Butchered in Highmaul (Raid update week of 12/14/2014)

We have officially started raiding in Warlords.

     Tuesday we went in and tried Kargoth Bladefist.  Strangely, despite his name he seems to be a very violent fella.  It took us two or three tries, but he went down.  Honestly, I wasn't prepared for this, so we went forward into fights I had not looked up yet.  Next on our list we decided to try the Twin Ogron.  We got mushed, and then there was a DC from a healer.  Our night ended there.

      Wednesday we went in and started on the Twin Ogrons again.  This time after a couple of attempts they went down and we were able to chalk off two of the bosses on our first night of raiding.  We decided to try Brackenspore next, which we were making progress until we had another issue with DCing.  Deciding that we couldn't do this boss with two healers, we moved over to the Butcher.  We only managed a couple of attempts, but we got him down to 15%.  Very happy with our first week.  I'm also Dissapointed that the butcher wasn't a big pig demon.  (Diablo I-III have ruined me for villains named "The Butcher.")

      Still having issues with 2 things in raids.  One is DCing/ending early.  I know when I raid I plan on staying until the end of the 2 hours.  When someone has to leave it's not as big a deal with the flex system, but it can impact the raid if you are a tank or healer a lot more then if your are a DPS.  I know people have busy lives and it's a busy time a year, but I'm going to be a lot less happy come January if we have to swap out a major roll early.

      Second is timelyness.  Both nights we have started a half hour later or better.  That means there is a whole hour we have wasted, and I'm pretty sure, had we used that time, we could have killed the Butcher this week.  If not something else. I normally try to get invites and that rolling at 10 server, and when I have to hunt people down, or wait on people it bogs everything down.  Once again real life happens and I'm O.K. with that.  However, I want to make sure this is a week 1 trend and doesn't continue on.

       So far Highmaul seems good to me.  I ponder that if we have downed two out of seven bosses already, that it might be tuned a little easy, but at the same time I am hopeful we might down them all before Blackrock Foundry opens sometime in February.  (Blizzard hasn't said when yet)  It would be nice to be even with the raid content this time around and as more people get geared and hop in, I look forward to some pretty good progress.

      Warlords still seems to be fine.  Now that people have gotten gear Heroics seem alright to run, and I'm enjoying a few of them.  Hijacking a train in Grimrail Depot is just fun.  I have my Legendary ring to 680, and I'm working on the next part of the quest.  I am also determined to find all the treasures in Warlords now that I have bought the maps from the archaeology vendor in Ashran.

     I have also dipped into LFR.  It's not a bad pre-emptive gearing spot, as everything in it is insanely easy.  It does get kind of boring but as far as what it is intended for I'm with the group that thinks it's perfect.  If you are just in it to see the content and story and your not worried about raiding it's perfect.  I don't see myself running it once all my gear has hit that 640 spot, but until then it's a way to get some OK gear before I start getting raid drops.  I am happy that most of what I'm seeing in there is already lower geared then what I need.  Of course the legendary quest might have me running through there a bit for now.

     Next couple of weeks are holiday driven.  I only plan on raiding on Tuesdays for both weeks so it's important people are on time and ready to rock.  I would love to get a new boss down each night.

Lag/Lazyeye.

Invasive Gearing.

I think this is the easiest time I've had getting geared for raid.

         Seriously.  Between garrison raids, Apex crystals, heroics, and having a blacksmith on my garrison it hasn't been that hard to get to ilevel 632 where I'm sitting right now.  My Pally seems to be doing good dps and I'm feeling happy with him.  I have only finished two or three heroics and I'm doing fine and happy.

        Legendary ring is going to be my focus this week.  I still need to get a couple of bands to pop it up to the 680 ilevel.  This will also be my last week off as I'm going to throw us into the frying pan next week and start raiding.  Mwha ha ha.

      At this point only my hands and one trinket are not ilevel 630 or higher.  I still need a couple of enchants, but those are coming along and I will buy the ones my mage can't make by next week.  As much as I don't like the profession system this time round, I do have to mention that you can just pull your alts up and through to about halfway through Shadowmoon valley, and then have a decent profession base to work with.  My shaman has made the 640 neckpiece I'm wearing, and she is only level 91 as of yet.  I've had to mail her some ore, but I get so freaking much from my level 3 mine I normally have a ton to spare.

      Other then that, I can't say enough about doing the daily Apex crystal grind.  It normally takes an hour or so, even quicker if you get in a group. (Group finder list is great for this.)  But there are a ton of 630 pieces you can get in Ashran by trading in 4000, or 3000 of those crystals.  After you buy the piece you can even get the upgrade for even more Apex crystals... then there is yet another upgrade you can get for the piece for, you got it, even more Apex crystals.  You can through the apex grind get a bunch of gear up to the 665 (I may be off a little on that) ilevel pieces.  Basically, 3rd tier level purples for a little work.

     I can't say how much I love garrison invasions.  So far I've earned about one a week by doing my crystal dailies.  These are awesome because you can invite a couple of guildies in, go crazy blowing baddies up, and if you can get gold rating (which I have 2 out of 3 times) you get a bag with a chance at a purple in it.  I'm sporting a ilevel 645 helm from one of these.  Gold doesn't seem to hard to get either, as long as the people you invite in are consistent on blowing crap up, it's attainable.  Honestly the only time I didn't get it, I dc'd a couple times at the beginning of the fight and wasn't able to be there for a bit of it.  I am not sure if these adjust difficulty to the amount of people you have present or not, but there is no reason not to give a couple of guildies or friends a chance to get some gear.

     Level up your followers too, I haven't gotten any pieces worth replacing what I'm wearing yet, but the heroic mission you put them on can score you some ilevel 630 gear as well.  Don't just get one follower, but get a few up past ilevel 615, and then you can start getting stuffs there.

     Really, there is not much reason to not get your gear up past 630 to start raiding.  There are so many paths they have given us, including heroics, to get the stuff you need.  Heroics themselves seem a little tougher this time round.  As long as you pay attention though, it doesn't seem so bad.  I won't lie, I think Blizzard will give the heroics a nerf eventually, just ever so slightly.  I have a lot of groups just falling apart and not making the end.  Not because it can't be done, but because people are impatient and tend to jump ship after one wipe.  You get people constantly jumping in and out, and it makes life a bit harder.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on this week.

Lag/Lazyeye

Take a breath, It's not that bad.

Seriously, the freak outs are getting to me.

      So we are by my count about 3 weeks into this new expansion.  In that time we have had a rough launch, (Due to large amounts of people coming back and DDoS attacks) and several time when service had been disrupted as well.  Today, I imagine we will find out there was a whole new round of DDoS attacks because it was the opening day of the Highmaul raid.  Hackers aren't stupid, they target the times they know that the populations of different games are going to be on in force and excitement.  They get their kicks ruining the fun for other people.  Same reason Mac's don't tend to get viruses.  It's not that they aren't susceptible, it's the fact that hackers are going to focus a large group, and Mac users tend to be a minority.

