The Misfits, The Friends, and The Penguin

Been a little while since i’ve done this but here goes!

A lot has changed since last I posted.  New guild (again), new raid team, and new friends.

However I kept the old friends too.

I have much to tell you world, muches and muches to learnificate you on.  Let’s start with the guild.

A long long time ago in a guild known as Icestorm(has been changed to not slander it) there was a 10 man raiding team.  This raiding team seemed to get along well and all was peaceful in Icestorm.  But then…a chilly wind rose from nowhere and swept over the raid team.  It started in a retro Firelands run.  I say retro because at the time we were raiding in Dragon Soul.  Things got heated fast.  And not just because we were in lands of hot fire.  Nope things got heated because My lovely wife, Asherrylie and our GM at the time (once again name will be changed as not to slander) Dog both were on the same phase of the legendary quest.  Thing was, Ashe was about halfway done with the phase they both were on, and Dog had just started.  Logical thing to do is to give it to the one that’s further along right?  Nah, let’s roll for it.  Dog wins the roll and thus the item.  That is the ONLY one she’s gotten to date.  Dog never tried to get another run going, or take the time to plan one.  She just EXPECTED everyone else to do all the work for her.  Ashe however, joined a run through TLR(twitter land raiding) and start progressing in her pursuit of the legendary.  After a bit of work she came to the point where she needed to buy the vendor mats.

Knowing the guild had ALREADY bought the mats for Dog, even though Dog wasn’t close to being able to need them, Ashe asked if the guild would purchase hers.  This made a lot of sense to everyone seeing how our rogue (the GM’s Husband) Rlob (name changed to protect them) also used guild funds for his legendary.  Ashe was told very rudely, “no.” This is where Dog’s hatred of Ashe began.  Ashe had motivation and drive to get the legendary, Dog did not.  Hence dog hated her.

What about me?  Hahaha…ya I have no damn idea why they hated me.  And I still don’t.  Nor do I care anymore.  Things finally came to a head after cata hit and Ashe couldn’t stand it anymore.  So she transfer to Rexxar to play with people at Bads in Stands (Name changed for their sake.) about a week after she transferred, about 8 of us g quit.  Yup.  We just up and left.  Why?  the GM was never around, the new officers that “came back to the game” were never online, and they never talked to us or with us.  THEY LITERALLY IGNORED US IN GUILD CHAT.  Grow up.  I’ll tell ya what my time spent in Icestorm made me new friends, but I wont miss Dog and Rlob.

So now what?  I left and so did Ask, Ven, Rok, Ra, Vor, Joe, and eventually Tall (after me bugging him for about 2 months).  Where were we going to go?  Enter Band of Misfits and BIGBEARBUTT!!!  Ask and Ven had been talking with them for a little bit and trying to see if they’d be a good fit.  Turns out they were just about perfect.  Within 2 weeks we had a new raid team, TEAM DIPPY!! ( Yes reference to Brawler’s Guild) AND we were rolling through MSV.  In addition to those stated above that left with us, we picked up 3 people from Misfits to round out our Dip-tastic team!  BigBearButt’s hunter, A Deathknight named Monstre, and our new GM, Denial…who i had no idea was the GM until about week 3 of raid.

As a riad team we’ve grown and bonded I think.  We only raid one night a week, and only for 2.5 hours but in that time we’ve cleared 4 of 6 MSV and 1 of 6 HoF. Currently we’re all playing the Main toon shuffle game.  I currently raid as a paladin, but in the near future that should become a warrior OR mage.  Or GM is switching to a rogue and our DK is switching to…something.  IDK what.  I feel Band of Misfits is a great home and I’m proud to call it such.  It’s full of great people who just like to have fun.

So this brings us to the Penguin.  As a whole life is going on.  Times have been rough but seem to be looking up. I raid with two guilds and currently friends with many more.  I’m addicted to transmog and am working on completing my 22nd and 23rd mog set.  I love to pet battle and my favorite battle pet is my Pandaren Water Spirit.  I love the colors orange and pink.  I enjoy Sushi, Pizza, and Steak.  And I am a geek.  With my Wife by my side I know i can do anything and her support and strength guides me.

