This post will not be about anybody in particular or even about the World of Warcraft. What it is about is Coinstar, a company that manufactures and rents coin sorting kiosks that can be found in a variety of locations such as grocery stores, gas stations, malls, etc. People simply take their loose change and dump it into the machine which then counts it and prints out a receipt of the total and the customer takes the receipt to a cashier in the store and gets paid in bills. Coinstar keeps 9.8% of the total as a fee for using the machine. In 1999, shares of Coinstar were just above four dollars. Today, it closed at ten times that amount.
How did this miraculous surge in stock price happen? Quite simply, they targeted idiots with change. (They also own Redbox, the DVD rental kiosk which is doing quite well.) I say this because only idiots use Coinstar seeing as one can go to a bank and have them do the exact same thing...for free.
One may argue, "But Coinstar is very convenient." Chances are there is a bank within walking distance of every kiosk as they are located in high traffic areas, just like banks. Cashing in $30 dollars worth of coins could cost roughly three dollars using Coinstar, which is the price of one gallon of gasoline. If your car gets twenty miles per gallon, one should be willing to drive ten miles out of the way to avoid Coinstar. As most people get paid once every two weeks, the average time one would have to hold on to a full change jar would be seven days. It should not be hard to wait a single week to cash in your change when you have to go to the bank anyways.
I be the people who use Coinstar are the same people who buy bottled water.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Spoken like a true casual, Rahkwa - Baelgun.
The problem: Today as I was tanking a random, I noticed a death knight in full 232 tier, ungemmed and unenchanted, with blues in most of his other slots. I had just had to know why he had this beautiful gear but no shiny rocks and spells on it to make it even more powerful. At first, I suspected that he was too poor, but that turned out not to be the reason. The real reason was that he just plain did not care. He then went as far as to say this. Notice how I, as a tank, was pulling twice as much dps as he was and four times as much damage. That's utterly appalling, and it's not because I am so good, it is because he was so bad. Since he was just playing this game for fun, I hope that the run with me was the most fun Halls of Stone that he had ever done. Upon inspection of recount after we had finished, I discovered that this smart guy was using obliterate, even though his spec was blood. He used death strike a grand total of twice...at least heart strike was in his "rotation."
The solution: Gem your gear. Read up on your class at elitist jerks. Change your attitude so the amount of fun you have is directly proportional to how good you are at this game.
I do find it interesting how many players use "i just play this game for fun" as an excuse for being bad. It's like they think that if you are good at the game then you aren't having fun, that one can't possibly "have a life" and have good gear and skill at the same time. How do these people view success in the real world? Do they look at a doctor of medicine and think, "He has no life because he spent 12 years in school/residency. I'm glad i spent 11.5 years of my life having fun with my cool friends." (The .5 years difference was when he went to community college and dropped out after one semester.) I think that some people will rationalize this way, but most people would say, "That's stupid because a doctor makes a ton more money and can afford the best things money can buy." This is absolutely true. The difference between WoW and real life is in real life, people know what comes with success: money, prestige, opportunities, houses, cars, etc. but with in the World of Warcraft, morons don't know what exactly it is they are missing. They don't know how it feels to do 12k dps, battle the Lich King, win a sweet drake, etc. They will never be good enough to experience then endgame content while it is current. Perhaps once or twice they snagged a spot in a 25 ICC pug or half guild run but they were so bad that they got kicked after Lootship or they wiped a raid and got yelled at. They believe that this is what people experience to get good gear and be good at the game. This leads to the idea that getting gear and having fun are mutually exclusive. This is assbackwards in my eyes, but who am I to judge someone "just playing for fun."
The solution: Gem your gear. Read up on your class at elitist jerks. Change your attitude so the amount of fun you have is directly proportional to how good you are at this game.
