Ulduar 10 Proto Drake Group (Sunday Afternoons)

[Inori]

Now that football season has come to a close, Sundays should be more open. I'm putting together a group to do the Ulduar 10 hard modes and annoying achievements for the rusted proto drake. Below are the rules and a FAQ in no particular order.

1) The raid will be on Sundays from 3 PM to 7 PM.
2) Why does it start at 3 PM? Some people are interested in the fishing tournament and I don't want them to have to choose.
3) Why does it end at 7 PM? Four hours is a pretty hefty chunk of time. I also want there to be a gap so that people can grab dinner before their Sunday night ICC10 group.
4) Why can't you run it in the evenings? I don't want to interfere with any of the ICC10 groups.
5) Why not ToGC10? The way I see it, the mount can be used in Cataclysm and beyond. In order to get something enduring from ToGC10, you have to build a gearset that is < iLvl 244 in order to get the title. Speaking for myself, I sharded a lot of my iLvl 232 gear, so going back to build a set for dedicated tribute to insanity is going to be a pain.
6) Why did you invite everyone in the guild? I don't have the time to sit here and figure out who to invite and who not to invite. I'd rather figure out the pool of available players and do the sorting via confirmation/standby.
7) So who are you going to pick? This is going to be a little long winded, so I'll break it out into several bullets.

8) I'm going to build the group around flexible raid structure. That means two tanks, two dedicated healers, one hybrid healer (so we can 3 heal fights if needed), and a mix of ranged and melee DPS. I'm going to try to get a meaningful mix of buffs, but I'm not going to freak out if we're missing something. Do I absolutely need a shaman for heroism -- no. Why? You guys are in iLvl 251 gear, not iLvl 226 gear which this instance was tuned for. Do I absolutely need a paladin for kings -- no. Why? You guys are in iLvl 251 gear, not iLvl 226 gear. Do I need one or the other for resistance aura/totem -- maybe. If worse comes to worse, I can bring in my paladin for aura on fights that need it (e.g., Hodir).
9) Twenty people hit accept on the calendar invite; who are you going to pick? I will largely pick people based on reputation for excellent raid/group performance. What does that mean? Even though we will outgear Ulduar 10, the fights require good execution and situational awareness. If I seem to always notice you standing in fire in raids (25 man or 10 man) or heroics (5 man), it leaves an impression in my mind that you're not paying attention and it will lower my inclination to invite you to the Ulduar 10 group. If I seem to notice you DPSing blindly (e.g., a lot of times on Marrowgar trash, it ends up being a melee DPS who runs a mile from the mob over to me to break me out of web wraps when all of the ranged DPS are still going pew pew on the mobs), it leaves an impression in my mind that you're not paying attention and it will lower my inclination to invite you. If you always seem to be lost on encounters (making a mistake every once in a while is fine; making mistakes all the time is bad), it leaves an impression in my mind that you won't be able to handle dynamic encounters like Firefighter and it will lower my inclination to invite you.

10) For successive weeks, invite priority will be given to people who were present the prior two weeks. Why two weeks? I don't want people freaking out if they have to run an errand on a weekend every once in a while. How will you pick between the person who was there the week before and the person who filled in for them the week after (each has 1 week credit)? I will pick based upon who I think will do a better job for the current week. I want to have a consistent group going so that we don't waste time rehashing strategies or bringing someone new up to speed.
11) Are you going to play favorites when doing invites? No. That's why I put rule 9 in place so that I have something concrete to go by. Ideally, I'd like to have the same 10 people in there week after week, but beyond that, I'm going to make decisions based on what I think will get the raids done.
12) Player XYZ got confirmed for the invite, but I was put on standby -- I'm way better than that guy, are you sure you're not playing favorites? Maybe. I run a lot of 5 man heroics with a lot of people in guild. I see people in 25 man raids and in 10 man raids. The old metric I used to use was, "Would I want that person with me doing Sartharion 3D the right way?". That metric may be hard for people to relate to now, but I do build impressions of players as I play with them (sort of like how you can step out of a PUG and say, "Boy, that tank really sucked." or, "Wow, that healer was really good.").

