Hey guys,

I would like to request earlier kara and ZA runs (I want to run ZA too!). I need to get up super early in the morning and even 11pm (my time) is pushing it. Every ZA run I've seen has been for 9:30pm (again my time, that would be 8:30pm server time) Could we try to schedule a few runs for us folks that work early please? Either that or do it on the weekend. Thanks for considering.

I might be available for a few earlier runs too. I usually can be on by 5:30 server if needed. Gonna be dealing with RL a lot for the next week though.

I'm game for earlier runs

Since I don't schedule the raid runs, I can only comment on my perception of the situation. Please note that my perception is affected by two things. First, I can't play until my son is asleep. This is usually around 8pm server. Second, I, like many others, am supposed to be in the office at 8am. Yet I make the decision to forgo a full nights sleep to play the amount of WoW that I like to. I fully respect the decisions of those that do not feel WoW is a valid reason to sacrifice a full nights sleep... I simply feel otherwise.

In the last month or two there has been a couple of issues hindering earlier runs. First was a slight decrease in the number of sign-ups for the 7pm runs. There could be any number of reasons for this. Maybe people got bored of the same content over and over when they already had all the drops available to them. Maybe they wanted to play with the 2.4 content. Maybe that thing called real life just got in the way. Regardless of the reasons, some runs had to be scrapped due to a lack of numbers.

To fill the holes of those people not signing up, people that were inexperienced and/or undergeared signed up. On it's face, this is a good thing. More people need to get into Kara and ZA and get the experience and the loots. However, there are only so many of this class of toon that can be on a run before the run is underpowered and can't complete the instance. I know we ran into this a few weeks ago. In response to this, Fox asked for geared folks that could make the early runs to do so in attempts to get that segment of the runs going again.

We all want as many folks as possible to get in Kara and ZA. They are fun times, and a fountain of learning opportunities. We just hamstring ourselves by being a "casual" guild with no run or attendance requirements and allowing folks to do as they please. This is great for having a fun guild, but does hurt progression relative the the above points I made.

In the end... we can try getting earlier runs going again. However, if the same problems creep up as they did before, things may not work out that way all the time.

If the raid leaders feel I'm overstating something, or just completely wrong, please correct me. :)

I will try to be less long-winded than Raps. :D

Basically, we have had less sign-ups for raids. So we have had to change our scheduling to try and accomodate enough people to make the runs a success. By combining the runs, we only thought it fair to make the start time a hybrid of the early/late runs we used to have (hence the 8:00 or 8:30 server start times).

Every ZA run I've seen has been for 9:30pm (again my time, that would be 8:30pm server time)
This week's ZA runs had an 8pm (server) start time. We just haven't had enough success posting ZA in an earlier time slot but perhaps we can try it for next time. And next week's Kara runs are set for 7:30 start... pending enough signups.
Either that or do it on the weekend. Thanks for considering.
There was a Kara run last Friday and another one this Friday night. And Gruul is set for Saturday. So we are trying to alternate getting some weekend runs in there when we can. But some people can't raid on weekends at all, so we have to switch it up from week to week or they'll be the ones bitching at us ;).

If anyone else has comments about our scheduling lately, please let us know so we can discuss before posting the next set of raids. Thanks!

The only thing about the weekend run scheduled and why I didn't sign up for it, is because you put it all into one run (and it was late on Friday). I still prefer 2-3 kara runs to one big long one. But if it's earlier, (ex: start 7pm server time) I will sign up anyways for it. Like I said, too late I just can't, I'm too tired.

I think that we've usually had a couple people on deck for the full runs. If you're only up for half of it, you could always sign up and say that you're only interested in the first half since the whole thing is too big a time commitment.

I'm pretty sure there would be someone who would be up for tagging in.

Note: I did say the first half though, as I'd imagine it would be more difficult to convince someone to drop out after clearing the easy bosses.

With everyone in different time zones, I can see that it is a nightmare for scheduling. While playing Eve, it was even worse, as half our corp was in Europe.

