The greatest thing that Blizzard did was nerf the content. The worst thing that Blizzard did was nerf the content.

It gives people a certain mindset when they burn through bosses only to hit the brick wall that is (insert last boss in tier). It’s not to say that the talent and skill isn’t there, but it does expose the mindset of people that say that they are willing to do what it takes from those who aren’t.

Your dream is that of a tortured tree, and I share your range of pain and frustration. But the upside is that you are on track and close to a kill!

The average number of pulls on Heroic Rag is 400+ – the fact that you are hitting Phase 4 means that it’s just a matter of clean up and tweaking.

Stay the course =)

P.S. Our magic number was 446. On the 446th pull of the boss, he died.
I wish you all the same!

I think a lot of people in our core group are put off by the sheer amount of wipes by other guilds, and by the fact that only 1 (!) 10man guild has downed him, while 26 other guilds are stuck at 6/7HM on this server (and its a pretty good server tbh).

I find myself telling our raiders to at least go into 4.3 having done a decent number of ‘serious’ tries, but i see ppl having this ‘lets-kill-him-on-normal-and-get-it-over-with” attitude, and so i find myself stuck between killing him on normal and getting flack from those who *do* want to try, and not killing him outright.

We actually have some ppl that are not signing up for the next night because they CBA to do heroic tries amongst this “we cant kill him anyway” state of mind (ofc they will say that they were sick of something, none actually admits outright that they dont want to do it)

.. i guess this number 300 you threw at us isn’t all that encouraging

I don’t think you’re cracking either. You’re just frustrated as hell because the fight has so many complicated jigsaw pieces that must be done really well AND the damn thing is so loooong. It’s hard to have every single person keep focus on one particular fight for hours at a time. As much as people intend and WANT to do it, there’s always that one (or three) people that just randomly zone out on you. Or you add a new guy and he’s just not clicking into it like the guy who just left. Or what-freaking-ever.

I definitely sympathize, and while I won’t even venture into dream interpretation, I will send you plenty of <3

I’ll start with the screaming.

From what I read of your blog, you get really frustrated but you use your blog as an outlet for your frustration. So you don’t go ranting and raving in guild or raid (maybe you do in officer) when what you want to do is yell at all your non attending guildies to turn up. Hence the screaming. Dreams and blogs are so similar I find – creative outlet, frustration outlet, and looking into yourself. So that’s why you are screaming. It sounds more like angry screaming in your dream rather than OMG excited screaming, am I right?

Five people may be the people you like the most, raid with the most, rely on the most, attend most regularly…. or 5 people to hit with unglyphed wildgrowth…. or maybe you should be trying 10 man?

I think the swimming pool with the competitive and push you to try harder nature from your younger days is an appropriate venue. I’m sure Rag is just as pushing and challenging as your swimming was then.

The white mat I would think implied a sanctuary, or perhaps a holy place. As in you are the only ones allowed there – the only ones pure enough allowed there, or good enough allowed there. Hey, I’m not trying to imply you think you are better than the others (I’m only trying to analyze!) but it MIGHT be you and your Boomkin trying harder than everyone else, or from your inside perspective being better than everyone else?

I only know Beru from the Blog, not in real life or in game. And what I read from Beru is that even though she gets frustrated with trying something she doesn’t give up, she keeps going at it. Beru loves WoW and will do something challenging, and will not be satisfied until she’s beaten it. If someone else can do it, then Beru will keep trying to do it. Probably the only way you will stop trying to kill Heroic Rag is if you quit WoW. Or maybe switch to 10s due to lack of attendance.

Sorry for the long reply!

As for “enjoyment”, there are certainly times I have fun with the fight and feel invigorated/challenged (i.e. phase 4 work, reaching a new learning plateau), but at a certain point (for me it was about the 250 pull mark) I find myself repeating the “no pain, no gain” mantra. Anyone that finishes this fight on 25s and tells you it was “fun” for the entirety of their time (hundreds of pulls) working on it is (as I said on twitter) a) in denial; b) lying to you; or 3) full of shit. At some point in their progression, I truly believe that everyone hates this fight.