A Good Night for Heroic

Our warlock got Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest but we all got the fun of watching trade chat explode! We were the first Alliance guild on the server to have a member complete the quest chain so there was much excitement over the change in the sky over the cathedral. It truly was a group effort and I'm happy as can be we got the first one for Alliance.



We are also now 5/7 hardmodes on 25 and 6/7 on 10. We kinda cheated one week while we were heavily recruiting and did a 25 with a mix of mains and alts and then took a progression team in on mains for 10 man. It was better than not raiding and/or doing no progression at all!

Actual Paladin Tank Stuff Complete with Strategy Tweaks!

I know I don’t usually talk much about tanking, talenting or strategies but we’ve tweaked a few things in our raids - and I’ve tweaked a few things in my spec for different fights - so I thought I’d break with tradition! (You’re very excited now, aren’t you?)

If I don’t mention a strategy change we’re probably doing what everyone else is. As for DPS and heals we’ve used every bizarre, theoretically unworkable combination you can think of for a 10 man but we build the raid with the following:

Always -
Rogue
Warlock
Resto Druid
Pally tank (Yeah, I know, I said I heal sometimes but I really haven’t had to for a while.)
DK tank (on 2 tank fights otherwise he is DPS)

Rotating in and out based on the fight (or RL stuff) -
Holy/Disc Priest
Warrior (DPS)
Kitty (And occasional bear)
Hunter (Usually there)
Resto Shaman (Sometimes DPS)
Resto Druid #2 (Sometimes chicken)
Resto Druid #3 (Sometimes a Shaman)
Warlock #2
Mages #1-3


Blackwing Descent

Magmaw - Paladin tank on boss, DK tank on worms. DK just kites the little buggers around and no one kills them. As long as they move out of the way periodically we’ve had no issues.

Tron Dudes - Single tank FTW. The reason behind single tanking is simple - the healers like it. If I am able to hit the Tron Dude beating on me I can squeeze in a few self-heals. If the Tron Dude just wails on me and I can’t hit him…well healers have to work harder…add in a second tank and, well, you get the picture.

Achemedes - Meh, standard strategy as far as I know.

Chimaeron - I respec to ensure I have full points in Eternal Glory and Guarded by the light as well as Divine Guardian for this one. I use Holy Radiance while we are grouped up for Feud. I also pop Divine Guardian on the third Feud. The first time we got him to 20% (the largely unhealable, untauntable phase) I expected him to make a mad dash to nomnom on the healers but instead he stayed on our DK tank, then me, then he was dead. No worries on that one.

Maloriak - I always have points in Grand Crusader for the Avenger’s Shield refresh but in this fight it’s particularly handy. Our rogue interrupts the Storms and I handle the add releases while our DK tank kites the adds. I keep points in the Divine Guardian for the last phase and blow through pretty much every cooldown I have at that time.

Nefarion - I’ll let you know next week!



Bastion of Twilight

Halfus Wyrmbreaker - For this one I generally take Halfus myself first and bubble taunt off the first set of stacks of the healing debuff when applicable. This is one fight I really like having a Holy Paladin in for so he can Hand of Protection the DK tank when it’s his turn. I can do it but we’ve had a few times where my tank partner is too far away. Obviously we change strategies depending on which dragon combo we have but we haven’t ever killed all three. Just burn the first two and burn the boss. We start this one on hard mode this week so I’ll let you know how it goes!

Valiona & Therlion - Pretty standard

Twilight Ascendant Council - DK tank with ranged, me with melee, our warlock switches targets to keep them even if needed. DK tank on Ignacious for interrupts, me on Feludious for round one. Round two is DK tank on Arion and me on Terrastra. If it’s going to put melee too close to the wrong buff if I move him then I just pop a CD and eat the Quake/Thundershock.

Cho’gall - This is another fight I make sure I’m specced into as many healing boosts as possible. We two healed this with two resto druids (They cried a lot and begged for a “tank healer” and MCs suck with only two but they are more amazing than they think they are and we did just fine!) Our DK tank takes Cho’gall first and I cast Hand of Salvation on him immediately. His D&D works very well for the adds and as he can cast it ranged he doesn’t build stacks. HoS is up for the third taunt from him as well. Our DK tank is the recipient of many, many of my Word of Glorys (Word of Glories? Looks weird…) on this fight.



