Well, I got the blog back up and running anyhow.  I quit writing quite some time ago, and had an .SQL backup file, but it was a real bear to get up and running.  I moved hosts a few months back, and just never bothered to fix this blog, seeing as how it was DEAD and all.  Yes, I’m still alive, and I’ll keep this up in case anyone has any questions about how to play a druid 3 years ago.

Well, for now anyway.  Blizzard expertly drew me back in with the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion and a nice little 7-day free pass on my old account.

My, how things have changed.  Now I have to think about specs all around for my 80 Druid, Warrior and Hunter, and even MORE new specs (if I should choose) for my not-quite-80 Rogue and Priest.  It’s a little intimidating, I’ll be honest.

So given that, for right now I’m just messing around with an itty bitty Gnome Mage.  I’ve always wanted a Mage to see what it was like to do MASSIVE crits, and leveling is easier than trying to figure out high-end gear, talents and rotations.

For now, anyway.

I don’t know that I’ll actually start writing regularly again, that all depends on whether I find anything worthy to write about.  We’ll see.  But man, I gotta tell ya, WoW is still one hell of a game.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

                                                     – W. H. Auden

 

PTD is sad, there can be no doubt.  From time to time I’ve spoken about minor issues I have had with my guild.  The fact is that my schedule doesn’t align very well with the rest of them.  I can’t blame anyone for that, it’s just how things are.  I’ve toyed with leaving before, and even transferred over to Draenor at one point to join another blogger. 

I toyed with it, and Friday night I typed in the most difficult of commands:

/gquit

I didn’t come to the decision easily.  I’ve been with the same group since before WoW was even released.  I hooked up with them while playing Horizons, and they are a great group of people.  Things have changed with the guild though, over time.  It’s a different group of people from when I started.  There are quite a few old timers, but we have a lot of new folks as well. 

I’m going to tell you all now what it was that pushed me over the edge.  I won’t name any names, and if anyone from my now former guild reads this, please do not take offense.  The act of blogging, the act of sharing, can be cathartic.  I need a little bit of that right now.

The /gquit Story

My guild is running 25 mans in house regularly since the release of Wrath.  Earlier I mentioned my scheduling conflicts, and they come into play here.  I just can’t raid when they do.  I’ve never been able to.  Quite a few people in the guild think that is the primary reason I left.  I’m here to set the record straight, it actually has very little to do with my decision to move on.  It is related, but not a cause.

Remember that I’ve really NEVER been able to raid with my guild.  This is nothing new for me, and I learned to live with that fact long, long ago.  It’s the reason that I find my raiding outlet outside the guild, and I’ve always been happy to have said outlet.  To be sure, I would LOVE to raid with my guild, but it just isn’t in the cards.

This does cause other problems behind the scenes, however.  Because I don’t raid with the guild, there are many players that are relatively new that I’ve never really played with.  They don’t know me from Adam, and they really have no idea if I’m any "good" or not.  Because of that, they aren’t going to be apt to invite me to fill a heroic group, or a PUG raid or whatnot.  Honestly I don’t really blame them, there are some horrible players out there.

So recently our raid leaders put all 10 man content to "open" status.  That means anyone can schedule and run a raid whenever they want to.  I had been waiting for this, because in BC I organized my own Kara runs under this rule, and they were quite successful.  I hoped to start doing that again with Naxx.  So last week I made a post on the boards to try to set up a run for Friday night. 

Nobody signed up.  I only got 2 replies to my post at all. One person said they would help out if they happened to be around, and the other saying they couldn’t make it.  That was ok though, I figured I’d just try to whip one up that night.

So Friday night I log on, and right away ask in guild if anyone would be interested in running Naxx 10.  I got no response.  A few minutes later, I asked again.  One of the late night guild tanks I often ran with told me to message another guildy, he though he might be putting something together. 

