New Year's Eve (31 Dec 2011) - 2011 Recap Part 1: Guilds and Raids

New Year's Eve (31 Dec 2011) - 2011 Recap Part 1: Guilds and Raids

Happy New Year!!! This is the annual New Year's stroll through the past year. Today, Wild celebrated the start of an EIGHTH year in game. This year's recap of 2011 is in two parts:

Part 1 - Guilds and Raids
Part 2 - Family Matters

Part 1, Guilds and Raids, begins here.

Last year began with perhaps the most difficult raiding grind ever for Wild, and yet the year ended with what could only be called the easiest raiding of all time. Since Wild's focus is always on targeting those raid bosses, Part 1 of our look back focuses on raiding. And raiding can't be separated from guild drama, of which there were plenty.

On 2 January of 2011 Wild was a member of the MM guild. Wild had left his first raiding guild, FS, in Jul 2010 after five great years, when the FS guild turned hard core and had no place for Wild. The in game friends that Wild often referred to as his "cabal" migrated out of FS and into MM, and Wild had joined them in that exodus. The MM guild was already having growing pains, undergoing a reorganization into a "casual guild that raids," which was an honest assessment of a very large guild (426 members at the time) that didn't raid often enough or with enough seriousness to be called a raiding guild. 

The end game raid as 2010 drew to a close was still Icecrown Citadel, which had consumed Wild and the rest of MM's raiders for most of that year. It wasn't until 5 December, 2010, that the Lich King fell and Wild got his Kingslayer title. Two days later the new expansion, Cataclysm!, rocked the world of Azeroth.

Cata offered four new raids: Baradin Hold (BH), Throne of the Four Winds (TW or Thrones), Bastion of Twilight (BoT), and Blackwing Descent (BWD). But raiding was not a priority that first month of Cata's release - leveling our toons from 80 to 85 was - as well as enjoying the Cata release in all it's significant glory. Wild DINGED! to level 85 the day after Christmas, 21 days after release.

Once we had enough guildies reach level 85, MM worked to get our raiding plans together. Our first Cata raid came on 9 Jan in Throne of the Four Winds (TW) with the G1 raid group. Wild was signed up and ready to go, wearing his minimum required gear score of i330. Wild did not get an invitation to the G1 raid. Undeterred, Wild set his sights on helping Bd get the G2 raid going again. Wild didn't have to wait long.

On 13 Jan Bd "stalked Wild for his raid." Those were his words. It was raid night, but Wild had not signed up given the issues over his gear level and what the guild seemed to think were unwritten minimum requirements. Bd had other ideas, though, and wanted Wild in his raid. In truth, Wild's now i333 gear level was the lowest among all but a couple of the DPSers. We raided Baradin Hold (BH) AND Blackwing Descent (BWD) that night. We killed no bosses, but Wild was now for real doing Cata raids.

There were also new Heroic five man dungeons, and they were tough. Here are a few quotes from Wild's first experience in Throne of the Tides:

"Wild was still a bit shell shocked at how ferocious the damage against the tank was. I might need to buy me a backup keyboard given how hard and fast I was pounding on it." - This was on trash mobs. We hadn't even reached the first boss yet.

"Every pack required maximum crowd control. DPSers had to focus fire the Marked targets as we could not survive that many attackers for long ... " - Again, these are trash mobs.

" ... after every battle, whether a boss attempt or a trash mob group, Wild had to rez the dead, heal the survivors, rebuff, eat another savage sagefish if Wild had been among the dead that time, and drink to fill his mana bar." We were downing bosses by now, but it was a brutal, slow, dangerous advance."

[Note: By comparison, in Wild's first foray in patch 4.3's Hour of Twilight Heroic five mans, Wild completed all three Heroic dungeons in under two hours with few wipes. In a couple of days Wild had them on farm. ]

In February things were not going well with MM raiding, though. The G1 raid was operating, but filling the raid was a weekly struggle. Officially, Wild was in the G2 raid, but it wasn't running at all. G1's struggles were to Wild's benefit, though, as he was always in demand on raid nights. Behind the scenes, a rift among guild officers spilled into guild chat toward the end of February and a prominent guild officer, Sh, quit MM and began making plans of his own.

On 1 Mar a new guild surfaced, headed by the departed MM guild officer. Wild dubbed the new guild MM2. They quickly had 54 members, including 20 level 85s, nearly all of whom had jumped ship from MM. That still left MM with over 100 level 85s. Most of Wild's cabal (including Bd) were still in MM, but when the MM guild leader did a call out for raiders, he scared up just six of us. And Lady Hunter was gone to MM2.

On 4 Mar, an MM G1 raid, infused with new hope and led by new raid leader Fn, killed Baradin Hold's Argolath. The MM guild had their first Cata boss kill. Said blog poster Martin about Wild's guild raiding hopes: "Looks like retirement is over. :)"

Guild drama did not diminish, however. More of Wild's cabal moved to MM2. Bd still professed allegiance to MM and scheduled G2 raids for the following week. Three days later Bd was enticed to move to MM2 by making him a co-guild leader.

