I may not be anywhere as exciting as hearing Jong live on Twisted Nether today, but it’s almost as cute…

No, not Gnomeaggedon!

The little “birdy” over his shoulder.

Apparently, after 5 years I actully managed to log on at the right time,

I got sent the letter of thanks (no not 5 years worth of subscription money attached).

So we are all drakeling’d up!

But wait there’s more…

Speaking of novelty items…

Notice anything different between the first screenshots and this?

No, can’t see the differemce?

How about in the Sqiud machine!

That’s tight…

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout! from Armageddon’s Coming!

TNB Live Friday 11/20 8pm PST – Jong of Forbearance – http://bit.ly/093lWNQ

Sorry, no time for a pretty post, I’m too busy doing my hair in anticipation of Jong’s appearance on TNB tonight!

Assuming I can reclaim the PC from Odin, I will see you there!

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and I’m sooo excited!

The question was asked on Twisted Nether Blogcast the other day

Where are the Resto Shaman Blogs?

Ok, that wasn’t the question, but for once I was “there” so I am just quoting based on my short term memory.

My immediate response was to reel of a series of blogs that deal to some extent or another with Resto Shaman.

You can find them on my ReadByGnome page as well as listed out below, but still it raised an interesting thought.

• Priest blogs… Dime a dozen
• Tree Blogs… Just waiting for the forest fire to thin them out…
• Pally Blogs… Boring… Well how much can you write about one, maybe two healing spells.
• Resto Shamanism seems to be one of those areas that suffer as much burnout as altaholics grinding Argent Crusade rep.

I Know Nuffink!

I can’t say that I have gotten to the point where I feel knowledgeable enough to write guides on gear, specs etc.

I have contemplated writing some stiff on healing various instances, after all I am in the thick of it right now and knowing when to drop the cleansing totem or tremor totem is as, if not more, important than whether to cast healing wave, lease healing wave or chain heal.

I haven’t done so yet though, in fact I realize now I haven’t even read any on the topic. I know Jagerbombz wrote some back in the early days of Wrath, but I haven’t yet read then in the dying days.

So I guess I have a couple of questions.

Where are the Resto Shaman Bloggers and the resources they can offer?

and

Why do they appear and disappear quicker than a flame totem?

• I don’t know that it’s too easy.
• Maybe it’s too hard.
  Not so much to play, but rather to teach.

Born to Kill

I think one of the things I like about the Resto Shaman is it really seems suited to PvP.

Not that it’s OP, but rather that it requires the same flexibility in thinking. You may enter an encounter with one set of totems, using one style of healing, but come out the other side with completely different skills in use.

Can you teach that?

Can you write a guide on how to NOT have a strategy, rather to get into the flow, anticipate and act?

Needless to say, I don’t have any answers, but I’m not hanging up the blogging boots any time soon and if I find some time I will try to write something that vaguely resembles a shaman guide or two… Right after I write a Mage guide or two… kk

The game isn’t just for the Old Skool, there are plenty of folks (like me) that have just discovered their new passion.

After all, those that know how to play their Mages and Shaman only read this blog to laugh at the stupidity I spout, there is a whole group of suckers waiting to be misled by this Gnome and his Chain Heal throwing mate.

So if you do write (or have the desire to write) a Resto Shaman blog, remember that we aren’t all skipping Ulduar because it’s beneath us.  Many of us are still trying to work out which way up the totems go (and the packaging gives no indication!).

So don’t be shy about writing the basics… that’s one of the ways that blogs shine.  We keep out info up to date and are a great resource for those just turning to the class for the 1st time.

Try these, you just might like them

Try out some of these blogs. Poke them and prod them if they don’t have the info you need us Shaman are used to sticks, so put them to good use.

Apologies ion advance for those I miss.. I’m tired right now… if you don’t write one please throw the details in the comments!