       I will admit.  I am as frustrated as the next guy when I can't get on and play.  Sometimes, after a long day at work, I feed the kids and then look forward to that little bit of me time.  When I can't do that because authentication servers are having issues, well it can make me kinda grumpy.

     Or like tonight, I shrug and finish that book I've been meaning to finish while trying to log in.  Why? Because there are other things then World of Warcraft.

      Other then nights like this I am enjoying the new expansion still.  I am having connection issues when doing dungeons and group events that may make me swap ISP providers here soon.  But even there I am doing OK when I run, and I'm enjoying the new content.  Lazyeye, and Shimmer have both started their quests in Draenor, along with Leesill over on the horde side of Hellscream.  I'm not in a hurry to have a second level 100 toon, but I won't complain when it happens.

      My plan here is still to hold off raiding for another week or two.  I am about ready, and I know several people are, but I don't want to rush back into things quite yet.  I am enjoying my little break from such things and know it will be over soon enough.  When it's time to lock and load and blow stuff up I'll be happy to do so.  Until then, I enjoy the peace and quiet of just running around and exploring the new lands.

See you all in game soon.

Lag/Lazyeye

Questing for hats....

Yes, I won't be raiding for a month or two.  Yes my goal is still to keep posting.

      I have hit 100 in Draenor and I am loving the content.  So far I have loved the leveling content, the story lines, and the zones.  The aesthetics to the areas are wonderful and feel like they pull you into the world.  I can't say enough about how much I am loving this new expansion.

      Garrison's are fantastic.  I have a love hate relationship with my desire to go back and re-set up quests etc.. for my followers every time the button on my mini map dings and tells me that someone has finished their job.  My only problem is getting extra mats for professions does seem more like a requirement then a bonus at this point, and I will say more on that in a moment.  Most of it feels like you can set things and come back any time later, and your garrison will keep pumping out the love until it's time for you to come back.

     The stat squish, (as I said after fiddling around in the beta) doesn't feel limiting or like it has broken damage or anything else.  Mobs still die, dungeons feel accessible, and for the most part PVE feels pretty balanced to me.  (I am not a PVP fan, so you will have to get your opinion on that elsewhere)

     I do have a couple issues however.

     Professions feel limited to me so far.  With the mine, mining feels unnecessary, while Engineering feels like I can get recipes for stuff I just won't be able to make in any type of quick time frame.  In past expansions if I worked hard I could farm, earn and buy mats to get some nice toys within a week or so of hitting level cap.  This time around it took me a week to get my engineering goggles, and then after doing an evasion event via Easybake (Saberlynn) they were replaced by a superior headpiece.  I could grind up another week and a half and upgrade them, but it is annoying to have saved for them just to replace them so quickly.  You know, like with in a couple of hours....

     End game feels a little light, and that might just be after getting done with Pandaria, but there are only a couple of quests and dungeons it feels like at this point.  Yes, you can farm rep, and hunt rares as well.  I just think that while I don't want to see last expansions daily overload, a bit more might be nice to have to keep people with a focus in mind.

     Oh, and if you haven't watched the above video yet, you should.

     That is my quick snapshot of how things are feeling right now for me in the new expansion.  Next week, will have more I hope.

Lag/Lazyeye


   

Haven't seen this in forever.... (Raid update week of 11/09/2014)

    Yes, there we are... after years I now have a queue time to log in.  Kinda hurts a little.

     This week was rough.  Tuesday I spent 2 and 1/2 hours pugging trying to work up a save close to Garrosh so we could try and get some folks another shot at a leveling boa for their alts etc...  I managed to get to Nazgrim (Lame) Pug groups tend to stop for 10 minutes between bosses on average I'm learning and part of me died inside.  However, we picked up another save from someone in our raid and started a bit further at Spoils.  We had a rough night of it however, wiping on Thok a few times etc.. and just barely managed to get to Hellscream's door.  We decided to hit him Wednesday but the raid leader (me) had a judgement in error.

     I let the person who had the save swap toons after the first boss went down.  This meant if We had used my save we would have started on Immersius, and would have to fight all the way through Malkorak to get a shot at Garrosh.  On the other side the raider who swapped had swapped after spoils so we would have started on Thok, and had to fight through that again.  We opted to do Heroic ToES instead.  Sadly as we could only take ten at a time we decided to go in two groups.  Second group didn't make it far in before we ran out of time, and I'm hoping in a week or two to give them a shot at their "The Fearless" title.  Why? Because the guild is Fear Itself so it fits greatly.

     Now I would love to tell you the expansion launched yesterday, life was beautiful and everyone was happy.  I can't.  The launch was horrible, filled with latency issues, inability to log in, and wait times.  It made me want to punch something, to swear at Blizzard, to gnash my teeth in frustration, but really, Blizzard wasn't to blame.

     They were attacked by DDoS attacks on a major scale.  Everything we experienced was because a bunch of A-hole hackers decided to have some fun and ruin other peoples experience.  You can argue that some of the blame lies at Blizzards door for not anticipating something like this happening with enough preparations, but at the end of the day, it's the fault of those who illegally decided to flood the servers with false attempts to log in and ruin your day.

      If you want to real a little more (http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/14/warlords-of-draenors-launch-failure-and-where-responsibility-li/#continued) Adam Holisky at Wow Insider had this article on it.  But in short, we were on the receiving end of a bunch of douches who wanted to have some fun at others expenses.

     Now as I write this I'm hoping the servers come up soon enough for me to get a couple of quests in before work.  Probably won't, but I can hope.  If not I will have this evening to play.  I am sincerely hoping this unscheduled maintenance this morning weeds out most of the issues we are having.

     Then we can all have fun exploring a beautiful new Draenor.
Lag/Lazyeye

Blizzcon 2014. It's on.

Really not much Wow to talk about.

      Are you surprised? Well you shouldn't be.  With a week left before the next Xpack launches I doubt that blizzard had much to say.  I mean there were a couple of live blogs, I read through them.  Not much revealed there we haven't seen before.  As far as Blizzcon's go this one was kind of Wow light and for once I am glad I am not in a position to go.  As much as I love Blizzard, I would want to go to a Blizzcon where my favorite game was the focus.

      Not that there wasn't some focus.  There was a Warcraft movie panel with some cool art.  Depending on what you want to do, you can got to fightforthehorde.com or fightforthealliance.com and get signed up for news on the upcoming movie.  So far they sent some artwork for tablets, facebook, and/or computers.  I imagine as things move on they will have more stuff to promote what they are doing.

