I’m taking a quick break in the midst of my packing to slide in my post for the day. I’ve realized a few things in the last 6 hours.

The first is that while I have some draft posts sitting in the wings waiting for their 15 seconds of fame, they are far from being what I would call a draft. In fact, they would be a draft of a draft. That of course meaning they need a lot of work before I could slap that sucker up as my daily post. This also makes me think I should have some witty macros for asshats and elitist pricks during random dungeons so that I don’t actually have to waste energy typing while in groups with them.

The second is that no matter how ready one can be for a deployment, you’re never really ready. Though I have my “go bag” ready for quick deployments, every deployment is different and the only thing you can really be sure about is that you need 14 days of underwear to get you through without doing laundry (and by my math that equates to at least 20 pairs of britches because a few extra are always  needed). *over 20 pairs of britches? CHECK* In addition, this reminds me that no matter how mentally ready you may be for a heroic, just one bad apple can make the ordinary into extraordinary -> bad experiences. If only one could mute chat.

The third thing is that this nablopomo effort is quite a challenge, especially when the unexpected pops up. I know better next time (assuming there is a next time) to front load the month with some extra posts and schedule them to post at later dates. While it’s certainly the spirit of the challenge to write every day, it doesn’t take much for real life to rear its head and throw you off course. I gotta have more cowbell!

And with that, it saddens me to say that I will be mostly WoWless over the next two weeks – just as the guild is getting their arms wrapped around ICC. Work calls and I answer – hopefully I can squeeze some writing time in!

Leave it to a mage . . . to be a perfect pug!

Okay is there really such thing as a perfect pug? Eh, probably not. I mean, there is a reason our Perky Pugs run around and then drags their asses on the ground – you’ve never noticed? Watch your pug the next time you have it out.

Last night I had the pleasure of running with a mage and a warrior from my server who were both about as close as it gets to perfect pugs. We were running Ony10 followed by ToC10.  Our guild has only been raiding for about a month and are still working on gearing people up. We usually have just enough for a 10 man or just shy of 10. Last night we were just shy of 10 and needed a coupled DPS to help. We picked up our mage for Ony10 and I needed to find a dps replacement after Ony, that’s when our warrior joined us.

After Ony I had whispered the mage and invited him (or her, but let’s go with him for the sake of conversation and ease of typing over him/her). His response was “sure. I’ve never been before but I know how to play a mage and I know not to stand in stuff” WIN! If you can articulate “I know not to stand in stuff” you’re halfway there as far as I’m concerned. The other half is doing it.

I didn’t bother gear checking the mage or the warrior (OMGWUT – yes, you read correctly). The mage pulled great dps during Ony so I wasn’t worried. The warrior, I figured even if he didn’t do great dps as long as he was higher than the tanks I’d be happy.

As it turns out – they absolutely rocked. Even though I raid lead often, I usually don’t like talking in vent. Our warrior friend piped up and called out snobolds as well as Icehowl targets – yay for him! Neither stood in fire, neither ran like loons when they got paralytic toxin. Hell, both of them moved out of the way for Icehowl. This is where I note that if you run from Icehowl, make sure to run AROUND the stuff sticking out from the wall because you can’t run through it. That was my first time healing ToC10 and I ran to what I thought was out of the way. I was busy looking at the raid to see who needed heals and didn’t notice that while my toon was running, the screen wasn’t changing.  /fail  You’d think I’d have learned my lesson about raiding and healing, but I’m a sucker for punishment. Plus after I get a run or two under my belt I’ll be able to relax a bit more because  more relaxed = better play. This is why beer is such a good raiding beverage of choice.

We one shot every boss up to Anub’arak (yes, even the Faction Champs went down in quick order). The Twins didn’t start off looking like a one shot because they got their first two heals off. But kudos to the raid group, they pulled it off! We wiped once on Anub’arak, but that was due to a little confusion over ice duty resulting in some add craziness but we got him down to 27% ish regardless. Second time around though, not a problem to note at all. I did take the time to explain the fights and we didn’t rush through like we were on a speed run from hell. Overall it was a really great group.

Our two pugs were awesome. They were patient, they participated, they didn’t yell “go go go go go” before every pull. The mage actually thanked me for walking him through afterwards and both were promptly friend-listed. Unfortunately Armory is down for maintenance so I can’t pull them up though just from a quick WoW Heroes peek, they actually are both decently geared. Both have their fair share of achievements under their belt – even our mage friend who said they hadn’t been to ToC10 yet. (Maybe to lower our expectations? regardless. . .)

Thank you, thank you Jugganuts and Cinderstein for being such cool pugs.

And yes, it feels great to write a post about kick ass pugs.

This week’s weekly dungeon finder fail will not be read here. Why? Because there is no more epic of a fail group than that which Krizzlybear unfortunately endured. This is one of the most entertaining reads though you can’t help but cringe for Krizz throughout. If you aren’t normally in the habit of reading comments to posts, please take my advice and spend the time to read through these. There are some great ones in there and finally towards the end and epic fail post by the offender themself. While waiting for my desktop to finish loading WoW (after an epic system reinstall that took all evening), I decided to catch up on some blog reading via my phone. This made the time fly by and it also made every fail dungeon I have experienced or heard of this past week seem like bundles of warm sunshiney goodness.

If you’re still wanting more after reading all of that, head over to Dark Nemesis and read the ever-so-funny forum The Scrub Pub. If you don’t have a blog where you can get cathartic relief, try THIS site. Hell, even if you do have your own blog – it’s still funny to visit. I have it bookmarked now just in case. And completely not-WoW related but hilarious none the less: Failblog.org.

In light of the rather lengthy response I posted to a comment, I am going to keep this post short and sweet.

1.
Each guild is managed and run differently.  Even within guilds, there are different styles of management that exist between raid leaders.  While general rules stay the same, the attitude and atmosphere may certainly be very different.

–>  You pay to play this game therefore ALWAYS remember to enjoy it.  If you do not like the way a guild is run, then by all means find a new home that is better suited to your expectations.  If you do not like the way raids are run or the style of a particular raid lead, discuss it with the raid lead, the GM, or better yet offer to step up and lead raids as well! Learning is something ongoing, even for the most experienced of people.

2.
This is really just a game. It’s a virtual environment. It’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily indicative of who people are irl.  Even I realize that the elitist asshats that I tend to bash through parodies and poems are not always like that outside of game (this is where I am supposed to be a smart ass and say “well like 99% of the time they are” but I am going for a semi-serious moment).  The people that are boisterous and outspoken may actually be very shy and quiet and vice versa.  Some people that are great coaches irl may not fair so well in a virtual environment.

–>  No matter what anyone says about you or someone else, take it with a grain of salt and move on. There’s only so much we can glean from one another through this virtual environment and even opinions we do form may be completely worthless in person. Grudges are a waste because it just adds bitterness to a game that should be fun.  Does that mean you have to like everyone in game?  Hell no –  But don’t let it spoil your fun!

3.
Let bygones be bygones and just agree to disagree.  It does, after all, make the lemonade taste much sweeter.