In my monomaniac drive to improve my shaman's gear and more importantly play with some spec ideas for enhancement (I've currently started testing this one with Glyph of Fire Nova, which gets Fire Nova down from 10 seconds to 3, meaning that on heavy trash pulls I can weave a Fire Nova blast in-between pretty much every other ability I have), I've been hitting the random dungeon feature like it owes me money. As a result, I've had some good runs, some bad runs, and some unintentionally hilarious runs, like the all draenei run in Caverns of Time Stratholme which degenerated into "Don't mind us, we're totally human and do not have any hooves or tentacles at all" comments for pretty much the entire run. "Eredar? What's that? Never heard of it. Totally normal humans from this appropriate time period, that's us."
I've started to recognize some names that pop up over and over again. I've had the same paladin tank for quite a few runs now. She always thanks the group, is unfailingly nice, and pulls like someone told her that there was delicious candy at the end of the instance. I asked her if I could mention her name in this post and she begged me not to, but be on the lookout for a very nice, very speedy paladin tank in the Stormstrike battlegroup. I've yet to regret a run with her.
So how about you? Seen any familiar faces yet, come to know any good players, or made any other accidental discoveries that you're glad you came across?
I was doing H HoS on Random LFG 3 days ago and after we downed the last boss, to make sure I don't get ninja'd on the Frozen Orb-I got ninja'd 2 times earlier that day- I said on party chat "all need", however my party members misunderstood it and rolled need on all items! They even told me that I was a ninja and that they were blacklisting me. Then they left group immediately aftwerwards.
I would have been incredibly confused if someone said "all need" while we were in the middle of rolling for loot, with some people clicking the buttons right away due to their own assumed loot rules, and you attempting to change them in the middle of rolling for loot. If I'd rolled greed on something right away, then saw someone give a command to need it, I'd be pretty angry and call you a ninja too.
Also, I wouldn't have any idea that that instruction means I'm supposed to roll need on the frozen orb. You didn't say anything about the frozen orb! All you said was "all need"!
Why is it so hard for people to type out their words? Could you not have spoken up before the boss, something to the tune of "after we kill the boss, everyone roll need on the frozen orb so that nobody can ninja it." See? Perfectly reasonable and coherent.
You would be suprised how someone missing the jump at Anomolous in Nexus turns a super killer elite group into a pile of hysterics as the rogue is confused how he completly missed the target.
In all my runs through the Nexus instance, one class stands out heads and shoulders above all others (*ahem* or perhaps not...) in this regard, namely:
Gnome Warlocks.
They seem to have the unfailing ability to either land on the little ledge from which you cannot get up from, or fall straight down the chasm through the larger crack more to the left... Amazing. Just, amazing!
Don't ask me why. It just is this way, it seems. :D
Sounds exactly like the last Nex run i did. The tank, the rogue, and me... We all laughed it off, but it was the first time I'd ever missed the jump, and made me feel like a complete idiot.
As a gnome warlock I can say that I've never missed the jump. I have, however, caused quite a stir when jumping from a platform onto the ground (I was following everyone else) instead of going around and taking the ramp down. One thing I forgot, however, is that my felguard refuses to take the easy way down and so as I jumped he decided to take the ramp, aggroing a whole new mob of elites.
"One thing I forgot, however, is that my felguard refuses to take the easy way down and so as I jumped he decided to take the ramp, aggroing a whole new mob of elites."
That is the sole reason anyone still summons imps.
As a hunter, I get the same problem with my pet, so I have taken to always dismissing him while we're fighting the last trash pull before jumping down.
Had some great runs - really smooth, fast pulls, tank and dps knew what they were doing and when, healer was never strained (even after getting feared into 2 additional groups at one stage). End of the runs, group said thanks, waved, left. Nice and easy.
Hated the VH run with the Hardcore raiders that couldn't concentrate on the run at hand and instead waffled on about their various alts and gearing up, teething problems with different specs... My guildy and I may not have even existed. Didn't even say a word at the end, just killed the boss, waited for loot distribution and left.
Had a pally like the one mentioned in the article too. Didn't stop at all, not even to wait for the healr to catch us up. Didn't have any problems handling the mobs without heals though.
I've taken to DPSing on most of the non-ToC/ICC instances. Earth shield and an occasional riptide on a geared tank, geared DPS staying out of cleaves and fires... Might as well. Magma totem/fire nova puts out a good deal of DPS in Culling of Stratholme.
