It’s been quiet here over the past few weeks. I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare both raid teams for Season 3. I’ll share a few updates on our progression along with some of my thoughts on the Gamescom information that came out earlier.
- As expected, Death Jesters completely cleared all of Normal and Heroic in week 1. Dimensius took us about 17 tries before we finally got him down. Phase 1 wasn’t bad at all, but phase 2 platforms was where we were trying to figure things out the most with the movement patterns. That is a part of the encounter that will require people to take reps to experience so they can understand what they need to do. We did end the second night with some pulls on Mythic Plexus but we just fell short. Lots of key activity has been happening as everyone’s trying to get equipped. I made one error on Nexus King where I stacked my debuff circle in the wrong spot causing two stars to rotate in directions that they should not have. Whoops. Managed to assemble 2 piece on the Priest and I’m hopeful I can finish it off this week with my remaining catalyst charge.
- On the other team, Last Call only managed to get to 6/8 Heroic with a normal clear. We were quite a few ways away from getting Nexus King down. The percentages entering the final phase were too high for us to overcome. We have a lot of work to do on the bottom end of our roster to help raise the floor.
- Last Call is still in a bit of a rocky shape to start the season. I’ve invited some of my friends to join the team who have previously raided with me in my time from my old guild Conquest and Proper Villains (as well as a friend from another casual raid team). They’ve all acclimated well and performed as I expected them to. However, all of the Priests have been challenging just trying to get them to get along or at least be civil at times. It’s been enough to give me a headache, and we almost had a situation before our raid was supposed to start. So I had to do my best to smooth things over. But really, sometimes people just need to take a step back and keep their thoughts inside. Not every opinion needs to be voiced. Not every point of feedback needs to be delivered. Not every question needs to be asked. Newer players that come in may not be aware of the atmosphere or the social dynamics of everyone, so there’s no need to antagonize or troll because everyone has different tolerance levels of bullshit (mine is actually quite low, and I just don’t react to it or I ignore and dismiss it). Some of my favourite keys are the quietest ones where we’re enjoying each others company and only calling out kicks or cooldowns with lots of silence in between.
- We also have a fresh Loot Council in Last Call that’s working together for the first time. Even though we’ve had a blunder, I’m sure they’ll learn from it and move on. The Reshii Wraps boots were awarded to the same person twice (Normal, then a Heroic upgrade). It was missed due to time pressures. I’ve made a note to remind the team to review gear, but also to convey the option that we can always defer loot decisions till later when there is more time to breathe. Things like bracers or lower ticket items can be handed out right away since there’s not much interest in them. But bigger items like weapons, trinkets, and other cantrip items can always be held for more discussion and distributed later in the night. We’re not really coming up on any bosses where the DPS check requires that one specific item to get equipped. Plus we can always end the night a few minutes early to help distribute the remaining loot. In DJs, on the first night, we finished our pulls 30 minutes before the night ended and it took us that long to go through and hand out 8 normal and 6 heroic bosses worth of loot and tier tokens. I wanted to implement a similar system here but faced resistance. My worry is I’m going to burn out and exhaust my current loot master. I’ll either have to find another one, or potentially take it over myself.
- Gamescom presentation was fun to watch. The Warcraft Youtube channel has some new gameplay reveal here. I was not expecting multiple raids to start the opening tier. It’ll be fun to back and revisit a refreshed and updated Quel’thalas and Zul’aman. Demon Hunters get a new spec (and I’ll play it for Legion Remix, if it’s an option – I hope). I don’t know enough about the new Harandir allied race since it seems like we haven’t interacted with them that often except for the Azj’kahet zone.
- Last Call is still recruiting a strong healer and assorted DPS to help us move forward in the tier. Check us out and apply! If you’re looking for something more at the top, there’s also Death Jesters! We’ve got an opening for a stellar DPS player (no specific class), and you can also apply here.
Have a great week 2 everyone! I’ll share some more posts throughout the week. I want to put together some Dimensius pointers for Heroic because it can be quite difficult.