Retribution Paladin 501: How to Ret in Mists (PART 1)

At the urging of several friends and Guildies I am writing this post.  Though this will be more of a guide than what most would consider a blog post.  This guide will cover the ins and outs of Retribution Paladins. This guide will be broken into three main subjects: Rotation (spell priority) And Talents, Gearing, and lastly Stat Priority.  But before I jump in there are a few things that need be known.  1) I don’t currently, nor never have, consider myself all-knowing. 2) These are opinions, and though I will provide facts and statistics to back most of them they should not be blindly put to use.  Everyone has their own play-style and what works for me may not be right for you.  3) Any add-ons sited are not an endorsement, only suggestions. And with that let us begin shall we?  

Rotation:

We will start with the Rotation as it will remain the same regardless of gear or stats. your basic spell rotation is as follows:

Inquisition >Exorcism>Judgement>Crusader Strike>TV 

That is your BASIC rotation.  As in pre-20% and without cooldowns. You want to keep Inquisition up at all times.  And you only really want to use it with 3 Holy Power as it will have more effect on the amount of spells you can fit between usages.  Statistically speaking Judgement and CS (Crusader strike) are roughly the same in damage so those two can be reversible.  You want to use Templar’s Verdict (TV) at 3 holy power UNLESS you and use another Holy power generating ability and DO NOT already have 5 Holy Power. The reason for this is quite simple.  Using Tv at 3 stacks while you have another ability ready is a dps loss.  Example: you have 3 Holy power, Exorcism is on CD, but CS and Judgement are not.  Use CS and Judgement, then TV.  With the effects we receive from haste and the GCD by the time you CS, Judge, then TV, your CS should be ready again and you can use CS, Judge, and TV again and even after doing that twice you should still have 1 Holy Power left.  in simple terms, if you can do something else to generate Holy Power and you are NOT already full Holy power, use it. Then use TV as a Holy Power Dump.

Now that I’ve explained to general, let’s get into the specific.  What to do during post 20% and CD phases.  Typically you want to time your CD’s with heroism as we benefit greatly from haste. But you should never hold out if you can use a CD and you know heroism is still looming over a minute away. Personally I find it’s best to use everything at the start of  a fight, AFTER YOUR TANKS HAVE AGGRO, then use things as they come off CD. As Ret Paladins our CDs are nearly non-existent.  We have two main DPS CDs that we can use and they should be used at the same time as they both have the same duration if you have Sanctified Wrath, Which is currently the BEST Ret dps talent. Our other big dps CD is our level 90 talent.  Execution Sentence is the best for single target DPS, and the other two options are equally great for AoE.  All our other talents don’t impact dps enough to mater.  though i do recommend Clemency as it offers a lot of utility. 

Her’s how your entire boss fight should look based on my recommendations.

Exorcism (you’re out of range and running to the boss)>Judgement>CS>Inquisition>Avenging Wrath>Guardian>[HoJ>(ANY of the following keeping the previous stated rotation in mind Exorcism>Judgement>CS)>HoJ] 

Repeat what’s in white until AW is gone and you can no long HoJ. Once AW is gone just keep up the normal rotation.  Part 2 of the guide to be released tomorrow.

Guild Wars 2…Customer Support?

The following is related to an issue I’m currently having in Guild Wars 2.  This is the EXACT conversation up to 3:23PM EST on 9/13/2012.  I want to make it public how little they seem to be trying to fix what I believe is their fault.  full details are below. Am I wrong? .

Customer Tim Patton via CSS Web 09/12/2012 01:51 PM

I bought the box, a lvl 80 exotic, expecting lvl 80 draconic armor. Spent all my gold buying it and open it to find out not only are the items not what are listed, but they aren’t even exotics. I received Berserker’s Gladiator armor. If this is intentional please rename the item. However I would like a refund for the purchase of 7 gold 50 silver and 57 copper. That’s quite a bit of gold and I feel a refund is only proper due to what i believe was false advertising. The items i received from the box will remain unbound in my inventory. I look forward to a swift and acceptable solution to this issue. Thank-you for your time.

P.S. Attached a screen shot of the purchase history and the items I received. Hope it helps.

Response GM Sparse via Email 09/12/2012 04:51 PM

Hello,

Thanks for contacting the Guild Wars Game Support Team.

