Dos Drakes

For the last couple of weeks, my 10-man raid group has been attempting Sartharion +2 drakes. We have been leaving Tenenbron and Vesperon up. The first night of attempts was an absolute disaster. After back-to-back tries leading up to respawns, we eventually went back to one Drake (Tenenbron) and completed the raid with ease. It seems that now, leaving Tenenbron up is easy for us. I guess that makes sense after a couple of hours of working toward killing 2 of them.

This past weekend we tried again. We definitely improved. Our DPS on Tenenbron was much faster, and we downed him pretty consistently before Vesperon landed. The practice and upgrades our group had gotten over the past week had made a difference. However, we still were unable to win. We got Tenenbron down and even got to the point to clearing whelps a couple of times, but never without losing people. The damage everyone was taking was just too high. We finally (again, after respawns) gave in and killed Sarth with one drake up—but this time we chose to leave Vesperon up. We wanted to get practice on this second drake. We all assumed it would be as easy as Tenenbron, but there was a distinct difference: When we were doing 2 drakes, we had to leave our third tank (me) and his dedicated healer (Tamzz) outside of Vesperon's first portal to continue handling the many whelps and fire elementals that were still up from when Tenenbron's last batch of eggs hatched. This left Laeryn (our Ret Pally) to attempt to tank the add inside Vesperon's portal and left Whammie (our Ele Shaman) to heal him. Basically giving two of our DPS players non-DPS roles in the portal. That just left Ay (Rogue) and Vressa (Boomkin) to burn down the dragonkin. By the time the portal was cleared, another was spawning—and people were dying. We learned a lot by switching it up. It was clear that we can't complete the fight with that strategy. Without trying Sarth + Vesperon (rather than Tenenbron), it may have taken us much longer to come to this conclusion. See, when we moved to one drake, we still used the same setup. There were no whelps, but Tammz and I still stayed out of the portal and just dealt with Fire Elementals. The four who went into the portals just were not set up for success. Once we discovered this we decided to have Tammz and I go in and let our DPSers get back to DPSing. Wouldn't you know, it was cake.

Lesson Learned: Six of us need to go into ALL of Vesperon's portals. In order to do this, when we have two drakes up, we'll have to clear out all of the whelps before entering the first portal. We were under the impression that the portal should take priority over the whelps, but freeing up Tammz and I make dealing with the portal possible, so the whelps need to take priority. Next time we go into Obsidian Sanctum and try Sarth + 2, we'll handle all of the whelps before any of the six of us enter the portal. Yes, that means a longer amount of time with no one in the portal (and more damage occurring outside), but it also means that (once we are in the portal) the dragonkin will go down quickly. Once the first one is down, it should be cake. I think we'll get it the next night we try it.

Glory of the Hero

Last week, my five-man group finished the Glory of the Hero achievement. It was a long road and the reward of a Red Proto-Drake was felt to be well deserved. As far as I am aware, this makes Aille, Ay, Bluid, Laeryn and I the first in the guild to complete the meta-achievement. Some of the achievements were very easy, and some so difficult that I am not sure how Blizzard intends for them to be done, but we completed all of them. We also did this without respecs or even a specific group make up. Our group consisted of a Holy Priest, a Rogue, a Feral Druid tank, a Retribution Paladin, and an Unholy Death Knight. The all melee group drove our healer batty at times, but in the end, we were successful. Now that we've completed this, I'd like to reminisce on the best and worst of the required achievements.

The Best

1. Emerald Void: This achievement requires players to Defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos in The Oculus on Heroic Difficulty without anyone in the party using an Emerald Drake. Because the Emerald Drake is the only drake that can heal in this instance, this achievement has to be done with zero healing. We completed this achievement by using five Amber Drakes—at least the first time we did it. We had to do this achievement twice because Laeryn was out of town the first time we did it. The second time, we used four Amber and a Ruby, but the strategy we used was nearly identical. This achievement takes a lot of coordination (probably more than any of the others). It also relies on skill and timing, not on luck. Properly timed Time Stops and perfectly coordinated Shock Lances and Temporal Rifts make this achievement possible and my favorite of all of them.
2. Consumption Junction: This achievement requires players to defeat Trollgore in Drak'Tharon Keep on Heroic Difficulty before Consume reaches ten stacks. To complete this, we had to play with line-of-sight and make sure that, when Trollgore cast Consume, everyone but the tank was out of his view. It took coordination and good timing. It was another very well designed achievement.
3. Volazj's Quick Demise: This achievement requires players to defeat Herald Volazj in Ahn'kahet on Heroic Difficulty in 2 minutes or less. It all hinges on players being able to kill their shades quickly enough during Insanity. We also found that stacking at a specific position during Insanity made it much faster to come to the aid of party members who were not able to kill their shades as quickly as others. This one took some crazy DPS and a good amount of skill.
   

