Tale of two toons

Here is a summary of two different gnomes who have spent the last two weeks living inside the random dungeon finder.

Mudge (lvl80 mage):
This fellow managed to level without ever once pugging.In fact he had never run an instance with a full 5 man compliment before the LFD.As a result he is used to casual runs with a couple guild mates.There was always time to enjoy the scenery,loot or just generally mess around.Crowd control and planning were actually part of his repertoire.
Needless to say, the random runs he gets now are a bit of a culture shock.He is thrust into heroics he has never seen before and caught up in the mad dash to the end.Everyone is in a hurry and the slow or weak are left behind to die.It is sometimes rather intimidating to find yourself among the worst geared in the group on top of being totally clueless about where you are going or what is expected of you.But you know what, it has actually made me a better player.The relentless pace has forced me to manage my mana on a level never required before.My situational awareness and threat management are being perfected.I find myself adapting to the various boss mechanics and widely differing group dynamics faster every run.It is a trial by fire and so far he seems to be holding his own.
There are a lot of people complaining about this new system allowing failplayers to be carried and gear up in epics they never earned.I have yet to experience it.Any complete noob that doesn't bother trying is quickly left behind.The fucktards that sometimes grace our presence are vote kicked so fast it will make your head spin.These groups are after one thing only.They want their emblems as fast as possible.They have zero tolerance for the lazy or stupid.
It is natural selection at it's finest.

Wizzlesnot (lvl33 rogue):
This little guy is living the dream.He is dripping in heirloom gear and has a cartel of 80s funding his habits.Thanks to the LFD he no longer even needs to quest.He has fully embraced the mercenary lifestyle and has so far gained over 7 levels with it.His typical day is spent relaxing in Ironforge with a beer in one hand and a fishing pole in the other.Every so often the call will go out and he will find himself ported to the entrance of some random dungeon.He will quietly and efficiently kill everything in his path and when the final boss drops he gets paid and then leaves without a word.
Wizzlesnot - Hired Gun , Pest Removal Expert , Facilitator of Smooth Runs

Addons and the Learning Curve

Earlier this week Tobold asked a question about living without addons.This got me to thinking about not just the addons I use but also why I tend to avoid them.I do run a few that I consider essential but they tend to be more for general utility instead of any real advantage in actual game play.

Auctioneer
This one is a must for anyone who spends any time at the auction house.Blizzard's default interface just doesn't cut it.
DagAssist , FloTotem/FloAspect Bars
These beauties free up a ton of real estate on my action bars.Other than these extra bars I run with the standard UI.
Quartz
I play from a few different locations, some of them with terrible lag issues.This little gem allows me to compensate.The ability to reposition cast bars is an added bonus.
Recount
I run this for personal evaluation only.It allows me to dismantle a performance at my leisure so I can judge where I went wrong and what I was doing right.(Anyone who spams this in party chat should be stripped naked and dropped off the edge of Dalaran)

I have played around with other addons but they never last long.One of the reasons is I don't like screen clutter.I find most addons that make combat easier tend to pollute my screen with distracting information.The other reason I avoid too many is they make me a worse player.I find myself relying on them to call out warnings or when a proc goes off.My situational awareness drops dramatically and I tend to get tunnel vision.As a player I find that I do better with a toon in direct proportion to how much I need to pay attention.This is also true with how difficult it was to level the character.I have leveled both a hunter and druid that while fun were insanely easy to get to 80.There was very rarely a moment where things went sideways and I could run on auto pilot for most of the leveling.The downside is I learned nothing from the experience.I have a druid that is mediocre at best and a huntard I wouldn't want to inflict on any poor group.The flip side to these guys are my mage and rogue.Both of them were a struggle to level.Almost every fight involved near death experiences.Living on the edge for 80 levels forced me to better understand their abilities and weaknesses.I needed to be constantly aware of their surroundings as well as their cooldowns and health pool.The upside of course is that I am a much better player with them.I know how hard I can push and when to back off a bit.I am more aware of my surroundings with them and as a result also more aware of my party and their needs.