This issue you are reporting is a currently a known problem. Please be aware that the Support Team is unable to provide a work around at this time.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Thanks,
GM Sparse 
Guild Wars Support Team 

http://support.guildwars2.com/

Customer Tim Patton via CSS Web 09/12/2012 08:24 PM

Thanks for the prompt response. I know you are busy helping make the game great. But is there an eta on a fix? And will I just lose out on my gold? I really hope that is not the case. Gold isnt easy to come by. Thanks again for your time.

Response GM Lemoncobra via Email 09/13/2012 01:09 PM

Hello,

I’m certainly sorry to hear you lost gold due to this issue. If we could, we would have returned your gold to you immediately. However, we simply have no means by which we can reimburse any items or gold. There are no tools that would allow us to do so. If you require assistance with anything else, please let us know. 

Regards,
GM Lemoncobra
The Guild Wars Support Team

Customer Tim Patton via CSS Web 09/13/2012 02:17 PM

I have been fairly civil to this point, and will try to remain so as I reply here. However to tell me you CANNOT is a bold lie. If you had no means to recover items or gold in an MMO environment then you wouldn’t have launched the game. This issue doesn’t only eccect me but countless others as well. the nearly 8 gold I spent equates to roughly 50 USD. The issue is NOT my fault. It’s yours. To tell me you cannot fix it is like saying “We don’t care if you lost gold, we don’t care if we messed up the item description/loot table (or whatever you want to call it when you double click and you get the items from the box), and we certainly don’t care if this keeps happening as the item is still in the game. Enjoy our game as we enjoy your 60 dollars you spent on it!” All I’m asking for is my gold back. How hard is that? Hell you can give me the equivalent of 7 gold and 50 silver in gems and I’ll convert them myself.

I hope I haven’t sounded to ranty or belligerent here as it is not my intention. However if this is the way your customer support is going to work then I may be seeking a refund fairly soon. I don’t want to waste my time in game farming, just to spend gold on an item that is glitched and/or bugged and have the CS department tell me they cannot fix it. That’s what CS is for right? You guys are at fault for the glitch, why am I being punished.

Thanks again for your time.

Warcraft Figures! What to do with my SUDDEN Collection.

As many of you know, or may not know, my wife and I live humbly.  In that we usually don’t get to spoil ourselves with nice or new things.  We’re not poor by any means, but when it comes to collecting things or hobbies we just have to make choices sometimes.  ”Do i want this yarn or do I want to go get a burger sometime this week?” To a lot of you it may not sound like much.  And Maybe some of you are of the opinion that we’re well off. 

We are well off.  We have a lovely studio home, somewhat of an A/C unit, running water, power, internet, and a working car!  We know we’re blessed to have those things.  But every once-in-a-while we long for something new or shinny.  

Recently, and now to what may be my regret, I mentioned in passing to my Dad, as we were at lunch during a work day, that I’d like to get back into model cars (making them) or World of Warcraft Figures as a hobby once I found a decent job.  He inquired more about the later (the WoW figures) and I explained what they were and where they were found.  Granted I had no idea what was to follow.

A week later I recieved a package containing 3 WoW figures: Thargus Anvilmar, a Dwarf Warrior, Wildmoon, a Night Elf Moonkin, and Garrosh Hellscream, (marked on the box as an Orc Warrior) Warchief  .

I later found out they were sent directly from blizzard store and I wondered who did it.  It turned out to be my dad.  I promptly thanked him. This story doesn’t end there though.  Today I recieved yet ANOTHER Large box from Blizzard. Upon opening it i found these contents:

Taz’Dingo, a Troll Hunter, and Chen Stormsout, Pandaren Brewmaster.

Upon inquiring why more were sent he simply said that he though it should start the collection off well.  However, he also mentioned, that the “Panda man reminded me of you.”  Uh…lolwat?

Anyway…here i am with a great start to a collection and now I have a first world problem…do I keep them in their boxes or take them out to display.  Let me know please!  I wont decide until tomorrow.  Please comment or let me know on twitter what YOU think I should do.  I’ll choose the most popular answer!

