OK SO A BIT RUSHED BUT BROAD INTENT IS BELOW - WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOMETHING FROM CONS ABOUT THE ALT OR BANK RUNS AS WELL ON A FRIDAY (OR WHENEVER).  FEEL FREE TO RED PEN/THANK PEOPLE IVE FORGOTTEN ETC. OR ADD TOPICS I'VE MISSED.





So after what feels like a gargantuan effort we’ve kept on track for achieving all CE achievements throughout this Expansion.  Without a doubt, there have been ups and downs but I don’t think you can argue its not been a tough Tier in terms of boss difficulty.  That being said we ‘lost our progress’ mid-tier opposed to end tier.  Maiden, Avatar and even KJ were pretty consistent for a lot of guilds in terms of weeks spent to kill.



For those new to the guild at the end of each Tier we like to review what worked and what didn’t (its important you learn from both) so we can improve for the forth coming Tier.  I will start with Strengths, Weaknesses and then Actions we’ve taken as a result opposed to mixing it all together, and so with that in mind lets jump straight in.



Strengths



Healer and Off/Alt tank depth.  I think its safe to say that having Preust, Supson, Lamp, Zendero and even Stylo on occasion stepping up as a healer or tank respectively has been fundamental in enabling us to clear this Tier.  Its something were keen to retain going into Antorus and healer wise I think that’s covered (Lamp close your Owl ears) with the same 3 playing dps.  Tank wise we lent to heavily (too heavily) on Zendero and that eventually broke him (as it would playing pretty much an entire Tier as your offspec).  So a big thank you to everyone who maintains a viable offspec and can or did play it when needed and specifically to those who embraced it enough for us to get some bosses down.



DPS – in terms of raw numbers we are up there with a lot of top guilds.  With the focus being to kill a boss in the first instance opposed to logging well it was good to see us still being competitive on execution kills (see Avatar and even the first KJ kill).  After a few ‘conversations’ with people it was also good to see people ‘re-focus’ on the mechanics opposed to numbers or cheesing.



The Guild.  We have a solid core and the additions over the Tier I think have settled in well and all in all I hope/think/believe we have a good atmosphere with minimal amounts of drama.



Weaknesses



Tanking – Its not a direct criticism of anyone (it may be indirectly) but we started this Tier with a tank not fit for purposes and I think its safe to say we never truly resolved this, relying too heavily on Zendero or with the tanks making too many mistakes/blaming others.  We’ve never quite replaced Erusar with an equally capable tank (and if your reading this Erusar let me know when you’ve quit work to ensure you don’t spend weeks away! And don’t let it go to your head!).



Healing – Our spot healing has cost us heavily this Tier.  Its not been good enough and that became screamingly obvious on the bosses we lost time on.  We struggled on Goroth (healing the 3 people with the dot tick) and Sisters of the Moon (having to 6 heal it).  Raid and AOE healing isn’t hard and lacks any real skill whereas  pre-empting incoming damage or having big incoming heals on someone low asap is key.



Actions



Its important when considering the above and how you review and learn from them illustrates that the Officer team do a lot of work behind the scenes and are continuingly trying to improve.  A lot of what is going to be described below was being ‘designed/setup’ mid-way through the Tier to try and mitigate a reoccurrence in Antorus.  So with that in mind as well a big thank you to the officer team as well for all the effort that goes on long after raid has finished …. And during work hours!



Tanking – We’ve recruited Nkechi as our new MT in conjunction with Nim.  Historically we’ve been pressed into recruiting a tank with either a short notice intent to quit or someone not being up to scratch.  A lot of time went into getting the right person opposed to a tank that was at comparative or higher progression than ourselves.  So whilst Nkechi isn’t 7+ Mythic ToS bosses dead we believe he is a highly capable tank (provided his missus doesn’t drag him back to Alliance!).  If we can get the tanking team stable I think that’s a big battle covered.  What this does leave us with though is a set person or persons (ideally 1-2) who are willing to be the primary back up tanks.  I’m effectively therefore asking for any capable class/person who on the basis its not going to be a regular thing (Zendero I can hear laughing at this point) is willing to be our back up tank to get in touch with an officer.



Healers – Juicy is re-rolling to his Paladin and I think KJ illustrates he can’t dodge Orbs to save his life – opps, I mean to say he can heal the adds good!  In conjunction with that we’ve recruited Tolokokoko who stepped straight into Mythic KJ progression with us on 300+ pulls and he took to it like a duck to water.  Of course appreciating people quitting etc. I’m happy the healing team is now a solid set of players and a nice balance of classes with the depth in back up to give us options.



DPS – As with any Tier transition people suffer from burnout, real life situations etc. and to that end we should be heading into Antorus with about 25-26 active raiders (a mixture of trials and members etc.).  We started ToS with approximately 30 and it was too many so we are trying to keep the roster a bit more trim but hopefully a bit more effective.  We will continue to ‘monitor’ DPS focussing on the mechanics but we should be in a good spot for the immediate future.



Loot – Moving to Loot Council has been something we thought about early in ToS but didn’t feel it right to change mid-Tier for hopefully obvious reasons.  I can’t promise we will get it right all the time as it will be a learning curve for all involved.  However, that being said it should better ensure the guild benefits from loot opposed to someone with high EP and wanting a 5-10 ilevel Titanforge upgrade (C9) opposed to it going to someone it would be a 30 ilevel upgrade.  More information/transparency on all this (addons, etc.) will follow next week.



 All in all its been a successful Tier – I think we have the core to be better than we finished but those 2 key aspects related to our Tanks, and the Healing held us back a fair few resets.  If anyone feels there are other aspects we could do better/or worked well feel free to let us know.



Again a thank you to everyone who contributed to us raiding this Tier whatever the stage, and lets roll on into Antorus!!!