MoP Wishful Thinking List

[TeaLeaf]

Had a PM from Siff this morning and he'll not be raiding in MoP.  I think he wants to, but work & RL issues are limiting his time.

This puts real pressure on our healer camp which is now down to 3: Jas, Slush, Puja, (Amber not included).  So the question is, do we need another paladin?

Protector: Hunter, Monk, Shaman, Warrior (4)
Conqueror: Paladin, Priest, Warlock (3)
Vanquisher: Death Knight, Druid, Mage, Rogue (4)

Protector: Slush, Puja, Hubbah, Ayla, Guru (5)
Conqueror: Whytee, Halbarad, Teaell, Jesung (4)
Vanquisher: Jas, Maldaror, Incendia, Zaul (4)

I'm guessing that with 2 paladin tanks the majority of the time we'll be ok without another paladin.

A disc priest would be nice, but we're also not locked into that as I can play that as an offspec spec on an 'as needed' basis.  

One alternative route might be to use this as an opportunity to get a Monk healer into the group as from what I have seen these should be seriously valuable come MoP.   We could either recruit an unknown for this, or get someone to re-roll to this class: Incendia springs to mind as he is always offering to do whatever it takes for the guild re classes.   We already have 2 mages, so this would help solve another class balance issue and we could look to recruit a boomkin to fill that open spot.  

I'd quite fancy a go at monk healing, but it would hurt my ability to operate as a raid leader and therefore I am not convinced that's the correct route for the team.

Tricky decision, but we need to agree our approach before approaching Amber with the bad news.

What say yee?

[Whitey]

It would be nice to fill the healing void from inside as it'll probably be easier to recruit a good dps than a healer.  We also have people lined up to play their 2nd choice (Ayla would rather heal, Puja would rather dps).  Zaul isn't really working out in dps but I can't remember him having the issues on his pally (other than not listening properly).  Would a 3 way shuffle help at all?  Zaul to Tirkad, Puja to melee, Ayla to Heals and get a boomkin in on dps?  I know Milli likes playing his priest so that would be another healing option, he might be up for levelling a monk healer but that could take a few weeks after MoP hits.  

Just throwing some thoughts out there that may or may not have merit.  We should discuss before/after Sundays raid.

[JonnyAppleSeed]

The worst part of tess no being in for mop means we cant use the class re balance as a reason for the amber change.

[TeaLeaf]

Yep, we talked a bit about that strategy the other night and realised it might backfire on us if we did, so I think we might just need to bite the bullet.   I'd like us to have a chat about how we fulfill the healer spots though first, we need to decide what we're going to fill the spot with as there are several options.

[TeaLeaf]

Amber discussion happened tonight - well done Jas.  

Amber will go to RGW in MoP.

[TeaLeaf]

List updated:

Tanks:
Whytee
Halbarad

Healers:
Jas
Slush
Puja
?

Melee DPS:
Zaul
Guru

Ranged DPS:
Teaell
Maldaror
Jesung
Hubbah
Incendia (open to re-roll)
Ayla


Protector: Hunter, Monk, Shaman, Warrior (4 classes)
Conqueror: Paladin, Priest, Warlock (3 classes)
Vanquisher: Death Knight, Druid, Mage, Rogue (4 classes)

Protector: Slush, Puja, Hubbah, Ayla, Guru (5)
Conqueror: Whytee, Halbarad, Teaell, Jesung (4)
Vanquisher: Jas, Maldaror, Incendia, Zaul (4)


Melee
Zaul either passes or fails as a DK, there is no option to have him in as a healer.  We really need the melee dps to have a tank offspec so there is no option for Puja to go enhancement.

Healer
One idea is that we talk to Incendia and ask him to re-roll to Monk.  We can take him on the priest initially if he prefers, but the aim would be to use him as a healer asap and get him into the raid.  The major downside to this is then we end up with a massive number of Protector token classes.

A better idea was to offer one of the shaman the opportunity to re-roll as a monk.  We'll send a PM to the shaman and see what they want to do.

This latter choice would then allow Incenedia to re-roll boomkin if he wanted.

[TeaLeaf]

Proposed PM for shaman:

Hello Ayla, Puja & Slush

Firstly, may I ask you treat this PM as totally confidential.  

DMR Council have good reason for wishing to keep this information private at the moment and would be grateful if you could respect these wishes and not discuss the content of this PM with anyone other than DMR Council and each other (no in-game or TS chat others may see/hear please!).

DMR Council have been putting a lot of work into preparing for MoP and making sure we have the right numbers in each class and token group to ensure that we make good & swift raid progress when MoP launches.   We've concluded that we want to see a Mistweaver (healer) monk in the RGT raid team as they are looking very strong in Beta and Blizzard will almost certainly design content which will showcase their abilities in the new raid content.  For your information, Monk will be joining the Protector tier token group which is currently just Warrior, Hunter, Shaman.  

