Wednesday, July 2, 2008

a poxer looks at 40 (part two)

As alluded to earlier, the Purple Poxers hit 40 last night following a run through RFD and two runs through the Scarlet Monestary's Cathedral (and some fire fest fun, to get Daxe and I over the hump). So, what makes this group tick? Why have we meshed so nicely and powered our way through dungeon after dungeon, week after week? The other Purple Poxer bloggers have already written their views, so I might as well add in my two cents' worth. Several of these ideas are probably redundant, and naturally many of them feed into one another, but here's my unorganized list of success factors:

1. Awesome group dynamics. We all thought about our toons for a little bit before selecting them and are reaping the rewards now. We have a pally tank, who is amazing for collecting and managing groups of mobs. We have uber-DPS coming from our fire mage. My Orc warlock doesn't bring as much DPS as I might like (I just installed Recount and am dismayed by my damage done), but I bring some decent pain. Our druid can do nice damage in cat form, then is available for emergency heals if needed. Last, but not least, our priest healer is teh awesum. There's no other word for it. We also do a lot of different *types* of damage, so if one mob is particularly resistant to fire damage we can hit him with arcane and frost and physical damage. Rawr.

2. Dedication to the group and the experiment. We've all taken this pretty seriously and essentially are taking almost a raider's eye to our prep work. We have a pretty well-defined idea of what we want to accomplish each night and subsequent "homework" assignments (set hearth in UC and meet in Camp T, for example). This mindset allows us to be focused and productive for the time that we're together, and usually that results in big wins for the Purple Poxers. Woo!

3. Maturity. No n00bs, no asshats, nobody bragging about how l33t their DPS is or how huge their epeen is. I think this goes for all of the Poxers, but I know for certain that it's true for the Purples.

4. Luck. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of this group and I think we've had a lot of breaks go our way. We managed to find one night a week for our shared adventures and have had very few weeks when we couldn't meet.

5. Limitation. I think that playing one night a week has actually helped our overall success. We haven't tried to overschedule (doing damage to our /afk lives) and haven't gotten ourselves sick of the toons (or each other) by trying to do too much. Plus, the forced slow pace has allowed us to really reap the benefits of the rested XP. I think I get a level's worth of XP for each session, so that certainly helps to push us along.

6. We haven't really been challenged yet. Let's face it. These dungeons are not the most difficult fights. It's not like we're burning through the Black Temple every week. That said, we're regularly cruising through instances that are "set" for three or four levels above where we are and constantly running into artificial barriers, like quests we can't start for two more levels or gear we won't be able to wear for another several weeks...

I'm both proud and pleased that we've come this far and am really looking forward to what adventures the next 40 levels bring. We're making plans for Zul'Farak now, but I know I'm casting the occasional thought towards Hellfire Peninsula, and beyond.

Other views of 40:
Ess
Daxe
Harisan

Other thoughts on Pox power:
Ess
Daxe
Harisan


Oh, and before I forget: Hey, Blizzard! Need a group of play-testers for your new (or old) content? We'll try out all the dungeons for you! We'd just need, let's see, five beta keys? That's not so much to ask, right?

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