Monday, November 16, 2009

November 16, 2009

Playing with the Big Boys Now!
Let's see, since the last time I wrote, I wonder if anything big happened. Hmmm...well...maybe so. I got into one of the top guilds on my server! Woo hoo! Thanks to my lovely friend who was already in the guild, and to my incredible luck a month or so ago healing for a Heroic HoL pug (the guild leader's husband was the tank and was so impressed with my perfectly timed PoH on Loken that he asked me right there if I was interested in joining), I submitted my application and a week later I'm a member!

The process of joining them was interesting. First, it started the night before I actually submitted my app. They were running Naxx 25 with hopes of getting some achievements. My friend suggested I join them so they could see my mad skillz. :-) It was a lot of fun. It gave me an opportunity to get to know them a little while they watched my performance. I walked away with a couple new achievements: And They Would All Go Down Together and Subtraction. We stopped after the Horsemen because people had to go.

Late that night I submitted my app to the guild, which was going to be reviewed the following day at the officers' meeting.

On Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I joined them on several runs. During Thursday's General Vezax hard mode attempt, I received an invite. I sadly said good bye to my old GM and happily switched to the new guild. (Note: That GM promptly left the server to join another on which friends of his have a good guild.) Woo hoo!

TOC 10 Regular (Priest)
Cleared

TOC 25 Regular (Priest)
Cleared

Onyxia 10 (Priest)
Cleared

TOC 25 Heroic (Priest)
Still having troubles with Northrend Beasts. We'll get it this week (or they will, if there's not a spot for me).

This weekend I spent a lot of time with them. We ran through Gruul's Lair, Tempest Keep and Sunwell Plateau -- I'm glad I finally got to see the Kil'jaeden encounter. It wasn't too hard for us, but I remember reading about how it was the guild killer when it was first introduced.

They are a really fun guild. I'm so glad I joined them. They complained about low attendance this past week, so I'm a little fearful that they might be heading for trouble. But, I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. They're good, friendly, efficient, skilled -- everything needed to get the job done.

Oh...and last night I got Call of the Crusade with them! Woo hoo!

Dora the Explorer
OK, so Dora is not my toon's name. But she's still an Explorer. Yep, I got the title on her yesterday afternoon. Yay! The final spot was The Bleeding Ziggurat in Ghostlands. Why the sudden interest in getting that title? The new guild. Since I'm still a low rank, I'm not guaranteed a spot in raids. I have to be online waiting for an invite. So, to pass the time, I started exploring. Then it became an obsession this weekend. It was really easy with Cartographer lighting up the areas I hadn't explored yet. Now I have two titles! LOL I shouldn't say that out loud to my new guildmates, who all have multiple raid-related titles.

Now onto my other toons:

Ulduar 25 (Mage's guild)
On Friday my mage's guild went to Ulduar 25 as a multi-guild event. Fail fail fail. We wiped a few times on Flame Leviathan before finally getting him down. We tried Deconstructor once or twice -- no dice. Then we wiped a few times on Razorscale. Ugh! Meanwhile, tensions were rising high. Multi guild events are so difficult because people don't know each other and are quick to accuse the other guilds of messing up. /sigh Well, at least my mage got the Leviathan Fueling Manual. So the trip wasn't a complete waste.

Ulduar 10 (Mage's guild)
On Saturday we decided to go to Ulduar 10 as a guild run. As expected, not enough guildies showed up to fill it out, so we got in 4 or 5 non-guildies in. One was from a guild we've run with several times. He ended up raid leading for us. It was a good, easy going, fun night. Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Deconstructor and Kologarn are all dead because of us. We're seriously considering extending the raid lockout so we can just move on. We're tired of starting from the beginning each week.

Onyxia 25 (PUG)
Last night I tried to PUG Onyxia 25 on my priest. I joined a group that was being organized by members of a guild I know through my mage's guild. I had high hopes. But, I saw the writing on the wall when the raid leaders were insisting on high gear scores but they themselves were barely over 4k. Yes, I know that gear scores are not an indication of skill. However, they do give an idea of the potential of success. You get too many undergeared people and it's just going to fail, no matter how skilled they are. After four ugly wipes (on all of which I am glad to report that I didn't "fail" according to the fail-reporting addon someone was using), I dropped out. It was late for me anyway.

Onyxia 10 (w/guild #2)
Guild #2 (wow! It's been a long time since I've mentioned them) invited me to Onyxia 10 on my mage. (I had already done it on my priest with her new guild.) Another utter failure. The guild leader insisted on tanking with his DK, even though he's DPS specced. I didn't balk at the idea since my old guild's raid leader could handle the whelps by himself in his DK's DPS spec. But, then again, he's extremely geared and skilled. This DK? Not so much.

I really don't understand why people do that. I remember guild #1's guild leader would do that (and still does). He ignores the fact that the game is based on optimizing gear and specs. In other words, DPS specs cannot tank effectively, DPS specs cannot heal effectively, etc. Or someone in a tank spec but wearing DPS gear cannot tank effectively. You want to tank? Choose the right talents and wear the right gear. You want to heal? Choose the right talents and wear the right gear. Of course, as pointed out above, in some situations some very skilled players with the right spec and gear can cross roles. But, that's not common.

So...why try it? Why put a raid run at risk of failure by not being honest with yourself about what your current spec+gear means? It would be like me trying to tank or heal on druid, wearing all of her moonkin gear. Possible? Yes. Likelihood of failure? High.

Needless to say, that run failed.

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