World of Warcraft Raid Leader of a very casual raid team talks and vents about life in World of Warcraft, and maybe a little bit of life outside of WoW.
Showing posts with label Mission of Mercy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission of Mercy. Show all posts
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?
I love my raiders, my raid team, and those who work hard to push us through. I am starting here because I feel it is where I need to start. Everyone who came to raid this week worked hard, and we got to Council of Elders... where we met an untimely death.
We had 4 mages this week, and a Shadow Priest, meaning our whole entire Dps group was cloth. From a DPS standpoint, I have no issue with this. From a permanent raid team point of view I would like to shift that up. Simply put, it is not a good thing to have 5 members of the raid rolling on the same gear. It makes it take longer to gear up, and is frustrating for that poor soul who happens to be the 5th clothie to finally get their pants when they won't drop every week. So, this is a thing that I want to find a different cure for.
At this point, their are only 7 set spots on the raid team. The people guaranteed a spot when they show up are Me, Gwyndolynn, Shaqia, Magilla, Skorpiak, Lotauna, and Easybake. That leaves 3 spots for me to fill, and I can't fill them all with clothies. (Ok, I may rant a little on this. I love people for showing, but we can't run an all cloth raid.)
That, and I would love to know who I am going to be raiding on. Whether it be DPS, Tank, or heals, I would love to know which toon to work out first. But until things are settled, I am stuck swapping every week. Which is irritating.
Let's be honest here. If I have to run with 5 clothies for DPS, I will do it. However, I would prefer people who want in to get an alt etc.. ready to go. I am not going to ask Lotauna or Easybake to swap at this point. It wouldn't be fair to them when they have been working on those characters all Xpack long. I may look at starting us on flex next Xpack so I can work these people in then paring the team down as needed. I am unsure yet. Depends on how the cards fall.
I still would like a Tank or Heals to be recruited. I am debating for the first time posting on the CTR (Convert to Raid) forums, or the Realm forums. I have never done this before and I am afraid of the lash back I might get from those who would see the fact that we are extremely casual as a raid team as a bad thing. I will probably do the CTR forums first, because I know that community is a lot more laid back then the general blizzard forums, and they tend to monitor them pretty well. That being said when virtual realms are rolled out, we might get an influx of people and benefit from there as well. We will see what happens. As much as I want to do normal 10 mans, I would prefer to do the Flex raids and include everybody if that is my option.
Anyway, I do need to give a shout out for Carixi, raiding with us for the first time in forever. Also to all the other people who helped out this week whom are not part of our normal raid team, Belevina, Raiinspider, and Amelmi who stepped in Tuesday. As it goes, on to next week to see what is in store.
Oh, and keep and eye out for RBGs, we are going to work them out with Mission of Mercy eventually, mwha ha ha.
We are now waiting on 5.4 to drop. This means that the last major patch (to our knowledge) of the expansion will be out possibly as early as September, and probably by October or November at the latest with the speed the patches have been coming from Blizzard.
Of course, this expansion has been, and will continue to be fun for a good while yet, I'm not calling in the doom bells on this. From watching the trouble with Mission of Mercy, to the epic return of my friends in Bridgeburners, to all my long winded speeches about raiding in Fear Itself, you know, my guild, Mists has some great moments and memories for me. However, we must start looking toward the next expansion, because we know that Blizzard is.
Chances are that Blizzard will be announcing the next expansion at Blizzcon in November. From there, if things are going the speed they are we can expect the next expansion to drop sometime in early 2014. I would guess that if Blizzard keeps at the pace they are going that the aim would be before summer hits. Heck, I will even make a guess, the next expansion will drop on May 13th. Now it's in writing and we can all see how close I am.
Of course traditionally it's been a nine months to a year after the last big patch before the next expansion has dropped. I don't think Blizzard will stick to that this time. I think they are too dependent on dropping another expansion quickly, and making it hit all the right notes to bring some of the players they have lost back. They have maintained a breakneck pace of releasing content for Mists, so I am assuming they plan on keeping that momentum going.
