Undying Conspiracy

Our dedicated 10 man Naxx group decided a while back that rather than become "alt friendly" (although we do have two guys with healer/tank alts that switch it up), we would focus on getting some achievements done.

I think I've stated before that I don't actually hate achievements, I'm just not as obsessed by them as a lot of people have become. The two that I would really like to have are Undying and The Immortal. As a healer, I like the challenge of trying to make it all the way through a late night Naxx without letting anyone die.

The trouble is, we seem to be cursed with really bad luck. I know that these achievements require perfection (or the ability to save the day) on boss fights, but, for the most part, our recent failures haven't been user error. They've been flukes.

I wasn't there, but three weeks ago, we had a poorly timed taunt between our main tank and off tank on Gluth. The report I received said: "Basically, our druid was off tanking Gluth and the warrior told him to taunt. Just as a decimate hit. And well, you can guess how that went. The warrior was watching his debuffs and not the decimate timer."

Two weeks ago, we made it all the way to Kel'Thuzad. A retadin 'sploded, but the healers managed to save him. Unfortunately, his life dipping was only an instant before our elemental shammy was iceblocked. In my defense, he was the one person who had stepped out of my range. But that's no excuse. Three healers should have been able to save him--if our attention hadn't been on saving the pally one second before.

Last week, our Canadian friends had some internet issues. These issues decided to present themselves after we started the Heigan dance. We kept one of them (a healer) alive until he could make it up on the platform, but his counterpart happened to be our main tank.... We weren't as successful with him. The raid broke up after that, but he reported that he had no more lag the entire evening.

This week started out promising despite the fact that the same Canadian duo were at a BSG-themed lan party (meaning slightly buzzed and sharing the internets). We wouldn't let them talk about BSG, but the run itself was going well. We breezed through Heigan. Recovered from a miscommunication on Four Horsemen. And even managed to survive a kinda rocky Grobbulus (there were WAY too many slimes at one point for comfort). Everyone seemed to be on the ball, and even if we had some minor mishaps, we were surviving them. Until Gluth. There we all are, preparing for the Decimate. The Holy Priest had a binding heal cued up to land on the adds tank and himself as soon as the cast finished. I had a chain heal going on the tanks/melee in the front. And the pally was doing his pally thing. We were set. We weren't going to let everyone down. This was the week we'd make it.

Only it wasn't. Apparently there is a known (but not known to us) bug where if you use commanding shout or a warlock imp during the Gluth fight, the encounter can miscalculate how much health you actually have when dispensing the Decimate damage. And instead of taking you to mostly dead...it takes you to overly dead. All three healers died. Instantly. Our preparatory casts were useless to save us or anyone else. I used my reincarnate and we ended up killing the boss, but over half the raid died.

So I guess this week we should research and try to find any other obscure bugs that will ruin our chances at this achievement. Damnit, I want to get Undying so I can stop staying up all night, or at least start taking the Shadow Priest. It's a conspiracy. I know it is.

Image courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner.

Who's the Boss?

In WoW there are many types of guilds. Many people join a leveling guild soon after beginning to play the game. Others have a group of friends who start a guild of their own. Some end up in twink guilds focused on lower-level PvP. Almost any aspect of the game can be the basis for the commonality needed to make a guild. Well, maybe not fishing. In my experience, raiding and end-game PvE content has led to the creation of the largest number of guilds. These guilds range from the casual to the hardcore and everything in between. And each one is run differently. Many are under the leadership of one person with a vision, but others, like mine, are run by a group of Officers who work together to handle the many responsibilities inherent in a raiding guild that also tries to be a pleasant place for all members.

I have read a few blog posts lately about guilds and how they illustrate how society works on a larger scale. What is expected of a member of a guild is what is expected in all societies--that they do their share to help the group accomplish a common goal. But who sets the goal? Who's the boss?

