Friday, February 18, 2011

Having Fun Again

So after a bit of a snag in my progression at the beginning of the week I was given a good uplifting from some comments and went back in there swinging. I got my first raid invite Wednesday evening. Invited as a trial it was my first time raiding in a 25 man raid since killing Archimonde in the Caverns of Time during The Burning Crusade. Pretty exciting stuff and perfect timing as I needed a good raid experience to pump me up, right? Well not so fast, it's still me we're talking about. I was hoping I'd be able to fly under the radar, not get killed by standing in something and at the very least stay middle of the pack on the DPS charts. Off to kill some monster named Altramedes in Blackwing Desent, I was feeling optimistic. A dozen wipes later and only beating the healers in DPS, I knew I was in over my head. Not completely useless I did catch on to the mechanics very quickly and I was able to strafe to the left with the group when I was suppose to, and fortunately for me only got skulled once where I had to strafe to the right away from the group. During the last few attempts I died twice randomly while being in the middle of the group. I still have no idea how it happened because I was moving at the exact same time as everyone else but I'm sure there is a valid reason even though of coarse I think it's because of my dumb luck. Either way it's embarrassing for one and obviously you don't want to stand out in that way especially when you're trying to make a good impression on your first raid with your new guild. Oh ya and it also kills your DPS when you're lying in a pool of your own uselessness. So after repeated wipes, not the which were solely my fault, it was only a matter of time before the frustration of the raid built and courses of action would be taken. Alas I was removed from the group, and I hearthed back to Orgrimmar with my tail between my legs. Thank god for my pets because without sentimental attachment I might have uninstalled the game and hid under my blankets for god knows how long. Ironically when he finally was killed some attempts later, Themios the Darkbringer dropped, not that I would of probably gotten it and certainly wouldn't have deserved it, but a little salt in the wound maybe nonetheless. I thought about shutting it down for the night and trying to forget about WoW but instead a funny thing happened. I started talking to my new friend Sephirothz, a warlock who just happens to appear in an earlier blog posting I made when I didn't know him yet as the one who gave me a reality check when I was so proud of my new Time-Lost mount until he strolled past in his Mimiron's Head. He along with another guild mate Williee, enjoy exploring older content and soloing bosses from earlier expansions and like me enjoy some of the smaller things in this game. The two of them ended up helping me get something I've wanted for a little while now and the last thing I needed for my final collection. More importantly they helped me get over a bad raiding night and I was able to spend the rest of Wednesday and Thursday putting solid hours into Dakona's progression. This entry is turning into a novel so check back with me tomorrow for the rest of the story. Ooooh cliffhanger!! Oh shush.

4 comments:

Saz said...

Good! You got back in there. Now, don't get too discouraged...it was your first time in a 25 since BC, so don't get too down on yourself. If I could tell you how many times I failed...well, let's just say that my guild had a running joke about me: If Saz dies, we'll successfully kill the boss.

*Hangs head*

Yes, my death became the guild's good luck charm. I died at everything. I died, I used my Ankh, popped heroism, usually died again. BC was not kid to me, nor was Naxx in WotLK for me for quite some time. My point is, 99% of the WoW population goes through a learning period. That last 1% are freaks IMO for being so perfect off the bat :P

My advice:
1) Go find a practice dummy. Practice your rotation until you're doing that stuff in your sleep. Once you feel 100% comfortable with your rotation and cool downs, start practicing optimizing your DPS on the move. Start running around, strafing side to side, park, move suddenly...pretend that there's rabid wombats randomly nipping at your heals! You may feel silly at first, but I think it pays off in the long run.

2) Keep up with running heroic dungeons. Not only is it gaining points for gear and occasionally an upgrade, it's good practice. A lot of min/maxing capabilities can be honed in heroics, and I think many people forget that.

3) Look up fights ahead of time, so you know what may be coming up and learn what may have "randomly killed you." http://www.youtube.com/user/ZAMOfficial <--Check out that Youtube channel, focusing specifically on their raid guides. They are awesome about explaining tactics of any given encounter through video.

4) Never give up, never surrender!

...yup, I'm cheesy :P

Dakona said...

Saz you're the best, please don't ever stop commenting... ever!

And you're definitely right, I need to start getting my act together and put some time into practicing my craft. I get ahead of myself and get all caught up in the gear race and don't take the proper steps in getting there. I should of researched that fight before I went in but honestly it caught me off guard and I never expected to jump from heroics to 25 man heroic BWD. But I'm back on track Saz don't worry, you can't keep us tough gals down!

Saz said...

I'll do my best to keep on with the comments : P

I'm honestly usually a horrible commenter, but you're a fellow collector, thus I have a feeling that you're good people and good people tend to get my support.

Man, 25 H-BWD? Here I thought you were just in a regular 25 man. In that case, I give you props for jumping on in there head first. I personally probably would have had major reservations about doing something like that, even with about three years worth of raiding experience under my belt...you have guts girl!

It's definitely rough trying to get into the raiding scene at first. There's only so much you can work on/learn at once, so while you may have a lot to work on yet, pace yourself! Burn out is painful haha. It sounds like you're just about done gearing at least, so that's one thing you can scratch off the list in the quest to become an awesome raider. You have that survival spirit (gogo hunter puns!), so just keep doing what you're doing, and you'll get to where you're going soon enough : )

Also, your new Chromie buddy is horribly wonderful, congrats on the tame! Can't wait to get my butt back into WoW and go tame him on my hunter.

Wolflore said...

As said before don't get discouraged. You jumped into raiding starting with Artramedes. This is not an easy fight as it requires a lot of movement. My guess is that you did not die randomly but rather reached 100 sound at which point Artramedes ganks you.
This is a fight that you should not do as MM.
Try doing Azgalor or Magmaw and I'm sure you will do better.

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