Wednesday - (11 Jan) Life Goes On
Wild's confidence that the second guild raid group is ever going to be viable again has diminished week by week to the point of wishful thinking. Wild can no longer hope that Bd will suddenly re-emerge from his many real life issues and again lead our raid. Lady Hunter has again taken over the helm, scheduling raids for the past last three weeks. The response has been tepid at best and not enough raiders have showed up to actually raid. This week looks to be more of the same - there are many signed up as "tentative" but only two Accepted the raid invite. Wild wasn't there Wednesday night as we have a dinner engagement. Wild will dutifully appear on Thursday, but there is little hope that a raid will be run. On the other hand, The Mf/G1 group continues to field a raid Mon/Tues each week. On Tuesday they finally killed the second boss in Dragon Soul, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping. Wild cheered when he saw that, as he wants them to succeed. Wild's personal raid wishes remain unfulfilled. Wild hasn't heard back from the MM guild, which, as reported last week, is merging with another guild to improve their raiding team. Wild expressed interest in being a part of that, but my gut says it won't happen. There are deep rifts between MM and MM2. Wild might be welcomed personally by MM, but, as part of the cabal in MM2, seeming to court Wild could spark drama that MM wants no part of. Wild was also stunned when he checked the MM website, trying to get more info on the merger. I was able to find my login information and Wild still had access to the site. It's a dead site. At least the forums are dead. There hasn't been a post on that site since Jan of 2011, and Wild has access to the Private forums as well as the public ones. MM has a new Guild Master, too, Ld, who I know. The old GM, Wb, is still in the guild as the #2. My best guess is that the guild known as MM will not survive the merger. Either the merged guilds will use the other guild's name, or they will start a new guild with a fresh name. I'll be watching both Ld and Wb to see if their guild name changes.
Wild's troubles are good news for JB, who has been getting lots of in game time. JB has kept Happy content by earning gear upgrades through questing and rep rewards without incurring heavy costs. So far. JB's melee gear is now at i338, a remarkable accomplishment for her. There is no longer any reason JB shouldn't be taking on normal Cata dungeons to gain group experience, practice her arts, and learn the dungeons on normal mode to be prepared for Heroics. JB says she's not yet ready. She wants gear that are high enough quality it's worth the cost to enchant them. Enchants are expensive; even the many that Wild can make himself have high mat costs these days. JB hasn't reached the rep to get a head enchant, yet, either. Good reasons, or just excuses?
JB keeps checking the AH, too, for gear bargains, but they have been hard to come by. It's a bit frustrating. Wild, being a healer, is always on the lookout for good bargains as well. The druid healer gear is always a lot more expensive that the feral gear (the +agi gear). With JB it is just the opposite. The shaman healing gear is very cheap compared to the +agi melee gear; but it's the agi gear that JB needs. Sigh.
As chance would have it, Thursday morning a pair if i359 agi boots popped up on the AH. JB had the 400g to buy it, and buy it she did. That was an upgrade from an i312 pair and jumped her gear level to i341. Wow.
Philly has gotten some game time, too. With JB's activity, the family felt it was time for Philly to put some effort into her jewelcrafting to defray some of those costs. Philly is doing her JC dailies now, and has learned both the +40 int gem cut Wild uses most often, and the +40 agi gem cut that JB most needs.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Weekend - (8 Jan) It's the Weekend! Mostly Yawn ...
Weekend - (8 Jan) It's the Weekend! Mostly Yawn ...
JB was front and center this weekend. On Friday she upgraded her relic from i316 to i346, moving her gear score up another notch to i327. JB can now use the Dungeon Finder for both normal and Heroic Cata dungeons. Her first priority is to continue the rep grind. However, she also wants to fit in dungeon runs, too. The plan is to get comfortable with normal dungeon runs, maybe get a few gear upgrades, but more importantly, build up the justice points to get two pieces of T11 gear (i378). That would give JB a nice two piece set bonus, and by then she may be ready to start on the Heroic dungeons and valor points. We're talking a minimum of four weeks, probably five. That is, if JB doesn't come down with the same OHNO!-itis Wild has in regard to Cata dungeon runs.
Speaking of Wild, JB was curious about when Wild reached the i325 gear level, which opened the Heroic dungeons to him. Hmmm, Wild?
Wild thought about it. Well, he mused, I know when I entered my first Cata Heroic. It was Throne of the Tides, on 19 Jan 2011, but Wild's gear was already at i346. Getting the exact point that Wild hit i325 was a bit more challenging, but Wild has extensive records, and finally found it - 2 Jan, 2011. Wild noticed another interesting milestone - at the time Wild was getting his gear score to i346 and entering cata Heroics, JB DINGED to - level 81. It took her almost a year longer to reach level 85.
Saturday/Sunday - JB has continued to make progress on her gear, and is now at i331. This has come from mostly small upgrades from questing, and rep upgrades now that she has achieved Revered with the Therazane faction. That faction offers six dailies every day, which help her not only with faction rep, but with gold and rep with the guild. She is almost to Friendly with the guild. At Friendly, JB can get a guild tabard that increases rep awards by 50%.
JB has run into a problem, however. JB needs Ramkahen faction rep in order to get access to the +agi head enchant. The Ramkahen faction is based in Uldum. Normally JB would earn rep through questing in Uldum and doing dailies. Well, JB has done a ton of Uldum quests over the weekend, and they yield no Ramkahen rep at all. JB doesn't get much guild rep, either. JB was resigned to grinding dailies to get the rep, but the Ramkahen faction only has two dailies. Two! The faster way to earn Ramkahen rep is running dungeons while wearing the Ramkahen tabard. JB may be pressed into dungeon runs sooner than she wanted.
JB spent most of Sunday night in Uldum, completing the Raiders of the Lost Ark quest chain that is my favorite all time. I wish there were a way to experience that quest chain without having to level a new character to level 85 each time. It is a blast! and JB had as much fun doing them as Wild did when he did them. JB took a screenshot at the end of the quest chain:
When JB retired for the night she had reached Friendly with the guild and had improved her gear score to i335.
JB was front and center this weekend. On Friday she upgraded her relic from i316 to i346, moving her gear score up another notch to i327. JB can now use the Dungeon Finder for both normal and Heroic Cata dungeons. Her first priority is to continue the rep grind. However, she also wants to fit in dungeon runs, too. The plan is to get comfortable with normal dungeon runs, maybe get a few gear upgrades, but more importantly, build up the justice points to get two pieces of T11 gear (i378). That would give JB a nice two piece set bonus, and by then she may be ready to start on the Heroic dungeons and valor points. We're talking a minimum of four weeks, probably five. That is, if JB doesn't come down with the same OHNO!-itis Wild has in regard to Cata dungeon runs.
Speaking of Wild, JB was curious about when Wild reached the i325 gear level, which opened the Heroic dungeons to him. Hmmm, Wild?
Wild thought about it. Well, he mused, I know when I entered my first Cata Heroic. It was Throne of the Tides, on 19 Jan 2011, but Wild's gear was already at i346. Getting the exact point that Wild hit i325 was a bit more challenging, but Wild has extensive records, and finally found it - 2 Jan, 2011. Wild noticed another interesting milestone - at the time Wild was getting his gear score to i346 and entering cata Heroics, JB DINGED to - level 81. It took her almost a year longer to reach level 85.
Saturday/Sunday - JB has continued to make progress on her gear, and is now at i331. This has come from mostly small upgrades from questing, and rep upgrades now that she has achieved Revered with the Therazane faction. That faction offers six dailies every day, which help her not only with faction rep, but with gold and rep with the guild. She is almost to Friendly with the guild. At Friendly, JB can get a guild tabard that increases rep awards by 50%.
JB has run into a problem, however. JB needs Ramkahen faction rep in order to get access to the +agi head enchant. The Ramkahen faction is based in Uldum. Normally JB would earn rep through questing in Uldum and doing dailies. Well, JB has done a ton of Uldum quests over the weekend, and they yield no Ramkahen rep at all. JB doesn't get much guild rep, either. JB was resigned to grinding dailies to get the rep, but the Ramkahen faction only has two dailies. Two! The faster way to earn Ramkahen rep is running dungeons while wearing the Ramkahen tabard. JB may be pressed into dungeon runs sooner than she wanted.
JB spent most of Sunday night in Uldum, completing the Raiders of the Lost Ark quest chain that is my favorite all time. I wish there were a way to experience that quest chain without having to level a new character to level 85 each time. It is a blast! and JB had as much fun doing them as Wild did when he did them. JB took a screenshot at the end of the quest chain:
JB with "Harrison Jones" and his "Father"
When JB retired for the night she had reached Friendly with the guild and had improved her gear score to i335.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday (5 Jan) - At Least JB Had Fun
Thursday (5 Jan) - At Least JB Had Fun
JB is having fun doing her dailies and practicing her melee combat skills. She has pretty much cleared Deepholm and has started on Uldum (another zone where she needs to earn faction reputation). Wild had a blast in Uldum, and I hope JB does, too. On the gear front I really thought that JB could take a shortcut via the Auction House, at least up to around the i359 level. Sure, there are some nice BoE pieces that JB would love to have, but Happy has been adamant that the prices are too high. One area where I really thought we could make headway on is her weapons. She dual wields, so she needs two weapons. She's had her current i333 pair of fist weapons for a very long time (given to JB courtesy of Philly's jewelcrafting skills). Now level 85, JB now had her eye on a pair of [Tremendous Tankard O' Terror] maces at i365. The problem was that the sellers refused to drop prices below 2500 gold, and Happy knew - KNEW! - that they could be had for less. Happy couldn't deliver, though, and JB turned to her alliance cousin, Lost.