There are things I hope to see in the next expansion....
New Class. My hope for this would be the Demon Hunter. It has long been in Wow's lore and would be awesome if implemented correctly. They could even go pure dps on this one, with a melee spec, a ranged spec, and maybe some sort of caster spec. I wouldn't mind them stealing a couple of things from Diablo's Demon hunter for this as well. Plus, they could introduce one handed guns/crossbows and warglaves into the game with this... Whatever they choose the next class will probably be a Mail armor wearer. Other armor types have three classes. Plate (Warrior, Pally, DK.) Cloth (Priest, Mage, Warlock.) Leather (Monk, Rogue, Druid.) Mail (Hunter and Shaman.)
New Character slot? This one I don't think will happen. (I won't say it will never happen) With Virtual Realms opening up if you want more then 11 characters on your realm, you can just choose of the the realms connected to yours and have the same access you would if your rolled on your home realm. The caveat to this being, that if you are on a high population realm, or one that isn't pulled into virtual realms as firmly it might limit your options a bit.
New Race. I am not sure we need a new race, but I am not sure they can pass on putting some more coolness into the game. My guess on this varies, but if we go on another space adventure, like in Outlands, plan on the new race being demon/alien like. If we go to the Emerald Dream or somewhere closer to home then it will be a local thing we have never seen, or they may roll something we have fought for years rolling into our ranks. I.E. If it's an underwater expansion (shudder, I love Vash'jir, but didn't make a point of going back after I left it) there might be a rogue group of Naga that join our factions. As it is, the races I'd like to see (but most probably won't) turn playable would be, Etherial, Naga, High Elf (for the alliance),, and Saurock/Jinyu. NO MURLOCS!!!! I am guessing if they do another race they will do them like the Panderan and they will be multi-factional. Not only was that done well, but it cuts down on development time to only have to throw in one race.
New Places. This expansion we got Panderia. Next expansion who knows? There has been plenty of signs that we may be facing the burning legion again. My guess is that we will avoid that direction though until Wow has about pushed it's life cycle to the end. Eventually we will go after Sargeras, but I feel that is the big bad Blizzard will save until the end. We may also end up facing off again Queen Azshara which would mean some under water work. Of course with us still discovering things from the Cataclysm, we could go to Kul Tiras, see Jaina's family and find several new islands/areas that have popped up in the sea. Tie in Zandalar, and maybe we can have a tropical expansion where we hop island to island. I am just throwing this in, because everyone else says Space Adventure/Emerald dream.
Level Cap. Blizzard will add more levels. Whether it's 5 or 10 remains to be seen, but I would put my money on 5. I think there will be an item squish this time around and we will see all stats/ilevels bosses, npc's etc.. in the game get squished with us so we aren't tracking 1.5 mil dps by the end of next expansion. With a squish they may go for 10 levels, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Dance Studio. MWha ha ha, lol, hee hee hee, ho, ho, ho, Mwha ha ha ha ha. Needless to say at this point even if put in and done well, they would get nothing but mockery for it.
New Talents system. I hope not.
Swimming mounts. If we get our undersea expansion, I imagine we will have an array of Undersea mounts to collect. Then again, Blizzard has said that if they could, they would go back and avoid putting flying mounts into the game.
Always nice to remember where we come from.
And more.... What do you think the new expansion will have/be about. What have I missed? As a matter of fact comment on anything you think you can add to this and make it a discussion. What do you think?
I promise that I won't rant angrily like the post before. I am pretty calm and relaxed, and fully caffeinated, as it should be.
My priest has finally felt the victory of having the gear to break into Throne of Thunder LFRs. However, being valor capped for the week already, I almost feel punished sneaking into those for gear. Go figure. Of course, since my brain can't sit still, my Death Knight Illyrea has been telling me she needs to be leveled too... jobs are never done.
