You! Don't Be the Rotten Egg

Recently, it's come to my attention that some guilds (and raids, to be more specific) have a particular rotten egg, or a group of them. Here I'm going to detail some ways to NOT be the rotten egg of YOUR guild, because to be quite honest, nobody likes a smelly piece of poop.

Always Be Respectful

Try to not to be a douche. This is the first and foremost thing. People make mistakes, wipes do happen, and obstacles aren't always easy to overcome. There is no reason for you to single someone out, talk down to someone, or outright complain. If you are angry, take a deep breath and be more forgiving before you type that hate speech out in guild chat, raid chat, or speak into an open mic.

Constructive criticism is a good option, especially if you are in guild leadership. If you aren't in guild leadership, you should trust problem solving to them. If you have a problem with how things are being handled, or how you would like them to be handled better, speak to the leadership, not to the person or group of people you have issues with.


Don't Let Your Disappointment Ruin Your (and Others) Quality of Play

After all, it is your $15. If you don't like how things are being run, ask for them to change, accept them as they are, or leave. There are a lot of guilds out there, and there is a perfect match for everyone (even if that perfect match is your own guild).

The bottom line is that everyone is here to have fun, and the one person that is always mad or upset can ruin the fun for everyone else. Killing bosses is fun, but learning new ones can be just as fun if you have an upbeat and constructive progression group. Don't be the guy who ruins the atmosphere by yelling, swearing, or being an outright sour lemon. Nobody likes a (too) sour lemon, and it can severely hamper progression. Just have fun!

Wipe the Slate

Each day is a new day, and you should treat it as such. If you had a bad day yesterday, make sure to wake up with a fresh mind and new outlook: the new day deserves it. Don't let a bad day turn into a bad week, because that can affect your personal life, your in-game life, and the raid itself.

A few upset players can lead to unneeded wipes and harassment, and that can lead to a demoralizing week of wiping on farm content. Each day is a new day, and if you have a bad night of raiding, or a bad day at work, when you come back the next day, remember that you have a new slate and that you can build a positive and upbeat experience from. The trick is, it's your responsibility to realize this and capitalize on it. Coming into anything with a bad attitude usually doesn't produce good results, and you should treat WoW in this fashion as well.


And last but not least:

Don't be a Loot Bitch (Different From a Loot Whore)

I hate to say it, but there are too many people that cry about loot. I haven't recently experienced this, but I am also not on loot council, nor am I an officer. Being in a loot council system isn't always easy. A group of your peers choose how to distribute loot according the raid's needs, the player's needs, attendance, performance, and a number of other factors.

If you aren't getting the loot that you were hoping for, STAY PATIENT. Keep an upbeat attitude, and understand that with a limited amount of loot, someone has to go first. That isn't always going to be you. It might feel like you NEVER get to go first, but remember that some day, it will come around to you. As for that weapon you can never get? Eventually you will get it, that loot isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and I promise, when you do get it, it will feel that much better.

While losing loot to other players can be frustrating, stay calm and patient. It's understandable to be frustrated, but like I have strained previously, don't vent your frustrations in open guild chat, raid chat, or on an open mic. Take a few deep breaths, mull over it for a while, and if it still frustrates you, speak to an officer in private. This presents the rest of the raid with a much smoother and calm environment to raid in, and allows you to not come off as the Loot Bitch.



Thank you for reading my article here on Life of Warcraft, and feel free to contact me or follow me on Twitter: @mjwood.

-Padagi of Ner'zhul, member of Conquest

Three Ways to Improve Your UI

Today I'm going to talk about your user interface, and what you can do to help you understand the world around you.

One of the most important aspects of raiding is raid awareness. How can you be a good raider when you can't move out of fire, can't see where mobs are, and where other spell effects on the ground may be? Here are some tips for improving your user interface, including a list of mods that I consider must have mods.


Three Ways to Improve Your UI

1.) You must have a clear space in the middle of the screen. This is the most important factor to clearing up your UI. When you modify your UI, make sure that the center of the screen is clear. If this means removing scrolling battle text, do it. Some people use MikScrolling Battle Text, but if you do, create thresholds and keep the text small and out of the very middle of the screen. This might also mean modifying your bars and chat module so that they create a larger space for the middle of your screen.

