Sum Of Our Parts

Tuesday's Raid

We started a new Raid week last night. I got on a little late due to putting my daughter's room back together. We have been redecorating at my house and had moved my daughter into the "Spare" Room while we painted her room. Last night we moved her back into her room which involved moving her bed, bookshelf and dresser around.
The raid was already formed when I logged in and I got an immediate invite. Brindall (our Nature Tank) was nowhere to be seen, so we skipped Hydross and went straight to Lurker.
One of the things I don't like about Lurker is that I get almost tunnel vision. I can only see (and influence) what is going on, on my little island.
It seemed that one of the other tanks was having trouble getting initial aggro on his mob.
I really don't know how Warriors do it. You are sitting there with and empty rage bar, and BAM, up comes this Naga and you've got to get your threat going pronto. Meanwhile I've already got a Consecrate ticking under its feet, and a Judgement of Righteousness ready to fire as soon as it targetable.
(This statement should NOT be construed as me saying Paladin > Warrior. I am trying to communicate that I can understand a Warrior having trouble on the pick up).
We lost a bunch of DPS and Healers, and ended up with a 1% wipe. 1% wipes are not cool.
We regroup and pull again. At some point in the fight the Main Tank (Lanorah - Warrior) goes down. Luckily, this happens right before a submerge. We manage to battle rez Lanorah and one of our Rogues evasion tanks the Guardian for a bit. As much as I wanted to run over and taunt that Guardian, I had my own Guardian to deal with. I needed to "stay in my gap".
"Stay in your gap" was something I was taught during my football days. Each person on the defense had a "gap" or hole or small area of the field they were responsible for. We were coached to not leave our "gap". We had to trust the other 10 guys to cover their "gaps" and make sure the offense didn't gain an inch. If I left my "gap" then I could potentially open up a cut back lane for a runner or get fooled by a misdirection play.
So I hung with my Guardian and once he was down, I went and grabbed the loose one. Again, too much damage had been done to the raid and we wiped at 3%.
We gather up one more time. This time we replace a Shadow Priest with a 3rd Mage for sheeping duty.
Add control was smoother and we cooked up a big fish.
By now, Brindall had made it on and we went over to Hydross. We managed to one shot him. Yeah! Some plate shoulders dropped that made one of our DPS Warriors very happy.
We started clearing to Tidewalker. We decided to try AoE tanking the Murlocs just like I AoE tank them in the actual boss fight or in Hyjal. These guys hit much harder (and there is some magic damage thrown in) and AoE tanking didn't work. We went back to doing things 'normally' and got through the trash.
We made 3 attempts on Tidewalker. Our issue was keeping the Main Tank (Cryak - Warrior) alive. He had never tanked Tidewalker before, and made some (understandable) rookie mistakes. On our best attempt, he made a mistake moving Tidewalker into the hallway and gave him his back, got Crushed and died. I made a similar mistake on Mag a week or two back (and unknowingly blamed my healers, bad Honors!).
We decided to put Tidewalker off to Thursday, meaning we need to kill both Tide and FLK on Thursday. This will cut down on the time we have to work on Leo.
I wish I could put a finger on what the issue in Mal Katai is. We just seem to be so inconsistent from one night to the next. Individually, our tanks are great, our healers are solid gold and our DPS is scary (in a good way). But when you put it all together, it just doesn't add up to what it should be (one shotting Farm Bosses, solid attempts at Progression).
My current theory is that a more consistent roster would lead to more consistent results, but I would wager that each night about 75% of the raid is the same people so that contraindicates that as a possible explanation. Since I have not been able to identify the issue, it has been difficult for me to suggest any possible remedies.

WWS

WWS is still not working, and still no word from the author. I wish I had started the WWS clone project earlier so I'd have something now, when the moment is opportune to offer it to the WoW community. At the time, WWS was working great and the thought of making of clone hadn't crossed my mind. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. By the time I get mine up and running, WWS might be back up or several other alternatives may have sprung up at the same time. I need to think of creative ways to set my clone apart from the others.