So I messaged said guildy directly, and I got no response.  If he missed my PM or just didn’t have time to respond, I have no idea.  So I asked in guild one last time, and when I again got no response, I headed off to the AH to mess around for a few.

About 15 minutes later, I was trying to put together a heroic group instead, and asked the tank from earlier if he wanted to tank it.  He said he couldn’t as he was just about to run Naxx with some guildies. 

"Huh???" 

I didn’t see anything in guild chat about a Naxx run starting, and I was frankly a bit shocked.  Lo and behold, I look at the roster and see 10 guildies gathering in and around Dragonblight.  At this point, I’m already steamed.  I rarely have time to raid, I tried to schedule something for this exact time, and even asked in guild chat if anything was happening, and from my perspective, I was completely ignored.  From what I could tell, it was a run set up through PM, with someone picking and choosing who to invite.

Then, the kicker.  This is the bit that really pushed me over the edge.  I looked at the guys who were in Naxx, and notice no less than 3 of them were running alts through.  Frigging ALTS. 

/cue smoke coming out of my ears

I know they have every right to have their fun, they have every right to bring their alts to Naxx, especially with the new "open" policy on 10 mans, but it still hurt.  I’ve been in Naxx a total of 3 times, and I’ve never finished it.  With any character.  I thought I could at least do that with people from the guild, and I thought I did quite a bit to try to make it happen, only to see myself left out. 

And I found myself sitting at my desk, with my head in my hands, frustrated, frustrated, frustrated.  I realized that it’s a position I had been in recently, for not dissimilar reasons.  It was time — this is a game, after all.

/gquit

Homelessness

And that’s how PTD found himself adrift in the World of Warcraft.  No place to rest my head, no guild to call home.  And, at least for now, that’s where I’ll stay.  I really don’t know where I will go next, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.  I do have options.

I could go back.  I’m pretty sure I made my exit amicable enough that they would take me back.  And my old guild (and I’m going to have to remember that part…maybe I should call it my ex-guild, in a way it feels like a break-up) is nothing if not forgiving and mature.

I also already know of another guild that would take me on if I should ask.  I know a few of their members, and it’s certainly being considered.  I guess in some ways it seems hard to try to start over again.  (There we go again with the break-up analogies.)  So I don’t know.

I could also just test the waters and see what’s out there.  I could start running PUGs until my eyes bleed, and see if I find any good folks.  I’m sure that if I PUG without a guild tag and show what I can do, I could catch on elsewhere.

I suppose I could go as far as to look into other servers again.  But I really couldn’t see myself spending the minimum of 100 bucks I’d want to spend to get four characters to a new server.  (80 Warrior, 80 Druid, 72 Hunter [w/ my only epic flyer], and 68 Priest [high level enchanter])

Right now I’m just not really sure what I would want.  So I guess I’ll drift for a bit, and see what happens. 

And with that in mind…

Warhammer Online

Have no fear, I am not quitting WoW.    But they do have a free trial right now, so I went ahead and loaded it up.  I’ll admit that I am having fun with it for the time being.  I seriously, seriously doubt I would leave WoW for it, but it is fun.  The PvP is pretty fun, at least.  The normal questing and mob killing PvE aspect is a little lacking, but the Public Quests are a lot of fun.  It sure is a feature I’d like to see Blizzard steal, that’s for sure!

I even went ahead and picked up the full game, but only because I got it at a local Circuit City (RIP Circuit City) for 10 bucks.  Yeah, that’s right, 10 bucks.  Ahh, to profit from other’s misery.  Though I feel no real shame, it being a corporate behemoth’s misery I am profiting from. 

Anyhow, I won’t really get into it here about WAR.  I am having fun, the RvR is pretty well done, the Public Quests are awesome, and it makes for a good diversion while I try to sort my WoW life. 

So that’s it.  Change is in the air, and I’m not yet sure if that’s good or bad.  Have any of you dealt with a similar situation?  How did you deal with it and move on?

