Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?Three Things To Do During Downtime In Raids
Pepe Le Pew and Penelope The Cat
Hurry hurry hurry through the trash and to the boss, and then wait wait wait while the loot gets distrubuted.
If you're in a good guild, loot distribution doesn't slow you down - with the raid group on Master Looter, the majority of the raid can proceed ahead through the next amount of trash while an Officer hands the loot out according to your guild's looting system.
In a good guild, you won't need these tips, except right at the beginning while everyone is getting together, and maybe - MAYBE - after a wipe.
In my guild's case, there's generally very little downtime after a wipe - by the time I've done my couple of group buffs and consumed my food buff, we're generally ready to go pretty quickly again.
(If you're looking to get into a great guild and want to brush up your Raid Guild Application so it's shiny and represents you well, sign up to my new Raiding Tips and Tricks email list and start getting tips right away!)
But during PUGs...
Keeping Yourself Entertained
If you're not in a guild that is as awesome as you want to be in, PUGs are a great place to start to make new connections that will allow for a smooth entry into your next guild.
Therefore, if you're not in the awesome guild you want to be in, this first tip is the one you should stick with for a while, not really worrying about the tips that are more "time burners" than "investments of your time".
Entertainment Tip #1: Make Friends.
Even in the most horrible of PUGs, there's someone there that's good, and if you can connect with that good person through whispers while still sticking it out with a bad group, that PUG was totally worth your time and energy.
Outside of that PUG - how the relationship progresses to the point where that person will vouch for you to get into their awesome guild - it's completely up to you to keep in contact with the ones you like and whose friendship may be valuable over the coming weeks or months when you post an application to a new guild.
If you're already in a great guild or are happy with the friendship group that you play with, or don't mind horrible PUGs all the time, then you may wish to consider some of the "time burning" options as written below:
Entertainment Tip #2: Crashin' Thrashin' Robot
Crashin' Thrashin' Robot
This means you might be able to find one in the Auction House - and probably pretty cheap, too, since it doesn't count as a "companion pet" and doesn't count towards your various companion pet achievements, either.
With this mechanical pet, you need a friend who is in your raid to also have one, so your pets can "compete" against one another in a crash-up derby kind of way.
It's difficult to watch to see which pet is yours, however, so make sure to pay attention, or target it so you know if you win or lose!
Crashin' Thrashin' Derby
Entertainment Tip #3: Stinker and Black Tabby Cat
Stinker and the Black Tabby Cat
Of course, it's not "playing"... if you watch, Stinker chases the poor Black Tabby Cat all around with a big heart over his head, and the cat runs like crazy, and eventually Pepe Le Pew ... er, I mean Stinker... breaks off the chase as the heart over his head breaks into two.
Then, he starts chasing the kitty cat all over again.
And no worries, they're non-combat pets so they won't aggro the boss :)
What Other Fun Things Do You Do During Raids?
Are there any fun things that I didn't mention here that you and your friends do to entertain yourself during down-time in raids?
Let me know! :)
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I love my Stinker to bits and it never fails to entertain the raid. I just want to add that it also works with the Bombay Cat, easily obtainable in Elwynn Forest for Alliance or on the neutral AH for the Horde, without the hours/hundreds of gold necessary for the Black Tabby.
Another fun read (thanks).
Inevitably we end up in PUGs. I'll always know when a fellow guildie gets in a stinky PUG as the green text will pop up, "these guys are gonna get me killed". Equally, when they run into one of those stand-out players... the green text sometimes pops up, "Thusandsuch has joined the guild". We have quite a few great raiders in our guild that were 'found' in PUGs.
Ahh.. The choo choo train of course! But if you have an uptight raid, watch out! I used this when i had just joined a raid guild and was utterly disgusted with their Raid leader and his numerous rules and ego. So I laid down the choo choo, they raid kicked me and I gquit... mission accomplished! lol The other 3 toys that you can purchase at the toy factory in Dalaran are pretty fun too. Or the happy fun rock, the leather ball, etc.. O... and snowballs too!! But I'm a number cruncher, so whenever there is downtime and im NOT the loot master, i'll pull up recount and see where all my crits, hits, misses are etc.
hey did you know that Stinker will run after a Bombay cat too? Those can be purchased so they're a lot easier to get
Our guild loves tossing the paper zeppelins at each other during down times.
I enjoy RL jewelcrafting, so I usually keep some wire, beads and pliers near the computer so I can sit back and practice my twists and spirals. Sometimes I end up with earrings or a bracelet!
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=8485 (better known as the Bombay Cat Carrier) is an item most people can lay their hands on, and Stinker will chase her, too! I have a Stinker, but I usually wait for an opportunity to pull out the kitty instead:)
Hey There
We've have had a few activities we have done as a guild.
We have also had guild trivia nites from time to time which everyone enjoys. Good way to relax from the stresses of raiding:)
Scavenger hunts another good one or group fun achievements like "To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before"
So much to do so little time hehehe
I really enjoy doing group fun activities from time to time.
Oooohh, I saw those 2 one time in Dalaran and I couldn't figure out what on earth was going on, what a great Easter Egg!
I have Stinky, don't think I know anyone with the black kitty though...will try and find someone, LOL.