Throne of Four Winds

Conclave of Wind - What is there to say about this, really? Hard mode this week should be interesting!

Al’Akir - Not much to this one once everyone gets the movement and timing down. I make sure I have Hand of Protection ready for a healer in phase 3 and use Holy Radiance as we fly down to the base. Cooldowns are your friend in phase 3 LOL.



So, that’s all I can think of at the moment. Please feel free to post anything you may do that differs from the usual strategies!

And if anyone has found a sound strategy for Heroic Halfus and/or Conclave let me know!

Raiding Challenges

I find myself in the middle of a series of GM/Raid Leader dilemmas. I’ve been working a lot lately and had some RL issues come up that have limited “real” play time to raids unless it’s my day off. I do log on every day to check in but haven’t even had the energy to run randoms most days I work. Needless to say this means when I log I am bombarded with whispers and NEEDS!


Healing Issues!

Raiding is not going badly but neither are we moving as fast as most of us would like. I’m sure many GMs and raiders can relate when I say that a fair amount of our issues stem from heals. The ones I’ve needed for progression haven’t always been available and some of the ones we counted on in Wrath are either gone, DPS, or struggling.

Right now I have one very, very good resto druid who has done well enough to hit the top 100 in world rankings on certain fights but (BUT!) she has a very needy husband (God, I loathe wow-couples!) which brings me to…

A pally healer who wants to tank or DPS - anything but heal - and is trying to persuade me that he has actually changed his mind (again) and wants nothing more than to be a healadin in raids…but he doesn’t. I know this, he knows this, his wife knows this. He is also one of those extremely annoying types who relentlessly whisper you when they get sat and feel that even though they haven’t put in the time or work that others have should be in on every raid. He also feels entitled to loot he hasn’t earned. Good times.

Another remarkably good resto druid who just went back to school and missed a week due to no computer…he is supposed to be back for raid tonight. Fingers crossed.

Another pally healer who does well and is much more low maintenance than the other but changed his main from a DK for Cata and is still learning the more subtle nuances of the class. He is also fire challenged at times which isn’t good for most Cata fights.

A shammie whose attendance got flakier and flakier before he finally left because it “wasn’t fun anymore”. ‘Nough said.

A priest who got a late start raiding (we knew well ahead of time that she just HAD to go to Hawaii) and is still searching for the right balance that will make her competitive in Cata. She’s doing tons of research but is feeling pretty beat up by the changes right now. (Don’t even get her started on Smite!)

And then there’s me. I’ve healed more in the short time Cata has been out than in the entire Wrath expansion but I’m needed as a tank and it’s much harder for me to effectively make in-fight calls while healing.

The light at the end of the tunnel right now is a 3rd resto druid (soon to be resto shammie perhaps?) who has returned to Heroic after being very disappointed by Horde grass. He is one of the best healers I’ve ever seen in any class he chooses but don’t tell him I said so or I’ll never hear the end of it.

So, this week I will be largely ignoring most advice on which specific healing classes I “should” have for fights and bringing in the best damn players I have on!


Ego Issues!

Another thorn in my side is the lack of accurate self evaluation that some raiders are capable of performing. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about…raiders that think they are better than they actually are and won’t truly HEAR otherwise.

I have a lot respect for players that are still finding the right way to play their class/spec in Cata and are willing to respect, research, spend hours on training dummies, ask others for advice and understand completely that as much as I may like them personally and am happy to let them try out what they’ve been working on while we do farm bosses I can’t bring them in on a boss that is a DPS race or super healing intensive. These are the players that more likely than not whisper me first and offer to sit when they look at where they are for the night.

What I have a hell of a lot less respect for are the players that deny they stand in bad or make lame excuses for poor DPS or healing. I have logs and recount and watch the raid. I know what they are doing and not doing.

Most often these are the people that go all emo on me when I sit them and despite the number of times I’ve talked with them about performance and raid awareness issues they refuse to see they have a problem. And OMG do they like to send me whispers!!!

And don’t get me started on attendance…don’t tell me you were here on time when you weren’t. I track it. I know.

I know that this week, in order to make a big dent in progression and get back on top, I’m going to have to bring in the best raiders and only the best raiders for all but the easiest bosses just so I can be assured we are moving at top speed. My concern is this may lead to gquits and it will certainly lead to disappointment. I keep telling myself that we are a progression oriented raiding guild and we have to do what we have to do. Best case scenario…the ones that get sat that think they are all that may make a more honest evaluation of their performance. Yeah…not likely.


