I Was Not Prepared

...to start heroic modes this week, since I still haven't killed Garrosh on 10m and was expecting at least another week of normal, but no such luck.

Heroic Immerseus actually seems like a fun fight and I was actually enjoying the challenge by the end of the raid; it was just that I started behind the 8 ball by a) not having read up on heroic abilities; b) starting half an hour of attempts behind everyone else (I was expecting to be late, so they had a replacement in for me until I got there); and c) being informed by the other hunter that since our planned placement was quite far back from the boss, I should go Survival because our pets would likely despawn - a spec I hadn't played for awhile.

As it turned out, I realised after a few attempts that Blink Strikes was the pet problem - we had switched talents due to A Murder of Crows apparently being buggy and giving too many stacks of Corruption, but Blink Strikes was then automatically putting our pets too far behind the boss and into despawn range. Switching out for Lynx Rush seemed much better.

Unfortunately by the time I was comfortable with the fight, a lot of others were probably getting tired. I can see him going down possibly next week if we can pull it together - it doesn't look like a difficult fight as long as we all stay alive!

The November Catch-up

I've been away for a month due to work and holidays, so I missed quite a bit, including my guild's Garrosh kill last week. My first raid was last night; I was pleased to see that I hadn't got too far behind in gear, DPS or experience, although I unfortunately can't make the Garrosh fight this week either.

I've also scanned the planned hunter changes for the new expansion, Warlords of Draenor, and have the following comments:

1. Boo to 20man raids - I agree it's a good idea for the progression race for top guilds and for ease of balancing fights... but try and recruit (and keep) 20 people for an average guild with people who have the ability and will to do heroics but not enough people who want to leave their friends' guild for another, and there's a problem.
2. Yay to the proposed With or Without You talent - the "BM since beta" in me is crying for all those unused pets, but the WC3 dark ranger wannabe is quietly cheering.
3. Yay for BoA toys and heirlooms - my bank is going to be half emptied. More room for bows! :)
4. Yay for a Level 90 boost - but I really don't know which class to pick! A healer on Proudmoore would make the most sense so that I can supplement my hunter with professions and also help guildies out with old content etc... but my druid is already 90 and Blackrock Horde. My disc priest is 85 and it seems a waste to use it on 5 levels. Do I want another druid? Another priest? Pick something different and try out a shaman? What if I don't end up liking shaman healing? Risk a monk even though they're melee, I've never tried them and I'll probably hate it?
5. Wonder if people will still want hunters to kite Drakk in heroic UBRS? :P

As for the rest of it... I'm not particularly fussed either way. I've noticed a number of my old guildies coming back out of the woodworks, so perhaps it has renewed some interest... I wouldn't hold my breath for them to come back and raid though; in the past they haven't stuck around all that long!