• Addicted to Heals
• Altadin
• Blueberry Totem
• Green Bar Spec
• LFM: Need Healer Plz: A WoW Blog
• Shamantics
• Shields Up!
• Too Many Annas
• Totem Healz
• The Global Corporation of Matticus (look for Lodur’s stuff)
• Ensidia
• PlusHeal forums of course
• and my bad PvP oriented Resto Shaman stuff

edit: Check out Drug’s post:

Mastering Shaman Healing

Thanks for the heads up Cass, just shows you how far behind in my feedreading I am…

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/20/resto-shaman-where-for-art-thou/

Now we’re talking!

I am being appreciated for what I am, who I am… DPS!

Sure it took a Shadow Priest to acknowldge me, but Gnomeaggedon has a lot to say on this subject, so thanks for the invite Cassandri, let me begin.

Whoah there little Gnome! What make you think Cass was talking about you?

Ummm Mage = DPS in it’s purest sense, so of course she is talking about me.

Pffft you think you can heal, but I can’t DPS? Step aside little Gnome before a cloven hoof tattoos your bald spot!

Cassandri brings us up to speed:

In truth I don’t think about DPS much when I’m writing for Hots & Dots. I’m much more philosophical about healing, PVP and people, probably because I don’t really understand any them at all. That’s what I tend to write about.

A Q&A for DPS (unnamed) was started by Death Goddess. I thought it was a great idea and it was very sensible of Death Goddess to let the temperamental healers and tanks have their moment in the spotlight first. I refuse to subscribe to a blog written by a Death Knight so I had no idea that this was actually started a couple weeks back.

First off, let me send you round to read some of the great posts that I’ve read in this circle: Spazmoosifer talks about Shadow Priest DPS and Roxxon actually came up with some pretty profound stuff for a Mage (OK Gnome highlighted this very important word).

I’d love to hear Cynwise talk about his Warlock – we have so many raiders entering the discussion and not enough PVPers! I’d also like to hear from Gnomeaggedon since I find myself nodding my head furiously whenever I read his posts.

Lettuce Begin

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?

Gnomea-ooofffff-geddon. Hey watch your elbow! GNOME FrostFire Mage (Gnome being the most important part)

Squ-Owwww-idly. Get your staff out of there! Some-Time Elemental Shaman, always DPS, even when healing.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

Gnomeaggedon: In bed, I DPS them girls till they forget their names!

Squidly: Fool Gnome, just because you are spending more time offline than on doesn’t mean you are mixing it up with Oomaggedon… Anyway, I saw her 1st and she came to visit me!

For the record I primarily DPS in Instances when there are Holy Priests that don’t know how to Shadow.

I will throw out the odd offensive spell when I am healing though… I need an excuse to drink.

Gnomeaggedon: When I can be bothered logging on it’s 5-10-25 man stuff in that order, heavily weighted to the 5 man end at the moment. A few months back it was 10 man or nothing.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?

Squidly: Whack a Gnome. I use Healbot to try to thump the Gnome Mages over the head with a rank 1 LHW… Don’t want to overheal!

If there aren’t any Gnomes, then it’s a toss up.

Chain Lightning cause it’s way pretty. FlameShock+Lavaburst for pure hurt.

Gnomeaggedon: What? Just one? I have multiple toolbars full of them.

Frostfire Bolt… Mmm the scent of fire with the crack of ice!

Living Bomb+Flame Strike + Blizzard… Mmmm Scrolling Combat Text make my PC hurt! The mobs don’t feel so good either…

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?

Gnomeaggedon: Easy… Anything beginning with Frost* or Arcane* there, that takes out 60% of the irrelevant Mage abilities. Basically if it doesn’t burn I don’t like it.

Squidly: Earth Shock… I know I should… But I don’t. Still, unlike the Gnome I don’t discriminate on school/spec

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?

Gnomeaggedon: Strudel, Portals, Heals, Tanking with a bit of DPS on the side.

