Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hullo? An update!


Oh, I know that no one follows this piece o' crap anymore, but what the hell - an update!  It's not that I've been gone/busy, it's just that things around the WoW-verse have been very boring lately.

So last time I wrote, I was working my way through hard modes in both 10 and 25 in ICC.  A couple of months ago, I was directed to go out of town for work for five straight weeks.  The guild was working on H. Putricide at the time, with only Sindragosa and Lich King left.  That's right - we were 9/12 25-man ICC heroic.  The 10 man groups were changing week to week, but there was a consistent group who lost a caster and got me in - we went 11/12 heroic modes.  The guild also trounced old Halion the first week he came roaring out in both 10 and 25, no problemo.

When I left, I did so with a heavy heart - I had visions of the guild getting heroic Lich King and Ruby Sanctum without me, and I very much wanted to be part of that (still do).  But the first week I was gone, about four or five regular raiders posted on the forums about being absent for that week.  The raids that week didn't happen.  The next week, a couple of the core members announced that they were taking a break until Cataclysm.  Two more core raiders announced that they had just been accepted to a higher-progressed guild and were moving on.  The guild got some recruits to fill in the missing slots, but progression went backwards - couldn't get heroic Saurfang down, not to mention Deathwhisper or the wing bosses.  The third week, a couple more people left. 

By the time I got back, the guild had been only sporadically raiding - only one or two of the three raid days per week.  I did do one raid night with them, where we wiped over and over on heroic Saurfang before changing it to regular.  We couldn't even get normal Lich King that night.

And that was it - several more people announced that they had apps in to other guilds, and the the guild leader spoke to the rest of us on Vent, stating that he didn't think we would pick back up on 25-man raiding.  In short, we were done for the rest of the expansion.  A mass exodus happened that night.

I stayed for a while, unsure of what to do.  I continued to work on heroic Lich King on 10 man with the regular 10 man group, who had all migrated as a whole to another guild.  I considered joining them, but they weren't doing 25 mans, and that's kind of where my heart was.  I joined a GDKP 25 man for a few weeks, that successfully cleared 8/12 heroic bosses and Ruby Sanctum, netting around 7-8k gold per person.  I was sitting with a ton on gold on Icecrown with D, my guild broken up, the majority of my friends back on Silvermoon with my alts, and wondering what I would do.

I was one achievement (the Sindragosa one) away from getting my 10 man bony dragon mount from ICC when I decided to app. with the top Alliance raiding guild back on Silvermoon (a long established guild that had a great reputation).  I thought, at the very least, that I could chill with D and get some gold back to my poor, broke alts.

I was accepted to trial with that guild - they were 11/12 heroic 25 man.  They had a very solid shadow priest, and when I got there, I saw that they had a shadow priest recruit as well.  Both have been trouncing me on the dps charts for the length of my trial so far - I am about one week in and already feel like a fish out of water.

How do you pull out of a trial without looking like a douchey douchebag?  I'm not sure, but I think I may have to do it before they kick me out in disgust - my dps is nowhere near what I know it can be, and neither is my performance.  Why?  I suspect it has to do with a combination of things - boredom of ICC, late hours (the raid time ends an hour later than what I had been used to - thought I could handle it, but maybe I was just deluding myself), and, oh yeah, Silvermoon is a west-coast server while I live on the east coast.

Stupid D!  My latency is horrible on Silvermoon.  Icecrown was a Mountain Standard Time server, which isn't that much closer but it DID make a difference, as my dps and latency on Icecrown was a lot better (as was my performance). 

I'm not a terrible player, so I've been completely and utterly ashamed at my performance in my current trial.  Clipped dots and Mind Flays, being hit by Malleable Goo on Putricide, dying to Pungent Blight just last night on Festergut because my Dispersion hot key didn't seem to work in time (super embarrassing for a shadow priest) ... it's been abysmal. 

So I think I might just pull out of the trial, take a break from raiding (but I really want to work on heroic Lich King, dammit), and wait for Kurn to get her guild ready for recruiting so I can apply to an actual East Coast server progression guild for once (and raid with someone I admire - I'm not a stalker, really!).  Why I started out on Silvermoon escapes me completely. 

In the meantime - if there are any guilds out there that could use a non-bad (I promise!) shadow priest (disc is my offspec, but I also have a holy set ... you might not want me healing, though .. just saying) for the rest of the expansion, hit me up!  Only CST or EST servers, raiding anytime during the evenings (anywhere from 7-12 EST) or anytime on the weekends, at least heroic Deathwhisper down (I think that's a good indication of a decent progression guild) or 8/12 ish in 25 man AND Ruby Sanctum normal 25, bonus for guilds that care about achievements and 10 mans (mounts, old content like ToGC, etc). 

I'm in full 264 and up gear, 4-piece T10 of course (all Sanctified), several heroic 25 pieces (wrists, DFO, neck), the nifty normal 25 Lich King staff, 1100ish haste unbuffed, 3200ish (I think) spellpower, hit capped (of course), and I have worked on all heroic modes on 10 man (including Lich King) as well as 10/12 heroic modes in 25 (I have never seen Sindragosa or Lich King on heroic mode in 25) ICC.  I have also completed Ruby Sanctum 10 and 25 on normal and pushed him to phase 3 several times in 10 man heroic (I think I've gotten hit by the cutters across all my attempts on all my toons less than five times - after working on it in heroic mode there's no excuse for getting hit in regular mode).  I have completed (more than once) OS 25 with 3 drakes (non-zerg fashion, yo) and ToGC 10 with no wipes (I have the mount as proof!).  I have also completed Algalon on 10 and 25 man, as well as obtained my stupid Rusted Protodrake on not only D but K.  I have the Undying title on K.

None of that last stuff matters, except to tell that I am good with mechanics of fights and not dying to stupid stuff.  No joke, I once knew someone that could not grasp how to do Heigan's dance or avoid flame walls on the Sarth fight even years after the content had been released.  That's not me!  It took me one wipe to get heroic Sindragosa, and that wipe was not even my fault (tank died).  One shot heroic Putricide the first time I saw the fight.  Really, I'm good with mechanics and a very fast learner. 

I like guild loyalty - I don't really fancy myself jumping from guild to guild for the rest of the expansion.  I was sad that my Icecrown guild ended, as I had no intention of ever leaving.  Before that, I was very sad to leave the guild that I was in on Silvermoon, as I had no intention of ever leaving that one, either, except that I was aching for more content and the guild was barely able to fill raids.  If I can find a solid guild that is capable of clearing all available content, I'm good! 

Er, so anyway, I'm ready to kill Mr. Lich King on heroic so I can be proud of myself and what I accomplished for my first WoW expansion. This lull peroid sucks!  I'm really, really looking forward to Cataclysm (no beta key, /sadface). 

Oh, but something I did get accomplished during my lonely days on Icecrown?  I got my blue dragonhawk!  100 mounts, yay!  What a grind, though (Argent Tournament, I hate you).  I finally got my white chocobo hawkstrider, too, after 54 Kael'thas kills.  Don't hate me, but the mount I didn't care about getting other than to count towards my mount total, Baron Rivendare's mount?  4 kills.  /ducks