Wildshard Reaches Level 100

Wildshard Reaches Level 100

On 18 January, 2015, Wild reached level 100. There were no magnificent highlights to report, but the march through the quests was entertaining and mostly without any hiccups. This latest expansion seems - to me, anyway - pretty stable. It took Wild 59 days to complete the ten levels at a leisurely pace, once he gave up trying to level Jocy and Fist at the same time. By comparison, friend Almond did all ten levels in one long, protracted night.

Wild's Garrison is coming along, now that Wild is level 100. I never figured out why I couldn't  improve Wild's barracks to level two. My best guess is that I got the plans via a quest, and then gooned up the process of installing it. No matter. The problem was solved when, at level 100, I was able to buy new plans (1500 gold, ouch). Wild's Barracks is now level 2. The Town Hall is now level three, and I'm finally starting to disperse my followers to their own duties. It's still a work in progress, but Wild is getting there.

Once Wild reached level 100 he got an invitation to the Proving Grounds. Wild played around with this when it came out in the Pandaria expansion. Basically,  it lets a single player work on dungeon and raid mechanics and hone their skills without having to form a group. Apparently, there are no changes to the Proving Grounds since Patch 5.4 (Pandaria), which surprised me. Many, if not most, guilds who are or are planning to raid now require players to show their competence by doing the Proving Grounds. There are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Endless difficulty levels.

Why does Wild care about the Proving Grounds? Wild is starting to feel that itch - an itch to take down some elite raid bosses. Wild knows he isn't competent enough for that, yet. It's been more than two years since Wild last raided. But he's definitely thinking about it.

There are three raids (well, at least three that I have access to, not sure if there are others) - Draenor, Highmaul, and Blackrock Foundry. It also looks like Wild has at least the minimum gear level to enter the raids (Wild is at gear level i602). Theoretically, Wild is now able to join Looking For Raid (LFR) groups and Normal level groups right now.

Should Wild consider doing a few dungeon runs as both practice and to improve his gear? Of course, but I wouldn't want to subject "unproven" Wild to any group until I was sure Wild was competent enough. 

One word of warning, however: The LFR is what killed raiding for Wild. Joining a raid with a bunch of strangers and smash-mouthing our way to victory certainly helped Wild get nice gear, but it was boring and a waste of time if the LFR was all there was. The new raiding tiers give guilds incredible flexibility. Now, almost any guild can form a functional raid. If Wild's guild truly wants to raid as a guild, THEN the LFR is worth doing for the sake of helping prepare for real raids with a real guild and real friends.

That is the only enticement that might get Wild back into raiding.