Squidly: BUUUUFFS. Pick a group comp, any group comp. Pick an encounter any encounter. You need it, we got it! We can also heal on the side, but I’ll leave the tanking to the Mage.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?

Gnomeaggedon: Apart from Health? We aren’t weak, we is killing machines!

Squidly: Threat. I can generate it plenty, on as many mobs as I want… But a partial dump on one target, on a cooldown?

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?

Gnomeaggedon: That’s a bit sexist isn’t it? I want a 24 girls + 1 Gnome environment. Mmmm Gnome Lurvin!

If I have to work for my place, then give me trash… Or a boss.

• Trash for instant gratification.
• Boss for the heart stopping frenzy of DoTs and Instant “I’m wiping that big evil grin off your face” Pyroblasts.

Squidly: Mmmm 15 man more or less. No raiding experiences to date, but lots of Battlegrounds.

Of course in that environment my role is more about killing the Horde via heals than DPS. Heal my mates, let them be the long arm of my DPS.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?

Gnomeaggedon: Fried Chickens – I loves me some extra Boomkin Crit ya in the face you wussbag of a boss!

Squidly: Anything that will take a hit, or over aggro me. For once I think I agree with short stuff. Fried Chicken tastes good!

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?

Gnomeaggedon & Squidly (In chorus): I don’t think they are a class, at least I have never found them at the character creation screen, but they are the NOOB and they have to have as many specs as there are classes X 3.

Many of them tell us they are experienced, so all I can do is feel sorry for all the lives they have ruined.

Luckily Cass put a disclaimer on this statement:

Or Mages. They’re so selfish about keeping Focus Magic to themselves. And they can out-DPS me so easily. That hurts.

Like this:

Gnome Mages and Gnome Death Knights are the exception. I can’t stay mad at something so cute.

Otherwise the answer would have been a whole lot more specific…

What is your worst habit as a dps?

Gnomeaggedon: picking my own target.

1. I can’t see over everyone’s head to target theirs and
2. By the time I have wound up my spell the bloody rogues have already bust the mob down.

This means I am always one boss ahead of the raid… and…

I need 10 tree Druids in the raid for Battle Rezs.

Squidly: DPSing as Resto and forgetting my tool bars are now set for heal rather than hurt.

I get great numbers on the healing meters, not so much on the damage meters.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?

Gnomeaggedon: no one respects my tanking or healing abilities.

Squidly: Bosses and mobs that make the healers life hard. I want their healing love, so leave them alone!

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?

Squidly: Apparently we are awesome, so we must be.

Gnomeaggedon: Apparently I am awesome, so we must be.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps’er?

Gnomeaggedon: The oooohhhhs and aaaahhhhs from the crowd.

Squidly: am I alive? I must be better than the average goo standing DPS.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

Gnomeaggedon: that all we care about is our position on the meters… Obviously we care about the phat loot as well.

Ohhh, and that we can summon!

Warlocks have love in their hearts and summon you to be close.

Mages port you to the opposite side of the world.

Squidly: that cause I am a Shaman I can take a few hits… Which I could if I wore mail, but why roll on mail when I can pinch cloth and leather for my offspec?

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?

Gnomeaggedon: DPS doesn’t matter. Damage does, while means staying alive, which in turn means many of our utility spells are as much, if not more, important.

Squidly: totems. Which totems, when. Also that it’s all the other things that make a Shaman cool. Interrupts, buffs, debuffs.

Don’t worry so much about yourself, lift the team!

What DPS class do you feel you understand least?

Gnomeaggedon: Warriors… Why don’t they sink when they jump in the water?

Squidly: Mages, how can a class with so much Intellect be played by so many dumb people?

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?

Gnomeaggedon & Squidly: all of them!

We downloaded all of the WoWwiki macro pages and the entire Curse addon database and shoved it kicking and screaming into WoW.

