RRF - will it bring back PuGs?

I used to PuG a lot. Like, all the time. This was at a time when ICC had just come out, ToC was already old news and my guild at the time was still struggling with Ulduar.

Even after joining ICC-level guilds, I used to run a lot of 25man PuGs since the raid lockouts were separate. They usually didn't get past the first 5 bosses in ICC, but that was fine with me, you still got your frost badges, a couple pieces of gear and maybe even a shoulder tier token. Things were good.

Then they merged the 10/25 man raid lockouts and effectively killed pug raids, in my opinion. I've done a single pug since then, and was later given a huge guilt trip for pugging one boss in Firelands. Sigh.

Now I hear that Raid Finder, similar to the Dungeon Finder, will be available soon. All I can say to the people who will subject themselves to that level of torture...good luck with that.

If the random dungeon finder was any indication, random raid finder will be 100x worse in terms of bad behavior and general fail. Currently you see people ninjaing and then raging over ilvl 333 gear. How do you think the said ninja and rager will react over ilvl 359 gear? It will be a disaster!

I think they should only let you pug the previous tier's content, but that's almost a moot point. I don't think a completely random pug has any chance to down relevant patch content. I'd actually be shocked if a randomly chosen pug made up of the average player you see in a random dungeon could even down a significant portion of Firelands trash.

Basically I imagine this kind of scenario:

Raid leader: Ok guys, everyone knows this fight right?
Healer: Wait let me drink, I'm oom.
DPS: Cmon guys I'm in a hurry gogogo
Tank: Ok pulling
Healer: Wait! I'm getting mana!
DPS: Too late I MD'ed tank
DPS: Oh crap I pulled the trash! *FD's next to healer*
Healer: I'm dead!
DPS: Brez him!
Raid leader: Brez!
Everyone: Brez brez brez!
*Wipe*
Healer: DK why didn't you brez him?
DK: What's brez? I don't have that spell.
DPS: Ooh that trash dropped a BoE tank sword
Hunter rolls need, wins sword, drops group
*everyone rages, calls names, then leaves*

That is actually a combination of several things I've witnessed in a random dungeon.

I might join a couple PuGs on my alts, just to lol at the fail...

Top 10...Ground Mounts

Ah, the poor old ground mounts. There was a time when you'd look around you and see players sitting atop all sorts of different ground mounts in cities like Orgrimmar and Dalaran.

With the introduction of Azeroth flying in Cataclysm, however, they're a rare sight these days. The only place you might even get a glimpse of them are in Tol Barad or the Molten Front, and even there players like to strut about on their flying mounts that can't fly.

So here is my tribute to the top 10 all-time best ground mounts in WoW. Note that this is only picked from mounts that I personally own (I own 106 so it's a pretty large pool). Obviously the coolest ground mount in the game is something ultra rare, like the Black Quraji Battle mount or something, but since I don't own it nor do I even have a chance of ever owning it (and neither do 99.9999% of players), it doesn't count!

10. Black War Mammoth



Probably best known for blocking mailboxes right next to the auction house, the black war mammoth (and its recolored mammoth cousins) have been a long-time favorite of tauren, whose mounts scale with their size. As for me I just like that they have the most ridiculous jumping animation. Can mammoths even jump?

9. Brown/Tan Riding Camel



The grey one isn't included because it's super rare! Not that it looks much different from its brown/tan siblings. It's got a pretty goofy running animation and a choppy gait, but when you look at that loveable, lazy face, you gotta admit it's kind of cute.

8. Sea Turtle



Ok, it's rare, but it's certainly not THAT rare. I've seen plenty of people riding around on this thing...scratch that, no one really rides the sea turtle for real because they move about as fast as you can run. I, however, HAVE seen a bunch of people sitting around together on the sea turtle mount pressing the space bar over and over because the jump animation is hilarious - the turtle hides inside its shell!