     The question then comes, what does this mean for the announcement of the next Wow expansion.  Traditionally this happens during Blizzcon, and Blizzcon, if it happens wont' be until another year from now.  Traditionally.  Does this mean we will be looking at two years of Warlords of Draenor?
Or the expansion being dropped within a couple months of being announced?

     The second is a thought I don't like.  Since I normally have to budget in two expansions, one for me and one for my wife, I like having some time to figure when to buy in.   I would rather have two years of Draenor, and have them spread the content out a little more efficiently.  If they had waited an extra month, month and a half for each major patch of Mists we wouldn't feel like we were in the middle of a downtime at this point.  (Not that I can say much since we only killed Garrosh a couple weeks ago.)  Dragon Soul was nicer to us as we had Deathwing on Farm for a couple months before Mists dropped.

      In my opinion if we are going to see the next expansion in a year Blizzard will have to make the announcement in July or August. at the latest.  The timing on this would have to be critical since if they make it too early, we are pushing through this expansion looking at what comes next and that doesn't feel good.  Too late and people are scrambling to get the resources to buy the new expansion if you have to budget like most of us.

     The other danger, and I can't remember where I read it, is the thought that if Blizzard cuts down the expansions to two raid tiers instead of the traditional three, topped with the price increase, people will start to complain they are getting less for paying more money.  I think after ten years of no price increase on the monthly subscription for us Americans, that ten dollars is not much to complain about.  I do think, looking at the fact that the price has increased elsewhere that eventually we will see our monthly subscriptions go up.  Not by much, but enough to drive some people off of the game.  Let's be honest.  If they raised the monthly subscription by one cent, people would yell foul and jump ship.
   
     There were some awesome things though, Overwatch looks cool.  I think this won't be the last IP we see Blizzard introduce in the next couple of years.  The best way for them to grow their business at this point I think is sideways into other area's they normally haven't touched.  And they are doing it.  Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone was only the beginning.  Overwatch won't be the last.  I expect to see a lot of cool new things coming from Blizzard.

That's it for now, see you in game.
Lag/Lazyeye

Heroic and Blizzcon.

Alright, here we go...

     It's been a busy couple of weeks....  And I admit to not having written this last week, partially in frustraition.

     Last week between Tuesday and Wednesday we managed to get to both Thok on regular and Heroic on Thok.  Sunday we snuck back in only to find that our Heroic save had been corrupted so that we had to start at the beginning, so we worked Garry on Regular.  And we died.  Sadly.

    Tuesday this week we went in knowing we would be working on regular as the same issue was still presenting with heroic.  We downed Garrosh for the second time on regular and then thanks to a guildy who had a heroic save on an alt we were able to fight Garry on Heroic.  We got him close but didn't quite kill him off.

    Wednesday we went in to try him again.  This time (after a rant from yours truly) we managed to down him in about an hour and called raid early.  Gratzy to all who were there.  We can say we downed Heroic Garrosh and now have shiny titles and better BOA's to level with.

   Of course the other big news is Blizzcon launching tomorrow.  I think the next expansion to Starcraft, and Hearthstone will be shown.  I would also not be surprised to see them show off something up and coming for Diablo III.  I am guessing we may get introduced to a new Blizzard project or two, and maybe Beta release plans for Heroes of the Storm.  What of World of Warcraft you ask?

     I have heard people wonder if they are going to announce the next expansion.  This would fit into their goal to release more content faster and keep pushing us along.  I honestly feel the opposite.  I hope they don't tell us the next expansion because it would feel strange to walk into Warlords knowing what was going to happen after from the get go.  I believe that would be a mistake that might make Warlords feel like something in between and not it's own expansion.  I am one of the few though that thinks that having an expansion about every other year is better then every year.  Truly part of it is budgeting with me.

     So, next week the question is what next? Do I just push an alt run through regular Siege to get more toons some heirlooms? Or do we try and work Heroic again?  Maybe we should go back and try to finish Throne of Thunder?  I haven't fully decided.  Honestly, part of me wants to start my short break from raiding early so I'm fresh and ready to start leveling on the 13th.

     Still not sure if I'm leveling Lag or Lazyeye though.... I'm not convinced we have a steady 2nd tank at this point.  We have had people step in, but no one who has been consistant on being there every time yet.  I don't want to level my hunter just to find that I have to power level Lag to raid....

That's it for this week.  See you on the 13th.

Lag/Lazyeye.

Ding, dong, Garrosh is dead. (Raid update week of 10/19/2014)

It was a good week.

     Tuesday we went in and finished what is now 10 man regular SoO.  We pretty much just blew everything up from Thok to Garrosh with ease.  All the 6.0 adjustments have just made us incredibly overpowered and amazingly destructive when it comes to boss life.  The rest of the wing just went down without much fight.  We even one shot Garrosh.  We then decided to see how heroic felt with the changes.  We got through wing one easily, and stopped there.

      Wednesday started off with a couple of hitches.  Galakras caused some trouble as a couple of simple mistakes wiped us a couple of times.  After that it was all sunshine and rainbows.  We mowed through more bosses until we got to the last pull of the night.  Thok ended up being a little bugged and he turned and blew us all up without going into his second phase so we ended the night there.  Tuesday we will be finishing this save and killing Garrosh on Heroic.  I have no doubt it will go easily as the last time.  It will be nice to see if I can get a second leveling bow for my hunter, or something for Lag.  We will see.

      They really have made the difficulty of running  raids very easy.  I imagine it's to get people in and amped up before the next expansion drops.  Honestly, I may even pug a couple of SoO's this weekend to get a chance to get a leveling heirloom for a couple more characters in WoD.  There is no reason at this point not to hop in and get a little something to get running in the next expansion.

     It's been an interesting week or two.  Not only has the patch been out giving us the ability to outright destroy old content.  No, really, go run some old raids.  Most of them just blow up easily with little effort.  A few mechanics may still cause trouble to some classes, but mostly you can destroy anything from Cataclysm back.

     I know I am starting to work on the legendaries from Ulduar, and soon Firelands.  I also plan on getting Shadowmourne eventually.  I see 25 man raids of ICC happening with 20 characters all trying to get their own legendary through the system where you can browse and find raids.  I can't think what it's called off the top of my head.  It should be fun.

     Anyway, that's about it.  I want to talk about Gamergate, but at this point it would be a little premature to say more then this.

     It is never OK to threaten anyone, in game or out, regardless of sex, race, or creed, with violence sexual or otherwise ever.  I know that Gamergate is focusing on the attacks on female players, but in all honesty with that above statement being true it shouldn't be limited in discussion to any one group.  Talent when it comes to playing has no boundaries in any group.  The wonder of online gaming is that anyone can excel and when we roll that virtual reflection of ourselves we should be able to play as anyone, anything, we want without having to bend to the criticism or threats from anyone else.

