Quick Clawcon debrief

I'm supposed to be catching back up on work and all my emails, but I thought I'd do a quick Clawcon debrief from this weekend. This was effectively our third Clawcon since we kind of did two Clawcons last summer, one in Indianola, WA and one in Chicago. This time we were in Port Townsend. The view from the back deck of the house this year:

Most of us had done this before, so we were pretty comfortable with everything. Nkm, who did not attend a Clawcon last year remarked how closely we sounded like we did on vent. Imagine that! :) I have to give a lot of credit to Chanti, who came out despite knowing and playing with us for the least amount of time. I hope that our old friend and guildie Rap did not scare him away. We joked that he better not gquit when he got back Sunday night.

Anyways, we did a lot of eating. We joked that we probably ate better than those top raiding guilds would eat if they got together. You can have your world first Paragon or whoever is getting world firsts lately... I bet we eat and drink better than you when we get together! (I'm sure they're hurt).

Jess made breakfasts of blueberry pancakes one morning and french toast the next. Jess, Wut, and I made yummy dinners as well. (We are maxed in cooking IRL). There was a lot of fish and seafood feasts to be had given we were in the Pacific Northwest. We got some dungeness crab one night and I joked that we needed to put it in a pot and take a picture of it as our seafood feast (since we didn't have lobster). Unfortunately I forgot to take the pic... it would have been so cute!

Not to be out done by the eating, there was also a lot of drinking. Lots of dark microbrews from the region, very nice bottles of wine from Wut and Chanti (heck we even had rose champagne one night), and I think the boys were drinking fancy scotch or something Friday night.

So yes, the two pallys Wut and Chanti bonded over their shared love and knowledge of nice wines. I also made them pose together with a pillow that Rap brought:

OMG Carebear stare! At one point I was hugging the pillow hoping that the never endless pally mana would somehow rub off on me.

And yes, of course there were references to WoW as we were out and about. When we went to Fort Worden and were walking around there, we were walking up a narrow path. We had to step to the side to let this guy on a lawnmower through. Good thing Chanti called out, "Pat!" so we didn't grab aggro.

Also when we were walking around the abandoned artillery batteries there (which were so freakin creepy... I am convinced that place is haunted), Jess walked down into a pitch dark walkway. I did not want to follow him so I was kind of lingering at the top of the steps and waiting. But then Jess called out "Heals!". Gosh we're such dorks.

We also spent some time walking around up at Hurricane Ridge in Port Angeles. It was quite stunning up there.

I came across an interesting sign there:

Huh? Tree skirting? Chanti offered that perhaps its the tree version of t-bagging. Yeah! You better not mess with us trees... we'll tree skirt you!

So on Saturday night we were treated to a fancy dinner from Wut. There were two non WoW players at this dinner and at some point we did talk about the whole phenomenon about us getting together. This one guy said that he was just so surprised, or that it was just something that he couldn't imagine, that we would all gather together to share a house with people we didn't know.

I had to correct him though. You may not have never met or shaken hands with each other, but we KNOW each other. I would argue that many of us know each other probably better than some of the people we physically interact with daily, like at work for example.

If you really think about it though... it does take some level of comfort to be ok with sharing a house together. You're cooking together, you're seeing people sleeping, stepping out of the shower with towels wrapped around their head, etc etc. But I don't think anyone had any reservations about sharing a house together. It just seemed so obvious. There is no one in our guild that I would even second guess feeling comfortable about sharing a house with.

We also talked about how this is the kind of guild that we want to play or raid in. Its not just about the phat lewts. I would not trade a guild further progressed for the guild that I have. That's not what is important to me in the game. I am pretty sure that many of us would not be playing this game anymore if we weren't in this guild. It's the people and the relationships that have kept us in this long.

All in all it was a good time but I also think it helps people understand each other in game better. When someone does something in game, or says something, meeting and having spent time with them gives you a context for all of that. I hope some of the other guildies can make it out next year.

We did have a little bit of sad news on Saturday. Buns our gnome lock let Jess know that she was leaving the game. I was really sad to hear that. Besides Jess and I, Buns was our only other current raider who dates back to Kara with us. That's a long time. I'm also kind of sad that we're losing a female raider. I think back to some of our Kara runs when we were usually 50% or sometimes even 60% female. I miss that. We need more women!