With Wild's help the Fn G1 raid in MM continued to down Argolath in BH each week and also downed the first boss in Bastion of Twilight, Halfus. Though most of Wild's cabal has jumped to MM2, wild still remained in MM, along with good friend and cabal member Rs, a druid tank that Wild was the main healer for. Wild was raiding, and Wild was happy.

March moved on to April, and on 14 Apr Wild ran his first raid with MM2. Wait, MM2? Bd had personally requested Wild join them in Throne of the Four Winds (TW). The MM2 raid on TW did not conflict with Wild's MM raid since they were on different days and in different raids (BoT). Wild now had hooves in both guilds.

In May/Jun we were off on our RV trip to the east coast and back. When we left Wild was more active raiding in MM2 than in his own MM guild, where we had failed to fill our raid two weeks running. I had no idea what things would look like when we returned.

Wild's first login upon returning was on 16 Jun, and he had a chat with his MM guild leader, who happened to be in game. The Fn G1 raid was gone. The raid leader, Fn, was taking time off for family reasons. One of our healers quit the game. Wild's last remaining cabal member in MM, Rs, had not been in game for some time. In MM2, they were now running two raid groups, and Wild learned that Fn's hiatus for "family reasons" had special meaning. He was now in MM2.

Wild saw the signs, but refused to acknowledge them. Quoted from the 21 Jun post titled "Setting the Hook" is this: "Guild wise things are getting sticky once again, and even as Wild counters offers to join MM2 with Wild's famous reluctance to change guilds, Lady Hunter slips in a comment that "it would be for the last time, hun." Wild thought he'd never leave FS, and would have stayed even after the guild fractured had the remaining members wanted him. They didn't. He followed his "cabal" of friends to MM, and that move should have been "for the last time." Then most of those friends split off and started MM2. Wild has new friends in MM now, too, raiding friends. But MM2 is setting the hook. Sigh." Wild spent five years with FS, but after only 11 months with MM, things were not looking good. Wild still wore the MM guild tabard, but his first raid (BoT) in almost two months was with MM2.

The Firelands arrived on Tuesday, 28 June. On the same day Wild did what for him was a swift decision: "On Tuesday night Wild talked to his MM guild leader, letting him know that Wild was going to change guilds. We parted amicably, and there may be future chances for Wild to raid with MM ... On Wednesday I found the MM2 guild leader, Bd, on his blood elf in the Orgrimmar bank. He saw me, waved, and then scooted up to Wild and emoted: "What a big cow you are!" in that sultry blood elf voice. "What a beautiful, sweet looking blood elf you are" Wild cooed in return (a cooing cow can be a scary thing), and then gave him that unique tauren ROAR! I let him know that Wild was leaving MM. He put a fatherly arm around Wild (having to stand on his tippy toes to do so) and empathized that he knew what a tough decision it was for Wild to leave a guild. He continued: "So, when do you think you'll be leaving MM, and when do you think you might join MM2?" Wild replied, "I left last night, and any time you want to send me an invite." The invite was instantaneous, and Wild became a member of MM2. There were several guildies in game, with several friends calling out "Wild! Dood! Welcome!" All drama aside, Wild is happy to be in MM2."

On 11 July Wild made his first appearance in a Firelands raid. It was as a random PUG, not an MM2 guild raid, however. Wild got in on three trash mob sweeps, a process which became all too familiar to Wild over time.

Wild ached to get into more Firelands raiding, but it wasn't until August that Wild got into his first guild run. In fact, he got in two raids, his first with MM on Sunday, 31 Jul, and then with MM2 on Monday, 1 Aug. The MM run was a trash only run, but even so they had trouble with it. For the MM2 run, we did quite well on the trash and even took our first shots at Shannox, the opening boss. And on 2 Aug, MM2 sent a 25 man raid into BWD. We killed three bosses and had one heckova blast.

On 10 Aug we killed Nefarion and completed our first full clear of all bosses in BWD. The week of 11 Aug brought this wonder: "Wild raided with Mf's Firelands raid (the G1 raid) on Monday. Wild raided with Lady Hunter's BWD raid on Tues/Wed. Wild raided with Bd's BoT raid (G2) on Thursday, and is signed up for Friday. Three different raid groups in the same week. This is starting to look like the days of old ... "

The final boss in Bastion of Twilight, Cho'gall, fell on 31 Aug. We were going great guns, and was only later Wild realized that this kill was the year's high water mark for guild raiding. By the end of September MM2 raiding was looking good for the Mf/G1 raid, but neither Lady Hunter or Bd was raiding and their backup's struggled to cobble something together. In short, Wild was back to trying to get into Mf's raid on a fill in basis.

Wild's raiding continued to sputter through September and into October. It got even worse when he was left off the guild raid schedule in an unfunny comedy of errors that had Wild wondering about his place in guild raids.