Lost came to the rescue, securing two tankards at 950g each on the Alliance AH. It was a lucky stroke, too, because shortly after making the purchases four more tankards went up for sale at over 2k gold each.
JB now had her new weapons, an upgrade that jumped her gear score from i321 to i325. She wasn't, done, though. The two weapons still needed enchants. JB's fist weapons had been enchanted with Avalanche, a good enchant for melee shamans, but not the best. Avalanche could be had for under a 100g. The best weapon enchant for JB's weapons, though, is Landslide. Landslide enchants cost 2,000 gold each on the AH. Did enchanter Wild have that recipe? No, Wild didn't. But for five Maelstrom crystals (about 750g) he could buy the enchant from the local vendor in Orgrimmar. The mats for that enchant, though, were very expensive as well. When all was said and done, Wild got his new enchanting spell, and used his own mats to craft JB a pair of Landslides. Happy calculated the total cost at 3200g, plus 750g for the recipe, or almost double what the weapons themselves cost. JB is grinning from ear to ear.
Wild's fun ended when he finished helping JB. The Thursday evening scheduled raid with Lady Hunter never got off the ground, and Lady Hunter never showed up. Wild has to admit that there is no G2/Lady Hunter/Bd raid anymore (Bd having not been seen in more than a week). Wild also has to admit that the Mf led G1 raid has no spot for him, either. Mf has a solid core of raiders, and I give them credit for getting in their two-nights a week raids. They don't have much to show for it, though. They spend their first night still trying to kill Ragnaros in the Firelands. The second night is in Dragon Soul, where they have yet to kill the second boss.
Wild is going to be looking for a PUG DS 10 or 25 over the weekend.
JB is having fun doing her dailies and practicing her melee combat skills. She has pretty much cleared Deepholm and has started on Uldum (another zone where she needs to earn faction reputation). Wild had a blast in Uldum, and I hope JB does, too. On the gear front I really thought that JB could take a shortcut via the Auction House, at least up to around the i359 level. Sure, there are some nice BoE pieces that JB would love to have, but Happy has been adamant that the prices are too high. One area where I really thought we could make headway on is her weapons. She dual wields, so she needs two weapons. She's had her current i333 pair of fist weapons for a very long time (given to JB courtesy of Philly's jewelcrafting skills). Now level 85, JB now had her eye on a pair of [Tremendous Tankard O' Terror] maces at i365. The problem was that the sellers refused to drop prices below 2500 gold, and Happy knew - KNEW! - that they could be had for less. Happy couldn't deliver, though, and JB turned to her alliance cousin, Lost.
Lost came to the rescue, securing two tankards at 950g each on the Alliance AH. It was a lucky stroke, too, because shortly after making the purchases four more tankards went up for sale at over 2k gold each.
JB now had her new weapons, an upgrade that jumped her gear score from i321 to i325. She wasn't, done, though. The two weapons still needed enchants. JB's fist weapons had been enchanted with Avalanche, a good enchant for melee shamans, but not the best. Avalanche could be had for under a 100g. The best weapon enchant for JB's weapons, though, is Landslide. Landslide enchants cost 2,000 gold each on the AH. Did enchanter Wild have that recipe? No, Wild didn't. But for five Maelstrom crystals (about 750g) he could buy the enchant from the local vendor in Orgrimmar. The mats for that enchant, though, were very expensive as well. When all was said and done, Wild got his new enchanting spell, and used his own mats to craft JB a pair of Landslides. Happy calculated the total cost at 3200g, plus 750g for the recipe, or almost double what the weapons themselves cost. JB is grinning from ear to ear.
Wild's fun ended when he finished helping JB. The Thursday evening scheduled raid with Lady Hunter never got off the ground, and Lady Hunter never showed up. Wild has to admit that there is no G2/Lady Hunter/Bd raid anymore (Bd having not been seen in more than a week). Wild also has to admit that the Mf led G1 raid has no spot for him, either. Mf has a solid core of raiders, and I give them credit for getting in their two-nights a week raids. They don't have much to show for it, though. They spend their first night still trying to kill Ragnaros in the Firelands. The second night is in Dragon Soul, where they have yet to kill the second boss.
Wild is going to be looking for a PUG DS 10 or 25 over the weekend.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Tuesday (3 Jan) - Jezzibael DINGS!
Tuesday (3 Jan) - Jezzibael DINGS!
JB wrapped up her campaign in Deepholm on Tuesday night, reaching level 85 around midnight. There were a few guildies still in game, and JB got some congratulations for the achievement, although I doubt anyone knew that JB was related to Wild.
Where she goes from here is still somewhat up in the air. JB is keeping her enhancement spec as her main spec, with healing as her off-spec. Her healing off-spec might only be for pvp, however. JB's equipped gear score is i321, and she'll have her work cut out for her to build on that. JB intends to start doing dailies to raise the faction reputation required to get key enchantments only available through those factions, as well as some gear upgrades.
Stats-wise JB must work on increasing expertise to the cap as a priority, which lowers the percent chance a mob will dodge or parry a blow. JB is currently ok with +hit with a 634 hit rating, which exceeds the required minimum 615 hit rating for dungeon bosses. JB will have to get her hit rating all the way to 1742 for raid bosses. Once hit and expertise stats reach the cap, the goal is maximizing +Agi and +Mastery.
I had to do a complete restructuring of JB's user interface. She has had so many different specs there were spells scattered all over the place. For leveling all I did was clean up her attack spell priorities and set them into keyboard shortcuts. Now it was time to fix the rest of it. It seemed pretty overwhelming at first - shaman have SO MANY spells! However, JB has an addon called Totem Timer, and that greatly helped organize JB's totems into the three castable groups as well as a "by type" grouping so JB could find individual totems without having to clutter up buttons/bars. JB also needed some macros to support AoE DPS functions. I wanted them separate from the mouseover macros I was using for single target attacks. JB worried about aggroing things that she shouldn't be. JB still has to go out and test some the changes to make sure they all work as expected.
JB is also looking for a mentor to help her prepare for dungeon runs as a melee player. It's one thing to read about spell priorities and general do's and don'ts; it's quite another to learn and understand an enhancement shaman's full role and duties in a group of players. JB has been a loner her whole life; playing nice with others is a whole 'nother ball game.
Here is what JB has come up with on her own. But she wonders what she's missing.
1 - JB's single target attacks are properly prioritized and ready to rock
2 - AoE macros should help JB maximize their effectiveness
3 - JB's Interrupt is Wind Shear, which is good only on stopping spell casting. JB will need to learn when to use it.
4 - JB has two spells to temporarily take mobs out of the action: (1) Hex affects beasts and humans, turning them into frogs; (2) Bound Elementals immobilizes elementals, obviously.
5 - JB has a separate bar with her single and AoE heal spells, should they be needed.
Next up is to lay out what reputation she needs to start grinding.
JB wrapped up her campaign in Deepholm on Tuesday night, reaching level 85 around midnight. There were a few guildies still in game, and JB got some congratulations for the achievement, although I doubt anyone knew that JB was related to Wild.
Where she goes from here is still somewhat up in the air. JB is keeping her enhancement spec as her main spec, with healing as her off-spec. Her healing off-spec might only be for pvp, however. JB's equipped gear score is i321, and she'll have her work cut out for her to build on that. JB intends to start doing dailies to raise the faction reputation required to get key enchantments only available through those factions, as well as some gear upgrades.
Stats-wise JB must work on increasing expertise to the cap as a priority, which lowers the percent chance a mob will dodge or parry a blow. JB is currently ok with +hit with a 634 hit rating, which exceeds the required minimum 615 hit rating for dungeon bosses. JB will have to get her hit rating all the way to 1742 for raid bosses. Once hit and expertise stats reach the cap, the goal is maximizing +Agi and +Mastery.
I had to do a complete restructuring of JB's user interface. She has had so many different specs there were spells scattered all over the place. For leveling all I did was clean up her attack spell priorities and set them into keyboard shortcuts. Now it was time to fix the rest of it. It seemed pretty overwhelming at first - shaman have SO MANY spells! However, JB has an addon called Totem Timer, and that greatly helped organize JB's totems into the three castable groups as well as a "by type" grouping so JB could find individual totems without having to clutter up buttons/bars. JB also needed some macros to support AoE DPS functions. I wanted them separate from the mouseover macros I was using for single target attacks. JB worried about aggroing things that she shouldn't be. JB still has to go out and test some the changes to make sure they all work as expected.
JB is also looking for a mentor to help her prepare for dungeon runs as a melee player. It's one thing to read about spell priorities and general do's and don'ts; it's quite another to learn and understand an enhancement shaman's full role and duties in a group of players. JB has been a loner her whole life; playing nice with others is a whole 'nother ball game.
Here is what JB has come up with on her own. But she wonders what she's missing.
1 - JB's single target attacks are properly prioritized and ready to rock
2 - AoE macros should help JB maximize their effectiveness
3 - JB's Interrupt is Wind Shear, which is good only on stopping spell casting. JB will need to learn when to use it.
4 - JB has two spells to temporarily take mobs out of the action: (1) Hex affects beasts and humans, turning them into frogs; (2) Bound Elementals immobilizes elementals, obviously.
5 - JB has a separate bar with her single and AoE heal spells, should they be needed.
