Red Carpet Fashion: Cataclysm Edition

I'm getting a little excited about the new patch tomorrow. So in honour of Cataclysm almost being over, I've decided to do a little post showing my two transmog sets. Being a fashionable gal, Azerothian (is that the actual term?) clothes do not always suit those of us who are small in stature. I would post a screenshot of my gnome wearing the red dress someone gifted me but honestly, the therapy bills for you would be huge. I prefer my gnome not to rock a slutty look (her thighs and muffin top prevent it, or I'd have her in a bikini). Practical, yet garish is my chosen style. And yes, she is in pink...

First up: PvE kit in Arcane spec

And my PvP Frost Mage Kit:

While not being a complete transmog junkie, I am looking forward to seeing what MoP has to offer!

Rage Shout!

I love my game currently but there are a few things that annoy me. And I have found company in my annoyance. A frustrating part of the game is the amount of rage shouting people do. Now for Battlegrounds it seems the norm and I accepted that, as most of the shouting is aimed at the faction generally. For example:

"Ally sux fuxin NOOBS"

Now aside from the terrible spelling and grammar in that sentence, there isn't much to be offended by. It's just someone QQing because they aren't winning. Or maybe they're like, 10. Very rarely is one player singled out for abuse.

Not so for dungeons. In my early days as a Frost Mage (which is by far the most fun mage to roll), I spent the majority of the time being raged at or kicked for low dps. This didn't really bother me until I actually wanted to gear up nad play seriously. I started to feel like no one would give me a chance. I asked for tactics for one Hour of Twilight Heroic, that I was doing for the first time, so I wouldn't do something totally stupid and get kicked for it and got this as a response:

"If you don't know the tactics, you shouldn't be here. LEAVE."

Not exactly encouraging. I didn't leave but spent the entire dungeon being ragged by this wonderful guy. After that I refused to dungeon for a while. I didn't want to be singled out whilst I was trying to learn. After a bit of a push from my partner I went back in and got my iLvl high enough for Raid Finder. He sat behind me and told me what to do. Whilst many might see doing Raid Finder a mistake if you don't like being singled out, it was actually a real turning point in my game. I very quickly learned how bad my dps was thanks to recount reports. I was singled out to be kicked for doing an underwhelming 6k dps. But then, a legend wrote this in chat:

"Haha 6k dps. Leave the mage. Ice lancing like a boss!"

This raised a few laughs in the group and I didn't get kicked. I think they thought of me as like a little gnome mascot, biting ankles on my way. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to see the fights and see what other mages were doing. After that I decided to change my spec to Arcane. Not as much fun but waaaaay better dps. After doing my weekly RF plus random HoTs for Valor Points, I have managed to get my kit and my play style ready to try Dragon Soul Normal Raid. I have tried the first part up to Hagara twice and held my own with dps and using correct tactics. And this is an awesome feeling. But still I won't join pugs for fear of the old way returning. And this is silly.

So to any people who think it is ok to rage at a fellow player who is trying to progress, you suck. You are the thing that holds this game back. If wipes happen, it's not the end of the world. Blizzard will not take your account from you. Your pixels will not be obliterated. Your PC will not explode. You will just ressurrect and try again. Or not, if you rage quit. Then you will spend forever on trade chat trying to pug another group where you will more than likely rage quit again. If you are one of these people, you were not born naturally talented at WoW. You had to learn. And while some people learn faster than others, they do not have the right to abuse anyone else. Give people a chance. It won't hurt you.

If I am in a group that is slower than usual, I do a quick inspect of gear. If the gear is low, I understand. We move on and I feel good that someone has had an opportunity to try. Unless someone is being abusive or afk I don't believe in kicking. If your healer says their gear sucks, don't stand in harm's way. Try to make their job easier.

So, for anyone who has had abuse in dungeons. Don't stop doing them. Keep at it. Because when you start climbing the dps list, it stops. Then they move on to the tank...

Flowers For Morchok: How Not To Raid Sucessfully

Tonight I did my first ever real raid. A few guildies and I got together and did a DS 10man run. I have done Raid Finder weekly but was secretly hankering for the dizzying heights of a normal DS run. As I was running late from work, my lovely partner helped pug a group that I could join in with. I dashed in and jumped straight in his seat to start my grand adventure. Got my Draconic on, ate some yummy buff foods, cooked a table full of food for the party and waited to start. I realised I was wearing bunny ears from my NobleGarden exploits and quickly changed into my Hood of Hidden Flesh (mogged to be a halo for my little angel!). I was ready! Ready to show these bosses how much this little mage has changed, since she dropped 6k DPS in Raid Finder 4 weeks ago...(another story, yet to come).

My DPS has steadily been getting better since my first Raid Finder experience. I changed spec to Arcane and started gathering good PvE gear. My item lvl is 387 and my DPS in raid had grown to about 25k. So, I made the decision to try.

We cleared the first few trash mobs easily, but I had notice my DPS had dropped to about 10k. I had a moment where I was puzzled but decided to just go with it and see if it improved. We looked Morchok in the eye and started to fight. Still my DPS was low...but it always is when I have to keep running into that bloody red ball (which I always have to do). Then another mob got pulled from the side. We wiped.

And then it started. The pugs started putting up recount and raging on the little gnome's terrible DPS. One healer just left. After one wipe?? So, I started going through my kit to see what was wrong. I never did this badly with worse kit. And there it was...

I was wielding a bunch of Spring Flowers...

Not my Ti'Tahk, The Steps of Time or my Rathrak. A bunch of effing Spring Flowers!!!

"Oh hai Morchok! You wan pwetty flowers?" Facepalms ensued. Big facepalms and epic cursing. I had just lost half the group because they wouldn't stay where the DPS was so low. I apologised and said I had the wrong staff on, but that was a lie. I had no staff on...

How did I manage this?? Last time I checked, my staff was on!! Fortunately for me someone else joined the group and saw another player in our group that had left their raid and started ragging them instead. I was off the hook, temporarily. They too left after a huge arguement and it looked like the raid was over. My secret was safe.

After about 30 mins we managed to gather enough to start. We cleared 4 bosses with no more wipes, which was not bad to say some of us were undergeared. We had a fun run. Without any more noob shouting (which I hate), and the little gnome did good DPS and looted some uber pretties!

Afterwards I made the decision to tell our guild what I had equipped. I was worried people would be mad because I had effectively lost the first group. But I was greeted with laughs! And that's one of the greatest things about our guild. None of the elitist crap exists. We have fun, if we don't win we try again and no one is made to feel bad for the mistakes they make. Which is more than can be said for a lot of players...

So, feel free to take Morchok flowers. He loves them...he really does.