Apotheosis went 4/8 HM in 25-man Dragon Soul last night, with Heroic Warlord Zon’ozz dead. (Warlocks wanted, apply now!)
As I was making the kill shot, I realized something startling. Of the 25 people in for the kill, precisely two of us were in Apotheosis back in Burning Crusade: myself and Majik.
That’s not to say I didn’t meet a bunch of these people in Wrath: Chronis, Kal, Merk and Walks were all people I raided with during Wrath of the Lich King.
And that’s not to say that there aren’t some long-time Cataclysm-era members in that kill shot, either: most of the people in for the kill have been with us for at least 7-8 months and people like Tikari and Srs have been here since before Cataclysm even dropped, while Shawnelle, Slout, Raymiee, Ludde and Sara have all been around since March.
It’s not even that there aren’t other people who weren’t around or in for the kill last night: Daey was unavailable and I had swapped Tia out in favour of getting people who aren’t stepping down some more face time with Zon’ozz.
But it’s startling to see how much turnover there’s been in just a year.
My starting healers: Myself, Walks, Kal, Dar, Hestiah, Kaleina, Legs, Num, O and Apple.
Of them, Apple and Legs stepped down shortly after we started raiding because they couldn’t find the time to hit minimum ilvls and other requirements. Kaleina similarly stopped raiding shortly after we started because she also wasn’t doing what was required. That left me with 7 healers. And of those 7, only three of us are raiding today.
This is typical of the turnover. And the crazy thing is that most of it isn’t even “hey, you’re progressing too slow, I’m out!”. Most of it is people getting increasingly disenchanted with the game. Most of it is boredom. I think we’ve had two people leave our guild for greener pastures. So many other people have just stopped playing due to RL stuff or boredom or burnout.
It was definitely startling to me to see only two “old-school” names in our kill shot last night, but I do want to admit that although I think there’s something significant about that turnover, I’ve long since stopped thinking of people as “old guildies” and “new guildies”. Old guildies are, to me, people who have been there more than three months. New guildies are less than that, generally.
Regardless of where we all were five years ago, we’re here *now*, learning encounters together, wiping together, cobbling together a victory from a very shaky pull, overcoming the odds as a team, as a group.
I started Apotheosis up again in Cataclysm, hoping to reunite with some old friends. That happened, as expected, but what I didn’t expect was the number of new people I would encounter, nor did I think I’d ever really get to know “the new people” as well as I did my old crew. I’m pleased to say I was wrong about that.
It’s a lovely thing to be able to look at the team that you have assembled and be proud of them. So even in these challenging times, where we’re having to do all KINDS of crazy acrobatics for soaking Hours of Twilight appropriately on Heroic Ultraxion (8% on our first night on him!), maybe even especially in these challenging times, I have to say I am incredibly proud to be a part of this talented group of individuals and incredibly humbled to be their leader.
Even when you’re the one who’s been working to find all the new raiders to replace each one who drops out, it’s startling to see the reality of the churn so starkly. Things just seem to blur together over the months, and before you know it, you’re had two or three times as many raiders go through your group as you’ve had raid spots at any given time.
8% on Ultraxion? There are a few things we found out that may be useful:
1) Have as many healers (other than the ones eating the blue) go inside the realm at the start of fight, while the rest of the raid blows bloodlust. That way the remainig healers can still use bloodlust during the latter part of the fight where healing is intensive. Bloodlust at the very first is useful because a) everyone is alive at first, and b) there are no fading lights until after the first Hour of Twilight, resulting in higher DPS uptime
2) Have your 2 holy paladins eat the blue buff…there’s a reason why holy paladins top all WoL Ultraxion fights. And you may also want to spam HR and only HR, anything else is a waste of GCD. Forget about the 3 unused holy power or even to judge/beacon! Just spread HR around everyone
3) Have every DPS pre-pot!!!! They should be ashamed of themselves if any DPS wouldn’t pre-pot in a DPS race to be very honest…
But in any case the next CD the bosses will be nerfed for 5% again so it shouldn’t matter i think. But in any case, good luck!