     Pretty much anything else I can say is a reflection of the above statement.

      See you all in game.

Lag/Lazyeye.

Relax man, it's not that bad.

I need to put in a little interjection here if I may.

      When I have gotten online I have been bombarded at times with people asking about why their DPS sucks, and if I feel X class is doing better then Y class.  People are worried that their class is not hitting hard enough, or they are worried about their new rotations and lack of abilities that they loved.  (I have really felt this, playing a mage without living bomb feels wrong somehow) or many other things that have come out after the patch.  Let me tell you now...

     Just take a deep breath and don't make any snap judgments.

     Blizzard is hot fixing bugs and issues daily.  This includes different abilities on the classes.  This also includes damaging abilities from bosses, raid adjustments etc...  Also you have to keep in mind right now Blizzard is starting to look at the end game as level 100, not level 90.  You may not feel a balance for your class until you hit that next level cap after the expansion drops.

      There was also a lot of talk of Blizzard cutting abilities from classes.  We knew it was coming.  Learn and practice your new rotations before you decide you don't like them.  Right now you are fighting the muscle memory you have spent an expansion building up, now it's time to adjust and get used to everything before the expansion drops.  Then, some other abilities will change and you will have to relearn things after you hit 100.  So, the moral of the story here....

    Expect change.

    Change is good.  I can't imagine playing the content now with all the nuances that Vanilla Wow had.  (Yes, I'm going against the rose tinted glasses assumption that everything was better back in the day.)  Change is what brought us to where we are today.  Without it, I firmly believe that there would be a whole lot less people still playing Wow.  This is what keeps the game alive.  This is part of what keeps it from becoming too boring.  Plus, we have all been through this before.  Every expansion things have changed.

    So quick recap, take a breath, don't panic, wait before you freak out.  I would hate for someone the change what they are doing over a problem that might not exist a month from now.

Lag/Lazyeye

The next Cataclysmic event! 6.0.2! (Raid update week of 10/12/2014)

And now we are in a whole new world....

We will never look like this again!

     Sunday, yes this one starts with Sunday raid night.  Sunday can't say much really.  A few of the main raid team couldn't make it because it wasn't a normal raid night, but we did manage to work on Garrosh for a couple of hours.  We got to phase 2 a couple of times, but didn't really push him as far as we had previously.  We will have to keep working....

      Tuesday was patch 6.0 day.  Everything changed.  We still went in and raided even with a lot of mods not working and everyone in the midst of relearning their classes.  I will say right now I didn't really feel the item squish. that much.  Then numbers popping up of course were lower, but the bosses didn't seem to be going down any slower then normal and we managed to work our way past Galakras for the night.  We only really wiped once, and that was on Galakras because the smash animation at the top of the tower had been updated and was harder to see.  Then some tank ran up the other tower without his healer.  How embarrassing.  For myself.

       Wednesday we picked up where we had finished.  We managed to work our way through a bit more and found our way all the way through Spoils of Pandaria.  Once again everything was pretty much a one shot (Save Malkorak who took us two shots) and we kept moving forward pretty well.  I am of course saving our progress so we are now going to start on Thok next week.  There is no reason we shouldn't get to Garrosh again and have the raid saved to him by the end of next Tuesday at this point.

        So far nothing in 6.0 has surprised me.  I am missing a few buttons, but I can live with that.  I played through the pre-expansion quests, which were better then the Theromore scenario, but still pretty disappointing when you match them up against the pre-expansion events for Wrath and Cataclysm.  I know the bigger the pre-patch stuff the less work is going into the actual expansion, but I still like a nice big meaty lead in.  This just felt like, "Hey, do a handful of quests and smack some orcs.  O.k, good, done, have a pet."  I would have loved to have had to fly across Azeroth hunting down Iron Horde scouts or have to fight against the Blackrock to keep them from making a treaty with this "Iron Horde."  It all feels very small and contained to me, and that is a little sad.

        The one thing that has been wonderful has been all the people I have seen coming back with the new content.  We have seen Khallon, Orheim, Kedec, Sylvanara, and several others who have re-appeared in time for the patch.  I have heard of a few more who are thinking about coming back as well.  Other players have re-appeared in guild but haven't blown stuff up with us again like Deathsprite and Easybake.  I'm very happy to see the returning faces.

Well, that is this week and my quick impression of the patch.  What has your experiences been?  Are you enjoying the changes? How do you like the new character models? (I love them btw)

Lag/Lazyeye.

6.0 is officially dropping October 14th.

So, it's worth remembering what we are walking into....

      So to start with, the patch notes are right here.  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/15682579/602-ptr-patch-notes-9-9-2014.

      I am excited about the fact we get a pre-expansion event again.  I maintain the biggest mistake that Blizzard made with Mists of Pandaria was just releasing a scenario and not having an event to work everybody up for the new content.  Now I've been playing since Vanilla, and I'm trying to think through pre-expansion events.  The only one I don't believe I did anything with was the pre-burning crusade event.

     I am looking forward to zerging the Dark Portal and playing thought the beginning of this madness.  I am still on the fence about the new models.  While they look cool, It was disconcerting to look at my pally Lag with a whole new movement and face.  I know I will adjust to it.  But it might take time.  I do like the fact that whatever you are focused on it outlined in the game as well.  Once again though, It feels unnatural compared to how you are used to playing.

     The item Squish it coming as well.  People have been wondering about how that is going to effect running old content for transmog etc...  Matt Rossi from Wow-insider apparently ran Firelands on his warrior and destroyed everything with ease. (http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/10/breakfast-topic-some-good-news/) if you want to read about it.

     Tuesday we will need time to work down our rotations before raid etc...  I plan on spending some time on the PTR/Beta to rework how things are going to feel for my hunter and pally.  I want to make sure if I'm tanking or dpsing I'm not tripping over my own rotation, or the changes coming in.  It's going to be tough enough trying to down Garrosh Tuesday, I don't want to add to the issues.

      Along with models, pre-expansion event, new rotations/ability pruning, we are getting the toybox.  Item squish, all our Valor/Justice points will be gone and converted to gold.  (You will be able to do stuff with the charms we can't stop getting.) Stat conversion as we will be losing hit/exp along with no more reforging. We will be getting a change on all the raiding tiers so we will see how that feels. And the lists go on and on.   Really, skim through the patch notes if you have a chance, It's worth at least seeing what is happening to your classes.

Lag/Lazyeye

   

Another path. (Raid update, week of 10/05/2014)

We are branching into different directions.

