To give a little perspective, currently my raiding guild does not do much when it comes to normal and heroic content during SOO. The guild I belong to has more 'mature' members, with many of them having other hobbies that keep them busy. One is a writer, a couple do lots of travelling for work etc.
One of the things I have found as I've geared my two raiding toons (Hunter, Arms Warrior) is that without the benefits of a weekly Seige of Orgrimmar raiding run I have had to run many many MANY flex and looking for raid runs to get a high gear level. This has given me lots of practice with my rotation and knowledge of the fights.
Now understand this isn't to toot my own horn. This idea that I have a relatively high gear level and have worked to obtain it will set the tone for what I'm about to speak about. Having a discussion with a fellow guild member about the pitfalls of running LFR one item came up to mind. Just how much carrying there is in flux and looking for raid runs. We had slightly differing opinions on just how much personal responsibility should be taken when it comes to be geared for the next step in the progression. Currently the progression goes LFR-Flex-Normal-Heroic. In theory, this has people running LFR runs until they are able to hold up on most of the fights and contribute. Some will draw that line at 100k and others have no problem with lowering this bar significantly. Tanks have to be able to survive and healers should be throwing out decent numbers to be able to keep up with the rest of the raid.
But anyone who has run flex lately can see that there is a stiff drop in some of the players. Some fights provide monster numbers on trash (cleave arms warriors rule, multi mob fights) but put us in the Thok fight and most melee has significantly lower numbers. Many of these questions about who is carrying who has to be taken with an overall view of a run.
Let's take for instance a Flex 2 run. The first two bosses can a lot of stand up and fight moments. Little movement is necessary on the first two fights other than repositioning. Both fights contain single target and multi targeting moments. This gives a good baseline on what a raid member can bring to the party.
For me, I like a baseline for Flex of around 75k (my guild mate argued at 100k). Anything less than 50k and someone is being carried through the fight. Having spent some time in flex with multiple toons I understand that trash doesn't count. You can beef up your numbers and look awesome, but when the boss hits the numbers drop significantly. This is where most people's kick button starts to get itchy. It becomes too easy to blame DPS for not being high enough. Or heals to not being high enough etc. Tanks take the most abuse in flex, which has caused them to be more picky and more scarce. Why run as a tank and take abuse when you can run as a dps, get carried and then get the same tank gear?
One of my biggest 'carry me' moments I have seen has happened through a friends guild. I went along with a friend of mines guild for a weekly run. Their raid leader asked what everyone else wanted to do. Their progression had Normal 1 and Normal, 2 on the farm. The raid leader chirped out and said that, let's try wing 3. Feeling a little froggy I jumped and started looking at any changes. The cringe in my heart happened when the raider leader and many others said they had never been in wing 3 even on LFR and flex. I knew I was going to be facing a large repair bill right then and there. The bosses in wing three can be the most demanding and unforgiving when it comes to tactics. You can get away with one mistake with higher level gear, but two mistakes and everyone are running back and resetting. After an hour and a half of dying over and over again, it was obvious that no progress was going to happen today. I mumbled to a online friend over what happened and how a few lfr/flex runs would give them the tools to be much more successful. Basic knowledge is a prerequisite to being successful
All of this becomes concerned with the changes that will be happening with Warlords of Draenor. Flex will be the new normal, with bosses and difficulty scaling to the amount of players in a raid. Blizzard revamping the group finding system and the LFR system to allow much more selective choice when it comes to what players come to the show. LFR will still be the default gear grinds and learn the tactics. The looking for group/flex runs will be the bread and butter learning the tactics and how to raid successfully Truly, I'm hoping that Blizzard adds a part that requires players to run LFR at least once to open up the next wings. It will irritate the hardcore raiders, but save a lot of heartache and frustration for your normal readers who become annoyed with carrying the unprepared players.
Now that my Soapbox is a little dented with some stomping. Let's get out there and enjoy the upcoming weeks of the Seige of Orgrimmar. Don't worry brother, I will still carry you. Just Bring Noodles.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbear @ gmail. Dot com or find me on twitter at "@JMTCMommar" You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up, and I will buy you a glass of juice.
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