Unbearably HoT

It happens. Guilds are halfheartedly disbanding as raid numbers dwindle, leaving longtime home-realms to reroll elsewhere or igniting at that one, final flashpoint and exploding. Why? Maybe folks have seen what they want to see, and have moved on. Perhaps other games have lured people away. Maybe the gap between the BT/Hyjal release and the opening of the Sunwell may have tired early T6 farmers, that guilds farming BT/Hyjal may not have been prepared for Sunwell’s ramped up difficulty, that general summer ennui set in as vacations and finals rolled through, and that with Wrath of the Lich King looming on the horizon, many would rather just sit back and start preparing for the storm. I’m not the first to write about this, and I won’t be the last.


And I’ve had it. It takes a lot more than minor discontent to burn-out someone who’s been progression raiding for over two years. I waited a little while for the dust to settle, take care of some real life concerns and, you know, get my rogue to 60, but here, in list format, is why I quit Singularity and took a break from progression raiding.


Loss of Core Raiders and Attendance Issues
Over the past few months, we had (not entirely out of the ordinary) moments of great shame, and moments of great triumph. We freed Kalecgos, destroyed Brutallus, survived Felmyst and even managed to start in on some rather discouraging Twins attempts. Meanwhile, we were practically bleeding raiders. Geared, competent apps were growing fewer and farther between, and with a sudden explosion of real life issues (marriage, familial difficulties, school), we lost a solid portion of our officer core as well.


In my opinion, some of those folks were the people who really pulled everyone together and focused our efforts to the knife-point necessary to dissect encounters. They were incredibly vocal, critical people, and more importantly, they had the officer tag that allowed them to enforce what they said. The final loss of our raid leader and GM (who actually re-rolled to play with Juggernaut) nearly nailed the coffin-lid shut—on both the guild and my desire to raid. People can’t just be given the officer tag and be expected to lead—authority and trust are two essential qualities that have to be developed over time. Rapidly attempting to metamorphose raiders into new officers didn’t quite work as I had hoped, and my outlook on the situation grew progressively bleaker.


Attitude
I have always considered myself a valuable asset to any raid group: I’m punctual, I’m prepared, I’m a superior player with quick reflexes, and I add a certain, wildly inappropriate something to a raid group. Let’s call it “levity”. As any leader knows, there’s a time and a place for goofing off, and there’s a lot to be said for boosting morale. Generally speaking, I have a knack for doing and knowing just that. It’s not exactly a designated job, but when I’d returned to raiding after my week off, I got a surprising flurry of tells from folks asserting that things had been “boring” without me around. That’s cool. That’s my goal, so to speak.


Unfortunately, not everyone else has this same mentality. If there’s something to complain about, it’ll be complained about, and if they can show up late and play like a half-assed retard, they’ll do that as well. If they can get away with it. Certainly this doesn’t apply to everyone, and perhaps the people who did fall into that pattern had some kind of real life issue to work out. But when that sort of behavior largely goes unnoticed or unpunished in a situation where 24 other people are counting on you, it’s unacceptable. It generates resentment, both toward the leadership and toward your fellow players, spreading like a disease cloud of malcontent.


So when someone like me, who just a few months ago attempted to drive morale and progression with a massive consumable gathering expedition, suddenly finds herself bitter and frustrated and dreading logging on to a veritable shitstorm of ill-geared apps and people who seemingly don’t care anymore, what happens? It dragged on me. I got angry. I found fewer reasons to justify the mental exhaustion from raiding 10:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on work nights. I unwittingly allowed my own irritation to bleed over in-game, and that, in my opinion, was also unacceptable and needed to change.


Raid Role
Many folks have periodically written about why tanks have such a high burn-out rate. While you can say the same thing about almost any class role, tanking isn’t easy. Let me rephrase that—effective tanking isn’t easy. There is a very high reliance on proper rotations, optimizing TPS output, utilizations of life-saving cooldowns, gear, quick-decision making, and…everyone else. I won’t digress into a tanking discussion here, but whether or not you have an official raid leading role, as the tank, you are often situated there. You lead, quite literally. You often pull. You manage mobs and their respective positions to the raid. You save all the people who mismanage aggro and the healers keeping you alive. And best of all, you’re in a prime position to screw up, repeatedly, and have everyone watch you do it.


