Lyntha

Off-Healers (Anything beyond our 6 or 7 core healers) is this raid's biggest weakness. Here's our hybrid DPS who could theoretically heal and their healing proclivity: Unholyfaith - Doesn't heal. Fotosynthsis - Heals, and does well, but is our only 100% tank right now. Perenelle - Doesn't heal. Thundere - Dunno? Gravikki - Doesn't heal. Zenzae - Heals but main-spec is Enhance so his healing gear set is really weak thanks to having 2 raids in a row with 8 or less bosses each Rebelogic - LOL, rebel healing Ragnius - Doesnt Heal Fdragon - Offspec is tank Out of that whole group, we have 1 healer who could possibly off-heal (Zenzae) but since he uses agi gear, his heal set is probably awful compared to our core. Everyone else pretty much doesnt heal. This is not a knock on people... If they don't enjoy healing, they shouldn't do it. However, this does mean that you guys should definitely be looking to recruit DPS who can heal when needed in the future. The second-biggest weakness is DPS. We've recently lost some good dps (Like RTD) and still have some people who just aren't top-tier at maxing out DPS. Healers largely carried us through the heroic fights in Firelands that we downed until the DPS pretty much out-geared the content (Shannox, Aly, Rhyo, Domo). The ones we didnt down (Baleroc, Beth) were largely due to DPS issues. This is just something that the guild as a whole needs to improve upon. Although HMorchok is a healer check, that only applies if you can make the enrage timer and your DPS don't make stupid mistakes. A lot of the guilds that did 8 healers did so to make the fight easier because their DPS could still make the appropriate enrage timer with less DPS. They were also in much better gear. That being said, please keep in mind that although healers need some time to adjust to damage patterns in fights, if you are still wiping after many attempts, it is the DPS doing something wrong 99% of the time.

Any time you feel demoralized, just imagine the snuggelbunny /hugging you. If that fails, look at my quote in your signature. IF THAT FAILS (Oh lordy), go to: http://www.reddit.com/r/aww

WHAT!? Our healers are awesome

Eh im not packing up leaving altogether, I just can't make every day. Fdragon is great and between us, we have an interim solution. The long-term solution needs to be 2 full-time tanks for gearing and consistency reasons but having me and fdragon there means that we can be picky with my replacement. The point of this post was so that Fdragon could let me know when he could make it. Until the 23rd we're good. After that, it looks like Fdragon wont make it on Sundays and will be late on Wednesdays. I should probably be alright to make 2 days a week so that we can be picky.

Good to hear Fdragon. Thanks.

I don't think it's fair to judge a fight based on how simple it is once you figure it out. M'uru was one of the hardest fights EVER but it didn't require any communication once you knew the fight. It was a pure execution check, the same as Deathwing. Complexity =/= difficulty, although the two definitely correlate. UPDATE: As mentioned to the officers last night, I won't be there today. Good luck on Spine!

That's funny that you mentioned Hagara and Blackhorn as good fights. I thought they both were boring, though that may be because of the tuning. Regardless, I think the fights are OK, for the most part, there's just not enough! They can't make the fights TOO different or we all suck at it and hate it (Like Flame Leviathan was in FL). Either that, or the new mechanics just become gimmicky. Blizzard can only do so much and yes, the fights will invariably end up being some twist on an already-existing mechanic. It doesn't mean it's a bad fight. LFR is fantastic and I don't see why people hark on it. Yes, you can kill Deathwing with it. No, it doesn't really mean anything because the challenge in Normal and Heroic are still tehre. You're still going to wipe a bit (Or a lot) before you kill him and it makes for a proper thrill when you do kill him.

Haha RIM is a great example of an industry leader being stagnant. 3-4 year ago, RIM literally ruled the business phone market. EVERYBODY who was important in business had a shitty blackberry. Now they're going out of business.

Not too many companies understand the gamer market. Companies build good will by making excellent products. In return, they get the undying loyalty of a very hardcore user-base with money to spend. The goodwill from previous games and shit will only last for so long, at which point they're going to start losing customers fast and looking at shitty sales numbers. Look at the Apple Business model as a good example of this. They really need to turn it around. MoP had better be incredible or it's going to be the death-knell for WoW. Edit: I love how my attendance post has the ability to morph into a debate on Blizzard's performance as a whole company and the demographics of the gamer market.

BTW, I need an officer to take over recruiting for me since I won't be there as much as I used to. Someone's gotta step up the plate and handle the pending recruits ASAP.