Second Group Issues!

The plan was to have two 10 man teams running by now so everyone who was interested in and capable of raiding would have a spot. It was a good plan. We liked the plan. The plan has not happened.

The person who was going to own the second group and raid lead is tied up with RL and wants to simply participate when it happens and no one else has stepped up to take ownership. We also really don’t have the healers for it at the moment and I’m not sure we even have enough DPS. So right now I have a few geared players with nowhere to go. I can’t possibly fit them all in the ongoing group and until someone steps up to run it and makes an assessment of what we need for it I don’t even know where to begin with recruiting. Yes, in theory, I could make that assessment myself but let’s go back to the first thing I stated about work and real life and time! Besides, if it’s going to be successful as an independent raid then it really needs to be built by that team.

Basically I’m at a loss for words right now when they ask me when it is starting. I have no idea. Anyone want to run a 10 man group?



So that’s the long overdue, very wordy explanation of what’s been going on in my world lately!

Happy Birthday the King is Dead!

Heroic is having its first birthday on Monday! I think the Lich King down was my present….yes, we finally killed Arthas!

I find it hard to believe it’s been a year and at the same time it’s hard to remember what the game was like before Heroic.

I’m so proud of the people in my guild. While no one is perfect and everyone has their moments, overall they are truly decent human beings who will bend over backwards to help one another, protect each other, and look out for the interests of the guild as a whole. We set out a year ago to form a guild that was different from the typical raiding guild. We chose to value character over raw numbers. We chose to include rather than exclude people of all backgrounds and not tolerate racial comments and the hate-filled chat that is so prevalent in this game. We set out to prove that we could do things differently and still kill the big, bad bosses…and we did. With our latest raid we are now the second highest guild on the server that is raiding 25 man content.

Out of a sense of perverse nostalgia I went back over the roster of all the members who have ever been in Heroic and realized a few things:

First, we made good choices overall in the people we invited to join us. We have retained a lot of people that have been with us for 6, 8, 10, even 12 months and I can’t imagine having this guild without them. Most of the people we lost that we considered friends were lost to real life and other interests and not to another guild or for guild policy reasons and would welcome them back with open arms.

Second, the few we lost (and I use the term loosely) to other guilds or for acrimonious reasons have largely not been missed all that much and didn’t do the damage they hoped to do when they tried to bad mouth us after they left. And, I’m betting, more than a few are kicking themselves today.

Lastly, there are two that I really miss having around. They know who they are. When one pulls her head out of her ass she’s welcome back. The other will be welcome back when a certain someone pulls his head out of his ass and quits being so freaking stubborn and selfish and gives the thumbs up.


On another note, we started a second 25 man group last week and this week brought over nine more people to flesh it out and have it rely far less on alts. It sounds (and feels) a little crazy but with the guild merger the choice was to kick or neglect a lot of good players or do so much subbing in and out that we would be crawling through progression. On this server, this close to the next expansion, there aren’t a lot of options that wouldn’t involve anyone that leaves taking many, many steps backwards or being at the mercy of assholes. I just couldn’t do that to loyal guildies so here we are with a second group! Honestly, I’m kind of excited about it and think the folks that transferred will be a great addition.

Oh, one last thing, just because this is largely a love letter to my guild don’t think the ranting posts will stop!


Lark

Self-awareness is a Beautiful Thing

Dear Guildies.

Heroic is about to go through some very interesting changes when it comes to competition for raid spots. Frankly, I’m thrilled and can’t wait. Because I care and want the best for my guild I thought I would take a few minutes to enlighten you on some of the things that go through my mind when making raid spot decisions. These decisions, when made properly, lessen the likelihood that the Raid Bitch will come out to play.

In addition to checking for the Stupid Debuff there are many factors in deciding who is a core raider, who is an acceptable raider, and who is (or should be) on their way to a happy new home elsewhere. Obviously I can say performance and attendance are the two biggest things to help me make that decision but I do factor in all sorts of things you may not think I notice when it comes to what comes out of your mouth.

