Raid Update 5/30/2013 I Don't Mean to Rant,

O.k., I do mean to rant.

     This week feels like a low point to me.  We had two days in a row without enough people showing to even run Mogu'shan.  I am one of those nerds who hate to pug someone in outside of the guild, so it was alt work and LFR's this week.  Dizzty is coming along nicely, he has and ilevel of 475 and a hair pin.

     That's right, my beastly Worgen priest, whom undoubtedly fights in inner rage constantly, and desires to rip his enemies (and sometimes friends) limb from limb is wearing a delicate little hair pin.  Grrr....

     Here is where my rant comes in, not in the fact that people didn't show up tonight, (I'm getting somewhat used to it, and hey real life happens.) Not in the fact that the week for raiding is pretty shot, as we have a lot of people who raid when we do, because that is where it fits in.  Not even in the fact that I feel that several people didn't get a chance to do what they were there to do.  They have to be getting used to it too.

     I am somewhat holding back anger, because I was told (through a second hand source) That someone has said they stopped raiding with us because of lack of progression.  Damn, talk about being part of the problem.

    I have said it before, and I will say it again, we were making progress, then people stopped showing.

     Now, the progress wasn't ground breaking speed.  We were 2 bosses into HoF about a month before 5.2 hit, and then, Crap hit the fan, and people stopped showing up.  When you are short a raider or two, and have to pull a stand in, it changes the group dynamic.  Every time a person is swapped out, that is less dynamic, less balance, less control.  That doesn't mean that the pug is bad, or doesn't know what they are doing.  When you raid with people though, you learn to anticipate how they play, even unconsciously.  You know the feel of where they will be, how they perform etc... so when people do not show up it messes with the performance of the raid.

    So, if someone says they stopped showing up because raids stopped progressing, I say feel free to find another team because obviously you haven't thought through the problem.

     Not to be a jerk, but if you aren't willing to put in the work to keep a team running, show up and get progression going, then walk.  If you want the progression, work for it or shut the hell up.  I said it, put up or shut up.

     Today, I am the ornery raid leader.  I am mad because while some of the people work hard, and are here every week, people take the attitude, of there is no progression, I will stop showing up.

     I am mad on behalf of myself.  I am mad on behalf of  people who have been raiding with us since wrath.

     I am mad on behalf of those who have been with us off and on in the guild since then, but that real life causes to take breaks.  I am mad for those who have been showing up almost every week this expansion.  Some of which are new to the team as of this expansion.

     I am mad, that when you take that attitude, you just wasted our time when it is possible I could have built someone else up, at the beginning of this expansion that might have been more loyal.

     So, even though I don't have an idea who you are, I am pissed at you.

     Even so, you are not worth my anger, you are not worth my time, you are not worth me bothering to hunt you down, find out who you are and act out against you.  You are not worth my time to ask who you are.  You are not worth my time to sit and stew over.  After I finish typing this post, I will move on and let my anger dissipate.  Frankly, you are not worth it.

    So, if this is you, put up or shut up.  Help us rebuild the team or go elsewhere.  Your choice, I don't know who you are, and i'm not going to pursue who you are.  So the ball is in your damn court.

    I am going to find a way to solve this attendance problem.  To be blunt, I could go raid elsewhere if I wanted to.  I could find my way into another raid team with a little work, and find a group that fits my schedule.  I have the character choices, I could dps, tank, heal, whatever I wanted to build up.  However, I have made a commitment here.  Here is where I plan on staying until the last person other then me has stopped showing, at that point I may consider a different plan.

    That is not today, tomorrow or anytime soon.  I am here to stay.  I am not here because I have a lack of options, I am here because I want to be.  I want to build something.  I want people who will build it with me, not people who will give up when we start having trouble with progression.

      If that is you, right this way.  Grab your stave, your swords, you shields, and march with me into the very mouth of hell if that is where it will take us.  If not, find another army to follow.  Mine is for people who want to be a team.

