Casual Raid Leader

Some times you just kind of run dry.  You try and try to come up with things to say… and in the end you just sit there..and can’t really think of anything that you’ll find that important.  What’s most interesting about taking a break is that it does wonderful things for your creative juices as well as kind of putting you back in touch with why you do this.

I think when I started this blog, it was for an entirely different reason than why I write now.  I won’t ever be a Matticus. 

I won’t ever be hard core theorist.  What I am… is a 30 something disorganized raid leader with a little bit of whit and a whole hell of a lot of sarcasm.  Plus I have some good friends who watch here looking to see what I am doing from time to time.  Which is encouraging.  I’m not an expert at anything in particular.  Some people would say I probably don’t give myself enough credit, but to be honest, I believe in thinking you always have group to grow and learn. (more…)

It has been an interesting few weeks.  I was accused of being a real pro the other day in a raid and to be honest.. it felt good.  I’ve been quiet on purpose.  I’ve had a lot to say, but to be honest, I wanted to give people I knew a bit of time to adjust… pick a direction and decide what they wanted to do with the game.

I’ve picked my path and thus far I’m not regretting it.  For those who have been watching, you know I jumped from Alliance to Horde and swapped servers.  $55 later (ouch), I found myself in a guild formed by some friends of mine I see once or twice a month.  So its a guild largely comprised of people who know each other.  Lets take a few minutes to dwell down what I’ve experienced and some of the surprises I’ve seen. (more…)

Not that long ago as part of a large amount of frustation on my part, I vented on what I viewed as a huge issue with healing in Wrath.  Now… I was flipping through some incoming traffic and came across this very interesting article over at Procrastination Amplification by Scrusi.  They brought up a very interesting point. 

In my original article, I felt that a great deal of the reason that healing had burned so many healers out was the sheer difficulty.  Scrusi contends that difficult encounters would wake healers up and actually there’s a great deal of boredom involved with healing.  Ok… I’m 3 weeks into  my horde transformation.  Lets see what I’ve learned. (more…)

I find myself in one of those introspective moods this week.  That comes with good reason.  First and foremost let me say that the last week has been filled with turmoil largely caused by myself.  The really depressing thing is that I try very hard some times to try to avoid causing major strife and pain for people and almost like clockwork, BOOM… mass chaos.

Last week Thursday I announced I was leaving my existing guild.  Its not an easy thing to do.  In my position, for better or worse, a lot of people place their hopes and successes on your shoulders.  Their game in many ways revolves around your involvement and your continued involvement. (more…)

Dunno… lately I’m having a hard time getting excited about the next expansion.  I’ve seen a good number of people who have gotten extremely excited.  They’re looking at the new widgets coming.  They are looking at the new way that gear will work.  They are looking at reforging. 

Me…. I’m just filled with apathy about the whole damned thing.  I’m not entirely sure why.  Maybe its because I’m just not going to have the time to dedicate to the game.  Maybe its because I seriously doubt I’ll be able to raid in the next expansion.  Maybe its because… I’ve just played the game too damned long. (more…)

Tanks… Tanks have been treated very well in this expansion.  That’s my take on it and I’m sticking to it.  Are we still kind of reactionary?  Yeah in a way, but overall, the struggles we went through in Burning Crusade are largely gone.  We can happily trundle out there and tank our merry hearts out and not feel like we’re screwed… or under powered.  Blizzard went a long way toward making tanking FUN.  Yes… Fun I said.

Yes.. I tank with my face.  My job is to beat my face on the bad man’s big left toe repeatedly till he says… “Ouch… a hang nail” and proceeds to try to pick my off his toe.  Healers though… somehow their problem seems more dramatic. (more…)

Its an interesting effect when you watch raiders hit walls.  Some of them really start digging in.  Others throw up their hands and begin to fade away.  I had a sneaking suspicion it was coming.  If you look over the common threads, you see a lot of the “hard core” raiding guilds are pushing the limits and are pretty much done with Ulduar.  They are looking at the hard modes and desperately trying to get to Alagon.  For the more casual guilds they seem to be hovering anywhere from 6-7 in Ulduar.  The walls there are very real,  but what’s the effect that causes this? (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…)

Years ago I training martial arts in a little town called Gibsonia, Pennsylvania.  There were plenty of martial arts schools in the area, but my father was particularly careful about picking a teacher.  You see my father very strongly believed that martial arts were something that you had to do right or abuse could run rampant.  Its hard to understand what he meant at the age and time, but as I age, its very much a philosophy I ascribe to.  Martial arts done by a large majority of the world have no meaning.  Its great for exercise, but the core of martial arts is much deeper that most people can even grasp.

But hey.. it looks like I’m already diverting off my point.  You see I remember clearly the one moment in time where my approach to martial arts changed.  Prior to that one defining moment I was skating through.  I could do the movements.  I knew all the moves.  I could perform all the patterns.  But that wasn’t the point.  The day it all transformed was the day that Mr.  Paris flunked me.  The day I failed… was the day I learned to find the savior. (more…)

I actually feel like a copy cat. You’ll see why in a minute.  I’ve been completely out of touch with the blogging community. I have spent so much time lately at work that I haven’t had the time to really catch up on my reading. It was just last week that I finally saw that PTD had left his guild. I was floored… I was flabbergasted. But as I read the article…. I understood.

Today’s kind of rough day for me.  It wasn’t the way I envisioned coming back to the world of blogging.  I’ve been under the gun at work.  Its earned me high praises, but no high praise comes without risk.  Its a very high profile project.  The Associate VP of our division stops by daily to see how we’re doing.  Its really nice.  Last week I was eating 2500-3000 calories per day, not exercising at all…. I lost three pounds.  Stress is an extremely poor thing to put your body through.  This morning someone told me I looked exhausted.  Have I mentioned yet that I’m not sleeping???

Today… I got up early.  The alarm went off at 4:30.  Its my son’s birthday…. 8 years ago today he came into this world kicking and screaming.  He was my first.  He’s a great kid.  I love him a lot.

I sat down at my computer.  I always like to do some mindless dailies in the morning that kind of calms me down… gets me kind of started on my day.  I pulled up the social tab.  Clicked Guild.  I was the only one on….  I sat there at my computer for about 5 minutes.  Just thinking.  Then I started to type…. /gquit…. my finger hovered over the enter key for a long time…. then in one swift stroke… it fell. (more…)