Next up is to lay out what reputation she needs to start grinding.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Recapping the Year 2011 Part 2 - Family Business
Recapping the Year 2011 Part 2 - Family Business
At the start of 2011 the Alliance pvp team of Sista, Maiy, and Kire had just started out. Sista and Maiy were the first of the Worgen race to join the families and they were very excited to become a part of the team in the level 10-14 battlegrounds. With the sometime help of Rakta, who mostly operates the transfer of goods between the Alliance and Horde on the neutral AH, there were battles galore as well as trips into Ragefire Cavern and Deadmines.
Happy, the entrepreneur of the Horde Auction House, had a radical makeover for the New Year, deciding that he was tired of being a troll and transformed himself into a Goblin. Goblins are the money makers of Azeroth, and Happy felt it was only fitting that he be one. Ya gotta like those big ears, too. Happy also wanted to include a special Thank You! to Lao in this recap. In April a conversation between Lao and Happy resulted in Happy starting to stock Cata enchanting material, which until then he had not been interested in. On Lao's advice, Happy began trading those mats, and have been thousands and thousands of gold happier ever since.
JB has been an on again off again project. She didn't know who she wanted to be. From Jan 2011: "JB used to be enhancement, and used to be elemental, and used to be restoration. She used to be pve before she was pvp. She had gear from all three specs as well as pvp gear cluttering up her bags and her bank." JB was still level 80 and only just starting to explore the new areas of Northrend, primarily to pick flowers for her Alchemy profession.
Did you know that JB was the second character to join the Wild family? Even before Happy? JB was born on May 19, 2005. She started as a miner and skinner. The background and history of most of our family members was explored in this post, for those interested:
Special Report - What's in a Name
JB wasn't the only family member undergoing a mini-crisis. Mery had leveled to 56 but had the gear of a level 40. She would continue to struggle throughout the year, having to fight for game time with Wild, JB, and Sista.
In the DER family warlock Daeth was busy leveling like a madman, eventually winning the Four Family award for adding the most levels in a single year. See the report on all of the level grinding for the year at the bottom of the post.
In February Hunter Fortress exploded onto the scene: "The Hunter Fortress, or "Four Tresses" if one prefers, wasn't a fly by night operation. There were days of planning and preparation by Seenoevil, Hearnoevils (Shevils), Speaknoevil, and Beanoevil - weapons, gear, flasks, enchants, etc, were all laid out. Each hunter had to battle through their home zones and break free from those bonds." These four hunters would wage serious war on the alliance throughout the year, wearing their trademark guild tabards and blue lumberjack shirts. Here is one estimate of their earliest experience:
"Speak - veteran of many battles (two so far), and lots of experience with kinfolk
See - another veteran with experience, but his first time as a hunter
Beano - a raw recruit, eager to show her mettle
Shevils - AWOL, who knows if this girl can tie her own shoelaces"
It was Bean who proved the most impressive in that first great battle in Warsong Gulch when she earned the Wrecking Ball achievement for getting 20 killing blows without dying. Want to see the results of that battle? Check out
Wrecking Ball
Hunter Fortress continued to attract new recruits, such as pvpers Unbleached and Pong, as well as guest pvpers like Jocy.
Naithipe came and went throughout the year, as silent and secretive as ever ... except once, when DER drew her out of the shadows with a challenge. For that momentous exchange, see
Naithipe and DER Sparring
When Sista joined the alliance family, her older brother Java was suddenly the odd man out. In March, though, Java started getting game time for pvp. Dungeon runs followed. All of this leveling effort was done solo, too. Java liked working on his own, but a partner was so much better. In April Java finally leveled high enough for Kire to join him the dungeon runs. They were a blast and both leveled swiftly.
In June of 2011 the Three Families became the Four Families. Lao was a card carrying Horde member of the Order of the Dragon guild. But Lao had a secret . . . in the wee hours of an ordinary June day Lao pulled a trifecta, slipping into a secretive guise as, not Horde, but Alliance, and not Silvermoon, but Boulderfist. She came to a new guild in the remarkable disguise of a Gnome instead of her natural blood elf self, and her new name was Tea. We can only hope that her disguise is never compromised.
Tea (alias Lao) made herself at home in her new guild, GoH, and made friends of a sort with DER's cousin Eowyn, also in GoH. There was talk that Java should join them, but Java had never gotten over seeing Sista being the favorite. Java declined. So, in August, a new death knight escaped her prison over the Plaguelands and the twosome became a threesome in Boulderfist, welcoming BB to the team and the guild. Soon after that the Silvermoon Alliance family made their own farewell to Sista, who crossed realms as Tea did to join BB. Java and his sister, Chaitee, had a fond reunion and live quietly in Stormwind.
The Wild Family is not all about pvp and raiding and leveling and gear, however ... well, maybe raiding ... ahem. There is also sometimes pure fun with no ulterior motive. That was the case when about half of Wild's family had a blast playing a fun and frustrating game within a game Wild dubbed
Lawn of the Dead
And that is the full report. As promised, though, below is the complete list of toons associated with the Four Families: Wild, DER, Sis, and Silver, on two realms, Silvermoon and Boulderfist. Should any of this recap be wrong, it's not my fault! And by the way, Happy New Year!
The Wildshard clan
2010 level (2011 level)
(++) = has passed on and is no longer with us
(??) = uncertain
85 (85) - Wild
80 (84) - JB
80 (82) - Philly
63 (63) - Melasahnd
32 (61) - Java (alliance)
56 (60) - Mery
46 (47) - EZ
23 (27) - Jocey
22 (23) - Happy
20 (21) - Chaitee (alliance)
16 (16) - Hap
13 (13) - Rakta (alliance)
11 (12) - Lost (alliance)
11 (++) - Slash
11 (++) - Deth
?? (??) - Naithipe (she's still shy about her level)
The DER/Sis/Silver clans (I can't tell with some toons who was with who so ya'll get lumped together)
80 (85) - Sis
80 (85) - Sin the Elder
80 (80) - DER
59 (59) - Myst
59 (59) - Red
48 (++) - Ando
30 (71) - Daeth (alliance)
29 (33) - Unbleached (alliance)
29 (29) - Sin the Hunter (alliance)
28 (++) - Sin the Warlock (alliance)
28 (++) - Sin the Younger
28 (28) - Esor (alliance)
20 (20) - El
20 (++) - Andro
14 (14) - Neek (alliance)
11 (11) - Jab
Newcomers in Boulderfist
85 - Silver (Silver Family)
72 (85) - Tea (formerly Lao, Sis Family)
70 - Eowyn (DER Family)
70 - Congou (Sis Family)
63 - BB (Wild Family)
60 - Sista (Wild Family)
Other Newcomers
32 - Speak (DER family)
30 - Hear/Shevils (Wild Family)
30 - See (Sis Family)
30 - Pong (DER family, MM2)
29 - Acid (Family ?)
25 - Bean (Wild Family)
Based on the above, the "Best Leveler" awards go to:
Daeth: 30 --> 71 (41 levels)
Java: 32 --> 61 (29 levels)
Tea: 72 --> 85 (13 levels)
Additionally, special mention goes to the newcomers born in 2011 who made huge leaps in leveling (sorry, DKs don't count): Eowyn (70), Congou (70), and Sista (60).
At the start of 2011 the Alliance pvp team of Sista, Maiy, and Kire had just started out. Sista and Maiy were the first of the Worgen race to join the families and they were very excited to become a part of the team in the level 10-14 battlegrounds. With the sometime help of Rakta, who mostly operates the transfer of goods between the Alliance and Horde on the neutral AH, there were battles galore as well as trips into Ragefire Cavern and Deadmines.
Happy, the entrepreneur of the Horde Auction House, had a radical makeover for the New Year, deciding that he was tired of being a troll and transformed himself into a Goblin. Goblins are the money makers of Azeroth, and Happy felt it was only fitting that he be one. Ya gotta like those big ears, too. Happy also wanted to include a special Thank You! to Lao in this recap. In April a conversation between Lao and Happy resulted in Happy starting to stock Cata enchanting material, which until then he had not been interested in. On Lao's advice, Happy began trading those mats, and have been thousands and thousands of gold happier ever since.
JB has been an on again off again project. She didn't know who she wanted to be. From Jan 2011: "JB used to be enhancement, and used to be elemental, and used to be restoration. She used to be pve before she was pvp. She had gear from all three specs as well as pvp gear cluttering up her bags and her bank." JB was still level 80 and only just starting to explore the new areas of Northrend, primarily to pick flowers for her Alchemy profession.
Did you know that JB was the second character to join the Wild family? Even before Happy? JB was born on May 19, 2005. She started as a miner and skinner. The background and history of most of our family members was explored in this post, for those interested:
Special Report - What's in a Name
JB wasn't the only family member undergoing a mini-crisis. Mery had leveled to 56 but had the gear of a level 40. She would continue to struggle throughout the year, having to fight for game time with Wild, JB, and Sista.
In the DER family warlock Daeth was busy leveling like a madman, eventually winning the Four Family award for adding the most levels in a single year. See the report on all of the level grinding for the year at the bottom of the post.
