Thursday, April 7, 2011

Everyone Remember These Shoulders?


Unless yer luckies enough ta play in a totally Horde-dominatified serververse, I bet ya does. They was the Alliance plate T9s, and after patch 3.3 landed they was bein' worn by approximatelies 723% of the peoples runnin' around Dalaran. Why 3.3, when they'd been introduced in 3.2? Because 3.3 were the patch that Blizz through out the crappy, seldom-used "Lookin' Fer Groupies" and replaced it with no-muss no-fuss "Dungeon Finder".

Let's think about that fer a second.

DF appeared right at the same time when the emblems were changed, making iLevel 232 gear the cheapest ya could buy. Yeah, the vendors still had some 200 and 213 and 226 gear, but the sets was incomplete and they actually cost more. So now ya had a situation where everybodies could get inta heroic dungeons easy, everybodies wanted ta get inta heroic dungeons, and high level raid gear was cheap as dirt. What happened? That's right.

Everyone wanted T9, everyone got T9, and heroic bossess went down fasters than Booty Bay whoores. Didn't matter what ya was with four total randoms, many of whom didn't know what a threat table were or what them lucky charms over the trash's heads meant - as long as folks was sportin' T9, ya overpowered everything. Whether ya liked it this way or not, it were the reality.

Now, though, reality be different. Dungeons is longer, fights is complicateder, and nobody - 100% nobody - is so geared up what they can roflstomp like they could a year ago. We ain't in the magic land of 3.3 no mores. So, runs take longer, groups cycle through less frequentlies, mistakes and ignorance hurt, and a lotta folks is saying "I don't wanna pug - I'll stick with the buggers I know." So queue times, if yer a poor dps on his own, is longer.

Well, duh.

Blizz done announced just now "Call Ta Arms", ta try ta get more folks ta queue up as tanks all by theyselves. Throwin' a bag of gold at'em, with a gem inside too, maybe a pet, maybe maybe a mount. They's tryin' fer ta bring queue times back down ta what they was. Truth is, though, no amount of bribin' done gonna bring back 3.3. Not untils 4.3, anyhow. They could send Marilyn Monroe ta tanks' houses fer ta give thems a jolly, or whatever the eqivalent'd be fer wimmenz tanks, and it still wouldn't be enough of a bribe fer ta make us forgets what these days mistakes and ignorance hurt, and most days it just ain't worth it so we'll just run with our guildies thankee very much.

Is me opinion. 'Course, I's just a simple orc from Durotar, so mebbe I's wrong.  Mebbe folks is still wantin' Anzu enough what this'll temptify them and queue times'll drop ta twenty seconds fer everyone. But I ain't countin' any chickens 'til they done crossed the road.

8 comments:

Mfer said...

So very true... I -might- be tempted to queue alone if CTA nixxed repair costs for the dungeon, so that the wipes didn't equal 5-10x the gold earned.

Even then, it's iffy, the verbal abuse and blame game is horrible in there!

Peregwyn said...

Absolutely! Someday, I may start tanking pugs again, but not yet, even with the mounts. (I pretty much have the pets on my tank)

Dechion said...

It's hard enough to get a bugger to queue as a healer, and all they gotta do is get yelled at whenever someone stands in the bad too long.

Wanna make me queue as a tank for a buncha folk I don't even know? Probably not happeneing.

Bristal said...

Loner DPS here. I no longer queue because the wait (queue+dungeon nearly 2 hours) is just too long. So I don't get to do heroics anymore.

The 6 PuGs I have been able to wait for in the last 30 days were 2/3 successful with no drama, and 1/3 Acadamy Award worthy. I'm happy with those odds.

If they can just get the wait + success or obvious failure to 1 hour, I'll be back in the game and run a heroic every day.

And if it doesn't work at first, at least Blizz will have an easy mechanism to just sweeten the pot until it does.

So, for all you tanks, how much WOULD it take to PuG more?

Nicolause said...

So, this is what I have to look forward to when I get back? I had always been a die-hard pugger as a healer... claimed that it sharpened my skill level. I have to wonder if it is worth it, though.

The screenie of Vyprania brought back a memory or two. Rest in peace, sister.

Khol Drake said...

I dunno...you send Marilyn Monroe to my house and I'd be willing to tank damn near anything....and I'm a rogue.

...You'd probably have to wait till she left, first, though.

Ratshag said...

@Khol-

Yah, Mouse always said you was inta dead chicks.

Khol Drake said...

Dead girls like me, what can I say?