This is actually one of the earliest posts I wrote for my blog.  I found it interesting because while I was once utterly devoted to the Druid class, I now find myself playing my Warrior almost exclusively.  It’s interesting that I actually rated the Warrior LOWEST at the time.  My, how things change!

Also, if I had to rate the Death Knight, I would probably stick it in Tier 1.  They are still incredibly powerful, even after some nerfs, and they can fill two roles, and fill them well.  My only caveat is that you have to have a 55 to make one, and this article was geared more towards the new casual player.

Ok, maybe my title is misleading. I’m not going to blog about whether casuals have any class. I thought I would take a completely biased, totally subjective look at what I thought the "best" classes were for a casual, solo player. Casual players, by definition, don’t have the time to devote to the game that others do. Given that, it helps if we can focus on one character more heavily. We’ll divide these rankings into three tiers, starting from the bottom. There will certainly be multiple complaints and an abundance of hurt feelings – just don’t take it personally.

Tier 3

Warrior. If there was a tier 4, the warrior would be in it. So what’s the problem? Groups always need tanks, right? They do. The problem with the warrior is their extreme level of gear dependence. The one-trick-pony rogues and mages can at least get by with sub-par gear in many end-game five mans, heroics and Kara. The warrior, on the other hand, must be tricked out in great gear to attempt many of the same instances. Casuals often have the most difficulty "keeping up with the Joneses" gear-wise. Also, have you ever seen a warrior’s repair bill? Ugh!

Aside from the gear problem, there is also the issue that as the tank you are often tasked with leading the run. You are often responsible for marking kill targets, assigning CC, pulling and more. It can get to be a bit much.

Rogue. The mind-numbing, explosive DPS can make casual play sessions seem VERY worthwhile. The ability to stealth is also a boon for a casual player, as it can help make gathering skills a little easier, and allow a player to see more of the game solo than they could with any other class.

The problem with the rogue is that it’s a one trick pony. You are a pure melee DPS class, plain and simple. Although there are big differences with spec choices, it only affects how you deal your melee damage.

The problem doesn’t come with leveling, it comes when you reach the later stages of the game and instancing becomes more of a concern. Asking a group if they have room and hearing "full on rogues" makes a casual’s heart heavy.

Mage. The mage is another pure DPS class, only this time from range. Again, this can make the leveling fun, as a casual player loves to kill stuff FAST to maximize playtime. Then, of course, you find yourself on your fanny drinking after every other fight or so. Casuals no likey downtime. Give the mage class bonus points for the teleportation and portal spells to make travel quicker and easier.

As with the rogue, no matter the spec, a mage is still a mage. Ranged DPS. Period.

Mages do provide a touch more to group situations with their slightly more useful CC and their AOE abilities. Also, who doesn’t like Ritual of Refreshment? You do find yourself fighting with a handful of other classes for DPS spots, however.

Tier 2

Paladin. You’ll quickly notice a theme with Tier 2. Healers. Healers, like tanks, are always needed. Unlike warriors, you can often get away with lesser gear. Paladins make great healers with the safety of plate to help out a bit if you happen to pull aggro.

Paladins are also VERY hard to kill. One thing that can help a casual player is to NOT DIE so much. Paladins are great in this respect. The tradeoff is that they can take a LOOONG time to kill stuff. Paladins are the kind of class where you can engage a mob, go make a sandwich, and not really miss anything or fear dying. Heck, the mob could still be up when you return.

Paladins also have a good deal of versatility when it comes to spec. They are now one of only two classes that can fill any role in a group depending on spec. (I’ll get to the other class later.) You can be a tankadin, a healadin, or a retadin. I’m not familiar with how much DPS a retadin can supply, but it is at least an option. Pallys do lose a few points because they have a certain degree of gear dependence, especially if you plan on tanking.

Priest. You won’t have any problems finding groups with a priest, most likely. They are probably the class that receives the most random group invites. They make great healers, and are not especially gear dependent. (The caveat is that gear ALWAYS helps, some classes can just get away with lesser gear.)

