Bring back 1st Aid!

Ashvane bee dead!

Guild News:

Thanks to the following for helping supply us with herbs this week: Munhz (1438) Uz (400) Ellz (455) Cy (472) Term (422) Tac (200) Ides (600) Also Elly who provided loads of vantus runes, about 800 new herbs worth! This wasnt an official farming weekend, but we will add Munhz as top contributor to the dicord rank alongside Ida as a thankyou!

Welcome to: 'G' (Ganksta) who joins us as a recent returner to Classic who told me that as much as he might have enjoyed it, nothing could make him 14 again! So he has dipped his toe into current WoW and revived his love of the game! He will be working on getting Mythic raid ready and hopefully will join us a bit later for that challenge!

Grats on 65 this week to: Sam, Red, Elly, Chris, Tac. Honestly, the rest of you SHOULD have this by now... you slackers you :D

This Week's Plan:

We are clearing this evening our usual last 3 HC and then first 3 Mythic. After that we want a little chat about plans for Ashvane on Sun/Mon when we have most of our absentee's back. Cy would like to try the zerg strat on this fight which involves saving all CDs until the vulnerability phases and skipping the 3rd shield. We will want to try this with 2 Tanks, and posssibly 2 healers, tho if we have the DpS to do this having 3 would be safer. This means looking at your character and re-thinking a little for burst windows, so after our clear tonight  we will have some discussion around it and send some of you off into groups to look class specific where you might want to change some things. You then have until Sunday to prepare for hopefully a kill! There are 5 of you left under 65 Neck level - 3 of whom are close, so if you could please do all you can to just make that last little step to the 3rd Essence slot, then that will help the team get that little bit closer to a kill as well as pretty well prepared for the rest of the tier.

LAST MIN ADDITION!

We Will run a HC Warfront after the raid this evening!

In Other News:

Recruitment:

We have been having a little think about recruitment and how best to get ourselves the roster we need to avoid what has happened on Ashvane with us having to cancel raids due to not having the right team there. Munhz, who was guest attendee at Officer Meeting brought this up as well. Obviously we can't plan for rl last min issues and Ashvane was a particular issue because of the huge DpS check which we havent come across to that extent before and havign a number of our team who for a variety of reasons weren't able to reach that during earlier progression and therefore missed out on learning the fight. Then having so many go on holiday, some unexpected and Nasty MIA kinda put a spanner in the works too. We have made some plans, for example having Zubs get a DH on its way so that the pressure on Cram to be there every raid doesnt stress him.. and me :D out. However, we are also aware of a few people who have hinted we might not be able to rely on them in the future - to be clear, I'm not having those convos till AFTER Ashvane! However, we do need to think how to strengthen the roster.

I have been having a few potential recruits want to join who are just waaaay under-geared with no raiding experience, or no Mythic raiding experience and gently suggesting other guilds as I know we couldnt use them atm and that would just leave them hanging around on the outskirts of the guild and missing out on what makes DR so strong in terms of community. With so many of you playing Classic out of raid times, this also means the guild is an even quieter place in between raids than usual which makes bringing people in who can't raid yet even more of a concern. We have said for some time that we dont recruit social members because of this issue - even without the Classic consideration. However, we are thinking ahead to next tier, or even later this tier and thinking that perhaps with people like 'G' around we might think a bit differently for now. I still do not want to turn us into a huge guild with people we never get to know - but I do think that bringing some more people onboard who maybe arent in a position to raid Mythic NOW, but might be later would give us some more options.

Doing this would give them a little team to group up with, but also does mean that the rest of us might need to make a little more effort to help people out - these new recruits could be your potential team mate on a furture Mythic fight!! So I know I can rely on you to welcome and be the lovely crowd of DR members you are and help to integrate new members as much as possible.

Sunday we start progression again - and we have some time to make up in this tier. So get yourselves ready for... a fight!

Ellz

Guild News:

Grats this week on 3rd Essence slot to: Cram, Heli and Ray! This brings our total to 12 with a number of you now very close.