2.) Data mods affect your raid awareness and performance dramatically. This includes mods that provide feedback to you, including current buffs, debuffs, DoTs on a target, death statistics (what caused deaths), damage/healing tracking, and many other statistics. While there are only a few of this type of mod that help you in real time, they typically help provide feedback on what went wrong (or right!) on each attempt for any given encounter. This is imperative to getting better! Learn the best and most efficient mods, and how to use them to your advantage.

3.) Raid frames are important! Not just for healers, but for everyone. While this might not seem like something that is important, it is advantageous to know what is going on around you. If you are aware of what is happening to the raid (and the players in it individually) you can adjust what you are doing to help alleviate any issues that may arise. It can tell you when you're out of range of a healer, it can tell you when you should pop a defensive cool down (or self heal), and it can provide feedback on the current status of the raid. You must have raid frames!




Padagi's List of Must-Have Mods


1.) Dominos - This mod moves bars. This is clearly evident with all of my abilities at the bottom-center of the screen in the above screenshot. Not only are all my bars together in a group, but they are also shrunk down to provide the most space.

2.) PitBull Unit Frames - These are modified unit frames, including every targetable unit available. You can clearly see my own frame in the upper left (showing health, mana, buffs, etc.) Mine is set up specifically for efficiency and ease of use. This can vary from person to person, but below is my units broken down by name, location on my screen, and the relative size of the unit.

Self - Upper Left (Very Large)
Pet (if applicable) - Upper Left just below Self (Small)
Target - Left Middle (Very Large)
Target of Target - Left Middle just above Target (Medium)
Focus - Right Middle (Small)
Target of Focus - Right Middle just below Focus (Large)

Screenshot (no pet):

 Link to full size (not responsible for chat content): Unit Frames Example


3.) Grid - This mod provides my raid frames. It shows the health of all of the raid's members. It also is set up to show debuffs and class-specific requirements such as magic debuffs (magic dispel), diseases, and various other debuffs. It also shows warnings for low mana and is used for when I heal.

Note: For healers, you can either use Grid + Clique (for mouseover healing), or you can use Healbot. Both have worked well for me in the past.

4.) SatrinaBuffFrame - Allows you to move and re-size the default  buffs and debuff icon rows. I have them shrunk down and displaying buffs at the top (horizontally), and my debuffs on the right next to my map (vertically).

5.) DoTimer - This mod shows buffs, cooldowns, auras, and DoTs on any target that you wish to show. I use it to track my buffs and cooldowns, as well as my DoT tracking on my current and focus target.

6.) Recount - While some hate this mod, I stand by it through thick and thin. This mod essentially provides live logs of all of the fights, and allows you to see everything from healing efficiency, what spells are being used most, what is effective, what isn't, and how people are dying. It also shows statistics such as damage taken, mana gained, and many other useful statistics.



Other mods you may see in my screenshots:

• Titan Panel
• TipTac
• Chatter
• Gladius
• HealBot Continued
• Chinchilla Minimap
• DrDamage
• Healers have to die
• Fatality

Link to full-size image of my user interface: Padagi's Full UI


Thank you for reading Life of Warcraft!

-Padagi

How to Wipe Properly: Progression Raiding

After wiping on Nefarian in Blackwing Descent during progression raiding, I took some notes. Progressing on bosses is much easier when the atmosphere is positive, even when the raid might be down a little bit.

Here are some tips on how to deal with wiping all night:

It Starts at the Top

Leadership is where the raid gets the tone from. If people in leadership roles get angry and short tempered, the rest of the raid will. This typically causes progression to happen slower, or not happen at all. It's okay to be angry, but don't push the press to talk button when venting about what is going on. When the leadership speaks openly in the guild, they should talk as calmly and constructively as possible.


The Raiders Matter, Too

While it is important to be calm as a leader, it is also important to stay calm as a raider. Raiders shouldn't vent in public, either, and should let the leaders deal with short tempered people themselves. Ensure that you follow your particular guilds rules for venting frustration to leadership, and it is highly frowned upon to do this in open communication. It's good to provide constructive criticism or suggestions for progressing, but make sure not to do it angrily and to do so in the format that the leadership asks.


Your Time is Our Time

While you might be angry about how things are going, take a deep breath and stay calm: the kill could come at any moment. Don't cause wipes because you are blind with rage, are distracted, and die in fire. This slows down progression, and can hurt the raid dramatically. Not only this, it's also a domino effect: your snapping point might be one wipe before three or four other people, and then they cause wipes, and so forth. This can lead to a night of wiping, whether it be on progression or farm bosses. Try your best to stay calm and productive for the raid.


Thanks for reading Life of Warcraft!