For the raider the completely lacking in self-awareness here are a few things to think about whether you are in my guild or moving on to another guild:


When raid invites go out do you:

A. Accept the invite, park yourself at the instance, grab a drink or whatever you need to do, and wait for the direction to zone in?

B. Tell the raid leader you need a few more minutes to finish your fishing daily but you are ready to go as soon as that’s done?

C. Tell the raid leader you’re going to squeeze in a quick OS3D but you’ll let them know when you’re ready? *



When raid invites go out are you:

A. Online, on your main, de-grouped, ready to accept?

B. Late?

C. On an alt in another guild’s raid? **



When placed on stand-by on a regular raid night do you:

A. Gracefully zone out and either stay in raid or in vent and keep yourself occupied ready to come in when needed?

B. Whisper the raid leader repeatedly listing all the gear you need off the next several bosses (or the entire instance including hard modes both 10 and 25 in some cases) and complaining that it’s not fair because you didn’t get the trinket last week?

C. Have a hissy fit, tell the raid leader you’ll see them next Tuesday, and log off?

D. /Gquit?



When you are placed on stand-by for a progression fight do you:

A. Honestly assess your current gear/performance/attendance, look at the raid composition, comprehend that there are only 25 spots in a 25 man raid and realize that the raid leader is doing what she feels is best and there is probably a very good reason for that fact that you are sitting?

B. Whine about how you needed the badges and possible upgrades without quite grasping the fact that because you need those things you really shouldn’t be in this particular fight since there are raiders on that are better prepared for the content?

C. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?



When talking about your current spec do you:

A. Fully explain why you are talented, gemmed, etc. the way you are and back it up with facts and numbers?

B. Explain that you copied it from a player who out DPSed you in VOA?

C. Say that your friend put in your talent points for you and “they are totally good at playing this class”? ***



When you screw up and wipe the raid do you:

A. Look at combat logs and know what happened, own up to errors you made, and apologize?

B. Blame lag?

C. Blame the healers?

D. Blame the tanks?

E. Blame the hunter?

F. DC and fake a power outage?



When you screw up repeatedly on the same exact freaking thing to the point where we name the error after you for all future raids in which anyone does the same stupid thing do you:

A. Understand why you are on stand-by and work to improve your performance?

B. Blame lag?

C. Send the GM many pages of in-game mail complaining about how you are being unfairly picked on?

D. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?



When you are placed in a raid with another raider of comparable gear, the same talents, and very similar experience and you are out healed, tanked, or DPSed by them do you:

A. Hit the websites for theory crafting and tips to see if there’s something you missed and ask the other raider what their secret is and pick up a few things to try?

B. Talk to your class leader and ask for advice?

C. Blame your gear anyways?

D. Blame lag?

E. This never happens to you because you don’t run a damage meter because you don’t think meters are important since it’s just a game and you play it to have fun and you can’t understand why we are having trouble on the boss and keep hitting the enrage timer and the only reason you showed up tonight was because you want the trinket that drops and since you are such a fantastic human being and raider you’re certain it will be given to you even though you only show up on Tuesdays. ****



When the GM tells you that you need to stop talking because you are making an ass out of yourself by demonstrating you do not know your own class, another class, a fight, your audience for perverted sexual comments, or by digging the hole that your mouth got you into deeper and deeper and you can tell by the tone of her voice that you had best chill out for a while do you:

A. Stop talking?

B. Start explaining why you were saying what you were saying thereby digging that hole of shame deeper?

C. Argue and insist that you are right even though you have no clue why…you are just convinced you are indeed right?

D. Whisper the GM for the next two hours explaining in great detail how it was not your fault that you upset someone/were wrong/didn’t understand what “stop talking” really meant?

E. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?


The answers to these and many more questions go through my head as I assemble raids. Now you know and can prepare accordingly and save us all much grief.



Sincerely,

Your Positively Giddy with Anticipation GM, Lark




* Seriously? And then you complain you don’t get in a full raid? Seriously?!?!

** Yeah…that one got some strong encouragement to move his main to the alt’s guild…in the form of a /gkick.

***I’d really like to meet this friend. I’m sure we could have a very entertaining conversation. Very.

****Yes, yes you are a special snowflake in so many ways. Good luck next week when there’s competition for that raid spot you sort of filled.