I do find it interesting how many players use "i just play this game for fun" as an excuse for being bad. It's like they think that if you are good at the game then you aren't having fun, that one can't possibly "have a life" and have good gear and skill at the same time. How do these people view success in the real world? Do they look at a doctor of medicine and think, "He has no life because he spent 12 years in school/residency. I'm glad i spent 11.5 years of my life having fun with my cool friends." (The .5 years difference was when he went to community college and dropped out after one semester.) I think that some people will rationalize this way, but most people would say, "That's stupid because a doctor makes a ton more money and can afford the best things money can buy." This is absolutely true. The difference between WoW and real life is in real life, people know what comes with success: money, prestige, opportunities, houses, cars, etc. but with in the World of Warcraft, morons don't know what exactly it is they are missing. They don't know how it feels to do 12k dps, battle the Lich King, win a sweet drake, etc. They will never be good enough to experience then endgame content while it is current. Perhaps once or twice they snagged a spot in a 25 ICC pug or half guild run but they were so bad that they got kicked after Lootship or they wiped a raid and got yelled at. They believe that this is what people experience to get good gear and be good at the game. This leads to the idea that getting gear and having fun are mutually exclusive. This is assbackwards in my eyes, but who am I to judge someone "just playing for fun."
Friday, July 23, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
I was tanking. You weren't healing. You are bad, Sigg-Azshara.
The problem: Today I got thrown into a HoR run that had one boss already down. This means that the people in it had indubitably failed. Usually the blame is put on the tank, and obviously this was the case because I was now in the group. I decided to grit my teeth and tank the dungeon, which I did marvelously until the last ice wall. Actually, I tanked that "pull" marvelously as well...the only problem was the healer decided that keeping the tank alive was below running to the very end of the dungeon on his list of priorities. At first I thought the healer just knew a trick to being able to complete the instance without having to kill the last wave, but that was not the case. Because he was from Azshara, I said, "You can send the 8g for my repair bill to Drsaget." The response was "ok but it wasn't my fault, nobody tanks them there." Hmm......I am somebody....I was tanking them there....therefore, that statement is false. As the healer had two other friends from Azshara in the group, I was kicked. Awesome. It's no wonder this healer, named Sigg, was part of a guild of which I had never heard, Big Floppy Crits. I decided to confront him on Drsaget and of course I was ignored. An ignore is as good as saying, "You were right, I was wrong" in my book. Upon further inspection of Sigg, he is indeed a M&S. His welfare 232s aren't gemmed or enchanted properly, he has a dps trinket, and his professions are 233 engineering and 300 mining. He and his moron friends had most likely queued specifically for that dungeon so they could get some phat lootz to pwn Aruthz. Mission accomplished.
The solution: This heroic is yet another example of how bad players fail to comprehend that the tank is the leader of the heroic. The tank chooses where mobs are positioned. It is the healer's job to stay within range of the tank and, I don't know, heal. Failing to do such will almost always result in a wipe, as it did in this case. A bad pull has a chance at success as long as the tank has aggro and is being healed. Any pull without heals has a much smaller chance at success. My positioning did not prevent the healer from healing, thus there should have been no reason for me not to have been receiving heals. I hope Sigg realized this, but I'm not holding my breath. It's funny, though, he seems to have completed the first wing of ICC on 25 man but not 10 man. Cough carried cough.
I also find if very odd how ranged dps and healers like to stand as far away from the tank as possible, then run even further away when mobs are chasing them. I believe it is just because of human instinct to stay as far away from damage as possible then run away in the opposite direction when you are being chased. At any rate, if I ever make a healer or ranged dps (excluding hunter) you will find me standing right on top of consecrate or death and decay.
The solution: This heroic is yet another example of how bad players fail to comprehend that the tank is the leader of the heroic. The tank chooses where mobs are positioned. It is the healer's job to stay within range of the tank and, I don't know, heal. Failing to do such will almost always result in a wipe, as it did in this case. A bad pull has a chance at success as long as the tank has aggro and is being healed. Any pull without heals has a much smaller chance at success. My positioning did not prevent the healer from healing, thus there should have been no reason for me not to have been receiving heals. I hope Sigg realized this, but I'm not holding my breath. It's funny, though, he seems to have completed the first wing of ICC on 25 man but not 10 man. Cough carried cough.