In February Hunter Fortress exploded onto the scene: "The Hunter Fortress, or "Four Tresses" if one prefers, wasn't a fly by night operation. There were days of planning and preparation by Seenoevil, Hearnoevils (Shevils), Speaknoevil, and Beanoevil - weapons, gear, flasks, enchants, etc, were all laid out. Each hunter had to battle through their home zones and break free from those bonds." These four hunters would wage serious war on the alliance throughout the year, wearing their trademark guild tabards and blue lumberjack shirts. Here is one estimate of their earliest experience:
"Speak - veteran of many battles (two so far), and lots of experience with kinfolk
See - another veteran with experience, but his first time as a hunter
Beano - a raw recruit, eager to show her mettle
Shevils - AWOL, who knows if this girl can tie her own shoelaces"
It was Bean who proved the most impressive in that first great battle in Warsong Gulch when she earned the Wrecking Ball achievement for getting 20 killing blows without dying. Want to see the results of that battle? Check out
Wrecking Ball
Hunter Fortress continued to attract new recruits, such as pvpers Unbleached and Pong, as well as guest pvpers like Jocy.
Naithipe came and went throughout the year, as silent and secretive as ever ... except once, when DER drew her out of the shadows with a challenge. For that momentous exchange, see
Naithipe and DER Sparring
When Sista joined the alliance family, her older brother Java was suddenly the odd man out. In March, though, Java started getting game time for pvp. Dungeon runs followed. All of this leveling effort was done solo, too. Java liked working on his own, but a partner was so much better. In April Java finally leveled high enough for Kire to join him the dungeon runs. They were a blast and both leveled swiftly.
In June of 2011 the Three Families became the Four Families. Lao was a card carrying Horde member of the Order of the Dragon guild. But Lao had a secret . . . in the wee hours of an ordinary June day Lao pulled a trifecta, slipping into a secretive guise as, not Horde, but Alliance, and not Silvermoon, but Boulderfist. She came to a new guild in the remarkable disguise of a Gnome instead of her natural blood elf self, and her new name was Tea. We can only hope that her disguise is never compromised.
Tea (alias Lao) made herself at home in her new guild, GoH, and made friends of a sort with DER's cousin Eowyn, also in GoH. There was talk that Java should join them, but Java had never gotten over seeing Sista being the favorite. Java declined. So, in August, a new death knight escaped her prison over the Plaguelands and the twosome became a threesome in Boulderfist, welcoming BB to the team and the guild. Soon after that the Silvermoon Alliance family made their own farewell to Sista, who crossed realms as Tea did to join BB. Java and his sister, Chaitee, had a fond reunion and live quietly in Stormwind.
The Wild Family is not all about pvp and raiding and leveling and gear, however ... well, maybe raiding ... ahem. There is also sometimes pure fun with no ulterior motive. That was the case when about half of Wild's family had a blast playing a fun and frustrating game within a game Wild dubbed
Lawn of the Dead
And that is the full report. As promised, though, below is the complete list of toons associated with the Four Families: Wild, DER, Sis, and Silver, on two realms, Silvermoon and Boulderfist. Should any of this recap be wrong, it's not my fault! And by the way, Happy New Year!
The Wildshard clan
2010 level (2011 level)
(++) = has passed on and is no longer with us
(??) = uncertain
85 (85) - Wild
80 (84) - JB
80 (82) - Philly
63 (63) - Melasahnd
32 (61) - Java (alliance)
56 (60) - Mery
46 (47) - EZ
23 (27) - Jocey
22 (23) - Happy
20 (21) - Chaitee (alliance)
16 (16) - Hap
13 (13) - Rakta (alliance)
11 (12) - Lost (alliance)
11 (++) - Slash
11 (++) - Deth
?? (??) - Naithipe (she's still shy about her level)
The DER/Sis/Silver clans (I can't tell with some toons who was with who so ya'll get lumped together)
80 (85) - Sis
80 (85) - Sin the Elder
80 (80) - DER
59 (59) - Myst
59 (59) - Red
48 (++) - Ando
30 (71) - Daeth (alliance)
29 (33) - Unbleached (alliance)
29 (29) - Sin the Hunter (alliance)
28 (++) - Sin the Warlock (alliance)
28 (++) - Sin the Younger
28 (28) - Esor (alliance)
20 (20) - El
20 (++) - Andro
14 (14) - Neek (alliance)
11 (11) - Jab
Newcomers in Boulderfist
85 - Silver (Silver Family)
72 (85) - Tea (formerly Lao, Sis Family)
70 - Eowyn (DER Family)
70 - Congou (Sis Family)
63 - BB (Wild Family)
60 - Sista (Wild Family)
Other Newcomers
32 - Speak (DER family)
30 - Hear/Shevils (Wild Family)
30 - See (Sis Family)
30 - Pong (DER family, MM2)
29 - Acid (Family ?)
25 - Bean (Wild Family)
Based on the above, the "Best Leveler" awards go to:
Daeth: 30 --> 71 (41 levels)
Java: 32 --> 61 (29 levels)
Tea: 72 --> 85 (13 levels)
Additionally, special mention goes to the newcomers born in 2011 who made huge leaps in leveling (sorry, DKs don't count): Eowyn (70), Congou (70), and Sista (60).
Monday, January 2, 2012
Christmas Week (2 Jan 2012) - Free Falling Market, JB Sees Daylight
Christmas Week (2 Jan 2012) - Free Falling Market, JB Sees Daylight
I was going to let Happy lead off, but Wild started nodding off by the second paragraph. So, Happy's diatribe has been repositioned - at the end. There is also Part 1 of the 2011 Year in Review already posted separately and in email boxes, and it's a rather long piece as well. Hey, you guys don't really want to work today, do you?
So, there is news from JB first. Be forewarned, Happy's week has not gone well, and JB only made things worse by suddenly deciding to become more active. JB had a large stockpile of herbs that Wild has steadily depleted doing all those Heroics and raids, as well as eating up large quantities of buff food that require fish to make. That didn't bother Happy. JB is quite capable of farming for those things herself, and he told her so in no uncertain terms. Said the same to Wild, who would benefit from that farming. Well, that got Happy in trouble.
Wild agreed that JB should do the farming. While she was at it, she might as well do a little leveling, said Wild, seeing as how she'll get some xp just from picking those flowers. JB thought that was a good idea, and asked if maybe she could get a little money for expenses. Happy went through the roof, but JB got her gold.
JB is level 84, and has been a level 84 for a very long time. She's far from reaching 85, too, at only 19% there. She has unlocked all of the zones she would normally level in, but for the most part have gained her xp through herb gathering, and has not done much questing or dungeon work. Over the past 2-3 days, though, JB has spent an hour here, an hour there, etc, fishing and flower gathering, mostly in Deepholm and Uldum. And when a quest presented itself, JB did those, too.
JB is now 65% of the way to level 85, and will continue to make a slow march to that goal. Her gear level is i315, not that that means anything at lvl 84. Oh, and JB quietly slipped into Wild's guild in order to speed up the leveling process. :-)
As for Wild, he has had a quiet weekend. But that changed on Monday night. Wild thought he might be able to crash Mf's Mon raid, but I was rather late getting on, and the raid ended up in the Firelands, anyway, so Wild didn't really miss out on anything. There was a guild asking for a healer for 25 man Dragon Soul, which sounded cool, so Wild volunteered. Wild got to talking with the raid leader while the guild was checking Wild's gear, and he seemed like a pretty good guy. They were happy with Wild's gear, and were ready to add Wild to their raid, when a terrible thought occurred to Wild. Wild had a Morchok kill in ten man DS this week. Before the 4.3 patch, the 10 and 25 man raids were on separate resets ... but not anymore. Even though it was only one boss, and in 10 man, not 25, Wild was locked out. Dangit! Wild apologized, but they didn't seem too put out about it. In fact, they let Wild know that they raid 25 man DS every Mon/Tues and would be happy to invite Wild along if Wild was interested and if they had a spot open. Wild is checking out their guild website and adding the raid leader to his friends list. Wild is very interested indeed.
The icing on the cake, though, was that after the 25 man DS fell through Wild went looking for a Baradin Hold run. Since it resets on Tuesday, there were several folks in trade chat trying to form up BH raids. One filled before Wild could do anything. The second needed only a healer to get going, and the third was asking for DPS and non-priest healers. Wild's first thought was to grab that last healer spot with the second group, but I wondered if there would already be a druid in it. Then I noticed the guild, which doesn't have a good reputation. Wild asked into the third group, and got an immediate invite. We killed the boss, no muss no fuss, and the loot was distributed. Wild was the only druid in the raid. The i403 (i403!) pvp leather healing boots dropped, which went automatically to Wild. Wild decided on the spot he needed to start pvping again, if only to show off his shoes. :P Then came the miracle. The second drop was the i397 Tier 13 leather healing gloves, which also went to Wild. These are for the moonkin Tier set, but Wild didn't care about that. It was an upgrade from i378 to i397 and moved Wild's gear score up to i385. What a great start to the New Year!
Now it's Happy's turn. Everyone turn on your glum faces. During the past week plus of the holidays, the only person unhappy with the festive season was Happy. What started as a dip in the prices of a few items, which Happy gleefully snapped up, slowly grew into a steady rain of price drops in more and more of Happy's staple products. Happy kept buying, knowing there had to be a bottom to this somewhere. The trickle is now an avalanche, and there seems to be no bottom to it at all.
Happy's first blunder was that he picked the exact right time to get into the market of Brilliant Inferno Rubies and it's enchanting mat, inferno ruby. Raiders were getting a lot of gear from the LFR and needed gems for the sockets. Wild, too, was getting all this new gear and it all needed those rubies for the gear sockets. Happy was having to buy them at prices sometimes as high as 375 gold apiece and he was getting tired of paying it. When prices dropped to around 290 gold, Happy bought several. Happy also convinced Philly to get the jewel crafting recipe, which she did, and Happy then bought the mats for around 270 gold. That was good business. Today, prices for both the gem and the mats dropped below 200 gold. Not so good; in fact, Happy is out a lot of gold if the price doesn't come back up, which isn't looking good. Having gotten burned, Happy is wary of buying too many of those 200g rubies, not sure if he'll ever make a profit on them.
