Buying Time In Highmaul

How do you feel about it?

     Tuesday night was interesting.  Several people in the raid where in on alt characters (Including yours truly who took his hunter Lazyeye.) So, it became fascinating to see how we handled so much change.  The deeps was a little lower over all, but mechanics seemed to be the demon of the night.  We still one shot Kargatch and The Butcher.  Butcher had some rough spots though.  Twin Ogron kept setting us on fire because we just weren't avoiding it very well.  We finally got them down at the end of the night, but we only got 3/7 for Highmaul this week.

     Wednesday we managed to get Gruul down on the first pull that wasn't an accident.  It felt good and we moved on to Hans and Franz again.  We managed on the final pull to get them down to 10% but we have some more work to do here.  Hopefully next week.

     Let's get to the meat shall we.

      Blizzard is going to allow people to buy game time tokens and sell them on the auctionhouse.  As of yet a price hasn't been set for this token, so we don't know how much it's going to set us back.  My honest guess is it will be $15 for 30 days, not cheaper (because then it would be cheaper to get tokens rather then a subscription) and I don't think it will be much more expensive.  Maybe a dollar or two as a "service fee."

     I am not sure where I stand on this yet.  I like the idea of being able to use gold for game time, but we don't know how much gold it's going to cost yet either.  That price will be set by the community on the AH.  My honest opinion is that anything over 10k I won't spend.   Even then I will hesitate as I haven't had the play time to earn a lot of gold lately.  I would like to say when they did the guardian cub years ago he was $10, and he stared out for about that 10K price, but eventually dropped down to 5k or so.  This only means so much because the economy has been inflated a lot since then.  But it does give us an example of what has happened in the past.

    The obvious pitfall here is that if the game time sells for too much gold only a select amount of players will be able to afford it.  At that point it will be a benifit for the elite few who make a lot of gold off the AH, and the rest of us will occasionally be able to get a month for free if we are lucky.  I am sure that this is not what Blizzard intends, but it may be what it becomes.  In that case if you want to buy gold it might be lucritive to drop an extra $15 or so here and there and  pick up some in game currency.

     The bonus is that if it works out right, then the price will drop down to a point where the everyday player can afford to drop gold on time if thats what they choose to do.  Now, to be fair, I don't think that this idea will work if everyone in game can afford to buy time off the auction house.  I think the average player should be able to afford to buy time every couple of months or so.  There will be people who never can afford this, but I am hoping those are in the minority if this is implimented correctly.  At least that is my opinion.  For all I know Blizzard is looking at this in a whole different light.

    How do you feel about buying WoW time with gold? Are you going to participate in this as a buyer or seller?  What thoughts have I missed?

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


   

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

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.

You beta believe it!

So, I'm feeling pretty lucky right now.

      Lets review the raiding for the week first shall we? On Tuesday we started Flex wing 1 and managed the first three bosses.   I hadn't tanked this content for a good while and it showed.  When we fought Sha of Pride I know I made several mistakes, and between that and some other unlucky issues like people DCing etc... we didn't get the last boss of the wing down.

      Wednesday I went ahead and lead us into wing 4 again.  We did better then last week but still there are too many issues there.  I think this next week I may start wing 1 the first night and move to wing 3 the second as I know we can down malkorak and treasures of Pandaria continues to elude us.

       I think we have had more content resets with the raid team this expansion then we ever have.  I hope leading out of this one we will get time to down Garrosh before 6.0.  I know people are still predicting the next expansion to be out November/December.  I am more optimistic then that.  I am sticking to my guess of the expansion in September.  I think we can bet on 6.0 in mid to late August and to have the game out before Blizzcon.

      I know this isn't the popular guess.  I am still thinking that the Beta is going to be surprisingly short this time around.  We don't have to have access for over a million free passers this time, and if Pandaria has had one major success it is to show that Blizzard can put out content quickly, I even have said and still think too quickly at points.   As they continue to refine the process I think we may be pleasantly surprised this time around.  If I am wrong, I will accept it but I have high hopes that Blizzard will surprise us all.

       I went into the Mysts Beta a couple times when I had it.  This time I plan on delving a little deeper.  I am hoping to get my live stream going so I can comment and give my opinion on the things I am seeing.  As soon as everything is live I plan on going through the Alliance side on Lazyeye my hunter, and Rhapsidy my Rogue will sneak around some of the Horde content.  I am not sure how deeply I want to delve as I've always hated having to redo content or spoil myself too badly.  At  the same time I want to embrace this Beta as a new opportunity to play with some other stuff I've wanted to do.

    If I can I will even let people know when I'm streaming beta so they can hop in and watch if they like.

     We are one step closer, and before you know it, Warlords will be upon us.

Lag/Lazyeye/Dizzty

Carry on, carry on!

