Calendar

Sorry Ug, but it has corn syrup in it, so she most likely won't fall for the trap. ... On the other hand: gimme that carton. *grabs spoon* Little FYI for tonight: Orcala and I will be on, but there's a nasty-ass thunderstorm over my home as I type this. So if we go poof, it's not because we kicked out the modem cable Hahaha No it has Reeses in it! Dam it's raining and the icecream truck is hiding... maybe Lieutenant Dan has some in his pan he likes hiding them cones in there! Are you guys insane?! Kalea: Good idea, vote it is. I know I said I wouldn't reset anymore until we downed LK, but I also said I'd gauge to see what ppl's morale was after a week of no resets.

Hey guys, I'm trying to get a feel for tonight: Reset the ID Vs. Work on the LK discuss...

Hey folks, I wanted to apologize for being absent quite a bit during the past few weeks. I know these past raid nights haven't been easy with the high level of absenteeism. There isn't much that can be done =( Hang in there guys! This isn't the first lull in raiding we've had and we've always been able to get through them! We are currently on the lookout for qualified candidates to try and ease things a bit. It's a difficult process to say the least. Be patient and try not to get overly frustrated, we'll get through this. Regards, Zu P.S. I need to miss, once again, on Tuesday's raid. I have to attend training

Is it wrong that I got slightly aroused while watching that?

Looks like the buff was bumped to 10% today. Yay! Now when we wipe we can feel even worst about ourselves!

Thank you Tainish and Karrock, I'm very pleased to see you guys are coming back! Woot! Leaves me with only 1 person to replace and we should be back on track. A reminder for everyone else: If you need an extended break, PLEASE try to let me know in advance. Planning is everything when it comes to progress and it's good for me to know who is available and when. I'm more than willing to keep your spot, but depending on the extent of the break I may opt to bring someone temporarily. Also, the use of TENTATIVE is to be avoided at all cost. If you use TENTATIVE, to me that means you're not coming. I cannot plan raid rosters with "possible" attendances. Thanks for your consideration. Regards, Zu

Hi everyone, As many of you have noticed lately, attendance hasn't been quite good. Looking back at the calendar I can say that the main causes of this seem to be A) a bit of bad luck and B) the lost of a few players. That being said I have a couple of raiders who have promptly decided to take "extended" breaks from raiding without giving me any notice or timeline stating whether or not they'll be back. Without any basis on which to solidify our roster, I'm forced to start looking for new recruits. So here is what I'm searching for: Tainish: - I need feedback from you clearly stating when you'll be back, if at all. - If not than I'll be needing to recruit another caster DPS (just about any spec is acceptable) Karrock: - I need feedback from you clearly stating when you'll be back, if at all. - If not than I'll be recruiting a new phys. DPSer (preference on another hunter) Foroshell: - I'm really sorry to see you go, you are definitely one of our best raiders. - So I'm currently looking for 1 strong phys. DPSer. Another Ret paladin would be awesome but I'm not constrained to only that class/spec. With the exception of Foroshell, I need a definitive answer from the above players by MONDAY. If I don't hear anything, their spots will be opened up for potential new recruits.

Orbs? Do you mean Saronite? The Saronite is only put up for bids on Thursdays. Considering Maalick was the ONLY person to bid for them last week, I'd think your chances are pretty good.

The Professor is dead! After weeks and weeks of wipes and endless hatred, our measly group of raiders have succeeded in shutting up that damn Professor's annoying chatter. Great job guys, this victory was well earned!

Hey Everyone, Considering there are so many folks declined tonight, I'll be cancelling the raid. I think it would likely be too frustrating getting untrained replacements to work on Putricide with us. We're better off refocusing our energies for next week.

Done, it's the second link under Roster.

Professor Putricide Pro-Tip Having issues switching targets quickly? Do you often get confused with all the clicking you need to do? Make a targeting macro that will prioritize the mobs you need to kill: /tar Professor /tar Gas Cloud /tar Volatile Ooze If you hotkey this macro and tap it during the fight it's guaranteed to point you to what you should be DPSing. This pro-tip was brought to you by Zuworty .

Depends on time and place. I would be willing to bring Zu as DPS or heals on Mondays or during the day on weekends.

Hey guys, I haven't gotten much of an update in terms of ICC patterns. I'm still trying to figure who knows what and who wants which pattern. Please send me your updates ASAP so that I can start distributing the Saronite.

Xiris: Sorry Xiris, right now it's quite hard for me to host it on weekends. I just have way too much stuff going on between Fridays and Sundays. =( Markenhoof: If you come heal for us I'll poop my pants!

