My Open Letter To Deathknight Joe

Here we go again.

     I won't lie, Saturday we had a rough go at it.  Ended up pulling in a few folks to get running, and it turned into an uncomfortable mess.  Yes we got the first two bosses down.  It was rough but we did it.  However, the folks we pulled in criticized our DPS and brought a negative vibe to the raid.  Nto fun but we eeked through.
 
     Sunday didn't happen, not enough folks and I didn't have the heart to pull folks in again after the previous night.  So a couple folks hung out on ventrillo and we did some dailies and chatted.  Not a bad way to spend an evening, but it wasn't raiding.

     No, I'm going to address the Deathknight Joes out there.  Not there is nothing wrong with Deathknights... I enjoy playing mine.  But this is my imaginary douchebag character.  Deathknight Joe...

    So Joe, if I may call you that.  There is something called common courtesy.  If you are queued up in the looking for raid tool I know that there is no promise that any group you land in is going to be great, or good.  I know that you sit there at your keyboard hoping that when you get an invite it's not going to be to a bunch of hosers that  call you names and treat you like crap.  Or maybe you are a masochist and you do want that, but I digress....

    Being nice people, if we extend that invite to you DK Joe, we are then you hosts.  By the laws of hospitality you are our guests.  It puts in place a mutual respect that means, if there is something you don't like about us, rather then be an asshat, just politely bow out.  Tell us your cat is on fire, or there is a nail polish sale at your local Walgreens.  I won't be offended.

     Don't sit there and crap on our DPS because some of them are low.  I am aware of the situation and we are working to fix it.  I can vouch for one in particular who has been working on rotation, looking stuff up on Icy-veins, and pushing for gear in Tanaan.  She has also tapped a couple of folks to work with her on her class.  I guarantee you next time her dps will be higher.  Do I think it's going to break the charts? Not without practice and some more work.  But she's getting there.

    The thing is Joe, you don't know our situation.  You don't know we just changed to weekends and that means we are building a couple of folks up.  If it's a situation that you don't like, I understand that.  I am fine with you leaving.  I am not fine with you building your ego by criticizing my raid team.  Because I guarantee you Joe, that when you started raiding and playing, you where not better.  Hell, with that ego you where probably worse.

      Here we are though.  We will be working on building our raid team back to proper.  With a little work maybe it can be stronger then it's been in the past.  We don't know yet, but we are working on it.

     So do me a favor Joe, give the next group your in a bit of consideration.  As for me, I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and being polite and happy to everyone I raid with.  I don't care if they show up in level one grays.  I will politely ask them to get their real gear if I notice, but hey, I will be polite about it.

Lag, Lazyeye

Will Garrisons be in the next Expansion?

I'm not that sure.

      Saturday was interesting.  We were short a couple people so we went and stomped down Heroic Mogu’shan Vaults and Heart of Fear to get our guild achievement for the mount.  It was nice laid back fun and if we are short again I am hoping to stomp throne of Thunder in the same way next.  But hopefully next week we won’t be going to back to do old content.

       Sunday was awesome.  Pure, 100% awesome.  Lag put his tank pants back on due to the sudden departure of our off tank.  Despite having to kick the rust off my tank skills we ran pretty smooth.  Once we were up and running we downed Gruul, Hanz and Franz, and Beastlord with only one wipe between the fights.  I found the groove I needed and we moved through well.

      Now, while I would love to rant on having folks leave during a transition time.  For example, like when we are swapping to weekends and things might be rough getting schedules in place. I really want to discuss garrisons and how I think this system will work in the next expansion.  (See, I’m being good and moving on.)

      Garrisons have been the big feature of this expansion.  There is no way advancing in Draenor without building/maintaining one and without getting to level 3 you won’t be able to experience then next big bout of content.  They have allowed us to make stuff from any profession that we might need.  They have made it so gathering (other than leatherworking) can largely be done without going anywhere.  The garrison had felt like your specific place on Draenor, and it has pretty much destroyed the desire for most folks to go out into the world.