A lot of things are coming up again.

     Tuesday we had a Flex wing 3 run.  We managed to down Malkorak but didn't get any further.  We kept getting shredded by treasures of Pandaria.  We have lost a couple more players so balancing the group was a bit trickier, and by the end it proved to be just to hard for us to push through.

     Wednesday we went ahead and took a couple whacks at Blackfuse.  The trash almost did us in and he walked all over us.  After a few tries we decided to hop back to wing 2 and took down Galakras just so a few people could have a chance at loot.  Galakras himself was a bigger challenge then normal, because once again we are feeling the absence of those who left us, that used to do a couple jobs like the towers that had to be covered by new folks.

      The problems we are facing right now are the result of 2 things.

      1.  We are playing with several individuals.  Schedules change, needs change, the way we play the game changes.  This leads to people leaving or going elsewhere or looking elsewhere for new challenges.  We have lost more then a few people because we are a laid back group who takes their time to work through content instead of yelling/pushing/being extreme.

      2.  We are in the end of expansion slump.  If your like me this is the time it's hardest to log in and play sometimes.  We have been playing the same content since December, and it feels there is nothing new to see.  This is the period I spend more time on other realms and leveling alts.  It feels extremely harsh this time because Blizzard managed to push out content so quickly in Mists of Pandaria.  In truth we are looking at about the same about of time between final patch and the the new expansion as we always have.  It's just falling because that new content every 3-4 month push they managed that is making it so painful.

      Part of raiding is rebuilding and relearning.  It wouldn't  hit us as bad if we were one of the teams who goes hardcore and has the content chewed up in a month or two, but with the way we raid it means we spend a lot longer on the content, so we have a lot longer to lose and have change happen on the team.  This has hit us particularly hard this time around and it feels like every time we have gained traction the dynamic has been shaken up and we are relearning how to balance with each other.

     I will tell you the one thing that drives crazy is when we get on a run, are downing new bosses every other week and people leave so they can see the content quicker.  I have never understood the desire to jump in with a new group when you are already making progress.  I will admit I have a dark chuckle with myself when these people leave and a two months later the new guild/raid team implode and those folks who are left in the dust are once again looking for a new home.  Some of them come back to us... most keep wandering and I hope they all eventually find a new home that suits them.  When someone leaves I do sincerely with them good luck, I just am not surprised when they don't find it.

    So we trudge on... This next week we will be starting Wing 1 again to once again build and help bring more people into a working position on the team.  I am tired of re-hashing this, but I will keep going on until the new expansion hits.  Then I will get the same break as everyone else as I level my characters, and will be looking forward to the new content with everyone else.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

I may be a little bit lost.

Houston, we have a problem.

      Tuesday we started wing one and started working through.  We got past Iron Juggs and called it a night.  It was a pretty smooth raid and we might have gotten further if we had started on time.  No complaints with our performance however, and I'm happy with how we are handling this first bit.

       Wednesday didn't happen.  We didn't have enough folks show up and I didn't want to pug in 3 dps spots to keep moving.  Instead we all jumped on some lower geared toons and ran some LFR together.  Doing LFR in a group makes it tolerable I have found and I think we still had some good time.  But this brings us to where we are.

      I think I want to start pushing progression again.  Since I went back to just going the first few bosses the last two or three weeks, less and less folks are showing up.  My fear of losing people to frustration has led us to a place where we are losing people anyway.  To be fair these folks that aren't showing might have dropped off anyway, but I don't think the lack of challenge has helped.

     This next week we are going to push wing 3 the first night, then wing 4 the second.  I want to see if that pulls some more interest in.  Yes we still have some obstacles to fight there, but I think we may do the first flex on Tuesday forward every other week, and then start wing 3 every other as well.  I'm going to find a way to get things to work.  I want to kill Gary Hellscream dang it!

     But I can't do it alone.  And I can't do it with less then 10 people showing up. If it keeps going this way and we have less and less people showing, I may have to call raiding until Warlords.  Don't make me do that, we have managed to keep a raid team going until the next expansion hit from Wrath on.  I would be very unhappy if this was the first one that defeated us.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Cha, Cha ,Cha, Changes.... (raid update Week of 4/27/2014)

That's right.  I have a big stick and I ain't afraid to swing it.

       Tuesday we hit wing 3 and managed to one shot Malkorak.  We all cheered and were prepared for smooth sailing.  Then we hit Spoils of Pandaria.  All our work seemed to have evaporated on this one.  We did have a new tank for one half, but even after swapping back to a group build we have somewhat used before the fight just wouldn't go down.  We ended the night at one boss dead.

