Nailed it

Madness is down. We were consistently getting to platform 4 on Monday. Finished it off in 3 or so attempts on Tuesday (lockout extension). I don’t know what kill’s more satisfying: Madness or Spine. That first Madness kill is super messy though: 4 healers alive and 2 DPS still standing.

Now we’re in New Game+ mode which means backtracking and picking up achievements and other kills from previous tiers.

On a completely unrelated note, always stretch before playing any sports. Paying the price right now for not properly stretching after some serious outdoor 3v3 volleyball. I also need to L2 jump serve.

Question: Guild A or Guild B?

I am a terrible blogger and lost the link to this self post on r/wow. But, I thought it was a good question since there’s bound to have been other players in similar situations.

So I have been faced with a problem and thought I should ask for some advice.

Since the start of cataclysm I have raided with a guild that was fairly progression drived (downing final bosses in a raid before next patch and even working on progression). When DS hit, we hit the ground running. After 4 months or so of raiding we got our rogue his legendarys and then the group kinda fell apart. I wasn’t ready to be done with raiding just yet so I pugged a lot for 8 weeks or so and got my tauren holy pally well geared. Enough so that I found a new guild that was still doing heroic progression and joined them. Now after 3 weeks in this new guild, my old guild decided to start running again. I plan on raiding with them come MoP, so they want me to bring my pally back and continue progression. But I don’t want to leave the guild I just joined without a healer. I have a disc priest in the old guild that I have been healing with, but it makes our comp less than optimal. Any suggestions on what I should do?

My initial thinking is to analyze why the first group ceased running. Depending on the reasoning, it could happen again and you might find yourself hung out to try. If it’s due to players losing interest or the leadership losing interest, you’d better be careful because there’s a chance that it’ll happen. One common trend I notice about certain players is that their interest level is up there when it comes to raiding content, but once they hit a progression wall (or if they’ve beaten the progression wall), they’ll stop showing up and lose interest until the next content patch. Repeat that for the next tier.

I personally hate people like that.

You end up equipping them so that they become an asset and then they take their leave costing you time to train up and gear a replacement. Call ’em yo-yo players.

But I’m digressing.

If you don’t think  they’re going to lose interest or anything like that, then by all means resume progression since it seems like you’ve had the most fun. If you can’t say for certain that they’re not going to bail out on you, then I’d stick with the second group since it seems that they’re a little more stable and established.

Secret option C? You could double dip and play both your Priest and your Paladin, but you might find yourself burning out twice as fast and reducing your overall effectiveness to both groups. But, that largely depends on your gaming stamina and interest levels anyway.

Have any of you been in a situation akin to this fine fellow? What did you end up doing and how did it turn out? What would you suggest that this person do?

Serenity and Renew Buffs

You might have noticed that within this recent ~20 GB beta patch that Renew and Serenity gained some buffs.

  • Chakra: Serenity healing increased by 70%
  • Rapid Renewal (New): Your Renew heals for an additional 15%, instantly heals the target for 15% of the total periodic effect, and has a 0 second reduced global cooldown.

But what you might not know is that being in Serenity increases Renew by an additional 15%. A minor update was given to Serenity so that the single target healing buff (from spells like Flash Heal and Greater Heal) now applies to Renew. This component of Serenity is effective as of the current build as it apparently wasn’t in place before. I didn’t notice until it was pointed out to me by @KelestiMMO. Thanks!

Health restored

Discipline Holy Holy (Serenity)

5230

7998

9199

Speaking of Serenity, it got mad buffed. Hits super hard now (From 7900 + 76.2% spell power to 13400 + 130% spellpower).

Spine-less

Thanks for the title inspiration, Gorrik.

On Tuesday, we caught wind that several of our tanks would either be late or absent for Thursday’s raid. We were getting close to a Spine take down last week. Multiple consecutive attempts involved getting to the third plate, then getting to the second half of the plate. We knew that Spine would fall soon enough. We experienced a testicle crushing 6% wipe on the final tendon. But it would be the next attempt (or two) that sealed it.

Our tanks nailed it. Our warrior tanks (including fellow WoW Insider colleague Matt Rossi),  ran disjointed cheerios around the backside of Deathwing as if he were competing for the men’s 1000 meter.

Didn’t have to use Life Grip as much as I thought I would. But oh boy, No Mana Mattie was certainly living up to his name and reputation. Shadowfiends every tendon, two Mana Hymns, and assorted Spirit gear/trinkets to push every possible drop needed to buy players as much time in the world of the living.

We clocked in less overall attempts on Spine then we did on Zon’ozz. I actually thought we would’ve gotten more attempts, but then each attempt here is longer compared to that of Zon’ozz.

You guys see that bit about the guild mentorship program?

On the one hand, I’m a little disappointed that my organization doesn’t qualify. On the other hand, I wonder what’s being looked for and if I’d have the time to devote to it.  I’d love to have the chance to teach and mentor the next generation of WoW players and raiders. I didn’t really have anyone to go to myself when I was learning the game and working my way up the PvE ladder.

All the social “rules” and etiquette? Trial and error. I was a socially awkward panda back in the day (though, depending on who you ask, I still am).

If your guild qualifies, are you going to go for it? What would you teach the next generation of newbies that are leveling?

A Minor Suggestion to the Character Select Screen

mail-icon

I’m not the first person to suggest it, but wouldn’t it be great just having mail icons appear on the character select screen for your alts? It can remind you of things like your auctions or if you’ve made any purchases or serves as crafting reminders. More importantly, I wouldn’t have to log into every alt just to see.

Someone over there make it happen!