Saronite Distribution After some hard thinking, here is the distribution mechanic we will be using: For the time being Primordial Saronite is simply too rare within ICC to allow a round-robin distribution like we've been having with Runed Orbs and Crusader Orbs. At best, we could perhaps do a distribution of 1 Saronite per person but then I would question whether or not the folks entering their names in the fray would really profit from the Saronite as much as others might. Individual Distribution - So, to make sure the Saronite goes to the folks who need/want it the most they will be auctioned off at the premium price of 10% DKP. - The auction goes off at the start of every Thursday raid and a maximum of 3 Saronites will be given. - The same normal auction rules apply, just like any other piece of loot. - Folks who are being sat out are expected to be in attendance for the bid should they want a chance at obtaining the Saronite. - If you are absent on Thursday for whatever reason, you lose your chance at bidding on Saronite for the week. Pattern Distribution All ICC patterns have a 1 Saronite cost associated to them. Since obtaining these patterns could benefit more than 1 player in the raid, the distribution of Saronite with the objective of purchasing a pattern will be free AND prioritized over individual distribution. Any person wanting a pattern crafted (whether they can craft the item in question or not), can requisition a Saronite. The pattern in this case will be given to an appropriate raid crafter based on both a random roll and suitability [1]. - Only 1 Saronite per pattern will be given. - If multiple crafters can learn a specific pattern, the end player obtaining the pattern will be chosen based on fairness, suitability and finally a dice roll. - If too many Saronites are requisitioned for patterns, the distribution order will be determined by a subjective raid improvement analysis and a dice roll. [1] Suitability meaning that I'm fairly confident the player won't up and leave in 2 weeks and take the pattern with them. Here is what I need from you: - Please let me know which ICC patterns can currently be crafted by members of the raid. - Please let me know which ICC patterns you would like to requisition. It is imperative that I obtain this information ASAP. The distribution of Saronite to individuals will be postponed until pattern requisitions have been handled. Zu

I am, but for the time being the list of interested DPSers is quite long. It's healers and tanks I'm missing.

Well folks looks like my first attempt at creating a 10man failed. It seems that when the majority of the folks are friends and family it is just doomed to fail. However, being the persistent little bugger that I am, I'm not willing to give up. I'll be giving this another go and I will rebuild the roster from the ground up. I'll be looking more towards our 25man group. I know many of you previously stated that you were interested and in hindsight I should have done things differently. That being said, I'm desperately in the search of experienced healers at the moment. If any of you have a decently geared alt or know of someone who'd be willing to heal in a 10man, please let me know! Regards, Zu

This is actually a debatable recommendation from whatever site you're using. In fights that have more than a few seconds of movement, Tuskarr's Vitality is superiour for caster damage/healing output (think it's 10secs of having to move or so). The stam is worthless...it's all about the movement speed increase, which allows you to get into a new spot faster to start casting again. It's hard to quantify without talking a ton of math, but I only consider Icewalker if I need the hit. That is a good point Waldy. My only concern is that I'm at times seeing this type of gemming/enchanting strategy as a means of survival (rather than an increase in efficiency). I'd rather see our raiders learn to be more aware of their surroundings rather than try to mitigate the issue through gearing (which we can all agree is unlikely to resolve anything). If a raider makes a valid argument than I will not oppose it. The audit is really meant to make people AWARE of POTENTIAL improvement/issues. It is not meant to push people into gearing themselves based on my own beliefs. ==================================== Also a valid point, we'll modify our strategy tonight accordingly. Thanks Waldy. ==================================== Benchmarking... Just to put folk's minds at ease: Benchmark isn't going to be used at a mechanism to boot people out of the raid. Hitting new content and is likely to be the hardest instance before the expansion means that we all have to give that extra little bit of performance. We want to assess WHERE improvements can be done: Is it gearing? Is it folks having a hard time following fight mechanics? Is it rotations? Talents? Glyphs? We want to know where each raider sits in comparison to EACH OTHER. Is one Warlock always on top of the others? Why? Is there a large DPS discrepancy between rogues? What causes this? Is it something we can improve or is it something outside of our control? Already we've seen that the thought of having to go through a benchmark is forcing players to ask themselves the question: "What can I do to improve?" And better yet, we have folks stepping up to plate and helping their fellow raiders improve!!! Competition is fun and can help improve raid dynamics, but ultimately I rather have a raid that enjoys cooperating and helping each other. ==================================== Sitting out... The following comments are here simply because they were recently asked: The purpose of sitting out is to: - Allow a rotation of raiders in and out of the raid - Provide backup for folks that need to miss a raid - Provide stability in the case of unforeseen roster circumstances When you are asked to sit out, you are expected to show up at the proper raid time and leave only once the raid has been filled. Being sat out does NOT give you the freedom to muck up your raid IDs and thereby force us to sit you out the entire week. We will NOT move to a weekly-based roster to allow folks to jump between raid groups. This defeats the purpose of roster rotations. Zu