7. Swift Razzashi Raptor



Ok, another rare one, but I've seen many people actually riding around on this. Probably because it's been available (albeit as a rare drop) since vanilla wow, lots of people have successfully farmed this once-rare raptor. I believe it's the only raptor alliance can have, so I imagine it's even more popular on that side. For me, it dropped on the very first time I went into ZG (when I was level 80, mind you) so it's not as much of a novelty. But still pretty cool! I call him Razzy.

6. The Mechano-Hog



Ah, the Hog. The ultimate driving machine, made only by the most skillfull engineers on Azeroth. It bounces up and down, it makes a wicked VROOMMM sound, it's even got a sidecar for your friend (very handy for your pocket healer in a BG). It used to be a lot rarer back in Wrath due to the high cost, but with gold inflation these days, many more people are sporting the hog.

5. Swift Brewfest Kodo



Random drop from the special brewfest event boss. I got one and didn't think much of it, but apparently it's more of a rarity then I thought. I'm not a huge fan of the animation (it looks like a lumbering rhino on speed), but I do love the ornate armor design. He reminds me of Brutusk, the kodo from that epic quest chain in Ashenvale.

4. Argent Warhorse



Horses are too boring, you say? I beg to differ. This magnificent stallion, decked out in plate armor cost me 100 champion's seals. Do you know how long it takes to grind that? Well, only about a week but still, I did the boring dailies everyday for a whole week just to get this. Sadly, trolls look rather silly in it so I don't use it much. But definitely one of the sweetest looking horses in the game.

3. Frostwolf Howler



I call this fella Snow White. Isn't he a beauty, with that glistening white coat, graceful gait, vicious fangs and...glowing purple eyes? It used to be much tougher to get and you had to grind Alterac Valley for days to get the rep requirement for this wolf, but more recently you can just buy it with honor points. Makes for a great screenshot when you're on one of these bad boys in the middle of Winterspring.

2. Cobalt War Talbuk



When I saw someone riding one of these for the first time, I knew I just had to have one. Such majesty radiating from a glorious animal! Has a very unique animation too, kind of like a horse but more lithe and gazelle-like. It comes in several colors but the cobalt one is my favorite. Requires exalted with the Mag'Har, so it does require some effort to get, but well worth the 8-9 hours I spent killing ogres.

1. And finally...the mount that is dearest to my heart:



The Venomhide Ravasaur!

You might look at this fella and say, "well now that's just a plain old raptor. It doesn't even have any fancy armor on it!". Well, sir, you clearly play alliance, because if you knew what it took to acquire this raptor, you'd realize why someone would be so attached to it.

It requires 20 days of work to get this. You first find a raptor egg, then you obtain the hatchling, and each day you feed it its favorite food (when you feed it the little guy jumps up and gulps up the food you throw, it's adorable, I assure you). After 20 days you will have yourself a nice little raptor to ride around on. So basically, you raise it from when it first hatches, you bond with it and care for it until the day it grows up and becomes your mount! Think of Black Beauty, or My Friend Flicka, or something along those lines.

He's not just your mount, he's your loyal pet and companion! If you've ever looked deeply into the eyes of a freshly-hatched baby raptor, you'd understand. Sometimes you just know when it's true love. Sniffle.

So that's it for my top ten! Someday I'll get around to my top ten flying mounts. Yes, I know Ashes of Al'ar is the coolest flying mount ever, but he won't be on the list!

Mog!

Anyone remember this little guy from the Final Fantasy series?

His name was Mog, and I know for sure he was in FF6, 7, and 9. Mostly sort of an in-game joke type thing, but I think he was an actual playable character in FF6...

Anyways, "mogging" is short for transmogrification, a new feature being introduced in patch 4.3. It's a cute little nickname that makes me think of Mog whenever I hear the word...

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really excited to "mog" all my gear and have already begun collecting some set pieces so I can start right away. My guess is other folks are excited too because all of a sudden I'm seeing a lot more "LFM for Tempest Keep, warrior tier on reserve" "LFM for Sunwell, rogue tier on reserve" type of chats. Everyone is busy out and about collecting their favorite old sets. There are tons of discussion threads on the forums too about the best place to collect old gear and what people are excited to equip on their toons.