Lag.

Update 5/28/2013 Are you a Solo player?

Here is the deal,

     Only had 5 people show up on time for raid.  This was after being informed 2 wouldn't make it because they had Tornado warnings going off.  (I hope they are fine, they never logged back on last night) and another person tell me they were sick.  So, rather then fight, I just called raid for the night.

     I told people to go ahead, hit raid finder, work on their toons etc...  So it was a night for a little more work on my priest.

     Now, I did have other options.  I know Bridgeburners, (one of the best guilds on Zangarmarsh, you know, other then Fear Itself) Had been looking for DPS earlier, and I probably could have squeezed enough dps out of my Ret set on Lag to at least make an OK showing.  I get in this mode though, when I call a raid etc.. I don't want to go off and raid elsewhere.  I want to sit back, be in my funk, and work solo on a character.

    This comes from the part of me that is a solo player.  I have issues at time being social because I prefer to play a large part of the game by myself.  Strangely this includes LFR's and Randoms.  I just like to group up with strangers I don't have to talk to, burn through some content, pick up some valor and be done.  I don't know if this makes me a bad person, or just strange.  Keep in mind, when it's time to raid I am all about being social, and having fun with the raid team.  I just switch from one mode to the other.

     I wonder how many other players are like me.  Honestly before I started raiding I never grouped with people except on rare occasion.  When my wife and I leveled I didn't even play/level with her.  It's just my play style.  Honestly if you play like I do, let me know, give me some vindication.

     But Soloing old content, leveling a lowbie who will never survive past level 30, that is my normal game.

     Anyway, tomorrow will be a better day.  I look forward to doing some raiding, potentially on my priest if I get real lucky, and pushing the team through some content.

Until then,
Lag

A New Priest... Err, something like that.

Let's get it out there, we all sacrifice for our raid teams.

     It means at times we play a spec we don't like.  We might raid on a night when we would rather go to bed all wrapped up in our blankets.  Or sometimes we might even play with people we don't like, or spend time studying fights and other classes.  I can think of one time back in Wrath when I was tanking ICC with a fever and was fighting just to focus on the screen.  I was tanking, so it was pretty much stand there and listen for a taunt, but as soon as the raid was over I laid down and collapsed.  I'm still surprised that I made it through that night.  I remember another time that a healer whom I love like a sister hadn't got much sleep, and fell asleep at the keyboard during a 5 minute afk.  (This prompted me to almost drive over to her house to see if she was o.k., as she wouldn't answer the phone etc...)  I may pay later for sharing that one.

     If you are a raid leader, or even a committed raider, this means you look forward with your raid team.  You have some focus on the now.  (Which is where mine is mostly at the moment) but you look at how things are going to shape up in a month, or longer as the team is going.

     Enter my priest Dizzty.  The Worgen ball of fluff who is slinging around holy spells and hoping to keep people alive.  As it seems we may have a tank, who is being built who can take my spot there, I am getting my heals in place on my priest, so i'm not rolling against the shaman heals for gear.  Of course this means that we will have two warrior tanks, meaning that our main tank will still be rolling against another tank for gear.  But it would be the same if I had stuck with my pally, so while I wish I could mix up the tanks a little more, right now I will take what I have.  Besides, I would wouldn't trade Magilla (Our main tank) for any other tank in wow.  And Laroth (Whom is back to the game after a hiatus) is a bad A tank in his own right and as soon as he catches up completely, I will have one of the strongest tanking teams I've run with.  (I'm a good tank, I will never claim to be a great tank)

      So, I have sacrificed time to get my priest to LFR level, and he has run the first two successfully.  I am going to be neglecting my main (Lag) for a bit while I build him up.  I only feel a little guilty in this as Lag is geared higher then the content we are hitting, so if anything happens at this point, he and step back in.  I also am going to put in the work as soon as Dizzty is up to snuff, on keeping his Prot and Ret sets caught up as possible.  This means hours may be burnt on building up two toons.  As I want to do both Holy and Disc on my priest, that means i'm going to be studying a bit too.  Lag will continue to be my achievement hound, and be the one who pushes the new dailies/content unless there is gear in it for Dizzty.. which there may be.

