The Raid that Wasn't

We didn't manage to get a group together for Naxxramas on Raid night. Too many of our players had real life aggro. Healers sick or with broken computers, dps sick, etc. It happens.

Instead, we held tank tests for Batra and Takkarian. SURPRISE. Batra made it to the def cap. Much congratulations.

I think Takk is even more excited than Batra, lol. Takk says he still doesn't want to tank, even though we generally prefer him.

But anyway, Militia says that anyone who can tank Pit of Saron should be able to handle Naxx in their sleep. Based on stats anyway, completely disregarding the coordination and such that is par for the course in Naxx. So we all sign up for H PoS with Militia dps'ing and we get a random healer and off we go.

It goes... better than last time? When Ann and I did it with Batra a couple weeks ago, it went terribly. This time, we survived Garfrost and Ick even though we wiped a couple times. Then we went on to wipe on trash. Several times.

Militia took over for the run through the gauntlet.

Tyrannius gets downed, everybody is happy. We only had 4 or 5 different healers quit on us. But... Batra didn't pass.

Now, there's a huge difference (in my opinion) between H PoS and Naxxramas. So I'm not sure we established anything other than Batra isn't quite yet ready to tank H PoS. But Militia was able to offer many helpful tips as an experienced tank.

Half of which I'm sure went in one ear and out the other as far as Batra was concerned.

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, so here it is: I love having Militia as our raid leader.

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The things I did for (Fool for) Love

The rest of Fool for Love went relatively painlessly. Except for My love is like a red, red rose. I think we've figured out by now that I have a terrible time with dungeons drops. Even when the drop is guaranteed, like the Bouquets, I can never seem to manage a decent roll on it.

It came down to a point where there was only one day left and I had already tried all three of the heroic dungeons that dropped it. So I descended into the normal level dungeons. The level of noobness was high, but what I discovered was that the level 70/71 players in normal Utgarde Keep frequently played better than the fresh 80s I've had the misfortune to group with in heroics.

Nothing against the fresh 80s. A lot of the time, I'm still in the same category of merely pretending that I have some idea of what's going on. But I assure you, there's no reason for my felguard to be tanking when the group already has an assigned tank. When he died for something like the 8th time, I switched to my destro spec. Felguards cost soulshards, but Imps only cost mana. And yes, I still managed to pull aggro a ridiculous number of times. I managed to stand still, not cast, and still pull aggro. Good times.

Good practice for my destruction spec, though.

I'm down to only one blue in my gear. And - who would have guessed it? - its a trinket I need to replace. A trinket that I've never seen drop, so I haven't even had the opportunity to fail at rolling for it. Deja vu.

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Naxxramas

Also known as "Beating Your Head Against a Brick Wall for Beginners."

Official guild night has, hopefully, become Raid Night. We started in Naxx last night with a 10-man group that will, also hopefully, be making the long haul with us.

It started off a bit slow. We had two healers from Earthbound Warriors: Glendalia and Adorynn. We pugged two melee dps. We wiped on Anub'Rekhan about 6 times. Our melee dps dropped out.

Glendalia found us two more dps from her friend list. Ayliffe, a warrior, sounded interested in becoming a permanent member of our invite list. Shadowhawk, a mage, was nice enough to join us, but has previous raid experience and is probably doing more interesting things than Naxx most of the time.

So, if Es is able to rejoin us next week, we will still have a 10-man group.

The hardest part of the night was working on our coordination. Getting your healers to stand where you want them to is hard. To be fair, though, Adorynn wasn't able to get his vent working.

After our initial trouble with Anub'Rekhan, things actually went fairly smoothly. We wiped again on Maexxxna, because our healers got shut out of the room. But we completed the Arachnid Quarter. And we're funny. We know how to joke around and have a good time. And we have an engineer with jeeves. So we can repair and sell crap without leaving the raid.

We "started" two other wings, but didn't go very far into either one. We were able to down Noth, but failed a lot at Heigan. Turns out our guild can't dance. This was another case of trying to get our healers to understand what was going on. Because they're not in our guild they did not have the required homework the rest of us did. Of course, the homework didn't help the rest of us a whole lot. Exploding floor of death got all of us. And fast.