• If you have more than 3 fps you arent trying hard enough.
• If you can actually see the mob you are meant to hit, your screen isn’t cluttered enough.
• If you know what is going to happen when you press that keybound macro you aren’t living on the edge.
• If your tool bars aren’t filled with ?, where is the fun in the game?

So basically every skill is macro’d and often more than one addon does the same thing… But at least when my whole screen if flashing I know to move out of the goo… Even if my fps won’t allow it.

What stat to stack, and why?

Gnomeaggedon: Beauty. If you aren’t beautiful, you won’t get a raid spot, which means you won’t get to do DPS.

Look at Jong and Megan, you think they get their raid spots based on ability?

When Jong rips the buttons off his shirt people stand up and oooohhhh aaaaahhhh.

He hasn’t even started DPSing yet!

Squidly: BEER! More Beer and a home delivery bottleshop.

If you can’t play your character when you are plastered you just can’t play!

This is the problem with PvE players. Everything is scripting and timing. Throw in a psuedo PvP encounter, or god forbid actual PvP and the players go to pieces…

But, but, it spoils my rotation! The training dummy didn’t fight back, it’s not fair that the mobs do!

See the human mind is a nasty piece of work. When you first learn your class you are flexible, you have to be because you can’t be sure when that spell will finish casting or when your cooldown will pop.

But in time, you can close your eyes, turn your back, play guitar hero with your toes and still put out theorycrafted DPS… Because you brain is now conditioned to know how long 2.3 hasted seconds are, where the ohh shit button is etc.

So that’s where beer cones in.

Drink till you can’t find the keyboard and you are trying to turn your character with your cell phone.

Then, only then, will you Starr to become a good player. You have absolutely no choice. It’s either perform, or go get another beer from the fridge!

BTW Blizzard, 1-30 seconds of BG reserect time is not long enough to go to the fridge, have a smoke and water the lemon tree… Please change this!

Ohhh you are a teetotaler?

Simple solutions:
1. Start drinking
2. Keep drinking
3. Last resort, change your keybindibgs before every raid, before every boss if it’s becoming too easy. It’s like drinking, but without the overflowing recycle bin and the empty bank account.

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout! (Stout – that’s an alcoholic drink with more vitamins than your average 3 course meal… Great for breakfast as well!)

The End

Gnomeaggedon & Squidly: What, that’s it? We have only drink 1/2 a slab each… Give us more!

Gnomeaggedon: When the bloody he’ll are those uppity plate wearers going to invite me to write their Tanking questionnaire… More brains in their butts even with Arcane Brilliance!

Hey Kriz… Heard you were nearly unemployed… 50,011 words down hunh! About time you told us how awesome your Deeps is!

Larisa, Oi, come out of your cellar, tell how you do it!

Ummm, are there any other DPS bloggers out there that haven’t done this yet?

Well here’s your challenge, do it now, say I told you to, before someone else does it at my request.

Gnomer and Out, Squidlys crashed under the lemon tree… Ewww yuck!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/19/now-were-talking-dps/

This is a post in many parts, most of them not mine, but let me get straight to the cookies and cocoa, because I know you want to comment but the blog police (as opposed to the Blizzard police) are bringing you down man.

Aunty TJ mentioned a little Firefox Plugin…

ONE THAT LET’S YOU COMMENT DIRECTLY FROM YOUR FEEDREADER!

You back yet?

Got it installed?

Good back on track...

The way I think of TJ

Aunty TJ, Temerity Jane to many, TJ to most and I’m sure quite a lot more names to a few.

I think of her as Aunty TJ.

Not the kind of Aunty that you hide from under your bed when she arrives at the front door. Not the kind that you screw up your face and turn away from when she puckers up for the Christmas kiss.

Aunty TJ is the one with the bottomless jar of cookies, the one that let’s you drink raspberry cordial until you are bouncing off the walls. The one that replaces your baked beans on toast first with exotic stir fry, curries and sugared ants… Of the blogging variety of course.

