The LFR Blue's (Well, purples) in Siege of Ogrimmar

So, I finally got the first two wings of SoO run this weekend... all I can say is, HOLY CRAP.

     LFR right now is rough.  If you walk in, expect lots of wipes and tons of rough going.  There is a big reason for this.  You just can't walk into LFR at this point without knowing the fights and expect to get through it.  Maybe in a month or two when people are more familiar with these, and the gear levels of the people running though is much higher, it will be possible to walk in and expect an easy clear.  Right now, that just isn't going to happen.

     It's not all Doom and Gloom.  Running LFR can get you some pretty sweet gear, 'specially if you haven't finished Throne of Thunder and are still sitting at a ilevel 500ish place.  The gear that drops in LFR is sitting at ilevel 528.  That is a nice bump in numbers if your sitting on mostly LFR gear from Throne of thunder.  It's worth the wipes and frustration. If gear will drop for you.  Make sure you are getting your bonus rolls every week to increase your chance at this gear, a few average ilevels up can make a big difference in a raid.

       Blizzard seems to have tuned LFR a little higher this time.  There are fights, (looking at you Nazgrim) where one person not paying attention or doing their job can screw the whole raid.  Right now the fights seem to take forever to get down, but that will change with gear as people get more gear and experience.  Expect a couple hours per LFR run at this point after you get through the queue time.  It's going to be rough, if you get an easy run, count your blessings.  I feel those are going to be rare for a while.

    Now the real argument is, is this a bad thing?  LFR should be a way to help prepare people for actual raiding with a group.  Not random, but a group of people that work together and tackle harder content.  If LFR is something in which you can just walk in, do nothing, and walk out with loot, you aren't learning anything. (Looking at you Dragon Soul)  So, arguably, LFR should have some toughness to it.

     Where do you draw the line though? This is also an experience you are supposed to be able to get through without having to chat on ventrilo or keep an open communication going.  You are supposed to go in and learn from LFR, but it's supposed to be possible to do so without a lot of detailed strategies involved.

      Basically, LFR has a fine line it should straddle.  If it's too easy, you have people logging in and doing nothing and getting rewarded for it.  If it's too hard, your going to discourage your player base, including the people with limited time who have no other way to raid in WoW.  So, if it's a little tough right now, there is probably a reason.

      Now, if three or four months down the road, if people still are having and insane time then we can make the argument that they tuned LFR too hard.  At that point if there is still tons of trouble and Blizzard doesn't work on tuning the raid down, it will be time to criticize this round of LFRs.

     Until then, hop in, grab your helmet and hold on.  It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

Xenophobic. I admit to having this issue. (Raid update 09/26/2013)

      So, let's start with the raid update for the week.

      Tuesday we were short on people so we just hopped into the first LFR that was open for Siege of Ogrimmar and managed to get through the whole thing.  This was nice as every attempt I have tried prior to this has stalled out and not gone well.  Some of us even got Loot! (not me).  I healed this on my priest Dizzty and even though we didn't do an actual raid, those who ran enjoyed themselves.

      Wednesday we were short people again as well.  This was the night I had planned for Flex raid or regular Siege of Ogrimmar.  I went ahead and called it while we were two or three people short, so people dispersed and went about our ways.  Several people headed off to the timeless isle and others logged, went there own way, or PVPed.  It was indicated to me, that maybe I should have pugged the last few spots.

      I can't argue that point.  I could have pugged the last few spots.  'Specially going into the new flex raid where difficulty is a little tuned down.  I could have pulled people in and with new content if there was wiping and frustration it wouldn't be unexpected.  I would have allowed people to actually get to run a bit that night, and we could worked on some sort of progression.

      However I admit to being Xenophobic to a degree.  I don't like pulling in people I don't know, or who don't have an attachment to someone in the run.  I will pull in someone who has been in Fear Itself for less then a week, no issues, but if they don't have the guild tag or a friendship with someone in the group I am hesitant to bring them in at all.

     Why? I'm not sure.  Maybe it's a strange side of my psychology.   I know if I let someone in and they make the run miserable for everyone, if they have that guild tag I can take some kind of action if needed.  However if I pull in a stranger, who knows what I'll get.  This goes strangely against my view of the world where I believe most everyone is intrinsically good, and not out to make everyone else or miserable.  The funny thing is I used to pug all the time.  In the ICC days I used to pug at least one 25 man a week.  I would do all three roles as well.  I would tank, heal, or dps depending on need.  I don't know when I got to the point where I decided I was anti pug.