Priests also have a good deal of flexibility with spec. You can spec to be a face-melting DPS class with some utility (shadow), or take the more traditional healer/utility route with Holy/Disc. From what I understand, leveling as a shadow priest is not to be missed. I’ve often watched in awe the way a shadow priest can burn down a mob with impunity.

I’m taking away a point or two due to the fact that before 40 as shadow, or the whole way as disc/holy, leveling a priest can be a somewhat frustrating experience. (Hence the reason my priest still sits at a dusty 31.) Unless, of course, you have patience and/or a good group to roll with often.

Shaman. Yeah, I know, another healer. As a casual player, it just helps to have a lot of group viability. Healers seldom complain for lack of groups. Shammys with their totems and chain heals can be quite the powerful, versatile healing and utility class.

The shaman trumps the versatility of the priest, but doesn’t quite reach that of the paladin. You can spec to be a pure healer, or spec to be either a ranged or melee DPSer. That kind of versatility is golden.

Leveling a shaman, with the right spec choices, can also be a great experience. An enhance shammy, once they get windfury, can be quite the fierce solo DPS machine. I’ve also heard that it can be hard to beat a well-geared elemental shammy for pure DPS. Add to that the ability to heal yourself and totems, and you have a leveling winner. If my main weren’t a druid, there’s a good chance it would be a shaman.

Tier 1

Hunter. Now here we are, to the meat and potatoes. Why the hunter? Because it is one of the best leveling/grinding/solo classes there is. A well-played BM hunter can be a DPS machine, and they can also get away with lesser gear and still get spots in heroics and beyond.

It’s hard to beat a BM hunter in a leveling competition, as they can pump out huge DPS numbers with little or no downtime. They can also farm anything you need with reckless abandon.

They don’t have the kind of versatility as some other classes, so why do I rate them so high? Because I am assigning more value to pure soloability and ease of leveling than versatility. It is nice to be able to respec to fulfill other roles, but that practice can be expensive, and also necessitate multiple gear sets. With a hunter, you can focus and just pump out mad DPS with a great deal of survivability and little downtime.

Warlock. I would be hard-pressed to decide which class is better for the casual, the Warlock or Hunter. They have a good deal of similarity. Both are great solo classes that are easy to level and can really pump out the DPS. They can also both get away with subpar gear for longer.

Who doesn’t want a class that you can roll your face on the keyboard and have success? That’s the warlock. Easy to play, easy to level, and a great farmer. (Although I will add that though it’s easy to play a warlock, it’s tough to be a GREAT warlock.) Again, there isn’t much in the way of versatility, as you are a pure DPS class. What casual wouldn’t want to be the class largely considered "OP?"

Druid. I told you this would be biased! For me, the druid is hands down the best class for the casual player. They are the only class other than the paladin that can fill ANY role based on spec. The advantage with druid is that you can cover both melee DPS and tanking with the feral spec, and you can even fill the role of ranged DPS as a Boomkin as a balance druid.

The druid can be like three characters in one. I have gear for feral DPS, feral tanking and resto healing. If a group is ever short DPS, I can easily respec and hit the bank to join in the fun.

It can be tough through the first 20 levels, but the druid blossoms at 20. Once cat form hits, they level with fiendish speed. They can’t quite compete with a lock or hunter, but they can get close. A feral spec druid is, IMO, the best leveler in the game. The reason for this is that you can solo wonderfully and also almost always find a spot in a group as a tank. This is all out the window if you want to try leveling as a resto, but I know Phaelia at Resto4Life did just that.

In addition to all that goodness, you get to fly before any other class, without having to pay out 900g. You can’t beat that!

So there you have it. I told you it was biased, didn’t I? I do honestly believe that the Druid is the best class for a casual player. Their combination of versatility and soloability is unmatched in the World of Warcraft. The first 19 levels can be a bit of a pain, but from 20 on it’s like every day is Christmas. Thanks for reading!