She’s a blogger’s blogger.

Adviser to the stars (well, some we think of as stars anyway, think BRK). She’s not just another WoW blogger, she’s a blogger that plays and occasionally writes about WoW.

TJ is big on comments

She’s got a lot to say about commenting at the moment.

Actually she has a lot for you to do!

Forget about losing 40 pound in 8 weeks, become a better blog commenter in a few posts. You will be challenged, but amazed with the results.

Synapses fired

This reminded me of two things.

• The 1st being a poll I did yonks ago on you blog commenting preferences, and
• A little conversation I have been having with Klep (yes, he’s a Troll, but of the Shaman variety, so if our ancestors can party together, surely we can chat) about comments, or lack thereof, from our readers.

So here’s my challenge for you.

Go check out TJ’s Blog Commenting Challenges (#4 ends today), and challenge yourself. When you are looking for posts to comment on, look no further than here, or Klep, or here.

If you were being nice and read to here before going and getting that Firefox plugin, then go get it now and test it out straight away!

• The Becoming People Who Comment Challenge
• The Becoming People Who Comment Challenge, #2
• The Becoming People Who Comment Challenge, #3
• The Becoming People Who Comment Challenge, #4

Sorry Auny TJ

Aunty TJ, I’m sorry I haven’t been visiting as often as I should. I admit I have been playing with the other kids rather than dropping by a favorite Aunty. I promise I will be around more often.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/18/work-blog-police-getting-you-down/

• He was the king of the Huntards.
  The kind of Hunter that makes even Huntards cringe.
• Then there were the WSG flag carriers that were too 1337 to carry the flag.
• Then there was the gift I received on the last day of my holiday.

King of the Huntards

I was in AB when I got a whisper asking me to heal HCoS. Actually, there was no whisper, just a blind invite.

I had to decline multiple times before I got a break in the action (also known as death) to whisper him. I told him I was in AB thus couldn’t join him.

His response… An invite.

Unfortunately (on so many levels) the AB was a quick loss. So I took the next invite and rushed down to CoS.

The party was waiting impatiently for me, so I popped the crates (what had they been doing?).

Arthas started his spiel, we waited at the gates. As Arthas finally arrived the Huntard announced:

I only have 200 ammo, so I will save my awesome DPS for the bosses.

We all /groaned

I was thinking, but not acting on the little voice in my head that was saying…

Run away little Gnome!

But then, I was big Squid and could handle anything.

The other Hunter in the party suggested he just run back outside and get some ammo… and no, he had none to spare.

King of Stupid

After a few minutes of begging he finally relented and ran off.

Thank god I thought, he will be back in a fee minutes with his ammo and we can start the event as a full party.

Ho! What’s this he exclaims as he runs up the road. Arthas has something to ask me?

You are now saved to the instance

Stupid dick… He hasn’t even got his ammo… In fact he has gone off looking for it after initiating the run, saving us to a timed run!

No choice now

Why oh why Blizzard do we have to be saved before a boss goes down?

Too late to worry, we have a job to do.

The 4 of us forge onwards recklessly rushing from encounter to encounter to compensate for the lost dps.

We reach the 1st boss, engage and he returns…

I couldn’t find any ammo!

It gets worse

It does get worse, but I am a bit tired of relating the story now. I can only embellish it so much before I shake my head and cry.

The highlights lowlights

His pet “Tankthat” is, errr, umm, tanking. I thought that was what we brought the tank for. The worst part I’d that his pet is tanking the tanks targets – not the risen zombies that are chowing down on me.

Maybe he wouldn’t have died so often if I could get the heals off…

He died, multiple times. We all died multiple times. He somehow managed to pull aggro all the time and… Die.

I thought hunters, particularly hunter without ammo, had ways of dealing with aggro?

Finally we make it to the gauntlet, but there is only 4 minutes on the clock.

The Huntard pipes up…

Don’t worry, I’ll do awesome DPS through here.

