Follow the Leader?

I was really frustrated when I logged in on Tuesday night and they were running an OS 10 already. The patch hadn't even cooled yet and three of our tanks were in there doing it. Since when do you need three tanks to run OS? And you know, I'm not really mad about that so much, that would be really selfish of me, everyone wants their gear and whatnot, but one of the tanks that ran has multiple, meaning three or more, 80s. He didn't need to bring the tank. But he's decided that this week his tank is his new main. Whatever.

So I decided right there that I'd better "reserve" the other two tanks (though I admit I forgot one) so I could do a run. And I'll admit, I purposely didn't invite any of the alts of the three tanks that were in the other run.

As soon as I got online to get started, people were bugging me for invites, including those who have not been invited, for various reasons. As usual we're looking for DPS and Mr. Multiple 80s Man basically elbows his next brand spankin new 80 DK into the raid. I know we have enough DPS to pull him along, but I was really hoping to test our group dynamics. Bringing in a brand new 80 was not in my plan.

You know what I'm going to do next time? I'm just going to stay off Teamspeak until the raid is built. I can ignore whispers much easier than people begging in my ear. Guh, it's so annoying!

In addition to all that, Krom asked me yesterday why I was running OS when he was trying to get a Naxx run going. I felt bad for messing up his plans, but I didn't know he was thinking that. I started building my run on Wednesday morning! I'll talk to him tomorrow morning and we can hash out what to do next weekend.

I was pretty excited about it anyway, this was the first run I actually organized myself. I set it for 5, the final person came into the raid around 5:15 and we started the actual raid at 5:30. We were done killing Sarth around 7, and we only wiped twice, both on the boss. We did really really well. Even though Tess was drunk. What the heck, last I knew he quit drinking! I wanted to slap him and tell him to stop talking!

Even though it was successful, I don't feel like the run was very fun. Maybe it's because I was grumpy and put out over the guild politics. I've been feeling a little under the weather so maybe I just wasn't into it. Maybe it was just stress of leading it for the first time. I dunno. I want to do it again though. I just hope I feel better about it next time.

Ride the Flame Wave

After yesterday's craziness I basically just quested and fished, and did offline things today. All that running and healing and wiping wore me out. When I came back on after dinner tonight, my project DK said he wanted to get together a group for 10 man OS. I figured why not, it's just money. Which is what I always think when I'm about to be in a difficult raid.

Well, it was hard. And we did a lot of stupid things. And died a lot. And used a lot of pots.

We also killed 2 drakes with 9 people and gave at least half the group the first time achievement. And got to reward our rogue Alive, who's been a really great DPS addition to the guild. I'm glad he's stuck around.

After doing Heigan last night, the flame wall seemed outright simple. We wiped and wiped and wiped on the trash and the dragons, but we took Sarth down on the second try. I'd say it doesn't make sense, but we seem to be thinking faster on our feet now. It's really cool to watch.

The Safety Dance

So we did Naxx this weekend. Got the Arachnid quarter done again. And... we beat Heigan! 8 of the 10 people figured it out after a whole mess of wipes, but we did it! I'm so excited right now. And tired of the safety dance. I had it on loop the whole time, which was inspiring, but makes my ears bleed thinking back on it.

Also, Zully heals better with drinks. No question about it. OK maybe not 'heals' but definitely 'cleanses disease'.

We got Loatheb too. Won the super awesome Sulfur Stave. Only one D/E the whole run, so everyone got upgrades, which is awesome.

I'm so excited right now! ZOMG!

Priest Changes and Fixes

Enough with the QQ you say? Time for some commentary!

Fixes
Guardian Spirit isn't proccing when you get more than one killing blow more or less simultaneously. Slorkuz acknowledges the bug and a hotfix should be coming out quickly.

Please please tell me this is true. I've all but given up on Guardian Spirit being a reliable skill to use as an "Oh Shit" button. I've mostly been using it as a +40% to healing buff when I know I'm getting behind in the heals, and only as an emergency button for bosses. If simultaneous killing blows are the issue, that explains why it doesn't work well on trash but does OK on tank n spank.

Changes
Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.

Awesome. Bonus spellpower and spirit FTW. This seems to be way more useful for Holy Priests anyway. I think this is another step moving away from Discipline priests being nothing but fancy buffs and mana batteries.

Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group)

One of the really fun things about disc priests is the shields. A big ol' bubble for your whole group with mana regen and damage reflection? Yes please.

Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova's mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.

The tweaks to AoE healing are nice, but they are constantly changing these anyway, it seems. Prayer of Healing on any group will be handy.

Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.

I don't know anything about shadow except the glowy purple effect looks cool.

Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.

Well, I'm not sure why you would want to channel a spell on yourself, except maybe to get the Grace buff as well, but whatever. Everything should be self castable anyway.


Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.

I'm a fan of binding heal so this pretty cool. But does this mean the overheal mana refund is gone? I'm pretty good about overheals so I don't really care but some people will be pretty pissed I'm sure.

We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

Is that all you're giving me? I don't know how this is possible without seriously damaging what is, IMO, one of the best pure raid specs in the game. Especially with all the burst damage that is going on on pvp right now. I'm very skeptical about this one.

Peace

I got a lot done this weekend. Did four heroics for a boatload of badges, did 25 dailies today and probably another 20 yesterday, played with a new spec, won Wintergrasp about 4 times. Got that new wand I was after. And a silly hat from Blackwing Lair. Got some good quality time in with Krom, Tran, and Px, among others. I think I needed that.

I also think I found some peace this weekend. I basically spent the last few hours running with that guild I was talking about yesterday. They let me come in their vent and I got some good lurking in. I basically reaffirmed that the grass is always greener on the other side. They weren't really all that interesting, especially compared to the guys I hang with. Just doing easy old school raids I could feel a bit of the cut throat raider mentality. That's really not what I'm in it for. As much as I'd love to see the end game content, I need to do it on my terms. And I really think it will feel cheap if I just drop in on some hard core guild who already did all the groundwork. It's the same reason I hate being dragged through dungeons as a lowbie. It's how you get there that's important.

So no more of this doubting about my guild and raiding. We're doing just fine, and we're staying together as friends. That's what really counts.