So we set into a new Raid week. The guild is all a-buzz with nervous and giddy energy. You've got the people on Team 2 anxious for their first raid as a real team. You've got the people who unfortunately were not able to be included in Team 2 because we've got just a few more players than raid slots. You've got the brand new guy to the guild demanding loudly in gchat that he will be raiding or leaving. Aside: his farewell was greatly celebrated :-)
And then you've got the people on Team 1. We're probably the most nervous group of the bunch. We've lost 2 healers over the last few weeks due to a work shift change and a several month hiatus/journey through foreign lands. Add to that, our third healer went on a 10 day vacation. Add to that, our Team 1 Rogue has his Pally alt as a tank on Team 2. So we're short 2 or 3 healers, plus a DPS-er.
Right at the same time, Team 2 starts up and our pool of substitute players is now locked into their own Raid ID.
We did a nice job recruiting a new Holy Priest, and I've got a solid Holy Paladin on my friends list who likes raiding outside his own guild (go figure).
So I found myself sitting in Deadwind Pass with 9 players in the raid. Hoping for a third healer, but perhaps willing to go 2 heals/6 DPS if we found a good enough 6th damage dealer.
/who
I absolutely hate doing this, but I was desperate to keep the team feeling confident that we can co-exist with Team 2. The last thing in the game I need is for T1 to become threatened by T2 and then spiraling downwards from there.
See a Druid on /who not in a dungeon. Check him out on the armory. Resto. Sweet.
/pst Hi, sorry to bother you
Nope, gotta log. sorry.
FINE!!! BE THAT WAY!!!! ok, no problem. thx for your time, sorry to bother you.
Refresh /who
Another Druid. Armory says Resto. /pst? Hell's yeah, only issue is I gotta log off at 11:00.
NP, we end at 11:00.
She's never been to kara before, but armory shows gear that's good enough to start out, given that we have 2 other healers and a nice solid veteran Tank and DPS corps. Lets give it a whirl.
We gave the place our usual whoopin, one shotting everything from Attumen through Shade of Aran, including The Crone which had only been experienced by 5 of the present raiders before. Outstanding job, great team chemistry. Honestly, my most fun raid in ages because we had very unknown expectations at the onset and we just had a blast.
Shade goes down at 10:55, we /cheer and head our separate ways.
So PUGs are like a box of chocolates, and this one turned up a snickers bar. Not one of those crappy orange marmalade jelly filled dark chocolate stupid ones with the sprinkling of coconut slivers on top. The kind you take a bite out of and put back half eaten in the box.
Leads me to want to slap Blizzard silly.
They've got an audience of players wanting desperately to find eachother and enjoy the game. Here we were, nearly ready to call the raid kaput before we even started, and a pretty random process of me bugging strangers turned up a perfect match. I luckily found a mature, patient, able to follow instructions, not saved to a Raid ID yet, player who's got a decently geared entry-level 70 toon of the class and spec I needed, who happens to have time availability that matches our raid schedule.
Talk about the stars aligning? This could have quite easily gone in a totally different direction and just sucked the big one.
Give us better tools to find eachother!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment