Monday, March 5, 2012

Weekend roundup

Happy Monday! Hope y'all (you can take the girl out of North Carolina but you cannot take the North Carolina out of the girl) had a good weekend. As for me I went skiing yesterday, which means I am a big bundle of soreness today. While skiing, a guy ran into me and we collided pretty hard. Fortunately I always ski with a helmet on, and I clearly heard a loud clang as my head hit something hard.

I warned the raid last night that if I was particularly nice to Jess or our holy pally Lorosia last night, that I may be experiencing some side effects from a minor concussion. It probably wouldn't have been being actually nice so much as just being really quiet and agreeable and without opinion that would have signaled some level of illness for me. (Emphasis on without opinion). But fortunately last night's raid proved that while my neck is sore as heck, I am just fine. Just ask the raid. ;)

Last night was also the first raid with our newest guildie Heili. I'm quite excited to have her join us because we have doubled the number of females in our raid to a whopping two, increasing the intelligence and general coolness of our raids exponentially. I also love that she plays melee dps (very well by the way... giving our boys a good run for their money last night).

So I've mentioned recently that we have been without guild drama for a really really long time. It feels kind of odd to not have to worry the guild, whether that is due to new guildies who don't work out, performance issues, or even just recruiting. With people leaving the game and all the turn over in guilds lately, I know we've been really lucky to not have to worry about recruiting. We've been able to add new guildies when needed who are friends of friends.

Now saying there is no guild drama isn't saying that we don't drive each other crazy, because we do. But its very much like being driven crazy by your brother or sister. You get irritated, but then you get over it because you're family. There are 9 of us who have been raiding together for 15 months now... while 6 of the 9 have been raiding together for almost 3 years? Then Jess and I have been playing together for over 5 years now.

Also this past weekend was Isle of Conquest weekend. I did a significant number of Isles on Saturday both on K and my level 81 shadow priest. You know, I'm not sure that there is a BG that generates as many opinions on strategy than Isle. I mean you go into an AB... WSG... EOTS... any of the other BGs, the strat is going to be pretty similar match to match.

But Isle? Well for Horde I guess its easy, they go Workshop, at least on my battlegroup. But for Alliance? Everyone spends the two minutes before the gates go up saying there is only one way to win. Docks! All go Workshop! Split docks and hanger evenly! But you know what? I saw wins and losses with various strats and combos of taken nodes.

But sure enough, there's bound to be that one person each Isle, adamant that strategy X is the only way to win. Myself, I think people underestimate the importance and impact of the Quarry and Refinery. Anyways did you guys do Isle this weekend? Thoughts on Isle strategy?

6 comments:

  1. As far as I've seen, on my battlegroup (are there battlegroups anymore? if there aren't, then replace with "on EU realms") 90% of the time the strat is "DOCKS GO DOCKS DOCKS FFS NOOBS!!". I admit I have no idea how Isle of Conquest works, so I just follow the herd and try to heal whoever's trying to tank thingie. (I don't even know the name of the boss...)

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  2. I...saw it was IoC and promptly declared no PvP for the weekend! I know the various things I can do...help take workshop, run demos or bombs to their keep, use guns on our keep to shoot their demos or glaives, even take the airship to jump into the opponent's keep. But I have no idea of the rhythm of the place, or how to decide what activity is most strategic at a given moment. Even in crazy-spread-out AV, you can tell whether you're winning or losing. In IoC I can think we're doing great, then boom we lose. Such a bizarre map.

    Horde-side FWIW. In my experience, there's very little strategy talk at all, especially not before the match.

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  3. @Jen: Ah true. I'm not sure if there are battlegroups anymore.

    But yes, the Alliance strat for a long time was 80% go docks. But they are often horrible at defending glaives so it seems lately that the go to strat has changed a bit.

    @ambient: Aw. Well I must say Isle this past weekend was a lot less painful for us Alliance than it was a couple months back. I probably came out with about 60% wins.

    I do think what's interesting about the place is that your team strategy has to quickly adjust to what the other team does. So they've broken through your gate? Well Isle is small enough (compared to say a place like AV) where you can run back to your base and help defend and try to wipe them on your boss. What they got WS? Well at least try to get Quarry and Refinery so their Seige Engine does less damage.

    And you're right, the rhythm of the place is different match to match. It kind of depends on the decisions of your teammates and the other team as well. So going into an Isle having no idea exactly what strat is going to be deployed and what your team is going to do is interesting.

    Oh lord I should screenshot some of the Alliance convos before the gate goes up. Everyone's an expert.

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  4. "if I was particularly nice to Jess or our holy pally Lorosia last night, that I may be experiencing some side effects from a minor concussion."
    "I am just fine."

    I can confirm this. Again.

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  5. Ah, Jen is raiding now? This is what happens when I go away for a while. I look forward to bouncing "Jesus Beams" off of her in raiding!

    You know, it's funny. When I was Nicolause, her ire towards me knew no limits. Now that I have moved my attentions to the shaman and Ciora (my delightful little holy priest), she is all smiles and sugar with me. Especially when I am on Brue... me thinks it's the haste and Mana Tide totem, personally.

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  6. @Lorosia: Oh Lorosia... you know you like it. Actually as Jess says, it would probably throw you off if I was nice to you.

    @Brue: /wave! Hope you're doing well! Jen is still leveling, but this is someone else who has started raiding with us.

    Hope to see you back soon!

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