Casual Raid Leader

Last night was a good night to die!!!  Well for Saurfang it was.  We had spent Wednesday working on clearing the first three bosses, but as we thought we’d only have 5 attempts at Saurfang, we figured we’d hold off after a long night of raiding to do Saurfang on a fresh day.  Thursday I knew would be a very busy day for me.  My daughter had a music program at school, so I really didn’t anticipate having time to raid, but about 8:30 I jumped online and there the group was.. waiting for me to show up.

So we headed on in to Icecrown Citadel.  I suspect there was a bug as we were granted 8 attempts at Saurfang, but I’m not going to complain… we downed him.  Lets crank it up and see what we learned about Deathbringer Saurfang. (more…)

Its funny how we kind of find ourselves in a rut.  I think in an MMO, its kind of a natural thing.  You end up stuck… you’ve done most if not all of everything in the game and then.. things slow down… they crawl to a halt and you find yourself just filling in the spaces….

I’m sorry if you disagree, but Blizzard in my opinion has proved why they deserve the king of the hill for MMOs.  With the release of 3.3, they’ve redefined what it is to play WoW… again. (more…)

In my previous guild, people just hated the Faction Champions fight.  I can understand their frustration.  They viewed it as a PVP fight in a PVE game.  I will admit my first impression was somewhat similar.  As I’ve grown in the game, I’ve found that overall it is one of my FAVORITE encounters in this expansion. 

Let me explain why after the break. (more…)

It has been an interesting few weeks.  I was accused of being a real pro the other day in a raid and to be honest.. it felt good.  I’ve been quiet on purpose.  I’ve had a lot to say, but to be honest, I wanted to give people I knew a bit of time to adjust… pick a direction and decide what they wanted to do with the game.

I’ve picked my path and thus far I’m not regretting it.  For those who have been watching, you know I jumped from Alliance to Horde and swapped servers.  $55 later (ouch), I found myself in a guild formed by some friends of mine I see once or twice a month.  So its a guild largely comprised of people who know each other.  Lets take a few minutes to dwell down what I’ve experienced and some of the surprises I’ve seen. (more…)

Today I had the chance to finally put up some information I was able to get from a guild leader I’ve known for a while.  This will be part two of what will be a four part series on raid lockout.  Today I was able to track down a friend of mine who plays a horde character.  So never let it be said we don’t provide equal opportunity for Horde and Alliance over here!!!!

Today’s victim volunteer is GM of a small 10 man raiding guild located over on Thunderhorn.  They in many respects face the same issues I’ve seen many times over in my own guild, and we correspond quite a bit to just discuss strategy and tactics.  Without further ado, lets catch up with our next interview. (more…)

Its kind of rare for me to discuss much about what’s going on in patch notes.  I try to generally stay away from them since there is plenty of QQing in the world and I don’t feel its ever appropriate to get your panties in a twist before you actually see how it works.  Look… I play a feral druid and they’ve screwed us six ways to Sunday and you haven’t seen me bitching about it…(much).  The game’s a game.. they just elect to change the rules from time to time.

Maybe I’m lazy, but I’m generally not able to dedicate enough time to checking out the PTR and having been a beta tester for Wrath, it is like trying to hit a moving target.  What first comes out rarely is how something looks in the end.  However one topic I wanted to talk about as we progress nearer to 3.2 is the raid lockout extension.  For guilds of all sizes this has the potential to transform how we approach instances for the forseable future.

One big warning here folks.  I haven’t been to the PTR.  If I missed that this feature has been removed or changed or I completely misunderstand how its going to work, I apologize.  (more…)

Its an interesting effect when you watch raiders hit walls.  Some of them really start digging in.  Others throw up their hands and begin to fade away.  I had a sneaking suspicion it was coming.  If you look over the common threads, you see a lot of the “hard core” raiding guilds are pushing the limits and are pretty much done with Ulduar.  They are looking at the hard modes and desperately trying to get to Alagon.  For the more casual guilds they seem to be hovering anywhere from 6-7 in Ulduar.  The walls there are very real,  but what’s the effect that causes this? (more…)

Its been one of those interesting weeks for me.  I’m sure you can tell by my last post, but overall it wasn’t bad.  We had some raiding that we actually fit in around all my backbreaking labor.  It was really good work too.  Let me fill you in on that before I bore the rest of you with my story of construction gone wild. (more…)

Last night I was pretty happy.  For the first time since we reformed, we were able to head back into Naxx as a guild.  It wasn’t perfect.  It wasn’t always pretty, but damn it… we got some work done.

I’m  a realist.  What we did last night was damned good work considering what we started with.  It certainly won’t win any awards, but as far as I’m concerned… damn fine work. (more…)

Years ago I training martial arts in a little town called Gibsonia, Pennsylvania.  There were plenty of martial arts schools in the area, but my father was particularly careful about picking a teacher.  You see my father very strongly believed that martial arts were something that you had to do right or abuse could run rampant.  Its hard to understand what he meant at the age and time, but as I age, its very much a philosophy I ascribe to.  Martial arts done by a large majority of the world have no meaning.  Its great for exercise, but the core of martial arts is much deeper that most people can even grasp.

But hey.. it looks like I’m already diverting off my point.  You see I remember clearly the one moment in time where my approach to martial arts changed.  Prior to that one defining moment I was skating through.  I could do the movements.  I knew all the moves.  I could perform all the patterns.  But that wasn’t the point.  The day it all transformed was the day that Mr.  Paris flunked me.  The day I failed… was the day I learned to find the savior. (more…)