Buns' name came up over the Clawcon weekend, as did all of our other guildies who were not there. When we had all these bottles of really nice red wines, we mused that Buns should be here. Buns has this wicked sense of humor and sarcasm that sneaks out from time to time. She's been a long standing member of the guild and I am really going to miss her.

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This is so my leadership philosophy

I'm kind of old fashioned in that I still like to buy books. I don't have an iPad or a kindle and don't really plan on buying them soon. So not only do I like to buy books, but I buy them in hardback. I know. I'm a dinosaur.

Quick side note though, is anyone else playing Tiny Tower? I want to play it on my iPhone but the tutorial keeps resetting itself. Chanti says that I shouldn't be too upset because it is virtual crack, in 8-bit form. That I should stop now before it takes over my life. But I'm intrigued! The game looks cute! I told him I may have to play around with his game this weekend.

Anyways, so the other day my latest book order finally got delivered to the hotel. One of the books I got was Tina Fey's book Bossypants. In the introduction, she gives some thoughts on how to be a good boss:

"... to get the best work out of people you may have to pretend you are not their boss and let them treat someone else like the boss, and then that person whispers to you behind a fake wall and you tell them what to tell the first person".

I immediately jumped when I read that because it was just so spot on in terms of Jess and I and our guild. You get to guess which role Jess plays and which role I play in this example. :)

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Healers blog meme before it gets too too late

Rades tagged me for the healing blog meme that went around. I figured I should do it before it gets too too late, even though its already kind of late. I'm probably the last one doing it, but hey, I'm ok with bringing up the rear.

1. What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Keredria, resto druid.

2. What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
From what I spend the most hours per week doing to the least, it'd be pvp, 10-man raiding, and the occasional 5-man. We've cut down raiding to 5 hours a week this expansion, so pvp definitely wins out from an hours/week standpoint. We dabbled with a bit of arena at the end of last season, and perhaps we'll do some more in season 10, but I do a ton (and I mean a TON) of bgs.

3. What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Mmm probably rejuv as my in both pve and pvp. It's instant and heals for a decent amount!

4. What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Toss up between Healing Touch and Regrowth. I only use healing touch with nature's swiftness, and regrowth just makes me go oom too much. I used to use regrowth more, but now I'm scaling back on it until I feel better about my mana.

5. What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Combination of mobility and output. Can I just take a quick side note here and talk about how AWESOME tree form is in bgs? Not so much for the extra healing, but for the instant roots. The ability to pop tree form and have no cast time on your roots is so awesome in bgs like Strand, Warsong, or Twin peaks.

6. What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Probably what every single druid has said... lack of mitigation. I think our barkskin should be raid/party wide! We already have the spell just let us cast it on others!

7. In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
I love that the original question makes it seem raiding is only a 25 man thing. So in my "less than" 10 man raiding environment (/sarcasm) I end up rolling hots on the tanks and healing the raid. I have long healed with the same healers week in and week out, so this is what I just end up doing without "being assigned" to do so. Sometimes Jess tries to assign me a healing assignment, but then I set him straight.

8. What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
Pallys. Because I can sit and read a paper and eat a sandwich all in order to regen mana while the pallys will heal everyone with their 80% full mana bar. (And no, I don't really do this.)

9. What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Pallys. Because their always full mana bar often makes me see red with rage or green with envy and when I can't see well it distracts me because I can't see my grid boxes.

10. What is your worst habit as a healer?
Blaming everything on the tanks. Even if its true. Oh and trying not to do everything myself. ZOMG must heal everyone!

11. What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
This doesn't happen in our raids, but as the adage goes, "I can't heal stupid". In pvp, it'd be people bitching at me for not healing them when I am healing them like crazy. And when I check out their gear, not only is it not pvp gear, but its blues and greens. At this point in season 10 when folks are stacking near 4000 resilience, if you are in a bg with pve blues and greens, I don't care how strong a healer is... you're going to die. And trust me, I bitch right back when I get bitched at this way in bgs.

12. Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
I do. We can heal tanks or raid and generally I feel good with where we are. Now if only we could do that judging nonsense that pallys do...

