http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/ en Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:05:38 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/ http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/1926-i-woke-up-hardcore-progression-guild.html Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:54:17 GMT I had wanted to post last week to update how our 10man Naxx runs where going. This week starts our 4th week raiding in our new guild. A quick recap... I had wanted to post last week to update how our 10man Naxx runs where going. This week starts our 4th week raiding in our new guild. A quick recap of events thus far:

A month ago about 10 of from our old guild were not satisfied with the raiding setup. Our GM was picking his friends over people who were either better geared, better skilled or both. So we do a mass exodus and form our own guild. As I said it was a core group of about 10, we picked up a couple more and volia! New guild born.

Week 1 in Naxx I would sum up with one word: brutal. We manage to clear all 4 wings but can not down Sappiron.

Week 2, I think everyone was a bit amazed at our improvement. Of course we had some better gear and the experience. So, we coast thru the 4 wings, only a couple of wipes but a huge improvement. We get to Sappiron and we get a reality check. He's tough but in the end we down him and then have similar issues with Kel'Thazd but also manage to down him. Huge accomplishment for our guild. During this time, we are doing 10man OS and VoA. Cleaning them up no issues. We also start getting into 25 man OS runs. At this point we do not have enough geared 80s to fill but about half the spots. But no worries, we join up with another guild we have close ties to and we are clearing OS no problems. Same with 25 man VoA.

Week 3(last week). No issues in 10man Naxx, we blew through all 4 wings. Admittedly we did still have a bit of issues with the last two bosses still, but we progress so that's good. For me personally, it was a great week gear wise. I end up with: Cloak of Armed Strife, Deflection Band and a trash drop of Minions Bracers from 10man. I also finally get the Red Sword of Courage to drop after 16 runs in UP. Ok, so I'm pumped obviously. We decide to try a 25man Naxx run with the other guild, just to see how we do. We start in Spider wing and I get Heritage off Anub'Rekhan. We proceed to down the rest in the Spider, Plague wing and Patchwerk. We stop there for the week. Both our GM and other guild's people are pretty impressed by our success. That was a damn good week :)

Last night starts Week 4 for our guild. I guess I hadn't been paying attention because we have been running non-stop and on days we don't run we usually do mat collections for upcoming runs. But we have a whole slew of new people joined. So, our GM says lets try 25man Naxx this go round. We have enough people to fill 21 spots, we pug(I use this very loosly here) four from the guild we run with.

Going in our GM informs us alot of people are new and under geared. Basically, this is trial run to see how we do as a guild. Some people were in quest blues, maybe 1 or 2 epics, some even in PvP. A few had run some or part of Naxx, some this was there first foot inside. So our GM is telling everyone not to get discouraged if it's a bloodbath, he just wants to evaluate some of the new people as well as see how others have progressed. I'd say he was more than happy with the run. And this was also without our best healer not there, so really good. Granted the core of us(9) and the four from the other guild are pretty well geared and in some parts we have to carry a few, not to mention the lag was brutal(thanks for the optimization Blizzard!). But the DPS overall was very impressive. Just about all the DPS were above 2K. We carried 5 healers and 4 tanks as well. All of us tanks took turns on a boss, then let someone else MT it. Good experience for the new people. So in the end we only get the Plague wing & Patchwerk down. This was mainly due to time and a later start. We suffer only 2 wipes, one in the slime room before Patchwerk due to the new people not understanding that we let range handle them. And then on Patchwerk himself, as we let the 2 new tanks(1 warrior & 1 feral) handle it. The feral was unsure when to pick him up as the OT and basically he one shoted the other tank and proceed to do the same to 3-4 others before we could even get to him. But, overall a stellar run.

Tonight we pay a visit to Sathirion in a 25man OS raid. After last nights run our GM gathers all of us officers together to discuss the run and informing us that 3 of the 4 in the other guild have decided to join us. And more than likely the 4th also, who is a H. Pally who we desperately need for his buffs. So over the course of the last 3 weeks, we've tripled in size.

