Raiding - Do we continue or do we stop?

Aza has often said he doesn't like playing with unknown people, and after last night, he said he didn't want to raid anymore. We had 5 non guildies in the group (non Onineko and non Frostwolves) and I thought they were all good and we managed to get 3 bosses down, but we also had 2 new guildies promoted to mythic so we have to help gear them up also. He wasn't enjoying it and I don't blame him. I like having our own guild to play with!

Server issues with login difficulties were plaguing us, which often happens after a patch - even a minor launcher patch. Fortunately it was pretty much fixed by the time we got to raid time, but then we had Dan have some strange issues with Telstra where apparently he didn't pay his internet/phone bills and was subsequently forced to play tethered to his phone.

Deidria and Splatz were our new initiates into mythic and they did ok. These were easy bosses though but at least we finished the 3 easy ones. I would really like to get further as it's frustrating to people to try to get places and then not get far at all. Splatz was naughty and did NOT have Exorsus (even though I told him to get it last week) but we marked his spot and he somehow coped.

There were too many healers, much to my chagrin. It meant I had to DPS and my DPS is absolutely 

I think at this stage I only have 9 guildies I can count on to raid - which would be Kyxyn, Aimei, Bish, myself, Sev, Voe, Koda, Dan, Lushen. Rag and Yuuda are possibles (they almost count as one person because frequently one is missing), and Crooked will come if needed, but I will always try to spare him if possible. Now we have Deidria and Splatz coming that brings us to 12 with Crooked as an emergency.

Peggy, Nez and Angry are the three that so far keep coming to mythic. That makes 15. Nez is away this week so that put us back a bit.

That means we have to consistently find 5 people. Fortunately for me this week Nostalgic wasn't raiding, but I will go help them when we aren't doing mythic. One of the PuGs I got was a warrior from Jubei'thos, and he was actually quite good and a fun guy. He apologised to me many times for stuffing up but I told him I wasn't not worried about that. As long as he had fun. He is keen to come again, which is good.

I also had a DK come as well, whose main was a paladin. Another 10/13M raider, it as nice that he came along.

Then we had Neuro, who was on his boomkin. He was a friend of Cinder (he is her co-host on their podcast Battletagged) and he was of course the best geared person there with damage to boot. There is no way that I wanted to do boomkin whilst he was there!

We kicked the raid off half an hour late, and then Assault went ok. Then we had Iron Reaver and a lot of bombs were going off. Ugh. But people focussed by the end and we were better. Then onto Kormrok.

Now this was interesting. We usually go green pool then orange pool, and have rogues and hunters getting the empowered ruins runes. However we had no rogues and one hunter so that was not a viable option. Kyxyn decided to try something different which was green pool then purple pool, which meant blobs would come.

Voe went on and and on about how easy it was. And I admit now, it was nice because it was something each person could control themselves rather than depend on the rune runners to get. However, Kyxyn didn't like it, and we had issues with tanks dying, so we ended up 5 healing it and on the last attempt we managed to get it. Phew.

After the raid Kyxyn wanted to have a chat. He was a bit demoralised by the attendance and the waiting and the dragging we had to do to get people to come. He was thinking perhaps we should stop doing mythics, and I can see why, but we still have the possibility to go further. People are expressing interest, and I think next week we will have a full group again. I really need to improve my DPS if I want to be useful to the raid, because we have a lot of healers at the moment.

Though it looks like a step backwards, people need to look at what we are getting. It is unreasonable to think that new entrants into the group will be as smooth and slick as those of us who have done it 10 times already. They will need gear and practice with the mechanics. Once they get it, we will advance. Both Deidria and Splatz are fast learners, and just need some tweaking with gear and raid awareness.

And yes having outsiders coming to the raid is also not ideal, but what if they are nice people? Walach was keen to come again, and I told Neuro that he could bring his mage next time, since his boomkin was overgearing what we were doing, and there was some concern with him bringing a lesser geared toon. But can't people see that there is nothing to be gained for him doing these bosses he had done 30+ times already? He knows the mechanics so it should be easy for him, and so he will unlikely die to mechanics but DPS will improve as gear improves. And if he brings a different toon there is a benefit for him - not everyone wants to come and help out of pure goodness and kindness of their heart! Sometimes I wish people would see beyond the numbers and look at the quallity of the raider and them doing mechanics - I saw that with Thor last week. But that's why I am the guild leader I suppose. Someone has to see the diamonds in the rough, and at least I will have the final say in the decision making.

If the group remains consistent, then we will get bosses down. I am not sure if we can do 2 days ever again, but if we do, then we might actually get somewhere. Patience is key. And fortunately for the guild I have that quality in spades.