Daily Bloggery 2009-04-18: Emotional Rollercoaster Rides

The last 24 hrs have been a roller coaster ride, and the hits keep on coming.

Upswing: I'm off to Gwenny's this afternoon.

Downswing: Last night, while playing WoW . . . Gwenny and I log on, and are going through our usual "What do you want to do tonight, Brain? . . ." routine. Gwenny spots an opportunity to get Marty into a pickup group (PuG) for Naxxaramas. Naxx is the place I really need to be going to get gear upgrades. Gwenny is not coming, she's got her hands full with guild drama. OK, so I go, get to the entrance. I was given the impression that this would be a fresh run, with all of the bosses -- and maximum loot possibilities. It turns out that this group is on the very last boss -- a really tough dragon -- and just needs me to down him. I've never been in here before, so I have no idea of how to get to the dragon. I really need some step by step guidance here . . . I ask for it repeatedly, and I get blown off. Now my frustration level builds up rapidly. I finally get into raid chat and ask them for an escort to the boss. Repeatedly. Again. And again. This is not an unusual request, but these bozos still blow me off. I finally yell at one of my guildies to help me get through to these guys . . . and I finally get some clear instructions on how to get into the instance and thence to the boss.

They sketch out what I need to do -- no details, despite my repeated pleas for more information, just enough to get started. A couple of them start manking snide comments in the channel that annoy me, but I figure they are as frustrated as I am and want to get on with the fight. They start the fight, I have a very vague idea at best as to what to do . . . and I die, rapidly, to an effect I did not understand.

As I lay there, dead, out of the fight and totally frustrated, one of the raiders pops off with a sarcastic "Well, that shaman was certainly worth waiting for!"

This is where I completely lose it. It is no use explaining why to this group of assholes. You DO NOT grab someone who does not know a fight (and EVERY boss fight in a raid has two ways or more to kill you very fast, other than big time damage -- unless you know exactly what to do and when to counter the instant kill) and especially a very tough end boss -- and expect him to perform. I was under the impression when I was invited -- and so I think Gwenny was as well -- that this would be a group who was starting fresh with the easier areas of Naxx where I could learn the fights. Instead I'm with a group that expected me to be born knowing everything and laughed when I died due to ignorance. And, the ONLY reason they had to wait is because these arrogant pricks did not bother to summon me to the instance, nor did they give me clear directions as to how to get to a FSCKING boss I am not quite ready for once I was there!

I rez at the graveyard, immediately drop group and log off in sheer angry frustration. Fsck them and the epic mounts they rode in on! You do NOT refuse to remedy someone's ignorance, arguably lie to him, and then mock him for acting out of ignorance!

What is even more frustrating is that now I cannot go back to Naxx until next Tuesday, because raids work on a lockout timer. Once you enter a raid instance, you are "saved" to it. This keeps you from running a raid dungeon more than once a week. I was really looking forward to running that place with a BOYD raid and with Gwenny / Paharita right there this weekend. Now that's not an option.

I log back in 10 min later, when every other word out of my mouth is no longer some variant on "fuck" and tell my guildies what happened. Gwenny apologizes and we spend the rest of the evening opening up the Sons of Hodr quest lines in Storm Peaks. She explains that most of that group are ex-members of our guild and they figured I'd have a clue like most of our other members. Then, Jenni (Gwenny's daughter) whispers me to tell me that this was totally bogus, is so very sorry, and says that there will be a Naxx run next week with just the guild. We have a lot of new level 80s who are ready for Naxx now . . . .

Upswing: just when I get to work, some good news: Our complementary employee email / network services accounts are upgraded to Family Packs (5 email addys, more storage / bandwidth, etc)