Or is this just one of those rumors making the rounds?  Has Blizzard really nerfed the hardcore raiding philosophy into the ground, or is there significantly more challenging content coming down the pipe?

Before I try to answer that, here is a quick update on my in game progress.  I have officially started leveling my Druid again for use as a healer at 80.  Though I toyed with a Warrior for a bit, and got him to 77, in my heart I always knew I’d find a reason to buckle down and level the Druid.  As it turns out, my guild is hurting a bit for level 80 healers, and I’m glad to help out.  I hastily respecced my Druid out of Moonkin (you may now consider me "anti-Moonkin") into a feral leveling build, and I’ve been having a blast.  I’m taking the same "completionist" path as I was with the Warrior.  He has cleared (meaning finished all the necessary quests for the achievement) Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord and Dragonblight, in that order.  He is roughly halfway through Grizzly Hills as we speak.  Berserk is nearly as much fun as Bladestorm, though not QUITE.  My grand scheme is to get both the Druid and Warrior to 80, and once dual specs arrive the Druid will be Feral/Resto and the Warrior Prot/Fury.  I’ll cover a lot of bases there!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I’ve heard on a couple of different podcasts and read on a couple of different blogs that some people consider raiding in Wrath to be too easy.  I’ve heard claims of many guilds clearing Naxx 10 within a couple of tries, and then moving on to Naxx 25 and having similar levels of success.  That most vocal of the WoW population, the hardcore raiders, are crying foul.

In particular, Syncaine over at Hardcore Casual said something that I had to comment on in his post on Wrath raiding.  (In defense of Syncaine, he is plainly "anti-WoW" right now, and is more interested in Warhammer Online.  Props to him for not being afraid to give an opinion.)

I’m guessing very little of that happens now, with how much more ‘accessible’ raiding is in WotLK. When you down a boss the first night, with fresh 80s, I can’t help but wonder if that’s even considered a raid.

Yes, we all know about 25th of whatever, the uber guild that cleared Naxx before I was even out of Borean Tundra.  I’m also sure there are other strong guilds that have done almost as well, and I’m also sure there has been early success in Naxx thus far overall. 

Guess what, Naxx doesn’t count.  It’s a bad example.  Naxx has been around a LONG, LONG time.  It’s been retooled a bit, but there are strats out there that have been out there before even BC.  A lot of those Uber guilds also spent the beta time practicing that raid over and over, just so they could say how cool they were when they cleared it.

Beyond that, though, my guild hasn’t cleared Naxx yet.  Not even the 10 man version.  Yes, we’ve cleared our share of bosses in there, but other bosses are right now kicking our teeth in and showing us that we are not ready.  It’s not like every guild out there is already "done" with Wrath, right?  Hell, I personally NEVER cleared anything beyond Magtheridon in BC.  I saw Lady V, and I saw a lot of the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, but I never was a part of a "clear" of any of that T5 or T6 content.

I also want to point out the fact that there are more raids coming, and that Blizzard recently gave the hardcore a raid to their liking in Sunwell Plateau.  Do the hardcore really think they will be abandoned forever?  Maybe there isn’t a BT or a Sunwell in Wrath as of right now, but I’m sure that Blizzard has some more difficult content to come.  We already know that Ulduar is on the way, and I’m sure it will be much more difficult just because it’s completely new content.  Not old, rehashed content.  A NEW raid that nobody has ever seen.

In the end, though, I can’t say I’ll care all that much if the ultimate "bleeding edge" players decide that WoW isn’t the game for them.  I’m a little tired of the 1-5% of players, the hardcore, dictating too much about how WoW should shape up for the masses.  I don’t know about you, but I’m having a fricking blast with this expansion, and I can’t wait to see what else Blizzard has in store for us. 

