It might sound boring but I don’t have the attentionspan I guess.. Plus; on weekends I often play drunk… So I don’t really know where I’ve been and done and what NPC’ers done to progress the storylines.

Whatever FTW!

I’m disappointed with the ending of this expansion as it seems the Lich King went out with a whimper instead of the awesome strength he started out with.

That said, as fun as the fights are, Ulduar > Tournament. Finishing a raid in an hour is efficient, but not enough to hold my interest long term.

I understand that a person’s goals in this game can require them to raid in a hardcore fashion, but there is certainly a cost/benefit ratio involved. If part of the cost of your gear is becoming a different person in it’s pursuit, a mean-spirited, inflexible person, I would hope that one would find this an unacceptable cost.

I do not raid in any fashion, because I cannot commit to a regular play schedule (job and grad school commitments have to come first), but I do have in-game goals that make the it seem like work sometimes. That’s usually when I take a week or so off, and do something else that I enjoy. Jason’s point that this game is intended to be a stress reliever is important, I think. We all have plenty of stress inducers in our lives, and should be trying to reduce the number. Take a step back and re-evaluate your priorities before this games turns you, too, into an asshat.

Regarding the fact that we’re kind of getting slain. Well, it’s comparable to gladiator-fights in the ancient Rome, is it not? Fighting for your life is what people did back then to proove their worth, and it’s what we do to proove, that we are able to take down the Lich King. Those not capable will die. It’s a risk, really. The Argent Crusade needs the best of the best, and what better way is there to find that out, than to make the trialists fight for their life?

As for the protection of the area. I do find it peculiar that the Black Knight and the Lich King were able to enter the Tournament Grounds without anyone noticing it. Admitted, that is strange. But I don’t think the security level is lov. Looking at the tournament grounds, you will find a wast number of guards always on the watch, a great number of champions of The Horde and The Alliance, beasts in all kinds of shapes, not to mention all the Faction Leaders, and Tirion Fordring. I feel safe in that invironment.

So no, I don’t think it’s been a failure.

There is always enough dps in heroics nowadays .Ran a nexus with a couple players (tank and a dps) dishing out well under 800dps apiece. A few extra minutes, but no real problem. (and, because most of us are running em for emblems, it is refreshing to see players getting drops they really need – in most cases for ALTs I assume.

This is a great hunter site. Thank You!

*is apparently the only person who thinks so…*

Again this is a terrific site. Thanks Lassirra!

I especially got a kick out of your depiction of
a tank’s frantic activity

<>

LOL I can only imagine.

I hope SOMEDAY to be able to be that active AND also far more aware of what others are up to all the while….

I ain’t anywhere close to that yet.

On balance, my experiences with the random groups have been good. I know the easy content has plenty to do with that, but still it is usually just fine. Pretty long waits, but fine (I just do a daily or two while waiting).

One thing I do which MAYBE helps a little is drop a fish feast right away, and check classes to see which drums and scroll of fortitude buffs might help and give em. That’s mainly just only to slow everyone down for a half a minute before we start….

I am a well geared hunter who does great dps and studies fight strategy. I read this and other websites BUT I didn’t know about chain heals. Not everyone played for 4 or 5 years, has friends that play, or was lucky enough to find/get into one of the few actually helpful levelling guilds.

I know this class in and out, but I don’t know somoe of the basics or how other classes relate to ours. The people serious enough about this class to blog have many alts and what not and are take for granted that we undrstand every other class.

The customization is not overly difficult but I am sure most of us are not new to spending time to tweak a mod.

For example, I have two 80s on two different servers. One of my 80s is in a guild that consists of two people. My other 80 is in a fairly small guild that rarely has enough people on at the same time to fill a 5man. My choice of guilds is based on the fact that I’ve been in large guilds before and rarely enjoyed myself. So I stick to extremely small guilds. However, that means that if I want to do certain things in-game, I have to PuG to do it. There is no other option.

Because I’ve opted for quiet, drama-free game play, I have given up the luxury of being able to run anything with players I already know. Despite that, I’ve managed to gear one character sufficiently to be doing ICC 10 on a regular basis (provided I can find a group), and the other isn’t too far behind.

My point is, it’s all well and good to say “If you don’t like PuGs, don’t run them”, but for some, that option doesn’t exist. It comes down to: “Do you hate PuGs more than you want to gear up to experience certain content?” and for many, the answer is no. It’s the same reason many people suffer through battlegrounds or Wintergrasp. The experience may be painful, but the ultimate rewards (better gear) make it worth the hassle. That doesn’t mean they can’t still complain about it in the process.

I want my dual-spec naow!
I really want to have a BM off-spec, and since I’m raiding in a guild, I just can get rid of my Sv-spec.
But I want a spirit beast!

Furthermore, “if you aren’t willing to teach, correct, and set someone on the right path, don’t complain.”? Ummm… what the hell do you think this site is? I’m supposed to spend 20+ hours a week running a site intended to teach players how to play, and then spend all my in-game time doing the same thing as well? Pardon me for wanting my in-game to be exactly that, my time. I do my part to contribute to the community, thank you. I don’t enjoy having someone tell me that I don’t and that I can’t complain about whatever I want to complain about. That just spits in the face of all the work I’ve done on this site over the past three years, and I don’t much care for it.

Yet with this gear i can put out a respectable 4k dps on most bosses – as a minimum.
Peak dps 6.5k on a boss like trollgore/patchwork.

Yet in 4 outta 5 pug runs im all alone at the top of the dps charts, often doing in excess of 40% of total damage.

I heard somewhere that the LFG tool always tries to include someone with low gearing to balance things out. But not 2 or 3 of them!

For me there are only 2 motivations for doing random heroics in the first place:

1. To get my frost badges
and
2. To improve my dps, situational awareness, and skill as a hunter.

I wonder what the fail DPS priorities are?

Just because you’re playing with people you don’t know and will probably never see again does not mean you have free license to be a terrible player. The fact that this is accepted as “just how things are” rather than rallied against is pathetic. (Which is compounded by the fact that apparently it’s everyone else’s job to educate these slobs, rather than making them take responsibility for their own ignorance. But that’s a whole different gripe.)

It is conceivable that a level 80 player may not have a clue how to play their class. This is especially true for Hunters, as we’re an extremely easy class to level. Combine that with Heirloom items, Recruit-A-Friend, and the fastest leveling process to date, and it’s no wonder people get to 80 and still have no idea what they’re doing. Frankly, it’s fine not to know what you’re doing at 80. The problem comes in when you attempt to start playing with others.

It should be common sense that if you don’t know how the hell to play your character, you should not be attempting to play it in a group environment. (Let alone heroics or raids.) It’s a recipe for disaster, and you’re knowingly setting up complete strangers for a miserable experience. That’s just plain rude. Learn how to play your character first, and then look for groups to join. If you don’t want to learn, fine. Just don’t subject other people to your inadequacies.

It’s very easy to learn enough about each class to not be a hindrance to groups. The basics are exactly that: basic. And yet, it’s amazing how many people are completely ignorant of them. (Apparently most people have never heard of Google.) There’s no excuse at this point for not knowing them. Just spending time in-game watching General or Trade chat will likely alert you to a few good resources.

People seem to be able to find WoWHead and add-ons sites just fine, but can’t be bothered to learn the basics of their class before hopping into the Dungeon Finder, and I’m sick of it. If you’re too lazy to learn about your class, fine. Just don’t make my game-play experience miserable in the process.