The plan of action is now doing scheduled 25 mans every week. 10mans are optional based on availability and schedules. I looked at our guild calendar and almost everyday is filled with something. I joking said to our GM, "Hey I see a couple of blank time frames, I think I'll schedule some heroic runs as to fill all slots." He then says, that's a great idea to get some of the new players better geared. Yikes! I did it now..lol...I'm having a hard time even getting time to do the Hodir dailies or collect herbs.

Anyways, now you see where the title came from. I went from not raiding at all, to in the span of a month not having any spare time IG. I realized this once my girlfriend, who plays a hunter in our guild starts bugging me to sign up for runs so I don't lose my spot..lol...I don't really like labels like "hardcore" or "casual", but I guess I'm in the later now, as I'm raiding 5+ days a week now. We are also going with the SK loot system, as to be fair to everyone investing the time.

It's funny how things change in WoW so quickly, this will probably not last forever I realize that. But for now it's a hell of a lot of fun to be a tank in my guild. I'm lucky to be surrounded by alot of really skilled players and even nicer people.

Thanks for reading this far, I'll try to update again in the next week or two.

Next stop: EoE and Malygos*gulps* ]]> dirt http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/1926-i-woke-up-hardcore-progression-guild.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/1801-good-bad-ugly-my-first-naxx-run.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:47:49 GMT Well last night was my new guilds first run through Naxx. It was also my first time in there, so I figured this would be a good place time to recap... Well last night was my new guilds first run through Naxx. It was also my first time in there, so I figured this would be a good place time to recap the recent events that lead me to last night.

Just prior to expansion me & my girlfriend(she plays a MM hunter) decided to join a new guild, to protect the innocent I will call this guild X. We decided to join guild X because we were dissatisfied with our progression in our prior guild. The reasons were numerous but just to get people to run heroics w/ us was nearly impossible. That part I found weird considering the guild was huge(200+ people), but as it turns out it was more a social guide then anything else. The other main reason was the GM(who is also a warrior tank) and myself did not really get along. I'm not a bad guy, nor am I arrogant or believe myself to know it all. I know I still have a long way to go as a tank. So about a month prior to the expansion a funny thing happened, I was contacted by a resto Druid on my friends list asking me if I wanted to run a heroic. Of course I was eager to do so. I had met him very early in WoW and one of the first experiences we had together was in MgT. At that point I had just dinged 70 and my tanking skills were weak to say the least and our run there was horrible. Anyways, I guess he had forgotten about that or thought enough of me to want to run with me again, so me, him, my girlfriend and a couple of his guild mates did a marathon of heroics that day(think we did like 8 in a row). The runs went silky smooth, this guy is by far the best healer I've ever played with. So we ended on Shattered Halls and he whispers me asking me how I liked my guild and if I was interested in joining his. I was looking to make a change, but told him I wanted a day or two think it over. I knew at that point our time in guild X was over, so after a couple of days I saw him online again and asked him if the invitations were still good? He said yes and then we both went to guild Y.

So up until last Saturday we clicking along in guild Y. I can't say I was totally satisfied, but I was extremely lucky as I got to run alot of instances with him. A short time later another hunter friend of mine from my first WoW guild decided to join. I was really happy as he is a great player and a even better person. So from that point on the 4 of us were running things non-stop and tearing thru the new Northrend instances, trying to gear up. This brings us to X-mas where both me my girl friend were not IG for 2 weeks over the holidays. During that time I guess things were starting to boil in our new guild. The GM and my healer friend had run alot together in the past and had a pretty good relationship. We came back right after the first of the year to find he & my other hunter friend are nicely geared and the guild is trying to get a Naxx team formed. At this point I knew I wouldn't get a spot as I hadn't even ran any heroics yet. So that leads us to last Saturday. Well lets just say the run was a disaster(and that's being generous) and the GM who is a tank of course would not listen and was bickering with people about what they were or were not doing. Just prior to the run on Friday, he pulled a few of us together offering us officer positions and wanting to coordinate getting a solid team in place for Naxx, then another once the first had made it through. So then the run happens and it fails horribly as I said and my Druid friend(new heals lead), my hunter friend(new dps lead) & the GM have a private meeting on vent discussing things and trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Afterward, I talked to them to get the scoop on things. They tell me that they are thinking of leaving guild Y and making their own because for one the GM had made them leads over heals & dps, but then when it came time to pick spots the GM wanted to tell them who they should give spots to. Basically, the GM wanted his friends to goto Naxx even though their DPS output was sub-par, not to mention their skills and the time they had put in. On that run, one of his friends that rarely plays logged on just to run Naxx. So that was basically the last straw. I log on Saturday afternoon and get a tell from him saying he had decided to leave and make a guild with my hunter friend. He said both me & my girlfriend had spots if we wanted to go, but he said either way he'd still run with us. Well for me the decision was a easy one. Us and about a dozen others /gquit and formed our own new guild Z. Needless to say that did not sit well with our former GM and created some much un-needed drama to start this week. This leads us finally to my first Naxx run....

Over the last few months, I've had some really up and down experiences in WoW. But I finally felt like I had turned the corner with my tanking and was now surrounded by a solid group of players that were not only skilled but very nice people to boot. I was a bit nervous going into Naxx...Well actually, the RL(my druid healer friend) decides lets warm up with OS. That was fine by me, we actually ran it the week prior and one shoted it. Our makeup for these runs consisted of 2 Prot warriors(me & another), 2 hunters(my girlfriend & my other healer friend), 2 Deathknights, 1 Mage, 1 Holy Priest(hunter friend's little brother) and 2 druid heals(my friend & a non guildy friend of his). I really didn't know what to expect with a setup like that, I'd not run much w/ the deathknights or the other druid healer. So, we get into OS, clear all the trash no problem, then kill all the mini-bosses no issues, then we get to Sarithon. We end up wiping twice, the first time was a positioning issues with the other tank turning him and the raid getting hit by his tail and breath. The next wipe is more on me, we got over run w/ adds. I had some trouble due to the raid being so spread out on multiple sides of him, making it nearly impossible to pick them all up. The reason being is I was rage starved much of the fight. So we re-grouped and made the necessary corrections and proceeded to take him down the next go. I was very glad we got him and we then proceeded to distribute the loot. I didn't win squat, as there were no tank drops it was all clothy stuff one being T7 piece which the Holy Preist gets. I note this as it comes into play later that I'll elaborate on. Prior to the running a day or so prior we all got together and decided some rules on loot. Basically it is as follows: 1 epic per class, with the exception of Tier pieces which everyone of that class can roll on even if they got something prior. I was not to sure on this, but I went along with it as I already had my chest piece from badges. So, at this point everyone's feeling pretty good about themselves and we roll into Naxx.

