Dragon Soul and Raid Thoughts

edited February 2012 in World of Warcraft

Perhaps this is
jumping the run, given we have only defeated Madness twice now. But, given the
whooping we put on Deathwing last night, and another incremental nerf to Dragon
Soul…

 I would like to
declare Dragon Soul officially conquered and on farm status.

Congratulations
and thanks should go out to everyone. I can’t think of anyone who did not work his/her
tail off to defeat Dragon Soul. It wasn’t just hard work, either. Having the
same pool of eleven people week in and week out played a huge role in our
success. The consistency and camaraderie helped make us more than a collection
of ten people filling the necessary roles; it made us a cohesive team. That’s
not to say it was all fun and games, or was it? In any event, we faced plenty
of adversity. Many times individual and group patience was tested. In the end,
though, patience won out. This is the kind of team experience that keeps me
playing World of Warcraft. Thank you for being an integral part of my
experience.

Since Dragon Soul
is the last major content we will see before Mists of Pandaria. And, since most
sources place it at nine months or so out, I think we should start considering
the answer to “what do we do now?” before it becomes an issue. In the short
term, there really is no need to change anything. Plenty of us are still
looking for pieces of gear here and there. As we get what we want, however, I
can easily see the weekly raid turning into a perceived chore rather than an
event we look forward to each week. Therefore, for the long term, we should
consider options to keep everyone interested and motivated.

One simple option
would be to simply stop at a point we can all agree on. There is no chance of
burn-out with this option. I personally would miss the social and team aspect
too much to subscribe to this option. That said, it’s a viable option and needs
to be part of our discussion.

We can always
fall back on one of the many raiding models we have used in the past. I’m
thinking particularly of Karazhan and Icecrown Citadel. These other models
could involve alts, other guild members, or both. It could involve splitting
Dragon Soul in half and “alting” the Seige portion one night while mopping up
with mains on the “Fall” portion the next. It could involve rotating fresh
faces in two per week. (or any number for that matter) It could involve a main
run one night and alt run the next. I’m sure there are other models I am not
remembering. What they all share in common is growing options for future
raiding. This comes with possible backlash when we need to return to a core
team again.

It should also be
considered that there are still plenty of raid achievements and all the heroics
modes left to tackle. We might elect to rotate content. Each week could be a
different raid tier (variety is the spice of life) and we head in and
accomplish what we can. This option even comes with the added bonus of allowing
people to take regular breaks. Maybe I don’t want to do Firelands, so I sit
that one out to make room for others. I’m still raiding regularly with built in
breaks. The downside there is it can quickly turn into a scheduling nightmare.

Please feel free
to champion on of these options, provide constructive criticism, suggest your
own, or all three. But, if you want to flame me, please place it in a new
thread called, “It’s All Drak’s Fault.”

Thanks again,

--Gallatin

Comments

  • Is it confirmed there won't be another raid until MoP? Remember Ruby Sanctum came out after ICC in WotLK...


    I (personally) am not really interested in grinding alts through the same content again.

    I think doing some previous tier content for achievements,
    especially those with mount/title/etc rewards is a great idea.

    Either way, I'm willing to raid whenever I'm available to support whatever the "consensus" is.
  • Dang, I forgot to mention...it IS all Drak's fault.
  • I'd be interested to try heroic modes and/or alt runs through Dragon Soul.  I'm not too interested in doing old stuff (too grindy for me) but I could occasionally tag along if enough others were interested.

    -Ekdar
  • edited February 2012
    I'd be up for anything.  I haven't gotten to finish any major raids with the guild since...Naxx?  or maybe Karazan? if you only count finishing it in "progression".  I haven't even stepped foot in Ruby Sanctum.  Most of the achievements I haven't gotten yet are Dungeon and Raid ones.  Needless to say, there's lots of stuff I'd still love to do.  Tarecgosa would be wonderful...

    That said, it's been hard for me to be able to log in earlier than like 7:30 or 8 server time due to the fact that a lot of the time, I don't even get home till like 7...and I need to spend some time with the kids.  A lot of the time, by the time I log in...there's only like 2 other people on...if even that many.  Also, planting season is coming up soon too...and I'm usually out working till at least sundown most days when the weather is favorable.  And then there's the band... We just got a new bass player and rhythm guitarist.  At least one night a week is set aside for that.

    Anyway...when I say I'd be up for anything...I'm also including (if not encouraging? :)) PVP excursions if there is anyone interested in that...

    I'll be happy to do anything if I'm able to be on.

    ~Shakra
  • I am totally with Ekdar on this one. There is still gear we all need/want in normal, before we are "fully geared" for some of the Heroic fights tho.
  • Well, Star Wars is still fun, but I don't have as many people on there right now. But it's been awesome sleeping on a regular schedule as oppossed to waking up early a couple nights for raids, lol.

     

    Who knows, I might pop back in some week though. . . . assuming I can drag myself outta bed. I suppose I should pop in some random late night to keep shakra company though.

