Bad Groups

[Morat20]

I ran the zone probably a hundred times before I ever even HEARD of the kite drak "method". No one on Horde on Garona did it, we pugged the shit out of that place before a single guild on our server had even killed Ragnaros.

Makes the fight easy.  Not being an 'up-close' fighter (my next highest alt is a mage), I think Drak hit pretty hard. I'm sure you can DPS down the other two while the tank handles Drak off to the side, but it's a lot easier to lose one ranged DPS for a minute and let the rest burn down his guards. You only need one tank, one hunter (or a mage), and the rest can be whatever scrubs you want.

Only requires two people to grasp their jobs (well, and the usual healer). I never realized it wasn't common, but then WoW had been out some time before I joined. I know several guilds had ZG on farm by the time I hit 60, and AQ came out not long after.

Ingmar: I don't blame you. Hunters had a really bad, and often-times deserved reputation. Especially in pre-TBC when hunter itemization was a little...flawed. Too much overlap with rogues, led to a lot of screaming over loot. Not to mention the usual spec and talent issues.

I don't see that many hunters these days, not compared to DK's, Paladins, and Druids. I can't seem to go anywhere without bumping into a DK.

[Chimpy]

I know all the arguments about "kiting is easier". I heard them on and on after I started playing alliance and frankly, the fuss was over nothing.

The fight was NOT HARD to begin with if your group had half a clue.

[Paelos]

The fight was NOT HARD to begin with if your group had half a clue.

This applies to pretty much every fight Blizzard has ever come out with except for the last two bosses in each dungeon and/or wing master.

[Ingmar]

I'm going to object to saying it wasn't hard, actually. The conflagrate was a pain to manage along with the adds if you only had the bare minimum 2 tanks along. That fight was really pretty difficult for regular blue geared types at the time. Kiting was something everyone could easily understand that changed the fight from a serious danger of wipe in a PUG to pretty easy, should be no surprise that people did it that way.

[Morat20]

I'm going to object to saying it wasn't hard, actually. The conflagrate was a pain to manage along with the adds if you only had the bare minimum 2 tanks along. That fight was really pretty difficult for regular blue geared types at the time. Kiting was something everyone could easily understand that changed the fight from a serious danger of wipe in a PUG to pretty easy, should be no surprise that people did it that way.

10-mans would have the spare tanks. Now it's a 5-man, and was surprisingly pretty hard. Then again, of the five of us, we had one absolute new guy (the hunter, on his first toon), a tank who hadn't stepped foot in UBRS in two years (and not as a tank), and me (hadn't stepped foot in UBRS in two years).

The healer and third DPS were fairly quiet, but good-natured. Kiting was pretty much the only option, since the three DPS we had simply wasn't enough to burn them down before the tank bit it -- assuming the healer could even keep him up.

[Ingmar]

Yeah I was talking about it with 10, that's the only way you'd even have 2 tanks. With 5 now, well, I haven't run it in years, but I don't know if heirlooms and power creep would make up for it entirely, that should be seriously difficult with 5 at the levels the dungeon finder will send you there. Although I guess you could load up with outland greens at 57...

[Morat20]

Yeah I was talking about it with 10, that's the only way you'd even have 2 tanks. With 5 now, well, I haven't run it in years, but I don't know if heirlooms and power creep would make up for it entirely, that should be seriously difficult with 5 at the levels the dungeon finder will send you there. Although I guess you could load up with outland greens at 57...

By the end, it was a shit-ton of 62 elites. It wasn't undoable, but mistakes would wipe you. Things like trying to tank out in the open, instead of pulling a group back, for instance.

The tank learned the hard way that you need to pull the groups in Drak's room out before you engage (or you'll pull patrols and extras) And second, that you need to pull them ALL the way back across the bridge and not try fighting on the bridge.

He got smacked down so hard he landed in LBRS.

Killing Drak was almost anti-climactic, once the hunter got it straight. Straight burned him down. Having to yank groups back into hallways and actually pay attention to positioning was more difficult. The healer seemed to have to work his/her ass off though, especially for the nastier groups.

[Sjofn]

This gentleman beat my mage for his current hat. I'm not going to cry myself to sleep over not getting a hat for a character I rarely play, but I found it noteable mostly because my entire group cursed him out for it. My experience in the past was everyone acting like nothing happened, so I was sort of surprised!

[Selby]

A rogue beating out a caster for caster gear is usually something people will get up in arms about.

[Sjofn]

My sample size is pretty small, really, usually people aren't complete fucktards about loot (although my most recent trip to 80 I was the rogue, so there were no rogue loot failures :P), but the few times I've seen something like that, the most someone would say is "lol." So having everyone pissed at the rogue sort of surprised me.

On the other hand, apparently everyone in that battlegroup is in some sort of unspoken horrible name competition. I was in a group with Deepfrybabyz, Nopants (and s/he was, indeeed, wearing NO PANTS AT ALL), Fagmuffins (omg reported) and Discbubbles. I was named Jillian. So embarrassing!

