Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Honeymoon Is Over... Dungeons Or Bust...

At this point, I have mostly reduced my playtime to running instances. It seems to be the best and the fastest way to get things I want. I have had various groups, some of them I really liked, some I knew right away we were going to die. I have become a little bit like that which I really hate. I am getting snobby because I don't want to waste my time teaching the tank, the healer, or another DPS how to get er done. I just want to run and go back to what I was doing before. Kind of sad isn't it? Someone brought it to my attention, and it makes me think about it now.

According to many folks over on Tobold's blog, 2K DPS is good for level 80 wearing blues. Well, the funny thing is, that both my Warlock and my DK do usually around 2K (1800-2400), but that was just recently when I started to get Triumph gear. I have only been punted out of a group twice. Once was when I was playing my level 40 Shammy and accidently did a bad pull and we all died. Once was with my Warlock, and I LD'd just before the boss fight, and happened to get back in just in time to roll on lewt. I didn't even win anything, I passed on it all since I was the one that crashed.

I have looked at places that show you what a good rotation for spells would be for certian specs, and I have tried many different specs, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to work my Warlock, or my DK for that matter, better as anything else then what they are. I am Hybrid on both, and I don't do well when I change that. So, is it better for me to risk getting kicked by running a hybrid only pulling 2K DPS, or not play at all because as any other spec, I do around 500 DPS. I don't know, I think as long as you are doing your job, you should be allowed to play.

Most of the groups I run with now seem to be way over-geared and any contribution I make has to be ultra-fast because these guys can burn mobs faster then I can place my AOE on the ground. I think they are just looking for the fast badge runs, and I can deal with that. I also see that most people are still fairly nice about offering suggestions or trying to help out. I had a guy tell me that using Seed Of Corruption over the regular Corruption would almost double my DPS. So, I have been trying it, although I am still a little uncomfortable with using it. The trick is to target and shoot multiple targets with the seed. Well, that takes a bit of time, and then if I doen't have enough AOE targets left, then my DPS still suffers. I have it to where I will only dot three, and then go to AOE, or if there is only one using my single rotation of dots and Shadow Bolts. My Warlock was doing about 1200 - 1400 DPS, until I changed that one spell in my rotation. It was like a veil was lifted from my mind, and I could now see me doing something better. Now she sees 1800 - 2400 DPS as long as there are a lot of AOE targets.

To be honest though, and I don't know how these guys do it, but 2K DPS in most of the groups I run with now is still very low. I see 3K and 4K often now, and it amazes me each time, because I don't know if I will ever see that happen with any of my toons. Do I even want that to happen, and am I willing to even go the extra mile to investigate as to how it might happen? It's a tough call at this point.

I think that we are putting too much effort into trying to have this "perfect toon" that does all the DPS, is the greatest Tank, or the best Healer. It sort of takes the fun out of the game if you ask me. I would rather just go in there, kick some ass and take no prisoners. I am sort of casual and I switch toons a lot anyway. It gets frustrating to come back to a toon I know is not up to specs with the larger group of dungeon divers. At least in PvP, I already know my gear is always 2 seasons behind, and I am okay with that. I am in groups anyway, and I do alright for myself.

At the lower levels, I have tried to learn to be truly hybrid and use all of my skills in the dungeons instead of just blasting DPS. For example, with my Druid and my Shammy, I am often called upon to save the healer or the tank. If the healer runs out of mana, and I have my druid, I can refil his mana. I can also take over healing or tanking by a simple flip of a switch or button press. It is also possible that if I see a wipe is eminent, that if I am a Shammy, then I get away from the remaining monsters so I can self-rez and bring folks back to life. If the tank bites the dust, I can usually step in there and stay alive with either of those toons. There are many spells, and things I have been learning to do that help the party survive, but they aren't rewarded unless I am also running high DPS. Well, I can't say that is always true. I have gotten a kudo or two for saving the healer or the tanks skin, but the DPS guys just keep on truckin.

I really don't do well with the DPS on either the Shaman or the Druid. Fact is, I just don't know how. I do pretty good with the mage, but they are about as straight forward as you can get. I know which spells will throw down the most damage, and I shoot them. I try to use spells that don't take up a lot of time, and of course, especially as a mage, you have to watch that mana usage. In most of the groups now, the tank won't even sit still for the healer to mana up, so I try to make sure I am always ready to hit the next group quickly. I still have a lot to learn about playing my alts yet. I do learn stuff from watching the other players. I will often mimic what they do if I believe that the person is doing what they are "supposed" to be doing.

Well, that's all I got at this point... Join us next time for WTF take 3?

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