  • Dang, I forgot to mention...it IS all Drak's fault. . . . err, my fault.
  • I'm fine w/ the group consensus, as I get most of my fun out of playing with the group and working together toward whatever goal is ahead of us.  

    That being said, though, I really have little-to-no interest in heroic modes of current content.  As a person in a casual guild that happens to raid, normal clears are enough for me.  The only thing left I'd like to accomplish in Cataclysm is killing Ragnaros in Firelands...whatever else happens for Clovis is just gravy.  I'm game for sitting out for another person, helping with achievements, mounts, heroic stuff, etc on our raid nights.

    On non-raid nights, I plan to get a few more alts through 1-60 and sample more of the new quests and story lines around Azeroth.  
  • I have a few thoughts.  First, assuming we clear 8/8 every night, 7 weeks out from getting the legendary daggers, not only a personal achievement, but a guild one to boot.

    Here is how those numbers play out.  I am on second set of daggers, third set is legendary.  Each boss drops 1 Elementium Gem Cluster.  I currently have 9, need 60.

    so
    Week 1 --- 9 Gems Cluster  (I had one from previous week)  <~~ Last week
    Week 2 --- 17
    Week 3 --- 25
    Week 4 --- 33
    Week 5 --- 41
    Week 6 --- 49
    Week 7 --- 57
    Week 8**** -  After first 3 bosses I will have all the clusters I need, at which point I turn them in, get a quest to go steal deathwings Jaw.  Therefore on this week I need time before deathwing to do that.  But i'd get daggers that week assuming we did it that way.

    So, I am fine with whatever we decide to do, but I obviously prefer to do a full clear each week.


    Beyond tier helm/gloves, I am fully DS geared, on normal.  Therefore I prefer to do heroic modes.  As long as they don't prevent a full clear for the week



    Any achievement runs we do outside of DS I will be doing on my shaman though.  My rogue is a means to an end, next expansion ill be back to tearing it up Z style.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Drak what ToR server are you on/ whats your name.  I got to level 34ish and got really bored, havent played this entire month, but am not liking this pvp server too much.

    Let me know, thanks
  • I'm also still at 228/1000 cinders into getting Tarecgosa...if we were ever to go back to FL again.  You get roughly 20 cinders per boss in 10 man regular, roughly 25 in heroic.  So...quite a few weeks out for that one as well.
  • TOR server is Vrook Lamar, I am just Drakus . . . we don't have a lot going on though. Not that Id turn away numbers, lol

  • Shakra, do some math, give us a rough estimate to when each stage of the staff would be done if we did a full clear each week.  Similar to what I did.

     

    To that point, I wouldnt be opposed to spending one night a week to work towards shakras staff (maybe a wed. or thursday?  what time is best for shakra?), and galatins staff, assuming gal never got it.  There is some cool transmog gear in there.

     

    ----

    Drak, I am personally waiting for server transfers, but I might hop over and see whats up

  • It depends... Assuming a full clear I can get 140-175 cinders per run.  I have 228/1000.  That would be a maximum of 6 full clears on normal to finish...or 5 on all heroic. 

    THEN...I need 250 smouldering essences...at ~4 per boss on normal and ~7 per boss on heroic 10man with Ragnaros not dropping any.  So a maximum of 11 weeks on normal or 6 weeks doing heroics there...  Then I need to siphon Ragnaros for his heart...once.


  • edited March 2012

    Whew...

     

    I understand the perils of bringing in guildies who haven't had the chance to do DS or just run with the guild on any current content, however, I would definitely like that to be a consideration to weekly endeavors. I know that a large part of our success was/is the consistency of a 'core' or 'progression' team and that future success will likely depend on that same model, but I value all our members and I would love to give those who would like it, the chance to hit current content and/or run with the guild.

     

    That does not preclude any or all of the other things that have been suggested. I am already bringing my shammy in on the first half of DS, though she would be better served healing than dpsing. Unfortunately for anyone else we may bring in, we know we can't regress too much. That is, we can not 'carry' more than a couple of people. We have done the endless wipes and excercising of patience. No one will be willing to endure that again at the cost of brining in say.... 5 people of 'suspect' gear/ability. No different really than when you do random heroics now, with 2 or 3 people geared at early Cat levels.

     

    I have a slew of raid achievements to be completed from both Cat AND Wrath. I've seen the occasional achievement run invites being spammed in trade, but as always, I prefer doing things with the guild. Rags should go down this week. I think we just needed people to see that last phase.

     

    I will throw my support into anything as much as possible. We don't have to limit ourselves to 2 nights a week either. Particularly if we bring in additional guildies. However, while our 2 hour time limit this expansion has cost us some expediency in progression, I believe it has been a benefit overall and I would not want to extend it.

     

    I would love to blame Drak as well, if there weren't a more fitting target. And you know who you are,

    Aurauk.

  • Awww . . you mean I missed a blame shift?
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