Thursday (13 May) - What Did I Say about ICC25?

Thursday (13 May) - What Did I Say about ICC25?

Philly picked up a pair of bracers and a new belt from the Auction House Thursday afternoon which will help with her DPS and healing specs. Later, she logged on around 6pm, determined to get in a couple of heroics while the Mrs was out with the girls.

Ok, remember what Wild said about the death of the ICC 25 raids? Well ...

Lady Hunter was in game and immediately asked if Wild could come to ICC 25. Hmm, the Mrs wouldn't be gone THAT long, and Thursday wasn't a raid night anymore. Plus, MM doesn't have an ICC 25 raid group, or any raid group doing any 25s that I was aware of. Philly could see that there weren't many MM guildies in game.

However, if there is one thing Lady Hunter can do, its get people to come to her raids. I told her I couldn't be sure I could stay for the whole run, but if there was going to be an ICC25 raid Wild wanted in on it.

By around 6:30pm we had 13 MM guildies and 2 FS guildies in the raid. Lady Hunter then started filling the raid with friends and friends of friends and out and out PUGs. At 6:55pm we were at 21 raiders, but then Lady Hunter disappeared for awhile on RL issues.

At 7:15pm Lady Hunter was back and we got started on the trash mobs with 23 raiders. Except - most of the raid didn't know we got started. Wild didn't know we got started. The main tank just opened up on the trash. No raid check, no raid warning, no healer assignments, nothing at all. We scrambled, and on some pretty easy trash three raiders died before we brought them down. The tank moved on to the next group of mobs, not waiting for rezzes. The left side chamber was pulled, but something went wrong and the center group of mobs also came as well. An established raid that knew how to handle such things probably could have survived the double group pull. Our pasted together group couldn't, and didn't. We wiped on ICC trash.

On our second attempt on the trash there was another large over pull and we wiped a second time.

A third attempt. Remember that there are traps set in this area that unleash extra nasty mini-bosses. We had two rogues who could detect and disarm those traps. They said they only found one trap, which was odd because there can be as many as four or five. We engaged the trash mobs again, and were finally starting to put it together, bringing down one group of mobs and just about finishing up another group when traps started popping. A total of four mini-bosses spawned from the traps - really, really, nasty mobs - and we wiped a third time. That was probably a game bug, since we had two rogues swearing they'd detected no other traps, but one of the PUG rogues felt dissed or something and left the raid. Things weren't going very well.

On our fourth attempt we managed to clear the trash and the now roaming mini-bosses and finally arrived at the first boss, Lord Marrowgar. We now even had a full 25 raiders, with five healers and three tanks. Wild made some healing suggestions in raid chat, but Lady Hunter didn't see it. The main tank was anxious to get moving again, and sent out a raid check. I didn't even have a chance to click yes or no. "Inc" was announced in raid chat ("inc" meaning "Incoming" meaning the tank was engaging Marrowgar). "What a sec," Lady Hunter called out. That's when we remembered that the main tank wasn't in vent and couldn't hear us. The healers had seen Wild's suggestion, so I think we all just went with the flow. I missed making an assignment for the third tank, though, since we don't use three tanks in the FS 25 man. Wild found himself frantically trying to heal two tanks. It didn't much matter. A lot of raiders were out of position and a quarter of them at least were surprised that we had started, and we wiped rather ignominiously.

We battled Marrowgar four more times. There were moments when things went well, but there were just too many players with varying experiences and different levels of gear. The place was buggy, too, something that more and more players are complaining about, but even if the night were bug free we'd have had troubles. Wild never settled in, and we never really properly sorted out the healing assignments. The DPS had trouble bringing down Spiked raiders, and when those spiked raiders were healers, who can't heal when spiked, tanks died. Every player in the raid had at least some experience with Marrowgar before, but the evening felt like we were all just now learning the fight, without the anticipation of getting a first kill, because we'd all already done that before.

We did not bring down Marrowgar. The good news for some was that since we didn't kill any bosses, nobody was locked to the raid and they could get into another ICC25 if they got the opportunity. But our raid was done.

It's just another reminder how perilous a PUG raid can be, even one that starts with a good core of raiders. Wild sees ICC25 PUG raids forming all the time and asking for raiders in trade chat. I can only guess at how they do in ICC, but many, if not most, probably don't get very far.

And to think just two weeks ago Wild was part of an ICC25 raid that downed seven bosses in a single night.

One extra bit of FS guild news: with the demise of the ICC 25 raid, due to "a number of recent departures of formerly dedicated raiders, coupled with a generally diminished guild-wide enthusiasm to actively participate in larger raid content" the guild is considering starting a third ICC 10 group. Volunteers were solicited to start and run one. I don't see that happening, given our past inability to maintain three ten man groups. I hope it works out, though, but in any event Wild will be staying with the MM ICC10 man group.

We're headed off to the RV park Friday morning and won't be back until Sunday. Ya'll have a great weekend!