Casual Raid Leader

Ok… look.  I’m forced to admit every year that I’m getting older and older.  No… I’m not some old fogey talking about the good old days and pulling out my cane to bang on the ground…. shake it at you young wiper snappers and mourn the changes.  Its funny, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found that my memory gets less reliable. 

Its not that I can’t remember stuff, but as you get older your brain gets filled up with lots of other concerns… what are the kids doing? Do we have practiced today or tomorrow?  What was dinner tonight? What adjustments do I need to make to my 401k?  Ok when did I need to submit that form so I can get some vacation time off?  Wait… oh god they got me another project at work…. sigh… that will be another 50 hour work week….

We kind of keep filling up the spare spaces to the point that its harder and harder to keep things in memory long enough to cement them.  So as a busy father of three, I have resorted to…… (more…)

Negative feedback is hard to give. But it’s even harder to receive.

http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2009/06/11/so-you-think-you-can-raid/#ixzz0I9N1a6kb&D

As you can see, Matticus was discussing on Friday how badly it sucks to have to give bad news.  Its interesting how age kind of redefines how you view and approach things.  Some people can be blunt and they have no problems giving bad news out to people.  Other people just hem an haw and have a nightmare of a time telling people anything that might be negative.

As much as I’d like to say I’m a nice worldly person…  as much as I’d like to say I’ve mastered the fine art of conversation and I can handle anything the world throws at me, I can’t.  I’m just a guy… in my early thirties who’s going to share a little bit of insight. (more…)

I can assure you… Kologarn does wear pants… he does wear shoes as well. I’ve decided my lot in life is to provide lots of entertainment to my raiders. They are great people. I love raiding with them and it is such a good feeling that I can provide hours of entertainment for them.

Last night was our first night this week of fun times in Ulduar. This is our first week of multiple days in Ulduar. We’re reaching that stage where we just aren’t getting anything out of Naxx. We’ll do our best to speed run it from here on out, but Naxx is probably going to be relegated to the status of something we just kind of duck into for Abyss crystals or to catch up some people on gear. Its one of those sad times, but from another perspective the new challenges that await us in Ulduar are a good reminder that we have lots of work to do. (more…)

I’ve read some extremely nice articles on Mouseover healing.  I’ve read some extremely nice articles on using Mouseover techniques for tanking.  In fact… theres a lot of really nice information out there on Mouseover.  But for those of you who really have never seen the concept of mouseover before.. I wanted to give you some step by step build up on how you might use Mouseover macros in your day to day life.

I have a good friend of mine who is a healer and still uses the click and move technique.  Click the person you want to heal.. then click the heal you want to use.  Its a completely valid technique of healing.  It also takes a great deal more reflexes to do efficiently than I have. (more…)

We have a hunter in our guild who’s always been a very solid player.  He recently posted the question listed below in our forums a few weeks ago.  This is actually a question I field almost all the time as a raid  leader.

I’ve got a question here, and I guess I’m just looking for advice, or maybe a little more of a ‘theory’ answer. I don’t want to be one of those people who’s obscessed with their DPS and nothing more, but at the same time, I know that’s basically all that I bring to the table (aside from some limited CC and a couple de-buff abilities). I guess my question is basically, “How do I know when I’m becoming to obscessed with my DPS and nothing more?” I hate to sit there and feel like I’m whining about damage, but that feels like my only real measurable contribution.

Like last night for example, I was happy as a clam in Spider Wing, I threw up Aspect of Wild a few times, we pretty much rolled everything, and my damage was like 2-300 above what it was last time (if I remember right). And usually it seems that I run lower in Spider than elsewhere. So then we go into Military, and it just seems to keep dropping, and I know I made a comment in Guild chat about it… It came back up a little when we went into Plague too, and overall I was pretty happy, and Star did mention a couple things that contributed to the dip that I overlooked.

I guess I just want to know if I’m becoming too obscessed with DPS, and need to just relax, or if I’m just showing a healthy desire to improve…

G
Marksman Hunter

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The rumors of my demise have been greatly overstated!!!

For the last 5 days, I was on what has to be the worst timed business trip in history.  I scheduled the trip about 5 days before Blizzard announced the release date.  I just about cried right after they did.  So for those who are curious… I got to play the expansion an entire 2 whole days before I was whisked away on business.  So major suckage on that, but some interesting things come of it.

1.  I still am employed and that’s a good thing.
2.  I learned a lot that’s applicable to my job.  Score one for being able to do my job better and more efficiently.
3.  I learned a bit thats applicable to the game. (more…)

Its catchy.  We talked about creating a guild at one point, with a name like that, but the reality is that it was time to look at clearing out some bags.  We all do it.  We’ve been collecting bags and bags of gear saving them for special fights etc, but at the end of the day, its time to move on.  Those hard earned purples are on the verge of being replaced with easily earned greens. 

An era has ended and a new one born again.  But how long should you hold onto those epics?  Should you look at greens sooner than later?  I tend to think so, but for different reason than you think. (more…)

There’s nothing like a week of hind sight to get a real feel for how things are shaping up.  Overall, I’m extremely pleased, but all the classes have changed.  The achievement system has landed.  And of course, those of us speed leveling through the content have a much easier road ahead.  Nothing says loving like lots of things to do right before an expansion. (more…)

I’ve seen a ton of people tossing gloom and doom, but really the sky isn’t falling.  The world won’t end tomorrow.  Let the nay sayers spout off, but I guess as a druid I’ve found a bigger problem. There’s almost too many good talents in the new trees.  We’ve now got to look for new synergies.  We’ve got options to figure out where we want to put our damage abilities. (more…)

For those of you who might be looking for a good community I wanted to give a shout out to a community I’ve found extremely helpful over time.  Theres a great site that I visit on a fairly regular basis called “The Druid’s Grove“.  It actually is a multiple game site, but the WoW community on that site is just top knotch.  There are some really great discussions that occur on various druid topics, but what I love most about the site is that 100% of the time if someone shows up who’s a complete and utter noob to Druidism, they get a cheery hello as well as some top notch advice. 

I probably don’t comment as often as I should, but really there are some great people out there with some fantastic advice.  If you ever need to know anything about druids or just need to ask advice its my top place to go.  We have some fantastic druid bloggers in the blogging community as well, but for whatever reason its the place I always go first.  There are experts on dang near every topic.