Happy's second blunder was in the volatiles market. There are five mats normally in high demand - air, life, water, fire, and earth. They are used in large quantities and turnover was always high. Happy sold them by the hundreds every day. No more. Depending on the type, volatiles roughly sell between 7g and 25g on average, air being the most expensive (25g), and earth the cheapest (7g). That would be the average price paid for them on the AH. Taking into account that prices do fluctuate quite a bit, Happy usually sells at a higher price range, taking advantage of the fluctuations. The only fluctuations going on now are free falling prices. Happy went all in, too, buying them up at the ever lower prices, waiting for the bottom and the resurgence. It hasn't happened. Happy has over 1,000 volatile earth he dare not sell at the current price, which has dropped below 1g each. Volatile water, which Happy once sold for over 20g each, hit 2g each on the New Year. Nothing is selling and the prices continue to fall.
The one area that has sustained Happy through this terrible ordeal was maelstrom crystals, heavenly shards, and celestial essences. Wild can take a maelstrom crystal and make two heavenly shards out of it. The buyers and sellers of those two mats didn't seem to understand the connection, because Wild could buy the crystals for, say, 160g, make two shards, and then Happy would sell the shards at the going price of, say, 90g per shard. Which is a 20g profit. Happy had a similar racket going with the essences. Celestial essence used to sell at around 50-60 gold each, but in this one case the prices skyrocketed to as high as 150g each. However, there were large swings up and down, and Happy made a lot of gold by grabbing essences when they dipped to 100g, breaking them into 3 smaller essences, and then selling the smaller ones for 50g each when the price swung up, netting 50g profit each time. Well, the good news is that these shards and essences haven't lost much of their value. However, it has stabilized to the point that there is no price disparity anymore and Happy can no longer profit from it.
Happy's profits are off by about 150% per day right now. There is a nest egg that Wild can feed on for awhile, but I wouldn't hang around Happy these days. Happy is not happy at all.
PS - As I write this, the price of celestial essences has dropped from over 100g each to 65g each. Someone should keep Happy away from windows in tall buildings. He just might jump.
I was going to let Happy lead off, but Wild started nodding off by the second paragraph. So, Happy's diatribe has been repositioned - at the end. There is also Part 1 of the 2011 Year in Review already posted separately and in email boxes, and it's a rather long piece as well. Hey, you guys don't really want to work today, do you?
So, there is news from JB first. Be forewarned, Happy's week has not gone well, and JB only made things worse by suddenly deciding to become more active. JB had a large stockpile of herbs that Wild has steadily depleted doing all those Heroics and raids, as well as eating up large quantities of buff food that require fish to make. That didn't bother Happy. JB is quite capable of farming for those things herself, and he told her so in no uncertain terms. Said the same to Wild, who would benefit from that farming. Well, that got Happy in trouble.
Wild agreed that JB should do the farming. While she was at it, she might as well do a little leveling, said Wild, seeing as how she'll get some xp just from picking those flowers. JB thought that was a good idea, and asked if maybe she could get a little money for expenses. Happy went through the roof, but JB got her gold.
JB is level 84, and has been a level 84 for a very long time. She's far from reaching 85, too, at only 19% there. She has unlocked all of the zones she would normally level in, but for the most part have gained her xp through herb gathering, and has not done much questing or dungeon work. Over the past 2-3 days, though, JB has spent an hour here, an hour there, etc, fishing and flower gathering, mostly in Deepholm and Uldum. And when a quest presented itself, JB did those, too.
JB is now 65% of the way to level 85, and will continue to make a slow march to that goal. Her gear level is i315, not that that means anything at lvl 84. Oh, and JB quietly slipped into Wild's guild in order to speed up the leveling process. :-)
As for Wild, he has had a quiet weekend. But that changed on Monday night. Wild thought he might be able to crash Mf's Mon raid, but I was rather late getting on, and the raid ended up in the Firelands, anyway, so Wild didn't really miss out on anything. There was a guild asking for a healer for 25 man Dragon Soul, which sounded cool, so Wild volunteered. Wild got to talking with the raid leader while the guild was checking Wild's gear, and he seemed like a pretty good guy. They were happy with Wild's gear, and were ready to add Wild to their raid, when a terrible thought occurred to Wild. Wild had a Morchok kill in ten man DS this week. Before the 4.3 patch, the 10 and 25 man raids were on separate resets ... but not anymore. Even though it was only one boss, and in 10 man, not 25, Wild was locked out. Dangit! Wild apologized, but they didn't seem too put out about it. In fact, they let Wild know that they raid 25 man DS every Mon/Tues and would be happy to invite Wild along if Wild was interested and if they had a spot open. Wild is checking out their guild website and adding the raid leader to his friends list. Wild is very interested indeed.
The icing on the cake, though, was that after the 25 man DS fell through Wild went looking for a Baradin Hold run. Since it resets on Tuesday, there were several folks in trade chat trying to form up BH raids. One filled before Wild could do anything. The second needed only a healer to get going, and the third was asking for DPS and non-priest healers. Wild's first thought was to grab that last healer spot with the second group, but I wondered if there would already be a druid in it. Then I noticed the guild, which doesn't have a good reputation. Wild asked into the third group, and got an immediate invite. We killed the boss, no muss no fuss, and the loot was distributed. Wild was the only druid in the raid. The i403 (i403!) pvp leather healing boots dropped, which went automatically to Wild. Wild decided on the spot he needed to start pvping again, if only to show off his shoes. :P Then came the miracle. The second drop was the i397 Tier 13 leather healing gloves, which also went to Wild. These are for the moonkin Tier set, but Wild didn't care about that. It was an upgrade from i378 to i397 and moved Wild's gear score up to i385. What a great start to the New Year!
Now it's Happy's turn. Everyone turn on your glum faces. During the past week plus of the holidays, the only person unhappy with the festive season was Happy. What started as a dip in the prices of a few items, which Happy gleefully snapped up, slowly grew into a steady rain of price drops in more and more of Happy's staple products. Happy kept buying, knowing there had to be a bottom to this somewhere. The trickle is now an avalanche, and there seems to be no bottom to it at all.
Happy's first blunder was that he picked the exact right time to get into the market of Brilliant Inferno Rubies and it's enchanting mat, inferno ruby. Raiders were getting a lot of gear from the LFR and needed gems for the sockets. Wild, too, was getting all this new gear and it all needed those rubies for the gear sockets. Happy was having to buy them at prices sometimes as high as 375 gold apiece and he was getting tired of paying it. When prices dropped to around 290 gold, Happy bought several. Happy also convinced Philly to get the jewel crafting recipe, which she did, and Happy then bought the mats for around 270 gold. That was good business. Today, prices for both the gem and the mats dropped below 200 gold. Not so good; in fact, Happy is out a lot of gold if the price doesn't come back up, which isn't looking good. Having gotten burned, Happy is wary of buying too many of those 200g rubies, not sure if he'll ever make a profit on them.
Happy's second blunder was in the volatiles market. There are five mats normally in high demand - air, life, water, fire, and earth. They are used in large quantities and turnover was always high. Happy sold them by the hundreds every day. No more. Depending on the type, volatiles roughly sell between 7g and 25g on average, air being the most expensive (25g), and earth the cheapest (7g). That would be the average price paid for them on the AH. Taking into account that prices do fluctuate quite a bit, Happy usually sells at a higher price range, taking advantage of the fluctuations. The only fluctuations going on now are free falling prices. Happy went all in, too, buying them up at the ever lower prices, waiting for the bottom and the resurgence. It hasn't happened. Happy has over 1,000 volatile earth he dare not sell at the current price, which has dropped below 1g each. Volatile water, which Happy once sold for over 20g each, hit 2g each on the New Year. Nothing is selling and the prices continue to fall.
The one area that has sustained Happy through this terrible ordeal was maelstrom crystals, heavenly shards, and celestial essences. Wild can take a maelstrom crystal and make two heavenly shards out of it. The buyers and sellers of those two mats didn't seem to understand the connection, because Wild could buy the crystals for, say, 160g, make two shards, and then Happy would sell the shards at the going price of, say, 90g per shard. Which is a 20g profit. Happy had a similar racket going with the essences. Celestial essence used to sell at around 50-60 gold each, but in this one case the prices skyrocketed to as high as 150g each. However, there were large swings up and down, and Happy made a lot of gold by grabbing essences when they dipped to 100g, breaking them into 3 smaller essences, and then selling the smaller ones for 50g each when the price swung up, netting 50g profit each time. Well, the good news is that these shards and essences haven't lost much of their value. However, it has stabilized to the point that there is no price disparity anymore and Happy can no longer profit from it.
Happy's profits are off by about 150% per day right now. There is a nest egg that Wild can feed on for awhile, but I wouldn't hang around Happy these days. Happy is not happy at all.
PS - As I write this, the price of celestial essences has dropped from over 100g each to 65g each. Someone should keep Happy away from windows in tall buildings. He just might jump.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year's Eve (31 Dec 2011) - 2011 Recap Part 1: Guilds and Raids
New Year's Eve (31 Dec 2011) - 2011 Recap Part 1: Guilds and Raids
Happy New Year!!! This is the annual New Year's stroll through the past year. Today, Wild celebrated the start of an EIGHTH year in game. This year's recap of 2011 is in two parts:
Part 1 - Guilds and Raids
Part 2 - Family Matters
Part 1, Guilds and Raids, begins here.
Last year began with perhaps the most difficult raiding grind ever for Wild, and yet the year ended with what could only be called the easiest raiding of all time. Since Wild's focus is always on targeting those raid bosses, Part 1 of our look back focuses on raiding. And raiding can't be separated from guild drama, of which there were plenty.
On 2 January of 2011 Wild was a member of the MM guild. Wild had left his first raiding guild, FS, in Jul 2010 after five great years, when the FS guild turned hard core and had no place for Wild. The in game friends that Wild often referred to as his "cabal" migrated out of FS and into MM, and Wild had joined them in that exodus. The MM guild was already having growing pains, undergoing a reorganization into a "casual guild that raids," which was an honest assessment of a very large guild (426 members at the time) that didn't raid often enough or with enough seriousness to be called a raiding guild.
The end game raid as 2010 drew to a close was still Icecrown Citadel, which had consumed Wild and the rest of MM's raiders for most of that year. It wasn't until 5 December, 2010, that the Lich King fell and Wild got his Kingslayer title. Two days later the new expansion, Cataclysm!, rocked the world of Azeroth.
Cata offered four new raids: Baradin Hold (BH), Throne of the Four Winds (TW or Thrones), Bastion of Twilight (BoT), and Blackwing Descent (BWD). But raiding was not a priority that first month of Cata's release - leveling our toons from 80 to 85 was - as well as enjoying the Cata release in all it's significant glory. Wild DINGED! to level 85 the day after Christmas, 21 days after release.
Once we had enough guildies reach level 85, MM worked to get our raiding plans together. Our first Cata raid came on 9 Jan in Throne of the Four Winds (TW) with the G1 raid group. Wild was signed up and ready to go, wearing his minimum required gear score of i330. Wild did not get an invitation to the G1 raid. Undeterred, Wild set his sights on helping Bd get the G2 raid going again. Wild didn't have to wait long.
On 13 Jan Bd "stalked Wild for his raid." Those were his words. It was raid night, but Wild had not signed up given the issues over his gear level and what the guild seemed to think were unwritten minimum requirements. Bd had other ideas, though, and wanted Wild in his raid. In truth, Wild's now i333 gear level was the lowest among all but a couple of the DPSers. We raided Baradin Hold (BH) AND Blackwing Descent (BWD) that night. We killed no bosses, but Wild was now for real doing Cata raids.
There were also new Heroic five man dungeons, and they were tough. Here are a few quotes from Wild's first experience in Throne of the Tides:
"Wild was still a bit shell shocked at how ferocious the damage against the tank was. I might need to buy me a backup keyboard given how hard and fast I was pounding on it." - This was on trash mobs. We hadn't even reached the first boss yet.
"Every pack required maximum crowd control. DPSers had to focus fire the Marked targets as we could not survive that many attackers for long ... " - Again, these are trash mobs.
" ... after every battle, whether a boss attempt or a trash mob group, Wild had to rez the dead, heal the survivors, rebuff, eat another savage sagefish if Wild had been among the dead that time, and drink to fill his mana bar." We were downing bosses by now, but it was a brutal, slow, dangerous advance."
[Note: By comparison, in Wild's first foray in patch 4.3's Hour of Twilight Heroic five mans, Wild completed all three Heroic dungeons in under two hours with few wipes. In a couple of days Wild had them on farm. ]
In February things were not going well with MM raiding, though. The G1 raid was operating, but filling the raid was a weekly struggle. Officially, Wild was in the G2 raid, but it wasn't running at all. G1's struggles were to Wild's benefit, though, as he was always in demand on raid nights. Behind the scenes, a rift among guild officers spilled into guild chat toward the end of February and a prominent guild officer, Sh, quit MM and began making plans of his own.
On 1 Mar a new guild surfaced, headed by the departed MM guild officer. Wild dubbed the new guild MM2. They quickly had 54 members, including 20 level 85s, nearly all of whom had jumped ship from MM. That still left MM with over 100 level 85s. Most of Wild's cabal (including Bd) were still in MM, but when the MM guild leader did a call out for raiders, he scared up just six of us. And Lady Hunter was gone to MM2.
On 4 Mar, an MM G1 raid, infused with new hope and led by new raid leader Fn, killed Baradin Hold's Argolath. The MM guild had their first Cata boss kill. Said blog poster Martin about Wild's guild raiding hopes: "Looks like retirement is over. :)"
Guild drama did not diminish, however. More of Wild's cabal moved to MM2. Bd still professed allegiance to MM and scheduled G2 raids for the following week. Three days later Bd was enticed to move to MM2 by making him a co-guild leader.
With Wild's help the Fn G1 raid in MM continued to down Argolath in BH each week and also downed the first boss in Bastion of Twilight, Halfus. Though most of Wild's cabal has jumped to MM2, wild still remained in MM, along with good friend and cabal member Rs, a druid tank that Wild was the main healer for. Wild was raiding, and Wild was happy.
March moved on to April, and on 14 Apr Wild ran his first raid with MM2. Wait, MM2? Bd had personally requested Wild join them in Throne of the Four Winds (TW). The MM2 raid on TW did not conflict with Wild's MM raid since they were on different days and in different raids (BoT). Wild now had hooves in both guilds.
In May/Jun we were off on our RV trip to the east coast and back. When we left Wild was more active raiding in MM2 than in his own MM guild, where we had failed to fill our raid two weeks running. I had no idea what things would look like when we returned.
Wild's first login upon returning was on 16 Jun, and he had a chat with his MM guild leader, who happened to be in game. The Fn G1 raid was gone. The raid leader, Fn, was taking time off for family reasons. One of our healers quit the game. Wild's last remaining cabal member in MM, Rs, had not been in game for some time. In MM2, they were now running two raid groups, and Wild learned that Fn's hiatus for "family reasons" had special meaning. He was now in MM2.
Wild saw the signs, but refused to acknowledge them. Quoted from the 21 Jun post titled "Setting the Hook" is this: "Guild wise things are getting sticky once again, and even as Wild counters offers to join MM2 with Wild's famous reluctance to change guilds, Lady Hunter slips in a comment that "it would be for the last time, hun." Wild thought he'd never leave FS, and would have stayed even after the guild fractured had the remaining members wanted him. They didn't. He followed his "cabal" of friends to MM, and that move should have been "for the last time." Then most of those friends split off and started MM2. Wild has new friends in MM now, too, raiding friends. But MM2 is setting the hook. Sigh." Wild spent five years with FS, but after only 11 months with MM, things were not looking good. Wild still wore the MM guild tabard, but his first raid (BoT) in almost two months was with MM2.
The Firelands arrived on Tuesday, 28 June. On the same day Wild did what for him was a swift decision: "On Tuesday night Wild talked to his MM guild leader, letting him know that Wild was going to change guilds. We parted amicably, and there may be future chances for Wild to raid with MM ... On Wednesday I found the MM2 guild leader, Bd, on his blood elf in the Orgrimmar bank. He saw me, waved, and then scooted up to Wild and emoted: "What a big cow you are!" in that sultry blood elf voice. "What a beautiful, sweet looking blood elf you are" Wild cooed in return (a cooing cow can be a scary thing), and then gave him that unique tauren ROAR! I let him know that Wild was leaving MM. He put a fatherly arm around Wild (having to stand on his tippy toes to do so) and empathized that he knew what a tough decision it was for Wild to leave a guild. He continued: "So, when do you think you'll be leaving MM, and when do you think you might join MM2?" Wild replied, "I left last night, and any time you want to send me an invite." The invite was instantaneous, and Wild became a member of MM2. There were several guildies in game, with several friends calling out "Wild! Dood! Welcome!" All drama aside, Wild is happy to be in MM2."
On 11 July Wild made his first appearance in a Firelands raid. It was as a random PUG, not an MM2 guild raid, however. Wild got in on three trash mob sweeps, a process which became all too familiar to Wild over time.
Wild ached to get into more Firelands raiding, but it wasn't until August that Wild got into his first guild run. In fact, he got in two raids, his first with MM on Sunday, 31 Jul, and then with MM2 on Monday, 1 Aug. The MM run was a trash only run, but even so they had trouble with it. For the MM2 run, we did quite well on the trash and even took our first shots at Shannox, the opening boss. And on 2 Aug, MM2 sent a 25 man raid into BWD. We killed three bosses and had one heckova blast.
On 10 Aug we killed Nefarion and completed our first full clear of all bosses in BWD. The week of 11 Aug brought this wonder: "Wild raided with Mf's Firelands raid (the G1 raid) on Monday. Wild raided with Lady Hunter's BWD raid on Tues/Wed. Wild raided with Bd's BoT raid (G2) on Thursday, and is signed up for Friday. Three different raid groups in the same week. This is starting to look like the days of old ... "
The final boss in Bastion of Twilight, Cho'gall, fell on 31 Aug. We were going great guns, and was only later Wild realized that this kill was the year's high water mark for guild raiding. By the end of September MM2 raiding was looking good for the Mf/G1 raid, but neither Lady Hunter or Bd was raiding and their backup's struggled to cobble something together. In short, Wild was back to trying to get into Mf's raid on a fill in basis.
Wild's raiding continued to sputter through September and into October. It got even worse when he was left off the guild raid schedule in an unfunny comedy of errors that had Wild wondering about his place in guild raids.