     Anyway, I will work on overcoming this issue.  I admit to it being a fault of mine, and if it does have an effect on the raid I need to address it.   Despite personal reservations, I will try and pug next time we are so close.

     Hopefully next week with the likely return of a couple people, I won't have to.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

     

Hang at the timeless Isle.. no really!

I only say this because you can get your alts geared insanely quick.  When my DK hits 90 as a matter of fact, she will have i496 items for every slot except her weapons.  This happened in about 3 hours of gameplay at the Timeless isle.

      If you are an altoholic you are well served doing this area because it is a quick way to get your other toons geared enough to run throne of thunder LFR at the least.  Also, you can get an upgrade (A burden of eternity) add that to one of the gear token's that drop and get yourself a i535 piece of loot.  That's right, you can upgrade to i535 from a token and a burden of eternity.  Now the burdens of eternity are a very rare drop, I have gotten one so far.  You can also buy them for the timeless coins you get from killing things on the island, but at 50,000 coins, they aren't cheap and will take a bit of grinding to get one.

     Also, it's a fun area to explore.  There are enough rare mobs etc... for you to constantly run into one, earning of course loot and coins.  There are events on the island that are kind of fun to see, and treasure chests to find all over the place.  Some of them very challenging to get too.

     The Celestial's are here two.  As far as things go, they are your world bosses that drop tier gear (i553) though you can just get one drop a week from them.  Meaning, you kill Chi-ji, you won't get anything from the other Celestials because you have already downed one of them.  Bear in mind as well, you will have to kill all 4 of them to finish off you legendary cloak quest.  So make sure you take a few moments to smack them around.

      Now that i'm back from a week in Yellowstone, I'm revved up and ready to hit raiding again this week.  I will have strategies posted soon on the guild web site.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

Flexibally funibly, (Raid update 09/12/2013)

Alright... feeling a little better after this week.

      First of all, after Tuesday, I can say that you can feel the nerfs in Throne of Thunder.  That 20% makes a big difference.  We are now on Tortoise again after downing the first three encounters.  Once again we where a little ramshackle of a group, but we made it further and I will save progress from here as we push through Throne until it is defeated, then walk out dusting out hands to never do it again.

      Wednesday we tried Flex-raiding.  Gotta tell you, it was pretty fun, we went in with 12 or 13 people and it seemed to work out all right.  We downed the first boss, and that was with a few people who were a little under geared.  The second fight chewed us up a little more at first, but we made progress each time.

     I am very excited about this feature.  We pulled a few people in, had some fun, and even though we only downed on boss, it was fun and exciting to be fighting new things again.  I loved Emersius.  I thought the mechanics were interesting, and the visuals were pretty cool.  One of the Blizzard interviews I heard had one of the people talking about how they wanted the fight to feel like Morrowgar had in ICC.  When you enter the hall, and you see the big boss waiting at the end.  It is a cool feeling and I think they pulled it off well.  All in all, I am happy this week.

Don't watch if you don't like Spoilers, ending cinematic for Siege of Ogrimmar

     Remember that next week there will be no raiding post, as we will not be raiding.   This weekend should be post-less as well.  I will be in Yellowstone and I'm not sure I will touch the internet while I am down there.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

The Weekend before 5.4....

     So here is some bad mocked up poetry to suffer through as you get ready for patch 5.4....

The Night Before Patch Day
-Horribly done by Ben Marble

It's the night before patch day
And all through the land
The player's are raiding
With sword's firm in hand

Their mods have been loaded and updated with care
In hopes the 5.4 quite soon would be there
And me with my Pally, Aeryn with her priest
Had just settled down, for 5.4 release

When out in Stormwind arose a clatter
I quickly hearthed to find out the matter
To the AH I flew on my mount in a huff
To find out what was the cause of this stuff

The noobs where all crying in fear and in fright
For in trade district there was such a sight.
For in all his glory so grim and so drear
It seemed that Ghostcrawler had suddenly appeared

With his nerfbat so hard and mighty and thick
Everyone trembled at that evil big stick
Then I heard him call in a big booming voice
The people that had helped him by choice

Come Zarhym, come Lore, come Crithto, come Bashiok,
Come Brower, come Hazzikostas, come Nethaera, come Bornakk,
To the Eastern plague lands, to Northrend's great wall!
Now nerf away, nerf away, nerf away all!

And just like the winds in the Maelstrom do fly
They all mounted up and took to the sky
Through the land of Azeroth they flew
Out for the Alliance, and the horde side too!

