Gear and Raiding in Las Vegas... er... Northrend

I'm not suggesting what follows is the official guild stance... I think the topic is still undefined at this point. But, I'd like to get the discussion started so expectations are clear. Good, solid communication is not always easy, but is absolutely vital to keeping the drama meter from red-lining.

If you've been reading Shyste's blog, you know that one of the most difficult parts of raiding is figuring out who is part of the raid group. While we all know that skill is more important than gear, there are a couple of gear-related things that make a difference with respect to raiding:

1. Gear does make a difference to the success of the raid. Your DPS may be high enough, your skill and experience from other toons may be more than adequate... but if your gear means you have such a low health or mana pool -- for example -- that it weighs on the rest of the raid, you become a liability. Druids have to use Innervate on you too early in the raid. Healers have to spend more time concentrating heals on you, taking their focus (and mana) away from the rest of the raid. And if they don't, and you're taken out of the fight because you're dead or you're out of mana, you aren't participating and learning the nuances of the responsibilities of that toon's class with respect to raiding.
2. Gear tends to show if you've "paid your dues." Now, I know this topic can be controversial. But the fact remains that there are levels of experiences in WoW, and it's not fair to take the spot of someone that has done the things necessary to be properly geared for a particular level of play if you haven't done the same. It's not so much about making you pay your dues... it's about respecting those who have.

So... I think we should all be familiar with where our gear tends to suggest we should be raiding. Most of us are familiar with the wow-heroes site and its method of rating gear. Please check this site regularly and see what raids it suggests align most closely with your level of gear advancement. Use the guild query to see how you stack up with others in the guild. Set your expectations for inclusion in raids at those levels, and it will make raid participation selection a lot easier on everyone.

As always, I want to say that one of the founding principles of Sated is that we apply common sense and try to do what's right and fair. No set of guidelines is impervious to exceptions. It just helps the guild as a whole if we start from the same general baseline of expectations. As we apply these guidelines, we will learn and adapt... and keep Sated the best damn guild this side of the River Styx.

OPP (Over-Powered Pally)... Yah, You Know Me

A couple of words about paladin abilities and how that stacks up in the world of over-poweredness...

1. I have NEVER been in anything resembling a decent raid where a pally was anywhere near the top in dps.
2. In raids, pally healers are piss-poor raid healers, can't heal on the run for sh!t, and -- even when they're tank healing like they're basically limited to by design -- usually get out HPS'd by a marginally-geared druid.
3. They can tank.  I've heard they hold aggro well. Dunno overall how they stack up, but I've never heard anyone put any tank class above the rest. As a healer, I've always preferred to heal druid tanks... lots of health and they heal themselves a bit.
4. Pallies are good in PvP.  Yep.  Although -- in my experience (almost 13,000 honorable kills) -- rogues are the absolute worst to fight in PvP. But the real point is that different PvP character match-ups are harder than others. A rogue can take out a pally in no time. They can keep them stunned for pretty much the duration of the fight.  Bubble only works once.
5. Most of the people that bitch about pally's being OP have never had a level 80 pally or played them much in PvP. Before you say it, play it.

So... let's recap:  not great DPS, not great HPS in many cases, decent tanking, and near (if not at) the top in PvP. Hmmm... sounds pretty freakin balanced.

Even given all those arguments, probably the most important thing to keep in mind is this:  the people playing pallies didn't necessarily know they would be OP in PvP -- they picked them because the class is flexible like druids. Even if they did, they had no guarantee that Blizz would keep them that way. There's a big difference between saying a class is OP and saying that the players behind pallies are weak-ass bitches who run and hide in their bubble.

Trollin Along

I recently added a member to Sated:  Aldoraine, my hunter.  I started playing WoW about the time Burning Crusade came out.  My first character was a dwarf hunter named Kantuit.  By the time I hit 70 with him, BC was in full form.  I pretty much tricked him out in PvP gear -- which was easier to get than PvE gear at the time -- and had Kara on farm.

Then a couple of my playing buddies quit WoW and another couple of friends suggested I roll Horde and come play with them on Blood Furnace.  One was Fry from Malediciton, if you ever ran into him.  And that toon is Hazl.

But I always loved the hunter.  When WoW enabled faction changes, I jumped at the chance to transfer Kantuit over -- and he became Aldoraine.  [Fun fact:  Capt. Aldo Raine leads a group of Jewish-American soldiers on a Nazi killing spree in the movie, "Inglourious Basterds".]  <-- See that effin movie!!!!

So... right now Aldo is at 73 and leveling fast when I have time for him.  I'm leveling with a Marksman spec, but I will change over to Survival when he hits 80.  Should be fun.  By the way, Aldo's pets are Claude the bear, SneakySnake the wind serpent, Horneeforyu the ravager, and Chewonu the tiger.  Should work out when I get him leveled:  Hazl should be able to tank as well as heal at that point, and the hunter will be my dps outlet.

So... if you see Aldo around, give him a wave.  Just don't make any sudden movments near Chewonu.....

Raidin' Dirty

Haven't posted anything in awhile, so I thought I'd talk about the raiding we've been doing lately in Uld10 and ToC.

First, let me say I'm having a blast! Downing Ignis the other night, then again last night makes me incredibly happy. Then to down The Council and Freya... WHAT?!?! Sated in DA HOUSE! Gave the titantic trio another few runs for their money last night. The groups are varying and yet really melding and working well together. I'm 100% sure we can down Thorim in a couple shots, and... well... Hodir will fall one day, that cold-hearted son-of-a-Shytechris'-mom.

I'm a little concerned that we're going to have people feeling left out. I think the groups have been varying a good deal, but PLEASE don't harbor feelings of discontent. Air those greivances, boy (or girl)! Let's just keep the lines of communication open so hard feelings don't start festering. Schedules changed a lot with the start-up of the football seas... er... classes again, so it may take a few weeks to get a feel for the best raiding times and when folks are available. We've been adding some members, so I see it as a possibility we could get a couple groups running in the relatively near future. But the point is that Sated is really about friends having fun together... all of us. So if you feel like you're being excluded or left out, let someone know and lets hug it out, bitch.

I strongly encourage everyone to consider developing a healing alt and/or spec, as that's what we're the shortest on right now. Having more healers would have two benefits: (1) more people could rotate in, and (2) there would be less chance of not being able to raid due to a lack of healers.

One other added benefit of more healers is that it would dramatically reduce the chances that one of us would heal Ignis with a chef hat on... not that 4.5K HPS and 54% of the heals won't work, but it would have been nice to have the extra 4K mana and not need that Innervate (thx, Whoa).