Grats on RoTM to: 

Tac, Cy, Ellz, Grimey, Ida, Heli, Levy, Munhz,Tony, Uz, Cookie, Visp and Term

Last Week's Recap:

We had a pretty good clear on Wed, with Cy getting us a lockout to Court and then with Guild Meet this past weekend, we got back to progress on Ashvane on Monday evening. There was SUCH good progress there! Getting to like 3% on our last attempt! What held us up from getting the kill on Monday was that we still are not getting to that last 30% enough to practice what to do. However, this would definately be looking like a kill IF we didnt have a quarter of the raid team on holiday this week :D

Talking of Guild Meet, just want to say a big thank you to all of you who came along for being such lovely house guests! Yes, even Zubs. We do have a rule of what happens at Guild Meet, stays at Guild Meet - but I will say that much fun, chat, food, drink, banter, games and shaving and tanning of Zubs legs was had! It is hard to know what will happen in the next year, but contrary to my usual 'I'm never doing this again!' I do have some plans for next year. Next year will be DR's 10th Anniversary on August 5th. We had some discussions over the weekend about what we might do to celebrate that and with people travelling from all over the EU to get here, we often find that only 3 days leaves people with little energy to do much more than chill out at my place. Not that there is anything wrong with that! But we thought next year we might extend Guild Meet and have people arrive Fri and leave Monday instead of Sun so that we could have a day out in Brighton - led by Zubs (god help us) So, instead of waiting until sometime next year, let's say that the first weekend in August will be Guild Meet and we can make further plans nearer the time.

This Week's plan:

This evening we will clear the first 3 Mythics and we will want to do the last 3 HCs again this week. Being so close to a Ashvane kill, its with mixed feelings that I see the nerf button has finally hit her. I'd like to say a huge well done and thank you to all those who worked so hard on this boss. It's the first time that as a team we have really spent time on an individual basis as well as a team basis looking at how we play, what we can improve and people really examining their game play to get that bit of extra DpS out. I'd like to think that this isn't a one-off but that as we take our next steps as a Mythic raiding team, people will do this for upcoming bosses as well. It paid off, the 'kill team' was actually having to look at holding back on DpS at certain points on Monday! We still need to do work on mastering mechanics faster and with more accuracy, but overall we have done a good job. What has really held us back on this fight is availability - and possibly Classic taking time away from people getting their 3rd essences, but mostly it has been availability and this is kinda invevitable over the summer months. We had people away and just as they return, others head off.

We don't know if with the nerf we can now kill her without the kill team - it's not just a DpS race, bringing new people in at this stage means waiting for them to get up to speed with mechanics. In addition we are missing some pretty significant damage dealers and Spongie has left to join friends on another server. So Cy and I will take a view after our Mythic kills this evening, but it is likely that we might give Ashvane a try after we clear the first 3 and see how it looks. We have Ray and Cram tonight only, so this would be the best time to try it out.

If we aren't going to progress Ashvane this week, we did think about possibly going back to get a Jaina lockout so we could farm for the mount, or perhaps going back and getting G'huun down in Uldir as we still miss this. We will make a call on this after this evening and then if we are going back to some fun raids for Sun and Mon, we will call for people to unsign if they are not interested and see where we are. Next week we will have Heli and Mystik away, but I am hoping that our raiding schedule will get back to normal and we can start getting on with the other bosses and catching up with progress. So, please bear with us for one more week! We still have time as this raid is likely to be a long one to get to Cutting Edge - but we WILL need to get a shift on, and that means all of you lagging behind on your 3rd essence slot need to make a decision about if Cutting Edge is your priority and make just that little more effort to catch up.

In Other News:

Roster:

While numbers-wise we are looking good, even with Spongie leaving and Nasty and Ailoo MIA. What we miss are some key classes and people who are still playing catch-up means that having 20 who are ready and able to progress at Cutting Edge level is sometimes a struggle. I have re-opened recruitment and have our main and realm post updated. Offers to keep these posts alive and bumped would be much appreciated, links to them are in Discord.

