A Public Service Announcement

To those who may be interested in doing the Coren Direbrew event this Brewfest, here's a few things you should know.

First off - you can run the event more than once a day.  Really! Just use the dungeon finder, and keep queueing for the Coren Direbrew event.  In fact, if you just stay in your group after he's killed, there's a pretty good chance that whoever is the group leader will re-queue the entire group for another shot at Coren.

On Aeth last night, I helped kill Coren about 15 times in 15 minutes.  We'd queue, enter the instance, start the event, spend 30 seconds or so turning him into a rapidly cooling corpse, and then loot his body.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Poor guy.

The reason for this behavior is that Coren Direbrew is a loot piñata.

You see, the first time a character kills him on any given day, they will receive a soulbound Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest.  This chest is a weird Dwarven goodie bag that may contain one of a number of rare and wonderful items.

Every time you kill Coren, though, he will drop a trinket.  Absolutely, positively, guar-an-teed.  These trinkets follow the usual dungeon finder loot roll rules: need before greed.  There's the added factor that the trinkets are unique, so if you already have one, you won't be able to roll on it if it drops again.

Following me so far?  Coren Direbrew is easy to kill, and every time you kill him, he will drop one of six trinkets.  So it's very, very easy in the space of a short time to see multiple drops of every possible trinket type.

Seriously.  During Brefest last year, Aeth saw enough Chromium Coasters that she could have started her own bar supply house.

Now, four of these trinkets are clearly intended for certain roles.  There's a caster DPS trinket, a melee DPS trinket, a healer's trinket, and a tanking trinket.

Common courtesy and decorum would indicate that you only roll "need" on these items if (a) you can actually use them, and (b) you will use them (i.e., the trinket is an upgrade for you).  If you don't meet these criteria - if you're just interested in vendoring the trinket for cash, or if you're collecting the set or something like that - you should be rolling "greed".

"But you said there were six trinkets," you say.  "Pray tell, what of these last two trinkets?  What spec are they intended for?"

I'm glad you asked that, as that's the whole point of this PSA.

The last two trinkets are perfectly suitable for any character.

Yes.

Any.  Character.

Take a look at the two remaining trinkets - the Bitterer Balebrew Charm and the Bubblier Brightbrew Charm.  Do you see what the stats on them are?

Say it with me: "+510 stamina".

Whoo!  What character couldn't use a little more stamina?  Especially a melee DPS class!  Depending on your class and gear, just one of these trinkets could be a 5%-7% increase in your total health.  Nice! There's an on-use effect as well that results in a minor healing or DPS buff, depending on which trinket you're using.

So... you're a freshly dinged level 85 character.  You've got a green ilvl 320-somthing Useless Trinket Of Uselessness still equipped from that one quest in Uldum (you know, the one that had the cut scene in it).  You're looking at starting to run Molten Front and Tol Barad and the Twilight Highland PvP-ish dailies.

Look me in the eye and tell me that this trinket isn't an upgrade for you.

So, yeah.  If you can use the trinket, and you will use the trinket, you're entirely justified in rolling "need" on it.

Be warned, though.  There are certain unenlightened individuals in the game who may look at these trinkets, see that they're dripping with stamina, and think "Oh, these are special trinkets.  For the right type of people."

These individuals will tend to get into a high dudgeon if you actually roll "need" on one of these trinkets. If you do so, and are lucky enough to win said trinket, it is almost inevitable that a moment of silence will descend upon the group.  Eyes will turn towards you, and eventually, someone will speak...

"Why," the undead rogue will whine breathlessly, "did you roll need on a tanking trinket?"

At which point you may direct him to this PSA, that he may become enlightened.

His eyes opened, he may come to realize that there are situations when all classes and specs might enjoy a little more stamina.  Perhaps he may even be inclined to take the time to examine the tanking model in Cataclysm, wherein stacking stamina is not quite as important to a tank as it was in Wrath.  Or he may see that even if you did win the trinket, well, there's nothing preventing him from getting his own with just a modicum of extra effort.

Or, if you are like me, you can just boggle that anyone would be stupid enough to ask an enhancement shaman why they might want more stamina.

It boggles the mind, really.

