Post Planning

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a teacher.  I teach Elemetary level Music in the Greater Atlanta area.  Basically, this allows me to act like an idiot on a daily baisis, play instruments and act like a rock star.  It’s pretty much a dream job for anyone that wants to do any of the above.  And, hey… I do.

Anyway, the point of this post is:  I am in post planning mode.  That means the students are gone for the summer, and I’m cleaning up all of the crap that I’ve accumulated over the school year (which is a lot).  What this means for Slice and Dice is more posts for the next few months than usual, but not anything of real consequence until next Wednesday or later, because that’s when post planning ends.

So, keep up your Roguely shenanigans, or any other shenanigans you desire, and I’ll finish cleaning my room.  Cheers.

- Sam

Building Bucklers: Conclusion

After going over the technicals of Bucklers, it’s time for the part you can’t write in a charter, or list on a website.  I was curious how some of my guildies would respond to this question:  “What makes Bucklers so great?”  I posted that question on my website to see if anyone was brave enough to tackle it and I got two very differently stated, but ultimately similar responses.

The first is from Revix.  He comments here from time to time, and is the pirate on the right in the Bucklers logo (I’m the left):

Bucklers is great because we are a small community of friends that are more about playing with each other and having fun instead of trying to be the best possible thing ever.  We do things at our own pace and still progress just fine, we don’t need to spend countless amounts of time on raids or anything to get the job done.  Bucklers is just a second family, and i think that’s what makes it great.

I think this is a good summation of where Bucklers is as a guild.  Revix points out that we’re getting the job done, and being together is what makes our guild, not the progression or the gear.  Whats interesting to note, is that we are progressing well, and the gear is coming.

The author of the second response prefers to remain anonymous. Their response is lengthy, and I had to read a few times to get the point:

I don’t think Bucklers is so great.  It’s better than some guilds, and worse than some.  What I think makes Bucklers what it is, however, is our ability to let people leave.  We support people in playing the way that they enjoy the game, even if that’s not with us.  We have not collapsed at each exodus, of which there have been a few.  The people in our guild are dedicated to playing with a group of people they enjoy being with, more than gear or status or ego.  If the only person left alive when the boss dies is one priest’s Guardian Spirit and you can’t laugh about that, then by all means find a place that doesn’t do that.  Because Bucklers does.  We work hard and expect others to do so, but if the RNG gives us a hard time or it’s just not our night, at least we can find the humor in it together.  We love raiding, and we love hanging around together.  And we do both without drama and without pressure.  Over time we’ve lost a lot of people because we’re “too casual”, “too unfocused”, “too immature”, “not going fast enough”, “not getting me enough gear”, etc etc.  But in the long run, we have become a group of people who enjoy playing with each other and who work together while having a good time to reach our in-game goals.  It’s not the best or the worse, but it sure is fun.  And our guildies have become friends whom we know are dedicated to the group, not the gear, so we know that they’ll be there to progress and have fun right along with us.

Again, I had to read this a few times to get the point.  It’s true that we were at one point way too casual, and we lost members for that.  Sometimes it was good for the guild; sometimes it was bad.  The best healer/tank/DPS in the game isn’t worth it if people can’t stand playing with them, but losing a good person to a lack of focus is not fun or good.

While we can laugh when things don’t go our way, I’d like to point out that the Bucklers the poster describes might come across as apathetic to the raiding scene, and wiping frequently.  That may have been the case in BC, but in Wrath, we’ve had quick progression on almost every boss, and truthfully in Ulduar, our main wipes have come from attempting things before we took the time to research them, particularly from underestimating trash.  I’ve personally seen to it that we won’t have that issue again.

So, the real question is why do I think Bucklers is so great, and what’s the secret to that success?  Well….

Combat or Assassination? Final Thoughts

I had a ton of fun on Friday, when I finally got to take Sam to a complete Naxx 25.  In addition to swiping up some good gear, I kept a recount up for the whole raid to see how my damage stacked up, and what Combat could do in a raid situation.   The numbers were quite interesting:

I didn’t post this meter to brag; I only do that with people I know, because they would care.  I posted it to show how much damage a moderately well geared combat rogue can do.   Also, if you read this blog regularly, you know that I do almost all of my progression healing or tanking on Anabelle, my Paladin.  Posting this meter silences the part of me that says, “you’re playing your Paladin, so who gives you the right to talk about Rogues?”  Friday night I was reassured that I do know what I’m talking about.  That’s enough of my “self assurance,” let’s get on with the discussion.

