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.