The end of the Amani War Bear is almost upon us.  It’s now only a matter of days until you can never get the fancy shmancy bear mount again.  You’re all well aware that my guild has been working hard in ZA to get at least a Bear or two.

Well, we have been flat out getting it done.  Since our first success roughly two weeks ago, we’ve frigging owned the place.  Well, when I say "we" I’m referring to our guild, I haven’t been part of it.  Not until tonight, anyway.

It turns out the regular Tree that has been going couldn’t make tonight’s run, and yours truly just happens to be second on that nebulous list.  I gladly accepted the invitation to fill the spot.

Well, I will freely admit that I was pretty dang nervous.  They’ve been running this VERY successfully with very nearly the same 10 players each time.  They knew what was what, and they were getting the job done.  The last thing I wanted to do was waltz in and screw up their Mojo.  So from the very start, it was pure white knuckle time.  I checked and rechecked my inventory, checked and rechecked my gear, and maybe triply positive that I had everything I needed.  I also made sure to get all the advice I could get from the other tree and the priest I would be working with.

Well, I’m not going to bore you with the details.  It went just plain swimmingly, and we did indeed get ourselves another Bear mount.  I was a little nervous during the lynx fight a couple of times, and we almost let one scout get away that could have been a problem.  In the end, though, we finished up with at least 3 minutes on the clock.  I’m not sure how many minutes exactly, as I was just too drained at that point to take note.  Here are a couple of shots to prove it!

I was very, very happy to have been part of a successful run.  I was doubly happy to have not fouled it up for everyone else as a "sub" and all.  I didn’t even roll on the Bear, as 8 of them there have been working on it solid for awhile.  Besides, I want the Headless Horseman’s mount.    It was quite stressful, I won’t lie.  I was putting a lot of pressure on myself.  I didn’t let the team down, though, and we walked away successful.  That’s all I could really ask!  That’s one more tick off the running scorecard in my head pre-Wrath.  Successful Bear Run, check.

This morning I went over to WoWJutsu to check out my guild’s progression, now that we have our first bear mount.  It’s not that I expect us to be ranked crazy high or anything, but I was just curious.  Well, we are ranked 31st on the server, which all things considered isn’t half bad.  Keep in mind that we rarely run 25 mans in house (our last 25 man was probably 2 months ago) and we are most definitely a casual guild. 

While I was there, I took a look at the big time raiding guilds that are on top on my server.  We don’t have any guilds that have cleared SWP, but of course we do have our share that are running it.  Still, there are many guilds FAR more progressed than ours.  Just for giggles, I decided to look into how those higher up raiding guilds do recruitment, and see what kind of commitments they require.

I did this with NO PLANS to ever try to apply to such a guild, just as an academic exercise.  What does it take to be in the top 10 guilds on our server?

Well, what I found showed me that I will never, ever, EVER be a part of any of them, and here is why.

First of all, I STILL don’t meet many of their gear requirements, and I like to think I’m doing pretty well.  I don’t have ALL the good badge gear or anything, but I have the best pants and healy mace.  (Frankly, it’s dang near impossible for me to farm badges regularly.  When I log on at 10 pm, it can be hard to find a decent heroic run, in guild or not.)  I also have a smattering of gear from ZA, SSC, and one of the best pair of healing boots in the game.  (My armory, for the curious.) 

From the looks of it, all I really have to do is farm the 230 or so badges to get the rest of the 2.4 badge gear.   

Yeah, right.

Of course, I could also get lucky with a couple more drops, like the helm from Jan’alai in ZA and the T6 gloves from Azgalor, should I get lucky and be high enough on the SK list to grab them.  Still, it would take considerably more time, unless I got REALLY lucky.

Ok, gear aside, what about the time investment?

Well, most guilds I looked at raid 4 or 5 nights a week, for more than 3 hours each night, and expect 80% attendance.  So I’d have to raid 3 or 4 nights a week, 3 or more hours each night.  And that doesn’t include time farming for consumables and the like.  I play roughly 10 hours a week now, as a raider I’d have to put in at least 5 more by my calculations.

