Welcome to the BioWare Social Network!
15 frustrating minutes later …
Welcome Back to the Warhammer Alliance Curse Network.
Oh, how I have missed you. How we ever just up and left you to go play around on the Warhammer Online Forums in the first place is beyond me.
There seems to be a great deal of people all for the upcoming changes that are hitting in 1.3.6. I am greatly excited about it as well, but I have 2 major concerns that don’t seem to be shared. They both are around centered about what is considered being counted in the RvR Lake.
1) The War Against Mailbox Camping
2) The War Against Mindless Zerging
We want to stop both. The two actions that are proposed to be taken in 1.3.6, I don’t think will help.
Currently, to receive zone lock rewards you need to be in the zone for the lock. If not granting massive rewards for helping in the capture of objectives wasn’t enough, Mythic is going to be changing the zone lock requirement to only be granted to those within the Lake or for those that recently died within 5 minutes of being in the Lake as long as you are in the right pairing or associated pairing’s SC at the time of the flip.
So … where does the Lake start? Oh yeah, right when you start counting down to be flagged for RvR.
Where’s that? Oh right, that’s right in the protection of camp guards.
So are you going to stop free renowners? Nope. You are simply moving the mailbox campers 25 feet.
“How’s the mailbox guys?”
“I don’t know, but the guards are safe.”
And then, even if you then extend the Lake zone to not start until way past the camp; any lazy renown whore is just going to go run PVE to a safe area in the RvR lake. As long as you give Renown for a zone lock, whores will be there. The hope is that you can turn an idiot into tactical machine. It’s not going to happen. You aren’t going to force mailbox campers to suddenly go, “I think I’ll go to a BO and intelligently stand guard at attention for 30 minutes and play like a pro.”
To think everyone at a BO is paying attention is also a fallacy. They just are another step above mailbox campers, only because they just know there is a defense tick at zone lock if you are on a BO when it flips. Why anyone even sits at the mailbox is mind-boggling to me. You almost want to tell them how newbish they are being about the newbish renown gaining. Most BO campers are AFK as well as their lesser mailbox camper cousins. You can’t force a drooling idiot to play better. Just because they aren’t standing in front of the mailbox, doesn’t mean they aren’t a useless waste of space somewhere else. Only now, they’ll just be more renown for your enemy, when they come rolling into your BO with a melee/bomb train for that upcoming AAO feature.
After Posting Edit:
I realized that I didn’t really conclude my point after reading some comments.
Basically, my point is, that trying to stop someone from mooching off such a small thing is basically pointless in itself. Not only is the idea to think that mailbox campers aren’t just going to come up with another convienent way to get a free 4K in renown pointless, but the fact that it bothers anyone is rather pointless as well. It’s not a pool of renown, they aren’t stealing anything from you. If you think that they’ll come out to the lake and help after this patch, then you are wrong. These people are either eating, taking a massive shit, taking a break while afk, or simply standing there while in and out of SCs. If you deny them any reward for standing there, they just won’t be in the zone. They aren’t now going to come to help you in the lake, they are taking a shit. You didn’t lose the flip because 20 people were standing by the mailbox. You lost the flip to being outnumbered, outgunned, outcoordinated, outattentioned, or outorganized. No matter the incentive, the disincentive or pentalty, those mailbox campers can’t be forced to help you flip.
Making it so that they have to come a couple feet into the lake to get the tick really solves nothing. If anything it hurts you, because it gives more renown to possible AAO attacks. That’s my point, that one: it solves nothing, two: it shouldn’t bother you. 4K for standing still for an hour is basically a toss in the bucket. If 4K in an hour is considered a big renown intake rate to you, then I suggest finding a good mentor, you are doing it wrong.
In EA attempts to cut spending to make more money, EA BioWare Mythic will be merging the Warhammer Online Forum Community to the BioWare Social Network. News article here.
I’m not quite sure how that’s integration. When they archive the forums and tell you to go setup a new account else where, that’s not really integration as much as it is, ‘get the fuck out.’ If I kick you out of your house and tell you “don’t worry, the furniture stays here,” that’s not really integration. That’s more like … relocating. I would just like to point out the poor choice of words. But I guess we are trying to avoid saying the word, closing. Otherwise, I think the announcement should say the following:
Dear trolls,
We fail to see a reason to keep paying for a server and moderators to keep up a playground for morons to use “@” post every other second. To save money, you will have to flaunt your e-peen over at BioWare. Who most likely still have the developement overheads and possess the real moderation required to ban your fucking ridiculousness, and possibly have a chance at creating a community of players and not a $4,000 a month expense for 12 retards to stroke their electronic penises. Which are probably still as equally small and short despite the fact that they are imaginary.
Thanks for fishes,
Mythic
I’m joking to a degree. I think the forums are hilarious. But that doesn’t negate the fact that they aren’t really a community, rather than a collection of useless E-peen strokings. Let’s see how BioWare handles the Screamers.
@BioWare
I saw your latest video trailer. Cool story bro.
We all know you are a bunch of cheaters. There is no way you could put together a cinematic trailer like that on your own. We all know you use AutoCinematicBot Macro.
How about you come 1 on 1 in the playground later? I’ll show you whats up.
<Insert random link to a youtube of some fat chick raging>
That’s you, FYI.
I’m almost looking foward to being apart of a forum that might be worth wild again. We will see though, don’t let me down BioWare,
I’m not even going to try to hold back my excitement for 1.3.6. I finally am excited for a patch. I don’t how long you have been reading my blog, but in the past I have been more than … obnoxious in my enthusiasm for patches. Quite often I think in the past, many solutions were hair brained schemes that overlooked a larger symptom of issues and were only inset to appease the high RR in the game. I mean when you eliminate the forts to have constant city sieges and then later basically are just handing sovereign gear to any idiot that could walk to the gates, I’m not sure you really intended anything else. But that’s for past reading to hear my rants about the general fact that the developers are paying too much attention to those that only make up 1% of the population. My concern has always been, you are appeasing a select few, by handing them gear and goodies in hopes they stay subbed. The problem is, those people are only going to unsub a month later. You are neglecting the newer players. And for that, I love 1.3.6 so far.
Here’s the rough notes. The server should be up so you can go play with it.
Quick synopsis includes:
Against All Odds
Renown gaining bonus for objective captures and player kills up to 400% depending on how outnumbered you are.