Death and Taxes

I saw where none other than the famous Death and Taxes guild is recruiting. For those who might not know, Death and Taxes is the most cutting edge Raiding Guild on US servers. They compete for World Firsts, and help script the Boss Mods that help the rest of us experience and defeat the end game encounters Blizzard has designed.
Currently they are looking for
Druid: (1-2 Resto)
Shaman: 1 (Elemental), 2-3 (Resto)
Priest: (1-2 Shadow)
Paladin: 2-3 (Holy), 1 (Prot/Holy, Prot/Ret, Ret/Prot) Mage: 1
Warlock: 1 (Destro)
Death & Taxes > Lost Naga Cove - Announcements in Forum : Death & Taxes Recruitment Area
It is a rare opportunity when a guild like DnT recruits.  It's even rarer when they have a need for your chosen Class/Spec.
Even if I wanted to app to them, I know I can't commit to the kind of schedule they run. As much as I'd love to be able to be online by 7pm, 6 nights a week, and raid until the wee hours of the morning, it's just not possible. The wee hours of the morning I could manage for a couple of nights a week, but I don't see me getting on by 7pm, well, ever.
I don't begrudge those who can, or think less of them. I have made choices in my life that have led me to a place where I can't commit to that. Other people are at different places in their life journey and they can commit to that.
Part of me wants to app just to see if I "have what it takes" to get accepted to a guild like that. The last time I tried that, I wound up with an invite to Bloodsky. After I got it, I felt it was too good of an opportunity to turn down, thus leaving my friends in Heroes Inc behind.
Of course, I was guildless a week later because I couldn't get online in time for invites.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I too am baffled as to wth ..
The rookie mistake that caused the wiped on Tide was more me/Lisa/Drews fault..I could have sworn he had been there for the fight before:P

I like doing that fight on my lock..I guess it is just about have a "Job" to do in a boss fight..like mage tanking but with out having done it for a year lol

Ted I am positive D&T would love to have you..you have the theory craft down, know your role like no other..:)
Anonymous said…
I could have sworn that i heard D&T imploded over 2.4 coming out (all the nerfs + the gear that would make all their work seem for naught) I dont know but it seems like they need many new people judging from that list
I wonder if it will be the same ol D&T? again this is what i Heard... may not have happened, but still that s a big new roster list. You have the theory to run with them for sure, but you also have a family. and family >>> WoW Great blog by the way
Anonymous said…
I assume the above poster is Raist. I thought Cryak had been there before too...thus leading me to the belief that as melee he would see exactly where Tidewalker was supposed to have been.

Anyways, another problem with Lurker is people getting cleaved. Obviously, there's always the chance of it hitting a melee person if the tank loses aggro for a second or something else causes him to turn, etc. I dont understand how a ranged person would manage to not only be standing in front of a guardian, but also within melee range of one, though.
Honors Code said…
@Tego

DnT's implosion was an April Fool's joke.
Lakini said…
From reading your blog it seems like people not paying attention or not being prepared comes up more than anything else. A common "casual" guild problem I would think.
Anonymous said…
Ah, so it was a joke. still that looks like a bunch of class/spec needs. at once.... still alot of turnover. and yeah i feel for you man, being serious in a casual guild can be hard... though at the same time you are tanking... i envy you for that.


Tego

a once prot now holy dwarf pally on feathermoon
Judith Dohmann said…
Just a small comment to AoE-Tanking the murlocs:

The Paladin pulled the Murlocs and then the other three tanks just picked targets which should be killed first. So the Paladin had 2-3 Murlocs on him.

The main advantage of this method is, that you do not need to mark all the murlocs with raid symbols, you can just pull and sort them out later.
Anonymous said…
Flake

Popular posts from this blog

Cataclysm Profession Bonuses

Raid Comp Tool

Back To Basics: The 969 Paladin Threat Rotation