We do not want to recruit a Monk as this would make the body count in the Protector group too high - currently it holds 5 people and 6 would be crazy.  So we wanted to ask you if one of you wanted to re-roll to Mistweaver Monk for MoP.  

We appreciate that this will mean levelling a toon from scratch, but feel that the benefits will be substantial.  We also feel that with the current XP gains when levelling in older content should mean that reaching L90 quickly on a Monk should not take too long, especially when you would have the support & help of the raid group when gearing up.

Our intention is for RGT to go into MoP with 4 healers and the monk question is the last we need to resolve before MoP arrives.  We really want one of these 4 to be a Mistweaver Monk and would be delighted if one of you accepted the challenge of rolling & mastering a new class for MoP.  This would be the only Monk in the RGT raid team.

Please have a think about this and let us know if it is of interest so that we can bring our MoP planning to fruition.      

[TeaLeaf]

Incendia is happy to roll a Boomkin so will do for MoP.   We have offered him the opportunity to join RGT runs on the boomkin for the first 5 bosses if the group allows.

[TeaLeaf]

Slush & Puja are a No.  

Spoke to Ayla and she wants to do ti to get back to healing.  Spent some time talking through class and she is excited by the opportunity.

[TeaLeaf]

List updated:

Tanks: - FULL
Whytee
Halbarad

Healers: - FULL
Jas
Slush
Puja
Ayla (interested in rolling mistweaver for us)

Melee DPS: - FULL
Zaul
Guru

Ranged DPS: - FULL
Teaell
Maldaror
Jesung
Hubbah
Mílly (re-rolled boomkin as per our offer)
?(potentially free if we want to push another ranged into the camp)


Tier Token splits:

Protector: Slush, Puja, Hubbah, Ayla, Guru (5)
Conqueror: Whytee, Halbarad, Teaell, Jesung (4)
Vanquisher: Jas, Maldaror, Mílly, Zaul (4)

[TeaLeaf]

I think that there is enough info out there now and we have spoken to enough people that we need to start making formal announcements as to what is happening.  If we don't then someone will accidentally mention something anyway and I'd rather we kept ahead of the rumour mills.   How's about this for a draft:

As has been well publicised on these forums, the DMR Council has been working hard behind the scenes trying to prepare both RGT & RGW for successful MoP raiding when the expansion launches in September.   We've also been trying to work out how minimise some of the tier token class balance problems we have seen and the amount of raid-queue time some roles have had to endure (notably for healers in RGT).

We're delighted to say that we're reaching the end of these preparations and can announce the following:

RGT:
RGT will be entering MoP with a smaller group than we had in Cataclysm and with a very much improved tier token balance.  

Tanks:
Whytee - prot paladin
Halbarad - prot paladin

Healers:
Jas - resto druid
Slush - resto shaman
Puja - resto shaman
Ayla - mistweaver monk

Melee DPS:
Zaul - UH DK
Guru - arms warrior

Ranged DPS:
Teaell - shadow priest
Maldaror - mage
Jesung - warlock
Hubbah - hunter
Mílly - boomkin

This means the tier token groups will have very equal numbers: Protector(5), Conqueror(4), Vanquisher(4).  This much improved balance should help us no end in MoP by increasing the average gear-up rate for each member and this in turn can only improve our chances of good raid progress.  We'd like to thank both Incendia (Milly) and Ayla for accepting re-roll challenges in MoP that will help us achieve this balance.

It is with regret that not all current RGT members will have a raid spot in MoP.    Notably the healer camp has had to be reduced in size to accommodate both an improved tier token balance and reduced 'out of instance' time.   In particular we would like to single out & give special thanks to Amberleigh who has agreed to join RGW to allow RGT to achieve the raid size reduction and tier token group balance improvements.   Amber's significant raid experience with RGT will be a welcome addition to RGW and will provide increased strength and stability for what we hope will be an even stronger RGW raid group in MoP.  RGW have typically raided without a priest so it will make a nice change to have full priest buffs and raidwalls!  We'd also like to thank Tessy who is retiring from raiding at the end of Cataclysm due to RL time constraints.

RGT is now officially 'Ready for MoP Raiding' and we can't wait for the expansion to go Live.

Similar work is underway for DMR's RGW raid group and more information will follow shortly once we have spoken to the people concerned and finalised plans.   Watch this space!

We then need to rapidly push through on RGW's plans, finalise & announce them.  This will give players 4 weeks or so notice before MoP hits which I think is about right.

[JonnyAppleSeed]

Its looking good .....

I would give it a few days (mainly for amber to get his feet under the rgw table) then go live

[TeaLeaf]

Posted as per Jas tonight.

[TeaLeaf]

With Mal stepping down (as per the PM I forwarded), we need another mage.

It would be nice to offer it to Milli, but tbh he seems excited to do boomkin and it's easier to find a mage than it is a boomkin.  Still, I'm tempted to just check with him out of courtesy before recruiting a mage.   That seem fair to y'all?

[Michelanio]

aye, that seems fair