To be honest, I'm not expecting to really stand out or anything - in my current gear I look like every other rogue who belongs to a moderately successful raiding guild. After the transmog patch hits, I'll just look like every other rogue who thought the Bloodfang set was cool. Originality is not really what I'm going for (yes, I do think the Bloodfang set was pretty badass) - I just want to look more like the way I always pictured a rogue would look. More sneaky, more subtle, more sinister, and a lot less like a warrior in leather.

While I like the bloodfang set, I don't think it's really feasible since a lot of it drops from Blackwing Lair. I can't solo BWL due to the mechanic on the first boss, and it's a pain trying to get someone to join a raid group with me anyways. So I'm shooting for the recolored version - the "blue" Bloodfang if you will.

Since they all drop from normal/heroic Burning Crusade dungeons, these will be much easier to farm. I'd love to use a samurai sword-looking type of thing, but unfortunately you can't mog a sword to a dagger, so I will have to find some fancy looking daggers to compliment the set. Timeslicer looks pretty neat, but I think I can find something a little more subtle.

On the flip side, I also think it would be kind of hilarious to raid in something completely non-rogue like. I always liked the Embrace of the Viper set (the "fang" set from WC) because it's one of the few unique pieces of armor in the game. Unique as in it's made for rogues, but is in a pastel shade!  How hilarious would it be to walk into a BG or something wearing that? I just need to find a helm and some shoulders to match, and maybe a nice pink dagger or two and I'm in business!

Oh, I'm going to have so much fun when this patch hits...

Patch 4.3

I realize this is rather old news, but it just dawned on me that the end of cataclysm is near. Patch 4.3 is just around the corner and with it comes the demise of Deathwing, which I can only guess is the climax that we've all been waiting for.

There is a slim chance they will sneak in a different end boss rather than what you saw in the Cataclysm cinematic, like they did in Burning Crusade where they showed you Illidan but then BLAM - you got to kill him in the first major patch. I'm personally hoping they sneak in an Old God raid (N'Zoth anyone?) but that doesn't seem that likely. An Old God is too epic to simply tack onto the end of an expansion like an afterthought (Ruby Sanctum, for instance, which no one even cared about), and to end a whole xpac with the demise of not only an Aspect, but ALSO an Old God? I don't know, just seems a bit overkill.

Ooh, but what if when you kill DW on heroic you get to fight N'Zoth, kind of like the heroic mode Sinestra? That might be pretty cool. Although N'Zoth really does deserve his own little (or huge) raid with his own sub-bosses, numerous trash packs, etc.

Besides, Blizz has already said that they really regret not making Illidan the final boss for TBC, so my money is that patch 4.3 will be the end of Cataclysm.

Part of me is bummed that this expansion seems to have flown by so quickly with hardly any new content to show for it. Yes, I know, they revamped Azeroth but honestly, I would've been much happier to see more end game content over rehashing and updated old zones. Sure, the new quests were kind of entertaining but given that I spend 90% of my time on my main, I would've liked more raids and dungeons. It just feels like we've had so pitifully few. Those troll heroics weren't even new to begin with...

Part of me is also excited for a new expansion, albeit there is some trepidation at this rumor flying about that the new xpac will be...Mists of Pandaria? WTF? I'm really curious as to how this will play out. Are we all really going to prance around as giant fluffy pandas? Are we going to be ally pandas or horde pandas, or neutral? Are we all going to re-roll a Brewmaster, whatever that might be? So many unanswered questions!

My guess is that we will have at least one more year before we see a new xpac, and we'll know well before then what the new xpac will be, what new races/classes we get, etc etc. Ugh, which also means a whole year with little or no content updates, killing the same bosses over and over. My armory profile shows that I've killed Lord Marrowgar 39 times...