(WoW) Plugging Away
So Saturday night's raiding went well enough. There were no real arguments. We downed two bosses in Baradin Hold quickly, plowed through Firelands up through Staghelm (with two wipes on Baleroc), then did the first half of Dragon Soul (with several wipes on Zon'ozz). That was long (about a four hour stretch), but fairly successful.
Still, a few things bother me a little bit.
First, there's a bit of a rift I perceive between people wanting to do more Dragon Soul and people wanting to keep doing Firelands. I recognize that Staghelm's staff is pretty much unique at any level, and I would like to see a Dragonwrath in the guild, but otherwise Firelands is feeling pretty old. Most of the fights, I can do in sort of an automatic sense. Only Rhyolith really requires any breaking of pattern for me. I have no idea why one person (who is third or fourth to start it) wants Dragonwrathy parts when the first one isn't must more than halfway done after all this time.
And we had someone asking when we'd get into the latter half of Dragon Soul. My personal response was, essentially, "when we stop doing Firelands too." Really. Four hours? Even without major roadblocks, it takes a long time to clear through all that, and some of our group is often tired going into things, and definitely ready to call it a night by then. And we've done so little in DS that there are still a lot of drops to be had from the first four bosses (personally: axe and off-spec wrists from Morchok, gloves from Zon'ozz for both specs, legs from Yor'sahj for both specs, and off-spec shoulders from Hagara). That said, if people are up to it by the time we get there, there's really no reason we can't poke Ultraxion. It's not "hard" division in the raid like it is with LFR. But I think we're a ways off wanting to really safe a lock. And anyone who says the latter half is easier has to be joking.
Which brings up another little conversation I had with someone about the group's performance on Zon'ozz (and complex/gimmicky fights in general): we kind of suck. He's of the mind people must not be paying attention to the game while raiding or something, I might just argue they get tunnel-visioned into specific duties. But our raid group, as a whole, does not do well with anything requiring coordination or prediction. Taunts can be a little late. People can rarely move together in a group or stack tight. So fighting Zon'ozz is a trial, as people lag behind and stay in the way of the ball, or they don't watch where it's going. Awareness is our downfall, for whatever reason. And that's why I feel things are only going to get harder. Someone will forget to push the button on Ultraxion (or they won't even see the button due to UI mods), they won't group up right on Blackhorn, they'll be slow to switch targets on Spine, they'll get totally overwhelmed and lost on Madness... Okay, that's a pessimistic view, but I have trouble convincing myself otherwise given prior experience. It just seems to take a long time to teach a fraction of the raid how to deal with their gimmicks (like healing Baleroc), and any fight that expects it of everyone becomes a huge stumbling stone, if not outright roadblock, for us.
But... repeatable kills are good. The practice is good. Sometimes just having ten max-level characters online at the same time is good. So on we go.
Still, a few things bother me a little bit.
First, there's a bit of a rift I perceive between people wanting to do more Dragon Soul and people wanting to keep doing Firelands. I recognize that Staghelm's staff is pretty much unique at any level, and I would like to see a Dragonwrath in the guild, but otherwise Firelands is feeling pretty old. Most of the fights, I can do in sort of an automatic sense. Only Rhyolith really requires any breaking of pattern for me. I have no idea why one person (who is third or fourth to start it) wants Dragonwrathy parts when the first one isn't must more than halfway done after all this time.
And we had someone asking when we'd get into the latter half of Dragon Soul. My personal response was, essentially, "when we stop doing Firelands too." Really. Four hours? Even without major roadblocks, it takes a long time to clear through all that, and some of our group is often tired going into things, and definitely ready to call it a night by then. And we've done so little in DS that there are still a lot of drops to be had from the first four bosses (personally: axe and off-spec wrists from Morchok, gloves from Zon'ozz for both specs, legs from Yor'sahj for both specs, and off-spec shoulders from Hagara). That said, if people are up to it by the time we get there, there's really no reason we can't poke Ultraxion. It's not "hard" division in the raid like it is with LFR. But I think we're a ways off wanting to really safe a lock. And anyone who says the latter half is easier has to be joking.
Which brings up another little conversation I had with someone about the group's performance on Zon'ozz (and complex/gimmicky fights in general): we kind of suck. He's of the mind people must not be paying attention to the game while raiding or something, I might just argue they get tunnel-visioned into specific duties. But our raid group, as a whole, does not do well with anything requiring coordination or prediction. Taunts can be a little late. People can rarely move together in a group or stack tight. So fighting Zon'ozz is a trial, as people lag behind and stay in the way of the ball, or they don't watch where it's going. Awareness is our downfall, for whatever reason. And that's why I feel things are only going to get harder. Someone will forget to push the button on Ultraxion (or they won't even see the button due to UI mods), they won't group up right on Blackhorn, they'll be slow to switch targets on Spine, they'll get totally overwhelmed and lost on Madness... Okay, that's a pessimistic view, but I have trouble convincing myself otherwise given prior experience. It just seems to take a long time to teach a fraction of the raid how to deal with their gimmicks (like healing Baleroc), and any fight that expects it of everyone becomes a huge stumbling stone, if not outright roadblock, for us.
But... repeatable kills are good. The practice is good. Sometimes just having ten max-level characters online at the same time is good. So on we go.
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