It's a Brand New Day.

You may have not seen me online lately.

     Yes it's snowy and foggy here in Utah.  Wonderfully so.  Can't say much for the inversion though, that stuff sucks

     For the last couple of weeks holidays, getting my computer fixed etc... have kept me offline.  I have now been able to hop on a couple of times, in hopes of getting the holiday mount from the Winter's Veil Dailies in the garrison.  So far no dice, but I've only been able to try for a few days, and I believe I just tried for my last.

     But here we are in a new year.  The force has awakened, and most of us have set resolutions that will last for another week or two.  (Don't worry, I haven't set any to break) I am now looking forward to what this year will bring.

     School for me will probably be going until the end of this year.  Assuming I bust my butt and get all my coursework up to Network Administrator done at DATC I will probably still have some work to do at Weber College to get my Associates.  This means that I don't foresee a time this year I'm not dealing with school work.  I also have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get back to writing and editing because I would like to have my book ready to submit to different agents/publishers here in a few months.  I need to stop putting it off and put the work in.  If I get published I will be screaming it here as well.

     This means for World of Warcraft my time will continue to be a lot more limited than it has been in the past.  For now while we are in the slog between expansions that is OK.  I'm taking a little time to teach my friend who has just subscribed but otherwise haven't been on much.  I'm not going to take a 100% break from game, but for now it's definitely on the sideline.

     When Legion drops I'm not sure how this is going to effect things.  Normally at the beginning of an expansion most of our raid team comes back and we get running within a few weeks.  I am hoping this is the case again.  I have asked people if different raid days would help etc... but at this point have gotten little feedback so I plan on keeping things to weekends.  I am looking forward to introducing my friend to raiding and building up a couple of resources who have been kind of sidelined at this point.  I am playing with the idea of swapping to demon hunter, but have a hard time thinking of setting Lag aside as he has been my main for most of Wow since Wrath.

But here is the thing.

     If raiding doesn't start up with folks coming back again, I'm not sure I have it in my heart to rebuild things.  I have been working with the ups and downs for several expansions now and part of me is just tired.  I want to raid.  I want to be there for the team and I will feel some guilt if I just let go, but at the same time fighting people to show up is getting old.  This is still several months away, but it is on my mind.

    Of course, I could pull a 180 on this by the time Legion drops with the excitement of a new expansion and shiny new stuff, but right now this is where I am at.  It was made pretty apparent that if I step out, raiding will probably fade away from our guild and I don't want to be the cause of that.  At the same time, I'm not the only one responsible and I need to start seeing it as that.  If folks don't want to show up, or put the effort in this expansion might be the one where I give up raid leading and whatever happens happens.  I will keep on playing, and keep being involved with folks, but if this next expansion is as much of a  fight as Warlords has been I'm done.

    But, it's early yet to be negative.  Folks will come back.  Some will be looking for a guild and we have some good guild recruiters waiting to pull folks in.  We may get a shiny new/changed raid team and start blowing stuff up and laughing maniacally.  This as with every expansion has the potential to be the best expansion for our guild, Fear Itself, on Zangarmarsh.

Lag

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)

Critical Thinking. Yes, I Crit. (Raid update week of 4/20/2014)

I've got a lot on my mind this week.

      Tuesday was  a hard day for me.  We went in to Flex wing 3 and got kicked around my Malkorak.  A  lot.  I was already irritated that the raid seemed to have started a bit later then intended (about 20+ minutes by my count.) and was fighting a bad case of the grumps.  It didn't help that it felt like along with skill the raid had regressed to several people calling out ideas at once and folks were calling each other out on mistakes even though it wasn't our policy.  I was a horrible raid leader that night and just let things happen as I honestly was feeling to irritable to jump in and start what would have been a tirade of frustration and yelling.  By the end of the night we did manage to down Malkorak, and Spoils of Pandaria.  Thok ultimately killed us, but we will be back.

       Wednesday was much better.  We went straight to Blackfuse, and once again pull by pull things felt like they were getting better mechanic wise.  The whole mood of the raid seemed more positive then the night before and it showed.  We ended tweaking stategies and our roles a couple of times and on the last pull of the night we got Blackfuse down for the first time.  That means next week we should be fighting Paragons.  Yay progress.

        I have been doing a lot of thinking after Tuesdays raid this week.  The mood had gotten toxic enough that my wife turned off vent part way into the raid.  She eventually came back on but later told me she feels the team has lost the laid back feeling and happiness that we used to embrace.  After taking a 9 month break, and then stepping back in she hasn't been here for all the changes in the raid team and probably has one of the best views to see this.

       Honestly Wednesday morning I sat at work thinking through different ways to address the team and the problems that may have developed over this period of time.  I had speeches in my head that involved Hellfire.  Others that were kind and guiding.  I had gone over rants, rage quitting in the middle of pulls, and logging off in a foul and swearing manner for effect.  There were debates of starting progression over, rage quitting the team, or even rage quitting WoW for a while.  I was in a tumble of dark places and irritation.

       I was going over the issues we are facing.  People calling people out in front of the raid.  (There is a difference between chastising someone after a pull and saying "Hey Lag, Step out of the fire" in the middle of a fight.)  We have two many Chiefs not enough Indians complex where several voices are stepping in and trying to lead things.  We have people who get piss poor attitudes and get ornery with everyone else when things go wrong.  We have DPS who have hit that goal of 125k and instead of progressing further have regressed down to lower numbers.  There are these things and more going on right now.

       Then, as I was realizing all the issues, going over all these speeches and rants one thing occurred to me.  There is one consistent, one issue that needed fixing above all these things.

        And that was me.

        All these issues exist because I have allowed them.  I have been very non-aggressive lately in my approach of raid leading.  I have been very bare minimum on the strategies and watching videos before a pull/fight but I haven't been thinking them through.  I have let other step in, make calls etc.. without me O.K.ing that as their roll or assigning them to that job.  I have allowed all these problems to exist because I have allowed my heart and passion to wander away from the team.

        So now it's time for some critical thinking.

        I am going to start working hard to gain that passion back.  I want to be the one who is leading the team. I want to be aggressive when needed, and gently guide when it is not.  I want to walk into each fighting already thinking about who I want for what role, and where the best use of our assets are.  I want to be the one to make the calls, good and bad when we are fighting a boss.  I am going to make mistakes, but they will be honest mistakes.  I am going to try and be the person I was a year ago who could have told you the mechanics of the vast majority of classes and specs.    I want to get things to a point where they feel right and good.

        Here is my challenge to the team.  Do some critical thinking.  Where are you as far as the raid team goes?  Are you working on improving or are you just scraping the bare minimum.  Are you watching the boss fights before the raid, or are you just hoping that the strategy will make sense when someone explains it without any context to work from.  What are you doing to build the team.  Honestly, a team is better when most of it's people are taking ownership of that little part that is theirs.  Whether that is blowing up DPS charts, healing your butt off, or successfully tanking it doesn't matter.  1/10th to 1/25 of that raid is yours depending on how many folks show.  If you own and work on that part that is yours, we are all stronger for it.

       So get some critical thinking done, and lets blow up some Paragons next week.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

We got Thoked. (Raid update week of 3/23/2014)

That's right folks, that happened.

        Tuesday went well.  Belevina has returned to the guild and he brought a ten man raid team with him.  I will not be running with them but I look forward to the addition of people to the guild and hope they find a good home here.  A couple of people from this group hopped into flex with us and we blew through 2nd wing of flex in the night.  Once again the only place we stumbled was Nazgrim who took  a couple of pulls to get down.  All and all it was a good night and I'm happy with it.

       Wednesday was pretty good as well.  We went in and one shot Malkorok.  After that we moved on and blew through Spoils of Pandaria.  And by blew threw, we downed the fight on the second attempt and it's the first time we have downed it.  We then moved on to Thok, whom we made a few attempts on with him stomping all over our faces.  At the end, we had gotten him to fire phase once, and I believe he will go down well next week.  Which means one thing.