      Tuesday we had some issues to start with.  I was tanking, and while I do OK I haven't tanked enough consistently to be amazing at this point.  Scorpy was on his tank as well since both folks who had been tanking weren't able to make raid.  Once again, we found ourselves getting stomped out by Blackfuse.  It wasn't any one thing either.  Scorpy was learning the fight from the tanking side, we had a new belt person because he wasn't there to do belts, and a couple of folks we hadn't played with for a bit.  The new dichotomy  of the make up was what did us in as well as the learning points.  We finally called the raid about twenty minutes early and gave up for the evening.

       Wednesday was a little better.  While it took us a few minutes to get the raid off the ground, we managed to kill Blackfuse in a handful of pulls and one shot Paragons.  We managed a couple of attempts to punch Garrosh in the face, but at the end of the day ended with him still standing.  Hope is not lost however.

       Sunday night we have an extra raid posted this week.  Now, I'm not sure this raid will even happen since a lot of folks have a hard time coming when the raids aren't scheduled, but we are going to try to get one last shot in before 6.0 drops and changes everything.

      Speaking of change, there is one more change we have thrown into the works.

      There is a new guild kicking around the Hellscream server! "Fear Itself!" That's right.  Since Hellscream is connected to Zangarmarsh I decided to start a new chapter over there for folks who want to play around on Horde.  Fear Itself was not taken as a guild name, so essentially we have an Alliance Fear Itself, and a Horde Fear Itself all on the same server.  (leading to my ability to take such screen shots as the one above)

     Now, for the record right now this new guild is just for hanging out, maybe leveling with some friends you already know, and experience the other half of content.  I am not at this point planning on leading any raids over there as I just simply don't have the time.  If someone when the guild is more established wants to do so I will give them my blessing and support, but I don't push for a second raid team anymore.  It has never worked in the past and it's not worth the effort on my part at this time.

      Also, as far as raiding In WoD, I plan on starting about a month after the expansion drops give or take a little.  This will put us right in the middle of December, so it might not happen until Januaryish depending on schedules.  That being said, I want to hop in the saddle and be moving before patch 6.1 comes out and brings us more big raidy stuff.  With the way Blizzard released content in Mists, I'm afraid if we wait too long we will be way behind the curve.

That is the update for this week,

Lag/Lazyeye

So.... Close.... and some upcoming changes. (Raid update week of 09/29/2014)

We are hitting up against the dead line, but we are so bloody close!

         Tuesday was another smooth start.  We didn't one shot Blackfuse, but we downed him on the second go around.  Paragons went down very quickly and we managed to get some time on Garrosh. It was only a couple of pulls and he ate our tanks (one of which was me) alive but we managed to punch him a couple of times.

         Wednesday we had our dedicated Garrosh day.  It took us a few minutes to get started but once we were rolling we made consistent progress.  We managed to get to the point where we were burning through phase one quickly and were pushing through phase two.  We still have a little work to go but I don't think we are far from getting to phase three a few times.  Next week... well we will see.

        With next week we are going to be short a couple of people.  I still want to push and see if we can get the group to work on these fights but depending on who shows it might be rough.  With Blizzard announcing that the PVP season is ending in a couple weeks (most likely on the 14th of October) that is likely patch day for 6.0.  That means, yes I was wrong about when it was going to drop. I can own that.  But it also means that next week will be our last chance to work on Garrosh pre-patch.

          When the patch drops we aren't sure what will happen.  Honestly every time a patch before an expansion has dropped before we have had a small boost to the power of our characters etc... so I'm not too worried.  There is the chance however that we may go into Siege and find out that between the item squish and ability pruning we just aren't performing as well.  Not because the stat squish is a nerf, but because we are not used to our rotations, or translating the damage we are putting out into levels we understand.  Meaning, if I was pulling about 250k dps and now I'm pulling 2k.  How does that translate? Am I doing better or worse?  Honestly until I have seen how others are performing I won't be able to tell.  Neither will anyone else.

          I am also debating other things.  One of the guilds I run with on the side has changed.  When I joined it, it was family friendly clean chat etc...  It still claims to be those things in the guild tab but running with them eventually (I am only occasionally over there) I was shocked to find the environment is now more adult suited from language to subject matter.  This wouldn't bother me as much if I was expecting it, but as I wasn't it was more then a little disconcerting.  I am probably going to sit on the decision for now, but next expansion I may be looking for a new home for a couple of Hordies.  Heck, I may even just start a "Fear Itself" Guild on the Horde side of Zangarmarsh/Hellscream for folks to play in when they are feeling a little Hordie.

         If someone from that guild reads this, understand.  I am not calling you guys out, or being disparaging in anyway.  Guilds and groups over time change.  It is inevitable.  The guild is just not feeling like a fit for me anymore, and that means it might be time to move on.  If I do so I wish you all the best luck in the world, and hope everything continues to work out well for you.

         Well, time to gird up and get ready for work.  See ya'll on next week.

Lag/Lazyeye.  (dropping my priest form the signature since he's just collecting dust now)

Quicker, Faster, Stronger. (Raid Update 9/22/2014)

So, we are getting there

     Tuesday was fantastic.  We managed to one shot Blackfuse for the first time, and then went on to one shot Paragons.  It was a great feeling and I can't complain at all.  We managed to get to Garrosh, but someone's computer blew so we ended up 9 man pulling him a few times just to get a feel for the beginning of the fight.

     Wednesday we spent the whole day on Garrosh.  We were missing one main raider due to a family emergency, and our prayers are with him and his family.  We did manage to get some good progress and things were starting to come together, then near the end focus was gone and we could feel it.  I went ahead and called things a few minutes early and told people to run LFR and to study the video for the fight again before next week.  I want to get him down.

    Now, we are at the door of 6.0.  I am betting on it dropping this Tuesday, though every one else whom I've talked to thinks it will be a week later then that.  Either way time to get things wrapped up is quickly evaporating, and this brings me to a complaint I am starting to have about the next expansion.

     Here is the thing that really is bothering me.  Warlords of Draenor is rumored to be an expansion with only two raid tiers.  That means not only is the expansion ten bucks more this time rounds, but we are getting one less tier of raids then we traditionally have.  I understand the desire to get more content out quicker and that the goal is to have an expansion yearly, but this seems a little small fry to me.

    Now, I understand this might not mean less content overall.  Class systems are being overhauled, we get a whole new world/continent to explore.  There will be ten levels of quests, and apparently each zone will have new content once you hit 100 to explore.   The raid system is revised and updated really for the first time since Burning Crusade.  (Yes flex was added the last patch of Panderia, but now we are seeing the fruits of that labor.)  There is the new space savers, (Toy box etc..,) and I'm sure lots of other things that I can't remember to post here.  So, saying two raid tiers is less is very subjective.