Luckily the tank was a Paladin and could Rez me after he somehow survived… Momentarily.

The Paladin and I hastily Rez the rest of the party. For some reason the Huntard isn’t accepting my Rez.

Why did you Rez my pet he asks?

I didn’t, I replied

But I should have. After all his mindless pet was a better player than he was!

I’m so 1337 you are losing the BG for me.

Two different battles, same result… Frustration.

Battle 1: I recognize the warriors name. Can’t remember why.

I rush to the enemy flag room, as does he.

He grabs the flag, I cover him.

It was as we ran up midfield that I remembered who this warrior was.

He’s the flag carrier that can’t run in a straight line, can’t resist a fight and worst of all, can’t cap.

There will be a clear path to our base. The Horde won’t have our flag. Still he zigs and zags from one Horde pack to another. Some times he is looking for a fight (like doubling back from our tunnel entrance to the mid field) other times he just stupidly runs into the honor farmers and gets… well he gets farmed.

Unfortunately he isn’t the only flag carrier with this attitude.

Battle 2: we have the honor of having a 1337 BG Hunter with us.

How do I know he’s 1337?

Because he is constantly telling us how 1337 (pure awesome) he is and how bad we are.

His very 1st words were:

Pure Awesome

Someone else suggested:

If we control midfield we will win the game!

He’s right, but only in context.

• If we are capping the flag then it is good to control midfield
• If we are controlling midfield, it is good to control midfield.

We had NO FLAG CARRIER!

He wouldn’t do it, neither would anyone else. I tried in the end and got slaughtered because, well you know, Mr. 1337ness wasn’t controlling mid field.

We lost, dismally.

Still, I guess Mr. 1337ness would have been satisfied with his 31 killing blows.

This 1337 Hunter was so 1337 he didn’t even have to prove it!

Yes I know I sound full of myself… yes I am superior.. I AM SUPERIOR!

I know I am, because I beat a level 1 Warlock in a duel!

Work Complete Zug Zug

Thrall, remember that time I dropped by on the diplomatic job. Remember how I promised I’d be back.

Bet you wish now that I didn’t pay a return visit.

Back in March I joined a raid for For the Alliance.

It wasn’t a bad raid, we cleared Bone Town, Belf Town and Tent City.

I was raring to get to Org… But the raid disbanded about me. Apparently I joined a raid that had just left Org.

Never mind, the bosses respawn every 8 hours right? Won’t be that hard to get into another raid, right?

• Well my mates had done it and didn’t want to do it again.
• The guild had done it and didn’t want to do it again.
• The 1/2 dozen raids I have joined since March have either collapsed due to lack of numbers, more level 50’s than 80’s or due to arguments about where to start.

If we did actually start, we would do somewhere other than Org, then those people that just got new mail would leave the raid, damning the attempt.

Last Day of Leave

On Monday when I logged in on Squidly I decided I would put my last day of holidays to good use. I signed up for the daily instances and BG.

But then I noticed the call for For The Alliance. I immediately whispered that I would be back on Gnomeaggedon.

5 maybe 10 minutes later the raid was forming in Azshara.

Buffed and ready, we path of frost down the river and take Org by force.

It was so easy, so beautiful.

BRB as the Squid

I announce that I am relogging as Squidly for the next bits.

The second the login progress bar clears from the screen, the raid invite is waiting. 10 seconds later I am summoned.

We storm Tent City.

We port to IF, fly to WPL…

We storm Bone Town.

We port to Shatt, port to Quel’Danas to fly to Zul’aman.

(Easiest Achievement Ever! Take the portal from Shattrah… done!)

Well, not all of us, some of us don’t have the FP.

Two minutes later the summoning stone at Zul’Aman is working over time pulling the rest of us through.

Belf Town down.

No fuss, no bother. No one quit group when they got their achievement unless they like me were getting an alt to continue the run.