I also find if very odd how ranged dps and healers like to stand as far away from the tank as possible, then run even further away when mobs are chasing them. I believe it is just because of human instinct to stay as far away from damage as possible then run away in the opposite direction when you are being chased. At any rate, if I ever make a healer or ranged dps (excluding hunter) you will find me standing right on top of consecrate or death and decay.
My new heroic tanking setup.
Because I was lucky enough to get into a Handlebarz alt 25 ICC pug, (just happened to be in trade chat while they were looking for dps) I obtained three pieces of loot from the ten bosses that we killed. It should have been 11, but a one percent wipe on Sindragosa due to too many people dying in p1. Anywho, I received a tier token, Bloodfall, and Broken Ram Skull Helm. I used the tier token to upgrade my dps helm, but the tank helm is the favorite piece that I got as it was a big upgrade from the 232 helm I had been sporting. After looking through all the tank gear I had and rediscovering Wrathful Gladiator's Dreadplate Leggaurds, I figured that I no longer needed to use Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle but instead could use Rune of the Fallen Crusader. This is big as I can use my dps weapon which is this. I gained over 500 unbuffed attack power while staying defense capped. I did lose a bit of dodge and parry, but that really doesn't matter for heroics when my health pool is already very large. I just tanked H Gundrak and did 3.3k dps overall, not bad in my opinion, especially since a lock was at 6k and a boomkin at 5k. Needless to say, trash didn't live very long.
I've tanked a few heroics so far this way and I'm excited about it. This excitement has prevented me from telling anyone in the party off for being bad. However, last night I got the pleasure of tanking Oculus. Unlike most people, I don't mind it...except when people don't know how to use the drakes properly. We wiped once. It's frustrating seeing two different stacks of Temporal Rift at 10 and telling them to use Shock Lance and them not doing it. After the wipe, I hopped on the tank drake and proceeded to do 74% of the damage and was the only person alive after the kill. It really is sad that people don't know how the mechanics of a heroic work nearly two years into the expansion. What's sadder is when you try to teach the mechanics and they don't listen and continue to be bad. I guess you can't fix stupid.
Or can you?
Actually, no, you can't. Scientists proved it.
I've tanked a few heroics so far this way and I'm excited about it. This excitement has prevented me from telling anyone in the party off for being bad. However, last night I got the pleasure of tanking Oculus. Unlike most people, I don't mind it...except when people don't know how to use the drakes properly. We wiped once. It's frustrating seeing two different stacks of Temporal Rift at 10 and telling them to use Shock Lance and them not doing it. After the wipe, I hopped on the tank drake and proceeded to do 74% of the damage and was the only person alive after the kill. It really is sad that people don't know how the mechanics of a heroic work nearly two years into the expansion. What's sadder is when you try to teach the mechanics and they don't listen and continue to be bad. I guess you can't fix stupid.
Or can you?
Actually, no, you can't. Scientists proved it.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Bigbadbutton - Greymane
The honor of the first player critiqued goes to Bigbadbutton of Greymane, a fury warrior who would prove to be a moron.
Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Greymane&cn=Bigbadbutton
The Problem: The random we got was DTK, an instance with two optional bosses that can be completed in under 15 minutes. I believe that it should be up to the tank to decide if bosses should be killed or skipped. Right after we downed Trollgore, I stated, "Skipping the next to bosses." The warrior replied, "aw but i like the t-rex boss." After the trash in the next room was killed, the warlock in the group decided that he knew the way to bypass Novos and ran straight against the near wall instead of going around like you are supposed to. When he did that and then aggro'd the next room and brought them back into Novo's room, I said "Idiot" in party chat. I guess the warrior thought that I was talking about him because he started spouting off about how "badges are useful, skipping bosses only leads to trouble" while I proceeded to wrangle up all the mobs. I retorted, "Not knowing what to do, yet leading the way leads to trouble." According the Bigbadbutton, I "am no leader, just dillusional." He had already died as he blindly followed the lock so he had time to tell everyone to vote me out after the boss was down because I was an elitist for stating that I had better things to do than tank optional bosses. Of course, I'm smarter and better than him, so I quick ran and aggro'd the next set of mobs and proceeded to tank them while he was being resurrected and telling the healer to let me die so he can tank. I did not die. I soloed the next few packs up the stairs while he and the rest of the group narrowly killed King Dread. They joined me at the guys who fear and we downed the the Prophet to complete the instance. Again, the warrior started calling me "an elitist with a bad attitude who needs to play less wow" while I licked my chops at having my first subject to write about.
