Weekend (7 Aug) - Outlook Dreary

Weekend (7 Aug) - Outlook Dreary

The internet problems cleared up on Friday. I may have had some internet service interruptions, but DC's (WoW disconnects) were also an element. Raiders from Thursday night told Wild on Friday that after Wild DCed for the second time, they had several more raiders DC as well and never got to the third boss. Even friends from Boulderfist reported unusually large numbers of DCs, so it affected more than one server.

We didn't have to worry about that Friday night. There was no raid. We had seven in game ready to go at the 6:30pm start time. Our tank/raid leader was in game, but left "for a quick break." He never came back. Our other tank from Thursday was a no show and that left us with Kg, rookie tank extraordinaire. He was game, but without a second tank and no raid leader we all more or less drifted away and did other things. Wild got his Therazane Dailies done. There are seven quests and they drop a ton of reputation, so Wild will only need a day or two to get to Exalted. Then he can upgrade his shoulder enchant [Note: Wild made Exalted on Sunday - Ya!]. Wild has other factions he could level up, and since he gets guild rep for that Wild will probably keep doing dailies. Wild still hasn't gotten back to Revered in guild rep since he changed guilds.

BB was in game Saturday night and completed her Death Knight indoctrination. She's now level 58 and makes her home in Stormwind. BB got four different requests for her to join a guild while she was out working on her professions - picking flowers and breaking rocks.

Posted on Guild Website Saturday - Progression and Raid Start Times

I've had an opportunity to raid with both Mort and Bk's raid groups as well as in the combined Mort/Tala 25 man raid (awesome! by the way). One thing that I've noticed about our ten mans in recent weeks is that they never - and I mean never - start on time anymore. And it isn't just a few minutes. We are easily 30-60 minutes late getting started every raid night.

In addition, few raiders are bothering to sign up for the raids, either, and our raids are starting to feel to me like a pick up group instead of a scheduled raid. I feel bad for the raid leaders who see that only 4-6 people have signed up and have to spend precious raid time pleading for guildies to join the raid, and in the end still needing to PUG spots. It's frustrating to me to lose an hour of raid time and see just two bosses go down each week with no progression.

If the issue is that guildies just can't make it by the 6pm or 6:30pm start times, we should adjust the time accordingly. If guildies want to raid they should sign up and be on time. And with the nerfs and the improving gear we are capable of doing a lot more than we are.

I'm just asking all of us to sign up for our raids and to be in game on time. Let raid leaders know if the raids times aren't good for you. We haven't downed either Nef or Cho'gal as a guild, not because we can't, but because we never get that far.

This is just a wish, but I'd also like to lobby for a weekly 25 man. We have three ten mans now. Is there any way at all to find two nights a week for a 25 man? Given how quickly bosses went down once we engaged, that would be a huge source of gear and VP to move us forward. It actually seemed easier in 25 man than in the ten mans.

The guild leader responded to Wild's post the same day. He discussed a number of things. Regarding ten man raiding the summary was that he agreed that attendance and timeliness has been an ebb and flow thing - sometimes good and sometimes not, but also said that it was time again to put some emphasis on that.

In regard to 25 man raiding, I got an answer that surprised me, but probably shouldn't have. The answer was, and I quote: "There's a number of reasons for this, but to keep it short: Past precedent has shown that if a regularly scheduled 25man is hosted more than 1-2x a month it will fall apart, and worse, all 10mans will also suffer for the next few weeks. Add into that the fact that a substantial chunk of the core Raiders are clear about not wanting to do 25mans (an anti-25man interest, you could say) and the result is we're not going to be coordinating 25man raids in the near future."

When I thought about that, I had to consider the fact that the core raiders in MM2 came from MM, who came from FS, and frankly, we've had trouble fielding 25 mans since Wrath. Never has 25 mans been so accessible (and profitable) as now, but even that doesn't seem to matter to our raiders. They just don't like 25 mans. My response to that below:

Thanks for the feedback, Bd.

I can't say that I understand "why" Meitha guildies don't like 25 mans, so I'll probably be asking around just so I'll understand that better.

Here's my take:

The 25 man raid engages more of the guild, including players that may have trouble getting the best gear or who feel that they can't contribute enough to a ten man. As you said, 25 man in Cata is a little more forgiving of mistakes and gear. The fights are almost identical, so the learning curve is small, experienced raiders can help tutor the newcomers, and we can ALL progress faster. In the 25 BWD we had a whole party of healers and carried on our own separate conversation throughout the raid. It was great and it showed with some amazing healing.

An even bigger advantage of 25 man raiding is gear. With 25 raiders, more of the drops will find raiders who need them and there are a lot fewer DEs like we get with 10 mans. In comparing the 10 man and 25 man BWD from last week, both groups killed three bosses: there were 6 gear drops in 10 man (3 of which were upgrades for someone if I recall) and 13 drops from 25 man (almost all of which were awarded to raiders as upgrades). The difference is huge.

For those who don't care about gear, 25 man raids are a lot more lively in vent and chat. It's MORE FUN with a large group! I've learned a lot of "interesting" words not in the English dictionary - or in ANY dictionary, just listening in lol.

I hope Meitha comes around to the idea. :)

One positive element of this is that MM2 raid leaders would be happy to organize and run 25 mans if there was enough interest, so that is not the issue. Wild will have to do some checking with other raiders to get at what the real issues are.