 

Fence Sitting

Ok, I’ve sat quiet long enough.  I don’t like to “take sides” here and I’m not about to start.  This s an issue that touches a lot of people deeply and I understand that.  My intention is not to belittle anyone people or groups, but simply state something that I have observed over this past week or so.  that being said, If i hear one more thing from EITHER side about Chick-fil-a I going to flip some tables.  So a MAN, not a whole company(even if he is an important part of that company)…1 MAN said some things that offended others.

GET OVER IT. It’s not like the company is saying “WE HATE GAYS AND LESBIANS!!” They’re not.  They’re fighting for their beliefs just as the gay and lesbian community is fighting for theirs.  The thing is…why? It’s not like the company doesn’t hire gays or lesbians.  It’s not like they don’t offer them ALL the same doors as other employees in the “glorious” fast food industry.  He mad a comment about his beliefs of a family.  But, for all you out there Supporting his “freedom of speech” get over it. Just cause 1 MAN says something it’s law and you ALL march like sheep to the ideal?  Give me a break.

Right wrong, who are we to decide. Let people live THEIR OWN LIVES AND GET OFF THE BANDWAGON.  I don’t care who or what you are; if you’re a chill person, awesome let’s hang out.  Don’t waste your time, and mine by giving 1 MAN this kind of power over you.  We’re all better than that.  Both sides of this little pissing match need to grow up and pull up their pampers.  I’m not condoning anything that EITHER side has said, but I think we all have more important matters to worry about.  Like maybe living our lives everyday to the best of our abilities.  Seizing everyday and letting all those around us know we care about them.  Are the words of 1 person really worth all this drama?  I don’t think so.  In fact I’d never even heard of the guy before this incident.  Why would I give someone I don’t know the same time of day as those I consider friends?  I wouldn’t.  So why do you?  Don’t defend him, don’t hate him, just ignore him.  Haters gonna hate.

Thanks for your time in reading this, though I don’t know how many friends I’ll manage to keep after this-it needed to be said. My goal isn’t to support one side or the other, just simply explain how us people in the middle feel.  We have friends that work there, or family even.  Why are you directing your hate at them?  Is it their fault they are fighting to hold a job with an 8.3% unemployment rate?  No it’s not.  On the other hand, way would to belittle someone because they’re not what YOU want them to be?  That’s plain wrong.  I’m not in support of either side here, I just want all this to stop and us to all get along.  Hope It comes out that way.

“Better to Fight for something than live for nothing.” -General George S. Patton

I chose to fight for the rights of EVERYONE.  Not the few or the many, but the ALL.

Transmog: So Addictive…

With the 4.3 patch some new things were brought to the WoW world.  One of which is Transmogrification.  Now i honestly don’t understand what the fascination about changing the appearance of your toons is, but I am an addict.  Currently I have 16 sets.  I’ll take you through them 1 day at a time.  Starting with my favorite ones of course.  These sets are pretty easy to obtain and make your toon look awesome.  

Without further rambling I present my first set!

The core of this set is from BC and can be found on the Isle of Quel’Danas.

The total cost of this set was 3750 honor points and 416 justice points (boots and belt)

The cloak is a random one I picked up.  And the Axe is from a quest line.  It’s name The Burning Crusader, from a short quest line in Netherstorm.

The set is called Merciless Gladiator’s Aegis and is sold in Netherstorm as well (get your Axe and armor set in one trip!) by Kezzik the Striker. 

This is probably my favorite set due to the color combination. You wont find Orange armor like this on any other set, and the pink mixed in maxes it wonderful!  All this on top of the fact that the axe matches the set so well. 

When putting together a transmog set it is important to note that though the set my look good, it doesn’t mean you’ll like it.  Transmog is all about your personal tastes and sometimes how you’re feeling that day.  See you tomorrow!  If you’re not now, I know tomorrow you’ll be green with envy…

Raiding Thus Far

Cataclysm has been a very…interesting experience.  By that I mean I’ve been in at least 4 different guilds, and one of them twice.  I’ve noticed in all my guilds, aside from the one I’m in now (for the second time), that there are retarded, egotistical, assholes.  On the other hand there are super awesome, wonderful, amazingly cool people.  how these two groups cope with one another I will never understand.  Conflicts usually come up in mid-raid over some loot or someone saying something totally disrespectful.  in the past I’ve dealt with this by simply ignoring them or muting myself.  Something about me you should understand is that I feel the need to be liked by everyone.  I cannot explain it, but it irks me when i offend or upset someone.  I feel that I have failed as a friend, guildmate, or just a fellow human being.  Don’t misunderstand this. There are those people who absolutely piss me off, and I don’t care about how they feel about me.