      I don’t believe we will see garrisons like this again.  I think the ideas taken to the next expansion might include building your own little quest hub, but won’t be as comprehensive.  Allowing folks to make stuff from any profession, gather, play the Auction House, and do pretty much everything in one space has been detrimental.  There is a reason a lot of people are referring to this game as “World of Garrisons” now.

     There is no need to go to a main city unless you are actually PVPing in Ashran.  Other then maybe a weekly visit to get your tokens for raiding.  Every time I go I’m lucky to see more than a handful of other players who are trying to get in and out as quickly as possible.  Gone are the days of players hanging around showing off mounts, or just staying together in a central location.  For all the rage that happened when Blizzard announced it would be moving the Capital Cities for the factions before expansion launch it seems it didn’t matter what they did.  We have abandoned the idea of a faction hub where everyone hangs out.

      I normally have an alt with every profession leveled.  Garrisons have destroyed my need for that.  Not only am I not leveling several alts like I have in previous expansions, I haven’t felt the need too.  I have no use for professions I can access if I can just make items in garrison.  On top of that, I just don’t have it in me to level a bunch of alts if that means I have to keep up with garrisons on them as well.  With three level 100 characters it feels like a big time sink right now.  There is no way I could keep up on garrisons on ten or twelve characters.  It just feels impossible to do more with a limited amount of time.

     So, my guess is that for the next expansion we will see things pulled back to somewhere between the garrisons we have now, and the farm we had in Mists of Pandaria.  I think we will still have something that we can work with and build up, without it taking all desire to do other things in the game away.  The other thing I could see happening is they could just do away with garrison/player housing completely as Blizzard does have a tendency to overcorrect when something doesn’t work.  This would be a shame as I do like the feeling my character has a little bit of something invested in the current world.

     So what we need is an area where we can enhance our professions, without replacing them.  Supplement our resources without replacing the need to grind.  Build and have something that feels permanent without being tied down to the point where you feel like not visiting several times a day puts you behind.  I am not sure how they can pull this off, but I like the idea of them doing some sort of guild housing, or maybe a keep that is phased in a way that you see other players, but certain buildings look different or change when you enter them.

    How do you think they can change garrisons for the next expansion, if they include them at all?

Lag/Lazyeye

     

       

   

Check out the Runesaber mount.

I've been very bad about posting this last month.  I have gone every other week for two weeks and I'm not sure I might keep up weekly... more on that in a moment.

      Last couple weeks of raiding has been interesting.  We have managed to get into Blackrock Depths and keep hitting along.  We are still only two bosses down though.  Our focus right now is Beastmaster Dumluck (Yes, I know that's not his real name) and we are getting close.  I'm hoping we will be building some momentum soon.. But we will see what happens.

      First, let's discuss Blizzards new mount shall we.  Twenty five dollars will net you this brand new shiny tiger.  I'm cool with that.  I think it's a spiffy looking mount.  I can see my Night Elves salavating at the idea of riding the purple beauty into battle.  I do have one issue with this.

       The mount had an emphasis on the fact it can fly.  Now, thats not a bad thing per se in a normal expansion situation, but since in Draenor we can't fly yet this seems something that wasn't thought through very well.  As a matter of fact to those who have been fighting for flying it's almost like  a middle finger up in the air.  I don't count myself amongst those individuals as I think it's time to flying, but I'm not going to cry or freak out if it doesn't happen.  I understand Blizzard's reasons for the no flying, and I respect it.

     I think this was just a case of people designing something, thinking it was really cool and not realizing the implications of releasing it right now.  No body is perfect and Blizzard has shown that while they come close at times, they aren't either.  Like I said, I love the look of this mount.  I'm not likely to plunk down twenty five bucks on it just because I normally don't buy mounts or pets, but it does appeal to me.  I think the only thing wrong here is the timing.

     Now if Blizzard has been smart they would have held onto this mount until they announced the release of flying in Draenor.  Whether that is in 6.2, 6.3, or 7.0 it would have been cool if they had done a campaign around the idea of, "Now that you can search Draenor's skies, do it on this shiny new mount!"  I think in that case it's a lost opportunity on their part.

