Tuesday, January 13, 2009

January 12, 2009

Naxxramas
After waiting around for 45 minutes, our 25-man Naxx run was cancelled last night because we couldn't get it filled.

Being fairly new to raiding, I wonder if this is common for the Monday night runs to be the toughest to fill, since all raids reset on Tuesday. The thought being that any progression you make on Monday night will be null and void when the bosses you've downed that week reappear Tuesday morning.

Was it a sign that making 25-man PuGs is just difficult in general?

Were people watching Monday night football? (Is this football season?)

Or was there no lesson at all to learn in this other than sometimes things just don't work out?

General Raiding
So, this morning all the raids have been reset. Now I'm in a quandary. I've offered to be available to two different guilds for this week's raids. Luckily, guild #2 is only into 10-mans and guild #3 is only into 25-mans. So, I won't have to choose which one to get saved with. But, I might have to choose which one to spend time with if they both want to raid at the same time.

Things I'm considering while making this decision:
  • Guild #2 is the one I enjoyed interacting with most. They seem a nice group of friends who love playing together. I really liked that energy. Guild #3 has a lot of nice people, but it doesn't seem to have the same energy. Perhaps, though, that's due to the fact that there are 15 more people in guild #3's raids.
  • I am less likely to lose a spot in a 25-man raid than I am in a 10-man raid. As soon as guild #2 gets a raiding priest, I'm likely to no longer get invites. That's the nature of being a free agent, as it were. Guild #3 does not seem to be close to filling all healer spots from within the guild. So, although there can come a point at which they won't need me, it's likely that time is further off.
  • Guild #3's raid leader is very responsive to my whispers. Guild #2's raid leader sometimes never responds. I've mentioned this in an earlier post, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he just missed my whispers. But, it has happened more than once.
  • The loot is simply better in 25-man raids. I will not deny that loot is a big motivator for me. Honestly, if it weren't, I could quit raiding now because I'm very well geared and can do all heroic 5-mans easily.
  • Emblems of Heroism are much easier to come by than Emblems of Valor. You can draw two conclusions from this. 1. I should continue with 10-mans so I can more quickly get enough emblems of heroism to get the heroic loot. or 2. I should take every opportunity to get emblems of valor, since they take longer to get and provide better loot than those of heroism.
  • Guild #2 is well geared and able to get through content fairly quickly. Guild #3 is not so well geared (they seem to have gone from 5-mans right into 25-mans), and the PuG people they get are also not so well geared. This means progression with them is very slow.
When looking at all the points, it seems clear that guild #3 is the one I should consider higher priorty. But, my gut tells me to stick with guild #2 for as long as possible. Tonight I'll make that fateful decision. :)

Azjol-Nerub (Heroic)
After the Naxx run was canceled, I ran a couple instances. The first was Azjol-Nerub. I had never gotten through this instance on Heroic before last night...and we barely made it through. The first major encounter at the entrance is so close to impossible, it's not even funny. After a few attempts, we made it past them...the furthest I've ever gotten on heroic. The rest of the run went fine. It was tough, but not unbeatable. I walked away with a new wand. As soon as I equipped it, I got the Superior achievement. The wand is definitely going to make soloing a lot easier since it does twice the damage. And, although it raised a couple of my stats, it lowers my Spirit a little since I have a 27 Spirit gem in my previous wand, resulting in slightly lower mana regen. I might toy around with swapping back and forth with my previous wand.

Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom (Heroic)
This was a disaster. We didn't get past the first boss, the one that summons all the spider adds. One of the DPS blamed it on the tank for not being able to hold aggro. He was geared very well (6000+ in Pawn value). But maybe his gear didn't match his talent. Or, maybe the DPS weren't good enough at getting down the adds? Whatever the problem, we failed.

Guild
Nothing much to report about the guild. One of the members is leveling his priest again, which will take some pressure off me. We also did a run late last night together that went fine.

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