Relevart the Kingslayer!

After numerous phase three attempts and a sub 1% wipe, we finally managed to down the Lich King last night a mere 1 minute before our raid was scheduled to end. Talk about procrastination folks! I'd like to thank and recognize all of the members that helped with this fight. But I'm lazy so I'll link the WoL report. Also needing mention because of the time they put in are Glib (Sin) and Acigo, who both put in some time to help us learn this fight and share in this victory as much as any of us there! Way to go Aumentare di Phoenix!

So, after a brief stint with ⟨Severed Ties⟩, I have decided to part ways due to conflicting views on raid leading. I have now joined another guild called ⟨Aumentare Di Phoenix⟩ or (roughly) Rising of the Phoenix!

This guild in not a casual guild. They are not a hardcore guild. They are (and I love this term) a compression guild. We raid two times a week. That's right, two! And they are successful to boot! The guild is formed around a core of very talented players that, like me, find themselves with less time to commit to raiding than they used to have. I'm thrilled to have found a guild that puts a heavy emphasis on being a keen edge, cutting through content efficiently and effectively. I see a great deal of potential in this guild and am honored to be able to play a role in there success!

Last night, I ran my first 10 man ICC with the guild. In one night, we cleared all the way to Sindragosa, including a first Valithria kill! The raid environment was jovial and relatively stress free. The success was great. I can truly say that I am pleased as pie to have landed at AdP for my home!

On a separate (but highly related) note, last night was one of my best Festergut parses. I would love to link the world of logs link but . . . .nobody was logging it!! Oh the misery I feel! I did manage to capture a screenshot of my DPS on Fester (I was really pleased with it)

I don't find myself wanting to blog about things other than theorycrafting very often, but I find myself compelled to say a little bit about motivation and success when it comes to raiding. Lately, I have had a lot of time off from raiding to work on other in-game achievements and I've had time to reflect on my raiding and my desire to raid.

Rewards. A great book to read about rewards is a book by Alfie Kohn, "Punished by Rewards". It's a book on the differences (and detriments) of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivational factors. I've recently asked myself "Self, why do you raid?" And myself answered "Several reasons, you silly myself! I raid for gear. I raid to win. I raid so that when people inspect me, they are impressed." So I pondered this and wondered if there was anything to the subconscious order of myself's response. Am I motivated by digital pixels that people can see and go "Oooooo!" or am I motivated by the challenge of the fight, the thrill of the struggle, the fast paced decision making, the jubilation of standing supreme over an encounter designed to test my skills and my groups synergy? The answer? I'm not really sure.

I found myself posting on my new guilds forums about achievements during fights. I posted strategy guides and video links of fights so we could progress. I did this so that the raids would go faster and more successfully. But did I ultimately do it so that we could start Hard Modes and I could get gear? Did I do it so that I would lead a guild into new content (to them) and look up to me? Again, I'm not really sure.

But I'd really like to hear from some of you. What motivates you in this game? Why do you log on to do what you do? Has that motivation been increasing lately or decreasing lately? Tell me!

Hello, and welcome to my little blog! If you've stumbled here by accident, feel free to browse around and. . . oh look! This is the first post! I guess there's not much else to see but while this project is under construction, I will continue to put up new posts.

So a little about myself: I am a balance druid in one of the top guilds on Malfurion. We just downed Yogg-Saron and are about to engage the hard modes of all the Ulduar bosses. I'm one of those nosy types that likes to know why things work the way they do. I'm also a perfectionist so I try to maximize my characters abilities and functions in a raid. I currently use a solar rotation for the majority of the boss fights.

You're likely to find my musings on the balance druids' role in raids and PvP (to a much lesser extent) as well as some mild theory crafting about best-in-slot gear and maximizing DPS. I hope this place will be useful to some but be warned, it serves best as a place for me to jot down my often misguided thoughts about how WoW works.