See you this evening,

Ellz

Guild Meet cometh!

Last Week in Review:

Best clear ever! We did pretty good last week with our clear on Wed, skipping through 3x Mythic and a full HC clear and getting 45 mins of raid time to look at Ashvane. Due to availability issues on Sunday we did a fun run on Normal for achievements and got ourselves a nice pic of new mounts!  Monday we resumed our progress on Ashvane and with the set up we had for the evening, we were finally hitting those DpS checks we needed to for the first shields. However, whether it was the looming launch of Classic, or just a long night, we had way too many P1/2 wipes and only got to where we needed to in order to learn the last section of the fight once. Having worked so hard to get the DpS, we obviously now have to work on our early mechanic handling in order to get any further.

This Week's Plan:

As I said at the start of Monday's raid, we have more availability issues for the next 2 weeks. This week we have from the kill team: Nasty, Cram, Mystik and Spongie away on Sunday with only Mystik returning for sure on Monday. This isn't just a case of replace these people with others as we do have the luxury of a very healthy roster. Warrior and DH buffs to the raid are helping with the DpS checks and Nasty in particular is often our top DpS. While we are hitting these checks, it's hard to see how we would do so without the classes we need. In addition, Usti is going to take a break so moving forward we will have Ida switching to main tank for the raid. We have a few in the team that are currently standbys due to having been away for the start of the tier, so we need to get Esu and Chris in particular up to speed with both gear and neck ilvl.

So the plan this week is to start with Mythic clear this evening, funnel some gear where we need to and then spend the rest of the evening on Ashvane. We are missing Cram and Nasty this evening, so we would like Ala on his DH. Elly will replace Ida healing as Ida moves over to tanking, and Ray is back so will step back in instead of Nasty. This is going to leave us short DpS with both Nasty and Cram out, however we did have some to spare on Monday and I will continue to DpS the first shield to try and get a little extra in.

Thursday evening we are planning a HC Warfront at 8pm - sign in the calendar for that.

On Sunday we will do a HC clear and work on getting some of our backups more gear so that we have a little more flexibility. Sunday is not an optional raid. Having those of you who need very little gear now able to funnel some to those who need it is key and besides, the gear spreadsheet indicated there are still some outstanding items. If we can get the majority of these cleared this evening, we may then look to getting a later lockout so that we can stop doing a full HC clear from next week. Cloth wearers that are able to give Esu Azerite pieces are going to be very much appreciated.

Monday's raid we are planning to cancel. Unless the set-up this evening shows we have PLENTY of spare DpS, with Nasty and Spongie, who currently are at the top of our DpS for this fight, away and Cram's availability not yet known, the benefit of spending an evening wiping because we can't get the first shield down is negligable.

So the schedule is:

Wed: Mythic clear + Ashvane progress

Thurs: HC warfront

Sun: HC clear

Mon: Night off!

In Other News:

Roster:

While we now stand with a roster of 27, as the past 2 weeks have shown, we are missing a DH in particular and enough backups ready to deliver the DpS levels we need. Cram's availability is due to get better next month, but this is meaning that our goal of clearing early is becoming less and less likely. I am looking for another DH, but what we really need is for all 27 of us to be geared, neck levelled up - or should I say, Essenced up! and able to DpS their hearts out while handling these Mythic mechanics. As for those currently doing progression - the 3rd Essence and a smartening up of mechanic handling is going to go a long way in getting bosses down faster! So there is still plenty of work for all of us.

Looking ahead:

With Guild Meet next weekend, we are looking at a 2 day raid week and some people forgot to sign for the new month, so please make sure you are signed up so we can plan effectively.

Ellz

Guild News:

Welcome to: Spongie who joins us to save me from making Battle Shout scrolls! (And cos his logs are damn good!)

Grats on Promotion to Member to: Ailoo (Who I am really hoping will say 'yes' when I speak to her later!)