Faced with the failing raid schedule, Wild had a chance to take a step back and take stock of his gear and his healing. In many respects Wild's approach to healing hadn't changed through many patches and raid bosses. Wild likes deep mana pools and high mana regen over most everything else, and that had never failed him. He knew about haste breakpoints and followed them, but had never even thought about reaching that holy grail of haste breakpoints for druids, 2005 haste rating. Wild decided it was time for a change. When he was done moving gear, gems, and enchants around, Wild's gear score dropped from i366 to i362. Wild lost 133 int, his mastery stats tumbled, and his spell power dropped 15%. Still, Wild managed to keep his mana regen at a decent level and reached haste rating 2005. That same night, a Tuesday, when with some surprise from us all we got a raid off the ground, we killed Shannox. It was the guild's first Firelands kill, almost four months since it first came into being. Wild learned to love his haste and his new healing approach.
Wild's greatest raid accomplishment of the year occurred on Friday, 28 Oct, and again it wasn't with his guild. He joined a Firelands raid as a PUG in a Blackblades alt run. Blackblades is a high end raiding guild. When the hours had passed and the final boss had fallen, Wild had helped down six of the seven bosses in the Firelands.
October became November and Wild had become a regular fill in for the Mf Mon/Tues raid. It was the only raid still active. At least Wild thought of himself as a regular. On 14 Nov, though, Wild was passed over when Mf had the unusual situation of too many raiders wanting in on the raid. Wild had even signed up for it, but that hadn't mattered. Wild was disappointed, but in the end guild raiding was already down to it's last nail in the coffin.
That last nail was driven in the week of 21 Nov 2011. Blizzard released the 4.3 patch "Hour of Twilight" and raiding changed into something we'd never seen before.
"Hour of Twilight" brought Azeroth three new Heroic dungeons and one raid called Dragon Soul (DS). DS was actually two raids of four bosses each called "Siege of Deathwing" and "Fall of Deathwing." Using the new Looking For Raid (LFR) tool, random 25 man raids started clearing all eight bosses within days of release. We were on vacation in Las Vegas when the patch went down, but on Monday, the night before the first week reset, Wild joined a DS LFR and downed all eight bosses without one second of preparation or knowledge of what was going on. The plundering of LFR DS had begun - let the endless farming begin.
For Wild, Christmas came early. Wild could now raid using the LFR every week with or without the guild. The i384 gear that dropped was slow to acquire, but almost certain to obtain eventually. When real guild ten man raiding finally got off the ground, Wild would be better equipped for it than perhaps he ever had been. So, take a look at what the LFR has wrought . . .
Here is the final wrap up of Wild's current gear/raiding. In about six weeks of effort, Wild has raised his gear score 14 levels, which works out to slightly better than two ilevels per week. That's scary fast.
Wild's Gear Score: i384 (i370 when patch 4.3 was released)
i397 - 4 pieces
i390 - 1
i384 - 4
i378 - 8
Tier Pieces - 1 T12, 2 T13
Set Bonus - two piece Tier 13
Wild's Raiding Success
6/7 Bosses in Normal Firelands
8/8 Bosses in LFR Dragon Soul
1/8 Bosses in Normal Dragon Soul
Status of Wild's Various Guilds - comparison of July 2011 to December 2011 (Dec 2011 in parentheses):
MM2 - Wild's current guild: max level 25(25), 310(386) members, 148(209) level 85s. Three 10 man raid groups (reduced to 2 spotty raid groups).
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 10/13 bosses (counting BH, BWD, TW, BoT), 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15 bosses (adding 2 new BH bosses), 6/7 Firelands in G1 (2/7 in Wild's G2), 1/8 in Dragon Soul
MM - Wild's former guild: max level 25(25), 188(146) members, 81(81) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 4/13, 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 4/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul
FS - Wild's first raiding guild: level 24(25), 128(131) members, 60(66) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 2/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 6/8 Dragon Soul
WC - FS spin off pure raiding guild: level 24(25), 74(71) members, 54(54) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 1/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul
Wild's MM2 guild is the only guild that has shown a significant increase in membership, including the number of level 85s. Wild's previous guild, MM, has shrunk, although they have maintained the same number of level 85s. MM's raid progression is even worse than MM2's. The two spin off full raiding guilds have maintained their sleek size and focus, but it is Wild's original guild, FS, that has prospered the most in terms of raiding success. I do have to acknowledge, however, that none of these guilds have taken on the challenge of doing Heroic level raids and can't even be called "hard core" raiding guilds.
Wild's final say - Patch 4.3 is now referred to as "Blizzard's loot pinata" and Wild has to agree. There has never been such easy raid farming of current content. For the coming year the question now becomes:
Will there be another major patch before the announced next expansion, "Mists of Pandora?" There should be. Dragon Soul will be a gutted corpse long before then.
Happy New Year!!! This is the annual New Year's stroll through the past year. Today, Wild celebrated the start of an EIGHTH year in game. This year's recap of 2011 is in two parts:
Part 1 - Guilds and Raids
Part 2 - Family Matters
Part 1, Guilds and Raids, begins here.
Last year began with perhaps the most difficult raiding grind ever for Wild, and yet the year ended with what could only be called the easiest raiding of all time. Since Wild's focus is always on targeting those raid bosses, Part 1 of our look back focuses on raiding. And raiding can't be separated from guild drama, of which there were plenty.
On 2 January of 2011 Wild was a member of the MM guild. Wild had left his first raiding guild, FS, in Jul 2010 after five great years, when the FS guild turned hard core and had no place for Wild. The in game friends that Wild often referred to as his "cabal" migrated out of FS and into MM, and Wild had joined them in that exodus. The MM guild was already having growing pains, undergoing a reorganization into a "casual guild that raids," which was an honest assessment of a very large guild (426 members at the time) that didn't raid often enough or with enough seriousness to be called a raiding guild.
The end game raid as 2010 drew to a close was still Icecrown Citadel, which had consumed Wild and the rest of MM's raiders for most of that year. It wasn't until 5 December, 2010, that the Lich King fell and Wild got his Kingslayer title. Two days later the new expansion, Cataclysm!, rocked the world of Azeroth.
Cata offered four new raids: Baradin Hold (BH), Throne of the Four Winds (TW or Thrones), Bastion of Twilight (BoT), and Blackwing Descent (BWD). But raiding was not a priority that first month of Cata's release - leveling our toons from 80 to 85 was - as well as enjoying the Cata release in all it's significant glory. Wild DINGED! to level 85 the day after Christmas, 21 days after release.
Once we had enough guildies reach level 85, MM worked to get our raiding plans together. Our first Cata raid came on 9 Jan in Throne of the Four Winds (TW) with the G1 raid group. Wild was signed up and ready to go, wearing his minimum required gear score of i330. Wild did not get an invitation to the G1 raid. Undeterred, Wild set his sights on helping Bd get the G2 raid going again. Wild didn't have to wait long.
On 13 Jan Bd "stalked Wild for his raid." Those were his words. It was raid night, but Wild had not signed up given the issues over his gear level and what the guild seemed to think were unwritten minimum requirements. Bd had other ideas, though, and wanted Wild in his raid. In truth, Wild's now i333 gear level was the lowest among all but a couple of the DPSers. We raided Baradin Hold (BH) AND Blackwing Descent (BWD) that night. We killed no bosses, but Wild was now for real doing Cata raids.
There were also new Heroic five man dungeons, and they were tough. Here are a few quotes from Wild's first experience in Throne of the Tides:
"Wild was still a bit shell shocked at how ferocious the damage against the tank was. I might need to buy me a backup keyboard given how hard and fast I was pounding on it." - This was on trash mobs. We hadn't even reached the first boss yet.
"Every pack required maximum crowd control. DPSers had to focus fire the Marked targets as we could not survive that many attackers for long ... " - Again, these are trash mobs.
" ... after every battle, whether a boss attempt or a trash mob group, Wild had to rez the dead, heal the survivors, rebuff, eat another savage sagefish if Wild had been among the dead that time, and drink to fill his mana bar." We were downing bosses by now, but it was a brutal, slow, dangerous advance."
[Note: By comparison, in Wild's first foray in patch 4.3's Hour of Twilight Heroic five mans, Wild completed all three Heroic dungeons in under two hours with few wipes. In a couple of days Wild had them on farm. ]
In February things were not going well with MM raiding, though. The G1 raid was operating, but filling the raid was a weekly struggle. Officially, Wild was in the G2 raid, but it wasn't running at all. G1's struggles were to Wild's benefit, though, as he was always in demand on raid nights. Behind the scenes, a rift among guild officers spilled into guild chat toward the end of February and a prominent guild officer, Sh, quit MM and began making plans of his own.
On 1 Mar a new guild surfaced, headed by the departed MM guild officer. Wild dubbed the new guild MM2. They quickly had 54 members, including 20 level 85s, nearly all of whom had jumped ship from MM. That still left MM with over 100 level 85s. Most of Wild's cabal (including Bd) were still in MM, but when the MM guild leader did a call out for raiders, he scared up just six of us. And Lady Hunter was gone to MM2.
On 4 Mar, an MM G1 raid, infused with new hope and led by new raid leader Fn, killed Baradin Hold's Argolath. The MM guild had their first Cata boss kill. Said blog poster Martin about Wild's guild raiding hopes: "Looks like retirement is over. :)"
Guild drama did not diminish, however. More of Wild's cabal moved to MM2. Bd still professed allegiance to MM and scheduled G2 raids for the following week. Three days later Bd was enticed to move to MM2 by making him a co-guild leader.