Cataclysm Raiding (Or How Blizzard Royally Screwed the 25 Man Raid)

I’m one of the folks who take a look at patch notes, expansions, class changes and the rest of the panic inducing things Blizzard likes to throw out there to send the masses into a frothing frenzy and simply shrug. Meh, change happens, we’ll make it work. I don’t panic and if Blizz decides they want paladins to tank with tap shoes on while holding a barbeque fork and garbage can lid in Cataclysm then, by golly, somehow it will all work out. I can’t imagine changing my main to another class so I’ll adapt.

Pretty zen, right?

That was all before I found out that Blizzard is fucking with the one thing in this game that has made me log in damn near every day for a couple of years now: Raiding. Specifically 25 man raids. Yeah, yeah…I’ve read the blue posts, hell I read every page of the 330 page forum thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24401856405&sid=1 as it was developing, I understand the theory that sure you can still run 25 man raids but holy hell could Blizz be making it any harder to maintain that kind of raid group?

In any 25 man group there are people that:
A. Love the larger scale of the event

B. People that are there because the loot has always been better

C. People who would prefer to run 10s solely but all their friends are in 25s

If you take away the better loot the team will lose group B. If raiders have to make a choice between 10 or 25 in any given lockout you’re going to lose group C. This leaves group A sadly running 10s because there simply will not be the staff to do more.

If they want to cater to the strict 10 man guilds, the casuals, and the whiners who want easy-mode all the time they could go back to TBC style raids where a raid is either a 10 or a 25 not both. Gear is already way too easy to come by as a fresh 80 and is seldom an indication of skill anymore. I don’t want to see the game lose the last thing that offers a challenge to those of us want to work harder. Blue posts can say all they want that they will make the 10 and 25 raids of equal difficulty but it just isn’t that simple. It will never be as hard to manage a 10 man guild and raid team as it is to manage a 25. Once they post something like this chances are it is going live. I can hold out some small hope they might listen to the community but odds are definitely against it.

In the mean time while we wait to be sure I’ll keep doing what I’m doing for the guild now and mentally making a list of the raiders I do and don’t want in my 10 man guild in case I don’t quit the game altogether.

It's Either Evil or Brilliant

Mwhahahaha….

When the raiders - loyal and reset alike - arrive on Tuesday they may find themselves in for a surprise. There may be no Frost Emblems, farm bosses and shiny 264 purples. What there may be is progression of a different sort complete with WWS reports, notes of how well they take the news (and ninja logs), and very familiar content with a twist.

The guild was very young, mostly under-geared, and somewhat inexperienced when we formed last June so we were still running Naxx 25 for gear for some folks to make it past the first several bosses in Ulduar 25. This means that we started behind in the race for progression there and were still playing catch-up when TOC 25 was released. We did a pretty good job of catching up on TOC to some of the other guilds but it wasn’t until ICC that we started content on an almost equal footing. Sadly we still have not gone back and downed Yogg, completed some of the hard modes, or really made an honest attempt at Trial of the Grand Crusader 25. We’ve been too wrapped up in the newest content to make time for it.

Well, guess what raiders….TOGC is calling.

I am frustrated with the slow pace of our ICC 25 progression and concerned about the complicated, raid awareness challenging content to come (Oh, was that poison I was standing in? Oops. I didn’t bite the right person and now I’m mind controlled? Oops.), and certain attention spans and learning curves. My train of thought right now is this:

• If people can’t listen to directions and assignments on very familiar (for the most part) content how will we ever get down unfamiliar, complex content?

• If a raider is lazy, spaced out, doesn’t care, insert excuse here ________ , and dies to things they’ve known to avoid for months then what does that say about them for progression content in ICC?

• If a raider is unwilling to do content that may not result in shiny purple 264’s but is still progression points for the guild then do they really belong here?

So, Tuesday, unless I am persuaded (and it better be a damn good reason) otherwise, we will be going to TOGC. I will be recording the raid and those that are successful, attentive, and positive will be given a great deal of priority for the ICC 25 content they desire. Those that are negative, wearing the Stupid Debuff, or unwilling to do the content will be less of a priority and, in extreme cases, relegated to post-progression content or removed from the guild.

What am I expecting? Honestly, I expect most of them to do their best and actually like aspects of the idea. I think the very small minority will be the ones complaining (or worse) that I will have to deal with later, and I think there may be 2 or 3 that will be having serious conversations about their status in the guild with their class leader and me.

Wish me luck!