       Next week, we will be doing 3rd wing, then 4th wing.  That's right.... Moving on a bit.

       Just a couple of quick things this week.  First of all, I am working on getting my Shaman geared and ready should I need her.   Yes, I'm a masochist and constantly want to be working on getting another toon ready.  By the time Warlords comes out I expect I will have a lot of toons happy and ready to go.

       I also want to thank those who pushed their DPS up.  It shows, it really does.  Our Dps charts look a lot better then they did a month ago.  While we still have a one or two that have been a little up and down they have hit the 125k mark  and I hope they will continue to improve.  I am debating doing some lighter runs on a Sunday or Saturday when I have time to see about getting gear for one or two people on the easier wing (Flex 1)

       The other option is to rotate that first days run between flex wings one, two, and three so that people who are hopping in still might have a chance here and there for a piece of gear they may have missed or want.  We will figure it out.

Anyway, that is short and sweet for this week.  (Been busy) Will catch you all next week.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Making Folks Work For It! Another Rant from Me! Yay! (Raid Update week of 3/23/2014)

Hi, this is your ornery raid leader....

      This week Tuesday was very good.  We managed to get through the second wing of SoO in one night for the first time.  The bonus to this is that we one shot every boss with the exception of Shamans.  Shamans took two shots.  But we huffed, and puffed and blew that house down in a way we haven't achieved before tonight.  I was very happy with our performance.

      Wednesday night was a little more rough.  I almost didn't make raid and was close to having to stay and close at work.  I managed to still get off, but was about ten minutes late.  Magilla and Gwyn had managed to get things started though, and we were in and raiding shortly.  Malkorak took us a few attempts, but we got him down and moved on to Spoils of Pandaria.  Spoils beat us but it also showcased the problem I have been hitting the raid team with.  We Need More Deeps!

      I threw down and Ultimatum.  I want everybody to be at a minimum of 125k dps by the end of two weeks.  If a dps shows up and can't pull that 125k floor, or close to it, they will be asked not to raid with us until they can hit it.

      We are more then a year into this expansion.  People have been hitting these numbers since Mogu'shan vaults in many cases and we are a lot of gear levels above that point.  There are too many resources in this game to not be able to make such numbers.  I put the effort into my hunter to get to 200k average dps on my hunter as my goal.  I have made that.  On fights where I just pew, pew, and I don't have a lot of swapping, moving, and dps stops I hit that 200k consistently.  As a matter of fact I am setting a new goal of 225k.  To do this I am actually going to start working on some key binds/macros I can use to up my deeps.  I wan to make sure I'm not getting complacent in what I'm doing.

      Now you may say "Lag? Why do we need to be able to hit 125k dps?"  And I will say, "Because you owe it to everyone else who shows up for raid to come in and not expect to be carried."   Let's be honest here.  If you are not working to improve, if you are showing up every week pulling substandard dps and dying constantly they your are not part of the team.  You are a detriment.

     That't right.  If you are not pulling the dps to justify being along in raid you are just one more boss that we have to beat.  Not only that, you are a boss we have to beat on top of the regular bosses every time we walk into a fight.  You can look at yourself and know that you are one of the reasons we have to fight so hard to clear every single boss.  You are one of the enemy.  I happily invite you along to help destroy the raid.

     No more.  I want to see improvement, and I want to see it consistently.  I know that our tanks and heals all work hard to keep things going.  Hell, my wife just started playing again 2 weeks ago after a 6+ month hiatus and she has fought tooth and nail to get her heals up to a point where she is feeling competitive again.  She was the one when she quit that dominated the heals charts the majority of the time.  I can tell you right now, she won't stop until she hits that point again.  Why? Because she wants to do her best.  She doesn't want to be dead weight.  She wants to compete on a level that shows that she gives a damn about how our raid team is doing.

