Last night I took the Nestea plunge and decided to queue up for ZA/ZG, solo, in the LFD system. For whatever reason both Healers and Tanks had the CTA bonus, so I figured why not? I'd run them both once already and had a feel for them, let's stick our toe in and see how things go. After all, I'm a big supporter of the LFD tool, so it's only right that I actually use it every once in a while.
6k DPS does not a hero make
First stop, ZA. Here I was greeted by my new mini-friends with the expected commentary.
Me> Good evening all.
Tank> Everyone know fights?
Bad Shaman> Yeah, let's go.
Bad DK> I hope heals is good, last heals was terrible and we wiped.
Tank> I take that as a yes. Try and keep up.
Ahh. So refreshing! So we proceeded to go for the bear boss first, which is fine, since I'm not expecting a mount run with a PUG anyway. Here however was where the real fun began, and by fun, I mean it was great practice for 2 healing H-Halfus.
First, the shaman was pulling 6k DPS, including on the bear boss. Now I understand that elemental shaman may not be rocking the charts, and you can certainly cheat the iLvl requirements - but even I find 6k to be abysmal. That's ok though, I could handle it if only he'd been backfilling with one thing.
Interrupts.
I had more interrupts as the healer than the rest of my group combined. Of course if I'd had just one interrupt that would have been more, but you get the idea. Holy moly, even after asking them to interrupt, I just got resposnes like "can't, interrupts my DPS". Thank goodnes my mana regen is good.
The little DK that could(n't)
This guy was AWESOME. Couldn't/wouldn't/didn't interrupt, Death Grip pulled before the tank had agro, stood in every environmental damage zone possible, and didn't know he had a B-Rez. Now the battle Rez I can 'kind' of forgive. After all it's a big change and not everyone reads the patch notes or WoW related websites. Given how much his mouth was flapping though, he certainly thought he was Pro Player Stadium.
The wrap-up
It wasn't all bad to be honest. It took longer than I expected (normal), we wiped two or three tiems (also normal and ok), and we did finally get the bosses dead. The group wasn't overly abusive, though the DK did lip off a few times because I let him die. Fortunately, I have lots of room on my /ignore list.
The real kick though, was the satchel. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting a dozen flasks, a new pony (though that would have been nice) or anything - though I guess I did have higher hopes. Instead I got 66g34s and an Earthen Potion (whatever the armor one is). Whoop dee doo.
For 150g, I might go again, maybe. Certainly not for 66g though. I dang sure won't respec to Prot for that small a purse. To spec Prot and back is roughly 250g (respec x2, 6 glyph replacements x2). Bugger that.
Don't misunderstand me here though. The group wasn't "that" bad, and the instances are a nice retro throwback. I love the look of a lot of the gear, and I'm certainly not upset that they redid the zones. It's just that short of some 353 bracers (damn you Cho'gall, damn you), there's nothing in there for me. I don't really need Valor Points, though I should start trading them in and getting some PvP gear. I suppose that if I was going to farm VPs, this isn't a bad way to do it. Otherwise - sorry CTA, I was wrong about you. We won't be BFF, and I doubt I'll call you later.
This is exactly why I won't queue for a Zandalari heroic solo through the LFD. There is just no way the content of the CTA purse can outweigh the grief/repair bills that some random groups will bring. As you said not all the runs will be bad, and not all the bad runs will be BAD. I think I'll just stick to the normal Cata heroics when I'm in the mood for a Satchel, at least I know I can do most of that content without relying to much on the rest of my group!
ReplyDeleteWell here is my take. Last night I queued with you healing my druid tank for a ZG run. This was the first time I had tanked it on my druid and the first time I was tanking on the druid in like 5 months..out of shape...yes Sir.
ReplyDeleteGranted we wiped on the first boss because I wasn't aware I could get out of the breath, but after that everything was A-OK.
After you and Chris logged I proceeded to do more CTA Zandalari Heroics on ym druid solo queuing. Granted my druid's Ilvl is only 350 and there are multiple pieces I can use for upgrades out of both instances. I proceeded to tank 4 more last night within the time frame of 4 hours and logged just before 430am CST. I was 1 run away from capping my 7 heroics for the week in 1 night on him. I wiped about 2 more times last night running pure pugs. All in all I think as long as you have a competent tank who is willing to explain the fights you are golden.
This is just my experience. JP I request a redo of our run to show you my improvements.
I agree, the CTA aren't for the mains, because most of us have better gear than what we can find in ZA/ZG anyway (what's with holydins and bracers? Everyone seems to need those from chogall ^^). But personally I found it to be the perfect thing for all those alts that can't get into raids, because I already raid with my main. It's kind of a mini-raid, and to me the bag is the incentive I need to join a pug instead of wait for my friends to come online.
ReplyDeleteZinn - Cho'gall has the only epic bracers (well, before 4.1) other than the Conquest PvP ones. It's the curse of Int plate - you only need a couple in every raid (or only one in our case), but it bloats up the loot tables something fierce.
ReplyDeleteJust a nitpick, but you don't have to rebuy glyphs anymore. I'm feeling you on the non-interrupting no damage doing dps, though. That's a real pet peeve of mine.
ReplyDelete