Gear Creep

Has anyone noticed the quality of pugs has both increased and decreased lately?

Groups get impatient with pulls and stupid / reckless with extra gear. You can’t plough thru all the crowds without mana breaks and ignore all CC mechanics just because your Level 24 guild is doing Nefarion Hardmode. We’re all NOT on the same page. This leads to bigger expectations in random PuGs and players able regress back into WotLK playstyles.

I tank Heroic 5 man content. I use three toons between 352 and 340 gear level. As a Tank, you worry about Threat and being able to survive the damage output. As people get better equipped, I’ve had dps rip agro off in regular intervals. Why? The dual wield Fury warrior is pushing 16000 DPS using twin 365s and is wearing T11.5 in all slots. He was pushing insane amounts of damage. Consecrate has nothing on a 30k damage whirlwind. Then I had two 359 iLevel Warlocks unleashing hellish amounts of spikey threat and 15k Dps in a damage race. I was forced to keep Taunt as part of my rotation. The healer was going OOM trying to keep up with Life-taps and Adds being ripped off the Tank. Are they bad players? Yes. BECAUSE their better gear makes them assholes? No. They just happen to be inconsiderate players with fantastic loot.

I also heal 5 man Heroic content. My healers are 350, 340, and 333. That’s a much bigger range of ability. As a Healer, it’s a different kind of hell. I had a full 359 Tank geared for Max Avoidance. He only had 155k health. I had to explain to him that 5 man heroic content should still be respected. He drew all of the mobs onto him without any CC, then expected to be healed thru Inferno + Meteor Strike + Lightning Lash and two melee beating on him. I understand the caliber of endless mana he’s accustomed to bathing in, but seriously know your limits. Some of that trash will still rock your face, if you get reckless. My obligation as healer is to keep the tank AND the rest of the group alive thru the fight. That sucked trying to keep up. A couple seconds of Polymorph, Banish, Ice Trap, Sap, or whatever can mean a world of difference. Don’t push your healer in blue 333 gear. Gear Creeping upwards to Tier 12 doesn’t mean that everyone’s alts are able to achieve the throughput required to do Hardmode 25man content. Especially when you que for a Random PuG.

I also DPS. My mage pushes 8k. My Shaman pushes 14k. My DK pushes 12k. Not much to brag about. If I can’t keep up with the other DPS, there’s no crying. I can accept being Top DPS and being Very Bottom. I always use CC and assist the tank. If the tank breaks CC and the healer is fine, we’re all good. I STOP attack and run to the tank when I do pull agro. DPS is easy. Follow the lead. Think on your feet. Help where you can. Stay out of the fire.

Play nice. It’s a chore to do Pugs for daily Valor points with the “non-Raid Scrubs”. Don’t be a jerk about it.

Pug Raid spots

Got into a raid as a 3rd healer. Keeping the Offtank / Main Tank alive and the other two healers are doing Raid heals. Interesting scenario being a Paladin Healer. The mana demands are heavy. Using a new interface VuhDo to help with the task. Still fine tuning the gear / gems / enchants for optimum output and efficiency. Wish me luck!

Starting Cataclysm with your ALT

You know who you are!

You're the kind of player that likes levelling, but not the grind of faction work and collecting Justice points for gear. You don't scour the Auction house for every available edge and you rarely ever use stat food or potions.

You play organically. You play for fun. You may just avoid instances and do solo content because the pressures of "group" play are kind of intense. Fight some. Skin some. Mine some. Do the next quest. Ohh look!!

Congratulations! Your character made it to level 80!

Lets move onto Cataclysm content..... And get your ass handed to you.

There is an ocean of difference between level 79 WotLK content and level 80 Cataclysm content.

There are alot of nasty nasty things with truly quick spawn times in the new Cataclysm zones. The water goblins and naga in Vash'ir or the twilight cultists and fire elementals in Hyjal. Both types will repop quickly and hit like a truck. I was getting beaten up.

Demonology spec helped. Crafted Emberweave helped. Getting out of my 200 iLevel gear helped. Apparently, my warlock was so far behind the curve, that the new expansion was daunting. My hunter was Tier 10 and ate up the mobs. My Tier 10 Enhance shaman was nearly immortal and had a blast. My DK was beastly in Tier 10.5 and never stopped.

ICC raiding "Mains" and newly minted level 80 characters are not equally sucessful against the Cataclysm starter zones. I would take Mt. Hyjal , personally. It's more player-friendly. For those of you who are making the jump from level 76 to level 80. Remember, gear gets a HUGE jump in Cataclysm but the difficulty has a HUGE hump as well.

Cataclysm Green items have 170 more STA and 170 more INT than Epics from Heroic LK instances. I have no idea why level 78-80 Icecrown blues even sell at the AH anymore. Once you outfit yourself with a full set of Cataclysm greens, you can resume dealing out dark cold justice from your fiery finger-tips. The difference is awesome.

If you can't get full crafted gear, do the first few quests until you replace at least 50% of your equipment. THEN hit the instances. You'll thank me.