      I may not even live religiously to that 125k minimum and I admit that now.  If you have been pulling 60-70k dps for 2 months now, not naming names, and you show up in two weeks pulling 100k.  I may say, "I see you have been working to improve.  Come next week."  Because this isn't about the numbers at the end of the day.

     It's about doing your part to support and build the team.   You are either building the team, or you are tearing it down.  Piece by piece.  I am already loosing one good raider because of this.  I am determined not to lose anymore.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

   

Selling the Drama.... (Raid update week of 2/20/2014)

Because that's what we do.  Sometimes.

      Tuesday was an O.K. day.  We were short a couple of major players and hopped into second wing anyway.  Galakras and Iron Juggernaut went down quickly as normal.  As I was tanking this night however, we had to pick a third tank who hadn't tanked the fight before to help finish Dark Shamans.  We got close but never got them down.

      Wednesday was not a great Raid night.  Once again a few people didn't make it leaving use with just ten peeps.  We decided to push third wing anyway and never got past Malkorak.  The biggest problem is the other times we have fought him we have had 14-15 people, and with just ten we didn't have the coverage on the room we were used to.  Mechanics just killed us when people missed the purple circles or we didn't move quickly enough.  I look forward to shrugging this week off and moving forward.

      Now, World of Warcraft is about the dramatic.  We follow story lines, and immersed in the lore whether we pay attention to it or not, and everything we do has a consequence somewhere down the line withing the the story arc.  All the characters we run into seem to be having minor emergencies which means the characters we interact with tend to be very dramatic as well.

     But you, yes you, the player.... you are not that dramatic.  Most of the scenes with your characters show them calmly watching what is going on around you.  Your not overly verbal, and you don't tend to jump around and freak out just because an angry dragon is smashing through a wall.

    So why would you fill guild chat with drama?

     The easy answer is that we are not our characters.  Guild chat is the one place where we get to be actual people who can talk to our guild mates and connect on a level that goes above a video game if we so choose to.  The obvious exception of course is a RP guild.  (RP realms don't actually equal RP all that often.)  The problem with this is sometimes people over share, or try to over connect, or flat out decide to troll everyone in sight.  This creates drama.

     Before you start talking in guild, or even in trade for that matter you should consider the impact of your words when you allow people into your life.  Are you saying something that is not going to project the image of you that you want people to see?  Is what your saying meant to stir up a fight?  Is it lewd, sweary, or in any way offensive?  When all people get of you is some typing and a virtual figure this matters.

     The best way to build guild drama is to not care about any of these things.  When you come off as abrupt or mean it can bring a guild down.  People do not want to hang out in a cesspool of negativity with a few notable exceptions.  When you create guild drama it effects everyone in the guild to at least a small degree.  I can be in how they feel to be part of the guild, to how other people treat them when they see our guild tag above their heads.  If the realm has a negative view of your guild from what one or two yahoos say in guild chat, then it effects every single person.

     People also say things to get a specific re-action in guild.  If you enter guild chat talking about causing physical harm to yourself or others sometimes people don't know how to react.  I would wager normally when someone does this it's because they want attention and for some people negative attention is better then no attention.  In this case no one is sure whether to take the speaker seriously or not, and in a MMO we are very limited on our ability to react to such things from our side of the keyboard.  If we don't know anything other then an avatar and fake name, there is no recourse your guild mates can take if they do thing you are serious.  At best we can put in a ticket to Blizzard and hope that they are willing to call people like the cops etc... to check things out.   I'm not sure Blizzard would be likely to do this as well, because they take legal responsibility for releasing someones contact information for what might just be someone crying for attention.

     In short if you having a rough time in your life or situation, don't pull the guild into it.  If it becomes a problem we will have to cut you loose, and I would hate to cut off the sense of community from someone who may benefit from it in a positive manner.  I would love to have a happy place for you to come, chat and interact if you life otherwise sucks, so you can have some happiness in your life.

     The guild is a place that should be kept drama free... please do your part to help make it so.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye