Bah

Why are we running 25s again?

The Citadel falls before us every week without much effort at all.

We can even carry a few people through the Citadel and not break any backs.

Enter the Plagueworks…

There is a line between raiders.

On one side of the line are people that can react to a new situation, take stock of the decisions available and respond instantly to the directives of the raid leader.

On the other side are the people that either can’t or won’t do the above.

For the most part, the Citadel is full of fights that require the group as a whole to function above a certain level, but there is little pressure on the individual.

Marrowgar requires that your tanks be in tune with each other but is other wise a fight that only requires a couple people be intelligent enough to switch to bone spikes.

Lady Deathwhisper again only requires that a few individuals be capable of target swapping and providing crowd control. Even the loss of one or two people to standing in the bad is not going to be detrimental to the raid in this day and age of the pity buff.

Gunship. Do I even have to go in to how easy the “lootship” is? So long as your jumping tank has a clue, your cannons are manned with people that can follow basic directions, and your jumping crew can aim a green circle and target a stationary mob, you’re golden.

Saurfang. OK, it was tough at first. But now we are at 10% buff and all the gear we’ve accumulated from farming the Citadel and random heroics. With the damage we’re putting out, 2 marks in 25 is about all we get. Again, only a handful of people need to process target swaps and everyone just needs to find a spot that’s 10 yards away from everyone else and STAY there. (Or 11 or 12 or whatever the hell it is. Pick a spot, don’t move. If you have to move, move back.)

Things in the Citadel happen in nice, controlled, orderly fashions. There is very little variation. MC targets on LDW and Mark of the Fallen Champion on Saurfang are pretty much the extent of the randomness.

Move into the Plagueworks.

Festergut.

We need 8 people to be at range. Those 8 people all need to be 8-10 yards apart from each other. Easy, right?

Yes.

Then add in the 3 spores.

3 spores that land on 3 random players.

1 spore needs to end up in melee.

1 in ranged.

And 1 needs to GTFO.

You can set up instructions so skull always goes to melee and X always goes to ranged and square always GTFOs.

But that’s a waste of DPS time if skull was in range and X was in melee.

It’s a tight enrage timer when you’re dragging pugs (and a few under-performing guildies, I won’t lie) through there.

Is it so much to ask that people NOTICE the goddamn mark on their head and respond to instructions in vent?

Clear instructions, like, “Skull move to melee.”

Apparently, it is.

Festergut is even worse.

Slimes everywhere.

Actually, mostly just slimes in the raid.

And people STILL have to be told to get out of slime spray. That’s like having to be told to get out of the fire. Guess which side of the line those raiders fall on.

Festergut and Rotface are two encounters where the success of the raid depends on the success of EVERY individual.

We can try to control the damage a wee bit in Festergut with who gets selected to be on the outside. But ultimately, it has to be characters with ranged capabilities. The best person at following directions does no good on the outside if they are melee.

In the Rotface fight, there is no damage control. The best you can do is have good tanks and good healers and hope to hell that the intelligent people get hit with the slimes. Of course, those also tend to be your better DPS/tanks/healers so you’re hoping that they lose DPS time to dealing with slimes so the rabble can pewpew on the boss without fucking anything up. Seems a little counterproductive, no?

So, yes, I’m a little frustrated at where we are in 25s. Getting more of our own will help. But only in that at least it will be my raid kittens I can yell at instead of strangers.

Bah.

(More pictures tomorrow! Don’t spoil it!)