I’m for and against this. I like that there is a reward for going against the numbers, but I disagreed that this was checked by realm population. Here’s the scenario, you are trying to Dominate Lock Thunder Mountain. You have 4 WBs, one on each BO. An oppossing Bomb WB suicides to the lava and ports to the Order PvE camp, goes to the East BO and wipes it. They get 400% renown for the kills and the BO capture because, by realm count, they were outnumbered 4X over. So, which ones worth more? Wasting time trying to frustratingly dom lock a zone for over a half hour and more, or simply pull together some buddies and ruin the other realm’s dom lock? The answer is, the second. As long as the AAO is checked against realm population and not immediate area (collision) detection, I’m Against the Against All Odds. If this is implemented, you can say goodbye dom lock. Mythic just tossed a giant bone to the experience high RR guilds and are begging for the newer players just reaching T4 to rage log.
Collision, not Realm, Mythic!
PVE is no longer in the Victory Point Meter
Finally!
Quit messing with Quiter!
“Players with the “Quitter!” debuff will no longer suffer a penalty to Experience and Renown. Players with the “Quitter!” debuff will now be unable to queue for a Scenario until it has faded.”
I hope you plan on fixing the issue where you get the quiter debuff when the client crashes to desktop. Because my premade might have a problem waiting 15 minutes because of your client!
Remove this. This is stupid Mythic, and I hope as soon as I said premade you realized why. I’m willing to take the no Experience or Renown penalty, because I at least won’t hold up my group.
City Needs some Quick Love (Not in notes, I just was expecting it to be)
There is definite problems with Stage II that I thought from the forums was blatantly obvious. The Lords keep getting stuck. On invasion of Atldorf, if Order wins the first stage and holds the center, then the Destro Lord Chosen will bug out in the center and never move. (After Post Edit: This is in the notes as a fix, not sure if I just missed it)
In Stage II of IC, I’ve seen it for both Order and Destro, your own Lords can collide and bug out and not move. (This isn’t though)
Please fix it.
Hello T3
No more going to LOTD before 32. Hello T3, it’s nice to see you again.
Less Gold Spam?
You can no longer mail things without attachments. Woot, free crap presents with my gold spam, 1 bronze will be my guess.
ARMOR!
The customization is finally coming. We can now make our favorite stats look like something we want.
I wonder what happened to the new art though. Many classes were go to get art updates to belts, gloves and chest pieces in many areas that currently exist.
Not that many classes were getting that much new art in your orginal proposal last year, but the DOK is a perfect example of one that really needed some variety. Please tell me you are putting this art somewhere for us to go get it?
I mean being able to change the armor style is nice and all, but take a look at the DOK in Sentinel to Invader. What are you expecting me to change my armor to?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the ability to change my look. But you right now you have an Icecream Shop with 2 flavors. Don’t tell me I can have whatever I like when the ice cream bin behind you with the Mint Chocolate Chip, Black Cherry and Cookie Dough that is not for sale. The option to either have Vanilla or Chocolate on my cone does not mean you have choices.
Gimme that art. We wants it. Some people in the developement department did some fine work. Let it be seen.
One Last Big One
Bye bye Autofocus. You should have never existed in the first place. Why Mythic would allow /assist in the first place is amazing. They thought /stick was easy mode and had no place here, yet /assist existed? Never made sense. But it is finally rectified. Finally.
Now …. NerfedButtons? 1.5.2 or 1.7.3? :D
Edit (24 August 2010): On the note of the additional art, it came out in a the blogger interviews on Gamesday that the 2009 suggested armor sets did not actually contain any new art what so ever. What look like totally brand new peices exist somewhere in the game, or existed at one point.
Working on an article to try and find them.
It’s already been a mudda f’ing year y’all. Today, my blog gets to celebrate a whole year blogging. I love reading all my old articles. Makes you see how you have grown, it also shows you what you forget. This comes at perfect timing too. Last night I kept receiving tells,
“Gratz Dude.”
“Nice”
“Congrats Man”
“I want to have internet sex with your face” (There is a lot more girls playing on Gorfang, FYI)
“Way to go”
“Awesomeness”
Well, after about 15 congrats in /alliance and 50 other /tells, I was asked to come to IC. I was brought to the south wear the merchants are, and I was /emote pointed to something really special.
I don’t know if I ever made it to getting that much renown on Nicholaes, so as far as I know, this is a first. There was no emote in the library I could do that would express how decent I felt. To be a newb to the server and gain enough renown to have a statue is a great honor. There are lots of other big personalities on this server, I would never have imagined I could beat out the top 10 renown gainers.
It was a great gift to see just the night before my blogs anniversary.
So how unsuccessful is this blog? Very, here are some blog stats:
Total views: 9,375
Busiest day: 195 — Friday, May 28, 2010
Views today: 64
Posts: 103
Comments: 270
My top 5 posts:
And my Top Five Referrers:
| Referrer | Views |
|---|---|
| bootaesbloodyblog.blogspot.com/ | 490 |
| weritsblog.com/ | 192 |
| wargorfang.blogspot.com/ | 120 |
| iheartgorfang.blogspot.com/ | 114 |
| oneshard.blogspot.com/ | 102 |
High five guys. Thanks for the support. You are a very influential man, Bootae.
Surprisingly to me, the 3 I would have guessed would be my top referrers, were not even in the top 10. But to me, they were some of my first commenters and linkers that helped me get more readers and definitely entertained me in the blogosphere we have here in WAR. Here is a big shout out to Andrew of ShadowWar and of course Gaarawarr.
My top 5 search engine incoming tags:
| Search | Views |
|---|---|
| mr meh | 612 |
| epic fail | 412 |
| pinkfortink | 240 |
| mr. meh | 210 |
| warrior priest end game guide | 124 |
I do not at all enjoy that Epic Fail is my 2nd highest incoming search term. I do however enjoy reading some of the ones that actually had multiple searches for these tags, and somehow got my blog. Here are some that made me giggle:
| Search | Views |
|---|---|
| santa fail | 46 |
| ridiculous shit | 27 |
| would you like a side of epic with that | 12 |
| mr meh rezzed me through a keep door | 7 |
I would like to see these number quadruple in the next year. Not ‘Epic Fail’ though. ‘Ridiculous Shit,’ yes; ‘Epic Fail,’ no. Thanks again to all m readers and commenters,
The Disciple of Khaine is a very versatile class. In many class cases, being able to use the full aspect to anyone of your mastery trees is simply not possible. Either that tree was nerfed, it’s broken, not popular for PvP, or just weak. You can take the mirror to the DoK as an example, the Warrior Priest. By far a very formidable foe and friend. It’s a class that is built to heal a group like it was 2 healers in one and is tough enough to tank about most foes, even in numbers. Give him/her a great weapon however, and they become free renown speed bump to a destruction rapefest.