       Wednesday I was pumped, excited, and ready to down Blackfuse again and hit some Paragons in the face.  What happened instead was a massacre.  We had people who couldn't survive the first half of the fight.  We had random deaths from stupid things.  We had lost any and all co-ordination that we had achieved the week before when he went down.  It was like we had forgotten every thing we had achieved.  I was extremely pained by our performance.

        And that brings me to a hard decision.  We have long maintained that we are a casual raiding group, but I have been pushing us in the other direction.  I believe there is a balance between the two we can find that is a happy place.  A place where more casual raiders can be comfortable to show up.  But more advanced raiders can find some benefit over frustration at wiping on content they are used to clearing one harder modes.

        I have to made a decision here between being the person who starts telling individuals to not show up, or to find a way to keep them working on a path to advancement.  That is where I am.  My frustration level personally with the performance of some people has gotten to the point where I have considered walking away from raiding until next Xpack.  I am tired of talking to walls.  I just can't justify slamming our faces against the bosses anymore when a part of the raid isn't putting in the work.

        So here is the new plan.  We are going to start from wing one from now on.  I figure in a good night we will clear wing one and part of two.  Next night we start where we left off.  We will keep working forward in this manner for the time being.  We are not ready for wing four.  The fact we are burning through Brezzes etc.. shows we are not quite there.

        Think of this as a reset.  It's a good opportunity if you want to start gearing an alt, or swap toons you have been playing with.  If you having issues playing melee and surviving you can swap to a ranged or vice versa.  If you want to try healing/tanking we may be able to work you in a bit.  Let's make this an opportunity.

       Either way, we will see wing four when one of two things happen.  1.  If we are clearing content all the way to Blackfuse within the two nights.  2.   Our DPS is all averaging about 150k and we are simply destroying stuff.  I will tell you when we started flex, my hunter was just barely over the 100k mark on DPS.  I am now normally one of the top two on the DPS chart and it's not uncommon for me to be doing 230k DPS average.  This didn't happen because hunters got buffed, or because I got the best gear, but it helped.  The bigger part is that I worked on that character.  I tightened my rotations.  I constantly rechecked my reforges and enchants.  I have put the time and effort into Lazyeye that he needed to get to this point.  This reset should be the chance to get everyone to take a breath and make sure we are working in that direction.

         This is my last stop before I let things go until Warlords of Draenor.  If you are looking at the way raiding is going to change when 6.0 drops, you know that a bit is going to change with the way we raid.  Flex will become normal, and that means that the folks who have been stepping in and raiding with us on the side will either have to be come part of the raid team, or they will have to form their own.  That means one of two things.  Either we build to the point where we can keep up and give the more advanced raiders what they want, or the guild hosts two raid teams.  That is if they don't decide to drop out of the guild and start their own to make sure they can put all the resources to the team they need.  This is something to plan for now, not later when we are jumping right into the fray.

       I know not everyone will be happy with this decision.  We may even lose one or two people.  But I am trying to look out for the whole raid team.  I also want to find what we have lost recently pushing ourselves so hard.

       Our spirit and happiness we started out with.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

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.

More Gates! (Raid update week of 2/27/2014)

Well folks, it was one of those weeks.

      Tuesday night we were short a few regular raiders including both main tanks.  This meant I was tanking on Lag and Mynk was kind enough to pitch hit and come in as the second tank.  Despite her greenness and my noobishness we managed to down the first flex wing for SoO.  All in all it wasn't a bad night, we managed to get some experience and a couple pieces of gear for folks.

      Wednesday night was alright.  We got in, and after several pulls we downed Malkorak.  Not a spectacular kill but we got the job done!  We didn't have time to venture forth to spoils of Pandaria but we ended the raid on a happy note.  No complaints here.

      Now, this week we have had some news from Blizzard regarding Warlords of Draenor.  It is news I am still processing and debating internally.  For when it comes to Warlords of Draenor, we are getting another gate.

      I am not talking about the 516 reputation grinds you had to go through to get gear for raiding in Pandaria, this may be better.  Or so much worse depending on how you look at it.  In order to queue for a random Heroic Dungeon you are going to have to finish the proving grounds for the spec that you use with a silver rating.

       I know, I know.  Not a big deal, just an hour or so and your done right?  Well we don't know yet. Blizzard has indicated that they are reworking the whole proving ground experience so it make be as easy as it is now, or it may be a bit of work.   At this point it's up in the air and we will have to see how things shake out.

      Now Blizzard has said that the silver medal will not effect LFR.  You can still hop in and do LFR without doing proving grounds and nothing will stop you.  This also means that gear ilevel may go; Regular Dungeons< LFR< Heroic Dungeons<Regular Raid< Heroic Raid< Mythic.  This means that in order to raid and get the gear for entry level raid, you may have to do your silver medal for any characters you wish to bring.  I don't think this will be a big barrier, but it's an annoying one.