Those are my three favorites. Here are the three I disliked the most:

The Worst

1. Watch Him Die: This achievement requires players to defeat Krik'thir the Gatewatcher in Azjol-Nerub on Heroic Difficulty while Watcher Gashra, Watcher Narjil and Watcher Silthik are still alive. We tried many many different strategies for this achievement; however, none of them really worked. Everything we found online said that players simply zerged it and hoped for good luck. Some kited adds away, and some didn't, but in the end it was simply a DPS race to the death. We wiped even when we successfully completed the achievement (as did everyone else we read about completing it). I can't imagine that Blizzard intends that the successful way to complete this is to wipe, but that's the only way that we were able to complete it.
2. Less-rabi: This achievement requires players to defeat Moorabi in Gundrak on Heroic Difficulty while preventing him from transforming into a mammoth at any point during the encounter. Unfortunately, his cast speed just gets too fast when he is below 30% health. Even with a few players who can interrupt the cast, it becomes nearly impossible to stop him from transforming. We took the easy way out on this one and kited him to the door so that he'd reset. I hated that we had to cheese it, but without stacking classes with silences, there was no other realistic way for us to complete it. Blizzard now says "Take the player, not the class," but that doesn't hold true with this achievement. This one needs to be reworked.
   
3. Defenseless: This achievement requires player to defeat Cyanigosa in The Violet Hold without using Defense Control Crystals and with Prison Seal Integrity at 100% while in Heroic Difficulty. The reason I dislike this achievement is not because it was too hard—in fact, it was the exact opposite. This achievement was a joke. We got it without even realizing we had done anything special. We did it with quest greens and blues. It was way too easy. Most PUGs have an easy time completing this one. It simply isn't challenging in the least. In order to fix this one, Blizzard needs to make the instance more difficult than it is.

There were many other achievements that we needed to complete, with varying levels of difficulty, but these were the ones that stood out to me. I very much enjoyed the challenging ones that were not absurd. If the achievement is too easy, it doesn't feel like an achievement at all. Hopefully, with future instances, Blizzard refines their achievement system so that more of them are a challenge to most groups but still feasible. But, for this round, I win—I have my Red Proto-Drake.

Conferring and Confirming

Tam recently blogged about raid confirmations. Her, myself, and sometimes Moxy are really the only three that ever touch them. We go in streaks where one of us will do them for a while, then another, and then another. This pseudo-rotation works well in the sense that not one of us ever should have to do everything in a given week. As Tam expressed in her blog, players often complain to the person whose name is listed next to the confirmations for a raid. However, it really doesn't stop there—they often complain to multiple officers. Melee DPSers are most common. I hear from them every week. This week, since I did confirmations for some of the raids, I am hearing from them even more. I'll often hear complaints through third parties, as well. I'd prefer people come to me if they have questions or concerns, but not everyone is equally comfortable with handling things directly. I understand that. What bothers me is when people read too much into confirmations. It seems that people don't understand how complex they really can be... let me elaborate.

Lately, we have had between 30 and 40 players signing up for our 25-man raids. We try to bring 6-7 healers, 3 tanks, and 15-16 DPS (divided up pretty close to evenly between melee and ranged DPS—with melee sometimes being more prevalent due to our current overabundance of melee in the guild). When selecting those players, we can't just go by the role, but we also try to make sure that as many classes/specs as possible are represented. On top of that, we have to consider player skill, consistency, and availability. All of this adds up to some pretty complicated decisions when trying to get as many capable players into raids as possible.

Let's look at a melee situation:

• Player A can only raid on Thursdays, so that's all he signs up for.
• Player B can raid all three days, so he signs up for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
• Player C can only raid on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so he signs up for those two days.

If there is only room for two of these three players on any given raid night, what's the most fair way to do these confirmations? Would you go with:

• Monday: Player B
• Wednesday: Players B and C
• Thursday: Players A and C

That's what I went with. It seems most fair without any further context. But, now, what if Player B really only needs the content that we are clearing on Thursday? The other players also need gear from the Thursday content. Well, player B is likely to complain that he isn't seeing the content that he needs. This happens often because many players have real life situations that keep them from being able to raid some nights. That's the main reason why we rotate the days that we do specific content as much as possible. But, this doesn't always work out for everyone—we don't always finish what we expect to.