     I really don't want to beat this into the ground though,  Five minutes on twitter and you can hear the screams of people critizing the introduction of this mount on Twitter, Facebook, or whatever social media site you like to use.

     The other point of news this week is we are discussing moving our raid times to Saturday/Sunday instead of running Tuesday/Wednesday.  The reason behind this is that this raid leader will be going back to school soon.  Yes, he will be hauling his old butt back into a learning enviroment pretty much killing his free time during the week.  Guild members can go to our site at Fear Itself and opine or vote on the raid night.  There has also been a point of discussion brought up here that is worth mentioning.

     When running current content people should be playing on their best geared/performing toon.  I agree with this, but have been lenient on it at times.  I will start enforcing this with a couple of exceptions.  You can bring a different toon based on these two standards.

1. Your toon does comparable dps/heals as the one your swapping with.  I have no issue with folks swapping to a different class, but do your work to get to the point where they can come in.  The reason I haven't been running on Lazyeye this expansion is that he just hasn't got the deeps Lag does right now.  Otherwise I would be swapping to ranged right now as we have had times where we are too melee heavy.

2.  You are assuming a new role.  If we need a healer and you swap, this is an obvious exception to me.  Same goes for tanking.  If we need a tank and you have one ready to go, as long as it's geared enough for the content I would rather have you swap than not have us run at all.

    These are the only two reasons one should swap.  If you do not meet either of these plan on being on your strongest toon.  Once we have things on farm we can then discuss switching and running alts.  This is something that like I said, I have been lax on, but not anymore.

    As a matter of fact I'm starting to build my shaman up so we have another healing option. However, I guarantee you won't see her in raid until she is ready to kick as much butt as Lag does.

Lag/Lazyeye.

I'm Trying Not To Be Angry.

But, really inside right now I kind of am.

       Tuesday we didn't raid.  Simply just didn't happen.  Only five folks showed up including me and we opted to just chat in vent and do our own thing.  I was not happy.

        Wednesday we went into Blackrock Foundry.  We were still short three folks, and two of them we found from friends on another realm.  One we used the raid finder tool to fill.  With the changes etc... and a new tank we didn't even down Gruul.  Raid was called short because one of the people had to log.  Once again, frustrating.

        When we started this expansion, we had about fifteen folks raiding with us.  Over the last three months that number has dwindled.  Now I'm looking at a drought for the first time since the beginning of Siege and I'm finding it maddening.  We are back to the people getting frustrated because we aren't progressing quickly, so they jump instead of working on getting one team to great.  Some of them leaving without even saying a word which is double maddening.  I can take it if someone wants to leave.  If they don't even have the courtesy to say goodbye?  It makes me a little mad.

       So, I have started working on recruiting again.  I have found myself despite me hate of the spamming add ons, using one since cross realm zones has pretty much defeated my normal method of flying through the world and messaging chat.  Hopefully I can bring in some new blood, and get some more bodies into the guild to liven things up a bit more.  I'll be honest though, we may be struggling for a while.  I know personally I am.

       This raid tier has put a big focus on personal responsibility.  That means one person standing in the fire can doom us all now.  This means the dynamic I have fought of half the raid doing their homework, and the other half just showing up and hoping the explanations are enough may not cut it anymore.  Folks may actually have to put some effort into preparation. 

       But this is all stuff I've said and that we've been through before.  As painful as it is if I continue to raid lead it's stuff we will go through again in the future.  Life and the grass is greener complex will always take folks from us, and we just need to learn to adapt.  The downside

       I was prepared to just keep working Blackrock at this point.  Now we may have to go back and do some Highmaul to gear folks as we bring new raiders in and up to speed.  So, we may be taking a step backwards in progression.

      So, If you are on Zangarmarsh or Hellscream and want a new home to try out, let Fear Itself Alliance side know.  Come in and be part of rebuilding a raid team.  If you do so, please be committed to being in raid weekly, ready to go.  If  you can't make raid on a weekly basis, don't plan on healing or tanking.  DPS spots I can fill.  The more critical spots I need to have folks there, because every time a tank doesn't show it effects everyone a lot more critically.