     Of course you have to balance that out against the Cataclysm backlash.  A lot of effort was put into revamping the 1-60 experience and because of it the end leveling experience felt short and was mostly put together out of existing resources.  I enjoyed  leveling through this, but a lot of people where very unhappy with it.  Let's be realistic though, no matter what Blizzard does there will be backlash.  They can't make any decision without someone complaining.  I'm convinced that if they gave one million dollars to feed the homeless of California, they would have people complaining the money should have been donated elsewhere.  But hey that's people.

    How do you all feel about it?  Does ten levels of leveling trump that 3rd raid tier, or do you think they should stick with the three tier model for the expansion.  Personally I am happy with an expansion about every other year, or year in a half as long as we are getting some sort of content and attention.  But what I think doesn't matter at the end of the day.  What is your opinion?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

We are closer then we were before..... (raid update for the week of 9/18/2014)

I know I haven't hidden it well, but I've been kind of ornery lately when I've written this.  (Hey, it's almost like this blog is named well)

      This week was pretty good.  Tuesday we got in and after a bit of struggle we achieved our third Blackfuse kill in three weeks.  It's still a little rough, but it's safe to say we have him on farm.. kinda.  It was a different week for me as I ended up tanking instead of dpsing for the first time in a bit.  Apparently I did OK since we downed the boss.  We did have some low DPS but as we managed a kill I'm not complaining too loud.

       Wednesday, I finally plunked down the gold to re-gem and reforge Lag over to a haste build for tanking, as I have been running mastery all expansion.  I am not a fan of the thought process behind the haste build, but it seems to work well enough that I won't complain and I will even admit to being a little pig headed on this.  We did start late, but managed to get Paragons down.  That's right.  We are down to just Garrosh and then we have finished Siege of Ogrimmar as a raid team.  We even did a couple of quick attempts on old Gary Hellscream and it looks to be an interesting fight.  I do have to give props to Moldivenom who has come back to us and who allowed us to finally run again on a Tuesday night.

      This also means there is a chance again to get Garrosh down before 6.0 drops.  That is assuming it doesn't drop this Tuesday.  (I really debated putting up and extra raid night Sunday, but realized I would be out of town.)  Next week the big goal in my head is to get Blackfuse and Paragons down on the first night and have all Wednesday to work on Garrosh.  If we can do this, I think we may even have him down next week.  At that point we will have to decide if we want to keep farming the last wing of SoO or take a trip back to Throne of Thunder to finish up that raid.  I would love it if we have finished all the content before WoD drops.

      There are other things that people need to scramble and do as well.  The legendary cloak quest is going bye bye once WoD drops, if you haven't completed it.  My understanding is once 6.0 is here no one will be able to pick up the quest if they aren't already on it.  Once the next expansion hits us on Nov. 13th the cloak quest will be gone for good.  I don't understand why they are removing the quest completely, but they are.  I can tell you right now that there are still legendary items in the game that aren't hard to get if your very persistent.  (Say, Sulfuros, or Thunderfury.)  I managed to farm both of those in a manner of months with the right amount of luck.

      Challenge mode dungeons, Brawler's guild, and the ahead of the curve achievement for Siege of Ogrimmar are all among the things that are disappearing once 6.0 walks out and slaps us in the face.  Several other things are disappearing as well.  Pretty much as a rule of thumb, if it felt temporary it's gone.

      Soon we will have to re-learn our classes, get used to our new Character models, and start clearing out bags and finishing quests before we head into a completely new... umm... relatively... land.  (Seriously, there are still a bunch of Orcs hanging around that probably remember out Outland 35 years ago....)

     So, I know what i'm doing... (More time on alts) what are you trying to get done before 6.0 and WoD launches?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

As the World Falls Down.... (raid update week of 09/07/2014)

Been a crazy week.

      Tuesday was filled with a little disappointment and irritation on my part.  We marched into Flex hoping to start on Paragons to find out that Flex runs can not be saved at this point.  (Why Blizzard, why?)  So it was back to our old nemesis Blackfuse.  We did manage to kill the little green B........ again so not all was lost.  By the time we downed him though it was too late to go on to Paragons.  The best part?  We will have to down him next week too.  I am so not happy with this Blizzard....

       Wednesday we didn't raid.  Once again not enough folks showed up so we ended up running retro stuffs.  Alas, no Ashes of Alar, or Onyxia's mount decided to drop but it was fun anyway.  Once again if we don't have things drop I want to do something as a group, and retro raids seem where it's at right now.

       At this point I am resigned to two things watching the trends.  One, we will not be doing any real raiding on Thursday until Warlords drops.  This is the third or fourth week in a row and the Masses have spoken.  People don't care to show up on the second raid day at this point, so we have one night to push things.  Two, because of point one, we will not be likely to get Garrosh down before 6.0 drops.  After that point when the raid system is updated I imagine that we will be able to save our progress etc... but with only one night a week and the fact 6.0 has hit test realms, I don't think that the patch is more then two weeks out.  Most of the abilities and changes in the patch were tested out on Beta, so I can't imagine it will need much time on the PTR.

      I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed.  I felt after last week and this week, (Two Blackfuse kills back to back make me very happy don't get me wrong) we might suddenly have a chance to get Gary Hellscream down before 6.0 dropped.  Now, unless we get Blackfuse and Paragons down the first night next week, (which is possible) and then have people show up on Thursday to kill Garrosh I think there isn't much chance.  Not that I don't have some faith in our raiders.  But my DBM was counting about 68+ wipes on Blackfuse.  Paragons I don't think will be as hard for us, but Garrosh.  I don't think he's going down easy and I don't think from what I've seen historically much of the raid team will pre-watch study the fight.  Sucks but there it is.  I would love to be pleasantly surprised otherwise.

     This brings us up to WoD.  We are a month and a half away from the next expansion essentially.  (OK, two months, so sue me) and I am not sure how things are going to look when we start raiding again.  I want to start leveling my hunter first, as I am still enjoying using him as my main, but I have a feeling I will need to level a tank right off the bat.  So Lag it will probably be.  Hopefully I can get both characters leveled and ready to raid in a time frame that gives me the option for either with in the first little bit of raiding.  We will see what happens though.

So, that is our week in a nutshell, what is your week looking like?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

We are back! (raid update week of 9/1/2014)

We downed Blackfuse finally.

      Tuesday, we marched in and took down Blackfuse in a little over an hour.  I am very happy because while this isn't the first time we have beat him, it's the first time we have done so without a couple of extra heavy hitters.  Now I know Flex compensates for extra players, but there is a difference between bringing in someone who does about 150k dps and a lock (al la Amelmi) who has topped the chart at 350k plus.  The fact is everyone there where members that have normally been raiding with us.  So when we downed Blackfuse we can say we did it under our own steam.  That is a great feeling.

