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

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


   

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.

Endings to Beginnings

This week was a short raid week.

      Tuesday we didn't raid because I was celebrating 14 wonderful years with my wife.

       Wednesday was pretty good.  We had some new blood so we went back and just nuked stuff from wing 1 to half way through wing 2.  We downed Iron Juggs and called it a night.  While we didn't really push any boundaries or progression,  we did have fun and it was a good feeling raid.  We also pulled in two new toons to start gearing and working towards crazy DPS status.

       I really think we are getting closer to the point where WoD drops.  If it is a September/October drop like I have predicted, that means 6.0 will be in all likelyhood dropping in August/September.  That means, we could be a little over a month away from having the first major patch walking into the expansion.

      The beta itself feels pretty good.  Yes, there are still plenty of bugs and glitches that are happening, but for the most part it has looked good.  There are things they have added that I enjoy, like the outline of whatever you are targeted on glowing to all the cameos from people we knew in BC.  (Seeing Akama as a proper Draenei is weird)

      The class changes are taking some getting used to as well.  Playing a hunter without leading with serpent sting, or having to keep Slice and Dice up on a rogue is strange.  I understand why they took these buttons out, but it feels like something is missing in my rotations.  We will have to see how it all turns out.

       It's been a long week with work etc.. this week.  So I am keeping it short.  Oh, one of my favorite things about the Beta thought, is captions like, Amazing in game event here....

Lag/Lazyeye/Dizzty.

Shaky ground.

Sometimes, things go well and I still worry.

     Tuesday night this week we started on Wing 3.  Though we wiped on Spoils once, and Thok a couple of times we got all the way through and to finish the wing.  What this doesn't say in that sentence is we felt like a cohesive group and things felt smooth as we worked through the wing.  Spirits were good and Everyone seemed to be doing their job just fine.  (My favorite part was the second pull on Spoils where Shaqia and Scorpiack both accidentally dropped on the wrong sides and it balanced things perfectly to get the boss down.)

     Wednesday was not a great night.  Blackfuse is still killing us and it's still from stupid little mistakes.  I had the opportunity to tank this fight for the first time on Lag and it was interesting to me to see how it worked from that perspective.  Believe it or not, this is the first time I've actually wanted Blizzard to leave fire on the floor.  I had a couple of moments where I was tanking the add in fire, then the fire would fade, then the next line of fire would fade as I pulled the add over as well.   We didn't get the boss down.  But I feel once again we are closer.  Shojji now had the conveyor belts down, and when Scorpy got there the belts went smooth.  We just need to work on staying alive down below long enough to punch through.

       Despite this, I feel the group is smoothing out again.  We are getting to another point where we are going to start making progression soon as things are smoothing out.  My worry is that this means we are going to lose a person or two soon as this seems to be the pattern we have been fighting.  Group gets going smooth and starts moving forward, someone leaves to go to another team or leave wow until the next expansion.  My pure hope is that next Xpack we manage to get a team of 15 people or so and maintain it so if someone leaves we don't have to worry about it when a person or two leaves.

       I am looking forward to previewing the raids a little in the beta as well if I get to that point.  As I play mainly alliance, I am mainly working horde on the Beta so as not to ruin my experience on leveling later.  I have not had a lot of time to work there this week, but am hoping to get back in this next week.  I know beta is a lot different from what gets dropped later, but this may help I hope.

      There are things I want to discuss about the Beta at length, but right now seems a bit premature.  It's strange playing a Rogue who doesn't have to keep up slice and dice.  Hunters feel weird not opening with serpent sting.  There are other things like that that seem just different.  The content itself so far is pretty good.  The best part, wait for it,

     We are actually getting some Draenei lore.  Yes, it's coming.. holy crap we are getting some.

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