     This Tuesday will be another Heart of Fear run.  I know Dizzty will not be ready by then, so Shimmer will be bench hitting.  I am hoping with people starting to show up again that we will be able to push to Throne of Thunder here in a couple of weeks.  This means I may discuss another raid night, or save progression.  If people are doing LFR's the gear in there should help push through HoF as much as anything.

    When the siege of Ogrimmar happens in a few months, I want to be fighting my way through, so I can punch Garrosh in the face.  I am fascinated by the fact Blizzard is doing a raid to unseat a major faction leader.  I also believe that if we do kill Garrosh, and not just unseat him, that one of the major alliance characters will die as well.  Blizzard loves to appease the Horde characters.....

     Most importantly, I want my team to be there with me when we pony up and attack that raid.  And I want us to be ready.

Lag.

This week coming up, in Fear Itself

Ok, so I am being a bad person and typing this out instead of working on my back yard... Well, i'm eating lunch too.

      This next week coming up has me a little excited.  Tuesday last week for all it's faults I had 10 people ready to go at 9, logged on and excited.  This week i'm hoping for at least one day of the same.  Also, by the end of tomorrow, I will have my priest (Dizzty) to level 90 and be working on my holy heals.  (I will probably have some discipline in there too.)

      So I'm a little excited.  Of course I could have this all done in the next few hours... but here is something to remember when playing Wow.  Family comes first.

      Meaning, I could be jamming on the computer, get me priest going, running through heroics and hit up some LFRs.  However, I have to finish the back yard.  I am laying down pavers, and then I will be working with my every wonderful, beautiful wife to plant some plants she just bought to make everything look like some redneck slob doesn't live here.  This is twice as important to me right now, because we are talking about moving into a different house here in the next couple of years since we have kinda outgrown the house a little.

      This means over the next few months, the yard needs to look good.  The house may need some spit and polish, and I may have to look at some other improvements.  For me this is a big deal because i'm not a physical labor type guy.  I can pitch in when needed, but hard labor/mechanical labor is normally stuff I avoid.  My wife enjoys fixing/painting stuff on the other hand, so I normally play "Lug Lift" and let her do the delicate work when doing things.

     After the yard work is done, We promised the kid's we would sit down and watch "The Avengers" with them.  I have seen this movie a couple times in the theater, (I never see things more then once in the theater) and I am a big Joss Whedon fan to boot, so I am excited to share this with them.  "Puny God!" hee hee.

      What does this have to do with Wow?

      The fact that if you put you priorities straight, the Wow time you have will be better because you are not inconveniencing your family to play.  If you don't put your family first, you may find yourself with a lot more play time.

     Along with Child support, your own apartment etc...  Yes I know that's an extreme example, and if you end up in that situation there are probably more issues to involved.  Not putting your family first though, that never helps.

Anyway,
Zhug, Zhug, Work, Work

Lag

And another Last night 5/23/2013

Well, Last night was better

    We didn't knock the starts out of the skies, we didn't light the world ablaze, but we at least got the first boss down again in HoF.  This is with starting almost an hour late just trying to get raid together.  Not everyone was available at 9 pm when we normally start, and by the time we had a group together it was almost 10 pm.

     This was very frustrating, but at least it wasn't another trip to Mogu'shan.

      I was very lenient as well, I allowed a toon who had no gems in, even though that is normally completely against my policy.  We got a couple of tries against the second boss, and he was below 1% health on the last try.  I am happy with that seeing that we had a new tank and a new dps marching in.  Next week will be better.  Time to get my priest leveled up so we aren't double Shammy healing!