In the past, I’ve built 3 level 40 WPs. One to renown rank 72, one to 45 and another that never surpassed 20. I’ve done quite a bit of studying and experimentation with them. In the end, the WP has all of one great use, mass group heals. With some really high level gear and some pocket items, maybe more. But as for being able to follow another path other than Salvation (full cast heal spec) on a Warrior Priest before the RR70, is a likely way to be greatly appreciated renown to Destruction. In my frustration of not being able to have my Grace (melee heal and effect spec) I went and took some time to try to see if I could with the DoK.
The DoK alone is born with more strength and abilities to kill. As you rank up, knowing your Warrior Priest’s paths backwards by heart, you would notice the great differences. You have blessings that damage an opponent while healing your ally. You have tactics that bless you with amazing striking capability, but yet lack all the defensive tactics granted to the WP. The result is, the Disciple actually has the capability of specializing in anyone of the 3 paths, and probably excel in anyone of them. Ultimately, because of gear and groupings, the Disciple generally only has so many choices before RR80. However they tend to lean to certain focuses depending on the user and really the renown rank of course.
Before the DoK can develope into a mature center point, once achieving Tyrant or Warlord gear, the Disciple can feel almost as though it’s a teenager trying to figure out it’s role. Leaving T3, most characters are probably full Devastator. Unfortunately, this armor set gives most players the wrong idea in what they should play as. Up until T4, the melee DPSing fiend known in T3, the DoK was a nightmare for any opponent. A nice boost in strength with a 5% critical bonus, might have put a level 27 Slayer in his place, however even a rank 40 Runepriest can make short work out of a sub40 melee DoK. Despite what the armor may tell you, if the number at your name is under 40, you probably shouldn’t be holding 2 swords. The likelihood that you will get lucky and find other enemies under 40 alone, are slim to none. I personally tried it, just to see. The critics are correct, this setup in T4 is most definitely the notorious FailDoK.
Fortunately, the next armor set, Annihilator is a great example of a useful setup for a premature DoK, the HealDoK. By RR32 and even with unlucky rolls, any DoK can go buy the boots and gloves, get a nice Willpower buff, respec their renown, talismans and mastery into Willpower and Dark Rites. This will however still be a slight struggle, as this DoK is unable to make good use of any tactics. The shield proc tactic requires a heal crit, which most likely a sub40 DoK does not have. And a very useful …. tactic helps regenerate Soul Essence with incoming strikes but you have to atleast 37. Unfortunately, the premature time between RR31 and Rank 40 is a very difficult and unspecialized time for the DoK. Keep watering (grinding in LoTD) it will be short time in comparison to 80.
The HealDoK is what the masses want. You will be liked. You will be bored, but you will be liked. Spamming your group heal will definitely help and grant results. This path does get more useful, and with equipment and RR, the HealDoK is most likely to find the good premades for SCs. The struggle will be gear. For some reason the next two stepping stones for gear were imbalanced by Mythic. Conqueror is a DPS set, and then Invader is an even better DPS set. It’s Sentinel and Darkpromise that are the heal sets; both of which are only in Dungeons. In all actuality, Mythic should have made the Darkpromise the Invader, so that it was Devastator (DPS) > Annihilator (Heal) > Conqueror (DPS) > Invader (Heal [currently DPS]). And the same should have occurred for the PvE sets. It didn’t though. Thank you, afterthought brilliance. So the time from RR35 to RR 68, if you refuse to do PvE, you will be seriously hurting your improvement as a HealDoK. You will basically remain mediocre, until you finally can squeeze into Warlord, months and months from now. Don’t be too sad, the Warrior Priest has the same gear issue; I was lucky on both of my Priest, I was full Dark Promise within 5 runs (2 to 3 weeks). The point being is, if you see spam in IC, looking for a healer for BB or LV, take it. A shot at even getting 4 pieces (Willpower and Crit bonus at 4) is one you want to take. Warlord is a very far distance away, take what you can get.
Every so often you will run into a DPSDoK. He/she kills things and fast. They are also wearing full Invader/Sovereign/Tyrant. And have lots of nice talismans and then lots of renown points too. Some are able to run solo on the lakes like a Witch Hunter/Elf, and then some are just supported well by their groups. However, unless in a strong team that knows them, the DPSDoK quickly turns into a FailDoK again if in PuGs against intelligent enemies. Healers just naturally don’t heal other healers for some reason. And then same will be applied to you if you run to far out, despite your gear.
There is also the LOLDoK. The LOLDoK, can take many forms, but mostly is an arrangement of both trying to be melee and cast heals at the same time. Maybe it was the bonuses on the Conqueror set, maybe it is that it succeeded once, or maybe it was the paint chips, but every so often you will inspect a DoK that has two blades, a mixture of gear with both Strength and Willpower slotted. You can watch them run up to the enemy casting HoTs, smack a tank a couple of times, and then spam two sets of group heals, then smack the tank again. Most might think this is the FailDoK, but it is actually the LOLDoK. They will live a little bit longer, and provide about 7 seconds of laughter to any other DoK that witnesses it. Hence the LOLDoK.
In my current struggle, I have full Invader and am currently trying to pound out the Darkpromise to tide me over to Warlord. Even having Superior Wards, I still take every opportunity to run Blood and Bile for Sentinel. Finishing either PvE set can be fast if extremely lucky, but I have heard of nightmares of players never seeing a single piece in over 2 dozen runs. By then, you will be in Warlord, you might as well take a chance at having half Sentinel/Darkpromise if anything. And that is my goal. Until that time, since Renown rank 43, I have developed a new DoK formula I like to call the MehDoK. It is basically a complete combination of a DPS, Heal, LoL and Fail DoK all in one.
Basically, what I found is that you live 3 lives in your pre-RR70 T4 mold. You need renown, and lots of it. So you are mostly doing Open RvR. As frustrating as it can be, Open RvR still provides the most renown when you can zone lock and be there for all the objective takes. The second part to your life is Dungeons. You want and need that heal gear to better advance those sets. The third is SCs. It probably won’t rule your life, but SC weapons are still nice. The Meh spec will let you do all 3, respectively.
If you specialize, you can’t really find a life doing whatever you want. If you go full heals, you can’t go run out in the lakes alone and score giant Renown on solo kills. If you go full DPS up the Torture tree, you can go solo, but your life in finding dungeon runs or premades will be most difficult.
You can start your MehDoK by the time you are RR45 and able to now fit in your Conqueror set. There are 4 things that you need to have to have a MehDoK:
Renown in Weapon Skill and Melee Crit
Mastery in (13 Points) Sacrifice with (10 to 13 Points) Dark Rites
Full Conqueror/Invader along with 3 Annihilator, Sentinel, or DarkPromise, Purple Chalice
Proper Tactics ready to go
The first setup you have for the MehDoK is the DPS Melee Heal Setup, you’re best specialization. This requires your full Conqueror or Invader setup, with 2 swords , and DPS cloak with DPS jewelry.