      Right now I have 9 level 90 characters.  That means if getting a silver for a spec takes 1 hour of game time, it will take me an extra 9 hours just to go through and pick which character will be raiding with us.  If I want to run each character that is not straight dps through heroics on a second spec, then it will cost me an extra hour per character that does multiple roles.  So, add another 3-5 hours.

      I am not saying that gating this is a bad thing, but it seems to me we are punishing people who have been raiding/working with groups for several expansions with a gate that will not likely fix any player problems.  I'm sorry, I don't think people do stupid things or waste my times in heroics because they are unable to grasp a class or roll.  I think they just are lazy and not paying attention.  Or they don't prepare by knowing the fights or what they are supposed to do.  This will not cure anything.  I am calling it now, before people start prepping for the next expansion, or we see how the experience earning the silver medal goes.  Nothing will be fixed by this, and by 6.1 they will take the feature out.  I will bet on this and people can look back here where I have it posted in writing if i'm wrong and call me on it.

Well, on to next week.  May your raids run downhill.
Lay/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Like the Tide Rolling Forward. (Raid update 02/08/2014)

Things are good, and getting better.

       No, we aren't through flex yet... but we are making progress.
       Tuesday we started on the 2nd wing.  There was a little adjustment but we managed to get the first three bosses (including Dark Shaman) down before the end of the night.  While we didn't burn through at an amazing pace, we did a solid job and progress was shown on all fights.  It's good to note that progress doesn't always mean a new boss down, sometimes it means running bosses a little tighter and quicker.

      Wednesday night I didn't make it to raid until about an hour into it.  It took a little while to get stuff up and running and I made it in for the second pull on Nazgrim.  It took a couple of pulls but he went down.  We immediately jumped into the third wing of SoO and took a few swipes at Malkorak.  We didn't down him, but made progress with each pull.  I imagine there is a good chance he will go down next week and we will move forward.  We won't be seeing the first wing of flex again for a little bit, and while I plan on going back eventually right now we will continue to do wing 2 on the first night and wing 3 on the second.  Eventually it will move to wing 3 and 4.

     Other things this week, I started my job back at Chick-fil-A which has taken a small toll on me.  I am not used to working hours standing, running, etc.. anymore.  I will adjust but it might take some time.  This also means that some raid nights I'm going to have to depend on others to keep the raid moving forward.  I don't want to mess with the raid nights after they have been set for so long, and doing so would probably disrupt the team a bit.

     I also have earned my legendary cloak on my Hunter.  Lazyeye now is sprouting the pure awesomeness of added deeps and glowy wing things.  This means I now have three characters with the legendary.  Each time I have gotten a legendary done there has been a sigh of relief, followed by my eyes going looking at my other toons debating who needs a cloak next.  Probably my shammy Shimmer, but we will see.  I would kinda like a caster to be the next cloak, but my horde rogue needs some love as well.

    Because really, the more cloaks the better.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

   

And the Deeps keeps Rolling in.... (Raid update week of 01/30/2014)

No complaints this week.  Well, maybe a couple.

      Tuesday got off to a somewhat shaky start.  One of the main tanks, and one of the main healers couldn't make it due to real life situations.  Due to that and paired with a us starting a couple of newer DPS we decided to run the first wing of flex.  We had originally planned on starting the second wing and pushing right off the bat, but with so many variables we decided that the first wing was a better fit for the night.  It was a good run though, and we finished the first wing just in time despite the set backs.

      Wednesday was much better.  We start right on the first wing and with a few guest stars managed to get all the way through.  Galakras and Iron Juggernaught were all one pulls.  Dark Shaman took three pulls and due to a couple of issues we had time was burnt there as well.  Nazgrim went down on the first shot, and we were excited to see him go.  Mynk, and a couple of her guildies popped in and helped us down the wing.  This means, next week plans get a little more awesome.

     Next week we will start on wing two, and wherever we get, wing three will be the second night.  I look forward to pushing some new stuff.  I don't want to be dependent on folks outside the guild showing up for raid, but when they do I won't complain.  It's fun to have some new voices in Vent here and there.

     This week was great, but new challenges are coming up.  I ended up having to leave my job this week, and I am going back to working at Chick-fil-A as a manager.  This means I'm going to possibly have a schedule that starts moving.  If things work out in that direction I'm going to have to start moving the raid nights with my schedule again.  Either that or I will have to find a step in raid leader who will take over when I'm not available.  The other option is to find a new raid leader all together, but I'm not sure who I would give the job to at this point.  But it is a consideration.

     I am lucky however, I have a family that supports me, and I will still have a steady paycheck.  This is work I enjoy even if it's not my dream job.  I can not talk enough about the principles of not burning bridges or having a second plan.  Physically I am going to have to adjust to being on my feet for 45 hours a week again, but in the long run this will be a good shot of stability that my family needs right now.