Same story, different quarter. We downed Patchwerk, but were unable to tackle Grobbulus. It was pretty late by this point. So we agreed to stop and resume with the same raid ID next week.

We haven't done the big kiting fiasco that Gluth is likely to be. We'll do that with our hunter. You're welcome, Es. :)

The thing that concerns me is that, because our group is made up of people from different guilds, we can't require that they get better gear or do some pre-raid homework. Though it would be nice if they did. Not that they have bad gear or anything. I certainly can't talk. It's just a thought.

Finally, NEVER TRUST A MAGE.

During one of our many regroups after a wipe, Senach requested help summoning a "table" and ported half our raid to Darnassus. Including me, the only one who could have summoned everyone else back into the raid without two people going up to the summoning stone.

Didn't we feel stupid.

He really confused our poor warrior.

Thankfully, Militia grabbed another person and went up to the summoning stone. I kicked Sen from the raid. By "accident". I really just wanted my character to punt that little gnome across Naxxramas.

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Middle of Feb. Resolution

It's not New Year's... but its almost the Lunar New Year. That counts, right?

I decided that this year I was going to chase that year-long meta-achievement: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been. I was going to stop punking out and saying "Well, I'll try again next year." If everything works out, there will be a lovely Violet Proto-Drake waiting for me at Christmas time.

Because, in addition to beginning to raid with my guild and in addition to leveling a healer, I needed MOAR stuff to do.

Fool for Love is going moderately well, considering how little I pvp. I snuck into wintergrasp and pitied a love fool there. I didn't realize each love fool was a one-use item.

I need to eat one more piece of candy. And make a few more charm bracelets. And finish pitying the fool.

And I need to obtain a bouquet of red roses, because I can never seem to get it in the dungeons. One group needed on it. That is just not right.

So, as far as I know everyone in the guild has been gearing up for Naxx. One of our dps may be bowing out because of a family commitment. We invited two of our friends from another guild to join us; and hopefully they will. We will need to pug 1 or 2 extra dps. Which should be... interesting.

Batra, instead of signing up for dps position, queued himself for a tank slot. Both tank slots are currently filled. By people who have reached the defense cap.

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I'll write about it in my blag

Explanation of title.

Guild night last night was interesting. We weren't planning anything major because we knew that a large number of people would be absent. But because Ann and I are farming pieces from Heroic Pit of Saron (different pieces, thank goodness), when Batra suggested we do something we all grouped and queued for H PoS.

What a terrible idea.

Ann got stuck in load-screen land or some such and had to restart her computer before we even got started. Our first healer dropped because he got tired of waiting. He was a dbag anyway.

Really, is it that hard to use a name in a pug group? He could have said "You coming Ann?" instead of "you coming mage?". It even has less letters. I don't get it.

Anyway. The initial trash pulls go without much issue. We pick up an extra group at one point, but the warrior dps held them until Batra came and picked them up.

Somewhere around this point Batra asks us "How's my DPS?".

Apart from the obvious answer - terrible - why do you care when you're tanking? Takk did try to explain later about how DK tanks use direct damage to maintain aggro and stuff. Still, you should be more concerned about TPS, I would think. And even if you do care about DPS, why would you ask about it in a pug group? Recount can put it right there on your own screen and you don't have to ask anyone.

We get to the first boss: Garfrost.

I don't even remember the first wipe, it was such a clusterfuck. I do remember running around trying to avoid the huge boulders. Thanks, DBM, for the helpful hints (MOVE).

And then trying to hide behind them to get rid of permafrost. Does this even work?

But anyway, we die. I think we may have gotten hit with adds. Who knows.

Batra says: "Grr".

We run back in. Rebuff. Etc. We stand there in front of Garfrost for few minutes. Batra wonders if we can kill the large skeletons nearby so that they can't jump on us when we pull Garfrost.

For future reference: No, you can't.

Ann told him she thought they were linked, but he death grips one anyway and appears to be totally unprepared for Garfrost to coming running at him.