Probably a 1/4 of the members had done it before – obvious by the bears they were riding. Still, no complaints, they were there to help.

It was probably the best organized raid I have ever been in. All the more amazing because:

• There were 40 people
• We went all over the world
• It wasn’t scheduled.
• We were a PuG of 40 players that performed better than many 10 or 25 man guild raids.

So my thanks go out to Valex and all the others, all 38 of you, that made it such a smooth and fun run.

But wait there’s more

Well, not really, but if I am going to do a post with more pictures than content, no harm in throwing a few more in… You already stopped reading anyway didn’t you…? Didn’t you?

Ohh I snuck back and scattered most of them throughout the post… so even if you aren’t reading this, you probably already looked at the pictures… suckers… But I do have one left.

What’s the one, OK, 2 things that Gnomeaggedon needs?

Healers and a Tank of course!

Speaking of Gnomeaggedon…

This is going on a bit isn’t it… anyway, I thought I would share a blog comment with you, especially all your HardLore Mage players…

Whoops, looks like April Fools hasn’t ended for some people.

I can’t decide whether to delete it… or frame it.

PS: Sorry

I know I am like the really bad comedian that wont get off the stage no matter how much rubbish you throw at him.. he just picks up the tomato and starts eating them.

But I just wanted to say sorry to Rilgon for having a lend of him on Twitter last night… extra 3 hours of work on my 1st day back from holidays, to miss WoW before weekly maintenance, then start, but never stop, writing this post… well it all sort of got me in a silly mood.

But he is the sort of guy that gets high on Omen…

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/18/two-parts-fail-one-part-win/

Invite people!

I’ve been pugging a lot.

I mean everything.

• Sometimes I’m not even in LFG and someone plucks me out of nowhere to heal.
• Sometimes I start joining myself up to LFG and I am grabbed before I even complete my selection.
• Sometimes I join LFG and… Nothing. Hours can go by with no bites on my instance fishing line.

Lately I have found myself starting groups just because, well the reason I joined LFG was I want to run an instance, so spending even 10 minutes fishing in Dalaran is a waste of my limited time.

So here’s some tips for getting a group together.

1. Join LFG for the instance or instances you are interested in.
2. If you are determined to get a group up, check the Leader checkbox… It will give you an air of authority and make it look like you have a group even if you don’t.
3. Click on the Looking For More tab and see what you find.The number of times I have gone here and found enough group members for two groups, yet no groups formed!
4. Start whispering the people that are there asking if they want to join you.
5. Follow up with a group invite. Immediately if you want, without waiting for a response. You have asked so the invite won’t be so random as to scare them.
6. Check out all the other instances.In LFM if you couldn’t fill your group straight up.I don’t know about you but I will often take the bird in the hand rather than waiting an hour for the bush to invite me. Seems to be the case for most folks, those under 80 at least, because XP is XP no matter where you earn it.Automatic Options finished, go fishing.Apart from late joiners to LFG, you will now need to go fishing in the chat channels (which is better than fishing in the Dalaran fountain… more interactive).
7. LFG Channel: LFxM Instance gtg LFG Channel is probably a waste of your time, as it’s connected to the LFG interface.But there are a couple of circumstances where it may pay off:
   - Mains/Alts – a player may be in LFG on a toon in a different level bracket. They may not see you in the LFG interface, but they might see you in chat.
   - One level up/down – it’s possible that there is a character of an appropriate level you can’t see because they are a level too low/high and don’t get the option in the interface.
8. Trade/General chat.One of the failings of the LFG channel is it only becomes active when you are actively LFG through the interface.It wasn’t always this way but after the morons filled it with trade, Barrens and Anal chat it got changed.Anyway, same process as LFG channel. As for what you need, the more role specific the better, the less instance specific… Well that might be better.
9. Mates & GuildiesOK, scraping the bottom of the barrel now. I’m sure they are nice, but without a vested interest they may be reluctant.The closer to a full group the better, the less you call upon tanks and healers the better (we get tired of being wanted too much).Make sure your party mates are asking their mates too!