Lag/Lazyeye.

I am not discussing Gul'dan spoilers.... I'm not!

But I am oh, so happy about them.

     Tuesday we went into Highmaul again with a heavily alted group.  We only managed to get three bosses down, but I am holding the save and we will keep going in until the whole raid is done, then it will be Blackrock, all raid every raid.

     Wednesday we ventured back into Blackrock Foundry.  Gruul went down quickly and we moved on to Hans and Franz, whom we finally took down this week!

    Really though, if you don't mind spoilers (and I'm wondering how long this is considered a spoiler) You should watch the cinimatic for the end of Blackforge.  It is amazing and has sprung up a lot of good questions.  And the fact that as always Khadgar is right.  That dude is always right.  Assuming it's really Khadgar. (If you have read any of Matt Rossi or Anne Stickney's Tinfoil hat Lore columns, you should.  They discuss this a little bit at blizzardwatch.com)

      The other thing that just hit me was that Blizzcon was announced and somewhere between juggling work, school activities and Girl Scout cookies I missed when they released this information.  It will be November 6th and 7th this year.  Assuming that they are going to try and stick to the timeline Blizzard is aiming for, if they announce the next expansion at Blizzcon, they would be only giving us a few months heads up before it drops.  That is unless they decide to do a third raid tier in Warlords.  That would put us at about six month notice.  Unless they go thirteen months again between expansions.   Then most of us will be crying.

     The raid team continues to evolve.  We have some new blood coming in which makes me ponder our direction.  I want to finish Highmaul and move on to Blackrock full time, but with the new folks coming in I debate that course.  I want a chance to get folks some gear, though if they are running their LFRs every week, the Gear should be coming.  Not everyone is pulling great dps yet, but I'm seeing improvement weekly on those hitting lower numbers.  I think we are on our way, but I'm not sure how quick we will get there.  I don't want to stagnate and stay in place, but I want to make sure we have every opportunity to make folks ready for Blackrock full time.

Little hair metal for you today.

Scattered in my thoughts to day I am.

See you all in raid this week.

Lag/Lazyeye

     

   

To Get Respect, You Must Give Respect. Why I Disagree With This Social Convention.

What a load of Bull****

      Tuesday we managed to get to 5/7 again in Highmaul in one night.  Having started almost a half hour late because of Patch day etc.. I'm happy with that.  We were pulling in a new raider whom we need to kick some dust off of and people where making slight adjustments.  I did almost make this post... Why did every class get buffed but mine? But that would have been whining.

      Wednesday we ventured back into Blackforge.  Someone accidently put the raid on heroic so we had to run out and restart things after a couple of pulls... We eventually made our way to Gruul, and spent all of raid fighting him.  We finally managed to down him right before raid ended.

       As to the title of this post, I was in a situation the other day where someone used this phrase.  They told me that before they gave anyone respect, they expected to recieve respect.  I have been mulling this over in my mind since he said it as it bothered me.  It's not that I haven't heard the phrase before.  As a matter of fact I have heard the phrase probably countless times in my lifetime.  It's one of those things I think people say without pondering the true implication of the phrase.

     Let's examine this.  If we have two people who both live by this ideal, what happens when they have to work together.  (Say, on a raid team for instance?) If both parties walk in not giving any respect or care until they have recieved some it creates a situation where that respect may never be given.  Going through life with this attitute will put you in situations where you will come off as a complete douche.  Imagine going into the first day of a job where you are supposed to be part of a working team, and your attitude impeding things from progressing properly because you don't take the time to consider your co-workers opinions or feelings and just barge your way through the day.  That would be a wonderful way to become expendable to your employer.

      Alright, so maybe what I'm looking to deep into this and am overexhatuarating a little.  I may be looking for issues and trouble where there is none.  I still think it's a stupid attitude.

      Respect is something we should atomatically give other people for the sake of being people.  It shouldn't have to be earned initially and you sure shouldn't withhold it until some imaginary quota of good feels has been met.  If someone for some reason shows that they don't deserve your respect you should withdraw that respect begrudgingly.  It shouldn't be an ah-ha moment, but one that is sad since that person showed that they don't deserve that respect, for whatever reason.

      We are all big piles of baggage at the end of the day.  Some of us just manage it better then others.  Anyway, this is my weekly rant.  Agree, disagree let me know.

Lag/Lazyeye.

Smacked right in the Kisser! (raid update week of 01/04/2014)

So... been a week of raiding.

     Tuesday was a little rough.  We went in and managed to down Kargath, Twin Ogron, and The Butcher again.  We did have a few wipes which made the fights last pretty much the whole night.  It was a little frustrating but it just seemed a rougher night.

     Wednesday was equally frustrating.  We started on Brackenspore and worked on him for a while before giving up and switching to Tectus.  We made some progress on Tectus but eventually raid ended and we called it for the night with no new bosses downed this week.

      I am going to openly say I am frustrated at this moment.  Not with our progress, there are nights where no new bosses or downed or we spend time working on one boss and that is raiding.  It happens a lot for some teams and you get used to the idea that there are some nights you may spend and hour or two just trying to make some progress against a baddie.  This I can live with.

    However, if anyone noticed I grew very quiet in Vent this week.  Why? You may ask, well I will tell you.

     I am tired of grown ass men not being able to put on their big boy pants and bringing down the team.  Not just one person too.  In a moment where we should have been focusing on working together and figuring out how to down a boss there was loud whining, and whispers and lots of other frustrating things that almost made me go off in a rant on vent.  Instead I decided to keep my mouth shut rather then end raid halfway through because the raid leader had an emotional melt down.  Emotional melt downs don't fix anything.  But neither does silence.  This is a problem that may need fixing.  In a raid where we were discussing that the youngest member is about twenty five years old, I should feel like I'm playing with a couple of Kindergartners. Seriously.

     So here is my warning shot.  I will have people muted on vent.  I will ask people to shut their cake hole if they can't contribute anything positive.  Failing that, I will start cutting people.  I don't want to, the majority of people playing with us have been here a couple years and while I have been entertained by antics between a couple of players, it turned pretty damn toxic this week.

     The thing that kills me is that in a world of adults we should be able to take and give some good natured ribbing.  We should be thicker skinned and give each other the benefit of the doubt when someone speaks to us.  Instead I feel I am babysitting a bunch of children.  If I wanted that I would just work the nights we raid.

    Either way, it's been building, and soon something is going to have to give.

Lag.

Rockin' on up. (raid update week of 12/28/2014)

Holidays are over, now we can get to business!

      We only raided Tuesday because of Holidays again.  (As opposed to the week before where we didn't raid, as I got stuck at work) That was fine, even with a late start (my fault this time for not planning things better) We downed three bosses.  The butcher of Kardize.. oh, I mean Kargath.  The actual Butcher (non-Diablo style)  and Twin's from Full House...errr Ogron all died to our group.  We took a couple more wacks at Brackenspore and called it a night.

      I realized this night what the biggest problem I have with Highmaul is.  I think it's a great raid, looks cool.  Has some neat bosses, but the fights themselves just feel like they last forever.  Once you have a fight like Twin Ogron down and no one is dying, it just seems to take forever to kill you enemies.   Out of the three we have killed they seem to be very simple 1 phase fights with repetitive mechanics.  That's fine and all, but I am hoping there is a little variance down the road to make the fights feel a little more Epic.

     As things stand now, it looks like I'm back to tanking.  (Grumble, grumble)  Apparently, things were said, someone was offended and here we are.  I don't think either party is 100% to blame on this one, and I am just rolling my eyes and moving on.  I am debating leveling my DK up though to take over tanking to give me a break from Pally tanking.  I have enjoyed Lag as DPS this time round and it might be nice to try something new.

    Other then that, people continue to ding 100 and get geared.  I'm looking forward to new friendly faces showing up in raid as they get ready and I hope that we are fielding a team of about 16 people by the end of the day.  A couple with a tank/healer off spec would be nice too.  I would love to find another tank outright, but I need someone who is dependable and will be around every raid.  I made some choices at the end of last expansion that might have made this easier, but I put my eggs in one basket and now I find I'm short.  My fault, I will pick up that slack for now.

   Still enjoying the Expansion, but I'm starting to feel it is not alt friendly with the time that I have.  I feel what time I have is stuck working on my main character, but at this point if I want to get my garrison and daily stuff done on him, I don't have time for much after.  This isn't a big problem and it may keep my to a main for the near future for the most part.  I just wish I could get more characters leveled up for variety's sake.  My hunter I am working with my wife when she plays... the rest.  We will see.

That's pretty much it then.  This week should be our first two day raid week in about 3 weeks.  I am looking forward to downing a new boss or two.

Lag/Lazyeye

Blizzcon 2014. It's on.

Really not much Wow to talk about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a good week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      See you all in game.

Lag/Lazyeye.

6.0 is officially dropping October 14th.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lag/Lazyeye

   

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

So, we are getting there

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

I've been sleeping.

A lot.  And working.  Ok, mostly working.

First for the week of 8/18/2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      There are more to be mentioned though, we have

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I will see you in raid.

Dizzty/Lag/Lazyeye.

   

     
   

   

And it's announced to be announced for Warlords of Draenor! (Raid update for the week of 7/27/2014)

Well, it was going to be a boring week....

      This week we started wing one again.  (I am having a love hate relationship with this wing.  I want to be done with it, at the same time some of our most fun raids as a group have happened here recently.)
We had a few new players to gear, so I stayed on Lazyeye and we blew the place up.  Well, until Sha and then we couldn't get a couple of bugs worked out and he blew us up.  But that was ok.

      Wednesday night we one shot Sha in the face and moved all the way through wing 2.  We have a very smooth run, even one shotting Shamans again.  (Me and Magilla I think have worked out a great system up top for the second boss as we use the three tank method)  Nazgrim took a couple of tries, but it was a good night for all.

       I am still stuck in the conundrum of whether or not we should just stick to the first couple of wings and get some newbies more geared, or keep pushing the last two wings every other week.  I know how it feels to run with a group that is not as organized or doing as well as your normal group is.  It can be frustrating and I know we have lost a couple of raiders over this.  I do think back to the fact that the original thought to our raiding was, that we were going to have fun.  We are accomplishing this a lot of the time when we are running the beginning content.

     This week though we have received the amazing announcement of and announcement.  That is right.  On August 14th, 9:30 am pst we get an announcement of the street date for Warlords of Draenor.  The almighty announcement of the announcement has spoken.  They could have just done an announcement of the date and released the cinematic for the new expansion, but it is so much more powerful when you announce your announcement before hand so people can gather and be announced too from your announcement.

      If you can't tell, I am rolling my eyes at this announcement of an announcement which is pretty much whipped up to give us some news.  Not just any news, but news that we are getting news in the form of and announcement of an announcement.  /eye roll.

     I love Blizzard.  They make great games and I like if not love most of them.  When I see something like this that is just an excuse to garnish some publicity it kinda rubs me the wrong way.  I think they would have gotten just as much response doing a normal release of the trailer and the date on the same day and flooding media sites with it.

    On the bright side this re-enforces my belief that the expansion is coming out in September or October.  Normally they have announced the new expansion's release date with in a couple months of the drop date.  I predict we are getting 6.0 at the end of August, and that the game itself will launch the last week of September.  Let's see how close I come.

Well, that is it for this week.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Inclusiveness in Wow and Other Video Games. (and raid update week of 7/21/2014)

I feel this topic has been beat to death.  however, I want to weigh in my two cents.  First, raid update.

      Tuesday we tried starting wing 3.  After some complications etc.. I hopped on my Pally Tank Lag and we managed to down Malkorak.  We managed a couple shots at Treasures but ended up falling short for the night.

      Wednesday we opted to start from where we finished.  Not going to lie, things just wouldn't balance out and we couldn't manage to get the boss down.  It didn't help raid stopped a bit early as the raid leader was sick.  When his sickness finally defeated him, we went home without any new bosses.

      Not going to lie, it was a sadly regressive week, but next week will be better.

      Now on to my topic, and it's considered hot button but here we go.  I am going to try and write this from a somewhat neutral position politically because if I wanted to talk politics, I would make a political blog.

      As a prospective writer I am faced with a choice every time I start a new project.  Who are going to be my characters?  What are they going to be like? How do they talk? How do they act?  How do they look? Who do they love?

      This part of character creation is important because it flavors what you write, what decisions (Good and bad) your characters make.  If you put in something that doesn't belong there with the character it feels forced, and out of place.  This leads to stereotyping and poor characters.  You want to make racist decisions for a black character into your story, work to make him black.  Same goes for LBGT characters, if you want a bad stereotyped character force one in to echo an agenda and most people will end up with a horrible character that is out of place and offensive.

      The truth is inclusiveness is very important.  But not at the price of story or character.  If it makes sense to make a character any race or lifestyle by all means do it.  If you want to add that flavor in anyway, I say write your piece then add the race/lifestyle after you have finished your work if it isn't important to the story.  If the focus of your story obviously is going to be around race/lifestyle don't write your characters to fit the "normal modes."

      This goes for video games as well.  I want good strong characters of different races, sexes, and lifestyles.  I don't want stereotypical lazy writing or characters that seem out of place because they don't fit.  So when it works, do it.

       My worry is that the pressure for games, books, and shows to be inclusive is going to do some damage in the short term as more and more demand for inclusiveness is pushed.  If you are crusading for this, please be careful what you wish for because bad stereotypes can push unrealistic expectations in the real world.  (Because some people do believe all they read and see is real)  I would rather there was a steady and slow approach to this than we were introduced to a bunch of bad characters that damages society's notions of any group.

      I am also going to get myself in trouble by asking this next question.  When will there be enough inclusiveness?

      Looking at the census about 14.1% of the United States is black.  Does that mean that when 14.1 percent of actors in movies and T.V. shows are black we are being representative? Or do we push the bar beyond that?  Same with other races and lifestyles, do we go for a realistic number? Or in order to support minorities do we push further until we get an unrealistic mix of characters in our media all in the name of inclusiveness?

Most of all, what do you think?  I would love to hear feedback on this topic.  If you have a well thought out answer I will listen.  If you leave an answer full of hate and vitriol towards any group, I will delete your comment.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye

I'm pondering.

We are wandering through no man's land

      Tuesday we did wing one again.  Yes, again.  I hopped on my mage this time so I could try something a little different and we of course got through the whole experience roughly intact.  We only did the one wing as it was a late start to say the least.  It was a pleasant experience though, the mood was high and we still are pushing to get some gear for some lower geared folks.

      Wednesday we went straight to wing 2, and cleared the wing by the end of the night.  This time I took my hunter to help push through the higher life pulls and the raid went rough at first, then got moving well.  I was very frustrated when Galakras took us 3 or 4 pulls to down as we died to simple mistakes more then once.  We then one shot Iron Juggs, had our best pull and one shot ever on Dark Shaman, and got Nazgrim down at the end of the night on our second pull.

      Next week we are starting on wing 3 again.  If we down it in one night we will smack Blackfuse around again.

     I am really fighting the feeling of being stagnant right now.  I feel we have been stuck in the same place for months now, and looking back at posts, I'm not wrong.  There is that saying that something has got to give, well for me I am feeling it more and more.  I try to be positive but this is one of those moments where I debate if I'm holding the raid team together for Warlords, or if I actually think we are going to progress further.

      The people we are gearing are giving me some hope, but I can only hope we can push further soon.  We are running out of time before WOD launches, and soon it will be upon us.  At that point we will take a break from raiding while we all level to 100, then will start all over again.  I won't lie, I look forward to this small break as the beginning of the expansions is normally the only break I take from raiding.  We could continue to push stuff at that time, but it seems silly to work on raid content when we could be leveling and gearing at a relevant level.

      I am excited more and more about the upcoming expansion.  From what I've played of the starting zones it's not Orc heavy.  It's Orc and Draenei heavy.  The alliance starting zone is fantastic and shiny new.  Garrison's feel good.  They are interactive, but so far don't seem to be a bogged down quest hub like it was feared they might be.  (Golden Lotus 2.0, no thank you)

      The NPCs are good so far.  Lots of familiar faces, and a lot of new ones are everywhere.  I wanted to write a blog about the inclusiveness of the game, but I feel this is getting over hashed right now and I don't have a lot to add to that argument other then to stir up some dirt pointlessly.  (I have opinions on this, but I would need a lot of space from a long rant.  I have that here, but I'm not ready to let it out.)

     Next week will be a new week. I'm hoping to see some progress that lightens my heart.  Either way, I will be diving headfirst into the fray.

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.

Comcast killed our Raid... (raid update week of 3/30/2014)

Well, they murdered an hour of our time anyway.

      Tuesday night was fantastic.  We went through and cleared the third wing of flex in the one night.  Malkorak went down in one shot, Treasures took a couple.  Then, Thok, the big mighty dinosaur went down.  There was much rejoicing.  That means we have now downed 9 of the bosses in the raid.  So now the test really begins... Wing 4.

      Wednesday we fought Comca... err.. Blackfuse.  He pretty much ate us alive.  And not gently, he ripped our limbs off and slowly slurped them down a piece at a time.  It was not a surprise, as we knew it would be a tough fight going in.  It is definitely a mechanics fight and as soon as we get those down we will be golden.  It didn't help that for the first hour of raid people got dropped by their internet provider (cough* Comcast * cough) in a pattern that moved across Utah.  And hit a bit of Texas.  It was one of those things that couldn't be avoided, and despite being cut an hour short we made some good progress on Blackfuse.  He may still take us a bit to get down, but people were making progress every pull.

     Belevina gets my cheerleader award this week.  Despite the floor tanking fun of Blackfuse he managed to keep up a positive attitude and shared it liberally with the rest of the group.  It is always a good thing to keep the happy vibes flowing.  That fight is going to be work and I imagine it might even be a couple of weeks before we down him.  I may switch that up with doing wings 1,2,3, alternatingly so we are still downing bosses and getting chances at loot.  As it is, I'm happy with this week and I am looking forward to stepping back in next week.

     That positive attitude is something that can not be spoken of well enough.  We had thirteen people in raid last night, and despite the setbacks and internet frustration there was no swearing, anger, or negativity about the issues.  We also didn't get the boss down below 65% but the vast majority of the feedback was constructive and everyone was trying to solve problems rather then tear other players down.  There was a few points where we had almost too much information coming out from several sources, but I would rather have a lot of ideas to sift through then dead silence.

     My next goal is to get the raid team on homework track.  I want to get people to look up boss fights, information on raids etc... so that more then a couple folks are seeing the fights before we get whacked by them.  Now we are looking at the last three bosses in this raid it is becoming very apparent that studying is needed.  We have/had met our dps goal... let's get this goal down too.  Most our dps are still maintaining the 125k dps average, a couple have dropped back down and I am working with them.  At this point bosses health is dropping quickly enough that I'm not too worried about a couple stragglers as long as they are improving.  And they are.  Right now we are running 12-16 raiders, and I have been running with about 4 healers.  (I figure with 10 you do 2-3 heals on a fight.  If we have 3-5 more peeps another healer works.)

     I feel we are finally making some good progress.  I feel things are coming together.  There is still some headbutting between people in the raid, but it's minor enough that I'm not to worried about it at this point.  That being said, I have a minor eye on it.  I have never been an aggressive raid leader, and people are working together in a manner where I don't have to step in often.  Normally, I listen to the ideas... we make choices and roll.  That being said starting next expansion I may look for a strategy master.  We will see.

Epicness

      Next week, we will see how Blackfuse fares.  I am looking forward to pounding that little goblin into the ground.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.