13. What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
I use World of Logs but I'm not checking them after every single raid like the srs bness raiders. I probably check them every other week or so, or if I want to look at something specifically.

14. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
That we are rejuv and wildgrowth spam bots.

15. What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Besides mana management I'd say the fact that we are always casting. With the power of our mobility comes the responsibility to be always casting. So you have to learn to track your hot countdowns. You don't want your lifeblooms to fall off and now we need to throw in those direct heals to keep up our mastery buff.

16. If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
As a druid, I'm always going to have overheal. And as much as I complain about mana, WoL will show you that I regen just as much mana as Lorosia does because I'm maximizing use of cooldowns. It's insane to me that I regen as much mana as he does. I call bollocks on the logs.

17. Haste or Crit and why?
Duh, haste. But I am never going to hit the haste break point for a 9th WG tick because most of the time we raid without a shammy, boomkin, or a spriest. So without the haste buff I need something insane like 2700+ haste. This makes me sad, but it is what it is. So there's another argument to the fact that 10 mans are not always the "easier" option, since we don't always have access to all the class buffs. Anyways, back to haste. I do keep it above 1600 for the 5th Rejuv tick.

18. What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Honestly, I probably understand all of them equally... equally little. I have a general idea of their strengths, but don't know specifics. Sometimes Lorosia will reference a pally spell and I'll say something like "and that means nothing to me". He then will link the spell, but then I won't read it because OMFG why do pally spells have like huge paragraph long descriptions. I lose interest after reading the first two lines. Oh look a shiny!

19. What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Grid is probably the main addon I use. I generally don't use macros except for when I can't speak on vent. I've been spending a lot of time lately at my parents house and when I raid from there, I can't speak. So the macro is for when I need to desperately cry out for a hymn of hope. Generally the hymns are planned ahead of time. But if they are not, I have a macro that gives a raid warning that says something like "Sam, hymn me my dear!" I think the "my dear" part balances out the pushiness and annoying factor of asking for a hymn via a raid warning. :)

20. Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I've already mentioned that beyond 1600 haste, I no longer worry about stacking haste. So then its intellect.

Phew! Lots of questions! I won't tag anyone else because uh, I think the blogosphere is already beyond this. This was so two or three weeks ago. So yeah... bringing up the rear...

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Bunch of random stuff crammed into one post

ZOMG three posts in one week? What the hell. It's been a slower (thank God) work week than most. :) Makes up for fact that next week, at least the 3 days I'm working prior to Clawcon, is going to be insane. Anyways, a bunch of random thoughts crammed into one post.

1. The current drama in the blogosphere over the capping valor points issue. I have strong thoughts on this, specifically over the judgment being thrown around. But I'll say this. It's easy sometimes to forget the situation that other people are in, situations that affect their opinions.

So related to that, I'll say this. I sure as hell am glad that I am in a guild and raid that looks at me at more than just a number or the ilevel of my gear. If I was simply a dps or hps number and could be easily replaced with a higher number, then yeah, perhaps I would be more obsessed with capping valor points each week. But I'm more than just a number.

I raid with friends, in a long standing guild going on over 4 years now. While we can drive each other crazy at times, like any other family, we are still a family. And for all of this, I'm grateful.

I am going to try to catch up on doing some heroics this weekend though. During the week is really hard when I'm traveling as I tend to be at the client site for 10+ hours a day, then come "home" to the hotel pretty exhausted around 7 pm. This weekend I will also be trying to finish up the Master of Strands of the Ancients achievement by winning like 30 something more matches. Hopefully since its Strands weekend, it won't be too bad.

2. Rades tagged me in the Healer meme going around, which is funny because I don't feel like I'm a true healy blogger where I talk about healing mechanics and such, at least of any value. Anyways, I will do it, but I think the only way I can answer so many questions is if I can intersperse some snark and sarcasm throughout it.

3. Fellow gold enthusiasts, what addons are you currently using? I can't get auctioneer to work quite like it used to prior to 4.2. Specifically when I scan the current gems on the AH, it brings back the results in some crazy order that I can't use easily. Is everyone else still using Auctioneer? Are there some new addons I should be looking at?