I typically can't raid until around 8:30-9:00 server after I put my son to bed, and I'm usually not even home until around 7:00 server. I appreciate the later runs, but also understand they don't work for the eastern folks.

I will also point out that ZA is a little different than Kara. Our Kara runs are normally made up of a combination of skill levels and gear so we get good progress mixed with a nice need for good loot. If everyone is too geared, everything is sharded. If everyone is too in need of gear, we fail on bosses. Kara is very easy for us to balance like that.

However, ZA is not really that way. ZA is harder in difficulty than a lot of 25 mans when it comes to gear and skill. Since we haven't beat it yet as a guild we need to make sure we have a super-strong group. This is only acheived by making a hybrid between the early and late runs. If we totaly eliminate the ability for either group to attend then we will not get through it.

I realize this doesn't necessarily make it the best option for everyone. However, it does help us to "beat it" as a guild. Once the RL's and the general core of players get more confident on each boss then we can look at making runs that cater to just one timeslot.

Maybe it's just the time of year, interest in raiding seems to have dropped off a bit.

Different timezone , different life pressures are impacting avaliability of the people that are still free to raid.

When the interest picks up we can look at all the people that want to go and see if we have enough people that can run early and go back to a early and late crew.

In the meantime if there is interest maybe we can look at having more events on the weekends maybe over 2 days. Trying to cram things into one run puts additional pressure on the groups and leads to having to pick more experience people simply to be able to complete the run, and complete it in a normal time.

We can also look at maybe having noob Kara night runs again, and we get as far as we can, and if that means only doing 2-3 bosses each week it's a start and better than nothing.

As for ZA I am in aggreement with Khros, unless you just want to get smacked around and not complete anything you can't really "just go and see". We are far from being able to have a noob ZA right, if such a thing even exists.

i like earlier runs too (cos i'm the oldest 24 yr old around), but it doesn't really matter for me right now because i'm in the last few weeks of my semester and i'm tearing my hair out over all the things i have no will left to do (which is why i haven't been signing up for anything)

but may approacheth

Well I'm wondering if we might have enough renewed interest to support two Kara runs again, now that everyone wants badges for the new gear?

Sorry we haven't posted raids for next week yet... we are working out yet another "new and improved" raiding schedule to try and accomodate everyone's needs and wants. So keep checking the site for sign ups in the next day or so.

Also I have been busy with real life which means I haven't been cracking the whip on the raid leaders to get with the scheduling. Behind every great raid leader is an officer with one big-ass whip.

Behind every great raid leader is an officer with one big-ass to whip.

Corrected, and....rawwwrrr!

i like earlier runs too (cos i'm the oldest 24 yr old around), but it doesn't really matter for me right now because i'm in the last few weeks of my semester and i'm tearing my hair out over all the things i have no will left to do (which is why i haven't been signing up for anything)

but may approacheth

It has nothing to do with sleepy, you just don't want to get pwnt by a Marks Hunter on the meter.


edit: KHARSIAN HAXXOR'd MY ACCOUNT!

It has nothing to do with sleepy, you just don't want to get pwnt by a Marks Hunter on the meter.


edit: KHARSIAN HAXXOR'd MY ACCOUNT!

hahaha. That's right. MM power for the win!!

Just to confirm... next week has zero runs that start later then 7:30?

Edit: Nevermind. Just noticed the entire week following is all 8pm or later. Move along... this is not the post you are looking for. You can go about your business.

LOL

You sure you have not starting celebrating early Raps?

One of the main problems is some of us are not in the same time zone as the server so an 8pm start time is really a 9pm start time for those unfortunate people. Which means ending at 12am with a 4:45am wake up time for at least two crazy people.

Starting early? Me? No... I'm at the office for a half day today. But come 1pm... I make no promises.

Oh yeah, I understand the mixed bag of required start times we have. Scheduling is difficult considering we don't have enough people interested at the moment to support early and late runs each week. I'll find other ways to get Kara and ZA in this coming week. :)