      Enough about me however.   Next week we will take some more stuff down.  Plan on it.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Swing it! (Raid update 01/25/2014)

So, we went once more into the breach.. oh and I just had to include the picture.

Anne Stickney From Wow Insider made this epic picture.

     Tuesday was good.  We one shot every boss except for Sha, and on Sha we still managed to get him down before the raid was over.  This is the first time we have cleared first wing in one night.  I am not saying that we won't be going back in, but we have pushed far enough through I'm happy to start working second wing first raid day now.  We are once again moving forward.  We are showing signs of the raid team improving, and I'm looking forward to making some good progression now.

     Wednesday was a good raid too.  We only managed to get two out of four bosses in the second wing down, but that puts us about even with where we were before things started to decline.  I feel we are about to flip and start getting some forward motion going, and all I can say is that it's about time.  I want to see pay off for everyone who has stuck with us for all the rocky moments, and who want to start building again.  I see good things on the horizon.  I am an optimist....

     That not to say we didn't have some issues.  We are building a raid team, which means some people need performance worked on.  Personalities are getting to know each other.  we had a tense moment at some comments someone made Tuesday night, and luckily it passed.

     One of the hard things with working with different folks it that it's easy to forget we all have different experiences in Wow.  Some of us glide through and have fun, with little problem.  Other's have experiences that have changed the way we view the game and guilds all together.  I know if you want to get my wife's hackles up, just mention the guild Midnight we were part of for a while.  And yet, I can guarantee you there were plenty of people in that guild that had no issues at all.

    That is neither here nor there however, right now we blaze our own path.  We will continue to build, continue to down new bosses, and we will eventually see where it leads us.

    I'm betting it's to a happy place.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye





   

I miss the Lich King

Last night was pretty fun.  We went Retro.

      As is more then possible we did a quick run of heroic 25 ICC.  In about an hour and a half we had blown all the way through the entire raid getting several achievements.  It was fun, it was smooth, and most of all there was little or no tension.  There were a couple of achieves we didn't manage to get, but we can grab them later.  We also had a couple issues working on Frosttide's legendary quest, but he did get further. I'm calling the night a win.  I was kind of sad by the fact that you can heal through the remorseless winter portion of the Lich King fight now.  We just sat back and dpsed him down without running to the edges.  Adds died quick and we pretty much skipped the 2nd phase and 3rd phase as we kept pushing him down before remorseless winter was over.

     We will be back to ICC soon though.  I look forward to getting the next drake after the achieves are done, and I would love to get a couple peeps through their shadowmourne legendary quests.  I use to run retro raids for the guild here and there, but people stopped showing.  I think it might be time to revive the practice.  Not every week, but once or twice a month would be nice to go blow stuff up.  Wrath was the period where I really started raiding, and I look back on it fondly.  I did some raiding at the end of B.C., and never touched it while I was in vanilla, but I smile at a lot of the memories from back then.

     While the game has been streamlined, I almost feel at times that Wrath was a simpler time.  Gearing seemed smooth.  I wasn't afraid to pug my way into a 25 man and do some damage.  Tempers seemed not to flare up so much, and it wasn't hard to do a good job if you focused on what you needed to do.  I know that if I really looked back, it would also have the pain of sitting in trade pugging a group for Raids or dungeons.  Balance was a lot more skewed, and before duel specs it meant a lot of work if you needed to trade specs.  (I recognize that duel spec came out during wrath.)

     A lot of people learned to raid in Wrath as well.  I feel this is when raids became more accessible, and the story line really carried you through Northrend.  Arthas was everywhere, unlike Illidan who you never really saw unless you did the netherwing quest line.  It felt meaningful when you killed him.  It wasn't like Deathwing who would randomly nuke you, Arthas was looking at you specifically.  It made you feel connected to the story in a fascinating way.

     What was your favorite expansion/raiding experience?  Why?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

Last weeks raid in review (Merry Christmas Auction House!)

This kept getting put off as there was nothing much to report.

      To put it simply, as the holidays have struck early, there was no raiding the week before Christmas.  Raid night falls on both New years Eve/New years and Christmas Eve/Christmas this year so both of those weeks have no raiding either.  I am hoping right now to do some retro raids on Sundays, but we will see who shows up.  I tried one for Heroic BOT last week and no one showed.  It gave me sad feelings.

      So right now I am focused on celebrating the holidays, finishing the book I am writing before the end of the year, and maybe even playing some WoW.... Maybe.  It's not quiet the end of expansion duldrums but I have not had a burning desire to log on for the last week or two other then to burn some cooldowns and spend a few minutes here and there leveling alts.  Last night I even ran a battle ground or two on a horde lowbie, and for those who know me, I avoid battle grounds.  For me, It's normally, "Hey I'll take some of that black plague over there.  It is better then PVP you know..."