I'm publishing what I see. If you have a valid explanation than so be it, who am I to judge? I'm not a WoW-Atlas and I certainly don't have a record of everyone's posts, messages, mails and whispers backed up somewhere. The next couple weeks will might get a little testy as we poke and prod people to try and improve their performance. Patience and understanding will be required by all raiders (including myself). There is no reason to get up in arms when your name crops up on an audit or if a performance-related question is asked. If and when DKP penalties are to be applied folks will be advised in advance.

Latest Player Audit Results: Tyrandius -- Good Holyssa -- Good Elrikk -- Upgradeable chest enchant Orcala -- Good Foroshell -- Low hit (missing 40) Sneekeh -- Good Maalick -- Good Ascoli -- in Prot gear Kailand -- Good Karrock -- Good Anamarie -- Good Jestin -- Overcapped hit Zeniita -- Missing bracer enchant Draegloth -- Low hit Druze -- in PvP gear Tainish -- Upgradeable clock enchant (? Spirit Vs. Haste) Xiris -- Upgradeable boot enchat (stam/speed Vs. Crit/Hit) Zuworty -- in Holy gear Kadiana -- Good Kalea -- in Elemental gear Markenhoof - Good Tizaria -- Good Bralor -- Good Hannista -- Upgradeable boot enchat (stam/speed Vs. Spirit) Eigun -- Good Notoken -- Good Alclave -- in Ret gear Evila -- Missing ring enchant, missing socket in belt Vitalremains -- low hit (missing 52)

I thank you for being considerate Waldy... Ultimately, the entire conversation was somewhat irrelevant since it will the first person to reach the next step of the quest chain that will be the one obtaining the necessary drops. We will not be contributing primordial saronite from the raid stockpile for this endeavor either. If and when we get multiple players fighting for quest drops, then we'll make a decision. And for those wondering what my own views were on this... In my mind it was always a toss up between Waldy and Foro. They are both loyal, great players and would make good use of the weapon...what more could we really ask for?

Heya folks, I've been contemplating with the idea of starting a brand new 10man raid in the new year. Nothing hardcore at this time, a simple relaxed 10man group. No DKP, no attendance, no chasing after crazy achievements. The main purpose of the raid would be to complement the gear from the 25man raid, help folks increase their badge intake and get intermediate upgrades. I'm not going all out on this, if I can't find enough interested players of the right classes then I will simply scrap the idea. This raid would solely target Icecrown Citadel to begin with. I'm looking for the following: 2 Tanks (1 Hybrid) 3 Healers (1 Hybrid) 5 DPS I'm not too concern in terms of gearing. If folks don't have the gear but are dedicated then by the time the new year comes they should have been able to farm enough triumph badges for a full T9 (10man) set. I'm looking for interest, dedication and experience above all else. It would also be 1 raid night per week to start off with. I'm still flexible on this, either Mondays or Wednesdays and typical raid time; 8 to 11pm server time. Please let me know if you are interested, pass the word around as well. I'm more than willing to accept new comers. Regards, Zu

It looks like this is the case. The shards themselves are not class restricted (unlike the Fragment of Val'anyr), are BoP (unlike prior legendary pieces in MC), and are required for a later quest in the chain, so I don't see why they would drop in any other circumstance. Honestly, Shadowmourne itself is likely to be the best weapon for any of us and nobody will get "more" use out of it than anyone else since it can be gemmed to provide different benefits depending on role/spec (stam x3 for me, strength/whatever for others). There is still one unanswered question regarding the shards that nobody knows quite yet: are they lootable by more than one person like some quest items (e.g. by everyone on the quest). If so, then the shards aren't the gating factor. Works for me, we'll revisit the issue when someone reaches that point in the quest line or when we have no more practical uses for saronite in the raid (which ever comes first).

BTW, this entire conversation is being had as a means of saving time. The ONLY item contributed by the raid for this will be Shadowfrost Shards. This entire conversation is moot if someone can prove to me that these shards ONLY drop when someone is on the quest.