4. The other week there was some talk about Google rebranding Blogger. More recent news is unclear whether this will really happen. I feel like I'm one of the very few still using blogger and a blogger domain. Anyways, we'll see what happens.

5. Clawcon 2011 starts next Thursday. In preparation for this, I made Chanti give me his RL name the other night. For most everyone I met for the first time last summer, I had a reference for RL names and faces from being Facebook friends. Though there was one guy I met at Clawcon Chicago last August who I didn't have any reference for. And it kind of freaked me out when I met him completely blind.

So I told Chanti I needed to wean myself into this, and asked for his name. He then asked whether there was anything else I needed, to which I told him that his name was enough for now. That I'd noodle on that, let it settle in while imagining what a guy named "X" would look like in my head, and get back to him.

6. Finally, today is Jess' RL birthday. I told him that as a birthday gift I would do everything he asked during tonight's raid without talking back or questioning anything. Or at least give it a good try. :)

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How could raid bosses incorporate new ways of healing?

Another look into some snippets of a vent/guild/email chat convo in our guild from the last couple of days:

Chanti: "K needs to really follow Jess around (on Nef phase 3) instead of just saying she will and not really doing it."
K: "..."
Jess: "Yeah she needs to follow 5 steps behind like a good little WoW wife."
Nkm: "Do you want her barefoot and pregnant too Jess?"
K: "Um, we all know that I'm not a good follower, especially when I have to follow Jess around."
K: (After having referenced a RL example of where I told Jess to do something)... "This is why Jess should really follow ME around on Nef phase 3 instead of the other way around."

Yeah, following Jess around in game is funny because in RL or in other aspects of our in game relationship, its not really that way. At all. So maybe I should at least give him that rare honor in raids. Mmmmm.

But beyond the fact that following Jess is not easy for me (but ok yes, I'll do it next time), this brought up another thought. Why are healers always following tanks? Why can't there be boss fight mechanics where everyone follows the healer? Is that really such a crazy idea?

I wish Blizz would introduce more boss mechanics where its not just the same old, same old, where tanks tank something, everyone follows behind, dps dps stuff, healers heal, and everyone stands out of the bad. This is why Valithria Dreamwalker was such an awesome and novel fight for us healers. I want more of these sort of bosses where healing is incorporated into the boss strats in new ways.

So what would boss mechanics look like with new concepts of healing? Well, it doesn't have to be as crazy or extreme as everyone really following the healer (which yes, would be awesome). But how about some sort of twist on Anzu's mechanics? Remember how Anzu has those 3 statues, where if you put a hot on them, you got different effects to the group? How about some sort of similar concept on a new boss?

Similar to how raids choose which drakes to release (and the release order) on Halfus, raids would choose which statues or whatever to heal and in what order to get the appropriate effects as it makes most sense for their raid composition. And maybe as the healers are running around to heal the statues or whatever in whatever order the raid decides, the TANKS have to follow them! Ooh! Ooh! A healer can dream, can't she? :)

Any other thoughts on new ways of healing in raids?

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Triple specs and questing as a healer

Overheard at the Claw lately:

K: Doing the new dailies seems like work.
Jess: Mmmm... maybe because you're doing them in a healing spec?

I wish Blizz would allow us to have a third spec for people like myself, who may only have a healing pve spec and healing pvp spec. I know my dps isn't as bad as in the days when our gear had +healing on it. But I'm telling you, I am happy when my recount shows my dps hitting 3k while I'm questing. Don't laugh! Or even snicker!

No, but seriously, I have chosen to invest in healing both in pve and pvp. I think considering how long the game has been out, allowing folks to dabble in different parts of the game would help keep interest. So let me continue to raid, continue to question my sanity by chasing pvp achievements in battlegrounds, as well as pick up a dps spec or tanking spec or a third healing spec! I can't imagine that it'd be so hard for Blizz to just open up a third tab on our specs, would it?

This also gets me kind of irritated that so much of the WoW questing and achievement world is about killing things. Don't even get me started on how hard some of the pvp (and pve) achievements are to get if you are not dps. You should have seen me try to get the Flawless Victory achievement in my healing pvp spec. It was comical and took me several (long ass) tries, but I did it!

