Wild Family Ninth Year (7 Jan 2013) - 2012 New Year's Report

Wild Family Ninth Year (7 Jan 2013) - 2012 New Year's Report

Last year’s report for 2011 had to be divided into two parts, Guilds and Raids (ie, guild drama), and Family Matters.

The biggest shock of the annual report for 2012 has to be that there was no guild drama. Wild is still a card carrying member of the MM2 guild (real name, Meitha) since he left MM (Mayhem) on 28 June. Hmm, well, that was only six months ago. Ok, so there was guild drama, I found the first sign of it in a 11 Jan post titled “Life Goes On.” Say la vie. 

It seemed appropriate that on Friday, 4 Jan 2013, a long time friend who had left the game for many months popped up in game. His name is Ristan, a fine druid tank who had just started the trek from level 85 to 90. Ristan is one of Wild’s cabal, which has dwindled to only two regulars: guild leader Bloodknuckle (known as Bd) and Tala (known as Lady Hunter). Ristan said he was back, for now, but wasn’t sure for how long. He chided Wild: “You haven’t leveled to 90 yet, what’s up with that?” I told him that Wild was semi-retired now, but that I had a new main, Fist, a level 90 blood elf monk. Ristan said he loved his druid tank too much to change, although he was still feeling his way with all the changes to druid tanking in MoP. Ristan was voice from a disappearing past.

With that in mind, take a walk with Wild through 2012.

Wild started off 2012 with an i384 gear score and had been a regular raider with the guild. He would end 2012 with a gear score of i422, good enough for dungeons but not good enough for raiding, not even LFR raiding.

JB made it to level 85 on 3 Jan, 2012.

The pvp team, Hunter Fortress, put away their bows on 16 Jan, after three months of inactivity. It was great while it lasted.

Wild’s Alliance Family,  Sista and Bruiserbabe, also went mostly on hiatus in January, but BB would pop up later in the Naithipe affair.

On 24 Jan, 2012, Cataclysm issued it’s last Cata content patch. The Dragon Soul raid nerfing began. Speaking of guild drama, I came across this on the same day:

“The end game boss story suddenly struck me:

Icecrown Citadel's Lich King - Nerf sticked to the max, but our guild grimly kept after him, going toe to toe 70+ times before killing him. We never gave up, and we brought him down. A grand accomplishment.

Fireland's Ragnaros - Dysfunctional raids, warring guilds, and absent raid leaders made a mess of things. Ragnaros never fell even though the Mf raid still tilts at that windmill once in awhile. A failure.

Dragon Soul's Deathwing - Dead on the same day Wild first stepped into DS via the raid finder. As for the guild raid, it's hard to see how either raid group will be able to beat even the nerfed content, or whether the guild will even care.

Wild thinks about what it would be like to be in a guild where raid progression was something to get excited about.”

On 5 Feb, 2012, Wild achieved the ultimate goal for him from the perspective of riding mounts - Wild finally earned the Raven Lord mount. It is far and away my favorite mount, even though it can’t fly and is so large Wild has to manually dismount when entering doorways.

On the same day, 5 Feb, JB earned her Raider badge with the guild, passing the guild tests for the required DPS.

Wild caused a titter on 23 Feb, when he surprised a guild raid by using his new microphone in vent. Wild NEVER talks in vent. It went like this: “ "Hey." That's all I said, but one would have thought that single word had come directly from Heaven. Vent went silent. "Who is that?" someone asked. "WILD!" Lady Hunter yelled. For the next five minutes the only thing on anyone's mind was getting Wild to say something in vent. Lady Hunter declared that she has known Wild for five years and never once heard me say a single word. Which was true. Wild was quite the celebrity for awhile, but eventually we got back to the task at hand.”

On April 14th, in a post titled “Girls Rock Out” JB got her first official invite to a guild Firelands raid. The G3 raid (yes, MM was running THREE raids at this juncture) ran on the weekend. JB made the run in melee spec and the group killed just one boss (the 5th boss, Baleroc - JB came in on the second night of the raid), but JB got her first regular (vs lfr) raid boss kill on this day. JB also defeated three Dragon Soul bosses (Morchok, Warlord, and Yor). Philly had gotten back into the saddle earlier in the month and was actively leveling via the pvp battlegrounds. She had reached level 83.

On 30 April, JB and DB joined up for an lfr Dragon Soul raid. I’m not sure if it was the first time they had raided together, but it was a good night, downing seven bosses.

