The State of Retribution
The changes to ret pally has made every pally player stand on equal footing. No skill what so ever to play the class to the best of his/her ability. If the ability is off cooldown.. Hit it. This has over simplified the class to the point that the only defining factor is who has the better gear.
I'm hoping in the near future Blue does a better job with the ret tree and puts in more definable abilities to give a more enjoyable class. They need to allow the class to be defined by the player and not solely on how far into progression the character has reached
Current Gear Rankings
Modon - 1763
Grexis - 1755
Devandra - 1749
Geeon - 1747
Dratss - 1731
Omik - 1725
Squeanet - 1713
Grarlynn - 1705
Kirathis - 1654
Goredd - 1475
Naxxramas Officially Down - 4/27/2009
- We have completed a first level raid instance while the expansion is still relatively new. It didn't take us a year to two years before completed it.
- We completed a raid instance with no outside help from anyone.
- Very soon we will be starting the second level of raid content (Ulduar) regularly. This has never been done in the history of Geriatrics.
- We were not only the first in our guild to complete Naxx, we did it 10-man. This is much harder compared to the 25-man heroic.

Has Blizzard Changed Their Philosphy?
The other philosophy that appears to be changing and the point of this post is Blizzards attitude of everything being the same in both PVP and PVE scenarios. There have historically been few instances where spells were different in the two scenarios with Curse of Doom being the only instance that I can think of off the top of my head. Blizzard stance in the past has been that by seperating out the PVE and PVP mechanics to be different they would be introducing complexity into the game for newcomers.
However, in the last couple of week's they have made two major changes that affect only PVP while leaving PVE alone. The first change is making it so that Exorcism does not work in PVP and the second is a change to the way that replenishment works in PVP making it only affect the caster. Now you can debate the merits of these changes seperately, but the main point I want to make is that Blizzard has finally done what a large portion of the playerbase has been asking for since the advent of arenas and that is separating PVP and PVE mechanics. Instead of attempting to balance everything around both scenarios at one time they are finding ways to fix a problem in one situation without changing anything in the other.
Personally I love what they've done here. I think that in the long run this is the only way that we'll ever have a balanced game. Trying to balance both aspects in the same way will never lead to a truly balanced game. Admittedly Blizzard comes closer than I think most people would assume in a situation like this, but it's come to the point where both aspects have so much focus that continuing down the path of simultaneous PVP and PVE balancing is going to become impossible. At some point they are going to have to step back and realize that they are in essence developing two seperate games and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other.
Job well done, week in review, and other things.
What can I say?
Next week we're going to be shooting for a 3 wing clear on Thursday and finishing things up on Sunday. That should leave Monday open for other options. What would you all like to run? Options are Malygos(Eye of Eternity) or taking a serious look at Ulduar.
WWS from tonight here: http://wowwebstats.com/o5ybnt3fuho5u
Our own 25 man Naxx
I know it's tough to get 25 people all to commit, but we're essentially pugging this raid every week. Nice enough people and they seem to know how to play their toons but some of them are sorely undergeared for 10 man naxx let alone 25 man.
My expectations of raiders has gone up from running with all of you. I expect people who are in this raid and know it in advance to have read up on the fights - there should be minimal explaining necessary. I know that's a Frazz characteristic, but it seemed that even after the explanations people still had no clue.
Ok I know this sounds more like bitch and moan, but it was a depressing run. Maybe my expectations are too high. Especially since my healing seemed to be off some.
Done rambling.
Recap, and other stuff.
My Apologies
On the plus side I'm glad Darchon got to run with you guys, or at least I hope that's what happened.
The Return
Last night, having taken a week off, we returned with a new tank and new class changes to play with. Goroxx made his debut and was nothing short of impressive. Picked up the run and kept up with the rest of us pro’s and even survived Heigan’s dance the first time out while dps and tank! To cap the night off we entered Ulduar and had a blast! That’s going to be one fun instance to run on a regular basis.
Because of everything that has changed in 3.1, we did slow down quite a bit. Not at all unexpected, we have new tank to break in, and the fact that we are now swapping specs in our run now. So I can’t fault us on being slow. We will improve our timing again once we get the changes and routine down.
Threat
On trash pulls and our aoe, it’s seems like there is a bit of lag between when drop my consecration and beginning to generate threat to keep mobs off of everyone. I’m not sure if this is a new thing or I’m just noticing it now that I’m main tanking. Regardless, it’s obvious we weren’t watching our threat. We’ll need to work on keeping an eye on threat before jumping in to make sure Goroxx and I have adequate threat.
This Weekend
Kirathis and I are heading to my sisters this weekend to do some fishing, cooking out, etc. So we won’t be available until Sunday afternoon.
As for Sunday, let’s focus on getting the remaining two wings down, then we can focus on Saphiron, and Kel’Thuzad on Monday.
Finally, Goroxx is needing enchants on his gear and could use more runs through heroic. If anyone has time before our run on Sunday please coordinate them with him. As for the cost of the enchants, let me know if any gold is spent and I’ll help pitch in on the cost.
Have a great weekend everyone!
-Grex
Too Funny!

