Last night, ahead of my second and the guild's fourth venture into Blackwing Lair, I was asked to respec to restoration, probably for the medium term. Our feral druid also respecced so I'm not seeing this as a lack of faith in moonkins but more that the new raid needs a higher proportion of healers than was the case in Molten Core. I'd much rather be raiding and healing than have the spot go to someone else, so I'm now a rather rushed Moonglow spec which I must tweak when I can face the cost of changing it!
I haven't been at the last two raids due to family commitments so have missed the guild's first kill of Broodlord Lashlayer, a much improved performance on Razorgore and quite a lot of wiping.
Wiping was how we started out on Firemaw as well, but with a clear sense of progression on most of the attempts so, while it was a relief to finally get him down, it never felt like it would be a wipe night. We then downed Ebonroc on our first attempt and Flamegor on our second before finishing with a "let's take a look" wipe on Chromaggus.
All in all a satisfactory night of progression raiding in a casual-ish guild.
Monday 24 February 2020
Friday 14 February 2020
Third look at Blackwing Lair
I recently unearthed some old screenshots including one from November 2006 of my original priest at Razorgore. I'm guessing we didn't get very far as I don't remember that raid, before seeing the screenshot I'd thought I'd only been there at a higher level (70 or 80?) such that the fights were trivialised.
Fair to say that, even with our current better understanding of gearing and a decent raiding guild, BWL is far from trivial in Classic and rather harder than my guild was anticipating.
On our first visit last night we downed Razorgore and Vaelastrasz at the cost of 7 and 4 wipes respectively. Given the time spent on Razorgore it was quite late, so we called it a night at that point.
I'm glad to see that the new raid will present us a challenge, and it's great to be involved in some guild first kills, as frustrating as the wipes were at times.
Fair to say that, even with our current better understanding of gearing and a decent raiding guild, BWL is far from trivial in Classic and rather harder than my guild was anticipating.
On our first visit last night we downed Razorgore and Vaelastrasz at the cost of 7 and 4 wipes respectively. Given the time spent on Razorgore it was quite late, so we called it a night at that point.
I'm glad to see that the new raid will present us a challenge, and it's great to be involved in some guild first kills, as frustrating as the wipes were at times.
Friday 7 February 2020
Purples make it better
Actually that headline is unfair on both me and my guild...
Last night in Molten Core the Staff of Dominance dropped. My guild runs an odd system partly of free rolls and partly of a sort of loot council. In the past I've been on the wrong side of the latter, with items being restricted to certain key raiders or to warlocks or mages - this seemed fair enough since they would put the item to good use, but there was the worry of how that would restrict me. However last night it was decided that the staff should go to me.
A big part of that was that many of the mages have the mageblade or other good loot, or are keeping their powder dry for the next time that drops, but also there was recognition that I'm now part of the main team. I also had support from "my" mages that appreciate their extra crit.
So while the purple is a physical (virtual?) representation of it, what really makes it worthwhile is that I'm seen as an asset to, and not a drag on, our raid team.
Last night in Molten Core the Staff of Dominance dropped. My guild runs an odd system partly of free rolls and partly of a sort of loot council. In the past I've been on the wrong side of the latter, with items being restricted to certain key raiders or to warlocks or mages - this seemed fair enough since they would put the item to good use, but there was the worry of how that would restrict me. However last night it was decided that the staff should go to me.
A big part of that was that many of the mages have the mageblade or other good loot, or are keeping their powder dry for the next time that drops, but also there was recognition that I'm now part of the main team. I also had support from "my" mages that appreciate their extra crit.
So while the purple is a physical (virtual?) representation of it, what really makes it worthwhile is that I'm seen as an asset to, and not a drag on, our raid team.
Wednesday 5 February 2020
Historic ambition achieved
In last week's Molten Core run I picked up two more pieces (the gloves and chest) of the Cenarion Raiment, and so have nearly a full set. I'm just missing the bracers - which I could get from the Auction House - and the helm, which doesn't seem a big deal since I already have the Stormrage Cover.
Recently I found some old screenshots from 2006 which included a Tauren shaman from one of the top raiding guilds on my server in full Earthfury. This was something I aspired to but without wanting to go through what I then saw as the niche path of the hardcore raider. And now I've pretty much assembled a set of my own from the discards of my guild, in quite a short time.
I'm lucky in a couple of ways, one in that I randomly joined what would once have been seen as a top raiding guild (but is actually fairly relaxed and casual*), and also that we run with few druids and that I'm one of them. Typically we have a druid of each spec, and it so happens that our feral druid used to be resto and so has little use for the healing drops.
* A caveat to the casual - last week our raid leader decided we should speed up from our previous 2 hour clear, aiming for an hour and a half, which we duly did. It was messier than usual with noticeably more deaths, but pretty much always in control. So perhaps we're not that casual, but are miles away from the stresses and constraints you'd expect in a "hardcore" guild.
That said I am feeling a bit constrained by my raiding spec, or perhaps looking at it differently my lack of the gold needed to respec frequently. Long term I think I'd like a bear-focused Heart of the Wild / Nature's Swiftness spec due to its great versatility and grouping potential. But for now, with Blackwing Lair on the horizon, I'll stick with where I am.
Recently I found some old screenshots from 2006 which included a Tauren shaman from one of the top raiding guilds on my server in full Earthfury. This was something I aspired to but without wanting to go through what I then saw as the niche path of the hardcore raider. And now I've pretty much assembled a set of my own from the discards of my guild, in quite a short time.
I'm lucky in a couple of ways, one in that I randomly joined what would once have been seen as a top raiding guild (but is actually fairly relaxed and casual*), and also that we run with few druids and that I'm one of them. Typically we have a druid of each spec, and it so happens that our feral druid used to be resto and so has little use for the healing drops.
* A caveat to the casual - last week our raid leader decided we should speed up from our previous 2 hour clear, aiming for an hour and a half, which we duly did. It was messier than usual with noticeably more deaths, but pretty much always in control. So perhaps we're not that casual, but are miles away from the stresses and constraints you'd expect in a "hardcore" guild.
That said I am feeling a bit constrained by my raiding spec, or perhaps looking at it differently my lack of the gold needed to respec frequently. Long term I think I'd like a bear-focused Heart of the Wild / Nature's Swiftness spec due to its great versatility and grouping potential. But for now, with Blackwing Lair on the horizon, I'll stick with where I am.
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