Since I’m new to the Top Rosters team, we figured it’d be a great idea to introduce myself to the community. As will be revealed, I’m not one for answering questions about myself, but I’ll try my best. Let the embarrassment begin!
Tell us a little about your WoW history. How did you get started?
I started WoW back in February 2005. At that point, as a college freshman, I owned a crappy Compaq laptop and trying to run EQ2 just didn’t want to run. However, one of my friends was running this game, and it looked really awesome. I didn’t know much about it, although I had played a bit of the RTS varieties of Warcraft (and was unaware of an MMO on it’s way), but I was hooked from just watching my buddy utterly destroy things as a warlock. I went out, bought the game — after checking it’d run on my poor underpowered computer, and started playing.
Have you always played a rogue and what draws you to them rather than any other classes?
I love rogues. That first day way back when, somewhere around the first week of February 2005, I rolled a male Undead rogue back on Silvermoon – US. I wanted to be a troll because I thought regeneration would be ridiculously OP, but the guy that got me in to WoW told me to go UD to play UD so I could rip through casters. After going from 1-60, I fell in love. There’s something about rogues and the constant push to deliver more damage, avoid that spell, and control your opponent.
The WoW rogue played very similar to how I approached a number of single-player RPGs like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I like stealth, surprise, and light armor. I guess it was more of an RP based decision although I never really got in to that until somewhere around BC. Rogues are about all I’ll consider playing at endgame.
My current rogue, Roark on Laughing Skull – US, is actually my second rogue. I re-rolled on the newly released Ursin server sometime around May of 2005, this time as a female Undead rogue (I liked the flipping). After trying excruciatingly hard to find a raiding home after my original raiding guild disbanded on Ursin, I transferred to Laughing Skull to play with some RL friends who had taken up WoW while I was on hiatus during the end of BC. And I’ve never looked back.
When did you realize that you loved raiding?
Like most people playing pre-BC, I didn’t expect to raid. I mean, the very idea of finding 40 people to go in to one instance and try to kill bosses seemed insurmountable on a tiny little PVE server like Silvermoon. In fact, I was content to run the 10/15 man raids (Strat/Scholo/UBRS) until the end of time. But that all changed when a few of my guildies at the time were invited to head in to MC and get some experience. Killing those first two Molten Giants … damn I was hooked.
Once I was recruited in to a raiding guild on Ursin, and we got to work killing bosses, I realized raiding is what I wanted out of WoW. The thrill of learning how to adapt, and approach an encounter is an amazing feeling.
Tell us a little about your raid progress to date.
The short version: I’m in a 10m raiding guild on Laughing Skull – US (H) and we’re at 6/13 HM.
The slightly longer version: We’ve gotten quite a few raiding achievements, including realm 1st Silence is Golden.
What is your all time favourite boss ecounter and why?
This is a surprisingly difficult question. I’d have to say Vaelastrasz from BWL is definitely in my top 5, and the first one to come to mind. This fight, it required everyone to be on their toes. Your tanks really needed to be ready to die for the team, because well, they did. Random BA targeting meant if your priests all got hit early, well that was a wipe. It’s the first time I really heard “DPS check” mentioned, and the fight definitely lives up to its name.
One of the annoying parts, however, comes from never really having the boss “on farm.” Some bad RNG, and all the healers died before you got close to execute range. However, it was always an exciting time when you had infinite energy.
What do you make of Cataclysm as a whole?
Cataclysm and I, we get along great. I absolutely dreaded heroic farming in WotLK. I hated the idea of getting better gear from badges than from the boss that drops said badges. DPS was mind numbing, AoE until boss. Then blow all cooldowns. Done.
The Cata model is much more appealing to me. Yes, some of the fights are less forgiving than others. However, now that more people actually have gear from normals and reputation, I can still safely say, execution is more important than gear. This is doubly true for the raids. Mechanics that cannot be ignored or death is certain mean there’s actually a reason to try and improve your game. Every kill becomes that much more satisfying. And I like that.
For example, I’ve killed Halfus Wyrmbreaker 7 times on heroic. For each of those kills, we as a raid group improved. In fact, last night was the first time we one shot the encounter rather than having some healing debuff or a laggy interrupt spell disaster. Getting better at executing the encounter makes for good raiding.
Plus, goblins are cool.
When and why did you decide to start your blog?
I originally started playing around with blog names and incarnations about a year ago. My guild at the time, they were tired of listening to me ramble on and on about rogues, but they still asked me questions when leveling and getting started with their alt rogues. I guess, after 5 (now 6) years playing a rogue, I have a bit of knowledge about them. However, I’m not a true theorycrafter. Generating data, that’s not in my skillset. But analyzing and interpreting data, well that I can do.
What is your long term goal for Adrenaline Rushing?
Adrenaline Rushing will continue to provide information on what it’s like to raid as a combat rogue. I truly enjoy playing as combat, and I love raiding. In the long term, I’d like to help provide resources for rogues getting started with raiding.
What do you do IRL?
I’m a bit of a freelance journalist, a bit of a student, and a lot of a gamer. Basically, I’m deciding if I should go back to school to improve my ability to freelance, including writing, video and photography, research, design … etc. This is also why I’m not a fan of talking about myself, as my professors drilled in to us the importance of letting your subject speak while you (the journalist) fade in to the background.
Do you play any other games?
I don’t currently play any other subscription-based games. I do like Dragon Age, both DA:O and DA2, and I still enjoy playing both of them after a few playthroughs. Some of my RL friends and I try to get on and play League of Legends every now and then, but scheduling is different. And I’m very, very eagerly awaiting Portal 2. And Darkspore. And ME3 … I think that’s it. For now.
Any weird or wonderful hobbies outside of WoW?
Every now and then I pluck around on my 5-string bass. I’m also a fan of cooking, birdwatching, and photography.
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself.
Like Mark Twain, Barack Obama, David Bowie, Bruce Willis, and many others, I’m left-handed.
Do you have any raiding rituals or superstitions?
I wouldn’t call them superstitions, but I find having a drink, from water to a Coke, to (on the hard nights) a few fingers of Scotch, makes the night go smoother. I also have to have my potions, and flasks in even numbers, along with my poisons. And finally, I try to be at the meeting stone before every one else, but that’s a carry over from when “rogues are worthless” attitudes of raiding. You know what, those are superstitions.
In conclusion
Well, I think that went swimmingly. It’s a pleasure to be contributing to Top Rosters.