But, something seems to have happened with the release of WoW's 3.1 patch. The exclamation and question marks identifying quest npcs seem to have gotten noticably larger. At this point I figure, why bother with any "unnecessary" details? Just make the quest npc one big exclamation mark (or question mark as needed). At least then, when we're running around trying to do old, low level quests for faction or achievements, we won't have to turn on the "low level quest" option. While we're at it, I say, let's give them a glowing pulse as well. Oh and maybe an audible pinging sound that intensifies when we turn in the direction of a quest giver that gets louder as we get closer.
You know... knowing that a few Blizzard Devs read the comic, I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have mentioned any of this."
Time-Warner Getting the Smack Down by Consumers.
I know this isn’t WoW related, but I figured would send this news bit along. One of the things I watch closely is the internet service providers, and looking for the best and worst deals when it comes to my internet connectivity. I told Comcast to go F’themselves after dsl speeds increased to tolerable levels in my neighborhood. With all the “network management” crap they pull off as innocent effects my ability to use bit torrent, watch tv shows, list to music, and even use services such as Skype or Vonage.
Anyone for Ulduar on Sunday?
So here's what I'm proposing. Sunday night we meet up an hour earlier than normal, 6 server, and go play in Ulduar for about 45 minutes or so. No expectations, just some fun killing stuff. After that we'll all go repair our gear and smack some stuff around in Naxx as normal.
If you can't make it no problem. This is just something I'm throwing out there to see if there's any interest.
New Website Template
The Topic of 3.1
Last night was indeed a doozy. Lots of server drama, Blue getting bashed over the head for a “crappy update”. So today, I’d like to kick off the topic of 3.1 and our opinion of it so far.
Interesting Night..
This is my Frost Presence...
My Love/Hate Relationship with Blizzards PVP
Welcome Goredd(Goroxx)!
Announcement
I wish him well and hope to see the old GK back healthy and better than ever soon.
Gear Lists
1) We won't start raiding Ulduar until we have cleared Naxx. Whether or not we'll wait until we kill Malygos is still up in the air.
2) We want to wait a while (2-3 weeks) after the patch comes out to seriously look at Ulduar regardless of progression. This is mainly for 2 reasons.
A) 3.1 has a lot of changes in it and people need to get used to their buffs and nerfs. This will allow us to compare to past performances to see what needs to be adapted.
B) Blizzard's track record with patches is far from spectacular. We'll let the lag and bugs die down before we move in.
Please post in the comments what gear you are still looking for and who it drops from for your MAIN spec. Especially important right now is to find out if anyone still needs drops off of Sartharion because it has been proposed to drop him from the kill list unless there are drops needed. We also need to know if people are still missing a substantial amount of upgrades out of the current content or if it's just one or two things and we can move on to other encounters.
AAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
*sigh*
On another note, apparently Universal Pictures has acquired the movie rights to the Wheel of Time and have plans to adapt "The Eye of the World" into a feature length film.
Press release can be found here
More PWNAGE
WWS
3 Wings cleared in one night

Very nice job tonight guys. We cleared 3 wings in a single 2 hour run complete with a healer disconnect right towards the end. Damn my ISP. Everyone did an excellent job with moving quickly and keeping their heads when things got tense. Loot was handled very well and no wipes on the bosses is a huge achievement. Gotta get those trash pulls figured out though, kinda embarassing to one-shot 9 bosses, but get wiped by trash twice.
WWS here
Upcomming plans:
Sunday: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Monday: Sapphiron, Kel'Thuzad