In my personal case, its full Invader, all in Weapon Skill/some Strength Talismans except for the boots that have Odjira and the gloves that have Kamenra. I use the LoTD Melee Cloak with matching ring. Then I also have 2 Onslaught Rings for an extra 4% crit. And to top it, I’ve been fortunate with picking up 2 Warlord Purple Bag Sword, not only providing an extra 100 strength and 60 WS, but then another 4% crit. I’ll admit, this was a really fortunate setup I have. Warlord purple weapons, friends that run ToVL that they just give me talis, I’m a privileged dude. Though you may not be able to get all the same, you should at least get what you can. The middle wing in BS will give you an amazing sword, it has 4% crit. Go grind it with some friends. And LOTD WC grinding will provide you decent jewelry along with making decent Talismans to replace Odjira and Kamenra. Make sure your renown is in WS, and then the melee crit. And also make sure you don’t forget to pick up some renown tactics as well. I particularly like SC and Skirmish myself with this setup.
Basically, the places where you will enjoy this setup is mostly in Open RvR. But specifically when on the Offensive. Keep takes, Objectives, and yes, Dungeons and even SCs (with good teams, rare though). I find the two biggest issues with any DPS DoK is: One, getting to your opponent on time since ranged are pounding you like a boxing bag with snares; or Two, the simple fact you just run out of AP if you are pounding on something recieving heals. The Invader set really helps with the AP issue, and the Kanemra is a great boost to just being able to be a Consume Essence spammer. If you can successfully reach your target (Odjira in your boots should fix that) and remembering that you can cleanse snares, you probably can heal through about what ever you want with Soul Rend and Consume Essense, not to mention any WE, Choppas or Tanks that led you in. Hopefully you didn’t run in first, and were at least smart enough to travel behind a more threatening foe.
The key to this setup is only 2 purchases of the Sacrifice tree: Pillage Essense (Ability – Hits hard, Steals 50 AP and gives you 50 SE) and Empowered Transfer (Tactic – Boost Consume Essence to 150% heal).
Empowered Transfer is what keeps you a healing beast and also allows you to basically go into a killing frenzy, yet will still heal those around you. Works wonderfully if trying to break Bomb BWs, saying that you can get the other melee and tanks to follow you. The BWs might be hitting you for 2K a second, but you’ll be healing you and everyone for just that much. The issue is they need to be near you.
The reason you want Pillage Essense is because with boosting your attacks, you won’t really have the life tap heals to save you in ‘oh shit’ moments. You’ll be relying on Soul Rend. Which under the Melee setup, can easily take you to full health instantly, or anyone else you defensively target. Your enemy in doing this all the time, is in keeping enough Soul Essence to do just that. This ability is not only your hardest hitting ability, but will help keep that SE capped, ready for the needed Soul Rend. When you die, it’s usually because you couldn’t Soul Rend, believe it or not, defensive barriers are likely to kill you. You can’t heal, if you can’t hit.
There are three tactic setups I like to have ready in when in Melee Heal. The first is the most used, it works for Keep takes, easy SCs and just rolling over open skirmishes.
Divine Fury (boost hits by 25%, but reduces direct heals by 20%)
Murderous Intent (boost all crits by 10% [melee, heal, ranged, magic] and parry by 10%, with a 20% penalty on direct heals)
Empowered Transfer (boost Consume Essence to 150%)
Transferred Focus (boost 20% better incoming heals to your defensive target every time you crit an enemy)
Keep in mind, it’s direct heals, not melee heals, that are getting reduced. Yes, your spam group heal is failing by 40% less, but melee heals are valued on your hit and now are getting heavily bolstered. They just mirror the value of your strike.
Now, why the Transfered Focus? With as much crit as you are now boasting (should be well over 20% if not 30% by now) you are proc’ing it every couple of seconds. If your Soul Rend wasn’t enough, a 20% bolster to all your self healing, even from melee heals will be to be self substaining against a bombardment, which will most likely happen if you start pounding on a Rune Priest.
Think about Consume Essense. It strikes for near 400 when you travel up that mastery tree. Most defenses will cancel out your strength and WS procs. But with Divine Fury, its now 500. You get a crit 1/4th of the time with Murderous Intent, its more like an average of 600 a hit. With Empowered Transfer, that is also a clean 900 heal to you and anyone near you. If you have the Transfered Focus proc on you (which you most certainly do), that 900 is now 1,080 to you or your defensive target. Keep in mind your group heal is a 2 second cast and with your willpower and mastery maxed, it hits for 1600. That’s only 800 a second and is considered Over Powered and can be at best spammed 4 times before you run out of SE. Don’t get me wrong, with Focused Mind, you can basically take an almost dead group to full health in 1.5 seconds. But that relies on a moral. The Melee Heal, simply relies on being awesome, no morals needed.
So take for example you are running solo, or have friendlies around you, but aren’t that reliable; you alone can not only be striking for well over 1K DPS, but your HPS could well heal over 2K on yourself. Put yourself at the door of keep in the oil, and you are doing well over 20K a second (repeat that to yourself 20K), as you are healing every melee and tank twat in there with you. Think about a defended keep; whats the hardest thing? Keeping people on the door with oil and BWs pounding the ram and everything near it.
By the way, melee heals can’t be Debuffed for Outgoing heals, they are still effected by Incoming though as an FYI.
For Dungeons, I like to have the tactics setup in which I just replace Murderous Intent with Subtelty. You don’t need parry anymore, and you have more than enough crit to proc what you need. Most to all Dungeons are centered around damage on the tank. Short of instances that have a Boss with group channels, your melee heals with Transfered Focus will basically keep the tank more than well covered. You’re dilemma will be in not pulling aggro. Make sure you don’t spam Consume Essense. Overheals seem to pull aggro, you want to avoid using heal melee when heals aren’t needed. Keep in mind also that your direct heals are only reduced by 20% now. Sometimes you just need to throw the Sorc some love, and now those heals will be somewhat worth it.
There are times when you don’t really need to heal that much, or at all. Maybe you are powerleveling some friends, grinding some mats, or just know there won’t be opposition in the lakes. At that point, you can go all out DPS, which is just a matter of 2 tactics. Switch out Transfered Focus and Empowered Transfer with Khaine’s Imbuement (Procs Spirit DoT 25% of hits for 9 seconds) and Potent Covenants (Boost the proc of your Covenants from 20% to 35%). You’ll basically add another 200 DPS to the mix with these two. All in Spirit Damage, sweet. Again, rarely used. How often do expect not to have opposition or have that many healers? I end up finding so many cases where there for some reason is just a complete lack of dps, this being ready has come in real handy. Also great for the horrible empty instances in the city. This can hurry that process.