13) Are you going to push the raid ID? I'm not planning to. See the raid itinerary below.
14) Raid Itinerary:
Week 1:
Flame Leviathan - 1 to 2 attempts at four towers; zero towers if we're bad.
XT Deconstructor - 1 attempt at heartbreaker; regular mode if we're bad or fail to push into hard mode.
Kologarn - 1 attempt at disarmed; not going to wipe it if we mess up.
Auriaya - 1 attempt at crazy cat lady; not going to wipe it if we accidentally kill one.
Thorim - Multiple attempts at hard mode; go to normal mode if no progress in 1 hour.
Freya - Normal mode.
Mimiron - Normal mode.
Hodir - Multiple attempts at hard mode; go to normal mode if 6 PM.
Vezzax - 1 attempt at hard mode if there's a lot of time until 7 PM.
Yogg - 1 attempt at one light if there's a lot of time until 7 PM.
15) My goal is to have a Yogg Saron kill every week. The itinerary for week 1 is arranged so that we can figure out just how fast we can do a full clear skipping optional bosses. Based on that, we can allocate more or less time to hard modes on week 2.
16) I want to get multiple normal kills of Freya, Mimiron, Vezzax, and Yogg Saron before stepping up to those hard modes. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are out of practice and we'll need to do those fights super clean on normal mode before entertaining changing them up to hard mode.
17) My plan is to rotate through the hard modes so that if someone misses the Firefighter kill for example, we'll rotate back to doing Firefighter in 2-4 weeks. Ideally, if the same 10 people attend every week, we won't have anyone miss a kill. Since this is an unreasonable expectation, I want people who are filling in to know that they will get a chance to finish their mount since we will loop the raid itinerary every 2-4 weeks.
18) What about loot? Don't hit DE. Need main, greed offspec. I know that there are a few miscellaneous items (e.g., stamina tanking trinket off of Yogg) that people may actually use in ICC25, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of stuff will get sharded.
19) Can I bring my alt? Generally, no. Since my goal is a Yogg kill every week, we can't sit around wiping or slowly clearing trash because people are bringing in undergeared alts.
20) What if my alt is geared as well as my main? Maybe. It will depend on the raid makeup and if we have any glaring holes (e.g., our usual OT can't make it). Note that since my alt is a paladin, I don't foresee us having tank trouble or resistance aura trouble since I can fill in for that role if needed. I will be mildly upset if I miss the drake on my priest because my paladin has to fill in regularly, but meh.
21) Why do you want the rusted proto drake when you already have the 310% speed violet proto drake? Violet looks dumb.

-HP

[Blue]

I'm willing to give it a try with boogs, I'm now specced MM/Surv ( got tired of farming Skoll). and if needed I can bring Stank ( Prot/Arms)
I have spent very little time in Uld but will read up on fights and watch video's.

[thandrenn]

Afternoons? Bleh. I'd sacrifice an ICC run for this

[WarmApplePie]

I hit accept on my DK but only because my shaman didn't get an invite. I have experience on all hardmodes except Firefighter and Yogg. I also have experience on Algalon including the achievement "He Feeds On Your Tears."

Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10player)
Orbit-uary
X Stokin' the Furnace
Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare
X Heartbreaker
X I Choose You, Steelbreaker
X Disarmed
X Crazy Cat Lady
X I Could Say That This Cache Was Rare
X Lose Your Illusion
Firefighter
Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood
One Light in the Darkness
I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... h&cn=Wapau

[Inori]

Since the raid weekly is sometimes Ulduar, I will do the raid confirmations after the 25 man raid on Thursday. That does mean that those who want to do the raid weekly and attend the proto drake run may have to forego Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday night Ulduar 10s until they see if they're confirmed or not.

-HP

[chris]

I can start running these after the Vday weekend if you need a tank.

[Inori]

Week 1 Roster (I have computed this as of Thursday 2/11 evening):

Paladin MT: Arnold
Druid OT: Vegimity
Mage DPS: Kdub, Theanchor
Warlock DPS: Rathrbdrinkn
Hunter DPS: Shootinboogs
Priest Healer: Inori
Shaman Healer: Wapau
Open Slots = 2

I have contacted most of the above people in game to confirm that they haven't locked themselves to Ulduar 10 yet and have set their calendar invites to confirmed.

Mage Standby: Donnandra, Hassa

I want to get a hold of the two standby people in game, but in case they only see the forum. I have presently set them to standby because I am hoping one or two more healers will be available on Sunday (with one more healer, Jim can be DPS for fights that can be 2 healed, with two more healers, I can be DPS for fights that can be 2 healed). If you will have a problem getting your raid weekly done after Sunday (e.g., you missed the guild 25 on Tuesday and you can't play on Mondays), let me know so I can put you as out for this week's attempt. I don't want you to miss out on 5 frost emblems because I had you on standby -- get into a Friday or Saturday Ulduar 10 and get it done. If you are able to be on standby status until Sunday, that would be great, but definitely don't miss out on your raid weekly quest.

Thanks.

-HP

[Jon]

I'd be glad to be a healer/dps standby for this on my druid. I have relatives in town for a few weeks visiting the newborn but I will coordinate to see if I can join up for some raids.