Today, as I put up the raids for the week, I think about whether or not people are going to show up. Not only that, I think about people who have played this game with me, who aren't here anymore. People who have not only raided with me in the past, but have disappeared off the face of Azeroth altogether.
Now, everyone who has played this game for any length of time has had this happen. I know there are people I should think about here, but I don't remember for whatever reason. This game at it's height during Wrath had about 12 million subscribers, and it is now down to 8 million. That is roughly 1/3 the population of this game that isn't playing now.
And for those who say that means the game is dying... well we still have several times more players then any other MMO out there. I believe the next runner up was SWOTOR, and they peeked below 2 million, and now have less then 1 million. That is not the discussion I am giving here though.
Sometimes when I do that first pull, I think of tanks who had stood in my place, dpsers who have had my back, etc... I have been members of other guilds a long time ago. I was in Midnight (Now gone), Guardians of Light (Not 100% on the name on that one) and a couple others I don't remember. However, I know some of my real ID friends are from those guilds back in the day. I now pretty much stick to my home guild Fear Itself, or on horde side, Mission of Mercy.
Oh, and for the sake of it, I have and Illyrea in AIE on Earthen Ring, and Trisham in the Convert to raid guild on Aerie Peak. These characters exist so I can step into chat etc... with these communities that have been built around podcasts I enjoy. I don't know if I will ever max level them. But every now and then I like to hear the chatter from there two groups, which are massive guilds that only exists through add ons like Greenwall etc...
So, simply put... before that next pull. Before you run that next LFR, life you glass of Mt. Dew, (or the beverage of your choice, I also recommend Apple Beer) and think about those whom you have played with that are no longer in game.
And give a wicked grin for those who come back....
So, wanting to see the horde side of the servers, one day I rolled a BE rogue, Rhapsidy.
Now, I know what your thinking, we must all be horde or alliance, one side or the other. How dare I cross to the other side for something as silly as getting the other side of the game story and lore wise. Well, I love my Alliance, but I also enjoy the Horde and their side of the story. If I had started playing as Horde, I would be equally as happy being weighted more onto that side.
Well, while leveling on the horde side, like one does, I tried out a few guild. I am not naming names, but it because quickly apparent to me, that when a guild spends their time sitting in Ogrimmar talking about smoking pot and doing nothing else, they weren't for me. Other guilds would have made hard core members of the Navy blush with their language and innuendo in guild chat. To be honest, I don't mind some swearing etc.. but I don't enjoy the feeling that one of the guilds focuses is seeing who can swear the most and be the most offensive. Fear Itself my home guild is a very family friendly guild, we try to keep out chat G or PG rated and I normally enjoy it that way. I like a guild that is more a family then just a group of people. Then I ran into Mission of Mercy.
Mission of Mercy is a wonderful guild. A lot of the players have been playing together for years, they treat each other with respect, have a great friendly attitude and are constantly doing stuff together. In ventrillo, when the do runs and events together the guild leader is constantly playing good 'ole classic rock for the people attending.
So part of me is heart broken to hear that the guild leader Blessedalan is leaving the game. I know this is very hard for on a guild, and i'm hoping that someone steps up to take the reigns and keep the guild together. These are great people and any time a good guild ends up falling apart or disbanding its a sad thing. I don't spend a lot of time over on the horde side, but when I do they have made me feel at home and comfortable. I hope for the best for the people over there, and even though I am not over there much, I am not jumping ship anytime soon. I will wait until the dust settles and see what happens before making a decision. There is a chance, like with everyone who quits, that Blessedalan may be back someday. Even if guild leading isn't in his cards at that time, I hope that he has a home to log into with his friends, when and if he comes back.
So, if you find yourself treading around the horde side on Zangarmarsh, and you see Blessedalan hanging around before he's gone, give him a hug, or a salute. Honor him for the great guild he has built up, and hope that things go well after he leaves. I personally hope, he isn't gone for too long.