The Rogue at position 5 is similarly geared, and Assassination spec.  I don’t personally know them, so I can’t vouch for their rotation, but around 5 was where they were the whole night.  The Rogue at 6 is someone I know, and they joined the raid after our first boss, Razuvious, right before we pulled Gothik.  I ran a webstats, and he was second to  me from the point he started the raid.  He is also Combat and similarly geared.  We fought for first and second on every boss, and on more than one occasion less than 10,000 damage seperated us at the end of the fight.

Comparing two or even three different Rogues is, at best, an inaccurate gauge of how to spec.  However, at the end of the day, the question is still:

 Combat   

or

  Assassination? 

As you can see, both of these parses are within the margin of error.  The total damage output (8 minute parse) for both specs was within 3k  overall damage; I’d say that it’s not only statistically significant, but it proves that on a single target, one is not necessarily better than the other.  There are fights that will favor one over the other, but generally, on a boss, you shouldn’t be gimping your raid either way. 

What I’m getting at, is you should play the spec you prefer.  If you want to maximize your DPS, go with the spec that matches your best weaponry.  I finally decided on Combat as my main spec.  I feel like I’m more effective on trash, and my fists are slightly better than my daggers.  If you’re in a different boat, spec differently, and don’t be afraid to experiment.  It’s entirely possible your gear, play ability, and content may be better suited for Assassination.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’ve taken up the Mutilate / Prep spec for arenas, so I’m still (kinda) playing Assassination.  Other than dalies and farming, that’s what I’m going to be spending most of my time on Sam doing.  I’ll still raid when I get the opportunity, so don’t expect me to stop posting about PvE Roguery any time soon.

- Sam

 

Building Bucklers: Officers

There’s only so much one person can do, even with an empty schedule during their waking hours.  This is just as true with guild leaders as it is any other job.  You can’t do it all by yourself, and you’ll need dependable people to share in some of the burden.  But how do you pick these people, and what should they do?

The answer to that question has many variables, and I hope to convey that with a discussion of my officer team.  Before we get started, I just want to say that without them, I’d be lost.  There was a time when I tried to do the whole thing by myself, and I started to get burnt out very quickly.  If you get nothing else out of this post, learn to delegate, or you’ll go mad trying to do everything.

Building Bucklers: Guild Charter

If you took the time to read the history, you’ll notice that it was pretty rough going for my guild on more than one occasion.  Part of the issue was that the guild was only roughly organized, and there was no real direction other than, we’re going to try to down more content.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but we recruited to down things at a hardcore pace while being very casual in our execution.  While there’s a lot of things you can be casual about, unfortunately execution is not one of them.

What we didn’t realize at the time, is that if you want raiding success with less stress, you need to have a plan.  This plan needs to be written down where everyone can read it.  It should include a purpose, and all of the information necessary for execution.  I am, of course, refering to a Guild Charter.

Today I’ll disect the Bucklers guild charter, and hopefully convey how to create your own in the process.  Having direction and guidelines in place so that you don’t have to make things up on the spot will save you time in the long run.  Creating and following a charter will also help with the smoothness of all of the behind the scenes work that goes into making a guild work.

Building Bucklers: Web Exposure

Building

 

-  Web Exposure  -

A website says something about your guild.  It says that you’re serious/mature enough to make information available about your guild on the Internet.  While it is technically possible to host a majority of the information necessary for a medium sized guild in game, it is not possible to host it all.

A website for a guild, at bare minimum, should have information about the guild and its policies, from raiding and recruiting to looting, etc.  There isn’t a place in game to host all of this information for everyone to see it.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, flashy or feature filled to be effective.  The only thing it “needs” is to convey basic information about your guild. 

The Bucklers of Swash website was built with a free forum available through Forumotion.  It’s taken over a year of tweaking to get to its current incarnation, and I’ll keep tweaking it, as long as its in use.  Our site currently has a Portal with general information, and Forums with various restrictions on who can read them.  It’s functional, aesthetically attractive (imho), and fairly easy to navigate.

To create a good site takes time, and effort, but in the end it will be worth that effort.  Being able to have all of the information needed in one easily accessed location is crucial to success.  I’ve always believed that an active website is a sign of a healthy guild.  It’s certainly the case with Bucklers.

- Sam

 

Building Bucklers: A (Not So) Brief History

I often hear in comments and email from people that they wish their guild was more ours.  While that instills me with pride in the team we’ve put together, it confuses me sometimes.  Is it really that hard to build a guild like ours?  I’d say no, but I know the hard fought history that got us to where we are today. 