     Wednesday once again was defeated by the attendance boss.  We ended up destroying Tempest keep and Black Temple for fun instead.  I'm not going to go over attendance, my feelings on this etc.. again.  I have beat that particular horse into the group and I'm tired of rehashing it.  I'm sure I'll discuss it again, but for now I'm resting that demon.

     I am holding this save for now.  We have another month, month and a half before 6.0 drops if Blizzard holds to it's normal schedule.  I honestly think we will see it the last week of September, while Magilla was betting on the first week of October.  I think if they are doing an in game event that any later then mid-October is going to be to late to give us any real time with the introduction to the new content.  I am hoping for another pre-Wrath or pre-Cata type event.  I still maintain it was a mistake to not do any more then a scenerio to open up Pandaria with.  I think that the opening events to different expansions actually gives the players an attachment to the new happenings.  How cool was the Zombie invasion before Wrath? Love or hate it people still remember that event for the city invasions, and the ability to jump around and defend different areas from the scourge invasion.

      The lead into Cataclysm was good as well.  While it didn't have the resonance of the zombie invasion, it was cool to go infiltrate the cult of the damned and work your way into the story before the world got shattered and Deathwing rose.  While that expansion had it's issues, the story at least made you feel involved with everything that was happening.

      If we keep playing we have several more expansions ahead of us.  Blizzard had already stated they are working on the expansion that comes after Warlords of Draenor, and have up to five more after that in the works.  So, for all those who think Wow is dying, be assured, there is a plan.  Do I know if I'll be playing several expansions from now?  No, I don't.  In another ten years my youngest will be nineteen.  I am fairly certain my life will be looking very different at that point in many wonderful ways.  I won't be sad if I'm still a resident of Azeroth in my spare time, but if I'm not longer there that is just the way time works.

     Wow, I walked off into a tangent.

      Anyway, next week we will start on Paragons.  I feel we have a good chance of downing them before the night is through.  Then onto Garrosh.  We will try and plant an axe into the face of good old Gary Hellscream.  (Well, an arrow in my place)  If things work out correctly we may have a chance of beating him before 6.0 drops.  At this point I wasn't expecting to get him down this expansion.  I am happy to have some of that hope back.

NSFW on this video.

      So folks, sharpen your swords, shine your armor.  Make sure your mana is full and your arrows fly true.  For next week we move on, and our foe to go down, is Paragon.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

I've been sleeping.

A lot.  And working.  Ok, mostly working.

First for the week of 8/18/2014

     Tuesday was good.  We went into Flex wing 3 and managed to work our way through the whole place.  We wiped once on Spoils of Pandaria and two or three times on Thok, but managed to get them both down.  It felt good to get through all of wing 3 without having to cry a little because we seemed to be backtracking.  Not that I cry.  Ever.  O.k., there may be some manly tears from time to time.

     Wednesday we went in and tried one or two swings at Blackfuse.  When things didn't seem to be melding well we realized we had 10 unsaved players and decided to try regular 10 man SoO.  I am glad we did.  Immersius wasn't too hard to handle, but we had to fight kicking and screaming to get the protecters down.  At the end of the night that was where we stopped when we realized we wouldn't get any real tries at Nurushan with the time we had left.

     Now when I say I am glad we struggled on protectors, it was because I wanted to see how the team did against the regular content.  It was nice to know that if we were to go to a ten man it wouldn't be a face roll up to where we have already been.  I have done the first two wings, (up to Malkorak) on my hunter, but I was in a group that had been tacking regular difficulty, and it was a 25 man to boot.  I knew the content was a little harder, but didn't realize how much.

     I am hoping it was kind of a wake up call to realize that the stuff you can ignore in flex, can just destroy you in normal.  That was what was killing us, there were mechanics that some of our players just absorbed, or didn't try to get out of quickly on flex, that they were prepared for in normal.  It's not a good sign when your healers are out of mana before the first round of abilities are done.

Then we have the week of 8/25/2014.

     I will put it simply, we didn't raid.  Tuesday we didn't have the folks, and ran LFR.  Then Wednesday we went and cleared H. ICC and Some other Wrath content.  'Lil bit of fun, but not what I had planned on.  On the bright side we still went out and did stuff together.  I believe this is important.

     More then ever the end of expansion doldrums are hitting us.  I am seeing a lot of people not logging on, or playing.   I myself have slowed down a bit and find myself meandering on alts, or only playing in bits and pieces.  I think I am done with this expansion for the moment, and hopefully will be re-energized for the WOD.  Then we come to the elephant in the room.

      Without people we can't raid.  Even with flex we need at least ten folks.

       I am going to continue to schedule raids for us to run.  But if we keep not having folks I may call a break until into WOD.  I don't want to.  As much as I'm feeling expansion fatigue I still think it's best to keep the group together and doing things so we maintain the habit of running things on the same nights.  However, if we can't field a team at all at this point, I would just as soon wait until the next expansion to rebuild things.  The core of the team will still be here and those who have stopped showing up really have no stake left in the team at this point.  Now, this isn't a strike against those who have real life going on.  We have folks who due to work etc.. are now missing a raid night a week or so.  They talk to me and I understand this.

     This is meant for the folks that have just disappeared without a word.  Sorry, if you come back I'll welcome you, but I can get along without you.  Feel free to stay disappeared.

      Yes, I am feeling a bit bitter right now.  This expansion above all the others had really had a plethora of folks who built themselves up raiding with us, then moved on to raid elsewhere.  I am tired of this.  I know it's a fact of life that it happens, but what out team would have been now if they had invested in where they started rather then finding the greener grass on the other side.

      There are days where I debate banning people from coming back if stuff falls apart.  But that is not the attitude I need, and it's not the attitude my team needs.  I will welcome people back every time.  Sometimes even when I would rather shake my head and say no.

 Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

and the release for Warlords of Draenor is.....

11/13/2014.  Yes, I was optimistic and off

        We aren't going to discuss raiding this week.  I took Tuesday off to spend time with my wife and saw "Guardians of the Galaxy" (Awesome, go see it) and Wednesday we didn't have enough folks to field a foray into enemy territory.

      The big news, the announcement of the release date for Warlords.  Yes, I guessed wrong, partially because I wanted the darn thing sooner.  I am convinced though that everyone wanted it sooner, including Blizzard.  However great things came from today's unnecessary announcement.  (Yes I still think they should have just released the info instead of spending extra time on and effort on this.  Not because I believe it has any bearing on when the game comes out etc.. but because it's a pointless dog and pony show.)