You can’t have 2 swords all the time. Eventually you going to be one of 2 or 3 healers in an SC, and your melee heals are going to get everyone killed. As well, in Keep and City Defenses, melee heals are just hard to keep up, you’ll do better just being a normal healer. And then again, not too many premades are looking for melee heals, a chalice will get you in to the good. To counter this, I keep atleast 10 points in the Dark Rites path. Personally, I keep 12 points there. No abilities purchased; mainly because, the only ability you need is the Group Heal.
Basically, you’ll also need an entire Heal set of equipment in your bag, for quick adjustments. This can be a combination of Annihilator, Sentinel, and Dark Promise. But then you’ll aslo want the Heal Cloak and Jewelry from LOTD. And then of course atleast a Purple Chalice. The LOTD is the easiest one to find, plus it has 2 talisaman slots, can use LOTD talis and has a great 30 Willpower already in it’s base stats. I personally, also keep the Conqueror Insignia sword that grants 2% heal crit with some other healing abilities. The equipment should be slotted with a heavy focus on willpower and toughness/armor/wounds (depending on if you like PvP or PvE more). I personally keep 2 healing sets, an Annihilator/Sentinel setup with all Willpower slots for Dungeon running. And then another Annihilator/Conqueror setup with Willpower/HealCrit/Toughness talismans.
I keep two tactic setups ready to go for this. For PvP, I use the following:
Discipline (Boost in your Willpower – No brainer)
Fueled Actions (Generates SE when you get hit 25%)
Terrifying Aura (AoE spreads your detaunt)
Dark Blessings (Increases Incoming Heals by 10%)
With only 2 or 3 points not purchased under Dark Rights, and with only missing but just a couple of points in Willpower and Heal Crit missing from the renown trees, not too many will be able to tell you aren’t a full heal spec (You are only missing 2 or 3 points from Dark Rights, and some Renown Points). However you benefit greatly from the additional WS, you’ll find you parry quite a bit more than expected. Spam your Terrifying Detaunt every 15 seconds on possible attackers, and you’ll find that you can heal through just about anything. The key is to detaunt them, before they even hit you. I slot Dark Blessings, just because I like to play in close to the chest. I want Fueled Action procs on my SE pool. So basically run about just slightly behind Tanks, cycling HoTs, Group Heals, and Detaunts hoping to at least take on some fire.
The Fifth and final tactic setup you’ll want ready is for Dungeons. There are bosses and instance where you’ll need to be a backline healer. Not often, but they exist. ToVL is a good example of needing to be able to switch back and forth. For this I have these Tactics:
Discipline (Boost in your Willpower – No brainer)
Subtelty (25% less Hate)
Transferred Focus (boost 20% better incoming heals to your defensive target every time you crit an enemy)
Khaine’s Imbuement (25% chance to DoT for Spirit Damage)
Sometimes you need to stand back, and then other times you just need more group heals, but still need to hit. Hitting NPCs still generates SE, so you might as well make those hits worth it in between spamming group heals. Some may ask, if you unslotted your Melee Crit Armor, why have Transferred Focus back in the slots? Because you still have 6% from your Renown purchases. That’s a great deal, you’ll still spark the 20% heal bonus on the tank, and that’s always a big plus.
This is my Meh DoK in a nut shell. It has served me well so far. It’s versatile, it’s effective and most importantly it’s got the Meh seal of approval. Will this be my setup always? No, infact, while writing this article over the past week or so, I have respec’d 4 times, trying out full Dark Rites, full Sacrifice, Full Torture and another combination of Sacrifice and Torture. In the end, to be able to do any one the 3 (RvR, SCs, Dungeon) without respec’ing each time, I keep ending back at my Meh setup for convenience. Though that heal debuff tactic in Torture keeps me for minutes staring at the mastery trees thinking up new ideas.
I guess my definitions on Casual and Extreme are a bit different then most others perceive. I assumed I was Casual. My definition of Casual was, you play quite often, but if there is a cookout with beer on a Saturday, bump your instance run, I might see boobies instead. Boobies! But the point is, is for the last 6 years of my MMOing, I’ve always thought I was casual and advertised as which. I apparently am greatly mistaken about what I am.
When I came to Gorfang and trounced about in T2 and T3 for a while. Playing on both my DoK and BG at the same time. I made the realization that jumping into a decent guild right away, only being able to boast the fact that I had a 70+ WP on Badlands wasn’t going to help find a great home. So I joined a noob guild that had a seemingly active leader and officer base. I would hope that in that time, that I could scope out guilds and make my way into one, once I achieved a decent rank and gear. Or better yet, the noob guild could find a good home into an alliance and open up better opportunities for me and everyone.
As I gained ranks with my DoK, I would constantly come help guildies. I was happy to rank them up in LoTD, just as long as the scavenge was mine. I would give them talismans and help them out with advice in return. As time went on, fewer and fewer officers would log on and then eventually I was the oldest member on with about a dozen super newbs at any one time. And then became the focal point from the lower echelon to cling to. So when I was recruited by another guild and I subsequently left abruptly, I received a giant load of tells. Many of them set me as a friend and still try to get me to help them. It’s amazing that even after almost a month, not one of them has a 40. Not one has found a new guild, despite the guild leader still hasn’t logged on. I would have hoped that one out of the dozen would have broken the mold and been worthy to introduce to a higher quality of play.
One of the more clingy members messages me quite a bit. He was a nice guy, just overwelmly incompotent, or very good at using people. In one case he had me come power level him in LOTD, only to find that he was in a group with a level 20. As we were leveling, I found out that the level 20 was paying 5 gold per level to him. I didn’t blow my lid. Even though I should have for assisting a Chinese PLer. No wonder the guy never chatted. The fucker didn’t even give me a cut. In the past couple of weeks as I routinely check Realm War to examine their progression, I noticed that his level is basically going no where. But he still messages me consistently. How does one play for 20 hours a week but gain no rank?
Yesterday was the ending of such messages. He messaged me while I was in the middle of Scenarios. He wanted something to do. Doing a quick /who I saw that he was still 36 for some reason and in that dead guild, I told him to get to levelling, “you can’t do squat till your 40.” So he wanted me to help to do so.
“Sorry man, I’m in a decent premade.”
“Well, is there room?”
“Ah no, we are full. Sorry :(“
“You want to help me when you are done?”
“Not today, I have a BB run after this.”
“Can I come?”
“You got to be 40 and have your Lesser Wards dude, that’s why I’m telling you to get on it, so you can do this stuff :D”
“Whatever. You’re an Elitist.”