And then with a shudder I turned to see
Ghostcrawler drooling with maniacal glee
I stepped back and was turning around
When through Stormwind Greg Street did bound

He was translucently cover in a crab shell
His claws where sharpened to give out all hell
His nerfbat he held firm to attack
When all the player's he started to smack

His eye stalks they glistened
His shells dimples how frightening
His nerfbat made noises like
Big strikes of lightening!
His crab mouth was firmly shut with a snap
As dpsers Greg Street started to cap

The Nerfbat swung and gave no relief
As players corpses lay about like a wreath,
His crab legs went clickety clack
That skittered madly as toons he did  wack

He was giant and cruel, a mighty old crab
And I shuddered to see him, and hid in my bag
Then he lifted his nerfbat made up of lead
And gave me a whack on top of my head

He left me they lying all dazed
As he nerfed all players wildly crazed
Sudden as he appeared, he suddenly stopped
And yelled, patch 5.4 can now be dropped!

He flew up into the air his crab legs all twitchin'
Because he had finally finished his mission
But we heard him scream as he vanished out of sight
"Good luck with cross realms! Good bye and good night!"

-Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

I promised myself I wouldn't cry. But I might anyway. (raid update 09/04/2013)

     So, I would rather not speak about this week.  But I am obligated to.  That is what I said I would do when I started this blog, and I have to make sure I post something for my 1's of readers.

That falling sensation...

     Tuesday was rough.  Partially because I'm adjusting to tanking the content we are working on, partially because we just keep switching people up a bit.  Scorpiack was nice enough to go heals instead of DPS so we could run, so thank you Scorpy.  Jin'rokh however took 4 attempts to get down.

     This marks the first time in a couple months that we didn't two shot him, when we didn't one shot him.

      Then it was on to Horridon.  There were a couple troubles there.  We just couldn't seem to burn adds down quickly enough between doors.  I was having issues tanking it since it was my second time, and Adds seemed all over the place on my turns picking them up.  Of course I was picking up all the adds I could, it just felt a bit out of control.  Long story short, Horridon did not go down for us Tuesday.

       Last night we gathered to go again, but found ourselves short one heal/tank (I could have swapped and done either.)  As it had taken us 15 minutes to get together and ready, and a few more to ask through guild and check friends who might come, we decided not to pug someone in for just a little over an hour and ran an LFR.

       What does this mean?  It marks several weeks in a row where we have gone backwards in progression.  We have literally fallen backwards as we have kept bringing in new people, and fighting to keep this team going and rebuild.

       This means I will probably start looking outside of guild for a new Tank or Healer.  I will probably work on a permanent roster for the raid team again.  This means that the people that have been pinch hitting for us may be back up raiders for now.  I have been asking and looking in guild for two or three weeks now and no one has come forth to fill this healing/tanking spot.  I am tired of waiting for things to come together and asking nicely.  We need to fix this.

    I can't keep banging my head against a wall.  I need to feel like the team is working and right now it feels like a f*ing mess when we have to retrain and re-adjust to people every week.  It is draining my patience and making me feel like taking a break from raiding myself.  I can't do that though, because the team members that have held through this crap deserve a rebuilt working team.

     So tomorrow, I will probably post on the Convert to Raid, and maybe the Wow Zangarmarsh Forums.  I will start looking for new blood outside the guild.  I would love to build it from inside, but all the interest I am seeing in raiding does not give me a Tank or Healer.  I'm sure we could even work on building one from in the guild if they were interested, but that seems unlikely.

      Anyway, that is the update for the week.  Next week, patch 5.4 drops and the Siege of Ogrimmar opens, hopefully that will breath life into things a bit more.  Cross Realms might brings us some more options too, we will see what happens.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Keep yer heads up!!!

     I have to get this off my chest, or at least put some advice out there.

     As you may have heard, Bridgeburners has gone through a transition that meant a bunch of their raiders are now in the guild Exile, and the fate of the guild itself could be guessed as unknown at this point.

     This is all I can say, for this is all that I know.  I only mention this because we have characters in our guild who are tied in different ways to Bridgeburners, through both family and friendship and anytime that a guild that has lasted as long as they have goes through troubles it can be tough on anyone involved.  That being said, it's all I will really say directly about them etc.

