Guildmate Interviews - Meet the Team!

[Gristle]

http://www.protectorsofchaos.co.uk/gallery/files//5/Writhe_casting.jpg
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In the first of a new series of guildmate interviews, I get to ask the searching questions to Writhe. Writhe has been in PoC so long, she remembers Bruticus when he was still in short pants. An able Class Leader of the mage team, a cornerstone of PoC's raiders, Writhe (at the time of writing) also holds the guild DPS record on Brutallus with a whopping performance of 2500DPS (before the patch). Known to be a little on the quiet side, people shut up and listen when she does talk!

So without further ado, lets listen up now while I try and find out what makes her tick!

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Writhe, you have been in PoC a long, long time, and probably seen a lot more changes than most. How do you think PoC has managed to achieve the success it has in PvE progression? What would you say the main factors were in heading into the next expansion as the top Horde guild on Runetotem, from 5th or 6th pre-TBC?

- aggressive and purposeful leadership
- understanding of raid synergy
- discussion of current difficulties (in raid / forum)
- ability and courage to try different strategies and make necessary changes
- very quickly moving onwards to next challenges (i think we did too many Molten Core raids)

On the subject of WotLK, how do you feel about the mage class heading into the next expac? Do you think the way you play your class will change a lot, and how do you see the class's contribution in raid in Northrend?

To be honest i have tried to avoid any information related to WotLK. I don't wanna know anything about next expansion beforehand. I try to keep it fresh and exciting. So i don't know what ideas blizzard have for mage class.

You are the Dev. If you could change your class in any way possible, and people had to implement it, what would you change for mages in WotLK? Could be anything you can dream up.

This is obvious.

Mages should be able to polymorph themselves to dragons and fly over battlegrounds controlling everything, burning down enemies and banishing fellow raid members who are slacking. All should worship those goddeses of the sky and acclaim their immense powers.

You have a few well geared alts, so you obviously know your way around a couple of classes. If you wasn't a mage, which class would you be and why?

A priest most likely. A healer priest more specifically. Healing is quite a different world compared to dpssing and it gives you another point of view for looking at the game. It's also very romantic to be a lifegiver and a healer for brave soldiers.

From your own point of view, what do you think were the most radical changes to WoW in TBC, and do you think Blizz got their first major content expansion 'right'?

The most annoying thing in old world was that endless reputation grinding. Its much better in TBC. Maybe its even too easy to gain reputation for different factions now.

In the whole of WoW, both new and old, name me your favourite instance, and tell us why it stands out for you.

Black Wing Lair

I love dragons. I just love those mystical, wise, evil and powerful creatures. In BWL there's also great field designing and nice boss fights.

You live in Finland, which looks a really beautiful country. Do you have any place that's special to you, that you would like to tell us about?

I don't live in a big city (like most of you I suppose). Theres about 30 km to the nearest town and 3 km to the nearest neighbour as well. My house is near a lake and in the middle of a forest. I love to take long walks in the forest and I have a certain path that I walk almost every day. In that path theres a very beautiful place with big pine trees, moss, mushrooms, fern, etc. All is very green and you feel yourself very small under those massive trees. All you can do is wonder at the power of nature and eternity of universum.

At about 20:00 local time (19:00 game time) theres a special moment. Sun is near the horizon and some sun rays come through vegetation and turns all to blue-greenish, the whole forest stops and its very silent for a few minutes. It's a very magical moment, almost unnatural feeling middle of pure nature, all is clear in a split second and you almost understand the meaning of life. Then it's gone, forest comes back to alive and there's only peacefulness left...

I wanna share that moment with you.

...

And then after a long walk in a forest...

A SAUNA!!!

A real finnish hot sauna, about 80 degrees of Celcius. It takes it all out of you. And after that a refreshing swim in a lake. Then some coffee and you are clean and ready for a RAID!!!

Here's a curveball:- what did you want to be when you grew up?

Archmage!!!

/dodge

Imagine you could have any 3 guests you wanted over for dinner, who would they be and why? They could be living, dead, real or fictional.

Well..

I wanna choose 1 of each categories:

Living: Prad Pitt
No need for exlanation...

Dead: JRR Tolkien
I really wanna know how was Gondor taxation arranged.

Real/fictional: Bruticus
I want that Bruticus (as a wow character) could somehow come to real world with his epic armors and weapons and sit at my dinner table and talk to me none-wow-related things (as a real person). After a romantic dinner we could play with lego, do drawings or play strip poker for our epics (i'm also a wow character at this point of the fantasy).

(maybe this is too sick to be published)

Finally, from the whole of PoC's history, can you tell us about a memorable moment, and why it stuck out for you? Could be literally anything, bosskills, a piece of loot you really wanted, funny things happening etc.

