Satchels = Bad Groups

Dec10

Did LFR today with a group of 9 other guildies.

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went well, didn’t win anything again.

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After that got addicted to running dungeons with the Exotic Satchel but it seems that usually ties me in with truly horrible groups. The first one had 3 people from the same server all doing about 8k dps.  The Sylvanas fight took 6 minutes (normal is 2-3) and she was on her like, 4th round of ghoul chains. The mage from another server was doing 20k, arcane.  The tank I could excuse but the rest, damn.  I inspected the feral druid and they were rocking questing greens, non heroic blues, and not a single item enchanted or gemmed.  We somehow managed to get her down, but the next one was Tyrande and there was no way in HELL I was going to do that boss for 10+ minutes and I told them a satchel wasn’t worth running with such bads and left.

The next group was another bad one, and it’s funny how many times I get killed by someone trying to avoid the trash before Baine.  We had to use every last hourglass at the last boss too but made it.  Was the satchel worth it though? No.  Like someone in guild said though, it’s sort of addicting to get those satchels, and like trying to win the lottery.  Usually you just end up with a worthless piece of paper.

Fire Spec

Dec8

Ran a random 5 today and finally won an upgrade cloth belt, Chillbane Belt, to replace my 359 from damn near the start of cata. I think I mentioned I went fire spec and it’s more fun than hitting 1-2 buttons as arcane but the rotation still leaves me scratching my head a bit. Sometimes I get lots of Hot Streaks, sometimes almost none and timing combustion seems about as fun as marking charts in excel.

Will of Unbinding

Dec7

Later that day queued up for the second set of raids, and did well all things considering.

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I thought the battles were pretty easy but seeing what they were designed for I think it’s not bad.  I don’t know, I mean harder would have been nice, but with 25 pugs I just don’t know how that would work out.  And this one was just cool.

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got to the final Deathwing thing and I had to go but it looked pretty cool. At one of the earlier raids I won Will of Unbinding which gives 780 int pretty much, non stop.  It’s also going to find a place in my pvp gear!

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And a side note, people that join a group to queue for something, and then go afk for like 10+ mins, that’s kind of shitty.  Just be like “I can’t right now”.  Don’t get in a group, go “afk sec” and then not come back for so long I could have queued for and ran half of a dungeon already.

Dragon Soul LFR

Dec7

The new raids are puggable now,

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but made 3 attempts on Ultraxion before I decided it wasn’t worth it and I had to work soon.

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Did a lfr for the first 4 bosses and won Mosswrought Shoulderguards, which is funny because I JUST replaced my shoulders from 359 to 378 a few days ago, and now to 384s.  I transmog’d it to this set though, I think it’s cute.

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On the second boss 2 mage shoulders dropped (tier token) and the good fire mage got one, and an arcane mage that did zero dps on the boss got the other. When I mentioned it in raid they just said some nonsense about “not paying attention” in broken English and they were vote kicked.  But they still got tier for doing nothing.

A lot of people are furious over the loot mechanics on these fights since it’s what appears to be modified open roll.  You get a bonus amount added to your roll if the system considers your need roll appropriate, like my priest needing on a spirit piece. Only it is not taking into account several things which a normal raid leader would consider such as

1) someone winning who did no dps/healing or tanking. (I’ve seen all 3 cases already)
2) someone who already won something that same boss
3) someone who already won something on another boss
4) someone who did god awful dps/healing
5) someone who died to standing in stuff or other fail methods of dying and being dead most of the fight

etc.

But honestly I’m not even sure how they could account for all of these things. Was that death to fire because you didn’t move fast enough or because you should have been healed quickly and weren’t?  Did you die from lack of heals?  No dps would be a clear one but how about just really fail dps.  Are you hitting one button just to get past the “no dps” meter, are you just bad? Poorly geared? Learning the fights?

I think some corrections can be made like not letting one person win 2 things in the same fight, and not letting a DK roll on agi gear or a mage roll on spirit gear (with the bonus roll) but otherwise I think a lot of it we’ll just have to deal with.