I about lost it. As I’m sure any of you reading this, are losing it, even though this didn’t happen to you.
“Fuck you
The fact that I like to do group things and schedule them ahead so that I am not bored is what keeps me happy in this game, and just a normal player.
It’s not Elitism, it’s just being apart of an MMO.”
I would have assumed after such a rant I would have received an apology. Instead …
“No, it’s exactly being elitist.
You run in closed WBs
and have better everything than us
and then don’t help us.
This game is full of it.
You guys just want us to die to lock zones while you gain all the wealth.
That’s why you are so far ahead.”
“I have no idea how to explain to you how stupid that is. I’ve given you all the advice I can.
All I can tell you is, find another guild. One that is large with a high RR base and an alliance
And get to 40”
“Well, can I join your guild?”
“Honestly, I’m not confident in you enough to recommend that. There is a lot of trust in this guild and a lot of large ranks.
You haven’t moved but 1 rank in almost 3 weeks. You haven’t proven you’re value add.
You want my recommendation to this guild and alliance, I want your commitment to your toon and game. Be in full Conqueror in 2 weeks. Then message me.“
“See, you are an elitist.”
“So be it, dude. I’ve helped you all I can.
I have no time to help those that won’t even help themselves.”
“You only proved my point. You want me to leave this guild, but won’t offer me an invite. That’s bullshit.
(And then a lot of blah blah blah for like 10 lines)”
“I take it all back
I will put you on ignore.”
I earned the title “The Snob”, apparently he was my 10th, maybe I am an Elistist. Got something out of that 15 minute waste of time.
If that wasn’t enough, last night the realm of Destro got a giant gimme. Basically, we locked down Reikland and all went to Eataine. Through the recommendation of a guildie, I joined on a WB with an alliance I’m not fond of. Their a little too into themselves without the results. And such again proved it to me. Complete lack of coordination ended up leaving only a group of us on the center BO. Well, what are the chances a bomb group doesn’t come wipe this? Actually what we the chances that a triple bomb group would show up?
They did. And all of the realm left their BOs to come die one by one to them. Frustrated I left, as most other destro did too. The realm was lost, and the overwelming reality of Against All Odds was showing. Those 3 groups of Order would have been getting 4X the renown for that, as 4 Destro WBs were in the Lakes. So I left and tried to start our BB run early.
While trying to form that, Eataine’s VPs started climbing through the roof. And even better setup. We might not be able to hold 4 BOs for 30 minutes, but we sure as shit can rollover each BO together. City here we come. Unfortunately, while we taking the 2nd BO, order took another. Meaning, there was going to be a slight wait for that BO to open, with a needed defense at the first BO we took. Try to get the zerg off the first BO tick of the last BO to capture. Just try it.
Worse off, it allowed for massive chat to occur. There were a famous 3 in /t4 ranting about actions in Eataine. Now, I’m a big fan of /t4. Announcing need for help in a realm, broadcasting the next big target, looking for more for instance runs, or for WB leaders to announce who to join on. I don’t mind seeing lots of /t4 chat, just as long as its useful to someone.
“Join on me for TM”
“Need Off Tank for 5-6 TOVL”
“ST heals for Premade”
Instead of just one WB leader in Eataine saying,
“Come to Eataine, we can lock this, need all destro here.”
He and 5 others decided to use the /t4 to chat for this:
“Hey, this guy is awesome, lets go to the city.”
“OMG, this is our HOUSE.”
“ALL TO EATAINE.”
“I like waffles.”
“NEED 500 of you on Center and then 200 of you on West.”
“The doctor says I won’t get so many nose bleeds if I just keep my finger out of there.”
I don’t remember all the crap, but it far breached ridiculous. Finally some charisma chimed in. A well-known DoK, that basically just runs SC premades bombed their circle jerk:
“Alright we get it, Eataine, now shut the fuck up.”
I had to immediately thank him in /alliance. It worked, they shut up. But only in /t4, instead, those that didn’t have /t4 chimed in on region. A known FailDoK, that’s just how I know him, put in region,
“Who is <t4 bomber> and what WB is he leading here?”
I then chimed in. “He doesn’t have a WB, he has a premade.”
“He can shut the fuck up for not helping then.”
“You don’t understand, you only have the VPs to do this, because he’s not in the lakes and running SCs. You wouldn’t be going to city if not for it.”
They could not grasp this concept. How do people go into SCs and not recognize names of the people on the top of the SC scores? It doesn’t take long in a day in T4 SCs to figure out who’s the premade kings on each side.
I was then barraged with tells. I’m apparently an Elitist and an Elitist sympathizer too. Double win,
I’ve a fairly decent week in WAR. Not a great deal of advancement, I dinged 57 last night running scenarios.
I’m quickly making a name for myself in my alliance. Either as the loud guy, or that healer that’s up for anything. I’ve been networking with a couple of different groups and trying to weasel my way into premades and other runs. Hopefully it will turn into finding a static group for ToVL and LV. I’m lacking on gear hard. I keep trying to run on LV with PuG, only to always have to stop somewhere down the middle wing, because someone drops. It’s so frustrating to be locked out. I need the gear. RR68 is so far away.
In any case, I’ve been making my way into some decent premades. It seems to the 2 biggest lacking classes on Destro Gorfang is 1) Tanks and 2) Heals. Which is amazing to me. The tank was something I thought we never see a lack of. I mean this isn’t a normal MMO, tanks aren’t tanks. They can hit you quite hard. Hard enough to put many DPS to shame. So the constant lack of the two classes ends up riddling the alliance chat with 3 DPSs getting together and then looking for “Tanks and Heals.” Which in this alliance, I’m glad to join up with total strangers. The bottom echelon of these guilds are the top of most. Even on RR40 alts, they put up a damn good fight.
I’ve been running SCs so much that for the first time since it’s release, I have actually purchased an Insignia Weapon. I still don’t get what determines the insignia breakdown. You can win with 500 points, and only get 1. Then you can have a complete loss with no kills and get 3. I just don’t get it. In any case I bought my first Conqueror Weapon. It looks great, and has propelled me into going full heal setup, since I’m running in so many premades. I had to choose the heal crit sword. For some unknown reason the Conqueror Chalice is +6 SE build, even though the step below is +8. Fail Mythic, Fail. But I’m quickly gaining Invader Insignia, so sweet crit Purple Chalice, here I come.
I had my name noticed in the Alliance, due to my impromptu lead on an Alliance WB in the city. Somewhere in the last zone lock, I got irritated at the retardness that was taking place in the WBs I was jump in and out of. I got in /alliance chat and said WB on me. In all of 1 minute I had a WB. And without asking, all in vent. Since I called it, I didn’t want to pass the crown. I just put it out there that I wanted to go in pretty quickly to better our chances to go against better Order. If you go in quick enough, the lowbies will leave and eventually, the better guys will show up.
