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(TL;DR part at the bottom)

So, a couple things from last night’s raid I’d like to talk about.

First, if you want to bring an alt, I’m fine with that. I know people have nothing they really want from the raid anymore on their mains aside from killing the top bosses dead. But if you are going to do it then have all your characters at the door so that we don’t have to wait too long for the switch. Also, note that because people don’t need anything, I have no problem putting people on standby for the first half of the dungeon so that people who don’t go that often get a chance to go.

Second, as long as we have a tank, a healer, and a majority of the raid at start time, we will start pulling. The instance itself is buffed enough and we know all that first part well enough that it’s easy to do without a full group. This means that if you are in the raid but not at the instance when a majority are ready to go you will have to make your own way there from wherever you are.

Third. We won’t be doing Ruby Sanctum for awhile. It’s too distracting and preventing us really from our ICC goal. I thought I’d go once or twice just so people can have a peek. But now having done so, we will be putting our focus back on ICC and getting the Lich King down. I wanna be able to say that we did that, yar.

Fourth, we don’t have an attendance problem. People tend to show up on time and the people who do sign up actually show up. Thank you all for that. It does show that people do care about getting the raid done. And I’m glad of that. But then problems arise during the raid where people are not ready with everyone else and we keep pausing because someone decides to go afk without saying anything to anyone. Or isn’t paying attention to ready checks. Or the five minute break becomes 10-15 because people don’t pay attention to 5 minutes. Now, when people SAY they’re going afk, I’m cool with it. Thank you very much for actually saying something. Or, you know, the baby bounces off the floor. Also, understand that. We do, however, find ourselves repeatedly having to double check certain people and seeing response times slow or non-existent when a question or request is made. And it isn’t because the baby dropped. (Just using that as an example because really it is just kinda funny to imagine babies bouncing. It’s not really funny though, I know. Poor baby! Poor parents! Heh.) Getting tired of that too. So, yeah, I might start doing something about it. Don’t be surprised if I do. >>

Fifth, people are getting tired. They’re bored, they’re grumpy too easily, they’re losing focus too easily. They only show up for raid and that’s it. Actually lemme side track and talk about that real quick.

I know people are bored with the rest of the game because it’s that time of the game, that lull, where an expansion is going to hit soon and they’re mains have reached that gear and adventure point where the only thing that matters is defeating a single major boss. Senioritis, ya know. Just like high school. And they don’t see the point of being in game for anything else. I understand that. I’m personally not there, but I understand it. However, it does cause unintentional problems. When the raid days become the only thing you do and then they don’t turn out well, it just makes it feel worse. Because that’s your only game at the moment and when that part isn’t the best, it hurts more. And when it hurts more people start become divested of it. They start burning out. Why should they bother anymore. I can’t tell you how to fix that problem. You gotta find a way to be able to get past the blah on your own. But, please, let’s not let it bring the rest of the raid down. And at this point, if I think you’re doing nothing but dragging the raid down with bad attitude, again, I might start doing something about it. >>

Back to fifth! People are tired. So yeah, in the near future, Lich King down or not, we’re going on hiatus. Not right away. We’re going one more week. I would like to extend this week’s raid into next week, so we can put some good effort into the end bosses once the other bosses are down. So assuming we can stomp past Sindy as smoothly as we did last Saturday, next week will be Lich King wipes. We’ll be taking slightly longer breaks between sets of wipes to give people more time to refresh themselves before going at it again.

July 28th- August 4th there will be no IPA sponsored raid. It will give everyone a chance to relax, get a break from all the raid work and pretty much take some time to decide what they wanna do with themselves in game.
Sign ups for Saturday , August 7th will go up that week and we’ll see who signs up. I hope we’ll all be back, ready to go and refreshed and with a new lease on our raiding lives. Because, you know. . . .

LICH KING MUST DIE!! And his little dragon too.

Lastly, my feelings about RS. It is a side raid. Yes, it has some better loot, but not much and so still is in my mind a side raid. And therefore not as important for the psyche as saying we killed the king. So it is on the back burner for IPA. We may go if we have like a really cool and uber day and are feeling good about ourselves and so know we’ll go in there and get a good stomp on him. But for the most part, it will no longer be our priority to fit it into our regular schedule.

TL;DR
People are getting tired and grumpy and I’ve noticed. I’m gonna start pointing fingers if I need to. So be prepared! =O And the raid will be going on a hiatus between July 28th – August 4th because I think we need it. Raid starts back up August 7th. Lich King will be our priority, not RS, so don’t expect us to put RS on the calendar again anytime soon.

Also! Reply to this thread so I know you've read it. And so I can poke the people who don't read.

Read!
*crawls into her can*

I'm talking to everyone. You know who you are, everyone.

read it.

For the record, I'm definitely not burned out on game, just A) insanely busy with real life, and B) often I'm playing on a character you can't see levelling and seeing the Other Side before it all changes. I wish I had mroe time to play and practice, but time is in very short supply recently.

I know my coordination and positioning abilities have slipped recently, and my DPS well, it sucks (yay movement heavy fights and dependency on eclipse), but those are issues that'll improve once I get more time on-boss. I will stop bringing alts because while we don't need uberdeeps on the first four anymore, having more dps on those will keep me "tuned up" as it were, not ot mention make them go faster.

Finally, I have no problem being put on standby for farmed content. I would ask though, because time is at such a RIDICULOUS premium for me right now, that if you are going to put me on standby, let me know well in advance (like, a day or so) so I can make other plans to get things done. (I want very much to raid and such, but the reality of it is, I need to do many many others things too. Not trying to be a prick, just trying to be more effective with my time.)

I know I'm getting to that point where it's just not much fun to pop on any more.
Believe me, I wanna kill the Lich King just as much as everyone else, but all in all trying to play with the knowledge about all this great stuff on it's way makes the experience slightly less enjoyable. It's like Christmas eve and you were allowed to open one or two presents, but you don't want to play with them because there's a whole Christmas tree worth of goodies waiting for you if you can manage to sleep through the night.

You can't sleep through the Lich King! Gees!

Yes, the Cataclysm stuff is fun and exciting. But at the same time I also like the idea of being able to say "I did it". Which you can say after when you reach 85 and can stomp him with a friend or two, but really, that's not the same thing, heh.

<.<

>.>

Read and noted, Red.

Also, I'll be out of town Saturday nights for the next two weeks, so I'll look forward to picking back up after the break.

Good post Red. I guess I am a bit of a odd case due to all the stuff going on in my life, can't say I am really burnt out. I am finally starting to get back into raiding and more into the game in general, plus my new Druid is getting to be a larger part of my WoW focus 68 baby, woot.

Read, Red!

>>

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The hiatus actually couldn't be better timed, as I'll be out of town the first week of August for a family reunion. (I will be taking my comp with me, but I doubt I'll be getting much, if any, WoW time in. Probably a daily random on Kaeev, at best. Story will probably be on hiatus too unless by some miracle I get that done beforehand.) That having been said, I'll most likely to be back in town on the 7th, but not until the evening. So, my attendance is likely to be tentative on that. We'll see how those dice roll.