SWTOR is a great game, don't get me wrong, it's just way different. As you said, it doesn't feel like something competitive and fun at the same time. That said, it REALLY nails immersing me in the story as an insanely badass sith Warrior who is basically wrath incarnate. I'll play it when I'm bored of WoW but I don't see it replacing WoW. Yes, Blizzard is really milking us. One of the biggest reasons I will stop playing WoW is because releasing two raids with 7/8 bosses in a row was an absolute slap in the face. Content is good, and having both LFR and Normals are great, but I don't think blizzard realizes that we want content that is challenging for our level of gameplay without being too harsh. I think that other than Hagara and Blackhorn, Dragon Soul fights are fun and challenging on normal with a gradual difficulty ramp as you progress through bosses with the the culmination being an excellent Deathwing fight that feels pretty epic and is fun and well-tuned However, 8 bosses is just NOT ENOUGH. The heroics are fine if you're more of a hardcore guild, but we're not. Yes, we'll get a few down but it will be very tough. Tough is good if you're in a raid group that shares your mentality and skill level (AKA a hardcore guild) but our guild has a large disparity in quality and commitment from top to bottom. That's not a knock on our guild, we're a casual guild. Blizzard needs to realize that most guilds are like this. We need more content that is challenging without being unforgiving. Did we ever feel like Spine or Madness were unforgiving? I didn't. I felt like they were well-tuned and we were slowly getting better and executing better until, BAM, we got the kill. Now compare that to like Heroic spine or something, where the best guilds in the world spent hundreds of attempts on it and even when they killed it (By class stacking like nobody's business), they said that they didn't want to repeat the kill. That's not a fun fight for 99.999% of the guilds out there. Hell, it's probably not a fun fight for 100% of the guilds out there if the best in the world are complaining about it. How does blizzard expect us to be happy with content like that? And don't even get me started on the loot! It's a goddamn nightmare to assign loot when there's only 8 bosses a week that drop loot, and we only get 2 tier tokens per boss for a goddamn 25-man raid. Seriously, wtf is up with the tier. You guys have no idea how much I hate doing loot because of how many tough choices we have to make on every boss. While most of the raid have accepted accidental slights or terrible RNG with grace, we see how frustrated some of our core guys can get when they have 1-2 pieces of loot after we've killed a total of 26 bosses in DS. They needed to release at least three tiers of additional raiding after T11, each with 10-14 bosses. Instead, we got Firelands and Dragon Soul. TL;DR: Blizzard needs 12-13 bosses per raid. They don't give a shit and are content with releasing two 7-8 boss tiers as a TOTAL amount of raiding patches for an ENTIRE expansion. Un-fucking-acceptable.

SWTOR is fun in its own ways but it feels more like a single-player game to me. The overall class dynamics and priorities of its classes just don't seem as fun. I'm not sure if that's because the UI is shit and doesnt do good enough of a job, or if WoW has just perfected how to make a priority system fun. TL;DR: Not leaving to play SWTOR. Nice try. Edit: I played exactly 0 hours of SWTOR yesterday and almost none the day before and instead elected to clean the hell out of my house. The desire to play is there but not as much as a game I'm addicted madly to.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo We'll see what we can do for you Dimen, just have one of your guys whisper us when you need people.

To all: I've known for a few weeks that January and part of February are going to be very spotty for me attendance-wise due to my work schedule. The after-hours stuff is largely going to be available to be worked around my personal preference but I nonetheless won't be able to consistenlty raid 3 nights a week like normal. As such, I am looking for a tank to permanently replace me but we can be picky in the meantime. I will be seeing when Fdragon can make it... If he can't make it, I can almost guarantee that I will be there (Until we can find a new tank). Same thing if Foto is missing. For now, we will basically have 3 tanks. Since I typically do a majority of the active raid-leading and calling things out, I'm going to start dialing things down so that the other officers can take over, but I will still do my best when I can there (As long as I'm not in the other officers' way). Will this lead to me permanently quitting??? Not sure yet. In addition to some upcoming work stuff, I also am going to start actually trying to date people and hang out with my real-life friends a bit more. I'll keep you guys in the loop! For now, just don't expect me to be there all the time.

gz

Watch him though. It's not like he never reached 100% mana. He did then burned down to 50% and stayed there. Unless I'm missing something...

Did you guys watch the Inner Sanctum Blackhorn video? That arcane mage was between 20% and 50% mana for almost the whole time and still finished like 5th. on DPS. Am I missing something or is he a baddie with great gear?

Already saw it on Reddit! Fun pic.

Nah, now that they changed Vengeance, it's kind of hard to pull aggro unless the tank gets a really bad miss streak coupled with an avoidance streak. Im at almost full vengeance on the first hit I take. (If not full, depending on how hard the boss hits). He's found new and creative ways to die, however.

tl;dr: Dragon Soul is good, mmkay.

fair enough

I disagree Foto. You have to remember that we were 4/7 HM so our average raider's gear was a mix of Heroic and Normal gear. We were in a better position this tier than our last. My thoughts so far: Morchok: Insanely easy both mechanically and tuning-wise. It's the intro encounter, whatever. Yor'Sahj: Very fun fight. Different every time and you have to adapt. It can be challenging or easy depending on which comps you get. It's an adaptability check and is a cool fight. Zon'ozz: We wiped on this for a while due to raid mechanics not being explained fully by the dungeon journal and us taking time to realize it. Once we realized the mechanics, it turned out to be a decently challenging fight for the healers if a bit boring. The ball bouncing mechanic is cool but a bit too passive. It'd be a lot more fun if it moved and bounced faster. Tuning seems good if a bit too high on Raid Damage Hagara: Far too easy. Needs another mechanic during normal phases, but the frost and lightning phases are fun. Ultraxion: My only complaint is that the fight becomes too easy if you overgear the fight DPS wise. Otherwise, it's a gear check and a well-executed one. We beat the enrage by 15 seconds and were about to die due to healing issues anyways. Considering our gear level, it might have been a bit overtuned but is otherwise good. Blackhorn: Seems alright so far and decently challenging without being frustrated. I like the fights so far and the pacing but there needs to be more fights. I can't stress enough how disappointed I am that blizzard dropped 2 small tiers back to back. Having an 8 boss tier for the last tier is unacceptable. The fights themselves are good, LFR is good and the new 5-mans are good but there's not enough raid content.

Thanks Pika. After seeing the information, we'll make the following adjustments: 1.) The first tank will swap after 1 stack instead of 3. This will allow him to have the DOT on him. Why is this good? Because priests will be spamming POM and bouncing it between the 2 tanks. POM doesn't trigger corruption. 2.) Pallies will Beacon the tank and heal people with no corruption stacks yet. They will still spam Divine Light but without blowing up the raid. If we get purple, yellow, green we need to kill green. Same thing only the pallies will be healing their groups only. If tanks get low, they have to call out for LOH's