What a rush. We finally hit 2/13 with a Ji-Kun kill that I never would’ve anticipated.
We had just hit 39% remaining. Our nest tank was dead and there was no point sending in groups up to the nests which had guardians because they were going to die. It would end up being a race between our DPS and Ji-Kun’s pools or other abilities. We managed to get it with DoTs ticking and a handful of survivors still remaining alive. Now that I know Ji-Kun can be taken down like that, I’m inclined to try that again and see if we can ignore and brute force our way through it. We definitely need to shore up a few things. I’m always worried about the second kill as it always ends up being the hardest. All I know is that Ji-Kun kill really took a huge toll out of me. Need a new raid leader, stat.
Iron Qon was next on the list. I think the progression order for Throne of Thunder pits either Horridon and Iron Qon in similar levels of difficulty. Our furthest Iron Qon attempt actually allowed us to see phase 4. Many of the strategies I read called for Dam’ren to be killed first in phase 4. I guess it’s something to do with the DPS loss from allowing the other two Quilen to land. We also need to become more consistent at running those Windstorms. I’m beginning to get a little antsy about them. Can’t afford to lose even three players on that first run out. I’m going to have to put that bench to use if the team doesn’t show any marked improvement in them. We’re doing what we can in dropping cooldowns to buy time. But all the cooldowns in the world aren’t going to save anyone if they get caught by tornadoes. I just don’t know what to do. It’s like Teron Gorefiend all over again.
As we get further and further into heroic modes, that bar is going to rise up. My only concern is what happens if the players aren’t able to skill up with it? I’m going to have to make some difficult choices. How long can I really afford to wait for people to nail that run? How much time do I have before tempers eventually flare or my patience expires?
Reminds me a little bit of League of Legends. I entered four promotion series going from Bronze 1 into Silver 5. I lost every single one of those on game 5. Maybe I have to accept the fact that I’m in the league that I’m in. Maybe some people just aren’t able to get any better. Maybe I hit my skill cap.
I’m at a bit of a crossroads now. Once the week resets and we knock over Jin’Rokh, we can start heroic attempts on Horridon. But we’ll have already committed 5 hours of learning attempts to Iron Qon instead. This is the issue with linear instances. I kind of like having winged instances. Firelands gave us quite the flexibility and how to plan our raid paths.
For now, time to enjoy the weekend and figure out what our long term game plan is.
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My dad once told me about when he was a distance runner in high school. He was pushing himself but unable to improve his time much.
He was advised to try something a little different. He forced himself to do multiple short sprints, totaling about a third of every lap around the track, while maintaining his usual pace for the rest of the lap. This actually improved his wind and his speed dramatically over time, even though it apparently wouldn’t work for an actual competition.
I’m not sure how this is a useful comment, but your statement about hitting skill caps and such made me think of this story. Perhaps there is some kind of concept you can apply to help your raid team improve. Probably not.
(As an aside, I asked previously whether you were hiring rogues, and never got back to you. Turns out your raid time won’t work for me.)
It’s tough to find the balance between progression and (necessary) elitism.
My old guild is steamrolling their way through heroic modes (10/13 now if I’m not mistaken), but I noticed a lot of friendliness was lost along the way. I recently came back after a break of 6 months to see all of my characters had been booted out of the guild and when I did get an invite back, I saw the guild chat full of the kind of jerkwads I never want to play with. I’m considering /gquitting for good and finding another home away from all these IRL friends and their newlyfound so-full-of-themselves raiders.
It makes me sad to think what people need to do to be able to progress. I’m certain there are a lot of casual and well-progressing guilds who are simply adult people, having a good giggle while taking down some of the toughest encounters at that point in time – all the while not stressing too much about DPS limits, healing meters or such. But those kind of setups are few and far between.
It seems to me like you’re at the door of “are we going to get more hardcore and ditch the underperformers” or “let’s just let the slower ones learn and catch up”. Good luck in figuring out what works the best for you and your guild!