Remember how I stopped leading a regular ICC10 because I couldn't commit to a regular schedule, and because a consistent group had never shown up?
Well, looky here!
1) In which I was once again a reluctant RL - but got lucky
So, on Saturday I found myself at home (as opposed to out of town), not busy and able to log on. I decided to hop on my shammy and maybe do a VOA or something low key. Moments after logging on, a couple of guildies whispered me asking if I was going to do anything or form a group. I replied, "I really don't want to lead anything, so I think I'll just mess around a bit." I heeded the Dalaran call for a healer for VOA 25, and while preparing to kill Toravan more guildies /whispered me that one of the newer mages in the guild was putting together a group for ICC10. They said, "it looks pretty good." I said I'd be willing to heal it after Toravon, and joined a full group as soon as Mr T was dead.
Group composition:
Heals: shammy healer (myself/alt), holy pally (pug), holy priest (pug)
Tanks: bear (guild raider/offspec), protadin (pug)
DPS: rogue (guild nonraider/alt), rettie (pug), mage (raider/main spec), warlock (pug), spriest (pug)
Well, I've seen this before. One main raider, the rest alt/offspecs/pugs, and it usually doesn't end well... still, I'm here on my resto shammy, just gonna have fun.
Zoning, in, getting asked for vent info. I hit my macro button, and see who hops on vent. Eventually, the mage who formed the raid gets in vent, but no one can hear him.... uh oh. He rages in /raid about his new $50 mike, and silence ensues.... who's gonna RL now?
*eyes swivel to Hine*
Oh.
Oh no. I said I didn't wanna *cry*
*cringe*
Oh, okay. *sigh*
So, we clear trash uneventfully, and after brief discussion decide to just do normal mode ICC10 given the pug nature of the group, fortunately inspection reveals that at least everyone is reasonably well geared.
Surprisingly, Marrowgar is one-shot, nobody dies, everyone seems to know their role, and even the dps all seem competent! (all over 7k dps for the fight). Hmmm, might not be so bad after all!
Lady Deathwhisper was smoooth, even when half the group hadn't heard of the initial strategy of starting on the stage behind LDW.
Gunship? We toyed with doing On a Boat before cooler heads prevailed and we toyed with the Lootship normally.
A couple of hours later, we sat in front of Sindragosa, having one-shot every boss. Wow, everyone was commenting on how this pug was better than most guild runs. But, I thought, Sindragosa is where pugs come to die. Especially when the tank admitted he hadn't completed the fight. Taking a deep breath, I explained the fight to those who hadn't done it before. Then, we killed the mini-drakes and pulled Sindra...... and one-shot her too!
I think most of us had trouble scooping our jaws off the floor for 5 minutes afterward, even as we ported to the room of the infamous Lich King.
Now, here is where the happy story ends, but make no mistake. It IS a happy story. Just because we came back the next night - replacing only the warlock - and wiped on LK for the duration, it felt good to clear 11/12 ICC in a pug, and even have the confidence that this group can kill LK next time around.
I clearly had very little to do with it. The group somehow had a full complement of competent and decently geared pugs, and everyone quickly adopted their assigned roles even if they hadn't done it before. I can claim very little credit. Maybe the mage has some raid-forming mojo. I don't know, but in any case it was fun. We'll see what happens next week.
2. In Which I get Lucky Again.
Over the past week there had been several threads in guild forums by newer members looking for a regular ICC10 group. Unfortunately I still find myself unable to commit to any raid times outside of what is already scheduled. And then I had an idea. We're still raiding 4 nights a week, and it's an unusual week where we don't call a raid or two early, or even have Monday off when we're done with all current content. So, why not plan to run a 10-man ONLY when raid is called early? What a concept! In forums, several had trouble with how this might work. I clarified that mains and alts are acceptable, as long as the alt is well-geared. These raids would not be about getting gear. They would be about getting the achievements required for the mount. Enthusiasm was surprisingly relatively high.
Monday, the only thing left was TOGC and that lasted about an hour. So, announcing in vent I would be doing the 'standby' 10-man (I'll have to come up with a good name for it - but this won't be the Tard Ten reincarnated), I quickly had more people than I could take along, competent raiders all. In fact, the co-GMs, an officer, and several of the more-skilled raiders brought toons. Thus, it was with confidence that we entered ICC10, and proceeded to fairly quickly and efficiently kill most of the first two wings on heroic, while doing several achievements. Not bad for 'filling in' a raid during regular raid time!
3. Maybe, just maybe.....
This might work. One can only hope.... :)