That being said, other than watching your own damage output scale directly with TPS, doing everything correctly as a tank still doesn’t guarantee success. As Lycentia loves to say, “Tanking is watching everyone else fail around you.” While the amount of tanks necessary for any given encounter varies, most guilds have a much smaller pool of tanks than they do healers or DPS. Fewer tanks means stricter attendance and a heavier reliance on a small group of people: if a rogue can’t make it one night, you sub in more DPS. If one of your only FR tanks for Illidan can’t make it, you’re in trouble. A lot of time and effort goes into training and gearing tanks, and a lot of people take that for granted. It is, arguably, the most stressful non-officer position in a raid, and even considering leaving saddled me with some rather impressive guilt. A friend actually told me:

If you didn’t want to put up with everyone’s bullshit, you shouldn’t have rolled a tank. Leaving kind of bones everyone.

Relatively shocked, I responded with:

So by virtue of me playing a tank, I am thus held to some invisible higher standard than every other class? That I should continue to play even when I’m not having fun anymore just because I happen to be a tank?

Needless to say, the conversation ended there when both of us realized how dumb it sounded. But those expectations do exist, and I steadily grew tired of them.


Conclusion
That’s essentially the lion’s share of my reasoning for stepping back for awhile and focusing on general makeouts and high fives. I harbor no ill-will toward Singularity at all, especially since many of my friends still play there, and I have no intentions of transferring. Doomhammer is “it”, but it is currently my intention to prepare for competitive 10-man progression raiding in WotLK. With that in mind, myself and the other two tanks who left (along with a few friends) have created a new guild, with a new “charter”, so to speak, to move toward that goal.


I present to you:

DREAD LOBSTER


Recruiting will actually happen soon. Extensive class knowledge, tolerance for multisyllabic words and deliberately unreasonable requests a must. If this is something you’re seriously interested in, talk to me.

The long awaited 5-7-5 results are here!

I apologize for the delay, but with the storms in the Midwest, finally starting my shiny new job and making some other, tough decisions, I’ve been busier than anticipated. I received a wide variety of haiku, some from folks I know and bloggers most readers might recognize, and also from some pretty cool people I haven’t had the opportunity to meet yet. My mailbox is still bulging with the surprising amount of entries, and Bellwether even managed to e-mail me at 11:59 PM EST last Friday, when the contest officially ended. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed or mentioned this little endeavor to friends, and I hope that you either had fun participating or will enjoy reading them today!

Congratulations to Eustashius of Faux Paws fame for winning the main event (and gift card)—and giving me a good laugh!

Here are just a few of the other great entries!

Edgeworth from LF3 More actually submitted a haiku in Japanese that follows all the original rules, and his inclusion of the kanji and hiragana really allows for a visual experience of how the haiku reads.

Aeolos from Wanderings of the Meandering Mind offers a feral druid’s summer safety wisdom:

Phaelia from Resto4Life submitted a series of Northrend themed haiku and took the “seasonal” or “nature” theme to heart:

Ahmen from Moonguard offered a whimsical view of the giant, lumbering bear, and I’m reminded of how totally sweet it’d be if Dire Bear form displayed armor. Or, you know, at least a cape.

And finally, Korryna, also known as Valenna from Parry! Dodge! Spin! pays homage to the Darnassian deity:

I suppose I need to submit a few of my own, and since I’ve been accused of hopping on the anti-boomkin bandwagon, a few fat-bird flavored haiku:

Additionally, Lycentia wrote a Rawrberry flavored haiku-chain that I’d like to share but couldn’t justifiably “consider” in the contest.

 

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and I promise more updates soon!

Just a reminder that the 5-7-5 Summer Haiku Contest will be ending tomorrow, and the last submissions will be taken at 11:59, EST on Friday the 13th! Get your submissions in soon so you can be eligible for the prize! 

 

When I was first convinced to start writing a druid-themed blog, it was with the intention of creating an audience interested in both druids and high-end raid content. I don’t ever recall reading many other blogs geared in a similar fashion until recently, and it’s (dare I say) refreshing reading the trials and tribulations of others riding the progression bandwagon in the writings of folks such as Lume the Mad or Chick GM. But before I totally digress, I’d like to just take a minute to step back from Warcraft here and address what I mentioned in the very first sentence: creating an audience.


Here, I am making a few assumptions:

1. While bloggers must be writing in some fashion for themselves, they are also writing in a public venue in which they want to be seen.
2. You, as a blogger, do not want to alienate a potential audience and you, as a reader, do not want to feel alienated by a particular blog. Here, I’m talking about a potential audience within a topic itself; for example, I wouldn’t want to discourage druid readers. Generating interest from anyone else is an added bonus.
3. You, as a blogger, want to allow open discourse, in some capacity, and you, as a reader, do not want to be ignored.