Hey...So some great fun little things to do during downtimes. I know while I was playing I used to be a big fan of collecting the WoW Trading card game in real life....it kinda get's expensive if you do not want to just directly buy the scratch cards themselves. But I used to play magic the gathering when I was younger and didn't have the money to just go out and blow it on booster boxes. So now that i'm older i figured why not have that fun i missed out and get a chance to get some in game loot cards. I've bought enough boxes now that I have purchased the Ogre Trinket, fireworks and a tabbard all offered if you collect enough points per packs you buy. Also I was lucky enough to pick up some other great time consuming things for raids such as the Goblin Gumbo card, allows you to place a pot of bubbling brew for anyone in the raid to pick up and drink..makes you randomly burp green smoke for 5 minutes or so. The Paper airplane is another great one..you can make a few of them in your inventory then just like the leather balls you throw..you can throw the paper airplanes to members that have free bag space and it kinda floats in the air so if the person is running it will slowly chase behind them until they stop. I have not collected any cards since i stopped playing but I know they have a disco ball, and for the new set they have foam sword rack which you can have little battles with.
I guess the last two things I have got through the cards worth mentioning are the X52 rocket mount, and also the Onyxia dragon kite that counts as a companion pet and also the kite get's hit by lightning every so often
The Crashin' Thrashin' Racer works almost as well as the robot for random fun... if you got one back during Christmas, anyway.
It, however, will aggro trash and/or bosses. However, I liked to use mine in Naxx to explore places that were typically off limit, like the slime canals to the left before Loatheb. (Those go pretty far back!)
Way back in the days of Molten Core, when I was still a Hunter and Feign Death got you out of most raid wipes... I used to knit during wipe recovery.
Feign Death, wait for reset, everyone starts the corpse run, and I'd get 5 or so minutes of good knitting time in!
Of course, now that I have to corpse run, or rez people, and rebuff everyone, plus being a raid officer? Those days are LONG gone! But it was fun, and funny, while it lasted.
Actually if the other person just has a regular old Bombay black cat it works too!
I'm got a lvl 73 affliction lock (my first and only toon). I've been on only 1 raid when some of the lvl 80s in my guild took the rest of us through Molten Core. All my other dungeon experience comes from the standard 5-man groups.
Based on my gaming experience so far, it seems that you and I are playing completely different games:
HURRY UP AND WAIT
For me, the hurry up and wait comes at the beginning... usually while someone in the group searches for a healer. The 4 of us are typically spread out all over the world, and continue our solo quests or whatever, until someone finally grabs that elusive last player. Then it's a bit more waiting while we try to get a few people to the stone (or to me, since I'm a lock) and we summon the rest. THAT'S the long wait. Then the dungeon starts...
LOOTING
...and loot has always been done with a pretty good sense of honor, and every group I've ever been in used the random roll to decide who gets what. The honor system for loot rules are then as follows:
1. PASS if you're completely uninterested or are a high lvl running lowbies.
2. GREED everything you're interested in keeping or selling.
3. NEED only if you really, really, need it, and generally ask everyone else first if it's ok for you to select NEED.
Even the raid I went on was done that way. There were a couple purple items in Molten Core that would've been a nice upgrade for my lock, but I wasn't desperate for them, so I selected GREED, and lost on both items. Oh well, I'll live.
So my first point of all that is to say I don't really understand what you're saying about having some officer choose who gets what. Why not just NEED/GREED?
PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION
When you talk about your guild and grouping, you talk about being on trash duty etc. Once again, in both the 5-man dungeons I've done and that 1 raid, everyone concentrated on a particular group at a time. The tank marks a healer in a mob group of three with a skull... and maybe we even have a sequence for the next two or three in order... but generally it's just kill this guy first, then kill the others, and when we've cleaned up the loot we move on. Over the weekend I was in a group for Nexus, and someone said "What's the plan?" when looking at a fairly nasty group of mobs. A paladin in the group said, "Kill them all!" and then LeeRoyed right into the middle of them. And we proceeded to kill them all. "Good plan!" I said as we picked up the loot. He replied, "It usually works. =o)" Which illustrates pretty well the level of planning and organization I see when grouping.
So should I expect some much greater level of responsibility and organization as I move toward lvl 80 and start raiding more? Can you write about the transition from my gaming experience to what you're talking about?
BEING RAID READY
I spec my character in a way that is fun for me to play - and may not necessarily be the best build for maxing out my DPS. I expect to show up, do the best I can, and contribute as much to the group as possible. At what point should I expect to hear fellow raid or dungeon members griping about my DPS not being in the top 5 or whatever? Or me not being geared right? (So far everything I'm wearing comes either from quest rewards, mob drops, or AH that Iv'e aquired myself. No twinking, no cheating, etc.) Am I going to have someone saying "Hey Mortigan, that robe you're wearing is for mages - not warlocks!" And I'll be thinking, "it's got +STAMINA +INT so leave me alone."
Basically, and finally, should I expect my gaming experience to shift more toward yours as I approach lvl 80?
There is a great little addon called Peggle, that my good shadow priest friend told me about. Great time waster during deaths on a boss fight, or long waits!
Nobody on here mentioned Bejeweled?!?
That's been the default for my wife's raiding guild since it was released. The addon lets you play bejeweled and allows you to set when it will pop up for you automatically (if ever), and when it will not.
You can have it auto-open when you die, when you start a flight paths, and a few other options that I don't remember off hand. I always turn the auto-launch options off myself and just play it whenever.
I usually farm while I wait, or quest if I happen to be in an area that I have quests in. But, my main is also a mage so I don't have much trouble going wherever I'm needed at any time. Since most groups I do run with now are doing runs in Storm Peaks, I have the hearth set for Brekkenwall Village just outside of HoS/HoL/Ulduar since I can port.
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