Thursday, April 16, 2009

I Still Haven't Even Zoned in to Ulduar

Oh, how I long to be in a tight knit guerrilla mercenary crew like Hatch's 12 man guild. Twelve individuals who know exactly what they want from the game, and team up like the Superfriends to go and fucking get it when they log into WoW. Aquaman never gave some bullshit excuse about overheating video cards when it was time to foil the Legion of Doom. Wonder Woman could always be counted on to give someone a lift in her invisible jet. I'm stuck dicking around with a gimpy version of the Keystone Kops. The most people I've seen online in the guild tab since 3.1 launched was 12, and when I tried to rally those 12 to form up a 10 man, I was met with general apathy, or a sense that we should be 'waiting for something' instead of showing some initiative.

And so, it's off to the recruiters.

I guess I should have just not bothered sticking around when on patch day I noticed about 10 people leave the guild without a word. One of our main healers (and a high ranking officer) logged on last night, and was met with actual surprise by the one other guildie on.

"Woah, Moocifer! I'm surprised to see you on!"

Moocifer has gone offline.

Not even a hello or anything. Ugh.

So here I am, filling out applications to other guilds, hoping they'll let me play on the red team with them in Mario Kart. Those who know me know this is one of my most loathed aspects of WoW. I want to play the game. I'm able to distance myself from the drudgery of MMOs, and can appreciate the fact that, deep down, they're meant to be enjoyed; but when I need to provide 'references' and 'an available schedule' in order to even join a guild, I get frustrated. I honestly wish the guild I'm in would just log the fuck on so we can run something.

My experience with the patch thus far has included a 25 man 'new VOA' run that decided to kill Archavon first (thus saving everyone to that ID), then go back, wipe once on Emanuel (whatever their name is), and then spend 30 minutes just staring at the boss while various people link videos in their vent comments, or paste Wowwiki paragraphs in chat. I kept remarking that I thought the 'letting him die of old age strat' seemed to be working flawlessly, or how I hoped that the 'tabbing out and READING' debuff had weakened him enough for another attempt.

THE RAID BROKE APART WITHOUT A SECOND ATTEMPT.

Apparently 'Table Scraps' (the guild that comprised more than half of this PUG) decided that they would rather wait to be told exactly how to execute this boss than die a few times, because the VOA corpse run (3 feet from the instance entrance) is a killer.

I've actually managed to kill Emanuel (as he shall forever be known now) on my priest in a ten man, and was surprised to find he drops the same crap as Archavon? Whatever.

I've ran a few Argent Jousting dailies, and dual specced my three main toons. Sadly, the act of arranging my bars for each toon's dual spec has probably been the highlight of my time with the patch so far. I've figured out thew slash command to change specs without having to open the talent pane (/usetalents 1, and /usetalents 2), and made little macros for them. Hooray. Zzzz.

I like the people in the guild I'm in, which is why I hate being in the situation I'm in now. When a major content patch ships, and people just don't log in, you begin to wonder if this is just an 'alt guild', and people are laughing and cheering with their mains, while my mains are stuck with no one logging on. Being unemployed right now, I was really looking forward to having time to raid, and I even had a full day where my wife took the kid to go see her sister, and I savored the chance to... uhh... I guess make 57 Earthsiege whatever meta gems, and post them all on the AH...?

Aquaman! Wonder Woman! Hell, even those twins that turn into giraffes and buckets of water! Save me! The bat signal is overheating right now, and Super PUGs are Super Failing. Someone convince their PVE progression guild to all xfer to Cho'gall. Throw me a friggin bone! Either that, or it may be time to throw down (another) hundred bucks and xfer my three mains and bank alt to somewhere else.

Bleh.

:(

19 comments:

Klepsacovic said...

I'd offer to start a "Haven't seen Ulduar" Club with you, but I'm not sure if you can make the meetings.

Trustyn said...

you could try out for my guild if you'd like. http://salusnovus.guildomatic.com/

Mordiceius said...

It is better than being in the top guild on your server and being forced to sit on the sideline because the guild has just two or three too many healers and all the healers have perfect attendance.

I can't get better gear than them because they are always in the raid and I can't get in the raid because they have better gear.

So they're cheering and stuff as they're getting server first boss kills and I'm sitting on the sideline doing absolutely nothing.

HP said...

That's strange.. the patch brought back alot of the inactive players I thought. I really hope you can find a good home.

Larísa said...

Oh dear. My beloved Ixobelle is unhappy. That makes me a sad panda. I really wish I could do something for you. And I can't. :(

You should have moved to Europe instead of US now that you were on the move anyway...

Longasc said...

I still claim that most people feel raiding is a nuisance, but necessary to gain gear.

Not because it is fun.

Also, many people burn out of WoW nowadays, at least if we can believe the blogosphere.

I feel something went wrong in WOTLK, and also before already.

Anonymous said...

Hope you find a cool guild that deserves you! It does all sound a bit miserable.

I never understand why there arent' more casual type raid guilds in WoW. I know there must be so many people who'd rather play like that.