      But I have been spending time with family, kid's are out of school, I am playing with twitch and live streaming though I'm not sure what to live stream at this point.  Maybe I'll even farm out in guild and friends and play with the podcast idea, who knows? It would be fun if I could spin it.  I am not sure where in the WoW community my podcast could land, and any other ideas I want to podcast are still very developmental.

     So, between pages of writing, (I have about 2-3 chapters left to write, and I will have those done by New Years Day. Work, and real life, I will still be in Wow.  I want to get my toon on Aerie Peak leveled so I can pick on the Convert to Raid community a little more.  I still have a monk/druid to level.  And hey, there is LFR and possibly even Battle ground in my future. Who knows?

      What are you doing in WoW, and with family for your holidays?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.
   

.... And the world falls down! Raiding update 10/24/2013

So, It's time to talk about it.

     And no, not that Affleck is the next Batman, I have no issues with this as Nolan is attached to DC's Superman/Batman movie, and he has pleasantly surprised me with his casting so far.  But that is a discussion for another time.

     Once again, the raid team is in trouble.  I keep working on rebuilding, just to see things fall again.  With the people that just left, as I mentioned last week, we are now stuck in Flexville, and even then we can't fill our roster in order to run both nights.

     Tuesday, with the lack of a couple of people who have walked another direction, we found it tough.  We made 3/4 on the first wing of flex.  Part of me believes this is a good thing and that eventually it means that we will build a stronger team.  It also means that we have lost one of the crutches the team has been leaning on.  It is now time to not only groom dps to come into our raid team, but to push them into doing higher numbers then they have needed to do previously.  Heals, for now, are covered.  Thought with Shaqia not being able to play his next semester of school, Shimmer may be geared for healing.  Not because I "need" too, but if we are healing, I would rather not stack healing classes.

      Wednesday raiding didn't happen at all.  We had two tanks, three heals, and one dps.  That's right we are falling short on DPS.  I didn't want to pull in 4 out of 5 deeps once again as a pug, so instead we went off and did our own individual things for the night.  I ran a few BG's With Gwyndolynn and then logged.

      So where do we go from here is the question?  I plan on building things back up.  At this point my goal is to have a team in place, with a plan for kick off by next expansion.  As a matter of face, when the next expansion launches, I want a plan in place for how quickly we plan on being in the new raids and content.  I want to be back into the game in a way where I am giving the virtual smack down to bosses.  I want a team worthy of those who have stuck with us the whole time.

     I am still fighting.  I have had some rough times this summer, and I kept things going.  The last couple months have shown that things are getting better though, and i'm hoping at the beginning of next year I can go back to working only one job, which means I won't be stretched as thin as I have been between work, and kids. 

     The call out this week goes to those on the raid team.  See if you can find one dps in the guild who is interested in raiding.  Invite them on one of our flex raids.  Help them see if their gear is gemmed, chanted, and reforged correctly.  Help build this team back up.   We can do it.  

I propose "Fireys" for the next playable race BTW.

     And we will lay low the words of those who try and stop us.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Your allowed to Rant. Yes you are. (Raid Update 08/22/2013)

      I was debating sugar coating this post, going through, talking about how everything is all right and being the calm in the midst of the storm.  F*** that.

      We went from a point where we one shot every boss up to Tortos last week, to this week where events made it so we didn't even get past Horridon.  If you are on the raid team you are allowed to be rant, be frustrated and be grumpy as I am this morning.  What happened you may ask?

      We had too much damn change in the last week.

      First of all, we lost Ithuriol to Bridgeburners.  We wish him well over there and hope he enjoys his time.  We may see him in guest starring roles occasionally as he has some characters still in the guild, but that leaves a hole in our raiding roster that needs to be filled.  Preferably by a healer as I don't want to swap who I am gearing again, but I probably will. /sigh.

       Secondly one of our tanks had real life commitments this week, and those always trump Wow.  So the first night I was tanking on Lag again, in a raid I had previously not really tanked in.  The second night I was on my hunter, then my priest when we tried to swap things up a little.

       We also had to pull in a couple people to fill holes, (1 the first night (I still count moldie as a standby for the raid team)) and 3 the next night.  (Two being Ithuriol and Khallon's alts respectively, and we thank them for helping.)  

      I want to point out that the issues we are having are nobodies fault.  There should be no pointing finger's or irritation.  Sometimes you lose people from a raid team, that happens.  Sometimes you have a few extra spots for a night or two, that happens as well.  This week they all just happened to hit us at once, and hopefully next week will be better.  Or I will have a stroke.  I am voting for better.