Mage water quest (Conjured Crystal Water (lvl55))
When my mage hit lvl60 i knew what i had to do... mage epic water quest!!! I pluck up the courage and asked help from the guild. Before no time i was heading to Dire Maul with 4 taurens. I knew that those guys had their own selfish reason for helping me out but it was very nice nevertheless.

Molten Core sheeping duty
At the very first Molten Core raids i got an important duty to do. I was needed for sheeping in Majordomo Executus fight. All went very good and i was very proud of myself.

(Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying) - Writhe's Day -episode
I found this quest book for the epic tanking weapon. I knew it was somewhat expensive but i decided to give it to the guild. I thought it was no big deal but the whole guild had a different opinion. That day was named as a Writhe's Day. I was very touched.

(Netherwind Crown) - Onyxia's Lair
That beautiful headpiece was my first T2 item. At that moment i thought there was no limit for this guild - Protectors of Chaos.

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Thanks for your time Writhe, I'm sure many people will have appreciated the chance to know you just a little better after this. Stay tuned for the next installment of 'Guildmate Interviews'!



Credit to Bruticus for the great visuals.

[Gristle]

http://www.protectorsofchaos.co.uk/gallery/files//5/Mal3.jpg
http://www.protectorsofchaos.co.uk/gallery/files//5/Over-a-Mug-or-three.jpg

Welcome back to the next installment of Guildmate Interviews. This time I get to ask the hard questions, and get under the skin of one of our officers, Maleficias. You lucky things you! Mal's reputation for dirty stunts and random trash deaths is ingrained into the very fabric of PoC, and rightly earns him a notoriety only matched by his skills on mashing the CoH button (who could ever forget the fateful GMOTD when Bruticus, in a drunken fit of pique, revealed the true nature of Maleficias to all with the fateful strapline: Maleficias is a W***ER!).

Before I do him any more injustice, let's get on with it!

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Can you remember your first raid with PoC? Where was it, Can you remember anything about it, how it went?

It was MC, and I was assigned to heal Bruticus, along with a very well-geared priest called Halitosis. Hali kept whispering me that I needed more points in Silent Resolve because ‘healing threat is global’. Meanwhile our healing efforts were foiled by Brut going round a corner and dying. Highpoint was Blackorchids passing Pants of Prophecy to me. Lowpoint was being the Geddon bomb healer, and trying to find the person who was ‘the bomb’ in a list of 39 unfamiliar names. We wiped.



How do you feel about the priest class heading into the next expac? Do you think the way you play your class will change a lot, and how do you see the class's contribution in raid in Northrend?


This is something I’ve been following nervously, since I love playing my priest at the moment as a raid healer. I’m pretty optimistic that it’s going to be good at 80 – I’m worried about the next patch but I wont go on about that. Seems in WotLK CoH isn’t going to be spammable like it is now, as it gets more expensive – but I enjoy using all my spells, so I’m not bothered so long as the encounters are tuned around less aoe healing, which I think is their plan with shaman unable to downrank CH and Flourish also being expensive.

Priest contribution to raiding is hard to predict, but I hope it’s going to increase. Shamans’ totems and BL becoming raid-wide will make stacking resto shamans less appealing, and I think this will improve the priest’s relative value. In TBC, except on fights where CoH and/or PoH are really amazing, I’m always slightly bugged by the thought that I could just be a resto shaman, and bring totems and BL while raid healing at least as well as I do with CoH. I’m looking forward to the greater flexibility in what healers to bring in the xpac.



With WotLK, Blizz has made all raid content playable with both 10-man and 25-man raids. What effect do you think this 2-tier system will have on the raiding game? Do you think this will ultimately affect the way PoC approaches raiding?


I think this is great. It’s clearly most beneficial for people whose guilds aren’t able to organise 25 people on a regular basis, but I think it’ll be good for us too. Any night where there randomly aren’t enough guildies online to progress in 25-person, we can at least do 10. Addicts can do a 10-person on weekends that isn’t a crappy alt Kara. Moreover, the Naxx 10 and Naxx 25 sets are itemised quite close together (perhaps overly so really), so 10-man geared alts can be fully viable to help in our 25-man progress. Some people are worried about 10-man making the larger raids not feel ‘worth it’, but I just can’t see this being the case.



You are the Dev. You could make any changes you want to how raiding works in WotLK. What would you implement, and why?


Remove paladins from the game.

Well I’m really happy with all the raid-wide buffs and mechanics stuff they have planned, both for raid planning and on a personal level as I am often in a group with no synergy. They are moving in the right direction to avoid the pitfalls we ran into this time around – such and such a boss needs x priests, this one needs x shamans and this one x locks.

My biggest wish would be for ‘hardcore’ things to do, as a foil to making the rest of the game more accessible. Basically, more to do for people with no life, like tiny upgrades from huge rep grinds or quest lines, that aren’t ‘required’ for raiding but are cool if you have the time. I’d especially like stuff that might customise your graphics somehow (I know there’s a barber’s shop but a new haircut is pretty lame). I would love distinctive trinkets or trophies, a graphical aura around me. Or some more graphical indication of what bosses you have killed – so far the achievements tabards sound like they fall short of what I would hope for. Or my character could permanently have angel wings and maybe horns and a giant bulls-eye on his chest.


You have been in the guild ages, but have become an officer only relatively recently. Has your approach and outlook to WoW/PoC changed in any way? If so, how?


Yes, definitely, although in the period prior to becoming an officer my responsibilities had increased over a fairly long period, so I felt prepared when I was actually promoted. Since then, the way I feel about raids has changed a lot. I always wanted us to kill bosses, but I used to enjoy even the bad raids chatting with friends in /w, and (so long as I was doing my part right) not really worrying about stuff. Now I feel a personal responsibility if a raid is crap, and that stresses me out sometimes, but it also drives me to help fix problems, rather than assuming someone else will. I now wish everyone else was having less fun chatting or masturbating and would focus on the boss damn it! It often feels like a lot of people are switched off while playing. If I can’t do this no one else can! But in seriousness, I think it would be great if everyone got more involved, rather than only speaking when their blessings are missing or whatever.


In the whole of WoW, both new and old, name me your favourite instance, and tell us why it stands out for you.


My favourite instance was Serpent Shrine Cavern. Clearly being killed by a bat on every pull appealed to me on some kind of deep emotional level. Actually, I think it was because although I had raided in vanilla, it was in SSC that I became addicted, and started to attend every night. So for me it felt really epic. I can’t really justify why fighting these fish people was epic, but each to their own. I also really loved the 25-person raid model. Enough players to feel like the whole thing was on a grand scale, but small enough that what I was doing really mattered, I couldn’t just afk like my nephew Diabalous used to in MC. Well, not without wiping the raid anyway.


Can you tell us about any place you have visited that was special or memorable to you?


I love the Lake District, which is weird because I’m not really an outdoorsy person. Perhaps it’s because I was born up there or something, I’m not sure, but I find the lakes incredibly relaxing. And the air there seems to actually contain some oxygen, as opposed to here where it is a combination of CO2, nitrogen, and crap.



Tell us what you wanted to be when you grew up!


I wanted to write fantasy novels. This was before I destroyed most of my brain cells.


So, you know Bruticus in real life, spill the beans. How did you guys meet, is there any story attached to this that you’d like to tell us about?


No first meeting story really as I can’t remember it. We’ve known each other since we were very young – over 20 years now, which is frightening on many levels. I’m not going to share any embarrassing stories that might ruin his enigmatic persona. Nothing from the days we used to listen to Happy Hardcore tape packs or anything like that *shudder* All I’ll say is that he is very similar irl to how he is in game, except thinner and less green; personality-wise he is just as witty and cutting. I persist in the belief that somewhere deep down he is a nice guy.



Imagine you could have any 3 guests you wanted over for dinner, who would they be and why? They could be living, dead, real or fictional.


I’ll follow Writhe’s example and choose one of each.

Living – William Shatner. I’m relatively sure that if I could become friends with William Shatner, everything would be ok.

Dead – God.

Fictional – Skeletor. Because I’m convinced he was just misunderstood.


Finally, from the whole of PoC's history, can you tell us about a memorable moment, and why it stuck out for you? Could be literally anything, bosskills, a piece of loot you really wanted, funny things happening etc.


Ossirian. Healing the tanks while avoiding those tornados felt really epic. Those things seemed to beckon me in. AQ20 was my favourite instance from vanilla.

Spirit of Redemption becomes named Spirit of Mal. I felt at this point I had been accepted as a core member of our raiders. A shit dead one, but that was of secondary importance.

On the first night of Lady Vashj, we had wiped. I had a soulstone but had managed to die somewhere stupid as usual. Lady Vashj appeared to have gone to the shops and was taking ages to repop. With encouragement from the raid I used my soulstone, only to have her decloak off my port bow and twat me instantly.

Resurrecting you while levitating over boiling water. Ahahaha.

Other things I’ve found funny include the affectionate nicknames I’ve been given over the years, including wanker, fuckface and gaylord (thanks Aus). Oh, and Gwyn’s faith that crit is good for holy priests – I think he’s been posting on the beta boards because it’s going to be better in the xpac. And Ede’s blue feet. And Ramone.


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Hurrumph! I had forgotten about that boiling hot res you gave me until then. Thanks again... Stay tuned to this channel for more Guildmate Interviews coming soon!



Top visuals, as always by Bruticus.