Lag

Last Night... Raid update Week 5/22/2013 World of Warcraft

Last Night, she said.... Oh baby I feel so down, just turn me off....

"Last Night" The Strokes. Yes, I have the Strokes in my head.

     I am thoroughly depressed after last night.  I dusted off my Resto-Shammy Shimmer, who has been my other main at different times of raiding, and found myself lacking.  Well, I might have not just been me...

    We went into Heart of Fear for our first hour last night.  This is a raid we have been 2/6 in so far, and we have consistently one shot the first boss every time we have tip toed in for the last few times.  Last night.. She said.. Oh baby we wiped so hard....

    Now, a part of this was that we were two healing this instead of three healing this.  This was a switch for us, but I finally had a good showing of DPS, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and try a healer short.  We got to the last phase on the first attempt, and didn't manage to get that far again.

    I know for me, part of the problem is that I started running against mechanics that haven't bothered me in several outings there.  Attenuation kept catching me.  Force and Verve killed people even when me and Gwyndolynn blew our cool downs at that point.  Things just weren't syncing in ways they normally do.  So after an hour of things just not lining up, we figured we would go down a couple bosses in Mogu'shan real quick to see if we couldn't get a piece of gear or two for our lesser geared folks.  We ended up 9 manning because one of the deeps had to step out.

      All I know is that first pull on Stone Guard was full of more damage then I have ever seen on that fight.

      Insanely, Me and Gwyn were once again blowing cool downs, firing away and we wiped.  We wiped on a fight that we have two healed and had little trouble with several times now.  The second attempt we pushed through but once again, my mana was bled dry before the bosses went down.

     These are the nights that frustrate me the most.  It's when I can't keep up and feel like the performance is just not there.  I know I can't point fingers because several mistakes last night was mine.  I know next time things will probably go more smoothly.  It was probably a rough night where things just didn't go as they normally would.

    Tonight we will see what happens, Our third healers should be back, even though that means benching someone who was there last night.  I want to push through HoF... as soon as we have a built up tank or healers and dps showing again,  I want to start pushing Throne of Thunder... as soon as we get some gear from there we can retro-actively finish off this older content, just so we can say we downed it, then we can hopefully be somewhat caught up before the siege of Ogrimmar.

    Tonight is a new night.... When we step in again, it won't be about last night, it will be about tonight....

     Last Night she said......

      But Tonight.... we move forward. "Tonight, Tonight," Smashing Pumpkins.

 Lag

Ok, I had to put some music links in.  hee hee
   

World of Warcraft Patch 5.3

Here it comes!

     Another patch is screaming in for World of Warcraft.  I am looking forward to more scenarios, lore, dailies and buffs.  Because yes, ret pallies are getting a buff... a small one, but I will take what I can get.

Patch notes  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9135374

     They have been confirmed to be going live on Tuesday, and even though I have complained, and am not excited about how fast content is coming in this expansion, I still get excited when I see information being added in the background while I play or knowing that Tuesday all my Add Ons will be broken, and even knowing that there is more push for me to get my team caught up before 5.4 comes barreling around the corner.

     My biggest concern at this point, is that Blizzcon will announce in November, the next Wow, expansion, and with the speed of content, I won't have time to plan when and how to buy it.  Because, let's be honest, most of you are like me.  I can't afford to just plop down $80 bucks without having a little advanced time to plan it, and if the content is speeding out, they could announce the next expansion in November with a December release date.  That doesn't give me much time to get the money 'specially with Christmas looming over everyone at that time and stealing the money from our pocket books.

    Ok, sue me, I like making sure my kids get toys for Christmas... sometime toys that I can "help" them play with.  I'm looking at you Wii.

     Seriously though, either they are going to have to have a period at the end of the expansion with a couple of meaningless patches that give us more stuff to do, or they need to have a raid after/before Ogrimmar that we haven't heard about, or Blizzcon is going to cut things close with the patches coming every 3 to 4 months.  I don't know how anyone else feels, but that is how I feel.