Last Week's Roundup:

After a really improved Mythic and HC clear on Wed that saw us having some free time at the end of the raid, we spent the rest of the week tackling Ashvane Mythic. We did 2 hours on Sunday and 2.5 on Monday. What we saw was progress! We were getting into the blue more regularly and had a few attempts where we got to our goal of getting that second shield down. Our next goal is going into the 3rd shield phase and having the DpS to get to 34.9%. We had a couple of attempts where we got close to that and the gap closed to 3% off that target! The DpS check is so tight here, we really just need a little more and everyone on form to get there!

This Week's Plan:

HC and Mythic clear tonight. Maybe a little Ashvane if we zip through that even better than last week!

The rest of the week is a little up in the air. On Sunday we are missing Cram, Ray and Mystik. On Monday we are missing (at the moment) Cram and Ray. We really need the DH buff to do this fight and everyone who worked on it last week there, rather than try bringing other people in. It's not so much an issue about us needing practice, we know what we need to do, its having the right DpS numbers to push the fight further. I want to see how this evening goes, and if possible have a couple of go's on Ashvane to see if our DpS has gone up with another week of gear - and ofc check out our new warrior on the clear fights! We can then make a judgment call on if it is worth trying on Sunday with 3 members of the 'kill team' not there. There is also a possibility that Mystik might be able to make it.. but that's a slim one.

I think it is more likely that the option for Sunday is a normal clear for the achievements. So there will be something on, no matter what - but if we do an achievement run instead, that is of course optional - just don't complain later that you didnt get them! :D

Monday we will wait to hear if Cram can make it and then make the same call.

This fight is great. Despite the number of wipes and the slight feeling we are banging our heads against a very ugly wall... the spirit of the team is really good to see and very encouraging. This is the first fight as a guild where I feel like every single person in that team is totally involved in it's planning and making top efforts to squeeze out every bit of added performance they can. There are a couple of you that still could be doing more, and we have had some people having a bad day, which happens.. and it becomes very clear if someone shows up unprepared. It's a bit like showing up to a sporting event - like the Olympics at the moment! We need everyone totally on top of their game because it's so tight, just one person feeling poorly for example and we can't manage to get that little extra we are needing. However, overall the amount of effort that you guys have gone to, the min-maxing, the gear optimising, the talent/essence selecting and trialing.. this is a Mythic team!! Atmosphere is good and despite 3 weeks of wipes, it feels like people are determined to make this happen. Really good job people. And while this week might be a bit of a mess with availability, I think it will be this that holds us back, not performance or ability. I've heard some people comment that we might have to wait until everyone gets the third essence slot before we get the kill - this is the only area where I feel we could put in some more effort - however, I'm comparing us with other guilds who have killed this, or are pushing like us, and we arent that far off that either.

So, lets do our best tonight, hope for those pieces of gear that might get us closer - and those of you backup for this fight - any piece you can pass over that might help would be appreciated. I will update you all probably on Sat as to what Sunday is looking like.

In Other News:

Gear:

Despite asking on numerous occasions, people still arent filling in the gear check. Cookie and Red still need to make any submission at all and a number of you have not updated when I know you have gotten pieces. Some of you are being brilliant. But those who arent, I'm tempted to make you select the team - and then you might understand how much work this takes to try and get those who need to be there to get pieces and balance that with not sitting the same people out all the time and stacking armour/roles to get the best chances of pieces to trade around. Given the lack of co-operation from some, I can't guarentee I will be able to make the best choices.

Guild Meet:

We have the final confirmations for Guild Meet attendance. For those new to us, we meet once a year in the UK and this year it's 6-8th Sept. This means we wont be able to have the normal Sunday raid I've considered trying for a Thurs raid instead, but I know that some attending Guild Meet are leaving very very early on Fri morning and this might not work. I considered a Tues raid as well, but that means raiding 3 nights in a row - something I think  given where we are isn't the best option. We will have a brief chat about this in raid tonight to see what people think, but having only 2 raid nights for that week isnt the end of the world.. just given this week where we might only have 2 as well.. it's not ideal. We will see.

Ok, that's my lot for this week!

Ellz