      I more want to advice people against gossiping or making any time of supposition about what happened in their guild.  I am sure that if there is a schism here, that I friends I hold in high regard on both sides.  I don't want anyone in our guild to be the cause of hurt feelings because they are sharing opinions or their version of what happened.  I don't want to alienate anyone in or out of that guild right now because any transition is tough.  If that is leaving your guild for another, or finding that the guild you have worked so hard to maintain is suddenly empty, it's tough.

      I am Switzerland on this.  I am not taking sides if there are sides to be taken because, A. I am not involved.  B. I am not involved.  C.  It's not worth my time to dig through other people's crap.  I am hoping that everyone else takes a similar stance.  As much as this disruption saddens me, it would sadden me more if someone in the guild where to exacerbate the problem.

      So, if you HAVE (I advise against poking your nose into other people's business once again)  to find out what happened there is only one person you should talk to.  His name is Cotilion, or Barolt.  He is the guild leader, and this is his baby.  He has the ownership of the guild Bridgeburners so he would be the one person to talk to.  If you want to ask about a ship, you should always talk to the captain.  Now, since I am sure he is going through a tough time with all the upset, I would advise against bothering him too much, we owe him that respect since he has successfully run and managed that guild for a long while.

       And yes, I realize it's semi-hypocritical of my to keep rambling on when i'm advising people not to talk, gossip, or mention this subject in an uninformed or negative manner, but it's me, I ramble a lot.  I also worry about the friendships I've made in and out of guild in the 7 years I've played  this game.  I worry about the people stuff like this effects.  Most of all, I want our guild to be respectful and to be above reproach in any one else's eyes, and we can't do that if we cut other people down intentionally, or unintentionally.

        So, I will close by saying, good luck to the Bridgeburners.  I hope wherever the dice land, it ends up with everyone better off in the long run.

Lag/Lazyeye/Dizzty.

It's The (Somewhat) Final Countdown!!!

     Alright, we have one week and a couple days to go until 5.4 drops.  This means, time for a quick review of what is coming up and what to expect.  Most of what I cover I will have mentioned before, so if you feel like popping off that's fine.  If not let's look at some, not all, of the things coming up.

     The most obvious thing is the new raid.  This means we get to watch as the best teams in the work work on their world firsts, new content and bosses for us to fight, and a lot of changed game content around this new raid.  I won't say more because if you haven't watched the patch notes, the trailer for 5.4, or anything else, it's not worth spoiling for you.  I am in the camp that hopes that Garrosh is defeated but not dead.  I think it would be interesting to see what a summarily defeated and deposed Garrosh would do.

     New class changes coming.  Fortunately in Mists we haven't had complete class overhauls every single patch like some past expansions (looking at you Wrath) So in most cases you class isn't going to have any significant changes.  Unless your me, all three class/specs I play are getting nerfed.  Disc Priest=nerfed, Prot Pally=nerfed, and as Solarflair of Convert to raid announced, hunters may have a new mount for patch 5.4... it's called the bench.  (Keep in mind that we still are in beta testing so stuff could still change.  It could, really /crosses fingers)

       Cross realms/virtual realms/whatever they are calling them this week are coming as well.  This means that in 5.4 you might find you realm combined with other realm to fix lower population realms etc...  I have gone through this at length already.  Be aware these are not happening the day of 5.4 but they plan on rolling out the realm combinations in the weeks following.  If you don't see it on the first day, that doesn't mean your realm won't be effected.  I am looking forward to being able to break that 11 toon limit to build up my horde side a little more using this personally.

     Timeless Isle.  Listen up people who still need to be geared.  You can take your lowbies here and start grinding out i496 gear.  While this isn't quiet as good as ToT raid finder, it can build you up to the new LFR that last I heard had a 495 ilevel to enter.  I might be wrong on that, but not by much.  There will also be new battle pets, mounts, etc.. on this island so explore away!!!

     Legendaries, if you have been keeping up on your legendary quests then blizzard has said it will be possible to get your legendary cloak on your first day.  It will be some grinding, but they seem to want you to be able to have your cloak from the get go here.  The new world boss, you won't be able to fight until you have one.

     Flex raids... I am tempted to start this tier doing ToT one day, and Flex raids the other.  We have enough interest in raiding I would love to be able to include more people.  I really can't say yet, the raid team is still in flux, and until I know what is happening I don't know where we will land.  Oh, and lets not forget to mention here whilst talking raids, Throne of Thunder will be nerfed by 20% all around.

      And more!!!  I know I am missing stuff here, and feel free to leave you opinion on any of these things, or anything I have missed.  What are you looking forward to in 5.4?  You have 9 days to think about it!

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye