Rambling Updates

So here’s where we are this week. Go ahead, grab a drink, sit back, and marvel at the weirdness.

Sanity has (mostly) returned and the 2nd 25 man has been officially deemed a casual/alt run. Yes, mains will still have priority on main spec gear but (BUT!) only if they show up consistently. Yup, that’s right. If you’re one of those who shows up one night out of three you’ll be rolling against yet one more unnecessary DK alt for those tanking legs because they are here all the time and you aren’t. Deal with it. We’ve also reduced it to one official night. I’m not pulling teeth to pull together a Monday run anymore. If people want to raid and show up we will otherwise go in Scarlet Monastery. In all honesty I think it’s pretty much dead so, meh, more free time.

The main group is still going strong. We cleared ICC 25 with 8 hard modes plus Ruby Sanctum in two nights. My fond hope is that we can spend some time on more new hard modes this week. This leads to part of the…ummm…interesting situation this week which is incorporating more of the formerly group two raiders into the main group. Subbing in and out slows things down - which sucks - but hopefully we can make it fast. The bigger trouble is that the new hard modes (and some of the ones we can’t quite consider farm yet) are spread out throughout the instance so it’s not like we can sub in based on wing. We need who we need for the new stuff. Also, there are some conversations to be had that I’m not really looking forward to. Everyone thinks they are good enough for the progression fights but, frankly, if you’ve shown up on the Stupid Awards lately for performance issues…well…not so much.

The biggest thorn in my side right now is dissention in the ranks. There is still somewhat of a lingering feeling of Us and Them in regards to folks from the guild that merged with us. Everyone needs to make compromises to have this be successful long term and change is not always a bad thing. Some of the raiders that have been with us a while are grumbling about the new folks not being quite as…diplomatic and gentle as we were in the past. To which I say, Bullshit. There is nothing that has been said in a raid that I did not say myself when the Raid Bitch came out to play…I think they are just slightly resentful to hear it from new officers and not me. I’m afraid they’re going to have to deal with it and adapt. Progression for 25 people trumps the thin-skin of one or two. There have also been complaints about the content of conversations in gchat. Particularly those filled with sexual innuendo or - in one certain warlock’s case - the RPing of homo-erotic fantasies. (Seriously, it’s actually quite funny how well thought out they are!) All I can say is there is /ignore for a reason and this has always been an adult guild filled with raunchy humor. The new folks didn’t start it. It was here before. Let’s move on.

Part of the desire to nail down a few more hard modes is another part of the weirdness of the week. Due to the collapse of the number one guild on the server…we are, by default, number….one. Wow. Just wow. I want to get more hard modes though so it feels earned rather than defaulted. We are only three behind where the former first guild was so it should be do-able. /fingerscrossed

On a happy note my little druid hit 80 last night! She is soooo spoiled it’s not funny. We had 264 BOE shoulders and a belt sitting in the gbank that no one wanted and she stepped right into those with 264 crafted legs and boots. Add a few crafted 245s and she’s not looking too bad. All it cost was Mama Lark parting with 10k to the gbank.

For a complete change of subject, I like add-ons. I don’t just want the basics you absolutely have to have either. I want the best. I want the one that does buffs, the one that communicates BQ’s bite order, and the one that changes my screen so most of my add-ons don’t sit on top of the game. Add-ons, to me, are tools; I am not using two sticks to start a fire if I have a Zippo available to me. I’m really annoyed by the “purists” who say people who use add-ons are as good. If I could find an add-on that would do laundry my life would be complete.