We start with the Spider wing as its the easiest and we crushed it. No wipes on any of the bosses, as flawless as it could be for us considering half of us had never even been in prior. Well the drops come one after another, cloth, then cloth, then more cloth. Basically, all of the healers/caster had as good or better gear minus the Holy Priest, who had just turned 80 about a week or so prior. At this point my girlfriend starts to grumble to me about never seeing any drops and one person getting so many. This goes back a little bit, she's had the shittest luck on drops I've ever seen. We've been running heroics non-stop since we got back from X-mas and she has only gotten maybe 1 drop in that whole time. Alot of her gear has been crafted or is badge gear. And during that time we've run quite a bit with this priest to help and try to gear him for Naxx. He's been cleaning up, not just in Naxx but also in all the heroics we've done. I mean if I were him I'd go buy a lottery ticket right away! He's better geared than me and I've been 80 for 2 months now..lol. Anyways, we move on we decide to give Patchwerk's a go. We wipe 3 times before we finally down him. I finally see a tank piece which I loss the roll to the other tank :( Then the RL decides to give the Military wing a go. We wipe once on the instructor as I messed up with the switching when Mindcontroling with the other tank, after that we down him and guess what drops? Another clothie item! However this time the item in question could have been used by our mage. He wasn't really sure if it was a upgrade or not, so in the end he decided to pass(even though it seemed like he really was unsure) and it goes to our priest. Of course my girlfriend is boiling over, but I convince her to just proceed with the run in hopes things will turn around and some hunters gear will drop. By this time one of the Deathknight's makes a remark about the gear situation, nothing really bad, sort of jokingly but i could tell people were starting to notice the one sidedness of the drops. But we proceed on despite the late hour and my having to get up at 6:30 and then down Gothik. I'm sure you know what drops, cloth and a piece of paly plate(no Slayer of the Lifeless for me, damn). Luckily this time the other druid healer gets the piece, but the deathknight says, damn this is suppose to be a Deathknight wing but I've yet to see one damn drop! At this point, our RL asks if we want to stop due to the late hour or try the 4 Horsemen. They left it up to me as I had to be up the earliest, and I should have stopped but felt so bad for the others not getting anything I figured lets give it a shot in hopes some one other than the priest might get something. We give it 3 tries and fail horribly. At that point I was half sleep and I think everyone else was exhausted as well. We were going back and forth on strategy and no seemed to know what to do. So we end it there, where we will resume on Thursday.

Afterward, the RL praises everyone on the excellent run. And by and large we exceed my expectations as a group, being that the Military wing is suppose to be one of the hard ones. We hearth back and repair and exit game. My girlfriend and I then proceed into a long discussion about what transpired, about the gear situation and what I thought. Which leads me to where I'll end this.

There are really two separate issues. One being the drops, nothing anyone can do about that. You get what you get, but in all honesty I've seen more caster drops since X-Mas break than I've ever seen in a single stretch and we do at least 2-3 heroics a day. The other issues is one person netting so much while others get nothing but repair bills. I mean I suppose you could make the case that hey, its cloth gear and the others by and large could not use it, so why not let him have it. Even though most of what he got was going to be for his non-healing offset. Up until the drop on the Instructor I was kind of thinking along those lines, hey let him have it for his offset what do I care. I mean I did get some new tank gloves(for got to mention it, but did net these: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39197). But then I thought about the others, 5 people who got nothing the whole run. Being that it was for his offset, would it really have been a big deal to let 1 or 2 go to be turned into Abyss's to help compensate the others in the group? If nothing else to pay for repair costs or offset the price of a enchant.

So we talked about it and both myself and her thought its best not to say anything. I mean we did agree upon the loot rules, even though I don't believe they were applied correctly. And being that's it's our GM's little brother and his age being a factor it's better not to rock the boat, and just let it go. I mean hell, there can't be to many more drops for him anyways...lol. I certainly don't think it was malicious or purposefully done. But when we formed the guild both him and my healer friend said there really is no GM per-se, that we all have a equal stake in the guild and we all have a voice. So I'm a bit torn on what to do as it could be perceived as me being bias to her since she's my girlfriend, but no more so than the priest being his brother, right? I'm trying to actually put myself in the shoes of the 4 others who didn't get anything not her so much. And just as a funny side note, she did make out like a champ, not so much in gear but she got http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44151 from UP and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43951 from H. Strat in consecutive nights, the first being super-rare and will last her long beyond any entry Naxx gear.

Well that's my first Naxx run wrap-up, if you've made it this far(and I know this is long) thank you. So before I do anything I think I'd solicit some advice from you guys. Have you ever been in a similar situation? How did u handle it and/or what would you do to correct it if anything? ]]> dirt http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/dirt/1801-good-bad-ugly-my-first-naxx-run.html