   Back to 5.3 thought.

    I am looking forward to more Legendary quest via Wrathion.  I know some people complain that it will make it too easy to grab a legendary weapon by the end of the x-pack, but I think it's smart to give us all a change at a weapon if we are willing to put in the work.

     I could care less about the battlegrounds.  (I burn when I PVP)

     Scenarios are fun, I am looking forward to playing through the new ones and seeing what lore is added there.  I love some good lore. I am not as genius at Matt Rossi or Anne Stickney over at Wowinsider.com, but I knows my stuff.  I even have a couple of Tinfoil hat ideas of my own.  Not that I will share them, yet.

     I am not going to dig through class buffs and nerfs for folks.  If you don't know what's happening with your class, there are plenty of places to look it up.  Probably a good idea for you to do so as well.

     I am looking for loot specialization in LFR.  I hate tanking for people I don't know.  That means when I LFR I sit through the dps queue's and do some damage.  The thought of being able to do so and roll on tank gear makes me happy.  The only downside to this I see, is that it could make more tanks and healers decide to dps rather then take the more stressful jobs in the raids.  We will see what happens though.  I imagine if it causes much damage to queue times, Blizzard will take a step back and remove this feature at a point where it makes sense.

     The leveling nerf of 33% in Mists content makes me giddy as well.  Time to get my alts all leveled... so they can sit there and stare at me as I ignore them afterword when I don't have time to gear and play them.

    (Announcer voice) and so much more!!!!

     What are you all looking forward to in 5.3?

Lag

World of Warcraft update for Fear Itself 05/16/2013

Hey Folks,

     So, just a quick update on how raids went this week.  Tuesday, we had a mish mash of different people on Tuesday.  So, it was off to Mogu'shan Vaults with two green tanks, and a lot of alts.  We are honestly did well with a lot of role swapping etc and got 4/6.  This was in a two hour raid, without putting out the deeps we have gotten used to, and people adjusting to different raids.  I was on my hunter (Lazyeye) instead of tanking which was a different roll for me.  Other people had similar adjustments, and while I was third on the dps meter with a fairly undergeared dps, it was apparent people were adjusting.

    Wednesday night, we couldn't get the heals etc... so we opted to run a LFR together.

     It is frustrating to have to be back to Mogu'shan and content that half the raid team has already beaten.  It's a great opportunity to break in some fresh blood and train some new raiders.  Hopefully by the time 5.4 and the raid of Ogrimmar comes out, we will be able to be pushing through content we haven't downed yet.  Until then it's build build build!

    Very short post here, but hopefully will have more fun stuffs soon.

Lag

My heart to Mission of Mercy on Zangarmarsh World of Warcraft

So, wanting to see the horde side of the servers, one day I rolled a BE rogue, Rhapsidy.

     Now, I know what your thinking, we must all be horde or alliance, one side or the other.  How dare I cross to the other side for something as silly as getting the other side of the game story and lore wise. Well, I love my Alliance, but I also enjoy the Horde and their side of the story.  If I had started playing as Horde, I would be equally as happy being weighted more onto that side.

    Well, while leveling on the horde side, like one does, I tried out a few guild.  I am not naming names, but it because quickly apparent to me, that when a guild spends their time sitting in Ogrimmar talking about smoking pot and doing nothing else, they weren't for me.  Other guilds would have made hard core members of the Navy blush with their language and innuendo in guild chat.  To be honest, I don't mind some swearing etc.. but I don't enjoy the feeling that one of the guilds focuses is seeing who can swear the most and be the most offensive.  Fear Itself my home guild is a very family friendly guild, we try to keep out chat G or PG rated and I normally enjoy it that way.  I like a guild that is more a family then just a group of people.  Then I ran into Mission of Mercy.

   Mission of Mercy is a wonderful guild.  A lot of the players have been playing together for years, they treat each other with respect, have a great friendly attitude and are constantly doing stuff together.  In ventrillo, when the do runs and events together the guild leader is constantly playing good 'ole classic rock for the people attending.

