Tuesday (7 Feb) - The Grind Continues

Tuesday (7 Feb) - The Grind Continues

The reset on Tuesday opened up the lfr once again for Wild and JB to pound through and collect their valor points and, hopefully, get a piece of gear or two. JB still has to get herself out there, but Wild pounded through all eight lfr Dragon Soul bosses on Tuesday night.

The battle was memorable only because Wild and the rest of the raid suffered through not just one, but two bad tanks. Wild rarely complains about tank troubles, as long as the tank is sincere and trying his best. Everybody has to learn sometime, and the lfr is the right place to get in that practice. That wasn't the problem. We started Siege of Deathwing one tank short, but it was easy enough to plow through at the start. Midway through the trash mobs on the second boss, we got our second tank, however, we killed the boss without him because while he was technically in the raid, he had not zoned in yet. We waited for him while killing trash, but he never responded and never zoned in and we kicked him. We got a new tank fairly quickly, and swept through the rest of the Siege.

Wild immediately queued up for Fall of Deathwing. We had some very weak DPS, managed to get through the first two bosses, but one tank got so frustrated about how long it was taking, and he bailed on us. We waited a bit, and got another tank, but oddly enough, he had the same issue as the tank in the Siege - he was in the raid, but not zoned in. We sent him Summons twice, and the talk started about kicking him. Whether coincidence or because he saw the talk of finding another tank, he did finally zone in. This tank immediately demanded that he be given the lead tank role. The tank we did have was doing a good job, however, and the raid leader told the new tank "not likely" and wouldn't do it. The new tank got pretty irate about it, but he was ignored and we started in on the third boss.

Wild started the fight main healing this new tank, but I realized halfway through that the tank was taking almost no damage. Wild shifted all his healing to the other tank (as well as continuing a steady stream of raid healing has I always do), leaving just a single HoT ticking on the new tank. When we finished up the third boss, Wild checked recount to see if anyone else had been healing him, and the answer was no. Apparently this guy was mad that he hadn't been made lead tank and so had simply stood around doing nothing.

Unfortunately, our other tank had to leave. We got a another tank, but the "make me lead tank"  idiot began demanding the lead tank role again and even showed us his uber achievements in completing both normal and heroic Dragon Soul. He immediately began making caustic remarks about the tank that had just joined us. When a vote popped up asking if Wild wanted to kick him, it was an easy choice. He was gone, we got a new tank, and we started in on the final encounter.

We wiped twice on the final encounter, as the low DPS took too long to kill things, but we finally took him down on our third try.

Wild got his 500 lfr valor points for the week, enough to get to 2200 VPs to buy anything he wanted from the VP vendor. Wild, sadly, doesn't think there is anything left to buy that he needs. But he'll check on that at some point before the night's raid.

Wild did get a drop, though. [Ledger of Revolting Rituals] is an i384 off-hand to replace Wild's current i378. It's a relatively minor upgrade and Wild will have to do some reforging as it will drop Wild's +haste rating below the minimum 2005 I need. It's still a nice pickup. Sadly, it's the ugliest piece of gear Wild has ever equipped. That's one piece of gear Wild is definitely going to mog (mm, I hope off-hand gear can be mogged). Wild had a shot at a shoulders token, too, but didn't win it.

As for healing the lfr, Wild has settled into a routine and doesn't pay that much attention to healing numbers. Wild did lead all healers in the Siege. In the Fall, however, there was another druid healer in the raid that did tons more healing than Wild did, and Wild wanted to know why. The short answer was that it wasn't his gear, which was better, but not that better. On a spell by spell basis, Wild's heals were not too far off from the other druid's. The big difference was quantity. That other healer cast a third more heals than Wild did. Perhaps Wild is not pushing himself hard enough. Food for thought.

There are signs that we are getting a little more organized with our raiding. Two recent posts on the guild website reiterated guild policy. The first regarded raid signups, which have been sloppy and getting worse. It might help ensure that guildies that Accepted on the raid calendar actually show up, but it won't help the problem of players signing up as Tentative and then deciding they don't want to go even if they're in game. The second post asked raiders for the days and times they are available to raid. I would guess they want to see if a better day/time might get more guildies to come to the raids. I'm betting fewer than fifteen guildies respond. Am I jaded or what?