      I do appreciate everyone working hard in a bad situation, but the situation as it stands may kill any chance of great progress in Throne of Thunder at this point.  Patch 5.4 drops in a few weeks on Sept. 10th, and I am not sure we can get our crap together before then.  Of course I could also be over blowing the situation and I may swap back to Dizzty and find out the raid is fine.  Right now though, I am just so frustrated, and not just for myself, for everyone else on this damn raid team that have worked so hard to get to the point of progressing again.  I owe you guys a better experience then this.

     So, this weekend, I will find a fill in.  I will look mainly at Pally or Priest heals, but will also look at DPSers.  Agility leather, Agility Mail, Strength Plate are all areas that don't have a lot of MAIN spec distribution right now, depending on how things shake up.  At this point, I will push whatever toon I am working on through the legendary quest to get them caught up, and once they are legendary, I plan on getting my other two pushed to that point.

    That's right, I plan on doing the damn legendary quest three times.  Though to be fair both Lazyeye, and Lag are well along it.

     As far as inspirational happy thoughts go, on Sept 10, we get siege of Ogrimmar.  That is a new raid.  New content, and a fresh start for us to start progressing again.  At that point, we will go one night ToT, one night Ogrimmar until ToT is done, and I plan on saving the progression since the new raid finder gear will have a higher gear score then the content we are working on.  We will push forth, and prevail.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

The Turtle Soup Edition!!! (8/15/2013)

    Before raid yesterday, someone posted as the daily guild message that we would "Dine on turtle soup tonight!" (I suspect Ithuriol) How right they were, but I digress.

    First of all Tuesday's raid was fantastic.  We one shot the first three bosses.  Jin'rokh, Horridon, and The Council of Elder's all went down in less then an hour.  This is important to me, because in order to kill off Throne of Thunder at this point, we need to be killing an average of 6 bosses a night, so this means we are in the time frame we would need to be looking at.

     Anyway, we had a little over an hour to work on Tortos by the time we got to him, and not only did we prove we hadn't regressed on progression, we steadily worked things closer to killing him.  It was apparent by the end of raid, he didn't have long to live.

     Wednesday we went in again.  While we did not one shot Tortos, we did have him dead in under an hour!  Hazzah! Another boss down.  That means we are officially 4/12. We then booked it through the small amount of trash between Tortos and Meagara (Yes, as a matter of fact Blizzard I am being sarcastic here) and got to work on the next boss for about an hour as well.  Once again, we made good progress and I could see next week moving us up to 5 or 6 out of 12.  Not kidding.   I think we really could do it.

     Gratz as always goes to the raid team, Magilla, Creap, Gwyndolynn, Shaqia, Ithuriol, Lotauna, Easybake, Scorpiak, Guiness, and little old me, Lazyeye.  If we had managed this kind of attendance over the last few months, as we have seen in the last few weeks, I have no doubt that we would have finished Throne of Thunder already.  This does kinda segway into my next point.

     5.4 is imminent.  They released the trailer today, (man I am excited to kick some Garrosh Hellscream in the face) and it is awesome.  I am not a fan of the thought of someone in that trailer not being around for the raid. (Spoilers, if you want to know, watch the trailer)  That is the brakes though.

     When 5.4 drops, I plan on pulling us into Siege of Ogrimmar.  We may do one night siege, one night saved progression on Throne of Thunder, I'm not sure yet.  (Throne will be getting a 20% nerf at this time)  But I want to meet the new content head on, and I plan on keeping hitting it, until it starts to break.  I want to cook me some orc!

     This is the plan.  Me, and my shiny new bow (did I mention I got a bow last night?) will lead the way into Ogrimmar, and leave dead members of "the new horde" behind.  Sadly, this means the alliance is going to be wussy, step out of Ogrimmar and leave it to the rest of the Horde after Garrosh is gone, but I digress.  It will be glorious while it lasts.  (So if we just wall Garrosh up, don't kill him, can we stay in Ogrimmar killing Hordies? Just curious)

This weekend, I will give an opinion update.  If you guys want me to discuss anything in particular, let me know.

Lazyeye

Why you should be a Huntering

     I was probably twelve or thirteen when I was excited because my older sister has some friends over and they were going to play Dungeons and Dragons.  I had never had the opportunity to play before and I wasn't even sure what the game was completely.  They gave me a quick run down of the different classes, and races to choose from, and of course, once I found out that the ranger not only fought from a distance but could train and have an animal fight alongside him, I had found my calling.

       Soon I found myself fighting alongside my new found companions and  I grew very excited as we came upon a group of flying creatures called stirges.  I of course tamed one since they where the first animals we had come across and I wanted a pet dang it!  Finally, I had my own animal companion.  For those who haven't played Dungeons and Dragons, let me point out a stirge is a giant mosquito.  That's right, my ranger had a pet mosquito.  I was mocked, laughed at, and had eyes rolled at me, but I loved my blood sucking buddy.  I think when I tell this story, my present Hunter's pet firefly Serenity laughs at me.  A lot.

