Why nobody plays a lock anymore, as written by a lock

I went from absolutely loving Demo when I swapped to it when ICC came out and it rocked for the 9 months we were stuck in there. Originally I only went Demo to stack spirit and buff that raid as much as possible, but it turned out it was pretty awesome. Molten Core procs were plentiful and often. The Princes in ICC was the greatest, you could maintain a near 100% Decimation up time just bouncing a SB at whichever prince was at 1% hp. Nobody could touch my Demo lock on that one, not even close. Soul Fire under Decimation used to hit like a truck instead of the wet noodle it became in Cata. I'd be 4th or 5th down on the meters going into execute phase, but those SF nukes hit so hard I'd often climb my way to first in less than 25% boss health.

Then Cata dropped a big ol poop on Demo. The spec just seemed like it wasn't working right this whole expansion and they just never bothered to do anything about it.  All we got was another slow-cast nuke in HoG who's main benefit debuff was often negated by the tank or boss moving. Most Demo locks were and still are confused over whether Shad Bolt or Incinerate is supposed to be your filler.  Tier 11 alone saw Demo's using everything from the Succy to the Imp for our main DPS pet depending on the patch. In fact the one pet we haven't used this whole expansion for pure dps is the one only Demo's can use, the Felguard (Blueberry doesn't count). As things normalized heading up to Firelands we got the whole Felguard/Felpuppy/Demon Soul/MWC pet twisting dance, which maximized dps enough to justify doing it, but in reality few locks could master. Not to mention this whole set up completely voided our other main new talent, Impending Doom... "Oh my Meta is up but I still have 35/25/whatever seconds left on my Demon Soul and trinket." What a friggin headache.

In addition if you didn't have an Ele Sham in raid your GM or raid lead would probably be pressuring you to go Demo whether you liked it or not.

Oh and Gul'dan help you if you didn't have this shit down pat, your dps greatly suffered, even being off a little. There was no, "Oh I missed that cd or that HoG Immo refresh on this rotation, I'll get it next time and keep going." No, you were screwed, there was no recovering and keeping up with everyone else.

And your reward for mastering this nightmare of a sitation and pulling it off perfectly? Roughly about the same dps as that shad priest or mage or hunter or any other class who doesn't have to track of half the timers you are, doesn't have to hit a forth of the spells you do. No wonder nobody plays this class anymore. Oh, and only if you didn't have to move too much and could stand in melee the whole fight! Frig that!

Destro is the only spec that's felt right this whole expansion, which is sad cuz you should have just rolled a mage if that's what you wanted to do. But Destro made sense when you looked at it, you weren't scratching your head over the spells you were using, the procs and flow and rotation/priority and ISP getting better and the use of Soul Burn in execute phase plus Bane of Havoc! All the new stuff weaved perfectly into the old standard stuff. Destro is and has been great symphony of a spec this whole expansion, don't know what went wrong with the other two.

Affliction got better once we no longer had to deal with the whole Improved Soul Fire talent/buff. Affliction locks juggling Soulfires? That was just wrong! Then they nerfed the hell out of our only cool new ability Soul Swap (for PVP reasons I'm sure, which is just pouring salt on the wounds) and SS still requires a glyph for something it should just do by default! Soulburn Seed? Oh please... 1 fight currently that comes in handy and still doesn't touch the aoe of most other classes even when combined with a Shadowflame. That's locks using a CD, and 2 separate aoe abilities, not even coming close to Mind Sear, Multi-shot, Swipe, FoK, etc... so on... Oh, btw here we are a year later and Affliction locks are back to using Soulfires because of the tier bonus!!

*sighs and hangs head dejectedly.

Any more confusion over why locks are the least played class?

8 Tips to Minimize Fail When Forming a PUG.

*work in progress, it started off being 10 tips. 

None of them include asking for ilevel!

"Patience is a virtue" and "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

The time you spend putting together a capable and solid pug will be returned ten fold when you're finally in there. Take a little extra time and not just grab the first person who responds out of trade. Getting things set up right from the get go will help eliviate many problems down the line. Save yourself and your raid a ton of frustration by following these simple steps when setting up your next pug.

1. Tab Out:
Look up all potential and unfamiliar pugs at wowarmory.com. This is an easy and informative resource for getting an idea about who you're dealing with. You can check their raid progression and even use the gear audit function to see if they even bothered to gem and chant. Don't know about specific class specs/gear set up? Ask someone who does to give them a quick look over.

Obvious signs of fail - no gems/chants, shamans/druids wearing cloth, 0 actual raid kills and waaaaay too many in Raid Finder.

2. Ask for a Commitment:
If you're planning a full clear then ask everyone if they have 2+ hours to get through Dragon Soul. An experienced group can easily blow through regular mode and still have that first flask ticking. If you think the group can handle some heroics ask if theyr'e going to freak out on the first or 2nd wipe and bail. When you clarify the situation for the raid and give an estimated time for it's comlpetion then it's on that one player who bounces before it's done.

3. Have a Raid Leader:
If you aren't up on every aspect of each encounter from the boss abilities to the tanking to the healing to the melee to the range... then get someone in there who is. If you know all this stuff but aren't good at marking and explaining mechanics or even talking in vent/mumble, then get someone who is. In a pug even experienced players are going to go about things differently and you need someone steering the ship and keeping everyone on the same page. Which brings me to...

4. Get Everyone in Vent/Mumble:
My rule is no Vent/Mumble, no invite. It takes way too much time typing out line after line of instruction at every pull. More so, most of what you type out will be forgotten once you do pull. Fact is, unless you are yelling "melee out" or "hit buttons" most players will fail at it.

5. Loot Rules:
Clearly state the loot rules at the beginning and be thorough. Hopefully are you familiar enough with the loot to know when to step in and say, "hey that item has hit and you're a resto druid so that's not main spec" and other such situations. PuGs will roll on anything and everything.

My rules for a mostly pug filled run.
- Main spec over Off spec
- 1 tier piece and 1 non tier peice per person (when rolling against the same players).
-  BoE's are Main spec then open roll, if taken for Main spec I ask them to equip right then.
-  Patterns are up for whoever in raid has that profession then open roll if nobody can use it. I check for that "glow" and "chime" that they learned it and ask for a link in their book.
- Essense of Destruction I like to gather up and offer at the end of raid to those players who didn't get any loot. It's a small consolation prize to go with those gems. That can be a pain so a simple /roll when one drops is simple enough. On that note, pocketing the Essence is a dick move unless half or more of the raid is made up of your guildies and then they better end up in the vault.

Link the drops in a raid warning /rw and mention them in vent such as...
[Sexy Love Mace of the Gerbil] MS Roll!
To help avoid confusion I will specify what kind of item is up for roll while linking it. "tank bracers", "agility leather, "healer cloth", etc...

Reserves are a touchy situation, but can be totally justifiable. If you find a tank in full tier and mostly 397s and he really just needs a ring or that damn shield off Blackhorn, then I say, hell ya. If it's one of those low drop rate trinkets that any of 4 bosses can drop then I say hell no. This is also where Vent/Mumble and communication comes in handy. You'd be suprised how giving and accomidating players can be when you're straight up with them. Yes, that hand of Morchok is a great Frost DK or Fury Warrior weap, but it's also the only viable tanking weapon in Dragon Soul until Souldrinker off Madness, which a Frost DK or Fury Warrior probably wants too. If you notice that you're going to be rolling on the same drops as other players then get some chatter going and see what can be worked out. Often in my pugs we bypass rolling altogether because we've already figured who gets what and people are cool with it.

6. Keep Things Moving:
This applies to any raid, but especially a pug. Nothing will grind and tire out a group of random players more than down time. In guild you know good or bad what time that raid is ending. In a pug you have no idea until you're there. Don't make it any longer than it has to be.

Dedicate a break time at the start if it's going to be a full clear to minimize the AFKs and Bios. If you're the tank or a healer make a dps the Loot Master so you can keep pulling trash after the boss dies. When things go bad and you're 2 dps and healer down call for an immediate wipe to get things moving again [CITATION NEEDED]. If you just failed on a fight and you see there's problems, don't just rush back into another attempt until you've identified the problem and figured out it's solution. Talking it over a for a couple minutes is a lot qucker than dying 4 mins into a fight and spending another 5+ getting ready for another pull.

7. Schedule to Finish:
It's a pug and the group is capable of finishing, but a few wipes caused things to run long and now people are getting tired and want to leave because it's been over 3 hours on a run YOU STATED AT THE BEGINNING that would only take 2 and half. Understandable. Try to find a time to get everyone back together to finish. In all honesty, this often doesn't work out, but it does enough to give it a go. It's kinda like that 4 am after party with all your new BFFs you've just met at the bar earlier and you make these glorious plans to get breakfast or "do lunch" the next day. You know it's probably not going to happen by you say it anyway. But sometimes it does and it's usually pretty good! Even if you only get half your original raid to log in the next day that's enough to get even more pugs to try and finish it out. There's a reason most of the best loot is at the end. I have a couple toons I wouldn't mind at all coming into a DS on Blackhorn or Spine with.

8.Provide a cauldron and feasts:
*This might be more effort and gold than you're willing to offer, but it does 2 key things. First it gives everyone flasks and food buffs for a stronger raid. 2nd, it demonstrates faith and commitment to the success of the raid right from the get go.

So there ya go, a handful of tips, suggestions to help create that winning PuG.

Is WoW better on busy servers?

Reply to MMOChamp forum post. Is WoW better on busy servers?

After playing on my medium pop BC-era realm for a couple years I started rolling and leveling random alts on various realms in an effort to get a feel for their differences. I leveled on Full realms, Day 1 launch realms, new player realms, RPpvp realms, about 15-20 realms in all. I spend some time on these realms too, not just running a lvl 1 to Org or SW to check out trade chat, but leveling them to 20, 40, 60 or even 80 during Wrath and into Cata.

*This is subjective and only my perception of things in regard to how I like to play, but... 

In my experience, it's not so much that busy servers are better (though they are, but that's not the point), it's that low pop and even many medium pop are worse. There's realms out there where not a single word is said in trade for hours on end, except the occasional LFW or LFG. It takes forever to find someone to craft something for you. There's like 1 semi-big guild who still hasn't killed that last boss on regular in whatever tier. Servers that don't even have enough player to pug a BH.  These low pop realms often have greatly jacked up Auction Houses where 1 guy will monopolize any given market because he just doesn't have any competition. PVP realms where you might run into 1 opposing faction player every couple weeks or every 10 levels. If you're lucky you might find one guy that's half way good at arena and hopefully you make a good 2s comp, cuz you're probably not going to find a decent 3rd and pretty much no chance on 2 more for a 5s team. Going from my comfy medium pop realm and playing on these lower pop ones just flat out made me depressed. I enjoy single player questing and can get lost in that for hours on end, but whenever I hearth into a deserted city it just just felt sad and wrong. 

The worst part is that more and more servers are degrading into these inactive, lower pop realms due to years of paid realm transfers and dropping subscriptions. There's about a dozen realms that just keep getting "better' while the other 200 just keep getting worse. (pulled that number out of my butt, don't know how many total servers there are, but my point is valid).

So yes, busy servers are better for the most part and in my estimate will continue to get even better. They definitely offer more activity and options in how you want to play. I actually feel sorry for people stuck on these really low pop servers and I wonder what WoW is for them on their realm.