Brewfest!

I can't believe that I've been wandering around a bit on Tal, looking at gearing options... only to just realize today that it's Brefest, and I haven't yet killed Coren Direbrew even once.

Bad cow!

Ah, PvP

Cape of Stranglethorn, Gurubashi Arena.

Once again, I am reminded of how much - as a mage - I absolutely, positively loathe and despise rogues.

That Must Have Been One Amazing Sandwich

Yesterday, I commented on how well my LFD pugs have been doing lately. "Wow!" said I. "Things really look pretty decent, you know!"

I should know better... really, I should.

In classic karmic response to my hubris, I ended up in... well, not a fail pug last night, but rather, a quick succession of fail pugs. We zoned in to BWL, and the tank immediately wanted to leave and requeue, but we were on the 15-minute LFD debuff, so we just decided to run it.

First boss went down easily enough, except... everything I touched, I pulled aggro. I mean, everything. The bear tank would charge, start swiping, I'd give him a second or two before I did an /assist and tossed off a plain old arcane blast. Which would immediately put my threat at somewhere between 90% and 110%.

I mean, Aeth can pack a pretty good punch, but come on - from a standing start? Thankfully I didn't pop my trinkets or lead off with an AB + PoM AB or something like that. Still, in the first couple of packs, there were times when I was essentially kiting my own little death cultist around, killing them slowly. Yep. You pull it, you tank it. I'm willing to comply.

So we downed the first boss, then went on to Corla, where things just went to hades in a nice little handbasket. We wiped once, wiped again, and then... on person D/C'd. Oops. Then the healer tells us he has to go because he's making a sandwich.

Making... a... sandwich.

Making... a... sandwich.

MAKING.... A... SANDWICH.

OK, listen. You want to bail? At this point, I can't fault you. You've given it a couple of shots, if you think, "Man, this just isn't happening with this group", well, I can understand that. I can even understand if you wanted to show some empathy, maybe cushion the blow a little bit instead of coming right out and saying "Look, guys, this group just can't handle this boss. See ya."

But... seriously? MAKING A SANDWICH?

Is that, honestly and truly, the best lie you can come up with?

The guy who D/C'd had more tact that that. At least we can imagine that there was some sort of freak storm in his area that blew up suddenly and knocked out his internet connection. We've all been there, right? You know how those things happen. Could have been anything, really.

But you? Naw. You're ditching us because apparently, the painstaking attention required to slap some lunchmeat between two pieces of bread requires your almost complete concentration. I say "almost" because, strangely enough, while you were AFK "making your sandwich", you were also at your keyboard, telling us how sorry you were that you had to focus on this sandwich-related activity.

Urgh.

Requue, pick up a couple of new folks. A slightly undergeared pally healer, a slightly bossy shaman, try for Corla again.

Wipe again.

Tank quits. Other DPS quit.

Healer and I are the only ones left. Requeue.

Group #3. This time, we manage to take down Corla, but the tank starts ragging on the healer for being awful. Seriously, man - he's keeping everyone up. He's not in full purples, and you're running from point A to point B quickly enough that he's struggling to to keep a full mana bar in between fights. Which is probably why he was letting beacon of light fall off, because he needed more time to drink. Maybe, I don't know, you could let him drink and rebuff you before you go plunging into the next pack of mobs?

Fortunately, we had a decent fellow along as a worgen rogue - the two of us let him know he was, in fact, doing a pretty good job. As I mentioned, nobody was dying, so there was no call for telling him "Thankfully the dps made up for your low heals". Sheesh.

We almost passed by Beauty. Most of us wanted to give it a shot, but the tank whined about not wanting to risk a wipe again, because - get this - repairing plate is expensive.

Listen, buddy. You signed up to tank. You know what that means, right?

You volunteered to let the slavering minions of the aspect of death line up and punch you in the face.

And you're going to whine about repair costs? Sheesh. No dain brammage there, I tell ya...

We down beauty with zero difficulty (having a mage, a shaman, and a rogue for three different flavors of CC), go on to the last boss, and down him easily as well. Yay team! Mr. Slightly Undergeared Pally Healer gets a couple of nice gear upgrades, we all get our points form the daily heroic, and - best of all! - Aeth finally hits 999/1000 exalted with Gilneas.