Anyways, I think there should be a rule. That if as a healer you end up healing yourself more than the mob that you are trying to kill has health, that the mob should just fall over dead. In respect... or in disbelief... or in laughter.

In a similar vein, it'd be nice if quests had alternate options for healers. Like the Firelands daily where you have to heal those druid good guys. Why do we healers have to use the little vial thing? Why can't we just really heal them? Why can't there be quests where you can choose to either kill something or save someone and get credit either way? Dps could choose to kill the bad guy and healers could choose to heal the good guy.

I just wish the concept of healing was integrated more into questing.

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Sean Connery, trust, and mutant produce

A collection of random funnies and thoughts and things that I found cool.

First, one of the most awesome letters ever. I have nothing against Apple (I own a MacBook as well as an iPhone). But Sean Connery absolutely rocks:

Secondly, there been a bit more talk lately amongst the healing team in our guild about healing assignments. I've blogged about this before, talking about how we've never really done them. As Lorosia (our pally) recently described, he tank heals, our priest raid heals, and I "flit about" throwing hots on the tank and the raid. I think by "flit about" he is just admitting to his mad jealousy of our awesome ability to heal on the run... as well as the fact that we look much better in dresses than pallys do. :p

Anyways, I think my issue with healing assignments is that I've always just tried to do everything. Chanti mentioned to me the other night how his history as a druid healer in a 25 man guild meant that he healed the MT or the OT or the raid. Not trying to do all 3 like I do. I just have to learn to trust the other healers more... which I'm sure my mana bar will thank me for. The rest of the raid will probably thank me as well since I won't be crying out of a hymn of hope half the time.

Finally, some thoughts around cookie cutters. I wish there was more openness to diversity within the game, whether that is in specs or boss strats or whatever. In terms of specs, I do understand that you're trying to maximize your toon given the current environment. And I totally agree with trying to maximize dps or healing or survivability or whatever. But I sometimes wish that our talent trees were designed to be more flexible given what you want to do.

On a similar note it seems that we often just read a new boss' strats on some major site and go into a new boss fight with our cookie cutter specs and apply these cookie cutter strats. Think about how many thousands of guilds are doing it the same way.... going in with raid members with the same specs and applying the exact same strats. It just seems to be so robotic in a way.... almost taking out the uniqueness or individuality of your raid. Though I guess that is where that ever present WoW catch phrase come into play? That its the people that make it unique?

Anyways, I mean my head knows that this is the most optimal way (the best specs, the best strats)... but I guess I'm saying that a small part of me wishes there was a bit more diversity. Or more openness perhaps to figuring things out and doing things as they make most sense to you or your raid.

And as a corollary to this idea of being open to things outside the norm, German artist Uli Westphal's Mutato project shows an archived collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables found at farmers markets. He shows how there is an incredible variety of forms, colors, and textures, that only reveal themselves when lawfully enforced standards cease to exist. The produce that he has photographed would never pass the regulation required to be sold in our grocery stores (yes, even Whole Foods).

"The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look (and taste). The Mutato-Project serves to document, preserve and promote these last remainders of agricultural diversity."

A sample of the type produce he has captured:

His full archive here and a nice summary article here.

I find his project fascinating and his "mutants" absolutely beautiful.

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Maybe I should try to be nicer?

I've had a couple of conversations lately where it has been brought up to me that I can be kind of intimidating for people who don't know me really well. Mmmm. It's something that I have known before (in RL and in game). Maybe if I know it so well, I should try to be nicer or less opinionated or less bossy.

So I try to be nicer, but then pvp ruins that. Quick pvp side rant. If you're afraid of dying, don't step into BGs FFS. I hate seeing folks so afraid of dying (because there is such a huge penalty for dying in game, right? /sarcasm) that they just all stand around defending the one base or tower we have. Anyways... back to subject.

This morning I got an anonymous comment on a blog post, and again it makes me not really want to be nicer:

Useless, egocentric view.. Poor kid.
He checked out the guild, the stance you take is a group mentality one. Its we.. Us.. no wonder..