We die.

The healer and the warrior dps don't even try to res. They just drop group.

Batra asks us if we want to keep trying. I tell him no. I'm not particularly interested in attempting this again.

So we quit. No big.

Batra then asks us in guild chat how his tanking was. Ann takes the fall for this one. She tells him the truth. It was not fantastic. And those are pretty mild words for what I was thinking at the time.

So he whispers her about what was going wrong. She gives him the laundry list with nice and helpful comments about how he could do better. Example? "You should make sure all the targets are focused on you. DKs have a couple aoe effects that should accomplish this." These are all totally my words because I did not actually see the conversation.

His response?

"Have fun in Naxx next week. Apparently I'm too useless to go."

DRAMA.

I don't understand. He's been a level 80 for like, 5 months now. Maybe more, idk. And while I haven't leveled a tank that high, I've read its not particularly difficult to get to the defense cap. I think Takk managed it in three weeks. To be fair, Takk seems to have more time than the rest of us to play. But Batra's still had MONTHS worth of a head start on us.

I feel bad. I do. Because I know Batra irl. And I know he's been looking forward to tanking for our guild. But it's not free. You have to do your research. You have to know your class, know your fights, know how to get and keep aggro. And you have to get to the def cap, dangit!

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When do I start spending my frosties?

I've been farming these heroics for awhile now. I'm obsessive about doing the daily heroic in order to get my two Emblems of Frost each day.

But... what do I do with them?

I suppose the obvious answer is to save them up for 2pc T9/ 2pc T10 combo of doom. But I'm not convinced. I've heard there's a ferocious lack of spirit on the T10 pieces. And I'm gathering that makes getting off pieces a better idea.

What kind of off pieces can you get with frosties? Observe:

Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky
Pros
Awesome White Stats
Yellow Socket
More crit and spell power

Cons
Sad lack of Haste
Socket Bonus is so not happening.


Circle of Ossus
Pros
Direct upgrade in every way
TWO Sockets


Maghia's Misguided Quill
Pros
Serious on-use Spellpower.

Cons
Way more hit than I'd know what to do with.

The belt is the only thing that is as awesome as it should be. Don't get me wrong. They're all pretty sweet. They're just not what I'm looking for. I need better trinkets in a bad way. If I can't buy them with frosties, what else can I do? Not much, considering my guild hasn't actually started raiding yet.

Darkmoon Card: Illusion
Je'Tze's Bell
Both fairly solid options, considering how rarely I'm able to manage my mana. Both also probably expensive.

Nevermelting Ice Crystal
Do want. Added to my 'I will farm that until the cows come home and then some' list.

Sundial of the Exiled
Possibility. A (hopefully) temporary upgrade to the suck I have right now. I may not want to waste the emblems on it, when I could get a ring upgrade instead.

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Wait. We did something right?

Official guild night last night was actually very successful. I am as surprised as you are. All of our 80s were present. As was one of our much loved lower levels. :)

The weekly raid is to kill Patchwerk. This is good news for Memento, as we are looking to start raiding with Naxx. We figured it would be pretty easy to pick up the 2-3 healers we need to start on a week where everyone is looking to go to Naxx anyway.

Well. That's half true.

We did find 2 healers and another DK. All of whom were only interested in going as far as Patchwerk. Le sigh.

Anyways, I've seen NAXX!!!!

We don't have any problems with Patchwerk. It goes awesomely. We even almost hit the speed kill timer. And by 'almost', I mean 'we missed it by one second'. No really. DBM keeps track of this stuff for me.

We lose our three extras. But do we stop? We do not.

Militia switches to heals and Takk takes over MT. We head on over to the Plague Quarter and kill some stuff. We die EPICLY (that's a word. >.>) on Noth the plaguebringer.

It was superfun.

Although, it wasn't a complete wipe. Sen used his cowardly magely invisibility spell and stayed alive. For a little while. He tried to tell us how much we failed. Then he got too close to Noth again. And died.

I laughed.

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Excuse me while I drop the f-bomb

Let me start with a warning: This is a post of anger and frustration. There will be curse words and finger pointing and general blame re-allocation. You have been warned.

