ICC and the headaches that follow..

I love ICC and I hate it at the same time.

Have I mentioned we are a social raiding guild? This means we arent hardcore raiders. It means we dont do DKP, we dont do cliques of the favored ones, Our goal is to let everyone progress to the best of their ability.



So I had talked to the pedigrees this week (Pedigrees are sort of like my council - the people i turn to for advice, input and support - they also keep an eye on the antics in guild for me) about ICC and the future direction of the guild to try and get some ideas and input from them (Surprisingly I dont have all the answers). I suppose I should have clarified following that chat that it was going to take a little time to instigate the ideas which are going to be designed to allow for progression of the guild in as far as possible (pre- requisites for the boss group around gemming, enchanting, raid awareness etc) as well as clear guidelines for the masses around what to work towards to get into this group.

But last night we had an ICC run preplanned and so there was going to be no time to think about the changes until prior to next weeks run.  The event was well subscribed so i decided to put together one group that was going to see as much boss action as possible based on my knowledge of who can do what and to send a second group in on a "Heres hoping mission"" this took me half an hour "well xxx could do it but yyy doesnt think they can, zzz can do it but then we dont have enough blah blah blah" and so on

The first problem was that there were 25 odd people online -- Try as i might i cant divide 25 by 10 and keep everyone happy.
(Many a whisper - Why have i been excluded from the invites?, Is there still a spot?, Can i get an invite? -the usual preraid stuff - oh plus I snapped my partners head off IRL for saying why isnt AAA in a group?)

The second problem was that some of our strongest healers/tanks wernt online or signed up.
(We have a shortage of Tank healers- its a fact and two of our strongest healers wernt online which compounded the problems)

The third problem was that I hadnt clarified for the pedigrees that the aforementioned conversation wasnt in affect yet
(Thus some of the whispers around the set up of the Boss group and an incorrect belief that i was splitting the talent pool by running two groups. All the best of those online were in the boss group (with the exception of me and subsequently the rogue, and a priest who was unwell and didnt want to run)

The fourth problem was that I wasnt feeling 100% so wasnt as robust about the usual pre raid bitching and messaging so made the decision to not attend and let the maximum number of other guildies get into the second group.
(BIG mistake!! Had i been in the 2nd group i would have promptly Bitchslapped the custard makers or gkicked them - that is not to suggest that the raidleader i had installed isnt up to the job - hes a fast learner, a level temperament and a great raider... im just better able to bitchslap than he is)

(For clarity let me call them Boss group and group Hope)
Boss group:
2 Tanks: Pally tank & Pally Tank
3 Heals: Pally Heals, Druid heal, One heals to be assigned
5 DPS: Rogue, Dk, 2 Hunters and a priest

So the first thing i had to deal with was that some didnt believe there was enough Ranged dps for saufang...
(IMO so long as a heals can switch to dps on this fight you can take 2 melle into the raid no probs)

So then I changed the group to this:

Boss group:
2 Tanks: Pally tank & Pally Tank
3 Heals: Pally Heals, Druid heal(with Boomie OS), Priest heal (Shadow OS - came despite feeling unwell)
5 DPS: Mage, Dk, 2 Hunters and a priest

This group cleared to Saufang, wiped once then downed the boss... as predicted :)

Hope group
2 Tanks: Warrior tank, Pally Tank
3 Heals: 2 x Druid heals 1 shaman heals.
5 DPS: Druid, hunters, rogue

This group cleared to Lord Marrowgar with one wipe on trash following a trap being tripped.
They attempted Marrowgar , wiped relatively quickly. got back in quickly and knocked him down to about 28%. Tanks swapped Roles Went in, wiped quickly, switched back went in, wiped VERY quickly

The Warrior tank was going to have to go which in itself shouldnt be a major issue..... However just prior to this is when things turned to custard. and I will bite my tounge at this point not to bitch about what I understand happened next - but lets just say there is no I in team! People need to understand that raiding involves wiping and can have time delays learning new fights too and if people arent willing to commit a bit of time and gold to progression content - then quite frankly they are in the wrong guild or shouldnt be signing up for progression raids.


And so last nights antics have solidifed my decision to make ICC, ToGC and ulduar hardmodes a by INVITE only event - for a proven group of raiders who are willing to invest the time, energy and gold...
And how do they prove themselves... that will be made very very clear on the guild forums but has nothing to do with Gear Score or rolling out an achievement like you can in tade.


LET THE BITCHING BEGIN.....