Tag Archives: Joyia

Everyone is a little OCD

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When WoW servers are down, members of the community flock to the Main Forums. Mostly to bemoan the down time, but occasionally to just talk about things they usually only talk to guild members about. These topics can be anything, from hidden places, to new changes, to why Warlocks are far superior to Mages.

One of these that recently caught my eye was: Funny Things You Do In WoW.

Everyone has their own unique quirks. Do you double check your pockets before leaving the house? Do you keep pressing the button until your car honks, plainly telling you “Yes, I am locked, please stop pressing the button”? I do these things. These and dozens of other little quirks, but it never occurred to me, I do these quirks online just as much as I do offline.

Of course there were the common responses like: Always jumping when entering an instance or Always carrying ammo and reagents in even numbered stacks for what is needed to cast it.

This of course got me to pondering all the little OCD things I do when playing WoW.

1. I always log off in an inn. WoW has a mechanic that boosts the amount of experience you can earn if you are “rested”. You earn rest by not playing that character. Rest earned is boosted if you log off in an inn. as a raving altoholic, rest is vital to leveling efficiently. So I always log off in an inn. This thought was so ingrained that as a level 80 toon, I will still do this, despite the fact I no longer need rest.

2. Jumping. Constantly. Much like millions of other players, I get some form of visceral joy out of pressing the space bar repeatedly and watching my little puppet immediately leap to respond to my command. Jump monkey jump! Dance monkey dance! Most players do this, especially people who play Night Elves or Blood Elves as they occasionally flip. I find when I go to play other games I will start hitting the space bar at random times. I am trying to jump. I don’t even think about it, I just try. I also jump when going off ledges, as soon as I mount a flying mount, and when riding through cities.

3. WoW has a ton of iconic lines. Through the course of the game, there are certain places you will go so many times that every detail of the location becomes ingrained in your mind. Some of these iconic lines are voiced, and so you hear them more that anything else. It gets to the point where you parrot the lines. One of my little ticks is every time someone says the first part of a paired line, I say the other. One of these is “Arise my Champion. At your side milady.” from Scarlet Monastery. It became a favorite of my friends to say around me so I would parrot the second line.

4. That’s my banker/auctioneer/trainer. I have very specific people I talk to in each city. I know they NPCs. But I like to think we have a rapport, and they will give me a better price than others. So I always use the same people. I also tend to go to the females. As a female gamer this tick makes a bit of sense.

5. /Wave. As a Warlock, I have a pet. I also have to worry about soul shards (or used to) and so when I want to dismiss my pet, I don’t dismiss him, because then I would lose the soul shard. So instead I change his setting to stay and then run away. When he despawns, I get my shard back. As I run away I wave good bye. Every. Single. Time. I like to think this makes me less of a jerk for abandoning him. I also /hug and /love non-combat pets frequently. My own and other player’s. /slap is reserved for my imp when he does bad things, which he frequently does.

6. One of the most disturbing things I constantly did was back in Burning Crusade when Warlocks had a talent that let them sacrifice their pet and gain a buff. So I would summon my Succubus, hug her, flirt with her, kiss her, laugh at her and then sacrifice her.

We all have our little ticks, but WoW players, much like other rpg players have their own little way of doing things. From organizing bags a certain way, to pull orders, we all tend to stick to a set pattern.

Everyone is a little OCD

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When WoW servers are down, members of the community flock to the Main Forums. Mostly to bemoan the down time, but occasionally to just talk about things they usually only talk to guild members about. These topics can be anything, from hidden places, to new changes, to why Warlocks are far superior to Mages.

One of these that recently caught my eye was: Funny Things You Do In WoW.

Everyone has their own unique quirks. Do you double check your pockets before leaving the house? Do you keep pressing the button until your car honks, plainly telling you “Yes, I am locked, please stop pressing the button”? I do these things. These and dozens of other little quirks, but it never occurred to me, I do these quirks online just as much as I do offline.

Of course there were the common responses like: Always jumping when entering an instance or Always carrying ammo and reagents in even numbered stacks for what is needed to cast it.

This of course got me to pondering all the little OCD things I do when playing WoW.

1. I always log off in an inn. WoW has a mechanic that boosts the amount of experience you can earn if you are “rested”. You earn rest by not playing that character. Rest earned is boosted if you log off in an inn. as a raving altoholic, rest is vital to leveling efficiently. So I always log off in an inn. This thought was so ingrained that as a level 80 toon, I will still do this, despite the fact I no longer need rest.