Guild night starts up pretty normal. Sen, Batra and I are the only ones online at 8. No surprises there. Takk calls me to say he'll be on in 30-45 minutes. No big. I don't particularly care at this point.

I start the evening frustrated at my roommates after spending a large portion of the day fighting with a virus-infected computer. All I'm looking to do is to get online and to start killing stuff in the most efficient manner possible. The quests in Ice Crown are particularly useful for this. Hopping into a vehicle and man-slaughtering hundreds of scourge is a great stress reducer.

When Takk gets online, we queue up for a random heroic. This lands us in Drak'Tharon with Batra tanking and another awesome healer from Nazgrel. Remember the Moral of the Story? Neither did I when we started Drak'Tharon. If you're going to run heroics, make sure your tank is def capped.

Regardless, we survive Drak'Tharon for the most part. There's a wipe on King Dred. How or why, I still don't know. Throughout the instance, Sen and this healer have been chit-chatting and word gets around to the rest of us that he doesn't have the Bronze Drake from Culling of Stratholme.

Shall we do that one next? Great idea. None of us have ever gone through Heroic CoS without getting to the Infinite Corruptor in time.

Observe me while I eat these words.

In general, CoS is no big deal at this point. Even I can find my way most of the time. We're all on vent at this point too, even though my microphone is kinda wonky. Nothing major happens until wave 6. Batra dies.

Whatever. Takk takes most of the aggro, Sen and I burn stuff to the ground. Healer of Awesome resurrects Batra. Wave 7 hits.

On vent I ask Takk to tank wave 7 so that we can keep moving at a good pace. Batra, surprisingly enough, doesn't appreciate this. He's trying to tell us how we have plenty of time and he just needs to regain his health and we'll keep going.

I'm seething. We do not have plenty of time.

It takes two minutes - two fucking minutes - for Batra to finish healing, find wave 7, and for us to kill it. This does not leave us "plenty of time".

This clusterfuck of suck continues until Arthas is ready to go behind the bookshelf. We have 3 minutes to run the gauntlet of angry scourge and take out the dragonkin at the end. This is possible. Sen, Takk, and I only need about 30 seconds with a boss. We can crank out some pretty awesome dps when shit gets serious.

The gauntlet begins. Sen is arcane blasting scourge away. I'm sending Flaag (my fel-guard) after everything in sight. I have no idea what the dks are doing. We get to the first mob with elites in it. There is no sign of death and decay, or any other form of aoe aggro that means I won't get dps'ed in the face if I start fighting.

Long story short: we die again. Sen's frustrated that we weren't able to help our Healer friend get his drake. I'm frustrated that no one listened earlier in the instance when I said we needed to move faster. Takk is probably frustrated, but none of us know for sure because he dropped from vent awhile back. Smart man.

We try to rush back in there, but its a long run and Batra won't speed up and no one is communicating and nothing works well and we die again. And this time its my fault. At least, thats what I heard Batra told Takk. Heresay. That's what the guild needs.

Regardless. We're now out of time. So all that's left to do is to regroup, calm down, and finish the instance at a pace that suits everyone. Instead, Batra switches to guild chat and starts talking about how ignored he feels because no one is saying anything on vent.

I'm the only one on with a microphone. And I'm not yet convinced it works.

We finish CoS. We're stupid enough to queue for another one. A random one. Random my ass. WoW puts us right back in CoS. Fuck my life.

I pick up the crates this time, because I haven't before and I like new stuff. We make it all the way to AFTER the timer starts. And then Batra drops group. The timer is already running! Luckily, Militia is online to make my life better. He steps in to tank for us. Everything runs smoothly.

Militia reminds us that Batra is not def capped. Oh, right. The moral of the story. Damnit.

Ann believes that it time to have a discussion with Batra about upholding the rules we agreed on. The rules that essentially amount to "don't be a douchebag". Sen doesn't think it will do any good. I can easily believe that its a clusterfuck waiting to happen. I guess we will see how it plays out.

Good news:
I'm hit capped. Exactly 17%. Win.

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