    So part of me is heart broken to hear that the guild leader Blessedalan is leaving the game.  I know this is very hard for on a guild, and i'm hoping that someone steps up to take the reigns and keep the guild together.  These are great people and any time a good guild ends up falling apart or disbanding its a sad thing.  I don't spend a lot of time over on the horde side, but when I do they have made me feel at home and comfortable.  I hope for the best for the people over there, and even though I am not over there much, I am not jumping ship anytime soon.  I will wait until the dust settles and see what happens before making a decision.  There is a chance, like with everyone who quits, that Blessedalan may be back someday.  Even if guild leading isn't in his cards at that time, I hope that he has a home to log into with his friends, when and if he comes back.

     So, if you find yourself treading around the horde side on Zangarmarsh, and you see Blessedalan hanging around before he's gone, give him a hug, or a salute.  Honor him for the great guild he has built up, and hope that things go well after he leaves.  I personally hope, he isn't gone for too long.

Lag

World of Warcraft Vs. Life

We have all done it.

Your running a raid, top of your game.  Your putting out numbers, and the boss is going down, everything is flowing smoothly.  Then, the doorbell rings, or a small voice next to you lets you know that someone has just woken up with a nightmare.  It's OK  you call an AFK and step away from the computer and take care of what you have to.  Most raid teams will understand.

I am the father of three wonderful children, which is part of the reason I raid at night, after they have gone to bed.  This way I can minimize the distractions that might take me away from the keyboard.  Now, normally that works out fine.  But like all kids, sometimes someone gets sick.  Or my son, (who is high functioning autistic) will have an issue and it might take me a bit before I can talk to him and convince him that things are all right, or that he can go back to sleep.  This rarely happens, but it has happened.  I have never had to take more then 10-15 minutes to handle things, and even then in 5+ years of raiding it's only been that long once or twice.  10-15 minutes doesn't seem that long, but when we raid 4 hours a week, that is an eternity of time lost.

Now everyone has their different issues.  Mine obviously are a parents, someone else may have to balance school.  There are girlfriends, jobs, power outages, parents, and many other things that can have an effect on your raid schedule.  Obviously you have to plan your raiding around such things, or burn away everyone else's time unnecessarily.

Now, i'm not going to tell you I never play when my kids are around and up.  I'm human.  My kids sit in the front room after homework, watching a show, or relaxing after dinner I will log on and get some dailies etc.. done.  I will not however, do something that I can't walk away from.  I can always drop from LFR, and wait an extra hour to get back in.  Instances, as well.  I normally run those as dps, and if I leave there is always someone waiting to fill my spot quickly.  I won't drop during a boss fight unless there is an emergency, and I give people a heads up that something happened and I have to drop.

Let us get to the unacceptable.  Telling the raid, you need to leave to eat dinner.  Telling the raid that you forgot a date, and that you have to leave halfway through.  Dropping with no explanation or reason and just logging off.  Let's be frank.  90% of us know what hours the raids run if we run then consistently with our guild.  If you know you are not available at that time let people know in advance so they can plan around it.  It is easier to plan around someone not being in the raid for a week if you know in advance, rather then at the time you are putting a raid together.  If you can't make the raid time consistently, then you either need to discuss being a stand in for the times you can be there, or find a new raid team that fits your schedule.

I know, this is all common sense, common decency.  But even smart decent people can overlook this stuff once in awhile.  That I can live with, its when people consistently fail to let me know ahead of time my patience starts to stretch.  When I have moments, like in wrath, when someone AFKS, (on a farm run for the weekly JP quest) if they are still gone in fifteen minutes after they said they were going to get pizza because the delivery person was at the door, that I kick them from the group.  Not because I need them there and needed to replace them, it was face roll at the time, but because they didn't have the respect for everyone else in the raid to get on for five seconds and say, "Hey, I have a problem, I will be back when I can."  I found out later that he was on the phone with the pizza place because something got screwed up in the transaction, and he was out a bunch of money over it.  That was fine, he had to take care of it then, that is groovy too.  But the fact he couldn't let us know? that was ridiculous.