2. Jumping. Constantly. Much like millions of other players, I get some form of visceral joy out of pressing the space bar repeatedly and watching my little puppet immediately leap to respond to my command. Jump monkey jump! Dance monkey dance! Most players do this, especially people who play Night Elves or Blood Elves as they occasionally flip. I find when I go to play other games I will start hitting the space bar at random times. I am trying to jump. I don’t even think about it, I just try. I also jump when going off ledges, as soon as I mount a flying mount, and when riding through cities.

3. WoW has a ton of iconic lines. Through the course of the game, there are certain places you will go so many times that every detail of the location becomes ingrained in your mind. Some of these iconic lines are voiced, and so you hear them more that anything else. It gets to the point where you parrot the lines. One of my little ticks is every time someone says the first part of a paired line, I say the other. One of these is “Arise my Champion. At your side milady.” from Scarlet Monastery. It became a favorite of my friends to say around me so I would parrot the second line.

4. That’s my banker/auctioneer/trainer. I have very specific people I talk to in each city. I know they NPCs. But I like to think we have a rapport, and they will give me a better price than others. So I always use the same people. I also tend to go to the females. As a female gamer this tick makes a bit of sense.

5. /Wave. As a Warlock, I have a pet. I also have to worry about soul shards (or used to) and so when I want to dismiss my pet, I don’t dismiss him, because then I would lose the soul shard. So instead I change his setting to stay and then run away. When he despawns, I get my shard back. As I run away I wave good bye. Every. Single. Time. I like to think this makes me less of a jerk for abandoning him. I also /hug and /love non-combat pets frequently. My own and other player’s. /slap is reserved for my imp when he does bad things, which he frequently does.

6. One of the most disturbing things I constantly did was back in Burning Crusade when Warlocks had a talent that let them sacrifice their pet and gain a buff. So I would summon my Succubus, hug her, flirt with her, kiss her, laugh at her and then sacrifice her.

We all have our little ticks, but WoW players, much like other rpg players have their own little way of doing things. From organizing bags a certain way, to pull orders, we all tend to stick to a set pattern.

Steelseries BlizzCon Sweepstakes

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At some point in September Steelseries, the makers of World of Warcraft peripherals, hosted a sweepstakes. The grand prize? A trip for 2 to BlizzCon. Plane tickets, hotel rooms, two passes to the convention, and $300 spending money. For anyone who missed out on the ticket sales (or just didn’t get through), this was a last chance to maybe get to go.

I, of course, entered. Why not? I had nothing to lose and something awesome to gain. Not that I ever expected to win. Some of the lesser prizes were going to be the Steelseries mice, which I have wanted to try since I first saw them. But I am not shelling out that much money on a mouse I have no idea if I will like. I got my friends to enter as well, and joked that if they won, they had to take me.

The contest was a partnership between Steelseries, Jinx, Brady Games, and Cryptozoic. I have many of the strategy guides, despite them being outdated from the off. I collect the ccg despite rarely playing (I still want a spectral tiger), and I have bought so much WoW stuff from Jinx that I am a Champion on their little exp thing. If anyone deserved to win, I did.

I then promptly forgot all about it. After all, with 12 million players, my chances were pretty close to 1 in a few million. We are talking about the person who took 40+ runs to get a phoenix pet. There wasn’t any chance I was gonna win, so I didn’t even think about it.

Fast forward to October 8th. I am standing in line for Jury Duty. I am texting a friend discussing what I will do if I am not selected. She suggested something wickedly awesome and I replied with “That would be great! Well, thanks for jinxing me.” Laughing over this, my phone rang. It was this same number that had been calling me all week. I didn’t recognize it, and they never left messages, so as always, I ignored it and went back to texting. Then my phone buzzes again.

I have an email. From Steelseries. Asking me to please call them back, (that same number) as I had won a prize. I was shocked. Dude, I actually won something? The jury line moved forward. I was definitely gonna get picked now. It’s just the way my luck works. So I called the number back.

The guy on the other end was quite excited to finally talk to me and told me the good news. Our conversation went something like this:

Him – “You won a trip to BlizzCon.”

Me – “Seriously? Are you kidding me?”

Him – “Yes, I need to confirm your address, and we will get everything rolling.”

Me – “Seriously? Are you kidding me?”

Him – “Yes.”

Me – “Wait… I won the GRAND PRIZE?!?”

Him – “Yes. Do you still live at this address —-.”

Me – “I won the trip TO BLIZZCON?”

Lather rinse and repeat for the next 10 minutes while the line moved forward. I could feel that really wild adrenaline rush you get when you find out you got that awesome job, approved for a new car, or whatever seems exceptionally awesome. My hands started to shake. I couldn’t catch my breath and felt light headed. I got off the phone (almost to the counter now.) Turned in my paper work and sat down.

I was definitely gonna get picked for a jury now. And one of those long ones too. How was I ever gonna explain to a judge that I just won my dream trip and I needed to not be on a jury this month?

I texted my husband “I think I just won a trip to BlizzCon.” The same was posted on Facebook moments later. My heart beat even faster. Part of my brain was shouting, It’s a trick! It’s not possible! You roll ones on mounts and BiS gear! You have run Stratholm 155 times, with no mount drop! I tried not to get too excited.

A man walked up to the front of the jury room. “You are all excused. You shouldn’t receive another summons for 2 years. Have a good weekend.” Clearly, I had entered a portal somewhere and was in bizarro world.

I checked my mail on my phone, sure enough, there was a message from Steelseries explaining the plane tickets and hotel room. Now I had a dilemma, who was I gonna take? My husband, while obvious, doesn’t play WoW. He barely puts up with me talking about WoW around the house. My mind immediately flashed over people in my guild and landed rather quickly on one person. Pinecone. Pinecone has worked with me twice in the past, once even as my boss. Pinecone helped me power level my now main warlock. Pinecone heals Tuesday night raids. Pinecone and I commuted to work together for 8 months and talked about WoW nearly every single day.

I asked him on im if he thought his wife would let him go to BlizzCon. His response “I guess. WAIT. Are you inviting me?!?” Needless to say, he convinced his wife to let him come with me.

Now here we are. A week before BlizzCon. Plane tickets purchased. Hotel room paid for. Just waiting for October 21st. Waiting for BlizzCon. Every so often I remember I won and that moment of shock comes rushing back. I seriously can’t believe it, even now. I don’t win things. Ever. I didn’t get Muradin’s spyglass until everyone else who could use it had theirs. And yet, here I had won a Grand Prize, paid trip to BlizzCon of all places.

And if that weren’t just the icing on the cake, I was goofing off in Stratholm the same weekend and wouldn’t you know, the reins dropped. When it rains it pours I guess. Also, I really feel like I should pick up the mouse now. 🙂

Tank, Heals, or DPS.

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Just recently I entered the newest chapter of the saga that WoW has been for the last 4 years of my life. I transferred severs, and factions, to join a group of friends and in doing so brought my tank to a place where she was not only needed but welcome.

When I first raided, I raided as a warlock. I was a die hard fan of affliction and yet, bowing to guild pressure, became a shadowbolt spammer in Burning Crusade. At 80, I returned to affliction only to be disappointed that I had to work ten times as hard to achieve the same goals. After a time I decided I had hit the cap as far as a Warlock was concerned and looked to changing over to a new class. I had acquired my second account by this point and so set about leveling to 80 with a shiny new Death Knight and Priest duo. The Priest simply followed while my Death Knight ripped everything to shreds. It was quite simple, after all the DK was more than over powered and only required the occasional heal. Once the duo reached 80 I entered the wonderful world of raid healing with my Priest. So this is the point where I feel I am finally able to outline the differences between the three roles.

DPS is very simple. Target the tank. Target what the tank has targeted. Kill it. With a few exceptions or special case fights where you attack other things, for the most part this is how you raid. Stay out of bad stuff and kill the big thing. Specs, rotations and cooldowns aside, you generally use a select few of your major class skills and kill whatever it is that needs killing.

Healing is much harder. You have 25 targets and have to keep all the green bars as far to the right as possible. To be fair, it is a very difficult thing to do and requires a great deal of concentration. But for the most part it is whack-a-mole, especially in a large raid setting. In Dungeons it is a bit easier, with only 5 moles to worry about, most focused on a single player. If people die, you get blamed. However, I have noticed, healers as a whole get blamed, generally not a specific healer. It could be a dozen problems, most likely a squishy DPS pulled aggro or the tank is trying to tank in the wrong presence/stance/spec/gear, etc.

But of the three roles, I have found tanking to be the hardest, most stressful, and least enjoyable.

First, my gear is focused on Defense, so I can never do anything “awesome”. I don’t kill things quickly, I don’t have huge crits. Second, my repair bills are outrageous. DPS and Heals can avoid being hit and thus their gear lasts longer between repairs. After 3 heroics I have a 40g repair bill, without deaths. Third, it is apparently my job to save the stupid idiot who didn’t watch where he was going and aggroed a second group. These are very similar to the DPS who are so focused on being the top of the charts that they ignore the threat they are producing. The worst of these will blame me for *not* producing enough threat, even though they have top tier gear and I have gear two levels below them. If I die, the healer isn’t blamed, I am.

It really comes down to the fact that DPS can hide in a group of 15 (or more) other people, Healers can hide in a group of 8 (or more), but Tanks… well there is usually only one main tank and one off tank. You have your roles and if you fail, regardless of reason, you have 24 people who blame you. All the focus is on you. No pressure.