Goodbye, Raiding

Just a little look at my UI during Marrowgar 25 Hard mode. I've been working on cleaning it up a bit. For instance, kg panels broke, but I think it looks a lot cleaner without it. I like writing on screenshots for some reason. Makes me feel like Perez Hilton.

I'm approaching my last week raiding with Ruinous. With classes coming up, I don't know how much time I'll have to raid and I do have class during the 25m raids...We shall see what happens, but here is to the good times I had this summer.

Nothing like Sindragosa enraging. Notice how Mitter is just serenely glancing over at the iceblock? She doesn't even look worried...

I've never noticed another guild practice the way this one does. Here we are, practicing the orbs for Halion pre-pull.

Ta da!

The Mana Goal

I had a party when I reached 30k mana buffed in raids. It was early in ICC10, as I remember. The other day was the long-awaited 30k mana unbuffed. Grats to me and my 35k buffed mana. :D

Other than that, I've been spending a lot of time each week wiping on the Lich King. I've gotten used to the way this guild and group runs (both for 10 and 25) and it feels less and less like a pug every time. The first night I had actually forgotten that it WASN'T a pug. Heh.

With work and my commute and raiding, it seems I have little time to do anything else (including my laundry), I haven't had much time for Loremaster or alts. Only Ravindra is getting any extra time right now. He's level 48 and he's acquired a tank spec, although I'm too nervous to actually try it. We're hurrying to tree form before it's gone in Cataclysm.

Frost Tomb!

A True Companion

For some reason, I find it cute that my little robot was in the frost tomb with me.

Server Transfer: Apartment Hunting

When Mouse and Ith told me they were quitting WoW last weekend a lot of what I had been debating for the couple weeks leading up to it resolved itself. No need to worry about not getting to raid with my best RL friends, no need to stay on the server that wasn't progressing fast enough. Frankly, I would normally not ever have considered changing servers. But when the boys were raiding with Mimic and I was with them, I met a very nice gentleman and so, 9 months later when he transfers servers, I decide to go with. I didn't know much more than what I'd been told: more progression, better server, PVP.

Maybe it's not the "right" reason to transfer servers...for a guy, but I am pretty impressed with what I've gotten out of it so far. The achievements above are a testament to Kil'Jaeden compared to Silvermoon. I'm pretty happy so far with the decision to change. Additionally, the real ID feature makes it more than convenient to keep in touch with my other friends.

There's a definite excitement to a new server, particularly when you're going with someone new. There's this fresh air of romance and flirtation with the added bonus of this entirely new server where you don't know anyone. The world is yours. Everything exists for your pleasure.

It has a lot to do with how I'm feeling outside of the game, too. With this internship at an advertising agency, I'm getting this hunger for more. I'm an art director. A designer. This job makes me want it even more and want success. I feel like the world is opening up to me and I want to just take it. Leave behind the old, dreary common areas. Like where I grew up and Silvermoon and the boys, for this fresh place where the people are more successful and desirable.

Interesting how life and WoW run parallel to each other.

Saturday Raid

This is my little guild's raid group for ICC10. It's our only raid, once a week, so we have to really churn it out to get through bosses. Our group is made up of a lot of RL friends, although a couple we've met along the way. I'm so proud of how far this little guild has come. I don't ever want to raid with anyone else.

It raises the question about the difference between 25m and 10m raids. 10 mans always seem easier, more like an alt run, whereas 25 mans are where the "good" players are, the hardcore players, and the better loot. It might be considered by some to be ridiculous that I put up screenshots for a ten man group. I like ten mans more. Each person is 2-3x more important. I like the intimacy, particularly as a GM that likes to really know my guildmates and the people I raid with. (And I always feel like just a number in a 25man.) I don't lead raids, that's Mouse's job. Anything outside the raid is my responsibility, but when we zone in it's up to Mouse.

Recently, Blizzard posted this about Cataclysm's raiding change.

"The first of the refinements being made is that we're combining all raid sizes and difficulties into a single lockout. Unlike today, 10- and 25-player modes of a single raid will share the same lockout. You can defeat each raid boss once per week per character. In other words, if you wanted to do both a 10- and 25-person raid in a single week, you’d need to do so on two different characters. Normal versus Heroic mode will be chosen on a per-boss basis in Cataclysm raids, the same way it works in Icecrown Citadel. Obviously the raid lockout change doesn't apply in pure Icecrown terms though, as this change goes hand-in-hand with a few other changes to raid progression in Cataclysm.

We're designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10- and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also means that we'll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and 25-player raids of each difficulty. They'll have the same name and same stats; they are in fact the exact same items. Choosing Heroic mode will drop a scaled-up version of those items. Our hope is that players will be able to associate bosses with their loot tables and even associate specific artwork with specific item names to a far greater extent than today."

 I...don't mind this. At all. In a way, I'm going to miss the option to do both raids each week. However, I want 10m groups to have access to the same gear. This will put better, more serious emphasis (I think and hope) on 10 mans.

I know a lot of people are a bit upset about this. What do you think?