-Padagi of US-Ner'zhul

Cataclysm So Far: PvE Edition

This is simply a summary of my thoughts on Cataclysm so far, and this post is coming strictly from a PvE (raiding) experiences. I will touch base on PvP at a later date.

Now that we are a few months into World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we all have a general feel for how things are going to set out. I've been involved in only two expansion releases, having started playing the game through Burning Crusade. These are my thoughts so far.


Difficulty

After noticing how difficult heroics were to start with (especially in pick-up groups), I was certain that the raiding aspect of Cataclysm would be that much more difficult. I was partly right for a few reasons.

First, raiding in Cataclysm is more varied and dynamic than it was in Wrath of the Lich King. Virtually all of the fights have multiple obstacles that you must overcome, and the number of mechanics for each fight is (on average) much higher than the number of mechanics in WotLK. In order to achieve this, many of the fights have either multiple mini-bosses involved, or have a slew of adds that you must deal with at any given time.

Second, Cataclysm introduced a shared lock out for 10 man and 25 man. While I appreciate that this cuts down on raid time per week, this also means that you can't gear up by raiding both sizes of the raid. This also means that the player base was split into two groups, those that wanted to raid 10, and those that wanted to raid 25. For me, I like them both equally, but feel like in 25 I am getting the best possible personal output, and the best balance made possible by Blizzard.

Lastly, the hybrid classes are infinitely more valuable now than ever before. Having seemingly given up on making the hybrid DPS classes inferior, there is no downside to bringing a hybrid player to your raid. While buffs have been homogenized, hybrid classes still bring the ability to switch roles at any moment. This is invaluable to the raid, but this also puts pressure on hybrids to be knowledgeable and competent on all specs of their class. This is a challenge unto itself, yet is still considered regular practice to expect this out of hybrids.


Multiple Raiding Instances

While this practice was present in the first tier of WotLK, it was not so apparent later in the expansion. It appears that Blizzard will stick with this raiding model, at least as long as they did in BC (at least two tiers, if not more).

I like this model because it allows raids to take a step back, take a deep breath, and possibly visit a different location for a fresh look on a new boss. This eases stress in the raid and in the guild as a whole. I feel like this model helps progression feel smoother, and more epic, than it would have been otherwise (like in Ulduar, for example).


Epics, Epics, Epics

Why must the (second) best gear in the game have PURPLE text, of all things?!

To be fair, the raiding environment is full of epics. They are hard to escape. Everybody is battling for them, but I think the best raider steps back and is willing to spread the epics around. It doesn't bother me one bit to pass on an epic, even if it is an upgrade, in order to give it to someone who needs it more. By that, I mean the piece is not MY best in slot, but perhaps might be for the next person who needs it.

The Justice Points / Valor Points system was a new take on the old badge system, and it makes sense. With each tier, your Valor Points are converted into Justice Points. This way, they don't have to keep coming up with redundant names for their badges (albeit occasionally entertaining and fresh). The system essentially works the same, so that if you don't get loot (and even if you do!), you can still get epics just from the points you collect from killing bosses. Unfortunately, not all gear can obtained this way, but it is a good way to fill in pieces you haven't yet obtained from other means.

I think it is natural for everybody to be greedy when it comes to loot, but BoE epics are also an option. While I don't usually partake in this method of gearing, Blizzard has done another good job of creating a decently populated set of BoE epics that can be found (or crafted) in various ways. I think that this method can be fun and engaging (even item names can be fun, with running gag names), but caters to the individual player.

The best part about epic loot is that there are several ways to obtain it, from being rich, to being a dedicated farmer, to being a hardcore (or even casual!) raider. No matter how you go about it, you can get epics in Cataclysm that take you to strengths you've never yet attained.


Dragons!

I love killing dragons, and I'm pretty sure everyone else does as well! This wraps up my initial thoughts on raiding in Cataclysm so far, so get out there and get to killing... Just make sure to avoid tail swipes and dragon breaths!


They hurt.


-Padagi

Note: I have not partaken in Heroic raids yet. I (and Conquest) am currently 10/12, and I will update on my feelings on raiding as we progress through the end of regular content and progress on through the heroic versions of these encounters.

Inaugural Post

Hello reader,


Welcome to the blog of Padagi, of the US server Ner'zhul. I'm currently in the guild Conquest, and I am going to post here about my various adventures, accomplishments, and overall experience playing the game of World of Warcraft. Feel free to hang around, I'll start blogging soon.

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Padagi