Wednesday (8 Feb) - Wild's Mounts

Wednesday (8 Feb)  - Wild's Mounts

With the Raven Lord finally in his stables, Wild thought he'd count the noses of all his other mounts:

1 Abyssal Seahorse
3 Qiraji Battletanks (Blue, Green, and Yellow)
1 Drake Mount (Bronze)
2 Kodos (Brown, Great White)
2 Carpets (Flying, Magnificent Flying)
1 Ice Mammoth
1 Raven Lord
1 Swift Green Wind Rider
1 Swift Timber Wolf
1 Traveler's Tundra Mammoth
1 Tyrael's Charger
1 Winged Guardian

Well, there are fewer than I thought. Sixteen. Kind of sad, actually. There are other versions of the above mounts that Wild could buy (if there is a color in its name, there are likely others just like it of different colors), but really has no need for.

Silver pointed out that there is a Flaming version of Wild's Raven Lord. She has one, the lucky wench (sorry, I mean M'Lady - I'm on the 4th book of Game of Thrones where all women are either wenches or Ladies). The mount is a rare drop from Alysrazor in the Firelands, and is aptly nicknamed the Flaming Anzu. Not much chance of Wild getting that. There is another Firelands mount that would be cool to have: The Smoldering Egg of Mallagazor (or something like that) is a Fire Hawk. However, it's an even rarer drop from Ragnaros, the final boss in FL. I think Silver has this one, too, the wen ... well, never mind.

Wild might have to content himself with seeking the Flameward Hippogryph. Like Wild has mentioned before, he doesn't really care to collect mounts. This one looks fun to have, though, and Wild need only head back into the Molten Front and finish a few achievements to get it. I think Wild is going to see how much work that would be.

Wednesday Night Raiding - The Good and the Bad

Our raid leader could not make it Wednesday night. Vl had a death in the family. Our prayers are with her. Vl let Wild know early in the afternoon that she couldn't make it, and that her #2, Sb, would handle the raid.

Getting guildies into the raid was a long, sorry process. For the second straight week, our RG2 raid had been poached by the G1 raid, and we had lost a tank and a DPS that usually runs with us. I was getting pretty annoyed with that, and Wild had a long conversation with Bd after we were done for the night.

The first thing Wild wanted to know was how things were with Bd. It's great that he's back, but given the many Real Life issues that have plagued him I wondered for how long and how often he would be around to raid. Bd told Wild that his work schedule had settled and his other issues were behind him. Bd has three toons that are fully raid ready. Bd said that he is committed to the RG2 raid as his main raid, and will raid with his main toon (a tank). Bd will make his other two toons available to both G1 and RG2 as needed each week.

Here's the real issue, though. The G1 raids on Mon/Tues. The RG2 on Wed/Thurs. The raid reset is on Tuesday morning. So, guildies who want to raid with RG2 can raid with G1 on Monday and still be able to raid with RG2. However, any guildie toon raiding with G1 on Tuesday cannot raid with RG2 that week. They're locked out. What has been routinely happening is that when the raid leader for G1 pulls his raid together on Tuesday night, no consideration is given to the fact that one or more of the guildies he asked to come are guildies that raid with RG2. When Wednesday night comes RG2 ends up filling the last spots in the raid with guildie alts that are not as geared as those plucked up by G1, and lose likely raiders who already raided with G1 and don't really want to raid again that week.

Bd revealed another issue that I knew nothing about. The guild has been successful at bringing more players into the guild. Wild sees the new names now and then, and even ran with some in the LFR. Apparently, the G1 raid leader has been recruiting them for his raid with no consideration for the other raid in the guild. It's not an intentional slight on RG2; it's just that the G1 raid leader has actively sought out the new guildies and the RG2 hasn't. The bottom line is that, whether by accident or design, the G1 raid has been getting the first picks for his raid for both current raiders and new raiders, with RG2 getting whatever was left. It's a wonder we've been able to fill our RG2 raid at all. Bd has been working behind the scenes with the other raid leaders and officers. The intent is to stabilize both raids, firm up raid membership in both raids, and give new guildies the same opportunity to commit to one of our raids.

We were 45 minutes late getting started on our raid, and ran with a third healer (to replace Vl) who was on an alt and had yet to enter Dragon Soul. Our overall DPS was again low, but improved over last week. Bd slipped back into his role of talking through each fight and then tweaking the results with whispers to raiders about things he'd observed. Wild made the healing assignments and got acknowledgement from the other healers. Bd missed it, though, and at the first boss he was going to do that, but Wild chimed in with a "I've already taken care of that."  Pl chimed in, "yea, Bd, we got it." Our three healers were Wild and two holy priests, so Wild set the priests on the tanks and Wild took raid healing.

We had one wipe on the first boss, Morchok, but that was because Wild DCed in the middle of the fight, and was dead when I got back in game. Not knowing Wild had DCed, they tried to battle rez me and of course the brez failed. We brought Morchok down easily the second time around. The new priest healer was well behind the other two healers, though, and Bd asked Wild to take over healing the main tank for the rest of the evening.

Here is where we get to the bad. We made six attempts on Yor, the second boss with the many oozes. We simply made too many mistakes. The fight is not that hard, but it is pretty unforgiving if not done right. To help with the fight, even Wild did some DPS, dropping Moonfire and Insect swarm DoTs on the targeted oozes. We did get better, bringing Yor down to 21% on our best attempt. The G1 raid has downed both Yor and the third boss, Ozz, but they got both bosses just last week after pounding their heads on Yor for weeks, just as we are doing. I'm not discouraged, just anxious to finally get our kill. Once we down him once, the confidence will soar. And I want to catch up with G1!