Keeping the above items in mind, here are a few suggestions that I try to follow for anyone who’s curious or struggling with a fledgling site:

1. Update Frequently: I admittedly have a hard time doing this, especially when my schedule lately looks a little something like Go to Work, Come Home, Cook Dinner, Raid, Sleep. But the more often you update, the better the chances are that people will frequently check out your work to see what’s new. Similarly, as a reader, I really enjoy following specific blogs and look forward to new content. I am not, however, part of the Twitter camp, nor do I think that “updating frequently” means interjecting with every stray thought I happen to have during the day—for the purposes of my blog, anyway. While that might be…interesting, I don’t think the people who read Unbearably HoT want that. If I’m wrong, please let me know.




2. Track Site Statistics: While this offers a work-procrastinating opportunity for every Type A, OCD individual out there, integrating some sort of tracker into your website, like StatCounter, allows you to view a comprehensive breakdown of the traffic your site is receiving: how many hits, unique hits, recent keyword activity, websites that people clicked through to get to yours, popular pages, exit pages, etc. I am generally most interested in the amount of daily traffic as it correlates to days-of-the-week (when most people tend to drop by), where people are coming from (who’s linking to me) and what folks typed into Google to get them to my blog (keyword activity). This shows me when it’s most opportune to post in order to “please” the greatest numbers of stoppers-by. This kind of information might also surprise you—a post you might have viewed as silly, inconsequential or difficult to read may end up being the most popular thing you ever wrote. Go figure.




3. Comment: Don’t be afraid to comment elsewhere. Discuss. But more importantly, respond. While there are certainly blogs out there with entries generating 40+ comments a day, I’m going out on a limb and postulating that most, or at least many, WoW bloggers don’t usually get more than 20 and often less than 10. If folks bothered to leave you some kind of feedback, even if it’s something to the tune of HI I LIKE YOUR LAYOUT ALSO O’DOYLE RULES!, it’s just common courtesy to respond in some way, even if it’s simply a “Thank you”. Similarly, if someone comments with a correction or a controversial opinion, before you dismiss him or her outright or call him or her “rude”, take a minute, recheck your facts, math, whatever, and respond graciously and thoughtfully. We all make mistakes, and we all tend to make incorrect assumptions at one point or another. Additionally, while most theorycrafting is standard, take a minute and ascertain where this person is coming from—are they raiding Karazhan and you’re working on Illidan? Different specs, gear levels and levels of raiding might necessitate different rules or ideas. Meet halfway.




4. Determine Readability: This goes beyond the basics of good grammar, structure and spelling. I come from a background of writing dense scientific papers, rather erudite literary critcism and, to balance it all out, humorous nonfiction. It’s pretty easy to figure out which of those most people would probably read, and I try to recognize my tendency to write obscenely long sentences and make everything a little bit more conversational. To get an idea of how your writing compares to known standards, the intrepid writer can perform a Flesch/Kincaide test. Flesch Tests are statistical analyses of a selected body of work that utilizes this formula:
   
   206.835 – 1.015(total words/total sentences) – 84.6(total syllables/total words) .
   
   High scores indicate an easier to read document, while lower scores generally indicate denser, more difficult prose. For reference, Reader’s Digest scores around 65, a basic insurance policy scores around 45 and Nature would probably score in the mid-twenties. The Kincaid portion of the test scores your writing and calculates the basic grade level of your work (10 being a sophomore level). This post, for example, scores a 43.2 with a 12.0 reading level and definitely isn’t hard to read. Most public media caters to a sophomore or lower reading level. It’s interesting to see where you end up on the spectrum.
   
   
   Don’t let the math scare you—if you use WP, you can download a plug-in called FD Word Stats. Additionally, going to Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar>Check Show Readability Statistics will allow you to perform the same tests in Microsoft Word. Just run a standard Spelling & Grammar check, and the stats will display at the end.

So even when you’re supposedly writing for yourself, take a moment to reflect on your personal motivations and slip yourself into the shoes of the reader—what do you like to see as a member of the “audience”?


I have some rather ridiculous WoW related news to report on later, but that’s it for now. In the meantime—what do you want to hear from me that I don’t already discuss?

In the very near future, you might notice that certain boxes on the sidebar are disappearing. Why’s that? You don’t want to link to anything else anymore?


YES I HATE EVERYONE.


Not really. I’m moving all major links to other WoW Bloggers (previously titled “Reads”) and References to the Blogroll page you can find at the top of the screen. This will hopefully streamline things a little more, clutter the mainpage less, and organize outgoing links in a more readily accessible format.


Comments are always appreciated.