Well, we took a bit longer then we should have getting to the gate, but we still found some decent order. They put up a good battle. They couldn’t win, but they gave a good show. And despite getting rolled over, they should be applauded for not just rage quitting. The entire instance took all of 50 minutes. No second run, but you couldn’t have asked to go up against a better PuG. Later in the day, it was now time to defend. And I started once again, an alliance WB. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough people online, and could only boast a 1/2 WB. I foolishly opened to PuG, and weeded what I wanted, locking the WB and grabbing /tells from people. Would have been better just to go in as 2 groups and hope for the best.
We ran in, and went straight to the center. The superior premades on the other end foolishly kept running down the center, making the defense feasible for our one bomb group. But even then all 3 pushes were close calls. We would lose 2 groups each time. It was probably the reason they kept going down center, one more time and we might bust. Most were in vent, but we still had a group of PuGs that wouldn’t join in.
I just kept typing “Do NOT go into that Hall!”
“They’ll lure you down, kill 2 of you, and that’s all it takes to come break us.”
Well, sure enough on the 4th push, they came up, and ran back down the hall. And sure enough, 3 tanks and 4 DPS followed. You just watched the squares turn instant Red. A Facepalm followed, and then the wipe.
“How hard is it NOT to go down the Hall?”
As we tried to make rallies at different points, you would just see the squares of my alliance mates, going black as if they crashed. I waited out the end of the stage, and did the same. The quitter’s debuff could have been for an hour, and still would have been worth it. Learned my lesson, don’t open to PuGs.
Despite the fact that you really couldn’t make an easier crafting system if you tried, I still like it. Everybody with alts or friends or gold can basically make what the need. It’s not complicated, but it still takes the effort to make the nice stuff. There’s not much difference in a 24 versus a 23 Talisman, other than about 100 gold in the AH. But when you inspect someone and they have 24 slotted in every piece, it shows you, who goes the distance. Or maybe it shows you how to scream when you see 24s in Annihilator.
I’ve only really been on my new server for about a month now, but I have a ton of Tali Mats. To the point that I basically just hand on 20, 21 and 22s to friends or just newbs I inspect randomly in camps. Yesterday, I inspected a Sorceress, who seemed like they slightly knew what they were doing. She was wearing full Invader, and everything but the Staff had no talismans slotted at all. She no longer obviously knew what she was doing.
“Un-Fucking-Acceptable! Sit still.”
I handed her 5x Intel 22 Talismans.
“OMG, thanks, do you want some gold?”
“Nope, I just want you to kill stuff.”
See, there is a benefit to not hiding yourself, or going anonymous. You never know when a silly Disciple will just hand you purple talismans. I love crafting, it makes me friends, or at least fake ones.
But to the point of the post: I think it’s time for the 3rd crafting capability to add to the system. I think there is one area with a giant f’ing gap. And that’s the pocket slots. Sure there are fun things you can pick up, but for the most part, I bet most of us are grinding Tombs to get our barriers and bypass pocket items. If you aren’t, you have lots to still learn in this game, young grasshopper. You either having nothing in your pockets, or a barrier that gives you 4K worth of shield or the 15 second undefendable attack. To me, you either need to nerf it, or offer build-ups to it. You might have gotten lucky with PVE and gotten a 4K one, but does that not mean that I can’t just have one for 1K or 2K that I crafted? I think so.
Mr. Meh Suggestion Idea Spectacular:
3rd Main Skill: Amulet Maker
The Amulet Maker Skill allows you to use specific Materials to create pocket items. Like its 2 cousins, the talisman and apothecary, the skill uses a container and a main ingredient/fragment, called a charm. You can help control the strength of the creation by adding better sub-materials to the developement. Based on the main charm, you could create one of the following pocket items. The descriptions below describe the amounts of the bonus based on charm rank with Green, Blue, Purple levels.
For example: Magic Barrier 100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500 would mean the Blue Amulet would give you a magic barrier worth 350.
Spirit Magic Defense Barrier – Barriers have a 10 minute cooldown between uses. Effects last for 5 seconds.
50 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500
150 level: G 500/B 750/P 1,000
200 level: G 1,000/B 1,500/P 2,000
Elemental Magic Defense Barrier – Barriers have a 10 minute cooldown between uses. Effects last for 5 seconds.
50 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500
150 level: G 500/B 750/P 1,000
200 level: G 1,000/B 1,500/P 2,000
Corporeal Magic Defense Barrier – Barriers have a 10 minute cooldown between uses. Effects last for 5 seconds.
50 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500
150 level: G 500/B 750/P 1,000
200 level: G 1,000/B 1,500/P 2,000
Ranged Physical Defense Barrier – Barriers have a 10 minute cooldown between uses. Effects last for 5 seconds.
50 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500
150 level: G 500/B 750/P 1,000
200 level: G 1,000/B 1,500/P 2,000
Melee Physical Defense Barrier – Barriers have a 10 minute cooldown between uses. Effects last for 5 seconds.
50 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
100 level: G 200/B 350/P 500
150 level: G 500/B 750/P 1,000
200 level: G 1,000/B 1,500/P 2,000
Spirit Magic Attack Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds dps to each attack in that time. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 10/B 15/P 20
100 level: G 20/B 35/P 50
150 level: G 50/B 75/P 100
200 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
Elemental Attack Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds dps to each attack in that time. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 10/B 15/P 20
100 level: G 20/B 35/P 50
150 level: G 50/B 75/P 100
200 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
Corporeal Attack Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds dps to each attack in that time. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 10/B 15/P 20
100 level: G 20/B 35/P 50
150 level: G 50/B 75/P 100
200 level: G 100/B 150/P 200
Ranged Physical Attack Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds dps to each attack in that time. Only will add to ranged attacks. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 15/B 20/P 30
100 level: G 30/B 45/P 60
150 level: G 60/B 90/P 120
200 level: G 120/B 180/P 240
Melee Physical Attack Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds dps to each attack in that time. Only will add to melee attacks. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 15/B 20/P 30
100 level: G 30/B 45/P 60
150 level: G 60/B 90/P 120
200 level: G 120/B 180/P 240
Healing Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount adds hps to each heal tick from the caster using direct heals in that time. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 15/B 20/P 30
100 level: G 30/B 45/P 60
150 level: G 60/B 90/P 120
200 level: G 120/B 180/P 240
Parry Defense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the increase to the percentage chance to parry. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Block Defense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds and requires shield. The amount is the increase to the percentage chance to block. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Dodge Defense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the increase to the percentage chance to dodge. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Disrupt Defense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the increase to the percentage chance to disrupt. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Bypass Parry Offense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the decrease to the percentage that the defender has to parry. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Bypass Block Offense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the decrease to the percentage that the defender has to block. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Bypass Dodge Offense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the decrease to the percentage that the defender has to dodge. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
Bypass Disrupt Offense Buff – Effects last for 5 seconds. The amount is the decrease to the percentage that the defender has to Disrupt. Cooldowns between uses are 10 minutes.