Anyway, back to raiding stuff. The first guild i was in during Cata was a nice 25 man progression guild.  We had a lot of fun clearing t11 content, and did well as a group.  But all good things must end and our gm and several officers decided they were now above us and transferred off the server.  This left me and my wife guild less.  After searching for like…2 seconds I got an invite to a new one. Well to be honest I got a ton of them.  I posted in trade. Almost immediately I got tells.  I had earned a reputation on the server for being an excellent healer.  I joined a 10 man raiding guild and we pushed into Firelands. we had two server first heroic kills, Ryolith and Shanox.  We had issues though.  For some reason I was the blame-bot.  To explain that, I was where all the blame was directed.  After about the 3rd raid I posted the meter for healing, posted failbot logs, and left.  Being top healer and not hardly ever standing in crap and/or being where I’m not suppose to be, and THEN being blamed kinda got old.

After that I transfer servers and joined a 10 man team.  They had no where near the progression I had in my previous guild, but they raided less and were considered casual.  On my first raid I offered some advice and somehow managed to coordinate the raid cooldowns to lead them to their first kill of the Spider Lady.   Shortly after I was given the title of raid leader.  This to me was a great honor, one that would not last.  We had 5 main spec tanks.  Two of which were told that they would be able to raid with one another before spending a fortune on transfers for their toons.  This wasn’t a problem to me seeing as I set the calendar and sent out invites.  I got them in raid together, though sometimes one dpsed and one tanked.  I knew they didn’t like not being able to tank together.  After all they were married and had almost always tanked with one another.  Anyone with tanking experience can tell you communication is key, and since they sat next to each other they had the best communication I had seen ever.  Eventually they left the guild to pursue a better calling, one where the GM would let them raid together.

I began to noticed a couple of issues with the raid.  Issues such as not being on time, and lower than needed dps.  The GM didn’t like me pointing this out.  Behind everyone’s back she asked me several times to step down from raidleader. After about the third time I gave up.  I went in to just being a raid member and keeping my opinions to myself.  however at the same time I moved my paladin to a 25 man guild, which I will NOT be talking about here (for reasons I wont go into.)  The GM didn’t like this at all.  She called me out and even went into the other guilds vent and tried to sabotage me.  All because I went out to diner with my wife instead of raiding.  She, however, thought I cancelled on her raid to go raid with the other guild.  After the GM of my paladins guild explain that we didn’t even raid that night, she was promptly banned from their vent.  but the damage had all ready been done.  I, and my wife were removed from her guild.  This cause a backlash that would eventually lead to me quitting WoW for about 3 months.  I went to rift and enjoyed it for that time, but I was to engrossed in WoW’s storyline to quit.  I came back and joined the same guild that our old tanking duo went to.  Two real life friends were also there, so it made the transition easy.

Eventually my wife joined and we were happily raiding together.  We still raid together and enjoy our raid team a lot.  We only raid two nights a week and have still managed to get our rogue the legendary and clear 3/8 heroic.  I began raiding on my hunter in this guild. I was sick of having to heal on my paladin, though admittedly I miss it sometimes.  We had a small falling out though and lost our raid leader and two healers.  That’s when we put together our primo team though.  I swapped to my paladin cause we were way to ranged heavy.  Retribution is under-played.  I liked it though.  Eventually I wanted to keep doing something with my hunter.  So i started pugging and such until one night I was asked to come in to a raid; with my previous guild.  The old GM had left, and so did most the officers and such.  New leadership took over and they were nice and eventually, after raid, they invited me back into the guild.

So as it stand I’m in two wonderful guilds that raid on different nights and are both full of amazing people.

***Side Note: I believe I may have offended and or acted in a disrespectful manner to one of my guildies. To her, I would like to make a formal and public apology.  I am truly sorry and did not set out to offend or disrespect you.  I hope in the future you can forgive me.