I got a druid healer with a Valanyr from one of my random runs. That was neat. I'd never seen it in action before, and given that I was wearing my block set, he pretty much went to sleep during the instance.
The worst thing I keep getting is the tank/healer pairs who don't get the game mechanics. It's always a "tank" wearing two pieces of tank gear, at best, and his healer buddy who insists that he can keep the tank alive. Yeah . . . not that that doesn't sound painful or anything, but that sounds absolutely atrocious. I've yet to stick around for those groups, but it's happened to me several times now.
I had two runs on consecutive days where the healer had Valanyr. Lemme tell you, that poor pally must have been bored out of his mind healing with that mace on an overgeared group in UK. The priest in Old Kingdom was bubbling the crap out of everyone, too. The proc rate on that thing must be pretty good.
One of my guild tanks insisted on tanking Heroic Forge of Souls and Heroic Pit of Saron in his tanking set... except for his santa outfit. He was still def capped and over 42k hp. I'm not sure the pugs appreciated it, but as the healer, he was fine. He tends to pull as much as possible in an attempt to make me go OOM as a pally healer. So far he's only succeeded once in H:PoS, and I'm pretty sure that was a pull gone horribly awry.
Oh, I wouldn't mind if the tank had been uncrittable, but that was not the case. He was wearing heirloom gear, DPS trinkets, etc. Only two pieces of gear with Defense on it, and they were both the Tempered Saronite gear! Not a chance he was able to tank that effectively.
I did a random H OK a few days ago, though I was not excited about the instance, I found the group to be amazing. At first I thought it was going to be one of those speedy silent runs but soon we were all chatting and goofing around, while getting some very hard achievements with ease. I ended up joining their vent (I was the only pug) and we chatted away whilst doing 6 or more instances together. They made such an impact on me that I ended up making an alt on their server just to try and sync up with them.
Dec 19th 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Kaelnuke Dec 19th 2009 8:05AM
Try having an entire party with people from Russia, I can tell you. It was quite the quiet instance run.
And then you have the usual ''I'm not here to make friends but get loot'' Ok, but could you stop ninja pulling. Thanks.
Kristian Dec 19th 2009 8:06AM
I was doing H HoS on Random LFG 3 days ago and after we downed the last boss, to make sure I don't get ninja'd on the Frozen Orb-I got ninja'd 2 times earlier that day- I said on party chat "all need", however my party members misunderstood it and rolled need on all items! They even told me that I was a ninja and that they were blacklisting me. Then they left group immediately aftwerwards.
Jack Miles Dec 19th 2009 11:29AM
Actually, that sounds like they were ninjas, and just used an excuse to avoid being given a bad rep.
vexis58 Dec 19th 2009 9:41PM
I would have been incredibly confused if someone said "all need" while we were in the middle of rolling for loot, with some people clicking the buttons right away due to their own assumed loot rules, and you attempting to change them in the middle of rolling for loot. If I'd rolled greed on something right away, then saw someone give a command to need it, I'd be pretty angry and call you a ninja too.
Also, I wouldn't have any idea that that instruction means I'm supposed to roll need on the frozen orb. You didn't say anything about the frozen orb! All you said was "all need"!
Why is it so hard for people to type out their words? Could you not have spoken up before the boss, something to the tune of "after we kill the boss, everyone roll need on the frozen orb so that nobody can ninja it." See? Perfectly reasonable and coherent.
Earnshaw Dec 19th 2009 8:12AM
You would be suprised how someone missing the jump at Anomolous in Nexus turns a super killer elite group into a pile of hysterics as the rogue is confused how he completly missed the target.
Faar Dec 19th 2009 9:11AM
In all my runs through the Nexus instance, one class stands out heads and shoulders above all others (*ahem* or perhaps not...) in this regard, namely:
Gnome Warlocks.
They seem to have the unfailing ability to either land on the little ledge from which you cannot get up from, or fall straight down the chasm through the larger crack more to the left... Amazing. Just, amazing!
Don't ask me why. It just is this way, it seems. :D
Jalaris.Ghostlands Dec 19th 2009 10:33AM
Had a Nex run where three people in a row missed the jump and fell to their deaths. Me and the Tank sat on the lower platform laughing our asses off.
rawrawrawr Dec 19th 2009 10:50AM
Sounds exactly like the last Nex run i did. The tank, the rogue, and me...