I didn’t accomplish anything I set out to do last night except for running Lycentia’s alt through all the Scarlet Monastery questlines. Instead of going to Sunwell last night to keep getting destroyed by the Twins, we decided to head to Black Temple and farm up a few pieces folks still need, kit out the new people, etc. Of course, I ducked out just before Supremus last night to let in some folks who, you know, actually needed gear. No sooner did I teleport back outside did I put my head down on my desk and promptly pass out on my keyboard. The next thing I know, Lycentia is telling me to go back to sleep, and at some point I remember fuzzily transferring from computer to bed. Oops, my b. Did I mention we raid from 10 PM to 1:30 AM EST?


We have so many tanks right now that I’m actually being pulled in more and more just to DPS. Generally that doesn’t happen, because whether or not I have 4k AP raid buffed, a rogue or DPS warrior with 2k will almost always beat me on meters. Usually, this works out—when I’m tanking, I can be happily shuffled into the melee group, give them my crit buff and continue doing my job. I’m an optimizer, obviously, but I don’t often do it while DPSing. Regardless, it’s a new avenue for improvement, and I’ve been working to tighten up my rotation, resocket my gear again (since I took a HIT loss on my new necklace and ring) and possibly pick up Nurturing Instincts for the extra 26% heals to me while I’m in cat form.


So let’s take a look at my current spec. I’m giving the general disclaimer here that I’m trying to optimize for raiding and only raiding, and that my spec is currently tailored to allow for specializations in other people’s specs. WTF does that mean? I’ll explain in a sec. As mentioned in an earlier post, I went resto the other evening for Sunwell. The next night, I had to spec back for tanking, and with 50 gold from the guild bank clinking in my metaphorical pockets, I decided to stop being lazy and realign a few Talent Points. The changes are staggeringly minor. 0/47/14 is the cookie cutter feral spec for dr00ds everywhere, but some people stack points in different places.

NEW




Thus far, I’ve had Feral Aggression maxed out, increasing the AP reduction of my Demoralizing Roar by 40%. It also gave me a bonus to Ferocious Bite, but as the Eviscerate of the cat-world, we all know that’s useless when you’re raiding anyway. With the Improved Demo Roar, I was making sure I was keeping debuffs up on mobs, overwriting the un-talented version of our warriors’ Demoralizing Shout. A quick look:


Untalented
Rank 6 Demoralizing Roar = -240 AP
Rank 7 Demoralizing Shout = -300 AP


240 * .40 = 96; 240 + 96 = total of -336 AP


Taking 5/5 Improved Demoralizing Shout, however, also offers a 40% boost to AP reduction, giving us:


300 * .40 = 120; 300 + 120 = total of -420 AP


My point, here, is that there’s absolutely no reason to have 5/5 in Feral Aggression if you have a warrior who’s always in to keep up Improved Demoralizing Shout. Since our DPS warrior specced 5/5 for Brutallus, talenting my roar (-336 AP) is pointless in comparison (-420 AP).


The other talent I didn’t have maxed out previously was Primal Tenacity for the sole reason that maxing it out would prevent me from picking up points in Natural Shapeshifter (due to having maxed out Feral Aggression). While Natural Shapeshifter definitely spares the mana pool on fights where I’m powershifting excessively, it’s otherwise a vanity talent—I’m not PvPing, and I’m usually not worried about running out of mana, ever. Taking 3/3 in Primal Tenacity, however, offers me a 15% resistance to Stuns and Fears. With that talented and the addition of my Powerful Earthstorm Diamond, I have a passive 20% stun resistance (when I’m tanking). Any time I can resist a stun or a fear means that some pissed off mob isn’t running after a squishie and that I’m generating more TPS rather than letting the DPS come perilously close to aggro pulling range as the mob beats the shit out of me while I’m doing nothing. Additionally, it even helps my DPS during fights where a boss or mob AOE stuns and I’m able to resist and keep on trucking (Kaz’rogal, for example).


So now, I’ve gone from 5/5 Feral Aggression to 0/0 Feral Aggression, and from 1/3 Primal Tenacity to 3/3 Primal Tenacity. I was still able to pick up 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter, although I’m already considering moving two of those points over to Nurturing Instincts instead to make it easier for healers to keep me up when the raid’s taking AOE damage. Most of the rest of the talents are self-explanatory—there’s no reason to pick up Brutal Impact unless you’re PvPing, and the obligatory talents in the Restoration tree allow for Rage/Energy clearcasting, STR bonuses and optimized powershifting capabilities.


Questions and comments are, of course, welcome.