Life in the old dog yet?

Hi all

OK, having had time to reflect somewhat on what my personal plans are for 9.2 I have decided that I still would like to play the game and see how things go.

That being said, I still intend to only do this on a more casual and relaxed basis than has been the case in the past, playing when I want to and not because I have to and certainly not going for 99% attendance ratios over a decade once again.

Things may change of course, I may end up getting bored with 9.2, sidetracked by IRL projects and commitments, but as things stand I’m subscribed and 9.2 looks like less of a time commitment so I may as well play.

The polls I have run this month are an attempt to gauge if I was alone in this plan or if there were others that weren’t done with WoW for this expansion and happily enough, on paper at least, it seems that I’m not alone and that many intend to play and a fair number of them intend to raid as well.

Now, as previously stated and in line with my more relaxed approach to the end game and who and under what sort of atmosphere I get to play it means that Mythic raiding is not going to be a focus for WW this tier.

Does this mean it never will be? Well as they say never say never, but this would depend much on the game, the players and what happens to Mythic difficulty in coming expansions as as things stand today two day Mythic daytime raiding isn’t a viable model.

I say not viable as well, we almost never get CE with it, the patches are either too short (largely in the past) or they’re so long that even if we had time the pace and attrition means we fall most often at the final hurdle.

Without CE recruitment for Mythic is rather pointless, sooner or later people will move on or quit as it’s one thing asking people to stick around for three or four months to clear Mythic, entirely another failing after nine and going straight into a new tier without a break.

So, this tier our focus will be on casual and social play with like-minded individuals, having fun with flexible raiding offered for those interested and geared enough to do so.

With this in mind I created a second poll asking when people were available to raid offering the previous three raid times of Friday flex and Saturday and Sunday progress.

We’ve had a pretty solid response so far, but rather predictably this is mostly from those players still active at this point, I have no way of knowing what the plans are for those that are currently less active or inactive so a clearer picture will hopefully emerge after 9.2 lands this week and we see who comes back and who doesn’t.

As things stand right now the biggest proportion of people who have voted are from the old flex team and so unsurprisingly there is a preference from them to continue with the flex Friday times they are used to.  Second place goes to Saturday afternoon with Sunday a slightly less popular option.  That being said, all three are numerically viable options, not sure whether they will be role wise though.

Now, my intention on a personal level is not to commit to raiding both days at the weekend at this point, so as it’s less antisocial I’ll be making myself available to lead the Saturday runs which will focus mainly on clearing heroic mode after an initial run or three of normal.  Sunday may come, but for this to happen I’d need someone willing to take that raid on when I can’t or don’t want to be there.

Friday I would like to be able to offer as it’s a popular option and that preferred by some of our most loyal members so I’d prefer not to leave them with no outlet, but as I never play in the evenings (I started WW so I would not have to do this) I won’t be able to offer this raid option unless one or more people step forward and offer to help with raid leading the run on a regular basis.

I’m sorry about this and I truly hope someone does step forward now or in the future, but as things stand nobody has so until they do I can’t calendar such an event as it would only be chaos.

Friday would focus on the old flex pattern of progressing normal and then heroic to offer a chance for people to attend both Friday and Saturday without duplication, but again this can only happen with a leader.

So, for now I have created an event for Saturday’s run from 16:00 to 19:00 and will create additional runs for Friday and or Sunday when we have leadership support for them.

So, if you can help to make this happen, speak to me.

In conclusion, I want to stress this is a test period as many assumptions are being made.  I have no way of knowing what viability these runs will have in terms of roles and classes as we just don’t know who will actually log and play and on what character, but hopefully we’ll be in a better position to know this soon.

I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading and fingers crossed.