Matt’s Notebook: 6/8 Mythic, but Tankless

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We’ve entered a big progression week for both teams! Each raid team has secured a new boss kill. Still a lot to do, sadly, but at least we’re moving onwards.

  • Death Jesters secures our Soul Hunters kill, putting us at 6/8 Mythic. Work now starts on Nexus King. I mentioned last week that we were looking for a tank. We thought we found one until we discovered the timing wasn’t ideal and he had to withdraw his trial opportunity with us. We’re still searching for another tank to help us finish out our tier and heading into the future. This must be what the Cincinatti Bengals must feel like.
  • I drew back into the line up for Soul Hunters as it was decided to go with five healers there. There are so many things going on that it can be hard to keep track of it all. Instead of two blue puddle soakers, there are now three. Instead of one big hunt line, there are three big hunt lines (but at least they happen one after the other). During intermission, the raid is divided into groups of three and you are tethered to your other partners so you can’t move too far away from each other. We had a few low 3% wipes before we finally held together and killed it just as we exited the final intermission. Hopefully the reclear will be much easier this week.
  • Over in Last Call, Loom’ithar went down within a few pulls. The power spike helped greatly since we could clear the walls faster which means our team could take their tethers out earlier and lead to more time on boss damage. Unfortunately, no Astral Antenna, but we did get about five in our vaults this week.
  • Work has started on Forgeweaver. We’ve been able to enter the damage amp phase a few times with everyone alive. We opened the encounter with using Heroism and potions, so we’ll see if that’s enough to carry us through to the point where we won’t need to switch and use those on the first amp.

Oh lastly, I decided to leave Stormrage. I moved back to Proudmoore to get my old name back!

Matt’s Notebook: 5/8 Mythic with Fractilus Cleared!

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Another eventful week, and I expect things will slow up a bit from here on out. This might be the fastest we’ve progressed through a tier so far.

  • Death Jesters polishes off Fractillus. Big throughput and damage heavy boss from what I’ve seen. Lots of positioning is required, and having assigned zones and areas for players to stand in. It looks real fun and I can’t wait to take a crack at it.
  • Now we backtrack and start working on Soul Hunters. I drew back into the lineup here (from four to five healers). Our best attempt was getting them down to 3%. There was so much going on with the extra third dispel. Another week of gear and we’ll be in a good position to clear it this week. It’s really fun once we get through the overall cadence.
  • Over in Last Call, we’ve added two new healers to the squad and their first week has been productive overall. We did get through our reclear. I was hoping we could cut through Loom’ithar but our best pull was 12% remaining. We’re short damage right now more than anything else. I felt our damage on the incoming walls was inconsistent. There were times when they went down fast, and other times it felt like it went slow. We’ll have to take a look at that. Our phase 2 positioning and placement took a bit of time to get comfortable with.
  • Unfortunately, that level of progress wasn’t enough and one of our tanks decided to just leave. So now I’ve got to spend my next week looking for a tank to add to the team long term. It’s funny since I also am looking for a long term tank for DJs as one of ours is looking to step away from the tanking role as well.

No rest for the weary this week, sadly.

Matt’s Notebook: 4/8 Mythic with Forgeweaver Cleared!

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This post got off to a late start this week. Largely because much of my time was spent on recruiting and interviewing players. It’s also the first week of classes, so I’ve had to deal with that for work.

  • After a soul-crushing wipe with 6 million health left on Forgeweaver, we managed to clear it in Death Jesters about an hour later after that fateful wipe. Lots of coordination required here, including DPS placement to really maximize that multi-target damage. The next step is Fractillus before we drop back to Soul Hunters. Looks like I’m drawing into the lineup for Soul Hunters. I’l have to start looking into that one closer as it seems to be more of an endurance encounter than anything else.
  • Over in Last Call, we’ve passed a few trials and also released a few trials. We’re onto the next round of new players with the addition of two healers to help bolster our healing room. I wasn’t exactly happy during our first night on Plexus Sentinel. An hour later, with slow progress, I really wanted to get it down, and we went from 4 healers to 5 healers to really work on keeping the raid healthy. It took a bit longer as a result to get shields down and everything. Then we moved on up to Soulbinder and were able to clear that within a few pulls. I forgot to update our raid plan maps so our placements were slightly off, and I had to run the team through it real quick. Last thing I want to add is a Paladin who can play both Ret and Holy.
  • This week, our goal is to clear Loom’ithar and get some pull info on Forgeweaver. I worry we’re going to reach my limits when it comes to the planning of CDs, groups, and CC usages. I might need to get some additional help with it here.

Let’s have a great week!

Trading Time for Gear: Why Our Raid Is Pivoting to Heroic Progression

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In both Death Jesters and Last Call, we’ve been progressing through Normal and Heroic Manaforge Omega since the start of the season, and we’re officially hitting that crossroad every raid team eventually reaches: Do we keep farming Normal for loot? Or pivot fully into Heroic, even if it means some players are missing pieces?

In DJs, we’re still continuing to certain normal bosses (not a full clear). If we really wanted to, all of normal can get cleaned out in 45 minutes. We actually need that gear to help us on Mythic Forgeweaver and onwards.

In Last Call, the answer is crystal: Time matters more to us than gear. We’re not at the point where our gear is impeding our progress.

Making the Shift

It’s tempting to keep clearing Normal every week just to get that one trinket, that one weapon, or the last few tier pieces. In Last Call, we only raid six hours per week. Our biggest bottleneck right now isn’t item level. Our bottleneck is time spent seeing, pulling, and learning bosses.

While other teams can double-dip and run full clears across multiple nights, we don’t have that luxury. Every hour we spend reclearing Normal is an hour we’re not progressing on Heroic, or practicing mechanics that we’ll eventually need to execute cleanly on Mythic.

We benefit more as a team by:

  • Pulling Heroic bosses more often
  • Learning encounter pacing and clean transitions
  • Practicing cooldown timing, and both positioning and movement consistency
  • Giving raiders more time to develop confidence and reps

Addressing the Gear Gap

It’s true that some raiders still have gaps in their gear like a missing tier piece, a low-stat trinket, a weaker weapon. But we’re not losing fights due to gear. We’re losing because of missed interrupts, poor positioning, or phase transitions that could be smoother with more reps. Sometimes we applied cooldowns in the wrong area when we needed them in some other stage of an encounter.

There are other gearing methods:

  • Mythic+ is fully available between crests, vault rewards, and hero track gear upgrades.
  • Players can run Normal in pugs or our open community runs if they still need specific pieces.
  • Crafted gear and sparks are already in play.
  • Champion-level gear can now be upgraded fairly easily via dungeons and crest farming.

The raid doesn’t need to carry this load. Each raider can take charge of their own gearing path while the team focuses on progression.

Informing the Team

I know that not everyone’s going to agree with the approach. Some players will feel left behind if they’re still missing key gear. It’s important to frame this as a strategic team decision, not a punishment.

Here’s how we’re approaching it:

  • Clear communication ahead of time — not the day of the raid. This gives everyone the time to run it on their own.
  • Outline the why: More reps lead to more kills. We’re no longer wiping to damage.

Some players will be frustrated. That’s okay. But the path forward needs to be clear, and the longer we delay that pivot, the longer it’ll take to reach our full potential.

A Final Reflection

In the last Notebook post, I mentioned that Last Call reached Phase 3 on Dimensius several times. We didn’t kill it because we lacked gear. We just needed a little more time.

That’s what this is all about! I have to maximize the time we have to give ourselves the best possible shot. We’re trying to hit Cutting Edge, and that takes reps, not just gear.

If there’s still certain pieces that are needed, it’s time to pray or make a generous donation to the vault gods!

Not All Progress Feels Like Moving Forward

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Today’s post has nothing to do with WoW. There are no raid pointers, strategy, drama, or healing optimization. I wanted to sit down and put some thoughts on paper, and there’s no better place than the void to do so.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while (what’re you doing here anyway?), you’ll know that I’ve been playing in a community orchestra for the better part of eight years. I show up to weekly rehearsals and perform once every four months in a large auditorium to perform pops stuff (movie music, Disney, Broadway, etc). I’m not a first violin player. Those are the ones that play the more interesting melodies. I’ve always felt more at home in the second violin section, which largely adds the harmony or other elements. The job there is to support and be reliable. Not a lot of glory, but that’s all I’ve wanted.

The orchestra leadership has recently decided to restructure. The group’s been split into different ensembles based on skill levels, and I’m in the lower level (or junior) group. I get it. It makes sense. I never had that training when I was younger. I started from scratch in my late 20s, and pairing with kids now who are a third my age who may as well be prodigies or something. I still have a lot of technical growing to do. During concerts, I would play 2 or 3 pieces out of a repertoire list of maybe 7. I’d be playing from the rear in the 6th row behind the more advanced players. It would be a safe and sheltered environment.

With this split, I’m much more exposed.

The group of players I used to rehearse with, which included violinists, violists, and cellists, would share growing pains together as we laughed and shared frustrations about what we were struggling with from our concert repertoire. Sometimes we’d hang out with each other outside of rehearsal, just trying to drill specific measures or work on listening and cuing based on our parts. That’s gone now. They’ve either advanced upwards or departed entirely. The ones that stayed get to work on cool movie, anime, and game scores. I’ve been left behind with a few other musicians I barely know, spread out across generational gaps that I struggle to bridge.

I’m still showing up, and I haven’t missed a rehearsal so far. Yes, my motivation is completely shot. Discipline is the primary reason that I’ve stuck to this schedule. That’s a little scary, right?

I don’t know what I’m working towards anymore. That goal has evaporated.

When that support structure is gone, and those friendly, familiar faces aren’t there to share the grind with you, those hard questions and realizations start to surface. I’ve been left behind and abandoned. Is my progression just not fast enough? Is the effort not there? Even though I have a teacher from whom I’m taking weekly lessons, maybe it’s not enough. I’m more surprised that I didn’t even get so much as a shoulder tap.

Rationally, I’m sure people are busy. I’m sure there was no intent to exclude or abandon. I miss my friends more than anything.

This new structured setup has put me in an unfamiliar setting. For once, I’m not buried in the back anymore. I don’t have a wall of stronger players to shield me. I have to sit in that front row under that spotlight, sweating like crazy. That level of visibility is absolutely terrifying, even though it’s challenging me to figure out what I really want out of this hobby.

I know I don’t want to be a soloist. I know I don’t want to be a first chair or a section leader. All I really want to be is a decent, competent second violinist. That’s it.

Outside of orchestra rep, I just want to be able to play Bach’s Double. I don’t really need it in me to play for anyone. I just want to be the type of musician who can play it with certainty and confidence without any technical errors. Style and musicality errors can always be fixed later.

This realization does reframe a few things. I don’t need to measure my musical value by who my stand partner is or the number of pieces I can perform. Even though I can audition for music I’m not enthusiastic about, I don’t need to chase it. I can still practice for my own sake without the pressure of the orchestra’s skill rubric.

No one told me this, but staying pat can be harder than moving up (just like in Blackjack). Being out front under the glare of lights can be way scarier than hiding.

The road my friends and I shared to get here was fun and memorable, but this is where our roads diverge. Maybe I’m exactly where I need to be for now.