Slow Weekend
My WoW weekend was fairly uneventful. Friday night, our progression Tempest Keep was cancelled. We had enough people online, just not our “core” people, so instead of risking a wipefest, the raid leaders simply called the raid.
I didn’t log on Saturday night at all.
Over the weekend, we had a new Tankadin apply to Mal Katai. When he applied, I went and pulled him up on the Armory. Basically, this guy had been Ret for leveling and didn’t have much tanking gear at all. His gear was still primarily Ret. His spec was a Holy/Port Hybrid. He was both crittable and crushable.
All throughout his application, he talked about wanting to progress and tank. I had to level with the guy, he just wasn’t ready to tank, well anything.
What was in my heart of hearts was to help him. Apparently, my honest appraisal came off a little harsh. So I offered to help him in anyway I could. I linked him to Tankadin 101 and to the MainTankadin boards.
One nice result of the discussion I had with him on the boards, was that I got a really nice compliment from our Raid Leader.
“Honors takes tanking down to the 0.000001 % which is why he is such a good tank...knows his [stuff] imo:P”
He has since joined the guild and made strides in his tanking gear and spec. I actually ran into him outside SSC. He was getting an Heroic UB run going. We had had trouble all night with Horde at the stone so I came out of SSC in my PVP (Healing) gear. I quickly switched to my tanking suit once the stone was clear. But yeah, the uber Tankadin, and the first time he sees me, I'm dressed as a Healbot.
We did manage to finally put a Raid together on Sunday night, although the final 6 or 7 spots were very difficult to fill.
We went back to the “farm” bosses in SSC. We took the opposite approach from Friday night and filled the raid.
Hydross was going well until my Judgment got resisted on a phase change. I tried to shield toss him, but it was too late. I had lost him and he was over the line. Our second attempt was doomed when I got killed just as we were making the transition. I got a Battlerez, but it was so close to the next transition, I didn’t really have time to pick him up.
It took about 3 attempts to get this “farm” boss down. The “I gotta go” chorus started up and we began to swap people in and out.
We cleared trash to Lurker and setup for him. I have limited visibility during the fight. I can basically only see what’s happening on my island and the add that I have to tank. Unlike our previous Lurker attempts, I never lost aggro on my add which I was quite pleased with. It looked like we were losing people to his Spout, how I’m not sure.
Basically, people were just not paying attention. Our final attempt we had two people afk. We wiped twice on Lurker and our GM called it.
We had a heated talk about the need to recruit Raiders. We don’t have enough in Mal Katai. We can’t kick people from Raids for repeated mistakes, and we can’t take a team of dedicated Raiders. Why? It’s simply because we lack the people.
I really enjoy gaming with the guys in Mal Katai, but I’m seriously starting to question if this is the guild I need to be in. I just feel like I take raiding much more seriously than most of my guild. Although to be fair, there is a group within MK who take it seriously as well.
I know Mal Katai is a “casual” guild. I have no problem with that. To me, that is a measure or expression of how much time you raid. Mal Katai shoots for 3 nights a week. That’s fairly “casual”. You can be casual and still be serious inside your raids. You don’t have to have your raids to be boot camps, but at least requiring everyone to be on vent is not too much to ask.
BRK summed it up well “Fun is fun and Work is work. Raids are both. Treat it as such.”
I know some of the people who read my blog are in my guild. I'm not trying to make this sound like a threat. I'd love nothing more than for things to improve dramatically this upcoming week. No canceled raids, farm bosses down in 1 attempt. New bosses attempted.
I really don't want to leave my guild, I'm just not sure what to do.
I didn’t log on Saturday night at all.
Over the weekend, we had a new Tankadin apply to Mal Katai. When he applied, I went and pulled him up on the Armory. Basically, this guy had been Ret for leveling and didn’t have much tanking gear at all. His gear was still primarily Ret. His spec was a Holy/Port Hybrid. He was both crittable and crushable.
All throughout his application, he talked about wanting to progress and tank. I had to level with the guy, he just wasn’t ready to tank, well anything.
What was in my heart of hearts was to help him. Apparently, my honest appraisal came off a little harsh. So I offered to help him in anyway I could. I linked him to Tankadin 101 and to the MainTankadin boards.
One nice result of the discussion I had with him on the boards, was that I got a really nice compliment from our Raid Leader.