Because we cannot predict the future, we have no real way of assuring that Player B will see the content he needs, unless we let him raid all three nights at the expense of one of the other players. Clearly we cannot do that, so we do the best that we can by rotating content.

Of course, many players want to raid all three nights. However, as more players hit 80 and gear up, we are likely to need to incorporate more players into our raids. For example: we recently had a couple of additional Mages and a couple of additional DPS Warriors hit the level cap. If we want to work any of these players in, we will need some players who currently raid three nights per week to sit out once a week. Obviously, this can cause some hard feelings. However, if we never get these newer 80s into raids, they may leave the guild and we will have a more difficult time replacing someone who has to miss a raid they would normally attend.

So, as Tam said, it's a balancing act. We have to balance the days of the raids, the classes, the roles, the specs, the players, the skill, our friendships, and so much more. Players who take it personally when being confirmed or not on any given night should simply sit back, relax, and look at the overall picture. Of the raid days that you are available, do you raid more days than you don't? If so, you are better off than some. If not, speak with one of us to find out what you can do to get into more raids. There are several things it could be:

• It may be that we just have too many people of your role/class and we can't fit you in. If that's the case, you can try to reroll, or you can wait for a spot to open.
• It may be that you are undergeared. Is your average item level below 200? If so, you really need to work on some upgrades before expecting to raid 25-man content. If you are unsure of your average item level, a mod like RatingBuster will allow you to see item levels in your tool tips.
• It could simply be a skill issue. If you are not performing as well as your peers, talk to a Lieutenant or an Officer who plays your class. You may be able to learn something new to help your performance. Also, take the time to read about your class, the various specs players use, and how to perform best in your role. I read several Death Knight blogs as well as the Elitist Jerks forums frequently—this has helped me tremendously.
• Maybe your attitude is getting in the way. If you make other players uncomfortable or are abrasive, you will have a more difficult time getting into raids. This doesn't mean you won't get in, but it can make it harder.

I am not implying that no personal consideration goes into confirmations. As Tam said, some of us have real life friends who may have an advantage over players who we do not share a home, or home town with. I'll go to bat for my roommates before I will go to bat for someone I have never met—that's just the way the world works. But that doesn't mean that other skilled players can't win spots in raids, and it certainly doesn't mean that a lower performer will win a spot just because he or she has the ear of an Officer. If you are good, we will find a place for you.

How do Achievements fit in to guild progression?

Yesterday I wrote about achievements that I thought were broken. The original plan for today was to talk about how I think achievements could be fixed/improved. I am still going to touch on that, but some posts on our guild forums have caused me to expand on the original topic.

Last night in Naxx 25, some of our members asked if we could try to do some of the heroic raid achievements. Now, I am all for a good challenge, but not just for the sake of making the encounters slower or more difficult. I like heroic achievements that are about doing the fight the right way but without mistake, or faster, or with less handicaps (such as resistance). However, achievements that ask you to do a fight in a way that it was clearly not intended, just to make the fight harder, are a complete crock (I.M.n.s.H.O.). Yesterday I mentioned Spore Loser as an achievement that I considered broken. Well, I also consider it a crock. This was the achievement in question last night. Some raiders wanted to try it, but some did not. We did a quick poll in the Officers' channel, and it was a unanimous decision (at least among those who responded) to not attempt the achievement. So, why is this? There are probably several reasons that players don't want to try something like this, but my reasons are as follows:

1. Not killing the spores prevents players from getting the crit buff, which in turn increases the length of the fight significantly. Many of us want to clear Naxx as quickly as possible. If the achievement were to ensure that every spore results in 5 people gaining the buff (something else that would take skill, but would also speed up the fight), I would be all for it.
2. The reward for completeing this achievement is achievement points. Yes, that is all. So, we make the fight more difficult and a heck of a lot slower and we get bragging rights. Wow, sign me up >_<
3. This isn't how the fight was designed to be completed. The spores were put into the fight to provide the buff so that players had to coordinate (ensuring that the maximum number of players were affected). So, the achievement is to do the fight improperly—it's just not my cup of tea.

In all fairness, not all of the achievements incite those same thoughts in me. In fact, some of them are just what I think they should be. I would love to see us complete Make Quick Werk of Him, in which we would have to down Patwerk in 3 minutes or less. This achievement both speeds up the time in which the fight is done AND takes skill. This is the type of achievement I can stand behind.