We all have stories.  I am not here to point fingers or call anyone out.  I don't do that in raids, and I don't do that out here.  I just want to make sure, that next time you are raiding, and something makes you step away, or something comes up pre-raid, and you need to prioritize it, you keep us in mind.

You know, the Ornery Raid Leaders.

Lag

Current State of Wow

Afternoon folks!

     So lets talk about how things are running right now in the World of our Warcraft.

     The first issue to address that everyone that I read has discussed is the speed of the content that Blizzard is putting out.  Last round, at about 6 or 7 months into the expansion we were biting into patch 4.1.  We are now almost to the point of guessing when patch 5.3 is going to drop.  This means we are halfway through the second raid tier of this expansion, and in the previous expansion at this point we still hadn't gotten to the second raid tier by any means.

     The bonus to this means that by the time that the dailies you are on working on have grown stale, you have a new quest hub about to open up giving you new content.  Since account wide achievements are in place now, you don't have to get the rep for the new areas on your alts, unless they are tied to a raid or new gear.  This really helps with the boredom that can pile up doing the same dailies for 6 months on end with no change.  

     Hard core raiders also have less time between content to keep them busy as well.  By the time they have finished the current content, to and through heroic, there is a good chance that the new content will be close to opening up for them, alleviating the need to farm content they have beaten for months on end.

     If you are a pet collector/battler there is also a good chance that with each patch you have more to add to your collection.  I don't think I've seen a patch yet this expansion that hasn't introduced some new pets and achievement for you to benefit from.

    And I am sure there are a lot of other benefits I can not think of at this time.

    Now here is where I don't like this new speed of content.

     I am an altoholic at heart.  Lag is my main character for all intents and purposes, but just in case we needed to switch things up I have always had alts that were geared enough to step into the raid and help out if needed.  So far this expansion I have one other alt who is really raid ready.  There is so much time involved in getting geared and ready this time around that alts are much harder to level and keep current.  At the end of the expansion in cataclysm I had 8 character who were ready to go if needed.  Now keep in mind that was at the end of the expansion, so I had about a two year period to get them leveled and in place.  Right now I have five characters at 90, but six are sitting there for the most part because I can't spend any real time on them without neglecting my main, whom I need to keep geared and current for raiding purposes.  One of the nice things about a longer time between patches, is you get to the point where your main character can't get any more gear from anything but raiding, and the time you would use on your main would then go to getting alts ready to go.  Now about the time I'm done with LFR and dailies, the new content is dropping and I have to go focus on it rather then working on another character.

     With raiding, understanding I am a very casual raider, this means that if you are not pushing content you get left behind.  Now there is nothing wrong with not being on the current content, and with LFR it is easier to get geared to and beyond the older content from this expansion which helps work through it quicker.  That being said it means that if my team isn't downing content, we are getting further behind every patch.  I think this build frustration with guilds who are slower to progress as the gap gets wider and wider every patch if their teams aren't keeping up, of have issues where they have to reform and figure out what they are doing.  Imagine six months from now, when the next raid is out, starting fresh with a raid team where you have to get half the team geared.  Not a pretty picture.

     And that leads to the next problem, gear.  Now, LFR has created a unique issue.  We now have 3 ilevels of gear that comes out with each raid.  LFR level, normal, and heroic.  (Be glad that 25 man no longer has a gear difference, or this would be even more insane.)  That means the different between gear is very pronounced.  Mogu'shan vaults normal has an ilevel of 489.  Heart of fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring have an ilevel of 496.  This means that the newest raid, throne of thunder, to accommodate the new LFR starts at ilevel 522.  That is a large jump from 496 when you add in stats etc...  This means when the next raid is launched, (Theoretically The Siege of Ogrimmar) normal gear score will be about 548ish, that could be off though with thunderforged items in the new raid added to the mix. 