Woohoo! That's 48 exalted reputations!

My power level is OVER 9000!!!1!one!

Well, no, not quite. Under certain circumstances. Your mileage may vary. See rules for details and exclusions. Post no bills. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

And so on.

Rand a couple of LK 5-mans last night - Old Kingdom and Pit Of Saron. Old Kingdom went well enough, modulo a couple of flaky healers. What is it with healers "having to go" in the middle of fights? We muddled through, however, and with our third healer for the run, managed to down Herald Volazj. He went down quickly, with only one cast of Insanity.

During the run, I noticed that Aeth's go-to AoE - specifically, Blizzard - was, to be quite honest, stinking up the joint. Yes, in a dungeon filled with foul, rotting, undead insects, she stopped and sniffed and wondered if she had forgotten to put on deodorant that morning. It was that bad. Skada was telling me she was managing 2k-2.5k dps, when I'm used to seeing 4k or so.

As luck would have it, I ended up close to a pack of mobs at one point. Normally, I'd back off and Blizzard... but I recalled that I took the talent that reduces the threat from Arcane Explosion, and so decided to hop around like a mad hare and 'asplode the pack instead.

It chewed through my mana pretty quickly, but at the end of it all... 5k+ dps. Whoa.

On single-target dps, Aeth's numbers were through the roof. Remember - this was a LK 5-man, not a raid. Historically, I've been delighted if her single-target dps under these circumstances cracked 4k. Fully buffed, with Dalaran Brilliance (6% spell power now - ye-haw!) and Molten Armor up and Arcane Power rolling, she managed 7.5k+. Yes, nearly double what she had been previously capable of.

Oooh-freakin'-RAH.

A couple of times, on a single-target pull, she actually managed to pull aggro off of the ICC-geared protection paladin that was tanking.

Yeah. Aeth. Pulled. Agrro. Off of a pally.

Which brings me to the next point.

It's pretty clear that paladin tanking has changed significantly.

I'm not talking about changes in the same range as "Oh, dear, I've lost access to Icy Veins".

I'm not even talking about changes of the same magnitude as "Wait, what's this Chakra thingy do? When should I use it?"

In 4.0.1, it looks like the changes to pally tanking fall into the "Well, the map says the city should be right here. Maybe it's on the other side of this smoking, fuming, derbis-strewn city-sized freaking crater?" category.

Srsly. The whole paladin tanking rotation has been put in the tub with the baby, tossed out the window, and slid under a convoy of busses. It's gone, man. What's in it's place is something not entirely different - you still hit things in the face with a pointy metal stick, after all - but it's still different. How different? Different enough, apparently, that someone used to 969 pally tanking is going to have to take some time to re-learn how to handle aggro using their new abilities.

So - please. This is a plea for a bit of enlightenment and tolerance. So, instead of whining and moaning about how the pally tank can't hold aggro...

No. You know what? Forget the enlightenment and tolerance, and just freaking SHUT UP.

Yeah, you. The one complaining about the pally tank? SHUT UP. He's had everything he knows yanked out from under him. He's knows how to tank, he knows what he needs to do, he just needs some time to figure out how all the new stuff works together and fits in. It may be a bit of a learning experience, so be prepared for that.

You dps - watch your aggro. The tank may do something he calls "marking" a target. It's a kind of esoteric little thing, but you may want to read up on it. I have a feeling you'll need it come Cata.

You healers - be aware that a fight may go on long enough that you actually have to heal. Healers and dps both may need to hold off on attacking/casting until (gasp!) the tank has actually built up some aggro. It's nuts, I know.

Here's a thought - ask if he wants you to use your CC. Dang! I should have offered that last night. See? Ripple effect... how he has to change his play style impacts how I play. It's a teamwork thing, you know.

With 4.0.1, everything's changed... but it's changed more for some people than others. Give them a break, bite your tongue, work with them to help them out. Relearn (or even learn!) skills that you haven't had to use in a while. Be aware that while changes in the game may not directly impact you, you may still have to switch things up in order to accommodate major changes in other aspects of the game.