*vlad* said...

There is nothing wrong with casual guilds, but having maybe 10-12 players in them will mean you are not going to go raiding, or even 5 mans.
Plus, if people can't even be bothered to speak to each other, then what is the effin point in being in the guild?

Come on, there must be casual guilds on your server with membership of 100+ (there always are). Yes, they have a high percentage of tards in them, but you are much more likely to get parties organised than a 10 man guild.

There are always raid commnities, too. That means you can stay in your guild, you just raid with other people.

Either way, don't feel commitment to people who aren't committed to you.

Geoffrey said...

"I still claim that most people feel raiding is a nuisance, but necessary to gain gear."

Longasc, I find it hilarious that you say this. The only point of gear you get from raids is to raid more. So if you do not like raiding, what is the point of raiding to get gear for more raiding?

Unless there is another benefit to raiding gear that I am not aware of. Can you cash it in for free Cokes?

Hatch said...

Ouch Ixo, it sounds like finding a new guild is really the right move here. The only reason a small guild like mine works is because on raid night, everyone in the guild logs on almost every time. The downside is, if 2-3 people all have RL come up at once, then the rest of us can't raid (unless we pick up pugs or something, which we'd like to avoid).

Having an alliance with another guild helps us too, because we can usually pull a person from there when we are short.

I know a lot of people who play WoW a lot, and given that you have a blog about it and want to work on it, I'd guess you are one of those people. You probably don't want a "casual" guild, but a raiding guild with a flexible schedule.

Best of luck, and hopefully you don't have to pay all that cash to transfer!

Though we could kind of use a priest...

Doug said...

I hope you find a good guild.

But.. the spiral starts here. I thought you've been here before.

Let me look into the crystal ball...

You'll be too undergeared for a top guild, so you won't get to go. Plus the drama of they only want to take their frineds. Or you won't quite mesh with the raid times.

The apathy and underperformance of the middle guilds won't get to Uldar. Or they wipe too much.

The casual guilds won't make it.

Can't pug it.

You'll solo PvP for a while see the huge balance problems and quit that.

Try to start your own super guild like Hudson did then bail out on them and WoW three motnhs later.

Then we will see a rage WoW quit from Ixo.

I'm sorry. :)

oshin said...

Pugs are hell, while most people will list the noobz as the biggest problem, i find its actually the opposite, I find the people who bail the second the pug doesnt meet there high standards the most annoying.

If you go to an instance with some guildys you might wipe once or twice, simply because shit happens, even if you geared nicely. In a guild you make some joke about the guys mom and move on. In a pug its more or less two strikes and your out.

Its not a new development though really, I remember back a couple of months after release you would get ditched so bad if you wiped even once, usualy by the guy a level or two higher than everybody else because he thinks hes above that kinda shit.

Oh well.

Kyir said...

Once you get past Flame Lev. Ulduar's a big pile of bleh anyway.

I got double fireballed three times in the SAME Razorscale attempt, RNG fight my ass.

Anonymous said...

Flame Lev is ez cheese, only boss that is downable without any planning or collaboration.

Anonymous said...

It's more fun than XT, Razorscale and Ingis combined though.

Anonymous said...

I blame the too easy content so far. I too joined a VoA pug on my shaman and we also killed Archavon first and then our MT just started rushing the trash to Emalon, like it was still Naxx. because half the raid wasn't quite there yet and because that trash hits like a truck and then blows up if you don't kill it fast enough - we wiped. and then we wiped again, on a second trash mob FOR THE EXACT SAME REASON.

people have gotten too used to being sloppy. people have been playing a game that was far too forgiving for the last couple of months and now that content requires a bit more organization - they bail.

its not elitists that bail on pugs - its the people who are too used to faceroling and being carried and any little wipe makes them run away, because they are too lazy to keep trying.

/deep breath

aaanyways - I haven't been to Ulduar either yet. I have a group of friends that might be able to make it in 10 man version, but so far - we've been running Naxx 10 when our schedules actually mesh. I've applied to a good raiding guild on my 2 mains, but the patch put everything topsy turvy and my application is now in limbo. So just like you, i log in, do some dailies, list a few things on AH, maybe hop into a heroic run, or otherwise just jump from alt to alt and then log out.

I hope that things work out better for you.

Im afraid that I might be going down Doug's spiral myself pretty soon if this limbo remains as is.

/cry

Anonymous said...

My guild decided to do Naxx 25 instead of Ulduar.

I am sad.

Silkworm said...

Good luck Ixo. Its hard to find a decent guild. Try speaking with the guild people before making an application.At least you can understand if they are several years older than your son or not. A guild with a like minded 30+ aged GM is the best you can get.

Pierre said...

Your post describes almost exactly what I felt about Wow right before I quit. The guild apathy, the non responsive guildies, loathing of the tard puggers, even down to the thoughts of transferring my chars, and how greener the grass would be when i did.

i think when wow started getting more accessible (read easier, less challenging) it also started sapping the fun out of it.