The bottom line is simple.Any addon that makes your life easier or improves your game play is a good thing.One that allows you to become lazy or less aware should probably be dropped.

Stepping out of my confort zone

There is some irony to the fact I play WoW.I tend to think of myself as a introvert with little need for social contact.Most people who know me just say I am a grumpy antisocial bastard.And yet I choose to spend an insane amount of time in a virtual world surrounded by random strangers.
Truth is, I just ignored the mutliplayer part of MMO.All my toons grew up in a very small guild (a whopping 3 people for most of it) and managed to level without ever pugging.If we needed to do an instance or group quest we just 2 or 3 manned it.Watching trade chat was the closest I ever came to the insanity you get with a group of anonymous strangers.Well last night I decided to change that.I loaded in a low level rogue I was messing around with and threw him at the mercy of the random dungeon tool.Turns out the anxious wait in the queue was the worst part.

For my very first foray into randoms I drew the Stockades.It turned out to be a surreal experience.We all loaded in and buffs popped up without so much as a g'day.Our bear tank immediately pulled the first pack and we set about mowing them down.This set the tone for the entire run.Our bear knew exactly how fast we could go and was totally aware of the mana needs of the group.All the dps had amazing situational awareness and not once did an add or runner cause problems.To top it off our healer never once let anyone come close to death.The thing that made the run eerie was the total silence.We were a group of strangers from 5 different servers and yet we ran this like we had been working together for ages.A silent Juggernaut that just rolled over everything and then disbanded without once saying a word.

Gnomeregan was next up.This party was talkative and excited to be here.No one really had a clue where we were going but no worries.After buffing up we made the pull and all hell broke loose.Our warrior tank grabbed his target and I immediately pulled aggro off him.The two warlocks each choose a different mob to attack and our healer face pulled a fourth.Let's just say it was a rather exciting first few seconds.Somehow we managed to pull through with only one fatality.After explaining to the locks about letting the tank do his job and a well deserved ribbing about me not letting him gain a bit of threat we set off again.I would like to report that things went smoothly after that but I can't.We got lost repeatedly.We had a few more large chaotic pulls.There was never a complete wipe but we did suffer casualties.And you know what.It was fun and exciting.We never once had a blow up.Each failure was met with laughter and not once did anyone toss blame around.I'm sure it would have irritated a lot of folks but it was just the kind of mayhem and madness I am used to.

If the last run represented everything I like about a group then my next trip into Gnomer showed all I despise.I zoned in to find them a few pulls into the instance.All I can surmise is they kicked someone or managed to piss them off enough to leave already.Judging from how they played I would assume the latter.Our pally tank had a rather annoying habit.He just wouldn't stay still.I don't mean he would make subtle movements to reposition a mob or grab a new one.I mean he would bounce back and forth all over the room, dragging the mob with him.I spent most of the run chasing my targets around.Next up were our twin mages.I knew we were in trouble with them when I noticed they were called Gindolf and Gundolf.These two fools had apparently only bothered to learn one spell.Blizzard.They would both open up with this the second our pally started his epileptic fit and when they pulled aggro would go hide next to the healer.Without fail one of the blizzards would proc frostbite and lock the mob within melee range of our poor druid.Ah the druid, our one saving grace.This poor thing worked her ass off trying to keep everyone upright.It was thanks to her alone that we never suffered a full wipe till the last room.And how do they repay her dedication after the wipe?They all lay dead on the floor waiting for her to run back in.I actually had to stealth all the way back to the entrance (vanish ftw) so I could try and escort her back in to rez them.After we both died twice trying to get back in the rest of the lazy bastards decided to release and run.I would have dropped group but I'll admit some morbid fascination in seeing how bad it could get.

So there you have it.I braved pugging for the first time and lived to tell the tale.Will I do it again?Probably.I find the whole thing rather enjoyable and slightly addicting.Besides it is a nice change from the endless questing.