I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in WSG these last couple of days. I’ve not run a lot of BattleGrounds before, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. It’s actually gotten to the point where I feel I’m contributing at least as much as I’m hindering.

I managed to pick up Fiery Enchant for my Cobalt Crusher, and got some +Stam on my Barbaric Bracers, before my last WSG run. I actually feel like I did pretty well on this one.

Now I’m gonna go play some Professor Layton.

So I was playing on Uhtar today, finishing up some quests in Astranaar (or as Ratshag likes to say, “Aastraaanaaar”), when I see a tell in the general channel.

“LF 2 more for BFD”

“I’m in”, I whispered back.

And so we got a group going, and we did really well. We had 2 Shamans (including me), both Enhancement, rocking the house. We had an awesome Priest, who kept us all in good health. We had a good Warrior, who was having a little bit of a tough time keeping aggro off of us DPS Shaman, but that’s OK, we like it like that.

And we had a Hunter.

I don’t know if I’m just spoiled, or if BRK’s training has just made me expect more from Hunters, but this guy was, in every sense of the word, and Huntard. Every thing he did set me on edge, from using a WC serpent as his pet (WTF?! WHY?!?), to melee-ing every encounter, to dropping Freezing Traps in the middle of combat. On my mob. And getting irritated when I broke the trap.

I checked out his Armory profile afterward. I regret it. This kid has no idea what he’s doing. (I won’t link directly to his profile. That’s harsh.)

If I ever suck it up so badly, please, someone slap me into shape. PLEASE.

What do you do when you’re PUG-ing for a dungeon, you need 1 person to fill a role, and when you find one, they say, “Oh, don’t ask me to do X, I’m not specced for it”.

This happened to me and a friend a while ago, trying to run ZF. He was a Warrior, and I’m a Warlock, and we had another DPS, forget which class. We manage to get 2 other people: a Druid and a Pally, and neither of them will heal. Flat out, absolutely refuse. Kick, kick, never did find a full group, went and quested elsewhere.

I understand I may not know everything, or even much of anything, about healing, because up until my Pox Arcanum Shaman, Fuller, I’ve played DPS classes. But I’m of the opinion that if you are in a group and you are the only one (or maybe one of two) who can fill a role, you should do it. Maybe you’re not specced for it, maybe you don’t have the gear with you. It’s ok, we’re not asking you for a miracle, just do the job the best you can.

/endrant

You can find our Pox Arcanum’s blog page at http://poxarcanum.blogspot.com/. Come by and say hi.

Pox Arcanum is official! We got our charter passed around, got all the signatures we needed, and got our tabard all set up. We had a sizable group of us in front of the Horde Embassy, goofing off and playing around; so large, in fact that we had a few people come up and ask us what we were up to. Apparently, we looked like we were going to go raid something.

And don’t get me wrong, that would have been fun.

Anyway, not everyone could make it tonight. Nasirah at A Tale of Two Druids, member of the Purple Poxer group, lost internet connection tonight, and we in the Yellow Poxless had a member who’d never shown up, or (as far as anyone knows) created a character. We did have an unexpected addition, though, and started our fourth group, the Black Pox. And we did a little group rearranging, for the sake of better grouping. I’m now in the Black Pox.

The only group that had all five members (eventually) there and ready to quest together was the Green Poxed. I’m anxious to hear how they did.

Things of Note

• I had picked up a recipe for Savory Deviate Delight yesterday for 1.5g, and promptly resold it for 35g. That makes me smile.
• It also made me able to buy tabards for those still financially unable to buy theirs, as well as put some money in the Guild Bank.
• I picked up all my Major City Flight paths today, using the Lunar Festival teleport for the trickier parts.
• I picked up all my Ragefire Chasm quests, so that next time the Black Pox plays, I’ll be ready to share.
• Dueled a little bit outside Orgrimmar. I beat a level 11 Shaman twice. Earth Shock, you’re my best friend.

I went and saw The Spiderwick Chronicles today with my family, and I’ve got to say, I was pretty impressed. My younger brother is a big fan of the books, and I had tried to read them, but found them a bit too simple for my tastes, and never finished the first one. The movie looked pretty good, but I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it myself.

Unless offered a free ticket.

My parents arranged a day hike today, followed by a trip out to the theater. I passed on the hike, because I’m still recovering from a nasty cold, and almost passed on the movie, but it was a family activity. And I’m glad I went, because the movie was really good.

There is a scene, though, in the movie, where the children ride on the back of a gryphon over gorgeous landscapes, and I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this feels familiar…”