     Another side to the content coming in so fast and furious is the added chance of player burn out.  There is a good argument that players get bored and stop subscribing when they have long periods in game with no new content to tackle.  By the same token, I think people need some downtime between content to keep from feeling like they have to keep running without pause.  It is exhausting to feel obligated to keep doing dailies, dungeons, and LFRs along with raids to keep up if you don't have periods of time where you can just relax and not worry about pushing you valor cap in game.  It kills my change to just hang out and be social when I feel that every moment I am logged in I should be doing something that is productive in some way.  I bet if blizzard was to take a poll... player exhaustion would be at an all time high at this point.

     Now obviously it is easier to focus on the negative over the positive.  It does seem to get more of a response when you make that your main focus.  For now however, despite the negatives listed above I still enjoy playing Wow, and will probably continue to do so in the near future.  There is a lot to this game that is amazingly fun.  I love the lore, the players (mostly), and the feel of the world that Blizzard has created.  So while someday I will log off for the last time, today is not that day.

Lag

In the beginning,

     I am the raid leader of the Guild "Fear Itself" on Zangarmarsh.  I have been leading this raid team, since the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King.  Currently my main character is "Lag" a prot/ret pally.

    Well, at least let's get a little background here.  I have been playing Wow since a little bit before BC launched.  When I started, I was a mage on the Tanaris Realm.  Then came a server transfer to Zangarmarsh, and me and my family all took the transfer.  I started raiding in my spare time with another guild named "Midnight."  Shortly after Wrath launched I was removed from that guild, due to a disagreement with the guild leader over selective choice of how they used their guild policies, and since then I have been leading the raids for my "Family" guild, "Fear Itself."

     One of the goals we had when we started raiding was that we weren't going to have the big raid attitude.  We raid for fun with little finger pointing and no yelling.   This of course means we aren't a progressive guild that pushes the latest content to the limit, as a matter of fact currently we aren't even through the Heart of Fear raid yet.  Of course we have had other issues that have added to that as well.

    Anyway, we find ourselves at this time, (Patch 5.2 respectively) I find myself at the same point I was last expansion when the Firelands raid came out.  Due to real life obligations I have had issues with attendance since about half way through last tier attendance started falling off, and now I may have to rebuild/revise half the raid team.

     Now, this is painful for me, this time around.  This is the first time I have ever posted an actual raid team roster, as we have always had two or three people who randomly cycled in and out.  Add that to the fact my wife who has been healing with me since the beginning is taking a break from raiding.  This might be a month or two, or even longer as real life with her work schedule etc... has made it hard for her to take time out for Wow lately.  The fact that Mists seems to steal more time out of you life per character makes it a more intrusive time sink then it has been in the past.  I hope to have her back soon, but as always, real life beats out Wow.

     We still have a strong core for the raid team, but the rebuild will be interesting.  I don't recruit from outside my guild, as we have one of the largest guilds on the alliance in Zangarmarsh.  I don't plan on changing that at this time.  I have opened up raids to people outside the "raid" ranked members of the guild, and I am hoping to build up some new raiders.  The thing I hate is this means the second raid team that had started, and was going to be developed is now a pipe dream again.  I eventually want to get a few raid teams going in the guild, with separate raid leaders, all working independently.  I don't see this happening soon though.

    Anyway, back to the point of this blog.  As I build, re-organize and work on the raid team, and content. I plan on putting my opinions down here.  Maybe people will find some of what I say interesting, who knows? Maybe as I stumble, trip and make mistakes people will learn from what I do and avoid the same mistakes themselves.

    My hope is to put something up here every week or so, and maybe even start some conversations on the state of raiding for casual folks.  Some insight into the game and the state of the game.  I may even learn something myself.

Lag.