The Solution: Bigbadbutton had a tank spec and set, yet he chose to dps. If you want to kill all the bosses in a dungeon, QUEUE AS A TANK! Not only do you have no wait, you get to lead the group. Yes, I said lead the group. This is why I now choose to tank. If you don't like that I'm just there for Frost badges, tough luck. Having better things to do than carry bad players through a dungeon is not being elitist, it is being efficient. Bigbadbutton was obviously a social who was there to help the less fortunate people in the dungeon obtain badges. The key to skill, though, is asocial behavior as detailed in this post by Gevlon. Read what he wrote and take it to heart, especially the part about the three ways the social behavior with peers drains all your resources.
I'm so happy he had a repair bill and I didn't.
Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Greymane&cn=Bigbadbutton
The Problem: The random we got was DTK, an instance with two optional bosses that can be completed in under 15 minutes. I believe that it should be up to the tank to decide if bosses should be killed or skipped. Right after we downed Trollgore, I stated, "Skipping the next to bosses." The warrior replied, "aw but i like the t-rex boss." After the trash in the next room was killed, the warlock in the group decided that he knew the way to bypass Novos and ran straight against the near wall instead of going around like you are supposed to. When he did that and then aggro'd the next room and brought them back into Novo's room, I said "Idiot" in party chat. I guess the warrior thought that I was talking about him because he started spouting off about how "badges are useful, skipping bosses only leads to trouble" while I proceeded to wrangle up all the mobs. I retorted, "Not knowing what to do, yet leading the way leads to trouble." According the Bigbadbutton, I "am no leader, just dillusional." He had already died as he blindly followed the lock so he had time to tell everyone to vote me out after the boss was down because I was an elitist for stating that I had better things to do than tank optional bosses. Of course, I'm smarter and better than him, so I quick ran and aggro'd the next set of mobs and proceeded to tank them while he was being resurrected and telling the healer to let me die so he can tank. I did not die. I soloed the next few packs up the stairs while he and the rest of the group narrowly killed King Dread. They joined me at the guys who fear and we downed the the Prophet to complete the instance. Again, the warrior started calling me "an elitist with a bad attitude who needs to play less wow" while I licked my chops at having my first subject to write about.
The Solution: Bigbadbutton had a tank spec and set, yet he chose to dps. If you want to kill all the bosses in a dungeon, QUEUE AS A TANK! Not only do you have no wait, you get to lead the group. Yes, I said lead the group. This is why I now choose to tank. If you don't like that I'm just there for Frost badges, tough luck. Having better things to do than carry bad players through a dungeon is not being elitist, it is being efficient. Bigbadbutton was obviously a social who was there to help the less fortunate people in the dungeon obtain badges. The key to skill, though, is asocial behavior as detailed in this post by Gevlon. Read what he wrote and take it to heart, especially the part about the three ways the social behavior with peers drains all your resources.
I'm so happy he had a repair bill and I didn't.
The First Post!
To those of you who have stumbled upon this blog, I ask, "How the hell did you find me?" I would really like to know this. That being said, I will get along to what this blog is about and what purpose I hope it will serve. This blog is one man's perspective on random heroic dungeons in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. I began playing this game in January or February of 2009, so roughly one and a half years ago. Right now, I have three characters that have reached the level cap of 80: a rogue, a warrior, and a death knight. I would consider the rogue (undead) my main as I leveled him up first and he has the best gear out of the three; his name is Drsaget (just Saget or Bobsaget were taken.) The death knight (orc) is my main-alt; he began his days on the same server as Drsaget and was intended to be a saronite slave but I transferred him to raid with some real life friends. Continuing the Full House tradition, his name is Drstamos. Finally, the warrior goes by Neutronstar (troll) which was the lamest name I could think of so people would think I was a complete idiot and write me off. Saget and Neutron are both horde on the Azshara US server and Stamos is horde on Agamaggan US. Armory links:
Saget: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Azshara&cn=Drsaget
Stamos: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Agamaggan&cn=Drstamos
Neutronstar: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Azshara&cn=Neutronstar
All three of these characters are part of the Shadowburn battlegroup, which I like as I sometimes get queued with people I know from one server while I am on the other.
