Thursday (12 Jan) - A Raid'n We Will Go ... Maybe

Thursday (12 Jan) - A Raid'n We Will Go ... Maybe

Wild was in game Thursday afternoon and caught up with one of the regular Wed/Thurs night raiders, the priest healer, Pl. I asked if the raid had run on Wednesday. The answer was no. We both agreed that the situation was unacceptable and that it's time something was done about it. No one seems to be able to figure out what is happening with our raid leaders, Bd and Lady Hunter. On a real life level we hope there is nothing serious keeping them away. They are good friends and we worry about them. On a game level everyone involved is very frustrated at not raiding, and having raids scheduled where the raid leader(s) never shows up. Frankly, many regulars in the raid have stopped bothering to come, signing up as Tentative instead of Accepted, which further discourages those of us who actually show up.

I decided to post a "Where are you?" message on the guild website. Few in the guild bother to go to the website, but I know that Bd checks it since he responds to every post on the rare occasions one is posted. I'll have to wait and see if he responds.

Pl and Wild also talked about perhaps getting a new raid leader. Both Bd and Tala have always encouraged guildies take a leadership role if the notion takes them, and several have stepped forward in the past, although the raids have been fun runs and old school raids, nothing current. Bd for sure would be happy to turn the reins over to a new raid leader ... the harder issue is whether anyone wants the job.

In two hours or so Wild will be back in game. Pl and Wild plan to ask for a conference on vent with whoever shows up for our raid. It would be nice to have a raid leader there, too. Should one show up.

Update - Wild met with four other members of our raid Thursday night. No raid leaders showed up, despite both having Accepted the calendar invite. Those who did show, in addition to Wild, was Pl (priest) and her husband Gv (hunter), Sn (hunter), and Vl (druid). All but Sn are regular raiders. Sn has been a floater, going with whatever raid group needed her. We asked her to become a regular with our group. We then built a list of all the guildies who typically raided with Bd and Lady Hunter. Based on that list, we believe we can fill the DPS slots. We already have three healers. We have only one tank on the list, though, and will have to find a second. Vl volunteered to lead future raids on the condition that she would defer to Bd and/or Lady Hunter - if they showed up. Vl has never been a raid leader and openly admitted she was no expert at the strategies. She got a vote of confidence from the rest of us, and we agreed that everyone should study strats this week the way a raid leader would. The key is still going to be the tanks. The one tank we can depend on, Ct (a DK), is very good. We need another. Vl has access to the raid calendar and will post our raid for Wed/Thurs next week. I believe the other regulars will come if they have some assurance that we are, in fact, raiding again. Wild is hopeful.

In other, non-guild related news, Wild has decided to save his valor points to pick up the i397 chest piece should the Tier piece still elude him. Wild will have 1850 VPs once he sweeps through the LFR DS this week. If Wild gets really ambitious and runs four Heroics, he'll earn enough VPs for the chest this week. If not, he'll be able to get it on Tuesday.

Wild also decided to try the advice of a site called AskMrRobot. This site provides gear guidance. It's main feature is suggesting the optimum reforging strategy. JB has been using it somewhat blindly, since I'm not as familiar with the nuances of melee shaman gear as I am with Wild's gear. The main difference between Wild's current gear strategy and what askmrrobot recommends is basically how much spirit vs mastery to have. Wild has tried to keep his spirit as low as possible while still being able to heal without going out of mana. In the LFR this works fine. In real 10/25 mans, though, Wild fears that mana will become a serious issue. The site also recommends a much higher level of spirit than Wild currently has, and Wild decided to take that advice for his latest reforging.

The only wrinkle in the site's recommendations concern haste. Common practice for well geared resto druids is to have 2005 rating, or as close to it as you can without going below it. This assumes that Wild is in a raid and that someone in the raid is providing the 5% haste buff that is common in most raids. The site, however, recommends a lot more than that, which would seriously cramp Wild's mastery stats and would seem to contradict the standing guidance. I thought the site was trying to get Wild to the unbuffed (no 5%) haste rating, but that number is 2745, and Wild can only squeeze out a max of 2246 with his current gear. Yet, another site says that 2440 haste rating (unbuffed) is what's required (which Wild would still be short of).

I've read everything I can find on this and still can't get a clean answer. I stayed with the 2005 haste rating when reforging. I took the rest of the advice, and Wild improved his spirit total from 2276 to 2607. Wild will have to test that out and do a before-after comparison.