So here we sit at the end of Siege of Orgrimmar, the mighty 6.0 looms ahead of us as we wait in anticipation for reset day. I thought I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the current raid tier, what I've learned, things I've enjoyed, and to enlighten you on what I am looking forward to for WoD. So for the final time this tier...grab your heartiest of brews, and join me on a trip down memory lane....
As I didn't start playing until Heart of Fear was released, I have only experienced Two raid tiers, SoO and Throne of Thunder. My Throne of Thunder experience was not all that good, the group I raided with never made it past Tortos, we spent week after week wiping on the council and there was a time when I wondered if this game really had anything to offer me. I was raiding on my Warlock, I grew tired of the class and due to the composition of our group, I was never taken to raid on my monk, which I enjoyed playing far more. After many frustrating weeks I finally plucked up the courage to request that I could be a tank for when 5.4 hit. My request was declined and I knew that I needed to make a change. Moving to Midlifecrisis about a month before 5.4 hit, I was taken straight into a ToT 10m normal raid that week and was thrown in the deep end and told I would be tanking, starting with Durumu. I enjoyed myself so much that night, I was made to feel so welcome and I knew I was in the right place, and was suddenly looking forward to the impending patch, which had previously been filling me with an empty dread.
We spent the last few weeks preparing for 5.4, gathering materials for the guild bank and food for the noodle carts. When 5.4 hit, I was part of the flex team, and helped out on a few nights where the main group were short, including a guild first kill of Spoils Of Pandaria. I think I actually fell in love with that fight a little, it's like Blizzard said "Hey monks! You know you guys just LOVE aoe right? Fights with lots of adds? Well, here's a fight completely made up of adds!! Oh, and just as a little bonus, you can open them all up from their boxes like Christmas presents!" to this day that is my favorite encounter in the raid, it's so much fn and a real nice opportunity to shine as a monk tank.
After a while we managed to gather together 10 players to make a second 10 man group for the guild, we had a great start, a shaky few bosses and then finally, against all the odds, managed to get our own Garrosh kill. We did start to work on our own heroics, making 3/14 before our group sadly disbanded due to holidays and schooling schedules. I was eventually taken in by the main guild group and we continued the guilds progress on heroics. We made it to Garrosh but sadly, he remains undefeated, however we had an amazing time getting there, and some really great kills along the way.
All in all I've enjoyed the raid, I think it's been a little too long between content arriving but I look forward to new raids and dungeons.
Although my monk is my main toon, I have switched to others. People have asked my why I do this, so I will endeavor to answer this question. When our group got stuck on Thok, I realized that my Monk dps was not going to cut the mustard, also, as we already had 2 other melee, adding an extra one to the mix wasn't really going to help. I was not needed as a tank at that time, so the only other thing I could offer was my hunter. After doing a dps test on some dummies, I realized that even under geared, I could do more damage on Lazeebow than Darklady, so with a slightly heavy heart I asked if my GM would like me to bring him to the next raid instead, it made sense, he's ranged, and he does more damage, plus hunters do not suffer any of Thok's interrupting shouts, so to me, it was the better choice. After I used Lazeebow for our Thok kill, I also used him for Seigecrafter and Paragons, and then we started on Garrosh. On the first night I noticed that my dps here, although high, would not be enough to secure a kill, so I suggested that our disc priest revert to his main Shadow spec, and I brought in my own disc priest to heal.
Why though? Why would you offer to switch from your main, to a toon that you don't use apart from alt runs? You wont benefit from gear unless you coin, you wont get the EP rewards on that toon as they get transferred to your main, what's in it for you? The answer to this is simple, if it gets the bosses down, the guild and team benefit. For me, raiding is not about just me, and what gear I can get, it's about working together and making kills happen, and if that means I need to switch, I switch. I'd rather hear the cheers of 9 other happy people when a boss dies, than wallow in misery wipe after wipe because our composition is letting us down, and if I can change that composition, then so be it.
As I have a lot of alts, I have access to more classes than some people, I keep all my alts that I use for alt runs in good shape, they are all fully gemmed and enchanted, and all of them have their legendary cloak. I know a lot of people do this, and this is not an uncommon thing to do, particularly in hardcore guilds, where it is practically mandatory for each raider to have an array of alts to be used as the guild desires. However, as I have been asked this question numerous times, I hope I have answered it fully!!
To the future!
I have earned myself a place as an officer for the guild. I have been in charge of recruiting for a few months and intend to continue this going forwards to WoD. Will I be maining my monk? Short answer, yes. I will be going WindWalker at the start of the expansion, and from there, who knows....I am not put off by the MistWeaver changes, and am prepared to go healer if I am needed to. I will level up all my "raiding toons" and as I have done this expansion, switch to whatever is needed to get the fight done. I will be sad not to be a full time Brewmaster, however there will be plenty of challenge modes and alt raids for me to play my beloved tank spec, so I am not too worried about making the change.
I will continue to blog throughout WoD, my little blog is almost a year old, and I'd like to thank each and every person who has taken the time to read my random ramblings, and I am eternally grateful to the people that helped me promote it, and gave me so much support when I started out. I was writing the blog mainly for myself, but over the year I have become more confident and even extended to posting guides (which was not something I ever saw myself doing), more importantly, people have thanked me for doing so, and it's a really heart warming feeling to know that I've helped someone.
I am currently in the process of coming up with a redesign for the page, and will dedicate a post to my blogoversary when it comes up next month!
See you through the dark portal.....
Be good!!