Philly reached level 85 on 4 May, 2012.

On 10 May Wild took a break from raiding. MoP was still a long ways off and DS raiding had begun to get stale. There was also the release of Diablo 3, and that consumed my game time for awhile. The entire month of June was devoted to finishing Diablo 3.

On 5 Jun Wild had this to say: “Wild's replacement in the RG2 raid has four normal mode wins in the final Dragon Soul encounter, Madness of Deathwing. That was six raids/weeks ago. Wild's timing was perfect - he stopped raiding two weeks before the guild started to get DS on farm. Funny and sad, both. Wild is still better geared than the druid that got Wild's spot.

On 2 August, Naithipe contemplated the idea of having a daughter. The seed was sown for Plumrosefist. Here is the list of posts following this major story:

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/wednesday-15-aug-shattered-family.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/thursday-16-aug-walk-of-elders.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/monday-20-aug-seasons-change-for-azeroth.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/wednesday-22-aug-conundrum-of-naithipe.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/thursday-23-aug-in-her-own-head.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/monday-27-aug-lighting-fuse.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/wednesday-30-aug-images-of-shalandis.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/08/wednesday-30-aug-showdown-at-shalandis.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/monday-3-sep-waiting-game.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/wednesday-5-sep-cougar-jocey-eyes-boys.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/monday-17-sep-dress-rehearsal.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/friday-21-sep-house-of-wild-evolves.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/monday-24-sep-house-of-naithipe.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/tuesday-25-sep-wandering-isle-for.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/tuesday-still-25-sep-wandering-isle-is.html

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/09/thursday-27-sep-fist-wastes-no-time.html

Note that Patch 5.04, the pre-release of MoP, arrived on 28 August, with the full release coming on 25 September.

Fist’s march to Level 90 began on 27 Sep, 2012. Her capsule story, from level 1 to level 90, can be read here:

http://wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-magic-26-dec-ascendance-of.html

That wraps up the recap of 2012. Below is the annual review of the raid guilds Wild has been involved in over time. It seems strange to continue this, since Wild has not raided since 10 May, 2012.

MM2 (Meitha) - Wild’s current guild. Bloodknuckle GM
Total Members:    386 (2011), 487 (2012) - an increase of 101
Total 85/90s:    209 (2011), 85 (2012) - 286 if counting 85s +   
Raid Accomplishments: 3 ten man raid groups
Raid            Dec 2011    Dec 2012
Firelands         (6/7)        (6/7)
Dragon Soul     (1/8)        (8/8)
Heart of Fear    (0/6)        (0/7)
Mogu’Shan Vaults    (0/6)        (2/6)
Terrace .. Spring    (0/4)        (0/4)

MM (Mayhem) - Wild’s guild until June 2012. Kira/Wightblade GM
Total Members:    146 (2011),    102 (2012)    - a loss of 44
Total 85/90s:    81 (2011),    23 (2012)    - 72 if counting 85s +
Raid Accomplishments:
Firelands        (4/7)        (4/7)
Dragon Soul        (6/8)        (8/8)
Heart of Fear    (0/6)        (0/6)
Mogu’Shan Vaults    (0/6)        (0/6)
Terrace .. Spring    (0/4)        (0/4)

FS (Fate Sealed) - Wild’s longest serving guild. Ramux/Frohgurt GM.
Total Members:    131 (2011)    165 (2012) - an increase of 34
Total 85/90s:    66 (2011)    42 (2012) - 102 if counting 85s +
Raid Accomplishments:
Firelands        (6/7)        (6/7)
Dragon Soul        (6/8)        (8/8)
Heart of Fear    (0/6)        (0/6)
Mogu’Shan Vaults    (0/6)        (3/6)
Terrace .. Spring    (0/4)        (0/4)

WC (Warchild) - FS spin off. Rhonna GM
Total Members:    71 (2011)    70 (2012) - a loss of 1
Total 85s/90:    54 (2011)    15 (2012) - 51 if counting 85s +
Raid Accomplishments:
Firelands        (7/7)        (6/7)
Dragon Soul        (1/8)        (8/8)
Heart of Fear    (0/6)        (0/6)
Mogu’Shan Vaults    (0/6)        (0/6)
Terrace .. Spring    (0/4)        (0/4)

There’s not a lot that can be determined from the above, particularly the raiding, since MoP has been out less than two months. Frankly, despite Wild’s long absence from raiding, he really isn’t that far behind.