     I tell this story, because the hunters we play in World of Warcraft are very much evolved from the ranger class in Dungeons and Dragons.  Of course that is not the only place you find your hunters.  If you look through different stories you have Robin Hood, Aragorn/Strider, and Davey Crockett whom could all be considered different versions of Hunters.  Your classic Hunter would have been one of the folks who were more comfortable outside the cities and villages, communing with the animals and avoiding most society.  They were your trackers, your guides.  They could at times provide food for the community or furs to make clothing and keep folks warm.  Most are not obsessed with worldly riches wanting nothing more then to challenge the wild world around them.  These are the Hunters that have always been my obsession.

     Now, I will admit my first main character in World of Warcraft was not a Hunter, I originally played a mage named Pyreknight until the end of Vanilla Wow, and my hunter Lazyeye was born about half way through the Burning Crusade.  It was at the end of the Burning Crusade, when I first started raiding, I took my hunter into Karazhan and never looked back.  From that moment on, I was interested in raiding and moving through end game content and would work on making that one of my biggest in game focuses.

     My hunter took a hit half way through Wrath of the Lich King however.  We ended up needing a tank after our main tank on the raid team called it quits.  I quickly power leveled a Death Knight, and started tanking to take up the slack.  Then I power leveled a Paladin (Lag) who would be my main character from the end of Wrath up until recently in Pandaria.  Recent events however have made me pick my neglected hunter back up.  I only call him neglected because he wasn't my main raider.  Lazyeye still managed to see raids all the way through Wrath until now, he just wasn't the character I was spending most of my time on.  I am now excited to have him re-introduced as my main as far as raiding goes.  I feel I have taken too much time off of DPS (Damage per second) classes and it is nice to get reacquainted. 

      I love the feeling of playing a character who has ties with beasts who obey him.  I love sitting back and watching battles from a ranged perspective, being able to increase my field of vision and call out fights better then I could while tanking in a bosses crotch.  I love shooting bosses in the face, putting up competitive DPS numbers and contributing in a new way to my raid team.  So here is my list of things you should look at if you are thinking of rolling a hunter.

     Do you want to contribute to your raid? Hunters have it all.  If we select the right pets we can fill in for any buffs our raid might be missing.  No attack speed boost? No problem, magic serpent here we come.  No battle rezzer? Get a Quillen pet.  No Blood lust/Heroism?  That's cool, bring a Core Hound to raid.  While some of these are Spec specific, you can fill in for whatever your raid is missing if you plan ahead.

     Do you like soloing content? With a hunter/pet duo you will find that you can fight your way through some fights that other classes may have a hard time with.  When it comes to leveling you have great survival skills and you are less likely to find yourself getting killed or over run by mobs.

     Do you like challenges and switching things up?  There is always another pet to find, or new pets being introduced into game.  Some of these pets have unique challenges that make them not only rare, but hard to tame.  Plus, you can switch out your pet to whichever one you would like to run with you at the moment.  You can keep five pets on you, and up to fifty pets in your bank.  That is a lot of options to switch through if you want to take the time 

     Do you like being competitive DPS?  While hunters are not always the top class for blowing up charts in raids and other game play, they are very rarely near the bottom. We have enjoyed at the worst being steady, consistent DPS,  and at best dominating charts while other classes fight to keep up with us.  Oh, and lets not forget that unlike yonder days of mana bars, we can now DPS on the run as most of our shots can be fired while moving.

     Now, there are reasons you might not want to roll a hunter.

     Hunters are not tanks.  We have mad kiting skills.  We have pets that can take a pounding and hold aggro for a bit.  We do not have the skill set to mitigate damage for an insanely long amount of time and keep the raid alive through a boss fight.  While there are a couple people who may be able to pull something like this off on a hunter, most of us will just get our raids killed if we try.

     Hunters are not healers.  We have bandages, we can mend our pets, and sometimes our Spirit Beasts can cast a heal that helps out our raid.  We can not keep you alive, we would much rather be shooting something big and ugly in the face.

     Hunters are not Melee.  O.k., we no longer have a minimum range and can fight up in a bosses crotch without much penalty.  Trust me on this, you are much happier fighting further away from the boss where you can see what is going on and can feign death and watch your raid die stay far enough away from bosses to avoid some damage or avoid repair bills during a wipe.  

      So, if being a hunter appeals to you, go roll a character and see how you like it.  Others of the hunter class will welcome you with open arms.  If not, that's alright too.

     Someone needs to play the inferior classes.

Lazyeye.