We all laughed it off, but it was the first time I'd ever missed the jump, and made me feel like a complete idiot.
Reuben Dec 19th 2009 11:05AM
As a gnome warlock I can say that I've never missed the jump. I have, however, caused quite a stir when jumping from a platform onto the ground (I was following everyone else) instead of going around and taking the ramp down. One thing I forgot, however, is that my felguard refuses to take the easy way down and so as I jumped he decided to take the ramp, aggroing a whole new mob of elites.
I really wish he could just jump with me
:-(
Jack Miles Dec 19th 2009 11:31AM
"One thing I forgot, however, is that my felguard refuses to take the easy way down and so as I jumped he decided to take the ramp, aggroing a whole new mob of elites."
That is the sole reason anyone still summons imps.
Gemini Dec 19th 2009 1:33PM
As a hunter, I get the same problem with my pet, so I have taken to always dismissing him while we're fighting the last trash pull before jumping down.
Zhiva Dec 19th 2009 2:07PM
That's why I cast Slow Fall on everyone. Just in case.
Kaid Dec 19th 2009 9:10PM
I never actually realised it was possible to miss the jump.
Now I know, you can bet I'll do it every time :(
Arcticwolf Dec 19th 2009 8:19AM
Had some great runs - really smooth, fast pulls, tank and dps knew what they were doing and when, healer was never strained (even after getting feared into 2 additional groups at one stage). End of the runs, group said thanks, waved, left. Nice and easy.
Hated the VH run with the Hardcore raiders that couldn't concentrate on the run at hand and instead waffled on about their various alts and gearing up, teething problems with different specs... My guildy and I may not have even existed. Didn't even say a word at the end, just killed the boss, waited for loot distribution and left.
Had a pally like the one mentioned in the article too. Didn't stop at all, not even to wait for the healr to catch us up. Didn't have any problems handling the mobs without heals though.
Qot Dec 19th 2009 1:57PM
"healer was never strained"
I've taken to DPSing on most of the non-ToC/ICC instances. Earth shield and an occasional riptide on a geared tank, geared DPS staying out of cleaves and fires... Might as well. Magma totem/fire nova puts out a good deal of DPS in Culling of Stratholme.
Hal Dec 19th 2009 8:21AM
I got a druid healer with a Valanyr from one of my random runs. That was neat. I'd never seen it in action before, and given that I was wearing my block set, he pretty much went to sleep during the instance.
The worst thing I keep getting is the tank/healer pairs who don't get the game mechanics. It's always a "tank" wearing two pieces of tank gear, at best, and his healer buddy who insists that he can keep the tank alive. Yeah . . . not that that doesn't sound painful or anything, but that sounds absolutely atrocious. I've yet to stick around for those groups, but it's happened to me several times now.
Lunatick Dec 19th 2009 1:11PM
I had two runs on consecutive days where the healer had Valanyr. Lemme tell you, that poor pally must have been bored out of his mind healing with that mace on an overgeared group in UK. The priest in Old Kingdom was bubbling the crap out of everyone, too. The proc rate on that thing must be pretty good.
Caelys Dec 20th 2009 1:35AM
One of my guild tanks insisted on tanking Heroic Forge of Souls and Heroic Pit of Saron in his tanking set... except for his santa outfit. He was still def capped and over 42k hp. I'm not sure the pugs appreciated it, but as the healer, he was fine. He tends to pull as much as possible in an attempt to make me go OOM as a pally healer. So far he's only succeeded once in H:PoS, and I'm pretty sure that was a pull gone horribly awry.
Hal Dec 20th 2009 7:17AM
Oh, I wouldn't mind if the tank had been uncrittable, but that was not the case. He was wearing heirloom gear, DPS trinkets, etc. Only two pieces of gear with Defense on it, and they were both the Tempered Saronite gear! Not a chance he was able to tank that effectively.
Gush Dec 19th 2009 8:41AM
I did a random H OK a few days ago, though I was not excited about the instance, I found the group to be amazing. At first I thought it was going to be one of those speedy silent runs but soon we were all chatting and goofing around, while getting some very hard achievements with ease. I ended up joining their vent (I was the only pug) and we chatted away whilst doing 6 or more instances together. They made such an impact on me that I ended up making an alt on their server just to try and sync up with them.