Any of you who’s guilds were crazy enough to raid on a potentially unstable patch server with unfamiliar spells minus the luxury of completely functional boss timers, raise your hand.
Don’t worry, I’m with you on that one too.
But, I’ll see your instability and raise you short handedness.
Yes, I was insane enough to try raiding short handed. We started off with 15 at the designated time, but players were still wrapping up patches, addons, glyphs and reforging.
It felt like the crew we had today was operating at something like 70% strength. Of course, it was completely understandable.
We were getting our collective butts handed to us by heroic Marrowgar. While yes, we were short two, I felt that a kill was within reach. I knew Marrowgar’s abilities had not changed. It was a matter of being re-familiarized with the encounter and with our new found skills.
A number of players wondered why I wanted to push hard. We could have downgraded from Marrowgar hard mode. We could’ve called it an early night and give people additional time to get accustomed to the new changes. I don’t know what it was, but I felt driven. I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to leave until Marrowgar was taken down. I guess one could say I wasn’t willing to tolerate failure. But that wasn’t it. Another part of me sought validation that this was something we could still do. That come Cataclysm, the grit and determination of taking down bosses will still be present.
You know what I mean?
I wanted to see if that spark was still there. If there is one thing that terrifies me as a GM, it is complacency. It is a nightmare of any progression based guild leader. We don’t want people who feel unmotivated or who decide to give up after a few wimpy attempts. I’m not saying its going to happen, but what if we hit a point in Cataclysm where we’re working on a boss and there are no strategies or videos to pick apart? Will we tough it out or call it an early night and wait for some other guild to draw up the plays? That’s not something sits well with me.
During the Canadian winters, I would always carve my own path in the fresh blanket of snow instead of stepping on trails made by others. That’s a mindset I carry when it comes to my projects and work (as you may have guessed).
We’re something like 23rd overall on Ner’zhul with our recently acquired ICC 25 drakes and finish at 11/12 HM. My desire is to enter the top 15.
We did manage to secure Marrowgar in the end and then placed a few shots on Deathwhisper hard mode before it was decided to call it early. I think we gathered enough information on our classes and rotations. We had a better idea of what was working and what wasn’t (like ret paladins).
Something I need to remind myself is to take a step back and realize that not every player devours patch notes as much as I do. Most of the players in the guild are just as passionate and thirsty for knowledge as I am. But not everyone has the time or the desire, I suppose. I want more players in the guild with the former as opposed to the latter. Sadly, desire to learn and improve aren’t traits I can instill in people.
All things considered, it wasn’t a complete waste of a night. We got 1 boss down and we know what our weaknesses and strengths are. We also learned:
- Mages and Warlocks are ridiculously awesome
- Unglyphed hunters do no DPS
- Neither do pet-less hunters
- Atonement is really effective but it requires support from the rest of the healing time
- Ret paladins got sucker punched
- So did DPS death knights
- Overall raid healing shot up which means damage taken must have increased
- Discipline priests are the Energizer bunnies of healers (They just keep going…)
- Holy priests (without access to Archangel) just burn through mana insanely fast