However, there are players who want to complete all of the achievements (or at least the ones that are required for the meta-achievement Glory of the Raider. The Glory of the Raider meta-achievement has a reward of a Black Proto-Drake (a coveted 310% speed mount). I understand why some players want to work toward this, but a faster mount (or, at least this specific faster mount) is not at the top of everyone's priority list. Sure, most of us would like a faster mount, but there are other ways to get one, and not everyone is on board for working toward this one. So, my question is, "How far should a guild go, for several players, for something as unnecessary as this mount?" That's a difficult question, but here are my thoughts:

1. I don't like the idea of asking 25 people to work on achievements that maybe half of them really want. It could be more than half, but from a guild poll we are running, it looks like it's less than half (at least at the time of this posting). It just feels unfair to me to ask people to jump into this when they are really there to clear the instance.
2. Players can acquire a Plagued Proto-Drake by completing the non-heroic version of this meta-achievement. Finding 10 people who are like-minded and want to complete the raid achievements is a lot easier than finding 25. Of course, the 10-man content is a bit more difficult, but it's within reach of a balanced group of good players who really want it.
3. For those that cannot get the 10-man achievements done, time (and gear) will improve their chances. By the time Ulduar is available, players should be much better geared. Also, once our guild is in Ulduar, we will most likely not be running Naxx 25 (at least not regularly). This makes the perfect opportunity for players to form a guild PUG for the achievements. If players are interested in getting the mount, they will attend. If they are not, well, then I'd rather not have forced them to do it in the first place. And, hey, a guild PUG can always be filled out with a few non-guildy PUGers.

I guess I have made it pretty clear where I stand. I don't want the achievements to get in the way of speed, progression, or the proper way of completing a fight. If all achievements were challenging, but met these rules, I would be the happiest of "cheivers." The only other way you could pull me in would be for the achievements to offer more rewards. Sartharion does just that. Not only is there a mount drop, but there is also upgraded gear (and more of it), from doing the achievement. And, clearly, the fight was designed to be done with three drakes up in the first place. this is an achievement handled correctly. It offers a challenge and appropriate rewards for overcoming that challenge—not just a faster way to move around when we are not raiding.

That's how I think Blizzard can fix achievements: They need to make sure that the effort to reward ratio is appropriate in the eyes of the majority of players. From what I have heard, this is the direction Ulduar is headed. I hope that ends up being true, because if it's not, I will be sorely disappointed.

The First of Many

There was a time when I had a blog. It was a while ago now. I started it when I started my MySpace account. Over the years I lost interest in MySpace, deleted my account and transitioned to Facebook. When I deleted that account, my blog went with it. I have finally decided to start a new one, and I plan to update it fairly regularly, but i'll just start with post one and see where it goes from there.

Last night our WoW guild (xeno) ventured into the Obsidian Sanctum to face Sartharion with one drake up. We had destroyed him without any drakes up several times—with no drakes, it's so easy that it just feels like a waste of time. I was really looking forward to tackling the fight with Tenebron up in 25-man. Just two days prior, our 10-man raid group completed the exact same encounter; it was a challenging fight, but we were able to take it down after three serious attempts (Of course, this wasn't or first night trying the 10-man fight with Tenenbron up. We had worked on it the week before for several hours without a successful kill). the experience from our 10-man lead me to beleive that we wouldn't have too much trouble in the 25-man version, but I didn't expect it to be the joke that it was. Now, this was the very first time we put in a real effort at 25-man Sarth with a drake up. I expected we'd put in a couple of hours before we saw his demise. The true result was quite anticlimactic: We one-shot it. It didn't even get very hectic. When Tenenbron went down there was an overall feeling of disappointment and surprise. It seemed that the fight wasn't much more difficult on 25-man than it was on 10-man—but you have 15 more people to help.

It is a joke of a fight and it reinforces my opinion that Blizzard has made the game too accessible. I can't really blame them. They are looking out for number one; they want as many subscribers as they can get; they know that providing everyone with access to all content gives most people more to do. I get it, but it frustrates me. Back in the days of vanilla WoW, when 40-man raids were end-game, everything had a more epic feel. You didn't have to have a lot of great players to progress, as long as you had a solid core. You could pretty much carry 10 people through, even if they were AFK. When BC came out, Blizzard made changes that resulted in the necessity to bring people to raids that knew how to play. You could not longer carry several people through—in fact, in some fights, it was even a stretch to carry one bad player through. Now it seems that Blizzard has done a complete 180. WotLK 25-man raids require very little skill. Sure, there are exceptions, but overall the n00b is back in the game. Most of the WoW population is probably thrilled with this, but I am not. I enjoy the challenges. this week my guild will try Sartharion with 2 adds up—maybe even 3—and if we beat that, we'll have nothing to work on until the next content patch. Lame. WTB a challenge.