      The almost as big news as the release date is that this is blog #100 from me on this site.  I sit here amazed and surprised that I have managed to keep blogging on a weekly basis. (I have only missed one)  Some weeks I have even blogged twice which is why I am here less then two years after starting this.

      I want to actually take the time to thank some people, though I am sure I will miss some as we have an ever growing and changing team, that have worked and influenced my time through Wow as a Raider.

     Aeryn-My wife and partner in crime.  Honestly, I fiddled here and there but never would have started raiding if I hadn't sojourned with her into Midnight.  She is the extrovert to my introvert that has helped build my relationships in WoW.  She is the best priest heals machine I could have sitting next to me and making sure I am seeing everything going on in raid.

     Gwyndolynn- Our guild leader and druid heals machine.  I can't remember what she thought back in Wrath when me and Aeryn stated that the guild should start it's own raid team.  I do know she has been supportive since day one and we have rarely butted heads over things.  She has very rarely missed a raid and has been a solid fixture since we started.

      Magilla- Warrior tank master.  Mag has been tanking and running with us since ICC.  You couldn't ask for a more solid co-tank and raider.  He is always on, ready to rock and lead us into danger.  I think he didn't know what he was getting into when he joined us, but I'm glad he did.

      Shaqia- Shaman heals/enchancement.  He is there making sure no one gets too serious.  Amazing with heals, and getting crazy on dps lately rarely does he miss a raid.  He started raiding with us at teh beginning and has taken a couple of Wow breaks, but I always look forward to him coming back and smashing things.  Then we go raid....

       Scorpiack- Shaman/Warlock.  Scorpy has been mainly a shaman but has recently put away his lightning for demons and fire.  He has always ruled the dps charts in our guild and is happy to destroy anything that gets in our way.  I'm a little more fuzzy but I believe we picked up Scorpy at the end of Wrath, beginning of Cataclysm.

      These five I would consider the core of our team.  They have been running with us solidly for multiple expansions and make even the worst wipe fests of a raid a good time.  I imagine without them I'd have a hard time stepping up and leading the guild to our doom.

      There are more to be mentioned though, we have

       Shojji- Hunter and brudder.  He's been playing Wow a good while but he just really started raiding with us this Xpack.  As a deeps he has grown and is constantly working hard to be better.  I think in time I will be fighting him to stay near the top of the deeps chart.

       Belevina- Bel gets a mention here as he has been in and out of our raids for the last couple of expansions.  His priest deals pain instead of heals and when he's in raid stuff dies a lot more easily.  And he's entertainment!  His sarcastic comments can challenge my own!

      Mynk (Hellscream)- Monk tank from Midnight rising-One of the newer members of our team, she is light, bubbly and brings some good positive happiness to the raid.  She has been a great addition and I am hoping we can keep her into WoD.

      Orheim- His Disc priest makes sure we know what is going on in raid.  He is a good solid healer and when he is in raid everyone knows it.  He is invaluable at times when trying to figure out a wipe, and while I don't always agree with his observations, I love the fact I can always get feedback from him.

     Reighven-He is still playing in the guild but the school monster took him from us.  (Priorities, sheesh, hee hee)  Hopefully sometime we will get him back but the man is one of the best fathers and people I have known and I'm honored to have gotten to meet and spend time with him.

      Amelmi-Another person who has been in and out of our raid team for a couple of expansions.  When he is there the numbers his lock rocks is almost insane.  I'm excited any day he runs with us.

      Cricky- She will always have a special place in my heart.  Cricky hasn't raided with us for a while but she was one of the first people I invited to our guild when I opened it up to more then family, and I feel I have virtually gotten to see her grow up a bit.  She will always be our guild mascot.... because you know young girls don't play Wow so she was a FBI agent the whole time.

      Fantaa-The mother of the guild, literally for some of us.  She doesn't run with us often but she is sure to keep us on the straight and narrow in and out of vent.  She always brings fun with her.

      There are a few more who have been hopping in that I don't know as well yet,  Ainnvar, Aluara, Frosttide, etc...

And there are so many more I could mention who are gone.

Bromli, Deadlysinner, Wickedsavior, Lotauna, Khallon, and Ithuriol, and so many more that I know I'm forgetting.

Thank you all for making Wow a good part of my life.

I will see you in raid.

Dizzty/Lag/Lazyeye.

   

     
   

   

One more to 100.... (Raid update week of 8/4/2014)

That's right.  My next blog will be number one hundred.  That amazes me a little.

          Tuesday we started wing one again.  Blew the place up and managed to down Galakras too.  We have people still getting a little gear here and there, but the content is getting somewhat old.  I enjoy running with the folks we have, the banter etc.. when we are doing easier content, but we need to move ahead.

          Wednesday we didn't have enough folks show to raid.  Instead we did a group LFR together and downed Garrosh.  It was LFR, but we still had fun and chatted the time away.  It is important in my opinion when the raid doesn't happen to still do something with the folks who show and want to be involved.  Hopefully next week we will do better.

        We are now four days away from the announcement of when the next expansion is going to drop.  This is going to give us a timeline on how soon we need to finish SoO if we are going to finish it.  I won't lie, if it is coming quickly enough part of me debates calling off raids until the next expansion.  I want to keep people involved, but I am getting tired of pushing people, only to have them leave for another raid team when they get built up, or to have people just not study or learn the fights.

      My biggest frustration is that people do leave for the team that is more advanced, pushing content quicker, and making bigger kills.  Part of it is the nature of the beast, but it seems these folks leave at the moments when we are pushing forward and killing things as well, just not as quick.  I don't know if I am insane to expect some sort of loyalty out of people (and don't get me wrong, we have a lot of loyal people)  But if you look back to us as a ten man team, there were 3 spots or so that have changed through the expansion several times.  That is 30% of the teams, dynamics, etc...  When someone leaves it hurts us.

      I think flex has maybe hurt our expectations a bit.  Right now we still have two consistent people who top the charts at over 200k. (There are others, but they aren't there every raid.) I would have hoped by now that those top 2 dps would have had to work harder to keep that spot at the top, but no one else is excelling as high.  There has been time and opportunity, but it isn't happening.  Honestly, if we weren't a casual raid team I would be trimming folks.

     Part of the problem is we have people who have recently swapped specs, people who are lower geared etc.. because they are just getting started.  I yearn for the day though that I have to fight not to be number 5 on the dps chart because everyone is blowing crap up.  I don't consider myself a great raider by any means, but I studied my class, did my homework, and now I blow stuff up.  There is no reason anyone working consistently on the same class shouldn't be able to as well.

      That is my griping for the moment.  Let us see what the future holds.  The announcement is Thursday this week, so we get to find out after our second day of raid.  I am looking forward to seeing what it brings.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

P.S.  Any ideas for Blog #100 next week would be appreciated.  I want to think of something special for it.