[Chimpy]

Yeah, you should be. Jillian is such a terrible name. 

[Sjofn]

I know, I should change it to something dignified, like Stubinurface.

Oh God, I bet that's taken.

[Sheepherder]

On the other hand, apparently everyone in that battlegroup is in some sort of unspoken horrible name competition. I was in a group with Deepfrybabyz, Nopants (and s/he was, indeeed, wearing NO PANTS AT ALL), Fagmuffins (omg reported) and Discbubbles. I was named Jillian. So embarrassing!

I think we had this discussion in guild chat one of the times I wasn't unsubbed.

[Sjofn]

I do go all over stupid names, so it's entirely possible. Some of the names in Slap in the Face cause me pain as well (DOODKNIGHT), so I am apparently merciless.

[Morat20]

One of the druids in our guild is named "Drewid". Name aside, he's always very solid and happy to help out, so we let it slide.

[Ironwood]

His name is probably Drew IRL.


 

[apocrypha]

You would just LOVE this new guild I'm playing in now then. My brother and his boyfriend have, between them, character names including Manjob, Skinflute, Bicurious, Badtouch, Bearback, Brokeback and Malenurse.

Yeah, we get it... you're gay. Is there nothing ELSE in your lives?

[K9]

I do go all over stupid names, so it's entirely possible. Some of the names in Slap in the Face cause me pain as well (DOODKNIGHT), so I am apparently merciless.

We have a particularly emo 15-16 yo kid in our guild who has a full set of toons with names like Deathkiller and Eternalpain. I have him on ignore ever since he read some of his poetry into /g  

[Paelos]

You would just LOVE this new guild I'm playing in now then. My brother and his boyfriend have, between them, character names including Manjob, Skinflute, Bicurious, Badtouch, Bearback, Brokeback and Malenurse.

Yeah, we get it... you're gay. Is there nothing ELSE in your lives?

I would figure the reverse would be true, but that's the low-key way it usually is on Proudmoore the GBLT server of choice from back in the day. The only really big tag was the guild Stonewall Champions, which honestly you could see fitting into a fantasy setting just as a regular name.

[Shrike]

Yeah, dumbass and/or offensive names. Some are clever enough I'm willing to give them a pass, but ratting out these people is an online hobby of mine. I think it started in CoH, but it continues to this day. My view is if you REALLY want attention that badly, well, the GMs should be let in on the joke.

About a year ago, our guild was on one of its ill-starred recruitment drives. We ended up with some warlock from quasi-PuG Ulduar runs. Guy seemed relatively OK to begin with, but it only lasted a few days. He had an alt DK (of course) he wanted invited to the guild. I don't recall the toon's name, but as soon as he was tagged, I thought, man, this guy isn't going to last. It was offensive, to put it mildly. I had actually thought about ratting him out then and there, but was doing something semi-constructive at the time and filed it away for something to do "later". Apparently, there are some over-achievers in the guild. That next weekend, I was on a griffin criss-crossing Kalimdor to get my explorer achievement, and douchebag logs in and has a screaming fit. "Who's the asshole that turned me in, they changed my name, I'll find your house...etc., etc." then ragequits. Cool. Not five minutes later, our GM logs in and says, whoever turned that guy in is my hero. Much hilarity ensues in /gu. That particular recruitment officer is no longer with us, either.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Best/worst name ever?  Gankula the rogue and his rogue buddy Gankzilla.  I was tempted to roll up a rogue named Gankenstein to complete the set.

[Ingmar]

Stonewall Champions is a great guild name, gold star to them.

[Ironwood]

I had a total assmunch drama teen in my guild with an offensive name (RP Server).  I told her I didn't like it and she said 'But I can't change it', so I said 'I'll report you and then you get a chance to change it.'

Naturally, she changed it after the report;  to Massivetits.

Great.  /g booted.

[Morfiend]

I never understood the mentality to give yourself a stupid name. I guess im kind of old school in my online gaming mentality, but seriously.

A few I have seen:

killzu
istabyou
donttazmebro
lolcow
lolheal
healheallol
lolstab
dontkillme
zkilllolz

Why would you do that?

[Morat20]

We've got a few new guild members who are likely to get booted. I'm not sure how they got invited in the first place. "Superdeath" is one of them.

Combines the worst aspects of a FPS monkey with the self-control of an 8 year old on a sugar high.

[Chimpy]

I had a total assmunch drama teen in my guild with an offensive name (RP Server).  I told her I didn't like it and she said 'But I can't change it', so I said 'I'll report you and then you get a chance to change it.'

Naturally, she changed it after the report;  to Massivetits.

Great.  /g booted.

What is offensive about Massive tits?

[Ingmar]

Other issues with the name aside, it is clearly against the RP server naming policy.

[Setanta]

Just onto my 4th tank - my old pre-BC warrior after having DK tanked Naxx and spent the last 6 months running ICC on my pally and just recently druid.

So not having warrior tanked since Molten Core all I can say is wow this is easy - almost as easy as Paladin. At level 69 there are so many tools to save idiots except.... bloody sethekk halls where 3 runs in a row I have taken my own team apart because idiots are too dumb to kill the frigging mind control totem (!). That's ok, I always pull to a cleared room and when the totem wears off, I can make a cup of tea. On Ikris, 3/5 of the team die to the second nova efect because they don't LoS on the pillars and the priest drops out of shadowform to heal and we slowly 2 man him down. Sadly, even when levelling DPS still seems to open up before mobs get to me when I'm trying to round them up to thunderclap and shockwave them. I'm sure that in vanilla WoW a stunt like that resulted in a faceplant. Maybe they dubed down the need to think too much.

Worst moment in the last 24 hours: H-HoR druid tanking where the hunter is auto-shotting and doesn't LoS the spawns with the rest of us, the pally is spamming flash of light and I watch my HP free fall from 55K to nothing even when I pop my CDs and trinkets, the warlock is seeding and not burning down the priority kills (merc then priest), everyone else is single targeting anything but my target and no-one actually kills the merc (marked with skull) that smashes the healer when I'm stunned.

So much fail in one group.

[Sjofn]

Best/worst name ever?  Gankula the rogue and his rogue buddy Gankzilla.  I was tempted to roll up a rogue named Gankenstein to complete the set.

See, those go into so bad it's good territory.

We had a situation similar to Shrike's last year (I think it was last year, anyway). So one day I notice there's someone in our guild named "Elemenstraul." I report his name without even thinking about it. As it turns out, so did several other people in the guild. <3 When the change went through, he wanted help picking a new name.  He "had" to have one that referred somehow to womenparts because he's a guy and the toon is female (that was seriously his reasoning). My guild actually has a fair number of women in it, and they pretty much all told him he was a moron.

Anyhoo, he was a vague aquaintence of someone else in the guild so we tolerated him for longer than we should've, because it turned out that his original name was a warning sign of ATTENTION: I AM A GIANT COCK. He was an asshole to people in his PUGs so we got complaints about him, he was a passive aggressive bitch to the people in the guild, he abused the hell out of guild repair, etc. But the way he finally left warms my heart. We have a rule, you see. No alt-characters in your name. Because they piss Ingmar off, mostly. Anyway, he wanted us to invite one of his characters that had one in the name, and Ingmar told him no. The dude FLIPPED OUT in the most hilarious way ever, and Ing SIEZED THE MOMENT to kick him out completely.

Good times!

[Ingmar]

Best/worst name ever?  Gankula the rogue and his rogue buddy Gankzilla.  I was tempted to roll up a rogue named Gankenstein to complete the set.

You forgot the Gunchgank of Gotre Game.

[Lakov_Sanite]

and ironically you can't have a name that states clearly what you are, like GiantCock.

[fuser]

Just onto my 4th tank - my old pre-BC warrior after having DK tanked Naxx and spent the last 6 months running ICC on my pally and just recently druid.

So not having warrior tanked since Molten Core all I can say is wow this is easy - almost as easy as Paladin. At level 69 there are so many tools to save idiots except....

Really like the prot warrior (had bear, prot pally in ICC) rolled up an alt a bit ago and in low 50's. Was worried the rage management would annoy me but in the end annoying dps/healers that scream about mana. Never pull when there mana is below 50% but heck with the CD's/heirlooms/lifeblood I keep on trucking. Seems like no one understands you can drink in between sets so you can continue to drink when combat starts.

I gotta say i'm guilty of wiping a group the other night. Who really wants to run all the way to stonard for the flight point when you can die and rez right there  

[SurfD]

Seems like no one understands you can drink in between sets so you can continue to drink when combat starts.

But if they stop to drink while other people are killing the next pull, their Damage numbers on recount will go down!1!!!1!1!

[apocrypha]

annoying dps/healers that scream about mana. Never pull when there mana is below 50% but heck with the CD's/heirlooms/lifeblood I keep on trucking. Seems like no one understands you can drink in between sets so you can continue to drink when combat starts.

Currently levelling a disc priest and a prot warrior myself so I see both sides of this. The specific problem with warrior tanking is charge - it often puts the tank way out of range of heals and if a pull goes wrong I can drain my mana as a disc priest very fast.

If it's one of *those* pulls (which happen a lot in BC instances) and I'm still sat drinking when you charge off into the next pack then you can be very dead long before I manage to get in range to heal.

Best thing is to watch the healers mana during the first few pulls. If they seem to drop below 50% on a single pull then I tend to slow right down and make sure they're close to me before a charge.

[Zetor]

This is one of the reasons I have engineering on all of my healers (except for the druid, but that has catform sprint and I'm usually tanking anyway). The #1 use of rocket boots in a pug is to catch up with a rambo tank. The #2 use of rocket boots in a pug is to gtfo after said rambo tank pulled 6 groups and died.