Gary Gygax – pioneer for World of Warcraft

Gary Gygax, creator of the tabletop RPG Dungeons and Dragons, died today at the age of 69. There is never someone around with a resurrection spell when you need one.

I have several immediate reactions to this. First is sadness. I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons continuously from about 1981 until 1987. After I went to college, my background in AD&D led me to try other tabletop RPGs. I continued to play tabletop games of one type or another until I got hooked on WoW. While I have not actually played a D&D product since the late 80′s, all of the games that have come since then are derivative of Gygax’s work. I can link a huge portion of my life directly to the influence of Gary Gygax.

The second thing I note is that there are a number of others in the WoW blogosphere that are honoring the memory of Mr. Gygax today. I’m surprised at the number of thirtysomethings that comprise our blogging community.

Then I also realized that there are a significant number of people who have never played tabletop games and have no idea what the big deal is. D&D was WoW but without the technology. When your character fought a monster, it went through very similar mechanics to what happens behind the scenes in WoW. You swing… your attack was compared against his defense (remember THACO?) and a die was rolled to determine if you hit. If you hit, then another die was rolled to determined damage. Later, systems were added to incorporate critical hits. You had mages with spells and priests who could heal.

Even back then, all of us D&D nerds imagined the day when computers would make gaming easier. Some of us programmed random number generators on our Commodore 64s to replace the dice, but it wasn’t the same. Later, we played TSR-brand computer games on our IBMs – Pools of Radiance holds a special place in my memory. Then there was Ultima I-whatever, and later UO. When EQ was released it was like everything we had ever dreamed of – all the mechanics of a tabletop game in a smoothly running (?), nonlinear computer game. Then WoW, as the next generation, has gone leaps beyond that.

Thanks, Gary Gygax, for creating a bloodline of gaming so enduring that it has flourished far beyond the dreams of its maker.

Guild update – how do you recruit?

Anyone who has read my earlier posts may know that my guild blew up about a month ago. I haven’t mentioned anything since then. Here’s an update. Those who have found themselves in similar situations might commiserate.

A large raiding guild (not going to use their name) made off with a whole bunch of our guild members. We currently have seven of our Kara team remaining – all wearing full Kara and Badge gear. But we don’t have enough to make a team. None of us are really fond of PuGs. So we haven’t run Kara in about a month.

Even worse – I haven’t run any instance in about a month. The players who are left are generally spending time leveling alts right now (me too, actually). We have a couple of good tanks, but only one level 70 healer, so were are limited in our ability to run anything.

Our main tank is actually running Karazhan weekly with the “other guild” where our defectors went. He swears that he is not going to leave my guild (The Dragons) but he really wants to raid so he goes with them. He feels like its no big deal since we are not able to run Kara right now.

So things seem pretty grim.

Here’s the positive side – there is a 70 ret pally in our guild who has never raided at any level, but has offered to respec holy to heal and raid with us. She has never healed anything, so there will be a steep learning curve. But its something to look forward to.

Now we just need to add a couple more people – another healer or two and maybe another dps. Then we can jump back into Kara. Most of us are so well geared that we can easily pull the new players through and get them gear so that we can maybe move on to ZA before the expansion.

Here’s my question – How do you recruit? I’ve never had to recruit players before. Do you spam recruiting messages in the Trade channel? Do you use your server’s online forums? Do you send whispers to unguilded players? What is the best way to attract quality players?

Incidentally, if anyone has a level 70 toon on the Sen’Jin server, we have an opening for you!

Rogue vs. Maiden of Virtue

The Maiden fight is a rough one for a rogue. In fact, when we were first doing Karazhan and we were a little undergeared, I used to volunteer to switch out for this fight and let a hunter in my place. Ranged dps is superior to melee in the Maiden encounter. Now that we outgear the encounter I stay in, but it is rare for me to be near the top of the damage meter.

General strategies for the fight including positioning and the usefulness of paladins can be found here, here, and here.

For rogues, Maiden drops the Bracers of Maliciousness and two Badges of Justice, but much of her best loot is for healers.

Maiden does a continuous Consecrate. Anyone who gets close to her is going to take ticks of Holy damage. Unfortunately, the healers are busy keeping the tank up in this fight through the Repentance stuns, so the dps is generally on their own as far as healing goes. Bring pots and bandages. Of course, if you get the Holy Fire DoT then you will be healed. I’m talking about general moment-to-moment damage from Consecrate.

The good news: Maiden is not undead, so she can be Ruptured!

Here’s the way I do this fight if I know I am not going to get much healing. The tank runs in and positions her and gets some threat. I wait a few seconds, then pop a Major Holy Protection potion. That lasts me for through the first barrage. I run in, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang for 5 combo points. Then Rupture and run out. Shiv is your best bet for fast combo point generation there.  It takes less energy that Sinister Strike and Backstab so you can get them off faster.

If I took any damage I bandage up while Rupture and Deadly Poison tick away.

For my next barrage I run in and pop Cloak of Shadows. That will protect me from a few of the Consecrate ticks. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, rupture, run out. Again, shiv is your best option to get those combo points.

I might used my ranged weapon to do some minimal damage while I wait for my bandage cooldown.

After that I’m going to have to take damage in order to attack. Run in, get a couple of combo points, rupture with whatever I can get, then run out and heal. I don’t want to let myself get too low on health because when she does her Repentance it does damage before it stuns.

If I play it safe and run out when I still have 50% health, then I’m going to stay alive without much problem. The only thing likely to kill me is the Holy Fire. If Cloak of Shadows is up then I can get rid of it. If I used Cloak to avoid Consecrate damage and its on cooldown, I’ll have to hope that one of the dispellers gets me in time.

Hunters, mages, and warlocks can easily outdamage me in this fight. They never get Consecrate damage, so they never have to stop their dps to run in or out. I think I’ve been on top of the damage meter one time. Still, the longer I keep rupture going, the more damage I do and the faster she dies.

Have fun!