Tuesday (9 Mar) - High and Dry

Tuesday (9 Mar) - High and Dry

It was Tuesday night, and Wild would not be raiding once again. Wild should change his name to "Standby." Wild wasn't the only one. Three other healers also were tapped as standbys.

At the beginning of February we had the arrival of the group of raiders from another server and into the guild, along with the new EPGP dkp loot rules, and the assignment of Tier 1 and Tier 2 raider designations. Since that time, guild raiding has blossomed with success, while Wild personally - well, I took a look at what Wild's 25 man raider accomplishments looked like since then, working backwards from Tuesday night:

Week 6: 10 Mar - Accepted, ?
---------9 Mar - Accepted calender invite, assigned as Standby, not invited
Week 5: 3 Mar - Declined calendar invite to raid with MM group
--------2 Mar - Accepted, assigned Standby, not invited
Week 4: 24 Feb - Declined calendar invite to raid with MM group
--------23 Feb - Accepted, INVITED as moonkin, downed six ICC bosses
Week 3: 17 Feb - Tentative, INVITED late, downed 2 ICC bosses
--------16 Feb - Accepted, assigned Standby, not invited
Week 2: 10 Feb - Accepted, no raid as there was a server crash
---------9 Feb - Accepted, assigned Standby, not invited
Week 1: 3 Feb - Accepted, not invited
--------2 Feb - Tentative (hand), but was available, not invited

In the past 11 opportunities to raid 25 man, Wild has gotten invited into the raid two times. Of those other nine raids, Wild reported himself mostly unavailable three times. That works out to Wild being ready to raid eight times, and actually getting invited twice. And to be brutally honest, both invites were pressure invites where they needed Wild's moonkin aura on one night, and were short healers on the other night. Even though Wild can now sign up for both raid days each week, Wild is already far enough behind the other raiders who have been getting to raid every week that he would likely stay as Tier 2, what is clearly a "fill in" spot and not a regular opportunity. Wild's prediction that he would get to raid 25 man only once every three weeks is looking to be depressingly accurate.

There was no raid calendar announcement for the MM group for Wed/Thurs, and I do not expect they will be raiding this week - or perhaps at all any more. I have been trying to track down Lady Hunter as she may be able to get Wild into one of the other MM ten mans. We'll see. Wild signed up for the guild 25 man raid for Wednesday, but it is highly unlikely that Wild will see an invite.

In the somewhat upside down world of PUG raiding at level 80, Wild may be in even less demand. Used to be PUGs were made up of players trying to improve their gear so they could get into guild raids, or they were running alts, or had no guild to help them out. PUG raiders were generally less well geared than guild raiders and many were still learning the boss fights. With Dungeon Finder and badges that has changed. Any player can get geared nearly as well as a guild raider by endlessly running heroics and buying gear with badges. PUG raid leaders by and large now demand a level of gear and experience often even higher than what guild raid leaders would accept. A great many PUG raid leaders won't invite a player unless they meet a "Gear Score" requirement, plus a minimum DPS level for damage dealers, and also require players to prove via Achievements that they have already conquered the content. Think of that - a pick up group that won't accept raiders who haven't already done the dungeon the PUG is aimed at. Wild's one advantage is in being a healer, but even then Wild has not cleared ICC content and without those achievements might still be denied a spot in PUG raids. Like I said, this is upside down from what PUGs used to be. Wild isn't sure yet what his next move will be.

That said, Wild did get the weekly frost raid done. It was Flame Leviathon in Ulduar, which took us under ten minutes from start to finish. Wild has just 21 frost emblems, though, a good ways short of the minimum 60 I'd need for another badge upgrade. Wild has 49 triumph badges, but already there are fewer and fewer things Wild needs from those badges.

Philly has maintained her levelling pace, getting her dailies and a little extra questing done. She's now 69% of the way to level 77. She has yet to dip her boney toe into random dungeons, but that is coming, or so she keeps telling Wild. At level 76, she is eligible for all of the WotLK dungeons in normal mode.

JB still transmutes a new gem for Philly every day, and catches the odd Wintergrasp battle, but the rest of the Wild family has been laying low.