Faced with the failing raid schedule, Wild had a chance to take a step back and take stock of his gear and his healing. In many respects Wild's approach to healing hadn't changed through many patches and raid bosses. Wild likes deep mana pools and high mana regen over most everything else, and that had never failed him. He knew about haste breakpoints and followed them, but had never even thought about reaching that holy grail of haste breakpoints for druids, 2005 haste rating. Wild decided it was time for a change. When he was done moving gear, gems, and enchants around, Wild's gear score dropped from i366 to i362. Wild lost 133 int, his mastery stats tumbled, and his spell power dropped 15%. Still, Wild managed to keep his mana regen at a decent level and reached haste rating 2005. That same night, a Tuesday, when with some surprise from us all we got a raid off the ground, we killed Shannox. It was the guild's first Firelands kill, almost four months since it first came into being. Wild learned to love his haste and his new healing approach.

Wild's greatest raid accomplishment of the year occurred on Friday, 28 Oct, and again it wasn't with his guild. He joined a Firelands raid as a PUG in a Blackblades alt run. Blackblades is a high end raiding guild. When the hours had passed and the final boss had fallen, Wild had helped down six of the seven bosses in the Firelands.

October became November and Wild had become a regular fill in for the Mf Mon/Tues raid. It was the only raid still active. At least Wild thought of himself as a regular. On 14 Nov, though, Wild was passed over when Mf had the unusual situation of too many raiders wanting in on the raid. Wild had even signed up for it, but that hadn't mattered. Wild was disappointed, but in the end guild raiding was already down to it's last nail in the coffin.

That last nail was driven in the week of 21 Nov 2011. Blizzard released the 4.3 patch "Hour of Twilight" and raiding changed into something we'd never seen before.

"Hour of Twilight" brought Azeroth three new Heroic dungeons and one raid called Dragon Soul (DS). DS was actually two raids of four bosses each called "Siege of Deathwing" and "Fall of Deathwing." Using the new Looking For Raid (LFR) tool, random 25 man raids started clearing all eight bosses within days of release. We were on vacation in Las Vegas when the patch went down, but on Monday, the night before the first week reset, Wild joined a DS  LFR and downed all eight bosses without one second of preparation or knowledge of what was going on. The plundering of LFR DS had begun - let the endless farming begin.

For Wild, Christmas came early. Wild could now raid using the LFR every week with or without the guild. The i384 gear that dropped was slow to acquire, but almost certain to obtain eventually. When real guild ten man raiding finally got off the ground, Wild would be better equipped for it than perhaps he ever had been. So, take a look at what the LFR has wrought . . .

Here is the final wrap up of Wild's current gear/raiding. In about six weeks of effort, Wild has raised his gear score 14 levels, which works out to slightly better than two ilevels per week. That's scary fast.

Wild's Gear Score: i384 (i370 when patch 4.3 was released)
i397 - 4 pieces
i390 - 1
i384 - 4
i378 - 8
Tier Pieces - 1 T12, 2 T13
Set Bonus - two piece Tier 13

Wild's Raiding Success
6/7 Bosses in Normal Firelands
8/8 Bosses in LFR Dragon Soul
1/8 Bosses in Normal Dragon Soul

Status of Wild's Various Guilds - comparison of July 2011 to December 2011 (Dec 2011 in parentheses):

MM2 - Wild's current guild: max level 25(25), 310(386) members, 148(209) level 85s. Three 10 man raid groups (reduced to 2 spotty raid groups).
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 10/13 bosses (counting BH, BWD, TW, BoT), 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15 bosses (adding 2 new BH bosses), 6/7 Firelands in G1 (2/7 in Wild's G2), 1/8 in Dragon Soul

MM - Wild's former guild: max level 25(25), 188(146) members, 81(81) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 4/13, 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 4/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul

FS - Wild's first raiding guild: level 24(25), 128(131) members, 60(66) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 2/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 6/8 Dragon Soul

WC - FS spin off pure raiding guild: level 24(25), 74(71) members, 54(54) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 1/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul

Wild's MM2 guild is the only guild that has shown a significant increase in membership, including the number of level 85s. Wild's previous guild, MM, has shrunk, although they have maintained the same number of level 85s. MM's raid progression is even worse than MM2's. The two spin off full raiding guilds have maintained their sleek size and focus, but it is Wild's original guild, FS, that has prospered the most in terms of raiding success. I do have to acknowledge, however, that none of these guilds have taken on the challenge of doing Heroic level raids and can't even be called "hard core" raiding guilds.

Wild's final say - Patch 4.3 is now referred to as "Blizzard's loot pinata" and Wild has to agree. There has never been such easy raid farming of current content. For the coming year the question now becomes:

Will there be another major patch before the announced next expansion, "Mists of Pandora?" There should be. Dragon Soul will be a gutted corpse long before then.