gogogo

Something just dawned on me about 5-mans pugs.

For this discussion afk can mean a true "away from the keyboard", something else distracting you (like a guild discussion) or even just zoning out (not of the instance but your mind) for a second.

So...what happens when a healer goes afk? The group can be more cautious about pulls, even incorporating the lost art of cc and keep going until they get to a point where the healer is necessary.

And what happens when a dps goes afk? Depending on the rest of the dps, the group can possibly keep going and clear the whole place, perhaps at a slower pace. You may not even notice until someone posts recount.

But what happens when a tank goes afk? Unless there is someone else there that can assume the tank role (boomkin can probably take a few hits, rogue can evasion tank a few) you're dead in the water.

And maybe that's what makes "gogogo" so frustrating. As a tank you are not afforded the time to respond to a whisper, get up to let your dog out or simply have a brain fart.

If you aren't 100% there, someone starts poking and prodding you with the "go" stick.

It's annoying and you wouldn't treat healers and dps that way.

Supporting Slacking

Gevlon over at Greedy Goblin brought up an interesting point that the LFD function actually encourages slacking.

I know in the pug groups I've been in, there is quite often one person in the group you could do without. Obviously it's not the tank or healer. So there usually is one dps not "doing their part".

But I assume, except for the new ICCs, these are instances meant for characters in blues and a smattering of purples. I can't expect them to always out dps me, now that I'm wearing all epics.

However, I don't necessarily want to carry people through dungeons either. If I was more of a goblin, maybe I'd be quicker to kick them. Instead I check their gear and suggest they gem, or get something crafted, etc.

For once I actually agree more with the goblin way. If DPS knew they had to perform well and not just auto-follow maybe they'd put in some effort. And I'm only talking about the DPS that make me think I'm at the point I could 4-man instances.

WoW Successes and Failures

Adding the new LFG interface (I call it LFD) was a resounding success. There have been complaints about it (decreased social interaction, ninjas, the enchanter debaucle) but I haven't done a Deadmines run with similarily leveled players in years.

Now there are some things however that were real stinkers.
*Sithilus Sand PvP
*EPL Towers PvP
*In-game Voice Chat

So as good as LFD is for 5-man instances, it seems to be less helpful for raids.

Maybe its just me, but LFD has let WoW evolve with the way I want to play. Never say never, but I feel like I might never raid on a regular basis again.

Someone on the forums came up with an idea to not be locked to raids after you've killed one boss, but be locked to the boss itself. The point is to be able to pug the instance with different groups if you need to. Someone else countered this would be a logistical nightmare.

But I supported the idea that WoW should come up with a more casual form of raiding. This isn't a light bulb of an idea, but it has become time for something to happen.

I wonder if new players are still coming to WoW. If they aren't that means many players are (some up to 5 years) older than they were when they first started. Time and the freedom to do what you want with that time is inevitably more precious.

I don't have any good ideas about what they could do to enchance the raid portion of LFD, but let's hope it doesn't end up on the list of failures.

I wasn't expecting you!

A recent commenter Tauhid, mentioned he came across my blog after a 2 year break from blogging. I should have cleaned the place up! If I was blogging like I used to my place my look more like Ardent Defender. Check it out when you have time.

I don't know how much I'll have to blog about until Cataclysm. I usually don't jump on new games as soon as I hear about them, so I'm a little behind when I say I may try out Torchlight.

As much as I want to try out Star Trek: Online when it gets released I feel, not necessarily burned by titles like Aion, but that no new MMOs are going to be worth playing past the initial newness of them all.

Nothing to talk about?

This is probably the least amount of blogging I've done since I started. I'm not sure why that is.

I'm still playing WoW a lot, so I imagine I could find some things to at least rant about. What's been going on?

For one, I've stopped raiding. Something came up where I had to take a break from it and now I have no desire to go back. I found myself dreading the idea.

Looking back on things, I think I got off on the wrong foot with one of the raid leaders in the very beginning and never clicked with him. I didn't realize it until I got the opportunity to raid without him. The experience was so much more enjoyable I really started taking notice of little things when he was around.

With the introduction of LFG, I have the opportunity to play in a group setting and not have to stick to a schedule.

I had so much fun with LFG I sadly am experiencing burn out with it as well.

Maybe it is time for another WoW break.

LFG - putting the F back in Fun

Like the achievement system, LFG has proven to be a winner when it comes to keeping me sucked into playing WoW.

As a tank, I absolutely love being able to find a group almost immediately. If I don't get one right away I always have something else I can do while I'm waiting.

The only problem is I've now got my tank decently geared to where I can handle just about every heroic there is and I don't have as much incentive to keep running them.

But that's actually not a bad problem to have because now I'm thinking about trying out tanking on a deathknight.

LFG has made the idea of leveling alts fun again.