I was originally going to write a single post on how to build a guild similar to mine, but after compiling a brief history, I realized this was going to take more than one post.  I’ll start today with that history, and hope to finish the whole thing by tomorrow.  Before I get to the history, a question: 

What is Bucklers of Swash?

Describing the craziness that is Bucklers of Swash is a difficult task.  While we have a consistent raiding schedule and are progressing through Ulduar at a good pace, we’re also not so focused on that task that we forget our main purpose as a guild:  to have fun.  It’s a rare breed of guild that constantly toes the line, neither truly being casual or hardcore.  It’s also a delicate balance that takes work to maintain, else we lose sight of progression, or worse, become so immersed in it that we forget we’re playing a game.

What’s the secret of keeping a guild in this point of balance?  To be honest, most days I’m not entirely sure.  My ego would like to think that I’m the reason, but in reality, I’m only a small part of the whole.   Regardless, here’s the story of how we came to be…

Sam’s PvE F.A.Q. – Questions I get all the time

I answer some of the same questions here often, so I thought I’d compile a list of frequently asked questions and their answers for everyone.  I’ll probably end up linking on the sidebar as an essential post, and updated when called for.  If there’s anything you’d add to the list of questions, leave a comment, and if deemed appropriate, I’ll add it, along with credit to you.

No Internets for the Tempus

We had some significant thunderstorms roll through the Atlanta area on Wednesday that knocked out my home cable Internet.  It’s still down as of Friday morning.  It’s supposedly an “area wide” issue, and they’re in the process of fixing all parts of the area.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I at least had TV, but hey, my Wii and PS3 are seeing usage for a change.

At any rate, getting any real work done in game requires that I use my laptop and drive to a hotspot to use it.  To be honest though, the G13 isn’t setup for use on the machine, and spending an hour retooling my UI doesn’t sound like fun.  Besides, the Mrs. basically claims my laptop as her own, and though she says it wouldn’t bother her for me to use it, I’m sure she would still rather use it herself.

Regardless, the good work I was planning on doing for my UI and Combat vs. Assassination part two is still just that, planning.  With any luck it will be up and running when I get home.  I’d be really upset if I didn’t get to tank that Naxx 25 semi-pug that my guild is hosting.  That is unless, of course, I take Sam and destroy the DPS.

- Sam

Ulduar; Progression and Impressions

Anabelle (Paladin, Me) and Malinda (Priest, The Mrs.) standing in front of a dead Kologarn in Ulduar.

~ - ~ – ~

Ulduar is, to date, my favorite raid instance.  In my opinion, Blizzard really hit a home run with the design of this place.  The instance is huge, and the detail work is absolutely gorgeous.  Epic, whilst an extremely overused word in this game, is truly the only way to describe this instance. 

In addition to the beauty of it’s design, the difficulty of the bosses is challenging, but not overly difficult.  Once an encounter is learned, appropriately geared groups that are alert, use good communication, and play their role well will have little difficulty with the bosses I’ve seen so far.  That being said, unless your group overgears the content, loosing even one person is enough to cause a wipe.

If you haven’t started Uduar yet, but are getting ready, here’s some ideas that might help you with the preparations:

1. If it’s not you, find out who your guild Alchemists are, and ask them to make you flasks (with your mats of course).  If you can help them with their crafting needs, return the favor.
2. Use encounters and events to work on positioning, and movement:  Loken, Heigan, Tribunal of Ages, and Kel’thuzzad to name a few.  If the group you’re taking to Ulduar can’t clear all of these, without people taking unnecessary damage, your chances in Ulduar beyond Flame Leviathan are slim at best.
3. Get your gear gemmed and enchanted as best as you can afford.  Realistically though, getting the best enchants isn’t that far out of reach.  Just doing Argent Tounament dailies for a week should net you in excess of 1,000g.  Also, budding up with an Enchanter or Jewelcrafter in your guild, by sending them greens or gems goes a long way toward lessening your expense on gear upgrades.

It’s not going to be easy at first, but I think you’ll find that when you down bosses in Ulduar, you will feel a sense of accomplishment.  That’s something that Naxx was sorely lacking.  Just remember that it’s supposed to be fun, so don’t let wipes get you down.  Regroup, figure out what happened and adapt to prevent wiping for the same reason twice.

On a more personal note, my guild, Bucklers of Swash, is currently 5/14 for Ulduar progression, and we almost had our sixth progression kill last night.  We feel this is a good speed to be downing things at.  We won’t run out of content in the near future, nor are we standing still.  We’re certainly not going to be pulling off first kills on our server, nor are we aiming to, but we’re progressing at a pace that is keeping us happy and ahead of most of the pack.  Most importantly, we’re having fun.

- Sam