Come December 7th, yeah, if that pally tank still stinks on toast, let 'em know. For now... just grin and bear it, and remember that if things had been a little different, you could have been the one trying to re-learn everything.

New Policy

In light of the rather emphatic response I received from a LFD member last night in response to my "Hey, I'm leveling in whites, let me know if you'd rather find a different tank", I've changed my LFD intro message slightly. It now asks that people let me know, politely, if they'd rather find a different tank.

I realize that this is my failing - my last message did not actually request that individuals demonstrate a minimum acceptable level of maturity and civility. I know, I know. Silly of me. Hence the new message, and the new policy:

Failure to treat me politely at the start of the instance will result in my chain-pulling as many mobs as I can before I bubble hearth.

Well... no. That's a bit too rude, I think, even for the wonderful response I got last night. It was only one person, after all. The other folks didn't say anything, positive or negative (and, I'll note that the individual in question didn't even bother to speak up until after I had buffed everyone. Classy guy.) I really should have polled everyone and seen if the other members felt the same way before I decided whether or not to bail. Yeah, that would have been a better option.

So, call this a provisional policy. Unless I encounter an entire group of overwhelmingly rude induhviduals, I don't think I'll actually do anything like the pull/bubble hearth punishment.

No matter how much they desperately deserve it.

The First Rule of Fail PuG...

"The first rule of Fail PuG is, you must talk about Fail PuG."
"The second rule of Fail PuG is, you MUST talk about Fail PuG."

Who am I to ignore the rules? Listen, then...


Just about 1k experience short of making level 56, I queued up for Sunken Temple in the LFD tool. Apparently there aren't that many people interested in running ST, so even queued as a tank, it was a bit of a wait. After a while, though, I found myself in a group consisting of Aeven, two hunters and their pets, an elemental shaman and a druid.


I switched Aeven over to her tanking spec, drank up, and tossed off some buffs. Then I warned them, up front, that someone else would have to guide us through the instance. If this seems like a familiar litany of mine, then you'd be absolutely correct. I've run old world and BC dungeons enough that I'm vaguely familiar with most of them, but I'm more than willing to admit the rats nest that is Sunken Temple makes my brain hurt.


Within the first few mobs, Aeven picked up enough experience to hit level 56. Nice! I had gotten into Sunken Temple just under the wire, just before the LFD tool would not let me queue her for the instance. But I was there now, and hey - it's an old world instance, right? How hard could it be, really?


It didn't take long to see the warning signs of Fail PuG. One of the hunters was rolling need on everything. Not a big deal to me - greens and blues are just gold, and I was there to run the dungeon, not find new shinies. It was a point of contention to the other players, though. "Why are you rolling need on everything?" No answer. The druid was our healer, but seemed to spend more time in cat form then actually healing. Well, OK - I've healed as shadow spec on my priest before, when we obviously overgeared the instance and just tossing out a heal every once in a while was deadly dull.


With the shaman guiding us, though, we made our way to the upper ring of the temple. It was there that things started falling apart. "We should all tank everything," said one of the hunters in party chat. I said nothing. And indeed, there were soon bears, cats, and diminutive dwarven death machines running hither and yon. I did my best to hold aggro, but - to my shame - I had forgotten to turn on Righteous Fury, and didn't realize that until it was pointed out to me later. So lest you think that I am just the chronicler of fail in this case, know that I did in fact contribute to the level of Fail we expereinced. A minor contribution, to be sure, but there none the less.


After the second mini-boss, the shaman ran off, unnoticed, to find the next target. By the time I realized she had gone, we tried to follow her, and - lacking our guide - ended up on the lower level of the instance. Yeah, I know. How amazingly hard would it have been to just continue on the path and join up with her? Apparently, too hard for our four feeble brains. We ended up at the instance portal before we realized how mixed up we were, and the shammy soon dropped group in disgust.

One of the hunters says, "pass me lead." I think about it a second, figure that he probably has a friend to invite or something, and pass him the group lead. If he wants that position, it's fine by me - he can't have a worse idea of how to navigate the instance than I do. There's really no real benefit to being group lead, so if he wanted it, well, that was find by me. I'd classify this as my second shame. I was just interested in running the dungeon, but really, I should have stepped in and filled the role of the dungeon leader, whatever that meant. Instead, I sloughed it off and let someone else take up the minimal responsibilities.

