Five Project PUG Tank runs.
Aegidius the Project PUG Tank ran five randoms last night. He met two space cases and his first genuine jackass causing loot drama. He also had his first blood pressure spike. He’s now level 84, so my next required goal for him is to open up the Dragonmaw faction far enough to get a tabard.
I secretly have RP-style characterizations built up in my head for all of my Wow characters. I tend not to play a character much if I don’t have a handle on who he or she is. This is true even though I don’t have much patience for in-game roleplay. (I’d be more likely to write a story about them, though I’ve never done that, either.) Aegidius is a fussy perfectionist. He cleans the blood off everything immediately after every battle. Mess with his pull plan and he’ll get snarky. (Contrast with Praetorian, who is a noble idiot who’ll try to rescue any situation.)
Aegidius got snarky last night.
Instance reports within!
Stonecore
The first pull was marred by the Unholy DK letting loose with the AOE instantly and dpsing the mobs right next to the sapped Earthshaper, which inevitably led to the CC breaking, which led to snark from the priest. Hello BP spike. I indulged in a little dry commentary in return. Ahem. I did not break my politeness rule in letter, though perhaps not in spirit. The unholy DK didn’t speak English natively or much at all, so I suspect he was blithely unaware. The priest was obnoxiously full of incorrect instructions about dealing with the Earthshapers, which he knew all about because his main was a tank. Or so he said. But the rogue quietly ignored him and sapped what I asked him to, so the pulls went fine after the first one. The priest never shut up, unfortunately.
The only wipe I had all night happened in the trash leading up to Ozruk, when cascading groups got face pulled. Or pulled by AOE, couldn’t tell.
A warlock named Satañ from Skullcrusher rolled need on the healing trinket from Azil. This was after the priest had begged him not to, saying warlocks had ninjaed it from him twice before. The guy said it was the priest’s if it dropped, then rolled need when it did. Mind you, the priest was a tool, so I wasn’t too sad, but it was pretty deliberate. And it isn’t in his activity log today, which means he vendored it.
The skilled rogue and the non-English-speaking DK from this run glommed onto me and stayed with me for the next four runs as well. The priest dropped group, claiming he was about to go torch the warlock’s server. I have no idea how that little drama ended. I do blame Blizzard for that; warlocks & mages shouldn’t be able to roll need on an item with an on-healing-spell proc.
Gear upgrades: 0
Blood pressure spikes: 1
Good players: 1
Space cases: 1
Jackasses: 1
Healer: holy priest
Vortex Pinnacle
The druid was the only healer all night with whom I felt secure. Good spell selection, hots rolling on me at all times, mana never wavered. The grounding triangle pulls were less messy than usual because the rogue sapped at the right times.
Gear upgrades: 0
Blood pressure spikes: 0
Good players: 0
Space cases: 0
Jackasses: 0
Healer: druid
Throne of the Tides
Newbie healer in his first Cata instance, who said so immediately. I gave healer-centric boss explanations, but I’m not sure it was necessary. Aside from the Faceless Watcher/gilgoblin pulls, the instance is tuned easy.
The DK stood in front of Erunak, of course, but didn’t die.
Gear upgrades: Eagle Ray Cloak, Anomuran Helm
Blood pressure spikes: 1
Good players: 0
Space cases: 0
Jackasses: 0
Healer: holy priest
Stonecore
The discipline priest enjoyed penancing mobs. He enjoyed penancing the wrong mobs. He enjoyed penancing trash at the very start of the Ozruk pull. To be fair, he kept the group alive through this and we one-shot Ozruk. I was surprised.
The rogue by this point knew exactly how I liked to operate and was sapping all the mobs I wanted sapped. All I had to do was mark after the fact so the DK wouldn’t break it with aoe. By this point I knew how the DK operated and could mostly cope with him.
Gear upgrades: Elementium Fang
Blood pressure spikes: 0
Good players: 0
Space cases: 1
Jackasses: 0
Healer: disco priest
Blackrock Caverns
The priest from the previous run and the DK & rogue from the first run were still with me here. A nice boring clear. Army of the Dead on the Rom’Ogg Chains of Woe made it hilariously easy.
Gear upgrades: Raz’s Breastplate
Blood pressure spikes: 0
Good players: 0
Space cases: 0
Jackasses: 0
Healer: disco priest (same one)
The fifth group slot was mostly filled by a succession of warlocks. 1 mage who eventually disconnected (replaced by a warlock), 1 ret pally. The only warlock who ever soulstoned anybody was the first one, and he had to be nagged into it by the rogue after the wipe. I suspect the rogue of being a raider working on an alt. He was consistent about interrupts. Always a tipoff.
I generally refrain from nagging people into using their supporting skills. I figure I need to spend my stranger-bossing capital on getting them to use CC and maybe just maybe waiting three seconds on a line of sight pull.
