Wednesday (17 Feb) - Rotting Faces and Festering Guts

Wednesday (17 Feb) - Rotting Faces and Festering Guts

The Silvermoon server was remarkably well behaved Wednesday. Wild had no trouble logging in at 5:30pm, and even the busy city of Dalaran seemed halfway free of lag. But it seemed that this would be where Wild's fortune would end. The calendar invites for the MM group weren't working properly and Wild had been unable to sign up for the raid. Wild had sent in game mail to the raid leader, Bd, letting him know Wild would be there. At 5:45pm, though, the usually early arriving Bd was still not in game, and there were only two other MM raiders in game.

Wednesday was also the second night of raiding for Wild's guild, but Wild had declined that invitation, expecting to be raiding with the MM group. Given that Wild had not been invited to the Tuesday run, it was with a little bit of surprise that Wild got a whisper from a guild raid leader. "You declined the invite, has your status changed?" Wild sent back that the MM raid leader was still not in game, but that I would let him know as soon as I knew if the MM group raid was still on or not. The raid leader sent back, "k, we might have some open spots tonight."

Wild whispered one of the MM raiders and learned that Bd, who had been in between jobs in real life for several weeks, had gotten a job. That was good news for him, but the work hours conflicted with our raid schedule. The MM guild was getting together to decide what to do in the hopes of keeping the raid going with a schedule that Bd could make. Wild replied that I loved raiding with the group and would like to remain a part of the raid if I could. The MM raider, Sh, made it clear that Wild was welcome and needed in the group, and would keep me informed.

So, what about tonight's raid? The MM group would not be raiding. At 5:55pm, Wild whispered the guild raid leader and let him know that I was available to raid with them if they needed me. He promised to let Wild know in the next ten minutes whether there would be a spot. Wild was still in Dalaran, so I shifted to flying form and made the relatively short flight to Icecrown Citadel.

While Wild waited some real life friends stopped by and I got the company of the little girl that I generally entertain while Mom and spouse catch up on the gossip. When I happen to be on the computer she likes to take control of whatever toon I'm running and go exploring. She was a little disappointed that I might actually have to raid, and she hoped that I wouldn't get in the raid. Then she could play. Frankly, I would have been ok either way.

At 6:05pm Wild got his invite to the raid. I don't have any preconceived notions about what the invite means. Wild was the last invite. They were short healers and in particular, needed a druid healer. Wednesday is a tougher night for the guild to fill, which is likely a combination of key raiders not being able to raid on Wednesday, and the fact that Wednesday's raid tackled bosses that haven't been killed or gotten to farm status yet, so Tuesday is the far more popular night. Wild had posted on the guild website asking for the second time for an explanation of the invite/standby process. The post was not responded to directly, but a separate post referred to my request indirectly and came right to the point on the issue that I had raised. Raiders are placed in one of two categories, Tier 1 or Tier 2. Since Wild cannot make both raid nights, Wild automatically falls into Tier 2. Here's the guild policy on invites for the two groups:

"If a tier one is asked to sit out they will be put on a rotation against other tier ones in that particular category. A tier two will only get an invite for a role if there are not enough tier one raiders to fill that role. A tier two that does not get to run is NOT put on a rotation to get in against other tier ones, but other tier twos. The exception to that is raid buffs or class voids in a particular role. Attendance is also a factor. People that can commit two nights are better for the raid then folks that just show for the farm content."

No matter how consistent the participation, no matter how well prepared, Wild will get an invite ONLY when the raid is short tier 1 healers and then, attendance will be rotated with the other tier 2 healers. Given past attendance on Tuesday's, I see Wild getting that invite maybe no more than once a month.

The guidance concluded: "FS is a casual guild, but casual raiding has not ever worked. We now have a large enough pool of people committed to raiding to keep us moving forward on progression content and that is where the RAID focus will be."

FS is now rated #11 among all horde guilds in 25 man ICC content. Given the state of guild raiding just a few weeks ago, that is a pretty nice accomplishment. It's clear that the intent is to move even further toward hardcore raiding. The regulars get full preference, and the rest are just fill ins. There are still issues with raid healing, which is called "sporadic" and the raid's "weakest aspect." More recruiting is in the works, and Tier 2 healers will likely get even less chance to raid. This is the direction that the guild is going with raiding. There are serious flaws to this approach, but there's no sense raising those issues again as the direction has been decided on.

But back to Wednesday night. On Tuesday the raid cleared the four bosses in the the Lower Spire of ICC: Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang. These bosses are pretty much on farm, and that is another reason Tuesday is a popular raid night for the guild.

The Wednesday raid itself was a lot of fun, and I'll cover that in detail in the next post.