When you recruit people, you make sure and tell them what they can and cant expect.. I guess no efforts were made to welcome this member.
Cold.. your very cold. This calls for empathy, but I guess you dont need that, you and your crew, for as long as you have each other haha

It's difficult to take anyone seriously who doesn't know the difference between your and you're. But yes anonymous guy from Copenhagen (statcounter FTW), if you haven't read this blog before, you've missed the part where we are a bunch of cold bitches.

Seriously the troll comment doesn't really bother me, but I do care about the people I do know in game. I wonder how much of the intimidation is what I actually do vs being in a position of leadership. Perhaps the position of leadership brings with it some automatic intimidation factor? Though yes, Jess has a leadership position but is probably perceived differently (i.e. nicer). Ok, ok I'll try to be less intimidating. Nicer even. /gasp

The thing is that the folks who have met me at either Clawcon last summer well know that I have a very different demeanor in person than I do in game. I was explaining this to Lorosia the other night... that in person I am much more laid back and tend to observe more. I'm not the one always talking or giving an opinion or bossing people around. I mean I still have my opinions and thoughts, I'm just not as aggressive with them.

I really think that I crafted this in game/guild persona as an alter ego of sorts to how I am in real life. The anonymity of the game allowed me to kind of explore this other side of me. So I'm curious whether Nkm or Chanti will agree (that I'm different in RL) once they meet me for the first time at this summer's Clawcon, which is only three weeks away in Port Townsend! /squee and /mindboggle!

This summer's Clawcon will also allow us to meet up with two past guildies, Wut and Rap, which will be nice. I'm also going to be in the area again the week after Clawcon to interview with a firm in Seattle. I'll be able to meet up with Beru during that trip, who I also met up with last summer.

I was telling my mom this weekend about my plans for Clawcon and to meet up with a fellow blogger again. She was like, "Aw, that's so nice you guys are doing that again." She doesn't quite understand WoW or the blogosphere, but she tries. She's so cute. But it's really crazy if you think about it... that the game and then the blog formed these relationships to where you are meeting these people multiple times in RL.

Final shout of the day goes to my Korean peeps in Pyeongchang for winning the 2018 Winter Olympics (after losing 2010 and 2014). Some of my Korean friends were joking that they should add Starcraft to the Winter Olympics in honor of the host country. Seriously after all this talk about Korean Starcraft players, I kind of feel like I should try playing it!

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This is why I blog

I know that my last post was kinda drama filled. Thanks to everyone for their encouraging comments and wise words of advice. I hope that my absence of a post this week didn't make anyone think that there was any lingering drama around. It just happened that I had somewhat of a drama filled week in terms of the process of switching firms.

Anyways, I wrote the post last Friday not knowing how my guildies would react to it. Would Jess be pissed? Would guildies be pissed? I really didn't know. But ultimately the post did several things. First, it helped guildies better understand my thoughts and where I was coming from. I think that they had a better understanding for why I made some of the decisions that I made. Secondly, I think it helped guildies also see how their actions or words can be interpreted by others.

Finally, it got people talking. I think there was more dialogue afterwards about where we are, how we work, and where we want to go. And I had several really good conversations with people. While I say that I rarely blog about guild drama, the whole thing reminded me that this is why I blog. I blog to help myself sort out how I feel or what I think about things. And if blogging can help my guildies better understand me, outside of the emotion in the moment, all the better.

Ultimately we were unable to go back to Chogall on Sunday night due to an incomplete raid yet again, which was disappointing, but it was what it was. When I think back on this tier, there is a part of me that is a little disappointed that we weren't able to finish the content within its time. In comparison in ICC, we downed the lich king more in line with other guild timeframes and had moved onto heroics.

However, I do recognize that we got a late start to raiding since we had to rebuild half our guild. So we started raiding two months later than other guilds. So I am curious to see where our current raiding group can go now that we are starting this tier on time. We still could use another healer and a tank/dps, but I think we have a pretty good and steady group, one that will get its first look at Firelands on Sunday.

Finally, we did do Cho'gall last night, just for shits and giggles. It was kind of anti-climactic because it was such a facerolling one shot. I think it motivated me to try to get this tier's end boss within the current tier's timeframe. Also last night was also sort of a letdown because Jess was still away on vacation. And after the many wipes and subsequent WoW hubby and WoW wife fights, he should have been there. But he was there... in spirit, reflected below in the artfully brilliant stick figure:

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