Add to that fact I’d have to raid Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in most cases.

Again, yeah, right.

The only way that would happen is if I went through the Big D, and I don’t mean Dallas.  Now, I know there are those out there who have sacrificed their relationships for WoW, but I am not one of them.

I don’t have the gear, I don’t have the time.

So I sighed, realizing my lot in this game.  There is only so far I can go. 

Let me ask you this, though, why don’t raiding guilds value skill MORE highly than attendance and a few holes in gear?  Yes, they do all have a trial period or other skill-based "audition" for the guild, but that comes AFTER they see you can make 80% of the raids and you’re already decked out in T6.

I am POSITIVE that if they gave me some kind of audition, maybe a run with them through Heroic MagT or something, they will see I’m no slouch. 

Oh well, those are the breaks.  That’s the sacrifice I make, or rather don’t make.  WoW is a past time for me, and I have no intention of "clocking in" three or four nights a week.  This has made me even more appreciative that I do have a raiding outlet given my time restrictions.  I can only go once a week, but when I sign up, they always take me.  I like to think I’m one of the better healers in my raiding alliance, and I can be happy with that.

Maybe Wrath will change the way things are done.  We shall see.

Briefly, I want to give a shout out to my guild for nabbing its first Bear mount from ZA on Sunday.  I wasn’t there personally, but it’s awesome that they got it done.  They have been working on it diligently for a couple of weeks now, and I’m ecstatic that their work paid off.  That’s one more check mark for my casual guild before Wrath hits!

As you know from some of my recent posts, my guild has been making an effort to get a bear mount or two before the big patch hits.  While we are close to success, I thought I’d use the mouthpiece of my blog to try to dredge up some extra tips and advice from my readers.

First, 3 questions:

• What kind of group do you take?
• Do you use any fancy tricks or shortcuts to cut time?
• Is there a particular use of trinkets or other tools that you consider necessary to a successful Bear run?

By way of example, here is the general group make-up we have been using.  All members have some or most of their 2.4 badge gear.  They represent most of the best our guild has to offer.

Tanks:

• Warrior
• Pally

Healers:

• Tree
• CoH Priest

DPS:

• Elemental Shammy
• Elemental Shammy
• Boomkin
• Mage
• Rogue
• Hunter

We also have a VERY well geared Lock that often comes along for one of the DPS spots.

There you have it.  I don’t need to get any further into details, the rest of this post is up to you guys.  Let’s hear it!

Ok, not directly. 

On a side note, wouldn’t it be kind of interesting if Blizz worked occasional national disasters into the game?  It’d be tough to get a boat from Menethil to Theramore if there was a hurricane off the coast!

But I digress.  Hurricane Ike did have a direct affect on my raiding alliance.  The main raid leader for the alliance and quite a few other members live in the Austin, TX area.  They were without power for about 10 days.

And our alliance has been without a raid for longer than that.  This brings me to the real point of this post.  I have found what I believe to be a major fault in our guild raiding alliance.

When the main Raid Leader is out, people don’t show up.  It’s not like we don’t have other experienced raid leaders, either.  We have a co-raid leader who is there for EVERY SINGLE RAID. 

But when the big guy is away, we struggle to get them off the ground.  I suppose people are used to his style, and used to the success we have when he is leading.  The problem with that argument, though, is this:  How are we going to have success with another raid leader if we can’t get people to show?

Oh well.  It doesn’t matter much to PTD in the end. I had already decided to suspend my 25 man raiding in order to help my guild try to get a bear mount before 3.0 hits.  I can only raid one night a week, so if it’s between 25 mans that will still be there after 3.0 and a bear mount that won’t, I’m going for the bear.

I’ll keep you posted as far as how it goes, I’ll be in the attempt again Thursday night — Hopefully!