Flying through Content.

A couple of weeks ago Fero our GM put for the idea that we are going to have a "Progression Week" from March 11th to March 17th. He also told us officer (did I tell you guys that I was made Druid CA?) that he was going to do some things that might be a little unpopular and asked us to trust him. The basic idea behind it was to give everyone a little time to farm consumables and cash for repairs if needed and to ask us to stay a little later than normal so that we could get one or two more attempts in on a boss.

He laid out a very aggressive schedule that I thought of as a best case scenario for the week. I was going to be happy if we could get most of what he proposed done. He also made one of my friends that returned from Avarice the Paladin class lead after he had only been back in the guild for a day. As he had hinted at this was very unpopular with some of the old WA members. I will admit that I wondered how it might look to some of our new members that someone comes back and is made an officer that quickly. I don't want anyone to feel like we are favoring old returning members over our new recruits because we don't. However, there was a method to the madness. Our Paladin class was completely unorganized. It took forever to get the buffs organized and no one was stepping up to do the job. While some people didn't like the promotion at first, it was a complete success, and no one is questioning it now. The paladins have been organized and buffs are going out much quicker.

The goal for the week was to get Hydross, Lurker, and Tidewalker in SSC, and get Void Reaver and Solarion in TK. As the new WA we had already downed Hydross and Lurker, but not the others. We had attempted VR and Solarion in the past with varying success, and I would have been happy if we downed Lurker, Hydross and two of the other bosses we hadn't downed.

We actually downed all 5 bosses that we had planned plus Doomwalker and Leo. That is more than I would have dared to hope for. I have to give a lot of credit to our new recruits. They have worked very hard running Kara and other things to gear them selves up and have picked up the fights fairly quickly. While we veterans have helped them, and lead the raids, we have had more time on these fights and the learning curve isn't as steep for us. So all of the new people deserve a lot of credit.

The only downside for the week was a personal one. I was not there for the Doomwalker kill, and it is very frustrating. Getting new purples is great, but that is not my primary goal when raiding. My real goal is to be there for the first kills and be in the screen shot. To make matters worse this wasn't a first kill for just new WA. This was a first kill for WA period, and I missed it. Oh well, that that big of a deal.

So, I guess the question now is how does New WA compare to Old WA in terms of progress and ability. Old WA was 5/6 in SSC and 1/4 in TK. They had also done Kazzak but not Doomwalker. New WA is 4/6 in SSC and 2/4 in TK. We have done Doomwalker but not Kazzak. By pure number standard they we are now even, but the numbers are a little miss leading. Old WA could have easily done Solarion, Al'ar, and Doomwalker if we had ever put any real amount of time into it. If I am objective I think we are very close to where we were but still a little behind. Considering the fact that we are only two months removed from the split I think this is amazing.

On other side note, you will remember how I said that two of my friends came back to WA from Avarice. Well, another one of my friends left WA just a before the split because he saw it coming. He joined a guild that had a similar level of progression to us before the split and has since progressed into Hyjal and BT. Well he came back to WA last night. Apparently they had been sitting my friend in favor of old inactive members that had recently been reactivated. Plus, they haven't gotten him in the TK runs so that he can get his Hyjal attunment after saying they would. There loss is our gain because he is awesome at his class. The best part about it is that all of the people that I consider my closes friends in the game are all back in one guild. I am a very happy camper right now. It makes my reject application to Legacy look a little like a blessing now.

Patch Update:
Not a whole lot to say here. The patch is clearly very close to being released judging from the hints that Blizzard has been posting in the forums. Also, the patch has started to use the back ground downloader last week which is usually a good sign that the patch is about two weeks away. My guess is next Tuesday since it doesn't sound like it is coming out today. I really can't wait since this patch will mean a lot for me and my guild but at least I know it will be here soon. Here are a couple of tidbits since my last post.

- The range of Cyclone has been reduced to 20 yards. (was 30 yards before) - This is another Resto Arena nerf that affects moonkin pretty heavily also. Since I don't PvP much this doesn't really affect me since Cyclone is not a good spell in PvE. However, PvP moonkin are going nuts over this as it is one of the few things they have that is good for PvP.

- Prices of all patterns sold by the Shattered Sun Offensive have been increased. - The increases are pretty big, but I think they are fair. The Alchemist Stone patterns when from 2g to 25g. The Enchanting Patterns when from 2g to 15g. Jewelcrafting was hit hardest by far. All of the Epic Jem cutting patterns went from 1.50g to 50g. While this is a huge increase I think that it is ultimately fair. Raiders have spent a lot of time and money to get those patterns from the Mount Hyjal rep. Why should casual players now be able to get them after a simple SSO rep grind for the same cost. I am not say that only raiders should have this pattern, because I don't want to get into the whole Casual vs Hardcore argument, but these are great items and 50g isn't much to ask.

Toon Update:
Graylo - He has obviously been very active this week. He didn't get any new gear, but our resent progress suggests that he might soon. Unfortunately I couldn't get him in to Kara this week to get badges but I did do a little in ZA and ran some heroics. The biggest personal highlight is that I finally ran Heroic Arc. This may not seem like a big deal but it was the last heroic I needed for my Champion of the Naaru title. Now I only have to run Mag and its done. I should get it this week.

Graypal - Not a whole lot has been going on here. I did a few quests and I am trying to open up the netherwing dailies for him but haven't been able to get a group together for the final quest yet.

Grayfel - I made a decent amount of progress here. He went from level 28 to 31 over the weekend and used up al of his rested XP. I have also been trying to work on his professions but that is a little frustrating. Mining has been a bit of a pain in my side. It seems like every node I see is a copper node. The tin nodes are still giving me a skill up. I am starting to see a couple of Iron nodes around, but I can't mine them because my skill level is one point two low. Herbalism wasn't this hard but then again I went about it a little differently. Back then I didn't use a guide until Level 30 so I was running all over the place and saw a bunch of nodes. Also, I had much less rested XP and it was before the leveling nerf. As a result I am spending a lot less time in an area than I did before. Oh well, I also need to send Graylo to buy him his First Aid books. Anyway, he is probably on hold for a little while to gain some more rested XP.

Quick note to my Guild:
I have been wondering for a little while anyone from my guild reads my blog. I haven't advertised it to the guild because it is a bit of a diary and asking people to read it just feels strange. Plus I don't want to feel like every time I write something in the blog I am making a guild announcement. However, the fact of the matter is I do want people to read my blog. So, while I haven't advertised my blog to the guild, I haven't hidden it either and there are several ways they could have found it. So, if you read my blog please let me know if you want to either in the comments or in-game? Its not a big deal I would just like to know.

Oddly enough, I had decided to ask this question in my blog last Thursday, not long after that one of the guild officers let me know that she did read my blog. Its funny how these things can come together.

Oh, to that officer. If you go back and read my post you will see I said Trusting and not Gullable.