Ald Demo

Liberator of Orgrimmar

1:25 AM Liberator of Orgrimmar , World of Warcraft

Ahead of the Curve: Garrosh Hellscream (25)

The one time oQueue doesn't let me down or crush my soul into complete nothingness, something wonderful happens. After countless terrible groups filled with players that rage quit after one wipe, i was lucky enough to find a level headed group to get my first Garrosh Hellscream kill on normal difficulty. Ironically enough it was the 25-man version instead of the 10-man version that i complete first.

Usually the larger version breaks out into a cesspool of nasty name calling and blame game nonsense that inevitably ends early due to a lack of suitable replacements. Not this time though! While i got a new fancy title and mount out of the kill, the real reward was finally downing the bastard. I'm not sure if the heroic version is ever going to happen since i don't really have a guild, but i'll sure as hell try once my gear improves. For now i feel relieved.

Garrosh Puts Out

6:34 PM Hellscream's Decapitator , World of Warcraft

I was finally able to get my account bound weapon off Garrosh on Flex difficulty. Now that i have my Hellscream's Decapitator, i can honestly say it has to be the ugliest weapon in the entire game. In fact, all of the account bound weapons are just terrible aesthetically in my opinion. While they do fit the theme of the encounter, there's just nothing flashy or jaw dropping about them. They look very run of the mill which is sad for a final encounter loot table. Maybe i'm the only one who thinks so but i seriously can't be. Hurray for transmog's.

Miners Welcome

10:18 AM Mining , World of Warcraft

I finally managed to get off one of my alts and finish up my second profession on my DK. I went with mining simply for the money making aspect of funding my engineering. I mean who doesn't like pulling money out of the ground? Well i had it sitting on 450 for months and never bothered to finish it off since i already completed engineering. Then i realized how much money i would be saving as i hit the trillium bar stage of the legendary cape quest on two of my alts. It was enough to get me off my ass and on a mining spree. Thanks to the Spirits of Harmony trade in NPC, this stage is now basically free.

Slayer of the Lifeless

3:52 AM Frost Death Knight , Slayer of the Lifeless , World of Warcraft

I've been accused of being very particular. It's true but i just chalk it up to knowing what i like and what i want. In this case, i'm huge sucker for anything dual wield. Take that to the next level and i'm a huge sucker for dual wield that happens to sheath on the back instead of on the waist/hip/sides. It's just something i personally find aesthetically pleasing within the realm of fantasy.

This aspect is more normally found within the realm of eastern MMO's for some reason or another as apposed to within western. There are exceptions of course but within the realm of WoW and narrowed down even further to Death Knights, there aren't many. Slayer of the Lifeless is one of those exceptions that fits the criteria and looks really good with my whole Frost blue theme. After about a month of farming Naxxramas, the sucker finally decided to drop. My transmog obsession continues.

World of Warcraft Slayer of the Lifeless

Frosty Mage

8:19 PM Frost Mage , Hailstorm , World of Warcraft

It was about time i headed into the Eye of Eternity to get myself a Hailstorm for my Mage to complete my Frost transmog set. I mean what frost set of any kind is complete without a Hailstorm anyways? Get it together, of course the answer is none. How much more frost could a frost set be without a frosty sword? The answer is none, none more frost. Spinal Tap would be proud.

No Quartet

2:44 PM Destruction Warlock , World of Warcraft

There's an achievement for having five level 90's but none for having four. Since my Warlock makes four now for me, i decided to make my own and call it No Quartet. It'll make its appearance towards the end of Houses of the Holy and set an eerie mood for the rest of the leveling process. Speaking of mood, i don't want to see another Spotted Swarmer for a very long time.

I quickly grabbed some transmog gear for Warlock that'll fit the whole green fire motif. I know, it's so original and new, but i'm a sucker for themes sometimes. I need to work on a better main hand weapon which will probably be some kind of green sword of course. After some gearing up i'll probably start the quest for actual green fire that'll set the whole thing off.

Lock, Stock and Two Crazy Minions

2:37 AM Warlock. , World of Warcraft

My Shaman game plan took a crazy detour when i created an Undead Warlock on a whim. The plan was to create one just to get myself a decent name reserved and then go back to leveling a Shaman. Well once i started messing around with some abilities, there was no going back. It just sort of happened and before i knew it i was level 30. I said what the hell and continued on and managed to hit 80 just spamming dungeons. Onward to another class at 90 soon hopefully. I haven't forgot about you Shaman, you're next.

LFR Hero - Garrosh Hellscream

4:06 PM Frost Death Knight , Garrosh Hellscream , Siege of Orgrimmar , World of Warcraft

The 14th and final boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid is the war chief himself. A really longer encounter sometimes lasting 15-20 minutes depending on the overall gear level of the raid. As with any longer encounter such as this, the majority of mistakes and wipes happen in the final minute. I've lost count of how many demoralized groups have broken up after multiple wipes in the final 5%. Even on this ridiculously easy and largely nerfed version made for everyone, i see so many players incapable of managing basic mechanics.

After my first tier experience with the Looking for Raid feature, i can see the good with the bad. I like the concept of allowing players who would otherwise never see this content the ability to do so. It serves its function for story and role playing purposes pretty well. It also gives lots of repeatable content to a larger demographic and makes the game feel more active and bustling. All of this comes at a cost though but i'm not sure whether that matters to the players this system if directed towards.

I'm going to ignore a negative that raiders would probably put at the top of the list which would be that non-raiders have no business seeing this content to begin with. I somewhat agree with this stance but that's more of an opinion than anything else. I don't feel this stance is elitist, as some would say, but more of a reward for going on a long journey involving teamwork and sometimes sacrifice of ones time.

Instead i'll start off with the obvious and bring up just how poorly a system of nerfed content trains its players. I can't seem to get through one encounter before i see the "who cares it's just LFR" comment start to get tossed around. It's a poor excuse that players seem to rely on when something goes wrong instead of owning up to their own mistakes. Why get out of fire or try to avoid mechanics when they can be mostly either ignored or healed through? Well for a large potion of the players it doesn't matter because they have no desire to go any farther than LFR. If players want to be mediocre and not push themselves to be better then they have the right to do so if the system pretty much encourages this behavior.

The problem becomes magnified when those players inevitably decide to spill over into actual raids with mechanics as originally designed for raiders. These players are extremely important for refilling guilds ranks of former players that have moved on and no longer playing. Unfortunately more times than not these players have simply not been trained properly for what's expected of them. I've seen this so many times and it's a negative aspect for both parties. Raiding guilds end up assuming everyone is terrible and players looking to get better assume all raiders are elitist jerks.

I'm not using a poor system as an excuse for lousy play. At the end of the day, it's on the player to better his or her self. I do question whether or not a system such as LFR removes the drive to do so. When players can see all the content there is, even at an extremely undertuned level, do they then stop chasing that carrot that pretty much drives the genre? Do they become complacent or apathetic? I'd argue they do but hasn't it always been like this in some form or another?

LFR Hero - Paragons of the Klaxxi

2:35 PM Frost Death Knight , Paragons of the Klaxxi , Siege of Orgrimmar , World of Warcraft

The 13th and second to last encounter in Siege of Orgrimmar is another council type fight. As usual, not one of my favorite design wise as it seems to drag on forever. We all know the trash packs after this fight are the real danger!