Repeat steps 3-9 until your group is full.

Don’t lose them now!

If the whole group is good, propose running another instance together.

Do it before the final boss to avoid unnecessary hearths.

If some of the group didn’t cut it, whisper those that did and ask them if they want to hang around. Either kick the noobs or drop group and reform with those prepared to continue.

The most important aspect of all this is if you are Looking For Group, then actively look and form the group. You may start as leader but it doesn’t have to stay that way!

It is changing in 3.3

It will change, and Spooner linked a great demonstration video the other day.

That doesn’t mean you have to wait until 3.3 is released, get out there and form a group today!

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/09/squidlys-tips-how-to-use-lfg

I healed ToC

I finally reached 78 and the instance options opened above me.

• Utgarde Pinnacle
• Culling of Stratholme
• Occulus
• Halls of Lightning

and…

• CoT

I signed up for a few of them, ran a couple of them just fine, but I wasn’t going to sign up to heal CoT.

Can I heal Normal ToC after being 78 for 10 minutes?

I checked with my mates:

You think I can heal normal ToC?

No bloody way mate, it’s hard!

So I stayed away from ToC in the LFG interface.

Until...

Vikingmetal came online and offered to run a few instances. I told him those instances I thought I would be OK with, which didn’t include ToC.

Next thing I know, the group is formed and I ask where we are going…

ToC

We survived…

Well actually we didn’t. We wiped once, there we a couple of additional misc deaths, but the Black Knight went down.

Mind you, the only one left standing was Viking, but I had managed to keep the group up long enough for him to solo the Black Knight to death.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was done. I had done it.

Feeling a little less unsure I signed up again. This time I was grabbed by a well geared and experienced 80 Tankadin.

We survived (ok, there may have been a wipe in there somewhere, but we won’t talk about that). I even got complimented for healing well above my gear… Nice!

One nub = a Wipe

Third time not so lucky. I grabbed Viking as he was heading off to bed. Unfortunately more of us went down than mobs (no, not bosses, mobs).

In an encounter similar to Rhii’s, we just couldn’t pull it off.

Like Rhii, I suspect that it was all the fault of one party member. Sure I am being unfair, but it couldn’t have been my fault.

This warrior has been plaguing me since Maruadon. Ever since he tried to tank the slimes and died. Then quit the group in a rage when I kite tanked 3 of them and killed them by myself while he abused the healer. If I wanted to tank… He was going.

Nub!

Ironically, nub is a badge of honor for him and even forms a part of his name… I need the Namescore addon!

I have mistakenly invited him to groups since. One VH run we got through by the skin of my totems, but he was always the 1st to die.

Problem is he doesn’t like to die alone.

Anyway he was there for the fail ToC and constantly apologizing for his screw ups.

While he may not have been directly responsible for our ultimate fail, I think he all wore us down enough that we were susceptible to the Black Knight’s plague.

Postscript:

I’ve been 80 for a few days now.

I am definitely not going to heal HToC…

I will DPS it of course…

Well until we wiped 4 times and the Healadin suggests a change of tactics.. he will Tank, I will heal…

Mmmm, I warn him it isn’t likely to happen, but since we are saved it’s worth one more go…

End result…

We took the Black Knight down, only one death… ME! But late enough that they could finish him off.

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/16/i-did-what-i-couldnt-do/

I’m there… are you?

So is Jöng

Update with all the good and bad screenshots I took. Bad included just in case it’s the only shot in existence with your character in it.

Number 1: Hearts, Hands & Voices

Number 2: World of Warcraft Raid for the Cure!

I’m going to try and be there… but I can’t represent as Gnomeaggedon!  Someone already has that name… So I will be there as Squidly’s Mate.

Gnomer and Out!

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/11/06/two-things/