We re-entered the LFD queue, and quickly picked up a priest - apparently, when the time came to re-queue, the druid decided that he'd just go full-out feral and registered as dps along with the hunters. Well, OK - we still had three dps, and now we had a real healer with us.

"Hey guys, first time healing, hope that's OK," said Priestly Guy.

"No problem," I answered. I was actually kind of excited. Here we are, in an old world instance, with what seemed like a nice guy trying to learn the ropes of his class. Stepping out of his comfort zone, getting ready to experience an entirely new aspect of the game, and... what?

"A vote to kick Priestly Guy has been initiated."

Before I couild even respond, bam! Priestly Guy was gone. Oh-kaaay. Here then is my third shame: I said nothing. Looking back on it, I should have just dropped group. Vote kicking someone for, say, rolling need on things they can't use? Apparently not. Vote kicking the healer because he's never healed in a dungeon before? Apparently, that's perfectly reasonable.

So, sans healer, the two hunters start pulling again. I shrug my shoulders, and rather than drop group - which would mean having to put together a ST dungeon run by hand, now that I can't use the LFD tool - I just go with the flow and follow along. At this point, one of the folks (the druid, IIRC) chimes in:

"hey aeven what with ur gear?"

Oh, joy. Text speak. I explain that it's intentional, and that I'm leveling and learning to tank using only vendor-bought gear as an experiment.

"aeven ur an idiot"

Sigh. I respond, saying something like, "Yes, the evidence seems to point to that inevitable conclusion." I choose not to mention that I am not refering to my gear - the fact that Aeven is level 56 should, I think, speak for itself - but to my continuing association with the current group of uncouth, over-caffeinated twitch-boys.

By the time we end up overlooking the pit full of dragonkin that will eventually lead to Eranikus, the druid has dropped group, leaving me with the two loot-happy hunters. Well, with their pets, we still have five in the party, right? At least, that's what I tried to tell myself. "Aeven, you can heal, right?" they ask, and I tell them sure, I'm not spec'd for it, but I can try. So they jump down into the pit, I follow... and land in the middle of a group of whelps and dragonkin. They go running off to pull another group, leaving me there wondering where they are, what's going on, and ooh, look, isn't that a cute little whelp that's gnawing my leg off at the knee?

I die.

By the time I make my way back to the instance, the two hunters have - not surprisingly - also perished, since they lacked a healer. And a tank. And anything approaching decent dps. At which point, they drop group, leaving my ghost at the entrance to the Sunken Temple.

So now I've died, I've lost my group, I've lost my easiest chance to run Sunken Temple, and my indifference has contributed to all of the above.

Wheh. OK, time for lessons learned.

1. Before I head into an instance, I'm going to read up on it, and get out of the "someone else tell me where to go" mentality. I'll know where to go - generally, if not specifically. I'll know what to watch out for, and make sure that I know enough to get everyone (Aeven included) through the instance successfully.
2. I took Aeven into the instance essentially unbuffed - no defense potions, no strength elixirs, no food buffs, no other non-class related buffs. Bascially, I've gotten lazy, thanks to the ease of leveling as retribution. Now that she's heading into end-game vanilla content and introductory BC content, I need to make sure that Aeven is as ready as she can possibly be if I want her to do a good job as a tank.
3. I'm going to put together a macro that explains my gear choices to the party, and hit it on joining an instance. I don't have a problem with dropping group if people think that Aeven isn't capable of tanking a particular instance. Being forthright from the start will save us all some trouble if Aeven's gear will be an impediment (actual or perceived).
4. I'm going to (finally) put together a tanking macro for Aeven that consolidates her emergency taunt abilities, so she can grab and keep aggro, even in the face of hunter pets running amok.
5. I'm going to set and adhere to personal standards of behavior. Incivility - rolling need on everything, vote-kicking someone for no reason, foul language or rudeness - will be addressed by me. I won't wait for someone else to be the adult. If the situation isn't corrected, or isn't correctable, then sorry. The group will loose their tank.