Pamena report:
Team PM: Last Thursday, with a somewhat reduced raid size of 11 (several folks were unavoidably absent), Team PM went in to tackle Heroic Kargath, somewhat foolishly really, as after a few substitutions, I finally brought my undergeared and underplayed mage Senta so that we would have a bloodlust (we totally whiffed on the WOD version of the the drums that provide bl - next time...), and amazingly we got him! Kargath is definitely the most accessible heroic boss, but all of these WOD raids are more difficult for smaller groups. Nina found a wonderful mathy blog post this week that confirms that experience -
http://talarian.blogspot.com/...
Nonetheless, we got him in just a few pulls, so that was very gratifying. We then took a look at Twin Ogron on heroic and this time, we were not prepared in Illidan's immortal words. We also did a couple pulls on Ko'ragh normal but none of us had really prepared for that fight at all, so it was really just a taste. We'll be back to both of those perhaps tonight.
On Tuesday, we were almost at full strength, alhough Dkosmama and Rhetorica were out, so Swyft stepped up to switch to heals (and did great!), while Brumal, one of our regular subs, and Sardric came in to help as well, to get us to 14. We handled Heroic Kargath with no problem, only wiping once because some stupid priest healer ran too far away and got targeted by the boss's rush, dying a nasty death as a result. Second pull was cake. Then onto heroic Butcher - we thought we'd try that one as it's pretty much a straight DPS/HPS check, and oh boy, were we checked. We wiped several times, but it was a good learning process as it showed us how much more damage our DPS need to do, as well as how much of an adjustment we have to make to keep our tanks alive. We have the gear for this fight, we just have to push the buttons faster I think. So, tonight, with Mama back so that we'll be at 15 or so, we will take another swing at heroic Butcher, to test out changes various people have made to improve survivability and dps, and then turn our attention to either heroic Twins or normal Ko'ragh.
Why We Raid thoughts:
We've had a great e-mail conversation going on in our team about how we want to proceed with raiding in this expansion. I think we've worked out why we want to continue raiding as a team, rather than just joining in the two guild wide events, Nina's and Tvath's, to see the same bosses in a large guild pug that generally gets these bosses down much more easily than we have been able to so far.
As Baelz pointed out, the dynamics of raiding have shifted away from set 10 player teams to a more flexible number, and the larger the number, it seems the easier time on the fight. Team PM is choosing to go with no more than 15, possibly 16, striving to have the same folks every week, just as we have been doing for 4 1/2 years now, and just as Team Kaels does. A big part of the enjoyment of raiding is working on an encounter thru wipes, learning what your weaknesses are so you can fix them, figuring out the right strategy for your particular group, and working to improve individually as well as a group. Then, when you do finally break through and down the boss, it's a great and exhilarating moment to share with the people you've been playing with steadily for weeks. Mama put it very well and i"m going to quote her here: "What Pamena is talking about is something that Dr. Jane McGonigal through her research on gaming and gamers has identified as "The Epic Win." She's even done a TED Talk on it and how we all benefit from Epic Wins. You all know what an Epic Win is. It's that deep sense of accomplishment that transcends any loot."
And that is really it - the Epic Win that really only happens when you've had to work for it, in a group of teammates who've all worked together over sometimes several nights (or weeks) to get it done. The Epic Win is hard to get in real life, but WOW gives us the chance to experience it not only in the virtual world, but also in the real world as you hoot and holler in mumble with your teammates when that boss is finally down. I know Team Kaels has experienced the Epic Win repeatedly as they lead the way for the guild in heroic raiding and perhaps mythic raiding in the future. Team PM is going much more slowly, but I think the two teams' internal goals are the same - to challenge ourselves and our skills against really hard fights so that we can get that incredible feeling of the Epic Win, and, just as importantly, share that feeling with our teammates and partners in victory. So that's why we raid and why Team PM will continue to raid as a team - it will take us a while, but we will get those Epic Wins along the way as we build a cohesive team of friends. I have found nothing better in the game.
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