In some societies--and, by correllation, some guilds--the people at the top of the food chain decide what is important and everyone else falls into line. The people making these decisions are expected to focus on things that benefit the group as a whole, and as long as they do this--or have power over the group members--, they can make the decisions. If they stop making decisions that benefit everyone, they face the risk of revolution (or mass /gquit). In other cultures, the people themselves make their wishes known and do what the majority says. Still others have a combination of the two: a person or persons who lead the group, but who also listen to opinions about what should be done. But what happens when no agreement can be made? What do you do when some people really want to do one thing, others really don't, and the rest don't care enough to express much of an opinion either way?

Our guild is facing this kind of discussion at the moment. I don't want to call it a "problem," at least not yet. Right now we have a few people that really (and I mean vehemently) want to do all of the requirements for the achievement Heroic: Glory of the Raider. The 17 requirements for the Meta-Achievement include killing bosses with fewer than 21 people in the zone, changing strategies to make the fights more difficult, and keeping everyone alive on every boss fight. The reward for completing the achievement is a faster mount.

I'm not going to get into my own personal feelings about the achievement itself. Instead, I want to focus on who gets to make the decision about whether or not we adjust (and in some cases, break) our strategies to do achievements.

I can see both sides of the issue. I understand wanting to feel like you are part of the decision-making process whenever the choice affects you. (After all, that's exactly what I've been whining about in my work situation lately.) But I also know that sometimes decisions have to be made "without input from 30 different people." (Sigh, I seriously just quoted my boss. Don't you hate it when something happens to make you see the other side of the issue and then you find out you agree with the enemy?)

I guess you can figure out that I think the Officers and Raid Leaders should make the final decision about whether or not to switch things around in order to do the achievements. So I guess what I'm saying is we're the bosses. That doesn't diminish your own freedom, you are free to choose for yourselves whether or not to stay or leave, raid or not raid. But the decisions about what happens during a raid are the Officers' responsibility. And I'd appreciate you shutting up about it now.

Momma Said Knock You Out at The Hundred Club

We cleared Naxx 10 again tonight, as did another 10 man group from our guild. I'm more proud of them than of us, though, because I think this was their first night to finish in one setting. They also seemed faster than us, although a late start contributed to that, it wasn't the only thing that went wrong. We just weren't as smooth as we usually are.

We did challenge ourselves to complete a couple of achievements, though none of them were for speed--too many oops pulls for that (including one where I stepped too close to a spider who thought I looked tasty...have I mentioned my hatred for all things arachnid?). We killed Grand Widow Faerlina without killing one of her adds near her to dispel the frenzy. It made tank healing a little more intensive, but wasn't too bad with a holy priest, resto shaman and resto druid. Then we killed Sapphiron without any frost resist. Usually, I drop a frost resist totem to give us at least 130, but tonight we went without (or at least beneath 100). We didn't one-shot it, but that was more unlucky blizzard placement than the additional damage. It made the fight more challenging from a healing standpoint, but it also made it more fun.

I guess I'm not against all dungeon or raid achievements anymore. But I also have the 4 piece set bonus and pretty awesome gear overall. Maybe my opinion hasn't changed. I've just got the gear to make them fun instead of painful.

Heroic Achievement? I'll Pass

Marnas and I ran a couple of heroics tonight with some guildies. We had a good time although things didn't always go smoothly.

I have decided that until I am completely decked out in at least 25 man Naxx gear, I am not letting someone talk me into attempting a boss on heroic in a specific way "for the achievement." I will cheer if I am pleasantly surprised by an achievement sneaking up on me, but I will not seek it out. I am not an achievement hater, and when I have time (read vacation) I will gladly go explore all the nooks and crannies of the old lands. I think it is cool that each heroic dungeon has more challenging ways it can be completed, and getting an achievement for being able to pull it off is something I support. However, every time someone convinces me to do something the hard way "for the achievement" we die--over and over. I don't get upset when we wipe, and I prefer having a good time to everything going perfectly. But I now have higher repair costs due to wearing mail armor instead of cloth, and even with the influx of gold, it hurts me to pay 50g in repairs for a heroic run. So, for now at least, please don't ask me to hold my mouth this way and jump up and down on one foot while hitting my healing buttons just because it's an achievement. You won't like my answer.