50 level: G 1/B 2/P 3
100 level: G 3/B 5/P 8
150 level: G 8/B 12/P 16
200 level: G 16/B 21/P 26
The Amulet Maker requires atleast one of the 2 Collector Skills to collect the proper materials. Both are capable of producing Charms for Amulet Making.
The first is the Forager. The Forager searches for their materials through both non-combat means. There will be sections of retrievable plant life added throughout the PvE and PvP areas. This interactable, respawning objects will be different types of plant life. These pockets of fertile plant life tend to attract aggressive beast and enemies a like as well. A Forager will most likely have to kill some NPC defenders to reach the items they need. Forager materials include charm drops. They can be common, uncommon, rare and very rare charms. These charms produce your defensive Amulets (barriers and buffs to defensive abilities).
The other skill is the Smithing. Friendly NPCs will no be setup throughout the PvE worlds. The Smith will not only sell the basic goods but also each offer special quest to gain special items. The items help add to building a specific Amulet material. This skill can best be compared to Cultivating, as it requires a main item, that allows you start the craft, and then add items to enhance the creation item. Charms produced through this skill help the output of Offensive Amulet items.
Obviously, the number values would have to be better determined through testing. That is the bloggers best first guess. And there are probably plenty of details that need more explaining. But I like the it, hopefully some readers like it too,
When I first started my new life with Destro on Gorfang, my first day in T2 I ran into a Zealot with an all too familar name. I don’t know how famous she was with Destro with Phoenix Throne, but all of Order sure knew her. The lone Shammy, just standing there in the lakes, seemingly afk. 1 on 1, you are dead. 2 on 1, she’d still win. 3 on 1, it will take a minute, but she’ll win. Take a group after her, she would show how terrain really works, and picked off what she could and then /wave at you from a safe spot. She wasn’t a renown whore, she just wanted to emote and have fun. If you were a lowbie, she would just pick on you, and then wave and run off, leaving you with 5% health. Everyone on Order PT, knew her. At some point, she taught you and your friends a lesson.
So when I saw this variation of the name, I had to talk to the infamy that was probably the best DPS I had ever seen. We got to talking, and now I’m in her guild, hanging out with my former foe almost every night. She was about the only real DPS shammy you saw on PT. DPS healers I guess easily get shunned. The community believes in specializing in a path that was meant for your class. Healers heal, tank carry boards and ranged shoot from range. You try to break that mold, and you are instant fail.
I like DPS shammies/AM, they can instant rez if nothing else. I like 2 hander DPS tanks, they are easier to heal, and they actually have a chance in killing something. I like my 2 sworded DoK, I’m a healing beast. In my new guild, there is this Squig Herder that is Melee setup. Literally puts on the squig armor and run about. I had the privilege of grouping with him. Beyond actually being hilarious, it was actually quite effective. He was a beast, took damage like a tank, but dps’d like he was a Marauder, not to mention he was basically a walking CC.
Seeing something beyond conformity and making it work for them, that is an amazing thing. It’s another step in throwing a wrench into that perfect grouping formula.
However, just being defiant to be moronic is what stands out. I had the misfortune of running a WB, a PuG one too. No one would take lead, and the one that did failed hard, so screw it. I just set my AutoBand on and had fun chatting it up. Somewhere at our 3rd keep defense, I got a /tell from a freshly joined DoK after I spammed for a healer in region, “Hey just so you know, I’m DPS.”
“That’s wonderful. It’s a good thing those abilities just don’t disappear when you respec. I need a balanced WB, and you are holding my 8th healing spot. You can DPS when we go to an empty instance in the city. Pull out the chalice and slot the willpower tactic, plz.”
“I don’t have one. I’m DPS. That’s what I am telling you.”
“Alright, take it from an experienced WP and slightly experienced DoK. If you want to DPS, that’s cool, but you should still keep a Chalice, if not also a healing set of gear, and tactics ready to be a healer when the realm needs it. Same if you were a dedicated healer, you should still keep DPS sets and gear ready. Loldps is always loldps, but lolhealers are still heals.”
“Well, you don’t pay my account, so I pretty much play how I want.”
“Welp, you don’t pay mine either, so have fun finding another WB :D”
Beyond that great story, I was in an SC, basically being manhandled by 4 BWs and 3 AMs and 2 RPs. It was Nordenwatch, and they intelligently just never left Fort the whole time. They just stayed around the top ledges of the Fort wall, and magically raped whatever try to come in the area. Literally you should see 15 DoTs light over people’s head, and within 4 seconds, a horrible death.
As I am standing on the hill side with my premade trying to figure out what to do, since the PUGs won’t listen and 3 people just died and are waiting for their crest, a DoK run past, I give him some HoTs and got off one heal before his death. 2 Seconds. Being the only one there, the magical gathering lead by Gandolf the face-raper decided DoTs where unnecessary, a couple of fire balls with the AMs channel melted the tard as soon as he crested the hill.
In capslock he screams in /sc: “WHY THE FUCK DIDNT YOU GUYS HEAL ME?
WHY ARE DID YOU NOT GET ON THE FLAG WITH ME YOU IDIOTS?”
“I don’t know even where to start with you, dude. First, check your combat log, you see those 4 heals you got, that was me.
Second, I’m not sure if you can see those BWs and Archmages on that wall, but I’m sure if you turn on your timestamps, you’ll see you lived all of 2 seconds.
Thirdly, the fact that a healer is screaming for heals is ridiculous.”
“I AM DPS”
“Please continue to rush into the bonfire. You can’t die enough.”
In the end we came up with a strategy, we did some tip toe in and out of their range, and built up our morals. Then when the moron DoK went running in, we rushed up one stair case, losing our Zealot and Witch Elf in the process, but the Tanks made it up and punted the 1 RunePriest, 1 BW, 2 AM, a Witch Hunter and IB, that we had no idea was there. We killed 1 AM and 2 BW before the last AM ran off. I rezzed my fallen comrades.
“CAN I HAVE A REZ?”
“Only if you promise to continuely run head first into their WC and then scream for heals after you die to the guard’s 2 shot kill.”
“GO TO HELL”
“So, does this mean you won’t make out with me after the SC?”
Mr. Meh's Supplication 