Because this blog is about my observations about bad players in heroics, most of these will come from the perspective of Stamos. Like I said before, he was originally intended to be a saronite slave, mining ore and running heroics to farm badges with which I could buy primordial saronites and sell them for profit. Because tanks are always in high demand and experience no waiting time for queues, I decided he would be a tank and farmed badges like a mo'fo' to get him 232 welfare gear. The problem with this plan was that I was not very good at tanking. I had not read much about death knights or understood how to play the class properly so I was the cause of a wipe or two. Because I enjoy being the best at what I do, I put together a dps set and Stamos the tank became Stamos the dps. When I transferred him from Azshara to Agamaggan, his tank set was at about 4.6k gear score and dps set at about 5.0k gear score, respectively. After about four months and many raids later, his dps gear got up to 5.8k and his tank set sat in the bank. Because I now had three level 80s, (Neutron was now level capped) I decided to save some time I would begin tanking again. Because I had gotten some offspec stuff from ICC and VOA, I was able to put together a pretty decent set. With my better gear, tanking heroics became much easier. Having two pieces of t10 combined with Glyph of Death and Decay ensures that trash is basically glued to me so rarely do I lose aggro. Another benefit of this setup is that I do quite a bit of damage, reaching 3k overall is usually attainable, which is good enough to lead damage done about half the time. This half of the time that I do this, it is usually because dps are doing something wrong which I will usually spot and voice my displeasure. This leads to interesting situations which I will detail in this blog. I will say now that I am a noob at times, I make mistakes but am man enough to say "my bad" when I mess up. Feel free to call out errors I make in critiquing the idiots that I will be commenting on. I do believe that now it is time to take out the Heroic Trash.
Saget: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Azshara&cn=Drsaget
Stamos: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Agamaggan&cn=Drstamos
Neutronstar: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Azshara&cn=Neutronstar
All three of these characters are part of the Shadowburn battlegroup, which I like as I sometimes get queued with people I know from one server while I am on the other.
Because this blog is about my observations about bad players in heroics, most of these will come from the perspective of Stamos. Like I said before, he was originally intended to be a saronite slave, mining ore and running heroics to farm badges with which I could buy primordial saronites and sell them for profit. Because tanks are always in high demand and experience no waiting time for queues, I decided he would be a tank and farmed badges like a mo'fo' to get him 232 welfare gear. The problem with this plan was that I was not very good at tanking. I had not read much about death knights or understood how to play the class properly so I was the cause of a wipe or two. Because I enjoy being the best at what I do, I put together a dps set and Stamos the tank became Stamos the dps. When I transferred him from Azshara to Agamaggan, his tank set was at about 4.6k gear score and dps set at about 5.0k gear score, respectively. After about four months and many raids later, his dps gear got up to 5.8k and his tank set sat in the bank. Because I now had three level 80s, (Neutron was now level capped) I decided to save some time I would begin tanking again. Because I had gotten some offspec stuff from ICC and VOA, I was able to put together a pretty decent set. With my better gear, tanking heroics became much easier. Having two pieces of t10 combined with Glyph of Death and Decay ensures that trash is basically glued to me so rarely do I lose aggro. Another benefit of this setup is that I do quite a bit of damage, reaching 3k overall is usually attainable, which is good enough to lead damage done about half the time. This half of the time that I do this, it is usually because dps are doing something wrong which I will usually spot and voice my displeasure. This leads to interesting situations which I will detail in this blog. I will say now that I am a noob at times, I make mistakes but am man enough to say "my bad" when I mess up. Feel free to call out errors I make in critiquing the idiots that I will be commenting on. I do believe that now it is time to take out the Heroic Trash.
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