In-Game Character Relationships and Quasi-RP

I don't play on an RP server and the notion has always appealed to me. Yet, when I tired rolling a toon on a serious RP server once I failed miserably at it. Like a lot of players I do make up backgrounds and personas for my characters as I find it helps me get to know and understand my characters better and I feel it helps me play them better. If you know the character's M.O., then you understand why you play them the way you do. This quasi-RP as I call it had lead to some interesting things as I've gotten to know Mirax and she helps me understand my own motives.

I've struggled to make a background for her, though thankfully Blizzard did that already as she's a Draenei and crash landing in Azuremyst Isle was one of the most profound experiences I had when I first started playing WoW. The land was breathtakingly gorgeous and the environment was so surreal that I was captivated as soon as I got away form the level 6 striders that kept killing me after I had deleted my hearthstone. That experience of running around Azuremyst and later Bloodmyst Isles shaped who Mirax is and why she does the things she does. There have been few in-game experiences that have affected me like this and most of the subsequent ones all had to do with a single player, Mirax's partner in most crimes: Mälik.

Like Mirax, Mälik crash landed on the Exodar and took in everything that Azeroth had to offer. Since sometime during Wrath, after Ulduar was no longer top raiding tier, Mir and Mal have been stomping it up all over Azeroth and Outland. We got out Hero of the Zandalar Tribe together, helped each other finish quests and get dungeon achievements. And we've done a bit of play RP together. I could argue that Mälik is Mirax's in-game soulmate as the nature of our RP does tend to devolve into more adult themes and thankfully I'm female in real life and Mälik is male. Makes for a bit less on the awkward side, except I'm not sure Mal considers Mir his in-game partner the way I do.

The only issue with a relationship like ours is how our situations outside of game affect the in-game one. When we do get into the RP part, we are projecting part of ourselves onto out characters and that's the sticky part. How does one deal with the fact that their in-game mate/date/lover/etc deal with the fact that they have a girlfriend outside of game and how does that affect their gameplay with you? Yes, WoW and everything that happens in the digital world of Azeroth is just a game, but the people and personalities are real. I actually met up with Mälik in real life this year and he is exactly the same person in the real world as he is over the Ventrillo server. So it makes you wonder what's going on in a person's offline life that makes them do the things they do online and how comfortable they are with the actions you take in-game regarding them.

Mälik and Mirax in a secluded room in Stormwind.

Drawing the Line on Guild Raid Performance

My guild has a BIG problem. Our players are constantly getting outshined by the PUGs we bring in to fill out our 10-man raiding team. Last week in the first official guild-sponsored Firelands run one of our 3 dps was constantly lower than the tanks on the meters and the undergeared PUG was outshining our fully geared out in Tier 11 enhancement shaman. Had our dps been pulling the numbers we needed them to we would have had Shannox down no questions asked. Many times we got him to 3% but then everyone started taking too much damage and the raid wiped or we were too slow on the dps and he hit enrange. At 3%.

Our officers, who coincidentally are our regular raiders, had an impromptu meeting after the raid to discuss the issue. Sadly the meeting didn't result in much except our low dpsers saying their dps was low "because we're melee and have to run around a lot." This kinda pissed me off because the main spec on my paladin is retribution and earlier in the day I had been pulling 14k dps without thinking about while running around like an idiot trying to heal the tank while do ranged dps in a ZG because the healer and dps kept dying. And I'm just as geared as the enhancement shaman. Hell my under geared enhancement shaman pulls the same dps as the other raider. Back to the issue at hand, being melee dps isn't a good excuse for low dps in a raid. I think I was so pissed off about the comment because I had been asked to heal for that raid due to the fact that we have too much melee dps and the only other melee with a heal offspec is the guild lead who pulls the trump card. And this issue has come up before--forcing one of the best dps in guild to go heals.

So last night a few of the officers were talking about the raid dps issue once again since our previous meeting had not produced anything other than excuses. We realized that our guild is in the EXACT same position it was in when Trial of the Crusader came out--our guild dps and overall player performance is lacking and Zeffra and Mohrrgun are not in the picture currently--and the guild needs a gimmick to re-invigorate it. (Zeff and Moh are two of the guild founders who happen to be the glue that holds us together.) And just like when TotC came out we decided that we are going to start running 25-man PUG raids on Saturdays that are not guild sponsored and thus we are not obliged to take under-performing guild members along with us. This also means that any PUG we bring in has to pull at least 15k dps or they will be kicked from group. Granted leading 25-man raids makes out main tank and primary raid leader go batty, but he was the one who suggested it. However, unlike TotC he's not running the 25-mans on his own. He has both myself and his co-raid lead to help with group formation and raid execution.

I will always hold out hope that our guild can regain the glory days of our 10-man Ulduar raid team that made our guild 9th on server for 10-man progression. Maybe this is what's needed. Maybe we need to stop walking on eggshells around guild members feelings and be straight up asses about the raid performance. Maybe we should just start our own new guild or go join another. But I don't want to leave a guild I have worked so hard to make a great place to play WoW that it is.

Time for a Main Spec Change?

I'm seriously considering changing my paladin's main spec from retribution to holy. Don't get wrong, I love ret and am one of the few people in game who can still play it well. (There is a perceived notion that ret pallies are "broken" and unplayable by all the former facerollers.) I've already gotten her her up to honored with the Avengers of Hyjal, have her decked out in her new belt and cloak and managed to get my hands on the Apparatus of Khaz'goroth on the first night of release. I'm starting off on a great foot as a raiding ret paladin in 4.2. Yet, I keep getting asked to heal and well, my healing set isn't too shabby either plus I'm not totally failing at it.

I always considered my paladin to not be the greatest healer due to the fact that I didn't really play a holy pally the way you were intended to. Until now. With the changes to holy pallies that came out with 4.2, holy paladins now play the way I play mine. Thus I'm not failing as badly as I could. that and it makes playing a holy pally that much more fun. I have a tough decision ahead of me.

I think my decision to switch up the main spec on Mirax is going to come down to the fight mechanics of the Firelands itself--how much melee dps do we need? My guild currently has only a handful of active raidiers which include a feral druid tank, a rogue, an enhancment shaman, a restoration druid, occasionally an elemental shaman and me the ret paladin. With this makeup I've gotten stuck healing more often than not when we pug out to fill the spots of our 10 man raids. I don't mind too much because I'd rather be playing my off-spec than sitting the raid out. Both of the shaman have resto as their offspec although the enhancement shaman has been talking about picking up elemental as an offspec to help with our low amount of ranged dps. Firelands should be interesting in terms of our raid group make-up and the changes to it that are coming.