the ‘bouncing’ of the various players, then we get the relogs, disconnects, disappearing to do something etc etc.

Finally ready to roll, first few pulls ok, we’re running at PUG speed, that’s fine I’m keeping up. However there reaches the point where I need to drop and drink, definitely insufficient mana to keep rolling. Not a blip from the tank, he keeps going. “what’s the problem no one died”, this is true, however it does not bode well for later on and I know how that trash hits. UK is the entry instance for NR and the trash on a well geared tank can do some rather interesting damage spikes. You really want the healer to have something in reserve.

So well done, you have achieved something no one else in the game has ever achieved. Me dropping party and hearthing out of the instance.

Congratulations, I hope you had fun finding another healer.

#2 The tank tries to heal Nexus
This was always going to be hairy, but it was mostly a guild run, shaking up our normal roles a bit (DPS moving to Tanking, Healer breaking out her mage etc etc). One short of our normal numbers so we pugged in a DK. Nope, just couldn’t do it. A combination of people not moving quickly enough out of the whirlwind (I’ve wiped enough on him as a tank that I’m painfully aware of the need to leg it) and me not being able to get the heals out quickly enough (need more spell haste). Switched into the tree form druid, and we pressed on. Healed boss#1 no problem, wiped on Telestra once (her fire form appeared right next to me and went *mash*), and the big rock dude got us beacuse healbot went wonky as we started the fight and I forgot to heal myself while running the healing old-school. Big dragon bint went down without any problem.

Our pugged DK, wonderful, no drama, no complaints and two upgrades of dragon girl 🙂

#3 The tank goes back to what he does best
That would be tanking. Anyway the retadin had been packed off to bed (it being a school night and all that) another guild member was online, so once again we’re a body short. So we pug in the warlock (I did toy with pulling in someone else but I’m glad I picked the ‘lock for reasons which will become clear). We’re running with our normal tank/healer pairing (we’re in the same room). Things are going well, the trash seems to be slightly harder than normal but this could be down to so many things in VH. Boss#1… goody.. it’s the water boss, I hate him, but down he goes thanks to the defense crystals. More trash… boss#2… the etheral. Just how bad is my luck? First set of balls of death, no problem, second set… all going well.. oh damm, one of them has decided to go the other way and is heading for my back… dead… soulstone… hammer of wrath.. boss dies… I die.

Warlock is in there on her own.

There then followed a period of running, getting confused, finally chatting to herself at the door and piling in to pull stuff, gain mana and re-buff on the fly. More frantic running… and down goes the dragon.

Again, a good pug 🙂

Moral
Bad pugs can be spotted at the start, tanks in PUGs watch your healers up to the first boss, take things easier until you’ve got the measure of their ability to keep up with chain pulling. I’ve done both sides of the match here. Providing you’re watching (particularly) the mana users you can look like you’re chain pulling like a crazy thing, however chain pulling while not watching to see if your healer has dropped to drink and is out of line of sight… that’s the sign of a bad tank.

More heavy handed policing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/17/police-tourist-photos-walthamstow

Looks like taking a photo of a bus station is now on the list of illegal / potentially terrorist activities. Of course we have nothing to worry about as the Police have been told that they shouldn’t be heavy handed about this sort of thing.

So for example taking a photo of a Police car driving across a park, down the paths, forcing pedestrians to move, across the grass. Won’t be a problem… No?