“Honors takes tanking down to the 0.000001 % which is why he is such a good tank...knows his [stuff] imo:P”
He has since joined the guild and made strides in his tanking gear and spec. I actually ran into him outside SSC. He was getting an Heroic UB run going. We had had trouble all night with Horde at the stone so I came out of SSC in my PVP (Healing) gear. I quickly switched to my tanking suit once the stone was clear. But yeah, the uber Tankadin, and the first time he sees me, I'm dressed as a Healbot.
We did manage to finally put a Raid together on Sunday night, although the final 6 or 7 spots were very difficult to fill.
We went back to the “farm” bosses in SSC. We took the opposite approach from Friday night and filled the raid.
Hydross was going well until my Judgment got resisted on a phase change. I tried to shield toss him, but it was too late. I had lost him and he was over the line. Our second attempt was doomed when I got killed just as we were making the transition. I got a Battlerez, but it was so close to the next transition, I didn’t really have time to pick him up.
It took about 3 attempts to get this “farm” boss down. The “I gotta go” chorus started up and we began to swap people in and out.
We cleared trash to Lurker and setup for him. I have limited visibility during the fight. I can basically only see what’s happening on my island and the add that I have to tank. Unlike our previous Lurker attempts, I never lost aggro on my add which I was quite pleased with. It looked like we were losing people to his Spout, how I’m not sure.
Basically, people were just not paying attention. Our final attempt we had two people afk. We wiped twice on Lurker and our GM called it.
We had a heated talk about the need to recruit Raiders. We don’t have enough in Mal Katai. We can’t kick people from Raids for repeated mistakes, and we can’t take a team of dedicated Raiders. Why? It’s simply because we lack the people.
I really enjoy gaming with the guys in Mal Katai, but I’m seriously starting to question if this is the guild I need to be in. I just feel like I take raiding much more seriously than most of my guild. Although to be fair, there is a group within MK who take it seriously as well.
I know Mal Katai is a “casual” guild. I have no problem with that. To me, that is a measure or expression of how much time you raid. Mal Katai shoots for 3 nights a week. That’s fairly “casual”. You can be casual and still be serious inside your raids. You don’t have to have your raids to be boot camps, but at least requiring everyone to be on vent is not too much to ask.
BRK summed it up well “Fun is fun and Work is work. Raids are both. Treat it as such.”
I know some of the people who read my blog are in my guild. I'm not trying to make this sound like a threat. I'd love nothing more than for things to improve dramatically this upcoming week. No canceled raids, farm bosses down in 1 attempt. New bosses attempted.
I really don't want to leave my guild, I'm just not sure what to do.
Comments
We are a casual, all-inclusive guild. We accept everyone. Anyone can sign up to raid. Everyone gets an equal shot at loot, for which we just /roll. These practices are not conducive to progressing, however.
I've done everything I can to gear myself up; I come to raids (often leading them) prepared and ready to pay attention and kill things.
We can get 25 people together for a raid, but we can't get 25 people together who have gemmed and enchanted their gear, let alone 25 people who are able to pay attention and follow directions.
Fedaykin98
I would say you did the right thing with the new paladin applicant. Its not honestly wrong to tell someone they may not be ready and need to do some work to get there yet also point them if they care enough to improve in the right direction as well. Many new tank are so eager to tank yet few take the time and effort required to get there and become good along the way with effort.
Makes me wonder sometimes if I really wanted to just how far I could get if I threw an application in to a top guild on my server or elsewhere. My guild is small and size capped. Its also casual member guild with just about ever member having multiple alt. I'm probaby the only member in guild that plays one dedicated member and with dedication. Nothing as well wrong with my guild being casual either. However because of the way I dedicatedly play my character I guess if you look at it while most people in my guild be just casual while I'm more Hardcore focused. I'm not Hardcore and never have but my own dedication to play separates my play style and outlook and progress to my more casual guild members.
Agree with the poster above as well. I play the game enough to know that I don't play it the same way my guildmates do but with more focus and with a plan on getting things done. That at times makes me wonder if my guild is just too casual for me also with my dedicated playstyle.
It's a little off-topic man but thanks for the site, it has been a great resource for me as I have been leveling up. I have been prot since lvl 10, and will be in OL tonight. Am having a ball with the class and only wish i had leveled a pally tank first.
I think if we searched a bit and got everyone who is in this same particular situation to one server we'd find we had a plethora of raiders, but due to the spreading out of people round the world, across servers, and time zones...it becomes remarkably difficult. I am holding onto my guild in the hopes we can make some progress but I may move my pally to another guild if I don't see something positive happening in the next couple of weeks while he gets to 70 and starts really gearing for tanking.