With Wild's help the Fn G1 raid in MM continued to down Argolath in BH each week and also downed the first boss in Bastion of Twilight, Halfus. Though most of Wild's cabal has jumped to MM2, wild still remained in MM, along with good friend and cabal member Rs, a druid tank that Wild was the main healer for. Wild was raiding, and Wild was happy.
March moved on to April, and on 14 Apr Wild ran his first raid with MM2. Wait, MM2? Bd had personally requested Wild join them in Throne of the Four Winds (TW). The MM2 raid on TW did not conflict with Wild's MM raid since they were on different days and in different raids (BoT). Wild now had hooves in both guilds.
In May/Jun we were off on our RV trip to the east coast and back. When we left Wild was more active raiding in MM2 than in his own MM guild, where we had failed to fill our raid two weeks running. I had no idea what things would look like when we returned.
Wild's first login upon returning was on 16 Jun, and he had a chat with his MM guild leader, who happened to be in game. The Fn G1 raid was gone. The raid leader, Fn, was taking time off for family reasons. One of our healers quit the game. Wild's last remaining cabal member in MM, Rs, had not been in game for some time. In MM2, they were now running two raid groups, and Wild learned that Fn's hiatus for "family reasons" had special meaning. He was now in MM2.
Wild saw the signs, but refused to acknowledge them. Quoted from the 21 Jun post titled "Setting the Hook" is this: "Guild wise things are getting sticky once again, and even as Wild counters offers to join MM2 with Wild's famous reluctance to change guilds, Lady Hunter slips in a comment that "it would be for the last time, hun." Wild thought he'd never leave FS, and would have stayed even after the guild fractured had the remaining members wanted him. They didn't. He followed his "cabal" of friends to MM, and that move should have been "for the last time." Then most of those friends split off and started MM2. Wild has new friends in MM now, too, raiding friends. But MM2 is setting the hook. Sigh." Wild spent five years with FS, but after only 11 months with MM, things were not looking good. Wild still wore the MM guild tabard, but his first raid (BoT) in almost two months was with MM2.
The Firelands arrived on Tuesday, 28 June. On the same day Wild did what for him was a swift decision: "On Tuesday night Wild talked to his MM guild leader, letting him know that Wild was going to change guilds. We parted amicably, and there may be future chances for Wild to raid with MM ... On Wednesday I found the MM2 guild leader, Bd, on his blood elf in the Orgrimmar bank. He saw me, waved, and then scooted up to Wild and emoted: "What a big cow you are!" in that sultry blood elf voice. "What a beautiful, sweet looking blood elf you are" Wild cooed in return (a cooing cow can be a scary thing), and then gave him that unique tauren ROAR! I let him know that Wild was leaving MM. He put a fatherly arm around Wild (having to stand on his tippy toes to do so) and empathized that he knew what a tough decision it was for Wild to leave a guild. He continued: "So, when do you think you'll be leaving MM, and when do you think you might join MM2?" Wild replied, "I left last night, and any time you want to send me an invite." The invite was instantaneous, and Wild became a member of MM2. There were several guildies in game, with several friends calling out "Wild! Dood! Welcome!" All drama aside, Wild is happy to be in MM2."
On 11 July Wild made his first appearance in a Firelands raid. It was as a random PUG, not an MM2 guild raid, however. Wild got in on three trash mob sweeps, a process which became all too familiar to Wild over time.
Wild ached to get into more Firelands raiding, but it wasn't until August that Wild got into his first guild run. In fact, he got in two raids, his first with MM on Sunday, 31 Jul, and then with MM2 on Monday, 1 Aug. The MM run was a trash only run, but even so they had trouble with it. For the MM2 run, we did quite well on the trash and even took our first shots at Shannox, the opening boss. And on 2 Aug, MM2 sent a 25 man raid into BWD. We killed three bosses and had one heckova blast.
On 10 Aug we killed Nefarion and completed our first full clear of all bosses in BWD. The week of 11 Aug brought this wonder: "Wild raided with Mf's Firelands raid (the G1 raid) on Monday. Wild raided with Lady Hunter's BWD raid on Tues/Wed. Wild raided with Bd's BoT raid (G2) on Thursday, and is signed up for Friday. Three different raid groups in the same week. This is starting to look like the days of old ... "
The final boss in Bastion of Twilight, Cho'gall, fell on 31 Aug. We were going great guns, and was only later Wild realized that this kill was the year's high water mark for guild raiding. By the end of September MM2 raiding was looking good for the Mf/G1 raid, but neither Lady Hunter or Bd was raiding and their backup's struggled to cobble something together. In short, Wild was back to trying to get into Mf's raid on a fill in basis.
Wild's raiding continued to sputter through September and into October. It got even worse when he was left off the guild raid schedule in an unfunny comedy of errors that had Wild wondering about his place in guild raids.
Faced with the failing raid schedule, Wild had a chance to take a step back and take stock of his gear and his healing. In many respects Wild's approach to healing hadn't changed through many patches and raid bosses. Wild likes deep mana pools and high mana regen over most everything else, and that had never failed him. He knew about haste breakpoints and followed them, but had never even thought about reaching that holy grail of haste breakpoints for druids, 2005 haste rating. Wild decided it was time for a change. When he was done moving gear, gems, and enchants around, Wild's gear score dropped from i366 to i362. Wild lost 133 int, his mastery stats tumbled, and his spell power dropped 15%. Still, Wild managed to keep his mana regen at a decent level and reached haste rating 2005. That same night, a Tuesday, when with some surprise from us all we got a raid off the ground, we killed Shannox. It was the guild's first Firelands kill, almost four months since it first came into being. Wild learned to love his haste and his new healing approach.
Wild's greatest raid accomplishment of the year occurred on Friday, 28 Oct, and again it wasn't with his guild. He joined a Firelands raid as a PUG in a Blackblades alt run. Blackblades is a high end raiding guild. When the hours had passed and the final boss had fallen, Wild had helped down six of the seven bosses in the Firelands.
October became November and Wild had become a regular fill in for the Mf Mon/Tues raid. It was the only raid still active. At least Wild thought of himself as a regular. On 14 Nov, though, Wild was passed over when Mf had the unusual situation of too many raiders wanting in on the raid. Wild had even signed up for it, but that hadn't mattered. Wild was disappointed, but in the end guild raiding was already down to it's last nail in the coffin.
That last nail was driven in the week of 21 Nov 2011. Blizzard released the 4.3 patch "Hour of Twilight" and raiding changed into something we'd never seen before.
"Hour of Twilight" brought Azeroth three new Heroic dungeons and one raid called Dragon Soul (DS). DS was actually two raids of four bosses each called "Siege of Deathwing" and "Fall of Deathwing." Using the new Looking For Raid (LFR) tool, random 25 man raids started clearing all eight bosses within days of release. We were on vacation in Las Vegas when the patch went down, but on Monday, the night before the first week reset, Wild joined a DS LFR and downed all eight bosses without one second of preparation or knowledge of what was going on. The plundering of LFR DS had begun - let the endless farming begin.
For Wild, Christmas came early. Wild could now raid using the LFR every week with or without the guild. The i384 gear that dropped was slow to acquire, but almost certain to obtain eventually. When real guild ten man raiding finally got off the ground, Wild would be better equipped for it than perhaps he ever had been. So, take a look at what the LFR has wrought . . .
Here is the final wrap up of Wild's current gear/raiding. In about six weeks of effort, Wild has raised his gear score 14 levels, which works out to slightly better than two ilevels per week. That's scary fast.
Wild's Gear Score: i384 (i370 when patch 4.3 was released)
i397 - 4 pieces
i390 - 1
i384 - 4
i378 - 8
Tier Pieces - 1 T12, 2 T13
Set Bonus - two piece Tier 13
Wild's Raiding Success
6/7 Bosses in Normal Firelands
8/8 Bosses in LFR Dragon Soul
1/8 Bosses in Normal Dragon Soul
Status of Wild's Various Guilds - comparison of July 2011 to December 2011 (Dec 2011 in parentheses):
MM2 - Wild's current guild: max level 25(25), 310(386) members, 148(209) level 85s. Three 10 man raid groups (reduced to 2 spotty raid groups).
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 10/13 bosses (counting BH, BWD, TW, BoT), 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15 bosses (adding 2 new BH bosses), 6/7 Firelands in G1 (2/7 in Wild's G2), 1/8 in Dragon Soul
MM - Wild's former guild: max level 25(25), 188(146) members, 81(81) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 4/13, 0/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 4/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul
FS - Wild's first raiding guild: level 24(25), 128(131) members, 60(66) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 2/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 6/8 Dragon Soul
WC - FS spin off pure raiding guild: level 24(25), 74(71) members, 54(54) level 85s.
Raid accomplishments:
Jul: 13/13, 1/7 Firelands
Dec: 15/15, 7/7 Firelands, 1/8 Dragon Soul
Wild's MM2 guild is the only guild that has shown a significant increase in membership, including the number of level 85s. Wild's previous guild, MM, has shrunk, although they have maintained the same number of level 85s. MM's raid progression is even worse than MM2's. The two spin off full raiding guilds have maintained their sleek size and focus, but it is Wild's original guild, FS, that has prospered the most in terms of raiding success. I do have to acknowledge, however, that none of these guilds have taken on the challenge of doing Heroic level raids and can't even be called "hard core" raiding guilds.
Wild's final say - Patch 4.3 is now referred to as "Blizzard's loot pinata" and Wild has to agree. There has never been such easy raid farming of current content. For the coming year the question now becomes:
Will there be another major patch before the announced next expansion, "Mists of Pandora?" There should be. Dragon Soul will be a gutted corpse long before then.
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