Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Humilty is a good thing

A concept of relative fascination for me is how people may excel in one facet of the game, and totally fail in others.

I am totally and completely unable to deal with the constructs on the Teron Gorefiend fight. Every time the fight begins, I hope and hope that luck is on my side, and I don't get the Shadow O' Death. I have tried playing the Fun Flash Game, but it doesn't reflect my normal play style, making it difficult to adjust. For example, I strafe normally, so being unable to use 'Q' and 'E' in the game actually forces me to think about how to move. This rare thought-process makes me nervous, so it's more difficult for me to concentrate about what I need to do regarding the constructs. I know I need to do the whole "5-4-3-3-3-3-3-3" bit, but spamming a button is already sad reality for me, and when I need to spam a button, it's typically not 3. I've caught myself more than once spamming my 3:2 steady-auto macro on accident instead of Ice Lance. And, of course, the bulk of my problem is just mental frustration: I'm terrible at it because I've already mentally assured myself that I can't do it. Once that skull pops overhead, I become a nervous wreck; my heart races, and I fumble over my keys. Once I even broke into (silent) tears, because if another girl hadn't helped me cover my constructs, I would have wiped the raid. I just can't do it, and I know it. It's a personal failure that I hate, and would love to overcome.

On the other hand, I simply don't know how people can't stay alive on the Illidari Council fight. It does help that I have the equivilent HP of a warlock, but more often than not, they are some of the first to die. It's so simple to strafe out of the Blizzard or fire, pop a healthstone or health pot, or even bandage myself, then keep going. If the rogue is on me, pop a health stone after a couple of ticks. If the situation really need it, pop Drums of Restoration for it's weak heals and mana. It's just so easy to stay alive.. for me. I caught myself nearly yelling at the people who couldn't stay alive when a little voice inside my head said "But Neg, you fail at constructs." Then I realized I really couldn't say anything.

I'm good at hunter. I'm good at staying alive. I'm terrible at keeping multiple people alive or killing multiple targets that need to die. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

4 comments:

Rilgon Arcsinh said...

I keep looking at the Teron fight and wanting to try it JUST to see how I handle the constructs - for me, 5-4-33333333 is close enough to my rotation ANYWAYS (3 being Arcane, 4 being Multi, and 5 being Steady).

I'll be the first to admit - you're probably one of those people that you want to yell at. I get into such a zen-like state weaving my 1.5:1 that things that land on me, unless it's alerted to me in Vent, don't even phase me. I was down to 100 HP last night before I realized "holy crap, I'm in a flame patch, move you blueberry idiot". By that time it was too late to get out by the next tick and I snuffed it.

But yeah, I totally understand what you're saying. Stuff like Aran doesn't bother me because Arcanes/Blizzards/Wreaths are alerted to us in Vent, but Al'ar doesn't have an entry in NECB or DBM that says "HEY IDIOT, FLAME PATCH", so it just becomes more text in SCT. :|

Rilgon Arcsinh said...

Err, I'M probably one of those people you want to yell at.

Typo'd :)

Negathle said...

Scrolling.
Combat.
Text.

Pretty little red words that float over your body when a debuff comes on ;).

Rilgon Arcsinh said...

I do have SCT. I should recolor the debuff text, though, because it really didn't stand out to me that I WAS in a Flame Patch.

Like I said - I tend to zen out when I'm DPSing. Doing my rotation and listening to trance can really put me in a very out-of-mind mood. :P